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Sat 27 September. Probably the last update, thought I might as well. I haven't had the time to sort out a new score for Housework so it's been languishing. I still show it on a one-to-one basis, maybe one day I'll get it sorted but life has moved on. Shot a short for Screen East over the summer, that we're still editing, just got a major writing commission from Pure Grass films, various other projects on the go, busy busy. Housework is good though. There's a link to the finished film on the title page. Go have a look if you've got 6 minutes 33 to spare... Comment.

Thurs 24 April. Hanne Hukkelberg watched the film yesterday... And she wasn't at all happy, either with the end result, or with the way her music had been used. I'm really disappointed by her reaction - I mean, it's not like the script wasn't online, I directed her to the website, told her everything about the project, showed her my previous work... I didn't need to use her music, I merely wanted to. So I asked, and she said it was okay. But she's changed her mind. To be fair, I broke the deal too. I asked for permission to use Boble, but I also used another short instrumental piece, plus a six note keyboard refrain. What a villain! I could, of course, ignore her opinion, but when a young woman tells me she feels exploited by me, it makes me feel really quite dreadful. That's not who I am. So, new music will have to be found. Any volunteers? Comment.

Thurs 17 April. Good screening of Housework at Rotoreliefs. It went down very well. Also there's a certain buzz about our competition short... Comment.

Weds 10 April. (Most of) the team regrouped over the weekend to take part in the London Sci-Fi Film Festival 48 Short Film Challenge. A great experience, and another short film made - woo hoo! There are prizes, we'll hear in a week or so if we are in with a shot or not. Comment.

Annoying news - it seems my local post office doesn't know the correct postage to send a packet to Europe. So I've got a sinking feeling some of my festival apps won't have made it. Useless herberts. Still, I'll keep plugging away.

Thursday 28 March. Another London screening, at Rotoreliefs on Wednesday 16 April.

Also, the team is gearing up to shoot again, this time for the 48 hour film-making contest at this year's London Science-Fiction Film Festival. It's weekend after next, wish us luck... Comment.

Sunday 23 March. More festival applications:

Venice Short Film Market

Sapporo in Japan

Sedicicorto in Italy

And a London screening. Comment.

Thursday 6 March. Submitted to the following festivals:

Message to Man in Russia

Darklight in Ireland

Tabor Film Festival in Croatia

Neuchatel in Switzerland

Let's hope we get some replies... Comment.

Friday 29 February. DVD is done, dupes done, cover done, boxes done, envelopes bought. The website needs a bit of attention - its on the DVD box as a resource, I should spruce it up. For a start there are no contact details, I think we can probably live without the "post" button, which can become "contacts". Will write up the festivals I send it to here, we'll see how many hits and misses we get. Comment.

Wednesday 30 January. Met with editor and production manager up in London last night to view fine cut. It's nearly there bar a couple of tweaks. Then it's a case of finding festivals to show it at. I've learnt some interesting things about distribution:

1. Festivals like to be the first to show a film in a given country. Choose your festivals carefully is the answer.

2. Sticking the film on YouTube isn't such a good idea, at least not straight away. Again, it's about making it feel special.

3. If you want to screen a copy online, create a password protected page, or at the very least a page that won't get picked up on google. Not for the first few months. Believe in what you've made, that its worth treating with "respect" (if that's the right word).

Also, I'm realising that this website is starting to have run its course. Like, there are photos of crew members that are still not online, and it kind of doesn't matter. This site was always about the process, and that process is reaching its end. The film will end up here, as a quicktime file, I'm sure, but not in the immediate future.

Recommended sites for sussing out festivals:

www.withoutabox.com

www.britfilms.com

Laters... Comment.

Saturday 5 Jan 2008. Edit day one before Christmas went well, yesterday was day two, a hard slog but it yielded good results. I've certainly learnt so much from this project. Main lessons:

1. Quiet on set!

2. Preparation is good!

3. Final Cut Pro is amazing!

There's another day of editing to do, tidying up the audio basically, but I'm very encouraged that the end result will be at the very least watchable... Comment.

Sunday 16 December. Rushes logged, paper edit done. Aron is putting the assemble together in Deptford, I'll be joining him on Tuesday for a long day over a hot computer, at the end of which we might hope to have the short in some kind of shape.

As an aside, I'm changing broadband suppliers from Plus Net to Virgin. Also, I want to get the Jerome's Weakness site up as its own identity. Will require some farting around with Smart FTP, the site may be offline for a bit. But hopefully I'll have it cracked by next week. Comment.

