Care Watch a scene from Corinna's BAFTA-nominated drama, starring Peter Vaughan and Shaun Parkes.

Scroll down to read Corinna's diary, or hit the dates below...

12TH JANUARY: "A JAW-DROPPING MOMENT"

19TH JANUARY: "DOORS HAVE BEEN OPENED"

2ND FEBRUARY: "OUR FIRST STYLE CONSULTATION"

8TH FEBRUARY: "HOW THE MIGHTY HAVE FALLEN!"

12TH FEBRUARY: "IT WAS HARD TO FEEL TOO GLOOMY"

Today I found out that our short film Care has been nominated for a BAFTA. It was a jaw-dropping moment.

I had been very busy on a long and time-consuming documentary since finishing the film and Care was not at the forefront of my mind. One of the many challenges of short filmmaking, I have found, is that by the time you have spent months making these things without pay, you are down to your last pennies. It's time to rush back to paid work and pay the bills. Marketing the film you have striven to bring to the screen can end up taking second place, which is dangerous as it might mean no one actually sees it! Fortunately for us one of our producers, Rachel Bailey, did find the time to get the film out to some festivals and entered it for the BAFTAS.

When I heard that our film had actually been nominated, from many, as Best Short (along with four other films), I was surprised and thrilled. Care is at the beginning of its festival life so this is an incredible start. To my mind, as an award a BAFTA is about as encouraging and gratifying as things get in the UK short film world.

This evening the producers (Rachel Bailey and Tracy Bass) and I rounded up a crowd and hit town to celebrate.

The entire day was made all the more emotional and poignant by the fact that one of the women who featured in the film had just died. This was the 81-year-old Elizabeth Lodge, a non-professional but rather talented performer. Her funeral took place today. She would have been over the moon to know the film had received this recognition.

A week since we found out that our short film is up for a BAFTA, but only a few days since my champagne-induced hangover has subsided.

Receiving the nomination has immediately done two things.

The first is that an opportunity to reflect on what we managed to achieve making Care has been created. I've been thinking about the highs and lows of the production, and mulling over what I learned as a director.

The second is that doors have been opened. Already film productions companies and interesting people have contacted us asking to see the film.

Both these things, I suspect, might reap their own rewards.

When I wrote the script for Care I set out to create some challenges for myself. I've worked as a television documentary maker for about five years. The first short film I made, Ashes, took advantage of that training and was filmed without an entirely set structure, using a mixture of improvisation and script with the actors, and incorporating 'real' moments in the public environments we filmed in. This seemed a good way to make the move from documentaries to working with actors. But this time I wanted to concentrate on what might be achieved by working in a more controlled way with actors, in a more intimate and restricted environment.

The story revolves around Mali, played by Shaun Parkes (Human Traffic, Doctor Who), a carer who moves from one elderly person's home to the next, doing for them what they can no longer do for themselves. Mali arrives at the house of a new client, Archie - played by Peter Vaughan (The Remains Of The Day, Brazil, Porridge) - to find that he is not welcome. Archie, resentful of the help on offer, sets out to make Mali's life difficult.

The subject matter was inspired by the trials and tribulations of my own grandparents as they dealt with the challenges of getting older in their own ways. Particularly one of my grandfathers, who, having fought in D-Day and worked hard all his life, suddenly found himself unable to wash his own body, with a stranger turning up to do it for him.

Our journey into old age is, admittedly, not a sexy theme. In truth I did not think it would have much appeal to a broader audience, but it had personal meaning to myself, and both producers.

Taking on a subject matter you believe in is something that I think arms you well to deal with the many trials and tribulations you will face when making a low budget short.

However, when we showed the script to people and talked about the idea, we found that the subject matter did seem to resonate, and was one of the things that helped us to draw in a great crew of professional people – as well as lots of work by the producers.

The themes in the script also enabled us to achieve one of the most exciting elements of the production – the chance to work with the venerable and charismatic actor Peter Vaughan. Peter's CV is intimidating to say the least, but we were cheeky enough to offer him the part on our little project, and to our amazement he agreed to play it.

Peter is advancing in years himself and empathised strongly with Archie and his predicaments. I think his portrayal of the character was very brave, never shying away from showing his body or making himself vulnerable. Working with him was so inspiring. But some of the most stressful moments in the production were also to emerge from working with an actor who truly is dealing with the challenges of age.

There was a scene where Peter was required to lie on the floor as if he had fallen, and one where he is given a bath. We were all terrified we would cause him an injury or give him flu from getting cold! But Peter knows his own limits and helped us work out what those were and when to stop.

We approached Shaun Parkes having seen him in an impressive role in a TV drama. He was hard to pin down, with a hectic schedule, and it was unclear if he would be able to commit until just before the filming began, but at the final hour it came good.

