The Strange Case of Robert Louis Stevenson

Below is the Prologue of my book, "The Strange Case of Robert Louis Stevenson". If you like what you read and want to carry on - the book is available HERE.

The Strange Case of Robert Louis Stevenson by Peter Regan

PROLOGUE

“Ghastly Murder - Ripper strikes again!” bellows a young boy waving a newspaper high above his head as he stands at his post outside the Lyceum Theatre. However no one seems to be paying him much attention. The passers-by probably do not even distinguish his dirt covered face and ink smothered hands from the dingy lit Victorian London streets. He probably thought he would have a good night being so close to the theatre, with all its patrons coming and going. No matter, he will stand by his post until his papers are sold.

Inside the brightly lit Lyceum, separated from the hustle and bustle of the street and the sales cries of murder, the foyer is packed full of eager patrons anticipating the night’s performance. They slowly flow through bottlenecked double doors to enter the auditorium and take their seats. Dotted around the foyer are several posters for the week’s current run – ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - See Robert Louis Stevenson's masterpiece come to life’. The sea of theatregoers is momentarily separated as a young woman begins to strong arm her way through from the auditorium to the foyer, fighting against the crowd. Harriett Jay is not one to be pushed around and holds her ground in the horde of oncoming bodies. Her eyes open wide as she frantically scans the crowd looking for someone. She approaches the main entrance doors in a panic, forcing her way out onto the street and pauses for a moment by the newspaper boy and his pile of unsold copies. She looks anxiously around, surveying the area, not sure where to turn next.

“`Ere Missus – care for a gander?” the newspaper boy asks.

Harriett looks down with a smile, “Not tonight mate– looking for someone.” Her feet march her on away from the bustle of the theatre entrance, looking for any sign of her target.

As she walks further the surrounding air becomes calmer, and in the sudden lull of energy Harriett manages to catch the sound of someone coughing, coming from the alleyway a few steps before her. She quickens her pace to investigate but stops before moving any further so she can peek around the corner, slowly and cautiously.

Finally, she has found him. A slender frame of a man, leaning against the wall coughing loudly, clutching violently at his chest, struggling to catch his breath and unsteady on his feet. Harriett immediately rushes over. “Robert, thank God.” she says, reaching out to support her friend’s weak frame.

“Medicine…” Robert grunts between breaths “… the hotel.” Harriett takes Robert’s arm and places it around her shoulders to take some of his weight and begins to lead him out of the alleyway, back to his hotel.

***

    Robert sits in a large armchair in front of an open fireplace; a small, cosy fire lights up the room with a warm orange glow. Harriett is kneeling before the fire, taking a steaming kettle, and filling a teapot beside her. She begins stirring the leaves to disperse the flavour before standing with the teapot in hand. Robert struggles in his chair and once again tries to regain control of another violent coughing fit. Harriett turns to see him crushing up a white tablet (although Robert is not trying too hard to hide it). He tips the powder onto his left hand, behind his thumb, raises his hand to his face and takes a long snort leaning back in his chair.

The coughing slowly subsides.

Harriett walks over to a table between Robert and an empty chair and sets down the teapot on the tray alongside two cups. “So, do you cough because you take it, or take it because you cough?” she asks as she pours two cups of tea.

Slowly, trying to find the energy, Robert replies, “The latter. I am afraid modern medicine has cursed me an addict’s lifestyle. Forgive the crude delivery method, I’m told the body absorbs it quicker this way.”

“As long as it helps.” Harriett hands Robert a full cup and saucer.

“For a short while.”

Robert takes the cup and saucer, supporting them on his lap as he leans back in his chair and closes his eyes, able to finally catch his breath. There is a momentary calm across the room.

Harriett shuffles in her seat, takes a long sip from her cup, and decides to break the silence, “I can see now how you devised your Jekyll and Hyde story.”

Robert looks over to Harriett with one eye open and smiles. “That’s one of the many reasons why I take the drug in secret; to avoid such leaps to preposterous conclusions.”

Robert closes his eyes again, “No, that tale was birthed from far worse than a simple pill.”

Harriett stares back at Robert in anticipation. Robert opens a single eye to gauge Harriett's reaction, seeing her staring intently back at him. Caving in to the wanting expression on Harriett’s face Robert leans up, fully alert and continues, “Dear Harriett, I was hoping to take this to my grave, but, as I fear that may be closer than I’d like to believe, maybe I should pass on the true story.”

He takes his cup of tea and takes a long drink.

“Well, then…the truth.”

“I am honoured.” Harriett replies.

Robert shifts his weight to get a little more comfortable. Once settled he begins to slowly lean forward. Harriett, ready to be let in on one of the great secrets of literature, follows the motion and both lean in closer.

Robert then pauses, holds up his cup toward the tray in front of him and proclaims, “We’ll be needing more tea.”

The Strange Case of Robert Louis Stevenson is out now, available to buy now for Kindle or Paperback via Amazon.

Here is the LINK.

Release the Kraken...

Now if only I had a kraken.

So for now I will unleash One Foot From Hell.

