Cinema of Horror premier at BIFF & Let The Right One In review

I finally got to see the final cut of Cinema of Horror at the Bradford International Film Festival. CoH was the 2nd of the short films that I worked on last February and is the baby of my friend Peter Kershaw of Duchy Parade Films. Peter was the guy who I first approached for work when I tried to get into films, so it was great to see all his work come to fruition. Plus it was a lovely chance to catch up with everyone I worked with on that film, including my good friend Duncan Laing.


Cinema of Horror is now going to do the festival circuit and is already going to be shown in both Hull and Mumbai (nice variety lol), plus many many more around the globe. I wish it well as its a great little piece of cinema, with suitable amounts of gore, comedy, and bollywood dancing ;)Also, my name don't look too bad on a 30 foot screen! Could get used to that! lol ;)



CoH preceded a horror film at the showing. It is a Swedish vampire film called Let The Right One In. All I can say is how blown away I was by that as well. Set in the 80's in Sweden its so much more than a vamp tale. Its protagonists are a 12 year old bullied boy, and a 12 year old girl vampire although she does say "I've been 12 for a long time". Its parts love story, social drama, coming of age tale, and balls out vampire flick! Thought-provoking, beautifully shot, and an ending that although is not ambiguous in itself, also causes vastly swinging opinions on whether its beautiful and touching, or downright creepy and heartbreaking.


And any film that can cause that much debate on what it means can not be a bad thing. This reviewer thoroughly recommends it!

Cinema (of horror)

Cinema of Horror, the 2nd of the films I worked on has been enter into a short film competition. Being run by Virgin, called Virgin Shorts - it is being judged by Mr Kevin Spacey, no less lol

CoH is actually 12 mins long, so Peter (Kershaw, the director) has had to cut it to the festival requirement of 2m30s! lol, and shown some rather flashy editing skills too!

Please watch it, link to it, and most importantly - VOTE FOR IT!!!!! LOL

Presenting the shorted version of CINEMA

http://www.virginmediashorts.co.uk/film/1632719444

It's a wrap!! Cinema of Horror - day 5

We wrapped yesterday after a fantastic shoot. Technical problems and logistical issues dogged us nearly everyday. But each one was overcome, and the director got (nearly) all the shots he wanted.

We shot the shoot-out up at Almscliffe Crag yesterday. The wind was rushing around and it got pretty cold, but boy, it was worth it!

Our two actors had real guns to fire (with a stern armourer on stand-by), and fake arms and buckets of blood were the order of the day. Then it all ended! I'm both elated and sad at the same time. I made some new friends, and some great contacts. I can't wait to see them all again at the premier (whenever that is).

So onwards and upwards now. I'm creating my new production CV and on Monday I am going to send it to every man and his dog, and lets see what happens. So real world kicks in now. Looks like I'll have to start doing some temping through March. Damn requirement to earn money! ;) See you on the red carpet!!

Cinema of Horror - Day 4

Wow, an almost gremlin free day, although the weather did its best to ruin it for us.

I'm home early today as we are filming scenes in a 14th floor luxury flat in Leeds, but it isn't big enough for the usual 20 or so cast and crew. So a scaled-down crew is shooting the scenes there. I instead ferried actors home, dropped off equipment, and came home to do some emails for a couple of hours - although I will be out again at about 10 for a couple of hours lol. What long days film days are - so its nice to have a couple of hours at home :)

We filmed the Bollywood dance number today, with 14 extra dancers, and 9 extra make-up girls! lol. But it looked fantastic. Cant wait to see what that looks like at the end.

But, of course there was still time for some zombies. This is Cinema Of Horror after all!!

Cinema of Horror - Day 3

What a day!! Duncan and I were woke at 7.30 with news that the sound guy's back was well and truly knackered, and instructions to find a new one ASAP

Duncan found someone from Dundee! who jumped in his car and was with us by 1.30. He didnt have any equipment of his own thought, and our sound man was talking his own umpteen thousand pound sound kit home with him.

So I drove was sent down to Sheffield to borrow some kit from someone down there. When we got it back, turned out some key equipment was missing. So off I went to rent some from a company in Leeds (during rush hour). And no dialogue could be recorded until we got it!

Then our problems with parking in Leeds started....... That's for another day.

Onwards and Upwards!

PS. Look out for another award winning performance from me as Man Looking at DVD's ;)

Cinema of Horror - Day 2

Technical glitches all over the place. The equipment truck was an hour late, the camera had to go back to Provision to be fixed, and the generators keep shorting the lights!!

Oh, and the sound guys back gave way and I had to book him an emergency osteopath!

But great fun! lol

Cinema of Horror - Day 1

Well its 1am, and I'm knackered!

It was a fantastic day, though. So much new stuff and fun stuff going on.

There were technical problems abound though, as the generators didn't work properly. And the whole shoot lost a couple of hours. In the end we plugged it into someones house! lol

Me and Duncan went to Peters house for a late dinner. Peter had been re-united with 3 old friends from his time as producer of Highway. They are doing sound and lighting on the film. I spent an excellent meal listening to stories of Brad Pitt, Robert Redford, Lesley Ash, Harry Seacombe lol

As you can see, we're all having fun!

Will post when I can.

See you in a few days

I'll will probably be offline most of this week as we start shooting Cinema Of Horror today. Hence the larger than usual number of posts this week.

My tasks today include supervising the final run-through of the Bollywood number today in Bradford, then back to Harrogate to the Valley Gardens for one of the Zombie scenes (half brick in car for clubbing scene - check!)

See you all soon!

And I leave you with a final titbit to make you chuckle.

Dustin the Turkey has been chosen by the public to represent Ireland at the Eurovision Song Contest semi-final in Belgrade in May.

He won Eurosong 2008 from the University Concert Hall in Limerick with his song 'Irelande Douze Pointe'.

He saw off the challenge of other finalists Donal Skehan, Maya, Leona Daly, Liam Geddes and Marc Roberts.


Dustin the Turkey will now compete in the first Eurovision semi-final on Tuesday 20 May.

The final takes place on Saturday 24 May.


Bookies William Hill have installed Dustin the Turkey as the 10-1 favourite to win Eurovision.

The company's spokesman, Tony Kenny, said: "These days you have to be either from the old Eastern Bloc or have a great gimmick to win Eurovision - and a singing turkey will possibly be one of the most bizarre things that a Eurovision audience will ever see."

"He'll go to Belgrade on a wing and a prayer and, fingers crossed, he'll ruffle a few feathers when he gets there," he added.

Cinema Of Horror is coming!!

Shooting 23rd Feb to 28th Feb around North and West Yorkshire

The filming will include a shoot-out with amputations abound, a decapitation with pianowire, a short, decomposing zombie trying to kill a very tall man, and a Bollywood/Bangra dance number around an ornamental gardens!

Can't wait!

PS. The Blue man is having a cast made for his prosthetic head (see above)

;)