My mind floats free (for a short while)

I've usually found that when I go on holiday I suddenly have a fair few ideas for films. Maybe it's being away from work and not having my brain daily boiling away in my kettle head. But last week's holiday to Sardinia with my wife didn't result in the flash of ideas I expected. Not in the usual way.

I'm in the process of submitting a short film idea to the Screen South Digital Shorts scheme - its the first time I've applied for funding since the sorry fiasco of applying to the misleadingly named National Lottery "Awards For All" scheme nearly 10 years ago. So I think I have a short which I hope is moving and artistically valid and falls within the budget parameters. Figuring I have to raise my head above the parapet and actually get myself known at the arts funding organisations I've decided to go ahead and submit it, and if it doesn't work, its one which in theory I would be able to make myself no budget styley. (On an aside, the idea that I'd really love to do - a comic book shoot out - just wouldn't get past them...and probably would cost too much at the minimum industry pay rates they require for the production.)

So I spent an afternoon battling with the application thought process during one of the few sunny hours we got on the beach. I fought with the 25 word synopsis, initially trying to create a logline, then decided it should be the story in 25 words that they're asking for then was left hoping that Screen South know exactly what they mean by asking for such a short synopsis and really aren't looking for some snappy logline. With this battle called a truce (though kinda happy with my summation) I moved onto the one page story outline...a page and a half later, it was still missing my notes about the film and what I wanted it to achieve. Then with imminent rain clouds and a depleted battery that was the end of this writing stint...and as I'd brought the wrong travel adaptor, the end of any writing stint on the laptop.

This resulted in the majority of the holiday being spent working my way through a batch of sci-fi books and most of our time being stuck in our hotel room as late summer thunderstorms pounded Bosa. Neither of us were sleeping too well - very uncomfortable beds, an air conditioning unit which sounded like a jet engine taking off (naturally the room was too warm without it, but not much colder with it...) and the endless interruption from a git of a mosquito who over several nights must have increased its body mass 20 times from feeding out of me. All of this resulted in me having several short, sharp dreams...one of particular striking note had me dreaming that my grandma had died, which resulted in a swift text to check she was okay.

Somewhere in my end this element of rain, of endless water pounding away outside, can't have been too far from the forefront of my mind during the night., which resulted in me having a dream about a J-horror film. I can't remember if I was watching the opening sequence, or a trailer, but I thought it was really creepy. Then suddenly there was a very loud CRACK in the room. Both my wife and I woke up immediately and a check of the room revealed nothing apparently wrong, so we went back to an even more uneasy night's sleep.*

The next morning the explanation of the noise appeared to be a panel from the hotel's summer "stage" being blown over by the high winds. (This stage seemed to particularly sum up the melancholic atmosphere of Bosa at the end of the summer season - it had "Summer 2009" painted upon, reminding my wife of Dirty Dancing - it felt like a sad relic of a summer passed. I really wanted to get a photo of it, empty and finished with for the year, but with the wind working its power I didn't get my photo in time.) So simple enough...but the J-horror idea stayed with me and although not fully fleshed out, I managed to figure out the premise and the amount of characters involved. Hopefully (here's the rub) I'll get chance to write it down some day.

Oddly, I also got a title from the dream - I'm pretty sure it was Giyarbushin, which doesn't seem to mean anything according the internet, so it's some East Asian-ish word my brain obviously thought up. But as the days have gone by, I can't forget the ludicrous title, nor the creepiness of the film.

So I've come back, not with the usual handful of ideas courtesy of my un-tethered brain, but just the one. But hopefully one which could really work. If only I had the time.

*On yet another of my tiresome asides, this scenario was also reminiscent of something which happened one night at home when we were both awakened by a sound which just didn't belong in our house - another scenario which I'm hoping I could make into a quick 3 minute creepy short film.