Time Machine Tour by Darren Hayes

I was delighted to be invited to the production rehearsals of Darren Hayes' Time Machine Tour last night where I took the photo above. It's just kicking off tonight in Glasgow and is heading around the UK.

The ex-Savage Garden singer has put together an incredible performance. Great music, great dancing and what a voice ?! Don't miss the fantastic laser and light show, as well as watching the story of the concept of The Time Machine unfold. A great production and a talented performer.

See UKGigs.TV for details of where he's performing over the next two weeks.

Planning for success

Day 2 at the Microschool.

As you may know by now, I'm on the Film London assessment workshops which is called "Microschool", where four of the final ten selected films will be chosen next Monday and given a guaranteed screening on BBC and a 'micro' budget of £100,000.

Yesterday the writers and directors were split up from the producers in order to perform some of the scenes from the screenplays with professional actors. Additionally the scripts were critiqued by industry experts. Most writers looked a little brain-frazzled by the end of the day as they were given challenges of reducing characters and locations to reduce the budgets even further. What is the film about ? Who is it about ? Why should I care ? Were the focussed questions which demanded instant answers.

Meanwhile, I joined the other Producers for some exciting indepth presentations on the legal aspects, copyright and my favourite, insurance. Lovely. It's a real minefield as you can imagine but fortunately Film London provide all the forms and paperwork in a nice little pack if we are "greenlit". We also had a session with a top line producer who gave some hints and tips around scheduling the film and budgetting.

In the evening, we had arranged to meet David O'Donnell (pictured), from Cage Rage. We are looking to work with one of the fight organisations, as two of the key scenes include one of our hapless characters having to fight in Wembley Arena to save his mum from the bad guys.

When we met David he was in the middle of a conversation with Wolfman, of TV's Gladiator fame. A quick introduction and both of them were interested. Wolfman in a cameo role seemed like a possible option and getting access to the fight cage before and after the big night was seen as easy to provide. We left with an understanding that we have the option to work together if that big green light comes on for us on Monday.

Exciting times. The pieces of the jigsaw are falling into place nicely. Still a long way to go and six projects will be unsuccessful. Nevertheless, it's all good fun.


Douglas

Microschool - Serendipity leads the way

It's all happening.

Serendipity leads the way.

Dishad and I met for a coffee beforehand and we came up with some final suggestions on what we were going to say about the film. "It's a fast paced action comedy featuring three underdogs and their attempts to be successful".

We headed to the Shoreditch Town Hall but we couldn't find it and stopped next to an equally lost guy looking at a map who asked us for directions to the same place. He was the Sales Agent giving a pitch at today's session. A quick introduction and I realised that he was also from Glasgow. The first great connection of the day.

We eventually found the building on the opposite side of the road from where we were looking. I had brought my camera so we stopped outside to do a little piece to camera showing our first day excitement.

The Chairman of Film London, Sandy Lieberson made a surprise visit to talk about the pitch that we've to give next Monday. He headed up 20th Century Fox productions and launched the Star Wars films, among others. He opened up his talk by asking the audience to tell him about their film - "It's a fast paced action comedy featuring three underdogs and their attempts to be successful", I offered and he said that it was a more powerful pitch than others. Nice feedback.

The rest of the day went well, and finished with the screening of two of last years selections which are now in post-production. Shifty and Mum & Dad. Shifty looked interesting and reminded me of Sweet Sixteen with drug culture being at its core but this time based in Essex. Mum & Dad is a horror and this one shocked the entire audience and left me with a horrible feeling. Why audiences want to watch people being brutally murdered, I just don't know, but there's a market for it and it was well filmed.

Back home I caught up with my brother for a drink in the local and we ended up chatting to two of the cast of Life On Mars (pictured) who were filming a new series Ashes to Ashes locally. I told them about Microschool but as it was a low budget I couldn't afford highly paid actors. They said they would love to be part of the film for a low fee and also offered to come to the premiere. Nice.

Finally, I noticed in yesterday's newspaper that the cage fighting in Wembley Arena, which is core to the story of Little India and where we intend to film, is on this Saturday !! Two tickets bought.

What a day.


Douglas

UKFilm.TV - Angelina Jolie

64th Annual Venice Film Festival

The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford

Premiere - Day 5

Angelina Jolie wearing Bvlgari.

See the film trailer with husband Brad Pitt at http://www.ukfilm.tv

Firing on all cylinders

Do you find that when you are in a creative frame of mind, that ideas connect and present themselves in front of your very eyes ?

This morning I received some emails about film financing and low budget filmmaking which Raindance are holding in the coming weeks. By 9:30, I had booked two courses, paid for them by paypal and submitted MAKING IT IN HOLLYWOOD into Raindance Film Festival !

Tomorrow is the deadline so I had to make a quick decision but it was made easier because I had done all the preparatory work on WITHOUTABOX.com for the Cannes Film Festival. All the press release information, production notes, stills from the film, credits, synopsis and other relevant information were completed last month, so it was one click to submit, and another to pay $42.

Easy when you know how, but if you'd said in February that this year I'd be submitting a film to Cannes and Raindance, I would've looked at you very confused and had no idea where to start looking. The power of the Internet delivers yet again.

I'm off to the launch of 4Talent tonight at Channel 4's offices in Horseferry Road tonight. I'll blog a picture or two tonight if I can.


Douglas

Making It In Hollywood - The Red Carpet Walk

Making It In Hollywood (Trailer)

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