I'm not a fan of Halloween in the slightest (don't get me started on parents teaching kids it's ok to terrorise the neighbourhood for selfish gain), so it's a complete coincidence that I'm presenting you with this unsettling slice of disturbia just a few days from the supposedly most evil day of the year...
The film was expertly directed by Ang Yee Sien, whose other films you can see on the Vimeo channel above. The collaboration was enjoyable, I wrote the first draft on the plane to Brasil in May, and my holiday was peppered with re-writes because Yee Sien was on a tight deadline with the shooting days already arranged.
Ke11y_cute was, shockingly, inspired by events in the real world, which you can read about here
My script is on my website here: Ke11y_Cute script
What's this? A music related post that has nothing at all to do with Cherry Ekko? Surely not!
Believe it people, I'm talking about Slandercat - the musical alter ego of the multi-talented Mr J Hay, who has kindly given his blessing to the above video I made for his track 'Gauntlet.
Those in the know have already downloaded Slandercat's ace new EP Blood of a Broom Tree, and now I've put you in the know, you should download it too; it's six tracks of frenetic, bittersweet, wistful electronica. Get it here www.slandercat.bandcamp.com
The Seams Of The World is a film I've co-written with Director Oscar Nino. It will start filming next month.
In the world of this film, everybody is a reflection of various fragments of themselves. Wicked and good, pure and depraved – the sum of your parts are projected and paraded in front of you in the form of the people around you. The film follows a young runaway, wannabe designer, called Hannah, as she gets closer to realising the truth about her world.
Among others, this film explores ideas found in the biblical prodigal son story, the Harlot's Progress, a series of 17th Century etchings by William Hogarth, and ideas laid out by Gary Renard in his book 'The Disappearance of the Universe'.
Please take a look at the website at http://ninogenio.biz/theseamsoftheworld . I'll keep this blog updated with the film's progress, and before very long you'll be able the watch the finished film. I'll upload the script soon too. The website provides the opportunity to make a donation towards the budget of the film, I believe contributors will gain a producer's credit.
Here is a Tolkien-esque movie created by Doug and myself for the opening celebration of our church, Abbey Road Baptist Church after extensive renovation (yes THE Abbey Road where The Beatles recorded, we're right opposite the studios - we're pretty sure Lennon and McCartney were regulars for a slice of toast and a cup of tea back in the day).
To steal the current tag line from a certain film I'm personally dying to see - it is an 'Epic of Epic Epicness'
Rich and I managed to pilot the first Cherry Ekko gig through its choppy course on Wednesday - we were definitely on a steep learning curve, and the ups and downs of the night certainly reflected this! Overall though A SUCCESS! We were one person off breaking even (yes, that was you, if you didn't come).
Many many thanks to all those who came out and gave the night a good vibe, and huge thanks also to Hermione, Glenn Hodge, and Aquilina for their sets.
Things we learned: Live streaming needs to be checked (anybody up for being a home clubber and sitting at home giving us reports on how it's coming through?) / sound engineers are geniuses / we need to do a lot more promo for the next gig.
Getting quite excited about the first Cherry Ekko gig now.
By the power of this here internet you will be able to watch the gig, with sound directly from the board. The player is embedded below so come 7:30pm you should just be able to refresh it, and watch! Or you can watch it on Cherry Ekko by going to www.cherryekko.com/gigs.asp
First Cherry Ekko gig - The Kinbeats at The Good Ship, 28th July 2010, from 8pm
My brother and I have just re-launched our music website Cherry Ekko
Those of you who were signed up to the old version know it was all about attempting to help bands amass a recording budget by selling limited edition CDs of demo tracks. All in all I think we sold about nineteen copies between all the bands... they each needed to sell 2000 to gain their recording target.
So Cherry Ekko has now become a live music event as well as a website. The concept is fabulously simple: place a vote for your favourite band, and the five with the most votes play a gig organised by us every two months.
The first ever Cherry Ekko gig is on July 28th at The Good Ship on Kilburn High Road. Apparently The Beatles, Joy Division, and even Elvis Presley have all performed at The Good Ship in the past.
Our July 28th headliners will be The Kinbeats (new proteges of indie legend Edwyn Collins, vocal harmonies to die for) - they'll be backed up by Aquilina, Hermione, and Little Life.
You should really reach for your diary and firmly 'pen' it in right now - you'll only forget otherwise, and that would be a crying shame. See you there.
