I am wrapping up what has been the most successful three month period of my filmmaking experience to date. In four days this website, the diary of my journey into filmmaking, will reach its fourth anniversary. This last year has been a blistering twelve months of writing and directing The Zombie Diaries, and some promotion work for Mnemosyne. I will give a full round-up of the year and my milestones at the beginning of the next diary period (Nov-05-Jan-06). For now I would like to talk about another filmmaker who has also been making a similar journey.

Matt Hope is a Hertfordshire-based director who has been a long-standing 'film buddy' for some time now. When I lived in Letchworth Garden City, he used to occasionally meet Kevin Gates, Julian Newman Turner and myself for a few beers and to talk all things 'film'. When we first met him, he had written a feature which I sat down and critiqued for him. Likewise, he critiqued Mnemosyne, and then went on to provide some excellent feedback for The Zombie Diaries. Matt made a short film about the futility of war called In the Field which was sent to Clemont-Ferrand at the same time as Mnemosyne. His latest project is a feature called The Vanguard which I am really looking forward to seeing.

When Kevin gates and I decided to press ahead with The Zombie Diaries, Matt agreed that we were on the right track, and within months had got a script ready for a similar Zombie-style film. The Vanguard is being shot on 35mm film, and will look gorgeous; Matt is aiming for a theatrical release in the UK, and with the growing presence of British Horror in the marketplace, this could be a realistic target. Kevin got to see some footage yesterday, but I will probably not have that luxury for some time. From what I hear, the film will look gorgeous and be a welcomed addition to the array of horror films due for release in the next 12-18 months. If I get a link from Matt, I will publish it on my diary so you can all see more about his projects. View the trailer here.

Kevin completed an extended edit of the torture scene yesterday and I just finished viewing the file. WOW. We went to a number of extreme lengths the last time we shot, and the quality really shows. Scott Orr's special effects have been impressing everyone who has seen the sneak peek. In addition, I gambled my entire Canon MV30 by roling it down a steep hill in the woods to simulate a person being shot, and boy did it pay off [and it didn't break ;)].

If the rest of the film maintains the quality of this clip once edited together, we could be onto something very, very special.

This weekend we completed the last large chunk of filming on the third segment of the movie The Zombie Diaries. The cast were joined by Hiram Bleetman and Russel Jones as we wrapped up a number of key night scenes. On Sunday we filmed two torture scenes, which left me feeling ambivalent. To cut a long story short, a zombie extra dropped out at the last minute which meant a replacement had to be found at the eleventh hour. This caused a knock on effect which meant the effects took longer, which itself caused a knock on effect which led to us running out of time on the second torture sequence. Add to this squibs not firing and then misfiring, and having to film in darkness, and I ended up a little pissed off thinking the scene wouldn't work. A possible miscommunication meant an actress had not learn her lines which also made me pencil in a reshoot for another scene. It all sounds bad, right??? Well, actually not that bad...

The torture scene at night is much more gripping than I think it would have been at day. The darkness really adds an extra element. The squib misfire can be sorted with two frames of CGI (Based on frame grabs of existing squib hits). A few people have seen it and everyone was pretty disturbed. Someone I know watched it and jumped at the moment on of the news crew is shot in the head. Hiram, who appears as one of the torturers, was simply brilliant. The performances were really convincing, and overall I think 'luck of the bartlett' won out over the jinx of it being our 'thirteenth day of filming'. ;)

October in America this year was very hot, with temperatures hitting the high 90s. So you can imagine the sheer jolt I received once I had returned back to the UK. The mood in the air, the temperature, the leaves - it's awesome, and I'm right in that Halloween vibe right now. Today I searched out two old b/w classics which scared me when I was a kid; I hope to have the DVDs through the post soon to entertain me this holiday. The films are called:

1. Island of Terror
2. The Fiend without a Face

Island of Terror is about scientists on an island who experiment with radiation (when will they learn??) and accidentally create a race of monsters that swarm the island and suck the bones from any living creature in their path. The Fiend without a Face is about a legion of invisible creatures that suck the brains and spinal chords from their victims. Both films end with the classic zombie-style siege. Awesome stuff - can't wait 'til they arrive.

I'm also looking forward to some great filming this weekend with Kev on The Zombie Diaries. The shoot will involve some atmopsheric nighttime scenes and a brutal torture and murder scene.

