31/05/10 - Blaggit post-production update for the month of May!

So here's a progress update on the post-production work for Blaggit that's been going on throughout May. It's been great to see all the different elements of post-prod coming together at the same time; it's been a very busy few weeks but a very satisfying one! There's still plenty of work to be done on post-prod, but we're getting there...

Music Score - Phil Mountford has been busy composing the score, and I'm very happy with the results so far. Hearing an early version of the opening intro in particular was fantastic, the music really is adding to the character of the film.

Colour Grade - Pat Wintersgill has begun work on the colour grade, and I'm delighted to have him onboard the project. Pat has worked on loads of well known features, and I'm sure his experience as a gradist will help achieve the overall look of the film that I'm after.

Sound Design - My good friend Numan Khan has arguably the toughest job as sound designer for Blaggit. We recently completed all the ADR work with several key actors in the film, and Numan has been working tirelessly restoring the 2006 audio and cleaning the dialogues before starting the foley and design work.

I really can't stress how big a job Numan is undertaking, but I know he's doing a great job. Other than that, a few VFX shots remain to be completed, including the opening titles and a few subtitles.

PeteBlaggit.com is almost completed, so is the new trailer which I've been working on the past few weeks. Both the website and the trailer will be launched simultaneously once all post-production work is completed.

I'd like to say that this time next month the post-prod work will be finished, but I'm not hedging my bets. I'm extremely eager (and very impatient!) to get this film finished, but it'd be foolish to rush post-prod after taking four years to finish filming!

So we're not quite at the finishing line just yet, but we are getting very, very close!

29/04/10 - The last ever pick-up shots of Uri Poppolochovichski!!

Last week I celebrated my 29th birthday with shooting the last ever pick-up shots for Blaggit; which were literally a couple of cutaway shots of the character 'Uri Poppolochovichski'. These shots didn't quite work right in the November shoot, and although it's about 5 seconds of screen time, the shots are absolutely vital to the final scene in the film.

It was a great day and a fitting end to the saga of finishing the film that's gone on for close to 4 years. It did feel like a final send off, an end of an era if you will. I'll get the footage back from the labs next week, and barring any problems with these shots that will finally be a wrap on the film.

Post-production is gathering momentum after a couple of frustrating months; the VFX work is almost all complete, and work is just about underway (I promise!) for the music score, sound design and colour grade. I can't see this post-prod being completed until the end of May/start of June, but I've kind of given up predicting a completion date given that I wanted post-prod done by March this year!

The light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter though, and the Blaggit test screening will now be taking place in June, along with the launch of the official Blaggit website and new trailer.

10/04/10 - To Cannes, or not to Cannes? That is the question...

And the answer is most likely going to be a 'no'. The plan for this year was to have post-prod on Blaggit all finished and ready to launch at Cannes, but best laid plans and all that has forced me to re-think going to the south of France next month.

The fact is I don't know whether all the post-prod work will be finished in time, and I really don't want to rush the process. Plus I'll have several bills for the post-prod work coming my way in May, and financially the sensible thing to do would be to save myself the expensive trip.

Which is a shame, because it's 5 years since I took: 'The Boy...' to Cannes and that's where the Blaggit idea was born really - I remember having conversations with filmmaker friends about what a great film Blaggit could potentially be. So to go back there with Blaggit completed after 5 long years would have been a moment to savour, but alas, it's not to be I'm afraid. But I'm sure there will be lots of highlights on the festival circuit to come later on in the year.

My work on post-prod is pretty much complete now that we have a picture-lock, it's just a case of overseeing the music score, sound design, colour grade and VFX work. The post-prod phase is proving to be extremely frustrating, even more frustrating than the struggle to finish shooting the pic. Knowing that we are so close to the finishing line, but having to wait on others to complete their work is beyond torture!

Hence the lack of updates so far this month. But we're not that far away, and in the meantime I can concentrate on getting feedback on the final cut, including a test screening which I'm hoping to arrange for the start of May.

20/03/10 - Picture Lock on Blaggit - 94 minutes long!!!

So the new scenes from the November shoot have been edited (all looking really good as well) and I now have a picture lock on Blaggit with a running time of 94 minutes! It does feel really quite weird to see a full timeline of the film without any missing gaps for the first time ever.

I've watched the film through a few times and I'm quite satisfied with the pacing and don't feel the need to cut out any scenes, though I do intend to hold a few test screenings to complete strangers to get feedback from an audience perspective.

