Three Little Words in Advance

"Happy New Year!"

As the 1st of January dawns, I hope it brings you promise and hope for the new decade.

Catch you on the other side. x

Greetings of the Season

The tree is sparkling,
The wine is mulled,
The veg is bought,
The turkey culled.
The snow won't stay much,
But hey, what's new?
Merry Christmas, All -
My glass is raised to you.


Sending very Merry Christmas wishes to You & Yours from all at Tenacious Towers! May the Festive period bring fun, happiness, rest and relaxation...in addition to the revolting amounts of food and alcohol...

Enjoy.

Ruby 0110

Another day, another terribly talented "0110: Twisted Tales & Glorious" Covert Team member - this time though, it's time to face the music (*groan*) and announce the wonder that is Sam Watts as our Composer. He has a lovely way with his hands, so I'm really looking forward to hearing his musical take on 0110! If you would like to know more about Sam and 0110, HERE is where to go. I popped a little bit into The Diaries too...

Having a lot of work and socials all on at once is a marvellous moan to have, however I can categorically state that from tomorrow until the second week in January, I will not be attending anymore frolics. There I've said it. Tonight, after taking in some of Piers Beckley's finely adapted atmosphere in the form of "Oliver Twist", I shall literally fade into the evening mists, not to be seen again until the year Two Thousand and Ten.

I will of course, still be working away: with "0110" drafts coming in and many Feature discussions to be had, it really will be a busy few weeks ahead. Oh, yes, and then there's Christmas. I love Christmas, me. I love every single darn thing about it. It's just...sparkly - need I say more?

Adios for now.

Developing the Team

Last Friday saw an amazing occurrence. Apart from the fact Piers Beckley was up and communicating before midday (quite coherently, I'll add), our five other intrepid 0110 adventurers - Alan Mckenna, Dan Hall, Helen Smith, Laurence Timms and Michelle Lipton - had battled their way across London Town (Michelle having already walked barefoot from Brighton) to arrive fresh as daisies at the gates of Tenacious Towers - 0110 HQ for the day.

After Dusty the Maid had mistaken them for mere tradesfolk and encouraged them to warm their hands by the kitchen Aga, Billson (new Butler) apologetically rescued them and brought them to the Drawing Room. Here, we plotted, planned and schemed our way through the 0110 avenue of trees, thus enabling us clear vision of the Twisted Tales & Glorious wood lying before us. Oh yes, indeed it did.

We gallantly charged our way through marshy bogs and zombie infested enclosures and emerged in a vast clearing just in time to pop back for a spot of lunch: the seven of us looked quite a neat little package sat at the Southernmost end of the Grand Hall Dining Table. We filled our faces, swigged mead and chatted nonchalantly as Mrs B, the Housekeeper, screeched orders from the kitchens in the distance, often overtaking the dulcet tones of the Monks and lyre playing to us from the corner.

Once we had partaken of a brandy to warm our cockles, it was back into the wild - plagued by spectres and decisions. Which path did we take? We knew we had to decide as a Team - an Army - and we made it. We chose the correct trail through the choking fog but just as we thought the end was in sight we caught our breath: a huge beast emerged from a primordial swamp for the final showdown. We all looked at each other and immediately knew how to proceed. Fortunately for us we had an old Ghostbuster backpack kicking around and we zapped that blighter down to size in no time.

That, my dears, was our "0110:Twisted Tales & Glorious" Story/Pilot/Series Development Day.

Team works - in fact it works so well, two story first drafts are completed.

0110 - Scribe Diary 7 & The Meet

It's D-Day today - the day when me and the "0110" Scribe Team crack this baby.

Excited.

Nervous.

And Dan Hall has a Diary Update too.

We're motoring.

See you on the other side.

0110 - Scribe Diary 6 & Other Stories

Feature Film Development is soon to end and Pre-production looms, as well as two new projects materialising in front of me: this really has been a good, busy week, and I wouldn't change one iota for a second. Nossiree. This coming Friday will see the biggest, longest story/script/series development-meeting-covered-in-one-huge-blast ever known to mankind: it's the day when We* stir up, good and proper, the hornet's nest that is "0110: Twisted Tales & Glorious". As if The Team weren't all having a weird enough time anyway...

And with that in mind, I am thrilled to tell you to pop on over to the 0110 Diaries where Scribe, Alan Mckenna, has been sharpening his perceptions with intangible occurrences.

