I’m a bit late to the game.  So I’ll just get to it.

The intensive weekend was a cool, natural way to breed familiarity.  Having people with different interests brings a refreshing vitality to the course.  One of the things you ask from a collaborator is passion – and there’s plenty going around.

In the past, I’ve learnt that programming films can bring demons out of people.  But thankfully, no demons showed up – we all passed the test and came out with a focused, genuinely decent program.  There’s a good, friendly group here and I’m looking forward to working in whatever team I end up with.

Out of all the briefs, I’m completely infatuated with the BFI Gothic Season one.  The genre is historically and aesthetically rich.  And it’s the insane, groundbreaking ancestor of some of my favourite stories.  The collaboration with Compass Presents could potentially result in the perfect physical manifestation and sensory experience for people to behold and fear.

The immersive cinema aspect is the real hook.   I see my future in film directing and this event seems to be harmoniously congruent with that kind of work.   The event will require showmanship and an inspired, coherent theme that will dictate every creative decision made.  It will also need a fierce loyalty to details – because the details will matter when figuring out how to direct the audience’s imagination to that eerie, sinister place we’ll be taking them to.