17/12/07 - Pete Blaggit Appreciation Society group now on Facebook!

Yep, you read correctly, the: 'Whatever Happened to Pete Blaggit' Appreciation Society group is now up and running on facebook. If you're a member of facebook, then you can join the group here.

The film will be finished next year, and that's a promise.

Merry Xmas y'all, see you in 2008.

03/12/07 - First Draft of new script: 'The Gateway' finished!

Since the start of September I've been writing yet another script, and I'm pleased to say that I've just recently completed the first draft of: 'The Gateway'. It's very hard to categorize 'The Gateway' into one particular genre - it's a drama, but not a straightout drama, it has supernatural elements, but isn't a horror story. I guess it's a mix between a good Stephen King novel and 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind'. But as I say, it's not a horror movie and it doesn't involve any aliens!

Either way, I'm very excited with the script and look forward to receiving feedback from a few chosen colleagues soon. During the Blaggit hiatus, I'm trying to develop a number of feature film projects - so far I have the Illuminati trilogy and now The Gateway, so I'm going to be very busy in the future! Things are progressing with Blaggit (I know that's what I've been saying over the past year, but trust me - things are happening!) and the concept artwork for The Illuminati is looking very cool, so there's lots going on at the moment.

04/11/07 - Concept Artwork for: 'The Illuminati' really is underway!

Having spent a year or two trying to find concept artists to work on: 'The Illuminati' and failing miserably, I'm very excited to announce that I've finally found a fantastic local artist onboard who has begun work in earnest! The artist is very talented and has already started a few sketches for the 'Lizard Men' who'll play a key part in the films.

The sketches are looking fantastic, and it's great to at last be making some progess in the development stages of this project. Hopefully next year I'll set up a seperate website for the Illuminati, where I'll be able to put online the artwork for all to see.

17/10/07 - Blaggit Sound Design update & other news.

I'm very happy to report that the work on the Blaggit audio is coming along nicely. Our sound designer has spent the past few weeks cleaning up the dialogue, and the film is now sounding a hell of a lot better. We still need to spend a few more weeks working on the foley and sound mixing. Hopefully there shouldn't be alot of adr work, which is a relief.

It's good to know that there is some progress being made during this hiatus with the film, and hopefully the Blaggit hiatus will be coming to an end in the near future. I'm still chasing the money men, and let's just say that things are finally moving in the right direction. So I think we're looking to shoot in the first half of next year to get the film in the can. No point in rushing, we have to plan carefully and make sure the rest of the film matches what we've already shot.

Although the Blaggit hiatus has been incredibly frustrating, it has allowed me to develop other projects that I have, mostly my: 'The Illuminati' trilogy. I've also begun writing the first draft of a new script the past month, I'm 30 odd pages into it and I'm really excited about it. So the big plan for next year is to finish Blaggit and shoot a concept trailer for: 'The Illuminati'. More news as and when it happens!

05/10/07 - Sound Design work on Pete Blaggit begins.

The sound design is finally underway on Pete Blaggit, having found a very talented local sound designer. Work will begin on foley, adr, dialogue editing and I'm sure that'll make a big difference to the film.

27/08/07 - Whatever Happened to a Pete Blaggit update?!

Apologies for the lack of updates on Pete Blaggit the past couple of months. We've been focused on sourcing private investors to fund the rest of the shoot and this has been a long drawn out process. Obviously this has been a bit of a frustrating time in trying to finish the film, and I still can't say for definite when we will be shooting the remaing scenes.

What I can say for definite is that I remain 100% commited in getting Pete Blaggit in the can, whether that's this year or next year. As I say it's been frustrating and this year has been something of a limbo period for myself and the film, but we'll get there eventually. Of course I'll keep you posted with any developments as and when they happen.

06/08/07 - Wolverhampton Politics Show - podcast available for download.

Last Friday I was invited as a guest on the Wolverhampton Politics Show, which is a new local radio show presented by Matthew Revell. There were two political activists on the show as well debating issues such as local flooding and the smoking ban - I was interviewed half an hour into the show to discuss my filmmaking career and what support there is for young upcoming filmmakers. You can listen to the podcast here.

19/07/07 - Blind Man Freddy screening @ MAC Theatre.

Just to let you know that one of my short films: 'Blind Man Freddy' is being screened at the MAC Theatre in Edgbaston, Birmingham next Thursday 26th July at 7.30pm. The screening is part of the monthly Screen Test competition that's held at the MAC, where audience members vote on a series of short films made by local filmmakers.

07/07/07 - First Draft of: 'The Illuminati Part 3' completed.

This week I finished the first draft of: 'The Illuminati Part 3'. I've been writing it non stop the past couple of months, and I'm really pleased with it considering it's only a First Draft - it's a really good conclusion to the story and the characters, and it's great to say I've written a trilogy of scripts. The next stage is to actually make the films! Obviously this will take alot of time and money, but I feel quite motivated and determined.

I have a few ideas in place, and I'll be developing the project this year and try to raise finance next year. I'm tempted to shoot a concept trailer as well to help secure finance, and I've been working on a 5 page script for this as well. Rest assured, Pete Blaggit remains top of my agenda - I'm currentlly purchasing several props off ebay for the rest of the shoot!

