Why you should use SLIME in your films!

Get a sneak peek behind the scenes of Derek Boyes' long awaited spellbinding fantasy short film - The Infectious Imagination Of Henry Bramble.

This is the first of many EPK videos documenting the making of this enchanting little film, designed to entertain and inform, building curiosity and awareness before it hits film festivals early next year.

So if you like what you see, then please share it with anyone you know in the film and television industry who may be looking for fresh new directing talent!

Derek's first ever 16mm film finally restored and remastered for it's 20th anniversary.

This is the Indiegogo financed 20th anniversary digitally remastered version of Derek Boyes' legendary 1993 fantasy epic DRAKKON, an ambitious short film shot on location in West Burton and Harrogate, North Yorkshire over six days in July by a rebel crew of 16 students and one crazy Media Production tutor. It was Derek Boyes' first 16mm film.

The original negative has been digitally scanned at 2K to produce a cropped 16:9 1080p HD image. To find out more about the film's history and its near fatal production, visit our Facebook page where you will find an array of behind the scenes anecdotes, stills and video content, including 20th anniversary content: www.facebook.com/drakkon20th

Derek Boyes' #IceBucketChallenge

As Steven Spielberg and J.J. Abrams has done it for ALS, I'm doing it for Macmillan cancer support. Here as promised is my #IceBucketChallenge. I was nominated by Eric Moore and I am now nominating Tom Bill and Ritchie Wilkinson! Good luck boys! Text ICE to 70550 to give £3 to Macmillan (Wimp out and text FINE to 70550 to give £10 instead).

Why George Lucas Hated The Cantina Scene In Star Wars

This is a black and white work print of an early 'cantina scene' edit from Star Wars (before the USA re-shoot). Not only is Han living up to his scoundrel reputation by chatting up a chick, we also get to see some decidedly dodgy alien masks (which explains why George Lucas was never originally happy with this scene). Not only that, but you get to hear some wonderful pre-dubbed east-end London actor's voices playing the barman and Greedo. - Best behind-the-scenes footage I've seen in ages!

How did J.J. Abrams get to be the most sought after filmmaker in the world?

Stanley Kubrick on Mortality and the Purpose of Existence

"The very meaninglessness of life forces man to create his own meaning. Children, of course, begin life with an untarnished sense of wonder, a capacity to experience total joy at something as simple as the greenness of a leaf; but as they grow older, the awareness of death and decay begins to impinge on their consciousness and subtly erode their joie de vivre, their idealism — and their assumption of immortality. 

As a child matures, he sees death and pain everywhere about him, and begins to lose faith in the ultimate goodness of man. But, if he’s reasonably strong — and lucky — he can emerge from this twilight of the soul into a rebirth of life’s elan. Both because of and in spite of his awareness of the meaninglessness of life, he can forge a fresh sense of purpose and affirmation. He may not recapture the same pure sense of wonder he was born with, but he can shape something far more enduring and sustaining. 

 The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent; but if we can come to terms with this indifference and accept the challenges of life within the boundaries of death — however mutable man may be able to make them — our existence as a species can have genuine meaning and fulfillment. However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light." 

Click the title of this post to read the full 1968 Playboy interview.

Ron Howard talks filmmaking

What differentiates a creative genius from ordinary people?

It's often difficult to justify the way that I am and the value of what I do. To the untrained eye I appear to be doing very little with my life. However these wise words from Dorothea Brande's 1934 book on Becoming A Writer sum it up very well I think: 

“The genius (for the sake of mistaken delusions of grandeur, lets replace genius with creative) keeps all his days the vividness and intensity of interest that a sensitive child feels in his expanding world. Many of us keep this responsiveness well into adolescence; very few mature men and women are fortunate enough to preserve it in their routine lives. Most of us are only intermittently aware, even in youth, and the occasions which adults see and feel and hear with every sense alert become rarer and rarer with the passage of years.

