Thursday, December 15, 2011

Star Wars -Trench Run

The only arcade game I truly enjoyed over and over again was the early 1980's Star Wars vector graphics 'sit-in' trench run game. It was a simple shoot and dodge game that just got harder and harder rather than moving on to multiple and varied scenarios. For years I hoped they would re-release the game with photo realistic graphics. It often appeared as one level in a more complex game but not as a singular game itself ...until now!

I recently discovered an i-Phone app called Trench Run. It is everything I ever dreamed of and even better I can play it anywhere. If you purchase the add-on you can also play it on a huge HD tv connected to your computer and use your i-Phone purely as a controller. How cool is that!? Try it out yourself at StarWars.com or view the trailer below.


Friday, December 09, 2011

What is a director?

Directors UK have just relaunched themselves and apart from now having to pay a yearly subscription, it is a much more exciting organisation, being more than just a collection agency. Unfortunately apart from a BBC short film I was comissioned to direct, that I doubt will ever get repeated, none of my other directing work has been televised or been released at the cinema, therfore they have nothing to collect for me yet. Until they do, I think I'll opt out of the subscription, but here's a quick reminder of what a director does.

Sunday, December 04, 2011

Final Design for the Voydarkatron

What an incredible beast. It's a huge bulk of a monster and I can't believe he was created from just three living creatures on this planet - a slug, a rhino and an elephant. The concept artist James Law, has done an incredible job and I'm now officially his number one fan. So much so that I have asked him to help me design the film poster for when we head to Cannes. Can't wait to see the results.

The Voydarkatron - A seven foot beast that roams the forests of Minoitaniga and feeds on imagination.

Saturday, December 03, 2011

2nd cut completed.

Henry's curiosity gets the better of him.

We had a screening of the first cut for Jo Nolan, the Executive Producer at Screen South. It was at my house so I had to tidy up a bit, get rid of the baby parafanalia, brew a nice pot of tea and purchase some posh biscuits. I should have presented the film on a state of the art 52 inch plasma widescreen TV, but all I had was a 13 inch Macbook Pro laptop placed on the dining room table, still it did the job.

I think she was pleased with what she saw, though it's difficult to tell as I was sitting behind her at the bottom of the stairs. The main feedback I got back was basically to speed up the uncle's world once Henry had invaded. It was actually the best kind of feedback you can get, which is feedback that you actually understand and agree with.

The film without rolling end credits was coming in at 22:36, but most short film festivals prefer films to be under 20 minutes. So using little pockets of spare time between working and family commitments, I managed to cut out over 4 minutes in just a few days and I have to say, most of it is looking better for it. I'm pretty confident what is going to be in the final cut now, but I have to wait for the VFX team to build and animate the Voydarkatron before I continue.


Henry attempts to make friends with Raygo Rattlegum.