January is almost over

January just shot by, unbelievable, yet it still bore fruits, not many, but at least a few that are worth mentioning.

Shooter was selected to screen in the USA, this time at the Delray Beach Film Festival in March, and I really want to make the effort to go there. Basil will also be in the area at the time, which would work out just like the Palm Springs trip, it means we can hook up and get some meetings in with each other to help support.

Fixed the 2nd burst water pipe in the cottage after our big freeze, and guess what, it is to freeze again, so I turned the water off in the street until spring pops it's head up. It's OK, I don't live in the house yet.

'Shooter; is in Official Selection at the Deep Fried Film Festival in the summer, I am so happy that the film has been accepted into its 3rd Scottish festival, lets hope for a result.

Joe Henry is hear for the next few days as we cut the 'Unsigned Legends' project. It was shot in Ireland on New Years eve, on a Sony EX1, and he supplied me with the stock, which has not been reduced, so everything is at a stop until the footage is reduced to work on my system, looking forward to getting creative and doing something special with it.

Mum has been performing again, so pleased for her, as it is slowly building her confidence again, and by the sounds of it she is building a new fan base for her material in Pitlochry, good on you Mum.

So I have updated the poster for Shooter again, and looking forward to more results coming through in the next couple of months.

Shooting in slow motion today

Ok, some of you will be saying,'How can you shoot in slow motion?'
The system I use, captures directly to the on-board memory of the camera, then after a moment, it then writes that information to tape, it can only capture 6 second bursts, but if you plan well in advance, the shots can be spectacular.

Today we were in the woods above Helensburgh, and we filmed a dummy missile shooting out of a rocket launcher, zipping along a thin wire and giving us some magic moments to record on film, if you go to this link, you can follow our progress with Peter Montgomery's feature film, 'The Blood'.

These two dodgy looking chaps in the pictures are Peter Montgomery and Paul Hunter, and as usual we are out in all weathers to get the shots needed to finish the project. Off to post-production, looking forward to the cut.

Now I am home and toasty again, time for a feed.

Moving on

This morning, I took my finger out and started the house moving process.

I called the planning guy, then found an architect, planned a trip up north tomorrow morning to view the cottage and start the drawing and planning process.

Went to the hardware store and started an account, now we are talking, this means I can start ordering materials for the house just as soon as the building warrant has been passed. Got the gutter parts for Mums house as the weight of the snow ripped them all down, and dropped into Peter Montgomery for a quick Photo shop tutorial, for him.

The car has a new starter motor and tyres, it is back up to new again, nice to know that your car is in good order, needs a good clean though, the salt does not do it any favours.

Working with the progress of 'Shooter' is always on my mind, and often takes priority over the other things that I do, but so much has to be done, and all in this new year, like I said, I have taken my finger out and I am on a mission.

Ok, so it's 2010

And we are definitely experiencing the coldest winter in decades, and about time too. For once in my life I have felt it in my bones, that the world is functioning properly and that what we are being fed by the media, is not as it seems. Maybe this is just an extra cold winter, but in my book, it spells out that the world is good.

So, with my wee rant out of the way, we get down to what is happening this year.

After the quite spell of the festive season, I had a number of rejections from film festivals, I was starting to loose momentum with 'Shooter', then this morning I got an email from The Delray Beach Film Festival in Florida, saying, Congratulations, 'Shooter' has gained Official Selection. Suddenly all is forgotten about the last 3 months of not a lot happening. Very Happy Chappy.

Happy New Year

Snow

Spent Christmas with the family in the North, the snow was deep, the food was great and the company was the best.

However, there was still work to do, the horses needed more attention than usual, with all the water supplies, bar one, totally frozen, meant moving water by hand and quad bike to all the drinking places on the estate, and in the freezing conditions, I could feel the sting on my face as we moved water around the glen. It gave me rosy cheeks.

I then took the opportunity to shoot a little film, and compile some of the shots into a little 3 Min short.

When we got back to Pitlochery, the snow was still deep, but the roads were black and drivable, at least until the next morning, I woke to see the biggest snow flakes fluttering past the street light outside, and soon my car was completely buried, stuck again.

It is good to see a proper winter again, makes me wonder what all the media hype about global warming is really all about, that's for another day I suppose.

Looking forward to seeing the New Year in, all is good.

Looking forward

Christmas and the new year are here, and spending time with family is paramount this year, more than before. After loosing my father last February, my little family are going to go through there first Christmas without him, this is going to be a trying time for us.

Keeping positive, I reckon, is the only way to deal with this Christmas. We will be looking forward to the New Year.

I am moving to Killin, taking a few months to renovate my new cottage, I am looking forward to designing my new work space and cosy house.

My sister will be very busy with the Highland pony mothers to be on the estate, and Mum will be keeping herself involved with her new friends in Pitlochery.

Once the move is complete, I will then be generating the funds to make my new film, 'The Rape Fields of Findo Gask', check out the teaser tester experimental trailer.
I have been planing it for some time now, and with the success of 'Shooter', I have not been able to shoot any of the new film yet, and as I plan on shooting most of it in the Highlands, Killin should prove to be a good base to start.

The special effects of 'Shooter'

When building the short film, I really had to tap into all my resources.

With one actor, Paul Hunter, who also wrote some of the script from a different perspective. I placed him in a blue screen studio, and shot him doing many different things with a rifle, then I was able to composite him into scenes that I shot with him in, in the highlands.

I also wanted to incorporate jets into my flying sequences, and that involved learning how to model in a 3d environment, and animate the finished pieces in a live action sequence of the film, it took a lot of time, but looks amazing

I tried many different voices for the piece, using American, Canadian and English accents for the narrative, I finally decided to stick with my own voice for the film, as it seemed to be more relevant to the piece and delivered the passion that I wanted

After 7 months I felt I had the pre-viz that I needed to develop the film further, It was at this point that I decided to place it before an audience, to see if the story worked. It went down very well, and there were no criticisms to note, so I decided to put it into a couple of festivals.

'Shooter' was accepted to screen at the short film corner in Cannes back in May 2009, but with my lack of experience, I would say I should have waited till the following year for Cannes, as the film had nothing to help push it.

Then it was The Heart of England International Film Festival, where Paul and I attended. We were blown away when Shooter was called out as the best short film, what a buzz. We met some amazing people there and still enjoy keeping up with there stories of how there films are doing.

That's when I decided to enter a few more festivals, some of which I thought may have been too big for our little film, but what do you know, we were then invited to screen at the prestigious Palm Spring Short Film Festival, where we were screened with some of the best short films on the planet. For me, it was as good as winning, just to be there.

Since then we have won in Ireland and South Africa, with other screenings planned for the new year.

The video diaries can be viewed above or at www.youtube.com/Studiorondo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z9EebmbDNo