The picture lock edit will now be passed on to our respecitve music composer, sound designer and colourist and work can finally get underway on these post-production jobs. In the meantime I'm going to cut the new trailer and focus on Cannes and getting the film seen by the right people.

Exciting times!

14/03/10 - Editing, editing and yet more editing!

This past week I received the footage from the Blaggit November shoot after a lengthy delay with the telecine. It was a big relief to get the footage back and an even bigger relief to see all our hard work pay off over what was a tough 4 day shoot - all of the footage looks great; nicely exposed, in focus, no issues at all.

I'd like to thank our DOP Neil Johnson for stepping in at short notice and doing a stellar job under what was very difficult conditions. I'm now cracking on with the edit; this footage will end up being about 10-15 minutes of additional scenes once completed. I should have a final cut and picture lock within the next week or so, which means work can begin on the music score and sound design.

The delay with the telecine has pushed back the completion of Blaggit by about a month or so, but I'm confident it'll be done in time for Cannes. I'm also going to get to work on a new trailer as well, which we'll launch around May time too.

Almost done!

05/03/10 - Farewell to Mr. Booth!

I'd just like to bid a fond farewell to colleague and good friend James Booth, who is moving to Canada to begin a new life for himself. James has been a stalwart at Sepia Films since day one; he's helped out on all of my films going back to my short films in 2003, he's offered great feedback on all my scripts and he played a big part in the Blaggit casting sessions in 2006.

Not only that, but James designed the Blaggit poster and designed this website too, so I have a lot to thank him for! So thanks James for all your help over the years, and best of luck with the move - you lucky sod!!

02/03/10 - 'The Dream Courier' has arrived!

Back in November when I was prepping the final Blaggit shoot, I had a meeting with lead actor Rob Leetham to discuss the filming. During the meet Rob told me about a profound dream he had in which he had to deliver dreams to peoples' subconscious, and that the dream's theme could have potential for a possible film.

Well, the seed was planted and before too long ideas were forming in my head - I'm fascinated with lucid dreaming and synchronicities and everything Rob told me felt like it could be a great film. So I began work on the script in December and I've now completed yet another feature length script!

'The Dream Courier' is surprise, surprise a very dark and surreal film, a mix of psychological thrillers like: 'Jacob's Ladder' & 'The Machinist' and fun sci-fi flicks like: 'Eternal Sunshine…' and of course 'Back to the Future'. I had a blast writing the script; it deals with subjects I'm down with, features some very surreal but cool characters and has some awesome action sequences as well.

'The Dream Courier' is the 8th feature length script I've completed since 2003, and I feel I'm improving as a writer with each new project. This script is insanely ambitious with loads of visual effects, we'd need a decent sized budget and I'd imagine there would be a lot of green screen, wire work and stunt work involved, but nothing is impossible! It would be a very commercial movie as well, and I think it has bags of potential.

It feels like Blaggit 2.0 in many ways; has similar themes that Blaggit has but is on a much bigger scale. I now want to get some feedback on the 1st draft and see how it can be improved. When we'll get to make 'The Dream Courier' I have no idea, let's see how Blaggit does this year and where that takes us in 2011!

26/02/10 - Which Film Festivals are right for Blaggit?

So for a while now I've been carefully collating a list of festivals to submit Blaggit to, and it will soon be time to start submitting the film as it nears completion. The question is; which festivals are right for Blaggit? Which festivals should I definitely be submitting to, and which ones would be a total waste of time and money?

After researching fests via Withoutabox, Britfilms.com and Chris Jones' success with Gone Fishing, I've compiled four separate spreadsheets. Tier #1 spreadsheet features all the big accredited mainstream festivals/markets (Cannes, Toronto, AFM, Sundance etc).

Tier #2 spreadsheet features well known festivals that welcome micro-budget indie films (Raindance, Slamdance, etc), and these are the festivals I'll mostly be focusing on for Blaggit. Tier #3 and Tier #4 spreadsheets feature lesser known smaller festivals.

The other issue is finance; in a perfect world I'd submit Blaggit to every festival going, but the fact of the matter is I just can't afford the submission fees to do this. Most festivals submission fees are around £40-60 (depending on when you submit), but the bigger festivals are more towards the £80-90 region.

