A New Directing Showreel

Yesterday I was asked to produce a showreel highlighting some of my drama directing work. This is by a leading film sales agent who is currently looking at our thriller script, The Final Reel, with a view to backing the project. So for me, its a BIG deal. 

However, I find making showreels of my own stuff difficult, mainly because its hard to be objective when looking through the material I've made over the years. 

Anyway, I have been working on it all day, and because The Final Reel is a tense thriller, I decided to make the showreel tense! So here it is:  

Practice Makes Perfect

I was recently asked to produce a web video for a dental practice in Warwick. Cape Road Dental specialise in dental implants (a service until recently I had never heard of) and they were looking for something very different and original to promote the services they offer. They had seen quite a few video companies but were not that impressed with what they had seen. Luckily, they were impressed with our videos.


It was obvious that they are a young, enthusiastic, dedicated and annoyingly good looking team, so I felt it was important to get this across without the hard sell approach.  


This was the result...

Being Part of History

I had the honour of making a video of the Jubilee Parade in Rugby Town Centre last weekend, commissioned by the Rugby Town Centre BID.


It was a very simple job which I shot in about four hours and edited in around about a day. But it was during the edit as I looked through the rushes that I felt the great hand of history upon me. I had an incredible sense that this video would be the sort of thing that will get pulled out in the next 25, 50 and maybe even 100 years. For me it captures a very special moment in our history and even makes me feel proud to be British.


It also reminds me what a lucky man I am being able to make films and document such events.

The London 48 Hour Short Film Challenge - My Entry

This was the film I made in just 48 hours. We had locations and actors on standby and at 11.15am on the Saturday, we received a text which gave us the title, a line of dialogue and a prop that we had to use in the film. The film was then uploaded to the competition by 1pm on the following Monday. 


Sadly, we didn't get selected as there were 161 films submitted and only 10 short listed. I'm very happy with the film though. Let me know what you think!

The Moment I knew I had to make films...

I was just 14 when I saw the first saw Star Wars (Episode 4 - the best one!!). And within the first 30 seconds after the rolling credits, I just knew my life would never be the same again. At the time we had NEVER seen anything like this, and even now when I watch it, it still sends a shiver down my spine.

As my sci-fi feature film, Kaleidoscope Man, moves ever nearer, I wonder if I could have that same impact on someone as Star Wars did on me. Times certainly have changed and people are used to seeing mind boggling special effects, but with Star Wars it was so much more than that. It was a story that touched the heart and soul. Will Kaleidoscope Man ever near that? Who knows, but I have put around 10 years into it now, and I can honestly say, hand on heart, that I have done everything I can to try!      

Kaleidoscope Man Trailer:

Simon to Enter Sci-Fi London 48 Hour Film Challenge

After attending this weekends Guerilla Film Makers Master-class run by my old buddy, Chris Jones, I committed publicly to entering this years sci-fi short film challenge. The objective is to make a 3 to 5 minute sci-fi film in just 48 hours. You are given a title, some dialogue and a prop on the Saturday morning and you must upload your film by 9am on the following Monday morning. 


So that's the entire weekend taken up writing, shooting and editing your movie. The first prize is a development deal with Vertigo Films, so there is a LOT to play for. The event runs on the 14th to 16th April 2012.


Time to get my thinking cap on...