Yes after 4 solid weekends of filming in October 2012, a year of editing, animating and compositing in 2013, and a finally year of successful film festivals (ok, not so successful. I need to work on marketing) the film is unleashed.

I can now point people in it's general direction. I can say, "I made a film. You can see it here!".

I can now be happy that people can finally watch the bloody thing instead of me keeping it locked up whilst I reject another festival as I don't have the funds for the entry fee.

So without going to crazy. For the first link of many; you can watch the film here:-

http://vimeo.com/79604811

Cheers

Growing up, networking and such…

 

I say growing up, but it’s more of a getting my life/priorities in order. By life and priorities, I mean work. It’s become all too easy stay comfy in the day job, however the typewriter has started to call.

 

(Hopefully you get what I mean. I could have said keyboard but you may have thought I was on a path to become a great pianist. Now I mention that I do have it on my list of things to eventually do).

 

Brother Chris has been writing for a while, however this year, there have been a few more opportunities for myself to help out on a couple of projects. For real life money. Basically as of this year I too can say I am a paid writer.

 

But what of the day job? Well, we’re not that well paid yet, so I must continue in my war with free time.

 

That’s where the growing up comes in. Brother Chris and I are starting to get organised. With 3 screenplays currently optioned we have a body of work to start building on. Hopefully at least one of these will see the light of day to carry us further.

 

And with this, the networking comes in. As we started to take things more seriously I decided  to attend a course back in June – First Draft with Pilar Alessandra of On The Page.tv

 

This 2 day course provided excellent information on getting a first draft together quickly, and then beefing it up in the 2^nd/3^rd drafts. It was also an excellent place for networking…except I’m terrible at networking.

 

The main issue I have with this is I’m not one to shout about myself. Also, a certain percentage of people who can shout about themselves, come across a bit arrogant. I’m sure in their day to day lives they’re entirely pleasant. However as soon as they start telling me they have the best idea, and they only ever had a specific actor in mind for a role, and will settle for no other, but the script is so good that they’re definitely going to take the part; when I’m being told this, I zone out, and lose interest. They start to sound like a…let’s just say they are annoying.

 

I have a constant battle with this as here, in this very enclosed forum, I know I have a great idea. I just don’t like having to shout about it at the risk of coming off as an arrogant sod.

 

So there’s that to work on.

 

In many ways the reclusive feeling more than anything qualifies me as a writer. It also helps that I trained as an animator, another introverted profession.

 

So I need to grow up. Break out of my shell. Get networking. Speak to people about my amazing idea.

 

It seems that’s the only way to get things get made.

 

Unless you not the only one in the crowd shouting. Then it’s just a case of who’s the loudest.

 

You wouldn’t have guessed that I once made a film called Jonny the Pessimist.

Let me keep you updated....

One Foot From Hell will soon be upon us.

I say soon but there’s still a bit to do. Well a lot to be honest. In terms of structure the edit is now locked. In terms of grade, just needs a slight brightness/contrast tweak when I’ve swapped all the footage for the high quality alternative (it’s a complicated task when your PC doesn’t want to help with editing). Also I do need to try to tweak the animation but due to said unhelpful PC it’s not longer rendering out the animation so for now I‘m forced to be happy with what I have.

So where do we stand?

In short, sound. In more depth, I’m mixing the dialogue, then will start to get Axel Foley and get that all mixed in. Whilst this is going on I’ll be on the hunt for composers to score the film. Then there’s just a few final flourishes to complete the film, such as credits. Well, mainly credits.

If I get on top of it all I it should be ready for a Halloween release and then ready for festivals the of 2014. This I think is the most taxing part and I need to stay positive through. I'm a creative at heart, and mixing the sound, at least at this stage, is more a job that needs doing more than anything else. Foley will be a bit more interesting, but until then I need to make sure I get mixing and I keep motivated.


But in other news, you may have seen a few extra buttons appear at the top of this page. Due to lack of organisation and webskills I’m basically turning this ‘ere blog into a main site where you can access information about my work. For the time being, my showreel , and behind the scenes info for One Foot. Ok, so there's nothing in the behind the scenes yet, but there will be.

I hope to continue to fill it with more and more information to give a more rounded study on the making of the short. I can then start directing people here to find out about me and the film.

But for now I’d better get back to sound editing.

Oh by the way, we now have a poster that I need to post up here when we're closer to finished.

To keep up to date about the progress of One Foot, you can like the Facebook fan page here!

So some stuff happened...

...and that's about that.

I felt the need to update the blog since it's been a while and I must has a lot to update. However checking the most recent post (before the Harryhausen obituary), I now realise I'm still pretty much in the same situation. However I do have a couple of updates.

Update No. 1 - Jenny Ringo and the Cabaret from Hell has been released online to those signed up to the mailing list. If you want to see how it goes down, sign up to the list here...

Update No. 2 - Jenny Ringo 3 is nearly complete I spent two very warm evenings staring at a PC monitor watching animation render frame by frame - a far more tedious process than animating itself. Especially when the video starts to drop frames.

However, render was complete and the animation sent off to Brother Chris for approval. Once the film is completed and goes live I will let you all know.

Update No. 3 - Animation complete for One Foot. Looking forward to finishing the film.

