Moving on up.

   Well, it's been a while since I last updated any form of blog so I figure I might as well have another crack at this here whip. Now, let's see...quite a lot has happened since my little foray into scriptwriting with a time limit. Quite a lot indeed. I suppose we'd best get started covering ground then, eh?

Cognito

   This is the first that springs to mind. Cognito is the brainchild of Ivan Scoble, a man who decided to cut out the middle man and have a go at creating a pilot to pitch for his own television series. Over the last couple of months, Ivan has been in contact with the staff and (more so) students of York St. John University where he has managed to wrangle quite a crew.
   As a result, I have found myself with the role of writer (one of three or more) and have "penned" a quick first draft. As the months go on and pre-production transitions into production in summer we will hopefully be well on our way to bringing Ivan's dream to life. 

   I've never been one for giving the game away so all I'll say about Cognito is it's a police comedy drama that's a little different to what we in Britain have seen in the past. 

The Third Year

   Moving on from these extracurricular grounds and back into university life, our third year film proposals have been made and feedback has been given. Of the three films I proposed, two have been accepted to go on to "stage two", otherwise known as treatments. I suppose, just for the sake of my own amusement, I'll give a little outline to what the three films I proposed actually were. 

Proposed Film #1

Bingo & The Splodge: Fortune of the Unfortunate

   This merry little film idea finds its roots in the first month of my time at university. The names Bingo and The Splodge were a pair of ridiculous nicknames I tried attaching to myself and my friend, Matthew Clarkson as we mocked the multiple ways one could try becoming more socially accepted. Of course, the nicknames themselves would have been terrible but I refused to let them go and over the years have developed them into the identities of a rather useless duo of private hire detectives. 

   I have several film ideas revolving around this idiotic twosome and as a result, couldn't resist throwing one in as a bit of a joke for our third year projects. I suppose the joke's on me since it got approved but nevertheless, I'm laughing. 

   Fortune of the Unfortunate was intended as the first of the Bingo & The Splodge stories and found our "heroes" in a fairly Agatha Christie style murder in a mansion situation. It involved the Harshweather family and the events that unfolded following the robbery of their family fortune. Again, I won't reveal much as I will hopefully do something with this idea in the future. 

   However, despite this concept getting accepted, it has been suggested that I try to come up with something a little more fitting to what's turned out to be just a ten minute running time. And as a result, the story is going to be completely redone. Hopefully, this story will delve deeper into the identities of Bingo and The Splodge and focus more on the detectives themselves that on their case. Thankfully, my friend Matthew Clarkson (a.k.a. the real life Bingo) managed to pull an amusing title out of thin air to help inspire this new story. And so, I will soon be submitting a treatment for...

   Bingo & The Splodge: The Brief Case. Get it? Brief? Because it has to be shorter! Badum-tsh. 

Proposed Film #2

Musical: the musical

   Now here was an idea that was definitely too ambitious. I'm getting a little tired of staring at this computer screen now so I'm going to make this quick...

   Musical: the musical was the story of a successful writer who finds his career on the line after drunkenly signing a contract binding him to the production of a new musical for a theatre owned by an old classmate. As the story goes on, our writer must find a way to actually write a musical as well as overcome the many obstacles his old friend seems to be throwing into the mix. 

Proposed Film #3

A Recipe for Time Travel

   This idea is one I admire the most from myself. With (what I thought was) fifteen minutes before the deadline for proposals, I found myself suddenly struck with inspiration as I rifled through old files on my pen drive. It quickly evolved from the concept of using a cooking recipe to travel through time to what would happen if you could actually use it. And so, my quickly scribbled down story follows a man who, after accidentally cooking the recipe for time travel, finds himself back in his childhood home and in the presence of his father who had died when he was just a child. 

   The film goes on from there but like I said, I'm getting a little tired. 

So, that's pretty much what's been going on in my life in regards to film making over the past couple of months. Now that I've got that all wrapped up, I suppose it's time I wrapped this up and went on my way to pack for "sunny" Aberdeen!

Yours magnanimously,

             Timothy G. Elsy
                       (age six)

                       (and thirteen years)