Torn By Me @thomasbyrne - Tumblr Blog

Pastel Wasteland Film Festival

Last Saturday a good few months of hard work, organisation and watching killer films paid off with the Pastel Wasteland Film Festival being held at the No. 6 Cinema.

Two hour long blocks of short films followed by the premiere of I am An Addict, a feature anthology I was a producer on.

It was everything.

These types of events live and die on their audiences and we were spoilt. We had an energetic and responsive crowd made of both film makers and film lovers – who just wanted to come along and see something different. I’m so grateful to everyone who came along to support the day and the enthusiastic turn out means we might even be able to begin thinking about the next one.

Considering that in the early stages of planning we had deemed success as being along the lines of “the event was held and no body died” this is beyond what we could have hoped.

We’re forever thankful for the No. 6 Cinema taking a chance on us. We literally wouldn’t have been able to host this without the support of Malissa and her incredible team of volunteers who gave up their time to run the screenings, box office and the bar (because of course).

The No. 6 Cinema is a hidden gem of Portsmouth and they’re screening Ad Astra this Saturday - which is my film of the year – so if you haven’t been there before, treat yourself and give some love to our independent cinema.

Wrapping this up – thank you to Rob for having this vision in the first place and for bringing me onboard, Bryony for being on top of everything and Adam for keeping us all in check.

Best part of the day? Seeing I am An Addict for the first time. After an afternoon of keeping everything in motion (including hosting an impromptu Q&A session with Dave the Puppet) I was able to sit back and enjoy the culminative efforts of everyone who brought this film together.

I can’t wait to see what happens next.

#portsmouth #indie #horror #filmmaking #IamAnAddict #PWFilmFest

Filmmaking is a long process - I’ve been enjoying photography as a means to create something a little bit quicker. Shot on an OM-10 bought from Hilfield Trading in Southsea.

#om-10 #southsea #shoot film

BTS - Calico Jack

Here are some BTS photos for a project that didn’t quite go where we wanted to. It was a great shoot and incredible learning experience working with such a funky band.

kylos

A very, very long time ago, long before the birds, cars, and even coffee beans, the seven gods of the seven lands created the dueling truths: love and war.

Guava Island (2019) dir. Hiro Murai

thomasbyrne

This film was an early summer gift.

(He said, wearing three layers.)

#British summer time

Shooting Reanimated.

Going into production on a film I’ve been working on in different forms for five years. I can’t wait.

#filmdirector #filmmaker #zombie #lovecraft #filmmaking

REANIMATED - Fully funded!

Over the last thirty days we raised £2,557 with 56 backers. I don’t think I’m ever going to understand that. Haven’t posted the poster here yet. Check it out!

Alex Moreland talks to Tom Byrne about Lovecraft, realising Miskatonic University in 2019, and more… So, can you tell us a little bit about your film? Reanimated is about all of those exciting ideas you have about moving away to university or college crashing down in an instant because your new flatmate is a mad …

I speak to Alex Moreland about Reanimated, crowdfunding and filmmaking. I speak a lot.

#tom byrne #reanimatedmovie #lovecraft #horror #horrorfans #filmmaking #indiefilm

We’re live on Kickstarter! Our campaign’s launched and in full swing. Check it out if you’re into all things terrifying.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tombyrne/reanimated-a-short-film-based-on-the-works-of-hp-l

I Read: The Blade Artist

Would you like to hear some thoughts about a book I read on a plane?

It’s been a long day - a drive from Portsmouth to London, a New Years Eve party, hour sleep then driven to Gatwick. New York bound! So The Blade Artist is the fourth book published about the Trainspotting characters. In honesty, Francis Begbie was always the one I was least interested in, but here Welsh puts him in a completely new situation.

(Before this, I most enjoyed him in the prequel, Skagboys. That youth and potential was compelling, even if we do all know how it ends.)

The situation Welsh puts Begbie in is far removed from what we’ve seen in the other Trainspotting books. Jim Francis takes the role of detective, trying to find out who killed his long wayward son.

Here we’re seeing how Begbie functions in a more “conventional” narrative - a murder mystery. It’s a different beast. Begbie moves the story forwards by investigating and following leads. Now older and more restrained, this procedural element allows a new look at Begbie.

And it is interesting. We bridge the lengthy gap from where we last saw him with flashbacks - and for the most part they’re compelling, showing the character’s development from jailbird into sculptor and father of two Jim Francis.

Also, Spud shows up at exactly the right time.

If I were to take things away from this? You can understand characters by transforming them - setting, circumstance and motivation. Also, murders are great ways to get characters talking to each other. See also the first arc of The Wicked & Divine and Twin Peaks.

When’s the Danny Boyle movie adaption?

Spent a day in Canary Wharf working with Confidence Coach Maria Perlman telling her story - from burning out to success. Here are a few colourful shots by @etvisuals of the shoot.

stillparadisin

“She made me feel things”

Music Videos, Priorities and Comic Workshops.

I said I was going to post weekly - I tried.

