A Proclamation

Although I’ve mentioned this elsewhere already I haven’t really properly announced it. I don't want to make a big fuss but as it’s likely to come up quite a lot in the future – and for the rest of my life - it’s time I made some sort of proclamation...

My lovely wife and I are expecting our first child in a little over seven weeks. We're very excited and so far all is very well indeed with Mother and child. The baby can certainly kick and seems to enjoy listening to us reading Thomas the Tank Engine and The Gruffalo. There has also been some indication that our imminent child favours the works of Rage Against the Machine and Radiohead. Should fit in just fine then.

Here are some pics...

The Silent House

I recently received an email from Gustavo Rojo, the Uruguayan actor and producer (and star of The Valley of Gwangi, a favourite film of mine as a kid (seriously - Cowboys and Dinosaurs - what's not to love???)). This was very unexpected. At first I thought he was going to ask me to take a couple of million quid off his hands to help him out, but no. This wasn't spam, this was NEWS!

He was writing to tell me all about a new horror film coming out soon called La Casa Muda, or The Silent House. Now, I wouldn't normally turn the blog over to someone I don't really know but I figure three things; a) this film looks pretty interesting, b) it's nice to be picked out as someone who might spread word of mouth about a new horror film, and c) who knows, maybe Mr Rojo might like to take a look at my horror feature script and think about producing it next? This business is all about networking, after all.

So without further ado, here is some product placement about The Silent House...

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The film is directed by Gustavo Hernandez, photographed by Pedro Luque (renown for his worldwide success in “Ataque de Pánico”) and produced by Gustavo Rojo, at an amazingly low budget which amounts to U$ 6000. “The silent house” digs deeply into the unexplored subject of psychological terror, and the story runs through a terrifying story through a single continuous shot. This makes the film unique in the audiovisual market since it was filmed with a SLR digital, to be more precise, a Canon EOS 5D Mark. The film is therefore the first one in Latin America and the second one in the world to have been filmed by a photograph camera. This makes it the first film of horror in the world to have been filmed with this particular narrative language.

To be filmed in one single shot implies that the sequence is filmed in one go, without cuts, and the camera movements need a prior careful and meticulous planning which leads the viewer to share each one of the experiences of the character.


Laura ( Florencia Colucci) and her father ( Gustavo Alonso) settle down in a cottage which seems to be off the beaten track in order to update it since its owner ( Abel Tripaldi) will soon put the house on sale. They will spend the night there in order to start the repairs the following morning. Everything seems to go on smoothly until Laura hears a sound that comes from outside and gets louder and louder in the upper floor of the house. Wilson goes up to see what is going on while she remains downstairs on her own waiting for her father to come down. The plot is based on a true story that happened some time ago in a small village in Uruguay. “La Casa Muda” focuses on the last seventy eight minutes, second by second, when Laura intends to leave the house which hides an obscure secret and she hopes to leave unharmed.

REAL FEAR IN REAL TIME, this is the most remarkable underlying feature of the film which will not go unnoticed by all those who may be willing to experience this different and disturbing filming experience.

A few days after the Spanish Teaser Trailer was released, executives from some of the most important production company of Hollywood have shown interest in seeing it once it is finished and acquire the rights. The film is still at audio post production, and is expected to be finished in march. "The silent house"teaser trailer with Engish subtitles has come. Perhaps we may see the remake soon!!!

Tumble Log

I had intended to do the traditional New Year/Old Year review-type-thingamybob this week but I'm afraid it'll have to be left till the end of the month, which is sort of a tradition too.

The reason for the delay is that I'm reduced to typing with one paw following a bit of a boo boo on the way home from the day job earlier this week. Whilst walking home from the bus stop, a mere five minutes from my own front door, I lost my footing on the snow/ice/frozen slush and took a right old tumble. My left hand heroically took the weight of my body and saved my face from a close encounter with someone's front wall. This was at the expense of my elbow though, which protested with a bit of POP!

By the next morning my elbow had swollen to a couple of times it's usual size and a day trip to A&E was required. It was very busy, mostly due to other weather related injuries, but we were in and out in a mere four hours. Sincere thanks to the NHS!

The final score? A radial head fracture of the type seen to the left. Ouch. Now I have to wear a stupid collar and cuff thing for about two weeks until I get some kind of range of movement back. Apparently I can hope to get full normal use of my arm (turning door handles and other tricky stuff) in about six to eight weeks.

Bugger.