And I'm afraid that is all. One Foot is still at the Graders so no further progress. I've started work on the Bonkers Victorian script. I've even started to think what to work on next...depending on whether or not I convince myself that it is all worth it in the end.

But time is up, and back to work I must go.

Next time I hope to have more exciting news!

Cheers.

Project 30 is now over!

It's time for another update. This is a big one as we've now passed the Project 30 deadline. This also means I'm 30 now! Happy Birthday me!!

So where are we with Project 30. Did I complete all the projects? Did we fail so miserably that I will never try anything again?

Let's see:

Project 1: Complete the "Radio Play" Everyday Joe.
As we know I completed Project 1. There are now 31 wonderful people who have listened to it. I'm not even considering the fact that people may have listened multiple times. Still good on you, shame on everyone else.



Anyway, I blogged about this back in August. You can find the complete rundown here.


Project 2: Complete my first, "professional" short film.
This one I didn't quite finish, however...

Project 2a. Complete the filming for my first, "professional" short film.
If you read the blog last time I announced that I had completed the filming of One Foot From Hell and set up the Facebook page here!
Now due to the following bonus project, updates for One Foot have been few and far between. I can confirm that we've begun going through the footage, found a handful of outtakes and more importantly, we're locating the best takes to speed up the editing process. It therefore goes without saying that I haven't started editing yet, which means the animation has not started either. I would like to get it edited before the end of  the year, which should be possible, but Christmas does always get busy.

Watch this space, and the Facebook page for further updates.

Moving on...

Bonus Project: Music Video.
This one failed, but the idea we had was a good one so it will be resurrected in the new year.

Project 3: Complete the super secret script for a bonkers adventure film set in Victorian England.
Not entirely finished this one. Let's see how we got on with the sub-project.

3a. Complete the treatment for a bonkers adventure film set in Victorian England.
Yeah, not much further I'm afraid. I did try to get the treatment completed the night before my Birthday but got a little confused. I'm still working on it but have backtracked to working out a timeline first, then I can build this up to the treatment. A weird way to work I know but I've made the story a smidge complicated.

Project - Mass Effect 2
I completed this a while ago, which moved me to add...

Bonus Game Project: - Complete Mass Effect 3
Now I'm not crazy and originally set this to be completed by the end of the year. This was mainly so I could complete the whole Mass Effect Trilogy in 2012. However I have read that Mass Effect 4 is in talks, so this Trilogy project now seems a little redundant. It's good fun though, and pretty much all I've been doing with my week off.

Now do you see why I haven't edited!

So there we are. Project 30 has come to a close. It was a challenge. Probably too great looking at the time frame I set myself especially as I knew that a lot of my free time had already been assigned to other commitments. I think the deadline process does work, as long as it is realistic and as long as you believe in it. It at least gets yo motivated to do something. It also helps it is have a cool name. Project 30 was obvious. I was thinking of Operation 2013 for next year, but I may have to change it to Project Snakebite or Operation Tigerfist!

Anyway, despite not fully completing the short, I am proud that we managed to even film it in such  a short space of time. I've got a lot more work ahead of me, but doing this has taught me that I do enjoy keeping busy and being creative. Yes a lot of the time my ideas fall by the wayside but there are others that stick. 2013 is looking to be another busy year to finish off a number of small projects, along with finally finishing One Foot. I also realised that I spend far too much time playing video games, but that's not going to change anytime soon.

So I'll keep you updated on the One Foot progress, and if I manage to complete the bonkers script. For now I'm going to get on with the tattered remains of Project 30.

Also, a big thank you to anyone who reads this blog regularly. Hopefully it's the same 31 cool people who listened to Everyday Joe. You truly are awesome!

Project 30 threatened by people...or lack thereof.

So I've been in various mood swings over the past week or so. This has been caused by trying to get a short film off the ground. However, it seems, if you haven't already got a small loyal crew set up, it's a bit of a pain getting a new team together. Even in Brighton it seems, where everyone is making some kind of film at some point.

As you've guessed it, this has become a complaint post.

So I was getting a little worried as November was looming, but I reckoned I still had loads of time. I emailed a friend interested in filming and he gave me his rough schedule.

Unfortunately it was discovered that he couldn't help out until 6th October. Great I thought. The weekend  Brother Chris and family are away so I borrow their flat as a location.

However this was the only weekend her could do until November.

So I thought...and thought...and was advised November made more sense. I did fear that Project 30 wouldn't happen though. However I decided, November would give more time for preparation, so I changed my mind. We will shoot in November!

Then I checked a calendar! "Oops!" I thought as I stared at my busy month of birth.

So it turns out, when trying to schedule, make sure you know what your plans are first.

Ok, back to the drawing board and back to October. This was now pretty much the best time I had to film. So I dived in and signed up to Shooting People, Talent Circle, posted on Moviebar and a couple of other places.

So we're off. Putting a crew together. So far, as if you couldn't work this out, responses have been disappointing.

I got a few responses from Shooting People, from some interesting people, it's just they were mainly based in London, and that may be more of an inconvenience. Not just the expenses for train travel, but general time it takes to travel.