[*the Royal We being myself and the 0110 Scribes]

0110 - Scribe Diary 5

Don't say I don't treat you right...

First off, a quick reminder that you can follow @zerooneonezero on Twitter.

Secondly, today brings yet another "0110: Twisted Tales & Glorious" Scribe Diary Entry - this time from the lovely, not strange at all, Piers Beckley. It's right HERE.

Ha! I knew there would be one!

0110 - Scribe Diary 4

I have been doing a fair bit of background work for "0110" over the weekend, which has been challenging but fun all the same. Hell, I even managed to write something totally unrelated, too. Fancy that, eh? Me actually writing something these days. Ha! Take that, Time!

I'm seriously amused (but only slightly worried) by the amount of odd happenings surrounding the "0110" Team and Project. The diary section of the 0110 Website is just about to be updated with an email from Scribe, Michelle Lipton - have a read of it and you'll see what I mean. You can also leave comments in the diary section now, so feel free to share anything odd that may have happened to YOU since you became involved in "0110"!

I did warn the Team that I thought this could quite possibly become a life changing experience for us all. Even I didn't realise then, just how much.

;0)

Today theThirteenth

I've been off over at "0110: Twisted Tales & Glorious" today, doodling and jotting a few thoughts in the diaries.

All quiet on the western front so far: it is the calm before next week's storm.

0110 - Scribe Diary 3

Hope you are well and still in once piece after all those fireworks. Quite a Blitz these days, isn't it? Never mind - we'll have a little lull and then the bang-bangs will start up again as we move into Advent...

Recently, the "0110 Scribes" will no doubt have been scouring the newspapers and internet for strange Hallowe'en and Bonfire Night related incidents in order to add a third, fourth or fifth dimension to their "Twisted Tales & Glorious" ideas; or perhaps they haven't needed to? There have been enough curious, poignant and disconcerting occurrences in our individual worlds without needing to search for more, as Dan Hall discovered and penned for his 0110 Diary entry.

0110 - Scribe Diary 2

Hello all. And so a busy week wearily reaches its end for some, but not all.

It's been pretty manic here in Wing 0110 at Tenacious Towers, but good manic all the same. My tune of the week, and one which encompasses the spirit of "0110: Twisted Tales & Glorious", is "Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi: Fortune Plango Vulnera" from Carmina Burana by Orff. One of my favourite pieces of music has always been "O Fortuna" from the same movement, but since it was bastardised by the X Factor, listening to it now feels like a guilty pleasure. It should, however, be said that it still strikes utter panic and terror into my heart as I recall watching "The Omen" for the first time.

And that leads me very nicely to tell you that our second of our Scribe Diaries, penned by Helen Smith, is now online HERE for you to read. Like Laurence Timms and the rest of the 0110 Team, Helen has noted oddities in her life since joining 0110. Maybe these strange things have always been there and our awareness is heightened. But maybe they haven't.

0110 - Scribe Diary 1

Our first "0110: Twisted Tales & Glorious" diary entry from a Scribe is now online. Read how Laurence Timms is doing...

Clicky linky here.

Covert

Today, I have been battling against the odds today with technology. Servers - or lack of service - have been a big issue, along with my phone continually re-setting itself and my central heating working as and when it decides. Fairly irritating.

However, the server issues have been momentarily overcome and I am very happy to announce that our "0110:Twisted Tales & Glorious" Script Editor - the first of the Covert Team to be announced - is the very wonderful, Elinor Perry-Smith. There is more about lovely Elinor on the 0110 website, so head on over to read all about it.

Also, the diaries will temporarily be a space for the Scribes to chart parts of their journey. I hope you enjoy their thoughts/sides of the story. Of course if they are rude about me, I shall just delete them. ;0)

Clearing Mists

Now Hallowe'en has been and gone, I can wish a brand, spanking, shiny Celtic New Year to you all.

Not an awful lot to tell you other than I spent the best part of the weekend being a pirate, I have one bright scarlet fingernail (I really like the colour so I won't remove the nail varnish just yet), "0110: Twisted Tales and Glorious" is coming together, and it looks as though I'll be filing this year, in my life archive, under "Not Too Bad".

Next it's Bonfire Night/Guy Fawkes Night - another one of my favourites of the year. It's all those pretty colours, you see - an aerial equivalent of being given carte blanche in Tiffany's. Yum, indeed.