The frustrating factor is just not knowing whether Blaggit will have a chance of being selected at certain festivals. Take the Edinburgh Film Festival for example. That's a major UK film fest and one I should definitely be submitting Blaggit to (at a cost of £80). But how likely is it that Blaggit will be selected for Edinburgh? Looking at the films that screened there last year, they're all decent sized funded films with budgets of several million.

So would it be wiser to save a bit of money and submit to the London Independent Film Festival at a cost of £40 instead? Would Blaggit stand a better chance of being selected for that festival instead of Edinburgh? If you don't buy a ticket then you won't win the raffle, I guess. I'm really excited about getting Blaggit out there on the festival circuit throughout 2010; I just wish I could submit it to all the festivals on my list!

23/02/10 - Post-Production, Post-Production and yet more Post-Production!

Apologies for the lack of updates so far this year, but it's been a bit of a slow start to 2010 as post-production on Blaggit gets underway. The telecine work for the footage from the November shoot has only just being completed, and that's had a knock on effect for the completion of the music score work to some extent.

On the upside, ADR work with the main Blaggit cast has begun, and the sound design is just about ready to begin. Several VFX shots have also been completed, and I'm extremely giddy with the coolness of some of these shots - it really does elevate the film to a whole new level; very Donnie Darko-esque, that's all I'm saying for now!!

We also have a very experienced colour gradist helping us out, so all in all things are moving forward albeit incremently. Things should start to pick up when we get the November footage back, which should be by next week fingers crossed.

Stay tuned! Plenty more to come!

17/12/2009 - Blaggit - the plan for 2010!

This week I had a very productive meeting with our music composer for Blaggit; Phil Mountford. We went through the rough cut as it is at present and discussed at length each scene that requires music...we're using 'The Matrix' and 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' as our inspiration...can't wait to hear it!

The edit has been vastly improved as well - the new rough cut now stands at 81 minutes after I took a long hard look at the cut and decided to bin several scenes that weren't crucial to Pete's story - this cut is without the new footage however. Looking back on 2009 I feel very satisfied with how the year has panned out, I can honestly say I've done everything I possibly could have done to get Blaggit completed.

Now I'm focusing on the year ahead and doing everything I possibly can do to secure distribution for the film: my goal is to have a DVD copy of Blaggit in every HMV store by this time next year. Whether that's a realistic goal or not, that's the goal I have and that's what I'm going to set out to achieve.

First of all I have to cut the November footage as soon as I get the rushes back, which will be at the start of January. And once I'm happy with the final cut then it's all about the music score, the sound design (including ADR, foley etc), the colour grade and several VFX shots. My aim is to get Blaggit fully completed by the end of March, hopefully earlier. And then there's a new trailer to be finished, plus a Blaggit website...

Then my focus will turn to hitting the festival circuit: Cannes looks like a must, which would be apt considering it'll be 5 years since I was last there promoting my first feature: 'The Boy with a Thorn in His Side'. I have a festival list as long as my arm, which is mostly thanks to the brilliantly inspiring filmmaker Chris Jones, who published online his own festival planner spreadsheet for his extremely successful short film: 'Gone Fishing'. I highly recommend checking out Chris' blog if you're a filmmaker yourself.

Obviously I'll be contacting sales agents, distributors as well as going down the festival route, and at some point there will be a UK premiere as well, possibly in April. So there's absolutely loads to do next year, but I'm really excited to see the film nearing completion after 3 years of struggling to get it finished.

Have a very merry xmas and a productive 2010! Peace out x

07/12/2009 - And now for something completely different...

Back in April this year (when I was up to my neck in pre-production for Blaggit and rewriting Awakening) I heard a news story about a fir tree that was found growing inside a man's lung. This bizarre story immediately caught my creative attention, and within a matter of days I started work on creating a short film script using this story headline as the premise.

The result was a 19 page script entitled: 'The Tree Inside' - my first short film script since 2003. The script has fantastical surreal elements a plenty, and deals with philosophical, metaphysical themes about life, death, the universe etc. Think along films like Pan's Labyrinth, The Fountain, Big Fish. Here's some script feedback from a reader at Abbot Management:

"An original, topic, theme, and narrative all make this script fresh and exciting...there are few films which this script could be compared to directly, which gives room for it to become a majorly influential film for future generations...

...the script more imitates a sonnet, complete with a volta and the pace seems like a constant stream of consciousness, which adds the post modern quality to this already modern film...there is obvious talent and quality to this script..."

