Let me speak to you of Craven Arms. Despite sounding like a pub, Craven Arms is a village in Shropshire, a village I visited this weekend for the first time in twelve years. The reason for the recent visit matters not; rather it’s the visits of 1998 on which I wish to ramble. For back then, in the mists of time, I had my first contact with the professional film industry in the form of a course called Lonesome Takeaway.
Allow me to set the scene. It’s been about six months since I finished Sixth Form. I’ve spent most of the summer sleeping and wondering what to do with my life. Finally I get a job, inputting data for Worcester Heat Systems, but it’s so brain-numbing I quit after just two weeks. I will shortly begin another, only slightly less brain-numbing job at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, but for now I have two weeks of practical film-making workshops and a four-day short film shoot to look forward to.
On the first day I missed my connection at Hereford and arrived in Craven Arms an hour late, but I was soon immersed in the course, eagerly drinking in the information that the experienced workshop leaders – all working freelancers – were generously supplying. Everything from three point lighting to keeping actors comfortable between takes was covered, and when it came to dishing out roles for the shoot, I jumped at the opportunity to be in the camera department. Along with Jessica Lamerton (who I still work with regularly on corporate training videos), I spent hours learning to load 16mm Arri magazines, in preparation for two days as clapper loader, before Jess and I swapped rolls and I took over as focus puller.
I look back on it as a turning point in my life. Often have I told the story of how the director of photography, Des Seal, advised me not to go to university, but to build up a CV by working unpaid on shoots – the best advice I’ve ever been given. Months later, catching a lift to the film’s premiere with its producer, Jane Jackson, I would elicit an invitation to send her my showreel (full of the amateur films I had made with schoolfriends on my Video-8 camera, such as the original Dark Side of the Earth) which would quickly lead to paying work, allowing me to part ways with the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and become a freelance filmmaker, as I’d dreamed of being since I first held a camcorder.
So thank you to those people who ran Lonesome Takeaway, who probably made little or no money from it and certainly didn’t need another credit on their CV.
That’s all for now, but tune in again soon to hear the real – and unexpected – reason why Screen West Midlands rejected Dark Side for development funding.

A little progress this week. The MOD (magneto-optical disc) containing the mixed audio has been produced, ready for shooting onto film as an optical soundtrack. And it looks like we might have our grade lined up.
But it’s two steps forwards and one step back, I’m afraid. For the third time, Dark Side has been turned down for development funding by Screen West Midlands – that’s five times if you count the UK Film Council applications too. Each application has been stronger than the one before it, but for reasons that remain obscure it’s still not good enough.

If you can believe it, we’re still trying to find somewhere to grade. Earlier this year it seemed like we had that all set up, but it didn’t quite come off. Part of the problem is that a particular company has very kindly offered us a free shoot-out back to 35mm, but in order to take them up on this we need to have graded at a place that is calibrated for this company’s recorders, which limits our options.
In other news, if you thought Dark Side is the only Henson-inspired fantasy film being developed independently in the UK, you’re wrong. Raven Waiting is in pre-production right now, and looks set to be pretty amazing if the concept art and the director’s dedication are anything to go by. Check it out.

I’ve been digging through the archives, the 20+ hours of behind-the-scenes material we accumulated while making the pilot, most of it shot by Mr. Gerard Giorgi-Coll. And I’ve put some more of it to good use, as you’ll see on the video page.
There’s a tour of the art department workshop, providing a snapshot of the set as it was just over two weeks into the build. It even includes a rare interview with the elusive production designer, Ian Tomlinson.
And “The Dark Side Guide to Building a Set” is a ten minute featurette covering the issues surrounding making and shooting a set. Building a set was new experience for me (with the exception of a few basic flats and dodgy consoles for Cow Trek way back in 2000) and since a lot of low budget filmmakers will have shot only on location, I thought a rundown of the considerations and costs of set construction would be useful to some of you out there. Or you might just want to hear my cheesy narrator voice; that’s also a valid reason for watching it.
The aim to is produce at least one more “Dark Side Guide”, maybe two, covering the issues around making the leap from video to film, both in production and post-production. And if you have any suggestions or requests for subjects, feel free to contact me.

With the last FX tweak successfully, er, tweaked, we’re now looking for a place to grade. The Dolby documents have been signed and counter-signed, so all that remains for the audio is to transfer it onto MO disc, from whence it can be transferred to the film print – when we get to that stage with the picture, which is still a little way off.
The new deadline that we’re working to is October, when the Production Finance Market is held. Carl has applied to this sort of Cannes-on-acid, speed-pitching event, which may help us secure producing partners.

We successfully got through the “Expression of Interest” stage for Screen West Midlands funding, and have thus been invited to submit a full application.
Elsewhere, we’re navigating the foggy, monopolistic waters of theatrical Dolby certification for the pilot. When the 35mm print is finally done, I plan to share everything I’ve learnt about the Digital Intermediate process – i.e. shooting on film, post-producing digitally, then finishing to film – in some sort of vlog/podcast/moving-image fact fest.

Earlier this week I went to Londinium for some meetings which Carl had set up. One of them was with a novelist, Tess Berry-Hart. We realised in Cannes that a cross-media approach is the order of the day, encompassing a tie-in novel, a video game and so on. Proposals for these would form part of the movie’s package.
Between meetings, me and Carl pounded the streets of London, which were paved neither with gold nor the solutions which we were seeking to some script issues. Simplification is what’s required; that has also become clear of late. But how to make the story simpler without throwing the baby out with the bath water, that’s the poser.