Well, in case you've missed it, 0110 is now available to follow on Twitter as @zerooneonezero and the news/diaries pages on the main "0110:Twisted Tales & Glorious" website will be updated with bits and pieces of info as we move along.

Bye for now.

Placing Brands

This week I have mostly been talking like Lola* and I have no idea why, other than it has been a funner-er way to live my week with a stinky lurgy.

Becoming quite attached to a favourite screen character is nothing new; many people would never dream of missing Doctor Who, Torchwood, BSG, Heroes, Lost, Holby - you name it - just to see what 'Character X' does next - but on Kids' TV, as an adult?

I write stuff, produce and direct stuff, have reels to prove I have voiced characters just like Lola on screen and 'puter games (although not as successful - goddamit!). More to the point I am an adult - yes, I know some would debate this - but surely all of the above should add up to an ability to remain unaffected by a pink-milk swigging girl on kids' TV? But our Lola is far more than that: she is quite the example of examples. I can spot a piece of Charlie and Lola merchandise a mile off; within the first four notes of the opening titles I know it is on, and even the last seven notes of the theme tune still drive me to distraction because I always think of Hill Street Blues; every time I see glitter and gaudy coloured scrap paper I think they'd "be good for stick-er-ing" and so it goes on.

Branded: that's what has happened to me, and the way in which Lola phrases her sentences has become very much part of the brand too, but I am unconvinced as to whether I know if a child or an adult has more brand loyalty. Obviously adults hold the purse strings and make most of the overriding decisions within a household and so therefore could be supposed to dictate brand choice, but given the option of anything and everything in a room, would a child *only* pick up his/her favourite "Dora the Explorer" merchandise? Or would they pick up Dora, only to fancy a bit of "Timmy Time" topped off with a snippet of "Thomas Tank" merch? I suspect they would as a rule of thumb, but all children differ. How about adults though? Stick a bunch of adults in a warehouse of *free* entertainment electronics - Sony on one side, LG in the middle and Beko on the other side - most people would probably gravitate towards the Sony goodies based on brand presence in the marketplace, unless they had previous bad experience or were ardent fans of LG or Beko. Ever heard someone vehemently defend 'their' Football Team, talk about how 'their' TV programme is about to come on (so everyone: shut up or die), how they prefer Nigella's Christmas recipes to Jamie's? Brands, each and every one. We are branded 24/7. So why am I stating the obvious - well, for screen writing and production reasons, of course?

Next time you sit down with a flashing cursor on virgin white 'screen paper' having completed all your background research, just take five minutes to read through your notes on how your project may be branded or at least perceived in the TV marketplace - because you've completed them too, haven't you? No? Well, you may want to start making mental notes to this avail because brands as we know are big business.

No need to spend hours and hours agonising over whether the name will look good on the Point of Sale posters, or whether the font is slightly too Doctor Who - that is what the sales, marketing and design experts are paid to do. Just see your story in a simple graphic, a doodle, a colour, a photo; assess how that graphic/doodle/colour/photo makes you feel and perhaps keep it nearby? Perhaps, if you hit a brick wall just after the midpoint, a quick glance at your initial 'concept brand' is all it would take to get your creative juices flowing again. This may all seem really rather far removed from any form of real writing creativity but over the next month or so, the guidelines on product placement within the UK TV industry (but not BBC) will be changing with a big bang, so it's worth gradually trying to re-tune your mind a little.

Film is no stranger to product placement: take Warner Bros Watchmen (2009) - the main featured brands totalled a fairly average nineteen, all of which were 'vintage' 1980s versions; "The Proposal" (2009) (Bullock/Reynolds) reads like a who's who in luxury designer brand placement, with placement winner, Apple, having an iMac in every computer scene.

"But I'm a writer, not a marketing & PR person!" I hear you shout and, yes, this is true: but you are, however, in business. So you would think your creativity would be curtailed by the fact that XYZ Brand's Product is heavily investing and therefore needs prominence - in fact, it has been suggested that blatant placement turns a lot of viewers off - but it is worth bearing in mind, once the guidelines have been drawn up, you may just have to incorporate certain elements into your work. I may be wrong and talking total rot, but I feel it is sometimes better to be prepared and open to new ideas.