16/06/07 - Blaggit prep work underway.

The last couple of weeks I've been doing lots of preparation work for the second block of filming for Pete Blaggit. The production schedule and the budget for the 11 day shoot is in place, and I'm now lining up a few location recces. My storyboards are also coming along rather well and I can actually see the whole film taking shape now, which is a nice feeling. No confirmed dates yet, but we're probably talking 2-4 months away from the shoot.

29/05/07 - The Illuminati Part 3 script news.

Since mid March I've been writing the first draft of 'The Illuminati: Part 3' script when I've had the chance. I'm now 40 odd pages into the draft and I'm really enjoying the writing process - I'm eager to get the trilogy all on paper so we can start developing the project further once 'Pete Blaggit' is finished. I've also written a 15 page treatment of a new script which I'll be writing next - as usual it's very Mark Jeavons - surreal, weird, bizarre, funny etc.

25/05/07 - Blaggit Update!

There's been a few developments on the Blaggit front recently, mostly creative work. I had a good meeting with our sound designer yesterday who's going to begin sound effects work on some key scenes. And I'm about to begin storyboarding the remaining scenes that we have to shoot. Location scouting will also be on the agenda soon, so alot of prep work will be out of the way for the rest of the shoot - more on which soon.

10/05/07 - Update & new FilmShed Interview online.

Apologies for the lack of any updates throughout April, our website was down for a couple of weeks due to domain hosting problems but all is resolved now. Throughout April we were busy sending out countless Pete Blaggit Press Kit dvds to UK & international sales agents/distributors and we've had some positive reactions to the footage so far.

There's also a new interview online with myself which I did with FilmShed. I did an interview with FilmShed a few years back to promote 'Boy with a Thorn' and in this new interview I discuss moving onto Pete Blaggit. You can read the interview here.

27/03/07 - BBC Online Feature on Pete Blaggit trailer.

We've been busy promoting the Pete Blaggit trailer since it appeared on Youtube at the end of the week. The response and feedback so far has been really, really positive and has given us fresh impetous to get the film completed. BBC Online have done another nice little feature about the film, which you can read here.

23/03/07 - Official Pete Blaggit trailer online @ Youtube!

The official trailer for: 'Whatever Happened to Pete Blaggit' is now online at youtube. Producing the trailer has been an event of it's own - work commenced on the original edit back in November and it went through numerous edits, but I'm very happy with the final product. I think our music composer Phil Mountford has done a fantastic job as well, and was instrumental in the structuring of the trailer. You can view the trailer here.

17/03/07 - Pete Blaggit joins MySpace!

Yep, you read correctly. Find out what the Blag man has to say for himself here.

22/02/07 - Concept Artwork for: 'The Illuminati' Trilogy underway.

A few weeks back I had a meeting with a local artist who's begun concept artwork for our future project: 'The Illuminati' trilogy. Originally, the plan was to produce a graphic novel (which is an idea I'm still very keen to do) but we've decided to concentrate on concept artwork to help support getting the movie made in the future.

Altogether we have four artists working on the concept artwork, and the sketches I've seen so far looks amazing. The artists will be working on the artwork throughout the year, ready to support our launch to get the trilogy off the ground next year. But for 2007, our focus is to complete 'Pete Blaggit' - and there should be good news on this project in the next couple of months.

15/02/07 - Another Blaggit update - expect trailer & website in March.

Last week I had a really good meeting with our music composer; Phil Mountford, who has been busy scoring the Blaggit trailer. It's all sounding and looking great, I'm taking my time on the trailer as obviously we want it to be as strong as possible. Expect the trailer online in March, along with the official Blaggit website.

On the funding front, this week I've started a business consultancy programme to help further our investment chances, and that's been very intense but has been going really well. The earliest we can expect funding will be May, so we won't be filming the remaining shoot until June at the earliest, August at the latest. I know it sounds like a really long, drawn out process getting Blaggit finished, but trust me, it'll be worth the wait.

01/02/07 - BBC Online Feature now online.

Last week I was invited to take part in a BBC Online interview with journalist Chris Osborne. The feature is now online and is very funny and tongue in cheek, and details my progression as a filmmaker and making 'Pete Blaggit'. You can read the feature here.

30/01/07 - Fuji Film Magazine feature on 'Pete Blaggit' now online.

Back in December, Fuji Film magazine published a two page feature on 'Pete Blaggit', and the article has now appeared online. In the article, our DOP Charlie Stanfield is interviewed and he discusses the visual style we went for when shooting Blaggit, including the new Fuji film stock we used and what advantages that gave us. The article is in PDF format, and you can view it here.

25/01/07 - The Illuminati Part 2 script and Blaggit Update.

Since October I've been working on the first draft of: 'The Illuminati: Part 2' script in my spare time, and the draft is now finished. It's easily the most ambitious script I've ever written and will take a long time and a lot of money to make, but hopefully we'll shoot it sometime before 2012 ;-)

First of all though is the completion of 'Pete Blaggit' which is our main priority. Throughout January I've been in the process of applying for completion funding, and things are looking positive on this front, fingers crossed I should have some good news soon. The plan is to get the remaining two weeks of filming shot before May, in time for a short break at the Cannes Film Festival.