A Slight Change of Plans

Initially, the idea was to follow Survival immediately with a much larger project - possibly a full feature.  However, as I've put (a lot of) work into the plotting, planning, and scheduling of that film, it's become pretty clear that I might be trying to bite off more than I can chew with that one - at the moment.  So the bad news is that our Big Sci-Fi Extravaganza™ will unfortunately have to wait a little longer.

Instead of the feature, then, I'm working on another short.  It's still early days yet, but I'm confident that broadening our portfolio and gaining more experience will give us a better shot at making our feature debut as good as I want it to be.

This post is vaguer than I'd like it to be, but I'll tell you everything I can as soon as possible.  In the meantime, thanks for reading my ramblings, and watching my movies!

Site cleanup

I've spent some time today tidying up the Projects area of the site, so that the links there now lead to individual pages for each movie, which will link to the video, as well as any extras that we've produced - this will keep everything together, rather than only having a link to stuff like the Survival outtakes video in the blog post announcing it.

If there's anything else that you'd like to see, just post a comment either on the blog, or the project pages themselves, and we'll see what we can do.

Work's also continuing on the next movie - the script is finished, and storyboarding is underway, among other things - and I continue to be both excited and terrified by the potential scale of this thing - not long now, and hopefully we'll have some announcements to make.

Survival - outtakes!

In ongoing promotion efforts, I'm working on expanding the amount of material that's available on the film - starting today with a selection of outtakes!

Obviously this is just a small sample (there are 11 takes of Eric's fall!), but I think it gets across some of the fun we had over the three days shooting Survival in Hartshill Hayes and Nuneaton.

Survival vs Charles

In only week and five days after it went live, Survival has now surpassed our first release, Charles the Grammar Dog, in the number of views on YouTube!  The stats now stand at 217 views for Survival to Charles' 205 - so not a big lead, but I'm really impressed at the attention we've got.

Please, keep sharing Survival as much as you can, and let everyone you talk to know where to download Thomas' awesome soundtrack.

Preproduction work is continuing on the next film, and hopefully we'll have some more news to share soon!

Survival OST!

Survival's been out for a couple of days now, and we've had some great feedback.  I hope everyone who's watched it is as impressed with Thomas' music as I am - and for those of you who want to hear it a little clearer, you can download the soundtrack for free right now!

Survival OST (11.2 MB, MP3)

Work starts properly on the next project now - more updates on that soon!

Survival: Final Update - Here It Is.

After what seems like a long time, everything's finally come together - Survival is finished.

This is a strange moment; it feels like this has taken up almost every waking moment since we started on preproduction back in June; getting everything organised has been a huge effort by everyone involved, and I can't thank those who helped us enough.  Special mention, of course, to the cast, Amy, David, and Katie, for being willing to spend a couple of days in the forest in muddy clothes, to Thomas for the awesome score (which will be available for download soon!), to my wife Sarah for all the support and suggestions, and to both our parents - Niall and Frances, Neil and Denise - who put up with all the random requests and requirements, and looked after the props and gear as it was being delivered before the shoot.

The final running time is 12' 49", according to YouTube, so if you've got 13 minutes to spare, get over there, and then share it with everyone you meet!

I hope you enjoy it!

Survival: Update #9 - Scoring

Everything's been very quiet on the site for a while; you have my apologies for that, but work is continuing! I've started on some preproduction for the next project (more on that at a later date), but the scoring process for Survival is also well under way.

As mentioned in previous posts, the music is being written and performed by Thomas Cosgrove, my brother.  He's come up with a lot of great stuff, and iterates on any feedback extremely quickly - most of the score is done now, and once we're happy that the mood is set, it should just be a matter of mixing it in around the dialogue, and then release should follow shortly.

Stay tuned!

Survival: Update #8 - Mixing it Up

Onwards and upwards, as they say.  Progress at this point is steady, but I'd forgive anyone watching for thinking it's slow; sound mixing is something I'm even newer to than editing video, so it's a learning process as much as it's a creative one.

The main thing I've learned is that I should avoid extremes when mixing stereo channels (I don't know if my software is able to do a 5.1 mix, but I have a feeling that even if it could, it'd just drive me mad).  Even stuff like fading ambient sound between shots to remove or reduce sudden changes isn't something I'd considered before I got to this stage.

Short version: I have even greater respect for audio engineers from this point.

Survival: Update #7 - Roughing It

Not many of these left to go, I imagine - because... [drumroll] the first rough cut is done! It's been rendered out to a single file, and watched while sitting on a sofa in front of a TV, instead of an office chair in front of a PC.

There's still some work to do - a couple of frames to shave here and there, some sound effects to add, and a fair bit of work on the mix - but overall, I'm so far extremely happy with how well it's looking.

Can't wait to share it with everyone!

Survival: Update #6 - coming soon

Editing is ongoing, but I've decided to put out a little teaser for the project.  Hope it whets your appetites, and keep an eye out for the finished product Soon™!

Special mention goes to the music, which is by my hugely talented brother Thomas - he totally nailed the atmosphere with pretty much zero direction.