Well done to Mike Tucker, who won the Bafta for Visual Effects yesterday along with Red Vision and Gareth Edwards for their work on the BBC 1 documentary Hiroshima.
Directed by Neil
Blog posts from when Neil used to produce and direct his own micro-budget movies (2001-2014).
Soul Searcher: May 18th 2006
The Cannes Film Festival started yesterday. I’m not going this year, but Wysiwyg are out there, flying the flag for Soul Searcher and their other movies. Check out their Cannes Video Diaries, presented by their publicist Jonathan Rhodes, at www.wysiwygfilms.com. And let’s hope they come back with a few territories sold for us.
Soul Searcher: May 17th 2006
Today I’m 26, but my film is 12. Rated 12 by the British Board of Film Classification, that is. “Contains one use of moderate language [‘bollocks’] and fantasy violence” is the advice to consumers. Thanks to Simon Wyndham for discovering Soul Searcher’s page on the BBFC website, since Wysiwyg hadn’t told me. After all those years of putting fake BBFC logos at the start of my amateur films, how strange it is to finally have the real thing.
The Dark Side of the Earth: May 9th, 2006
I finished the third draft of the script yesterday. I believe the film’s main flaw has now been solved, though I suspect there may be complications I haven’t spotted yet. In the end I kept the whole thing as similar as possible to the previous draft, except for the first act. There are other, smaller issues that need dealing with, but it’s taken a big step in the right direction, I feel.
Soul Searcher: May 4th 2006
I received a draft version of the DVD cover last week. It uses the same image that’s on the front page of this site, plus other photos montaged in the background. It needs some work, but it’s cool to see the proper BBFC, DVD and Dolby logos on there, even though they’re just placeholders at the moment. (If you believe the draft cover, the film’s an 18 and the sound’s in mono.)
The Dark Side of the Earth: April 29th, 2006
Recently I’ve been lecturing in visual effects at the SAE Institute in Islington. Towards the end of the module, where we are now, we look at the FX requirements of Dark Side of the Earth and the students have to come up with ways of achieving them. This week one guy went all Tim Burton on a wooden robot character – nothing wrong with that – and suggested it was controlled by a legion of woodworms that lived inside it. Not appropriate for my film, but a fascinating idea.
The Dark Side of the Earth: April 23rd, 2006
Getting there… It’s falling into place… Just a few more loose ends to tie up…
Mike Tucker’s been nominated for a Bafta. If you’re on the panel and you’re reading this (yeah, right!) then vote for him. Or else.
Soul Searcher: April 23rd 2006
A little aside for any of you that followed the journal for my previous film, The Beacon (which, incidentally, will one day be on-line again for nostalgic purposes). Josh Green (aka Conrad, one of The Beacon‘s lead characters) was the stand-in werewolf in last night’s Doctor Who, “Tooth and Claw”. They’ve misheard his name and called him Jeff, which partly explains how I sat through Doctor Who: Confidential last night without recognising him. But there’s no mistaking him on the web featurette.
Soul Searcher: April 20th 2006
So what’s going on? It’s all the BBFC’s fault, apparently. They’ve recently switched to accepting DVD screeners instead of just VHS and for some reason this has increased their workload. Coupled with some technical issues with the disc Wysiwyg sent them, delays have resulted. Until the certificate is known, marketing cannot begin and the release date cannot be set. So we wait. It’s quite odd for the film’s fate to be completely out of my hands, though I’ve now moved on, my head filled with Shadowland.
Mention was made of a Soul Searcher TV series, not for the first time in the film’s history. Black Horse, the wholesaler that will actually be putting the DVD on the shelves, is very keen on the idea. I’m of the opinion that the response to the movie peaked with the whole “Spielberg of Hereford” thing back in March last year, but you never know – maybe there are greater heights for it to reach.
The Dark Side of the Earth: April 19th, 2006
Lots of cogs grinding in my head. I want to make a major change to the first act of the script to give the film greater momentum, but it would cause some issues with character motivations. If I can just work out new motivations that won’t ruin the second and third acts, which on the whole I’m pretty pleased with, then I’ll be sorted.