So Independent Film Week is finally around the corner…coming to you from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada within Strategic Partners, the second module of the TAPS program 2011.

After a superb week in Berlin, back in June, on module one with the Erich Pommer Institut, expectations are high!

I am attending all three modules with our third project, feature fiction adventure Hector & Himself, a Dickensian style contemporary fable, which finds the protagonist, 25-year-old Hector, setting foot outside his attic room for the first time, after dreaming up an imaginary friend, Henry. His deranged mother has kept him drugged and locked up after his baby twin brother was snatched by a rabid fox in the dead of the night.

The project is in early pre-production and I am excited to meet future potential collaborators to progress into production.

With that in mind, my focus and drive for IFP is on further sales interest, equity investment and distribution.

From the program schedule, the ambition can only be amplified, one hopes, from the industry players in attendance and offrs advice and input, especially on a one-to-one, intimate and personal level.

As a young production company, nearly three years old, Castle Valley Films is about to complete post-production on its first feature Welcome To The Majority, written and directed by Russell Owen, who also produced, along with myself.
Enjoy our teaser trail!

We have an award winning 35mm short, Anglesey Road as our foray production, which showcased both Russell as a debut director and the astonishing talents of our award-winning crew who are now part of the Castle Valley team.

So how do I feel about our prospects entering into Independent Film Week? Well, I can say from the interest, progress and enthused team on our home turf, in not so sunny London, it looks and feels pretty good to be venturing to sunny New York.

We are attaching more to Hector as the season is changing and after this week, hope to be just another season away from shooting in what we hope to be a sunny spring in London!

High expectations? Absolutely! Or maybe just high ambitions…yeah, I’ll go with that, after all, its the country of thinking big, And Why Not.

Of course, expecting lots of fun, further introductions to other passionate, fellow filmmakers, great talks, inspiring stories, inside gossip, good food and a night of bowling.

I’m sure to hit a high in the great city that is N.Y. and amazing organization I have experienced so far within TAPS, and not strike a Turkey.

Chat to you again soon from within the first week itself to see how day 1 turned out. Keep dreaming up the stories and living the dream in between.