This weekend I had a great directing job – STAR WARS! Yes, I know! Actually it was at the Star Wars show, but we got to shoot little movies with people in costume and on set, who on minutes earlier, were in the crowd of onlookers. It was more theatre than movie, for sure, but […]
OK – Here is a brief update as to where we are at with Gone Fishing. From this point onward, we plan to make regular updates to this page, but for now, here is a potted history of how we got here, to July 12th 2007. Back in May, Marc Samuelson from Samuelson Productions, read […]
Finally, the funding proposals for ‘Gone Fishing’ have arrived from the printers. In the next few days we are going to be approaching everyone we know to help out and get involved. We will almost certainly be contacting you too! And if we don’t know you, but you are interested, you can contact us at […]
Now that the three part Total Film Articles, written by team Living Spirit, are no longer on the shelves, we have uploaded the whole lot to our website. That’s 26 Pages of starter tips and hints for making your first short film. It’s a 12mb PDF download and you can get it here… Onward and […]
Out of the blue, I got a call from the publishers of The Movie Blueprint – they are shifting printers and have lost the digital files for the cover. So I seized the opportunity to redesign the cover, adding some of the quotes we got from reviews. I also thought, ‘I wonder if anyone has […]
I am working on the screenplay for Rocketboy today, and going over my notes from the reading last weekend. Two further things have since struck me. I can’t express just how valuable it was to hear my dialogue read out loud. It really does take on a new life – on the page and in […]
I am just putting the final touches to my investment proposal for my short film, ‘Gone Fishing’, before I send it off to the printers tomorrow. It’s a fairly bold and unusual way of funding the movie, but I am hopeful that it will pay off. We are making up a full colour folded A4 […]
Yesterday we did an actors read-through for Rocketboy – organised by my good friend, casting director Cathy Arton, it was a long but revealing and emotionally overwhelming day. At Ealing studios, around 15 actors of all ages, sat in a large circle and performed the script. One actor read the ‘narration’ (descriptions and slug lines) […]
I have been researching into private rocketry for Rocketboy and saw a wonderful doc about Burt Rattan and his SpaceShipOne, and how he won the $10m X prize. This was a privately funded group of dedicated experts who built the first private spaceship, got it into space and then brought it, and it’s passengers back […]
Another breakthrough filmmaker is using YouTube as a viable way to market their film online. For the past week, YouTube has been playing Four Eyed Monsters, the first feature ever to have been shown on there for free. Four Eyed Monsters is essentially about two outsiders coming together and finding true love-without speaking to each […]
I got my first set of notes on the screenplay for Rocketboy, from Marc Samuelson today. I suspect this is an amalgamation of thoughts from himself, associate producer Jessica Parker and a number of readers. It’s five pages in length and very detailed. I was somewhat overwhelmed by the incisive, detailed and empathetic content of […]
The third and final part of Team Living Spirit’s series on how to make a film is out now and deals with the post production process, from editing and sound to getting a deal, going to film festivals and even self distribution. We hope you have enjoyed this three part guide to just getting on […]
So I have come back from a brief break to find, at the airport, part two of team Living Spirit’s How To Make A Movie in Total Film Magazine. This one deals with the actual making of the movie, where the last was about the concept and script. You can download the first couple of […]
As many of you will know, I have spent many years working on a project called Rocketboy – and yesterday we had the best meeting yet with a very serious possible producer who just loved it. This has kicked me into MASSIVE ACTION, which is a terrific feeling. Already I have knuckled down and penned […]
Last week I had a spectacular disk crash on my main computer. Thank god I am someone who is anal about backing up my data, and with some wailing and gnashing of teeth, I was up and running within a day. We all know computers crash, but we always think it will be someone else’s. […]
The first part of our three part ‘How To Make A Movie Feature’ for UK Film Mag TOTAL FILM is now out. A full eight pages of starter tips from Team Living Spirit! Here is one little chunk from this first part… GET A CAREER PLAN Most people don’t think beyond the movie they’re making […]
So here it is, the update from my friend Jonny Newman on his trip to LA after his short film success ‘Foster’… “You wait for the call for years. When i got it, my phone was switched off. It was Peter Farrelly (of the Farrelly Brothers) telling me he loved my film and wanted to […]
I am working on my film Rocketboy with concept artist, Matt Allsopp, and have again been struck by much impact large colourful and imaginative images from the story can have. We are talking to film companies and we often get ‘WOW, let’s do a meeting…’ after they see it. But the biggest impact comes with […]
I just wanted to tip you off about a really good company and deal I found. I have been making DVD’s for various projects and have, until now, printed out the DVD slips on my colour printer. On a one off basis it’s great, but do ten or more and with the printing time, trimming, […]
The Guerilla Film Makers Masterclass that we just held was a tremendous success, with 17 attendees leaving with clear visions of what to do next, as well as being empowered and enthused! Delegates flew in from Nigeria, India and Spain, as well as from the UK. Here are some comments… ‘Excellent presentation. My journey all […]
Driving down my high street yesterday I noticed a Prime Video Store was closing down. Another stark reminder of the huge changes the film and TV business is going through. Other distributors tell me that Blockbuster are likely to be gone within a year – you can already see they are trying to diversify by […]
I wrote a three part feature for UK based film magazine Total Film, about how to make your first movie. I built in a few lessons and I thought I would share one with you here, about getting stuff for free or reduced. If you are not great at negotiating, it’s a great exercise to […]
I spent the weekend with my good friend Simon Cox, at a science fiction convention in Birmingham called Memorabilia, selling my books and his movie on DVD, ‘Written In Blood’, signed by him of course. It was an intense two days, but very rewarding, not least because I sold some books, but also because I […]
I am just helping a good friend of mine complete his fourth feature film, Summer Scars, shot on DVCProHD Vericam. It looks terrific and it’s now a very tight drama, but two things have resonated while working through these final technical stages. First, Julian, the director, has worked his way through three editors in order […]
Pitching is something I don’t fully enjoy, but when it goes well, I love it. I have been pitching my movie ‘Rocketboy’ around town this week and I have been using some new simple techniques I heard about from a professional negotiator. Here it is – ‘shut up’. I ask a question, ‘so tell me […]