I would love to make this short but the reality is I won't be funding any of my films ever again after the Blaggit experience, which is why I've applied for Screen WM's Digishorts scheme to fund 'The Tree Inside'. If that happens, then great - would be awesome to make something completely new off the back of Blaggit and before getting the next feature off the ground.

But I'm not desperate to make this short next year - I'll have more than enough on my plate with securing distribution for Blaggit and doing the festival circuit. So, we'll see.

As well as 'The Tree Inside' I've also begun collaborating with Mr. Blaggit himself - actor Rob Leetham on a new feature length script. We're only in the early development stages but I've begun working on a treatment and it's an idea that I'm very, very excited about and feel has bags of potential. More news on that and 'The Tree Inside' in 2010, fingers crossed...

28/11/09 - Blaggit Videos & Photos galore!!

Here's a few goodies for ya from the recent Blaggit shoot a couple of weeks back - crew member Hardeep Mahal of WV Entertainment managed to film a few mini behind the scenes vids from the final day of the shoot, which you can watch here.

They were shot on an iphone so don't expect hi-def quality, but the little snippets do give a good insight of the fun we had on that day with the blank gunfiring and squibs and everything else!

Also, here are a good selection of production stills uploaded onto facebook here and here. Will definitely update Blaggit's photo gallery on this website soon - at the moment only 2006 stills are on the page.

Enjoy!

21/11/09 - Blaggit is officially WRAPPED!!!

After a frustrating spell of over 3 years, I'm delighted to say that Blaggit is finally wrapped! The final 4 day shoot last week was one of the most eventful and exhausting shoots I've ever been involved with...but we got every scene in the can, just about.

Just to give you a bit of an idea of how crazy the shoot was...on the Thursday morning of the 1st day of filming myself and another crew member were involved in a slight car smash that meant we had one less designated driver for the shoot...on the Friday heavy rain caused a last minute change of location which created more headaches...and on Saturday I had a cameo dressed in a chicken suit whilst one of our actors was stranded in Bilston...

The final day of shooting last Sunday however was one of the best days of filming I've ever had as a director. We were filming scenes involving gunfiring and squibs and I was absolutely buzzing with enerygy, I loved every minute of it. It gave me a timely reminder of why I wanted to be a filmmaker in the first place. Making films is supposed to be fun. It's not supposed to cause unwanted stress and pain.

After 3 years of being in a state of flux with Blaggit, not knowing when it would be completed and when the end would be in sight, I had forgotten that feeling of being on set and loving every minute of making a film I was passionate about. So it was an eventful, emotional, exhausting shoot - but in a funny way it reinvigorated me as a filmmaker. Monday morning sometime around 5am I sat in my house surrounded by equipment after the shoot, with a huge proud feeling of accomplishment that we'd finished the film.

The plan now is to get all of post-production completed by the end of March next year. I'll get the rushes back from this 4 day shoot before Christmas hopefully, which gives me about a month to concentrate on the music score and the sound design. And once completed next year it's all about festivals, promotion and getting the film out there as much as possible. It should be an exciting year.

Big thanks to everyone who helped out on the shoot. Blaggit is nearly finished. The home run is in sight. The light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter. The future looks bright.

07/11/09 - Killing off Pete Blaggit - the final shoot!

Yep, I can't quite believe it as well - but next week, after a period of over 3 years trying to finish this film, we're actually shooting the final last ever scenes for: 'Whatever Happened to Pete Blaggit'. It's going to be such a huge relief to get these final scenes in the can and I'm sure it'll be a strange mix of emotions when we wrap next Sunday.

We're shooting for 4 days from next Thursday and we have one hell of a tight schedule. It's going to be a very tough shoot - long hours, night shoots, minimal crew - but I'm really looking forward to it.

Pre-production has been an extremely busy time with plenty of trials & tribulations along the way - securing difficult locations with a small budget, recasting the roles of 'Boris' & 'Micky' and most importantly finding a competent DOP who can work fast with limitations. I'll be very happy when it's all out of the way to be honest - I'll report back in a couple of weeks - wish us luck, we're gonna need it!

17/10/09 - Online PR for Blaggit

Now that Blaggit is finally edging closer towards the finishing line, with the aim of completion in the first half of next year, I'm looking at what to do with the film once it's finished. Next year should be really interesting - I want to get the film out there, get it into festivals and to sales agents and distributors and do as much promotional work as possible.

