David Cameron told me to. That’s my excuse.
On Thursday I attended the premiere of Coming Home. Coming Home is a short film that Col and I worked on, about a group of soldiers tracking down a rogue major. Unaccustomed as the director is to public speaking, he asked me to give a talk instead. The aim was to attract more filmmakers to the screening, as well as the business types who normally attend Light Films’ events. I gave a whistle-stop history of my filmmaking experiences in 45 minutes, mainly focusing on Soul Searcher, but also covering Dark Side. Although the audience took a while to warm to me, by the end they all seemed really interested. A few people said afterwards that the talk had inspired them, which was nice to hear.

This morning I uploaded The Dark Side Guide to Shooting on Film. Again, there wasn’t room to include everything; I’m really not joking when I say that aspect ratio could fill its own feature-length documentary. I’m sure there’ll be some people who will take umbrage at my use of the term 2.35:1, when in many cases the true ratio of anamorphic is 2.39:1, but such subtleties were beyond the scope of the podcast. And I hope that the costs outlined don’t put people off, as 16mm can be shot for a good deal cheaper – you could shoot a ten minute short for UKP10,000 (total budget) if you kept your shooting ratio tight and hired a DOP with their own kit.
The partner podcast, The Dark Side Guide to Digital Intermediate, will be coming in January or February, and will navigate the torturous pathways of film post-production.
Aside from a couple of funding applications in progress, things are now winding down for Dark Side until the new year, but don’t worry – I’m sure I’ll still find random things to blog about.

You have to admire the balls of the 30-odd producers, agents and commissioners who spoke at the London Screenwriters’ Festival this weekend. The event was packed with hundreds of writers, every one of whom wanted to pitch their script to these speakers. You could see the terror in their eyes sometimes – like an animal ready to bolt from a predator at the first sign of a logline.
So I wondered if this brand new festival, brainchild of Guerilla Filmmaker (TM) Chris Jones, was fundamentally flawed. But unlike Cannes, this was not a festival about doing deals. I think what it was really about, was allowing the members of a lonely profession to connect with their professional community. I actually met several other writers who work in the sci-fi/fantasy genre, to my great surprise.
The highlight of the festival for me was a talk misleadingly entitled “How to Write for Hollywood”. One of the two speakers was Michael Bassett (not England manager), who directed a UKP20 million fantasy movie called Solomon Kane, without any of the finance coming from Hollywood. Admittedly I had never heard of the film, but it goes to show that it can be done, and the advice that he gave in the round-table Q&A afterwards was really thought-out and practical.
Elsewhere I was able to connect with several other Screen-West-Midlands-funded delegates, a writer of The Sarah Janes Adventures and a video game producer. I also took part in the fun of Speed Pitching, which is like speed dating but less embarrassing. Five minutes with an agent, then a honk of the comedy horn, then five minutes with a producer, then another honk, and onto another producer (who Carl and I had actually pitched Dark Side to several months ago), then honk again and it was all over. None of the pitchees were seriously looking for acquisitions, but it was good practice.
The build-up to the festival last week encouraged me to have a play around with some new poster art for Dark Side, since the existing image (based on the first photo you see on this site’s gallery page) was likened to a publicity still for a Swedish TV show by someone we met in Cannes. If you fancy some new desktop wallpaper, you can see what I came up with here.

This weekend sees the London Screenwriters’ Festival hitting Regent’s Park. The event brings together hundreds of writers and filmmakers for three days of seminars, workshops, speed-pitching and talking the toot. A couple of weeks ago, I saw that Screen West Midlands were running a scheme under which they would cover the cost of a festival pass for a number of regional writers. Since the passes cost UKP299, this was not to be sniffed at. I applied, with no expectations, but found out this week that I was successful. So that should be fun – read all about it next week on this blog.
This morning Katie discovered that Col is not the only crew member who’s been busy making a game. If you go to Ian Tomlinson’s marvellous website and click the little spaceship in the bottom left corner, you can play his version of Space Invaders, and very smart it is too.

