'sKorned' facebook page

Howdy folks. My first feature film - sKorned, which will be directed by Darren S. Cook later this year - is now on facebook at www.facebook.com/sKornedmovie. We're trying to generate as much buzz as possible, so it would be beyond shiny if you'd take a minute to 'like' the page. The more people who know about the film, the smoother funding etc will be.

An action-packed, dark, supernatural revenge thriller with mortals and devils. And the odd morally-conflicted angel.

When Natasha Morgan was 15, she sold her soul to the devil in return for the power to take revenge on the gangsters who killed her parents. The price – when revenge is done, Natasha’s place on earth belongs to him.

Now, four years later, revenge is close at hand. But the closer Natasha gets to completing her mission, the closer Satan gets to taking over her body and mind. Meanwhile, best friend Dexter launches his own campaign to rescue Natasha from her self-destructive nature, turning to redemption-seeking Father Ronan, a mysterious priest with a dark past.

Natasha’s journey comes to a close in a climactic finale, as she battles not only her human enemies, but also the devil himself, who senses victory is close at hand.

Teaser trailer

We've also decided that once we get 100 'likes', we'll put the first 3 minutes of the script online for the world to see - that will be your chance to insult my work ;)

So please follow this link, or try the button/badge thingy at the top right of this page.Your awesomeness is, as always, appreciated.

Stay shiny!

Hopefully you'll take something away from this....

There's a reason Will Smith is one of the most skilled and successful actors working today..

Talent you have naturally. Skill is only developed by hours and hours and hours of beating on your craft.

If you're gonna be here, then there's a necessity to make a difference. I want to do good. I want the world to be better because I was here. I want my life, I want my work, my family, I want it to mean something. If you're not making someone else's life better, then you're wasting you time.

I want to represent an idea. I want to represent possibilities. I want to represent the idea that you really can make what you want. 

The first step, before anybody else in the world believes it, is you have to believe it. There's no reason to have a plan B, because it distracts from plan A.

Three, Skorned, Thor, Insidious

My slightly nervous and awkward first video blog.

http://threefilm.co.uk/
http://www.skornedmovie.co.uk/

Watch 'Three' online now!

Three - the first script I ever wrote, about four years ago at university - was directed by the uber-talented Darren S. Cook, starred Mike Sani, Tony C, and Dean Rees, and was written by yours truly. I'm very proud of how it turned out (everyone did a great job!) and I'm glad this was my first produced credit.

You can now watch it online on the official site, or enjoy below (click full-screen for extra shinyness):

Feel free to let me know what you think - I won't be offended.

Cheers,

Neil.

Positive reinforcement

Yesterday, I finally finished the three-page treatment for my latest featue script. For some reason, it was taking gorram ages to get done. That reason is probably what David said:

Writer's block is where confidence fails. The writer doesn't know their story or their characters or their world. Maybe they haven't done enough research. Maybe they haven't dug deep enough into their creations. Maybe they've lost confidence in their idea, their reason for writing the story, for writing in this genre or for this medium.

Although a big helping of my inability to get the treatment done is just darn laziness :(

Yesterday, I did get a surge of confidence in the idea, but what really got me through it (it only took me half an hour to complete) is the pomise of a reward. It's like that Skinner bloke said - if you have something positive to look forward to, the work will get done. It ain't rocket science (just behavioural psychology).

My promise - a book. I decided that once the treatment was done, I'd start reading Mike Carey's The Taming of the Beasts (it's been sitting on my shelf for months and I'm really looking forward to it based on what happened in the previous book!). It's sad, I know, but it works.

Now I must be off to finish redrafting a short film script. Maybe I can give myself a cookie once that's complete.......

Just because it's awesome.....

PS - if they pay me enough, I'll happily write the feature. Just sayin'

If in doubt - female.

Most of the stories I write are about men. That's because I am one, simple as that. I find it much much easier to think what a man might do than a woman. Just like it's easier for me to imagine what a 22-year-old would say than a 40-year-old. Because I haven't yet been 40 (in this lifetime).

There are some stories where I actively want a male protagonist. The last TV script, for example. And there are some occasions when I actively want a female protagonist - my last feature script.

But when I started planning what I'm working on now (a contained horror script), I saw no reason for either gender. It didn't matter whether the hero was male or female. So, by default, I went for female.

Because, no matter what anyone says, there is still a lack of women in films. Both in them literally, and working in them. One reason is probably similar to what I've said above - I'll wager there are more male screenwriters out there than female (or at least getting their material produced), so they're writing from the comfortable POV of male writer = male hero.

So the female protagonist is now my default. Unless I have an active urge to make her male. In which case, I might call him Jayne or something......

I also planned my characters (for the current script) based on a gender balance. There are more men than women in the main cast, but that still works out at 4 ladies. And many people will die in this film. It's not looking too good for the gents - my current plans have the survival percentage at around 75% for the ladies and only 25% for the blokes.

Anyway, I'm feeling good about this one. I'm sure the film industry will continue to be a male-dominated business for a while yet, but I'm playing my part by writing parts for the ladies. And, for the record, these ladies are not gun-toting "blokes with tits" or scantily-clad sex objects. We have Zack Snyder for that, right?

Over and out!