My two new short films, 'Blank Canvas' and 'The Cursed Mirror' are now online on Youtube and Vimeo. There are also two articles about the films on this website but here are the embedded versions:

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The articles give far more information about the projects than I will here but suffice to say they were amazing to work on and it was fantastic to finally get behind the camera again after more than six years of VFX. I still can't believe that, when I made Something Real, we were shooting on a digibeta camera with tape transfers and deinterlacing to deal with. This time, we were shooting on a stills camera in HD with a 35mm sensor. Such a huge leap in technology in such a small time. Also a major change for me was working with a full professional crew and actors, whereas before I was mainly relying on the help of friends to support me. All the way through, from camera, lighting and sound to the post production and music, I had access to far more knowledge and equipment than my earlier films. I just can't wait to get going on more films, perhaps even a feature.

Grandpa in my Pocket has now finished filming and so I'm back at Dinamo for the next six weeks while we do the CG animation and compositing. By then I hope to have a better idea of what I'm doing for the next year and what path my career will take. There are plenty of options available to me, even though this isn't really the ideal commercial environment right now.

I've also finally updated the comics section with the banners I got at the Bristol Comic Convention in May. Better late than never...

Exciting times ahead! I've now finished production on my two new short films, Blank Canvas and The Cursed Mirror, the premiere of which will be on Saturday 31st July. I'll be showing them in HD in Chapter Cinema 1 so hopefully everything will be finished by then! We currently finishing up the VFX for The Cursed Mirror and the sound of grading for both. I'll be updating both projects' articles over the next few weeks and I'm committed to putting them online straight away. In this day and age, people are getting far more exposure for their films on the web so I've decided to avoid the expensive and lengthy festivals route. That said, if a festival is happy to show the film despite its web premiere then I'll be happy to submit it.

The full length short of Reign of Death has also be posted on Youtube so I've updated the Reign article with the movie and VFX breakdown. Work is continuing on the feature film version, although nothing is concrete. As soon as there is news, I'll post it. In fact, the release of Reign on the web after an eight month delay to show it in a handful of costly festivals is what convinced me to put my own shorts online. There have been a number of VFX shorts getting considerable high profile viral exposure this past year and I hope that both Reign and both my films can join their ranks.

Grandpa in my Pocket Series 3 starts later this week for a four week shoot. It's only fourteen episodes this time but will hopefully be a relaxed experience. Although I'm no longer at Dinamo, I'm still overseeing the production and will be based there for all of September. Due to various efficiencies, there are no new CG props or FX-heavy sequences so things will be lighter than the last series. It's a shame that it couldn't get a full swan song but I have a feeling we'll be moving onto bigger and better things soon.

I've also spent the last few weeks working on a number of projects, including another Ryan Andrews short called Jerusalem and a series called Indian Doctor for Rondo Media. Indian Doctor stars Sanjeev Bhaskar and Mark Williams and is currently shooting in South Wales. I'll be providing a small bit of VFX support to create matte paintings of the Welsh valleys as they appeared in the 1960's. Jerusalem is Ryan's Digital Shorts film about the painter William Blake and it stars Ray Winstone in the lead role. In a shameless display of namedropping, here is my photo of me and Ray on set (very lovely chap who was really enthusiastic about motion capture following his role in Beowulf). To temper this, here is a photo of me riding the boiler plate of a steam train on the set of Indian Doctor. Simple pleasures...

It's been a few months since I left Dinamo and a lot has happened in the meantime. I've updated this site with articles about Grandpa in my Pocket Series 2 and my work on Black Tears, an installation by artist Cecily Brennan. Further articles to come as soon as some of the work is premiered online.

Noel Clarke has been terrifically busy and has inked a deal with Icon to develop a slate of projects over the next five years. The feature version of Reign of Death is one of those projects so fingers crossed that we get to make that in the very near future. Nothing's certain in this game but Noel has a drive and ambition that's second to none. Matt Savage, the director, is itching to get started and has been sending me some of the early production art to drool over.

My big news of the quarter is that I'm making some new short films. One is already in the can and I'll be filming the other in early May. The premiere will be in late July and I'll be spending the next few months completing the post production and updating this site with lots of pictures and making-of articles. I don't think I'll be able to post the full movie online for a while (in case festivals require some exclusivities) but I'll certainly post clips and breakdowns of the VFX shots.

On top of all that, I've now started my own VFX company, Red Wire VFX. Things are still in the embyonic stage but I hope to have it running by the end of the summer to do some really cool jobs.

It's been a year since I decided to leave Dinamo and in that time I've done so many things and met so many interesting people that I could never have predicted this career path. Take every opportunity you can - you never know what will happen!

Grandpa in my Pocket has been nominated for a BAFTA Children's Award so I've been invited to the ceremony this Sunday to represent Dinamo at the Ad Astra table. It's also been nominated for a Kidscreen Award (against Sesame Street!) so the accolades are starting to flood in! Here's hoping we walk away with the statuette.

It's my last official week at Dinamo but I don't think it'll be last time I step through their doors. There are too many interesting projects going on! I'm looking forward to having a bit of a rest between now and Christmas, although I'll still be working on a couple of projects, not least a short film script I put in for the Digital Shorts scheme. Should I get through, I'll be making that around Easter next year. There are lots of other things on the horizon but nothing that I can talk openly about.

2012 was fun but overlong. Twilight: New Moon was dull and overlong. Avatar is clocking in at two and a half hours so hopefully it won't be third time unlucky! Never bet against James Cameron, though. I'll be seeing the film in the Cineworld and not the fake IMAX screen which is heading to Cardiff. It won't be a full IMAX cinema, just a reworked and rebranded existing screen at the Odeon. Sorely disappointed at that and it's frustrating when you consider that Bristol had a full IMAX up until a few years ago and it's never reopened.