Scratching plot
This film is a story written by Scott Mackie about struggling, young musicians trying to navigate through an adult life.
A film about three people meeting at three different stages of life, falling in love with each other, and working out how to deal with that. A film about navigating trauma and addiction, love and friendship. A film about music.
Scott from Scotland and Marina from Croatia write and perform songs and do their best to make ends meet on the Open-Mic scene in London. When they meet Abi, a French photographer with a passion for living and (crucially) a car, a plan develops to drive to Glasgow and put on a show there. Abi wants to see the city, Marina wants to see a girl, and Scott wants to see if he's still welcome there. An LSD trip (with a variety of VFX and SFX, an installation-like set) and a host of original songs come along to carry us through a story of love, friendship, trauma, addiction and healing. A film about coming together.
Who are we
Scott Mackie studied as an actor at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, before going on to work in film, theatre & television. He co-wrote and starred in 'The Unemployed Actors' Union' with Santino Smith in 2017, a farcical comedy play to a sold out run in London, followed in 2019 by their second comedy, 'After(s)', which ran sold out runs in Glasgow and London, which they also co-directed. Scott then wrote & directed 'The Off Key', an indie-folk musical about a relationship between two songwriters breaking up during lockdown. This ran in London in 2020 and again for a longer run in 2021. For the past year he's been playing music under 'Gryfe Thistle' and has been creating 'Scratching' alongside Martyna Knitter and Marina Elezovic. You can listen to some of Scott's songs on instagram @gryfethistle
Martyna Knitter is a director of photography, working in the industry since graduating from Arts University Bournemouth in 2010. Her feature film "Rose" (dir. Jennifer Sheridan) was nominated for best debut at BIFA and premiered at BFI London Film Festival. Her short films have been in an array of world film festivals, and the newest, "My Eyes Are Up Here", is in Tribeca this year. Martyna was nominated for the Best Cinematography Award at Jackson Wild Awards this year, and her latest TV drama "Silverpoint" was nominated for Best Scripted for Young Persons BAFTA, 2023. Martyna has shot 8 feature films, commercials all over the world, and is currently exploring new ways of making films she would like to watch herself - such us "Scratching". She owns a lot of camera equipment and thanks to her generous contacts, the film is already supported by a host of incredible technicians and artists (special thanks to Craig Lees for his beautiful vintage lenses) that she has worked with over the last 13 years. You can find more info about Martyna at her agent's website https://looptalent.co.uk/portfolio/martyna-knit...
Marina Elezovic is an artist, originally born in Canada, who grew up in Croatia, and travelled to the UK to pursue her music career. She runs Open-Mics all around London, and at her young age of 23 has already booked concerts all over Europe in small clubs, bars and recording studios - currently planning her tour to Sweden in June. She is tiny, but her voice and talent for songwriting breaks walls we build all around us. You can hear some of her music on Spotify open.spotify.com/artist/01XHsZp6XHhiRzDdz3pCiF or on instagram @official_mar_songs
What is it all about?
This film was really born out of love and a spirit of creative adventure. Martyna shot a music video for Marina that Scott was in as an actor and edited, and the working relationship & friendship between the three of us started to inspire the story that became Scratching. It's an experimental film, blurring the lines between real life and art.
Why shall you donate?
We need people who want to tell us this story - you!
If you can make it happen, please do - we are looking to book some accommodation and pay around £700 to get our small (just essential 5 core members) crew to Glasgow, Scotland for a 5 day shoot; book everyone in a hostel; pay for petrol, food and make sure we are safe and sound. We're also going to buy more hard-drives (£60 each) to store the film and with your help, get film insurance (about £100 per day) to accommodate our friends who offered us some amazing equipment along with their help. We have around 10 days left to shoot, and there are 2 days with a 20-30 people gig scene - give us a shout if you'd like to perform, sing, play something or just simply be in the movie!
If we manage to raise this money, some incredibly talented filmmakers will join us - some amazing art directors, who will build a brilliant immersive set for the LSD trip, a Ronin stabiliser rig-owner and operator, Henry Owen, will come from the middle of the UK for a few days.
And this is everyone's favourite part - we will organise a little underwater shoot (part of the LSD trip scene) with professional PADI certified diver and underwater cameraman with his own underwater kit - Rich Maskey https://richmaskey.co.uk/ - a fantastic DOP in his own right. Our friends from the VFX company in Ireland, "Enter Yes", might be able to help make this scene even better!
We want to make "Scratching" with you, and for everyone to be a part of this adventure! Thank you.
Perks - and what we want to offer to say thank you:
Scott is going to write a song that includes the name of anyone who donates £10 or more. This song will be shot separately from the film, with other musicians, and will play over the credits - so we can thank everyone properly. Let us know if you don't want to be featured - otherwise expect to be thanked personally!
If you offer anything from £1 to £££ we promise we will make the best film we can according to our abilities - and you can come to the premiere, and recording studios when we're mixing the songs, and get the poster - you become a part of the team, and we would love to make this film with you.
And if you want to make a sizeable contribution, or offer your company to help with kit or post production - that'd be lush. You will have an executive producer credit, and you would help tremendously with making this film happen.
But it's important for us to make sure every contributor feels like part of the team - doesn't matter how much you give - we love you! :D
The Impact
There are many talented people all over the world who have beautiful voices, stories to tell, lyrics and music which accompany us everyday. They often create the soundtrack for our life - busking in tube tunnels, playing instruments, taking us out of our heads for a second on our way to work. They play in a pub, when we're out on a date; some of us are these musicians, or painters, or filmmakers, or artists, bringing little bits of our lives into art, music, songs - into other people's lives. This is a film in which you can meet them, and find out how songs are made - and have fun watching their adventures, and road tripping, and playing guitars, and drums, and keys. These talented musicians are often unable to speak to passers-by for long enough to even mention their names, and we want to feature these incredible people, give them a platform to really pass their messages and let you listen to their music.