Schminterview

I was recently approached by the lovely Scriptwriter and Reviewer, Andrew Tibbs, and asked if I would mind doing an interview for his new blog. I considered this for all of a second and the results are HERE. I hope you enjoy it.

Meanwhile in "0110: Twisted Tales & Glorious" land, things are getting very exciting. The final drafts are all but in; about sixty percent of the Commissioner's Pack is complete and the whole of Series 1 and 2 are tied up with a pretty bow - but I didn't knot it too tight, just in case. I'm one for making a decent contingency.

That's it for now, short and sweet. How very unlike me.

Ta-ra!

List of Lists

I make a lot of lists, loads in fact. I usually include a little diagram here and there too, which represents the flow of items on the list.

This week I have made big lists - wish lists, reality check lists, to do lists, to don't lists - and the list that is currently top of my...er...list, is "0110: Twisted Tales & Glorious". A rapid and ever-growing succession of words and figures, one tiny glance in its direction tells me one important thing: it's nearly there. The full season product, the pilot, the teaser, the promo: every element is teetering on the edge of completion and now I need to scoop it all up and add a final piece of formula to the equation.

Yesterday, I heard the very first musical interpretation from 0110 Composer, Sam Watts, and last night felt the urge to storyboard various scenes and items. Sam uttered to me that the inspiration on 0110 is extremely cyclic(al) - and that is pretty much it in a nutshell. Birth, life, death. The eps actually go through that cycle - not in physical terms on screen but emotionally; the series will also move through the cycle working on that very base-level principle.

What has now been created (or very nearly) is the final stages of gestation of 0110; by the time you are two thirds of the way through the Pilot episode, as an audience you will have travelled through an odd time - the final stages of labour, if you like; and by the end of the episode, you will feel the new entity has been born - the DNA of which consists all the threads and elements just observed.

But what have you observed? Everyone will be different.

You may walk away with a smirk and a giggle, thinking it was entertaining; you may shrug your shoulders and think, "So what?"; you may have it pop into your head for a few days afterwards, whilst you ruminate on certain details - were they important or not? You may even dream about it, wondering where your reality ends and 0110 begins.

Whatever you think, I hope it makes an impression on you. We all know many brilliant ideas fall by the wayside and are never even seen by the great viewing public. So much hard teamwork and dedication goes into creating entertaining and intelligent programming and for that reason alone (but out of many), I hope "0110: Twisted Tales & Glorious" succeeds.

But then this project is slightly different. It has one element - one very important element - woven through the core of its very being: that is the zerooneonezero effect.

Not sure what that is yet?

You will.

Onwards.

x

Develop the Vision

Hello

Just nipping in and out, and thought I'd check on you all. How are your chilblains? Better I hope, now.

I am so rubbish at keeping up with other people's blogs and suchlike these days that I had actually forgotten about my own. Totally forgot its existence (even though I updated a few weeks ago) until someone mentioned blogs to me the other night. Most queer.

Well, just for a change, I have been keeping out of trouble thanks to sheer lack of time. This past week has seen the "0110: Twisted Tales & Glorious" bar being raised even higher as the entire Team so far* met for another very intense but enjoyable day of development discussions. What can I tell you apart from it's all perfectly brilliant?

The full Pilot script was read from cover to cover, we noted, suggested, moved, added, deleted, drank tea, coffee and ate food. I, of course, was in charge of pretty coloured things and blutack - my lovingly prepared chart which represents the story and character flow across the Pilot. Once we had settled on our final steps for the Pilot we moved onto the Series flow, links, twists and turns. If I didn't have anything to do with this project, I would be excited, but as it stands, I am very excited and utterly chuffed with how it is all going. There's a lot of work still to be done but the majority of it is mine - the Scribes are polishing their final drafts as I start to pull together the whole kit and caboodle.

Damn, I love it - but it's like a drug, you know, and I can't stop the euphoric rush even though sometimes I really need to.

Damn this crazy, lovely and totally silly world I live in too. I wouldn't be without it.

Upwards.

x

*Scribes: Alan Mckenna, Daniel Hall, Helen Smith, Laurence Timms, Michelle Lipton, Piers Beckley, plus Script Ed, Elinor Perry-Smith and Composer, Sam Watts.

Hello Mr. Brightside

Well, hello there! Long time no anything. Did you have a nice Christmas? A good New Year's Eve? Fallen off the detox wagon and hit your head off a dumbell yet? Excellent. My festivities were all very lovely, thanks - choc full of hoardes of people and silliness which is always a delight. And so here we are, mid January already and there's nothing like having hit the frozen new year ground running already.

I've been firmly ensconced in 'Untitled' feature as well as being most excited to receive all the first drafts for "0110: Twisted Tales and Glorious". I have to say, although I knew they would be good, both myself and Script Ed, Elinor, have been blown away by just how good. Obviously [you think to yourselves] I would say that, but I sincerely believe this Series has something very special about it and day by day that 'certain something' gathers more momentum and strength. It's all great stuff and I'm quite fortunate to be involved as well as being able to watch it evolve at the same time.

So now to other things...

I bravely managed to find an escape route out of Narniashire through the snowcapped peaks in order to support the British Indie Film market in my own little way, and attended a combined screening and Q&A session of "Exam", written, directed & produced by the delightful Stuart Hazeldine and associate produced by the equally delightful Chris Jones. I was personally interested in seeing how Hazeldine created and maintained the audience's interest in these various characters who were to spend the entire film in one room, but believe me, he managed. Admirably. The total stand out performances for me were Jimi Mistry - who beautifully underplayed throughout - and Luke Mably (who I later realised I had noted a while ago in "Uprising" - I think it was just a US TV release). Mably not only inhabited, lived and breathed the character on screen, but seemed to teeter on the stress edge of sanity - never letting up once throughout the whole film - which was quite remarkable. After the screening, Jones led a really worthwhile Q&A with Hazeldine, Mark Talbot-Butler (Editor) and Matthew Cracknell (Composer, with Stephen Barton) which not only focussed on each discipline but also looked at how everyone learned during the process - a process which, to me, appeared very organic.

"Exam" was shot at Elstree Studios on 35mm with, in the main, A & B cameras and in script order, which of course is fairly unusual. One benefit of this was being able to distress the set in time order and because there were no natural scene breaks in the script, it was shot in sequential 'time chunks' instead. One would have thought it was pretty good for logging shots for the edit too! Also for a performer, working in chronological order on something as continuous as this, allows you to track your character easily as well as monitor your growth pattern, which is great stuff.

A lot of talk time was then given to Post and Sales & Distribution, which for me was one of my main reasons for being there. I have recently been working on many different models for digital distribution and business offshoot ideas to support that, so I listened to words from the tried and tested routes, with great interest. Having not been screened from a 35mm print but digitally instead, the fact that "Exam" had been bumped from a few screens so that another billion people could watch "Avatar" that day was a pretty stark reminder that in reality, übermoney advertising budgets talk and the big boys will always win with bums on seats; however, thanks to those who supported the day, "Exam" has had its run extended for another week at the Odeon, Panton St, Off Leicester Square, London ( and Manchester, I think) which is really great news. What are you waiting for? Book a ticket; go and see it!

And so finally...to the (working) title of this post: it's a fairly new screenplay of mine and I quite like it. There's a way to go on it (a really big way) but it's kind of shaping up and there's no rush anyway. Based loosely on a series of events that occurred to me/around me 2008/09, the title stems from The Killers song of nearly the same name which featured a great deal at the height of events unfolding. S'gonna be fun.

Til next time.

Onwards ever onwards, guys 'n' gals.

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)

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 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!