Sunday 18 November. Watched the rushes - finally - on Thursday. I was actually pretty pleased with what I saw, which is not my usual mode, I can be a bit "trees not the forest" regarding these things. However, I was certainly struck by what a major operation the edit is going to be. We've got over 100 mins of rushes to cut down to 5 or 6, we actually almost did too much coverage, directly - I think - as a result of not having had a story board/shot lit to work from, or rehearsal time with the actors. We had to find our way round the piece as we went. Some scenes are clearly going to work; others, particularly the "main" scene in the living/dining room, where the cleaning lady first enters, will need a lot of sorting. Also, I think a score is going to be required. I'm dusting off the old guitar as we speak... Comment.

Wednesday 7 November. IT'S IN THE CAN! One very long, gruelling but exciting day on Saturday, wrapping at 4.30am in the morning. Everyone worked the butts off, we got everything we set out to get. I've posted shots of the actors in character, really nice. Been really busy with work and life, haven't had a chance to review or log the footage. Also didn't get to do a storyboard AND our clapperboarding on the night wasn't complete, so a full log and paper edit are essential before we start to cut. I posted an ad on Shooting People for an editor and we had a fantastic response, lots of choice, hopefully we'll have someone on board by the end of the week.

As an aside, I'm still humming and ha-ing about the music, loving Boble but messed up by the fact that it's now telly music. Plus there's the fact that we'll cues for other parts of the film. Don't tell anyone, but I'm thinking of scoring it myself. My confidence is up, you see... Comment.

Thursday 1 November. Further script revision posted. Nearly nearly there. Comment.

Wednesday 31 October. Halloween! I'm listening to Graham Bond's Holy Magick. What a pile of poop. All fine on the movie front, I hope. Had a little breakthrough on the script, will update later today. Going to do some drawings now. Fun! Comment.

Saturday 27 October. Lost a DP, got a new one. Settled on the location. It all seems to be shaping up. Keep seeing that Boble advert. One week to go... Comment.

Sunday 21st October. Streamlined version of the script uploaded. Comment.

Sunday 21st October. Watching TV last night, up comes Hanne Hukkelberg's Boble, now the soundtrack to an ad for Tesco perfume!!! Might make using the track a problem if the ad becomes too familiar - though it is a slightly duff remix that's used. Still, disappointing, given how I've had the song on my mind for so long. But good for Hanne. Comment.

Friday 19th October. Uploaded images of a possible location in Deptford. Starting to pull the various strands together while working on all the other stuff in my life. Dr Moreau is still flickering with life in an interesting way, for instance. Got to get me pitching arm warmed up. Ooh, it's getting busy. Comment.

Thursday 10th October. Yet another test site is up and running. Working title is CandleLight. Can't stop the HTML... Comment.

Wednesday 10th October. Script updated. Art Dept page updated. Closing in on location, still seeking Art Dept person. Getting there... Comment.

Monday 8th October. Big push this week. Need to get crew sorted. More work on the script. But more than anything, we need to figure out a location... Comment.

Wednesday 3rd October. Another test link, this time to the Ruby Laney homepage. Not much to see... yet... Comment.

Tuesday 2nd October. Lots of updates. Photos etc. No time to write the blog! Comment.

Wednesday 26th September. Updated crew and cast pages. More movement behind the scenes than shows on the page. It's coming together, I think. I also need another brainwave with the script. It's flowing quite nicely, but the tension dips in the build up to the stabbing scene. Will address at the weekend. One thought - I like it on the front page where the synopsis asks, has she come to "teach him a gruesome lesson". Is there an idea to be had from this remark? Comment.

Saturday 22nd September. Here's a link to another project I'm starting to think about: Jerome's Weakness. This is just the skeleton of a short film at present, but already it's getting packed in my imagination - just need a spare moment to get the thoughts down. But there's something very nice about having constructed a "receptacle" for those thoughts. Key to Jerome's Weakness will be getting an adventurous graphic artist/flash animator on board. Scientific imagery is crucial to the project... Comment.

Tuesday 18th September. Seem to be making progress with casting. Will update soon. Comment.

Monday 17th September. Revised version of the script posted today. Comment.

Tuesday 4th September. Holidays are over. Time to get down to business. Comment.

Wednesday 1st August. Isle of Dogs, the short film I made with Simon Faithfull, is online. The picture quality is pretty bad as I've captured it from a VHS copy. The "real" version is in glorious 35mm. Still - it's not bad. Enjoy. Comment.

Sunday 29th July. I know Housework isn't strictly a horror film, but still, that is kind of where I'm coming from... and this competition might be an excellent event to structure the shoot around. It got me thinking, anyways. Comment.