Last time I posted, I didn’t get around to mentioning Ghostbusters night, which was the Friday before last. The Courtyard claimed to have got hold of an original 1984 print to screen, though on the day they ended up showing it digitally for whatever reason. Although this was mildly disappointing, it could not detract from the joy of seeing this classic on the big screen again. In true Hereford-is-tiny style, the film was introduced by Mike Jackson, an old colleague from my Rural Media days. His link to Ghostbusters was his direction of a nineties behind-the-scenes documentary on the second movie and animated series for ITV and Columbia Pictures.
After the film, Ian and Col came back to our place, where Katie had made an angel food cake with “slime” icing and I’d bodged together a marshmallow man out of actual marshmallows. In fact, this is a good opportunity for a shameless advertisement of Katie’s new website, a must for any allergy-suffering cooks.
But we weren’t the only people who had been busy. Col seemed very keen that we all play a “special” board game. He proceeded to unveil a heavily customised Monopoly set: Soul Searcher Monopoly. Each square on the board had become a location from the shoot – everywhere from the romney huts (Dante’s lair) through James’s house (Heather’s house) to The Crystal Rooms, each with its own property card, perfectly mimicking the Monopoly card designs. The traditional top hat, motorcar and so on were usurped by the Mustang, Vic’s car, the Hades Express, the hire van and the generator. Dante’s Chest replaced Community Chest, and all the cards in this and the Chance pack were themed around the shoot. “The police are called while you are filming a swordfight at the multistorey. Lose UKP20.” / “Screen West Midlands turn down your funding application. Lose UKP10.” / “Go directly to Castle Cliff [jail]. Do not pass go. Do not collect your travel expenses.” So authentic was this painstaking creation of Col’s that the game even ended with me being heavily in debt.
Ah, memories. Misty, water-coloured memories. Today, of course, is Soul Searcher day – the seventh anniversary of the start of principal photography. Traditional celebrations include cursing malfunctioning cameras, worshipping leaf blowers and burning effigies of David Dukes.

I just found out that You Tube has a clip from when my friend Matt (of Dark Side ’96 fame) and I were Kings of the Show on Lee and Herring’s This Morning With Richard Not Judy, back in 1999. Fortunately it does not include our actual appearance – I had a very bad beard at the time – but you can see the ad we made to win the compo. I shot and edited it and, yes, that’s my voice narrating too. Here it is.

I went to another Raindance class last night – this one on creating a business plan. It wasn’t as good as last week’s.
I jealously noted, as I have oft noticed afore (aye!), that all the other directors had partnered up with producers, except for one. I feel like Ralph from The Simpsons.

Today I had a little chat with a friendly casting director. I was considering laying some of my own cash on the line (here we go again) to hire a professional of this ilk, theorizing that they would be more successful at attaching talent than I have been over the last two years. The chat was required because I’ve never worked with a casting director before and I needed to ask some stupid questions. As I had feared, the question “Is the present lack of a producer or production company likely to be a stumbling block for a casting director’s efforts to attach talent?” was answered in the affirmative. [We are in a car. We are in a car… Sorry. K9 moment.]
So I did not hire the casting director, but he did mention an up-and-coming actor that I might consider, and whom I actually have a faint chance of getting the script to since I know someone who’s worked with him. However, most likely it will prove a dead end, like everything else. You know what? This really, really sucks. Do not try it at home.

Last night I went to a Raindance class on film financing. Other than an open evening a couple of years back, most of which I seemed to spend listening to the woes of an increasingly drunk Irishman, this is the first time I’ve dipped my toes in the Rainwater.
The lecture’s chief effect was to teach me why no-one has picked up Dark Side yet. Explanations of things like completion bonds shed light on certain concerns that were brought up by the financing company I dealt with last summer.
When I give lectures myself, I always advise people to go to the pub after any course they attend, because that’s where the important networking is done. So despite wanting to get home in time for Family Guy, I practiced what I preached and followed half a dozen or so other attendees and the lecturer to the bar around the corner. (I felt strangely as if I’d just been to a Rural Media workshop in Hereford and it was 1998 all over again.)
Stories of fundraising woe were shared – this time without drunkness, Irishness or bitterness over a financially and emotionally crippling divorce. After hearing about how I made Soul Searcher, including The Guardian’s article and the DVD release, one of my fellow attendees said, “You must have no trouble getting money for your new film.” If only.