Just got my Business Cards sorted for Cannes during my lunch break. I found some good deals online. It is a very exciting time. James Fisher and I will be staying with an ex-work colleague of mine who happens to live in Cannes (What are the odds??). He has generously donated his house in the hope our mini-trip will help us meet more sales agents and distributors. All the distributors we've shown the film to so far have been impressed.

Today director Matt Hope dropped around to show Kevin and I his new horror film "The Vanguard". We were very impressed with this film, especially as there is no dialogue for approximately the first 25 minutes. The mood and performances were very good, and we have to take out hats off to Matt Hope for undertaking such an artistic endeavour. Visit the Official Website for more information.

Just got some news back today that the programmers at Fantastic Fest (Austin) and Fantasia (Toronto) really liked The Zombie Diaries (QUOTE: "I think it is the most realistic Zombie Movie ever made") and have recommended it for inclusion in these festivals. We also have submitted it to a number of other festivals in the US, UK and Europe and we should start to hear back around August whether we were successful.

In other news, my psychological horror short, Mnemosyne, is going to be playing at the Broadband stream at Dread Central.

A lot has been happening lately. The Dread Central interview has sparked HUGE interest in the film. Companies such as Ghost House Pictures, Metrodome, Revolver, FOX ATOMIC and InterMediaFilm have all been in touch.

Today Kevin and I went to meet Camille Gatin, the director of development of InterMediaFilm who had requested to meet us and see a copy of the film. Camille really enjoyed the film, in particular the realism, narrative structure and mood, and wanted to talk to us about the possibility of us working with her and InterMedia in the future. Kevin and I are definitely ready to step up to the next level.

Camille said it was clear we understood the genre and the fans, and both Kevin and I feel we can put together a great script for a new horror film - I think the genre is very washed out at the moment with homages and parodies and whatnot. I think we are overdue a *real* horror film. In the last 5 years the only decent ones I can think of are SAW, The Descent and R-Point.

An interview Kevin and I did for Dread Central has sparked a huge amount of interest in the film. We've had International Sales Agents, Festival Programmers (for some of the best festivals on the planet I might add) and Distributors (including the company that put together Terminator 3) e-mailing us, trying to set up meetings. This is a very exciting time, and I hope to have some news on a distribution deal published on the diary within the next month or two. I can't say much more at the moment.

The new website is now online: www.ZombieDiaries.com. It contains the new theatrical trailer which kev spent many long evenings cutting to perfection. I myself have had quite a batle with the website which has been in development for a few weeks. Getting the design right was tough, but getting the site to load quickly, display nicely and the way I wanted was a bit of a pain and in the end I opted for a hybrid HTML and Flash solution.

Kev has been busy ferreting away for the last few weeks on a new trailer for The Zombie Diaries. He sent it through yesterday and the reaction has been incredibly positive. I have been working on the new website. I've shown it to quite a few horor fans and one of the top guys at EatMyBrains and the response has also been very good. We've decided to launch the whole package together next week. This coming Sunday we will also begin submitting our movie to International Film Festivals. We have a festival in mind to launch at, but I am keeping quiet about all of this (and the distributor's name as you may have noticed) and I'll announce things when the relevant paperwork is done and dusted, assuming things work out the way we want them to.

Today I met my partner in crime, Kevin Gates, director Simon Rumley (director of The Living and The Dead) and the head of acquisitions for a fairly large UK distributor. We all went out in Picaddily for a few beers to discuss our expectations for our movie. There has been talk of a possible offer for the UK territory, subject to a meeting at the distributor's London offices and a few other things.

Simon Rumley was a great guy to talk to - he offered a lot of advice on what festivals to think about launching The Zombie Diaries at and also what sales agents are worth talking to. His film has already been sold to 14 different territories and he has passed the details on for his agent.