When you are sending out your work, obviously you don't brand anything (unless you've been asked to, of course). Just make these ideas/visuals your own personal branding, one which enables you to focus on the crux of your story and allows you to talk with even more passion and gravitas than you had upon idea conception.

Give it a go. It may just help.

*Charlie and Lola

0110 - Part Six

Choosing Writer No. 6 for "0110:Twisted Tales & Glorious" was always going to be really tough - and that's not to say selecting Writers number one through five wasn't hard enough with all the obscene talent out there. Writer No. 6 always had to have an addition strong element attached to them - a duplicity, as it were - and in my ideal world (and weird mind) that 'other element' had to take the form of a performer.

Now, believe me, scheduling five writers and myself to be in the same place at the same time has been tough enough, but when you add filming commitments/performance schedules into the mix, it becomes really good fun.

So, I have been up and down mountains and hit the dusty track many a time over the last few months in my search for the perfect Writer No. 6. Like all the other Team members, I have not just had to assess their writing ability and determine whether this person would gel and work with the other Team members, I have also had to bear in mind their performance suitability for the project. Then, two weeks ago, just when I thought I had totally exhausted all avenues of writer/performers I flicked on the TV and saw a certain actor who, not I had not only worked with, but also knew to be a writer.

The next day we spoke and arranged a time to meet up - although not immediately as he was just about to fly out to Georgia to appear literally alongside Andy Garcia in Renny Harlin's new feature, "Georgia". When he got back we had a fine lunch and a great meeting. We both got very excited about the possibilities ahead for "0110" and so without any further waffle - apologies for too much already - ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I am very happy indeed to announce our final writer, our "0110:Twisted Tales & Glorious" Writer No.6 and Performer No. 1 is the marvellously talented, Alan Mckenna.

0110 - Part Five Point Five

A brief respite from "0110: Twisted Tales & Glorious" over the weekend - normal service will resume next week...

Indeed there are a few more announcements to be made, and it's not 'just' Writer No. 6...

Until then.

0110 - Part Five

I wish I had something not so glistening to say about our next "0110: Twisted Tales & Glorious" Writer, but I haven't. I mean - they all sound too damn perfect, don't they? Well they are. End of. Deal with it.

And so, without further ado, let me introduce you to the utterly delightful - and possibly not so well known to all my usual blog readers - Writer No. 5: Dan Hall.

As soon as I met Dan, we gelled; then, once I read excerpts of his work and saw his visual style in the photography field, I knew he would be the perfect fit for our 0110 jigsaw. He possesses an incredible writing talent as well as an impeccable TV pedigree and, strangely enough, is a jolly nice person to boot.

Welcome, Dan!

0110 - Part Four

A quiet wackiness entwined itself around the table at our very first 0110 Writing Team meeting - an energy that required, as expected, movement of furniture and quick, sardonic replies.

With that visual in mind, it is time for another announcement - to introduce you to our "0110: Twisted Tales & Glorious" Writer No. 4: Piers Beckley.

I have read a great deal of Piers' work and can only wonder which part of rocket science and nuclear physics he failed (or perhaps he didn't). A very clever writer who is also possessed by a most congenial nature and a fractal outlook that embodies the spirit of 0110.

Welcome, Piers!

0110 - Part Three

*Fanfare*

And so to the third of our "0110: Twisted Tales & Glorious" scribes.

It is my great pleasure to announce that Writer No. 3 is the delectable, deft and dedicated, Michelle Lipton. Quite the drama queen - in a literary sense, please - Michelle will add her own polished distortion of thoughts to 0110, and for that, I am utterly delighted to have her on our skilled team.

Ms Lipton - welcome!

0110 - Part Two

As I mentioned yesterday, all this week I will be announcing our writers for "0110: Twisted Tales & Glorious" and so without further ado, I am thrilled to announce Writer No.2 is the adorable and buoyant Helen Smith.

Having been privy to quite a few of Helen's plays, I am very excited she has become part of the Team and will be bringing yet another different style and outlook to the table. Welcome to the madness, Helen!

Broadcasting 0110 - Part One

Hello you

I've been having a mighty busy few days since I last dropped by to check on you all, but boy has it been good.