From Talent Circle I had exactly 1 response.

From MovieBar, nothing!

From the other website that will remain unnamed, I got a rude comment back. Not sweary bum rude just a not very polite. So I'm not going back there.
Plus, to make matters worse for myself, I have decided they are Mr. Potter to my George Bailey and I need to show that people don't have to go to Mr Potter to get films made.

So, that's pretty much where I'm at. I start filming in 3 weeks tomorrow and I have some lights, a few helpers and a doll.

This film is going to be ace!

This weekend I start casting. Let's hope there are more actors in Brighton than there are DPs.

Here's to independent film making!!


Oh, by the way, if and readers are members of Shooting People, can you vote for Jenny Ringo in the September Film of the Month. We'd like get into the final please.

https://shootingpeople.org/watch/111251/jenny-ringo-and-the-monkey-s-paw

What the hell have you been doing?

Hi,

So yeah, what the hell have I been doing?

I'll give you an updated

Mass Effect 2 - not much. Should really at least get this finished by my birthday.

Project 3: Bonkers adventure film set in Victorian England.

I have completed exactly none of this. I've thought about it but haven't sat done to actually write anything. Which isn't entirely true as I did have some thing written earlier.

Anyway, at this early stage this is the one that looks likely to be my downfall. Which means...


Project 2: Complete my first, "professional" short film.

I do feel the need to clarify, that by "professional" I don't mean I'm being paid to make this film. I just mean that I'm not going up to Knypersley Lake with a camcorder and "mucking about with mates"

This is coming along, slowly, but I'm getting there. I did get stuck looking for a doll. Thinking I needed a load, then I realised I'm making a film. Therefore I don't need fifty dolls, I need one, and a shit load of creative ways to shoot around this.

Oops, spoilers. There's a doll in it.

Anyway, trying to get effects stuff sorted to get the to test stage. Very long winded this process, especially when you're having to bui....

I'm saying too much. In short lots to do, but we're getting there.

So that leaves us with...


Project 1: Complete the "Radio Play" Everyday Joe.

This requires it's own post...

...and I'll leave that to you to decide what that means.


So everything's coming along. I've got loads of time left, it's not like it August?

Right?

HOLY CRAP IT'S AUGUST NEXT WEEK!!!!

I'm getting there...

Just wanted to do a quick update whilst the system is down at work.


1. Everyday Joe - I managed to get things sorted editing the voice work only to come back to mix it properly and find that there are a number of holes. Back to re-editing, trying to mix as I go. It is nearly there, but I do keep falling out of favour with it. I never realised how moany it is. However, hopefully, with a proper mix and a few songs here and there it should be a pretty enjoyable listen.

2. After rewriting the script, and then getting stuck looking at dolls (it is related, I'm not mental) I seem to be finally making some progress. The next stage I'm working on is to get the shot list sorted. This may seem too early, seeing as though I have no cast or crew, but it's the best way to get a layout of locations and which scenes need to be animated! (spoiler).

3. I have done nothing for the bonkers adventure film set in Victorian England.


Regarding Mass Effect 2, I'm still plugging away but nothing too great to announce on that front. I'm not sure it's an improvement on the first game. Seems a hell of a lot more linear. "Recruit crew mate, get mission from crew mate, they become loyal...and repeat"

I'm still enjoying it, just trying to find time to squeeze it in.

Along with all the above, I've now been tasked to look after MovieBar whilst Brother Chris looks after his son, Nephew Eric. (Obviously Brother Chris won't refer to him as Nephew Eric as that would be ridiculous)
For now, that's my update.

Next time, I may be able to provide a few more details.

Cheers!!

Going out on my own...

... although I actually think I'll have help from someone? Anyone? Maybe for a hour or so?

"What are you talking about?" you'll now be asking your good selves. I shall explain.

After helping out on two Jenny Ringo films with Brother Chris (and many other awesome folk) I decided to take a look at how my own list of projects had progressed.

I had a couple of treatments, a few half ideas, even more complete ideas, an unedited recorded voice over track, with bonus half finished storyboard and to finish off a handful of old scripts collecting dust.

So I decided I need to actually get some of this stuff completed. Now I need a deadline, otherwise I'm not going to get anything finished. Well I know, I have a birthday at the end of November, and after then it's Christmas and nothing ever gets done until the following January. This will be my target.

By my birthday I will complete every half finished project on my PC to start afresh in the new year...

Wait a minute, that is ridiculous. If I didn't have to waste the best part of each day at work, then maybe this task would be completed. Unfortunately I do no live in this idyllic Shangri La world. I must work. Phooey!

Ok, so I'll finish as much as I can. Let's just pick a handful of projects and I'll get those completed.

*atmospheric lightning strike* (and it;s cool as it's the Empire State Building)

I declare that by my birthday in late November, marking my 30 years upon this here Earth, I will have completed the following:

1. Complete the "Radio Play" Everyday Joe.

2. Complete my first, "professional" short film.

3. Complete the super secret script for a bonkers adventure film set in Victorian England.


If I do not fully complete the above I at least hope to:

1a. Complete the "Radio Play" Everyday Joe. (It's nearly finsihed now so I'm cheating a bit)

2a. Complete the filming for my first, "professional" short film.