And one of the best promotional tools for any filmmaker is the internet - it really is now the best way to get your film noticed by your target audience and to have an in built fan base ready for the release of the film. Social networking sites and popular film sites are the way to go, and here's how Blaggit is standing on these various sites:

Twitter - Yes, Blaggit has joined the world of Twitter, probably the most popular networking site of the moment, and a great way to reach new people and introduce them to your film. At the moment Blaggit only has about 60-ish followers, but it's early days yet.

Facebook - We have a Blaggit group page on facebook, but now the trend is to have a fan page instead, where you can add status updates and get the page noticed more by those following it. A Blaggit fan page will be launched next year.

MySpace - Blaggit has had a MySpace page for quite a while now, but recently I've been trying to increase it's profile by adding various festivals and media companies to it's friends list.

Youtube - Blaggit has a youtube channel, where all my other films can also be viewed.

Apart from the social networking sites, there will be an official Blaggit website at some point in the New Year. I want to make this website really fun and quirky with interactive options to really put across the character of Blaggit and the film for the audience. We have some very cool ideas for the website that I'm excited about, should be good.

Seperate from online PR, we have a few other uber cool PR ideas which I'm very giddy about. Plus we have a new trailer as well - the idea is to launch the new website simultaneously with the new trailer and these other PR ideas at the same time - possibly around April/May time next year.

The bottom line is I've spent over 3 years of my life making this film, and now I want to give it the best send off I can as I try and get it distributed and seen globally. Distribution is the ultimate aim, and in these tough economic times self-distribtion for small indie films is growing more and more popular, so that maybe an option we look into as well.

But before I can plan ahead on the PR work for the film, my first and only real priority right now is getting the final block of filming completed next month - the prep work is going quite well, we still have a few things to sort out but with just under a month until the shoot, things are looking good - will update on how this is all going soon.

05/10/09 - New Blaggit Trailer on the way

With Blaggit finally edging closer towards completion - the aim is to have post-production completed by March next year, I've begun tentatively working on a new Blaggit trailer.

The main criticism with the original trailer was that it seemed like a trailer for two altogether different movies - ie a light hearted comedy and a surreal sci-fi flick, and that it lacked clarity in getting across what exactly happens in the movie.

So the aim with the new trailer is to really get across the narrative of the film as clearly and succinctly as possible - ie Pete is a rude and angry wedding videographer who gets abducted by aliens and discovers time travel in the process to sort out his messed up life.

I also want to make the new trailer no longer than 90 seconds long and make it very punchy and funny and straightforward - basically I want to cut the best possible trailer I can for the film. I don't plan on unleashing the trailer any earlier than March next year, when all being well we'll have a completed feature on our hands to show to everyone.

06/09/09 - Storyboards for November

Work has begun on what will be the final block of filming for Blaggit, which has now been pushed back to November due to finances. At the moment it's all about scheduling, budgeting, sorting out dates, locations etc.

Although it's only a 4 day shoot in November, we are shooting some complicated action scenes for what will be the climactic final third of the film. So I've started storyboarding these crucial scenes and I'm using a free trial of FrameForge 3D Studio to make life easier in creating the storyboards.

I can't recommend this software highly enough; it allows you to be extremely precise with your shot decisions, which will be a massive help when the November shoot comes around.

15/08/09 - Rough cut of Blaggit has a running time of 103 minutes!!

So with all the footage from the May shoot of Blaggit now edited, the timeline of the movie is looking very full indeed, so much so that for the first time I can watch the film in nearly all of it's entirety and get a good feel for pace and see what's working and what needs more work.

First of all, the one thing I'm most happy with in the film is our lead actor Rob Leetham, who gives an absolutely virtuoso performance as not only hapless Pete Blaggit but as the mysterious Russian waiter Uri Poppolochovichski (!). The new footage could/should have been better, but thanks to Rob's performance these new scenes do seemlessly fit in with the old footage from 2006 (at least with a good colour grade they will!).

As for the pacing of the film, I think the first half definitely needs more work. The first half is essentially a day in the life of a wedding that Blaggit royally screws up, and while this sets up Pete's character, it does feel as if it drags in places and could do with tightening up.

The film really does shift up a couple of gears at around the half an hour mark, when Pete suffers his first alien rape and his friends start to question his sanity. The entire concept of the film takes on something of a paradigm shift and it becomes a different beast altogether, and it'll be interesting to see how this goes down with audiences, but I dig it!

