Story up

I've got Simon to post one story up, will post the next one when it comes back from the tutor..marked. I hope people recognise the main character, and would appreciate feedback.

Final pieces submitted!

We were rather last minute (or I was, at least) but we've finally handed in our final coursework for the Creative Writing: Science Fiction and Fantasy course that we've been doing for the last twelve-or-so weeks. It was thoroughly enjoyable throughout and I look forward to hopefully meeting up with members of the group again in the near future. With luck we'll be putting together a little anthology book of all our stories, too, which will be a nifty memento.

I'll have my final story - 'The Detective and the Robot' - up on the site ASAP. It's an expanded and massively reworked version of 'The Detective', though goes off on a considerably different tack. I believe Nadia is also planning to put her stuff online, but I'll let her write about that (if she ever bothers to write another post!!).

Meanwhile, we're investigating going to Bruges in August. Wee!

Looming deadlines and writer's block

Back at university, entire semesters would go past with hardly any work to do, then we'd suddenly find ourselves deluged by multiple coursework projects, all to hand in the same week, leading to a manic final dash to get everything ready.

Other than occasionally strenuous FXhome release deadlines, I haven't had to worry about that kind of thing for years. Just recently, however, I've ended up in a similar situation, what with work busier than ever, my film-related work more active than it has been for yonks and, of course, our Creative Writing course that we're doing up at UEA.

Typically, a whole bunch of deadlines once again converged, the most troublesome of which has been the final piece for the Creative Writing course. My plan had been to take the Detective character from The Detective (see stories on the right!) and spin him out into a slightly longer tale. Easier said than done, especially given that my head has been focused on entirely different characters for the past few weeks.

This has proven to be more of a problem than normal. The whole point of the 1st person narrative in the Detective stories is to try something I don't normally do, and write from the point of view of a rather extreme, unpleasant character, in 1st person, while also playing with all kinds of noirish cliches. All well and good, but leaving Keila and Kamran behind in order to write in the voice of the grouchy, robotist detective was difficult. If only I'd chosen to write in good, old fashioned, easy peasy 3rd person perspective!

Ah well. I've finally got a hook into the story, so will have it finished by this time tomorrow, ready to hand in on Tuesday. Nothing like last minute!

Funky film work

Back in the day, I used to make films. They weren't particularly good but they were great fun to put together. More importantly, they taught me a lot about what not to do. Unfortunately, just as I felt like I was grasping what was necessary to make something decent, I finished uni, got a job and found myself with precious little time to direct.

Fast forward a few years and I've found myself working on quite a few productions, here and there. I've stepped back from the directing ambitions to work on other areas - specifically writing and effects, two areas that spin naturally out of my work at FXhome.

I've just this second finished fixing up the English translation subtitles for NightCast, a Swiss action movie (a rare thing!) directed by my good friend Marco von Moos. Marco, of course, is the inimitable Sollthar from the FXhome.com community. I've also been doing some writing with Ashley Wing, director of Between the Lines, who is working on some very exciting future projects.

That's the nifty thing about working at FXhome - you get to meet a real variety of filmmakers from all over the world and get to be a part of their work, even if only in a tiny way.

Talking of work, this week proved rather entertaining as we did a quick greenscreen shoot in order to have some new promo material, for which we actually employed the services of a model for the first time - that's right, it's not going to be me in every single damn video! Our giant new greenscreen courtesy of the chaps over at Tubetape.com really helped out, so for once compositing should be smooth and easy!

Sounds like Nadia's just got back, so time to sign off. Until next time. :)

Completion!

No, not of my novel, Evinden, but of a film script I've been working on for a fair few weeks now. Rather a long slog, and it's still only a first draft, but at last the entire thing is down on paper. As usual with everything I write, it's far too long and will require some judicious snipping. I knew it was going to come out far too long even as I was writing it but decided to complete it before delving into editing, so as to better discern the overall structure and pacing.

In other news, we're off up to UEA this evening for a 90s Reunion. Nadia's friend Emma is up for the weekend and there's going to be a whole gaggle of people converging on Norwich - Malone's coming up from Cornwall with Clem, for a start. Should be a good evening - will try to get some good pics!

What is a patriot?

I was reading an issue of Amazing Spider-Man last night and unexpectedly stumbled across a rather nifty definition of what it means to be a patriot, written by Mr Mark Twain. I quote:

In a republic, who is 'the country'?

Is it the government which is for the moment in the saddle? Why, the government is merely a temporary servant; it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn't. Its function is to obey orders, not originate them.

Who, then, is 'the country'? Is it the newspaper? Is it the pulpit? Why, these are mere parts of the country, not the whole of it; they have not command, they have only their little share in the command.

In a monarchy, the king and his family are the country; in a republic, it is the common voice of the people. Each of you, for himself, by himself and on his own responsibility, must speak.

It is a solemn and weighty responsibility, and not lightly to be flung aside at the bullying of pulpit, press or government, or the empty catchphrases of politicians. Each must decide for himself alone what is right and what is wrong, and which course is patriotic and which isn't. You cannot shirk this and be a man.

To decide it against your convictions is to be an unqualified and inexcusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let men label you as they may.

If you alone of all the nation shall decide one way, and that way be the right way according to your convictions of the right, you have done your duty by yourself and by your country. Hold up your head. You have nothing to be ashamed of."

A few stories more!

I've added links to a few more recent short stories I've written. Most of these are literally 10-minute jobs written as exercises for the creative writing course we're on at the moment and are tests of style/character/POV etc.

Next up is to write the final 1500 word piece for the course - a horrendously small word count! My final piece is going to be based on the character from 'The Detective', probably with a mixture of plots from the two Detective stories I've put up so far, plus some extra bits and pieces.

Meanwhile, Evinden is coming along nicely. I've nearly finished the second part, at which point I'll be creating a new 'work print' for selected people to peruse. The story is really hotting up now, with the characters' journeys well underway and (hopefully) avoiding (or fiddling with) the usual cliches!

I'm also writing a new short film script, details of which I'm not at liberty to disclose at this point. The project will be announced in due course, at which point I'll be able to reveal some info. :)

There's also a bunch of other filmy stuff going on at the moment, particularly with the Axis of Evil guys. As it happens, I'm seeing them tomorrow for an afternoon of extreme puppetry at the Norwich Arts Centre - should be good!