THE HAMLEIGH DISAPPEARENCES Commentary

CURRENT FILM SLATE

Okay. I'll admit I don't use this blog as much as I probably should, same with the Facebook page. However I have recently began getting the hang of Twitter so maybe I'm not such an old fogey.

First up. Although we opted to not show 'The Hamleigh Disappearances' It has been very well received. To be honest probably much better than most of my previous films. Among that praise was the last minute decision of having such a subtle tie-in to 'The Revival Of Dracula'. To all who worked on and enjoyed it - I thank you.

My next project is looking to be 'Interview With A Frankenstein' although this title may change. I'm currently not ready to release any details as I'm still in the developing stage and things are fluid however you can rest assured it's set in the same universe as my aforementioned movies. It will likely be following in 'The Revival Of Dracula''s vein when it comes to style and I am hoping if everything goes well to aim for a Halloween release as I did with Dracula only this time... actually make it there.

Secondly, Jordan's project has not been abandoned. However after producing a script I have came to the realization that at this stage in my career it feels a bit too advanced. I'm still keeping it and occasionally looking at different ways I can retool it but it probably won't be made any time soon. In the mean time look for our film Toast for more creative input from Jordan.

Lastly, in December an important event in my life will occur. Seeing a brand new Star Wars movie and to give thanks to the franchise I plan to create a documentary about how much Star Wars means to me on a personal level and how it was the catalyst for my lifelong interest in film and the art of movie-making.

Thats about all for now. At the stage where Frankenstein developing has kind of overridden everything else.

INVASION IN THE BACKYARD - a tale of woe, misery and 48 hr short films

This was originally my entry for the 48 hour sci-fi London short film competition however, This became a disaster!

They claimed they would send me my brief at 11:00am and they sent me one line: The line I appear to be saying in the thumbnail picture above. Also my improvisation for story didnt serve me as well as I was hoping thus I feel like I could've been capable of something funnier than this. We began the shoot and I was plagued by a lack of motivation as well as increasing disinterest in my actress and girlfriend.

Thoroughly disenchanting.

To top it all off, I began editing and I was hit the realisation they had sent me even more details. I'm unsure when it was they sent me these belated demands. However there was no one I could meet them therefore my film no longer reached my specified needs.

On the bright side however, this was the first time I completed a short film using Premiere Pro editing software on my own Macbook and for which I feel it boosts the quality of the film slightly, despite an exporting glitch causing my film to render at a lower quality.

Oh well, through this I've developed a bitter distaste for these types of competitions and I'm mildly reluctant to try them again but at least I made a short goofy video.

I'm not dead.....CROWDFUNDER WORKED

First off, I apologize about the lack of updates, it's truly slipped my mind.

Anyways the crowdfunder I mentioned last month has been successful funded. (special thanks to loving girlfriend who donated the only money left in her bank account: £1.22 bless you) and last Friday we went to the Quantock Lodge, where we will be filming the two short films for a recce or a location scout. A good time was had, I only hope we can sort through the pre-production work in order to have a successful shoot. - my own personal concerns about the lodge aside.

Despite this, I have also been working on the previously blogged about script for Jordan's superhero movie - now titled 'The Partisan'. The whole story has grown so fast, I am rather surprised because of this I may do some secondary drafts just to make sure it is a finished story to its best level. Not sure when we'll begin shooting The Partisan yet. 'Dora' will be eating a lot of time in the coming weeks. That and possibly my college photography project - which I may be able to budge an obscenely short film thats cinematography-wise very experimental for me. Oddly fitting that this comes to me the day my main lecturer gives me the casual task of writing a 90 second short film. Maybe I can combine the two. Who knows?

REVIVAL OF DRACULA - Filming Completed! and Update

Something incredible has happened. Filming for The Revival of Dracula is now complete. From October through to now in February I have been working on a short film homage to the 1930s-1950s B-Movie horror films of yesteryear.

This is incredible to me as it's the first short film I've created since my revitalization of The Small Studios - my 'production company'. All I need do, is edit it and it will be close to seeing YouTube. But in addition to that I have also discovered a Bristol based free-for-all film festival, essentially. As such, I am considering bringing Revival of Dracula to the May showings of Bluescreen. A link can be found here ---> Bluescreen.

 I would have taken it to March showings, however during that time I will be away with the College filming scenes for our Techleap Duology. I am happy to report me and my colleague Chris have almost finalized the script for the short film 'Dora', the film I will be working on. So with my Dracula movie almost done, I may be able to see two short films I've wrote appear on the big screen, as well as attend a screening for one.

Finally, before my Dracula movie I began development work on a superhero film with my friend Jordan or JJ. This would be his first film directed but I'm sure I annoyed him as during the writing of his movie I decided to create the Dracula film underestimating how long it would take. However as I'm in post-production, I will get back to writing his film now.

So, exciting start to the year 2015.

Remember to pledge money please to my college's crowdfunder - it will help make 'Dora' look as good as it can, and you can even be rewarded.

- Moskow J. Stiles

LOVE'S LAST MEETING

Love's Last Meeting is a short improvised film about two lovers. As they pass a red umbrella which symbolises their dying love. Originally a sound film, the audio turned out appalling so it was dumped and turned into a tone poem in post production. It was originally filmed as a comedy with drama students however they didn't turn up and we decided to turn the idea into a tongue in cheek - mostly do to acting. However I believe my editing has lead my interpretation of the footage to be highly subjective and therefore is capable of being interpreted any way the viewer prefers.

