LEFT 4 DEAD – free download

by | Oct 14, 2009 | Film

I just bought a copy of the film TEN DEAD MEN on DVD.  Why? well I like Indie cinema, escpecially when it is UK cinema and even more so when it is violent. I will of course gladly check out any cinema – but this DVD is special as it is made by a friend of mine – Ross Boyask.

Anyway, I digress, his first film LEFT 4 DEAD is available for free! – Yes, that’s right, I said free! – from the Britfilms website. And having seen it already, I can definitely vouch for it being a worthy download. And that has nothing at all to do with the fact that I was almost in the film. Yes, you read that correctly – I originally did a one day shoot with Ross and the other main cast members, with a view to starring as one of two ginger thugs in the film, fighting the main hero in a boxing ring in one scene and playing numerous dead bodies in another scene set in a Dojo. Anyway, to my knowledge, all of that footage remained on the cutting room floor – but now I have the download I can go through it frame by frame and check to see if I recognise myself.

Check out the site and try a streaming version of the full film or download the film as a Quicktime (.Mov) file from: http://l4download.britfilms.tv/

New ways of working – what tools do you use?

by | Oct 6, 2009 | Prose, screenwriting, Writers toolbox

I am currently taking a small break from writing a new short story – a slaughterhouse tale – one that is definitely stretching me in unexpected ways, due to the amount of research I am needing to do, and the restructuring that I need to do to the plot to make it work for me. As a result I am having to learn new, more grown up, ways of working. Mainly because I tend to write instinctively and throw things together, then force them to bend to my will, rather than plan everything intelligently from scratch. I tend to see it in my head and go for it and that is why I often get bogged down later on, when the process is interrupted by the stress of my day job and then I struggle to remember where I was going with something and the mood I was aiming for at the time. I am slowly forcing myself to plan, to plot, to make notes, to research and delay the actual writing process until I am truly ready. It’s quite a demanding process and a bit too much like homework for my liking.

And this hopefully brings me around to the actual point I am trying to make [and badly]: that I am curious as to what tools you [Dear readers] use to construct your masterpieces?

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