Well, I've finally done it. Sorry folks for disappearing on you. I have had one crazy month of deadlines and more deadlines. We've had some great trips and meetings for our project and a few heart attacks along the way. But that's the life of a filmmaker right?! It's one big rollercoaster ride and you just hope your buckle doesn't break.

There were a number of large deadlines this month and we pretty much attacked them all. The biggest one was for ITVS LINCS, an opportunity to partner with PBS stations for funding to complete your film. Through this initiative, ITVS will consider providing funds for your film in return for licensing your film. As you know, $$$$ is the key to finishing your film. And so with an opportunity like that, you have to cross your fingers and hope it will move forward.

We were fortunate that for the first time ever, Maine Public Broadcasting Network (MPBN) agreed to partner with us. And shortly after, WGBH also agreed to partner with us to apply for LINCS. What that meant was that for the first time ever, two PBS stations would be applying with an independent producer on a LINCS application. We were excited about this possibility knowing that this partnership could help us get The Way We Get By out to the largest possible television audience.

We began working on this application a few months ago. We had worked hard on our work sample (20 minutes of scene selections that we showed to about 50 people). Our confidence grew after each viewing. We felt so great knowing that people were connecting with our characters and seeing the story come together.

But another part of any film application is the synopsis and treatment. And that was something we had to really work hard to figure out. Writing these components are extremely difficult. We started about a month ago on a draft treatment. We thought we were writing it as a story but really it just seemed like a long, overwritten proposal. After spending weeks on it, we decided to show it to some of our contacts at WGBH. That was about when we realized we knew NOTHING about grantwriting for films.

Writing a film treatment is like telling a funder about your story...bringing them in with a captivating soundbite, telling them about the characters, and showing them the story arc of the film...the more a treatment reads like a story, apparently, the stronger it is. For YEARS, I never did this...and thanks to one grantwriter--Paul Taylor--at WGBH, we learned the basic tools to write for a film funder. What I wonder though is without someone like Paul, how do you do this? I would like to think we are reasonably smart. I've written successful proposals OUTSIDE of the film world before so....where is the gap?

Paul taught us something that I think is important for filmmakers to follow. Your treatment should be like editing a film. But instead of shot by shot use your wide, medium, tight story elements together. I don't know if I can ever do what I learned justice by trying to explain it. Perhaps what I can say is find yourself someone who does write grant proposals successfully and see what they think BEFORE you submit. It could mean the difference between getting funding and getting that rejection letter.

After a number of sleepless nights, stressful sessions at the laptop, Aron and I were able to successfully submit to ITVS. For the first time, in a long time, we felt like the synopsis and treatment really matched the story we wanted to tell. And for the first time, we could see our film on paper....and it felt GREAT to know we have come this far. We still have a lot to do in coming months but it is such a wonderful feeling to know that we are moving forward and getting one step closer to accomplishing our goal!

Good luck fellow grantwriters. The process is a ^(&)())__(@%^&&$&$$ and a %^*&)*))(!^&#&%$& but hopefully it will PAY OFF in the end.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/joemarshalljm/page2/ why am I linking to page 2? because I don't feel page 1 does him justice. I'm also wondering if he's the Joe Marshall (son of Greg) I know from Norfolk.

So any how about the workshop this week. It was truly crazy ! To begin with I took everybody outside (as it was such an awesome day) for a warm up/conditioning session. This included a lot of CV work for instance jogging round the football and rugby pitches, then sprints, side stepping, big skips and quadrapedal all the length of a rugby pitch twice ! After that we got into some jumping on your toes to get the calves burning (cant say the students were a big fan of this one) then some more leg work mainly on the quads though. Then I got the students doing some arm work then finally finishing of the conditioning with the core for example static abs, v-ups, crunches etc. Once we had finished conditioning I then took them through some stretches and then we all sprinted back into the hall after about 45 mins of warming up !

Once in the hall Me, Ryan, Jack Dale, Jammie and Jonny all took a group of the students and took them through different routes through a different set of obstacles, This included Tic-Tac precisions, slides, arm jumps, Cat pass - arm jumps, Balancing and a whole variety of just moving through round and over the red blocks ! It was all going well just getting the kids to move their own way maybe giving some ideas of what to do. After they got the idea we let them have about 45 mins to do as they pleased looking at different things seeing if they could overcome an obstacle their OWN way and if they wanted help to do something specific like help with a technique we were more than happy to help as I know me and Jammie set up a Cat Pass course to help students work on it. The students seemed happy yet tired as all of the moving and conditioning they had been doing but was amazing to see kids as young as 8 still trying their hardest. After their 45 minutes of "freedom" I then again took all the students outside for a warm down once finished the beginners went home and then It was time for advanced.

To start the advanced session of I got everyone outside and had more of an intense conditioning session/warm up with the guys ! this included a lot of muscular endurance work. Yet Again a lot of quad work was done however everyone was pushing themselves and it was great too see, after finishing the warm up we then, yet again sprinted back into the hall and let people get on with their own thing . Alot of nice techniques being performed and people trying a lot of new stuff was great too see, Yet again the tricking mats were a big favourite but its nice too see the guys actually trying tricking and pulling it of well rather than throwing themselves of red blocks ! It was a very productive session

Till Next Week Guys...

Peace x