JAMES SHARPE

I try to dig deep into the well of my subconscious. At a...

Wed, 15 May 2013 22:33:08 +0100

I try to dig deep into the well of my subconscious. At a certain moment in that process, the lid is opened and very different ideas and visions are liberated. With those I can start making a film. But maybe it’s better that you don’t open that lid completely, because if you release your subconscious it becomes really hard to live a social or family life.

Hayao Miyazaki

“And we danced, on the brink of a unknown...

Mon, 13 May 2013 23:48:28 +0100

“And we danced, on the brink of a unknown future…” Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham

Barbican Concrete (at Barbican)

Tue, 07 May 2013 17:12:33 +0100

Barbican Concrete (at Barbican)

Antennas (at Harley Street)

Sun, 05 May 2013 11:06:28 +0100

Antennas (at Harley Street)

Above Harley Street (at 33 Harley Street)

Sun, 05 May 2013 10:55:50 +0100

Above Harley Street (at 33 Harley Street)

Danny Boyle talking about the lack of adult storytelling in...

Fri, 03 May 2013 19:51:19 +0100

Danny Boyle talking about the lack of adult storytelling in cinema, and generally being a national treasure.

Steven Soderbergh’s state of cinema talk.

Fri, 03 May 2013 19:48:58 +0100

Steven Soderbergh’s state of cinema talk.

‘7 Billion People All Alive At Once’ featuring the Ulster...

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 11:50:22 +0100

‘7 Billion People All Alive At Once’ featuring the Ulster Orchestra’ by And So I Watch You From Afar
I can’t stop listening to this. Unrepentant joy in post-rock and orchestral form!

Mister Potato will eat your first born if you try to take his...

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 16:32:16 +0100

Mister Potato will eat your first born if you try to take his crisps!

‘The Stay Golden Pt. 2 (Rats on a Rock)’ by And So I Watch You...

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 22:21:51 +0100

‘The Stay Golden Pt. 2 (Rats on a Rock)’ by And So I Watch You From Afar
This track is audio crack / joy.

‘Big Thinks Do Remarkable’ by And So I Watch You From AfarNew...

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 20:33:38 +0100

‘Big Thinks Do Remarkable’ by And So I Watch You From Afar
New favourite band alert. Thanks to @marcellerby

Some photo evidence of just how cold and rainy some of the FIBS...

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 14:11:50 +0100

Some photo evidence of just how cold and rainy some of the FIBS shoot was.

Here’s me talking to Patric Hurd-Wood and Guy Oberlander, while producer Russell Noon tries to keep them dry between takes.

Photo by Simon Prince

So we did it. After four days of possibly the worst rain and...

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 14:03:35 +0100

So we did it. After four days of possibly the worst rain and cold we’ve ever had in the UK, FIBS is in the can. The digital can.

It was tough, and I can’t thank our amazing cast and crew enough for all their work, but we’ve got some great stuff and I can’t wait to get the edit started.

Above is a little preview I put together to get people interested in the film before it’s (even edited) finished. All the footage is raw and ungraded so the film will look a lot different when complete.

Enjoy!

In cameo perfection. Ray Bradbury - Something Wicked This Way...

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 01:07:00 +0000

In cameo perfection.

Ray Bradbury - Something Wicked This Way Comes

Various scouted locations for Fibs. We shoot in less than a week...

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 18:25:25 +0000

Various scouted locations for Fibs. We shoot in less than a week now!

plasteredmagazine: Beautiful film from director James Sharpe -...

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 15:42:36 +0000

plasteredmagazine:

Beautiful film from director James Sharpe - Birds & Batteries

We love this stark, beautiful film - the fashion, music and film worlds colliding again!

There’s no shame in 14 drafts. FIBS is the 20 minute short...

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 21:45:02 +0000

There’s no shame in 14 drafts.

FIBS is the 20 minute short I’m currently working on, shooting at the end of march, with completion set for June 2013.

FIBS tells the story of Naomi, a teenage girl lost in her own world who desperately wants to win back her older ex-boyfriend Owen. She attempts to emotionally manipulate Owen’s younger brother Josh and use the biggest lie a girl can tell in order to get what she wants but quickly learns some fibs can be painful.

The film is a tale of identity, memory and about a time and a place between childhood and adulthood.

The film was developed as part of Derby Quad’s “Quad Shorts 2” scheme, funded by Creative England. The producer is the tireless Russell Noon of Mornray Films and we have joined up with 2AM Films and executive producer Gillian McNeill.

Our casting director is Anna Kennedy. Our director of photography is Annemarie Lean-Vercoe, the first cinematographer ever to be featured in Screen Internationals stars of tomorrow (2012) who has previously worked with Michael Winterbottom and shot the film Wreckers, which featured in the 2012 BFI London Film Festival.

So far we have an incredible team and we’re not even fully crewed or cast yet!

A bit of history: FIBS has been in development for a long time. Initially submitted to Quad in December of 2011, script development started early 2012 with script mentors Adam Marsh and Doug Smith with Anna Seifert-Speck from Creative England joining us later. Script developed concluded later than expected in August 2012 where, despite my desire to make a new film before the end of the year, we decided to set the shooting dates for early 2013 as our budget wouldn’t allow us to move as quickly as we wanted. Now with only a month to go before we shoot, we’re very glad of the self-imposed extra time!

As a writer, this script is by far the best thing I’ve ever written (if I do say so myself) it’s one of those that makes you wince to look at your back catalogue and realise that you can get better at these bloody things. The Douglas Adams quote comes to mind - “Writing is easy, you just stare at a piece of blank paper until your forehead bleeds”

FIBS started out as a very different blank piece of paper, as a more fantastical story about two teenagers with a very strange relationship who discover a dying robot bird. The story being a sort of meditation on growing up, friendship and…robot birds. It was producer Nicola Clayton who helped open my eyes to see that the characters were more interesting than the story they inhabited. So I took the characters and let them be themselves. I found the story that became FIBS grew naturally from the characters without plot having to be imposed. It’s nice when that happens isn’t it?

Today I’ve been going through the casting tapes and getting excited emails from producer Noon. The shoot dates are fast approaching and despite everything not being in place those 14 drafts are giving us some solid foundations.

Dundas West, Toronto

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 06:12:30 +0000

Dundas West, Toronto

Winter sunset. Stratford, Ontario

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 06:11:27 +0000

Winter sunset.

Stratford, Ontario

Being from the UK I’ve never seen snow move like...

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 16:22:34 +0000

Being from the UK I’ve never seen snow move like this.

Taken in Stratford, Ontario.