Lead actor Denny Hodge begins his journey as Edward in TAKING TIME. Denny’s performance was pivotal in bringing continuity and a compelling character journey to a story that had come together from combinations of unexpected scenes. The project was proposed and delivered by director Gabe Crozier.

Our unique, jointly-written, experimental collaborative short film TAKING TIME had its first screening in February 2016. The film was featured on BBC Midlands Today on February 2nd 2016, the day of its premiere at the Mockingbird Theatre in Birmingham, and we will also appear on Big Centre TV‘s film programme BRUMMIEWOOD YAMMYWOOD to discuss it (March 11th, 10pm). Thanks once again to everyone who helped make it possible: this gallery celebrates everyone who gave their own time to the filming of the project – we’re hugely grateful to you all.

So how did it happen? Well, we hosted local filmmaker Gabe Crozier as our guest for a session, and afterwards he proposed making this film, with the concept of letting writers each separately contribute a minute of script each to a unique project. He came up with a core character – but left the story open to invention. The idea was floated by email the next day by our Chair Ian Kennedy, and after at least 16 enthusiastic email replies later that day, the concept had taken shape and many writers were committed to the project. Ian then set them a deadline for a first draft of a one-minute passage of script. When those were received, Ian collated them, and provided a synopsis to the writers, ready for them to adapt and rewrite their scenes to fit into the new bigger picture. The new-look scenes were returned, Ian adapted them into a single script, and the process began to refine, cast and produce the script.

The writers were our members William Gallagher, Andy Conway, Liz John, Mark Brendan and Nicola Jones, plus Ian Kennedy.

The outcome is an experimental 14-minute film at cinema-quality production values. Because the process was experimental from start to finish, we’ve not imposed any rewrites on the writers, nor amended their scripts if it could be avoided. The end product was then in the hands of our casting and editing – plus the grading and soundtrack and composition added by Gabe. We’re happy with the process and the end product, considering the process that generated it, and we’ll be happy to share this work with film festivals and others wherever it is of interest!