Wednesday 25th July. A good thing happened, which is that we got a wedge of cash of the Abbey, who we were taking to court for bank charges. We won! No excuse now for not getting my short film digitised... Comment.

Monday 16th July. A month of birthdays and disappointments. Didn't get the Eon gig. Got shortlisted for the BBC Writers Academy, spent a hectic week in preparation for a day-long workshop... didn't get the gig. The decision deadline arrived for a radio drama project I'm waiting to hear about. The news was: we're not going to decide for a few months. I haven't even managed to have a meeting or get notes about Blind Eye due to conflicting schedules between the director, the producer and myself. Even Straw Hill, seemingly in the bag, has lost its way, possibly because the producers are busy on another project, but in my experience, if the communications stop, it's because the project (or the relationship) has run out of steam. So I'm still skint, still working all the time (it feels like) but not breaking through. The "birthday" factor (lots of presents to buy) has meant that I can't spare the £80-odd quid it takes to digitise my short film and stick in online, which I can then show to Hanne Hukkleberg (she emailed), and then she might let me use her lovely song for this project... Like I said, frustrating.

Still there have been nice things: a possible chance to adapt The Island of Dr Moreau - my favourite HG Wells novel - for Radio 3; my first byline gig for the Sunday Times as a reporter (for their holiday section); a chance to be a reviewer for this lot; the possibility of a new collaborator for some TV projects. Plus, Black Dawn is going well (I hope), I'm delivering the treatment this week and might get paid, even.

Actually, one other very good thing happened today: I think I found my leading lady! More on that soon... Comment.

Monday 18th June. Last week very busy with full time work and pitches to this lot, who I'm hoping to workshop a script idea with next month if all goes well. Also I've been working to do a deal on a "re-imagining" of a 1970s video nasty, The House on Straw Hill. There's not much cash but they're a good bunch and I'd like to do it, just thrashing out the fine print. Incidentally, the draft of Blind Eye went down well, so perhaps there'll be some action there, too. It's all good, as they say.

But it is making it harder to focus on my short film aspirations. I've been thinking about the script, and I've realised that what I want to do is not about "script", certainly not scripted dialogue. I'm going to archive what's there and rewrite the script as a "treatment" - description of what happens rather than a line-for-line script. I have been having strong impulses about the premise. This cleaner who turns up could be Ben Kingsley in Sexy Beast. She could be at him: "Where is it?" "It" being the dirt, the shit. Her eyes are like stones. Like flint.

But there's a deeper thought than that, one I've been coming back to again and again: what's it about? why am I bothering? What is it in this premise which is big, good or true? Somehow this story has to resonate with the world at large. So far, I reckon it's a late capitalism/decadent society. This uptight guy is a city guy, he knows how fucked things are, how the big fish screw the little ones. Disavowal is his method of dealing with things. His obessive-compulsiveness is its expression. Reading the wikipedia page is helping sort my thoughts out. The OCD sufferer enacts compulsive behaviour in order to prevent some dreaded event from taking place. This story is about the dreaded event coming home to roost. He's trying to hide his shit, but its coming to get him.

The problem then becomes how to make this subtext part of the story without being heavy handed. Does he need to live in a really swanky flat? Is he an oil man? Does he have a photo of himself with the tribe he visited on his last trip to Africa to exploit mineral resources? Does he have African ornaments on his mantlepiece? Already its somehow cringingly obvious. The whole point of the piece is for it to be random, sparky. Scary.

That's another thought I'd had. My script work is almost exclusively horror/thriller-ish. If I imagine making a feature film, that would no doubt be horror/thriller-ish. So those qualities, that intensity, should be present in this short. It's heading too close to a comedy of manners in its current form. It's funny, it's absurd, it needs to be menacing too. Comment.

Friday 8th June. Finished a draft of Blind Eye. It's here, [LINK DISABLED] just to prove I have been being busy. Also, I've written a song, which is here. [LINK DISABLED] I'll try to record it, so you can savour my dulcet tones. But I'm busy still for the next few days. I'll tell you more about that in the next entry. Comment.

Sunday 3rd June. Been working job work most of last week, making slow progress on the "Blind Eye" script but it is, nonetheless, getting close to first draft completion. My thought about the House Work script is that it is already too complicated perhaps, I really need to think about making a film that is 5 minutes max, yet I'm up to a minute before he's even opened the door! Still, I like this idea because it feels short and small and tight when I pitch it, I just have to keep it that way. Perhaps I should think of that as the first act of a four minute drama. Hmm. Could be a good idea, could be shit. Talking of which, eldest boy is away with school, took my youngest boy up to Greenwich park for a bike ride, but had to call off when he got stomach cramps - which he alleviated by doing a vast, rancid poo in his trousers. Ahh, parenthood! Comment.

