27 October, 2006

Interlude 1:-

Recently I have managed to bump into 2 well known comic artists, funny what you find in comic shops.

Few weeks ago I met David Lloyd (V for Vendetta) and had a really long chat about everything, he's a really nice bloke but is having a hard time getting his new graphic novel Kickback promoted. The publisher, Dark Horse, had not done much with it and he's having to run around waving at people, not good for such a talented guy so I said I'd mention it as he doesn't have a web site. Of course only about 2 people read this blog, but its a start.

Second artist I met was Mike Collins (Rouge Trooper, Dr Who Magazine) he had just came up to Aberdeen to visit the local comic shop and sell some artwork, which was ace - very good original Dr Who and x-men stuff, nice. Didn't buy any of course as I'm a cheapskate but it was nice to see. He'd just seen the preview of new Dr Who spin off, Torchwood, and was pretty excited about it as its filmed near his place in Cardiff. After seeing it I must agree that it does look like a nice place, may have to go down there some day. I chucked him a copy of The Planet on DVD as he's a big SF buff, so I hope he likes it and shows RTD (Am I deluded? what do I mean "am I"?)

Just thought I'd have a little fanboy-et rant before getting onto film stuff again, which I will be rather soon as we now have budgets for 2 films. Now we are making a feature length remake of one of our old shorts, Removals, it will have Scott Ironside and Patrick Wight (The Planet) in the lead roles and hopefully be finished before Christmas. Its a good opportunity to use the new equipment and get the team together, it will be interesting I'm sure.

Off now to buy an old van and beat it up, doesn't get more fun than this.

12 October, 2006

New Developments

Now that we've got the premieres, signings, cuddly toys out of the way it straight onto the next production. No hanging around with this bunch.

Due to the extraordinary good fortune of finding a generous benefactor in the person of Ken fraser (a well known figure in the UK oil industry) Stirton Productions now has a good 6 figure budget and a new HD edit suite/ camera system. Mark Stirton, the director and CEO of Stirton Productions has entered into a partnership with Ken's new enterprise, Cannyfilms Partnership Ltd. and the team (Mark, Kerwin Robertson and me) are full on with the latest movie - a dark comedy/drama set in Aberdeen with Patrick Wight and Scott Ironside from "the Planet", in the lead roles.

Last week we took possession of the editing and camera equipment, locking it all away in the new facility Mark has had created for the venture. It took about 3 hours to unload and catalogue the equipment, and 10 minutes to get Mark out of a steadycam rig that we had put on him the wrong way round (who reads manuals?). I won't dribble on about all the equipment, but the Mac Pro computer is well smart - like a huge 2 terabyte cheese grater. The other main thing of note, the Canon XL-H1 is just as sexy as I don't know what, yes, we went 1080i and not for a progressive system. I'll just sit back and wait for the hate mail from digital film makers now for that.

Mark, who is now getting his head round Final Cut Studio is also mostly finished the script for the film, which is handy as I have to get costings for all the props and costumes soon. Part of the design work for the film, and the main part, involves the creation of large scale Viking longboats; hey, I've built a space pod from a water tank - how difficult can 2 boats be? That along with the hospital and police office set is going to keep me busy for the next few months, no CG fakery for this film - oh bollocks!

Here's a link to the new Canon camera, it's ace.

http://www.usa.canon.com/app/html/XLH1/ultimate_hd_camcorder.shtml

More to continue soon when I have something to show.