Ten Dead Men first impressions...

...are very good indeed. I could write pages and pages about what I liked about it, and a bit about the odd bits I didn't like (which are for the most part to do with the limits of the budget more than anything else), but I think I'd rather people see it for themselves. The main thing is that with a couple of small exceptions the finished film bears a very close resemblance to the script that I wrote, which is fantastic. I think everyone who worked on it has worked really hard and put a lot of time and passion into their various roles and that really shows in the finished film. I also think that the more stylistic choices - the slasher-film violence, the voice-over, the fact that the main character never speaks - will make it that little bit different from every other film in this genre. A lot of the more negative comments about the trailer were saying that it was just another action film, or another cockney gangster film or another Tarantino rip-off, but I don't really think it fits into any of those. I took my inspiration from pulp novels, comic books and horror movies and I think the mix of influences, mine and everybody else’s', has produced a film with a real edge to it. But I would say that, cos I wrote it. So just to make sure it was actually good I made my girlfriend watch it as well, and she really enjoyed it too! So overall I'm really happy with it, can't wait to see the finished version with full sound and with the image graded, am now really looking forward to seeing it on a big screen, and can't wait to find out what people who have no real connection to the production of the film think about it.

In other news I had another meeting with John about the horror film and we even scouted locations! I've written a script and the next step is to find a crew. I've also written two more drafts of the other short horror film I'm working on so that's all moving along quite smoothly. That makes it sound like I've written loads, but each draft is 2-3 pages!

I haven't had any feedback about the Hit the Big Time feature treatment yet but I did speak to JC about filming the last few scenes of the short this weekend. Turns out he wanted me to come along to be a corpse in the film, which would've been great if it didn't involve being in London at 6.30 on Sunday morning! At least at that time of day it wouldn't involve much acting to play dead. Anyway, I'm skipping that part, but might try and make it up to London at a more convenient time as it would be great to meet everyone else who's working on the film. But having spent all week writing I also plan to drink a lot this weekend, so we'll see how things go.