Neil Oseman

Author: neiloseman

  • Soul Searcher: April 18th 2002

    Please welcome to the stage a new character, Mr. Doug Kirk-Patrick, who is designing us a nice spectral light background thing for our funding proposals and will doubtless be doing further design stuff on the project as it advances like some kind of spiky, punning army. DKP also works at the Courtyard, which is quickly becoming a hive of networking and general creativity, the likes of which have not been seen since the hallowed Doodies institution closed its doors.

    I’ve started discussing what the fight scenes might be like with Beacon veteran and all round rumble-meister Simon Wyndham. James’ half of the script is coming on perdy sweet, whilst mine remains stalled a few pages short of completion, though I’m sure I can knock it on the head this weekend.

    James went away to write the press release, to announce ourselves to the world.

  • The Beacon: April 15th 2002

    Finally got to screen the movie to the audience it was designed for: students. The reaction was good – they got it in a way that none of the previous (older) audiences had. Everyone else had taken it too seriously. Hell, I took it too seriously, but that probably makes it funnier. Anyway, a good turn out and a lot of people came back after a short break to watch Behind The Beacon and hear about the next project.

  • Soul Searcher: April 15th 2002

    Hereford is such a small town. Today was the art college screening of The Beacon, which went down pretty well, but whilst waiting in reception I bumped into a lady whose farm I had shot my short film Cow Trek on. After the screening, James and I did a little spiel (as in Berg) about SS and asked any interested actors, designers and the like to come see us afterwards. Amongst the hopefuls was the waitress James had asked advice from in Deep Pan Pizza a few weeks back. And a guy who had auditioned for one of my early films, Traction. Then I went to Tesco and the guy on the checkout had been at the screening. Hereford – population: 57.

    We’ve built the foundation for what should be a mutually cool relationship with the art college. I can’t believe we’re not shooting until October – I feel like we’ll be ready to go in a few weeks.

  • The Beacon: April 14th 2002

    Just a quick one to say the website for my next feature project is now up and running, though I warn you it looks awful at the moment: www.soulsearchermovie.com

  • The Beacon: April 3rd 2002

    Or 4/3/02, as I statesidedly dated my letter to Subsurface Distribution, enclosing a DVD copy of The Beacon for their perusal and hopeful purchase for distribution. Interestingly, the woman in the post office didn’t ask if it was porn this time. Perhaps she saw my large hair and dark glasses and made up her own mind. So that would be the DVD finished then, except for me to burn lots of copies, and print out lots of covers, the first of which is currently rendering my typing sluggish as it background-spools its way out of my Epson. I’ve just completed a poster which features the obligatory context-ignoring quote from a review, in this case last Friday’s crit by Malvern Gazette’s very own Phill Tromans: “Genius.” (As in “You don’t have to be a genius to see this film is shit.” Not really, of course.) Actually, Phill’s review hit the relevant nails on their respective heads, though one wonders if it might have been even more favourable if my early films (the oft-spoken of but rarely aired Bob trilogy) hadn’t included so many jokes at his expense. I met with The Courtyard’s director and film programmer this morning, who are keen to screen The Beacon for two nights in early June, as part of their next film season. Also involved will be Behind The Beacon, a Q&A session with the director (that’s me, folks) and a red carpet. Yes, really. Anyone who wants a complimentary ticket, start being nice to me now.

  • Soul Searcher: April 11th 2002

    Once again meeting at the Courtyard, James and I exchanged our script scribblings thusfar and talked about how to proceed. I had got to the end of my half of the plot, and only clocked in 30 pages, not the 45 you would expect for half a feature script (one page in standard layout equates to about a minute of screen time). We discussed subplots, further characterisation, and the sticky issue of what the physical laws of our fictional universe would be, I having sent James a rather long e-mail giving suggestions on this. It’s important to establish these rules right from the start. Can the ghosts fly? Can they touch the living? Do they have any special powers or weapons? What do they want – are they just making mischief or they trying to extract humans’ lifeforce or just looking for a payphone so they can call their mom?

  • Soul Searcher: April 6th 2002

    We convened at James’ on Aylestone Hill to drink Diet Coke. I’d sketched a few characters and shots, and managed the first ten pages of a script, so James looked over these, and we talked to his camcorder quite a lot about our vision for the movie, in readiness for the inevitable behind-the-scenes documentary.

  • Soul Searcher: April 4th 2002

    James had to go to London to pitch a book to the British Film Institute, so I tagged along. On the way back, we made some progress with the SS outline and ideas. We decided to write half the script each – I the first half, and James the second.

  • The Beacon: March 28th 2002

    Burn, baby, burn. Wah wa-waaaaaah! No, it’s not an Apple ad, it’s the sound of The Beacon making its triumphant debut on DVD. Okay, so there are a couple of things which need changing, but nothing terrible. My VHS deck’s box has “JVC – the inventors of VHS!” plastered across it. Proud of yourselves, huh? You poor, poor fools.

  • The Beacon: March 27th 2002

    An historic day, marking as it did the first meeting of myself and Oscar short-listed producer James Clarke over our next film, Soul Taker. But that’s another story, and one which will surely have its own website before too long. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. On the DVD front, I ran out of space on the disc, meaning I had to choose between slightly dodgy picture quality for the film and loads of extras, or good picture quality on the film and less extras. Of course I chose the latter, so I’m afraid there will be no trailers, multi-angle scenes, sound mix deconstruction or Cutting Room feature. Apologies, apologies.