And I'd booked next week off for some intensive writing. Still, at least my injury sounds a bit like the name of one of my favourite bands!

Bugger.

I mean, I'll try and get some work done, but typing one-handed is bone (if you'll pardon the almost-pun). I mean I'm no touch typist (although touch typing is on my must-learn list) but I do go at a fair old rate. Even writing this blog post one-handed is pretty trying.

Bugger.

Still, it could have been a hell of a lot worse. And I still have my eyes so I can read some scripts and catch up on some good films and telly and call it all research. Tragically, I can't really use my Xbox 360 controller at the moment so will be unable to waste whole days in the Capital Wastelands, Arkham Asylum or on Sera.

There we are anyway. No point crying about it. I'll let you know how I'm getting on once I'm two-handed again. Hope you're all having a good 2010 so far, and getting some enjoyment out of our freakish weather, just make bloody sure you're careful when you're out and about in it!

On the box

Hello! Hello! Hello! Where was I? Oh yes, I've been watching stuff again...

The Day of the Triffids

I'm a big fan of John Wyndham, and of the 1981 adaptation of Day of the Triffids (currently £3.99 on play - If you don't have it already it'll be the best four quid you ever spend!). I've mentioned this before, as well as pointing out that it might be more interesting to film The Kraken Wakes rather than adapting Triffids again. Despite all this I was still excited to see how the new version would go.

I have to say that I thought the first half was a little slow, and I think the programme was somewhat self-consciously trying to avoid looking like a retread either of the '81 version, or more recent post-apocalyptic fare such as Survivors or 28 Days Later. Even so there was some good stuff in there, it just took too long for the story to get going. Part two on the other hand was pacey, atmospheric and exciting. There were some lovely sequences, for example Bill hunting the male Triffid, Jo's escape from London and the finale. Of the cast I thought Brian Cox (of course), and Eddie Izzard were excellent, the two children also were very good.

I still feel it was a somewhat redundant remake (but then Turn of the Screw was on the day after it so I guess it's the season (this is about the eleventh time this has been adapted for the screen!)) but given the decent ratings perhaps we can expect another Wyndham adaptation next year. I vote The Kraken Wakes or The Chrysalids!

True Blood

This is another show, like Medium, which I was aware of but had made some weird subconscious assumptions about and decided probably wasn't for me. However even I, belligerent as I am, can only ignore so many people telling me I should watch something.

Based on the series of books by Charlaine Harris, True Blood is brought to you by Alan Ball, the creator of Six Feet Under (another series I've never watched despite many recommendations).

True Blood is excellent fun. It's an HBO show so you can expect some cussing, some fooling about and some general naughtiness. It's also packed, and I do mean packed, with interesting and rounded characters. Actually the town of Bon Temps sometimes puts me in mind of Twin Peaks, or Cicely, Alaska due to the local colour. Putting the main characters to one side there's the inept local police, the Cajun roadworker, the agrophobic vampire, the shell-shocked Iraq veteran... The list goes on.

These people would be interesting even if they weren't littered with vampires, psychics, murderers and... well, no spoilers here. Suffice to say I recommend it. We've just finished watching series one on 4HD, and are now hoping they're going to run on into series two.

Collision

It's a bit late in the day to talk about this now (yes I did start this post a while ago) but what a great bit of telly this was. I'm coming around to this consecutive night thing, especially after Torchie this year, and this certainly kept us interested all week. Lots of lovely performances, especially from Douglas Henshaw and Lucy Griffiths, and a lovely look at how peoples lives can turn upside down for the most trivial of reasons.

The final moments, where time was reversed and we saw what might have been but for an errant wasp, were absolutely inspired and will ensure that Collision lives long in my memory. Excellent television, well done ITV.

Misfits

No, not the seminal horror rockers (although I do recomend their Famous Monsters album), I mean the E4 TV series. A very British, very modern, very clever take on how super powers might actually work in the real world. I'm far from the first to say this but Heroes could have learned a lot from this E4 show. A second series has been commissioned (hoorah!) so that gives you time to catch up on series one if you missed it.

So that's what I've been watching recently. Now we're into early 2010 there's a shedload of good telly coming our way, so here's a taster of some of the stuff I'm really looking forward to...


Being Human series 2 begins on January 10th



The final series of Lost begins on February 2nd



24 Day 8 premieres on January 17th



Survivors series 2 starts on Tuesday 12th January



Chuck is back on US tv on January 10th for it's third series



Law & Order: UK returns to ITV on January 11th

And of course, sometime in the spring...