REVIVAL OF DRACULA PRODUCTION UPDATE 09/11/14

After a month of delays and other discouragements I've finally managed to produce a small teaser of what will ultimately become the short film. I've used all the footage I have that links together to produce a rough cut of the opening to the film.

I'm taking a hiatus from filming as I feel my actors aren't getting paid for this and I don't want to make them freeze to death in the cold. I expect to return to shooting early next year. Part of me regrets this but I feel its for the best so I don't get too worked up over the difficulties of film making.

REVIVAL OF DRACULA - PRODUCTION UPDATE 02/11/14

Filming began a little over a week ago on my new short film: The Revival of Dracula; however I'm facing several problems and roadblocks which are highlighting the fact that I need to be tougher in order to become a better director.

Due to the over whelming friendly chemistry on the set with my friends/the co-stars I was unable to get as many shots as I desired that day due to everyone being distracted. We did manage 1 scene though and I suppose it was rather optimistic to believe I could actually get more in 1 day. Frank managed to fill an entire SD card with Behind The Scenes footage. Also because as soon as we got me suited up for Count Dracula's scenes we discovered that the goddamn fangs dont stick to my mouth.

Following this I successfully shot some solo scenes with my girlfriend Gabby (or Gee); pictured above. I was very happy with the way these turned out as I learned how to effectively play with lighting on my new DSLR - A Canon 550D. Wonderful piece of machinery, to film a wonderful girlfriend.

Okay so far so good, 3 out of 8 scenes done, but after trying my fangs again for Halloween - which still did not work we came to the conclusion that my canine teeth are simply too small to allow me to play Dracula. Worse, I find Gabby has had fake blood spill over her white hoodie, which I'm going to have to shoot around now. We eventually decided on Frank playing Dracula due to his natural fang-like teeth anyway.

We'll see how things progress....

'Enter The Pitch' Contest Entry

For college we each had to develop a pitch for an individual bible themed movie. (maybe I should upload the script on here at some point)

I chose the story of Moses as did the rest of my crew in this pitch. We were then grouped together to weld our ideas together into something fresh and new in the hopes of winning the competition and enough money to turn this into a high budget short film.

The film would have been set in some sort of special rehab hospital where patients (analogous to the Israelites) go about their existence guided by the 'Moses' character. (In this case, a therapist)
However one day their treatment begins to falter as one patient begins to realize the drugs the therapist has been reluctantly giving him (on orders by an unseen authority - a God figure) are causing him to discover that the patients are being manipulated into believing they have a better future coming - when in actuality they have been sent here because they are incurable.

So, we produced this short pitch, where I voiced the therapist and Tom sent it off but.....

Oh well, still though, way better time than anything we did last year. :')

January 29th - Shooting Frank's Single Camera Space Sketch

So this was the day I got to finally collaborate on something of Frank's for a change. Even if he wasn't too thrilled to make it but I reckon it turned out okay in my humble opinion. Anyways, the previous night I briefly discussed with him his thoughts on 'Eraserhead' (1977) and eventually somehow he asked me if I was willing to play a satellite in his sketch. At the time I had a surge in creative zeal. This allowed me to have some more enthusiasm to this *groan* college project.

When I arrived the following day at college, Frank's single camera team were having a production meeting while me and the others were being taught how to use the cameras, a highly unnecessary lessons because of how simply those cameras are and the fact that I already had prior knowledge that I was to be cast as a Satellite. (Frank's sketch featured several celestial bodies talking to one another about the advent of satellite TV, this was kinda the point of what we were supposed to make for college.) We soon headed over to the studio and after some deliberation because Frank misinterpreted our lecturer's (whom I will refer to as Jesus) plans for the scheduling, we began filming without one of Frank's friends who was originally to play the earth as he ended up contacting her too late. Soon after though, he found someone to play the earth. Being the only male celestial body it seems I was quite the pimp satellite ...ha...ha...ha. I'll shut up. Frank then realized during the make-up sessions that he had make-up for everyone except me. As such he improvised and I had a range of different colours on my face which seemed to make me look like a zombie. I was even described as looking bruised up at one point. 

Satellite Selfie xD

Despite the fact that we both only had about several sentences, my dialogue with the moon seemed to go on forever. However, this may just be an exaggeration. I reckon the whole thing turned out pretty fine as long as the chroma key goes well so that we're edited into space. As the shoot finally came to a close, there came a need for a narrator and as I performed my Tommy Wiseau impression, for some reason they chose me. Although they requested more of a German accent, which I am incapable of with my natural yet inexplicable American accent. So that was a wrap! I then headed over to the Bath College toilets (something which I had not done before and probably will not do ever again - public toilets suck and plus these were really small) I evidently have no skill in washing my face as my fingers proceeded to ram across my face ending up jamming my nose and making me bleed. Stupid Moskow.

My fingers at the time.

So after both me and Frank appeared as extras in another dude's section of the TV sketch afterwards, it was the end of the shoot. This meant that the following week would be time for the Multicam crew i.e. Me. John Yogi Bear would finally have his day...