First of all, a belated thank you to Conor Dignam (Director, Emap's media group), Lisa Campbell (Editor, Broadcast) and their lovely Marketing & Editorial team at Broadcast who very kindly asked me to join in for a light lunch in order to discuss the contents - past, current and future - of that very shiny trade weekly and website. For those of you who aren't subscribers, you really should be. If you want to know your market - as a writer, director, producer, technical genius - then the pages of this weekly should be regularly digested. In fact, just the access to the online Commissioning Index alone is worth it's weight in megabytes and will soon become a subscriber-only section.

From my point of view it was refreshing to be able to put one's tuppence-worth forward and then listen to the challenges and ideas the Broadcast team have bubbling. At the best of times, both film and TV are challenging industries, but at the moment the bar has been raised with regards to 'challenging', with finance being pulled and budgets being slashed everywhere you go. Trade press, such as Broadcast and Screen International can have an enormous amount of influence on the reporting of stories as they break and so to actually sit back, take the time, and assess how they can best help the industries can only be a good thing. Well done!

And so for the rest of my week: taken up with the final tweaks and preparations for "0110: Twisted Tales & Glorious". We had our initial Writing Team meeting and believe me, there was something mighty special going on. The ideas were buzzing and the air was sheer electricity. I am thrilled to be working with so many exceptional people and this is just the beginning of it all.

Every day this week, we will be announcing a new 0110 writer on the main "0110" website and with that in mind, I am totally and utterly pleased to tell you that Writer No 1 is Laurence Timms. Well done, Laurence - it's great to have you on board and to finally be able to work together.

Get on over to the 0110 site every day and see the Team grow!

The Road Was Long

What a weekend. What a week. What a month - or two.

The documentary footage went down very, very well and I had a totally amazing night at the Awards Ceremony; I'm not sure why, but I was quite weirded out by the whole evening but I guess it was seeing the exact same reactions and emotions I had experienced, rippling around the 300-odd people in the room as they watched the very footage I have now seen and mucked around with so many times. Needless to say, it was a very emotional night for everyone involved after such an intense period working on the whole project. A big shout out & well done to all those on the 'arrangement' side as well as my production side. The event wouldn't have been as successful without incredible communication, hard work and dedication all round.

And so...next on the list.

If you are a regular reader of this blog you will be aware of "0110", and whilst moving towards the latter stages of the recent documentary/interview footage editing, I was also slowly making headway with the early development of "0110: Twisted Tales and Glorious". I am very pleased to say we now have our Writing Team and what a top bunch of talent they are. I am thrilled to be starting work with them very soon, but more on all of them over at the 0110 website. Keep your eyes peeled here and there for a load of info coming your way very soon. In fact, the diaries have just been updated.

There's an awful lot going into the cauldron at the moment but until I've got my fresh newt tails and chameleon claws to add to the mix, you'll just have to hang around to see what the result is.

Well, that's it from me for now. Hope you're all having fun and you've located and freshened up your snuggly jumpers - make sure you don't catch the sniffles and stay cozy.

Almost

This week finally sees the screening of the documentary/interview footage I have been working on lately. It will be encompassed within an 'as live' broadcast award ceremony and, I must admit, it's all looking and sounding rather lovely.

Much thanks goes out to the wonderful people who let me and my trusty crew into their lives and stories - there is a vast amount of extremely strong footage to be shown that will be sure to produce quite a few lumps in the throat. What these men, women and children have been/are going through makes what I do seem so damn insignificant, but at least on this occasion I could help orchestrate bringing these marvellous stories of bravery and fights against all odds, into the public domain.

For this opportunity - and all the others heading my way soon - I will be eternally grateful.

Now - onwards.

Gratitude

Hello there.

A little bit quiet on the Tenacious front at the moment. I am nearing finalisation of the 0110 Writing Team but also holed up in an edit suite, having just finished producing and directing some startling documentary footage. More regularly than not of late, life has been taking me to lots of dark places with low oxygen levels, however, the results are always most congenial and by the look of the footage, this past shooting experience is no exception.

Being surrounded by so many courageous and remarkable men, women and children recently and then touched by their truly remarkable stories has been a terribly humbling experience. I've now sat in on the edit for more than 22 hours since yesterday morning - such is the vast amount of gobsmacking and heartrending footage we shot.

The rough edit is very much on it's way now and I can only hope the final cut shows these amazing people for what they are - strong, selfless and without a doubt, heroes.

Just Passing By

I drooled a little bit into the 0110 diaries. Apologies.

Normal service will hopefully resume here soon, after a little shoot. In the meantime, please don't fight over all the same toys again. Thanks.