Non-professional performers, found via friends and day care centres, play three elderly characters in the film. We threw Shaun in at the deep end (even with his experience) with these scenes. He was required to improvise his role as a carer in their own homes, having met them for just a few moments beforehand. It was pretty hit and miss, but in the end provided some of my favourite moments in the film.

With no budget for a normal location my 87-year-old Nanna agreed to vacate her own home for five days, to stay with my mum, allowing us to transform her home into a film set. She was brilliantly game and saved the day in lots of ways, but this money-saving initiative was highly stressful – would she change her mind? Would she catch a cold and be unable to move out whilst piles of equipment, an entire crew and two busy actors stood around wondering what the hell we were doing? It is the nature of low-budget projects that everybody is forced to call in every favour going, but mixing work with family has its own challenges!

Nanna did say that the atmosphere in her house was different for a few days after she returned. She said she could sense that lots of activity and people had passed through the building. She was right. Twelve underpaid but enthusiastic, and determined, people spent three crazy days forcing our story into reality.

For myself, and Rachel and Tracy, I think one of the best things about this nomination has been informing those people we worked with. I could say thank you to them a hundred times, but this does it much better.

Today Rachel, Tracy and I went to the offices of Harper's Bazaar magazine for our first "style consultation". It turns out that when you get nominated for a BAFTA (even for a short film) you are handed a temporary pass into the bizarre world of the red carpet. We have been shocked and delighted to discover that loans of designer dresses, shoes and handbags are all on offer (I would rather spend the money on funding myself to write scripts for a month than buy all that for one night!) as well as teams of hair stylists and make-up artists on the night, not to mention a car to the event. There are also rumours of high end goody bags, and we are not talking sweeties. We will find out what is inside them this week.

I was happy last week, but taking the whole nomination and impending event in my stride. All this talk of Jimmy Choo shoes and designer dresses really notches up the stakes and the tension. It makes you feel like you are stepping into another world, which, for a night, you are. Quite nervous now...

Picked up our goody bags. We do care about the film, honest, but all the glamorous stuff is quite distracting at the moment and we were highly excitable. It was not all that the rumours had implied really. Serves us right. Some nice bits and bobs but you had to be wealthy to take advantage of the big things, like two free nights at a resort in the Bahamas when you pay for five and get yourself there. The kind of holiday that would cost about the same as the entire budget for our film. I don't think I will be going. There was lovely champagne though, so can't grumble. The Jimmy Choo shoe offer also turned out to be a rumour. How the mighty have fallen! And we are not even there yet.

The issue of what to wear has dominated the week for me and my two female producers. It's complicated. It needs to be an outfit that says "Yes, true, I am great, but I am not trying to compare myself with everyone else here, because it's only a short film, and I don't really mind if you don't notice me, but it would probably be good if you did, I will just be standing over here, confident, yet modest. Thank you."

That's a lot of things for one outfit to achieve. I am sure I should have a plan by now.

Next time I write an entry will be the day after the awards when I can breathe a sigh of relief or depression or alcohol poisoning, and go back to normal life.

We didn't win. Big disappointment to have the award in your sights and then not make it, but basically the outcome was OK.

Arriving at the Royal Opera House in our chauffeured car was one of the most surreal experiences of my life. As we drew nearer we filed into a queue of sleek cars depositing guests. The streets were lined with police and crowds of people waiting for a top star sighting. The Opera House was covered in an immense scaffolding supporting huge light that gave the whole scene an otherworldly stadium-like glow.

Stepping out of the car onto the red carpet I realised the walk was not a small trot down a little strip as it often is, but an entire road which had been transformed with carpeting into a runway crowded with paparazzi and reporters on both sides. It took a good while to walk down the thing and we were able to stop and take in the spectacle several times.

When the show started we were not sure when our category would be announced, but it was the second one. It all happened very quickly, with the only peculiar thing being a camera swooping in to each group of nominees and then staying on us for the whole presentation, forcing us to remain poker-faced for the whole thing.

I was very relieved we found out right at the beginning so that we could come back down to earth and enjoy the stellar line-up of performers presenting the awards.

I loved seeing Toni Collette (because I think she is so talented) and Kylie Minogue (because she is Kylie Minogue); and Ricky Gervais and Simon Pegg were very funny and cheered me up. Penélope Cruz is as beautiful in the flesh as she looks on screen. Jake Gyllenhaal looks much smaller in the flesh (you have to say that about at least one famous person - it's traditional, but it is true) and was very witty.

One thing became clear very quickly. In many of the categories there were lots of great projects winning nothing at all. I was reminded that the nominations are not given lightly, but realised that few people on the night actually receive an award. It was hard to feel too gloomy surrounded by brilliant people in the same position as us.

I saw Kate Winslet and Penélope Cruz having a natter afterward, neither of whom won the Best Actress category they were up for. We were in good company.

Corinna Faith | Published 05 Feb 07

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