The reason there has been such a large gap since my last diary entry is because I have been out in America. I took just over two weeks' vacation as I got married on 01-Oct-05 out in the beautiful ozark hills in south-west Missouri. My wife, Maren, and I returned to England recently and have been relaxing and trying to overcome our jet lag.

Before I jetted out I had to finalise the planning of the wedding (which admittedly Maren did most of the work on) and finish a big project for my company which I had been heading up. Now these are both over I should have much more time to dedicate to finishing off The Zombie Diaries.

I called Kevin Gates on my return and am now right back in the thick of planning our last shoot days. I also called up Ian McCullogh (From Survivors fame) with a view to having him play one of the parts in the final segment, and he asked to see a copy of the script plus a DVD teaser. He's relocated back to Scotland, but hopefully we will be able to get him down for filming if he is interested; I think he'd have a blast with our cast and crew.

I feel very recharged right now, and will soon be back on set with Kev wrapping this film up.

I have never madre it a secret that my favourite director of all time is Stanley Kubrick. I shot my short, Mnemosyne, with his and Lynch's styles in mind. If I could have some feedback from anyone it would be Kubrick, but of course that can never happen because he died back in 1999.

Today, however, almost the next best thing happened. My film was reviewed on the CREATE MEDIA SHOW 6 which screened on the community channel. Dan Foster (The chap who runs the show) gave me the names of two reviewers who were going to analyse the film and provide constructive criticism: John Ward of the London Film Academy and someone called Michaela Ledwidge, who has worked with Dan Foster before. I googled both of them, and although I didn't find much more than a short or two for Michaela, I found John Ward did camera work on FULL METAL JACKET! Holy Smoke! So, of course, I tuned in today to see what he had to say.

I will be digitising the review and uploading it to the site, but basically John was really impressed with the camera work, and said the shots really complemented the atmosphere of the story, which he felt really emphasised the loneliness and isolation. Good! He also offered some very good constructive criticism about the film, mentioning that you never felt like you knew exactly where the story was going. This is similar to a comment I made about a film called 'The Rules of Attraction'. Whilst I thought the film was pretty clever, I remember not having that vibe of where the story was headed, which was quite an issue for me.

Looking at Mnemosyne, I agree that everything works fine up until the doctor sequence, and then we probably needed something to happen to pull the viewer back in again. This has been in the back of my mind whilst directing The Zombie Diaries with Kevin, and I have proposed a structure to Kev specifically aimed at stopping the story drifting off and losing the audience.

The review rounded off the day nicely, and I have to take my hat off to Dan Foster for giving me this opportunity to have my work reviewed by a proven veteran.

I am happy to report it was a terrific first weekend of filming for the third segment. Our cast, consisting of Craig Stovin, Jonathan Ball, Anna Blades and Victoria Nalder were on fire. The weather was just one gloomy grey blanket which set the scene perfectly. Kevin and I co-directed (although Kev controlled the blocking and scene set up, and I just offered comments where appropriate on performances, etc) and the partnership worked incredibly well.

We shot 11am-10pm on Sunday, and finished the day off with an awesome Zombie attack. Mike Peel (Effects) even got in on the action, as did I for a second time, and played a zombie! We surprised the cast by coming from places they hadn't been warned about, and managed to get some genuine reactions of fear. To round it off, Raindance sent out a newsletter to their subscribers mentioning the dates of Mnemosyne, and then eatmybrains.com did a second story on the film, based on the Press Release that Kevin and I knocked up.

It was such fun to be on location with a great team. We even befriended some locals in the village where we were filming; one of them let us use their bathroom and even offered us a cup of tea! I always stress how important it is to get a good team of people together based on skill and personality. I know a lot of people who have been on other film shoots and complained about the numerous 'egos' on set, where some crew members are arrogant and disrespectful towards other people who they believe to be doing less important jobs. I swear nothing like that will ever happen on one of my films or co-productions. If people behaved like that I would sack them, even if they were working for free.

