November - December

We thought the hard part was over. We were wrong. It was just beginning. With the rain hardly dry on his duffel coat, Johnnie embarked on a manic 12 day edit that took us on various freebies around the edit suites of Bristol. BFV (recently renamed The Pink House) was brilliant. Despite a massive workload it gave us a week's free editing. HTV, our local TV station, also pitched in with a couple of days and Visual Impact did us a deal too.

We borrowed the talents of Steve Phillips - the producer's flatmate and ace editor - to work with Johnnie on the rough cut. In the time between the shoot and the start of the edit, John had had just enough time to work on a paper edit of sorts. But it quickly became apparent that 12 days was going to be tight to complete anything meaningful. Out went any creative activity and in came serious graft. It was a case of banging the rushes together as best they could, choosing random music (very random in some cases) and playing with the sound in the Avid. The result, after numerous beer and burger-fuelled late nights was a 95 minute rough assembly of the film. Rough was about right. But at least we had something to show. The reason for the rush was partly because we were running out of favours and couldn't afford to go on much longer, and partly because we had a screening lined up. Planet Hollywood was brilliant and gave us a free screening in its state of the art screening room downstairs. Invites had gone out to various investors (to prove we had actually spent their cash), distributors, film companies, the Film Council as well as the leading lads and lasses and their agents. On the day, it was difficult to work out who was more nervous, the actors, the agents or John and the producer. The producer probably by a short head. Sadly on the day, many of the distribution companies blow us out. We didn't chose a great date - December 19 - but we did try to time it between Christmas lunches and Christmas drinks. At least a rep from the Film Council arrives. The film is rough, but it does give a flavour of the story. It works brilliantly, the five lads are superb together, and the audience loves it. The agents, probably from relief more than anything, are very effusive. The lady from the Film Council is very nice about it, as is one of the distributors. The actors are thrilled. John and the producer hardly have time to take it all in. They have just shown their first feature film to an audience. It needs a huge amount of work, but maybe, just maybe, someone might help them finish it. It's a great day. Now Christmas can begin.


January

Film land is still dusting off yuletide excess well into week two of January, so John and the producer disappear off on holiday in search of cheap sunshine (but not together - they can do some things on their own). Mid January and still no news from any of the distributors who either came to the screening or to whom the producer delivered a VHS. Phonecalls elicit the usual 'haven't watched it yet - huge pile of other films to get through'.

A rejection comes through from distributor Metro Tartan. It said; " I enjoyed the film. I thought it was well-paced and full of good humour, but I'm sorry to say I didn't feel it was something Metro Tartan would be interested in distributing. Good luck with your next venture and keep us informed." Previously high spirits begin to sink ever so slightly, but at least the Film Council seems positive. Another rejection comes through from Metrodome who "...thought it was extremely well made and entertaining...." We start to wonder why people are rejecting such a brilliant sounding film. Our conviction that the Film Council will appear any day now on its white charger with £100,000 in its saddlebags weakens. And rightly so. In late January we receive a brief letter of rejection. It reads; "After careful consideration we have decided that Living in Hope is not a project we are able to support with an offer of funding. "Despite having some entertaining moments, Living in Hope is a rather familiar rites of passage campus tale that unfortunately lacks the contemporary significance and cutting edge to be a viable proposition for the New Cinema Fund." In a fit of rejection angst the producer writes back to the Council asking if it could name a single British-made rites of passage campus tale. He awaits a reply. The rejection leaves us gutted and at a loss to understand what it is the Film Council wants. Yes, the film deals with universal themes - love, rejection, hope, friendship - and yes, to an extent, borrows from US-made campus tales. But these are films that perennially do incredibly well both here and in the States. And with an ever-growing university population, there's no reason why we can't take a great idea and give it a British twist. Is there?


February

By the beginning of February we are back to showing our fighting spirit. Realising that we had been relying too much on the belief that the Film Council would cough up, the producer starts back on the finance raising. VHS are sent to contacts in the USA and other avenues are being explored. We might have found a way to edit in London for free in exchange for some shares in the film. Now all we need is a top editor prepared to work on the cheap. Any suggestions!