And so time marches us ever forward into March, doubtlessly so named since it marks the point at which the year finally stops feeling new. I’m feeling the march of time quite heavily at the moment because my brother and I are juggling the writing and development of three different projects.

This isn’t my preferred creative process. Ever since I glumly admitted that the insanely productive author figure in Vargas Llosa’s novel “Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter” was a fiction to which I could not usefully aspire, I have tried to limit my creative focus to one thing at a time. However since January opportunities for all three projects have come like hungry visitors and now all must share the dinner.

In addition to this, March seems to me like it’s going to be a month for europe. Firstly the 10th is the deadline for the interesting new scheme being run by The Bureau. SOS – Save Our Scripts – is a europe wide development programme that seeks to bring together writers and producers. There’s loads of information here – http://www.saveourscripts.com but safe to say that The Bureau ran Cinema Extreme so entering a feature-focused european wide programme from them should be near the top of your list of things to do.

I’m also going to be at the European Independent Film Festival in Paris in a couple of week’s time. Now it’s 5th year the festival claims to be “committed to being at the centre of the discovery, promotion, and projection of the very best European independent filmmaking talent.” It has the prestigious sponsorship of G-Technology by Hitachi who seem very excited to be “aligning with today’s premiere filmmakers and creative professionals to celebrate and support their efforts in the art, craft and business of independent filmmaking.”It has a programme of 67 films from 26 countries and I’ve never heard of it.

Consequently when the chance of a free trip turned up it was another hungry guest I couldn’t turn down. Living about 30 minutes from St.Pancras means Paris and Norwich are roughly equidistant yet whilst I’m regularly turning to Screen East for money and support, the European film scene remains something of a distant beast. But I’ve been asked to go over and interview some of the Directors, Producers and judges who are taking part as well as sniffing around the seminar programme which is all built around how new technology is changing the face of independent film. I’m also on a personal mission to try and find out why this festival has never been on my radar before, why so many British filmmakers seem blinkered to the opportunities offered by Europe and, most of all, why the European Independent Film Festival gets abbreviated to ECU.