Leni Ward – Opening Doors
Jul/100
The new music video I directed for Leni Ward went live today:
Shot over two days in a garage and part of Sherwood Forest (huge thanks to Don at The Paintball Jungle).
Please check out the videos youtube page for full credits.
Google Maps Into The Past
Jul/090
So I’m out of images of New York now, which I guess means I’ll have to accept I’m back in Derby now. Nevermind.
Back to the old film slog blog. Three films are happening simaltanously and in different stages of development, all three short films none of which I’m going to go into details about until I know for sure that we’re about to roll, otherwise things get written about then not happen and I feel like a to shed of tools for getting too excited and write bleeding blog posts about them. That’s not to say I’m not excited about the projects, I am very much so and the first of which will hopefully shoot in a months time and we’re working on the design. And I’m going to stop myself there.
In unrelated random thoughtery: I was standing in the ruins of Hadleigh castle in Essex at the weekend:
And it occured to me there must be places like the castle that we may never know how they really looked. It then occured to me that the light we see from distant stars is old light and may not be how that star/planet looks in actuality. So wouldn’t it be possible to send a camera out into space to photograph Earth from far enough away that we can see into the planets past?
Then I wondered if that were possible how long it would be before Google did that and we could view what Earth looked like from above many years in the past at the touch of a button on our screens.
American English
Jul/090
Just browsing through me photos (as you do) and I’d forgotten about this one. Taken in Central Park next to the baseball field. I took the photo because it stuck me as being such a typical image of America that we see in films. The parents sitting on the stand as their children dressed in full baseball gear swing, run, get coaching and generally as you’d expect, play baseball. Having mostly grown up watching American films it’s surprising when you finally visit a place like New York that the filmic representation is actually really accurate.
It makes me wonder if American’s, or any other nationality, who watch British films in their native countries and then come and see the place with their own eyes, I wonder if they think the representations are accurate? Is anything Richard Curtis has ever written really a version of England that actually exists? Do you think tourist are massively disappointed that this country isn’t as whimsical, clean and charming as some films portray it as?
From the mobile…
Jul/080
Hannah Stone looking rather lovely in Harrington Studios in Long Eaton. Myself, Hannah, and artists Sam Mercer and Hannah Phillips spent a few hours on Sunday film several animation sequences for a short film called Fine Art, which me and Hannah wrote and shot in a day. We didn’t originally shoot the animation, but after editing things together we realised it would be better if we did.
Sam and Hannah P measuring out the wall which animated oversized cardboard keyboard keys on to.
On a completely unrelated note. I broke a cup at work today:
Brain Flush
Jul/081
Time moves very quickly, it’s already nearly august and I’ve only just recovered from the end of last year.
Lately I’ve been spending the vast majority of my time writing. While I’m not making things I need to be writing, until I can get be making a film I have to keep writing. I’ve very nearly finished the first draft of a feature film called Town Story, a while ago I finished a draft of a short called Forget Your Head (for now) and I need to do a rewrite of a short science fiction film entitled Happiness. Lots to be doing, I tend to work on one until a draft is complete, then leave it alone for a while, then work on another script until that draft is complete, and then the circle continues.
I’ve found red bull to be very helpful for clearing my head and allowing me to write. Haribo tangfastics, not so helpful, unless you count extensive leg jiggling and elevated heart beat as a plus.
The Mist, WALL-E and the Dark Knight are all films I’ve seen at the cinema recently (WALL-E twice now) all of which I have thoroughly enjoy, and non of which I can contribute an opinion on which you haven’t already heard. The Dark Knight I had some issues with on the emotional engagement level, but the more I think about the film the more I like what it did to me.
I watched Primer on DVD again tonight, I still don’t understand most of what is happening in that film.
Bad news: I didn’t get into the NFTS, I had hoped I would have at least obtained an interview, but as it turns out, I was flatly refused.
