I’ve an idea in my head for a story that’s been rattling around for a while and which is resolutely refusing to coalesce into something tangible. Having now dabbled with long and short form prose, radio and movie scriptwriting and comic writing and illustration, I find myself tempted by them […]
I forgot to post this a few weeks back when it first went up. It’s an extended, very detailed director’s commentary and VFX breakdown of the short film Extraction Protocol, which I directed for FXhome. If VFX and low budget filmmaking are your thing, it’s worth a watch: There’s also […]
My current favourite game is a tiny, lo-fi indie game called FTL. As any self-respecting genre fan will know, that stands for Faster Than Light, with the core purpose of the game to jump your spaceship from sector to sector, staying one step ahead of the pursuing rebel fleet. (more…)
It’s about time I mentioned a couple of rather excellent software products I’ve stumbled across in recent months. First up there’s Inkscape, an open source vector graphics editor. Think GIMP, but for vector rather than raster graphics. I originally discovered it out of necessity while designing wedding invitations and table […]
My new short film is now online for all to see. I hope you enjoy it – let me know if you’ve got any feedback. MAJOR thanks to everybody that worked on the film, you’re all spiffy, and of course to FXhome for giving me the opportunity in the first […]
One of the most exciting projects I’ve worked on at FXhome is the upcoming short film Extraction Protocol. It’s a sci-fi love letter to the cyberpunk genre and the Deus Ex: Human Revolution computer game and it’s going to be released next week.
It’s by far the biggest production I’ve directed and it’s been a thoroughly satisfying challenge from start to finish. It started in the autumn last year, when we brainstormed a few ideas for short films we could put together that would show off the new HitFilm software and appeal to our community. At the time I was hugely excited about the impending release of DE:HR (it turned out to be one of my games of the year, as I wrote about over on Potential Gamer recently) so I couldn’t resist using that as inspiration. (more…)
If I were to boil down the essential ingredients of what makes me like a game to just two elements, it would be: 1. They need to be fun. Sounds obvious but it’s remarkable how many don’t achieve this. 2. They need to conjure an interesting world. (more…)
Time for a quick pre-work general update… The local launch of my father’s book, Scott’s Forgotten Surgeon, takes place as Halesworth Bookshop this evening at 5pm. I’ll be heading down to Suffolk for it and can’t wait. Really very proud of him for not only having completed the project but […]
Rather surprisingly given my own intolerance to physical exertion, a couple of generations back my family has a genuine polar explorer, who even accompanied the (in?)famous Captain Scott on his first attempt to reach the South Pole. Dr Reginald Koettlitz was a true explorer from a heroic age when the […]
The wind cuts into my face, the only skin still exposed to the elements. Ice crunches underfoot as I approach the ruined city of Saarthal where my fellow students await my arrival–no, wait, I’m not going to do this. (more…)