And for those at all interested, the script is at www.jknottingham.com in the scripts section (direct link). This one stays very close to the script, although there was a longer version that had Dot accusing Iain of attacking her.
Here's another new screenplay, a teen romance/comedy called - read it here: Danny the Whisk, or head to www.jknottingham.com and it's there in the Scripts section.
Danny the Whisk is the painfully shy singer in Punk band Septic Tracy, he needs to find some charisma pronto, because in two weeks time Septic Tracy are going to be on T.V battling the absurdly pompous Electro band The Electric Shepherds. Could the band's new bassist Pearl be the girl to coax Danny out of his cocoon?
This is my first complete, assessed script for the MA. The brief was for a 10-15 page script for a short film.
I was tweaking this right up until the deadline, and even now I can see things to change, for instance I was struggling with the swearing, is it needed? I thought so, for realism, then I was recalling other such films and t.v programs that don't use swearing at all. I actually don't think the tone suits the instances of swearing, though they are few.
Anyway, nothing is ever really finished - especially scripts - there will always be collaboration. Overall, I like the finished result - I think it could easily be extended into a feature - it'd be find to write some real Punk songs for it too! We live in the cracks between the cracks between the cracks between the cracks...
Chicken and Rice is a story about 2 very different churches fighting for their congregation.
It was my original piece for a module on the MA, but there were numerous problems and I realised it was never going to fit within the parameters of expectation for the module. So I wrote a new script for the module, but thought it would be a pity to abandon Chicken and Rice altogether. Hope you enjoy it, it has a murderous vicar - and if you're a director who wants to make it, please go ahead!
I thought it would also be interesting to link to the various drafts because, as you can see, the eventual shooting script was very different to the first draft.
The differences are partly to do with location/time limitations, and thematically the piece altered as the Director gave feedback regarding his understanding of the original characters, and later, the actors' understanding of them.
Click to read pdfs of each First draft - using the brief above. Revised 19th Feb 2010 - included lots more dialogue to reveal more about the characters, even though the Director knew he probably wouldn't use most of it. Revised 27th Feb 2010 - fine-tuning a version that myself and the Director were happy with - but still including aspects too ambitious for the limitations.
Shooting script - after a day of rehearsals with the actors, incorporating their suggestions, and trimming to the bare bone of what needed to be shot.
I tried my hand at stop motion, click below to see the result! (the track is by Space, it's called Juno54 and it's from an unreleased album). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBEFhMb9X5I
Well... if I'd written 2,000 words per day, I would have finished yesterday. That clearly hasn't happened. But I'm still hanging on - yesterday I passed the 40,000 word mark!
So, with 5 days left, and less than 10k to go, I'm feeling pretty confident. Life's busy though - going to see Mother Courage tonight - featuring the brilliant, ramshackle-vaudeville-piano-genius, Duke Special. I urge everybody to buy all his records forthwith! (couple of live performances for your listening pleasure below).
And Friday night our good friend Stephen Hay has a gig at the Blag Club, Notting Hill. You should check out his music here Stephen Hay's website
All this is just to make an excuse - my evenings look full, so I foresee Saturday becoming the biggest nanowrimo day for me in the entire month! In fact - I'm going to aim for the finish line on Saturday.
Duke Special - Portrait
Duke Special and Neil Hannon - Our love goes Deeper than this
Two reasons why I didn't write as much this weekend as I should have - I went to see 2 movies: The new Coen brothers' film A Serious Man - which was great, laughed all the way through, BUT it's ultimately hopeless - you have to compare it to Fargo and say - Fargo wins!
Then there was the Troll 2 party. For those who don't know about Troll 2 - chance to eat green food all night and laugh so hard green comes out your nose. It's the definition of 'so bad it's good'.
Current word count 34,521. Days remaining: 8... so as long as I stick to 2000 words per day in the last week...
For your enjoyment, below, clips from Troll 2 and Fargo. Oh my gooooooooooooooood!
Troll2
Fargo
Thursday, 8 October 2009
Well hello - this is the first post in my new blog, which I want to be seen as an extension of jknottingham.com .
I'll post here when I add new stories to the site - but I'll also post when the fancy takes me or I want to look clever or something.
First things first - latest news is that HeadBox, my film, was screened AGAIN at the Portobello film festival on 09/09/09 at, wait for it, 9pm. Oh yes, good slot. I couldn't go this time because I was on my honeymoon. Download a programme here - we're on page 9
Also - you can now view HeadBox in full on youtube - here it is (3 parts): Part 1
My brother and I have just re-launched our music website 
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