Luka Vukos’s award-winning short film Lose like a Human (2018) is now viewable on YouTube. It’s basically a two-hander, but with frills, on the subject of artificial intelligence, and well worth a watch and a thumbs-up. Click on the title image above.
Last weekend, the 19th and 20th May, the Hyperdrive Festival took place in Hailsham, Sussex. Twenty-five films were shown over the two days, including Lose Like a Human, written by Luka Vukos and Fergus Doyle, and directed by Luka Vukos. You’ll remember that we mentioned this project – Luka’s directorial debut – in an earlier update here.
Well I am delighted to say that the film won prizes at this festival, its first outing. Firstly DB Hews lifted the trophy for Best Original Score. Moreover the film won the Audience Choice Award! Very well done everyone!
I believe we won’t have to wait very long for the movie’s excellent music, written and played by DB Hews with vocals by Cara Lynch, to be available. Keep your eyes and ears open, because it’s beautiful.
More news about all this as and when it happens. I know that Luka’s mind is bubbling with ideas for future projects.
Fergus Doyle, Adri Rodríguez Muñoz (Casting Manager & Creative Consultant), Luka Vukos, and DB Hews, pictured at Hyperdrive.
Lose Like A Human had a modest premier yesterday at the University of Edinburgh, before a small invited audience. Pictured below are director Luka Vukos and writer Fergus Doyle. We’re excited to hear that this short movie has been entered for several festivals.
Time for some news. This time of year is very often the doldrums for literary agency work and publishing in general, so it’s good to have snippets coming in.
Our client Marie Marshall always has several irons in the fire. Mainly she’s a poet and a poetry editor. Every four months she produces an e-zine called the zen space, which features haiku and other short forms of poetry. The Winter 2018 Showcase there has just been published, and is full of wordsmithery from all over the world.
The artwork for this particular Showcase has been provided by Canadian artist Millie Ho. You will remember that Millie did the cover artwork for Marie’s novels The Everywhen Angels and From My Cold Undead Hand. A click on the image below – a detail from one of Millie’s illustrations – will take you to the latest Showcase at the zen space.
The previous update here gave news of the short movie Lose Like A Human, created by Luka Vukos and Fergus Doyle. Borrowfox – an innovative rental platform, stocked with state-of-the-art camera and film equipment from leading rental companies and private users, from which borrowers can use the best equipment for the lowest prices, while lenders can make money from unused kit – interviewed Luka and Fergus for their blog. The interview makes interesting reading, taking these two creators through the stages of making a movie on a shoestring. Click here to read it.
Luka Vukos (right) on the set.
Our client Carmen Capuano is racking up five star reviews from readers for her novel Split Decision. Here’s one of the most recent:
Split Decision, essentially a coming-of-age novel, is both brilliant and brutal – brilliant in its execution and brutal in the sensitive subject matter it explores. The decision Natalie makes impacts on many and she is not the same person at the end of the story as she is at the beginning… It is the second book that I have read by the author Carmen Capuano, the first being Ascension, a dystopian thriller. Although the subject matter is completerly different, I found the story just as engaging and thought- provoking.
The plot begins in a shoe shop where best friends, teenagers Natalie and Stacey are shopping. The new pair of shoes which Natalie purchases – in a style which is way out of character for the sensible teenager, can be viewed as a metaphor for both her step into adulthood and what subsequently occurs. Natalie is soon called upon to make a split second choice and her decision heralds a chain of unexpected and shocking events.
The author does an excellent job of depicting the trials and tribulations of the teenage years and how they effect existing and new relationships: a time of burgeoning sexuality, when we strive to forge our own identity, sometimes putting us in conflict with our families who find it difficult to come to terms with their offspring entering adulthood. The balance between protecting their children whilst allowing them the freedom to grow is often a difficult one and I felt that the author touched on this in a sensitive fashion. I certainly identified with Stacey and Natalie from memories of my own teenage years and recognised how easily events could take the path they did.
The characters, the young people and the adults, were all very believable and the author is to be congratulated on using the events to illustrate their personal growth and changing family dynamics. The plot is cleverly and expertly written and certainly had me guessing and questioning my own preconceptions and prejudices. All in all a super read…
A belated Happy New Year to everyone – writers, readers, publishers, film-makers, colleagues, and friends – from Bookseeker Literary Agency.
Paul has recently spent some time on the set of Lose Like a Human, a short film made by Neon Eye Productions in Edinburgh, some of the cast and crew of which are pictured above. It is the debut film from director Luka Vukosavljevic (right). The film stars Sarah Meikle and Jamie Begg as the Chess Players, and Cara Lynch (centre) as the Singer. Paul was given a non-speaking part as the ‘Match Man’. The film has a number of surreal touches, but its serious core is the contemplation of Artificial Intelligence.
Luka and Paul have been discussing Luka’s other possible projects, which include scripting and directing a film set in Yugoslavia in WW2, and taking over the script-writing for the screen adaptation of Marie Marshall’s short story Axe. We’re looking forward to the release of Lose Like a Human – wrap came on 30th November, and we’re told that the footage looks good.
You may recall that in January 2015 we called for a screenwriter to help turn the short story ‘Axe’, by our client Marie Marshall into a drama for TV, or even a movie script. The story, told in a mix of Glasgow and Caribbean-British registers, follows a girl who has just moved from London to Glasgow, and who joins a ‘girl-gang’. The story sees everything through her eyes, and is strung together in a kind of stream-of-consciousness narration.
Following that appeal, a screenwriter was found. He and Marie have been collaborating on developing the script – he preparing the actual script, she providing extra narrative material – and between them they have fleshed out the protagonist and the supporting characters. The story that, hopefully, will eventually appear on screen somewhere, has grown well beyond the original short story, and is becoming a gripping drama with strong female characters.
image: Mercury Press Agency Ltd.
Unfortunately, due to unforeseen personal circumstances, the screenwriter has had to be excused from the project, and it is unlikely that he will be able to return. Along with Marie Marshall, we are exploring the way forward, and one possibility is trying to find another screenwriter to take over. That writer would have to ‘hit the ground running’, as there is a lot of pre-exisiting material to work with.
Are you that screenwriter?
The project is a speculative one, by which we mean that no payment can be guaranteed unless and until the finished script is taken up by a production company. Marie herself has waived any income, settling for the exposure of having her name credited as the originator of the story and provider of additional narrative, so royalty payments etc. would accrue to the screenwriter(s). This agency would be responsible for approaching production companies and would take its standard commission.
If this project appeals to you, please get in touch with us.
If you can write a TV script, you might consider joining a project to turn one of our clients’ short stories into a TV drama. The story is urban, violent, and set in Glasgow. You need to be confident working with the vernacular of Glasgow and also with Caribbean-British ways of speaking. If you’re interested, please get in touch. Your message will be acknowledged, but it may be a while before we come to any final decision.
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By the way, Paul is now on Linkedin on behalf of the agency, and welcomes connect requests.
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