FWOAN Festivals Update...

Just a quick bit of festival-related news for our short film "For Want Of A Nail" while our producer Ali has been busy working on a feature film.

Mental Health Arts and Film Festival (Semi-Finalist, 2018)

Los Angeles FEEDBACK Female Film Festival (2018)

LAFFFF brings up the issue of women in film, and in the case of FWOAN in addition to Ali, our producer who captained the ship from the get-go, we had women - chosen on merit or previous working relationships - filling the roles of: Director, Actors (both supporting roles were female), Director of Photography, Art Director, Assistant to the Art Director, 2nd Assistant Director, Costume Supervisor, Catering (two), Make-Up Artist, as well as our contacts at the charities OCD Action and Mind, and last but not least our Runner/Art Dept Assistant who was one of three young adults who were on-set gaining valuable work experience.

Return to "Vengeance"...

The last time I worked on "A Sideline In Vengeance" (a conspiracy thriller screenplay) was over a year ago. Naturally, in that time I've been doing a lot of writing - what with For Want Of A Nail (currently in the editing stage - and I've seen the rough cut), as well as Murder at the Grindhouse (out of which I've also crafted a 'TV pilot' screenplay in the last few weeks).

When you come back to something you wrote a while back you invariably find new changes to make. When I last set eyes on the script I had no further ideas on how to work it - I'd gone as far as I could at that point in time. Now, though, it's a different story. I've got a list of tweaks I want to make - but first: the red pen comes out!

Where once was cleanly printed pages, now lies a wash of red ink (sometimes it's nice to be able to refer back to to editing process in this 'analogue' way, something which you lose when editing a document ... this way you get to see your mental process around your writing). I'm picking my way through the script line-by-line making initial changes and generally hacking out dialogue that I thought was necessary at the time, but now no longer need. It'll be interesting to see what happens to the page count when I apply all of these initial 'red pen on the paper' changes and cuts. More on this as-and-when...

So begins the editing process...

After leaving "Murder at the Grindhouse" to 'age in the drawer' for a couple of months I've gone back to it in the last couple of weeks to start the first round of tweaking. Rather than going straight to the computer I've opted to go a bit old school - pen on the page...

Naturally, the majority of the pages now look like an explosion of colour (far more than the above) with new passages written long hand in an accompanying notebook. It's nice to actually apply the changes with a good old fashioned pen, and you get to give your edits their own tweaking - if that makes sense. If you just slap the changes on the document straight away it might be a bit too rushed and you could miss further opportunities to make improvements. Anyway, next up is actually applying those changes to the document itself!

Flavours of the Month: March 2017...

Dirty coppers, saucy times in Venice, and antics around San Francisco are some of what's been setting the tone of my March 2017...

Click "READ MORE" below to see this month's looks, sounds, vibes & flavours...

The writing has begun...

Writing on my new book has begun. The title of it is: Murder at the Grindhouse. It's a coming-of-age murder mystery with a darkly comic tone set during the 1980s on New York's 42nd Street - aka "The Deuce" - between 7th and 8th Avenues (and the surrounding environs). This was movie paradise for cinema goers at the time who wanted unusual, outlandish fare to go along with their mainstream silver screen delights. It was a fascinating time and place to learn about as a movie fan and so I felt it was a great place to set a story.

Thus far I'm up to about 15,600 18,500 words deep* - no idea how long it'll all end up being as there's quite a way to go yet - but I'm off to a good start. It always takes a bit of getting going when you kick off a new writing project before you start feeling the groove, and this is quite a detailed project in many ways - detail oriented - hence the sheer volume of research and story prep that's gone into it.

This is going to be a fun little project...

*Updated on the 23rd.

"A Sideline In Vengeance" update #6...

Quick update on "A Sideline In Vengeance", my conspiracy thriller screenplay: just the other day it made it through to the Quarter Finals (feature category) of the Shore Scripts 2016 competition ... which is nice (to use a random quote from The Fast Show).

The Quarter Finals represents the Top 6% of entries, and this year has seen the largest number of entries in the competition's history.

You can see the list here:
http://www.shorescripts.com/2016s-quarter-finalists/

"For Want of a Nail" - a bit of news...

Just a quick post to say that "For Want of a Nail" - which started out as a short story, but which I then adapted into a short screenplay - has made the shortlist for a script competition. Lovely stuff!

For more information on the story itself go HERE and scroll down.

"A Sideline In Vengeance" update #5...

So, here we are, the best part of two months since the last update post on "A Sideline In Vengeance" - and the script is complete! It clocks in at 100 pages (ooh, what a lovely round number).

These last few weeks I have been going back and forth, skimming around the script tweaking specific scenes or characters, or elements of the plotting and overall story, as well as going through it from the first to last page seeking out little changes and improvements to make...

Click "READ MORE" below to continue reading...

"A Sideline In Vengeance" - update #4...

It's been a while since the last update (which was at the arse end of January), but here we are: another draft was completed towards the end of February, and now I'm cracking on with the next draft.

Just a few changes ... *ahem* ...

At this point it's all about small tweaks, nitty gritty details, and generally an awful lot of fettling and fiddling about. I love this point in the journey of writing - you've got a solid script a few drafts in and finally you can focus on all the small details that add extra layers and provide little details that flesh out the story, characters, and scenes even further...

Click "READ MORE" below to see the rest of this post...

Flavours of the Month: January 2016...

Hobbits, exploitation flicks, and a brand new screenplay - just a couple of this month's flavours...