3a. Complete the treatment for a bonkers adventure film set in Victorian England.



If I do not pass the above checkpoints then I will give up, I guess.

Ok, so I'd better get started. I'll try to give a little more back story to the above choices as I go. I can't honestly say I will, and I'm bound to get grumpy along the way.

I'll try to update.

As for now, I'm going to play Mass Effect 2.

100 posts = 100 things to talk about...

So here’s how it was...

I started the blog about just under 3 years ago. On Thursday 14th August 2008 to be exact I’m not particularly sure of the reasons off hand. I was going to mention that according to my original post it was because of this...but I don't seem to have given a reason. I think I started it, as Brother Chris said, so that I can look back on what I was moaning about months ago. That, and people will want to know how it went down.

It’s always been difficult continuing to blog when you can count your readership on your fingers, and see most of them in real life regularly. I have managed to keep it up over time though.

So over the last couple of years I’ve talked about things that annoy me, things that excite me, things I’ve been working on and a lot of complaining. I also gave up at one point, only posting occasional musings.

Fun fact time, whilst this blog has existed I’ve lived in four houses/flats, 3 towns and had 4 jobs, included a period of unemployment.

I’d just finished a making of, completed a shorter making of, made a 2nd E4 ESting and a music video. I’ve seen a number of bands, seen a load of films and mused a lot of random musings.

So that’s basically how it went down...

...and here’s how it is.

So right here in the present I'm still busy. I'm still working, which yes is good because I get money, but it does take up a hell of a lot of time, and is a bit annoying. I've lived in my current house for over 6 months which is looking good. And I'm still playing games. Got my hands on a PS3 now thank to the Girlfriend's gaming madness. Uncharted is amazing by the way.

So with all the above going on I'm still busy with the creativity. I wrote a list recently of all the things I have to work on and there were about 10 items on there, and they're all in different stages. Some are more urgent than other, some are writing based, some making of based. 1 is a whole animated film. Not feature length of course, but long-ish. I am quite confident to announce, over the next year or so I will be working on:-

Lost in 5 Towns: A Tale of an Everyday Joe.

Did I juts break a rule and announce a project... oh crap. I wont divulge too much information, just that it's a film close to my own heart, set in good old Stoke-on-Trent. Now, if you never hear of this again, I will have learned my lesson about announcements on blogs.

Still I've still got the secret writings I've got going with Brother Chris which will hopefully come to fruition in the near future. And on that note, you're all up to speed.

So here’s how it will be...

Some stuff I guess.

Here's to the next 100 posts.

Some stuff happened...

So yeah, some stuff happened.

Fine, I'll elaborate a little. Yesterday Brother Chris and I had a meeting regarding said script that was co-written and moaned about previously.

I'#m not sure exactly how much can be revealed at this stage in case, in a fit of rage, we destroy all memory of said script, only to be remembered as a fun anecdote in those winter nights of the future.

"Remember when we wrote a script?" Brother Pete excitedly declared. "Yes." replied Brother Chris.

Saying all that it went pretty well. Brother Chris is continuing to redraft form the plethora of notes given and hopefully we can successfully complete Level 2. So enough of that for now.

However, that is not the end of this story. I have also been resurrecting an old script I had originally sent to Screen West Midlands, only to be told that it was "Visually, narratively and stylistically a mess."

So a little disheartened was I until I realised that they knew nothing. Especially as I wasn't making a two people in a room film about the death of the world, juxtapositioned with the lack of Wheatabix left in the box on a Monday morning.

so I'm pulling the script out or retirement and moving ahead. Basically, I had written a short introduction to said project, but until I'm actually ready to go, I think I'll save the announcement until a few blogs later.




But it is coming...

Strange things are afoot at Circle K...

It's all a bit odd at the moment. I can't gauge how this year is going. On the one hand we had our first MovieBar which went down surprisingly well. A couple of sound related hiccups but nothing too disastrous.

We also showed Elasto!. Yes Elasto. For those in the know, Elasto is a film I made just out of College with my Dad. I still had the fresh creative urges and needed something to keep them busy. So he provided a music tack he had from 1982 called Elasto. now this is where I like to remain tight lipped. There is an explanation to Elasto. Quite a simple, yet mundane explanation. However, I feel it actually speaks for itself. You can take what you want form it. At the root of it all, it's just plain weird. And Awesome.

Elasto had a good response. There was a short Q&A where I tried to remember how long it took and why I'd made such decisions. Once again, I think I left everyone just as confused as the film did.

Anyway, MovieBar is working and continues next month. The complete rundown of the first night can be seen on the MovieBar blog here

So far so good.

Then came the email conversation. I'm not too good at covering these things. Brother Chris has already post his frustration with the state of play at the moment.

In short, as we previously joked, I loaded in Chris' Save Game and have joined him co-cooperatively on Level 2 of script writing. It would seem I obviously don't have all the necessary experience points as he does and couldn't afford the bionic arm power up, but I continue plugging away the best I can. I just have to learn to block more.

