“Zero” was my first full-on proper film script – I then went away and wrote two more feature length scripts (both horror) - before returning to this project to inject everything I'd learned since last working on it. It centres on a group of city-kid graduates who head off to the countryside for a long weekend holiday and what they get up to while they’re there. It's a sweet-natured, dialogue-focussed ensemble 'Generation Y' comedy, with an attitude somewhere between Adventureland and The Inbetweeners. One of the main intentions for this script was to write something that, ideally, would be shot in an exclusively local fashion to specifically provide work and experience for local budding filmmakers and actors, for a low amount of money. Currently touting this around to try and gain interest in getting it made.
“From The Inside Out” was inspired by an 18 month-long skirmish I had with “chronic urticaria”, which was brought on by cheap and aggressive foreign clothing dye. It resulted in persistent itching, skin rashes, and swollen lips – and it was this experience which I decided to distil through the horror genre and turn into a script designed to fit in with the revival of low budget British horror cinema. I'd love to be able to shoot this with a low budget British indie horror mentality in a local fashion, in a rural area, employing as many locally sourced creative talents as possible.
“Leak” is a short script that I put together in response to an advert by a UK production company (I forget the name now) that was looking for scripts with two characters, set in one room, and two pages long. It was inspired by my despair at the UK government’s handling of embarrassing situations and information of its own making, and I suspect because of the tone it wasn’t chosen to be made. I have since re-written it and it’s still sitting there on the shelf … one day maybe.
“The End” – was a short script that I wrote after fellow zombie fans started asking ‘what would be your ideal opening to a zombie movie’. I got so into the idea that I drafted the short script – I liked the idea so much that I adapted it into “Signing Off”, which I then filmed in 2008. Then I sent the short original version to a fellow filmmaking friend, who really dug it and said I should draft a full length version. I have a habit of taking suggestions such as these and getting really hot and bothered about them. This became my most ambitious (and complex) script at that point, and took a number of weeks to fully plan out (there was 25 pages) and then about three months to write (it ended up at 130 pages). The full length version is my very own zombie epic – what I would love to see as a zombie movie, and indeed that was part of the purpose during planning – what had I not seen in zombie movies. That was the guiding light for this epic script, which I am very proud of. I would naturally like to return to this project at some point in the future to re-write it, utilising the skills, ideas and approaches I have learned since I originally wrote it.
“Gen Y” was one of the first feature length scripts that I had ever written. It is all about a group of university students staring down the barrel of their time at uni coming to an end. It was based on some of my own experiences at university, but was – now that I look back on it – primarily a cathartic writing experience for myself. It allowed me to draw a line under my time at uni and move on … plus, being an early script, it wasn’t especially organised like it should have been.
“Penalty” was an idea I came up with after I had submitted “Decay” to the Nokia Shorts competition – it would have made a nifty little 15 second comedy short, but it never got filmed.
“I Am Zombie Man 3: The Inevitable Decomposition of Zombie Man” is the closer to the Zombie Man series, the original idea being to shoot it during the Christmas holidays of 2007. Unfortunately busy schedules and other things happening in life got in the way. It is designed to be a sequel, but also a short film that can stand alone comfortably. Has since been made.
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