Final arrangements were made today for Cannes - both James Fisher and myself will be making our way to the festival to target distributors and sales agents. Craig Stovin (who plays Andy in The Zombie Diaries) has been instrumental in getting me motivated to go down, and may accompany James and I in May.

One other thing to report: Kevin and I have been slowly targetting distributors from a hit-list we compiled last month. We have had good success so far, with about 50% of targets coming back and asking to see a screener. Things are really looking positive.

The guys at EatMyBrains.Com are the first website to see and review The Zombie Diaries. The review can be found here

Two pieces of big news:

Firstly, I attended Elliot Grove's Cannes Survival Guide last night at the Diorama Centre in Euston, London. It was quite a good course - only two hours long with lots of useful information ranging from registering for Cannes all the way to how to get free drinks and gatecrash the best parties.

I met two film producers looking to go to Cannes to raise finance for their new film, and also met a film student who was keen to learn what the next steps are for him by talking to others in the industry. Elliot was also really useful and provided me with the contact details for a very good sales agent he knows.

The second piece of news is that a large distributor is now considering whether to take The Zombie Diaries on. The film was passed to the head of acquisitions who we hear enjoyed the film, but we don't know anything else yet. I can't say too much, or reveal the identity of the company, but once we hear back I'll be able to reveal more (positive or negative).

The last few weeks have been very productive. I have been working on the official press pack which is now almost done. Kevin has been working on the trailer and 16x9 version of the film. I will start work on the new website next week, and will then move on to putting together an M&E (Music and Effects) version of the film. I also decided to personally commision a talented concept artist to design us a poster and a web image for the film.

After posting an advert to which I received around 50 responses, we finally settled on the artist Steve Clarke (escelce at msn.com), who produced some absolutely fantastic images for us. I absolutely recommend him to other filmmakers looking to get professional quality work on a tight budget.

Here is our image:

In other news, Kev and I have had interest from a few distributors, so we are putting together some screener packs which we should have out to them by the end of the week.

The year has come to a close and I am very pleased. Kev and I have hit all our targets with the movie and we are on track to promote The Zombie Diaries at Cannes in 2007. In the next month I am going to get some specially watermarked copies of the film out to key reviewers such as JoBlo, Uncle Creepy at Dread Central and the team from Eatmybrains.com. ABC news in Australia have also been very supportive so I will try and get one out to them.

On the job front I am now working back in London after a brief stint in Aberdeen. The commute is an hour door-to-door which means I get to see much more of my wife. I have brought my crazy consultant lifestyle to an end, but feel much the happier (and healthier) for it.

I was teaching myself Flash and Actionscript so I could revamp the website to ZombieDiaries.Com, but my new job has taken precedence, and without it Kev and I most certainly will not be able to travel down to Cannes or put financial muscle behind the film, so it will have to wait. My plan is to focus on the website in January, as well as work on some of the Music and Effects (M&E) version of the film (for dubbing purposes) before handing it to Rob in late Jan / early Feb. Kev is focussing on getting the DigiBeta masters of the film in various formats sorted and is also working on a new 2 minute trailer.

I wish all other filmmakers and film enthusiasts out there a merry Christmas, and a prosperous new year. 2007 will be a very interesting year, especially given the fact we get to see what Romero has done with his zombie diaries premise and a 5 million dollar budget (Diary Of The Dead). I think he's too far down the John Carpenter sliding slope in his career now, but there is a certain buzz in the independent film community he might just pull it off. Time will tell. Onwards to 2007.

Accomodation for Cannes 2007 is all booked up. I also dropped down to see Elliot Grove of Raindance to book myself up on the Cannes survival guide for next year. Elliot also had some good advice for me about Sales Agents, getting the film promoted, etc.

I have also been keeping a private diary about my dealings with our sales agent. For professional reasons I can't say who he is or the name of his company, but what I can reveal is that Kev and I have decided not to work with him after all. I won't go into detail; all I'll say is that Kevin and I felt the film would be better represented elsewhere.