Too many of us allow ourselves to go about wrapped in our personal problems, walking blindly though our days with our attention all given to some pretty matter of no particular importance. The true neurotic may be engrossed in a problem so deeply buried in his being that he could not tell you what it is that he is contemplating, and the sign of his neurosis is his ineffectiveness in the real world.

The most normal of us allow ourselves to become so insulated by habit that few things can break through our preoccupations except truly spectacular events - a catastrophe happening under our eyes, our indolent strolling blocked by a triumphal parade; it must be a matter which challenges us in spite of ourselves.” 

This is also one of many reasons I love spending so much time with my daughter. Remember, we are all born with infinite potential, it's only as we get older that most of us forget how to tap into it!

The Difficult Reality of the VFX Industry.

This 30 minute documentary about the demise of the Oscar winning VFX company Rhythm and Hughes is not only a nice touching tribute to the 254 employees who lost their jobs over night, but it is also an important eye-opener to producers, directors and financiers all over the world to consider very carefully.

What I found particularly shocking was that many director's do not regularly oversee the work that it done. As one employer points out, you wouldn't see a film being shot on set without the director present, why is visual effects work any different?

I'm proud to say I lean more towards James Cameron in this respect as I am a little obsessive or maybe possessive over every detail. If I had it my way I'd have daily progress meetings with the vfx team. Let's hope the film industry learn something from this example and find a more ethical business model for all. 

UCLA are developing some incredible VFX tools

Some incredible visual effects research developments happening at UCLA. Just think if you scan all our favourite actors in their prime, we can then feature then cast them in our films forever. Maybe 70 years after his death I can cast Harrison Ford in my films for free!

Official 20th Anniversary Drakkon Movie Poster

The remastering of Drakkon (my first 16mm film) for it's 20th anniversary was funded with the generous support of the Indiegogo community. Having raised 182% of the required funds, I decided to use some of the additional funds towards commissioning a 20th anniversary movie poster. Here is the final poster featuring artwork from the incredibly talented Chicago based illustrator Juan Hugo Martinez.

For more insights into the making of the film feel free to delve into the Drakkon archives at: www.facebook.com/drakkon20th

Drakkon - The Making Of A Fantasy

Well here it is, the definitive behind-the-scenes making of Drakkon, the ambitious epic fantasy short film shot on location at West Burtom falls in North Yorkshire way back in 1993. Having been through the video 8 footage several times to make this new version, 20 year old memories now seem like yesterday. I can literally smell the 1990's.

A big thank you to Shirley Hopkinson, Mike Joslin, Ritchie Wilkinson, Katherine Franks, Simon Franks, Philip Slocombe, Nicola Goss, Oliver Kneesbeck, Vicky Bywater, Gareth Unwin, Chris Eldridge, James Gibson, Isobel Thomas, Laura Anderson, Jim Loomis and Susan Hopkinson for some wonderful memories!

How to get Great Stories from Cheese!

I've been on a creative roll the past couple of weeks, writing the re-imagining of Drakkon - an ambitious, romantic fantasy dragon short. I have already completed a third of the script and this weekend managed to outline the full story, which I have found so exciting, I have barely been able to contain myself.

Ideas for stories often form in the most unusual ways. This story is essentially based on a subconscious amalgamation of cheesy scenes from the 1995 film First Knight with Richard Gere and Julia Ormond. It has some of the most cheesiest scenes I have ever seen (Mostly due to  Richard Gere's over pouting and ridiculously blue eyes), but when played out to Jerry Goldsmith's highly emotional score, something much deeper resonated within me and is what I  have had the urge to express on screen ever since.

So holding that single feeling in my heart, while listening to the extended soundtrack to First Knight, I asked myself what situation could produce this feeling. Inspired by The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and Game Of Thrones, I gradually built a much darker and far more convincing story around it and I have to confess, I am incredibly excited with what I have come up with.

I hope I have found the right balance of action, fantasy, romance and drama while still providing enough thematic weight to please the critics, but for now, I have to keep surfing on that wave of passion and adrenaline until the script is finished, only then will the truth be told.