When you’re working on something everyday it’s easy to lose track of your progress - and difficult to appreciate the distance you’ve come. Still got a lot of work to do; but I’m very happy with where we are now.

Recently wrapped up a couple of work for hire jobs and the current focus is now a music video for a Funk Rock band Calico Jack, based in London. The film is a concept I pitched to the lead singer - he liked it, we’re making it. I pitched it for the love of the song, and now I’m pretty sure I’ve listened to it more times than anyone, so be careful what you wish for etc.

(I’m having the time of my life; I feel sorry for the editor.)

I’ve been looking at what I want this career to look like in a year, three years, five years down the line. It’s ambitious stuff, but it’s achievable with the right amount of work. I cannot underestimate to anyone the importance of just turning up, sitting down and getting on with it. I also suspect most people know that, and that’s a reminder for myself if nothing else. I’m starting to think you can actually do anything you want to do, especially creatively - but that doesn’t mean you can do everything. Priorities etc.

One thing I’ve been working on is keeping myself excited - by which I mean always having something to look forwards to. At the moment I’ve got a camping trip to Wales with friends lined up in mid-April and a Comic Writing Workshop with Kieron Gillen.

I started reading comics in 2011 - I was a Marvel Boy, had just seen Thor and thought Loki was the real hero. Hearing about Journey Into Mystery, an on-going series following Loki reborn as a child in the name of redemption was incredibly tantalising.

It was weird.

The Devil walked into a bar and wanted to talk about his day. There were gods, other dimensions, characters I didn’t know and culminated with a dark and twisted ending that still puts me a little on edge (don’t accept Faustian bargains from strangers, kids).

I’ve had something written by Kieron Gillen on my read-list since then. Journey into Mystery was followed by Young Avengers with Jamie McKelvie before the both of them embarked on their excellent, landmark series The Wicked + The Divine which has entered its last year. In the gaps between, I also read Phonogram.

A lot of the things Kieron Gillen writes, he follows up with extensive Writer Notes. Each issue of Young Avengers and WicDiv were followed by a post on his Tumblr, breaking down page by page the decisions he, McKelvie and Matt Wilson (the colourist) made to create the finished work. It’s akin to the world’s best directors commentary and highlighted exactly how much thought and work goes into making comics of this quality.

It’s terrifying; It’s exciting.

By following his work and his writers notes since 2013, I feel Kieron Gillen has ended up being one of the biggest influences on my work. His ethos, approach and humour has changed the way I think about my writing and film-making. He’s taught me to know the form, tear it apart and rebuild it as something new. I’ve learnt how to develop vibrant characters, with their own identities and voices. I’ve also learnt, perhaps most impressively, you can have puns in Spotify Playlists that don’t get noticed for three years.

He’s going to run a one-night workshop about writing comics and I’m going to it.

I hope he teaches me brevity (he won’t).

Familiarity

It’s a Monday.

I’ve been housesitting for a friend since last Tuesday with a wonderful dog and a cat that will one day take over the world. It’s been a strange, amazing summer; adventures, making plans, a lot of train rides. No traveling as such this year, but that will come.

Mid-August means it’s time to start thinking about September and all that comes with it, which for me will mean moving back to Portsmouth for the third time to start a placement year.

I’m on the BA Film Production course at the University of Portsmouth and like most practical-based courses, placements were highly encouraged - giving experience, opportunities to meet like-minded people and perhaps the chance to earn money. It sounded great and would be beneficial but something didn’t quite feel right about leaving Portsmouth to work for another company for a year.

The way I’ve always dreamed of my filmmaking career going is creating the work, rather than finding it. I wanted to make the films I wanted to see, writing scripts and being on set, surrounded by people I wanted and chose to work with. The majority of placements suggested didn’t seem to be heading in that direction, and certainly wouldn’t have given the time I wanted to focus on my own projects.

So I’m doing a Self-Employed Placement year. With the support of the University, myself and two other filmmakers have the chance to build something from the ground up, make the films we are excited about and get better at what we want to do. I hope during this year we’ll expand our filmmaking network, try out things that make us uncomfortable and make lots and lots of mistakes.

I mean, we’re students, we kinda have to. But mistakes mean experience and learning and that’s what this is all about.

We’re working for ourselves, with no set criteria for success. We’re going to take all the ideas and the ‘wouldn’t it be cool if’s and make them into something that is completely our own. We’re going to work part time so we have money for the films and can, like, eat. We’re going for transparency of the process. Filmmaking is best when it’s for everyone and we’re going to do our part to explore what that means. We’ve got scripts for films we’ve written, plans for series we’re going to make. We’ll graduate in two years time with films in our portfolio and by the end of the year, who knows, some of them might actually be good.

As the year begins I’m going to try to make posts every week, mainly for my benefit. It helps putting everything into a blog post and can make you realise how much you’ve actually done (or what you need to do!) but I hope this is interesting for some people. Whether you’re filmmakers, considering a Self-Employed Placement or just interested in what we’re up to - this blog will give an account of the experience.

We’re Familiar Stranger Films and we really don’t know what’s going to happen next.

But I can’t wait to find out.