We already have someone else we know who can broker film deals, so Kev is meeting with him today and we will see what comes of this. For all you other filmmakers out there, below is a list of deliverables your sales agent may ask you for (required by Distributors):

• One (1) 16:9 Digi-Beta sub-master of the film with five (5) minutes of black at the beginning, non-drop time code on the address track. M&E on tracks 3&4 (PAL)
• One (1) 16:9 Digi-Beta sub-master of the film with five (5) minutes of black at the beginning, non-drop time code on the address track. M&E on tracks 3&4 (NTSC)
• One (1) 16:9 Digi-Beta sub-master of the trailer with five (5) minutes of black at the beginning, non-drop time code on the address track. M&E on tracks 3&4 (PAL)
• One (1) 16:9 Digi-Beta sub-master of the trailer with five (5) minutes of black at the beginning, non-drop time code on the address track. M&E on tracks 3&4 (NTSC)
• One (1) 16:9 Digi-Beta sub-master of the Added Value with five (5) minutes of black at the beginning, non-drop time code on the address track (PAL)
• One (1) 16:9 Digi-Beta sub-master of the Added Value with five (5) minutes of black at the beginning, non-drop time code on the address track (NTSC)
• Ten (10) PAL All Region DVD copies of the film
• Ten (10) NTSC All Region DVD copies of the film
• One (1) CD-ROM miscellaneous containing;
  1. Chain Of Title/Copyright notice
  2. A dialogue list
  3. A music cue sheet
  4. A list of all billing and credit requirements
  5. A list of all cast & crew
  6. A Press kit (synopsis, awards, reviews, cast & crew biographies)
  7. At least thirty (30) assorted color production stills in 300 dpi JPEG file. Poster Art; various samples from US & UK distributors in 300 dpi layered PSD and JPEG file.

I recently was interviewed by Gary Kemble of ABC News. He was over from Australia to see Stephen King but managed to find time to interview me about The Zombie Diaries.

The interview is spread over two articles:

• 'Zombie Diaries' director welcomes Romero link
• The Zombie Diaries: striking out against mediocrity

I was chatting online today with Marc Buhmann, director of The Quiet Darkness. We were chatting about what cameras we were thinking of shooting our next features on. Marc said that the hot property on the market right now is the Panasonic HVX200.

The camera supports the same slick 1080/24p ".. used for theatrical feature films such as “Star Wars Episode II” and “Once Upon a Time in Mexico”. Panasonic has now lowered the bar of entry for 1080/24p from $100,000 down to under $6,000. And not only 24P, but also 30P and 60i, just like the CineAlta."

I dropped over to see my mate Hak recently. Hak was just done finishing off uploading the films from his recent Halloween Challenge. Hak runs the competition every year, and this last year he managed to negotiate some very big prizes from large companies such as Avid and Pinnacle. Hak showed me some of the films - I love watching low-budget filmmaking; I could sit there and watch this stuff all day.

I have a pretty good eye for talent, and wanted to mention some of the films that I was very impressed with. All films were made in 13 days with limited resources.

The Quiet Darkness: This, in my opinion, was the best film entered. The director chose to shoot the film as a video diary, and the film was a single shot of a young woman (Alissa Bailey - who bytheway was Fantastic) telling her story to the camera. The visual effects (Marc Buhmann) were subtle and worked really well. The lighting and use of shadow was absolutely brilliant, and I think the filmmakers (and actress) have a big future if they plan on having a career in independent filmmaking.

The Booth: This was a pretty neat film. I liked the strobe effects and the sound design at the end. The film was also based on a simple idea and kept locations to a minumum which is always a good idea on a low-budget.

End Of The Line: This film, by 'Reach for the dream productions', was a gutsy piece. The filmmakers risked their lives to make this film, set on an isolated train station where one man accidentally departs a train. The atmosphere was very good, and this film could have been the outright winner if only the ending has been better executed. I have always been a big believer in 'less is more' and unfortunately the film gives too much away at the end. That aside, you have to give these guys credit for the work and the effort that went into it. They produced a film 'Shhh' for last year's challenge which I also thoroughly enjoyed.

