Thursday 21 February 2008

Fun with Marchmont Films, part 4

I have it on very good authority (but unfortunately cannot divulge my source) that Marchmont Films is "on hold" for the foreseeable future, and that all submissions have been "dealt with" (mostly I suspect by ignoring them in the hope that they might somehow evaporate).

I suspected as much a few months back when the "film arm" of Bloomsbury Weddings went into a self-imposed meltdown, no doubt buckling under the weight of the final fifteen scripts piled up on their producer's desk. At least I can now stop banging on about it, a process that has become less entertaining of recent months, and more akin to kicking a mangy old dog if I'm perfectly honest.

I'll have to find something else to complain about now ;-)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hmmm, interesting! I got that distinct impression when I tried to contact the 'company' some time ago, hence my interest in your experiences with them.

I don't think they've actually done anything since the summer of 2005, when they completed their 'highly acclaimed' one and only short.

The Marchmont debacle demonstrates that the trouble with bigging yourself up out of all proportion to your capabilities is that you raise other people's expectations and end up disappointing them, whilst at the same time making yourself look a twerp.

Perhaps there's a lesson there for us all. Confidence is great, over confidence is dangerous!

Chip Smith said...

I got the news from a *very* reliable contact, so I'm pretty sure that Marchmont is now 'swimming with the fishes'.

As you say, it's a shame when a company bigs itself up to such a point that it all looks really quite embarrassing when the whole facade comes tumbling down. When I think of all the people who submitted scripts to their open invitation about eighteen months ago and the excitement it generated, it really is shoddy of Marchmont to drop things like a hot brick. Let's hope they've got a few weddings to keep them busy over the next few years!

Elinor said...

So, who do you have in your sights to complain about Chip?

Chip Smith said...

Oooh, there's a thought - don't know really, the list is endless. I could complain about the book I've just finished (Christopher Priest's The Affirmation) but I don't think I'm intelligent enough to offer a critique, so I'll keep quiet on that one.

So in that case, any suggestions? ;-)