March

2010-06-18T13:03:00.000-07:00

Going back to March this year, I met with some final year students from Stirling University who wanted to make a documentary about someone who copes with having a mental illness. As I am on the media panel for Depression Alliance I got to hear about it through an email they sent me. That first meeting in COSTA when I pitched my ideas for their film and what they would get if they decided to film me took some two hours or so. A day later they got back to me and said they would like to go ahead with filming me. I was able to work with them for a week before I went on my trip to Dublin and Belfast with my best friend Jim. This gave the group a chance to make a trailer for their course before I was unavailable for a week. It was thought at first that it would be a film just about me having bipolar disorder, but it became clear that the more interesting and human story was my relationship with Jacob, my three year old son, and his leaving with his mother to go live in Germany from the 1st July this year. With this in mind the title of the film changed from 'Kept At Arm's Length' to 'A New Beginning'.

Lots of footage they shot like me at a Raith Rovers match with my friend David, and meeting Rob on his way home from Thailand at Edinburgh airport and going to the pub for a drink didn't actually make the final cut. Some of this footage did make it's way onto an outtakes music video that is now on You Tube. I forget the link. But what did make it to the final cut made for a very moving film. I got copies to distribute and gave one to Bipolar Scotland. I didn't see the finished film until May at the Graduate Screening at Stirling University where I went with my friend Rob and my mother. It was without doubt the best 'degree show' I have ever been to. The films they showed were amazing and very professional. I later learnt that 'A New Beginning' got the second highest mark in the class.

I showed the film to the Fife Bipolar Group in June and everybody seemed to like it. It's given me the impetus to start making my own short films again this summer like I did for my art degree at Dundee. I would love to actually make a film that is good enough to be shown at the festivals in Edinburgh. Now that would be amazing. Here's hoping. Watch this space.

Mark