Fifty-Seven to Six

I have caught myself sighing a great deal this week; I have also been screwing up my face into positions a contortionist would be impressed by. This, my dear reader, is what comes of trying to shortlist a writing team of six from fifty-seven high quality applications. It's really tough, I can tell you, and it will still not be until (at least) mid next week until I know what's what.

Knowing a great deal of writers personally has been a blessing and a curse in itself, so I have had to operate on "corporate HR level" like I used to when hiring & firing years ago. It's a really tough, clinical way to do things, but to begin with, emotions have to be locked away; the bare facts & statistics looked at. End of. I really hate writing that: I have been at the mercy of this thinking many a time over the years, but 'tis the way of the world (I wince).

To a degree, I am still 'some bird who people kinda know the name of' pitching to 'The Lovely People Who Decide' on a regular basis, but I am building my facts, statistics and raising the bar by the day. Let's face it, you don't get contracts/commissions purely because you're 'nice': you get them because you have an aptitude, the ability to manage expectations and deliver the goods - and that's what the 0110 Team is about - that and the group dynamic which will become so very, very important. But what about raw talent, I hear you cry? Well, I can safely state there wasn't one CV/resume I was not impressed by. There is so much talent out there it makes me sad I can't use everyone - and that's the utter truth.

So far, this has already been a fascinating journey and one which will continue going from strength to strength. I hope you do/are enjoying the insight - if I can really call it that - although it's probably more along the lines of total waffle most of the time! I could, of course, just stay quiet until it's all done and dusted, as it's sometimes quite difficult to find that balance between saying too little and too much. However, I personally find it quite interesting to follow the process from early days development through to post production, as no two people ever find the journey the same.

Most of the updates concerning "0110: Twisted Tales & Glorious" will be on the official website diaries from now on, as I have plenty of other things to drone on about here. I will of course update you with the links here when there are juicy bits to read - within reason - as I am quite a shy, retiring person at heart.

Was that a snigger? Hmmmm? Cheeky.

Last Call

Hello, you talented bunch.

Just a little heads up to tell you that as of close of play tomorrow - that is, 17:30 Monday 7th September 2009 - no more submissions for the "0110" writing team will be accepted.

If you don't know what it's all about and still want to get in touch tomorrow, click here.

Bye for now.

Opportunity Knocks?

I'll just going to leave this little note for you and then I'm off. Okaythxbye.

-----------

Brave Soldier Films are currently developing the Pilot episode for a very unusual 6 x 60 min TV drama series devised by Lara Greenway, and now seek writers to join the Writing Team. There will be six writers in total and although the Team will work together on the overall theme for the Pilot, series arc and objectives, each scribe will write their own screenplay for the Pilot and then for the episodes, if the series is successfully commissioned.

Each episode of "0110: Twisted Tales & Glorious" - to give it's full title - will be a collection of six tales of varying lengths, all with a similar theme; an up-to-date take on "Tales of the Unexpected" and "Hammer House of Horror", scribes with ideas for unusual tales with a twist or a sting, are just what "0110" is looking for.

As this project is currently collaborative and the Team will meet for regular development meetings, it may be more feasible for writers to live in or vaguely around the Greater London area. However, if you are interested in this project but are based further away, you will need to be happy to travel to London once the Team is finalised.

If you would be interested in becoming part of this very exciting project, please email a brief biog or resume to 0110*at*bravesoldier.co.uk in the first instance. Please do not send any scripts or writing examples at this point as they will be deleted, unread.

For a little more information please take a wander round the 0110 website where all future developments will be announced.

Pause for Thought

Anyone who follows my ramblings on Twitter or reads my updates on Facebook will know I've just said goodbye to one of my closest friends who also happened to be a close relative. She had very bravely fought breast cancer, but unfortunately, not before it had spread to her bones and major organs.

Apart from being like my big sister, she was always the first on the phone or email asking me to expand on info I had written on my blog or website, one of the first to tell me if she thought my work was good, passable or just downright crap, and was one of the very, very few people in this world who really knew 'me', whose opinions truly challenged and made me question so much.

When she read the title of my blog for the first time she smiled and nodded her head agreeing it was the perfect name: tenacity is something we both knew a lot about. We lived together for a few years, wrote scripts together, laughed together, danced together, cried together, sorted the world out together, got drunk together - and then held the sick bowl for each other. We'd say, 'never again', and then we'd do it all another day.

