I’ve grown frustrated with the lack of progress on this project. I need to make it happen. I was on the bus back from Muswell Hill as ideas swirled around my noggin – visions of VAT returns, and Welsh quarries, and a Scooby Gang. What does it all mean? I’d rather not say yet.
But I have decided to do a number of things that have been at the back of my mind for about two years, but which I had always ruled out. One of these things was advertising for a producer. If the applicants don’t all absquatulate after reading the script – after all, everything in the entire world is destroyed on page three – I’ll eat my hat, and my daft spiky hair with it. However, I wouldn’t want my epitaph to read, “He couldn’t be arsed,” would I?
Another one of those hitherto forbidden activities (because it would mean I was – I am…. producing, horror of horrors) was the generation of a budget. It’s not finished yet, but in order to draft a budget, I needed to work out how many days to shoot. 55. Which, by a remarkable coincidence, is how old I will be when enough money has been raised to begin shooting.
More soon.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Working on the third draft of the script. My friend Elisabeth gave me some really good notes which have helped me to cut eight pages of dialogue. I’ve been told off by several people for being too long-winded and descriptive in my stage directions, so currently I’m whittling those down. I’m still struggling with some major issues too.

Still contacting people’s agents. I tried a certain Danish Director of Photography whose work I admire, but as usual his LA agent didn’t want to know until I have money. Still waiting to hear if a certain English actor’s agent has read the script, and have just contacted a particular Scottish actor’s agent to see if I might be able to send the script. A small part of me hopes they’ll all say no because if they say yes and then I can’t raise the money to actually make the film and work with them it would be incredibly frustrating.

Today I met up with Mike Tucker and he still doesn’t think I’m crazy, which is very reassuring. The Model Unit have a workshop at Ealing Film Studios; today it was full of Viking longboats and other Celtic miscellany which they are building for a children’s TV show.
Mike led me into the office area, which is dominated by a Dalek. (And let’s face it, how many rooms could you put a Dalek in and not have it dominate?) Red Dwarf artefacts adorned the tops of bookshelves – a large-scale Starbug model, the Emohawk from Polymorph II. After looking at the company’s impressive showreels and portfolio, I showed Mike the concept art which Ian Tomlinson and David Ayling have been producing for the last year. Mike had already seen some of the key images and had read the script, and was extremely enthusiastic about the whole thing. He was particularly pleased to hear that I wanted to completely exclude CGI from the movie, unlike most producers these days, who want precisely the opposite.
A couple of other modelmakers paused in their Celtic constructions to peruse the concept art, and were equally excited about it.
So Mike and his team are on board the good ship Shadowland. They can’t wait for me to get the film financed so they can start work on it.

Spielberg’s agent sent my letter back, but what he didn’t count on was that I also sent a copy directly to the Bearded One at Dreamworks. Like apples, do you? Well how do you like them apples?
Contacted a certain British actor’s agent regarding one of the major supporting roles and was invited to send the script. The agent’s assistant asked what the projected budget and timeframe are, who else is attached, who the producer is and so on – not questions I was able to answer at this stage. Maybe I’m going about this in the wrong order, but then maybe it’s a vicious circle. Can’t get the names until you’ve got the financing; can’t get the financing until you’ve got the names. Or possibly: can’t get the names until you’ve got a budget drawn up; can’t draw up the budget until you’ve got an experienced producer on board; can’t get an experienced producer on board until you’ve got financing; can’t get financing until you’ve got a budget drawn up. Clearly there’s no point in me drawing up a budget…. Production Design: