My previous feature film, Soul Searcher, is now available to pre-order on DVD at play.com. Loaded with extra features, it’s a bargain at

One producer read the script and e-mailed me in a state of great excitement, outlining how it could be made for

I have to admit, I wasn’t expecting anything useful to come of advertising for a producer, so I was pleasantly surprised to receive half a dozen pretty solid applications. Some of them have even read the script and not freaked out. Will wonders never cease?

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.