Click "READ MORE" below for January 2016's looks, sounds, vibes & flavours...

"A Sideline In Vengeance" - update #3...

A quick update: Today I reached the end of Act II - on page 72. It's currently at a 'Draft 1.5' stage, as I made a few ad hoc tweaks along the way as-and-when they popped into my head or I stumbled upon something in my notes I had forgotten about.

Next up I shall go through all of Act II and make some changes. It's also a good way to get several days worth of writing straightened out in your head within a much more compressed time frame in advance of starting work on the following act.

I'm happy to say that it's coming together nicely!

"A Sideline In Vengeance" is off to a good start...

A quick update on the screenwriting front: Four days into the process and already I've got the first act done - and tweaked into a third draft for good measure.

So things are off to a good start - hopefully this vibe continues! Thus far I'm pleased with how the scenes are coming out, I'm able to navigate (with the help of numbered record cards for clear reference) the myriad of hand-written pages of notes from December (which laid out all the characters, their journeys, and the overall plot), and I'm still feeling good about the whole endeavour.

Next week I'll be heading into the belly of the beast - Act II.

"A Sideline In Vengeance" is underway...

After getting the bulk of the planning done during December (and a little bit of last minute tinkering in the first few days of 2016), I've started writing my new screenplay called "A Sideline In Vengeance".

It's a conspiracy thriller inspired by some dark and twisted stories that have been hitting the headlines in the UK over the last couple of years...

Click "READ MORE" below to continue...

"How Mr Snuffles III and Others Met Their Maker"...

I had a sudden spark of inspiration a couple of weeks ago, and so, instead of getting stuck in to some deep planning on my next screenplay (working title of "A Sideline In Vengeance"), I've found myself bashing away at "How Mr Snuffles III and Others Met Their Maker" - a dark comedy set in the Celebrityville universe.

Initially I was thinking of it as a short story, but - being that I'm now 5,000 words deep with plenty of ground left to cover - it's looking likely that it'll extend into 'novelette' territory. What's a novelette? A story that's between 7,500 and 17,500 words (at which point a 'novella' takes over, up to the 'novel' crossover line of 40,000 words)...

Click "READ MORE" below to continue reading...

Update to an old DVD review...

Just a quick post to say that I've given one of my earlier reviews (from September 2011) a bit of a tidy up and included some screenshots.

To see the updated review of Shout Factory's "Women In Cages" Roger Corman's Cult Classics Triple Feature DVD collection (The Big Doll House / Women In Cages / The Big Bird Cage) click HERE.

"Celebrityville" marches forth...

I got a little bit done before Christmas ... then all the usual festivities got in the way ... drinks, chocolate, presents, chocolate, roast dinners, chocolate, you know how it goes.

Then I caught a stinking, foul cold which dragged on for days. I was pretty floored by it but, eventually, it passed and I was able to get back to the twisted world of "Celebrityville" - and I'm now two thirds of the way through it...

Click "READ MORE" below to continue the update...

"Celebrityville" update 22/12/2014...

After a few delays - such as having surgery to remove my gallbladder - I've finally been getting underway with "Celebrityville". First of all I got cracking with the short story ("The Great and The Good") that will tie-in to the main narrative (and accompany it in the book), but now I'm well underway with the primary text...

Click "READ MORE" below to continue the update...

"Celebrityville" is getting there...

Planning out "Celebrityville" (my second book) is coming along very nicely indeed. Today, after a few weeks away due to another project I was working on, I finalised the layout of the story. The break was good though, as I could spread out the index cards for all the major beats of the story (something I talked about in an earlier post) and see it all with a fresh pair of eyes. I plugged a few plot holes and motivation gaps, so the events and pacing of the story is locked-in. Next up I'll be doing a rough map of each chapter (where it starts, where it ends, the basic beats of what happens when, and who says what to whom and why) ... and then it'll be time to getting my fingertips waggling.

Click "READ MORE" below for a teasy little tease...

Flavours of the Month: May 2014...

LOOKS:

Twin Peaks - finishing off season two. There were about eight episodes after the reveal of Laura Palmer's killer where the show went off the rails and didn't have a new main story and threat to pick up the ball. Various subplots and side stories didn't really work, so for those iffy episodes only parts of them are working. It stopped being strange, it got safe and even a bit plain. That said, in the last few episodes it swung right back up again and found the groove for a grand finale. Good news too about the imminent release of 90 minutes worth of deleted scenes from Fire Walk With Me.

South Park Season 13, 14 and 15 - when South Park hits a home run, it really goes all out, but then you end up (unfairly) expecting every episode to be like the one where the Internet goes down, or the Facebook episode, or the World of Warcraft episode etc. However, watching these episodes for a second time on their own terms really frees them of any first-watch expectations you originally had. What was a tad underwhelming the first time becomes a rather good run of episodes with some forgotten gems hidden away.

Click "READ MORE" below for the other looks, sounds, vibes & flavours of my May 2014...

"Sleb" update...

I've reached the end of the story!

80,301 words.

I edit as I write, so I've essentially completed the story while also sitting at third draft standard. Next up is to go right back to page one and re-read the whole book and tidy up the earlier chapters to help the flow fit-in better with the mid-to-late sections once I had found my groove.

There's a few specific things I want to insert here and there as well, and then there'll be some final tweaks, so it'll be as a fifth or sixth draft once things are done (in addition to the several drafts the story underwent in screenplay form).

Click "READ MORE" below to continue the update...