After a month away, distracted by a gaggle of small jobs that help to pay our bills, Chris and I are back in the saddle. We’re writing outlines which is something neither of us ever enjoy but is at least something that it finally feels we’re getting fractionally better at. Also at the moment we’re working on a project with our friend Barry, a stand-up comic who is a delightfully chucklesome addition to our writing circle. Nevertheless it is an…

Recently my brother and I have been doing some filming on the highways, byways and shopping malls of our fair country. Even in London this is an activity which usually draws a casual glance and often provokes strangers to conversation. However we’ve noticed a change in what they’re talking about. In the past, when a stranger stopped us to ask about our filming they’d generally be asking about the subject matter. “Is this going to be on TV then?”, “Is…

Hey to everyone packing their bags for Edinburgh. Hopeless beast that I am I’m still struggling to remember that the film festival happens this week rather than in August. Though we have been asked to show some of our films at some event during the proper Edinburgh Festival which made me wonder if some rogue fringe film festival was about to spring up in the ground vacated… My brother Chris pays much more attention to the world and so he…

Tonight filmmaker Jim Owen is screening his short film “Can We Talk” in South London’s finest tucked away cinema, the Shortwave. I’ve managed to double book myself and so can’t make it however my newly bald brother is going and you should too because “Can We Talk” is an exceptionally funny movie that showcases Jim’s deliciously dry style… If you are going to go then here’s a link to Jim’s blog about his adventures in Sundance where the film received…

This is the follow on of the previous entry which, because of the way the internet works, is of course published below. I split them up to make it easier to digest and because they are clearly two halves of a single point so it’s up to you, you can either scroll drown and read the first one first or start here and do your own private version of Memento… Perhaps now the vanilla version of the NPA has crumbled…

I generally find January to the be slowest, longest, coldest month of the year. Whilst technically no longer than most others it usually seems to persist for half a year before finally succumbing to February. However this year it seems to have trotted past in a twinkle of snow storms and sleeplessness and already the Oscar nominations have been announced to my usual utter indifference. It’s all proof that I’m as busy as a monk in a plague. My brother…

I’m actually quite cynical about new technology. I think this stems from being a childhood science fiction fan and old enough to remember when everything new was a lie. I remember, at primary school, a day of lessons was once put aside so that the whole school could witness the demonstration of a new educational computer device which had recently been purchased at the cost of thousands. It had been on Blue Peter the previous week and almost as much…

I’ve spent the past six weeks locked in mortal combat with a screenplay that fought all the way. I’m proud, even if this is nowhere near as dramatic or impressive as the Kenyan farmer who recently survived three hours in the grip of a Python, a story where the distance of some four thousand miles enables me to feel strangely relieved that after being defeated, the snake in question evaded police capture and lives to squeeze another day. One of…

So anyway, my brother and I have finished a script for a feature film. (Start the applause.) And we delivered within in minutes of our deadline. (Increase the applause) So after four years we finally have a working draft! (Applause starts to falter… how long?) Though of course we still want to do another draft… (Applause stops. Sorry? What? Four years and you want another draft…) Or at least that’s what goes in my head when I try to explain…

Whilst I’m talking about nice things that have happened recently I should mention the “THINK-SHOOT-DISTRIBUTE” scheme, which is easily one of the nicest and all round best. Now in it’s fifth year TSD is a week long intensive seminar course designed form a massive kick up the arse for people like me who have reached a certain point with their filmmaking but now find it hard to take the next step. There may be a couple of raised eyebrows (and…