A Dundee screenwriter’s “anti-romantic comedy” movie will hit her home town next month.
Jill Mannion, 34, and co-writer, fellow Dundonian Kevin McComiskie, 31, wrote Random Acts of Romance at film school in Vancouver in 2006.
The movie, which was filmed in Canada in 2012, will receive its Dundee debut at DCA followed by a Q&A session with Jill and Kevin.
Jill said: “It was shot in just over two weeks, which is really quick. We were asked to do re-writes about every second day if problems came up with locations or budget things.
“We were writing the amendments here and sending them over to Canada by email. It was released in Canada and then put into film festivals around the world. I think it even played in Cameroon.”
https://youtube.com/watch?v=1LulISIrYqw%3Frel%3D0
Jill was sent a time-coded DVD of the movie, which stars Amanda Tapping, best known for TV series Stargate, before finally seeing it on the big screen for the first time this month at its UK premiere in Edinburgh.
Jill said: “That was the first time I’d actually sat down and watched it as a film and enjoyed it. The feedback has been really good and in some of the reviews, even when they’ve not been so kind about it, they’ve complimented the writing.
“There had been a structural change, which was a surprise. Amanda Tapping is the biggest star and the way that we had written it, she came in late.
“The financial backers wanted her to come in early so that was changed in the edit but it worked.”
Jill and Kevin had heard that indie director Katrin Bowen was looking for a low-budget feature as they were graduating from film school in Canada in 2006.
The pair emailed the script to the director, who called Jill at 7am the next day to tell her she wanted to make the movie. Jill and Kevin were nominated at the Leo awards in Vancouver for best screenplay last year.
John Fairfield from Flyboy Creative, who Jill recently worked with on the documentary Tea People, is hosting the Q&A at DCA.
The screening and Q&A takes place at DCA at 3pm on Saturday May 10.