I thought it was time to cobble together some kind of showreel… this covers various filmed work done since 2016, headed obviously by the current efforts on Birmingham Now. Feedback is welcome!
Tag: Short Film
New Film Project: Triangle
Well, Triangle is the provisional title, at least… maybe we’ll keep it… anyhow, I finished the first draft of the script last night, small extract below. The film, which should run about 20 minutes, is a neo-noir set in Birmingham and we’re gonna do it in glorious black & white!! It’s quite hard-boiled and the ‘second act’ is more than a little Sin City in tone.
(As a matter of fact, I’ve even toyed with doing it in an old-style 4.3 aspect ratio. What I think we’ll ultimately do here is shoot it safe for both 4.3 and 1.85, so it can be comfortably shown either way.)
More soon, and there’s a project page over at Vamporama Films too, which will be added to in due course…
A Deal With Death Script Page
A Deal With Death is a short film that homages the old Amicus anthology flicks. I posted a character sketch for it some months ago. Anyhow, for various reasons (main one being a key cast member who we didn’t want to lose having some health difficulties), it’s been on hold for a while—hopefully not for much longer.
Here’s a page from the script.
Monsters Unfilmed Inserts
As Vamporama Films starts to gear up for some new projects & activity, I wanted to revisit last year’s creepy short, Monsters.
The finished film is basically a monologue—performed brilliantly by Liam Woon!—but originally we were going to add some filmed inserts. Here we have my storyboards for some of those inserts.
A Deal With Death
For the new year, Vamporama Films has a new short film project—a hommage to the old Amicus anthology movies of the ’60s/’70s, entitled A Deal With Death. Here’s a prelim poster image and a character study by Your Truly.
Monsters Poster
Now we have an official poster for Monsters, designed by moi!
Monsters Premiere
Out short film Monsters, starring Liam Woon, had its public premiere earlier today at the Grindhouse Planet Film Festival. Here’s a snap of the screening, plus Liam and Steve posing with organiser Marc Hamill…
Monsters Trailer!
As promised, the trailer for Monsters! And please note, you can view it as a direct link RIGHT HERE, which gives our videos more hits—and PLEASE subscribe to our channel and share the links! THANKS!
Stay tuned for info on future screenings, etc!
Monsters Colour Grading Tests
So… I’ve been playing with the footage for Monsters, and I’ve done some tests on the colour grading. The raw footage has a very flat colour profile, which allows filmmakers to push the images to suit the mood or preference more comfortably. Below are two graded frame grabs and finally a look at the raw (unmatted) footage for comparison.
(A trailer for the film is coming very soon!!)
Monsters Shoot
Principal photograph for Monsters was completed last night (Sunday)! In a very cold warehouse in deepest Coventry, the six-hour shoot went really well… a couple of annoying technical problems were surmounted without any great drama. (Okay, maybe some drama!!)
Huge thanks to Liam Woon for his brilliant performance and going above & beyond to help us ensure it all worked out! More soon!! But in the meanwhile, as ever, here are some photos for you to peruse…
Terror At Bell’s End News
And yep, see the Bell’s End tag for more! This is our faux grindhouse trailer, homaging Euro Cult and the likes of Lucio Fulci. Of course, if any backers or companies showed an interest, we’d definitely be up for making a full movie!!
Anyhow, it’s been on the shelf for months and months, and we still need to shoot a couple of extra scenes. We’re working on it. It’s back on the schedule after the hiatus. More news soon.
Meanwhile, here’s a couple of frame grabs; firstly, from a titles sequence I’ve recently been playing with… secondly, good old Melyza Fay being stalked by THE KILLER…
All Bad Things Poster
As Steve has been busy submitting All Bad Things to various festivals, it was down to me to knock out an official poster. Natch, I went for retro…
Incidentally: ABT will be screened at the second annual Grindhouse Planet Film Festival.
All Bad Things: Cast & Crew Screening
Incidentally, today is my birthday. Don’t ask.
Last night, we had our cast & crew screening for All Bad Things, plus the two Club Vamporama shorts “Who Is Bette Noir?” and “Hail Cthulhu!”, plus we screened some early footage for the Terror at Bell’s End trailer.
We drafted in our good friend & talented author/performer, Jasper Bark, to MC the proceedings, which was held at the Victoria, Birmingham city centre. I think overall the night went very well and we had most of the cast & crew from our various projects there (although we dearly missed Dru and Lizzie, who couldn’t make it).
The evening kicked off with the superb local actor, William Hayes (with whom we are planning to work very soon), giving a stirring rendition of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart”.
After the screening of “Who Is Bette Noir?”, Jasper interviewed Jude herself, Melyza Fay.
Following the main event, All Bad Things, Jasper quizzed the main cast—Demelza O’Sullivan, Liam Woon and Sham Zaman.
To complete the evening, Jasper himself performed his infamous short story, “Taking the Piss”!
All Bad Things: It’s A Wrap
The final bits of shooting & full editing on All Bad Things has just been completed, and only a shade before midnight, ahead of the cast & crew screening (which is actually later tonight).
This involved filming a bit of last-minute gore FX which featured my arm! More on the screening soon.
Terror At Bell’s End Shoot #2
Followup to this post. Here are a couple of photos from the Friday, October 20th shoot… for both shoots, the interiors were done at the house of Blake Woodham… Blake & Family patiently allowed us to makeover two separate rooms 1986 style—for which we offer profuse thanks & appreciation.
Here’s Melyza Fay with Sham Zaman, in our faux 1980s Psych consultation office…
And here’s a group pic post-shoot, featuring Steve, Sham, Me and Melyza. This came out a lot more weird & sinister-looking than anyone intended, but what the hey.