The final third of the movie is where we still have several scenes yet to shoot, so this part is a bit sketchy at present. All in all I'm quietly pleased with the film, though it is only about 80% completed. So what's next on the Blaggit agenda? Well, I want to get as much post-production work done over the coming months - work on the colour grade, sound design and the music score will commence soon, with a view to getting this work finished as much as possible by October.

I'm really excited about collaborating with our music composer Phil Mountford on the score, which will definitely give the film an added dimension. And plans are underway to shoot a couple of days of pick-up scenes in October. I really want to get all the remaining scenes shot before the end of the year, but whether that happens or not is another thing due to cost. So there's lots of work still to be done, but the film is finally coming together nicely!

14/08/09 - New draft of: 'The Gateway' script completed!

After the Blaggit shoot at the end of May I had a bit of much deserved time off from the project, and throughout June & July I used this time to get to work on a new draft of: 'The Gateway' script. I finished this new draft by the end of July and I'm quite pleased with the results - this script is something of a passion project of mine and one which I really want to make into a film in the not too distant future.

I plan on making: 'The Gateway' after the completion of both 'Blaggit' and 'Awakening' so it's likely to be several years before this film gets made, but I feel it's important as a filmmaker to have a number of projects in development so you're not just a one trick pony.

I've sent the new draft out to several filmmaker friends, and I've already got some very solid critical feedback from a British filmmaker who has his own ambitious film coming out in theatres before the end of the year. I've been developing this script since 2007 and I intent to keep on chipping away at it between now and whenever it is cameras roll on the project.

27/07/09 - Blaggit Footage from May shoot

Last week I received the film footage from the 2 week pick shoot we did back in May for Blaggit, after the telecine was completed. Although some of the important dialogue scenes are looking fine, there are technical problems with several other scenes - this is hugely disappointing considering all the hard work everybody put into the shoot.

These technical problems might be salvagable though with the help of a good colour gradist, so all might not be lost and it might not be as bad as it sounds. I'll be spending the next few weeks editing the new scenes, and will report back once completed.

09/07/09 - 'The Boy with a Thorn in His Side' now on youtube!!!

To celebrate the fact that Sepia Films turned 5 years old this week, I've finally got round to uploading our first feature: 'The Boy with a Thorn in His Side' onto youtube!

5 years after making the film, it's easy to look back at it now and see all it's faults and mistakes and it is very rough around the edges. But despite that the film does have a certain charm and I do have a fondness for it. Watching bits of it this week, I was surprised at just how laugh out loud funny it is in a lot of places.

You can watch Part 1 of the film here, and follow the links for the other following parts.

06/07/09 - Five year Anniversary of Sepia Films Ltd!

It's hard to believe but Sepia Films ltd was officially incorporated by Companies House on this day back in 2004 - meaning we're 5 years old today!!!

It's been an exciting journey so far with plenty of highs and lows, and two feature films in the space of five years isn't bad going. I'd like to thank everyone who's supported me and my films over the years - here's to the next 5 years!

29/05/09 - Block 2 of Blaggit shoot done!

Well, the Blaggit shoot for May is done and dusted! Block 2 of the Blaggit shoot lasted for 4 days from last Wednesday to Saturday, and we wrapped in the early hours of Sunday. It was on the whole a very fun, positive shoot and again I'm delighted with what we shot and to finally get these scenes in the can after such a long time.

We now have about 2-3 days of filming left, and then that's a wrap for Blaggit! We won't be able to shoot these scenes until September due to the availability of our main actor, but that gives me time to edit the new scenes and plan on the final block of filming.

A massive heartfelt thank you to all involved! Facebook photos of Block 2 is here, here and here. Hopefully we'll get the best photos on the website at some point as well.

13/05/09 - Block 1 of Blaggit shoot done!

So, we've finally started shooting Blaggit again and I have to say I'm very happy with what we've shot so far. We filmed for five days last week/weekend and there were no disasters or serious problems - in fact, everything went really well and we didn't drop any scenes at all, which is great.

It was tiring and hard work and there was lots of running around from one location to another, but it felt great to get behind the camera and to direct again, we had a small but hard working crew and everyone put in a great effort. If you're on facebook then you can view some photos of the shoot here.