This whole game analogy has gotten a bit messy. What I mean to say anyway, is we had a script, production company was and is interested, but only it seems once we've defeated hoards of enemies. We're talking Level 2 here, not final boss. Things shouldn't be this difficult. I mean if this was the same with every game, how do things like Sharktopus ever get made.

Anyway, you can read the in depth frustration here.

Long time no see...

...or write.

Ok, I've neglected this blog in recent times. I'll be honest. I'm lazy, and didn't have much to say. Actually I did have things to say, but I was likely to go off on a rant, therefore taking up time that could best be spen on other activities.

So way back in October I was plannign something. At that time I thought this was best represented by quoting Back to the Future, click here to remind yourselves >>>

Ok so that was supposed to be the start of something big. And then it got too big, and I didn't move forward at all and it slowly became simply a blog post with a Back to the Future quote.

However, I'm getting back onto the proverbial horse. I will release bits of information regarding whatever projects I'm working on.

This is also due to the fact that I have, at this time 7 projects on the go in some state or another. 8 projects actually as I'm going to drag another out from the past.

This means that things are going to get more interesting on here, but also equally as vague as I still believe in the idea of not giving too much away.

Just think if I'd announced the project back in October, and still no closer to actually showing anything. Damn. I should have actually said it was just a Back to the future quote. Now if I had a DeLorean I could go back and change what I said. Actually I suppose I could just scroll to the top and remove it.

It's been said now. I suppose I'll just leave it for future generations to see. People will want to see how it went down.

And I suppose that's the point of the blog. In years to come the Future Men and Women will look back at this blog. Wonder what happened in the gaps but ultimately will see how it all went down.

That is if my career mirrors Bill and Ted and at some point I'll have to fight a future robot version of myself and save the world with film.

Be excellent to each other and party on dudes!

A second weekend of AWESOME-NESS. Day Two

Day Two -

After watching a bizarre kids program (in which one character gave another a moustache as a present) whilst we woke and got ready, we set off for breakfast at the festival. We sat and ate when who should come over and join us but Uwe Boll. Awesome.

We talked about films and the state of the world, and the state of films in the world, until it was time for the first screening of the day, Side Effx. This film has problems. It was followed with a Q&A by the director, who was brought on to edit the film into something watchable after the first director was let go. He was aware of the problems with the film, mainly due to the pacing. It was a good try, but did suffer from random corridor wanderings. Good fights though, and wire work.

This was followed by The Disappeared. Described as an urban ghost story it didn't fail to deliver. There were a couple of creepy moments but towards the end it fell into run of the mill story telling, getting a little predictable. Still, I felt it was well shot and acted.

After this was the Star Hyke series preview and cast Q&A. Star Hyke is an independent comedy, drama, sci-fi series with obvious comparisons to Red Dwarf and Hyperdrive. It kind of stands on its own, the CGI is well done and Jeremy Bulloch (of Boba Fett fame) is awesome as the ships doctor, providing most of the laughs. However, we were shown episodes 4 & 5 so it was a little hard to follow having missed half of the series. Brother Chris has seen the whole series and did say that it's best to see the first three in one block in order to grasp the concept. I'd still watch it when it airs on TV though, and think it would probably get better as the series goes on. The Q&A afterwards was cool, with cast keeping things lighthearted, and of course the awesome Jeremy Bulloch.

Then was the "dinner break" a long gap between films in order to get something to eat, so of course we just ended up chatting with friends. It was good to hear some industry speak and see how easy/difficult it is to get films released these days. So no food was had. Whoops.

The penultimate screening of Saturday was The Passage, directed by Mark Heller and written by and starring Neil Jackson, who attended the screening for the following Q&A. This film surprised me. It does have a slow build up as you get to know the characters, but does deliver towards the end. When it was introduced, Neil Jackson explained it was based on true events, so I thought it would just be him wandering around Morocco. Which does happen to a degree, but let's just say, if all of it was true, he wouldn't have been able to introduce the film. Neil then held a Q&A which was awesome, especially as I asked a decent, Creative Screenwriting style question about treatments and such. If you didn't know, Neil has been in a bunch of stuff including the Blade TV series and more recently Push and this was his first produced screenplay. He seemed to love writing and said in a way he used that to get into acting in the first place. Anyway, it was really interesting talk and he's a nice guy.

I then attended the final screening of the day, Mark of the Devil., directed by Michael Armstrong, who also attended for the Q&A. This is a film from 1970, starring Udo Kier and Herbert Lom about witch-finders. As with Witchfinder General, it's not really a horror but I feel always comes across more like an educational video but just a little bit nastier. It was also described as an early example of "torture-porn", a concept taken to extremes with the likes of Hostel and the umpteen thousand Saw sequels. Mark of the Devil is ok. Not a brilliant film but it still made me squirm in places, plus it was good to see something from a different era on the bill. The following Q&A was excellent. Again, Michael Armstrong is a director form a completely different time of filmmaking and due to this questions were few. He was a friendly guy and did have a passion for films, even if he was a little tipsy at the time. He also mentioned the original Haunting as one of the scariest films made, a point I definitely agreed with.

