“I wrote my first script ‘Why’ back when I was 18, and when I look back on it now (yes I still have it) I thank god that I didn’t make it as my first short film.”
Anyone creative can identify with these words. Some of us maybe still think that about our work, I know I sure do. Independent filmmaker and comic book writer James Mulholland has just completed his latest short ‘Forgiving Amy’ which will be featured right here on our showcase. But I also want to get to know the person behind the creative projects so I took some time to get to know James a little bit better.
I’m from a small town in Ireland, called Dundalk. I’m currently 23 and I’ve been making short films for about 3 years, been writing them for about 5. I wrote my first script ‘Why’ back when I was 18, and when I look back on it now (yes I still have it), I thank god that I didn’t make it as my first short film.
In 2011, just before my 21st birthday, I wrote ‘What If?’ and turned that into my first film. It done well in festivals and gained a few nominations (Best actress, Best Score and Best Newcomer). After that I went on to make my 2nd short film “My Father’s Son”, Which can be viewed on Youtube at the moment’.
That film was extremely well received by people, and was a very personal story for me to get out of my system. Then I wrote my latest short film ‘Forgiving Amy’.
I’m always curious why creative individuals are drawn to a nebulous life where nothing is guaranteed and there’s no clear path to a destination that itself is pretty unclear.
It’s all I’m good at. From an early age, I was writing. My first ever story was called ‘Barry Drip’ (Harry Potter, Changed Harry to Barry, and Thought of a pot, stuff ‘Drips’ from pots. That’s were the title came from). I was only 8 or 9, I think, and I gave it to the teacher in my glass, he though it was amazing but I never carried on with that. So it’s funny that at 18, it came full circle and I was writing again, and now it’s something I need to do and I love doing it.
I like exploring darker elements of life. Stuff like mental illness, abuse in families, loneliness, Violence, etc. I don’t know what I do unwind my family and fiancee get sick of me constantly bringing up stuff I’m writing or ideas I have. If we say, outside of the physical act of writing, then I play games, go to the gym, read books and comics, watch films, nothing to exciting to be honest.
I can identify quite a bit with James. We are the same age and have a similar experience growing up in terms of something coming full circle. His conviction to what he does is inspiring and even now, his efforts are paying off.
I take the writing really seriously. I’ve no big budget (heck I’ve never had more than about 2 grand for a film), so I try to make sure my scripts are good enough to grab people and keep them entertained. I stress over every single word of dialogue in my scripts right up until shooting, I think Forgiving Amy had about 10 rewrites.
We’ll be showcasing ‘Forgiving Amy’ right here on OneOfUs.Net which is incredibly exciting as it was only publicly released this week. You can check out more of james’ work over on his official Facebook and Twitter and even check out some of the comics he has written, for free.