Robin King - a creative kind of a bloke - blog

Snapshots - Competition Entry

2010-01-21T20:30:00.001Z

I just took part in making a short film for a competition run by Dorset Cereals, called The Simple Pleasures Film Festival. The brief was to make a one-minute film with their ethos, "Simple, but then the best things in life usually are".

Please check out our entry "SNAPSHOTS" and vote for it! The first place prize is £5000 cash and a week working with a top production company: we've put a whole lot of effort into making something striking, fun and slick. Voting is as simple as clicking the 'Vote' button next to our film - and please feel free to forward on the email, post it on your Facebook wall, Tweet it, Blog it, tell your friends at work and whatever else people get up to these days :)

The competition webpage shows the films quite small, but if you want you can click the film when it's playing to watch it full-size on YouTube. (But don't forget to go back to the voting page and vote for it!)

Thank you so much for your support and wish us luck!
(AND DON'T FORGET TO VOTE!!!)

Switch - horror short by Melanie Light

2009-12-23T12:16:00.000Z

I just finished a two-day shoot acting in Art Director Melanie Light's first film as a director, Switch. Freezing cold, muddy snow and buckets of fake blood - oldskool. The snow came down so much after the first day that a lot of the material had to be reshot the next day, but the snow looked so pretty that nobody minded (except when I thought for half an hour that I'd lost my car keys in the snow just after I wrapped and was wandering around in a soaking wet shirt covered in syrup). The whole shoot was loads of fun and I'm really looking forward to the outcome!

Sock pushed back

2009-12-01T15:17:00.001Z

... if you'll pardon the expression. The SOCK shoot came within four days of starting but unfortunately had to be pushed back beyond the new year. One of the principle actors had to drop out at the last minute. While in itself a headache, I think it will benefit the production as Sam had just found some excellent crew who will now be given the time and opportunity to really do some great work.

Rejected again

2009-11-19T11:49:00.001Z

Broken didn't even get through the first round for Digital Shorts, so it looks like the end of the road for that project. Even though I made one of their most successful films, Screen South have rejected everything I've submitted since without so much as a second glance. After the amount of work I put into the application, it's very disappointing. It would have been a fucking great film. However, I've been put on the potential list for projects without directors, so it isn't all 'up yours'.

But the good news is that I can concentrate 100% on Sock, which goes into high gear tomorrow. Can't wait! And next year is all about Tom. I'm currently writing a new draft, which gives real solidity and human credibility to the question of exactly why Tom is doing what he's doing. I'm buzzing with excitement about shooting next summer, come what fucking may.

Blood and guts in the woods

2009-11-17T12:36:00.000Z

I've been asked to play the lead in a short film in December - nothing's confirmed yet but it seems poetic justice is going to get me back for all those times I covered my friends in fake blood in the freezing cold woods in the middle of winter...

A poem for the weekend

2009-11-07T10:35:00.000Z

Yes, I'm going to put my poetry here. Just skip to the next post if you don't want to read it, dumbass!

A World Outside of You

Out wand’ring ‘cross the moonlit beach a seagull sang to me,
Its feathers glowing like the stars, it looked so bright and free:
It sang a song of distant shores I scarce believed were true,
A long forgotten island realm, a world outside of you.

Then off it winged, its message spent, to save some other soul;
My thumping heart confirmed the bird had took a heavy toll:
My sleep all wracked by vivid dreams of winging on the breeze,
I woke at dawn resolved to seek my fortune overseas.

That very morn I built a ship to carry me away,
Provisions packed and heart aloft I paddled all the day:
Then far from shore, the tide behind, the sail I hoisted high,
But as I held the tiller firm, the wind gave not a sigh.

I raised my fist to challenge all the gods and cursed the sky,
Zephyros had turned his back and would not hear my cry:
I snatched my oar and pummelled at the sea to no avail,
And fell exhausted, looking up towards my lifeless sail.

Black clouds closed up the heavens’ orb and turned the air to sleet,
And Jupiter’s hot sulphurous stones rained down ‘mid cloying heat:
I wrestled on, the splintered paddle scraping at my hands,
All fevered with my storied promises of foreign sands.