It was time to leave and find Brother Chris, who had left to seek his fortune. I said my goodbyes to friends and to Neil and Michael and left. Meeting up with Chris in a shouty Italian restaurant we left for the hotel. Once there we took pleasure in the Ice Cream vending machine once again, I'd yet to have any dinner so a mint magnum would have to do. Excellent.

-Today I also bought a book called "I Am Batman" which was awesome. I'll give a little excerpt:
My name is Bruce Wayne.
My home is Gotham City.
I live in a big apartment.
I own a boat and a plane.

I have nice clothes.
I have a fast car.
And I have lots of other fancy toys and gadgets.
...

The Joker is a tricky foe.
His jokes are never funny.
Sometimes they hurt people.
...

Fighting crime is not easy.
But my gear and gadgets help make it all possible.
I am not just Bruce Wayne.
I am Batman!

Awesome!

Is it better to go out in a blaze of glory or in a long drawn out manner?

So I haven't blogged anything for a while now. There's not really much to report, some life things going on which I'm not mentioning.

As mentioned previously I finished Jimmy Fight, then completed Jimmy CV (which was pretty boring really). Now I get to work on something entirely new. I say new, but really I've got a treatment to write, and old script to re-jig a bit and something music related that I wont elaborate on until it's more official. It's basically a music video but what of and for whom shall remain secret for a while. Jimmy Music will be the code word...words. So I'm pretty covered in that respect, lots to get on with, still at the amateur hobby style level but it's all experience and fun. Therefore it's all good.

In other news we eventually saw Star Trek, which really impressed me. There are a few issues I have with it, nothing major though. And I'm not quite sure what those issues are. When I left the cinema I kinda felt it was all wrapped up pretty quickly I think, as though they'd remembered they needed to save the Captain and defeat the bad guy. But it was cool so good on Mr Abrams.

I also saw Sam Raimi's Drag Me To Hell. I think I saw the trailer to this a while back, but other than that had no idea what this was apart from Brother Chris going on about how it was supposed to be really good. Which it is. It could have been a lot better but its good to see Sam Raimi do something other than Spiderman. It has to be said that Drag Me To Hell was saved by its ending though. There were scares throughout, not many true atmospheric scares but more Boo! jump scares, and there were a couple of missed opportunities, but the ending really helped. I can't really explain any more without giving anything away, but it's cool.

As a final note, my new obseesion with the Scott Pilgrim comic continues, having finally got a copy of Volume 2, which seems to have become rarer than a golden DoDo. So I can finally continue the read the adventures of a guy to which everyday life is..well...everyday life. All with a humorous and slightly bizarre twist though.

Oh, and I think a blaze of glory would have worked better.

You kill the devil and you go free.

I had something to blog about the other day, but no time to blog. Now I have a little time and can't remember what it was. There was a catchy title as well.

Anyway, what can I say today. This is all going to be a bit random due to the unpredictableness of my internet connection so I'm just going to write things as they come to me. Just watched Mongol tonight. I was a little disappointed. I can see they were trying to round the character of Genghis Kahn out and show a side not explored, however this was told over a 2 hour running time that did drag a little, especially as he didn't become Genghis until a caption title at the end of the film. I know nothing of Genghis Kahn's life, other than he helped Bill and Ted pass history, but it seems that this film tries to neatly tell some kind of origin story, as if conquering he know world is then acceptable.

Brother Tim visited this weekend which was cool as he's off to Camp America again next weekend. We had what turned into a strange day on Sunday. Visited Brighton Pier, which was nice, then with little else planned took the mini train to the Marina. Having never been there before, and told that it was like Waterworld, I was expecting big things. It then turns out it is like Waterworld, if that film was set next to an Asda on a car park. The day was then salvaged when we came across a bank holiday market with bizarre attractions. One in particular featured a man, with demonic facial hair, presents three dancing girls, dressed in Ice Cream inspired clothing dancing in front of an Ice Cream van, in which they took solace. As I said, bizarre. We then went on to watch a Punch and Judy show. This was cool for reasons I cannot go into yet. I haven't seen a Punch and Judy show since I was a kid, but have recently become interested in the original play, in which Punch kills a lot of people and escapes any kid of punishment. I was quite happy to see he still killed the policeman and the doctor, turned his child into sausages (only to reverse the process) and end up killing the devil, after which he was rewarded and all previous crimes forgotten. I was a bit strange to here a crowd of kids screaming "It's the Devil" but Punch and Judy does bring out the weirdness.

On Monday, Ten Dead Men was release on Region 2 DVD. I'm just going ot pass you over to Brother Chris' blog who has more info on this >>>>>>>

Finally, because I can't remember what my original point was, I've recently become obsessed with Scott Pilgrim. I had no idea what this was and heard that Edgar Wright of Spaced, Shaun of the Dead, and Hot Fuzz fame was directing the live action film., but what exactly was this comic. So I bought the first volume of the manga sized, black and white comic book. And it's cool. I'm just going to link to the main website here rather than go into to much detail but it's well worth checking out. The problem is Vol 2 seems to be really scarce but It will be mine, oh yes. It will be mine.

