Tuesday 21 December 2010

Discover Shakespeare's Stratford Upon Avon - Receiving Fantastic Feedback

My new film, "Discover Shakespeare's Stratford Upon Avon" has been given a massive thumbs up from people who have bought copies. I have sold quite a few on Stratford Market, even in this horrendous cold weather.

Here is the trailer:


href="http://www.discoverwarwickshire.com/">www.discoverwarwickshire.com

Saturday 16 October 2010

Alpha Star Films Wins Prestigious Award

Great news! My company, Alpha Star Films has just won the Godiva Award for "Best Business Innovation" for my film, Discover Warwickshire.

This is a very prestigious Midlands award which has already attracted a lot of press and radio. The award was presented by Andrew Didlick, Director of Communications at Peugoet, and the above picture features Andrew, my wife Angie and me.

This is all very well timed for my new film, Discover Shakespeare's Stratford Upon Avon, which will be in the shops form the 1st December 2010.

Tuesday 21 September 2010

Kaleidoscope Man - Update

After months of beavering away on the script in between other productions, short films and pop promos, a new draft of Kaleidoscope Man is about to surface. This draft will be significantly different from previous drafts as I have been extremely ruthless with it.

I hope to have the new draft ready by the end of September. We are still looking to shoot in 3D for a very large budget. Will let you know when there is any more news.

Keep the faith!

Tuesday 27 April 2010

Fame at Last? Or the Beginning of the End....?


I have been asked by my old Film Maker pal, Chris Jones, author of the Guerilla Film Maker's Handbook, to be a guest on his weekly internet chat show TONIGHT (29/4/10). It's a live internet TV show broadcast on-line from 7.30pm.

He is going to grill me live on air about Kaleidoscope Man and the other projects I'm up to. He doesn't pack his punches so it should be interesting...

It's called "The Production Office" and is a really good show. If you are a fan of films and film making, it will definitely be for you. Click HERE on Thursday 7.30pm to check it out.

In the meantime, I'm feeling kind of nervous...

Wednesday 21 April 2010

Kaleidoscope Man - A New Draft

A big Hollywood Producer has asked to see the script for Kaleidoscope Man - So I've just spent the last 12 hours doing a bit of a polish on it.

Yesterday, I went to a very inspiring talk by BBC Writer/Producer, Tony Jordon, the creator of Life on Mars, Holby Blue and Hustle (as well as a bunch of Eastenders scripts etc. etc). It was such an inspirational talk that I feel so fired up today it really has been the perfect day for a K-Man re-write!

If you ever get a chance to hear him talk, it would be absolutely worth it!

Thursday 15 April 2010

Kaleidoscope Man Website is Down - Don't Panic!

The website is currently down and under construction. Don't panic though, it'll be up in the next few days.

At the moment I'm focusing on my supernatural feature film project, The Final Reel, while Producer Ken Tuohy forges ahead with Kaleidoscope Man. Hopefully, one of these projects will see the light of day before too long. More news very soon...

Here are some of Matt Allsopp's K-Man concept pictures to keep you going..




Wednesday 13 January 2010

Selling My Films at the Christmas Markets – Final Analysis.

Okay, so I spent most of December 2009 at various Christmas markets around Warwickshire furiously selling my Discover Warwickshire video and my first feature film, Written in Blood. It was cold, it was often fun, it was often tough, but was it worth it?

Well, in reality I sold around 600 units, so doing the maths, this was around £6000 I walked away with. Not bad for a months work, I guess. But nowhere near what I was hoping to make, which was around 4-5000 units, which would have pretty well got things rolling on my new film, The Final Reel. But alas, this wasn’t to be. Yet…



But it’s not all doom, gloom and despair, for one, Discover Warwickshire, has had some incredible feedback. People really do love it, and I’m not just saying that. The local press have been extremely supportive, including the BBC local news. This coverage has opened a huge amount of doors, and in the next two weeks, I will be getting a load more local press which should help sales immensely.


The internet sales have been pretty good too. Since December, we have sold 52 copies on-line. Up until now, I haven’t really spent that much time pushing the on-line side, so I am fairly happy with this. I hope to bring in a lot more from this over the next few months.


As I mentioned in my last entry, Warwick Castle, are now selling the film for us, as well as the Shakespeare Birthplace Museum (In Stratford upon Avon), seven of the counties leading Tourist Information Centers have it, ten Libraries have it, Stratford Butterfly Farm have it and the Nuneaton and Coventry branches of Waterstones Bookshop have it.


Each of these are actively pushing the film for us,

some of them have the trailer running with the video (including Waterstones, who have a very impressive display with the video running right in the entrance of their store.) We are also talking to some other big shops about stocking the film locally.


So, in the longer term, I think Discover Warwickshire could be fairly lucrative. And I hope it will drip feed cash into the company, taking the pressure of the business each

month and allowing a little more freedom to raise cash for my films. Once the weather warms up (we’re inches deep in snow here), I will continue selling the film at the local markets, not quite as full on as I have done, but maybe 1 or 2 days a week, depending on my production work.


So, still some way to go yet, but loads of very exciting things in the pipeline. As regards, bringing in the big bucks to get Kaleidoscope Man moving, well, I have plans, big plans and will do everything to get it up and running this year.


To quote Emperor Palpatine in Star Wars – Revenge of the Sith: “I may be scarred, but my resolve has never been stronger…”


Happy New Year!