Obviously I’m massively behind the times but hopefully some of the previous entries will explain why that is… however I’d just like to extend massive and belated congratulations to two of my favourite people who both find themselves in the Sun. Brilliantly my mate Cath has been awarded the Sundance/Alfred P. Sloan Commissioning Grant to fund her to write a film called Beds about five strangers who come together in a ‘bed-rest’ experiment to aid astronauts in space. Equally brilliant…

Right – those of you who are reading this without first bouncing around the rest of the Shooting People website/desert launch pad, may not be aware that my dear friend Cath Le Couteur has discovered that, under the Freedom of Information Act, NASA have had to release the titles of all the films that are held at the International Space Station. Unimpressed by the astronaut’s movie library she has started a campaign for members of Shooting People to recommend the…

I find myself in an unusual position regarding the Pirate Bay ruling which has seen a bunch of Swedish Pirates (or Vikings as we used to call them) sent to prison. Normally I am boringly full of opinion about events but the surrounding buzz about the rights and wrongs of piracy and the entire future of creative capitalism leaves me confused. First of all I, naturally enough, agree with Lee’s sentiments about getting paid for making stuff up. However I…

On November 22nd, Shooting People turns 10. Whoo hoo! Filmmakers Cath Le Couteur and Jess Search set up Shooting People in 1998 after making their first short film and it has grown from 60 members to 37,000 over the past 10 years. I am hugely proud to work for an organization that fights so hard to create a vibrant independent filmmaking community that is all about collaboration and innovation. As Mike Figgis says: “Congratulations to Shooting People! Shooting People continue…

I love October. Whilst doubtlessly this is at least in part due to the fact that it is now eight days until my Birthday, there is more to it than that. After all, as much as I would like to consider myself immune to the pointless angst of age, I must admit that with each successive empty celebration, my enjoyment of my birthday decreases. This slow decline in excitement started quite young, my sixth birthday party was a comparatively huge…

OK that’s not false modesty ‘cos trust me, in my head I’m quite good looking… but that’s mainly because I don’t see myself talking… The BBC Film Network have put up their piece on the Making of “Hallo Panda” and it’s more enjoyable than I thought it would be and if you give a damn then it’s worth a look, if only for some of Jess Thomas’ brilliant stills… However, because I roughly knew what I was going to say…

So stop whatever you’re doing and pay attention! Wow OK, firstly a brief apology cum explanation for the silence on these virtual pages for the past three or four weeks. As you may have gathered last time I wrote here my brother Chris and I were about to start shooting our most ambitious short film project to date, “Hallo Panda” an unromantic comedy about a man who has to wank off a talking bear which is kindly being funded by…

My girlfriend is down in Wales and just as I’m making crap jokes about Mumbles there is a power cut and our conversation is cut dead. I had been writing an email to Melissa and listening to music when the phone had rung and now, in an instant, I am standing in silent darkness. It’s about ten o’clock and so I go to bed with a candle. Usually I sleep with the radio on, the dulcet tones of radio four…