This week, my friend Rose and I have been working an arts grant application, which we finished on Friday. It is for a short film idea that we have, which I mentioned in an earlier post. We had applied for a puppet workshop but were unsuccessful, so if we are successful with the grant we would like to try making puppets ourselves to use in the film.
The short story that Rose wrote is being published on Queen Mobs Tea House, an Alt Lit online magazine. Our friend, Georgia Goodnow, has illustrated Rose’s story for the magazine.
This is Georgia’s first sketch of the zombie character in the story.
In the grant application, we had to complete a budget, write curriculum vitaes, create a production schedule, provide letters of support and recommendation and write a synopsis, unique selling point, artist merit of the project and project viability. These were all things that neither of us had considered when talking about the short film, so just writing all of this stuff for the application was so informative.
This was the first budget I have ever written, so I did a lot of guesswork and estimates for it, but even so, it got me thinking about how we wanted to promote our short film, including thinking about how much film festival submissions cost and the possibilities of hosting our own screening in a venue.
This was also the first time that I have ever written a curriculum vitae, so it was good because it forced me to list all the skills I have and all the professional things I have done in the media industry and to talk myself up a bit, which I rarely do.
Rose wrote the synopsis, unique selling point and artistic merit, which was really great because I got a better understanding of her story and the metaphors that she creates in such a short piece. It also made me think about what would be the best way to represent all her ideas visually and aurally, which is very exciting. I really like working with a writer because of this, and I’m particularly excited to work on the production design for this project.
If we don’t get the grant, we know that we can do this project with next to no money any way. Both Rose and I are fantastic at finding things by the side of the road, or in the trash, or in op-shops, and we have a large group of creative friends who would love to help us out, but I think getting the grant would give us the opportunity to make a more professional short film, in terms of the way it looks and in the way that we conduct the whole production.
I am meeting her later today to workshop her short story so that we can start turning it into a script. Looking forward to posting more about it later.
