MOUNTVIEW FILM ACADEMY RETROSPECTIVE #1 – THE BLACK ROOM (2008)
A rather indulgent post this!!
Between the years of 2008 and 2011, I did some screenwriting work for the Mountview FilmAcademy; a filmic extension of the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts. Based in London, they would produce a number of student acting projects including many low budget short films. Notable Mountview Alumni include: Craig Parkinson, Eddie Marsan, Lois Chimimba, Connie Fisher, Douglas Henshall, Rebecca Trehearn and many more.
Writers would be shuttled in and given a remit to create short films using specified actors,locations and length of film. In 2008, I wrote a film called THE BLACK ROOM. It featured some talented actors and was directed by Jonathan Wolff. It’s a black comedy farce, concerning a writer who is struggling so much to write a period drama he starts to go a bit mad.
Watching the film back after ten years is interesting from a creative perspective. I actually think it works really well still and the story holds up despite the very low budget. Indeed, in places I still think the short film is pretty funny; echoing, on a very minor level, Charlie Kaufman’s meta-textual work in the film Adaptation (2002). Anyway, here it is:
The Cinema Fix presents: 
This is so interesting. I’ve written a short script about a writer with writer’s block who’s being tormented on Facebook by characters she’s killed in her books. 🙂
It was eerie to watch your movie. 🙂
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Hey Debbi, thanks for watching my blast-from-the-past short. Your idea sounds great too. Goes to prove great minds think alike 🙂 In my film I tried to add some humour and bit of drama with the writers’ relationship subplot too.
Of course Stephen King has probably cornered the market on the writer-going-insane plot, especially in The Shining and Secret Window. But I think it’s interesting to explore similar ideas. Thanks again for watching.
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