Night Shifters: I wanted to give it a mention as I was so impressed with the special effects.

ZZZ: This is the film that won the competition. The effects were very good, but the story was neglected in favour of gore. Halloween for me is more about spooky atmosphere than throwing buckets of blood at the viewer. It was a very creditable effort, but for me 'The Quiet Darkness' was a better film.

Special mention to Hak's film Bad Combination which he made in one day and is on a par with the other films. Well done to actresses Miranda Magee, Sarah Akehurst and Jenny Class who delivered good performances.

Despite nursing a pretty heavy cold, I journeyed down to London today to meet the Sales Agents I targeted to take on The Zombie Diaries. Again - I cannot say much about who they are, all I can reveal is that I have seen the distribution of their films before and know they will deliver.

Kev came with me, and we discussed with the agents possible changes to the film to make it more 'commercial' and also to maximise the selling potential.

The upshot of the whole conversation was that a strategy has been agreed: we will unveil the film at Cannes. We need to deliver a 4:3 and 16:9 DigiBeta of the film, with press packs, 30 stills (300 dpi), and a version with just Music and Effects for non-English speaking countries who do not wish to use subtitles.

Kev and I will spend the rest of the year tweaking the film so that we put out best foot forward when we begin approaching distributors. There will also be a screening in London with a lot of the top critics invited in order to generate pre-Cannes buzz. It's a very exciting time.

Today Kevin and I spent the evening working on some modifications to our film The Zombie Diaries. I took one of my copyright-free sound CDs over, and we polished off the sound design to the film. We also cut 3 scenes which we felt didn't really drive the story forward.

I have also arranged for Will Tosh and Sophia Ellis to pop up this Saturday to film a new scene for the movie. There is no guarantee that we will use it, but after the test screenings it was clear to both Kevin and I that we could have developed two particular characters a little more.

The other main piece of feedback we had was that the film did not have enough 'jumpy moments' in. That has been nicely rectified (although we haven't gone overboard like some of these modern shite films do), so anyone with a nervous disposition turning up for the screening on the 11th November better not sit too near to the front!!

Today I journeyed into London Kings Cross to do an interview with journalist, Gary Kemble, of ABC News in Australia. Gary was over in the UK for a brief stint, and as we has spoken on e-mail he suggested we meet for a Q&A about The Zombie Diaries.

It was a shame I didn't have a decent laptop or a portable DVD, as I woul like to have shown him the film, but alas my only laptop needs to be permanently plugged into the mains otherwise it dies, so it was not possible. I will send him a screener to review in a few weeks once we have the final version ready.

This last year has been amazing. I've finished off my first feature film The Zombie Diaries and we already have big interest from distributors and sales agents. I wish I could write more about that, but it isn't really something I can make public, despite this being a 'warts and all diary'.

The film was screened on the 28th October to the cast and crew, as well as some select family and friends. If I am going to be totally honest, I didn't enjoy that night. I was too nervous worrying about everyone having a good time. I didn't really feel 'with it'. My wife, Maren, did a terrific job of meeting and greeting everyone, while Kevin and I worked feverishly to get the projector ready. The projector was provided by local company Exposure TV at a discount rate. It's always encouraging when companies can help local filmmakers out.

The 29th saw the world premiere to the public. Kevin, Scott Orr (Special effects) and I sat amongst the people in the audience (The first film ever to sell out on pre-bookings alone at the cinema). We were able to get some great feedback, and will discuss this with a view to tweaking the film. I also got some really good feedback from Julian Richards, the filmmaker responsible for The Last Horror Movie.

The film is to be screened again on November 11th at The Broadway Cinema, Letchworth, so book your tickets now to avoid disappointment.