Weekly Meander #6: Somewhere over the rainbow
Adventures in maintenance & admin
Each week I'm documenting what I've been up to in my working life. This is mainly for my own benefit – I seem to get to the end of most weeks feeling I've barely achieved anything so it'll be nice to start to build up a record of what I have done in any given 7 days. But hopefully some of it’ll be fun & interesting for everyone else too. I'll also be highlighting some great Substack posts I’ve seen in the past week. Thoughts, comments etc always happily received – you can hit reply if you're getting this in your inbox or leave a comment at the end if you're reading online or in the Substack app (recommended).
And in case you're new here and wondering who on earth I am, do check out this post. TLDR: I'm a documentary filmmaker currently exploring/expanding into new professional avenues whilst also navigating parenting & perimenopause. Some balls may be dropped!
Honestly, this has been a bit of a ho-hum work week. Then again, I'm writing this in the sunshine on our balcony with a view of sweeping blue sky, shimmering sea and (from the right angle) the funfair at the end of the pier, thanks to my ingenious new laptop shade aka an old cardboard box – the internet is definitely winning at life hacks today 😄 So there's really nothing to complain about and plenty to be grateful for.
After my 3-months-late invoice was finally paid last week, I was able to settle up several outstanding payments and move money into and out of various pots – all fairly tedious but necessary. And once I'd got into an admin frame of mind, I decided to keep riding the wave.
So whilst last week I was up in the clouds learning and dreaming, this week was decidedly more prosaic. But as my dear old Nan used to say, it's all part of life's rich tapestry, eh.
I know it's a holiday weekend so you might already be feeling quite relaxed but since I don't want to actually send anyone off to sleep, I'll spare you a full account of the tasks I ticked off… but here are the main headlines.
WORK WINS THIS WEEK
1. Got a new battery for my laptop AND my phone
For longer than I can remember – and certainly longer than has been good for my sanity! – both my laptop and phone have been in dire need of a new battery. But funds have just been too tight to cover it – pretty much all the money that's been coming in from screenings has been going straight back out the door again, predominantly on childcare costs and paying down the outstanding credit card debts I took out to licence the all incredibly expensive archive footage in my film.
But I had mentally allocated some of the delayed invoice towards finally dealing with this so when Monday, came I hopped on my bike down to the Apple store in Brighton to meet with one of their geniuses (it still tickles me that this is what they call them). And I'm happy to report that after relatively little fuss, my money and I were soon parted and both my devices are now hopefully back in Duracell bunny territory.
2. Made a start on the final cost report to close my relationship with my American fiscal sponsor
If you don't know what a fiscal sponsor is - and really there's no reason you should – it's a US non profit with a special kind of tax designation that allows it to receive grant money on behalf of those based outside the country, which it then passes on after taking a commission. The International Documentary Association is mine.
I was never very successful at raising funds for the film in the States – apart from one fairly modest grant from the charitable foundation run by the family of the songwriter who wrote 'Somewhere over the Rainbow' (pretty random I agree – but do check him out, he was really a cool guy from what I’ve read).
It was still important and helpful to have the fiscal sponsorship though and the IDA does a lot of great work for documentary filmmakers so I'm pleased to be a member. But I've known for a good long while that I needed to officially close the fiscal sponsorship. And to do this, I need to create a full, detailed cost report of every penny raised and every penny spent on the film.
Up till now they've only ever asked to see a budget, and of course the many, many iterations of the budget I produced over the years of making the film were always, shall we say, aspirational? But now they want the real numbers. Arrrgh!
I’ve been putting this off as it just felt simultaneously too daunting and too boring. But it’s already past the reporting deadline for this year so I just needed to put my big girl pants on and GET ON WITH IT.
Thankfully once I'd finally made a start, I actually wanted to keep going (I’m still a long way from completing it, mind). In fact I found it unexpectedly compelling to start to see the numbers all laid out.
In pure business terms of course, it's an absolute disaster – there's no sugarcoating it! Yet seeing the journey I went on over all those years boiled down into concrete figures on a spreadsheet weirdly gives me almost as much satisfaction as looking at the DVD of the finished film on my shelf.
Perhaps I'll write a full post on it once it's all done. There's a real lack of honest transparency about numbers in the world of indie docs so maybe this is something I can usefully contribute – in a similar spirit to those Substackers who are generously sharing some of their numbers on the platform too.
3. More screening enquiries + another screening confirmed
Batteries and spreadsheets aside, I continued on with sending out/replying to emails about potential screenings in the US. The possibility of my going out there in person for one of these was even mooted - a Zoom call to discuss that further is booked in next week...
And I confirmed another UK screening – at my alma mater, Murray Edwards College in Cambridge (though it'll always be New Hall to me). I'm really looking forward to that one – not least because the current president of the college is Dorothy Byrne, former head of News & Current Affairs at Channel 4 and something of a legend to me.
WHAT I'M LOVING ON SUBSTACK THIS WEEK
I absolutely adored reading this – I worked in my local newsagent from the age of 14 and was able to drink in my fill of the teen magazines for free during quiet moments behind the counter. But Just Seventeen was the one I actually paid money for to take my own copy home. So what a thrill for my inner teenager to get to go behind the scenes with
! And her follow up piece on More magazine & Position of the Fortnight (remember those drawings!!) was equally delicious.
That old chestnut about comparison being the thief of joy is one I've had to remind myself of often in my career, especially when looking at my direct peers who started out in TV at the same time I did. But imagine if one of your personal yardsticks for professional achievement was Christopher Nolan! I was excited to discover that
has a Substack – I'm a huge fan of his excellent Radio 4 dramas, the Lovecraft Investigations and the Aldrich Kemp series. And after reading this one, I'm looking forward to hearing more of his missives from Development Hell...
Another hoary old cliché – as one door closes, another opens. I didn't always really believe this to be true. But now I definitely do. And I love how
expresses the thought in this simple but deeply hopeful piece.Well, that’s about it for this week. Tomorrow marks the start of just over 3 weeks when I’ll be looking after my niece & nephew on top of all the usual other work/life shenanigans. They were both born and have grown up in Japan, only returning to the UK last year, so I’m really looking forward to having this concentrated period of time with them - though the impact on my productivity is yet to be determined...!
Watch my film on Netflix (in Europe) or Vimeo (everywhere else) - or see trailer, reviews & bonus content HERE
Find me on X /Twitter & at LinkedIn
Life stories website – coming soon...
I am so pleased you enjoyed my post Vicki! Hope you had a lovely weekend 🌿💚
I love your custom shade box! And I share your excitement about new batteries - it's so comforting when you don't have to keep things plugged in all the time! Looking forward to checking out this week's recommendations too.