Category: Janapar
-
Writer’s Blog: If You Were A Fly On The Wall
If you were a fly on the wall, you’d be forgiven for thinking me insane. There are three empty bedrooms in the house, but every night I lay down to sleep in the back garden. There are two good showers here, too, but I hang a bag of water up outside and wash beneath it. I could prepare elaborate meals in the fully-featured kitchen, but instead I eat only bread and cheese, or what I can cook in one pot. And I could listen to any piece of music, from any genre, or any point in time, but I listen only… Continue reading →
-
About The Major Change Of Plan This Summer
For some months I’ve been hinting at another major journey I was planning for later this year. I haven’t cancelled the trip, but I have put it on hold for a while. I’ll explain why, as the reasons deserve some discussion. Continue reading →
-
Writer’s Blog: Exhaustion, Frustration, And Other Unexpected Joys
I had no idea that writing a book would be this difficult. Continue reading →
-
Film Blog: Lessons Learnt During Preview Season
I’m coming to the end of a fun and varied series of preview screenings of Janapar, which culminated last weekend with a one-off movie night in London for followers of this blog. The event was a huge amount of fun, and the film went down better than James & I could ever have hoped for. Thanks to everyone who came along. You really made the night! (And my very real apologies to those I didn’t get time to speak to properly afterwards!) Continue reading →
-
First London Screening Of ‘Janapar’ Coming In June
I wrote recently about my developing plans for Janapar, and I know that there are lots of people who’ve been waiting to see it. So I’m really chuffed to announce a free ‘movie night’ next month, especially for my blog readers, on a late-June weekend in a central London venue. Continue reading →
-
Film Blog: “Janapar” Official Trailer Released Today
[vimeo width=“770” height=“424”]http://vimeo.com/39529035[/vimeo] After a lot of head-scratching, many re-scripts, and two failed editing attempts in November and January, James and I sat down on Thursday last week with a gallon of coffee and spent a rather wired day in front of a few hundred hours of footage and a copy of Final Cut Pro. The video above is the result — the first theatrical trailer for Janapar — and we hope it’ll be the one that does the story justice. Some may be surprised that we haven’t exactly pandered to the adventure film genre. But if you’ve been following my… Continue reading →
-
Film Blog: In Search Of The Premiere — Encouragement From The Film Festival Circuit
Responses from the world’s major film festivals are beginning to trickle in. We’ve been making submissions since last autumn, and now we’re beginning to learn what has already been learnt by thousands of independent filmmakers before us: little short of a miracle will get an unknown, independent, first-time filmmaker a premiere at any of the most prestigious events on the festival calendar. Continue reading →
-
Film Blog: International Film Festivals — One Way To Tell The Story?
There are a number of possible routes to go down in order to put something like this in front of as many pairs of eyes as possible. The easiest would be to upload the thing to Youtube, hit ‘Publish’, and move on. But to take something to a wider audience? To lift it above the trillions of bytes of throwaway trash that swamps the net? To give the project longevity, purpose and pride? (And, let’s not forget, to somehow recoup the financial investment?) Youtube probably isn’t the best solution. Continue reading →
-
Are Book-Writing And Film-Making The Same Thing?
Subjects are nouns, their actions are verbs, their appearances adjectives. A sentence is a single shot, while a paragraph is a sequence of them. Paragraphs are built into chapters, and sequences are built into stories. Then chapters are assembled into books; stories into films. The viewfinder is my vocabulary. The focus ring and exposure dial are my spelling and grammar. These are basic things that I’d better get right. And I need a good mixture of context and detail, otherwise my tale will become muddled and hard to understand. Continue reading →
-
Film Blog: Publicising Janapar (Rant Alert)
We respect and engage with transparency and honesty. Storytelling has become a huge focus after these last few years of travel — of generating stories to tell. So transparency and honesty will be a cornerstone. There’s nothing I hate more than corporate bullshit or self-aggrandisement. But we’re so numb with it that we’ve almost forgotten anything else exists. Here are some facts: Continue reading →