Monsters & Rabbits Trailer from nicky lianos on Vimeo.

Written by me and directed by the very talented director and brilliant thrower of Halloween parties, Nicky Lianos.And do check out her spiffy new website.

Happy Halloween! (for Yesterday)

From now on, Rachel and I shall always dress like this.
Thanks to Rachel's make-up skills we won a prize at the party we went to. It was a tiny skull with a Titanic sailor's hat on (the 1912 seafaring tragedy being the shindig's light-hearted theme). It looked like the severed head of our skeletal offspring, which was nice.

Flippin' 'Eck, Pogo!

A thank you to Jez Freedman for putting up a link to Phil Redmond's Huw Wheldon lecture on the future of childrens and young peoples' TV. LINK

Whilst I obviously defer to Mr Redmond on his knowledge of how TV operates (he did create Grange Hill, Brookside and Hollyoaks)I'm not sure his solution -merge C4 and the BBC- is the right answer, but with online viewing throwing old notions of 'branded' TV and 'appointment to view' out the window, then maybe something this radical is called for.

They interviewed HIM?

Sheridan Cleland over at the very useful and regularly updated site myPDFscripts.com has put up a bit of a chat with me, complete with an alarmingly large photo of my head (I thought it was going to be postage stamp sized as on this blog). While I can only apologise for the loss of 'hits' caused by people suddenly encountering my face and clicking away in revulsion, I really enjoyed answering his questions and hope I don't come over as a know-it-all.
While having written one low budget feature, which didn't really get a full theatrical release, hardly makes me an expert, I hope there's something of use in there for anyone interested in writing their first feature.

The Inevitable Scene...

In every horror movie/thriller set in the present day...or the last 15 years...or come to think of it, the near future. LINK (and hats off to the mighty SFX for flagging it up.

Not sure whether it can be classified as a cliche as it's not so much a hackneyed trope as something a scriptwriter will have to deal with n the least groanworthy way possible. Lets face it people suddenly becoming incompetent and dropping or breaking their only means of communication is a bit crap and the selective blackspot thing only works if you really are in the middle of nowhere (and easier to swallow in the vastness of the Utah desert than the Lake District).

30 Days Of Night deals with it brilliantly. The scene's right at the beginning so a) you don't have any nagging doubts about why they don't call for help b) they're in the middle of FREAKIN' ALASKA! and C) It's part of the monster's agenda rather than bad luck/stupidity on the part of those poor folk in parkas.

Oh- and it's my birthday. Got a fantastic haul: The Lives Of Others, Batman: Mask Of The Phantasm (From the superb Dini/Timm animated series era- accept no substitutes) Groundhog Day, stacks of PG Wodehouse books, tickets to a great play- and of course, Ped Egg. It's the new Mandle Candle, I tell's ya*.

* When Is A candle more than a candle? When it's a portal into the 9th circle of hell.

Can You Save Her?

Intriguing stuff from Splendid director Dan Turner and James Moran (Torchwood, Dr Who- heck, quite a lot of stuff). LINK

I for one will be standing by my internet on Oct 30, awaiting whatever their twisted minds have produced.

Lions and Zombies and Brains Oh My!

Just thought I'd flag up my very talented lady's latest threadless submission.

When she isn't storyboarding Gene Hunt squealing about in his Audi Quatro she likes designing cool stuff like this- and if it gets enough positive comments and ratings threadless print them.
So get to it!