So, it's 2012 and I'm officially a real person who is no longer studying in the official sense. In the non-official sense, my blood bleeds scriptwriting books and I have so far kept to my rule of watching a film a day. 

Last year I kind of regretted taking on as much as I did, but in the long run, I think it has set me forward a bit now. I've just signed a contract to write twelve short episodes of science fiction radio drama for Radio New Zealand. Pretty cool job to have (I say, barely able contain a bounce of excitement). 

I vow that SUCKER will also be completed in 2012. Things are starting to move forward at a crawl, but they are definitely moving. Tentacles aye? Harder than one would expect to just whip up. I'll try and keep a good record of the process here once things gets going.

And hey, if the Hand-Out Collaborative stuff turns out shit, then we can always be comforted by this: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3ResTHKVxf4

Okay! Stuff has been busy.

Alwyn Dale and I have just handed in the last of our Whitireia course-work, meaning we now have BAppA's in Screenwriting. Does this mean we are legally certified to write about tentacles?

We didn't have any luck in the Make My Movie competition, but my ABC's of Death co-director Andrew Todd made the Top 12 - Help him out by swinging him a vote at http://www.killbymouth.co.nz . Those guys will make a bad-ass movie.

Our SUCKER fundraiser went swimmingly, the comedians were on form and it was a good night. Didn't have quite as many through the door as we would've liked, so we're looking into further fundraising. Getting SUCKER on its feet is about to become my top priority, along with writing some new stuff. I'm now part of a writers workshop run by EAT (Emerging Artist's Trust) and it's a really good forum to test out new scripts. The summer should bring quite a bit of new content from us now we finally have some time on our hands. 

Ah, and now the coolest thing. Our Fatso 24 Hour Movie Marathon PSA Competition entry WON! 
http://www.vimeo.com/handoutcollaborative/dangers-of-sitting
We get a sweet prize pack including flights up and accommodation! Very stoked to be avoiding a 12 hour bus ride. It's my first time at the Marathon but I've heard enough about to know I'm gunna enjoy it, and probably also have my brain melted. Can't wait. Better go pack.

The Hand-Out Collaborative Presents:

SUCKER FUNDRAISER - Comedy Night @ Happy Bar

118 Tory St, Cnr of Tory and Vivian, Wellington NZ.
Friday 11th November, 7pm-8.30pm, doors open 6.30, $10 waged, $8 concession.

Come on down for a night of hilarity and help support us in fundraising to make our new short film "Sucker". 

Featuring:
Hilaire Carmody (MC), Wyeth Chalmers, Ben Caldwell, Todd Dixon, Hadley Donaldson, Jared Bosecke,Jonny Potts and more! 

This is a compilation post of everything we've done lately so I can point people in one direction for voting.

HAND-OUT COLLABORATIVE MAKE MY MOVIE ENTRIES

To vote for any of these entries, please go on the page and click 'Like' or Tweet the link.

GIRL, DISEMBODIED - By Becca Barnes and Alwyn Dale
http://www.makemymovie.co.nz/entry/girl-disembodied/

FELINES: THE AWAKENING - By Becca Barnes and Jennifer Quinlin
http://www.makemymovie.co.nz/entry/felines-the-awakening

IMAGINARY - By Becca Barnes and Christopher Stratton
http://www.makemymovie.co.nz/entry/imaginary

MIDDLEDITCH FAMILY DANCERS - By Becca Barnes
http://www.makemymovie.co.nz/entry/middleditch-family-dancers

MACKEREL HALL - By Becca Barnes
http://www.makemymovie.co.nz/entry/mackerel-hall

TROLLDOM - By Becca Barnes
http://www.makemymovie.co.nz/entry/trolldom

PIGEON HUNT - By Becca Barnes
http://www.makemymovie.co.nz/entry/pigeon-hunt

JAILMOM! - By Alwyn Dale
http://www.makemymovie.co.nz/entry/jailmom

BLUDGER & DOLE - By Alwyn Dale
http://www.makemymovie.co.nz/entry/bludger-dole

RAZORMOOSE - By Alwyn Dale
http://www.makemymovie.co.nz/entry/razormoose

APIATASAURUS - By Alwyn Dale
http://www.makemymovie.co.nz/entry/apiatasaurus 


ABCS OF DEATH ENTRY

To vote, click the voting button on the top right hand side of the page. Make sure you receive the confirmation email link and click on it for the vote to go through.

