The first film I made was entitled 'Tea". It was a simple project I had wrote in a day, and filmed in an afternoon in my school Staff Room (CBS Omagh, for anyone interested). It was about four teens who were claiming to be Marxists, but underneath were really just spoiled brats. They couldn't even make a cup of tea together.
There was some proper complications during the shoot. Firstly, having obtained permission from the Principal, no less, to get the shoot done there, I couldn't get any peace for the shoot to actually happen - teachers kept showing up expecting to be able to 'relax'. Add to that the fact that one of my main actors was called to work at 5am that morning, so I was left stranded for about six hours. Well he flew to Lanzarote and back (he was a steward for Easyjet) to shoot for a few hours in the afternoon.
It took about three times longer than I expected to edit it, mostly because I didn't have a clue what I was doing for the first few days. With the aid of the extremely helpful Michael McDonald (I'll try to give him a plug at the BAFTA's or something - he is an underrated genius), I managed to get it done.
After some shameless self-promotion, I managed to get it mentioned on UTV, the regional television station, and in the local papers (Ulster Herald, Tyrone Constitution), and immediately sent it out to every festival that would accept DV films, and didn't have a submission fee. That ruled me out of most of the competitive ones, but I was just trying to get word out, and it probably wasn't slick enough for competition anyway.
I got word that it was going to be screened in Bradford, at the Co-operative Young Film-makers festival, and then also at the Imperial Beach film festival in San Diego, California.
I attended the festival in San Diego, and they were so impressed by the fact I travelled so far, they pushed my screening up the Bill. I ended up being the curtain raiser to the main event, a screening of The Boondock Saints (everyone should watch this film), with the director, Troy Duffy, and cast and crew.