Deola Folarin - The Concrete Cat
Posted on Fri, 20 Mar 2009
I entered my 3 page outline into a competition for the Northern Lights Film Festival Development Award for a feature film I have been longing to write, called the Concrete Cat. I was pleasantly surprised to be short listed for the award. In December, I and another writer, Simon Fellows, were interviewed before the final decision was made.
I arrived for a day and night at the Hilton (not at my expense!) and I prepared myself for the interview, which took place in the very glamorous Hilton bar - full of ladies on their hen nights! I was interviewed by the fabulous script editor Kate Leys and the award wining director Patrick Collerton (The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off). We discussed my project and where I was with it. I immediately wanted to work with Kate as she was such an enthusiastic and knowledgeable script editor.
I was completely bowled over when they told me a I had won the award. The prize: a priceless 12 months of script development with Kate. F**king Superb! I was also stunned to receive a gorgeous glass statuette with an intaglio of The Angel of the North on it - along with a fantastic bunch of flowers which my mother hung glass baubles from the stems and turned into our Christmas ‘tree’!
I sent Kate a 16 page treatment of the Concrete Cat and, after recovering from the ghastly flu, I met her, mid January, in Patisserie du Valarie in London. Kate said that she wasn’t going to tell me what direction to go in; instead she would highlight the turning points and ask me questions in relation to them and the treatment. I would then go back and research the answers and make notes which would help me in re-drafting the treatment. I was really excited by this approach and our discussion.
Like many writers I need more hours in the week to write. I have a ‘part time in a bill paying job’ – as a sales person at a photography studio. It is an exhausting three days each week and you always need to spend a day recovering from it. That means I have only three days a week to write – but that’s more than most, I guess. In February I also needed to go to the Berlin Film Festival about another project which I am hoping to direct - so that was another week out. But finally I finished the notes and am waiting to hear back from Kate. I am looking forward to her feedback and to attacking the next draft of the treatment.
Deola.x
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