We now have another five days of filming to do next week/weekend, so there's lots to organise before then. Will update how that goes at the end of the month!

The Blag Man is definitely back!

25/04/09 - The Return of Pete Blaggit - May 2009!!!

Well, it's finally happening folks - after a near 3 year hiatus, we are actually going to be shooting Pete Blaggit once again next month. I've been busy these past few months prepping the upcoming shoot, and I'm happy to say that everything is pretty much in place - we have locations, props, crew, production insurance - all that remains is to purchase film stock and the Blaggit wig!

It does feel weird to be shooting again after the difficulties we've faced these past few years, but I'm really excited about the upcoming shoot. We're filming for around 11 days in a little under two weeks' time from now - I will update in May with news on how the shoot goes.

Wish us luck!

13/04/09 - Short films now online!

I've finally got round to the task of uploading all my short films online. I made these short films back in 2003 (six years ago?!!?!) when I first got into filmmaking, and although a little rough around the edges, I am still quite proud and fond of them.

I've also uploaded 'Pipe Dreams' which is a short documentary film that I made in 2002, and was the first film I ever directed. Click on the links to watch Pipe Dreams, The Money Tree, Death by Chocolate, Blind Man Freddy and My Necrophiliac Bride.

Happy Easter!

08/04/09 - 'Awakening' script-development completed

I've recently completed my Screen WM funded script-development for 'Awakening' which I've been working on since February. The process of working with a script editor and developing the story has been hugely beneficial for me as a writer.

The script has evolved quite a lot; the story is more focused, the plot is more streamlined and the characters have been rounded out considerably. I think we now have a very strong script on our hands, and I'm looking forward to making the film - which we plan to do in 2010 after the completion of Blaggit this year.

18/03/09 - Behind the Scenes of Blaggit - Creature Effects video!

One of the highlights for me from the first Blaggit shoot was the great work that special effects artist Charlie Bluett did in creating the Blaggit 'Werelion' and 'Tin Man' effects.

We did manage to shoot some behind the scenes of Charlie at work - showing the whole process from the designs to the head casts and the final results. You can view the making of video here.

13/03/09 - Blaggit Update!

So over the past couple of months I've begun prepping the remaining shoot for Blaggit, and this time it looks like it really is going to happen after several thousand false starts!! We're shooting for around 10 days over two separate weeks in May, so there's a little under two months until cameras roll on the production again after a space of nearly three years!!!

There's lots and lots to organise - I've been working on the schedule, sorting out equipment, finding crew members for the shoot, getting props together etc. We're working on an extremely tight budget and I now have to get several locations confirmed asap. Will update the site with how everything develops between now and May!

07/03/09 - Awakening script development begins

Since the start of February I've been working closely with a script editor on 'Awakening', and I've found the process so far to be very rewarding. This is the first time I've worked with a script editor and I've learnt a lot in terms of scrutinising your story, focusing on the characters' motivations/intentions in each scene, and really getting to the heart of the matter of what you're trying to say in your story.

I've had several meetings with the editor and we've exchanged script notes and I'm just about ready to start work on the first re-draft of the script. I'm aiming to have this first re-draft finished by the end of March, and the following re-draft finished by the end of April. Along with the prep work on Blaggit (more on which soon) I'm going to be quite busy over the next few months!

11/02/09 - Over 70 minutes of Blaggit now completed!

So over the past couple of weeks I've been editing the new Blaggit footage, and I have to say I'm very, very happy with the results! The new scenes are just excellent - there are some lengthy and important scenes, and the whole movie is now coming together very nicely indeed!

We have just over 30 minutes of new scenes, and together with the existing scenes that means we have just over 70 minutes completed - so we're getting closer! Editing these scenes has really revitalised my passion for the film, and it's now full steam ahead to getting it all finished within the coming months! There's plenty to do, so will let you know how it all goes as we prep the remaining scenes we have to shoot.

Real progress, finally!!!

24/01/09 - New Blaggit Footage!

Well 2009 has started very positively for Sepia Films - I've finally managed to get the telecine completed for the last set of rushes for Pete Blaggit. There was just over 20 camera rolls that needed to be transferred to tape, and because of financial difficulties over the past few years, it's only now that I've been able to afford this service.

So I have the footage back and it all looks great - I'm now editing the new scenes, which will keep me busy over the next few weeks. Seeing this footage after all this time has definitely given me the extra incentive and motivation to get this film finished this year!