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.

As you have probably sensed, things are not going well. I’m trying to attach another writer, but that seems to be just as difficult as attaching an actor. Again, it’s Catch 22: the agents don’t want to know unless there’s money already in place. Screen West Midlands don’t know whether they will be able to run the Production Development Fund this year.
Things are looking better for Soul Searcher. I’ve just signed a new deal including the US rights, and the feature length behind-the-scenes doc, Going to Hell, has also been picked up for independent distribution via tinternet and possible TV broadcasts overseas. Ironic that the easiest feature film I’ve ever made (I’m talking about G2H, not SS, obviously) should prove the most popular.

Had a meeting at the top of a tall winding staircase in Soho. (No, not that kind of meeting.) There were two partners in the production company, both with visual effects backgrounds. You know what? I can’t be arsed describing it any further. They didn’t want to make the film – that was the end result of it. So what else is new?

Whilst typing up the script revision, I spotted a fatal flaw. As predicted. So I reverted that section back to the previous draft and put The Dark Side of the Earth draft 4 to bed. Someone else can write the next version.
Round at Rob’s on New Year’s Day, Jennie and Dale recorded the voices for the new videomatic, The Wooden Swordsman, which you can see on the video page.

On the train home to Malvern for Christmas, I came up with what appears to be a version of the sabotage subplot which makes sufficient sense that I can type it up and consider the fourth draft complete. The chances are high that halfway through typing it up, I will spot a fatal flaw in it.
Yesterday Ian and I shot a new videomatic before I came back to London. Ian made a very impressive cardboard model in a very short space of time, which shared the stage (table) with some Lego and a Sindy.

I finished the videomatic, but I’m still struggling to complete the fourth draft of the script. Someone please give me some money so I can pay another writer to do it for me. If I run one more permutation of the sabotage subplot through my head, it might explode.

What usually happens is that I type the date and then daydream for anywhere upwards of five minutes before I can think of a way to begin the entry. And I won’t be able to use that one again.
A new videomatic, depicting the stopping of the world, is almost complete. No shots in it are stolen from other films. In the same way that no elements of the Sherlock Holmes stories were purloined from Edgar Allan Poe. (This is a clever, witty and cutting joke from the world of classical literature. If you do not understand, simply laugh now to appear learned.) Other shots feature the Corps action figures on sticks, my sister’s holiday snaps and lots of crumpled paper.

So Miramax don’t want to make The Dark Side of the Earth. “Tonally, it is not a Miramax sort of film.”
More Back to the Future fun here.