Saturday 26th May. Somewhat hung over this morning. Kids are away, but there's no rest for the wicked as I've got to somehow finish the script I'm working on for this guy - it's called "Blind Eye", expanded from this short drama and originally developed with this lot - over the next week while working full time, so that I can start on the next, actually properly paid gig, a script called "Black Dawn" for this bunch. Which is going to be a lot of fun, so I need to clear the decks. And House Work will have to sit and wait. Talking of last night, love is stroking your wife's back as she gently vomits into a wok. Ahh, marriage! Comment.

Wednesday 23rd May. Came up with a destination for the story. Perhaps a bit of an obvious short film gambit, but this is only meant to be a little film, after all. The final twist - the image on the spray can - might be just a little too twee, but at least it's playful. And "embarrassment" seems to be a fitting destination for a story of this kind. I also hit upon the natural actor to play my leading man: David Mitchell. Can't see him signing up, but it's still useful in terms of calibrating what I'm looking for.

Also, I was thinking about the feel of the short and what came to mind were the intense confrontations in a couple of other films: Willem Dafoe and Laura Dern in Wild at Heart; Robert De Niro and Juliette Lewis in Cape Fear; that scene where Joe Pesci menaces the guy at the dinner table. That "caught in the headlights" moment, a weak character being dominated by a massively more powerful character. The sense that something awful is about to happen. That tension. But hopefully funny, because it's a cleaning lady who is the aggressor.

I've actually deleted most of what was there before. I think it's taking shape, small movie that it is. Comment.

Sunday 20th May. Had another short film idea, a bit more ambitious than House Work but perhaps do-able all the same. I've written down the basics here. [LINK DISABLED] Will seek to develop it alongside the House Work script - which I'm slightly blocked on because I don't have a "twist" for it yet. There's a load of nice stuff but no destination. Waiting for a brainwave... Comment.

Saturday 19th May 2007. Been busy with work, but hopefully I will get a chance to develop the script a little more this weekend. Kids were with friends this afternoon, I polished up a two page radio pitch that is going through the commissioning process at Radio 4. It's shortlisted, next step is the green light. There's no money in it really, but still R4 holds an uncanny prestige to me. It's real drama, for a real audience, and there really isn't anything else like it in the world. So it would be a real privilege to get the gig. Plus, this round of commissioning has a science-fiction focus which is a total buzz. You can read the pitch here [LINK DISABLED] if you are interested - I saved it in Final Draft as a pdf so it's got a blank title page, annoyingly. Meanwhile, Battles is clattering away in my headphones... Comment.

Thursday 17th May 2007. Busy working on draft of the feature script Blind Eye. My time is limited by having to increase my days working as a sub-editor at News International - but, well, life could be harder. I'll try to develop the script a little more today, I need to get that fixed before inviting people to look at the site. One thing I did do was try to reach Hanne Hukkelberg to ask for permission to use her track (link below) as front/end credits music. Actually made it through to her manager, who said she was hard to reach as she was on tour, but that he would ask her when he got the chance. I feel very synergetic about this track, like if I get permission to use it, it will mean the film is going to happen. Ridiculous, really, but these are the little things we do to push ourselves along. Comment.

Monday 14th May 2007. Another possibility for front/end credits music: Boble by Hanne Hukkelberg. In fact, you know what? I think this is the one. Exactly the right feel of off-kilter domesticity, seasoned with melancholy. Perfect. Comment.

Monday 14th May 2007. This morning's thought was that it should be set at night and filmed with noirish shadows. My inspiration for that being the image of the man opening the door onto the figure of the cleaner, a silhouette at first until she steps forward from shadow. It does interfere with my plan to use available light though. Another aesthetic I like is the "flash photography" look of a single point source close to camera, background going into darkness. That grimy feel. Comment.

Sunday 13th May 2007. I've had this particular short film idea for a while now. It came to me as a strong flavour, and also, it had that feel of practicality to it: two people, one flat. I can do this! Strong, weird characters, intense drama, sting in the tale - all arrived with the original premise. What I still want to figure out scriptwise is the twists and turns, so the audience is forced to rethink its position a couple of times during the few minutes that the short lasts.

Over this weekend I've built the basic site, I'm going to bip it online even though it's barely begun, just in that Field of Dreams spirit. If I can gather enough materials in one place it will start to become an actual concrete proposition, and heaven knows it might even come to life... Comment.