Dan Foster, who runs the CREATE MEDIA SHOW, had added his own review at the request of yours truly. I am quite pleased with how the film went down at CREATE, and I hear the reviewers' only real quibble with the film is its length, which is true, as its running time has stopped it getting into festivals. Dan has this to say:

When I watched the "Mnemosyne" my thoughts were similar to the reviewers. I thought sound design, lighting, camera-work, set-pieces were absolutely superb and you've obviously put a great deal of effort into the piece - fantastic vision and focus.

The story reminded me of a number of pieces I have written, I like playing with time and parallel worlds - some definite Vanilla Sky (Open Your Eyes) undertones, which goes down well with me as it is one of my favourite films.

After the review I watched the film again, I think you've got a really good film that would go down well with many of the festivals, and it is a shame the length will restrict you.

I definitely think a re-edit to approx 10-12mins would help, especially as the mood remains pretty much the same throughout and a shorter version would help carry the viewer through better.

Ultimately, you have a well executed film, with loads of promise and a festival market that would definitely take it on (it would do well as it has a 'festival' feel about it) - if you could re-edit a shorter version.

Sometimes festivals can be a bit political when screening work and deciding awards, I also think your work, vision, website etc. would go down well with festival judges, so I would always make sure they were made aware of it when submitting entries!

I know your goal is to make a feature - film funders love previous films that have won various accolades, it plays a big part in decision making and reputation. I once sat on a film funding board so got a real feel for the inner workings - playing their game...

My advice would be to re-edit and then get it sent out to as many festivals as possible both here and abroad.

One last thing, when they were digitising it at the channel, a number of people came in and out of the edit suite and stood and watched for a couple of minutes - everyone of them said that the film looked really good - and a number of them said they were going get a copy to sit down and watch it properly - that does not happen often!!

After some last minute paperwork hiccups, I can now confirm the dates and times for the showing of Mnemosyne on British TV. My film will be shown on The Community Channel [SKY 585, Telewest 233, NTL 14, Freeview 46] from 10pm on Tuesday 13th, Thursday 15th, Tuesday 20th and Thursday 22nd September, in conjunction with the CREATE MEDIA SHOW.

Over the last few weeks, Kevin has been working his socks off to finish the third segment script. I initially wrote a first draft, which Kev then critiqued. This then went to second draft in the same process before Kevin took over the writing and I moved to critiquing. It was an unusual process, but out of the three scripts this is my personal favourite. We needed something special to make this third segment match the other two, but my gut feeling is that it will surpass the other two segments once we have edited the film together. I am really stoked about it. It has now gone out to the actors, and we begin shooting this weekend.

I have had a number of actors earmarked for inclusion in the third segment, and today contacted the ones who I want to play lead roles. I sent them all a copy of the script, and am now waiting back to hear from them. I will do the same with a number of actors I have in mind for smaller roles next week. So far I have a main role cast (Anna Blades) and two minor roles (Russel Jones and Hiram Bleetman). Hopefully I can post a diary entry by the end of next week confirming we have a full cast on board. It will be very difficult for the third segment to match the first two, but Kevin and I have some very special tricks up our sleeves to round this feature film off nicely.

Today Kevin sent me a virtually complete script for the third segment of The Zombie Diaries. He has taken the framework I laid out and enhanced a lot of stuff. I read through it, made some small changes, then sent it back to him. Overall I was very pleased. He was a little worried about the pacing, but on inspection it was fine. It shows the actual beginning of the outbreak, and how it slowly engulfs England.

I also contacted another actor today who I believe will be great for one of the lead roles in this part. So far I have cast Anna Blades, and hope to fill the other three roles in the next few days. In the last few days I have been phoning around potential cast and crew trying to figure out everyone's availability so we can get stuck in ASAP. Tomorrow Kevin will approach Ian McCullough about a role.

I got in touch with an old aquaintance today - Dusty Rhodes. He is a friend of Colin Barret, the chap who runs SimplyDV. Colin introduced me to him a few years ago and we met briefly in the Press Association buidling for an interview.

I required some help from Dusty for the third segment of the film, so I got in contact recently. Today we had a chat over the phone and will probably meet at the rear-end of next week. He has been looking at some of the latest HD cameras and we'll probably have a chat about the feasibility of shooting the next feature with one of them.