Books I’ve finished reading:
- Fear and Loathing in Las Vega
- Brave New World
- American Splendor – Bob and Harvey’s Comics
Currently reading the Illuminatus Trilogy, which a little bit on the insane side, lots of characters, lots of shifting perspectives including moving from third to first person in a matter of moments. Also reading Signal To Noise by Gaiman and McKean, as well as the odd bit of Poe and Kafka (I’m working my way through classics I’ve never read)
The novella is on hold until I finish drafts of these current scripts, I should have finished a draft of Town Story by now, but instead I’m writing this, I’m building up to it ok?
I need some more iron in diet.
Listening to the new Johnny Foreigner album a lot.
Wrote a short story at work today, which I then bashed out into a script once I arrived home. It’s a bit silly, not sure if it’ll be worth anything, it’s about a guy who replaces his heart with a ticking clock to impress his girlfriend, he keeps his heart in a jar of blood, but it gets jealous, grows teeth and eventually drives him out of his home. I might stick the short story up on here a t some point.
I’m going to try and write in this place more often, turn it into more of a diary.
Cue Carded
Jul/080
Long time since a proper update, and those twitter to livejournal posts are even starting to annoy me.
Since my last post at the end of June I’ve been working on Tina Pawlik’s and Deborah Haywood’s DV Short entitled Tender, being brought on as a kind of assistant editor/assembly editor/footage management. They were shooting the film on the RED camera, a new amazing invention built out of old steam trains, powered by a small nuclear reactor, and filming in RAW uncmpressed 4K HD (some of those facts may not be true). Lovely 35mm lens, nice footage, social drama, ’nuff said.
It actually turns out the RED camera is a massive pain in the arse for anyone that uses it, seeing as the thing is so new. We had trouble with sound, timecode sync, downloading the footage, editing, all sorts of things. But it looks nice, so it’s very worth it, and now I believe I’m the only person in the Midlands who knows how to handle RED footage in post, through RED’s own programs and Final Cut Pro. Doing the edit assistant work, which bascially involves labelled, syncing and organising the files, is possibly one of the most boring jobs anyone can do (but it’s something does need doing) I only prevented myself from blacking out as I was able to put together a rough cut/assembly edit, which is the fun stuff obviously. Over the next couple of weeks I’m going to be based down London working with the real editor, on an Avid (An Avid!! Argh!).
In other less techy news, the Montclair film festival organisers want to have Dead Moments on a compilation DVD, which they want to distribute around places in America, like Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com. Which is great, it adds a little more power to my CV, having had films on TV and DVD now.
I’ve been doing lots of writerings, with three stories coming into existence, with a fourth looming as well. The first is a script for a short film, which i finished a first draft the other night, which i now promtly hate. I’ve mentioned before first drafts (for me anyway) are usually a twisted mess of horribleness, with under developed internal organs, that need to be put out of sight for a while, until I can handle rewrites. So it will improve.
I hope.
The second is a novella, which I started a few chapters of last year and finally decided to fly with it and get it finished. It’s currently over 7,000 words, quite random, with no actual end it sight. I’m writing it unplanned, in a structured stream of consciousness, using a loose heroes journey story format to keep from careering off into sillyness (that was a sentance I never thought I’d write on here). In other words it should be fun, snappy, short, a science fiction for the short of attention span.
The third is a feature script I’ve working on (on and off) for about a billion years. Finally decided to actually get the bugger done. I’ve been describing it recently as a Derbyshire Magnolia, because it will be my “Fucking Midlands” type film (but it won’t look dreary) and it has a lot of characters and storylines running through it. So much so I’ve had to invest in a whole bunch of cue cards and map out every scene so I can see the whole thing visually, it was doing my head in. I literally spent most of yesterday, sat at the laptop, with the script open, thinking about the story, trying to piece everything together in my head. A whole day staring into space just bloody thinking! Gah! It seemed productive but at the same time without any physical evidence of work it also seemed like a huge waste of time!
Back to work!