In the original opening scene of the script, two young boys play cricket at their school.

A shiny yellow Lotus sits on the pitch’s boundary.

The boys have their ‘usual’ bet – can you hit a ball through the car’s windscreen.

They both try, but kill a young boy in the process.

…I did say it was a horror film.

Even I recognised that this scene wouldn’t work in a nearly zero budget short film, without a few changes.

Stuff happened sure, but none of it filmable without green screens, stunt men, stunt children (do they even exist?) and special effects.

Much wonga would have been required.

So yes– a little re-write was probably in order.

In the end, I lost count of the number of times I actually did re-write it, but after what felt like endless iterations I arrived at a version that I, my other half, the Ugly Boy and anyone else that read it, seemed to think was OK.

About that… feedback, I must confess I am not very good at receiving it.

Some say feedback is a gift…  No! Cake is a gift.  If that’s the sort of gift YOU give, you’re not coming to my party.

Anyway back to feedback – some definitely give it better than others.

(As an aside, I am possibly worse at receiving praise too. It’s all just too embarrassing).

So – at some point you stand by your convictions and say No! It’s not changing!  It feels good. You’re back in charge. It lasts right about ‘til you find your producer.

I’d put out a casting call for a Director of Photography and found one. Let’s call him Alex.

He told me that I should find a producer to let me focus on directing. Made sense to me. He went on to say that he knew a couple, but it transpired that neither was available. So I ended up doing a casting call for one.

Among a lot of applicants was JH from a Canadian production company (I’m using initials here to preserve some anonymity until the film is out). His credentials were impressive, but I was worried. He was in Canada – Lucky Charm had no real budget – I couldn’t possibly afford to fly him here – let alone cargo ship him.

I expressed my ‘I can’t afford to even FedEx you’ worries to him by email.

Easy peasy – came his reply.

OK slight artistic licence there – not sure that phrase is used in Canada, but that’s how he made me feel and in hindsight, he was right.

So I sent him Lucky Charm to read. His next, nervously awaited, email came back with his thoughts. He liked it. Fantastic! But… Would I be open to changing it?  Ah yes – A warm welcome back to feedback. I have missed you!

But I was prepared.  As we sat to talk on Skype I had my script to hand, a list of bullet points to argue about stuff I simply HAD to keep, and ready to explain the nuances of the story.  As I adjusted my headset I got The Fear…

I’ve read so many blogs/sites/script gurus thoughts… where poor spelling, formatting, grammar and the like are flagged as script killers. I’ve read Lucky Charm so many times; I passed not seeing the woods for the trees months ago. Would JH mention them? I was terrified he would. I would be told off and be made to sit on the naught step… (I’m an adult I know – but I felt like a child at this moment!)

But – no. Not once. Phew!

Take from that what you will (I’m taking story won through – Modest eh!)

Since then however my other half came up with a good top tip – read the thing backwards. It’s surprising how easy mistakes are to spot that way (and how much like Yoda you start to sound). But yes – find more mistakes, you will.

So – back to JH. It transpired that he completely got the script.  To be honest he found more meaning in it than I had.

In reality the only changes he wanted were driven by, you got it, his mantra… Budget, Budget, Budget.

So – Out went the motorbike crash. Out went the stunt people, out went the dolly, jibs, green screen, extra actors and & slow mo. cameras.

And you know what? It made it better… it was tighter, it was more pleasing, it was easier to film… and it was more complete.

If only I’d listened to him about the cameras…

Next time: Above And Below The Line – Crew, Actors, Brothers & Cake