Oh shit, yeah, I finished Jimmy Fight. It needs a second run through before I pass it over to Brother Chris but its all there. In the end I kind of got more into it but now I've freed up some time for my next project, my CV. A process I never look forward to but is required if I hope to continue living.

That's all for now.

3D rabbits scare the crap out of me.

Brother Chris has gone off to Cannes to schmooz with the best of them, and I find myself still having to write Jimmy Fight. This is my own doing really. I said I'd do it, and it is experience. I am even getting into it its just I'm finding myself writing something that my heart truly isn't into. However, if in a bizarro world future I somehow have to write professionally, this is the kind of thing that would happen. The writers of Wolverine didn't start writing Wolverine in an attempt to make it themselves (at least I guess not). It was a job, handed to them. So, my own personal projects and ideas have gone on the back burner temporarily and I've written away.

So I'm just past half way, and it's pretty ok-ish. It needs a couple more drafts, especially as its a new deal for me and took me a while to get into it so it starts off pretty run of the mill. But it does get better. I hope to get it finished by the end of May then Brother Chris can take a pass at it.

The problem I have in this kind of work is I'm forever thinking up ideas, and when time is limited to one project at a time I get a pretty long back log and things start to drop off. We recently attended the Paper Bag night as part of the Brighton Fringe festival and I've got the urge to get back to animating once again. Now this is a time consumer. This hopefully will happen, I've even got an idea for the short, but at the moment, Jimmy Fight leads the way, then its back to the treatment stage for and idea that's so crazy it just might happen. That is all I'm ever going to say on the subject as if you heard the premise you'd realise at this stage it will never get made. So revisiting animation must wait. Which is also annoying because fuelling my new love was a visit to see Coraline in 3D at the weekend. This was a great experience. I 've always liked the idea of 3d films. I remember seeing It came from Outer space when I was younger (not its original release mind you) and jumping out of my seat when a rabbit leaped off screen. Not out of screen, just exit stage left. These days though, as good as it is, it just seems to go hand in hand with the CG animated films or kids films, and most of those I don't really care about. But Coraline, WOW.

The designs are great, the music is great and the workmanship is beyond great. What I like about seeing this in 3D is the fact that rather than the usual of a man waving a stick in your face, the 3D is more subtle. As with The Nightmare Before Christmas in 3d, is makes you feel as though you're on the worktop watching the models move. I'm not sure how I'll react to the film in 2D, but it is a definite must see.

Coraline - They Might Be Giants



I got a new PC too. That happened since last time. Haven't really had time to test its limits, but I'm sure its better than my previous machine which slowly began to shut down, then locked me out mid formatting, then recovered and became semi-useful. But I forked out the cash and got a brand spanking new machine as the old would definitely not handle anymore animatia or editing.

Until next time.

My New Favourite Band.

You've probably already seen this on Brother Chris' blog but as they say, a good cast is worth repeating. So here's the video again. The Trouble by Birdeatsbaby.


Birdeatsbaby - The Trouble from Philippa Bloomfield on Vimeo.

I can't really say exactly why this band has suddenly appeared in my musical radar like a massive flashing whale of some kind. Apart from being a really good band, both live and recorded, I think the whole night as a whole played a part. What Chris didn't mention was how weird the night became. We got the the bar at the correct time stated only to be turned away as they weren't open. First impressions were not too good. The place looked like some sort of social club, just an empty room with a small stage, a few sofas and a small bar. Still, we returned later to find the room now contained 2 couples ballroom dancing. Not sure if the place was open yet, we cautiously ventured inside. We were then informed that the gig was downstairs. Yes hidden beneath the dance class like a 30's speakeasy was in fact The Latest Bar. Still not a large place but it has a lot of character to make up for that fact. Things then began to settle down a bit and enjoyment was had. It was a bit weird how we seemed to be the only people there who weren't friends with any of the bands, and the fact that if you needed the toilet you had to go back upstairs and past the dancers.

The other reason that made the night was the creation of an idea for the Virgin Media Shorts competition. I don't want to get into too much detail but we started the night thinking, "Yeah, we should do that" to having a full idea ready to begin development.

So yes, Birdeatsbaby, my new favourite band, will forever be joined with one of many weird nights out, and the creation of what will hopefully be a great little short.

Ultimate destruction is just a few minutes away...

I said I'd come up with a better title so there you have it. And it means nothing really, despite the fact that I'm about to destroy my PC.

I've been editing some behind the scenes footage for the Dark Future trailer, and it's been going smooth up until recently as my PC has now decided to initiate Project Complete Lockdown, which is really annoying, especially as the video is so near completion.

Anyway, I'm back into working on films again with the making-of mentioned above and about to start work on a feature script with Chris that either is, or will be known as Jimmy Fight.

So this post is short as I'd better get on.

However I would like to mention that the Congo Review website has been updated after about 10 months or so. I hope to get more done, but for now there's just a few due to time really. There is also another film that has reached the dizzy heights of being Better Than Congo, but I'll let you find that for yourself (which isn't hard if you just check the New Reviews page)

So back to work I go. Here's hoping the PC will hold out just a little longer.