14/MAY/10

TRAVELLING to Cannes for script meetings. Foux da fa fa fa fa.


8/MAY/10

WATCHING Twin Peaks for the first time as a grown up and oh my lolly. The intrigue, the characters, oblique clues and pace are all so good that I don’t want it to end.


29/MAR/10

NEW music video for Kirsten Morrell here


19/MAR/10

NEW Adidas: Kaka vs Carter spot here

5/MAR/10

STILLS from Kirsten Morrell's music video which is released next month.

 

27/FEB/10

PITCHING scripts to UK producers.

6/FEB/10

READING the screenplay of Woody Allen's magnificent opus.

13/JAN/10

WRITING like a crazy person to finish the 2nd draft of a script by Friday. Feel like I've climbed the mountain of pages to slide on my ass down the other side. Here's a portrait of a plot point.


8/DEC/09

TRAVELLING to the Equator for some much-needed sunlight. I'm no geography expert but is it too late to put England down here?


24/NOV/09

SHOOTING a music video outside at the time of year when darkness falls at 4 o’clock.
Crazy? Probably. Fun though – playing with some lo-fi film techniques and a hundreds + thousands creature.


6/NOV/09

READING the original novel of The Graduate.
So disappointmenting - must be one of the only times that the film surpassed the book.

2/NOV/09

EDITING a little side blog called Face Ahoy.
Because faces on places are aces.


18/SEP/09

WATCHING the finished McVitie’s biscuits commercial. If you’re a fan of flying biscuits or Spencer Jones click here.


17/SEP/09

WATCHING the finished piece on La Roux made for MusiquePlus Canada. Click here to see her glorious hair in action.


6/AUG/09

PITCHING on a job that would involve shooting in Shanghai – fingers crossed.


5/AUG/09

WATCHING the box set of Seinfeld – which I’m pretty sure is the best sitcom ever made - and his commitment to high riding jeans - also remarkable.


31/JUL/09

SHOOTING a McVitie’s biscuits commercial.
The game show Shooting Stars was a visual reference, so we’re in a TV studio with the cameras on PEDS – such a fast and glorious way to shoot.
The lead actor is making everyone laugh with silly walks.


25/JUL/09

WATCHING the fifth and final chapter of Inside the Black Jersey. This one centres around Dan Carter and is my favourite. You can watch it in the TV & WEB section of this website or through this link.

Auf wiedersehen Adidas. Ta ta for now.


3/JUL/09

WATCHING Bruno and can’t help thinking that the trailer was much, much funnier than the movie.
They should've got the trailer guy to cut the whole thing - better comic timing.


1/JUL/09

PITCHING on a job today and tomorrow. This one has a fair amount of freedom, which makes it much more fun.

Joy@RSA has closed its doors and I’ve been signed by RSA Films – check out some of the amazing directors on the roster http://www.rsafilms.com


19/JUN/09

WRITING another idea for Purefold. The secret project that's now public, it's an audience-driven web series developed by Ag8 and RSA Films.
With all these creative people involved I’m looking forward to seeing how it develops.

3/JUN/09


TRAVELLING to New York tomorrow for a few days. I love the way a new city draws inspiration out and I plan to be a human-shaped sponge visiting MOMA, The Guggenheim and everything interesting in between.


29/APR/09

WATCHING Chapter 2 of Inside the Black Jersey,
Newly finished and yours to see here.


27/APR/09

SHOOTING a job for Powerade. It's raining and freezing cold and I couldn't be happier.


07/APR/09
WATCHING the first finished chapter of Inside the Black Jersey, the doco I’ve been making with the lovely people at 180 Amsterdam / Riot for the past few months.

Split into five chapters, it’s life as an All Black from five perspectives - The Captain, The Rookie, The Joker, The Coach and The Playmaker.

We had amazing access to the team - interviews, training sessions and pre-game rituals, and considering it was commissioned by Adidas, I was pretty happy with how little Adidas-related info we had to include.

You can watch the Teaser here
and ‘Chapter 1 - The Captain’ here.

The next four chapters will be added fortnightly.


23/MAR/09

READING The Strange Life of Ivan Osokin, a 1905 novel which I was inspired to buy after watching Groundhog Day again recently.
Apparently the movie was based on the novel, which was based on Nietzsche’s theory of Eternal Recurrence.