I will miss her so much I cannot possibly explain.

I understand a lot of people feel the public domain is not the place to discuss or even announce such things in one's life, but by writing these words, I celebrate my darling friend's life, her being and her vision. I have also received so many kind messages from old friends, new friends, colleagues and even people I have never even met before, that I cannot possibly reply to them all individually: thank you all so much - you will never know how much your messages have meant to me over these last few dark weeks.

I am so very proud to have known her, been related to her and shared my life with her but she wouldn't thank me for dwelling too long - in fact she'd kick my ass - so I must now crack on with everything.

As we would both say: onwards!

Dan's Fun Fundraiser & Other Stories

In one way or another life has been whisking me here, there and everywhere recently, which has been quite fun, to be honest.

I have a quite a few shoots coming up over the next six weeks, so have been religiously tying up loose ends on other projects, getting the shorts out to festivals and beginning to pull together new projects ready to kick some serious ass in the new year. Yes, 2010, it's looking like I love you already. Possibly. Maybe. Well, you know the kind of thing. This week also marks the end of a 5 week Producer training course I have been attending, and as much as I have loved it, I'm rather tired trying to keep on top of everything, but such is the nature of the beast. That is not to say I haven't been out and about schmoozing with the odd glass of alcoholic beverage clutched to my breast. No sireee. I have also been very much daubing the town with a deep hue of scarlet.

In fact there have been rather a lot of fascinating days and nights, which brings me to the title of this post: Dan's Fun Fundraiser. After a totally surreal week last week, which saw me balancing work commitments along with post-chickenpox, post-flu but pre-laryngitis Kid, I ended up literally tripping over Ross Kemp when I least expected it - a colleague from literally a billion years ago - and was then invited to a fund raiser for charity OWAU in Kampala, Uganda, where The Feeling's Dan Gillespie Sell's brother is currently working. This worthy project provides housing for orphans and single parents who are affected by HIV and AIDS and all the money raised on the day (£1,700 I am reliably informed) will go straight to the cause.

Pictured left, is Dan. As you can see he is casually pointing whilst accidentally advertising his random music-fest for me.

It was a marvellous afternoon/evening of merriment, giant twister, a raffle with totally, gobsmackingly amazing prizes (and yay! I won one!), not to mention some perfect music from Dan's mates Anna and Vad, followed by the totally brilliant Wallis Bird. Dan then took to the stage - initially with the equally lovely Sophie Ellis Bextor (pictured right, with Dan)

for their rendition of "It's My Party" - and then carried on and spoilt us rotten with lots of his own music - including my own personal fave, "Sewn", which made me gulp *big* emotion a lot! Dan admitted at one point, he felt a little strange without the rest of the band on stage with him so we all endeavoured to provide him extra noise and backing vocals. It was very sober and tuneful, of course...ahem. A brilliant, brilliant day!

I have also been spending a great deal of time at various art galleries, the BFI and around the South Bank in general recently. I've had quite a bit of research to do with regards to an early-days idea and the galleries and BFI archives have been really wonderful places to nose around - the South Bank itself has provided me with much sustenance, perfect people watching opportunities and inspiration.

Well, as I said, this is my last week on the course, so the end of this week will see me shifting up a gear or so into 'preproduction proper'. I shall of course drop by and babble away when I have the chance, as I do miss our little fireside chats.

Hope all's well in your lives, dears - remember to always wrap up warm, take a brolly and pop your bikini, flip flops & sunnies into your bag - you just never know what the weather will be like when you next go outside.

Onwards - until we natter again. x

VM Shorts 2009 Finalists

The Shortlist has just been announced! 'Tis unfortunate that neither myself or anyone I know is on it, but all the same, a very well done to those who made it! There are some cracking films on the list and I reckon it will be a tough choice...

Making the Difference (Andrew Oxley & David Williams)

She Farted & Created the World (Scott Coello)

Stalking Ben Chadz (Daniel Castella)

Mixtape (Luke Snellin)

Smooth Line (Declan Taafe)

Hiccup (Derville Quigley)

Three Little Words (Ed Lilly)

Grief (Darren Conway)

The Transaction (Tim Key)

CGI Brows (Andrew Gaynord)

Ceci N'est Pas Une Mouche (Carlos Fraiha)

Gunslingers (Regan Hall)