It was a fantastic pleasure to attend the London Rolling Film Festival this Sunday. There were a number of things I particularly liked when we applied: it was a film festival run by women, the film would only be screened if the filmmaker or filmmakers were in attendance and it was free to attend.   Click to read more...

It's been a surreal week or so! Emmi has been selected for three more festivals (exciting): Copenhagen Film Days, London Rolling Film Festival and London Golden Scout International Film Festival. Perhaps our biggest news is that we won the award for "Best Drama" at the Oniros International Film Awards.   Click to read more...

Whilst browsing festivals over Easter, I spotted something called 'Lo-No Pop-Up Cinema' in London looking for 'real stories' to shown. Being as Emmi is inspired by a real story we decided we should give it a go - I'm glad we did!   Click to read more...

For the final part of the Oxford Literary Festival actor Toby Jones gave a talk at the Sheldonian Theatre with Professor Simon Kovesi. The immediate thing which struck me about Toby was his wit. Toby comes from a theatrical family but he originally wanted to be a director rather than an actor.   Click to read more...

A couple of weeks ago I was asked to give a talk about covering 'The Production Process' at Film Oxford. Like many I feel nervous talking in front of an audience. They say you should do something each day which scares you, so I agreed to give the talk for an hour or so. One of the problems creating the talk was knowing how experienced the audience would be and how much information to cover.   Click to read more...

I've just returned from The Guerilla Filmmaking Masterclass run by Chris Jones over the weekend. With short-film The Choice in post-production, this seemed like the perfect time to get re-energised for the slog ahead (as well as try to meet other filmmakers and potential collaborators). The primary aim of this Masterclass was facing and overcoming fear (including getting audience members to do things they normally wouldn't such as glass walking barefoot). Overcoming fear really resonates with me as it is the central theme of The Choice and making this film has definitely taken me way out of my comfort zone (in a good way).

One of the other (nicer) surprises was the Q&A with Director Jonathan Newman who has made a number of prominent features and short films. A few years back Jonathan also kindly agreed to answer a few questions I posed to him. Hopefully this will inspire other filmmakers (and anyone who attended the Masterclass over the weekend). Click to read more...

My favourite band of recent times is Goldfrapp, yet I'm an 80's child at heart. My favourite 80's band is Tears for Fears. I had no idea of any link between the two until recently (Will Gregory collaborated on saxophone for Tears For Fears). Will is currently touring with his Moog Ensemble - something of a "Super Band" including the talents of Ade Utley from Portishead and film composer Graham Fitkin. The ensemble recently played in Oxford, I naturally felt compelled to attend.

Moog synths are analog with no presets but plenty of twisty dials and buttons to help sculpt sounds. They are also monophonic meaning you can only play one note at a time. As you can imagine, bringing this together takes skill. We thought it would either be complete genius or total disaster (and were extremely curious to know which). Click to read more...

Recently I had the privilege to work alongside Artist Gareth Jones (1965). Gareth studied Fine Art during the mid 80's before moving on to varied projects such as a new edition of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray (with Four Corners Books) and a solo exhibition at the Milton Keynes Gallery. In 2006 he received a Paul Hamlyn Award for Visual Arts.

It was quickly apparent that Gareth influences are Utopian architecture, in particular Milton Keynes where he grew up as a child. In 2011 he produced a short film entitled "Looking for Milton Keynes". Click to read more and view video...

Both of my daughters have always enjoyed 'banging around' creating music on my keyboard. I usually get asked to record their efforts. My eldest seems particularly musical, we share similar music tastes (both responding to minor chords and strings). She recently had a term learning to play the violin - I have to say she was far better at it than I was. Being the weekend, I decided to let her have a little play on my keyboard again.   Click to read more...

Last week everything was seemingly going to plan until without any predictable rhyme or reason disaster struck! Below is advice I've written to remind myself how I coped (which is hopefully helpful to others)   Click to read more...

Here is the final instalment. What will be number one? Did you predict it and will you agree? Here are what I consider the creme de la creme of Bond songs   Click to listen and read more...