T is for THIRST - By Andrew Todd and Becca Barnes
http://26th.theabcsofdeath.com/t-is-for-thirst-1/

FATSO 24 HOUR MOVIE MARATHON PSA COMPETITION

We made this on the weekend. No voting required, but it's worth a gander if you like tentacles: 

The Dangers of Sitting: DVT & YOU
http://vimeo.com/handoutcollaborative/dangers-of-sitting

And that's it for now. 

At last! The last of the Hand-Out Collaborative Make My Movie entries. 

PIGEON HUNThttp://www.makemymovie.co.nz/entry/pigeon-hunt/

This is probably my favourite of what we've got. The story behind Pigeon Hunt comes from my experience part time in retail (gotta pay the bills somehow). I was working a night fill on Cuba Street last year, and we heard gunshots in the parking lot. We asked a manager what it was, and were told not to worry about it. Later when I was heading home, I walked through the parking lot to find the ground covered in BLOOD AND FEATHERS.

So yes, the Pigeon Hunters do exist. I asked a friend about it, and he told me that at Wellington Railway Station, they go in the dead of the night for the few hours the station is closed. Only, there's a lot of baby pigeons there, and it's not worth shooting them. So they just bludgeon them with baseball bats, and carry the corpses off in a black rubbish bag......... Woah. 


Stoked to have Andrew Todd (GHOST SHARK 2: URBAN JAWS) as a potential co-director with me if this thing gets made. And cheers to Andrew for shopping the poster, and to Kim Thomas for brandish weapons in the dark of Newtown with me for the photo.


In other news, I heard the other day I've been selected to participate in the EAT (Emerging Artists Trust) Writer's Workshop starting up in Wellington. There are sessions for six months, and is a chance to have my work critiqued by other writers, better yet, workshopped by ten actors who will be there every session. Should be really useful and will help get a feature draft done over summer if I'm erm, diligent. The question is, which new idea should I use?

Hand-Out Collaborative has another Make My Movie entry up!

GIRL,DISEMBODIED by Alwyn Dale and Becca Barnes
http://www.makemymovie.co.nz/entry/girl-disembodied/
Please vote, retweet, etc etc. 

This one is an extension of our suitably gory 48 Hour Film Festival entry this year. The feature version will have just as many heads exploding and lobotomies, only in a not shit way. Haha.

There are at least three more Hand-Out Collaborative entries to go up still, we are trying to stagger them so our Facebook friends don't stab us due to constant requests to vote. Look out for them soon.

Hand-Out Collaborative have put another two Make My Movie entries up.

MIDDLEDITCH FAMILY DANCERS
http://www.makemymovie.co.nz/entry/middleditch-family-dancers/
I wrote this one, and it's based on characters created by Chris Stratton and I a couple of years ago. Chris's family own several alpaca at a rural property just outside of Mosgiel, our hometown, and they have always cracked me up (particularly the story about the Mother and Son alpaca's creating another son together. Awkward).
Massive thank you to Jared Bosecke and Lyndsey Garner for joining me as dancing Middleditches for the poster, and to Kim Thomas to driving out to Makara and shooting us jumping around in cow shit.

also JAILMOM! written by my buddy Alwyn Dale is another Hand-Out Collaborative entry worth a look, if you like badass bitches:
http://www.makemymovie.co.nz/entry/jailmom/

Please help us out by flicking us a like on Facebook or Tweeting the link. We'll have a few more entries up in the near future.

The first the Hand-Out Collaborative MAKE MY MOVIE entries has gone up. The Make My Movie project is giving away a $100,000 cash grant from New Zealand Film Commission and NZ On Air for one lucky person/team to make a low budget feature film. To enter, you need to provide a poster, synopsis and logline for your idea.

FELINES: THE AWAKENING was originally conceived by Jen Quinlin and I in one of many rants about cats. Since ours have the potential to take over the world, we thought we'd write a film about it.

The entry can be viewed here: http://www.makemymovie.co.nz/entry/felines-the-awakening/

Please click "LIKE" on the page to help us gain some social media presence.More entries coming soon!