So if Groundhog Day is Nietzsche in an 80’s suit, what other philosophical fashion makeovers have I yet to discover?


09/MAR/09

MEETING with people about a project that feels like a secret cult because it’s so hush-hush and we meet online in a locked site.
If only more aspects of life could be this exciting. Can we bring back Morse code and wear more masks and cloaks.


23/FEB/09

TRAVELLING back from a holiday in NZ and Sydney. This photo was taken on a hilltop surrounded by vineyards. Needless to say, it was a good time.


18/DEC/08

EDITING at 180 Amsterdam for a few days, cutting the All Blacks documentary together.
This agency has such incredible offices. Apparently they started in one apartment and as they grew they bought the neighbouring buildings, so each room has very different styles, joined by a myriad of staircases.


15/DEC/08

WATCHING the doco series This American Life, where almost every episode is amazingly good.
I think it’s not so much the subject matter, but the way they extract personal stories out of people that makes it so watchable.
My favourite so far is about a group of elderly in a retirement home who decided to hire a director, make a movie and get into Sundance. Respect.


06/DEC/08

SHOOTING a series of spots in Italy with AC Milan vs. All Blacks. It’s a continuation of the David Beckham and Johnny Wilkinson Football vs. Rugby ad but this time with Kaka vs. Dan Carter.
They’re both top in the world in their field but one turned up in a Porsche and one in a mini-van. Awwwww.



04/DEC/08

SHOOTING at the Adidas headquarters in Germany – an enormous place. It's like an American University Campus with better architecture.
Last night a couple of the players went Christmas shopping at the outdoor Markets in Nuremberg so we followed with a camera like peaceful papparazzi.


01/DEC/08

WATCHING The Signature Series, Marc Horowitz’s online comedy series about silly stuff. I think he might be the love child of Will Ferrell and a Jack Russell.


24/NOV/08

SHOOTING in London this week. I'm loving working with Stacey and Claire - we've become like a little hotel-hopping family.
Shot my favourite, most spine-tingling footage of this job so far with Dan Carter taking us through what goes through his mind when he lines up to kick.
It was golden hour which made for beautiful looking shots.


29/NOV/08

WRITING my feature this week. I'm really excited about the premise and the lead character but writing it is by far the most complicated brain workout I’ve ever encountered. I’m actually surprised there’s so many of them in the world.


17/NOV/08

SHOOTING in Limerick, Ireland. The Munster game was amazingly entertaining. I got actual chills seeing the All Blacks having the haka done to them first by ex-All Blacks on the Munster team.
We were shooting on the field during the game and I almost got run over by Rokocoko. Great view though.


05/NOV/08

SHOOTING in Edinburgh, Scotland.
A damn pretty city and the best Thai food I’ve ever tasted. I'd be an expert in Thai cooking too if haggis was my national dish.


01/NOV/08

WATCHING A Complete History Of My Sexual Failures, a Documentary/Comedy of one man’s quest to find out why he is perpetually dumped.
He interviews all his ex-girlfriends about what went wrong, so it’s like a real version of High Fidelity but with an STD clinic instead of a record store.
Fascinating viewing if you can pry your fingers away from your eyes.


30/OCT/08

SHOOTING a five part documentary for Adidas with 180 Amsterdam / Riot. We start in November and it's a six-week shoot all over Europe. Exciting!

On the Adidas note, until this commercial came out I thought Adidas was an acronym for ‘All day I dream about sport’


Beautifully made, I love insight it gives into the original Mr Adidas, Adi Dassler. I think once brands get to a certain size it definitely helps to be reminded of the human face behind them.
It’s one of the few commercials that inspired me to go and find out more about a brand/person.
Amazing that from two German brothers obsessed with shoe design one formed Adidas and the other, Puma.


29/OCT/08

WATCHING Charlie Kaufman talk at the BFI Southbank. He screened his directorial debut film Synecdoche, New York, and then answered questions from the room. I love how intent he is on bringing his honest viewpoint to the screen, but I think his scripts work better when other people direct them.


15/OCT/08

MEETING with people about a short film that I’m trying to get made. They suggested I turn it into a series, so I've written three more episodes. Each one is three minutes long and I think it’d work well on the web or maybe late night on Channel 4.


13/OCT/08

READING Karlology by Karl Pilkington.
The man and the book are both completely hilarious. I had the pleasure of meeting him recently and he’s exactly the same in real life.