Having reviewed all the footage with Kev, it became apparent there wasn't very much to reshoot at all! So yesterday was very relaxed, and comprised of some new scenes and the material we had to reshoot. Kev was unsure if there was enough gore in this part of the film, so we upped that and also put in a rather contraversial scene that will shock many people - it actually disturbed me and I was directing it! The acting has to be utterly first class or the scene would have been fucked. I'm pleased to say Imogen Church and James Fisher absolutely nailed the scene, which was unscripted and given minor guidance by myself. The farm now stands as a fantastic segment, complimenting The Dead City part really nicely. We had to shoot on the Thursday because it was on the only day all the cast and crew were available; as with DAYS EIGHT AND NINE, we were at the mercy of the weather..

Luckily for me, the rain - which had lashed down the previous day - stopped and we can a warm sunny day, with one thunderstorm for an hour, and a little rain at the end of the day. We even got a scene with the cast where the thunder is going off around them - very atmospheric!

We are now wrapped up on the Farm Segment of the film. Kev is finalising the script off for the third part, which I should have to read over for the weekend. I have some actors in mind for the various parts, and although no one is officially cast, I have a good gut feeling over who would work best in each of the roles.

Kevin Gates checked out the footage yesterday, and even edited some stuff together for me, and came to the conclusion we will need another day's worth of shooting on the farm, but not to actually do much re-shooting! The stuff with the rain actually looks really good (I previewed some WMVs today he put together) and definitely adds to the end of the world feeling. I know this sounds crazy, but we might look back on this and actually view the rain as a blessing in disguise, although at the moment that statement seems a little far fetched.

Kev has, however, pointed out that another day on the farm would be good as there is one effects sequence we need to reshoot, plus he wants to add more gore which could be achieved with some new scenes. The cast and FX guys have been contacted and so far everyone can make it. Let's hope the weather doesn't strike out at us again. A friend of mine saw the footage of the zombies being shot by the cast in the pouring rain and his first question was "Are you payin these dudes?". I'm feeling a lot more positive now. I also owe Kev a night of beer, as I bet him on the phone he couldn't edit the opening sequence into something usable, and he ended up makin it look fantastique!

Kev e-mailed me today with his initial impressions of the weekend's footage: strong performances, strong night vision scenes, but poor use of effects. This didn't surprise me. Rushing shots without having time to properly block them due to shit weather is not a recipe for success. He said that these were just initial impressions, though. He said he will sit down and review all the tapes tonight in depth and then he will be able to say what needs to be redone and what doesn't need to be redone. We might find that actually some clever editing will help us arund these problems. All in all, I am feeling much more positive about everything. After reviewing the footage I'm sure Kev will have some great suggestions, and we can then take things forward from there :) I will know tonight what waits ahead.

This last weekend was a real pisser. I saw some of the heaviest downpours of the year - all on the one weekend when we had cast and crew available to film. I am still not sure how I actually feel about the weekend - I fluctuate from moments of optimism, to moments of thinking we might need a half-day reshoot. The big problem for me was that I like to take my time when I direct, and I didn't get a chance to do that this weekend. I found myself rushing to get shots in whenever there was a break in the weather. Kevin has all the footage and he will look through it and then tell me what needs to be done.

On a positive note, the nighttime attacks (Shot in Night Vision), the ending sequence, and a brutal sequence involving a female zombie all turned out amazing. The waiting game now begins, and once Kev has got back to me with his impressions of the footage I'll know where we go from here. It's not all doom and gloom, and the thrashing rain may well aid the 'end of the world' feel of the film.

We shot on the Sunday this weekend, successfully finishing off the shoot for Kev's segment. This coming weekend I resume directing and will hopefully complete my segment. We will, however, face what will probably be the toughest weekend of shooting yet. Saturday will probably be a 16 hour day, although Sunday - which has been forecast as rainy - will be a single special effects shot and some interior reshoots. Kev and I appear to be on budget, but until we put all our costs into a spreadsheet we won't know for sure. I predict that the first two segments will take just over 3/4s of our budget. It means we may need to go over budget to finish off the third segment, but based on what I have seen so far I will be happy to do this.

Today Hakan Besim, my co-producer on Mnemosyne, saved the day by burning up two miniDV tapes at the last minute for a TV Channel who will be screening the film in a few weeks. This is going to be a hectic three months - in this period I will finish shooting The Zombie Diaries, get too see Mnemosyne on TV, and also be getting married!