Then Neptune, all a wat’ry wrath, rose from his bed astern,
And screamed a wall of ocean black its purpose me to turn:
The giant bore me down to depth and crack’d my boat in twain,
I gave myself to limpness knowing I was surely slain.

The cruel Gods had more for sport, and me they sought to spare,
All drunk with salted madness I was plucked into the air:
The wave now snatched me up and carried me where I knew not,
My sense returning, grasped a piece of flotsam for my yacht.

The storm abated, leaving me all choking in the mud,
My shaken frame embraced the earth that vouchsafed for my blood:
And on a time I waked to spy my prison paradise,
The stone I’d left had claimed me back to reckon its great price.

November 2001

Happy Hallowe'en!

2009-10-31T12:00:00.001Z

Five Card Stud - only five years in post!

2009-10-28T19:44:00.000Z

This was actually the first *real* film I shot, in 2004. (I say real because everything I shot before then was either a college exercise or something I made as a dumbass kid.) But my inexperience as an editor, mountains of technical problems, life in general, getting commissioned to make Ten Thousand Pictures of You, everything that came after and basically dragging my heels meant it's only just been finished. But I'm so glad I waited, as I'm a much better editor now and the film is much tighter than it would have been had I finished it back in '05.

Thanks to everyone who worked so hard to help me out with the film, especially David White and Susan Beckett from City Eye in Southampton: once I finish the website there'll be more details on the film's dedicated page. Next stop: festivals!

Sock is coming

2009-10-26T23:04:00.002Z

Development Hell

2009-10-22T16:59:00.011+01:00

So I didn't get the development funding for Tom. Here's what Screen South said:

The panel agreed that your previous work is both exciting and innovative; however they felt that this project would struggle to compete in the current market place and that you should concentrate on developing something lighter which would serve you better as a stepping stone from 'Ten Thousand Pictures of You' in terms of your career.

This is more or less what they said at the panel interview. Of course, I've no right to expect support for any given project, so fair enough. I do wish, however, that purse-string holders would stop hiding behind this oft-trotted-out notion of what "the current market place" wants or doesn't want. If you like a project, be bold and support it regardless of whether or not it ticks some boxes. If you don't, have the courage to say, I don't like it. Don't just point over to everyone else and say don't blame me, it's them, they won't go and see it because they've already seen a vampire film this decade...

So, back to the old freezerinos. They want more like Ten Thousand Pictures of You. Nice of them to be so concerned about my career path... but what if I don't want to be 'that bloke who makes silly surreal pixilations'? Hmm... wonder what they're going to make of my existential world war one zombie horror?

BROKEN Digital Shorts entry

2009-10-20T16:45:00.004+01:00

Just sent my application to Screen South for this year's Digital Shorts scheme. My project, Broken, is a psychological drama/horror about a monster made of bits of blown up soldiers in World War One. Jacob's Ladder with zombies, if you will. The guidelines stipulated I could only send a short synopsis, one page outline and director's notes - no artwork. So I found a way to follow those instructions whilst at the same time ignoring them...

The three pieces of paperwork are styled as approximate recreations of World War One era documents. The printed pieces I then baked (to age the paper - tried tea & coffee but couldn't get it looking right), selectively burned and charred, rolled in mud and spattered with red food dye. Oh, and I had to make four copies. Took me bloody ages! But I'm damn pleased with the result. One might argue that the words should speak for themselves but I think any opportunity to be creative should be taken. If nothing else, it pleases my little mind to imagine their faces when they open up my package and find it smells of soot...

First go with Unity

2009-10-04T13:40:00.003+01:00

The power of Unity really is impressive. Having never used it before and having no clear purpose other than experimenting with the toolset and Javascript (which I have only just begun learning), I was able to cobble together this web-player demo in literally a few hours. Call of Duty it's not, maybe, but it has its charm :)
Click here to play

Baddies!

2009-10-02T20:20:00.004+01:00

I've been dabbling with game design for some years now, first with Dark Basic, then Blitz 3D and now I'm starting with Unity. I created a couple of game design applications, Magic World DB and Total Terrain, used Blitz 3D to create some software that helped me develop and post-produce my film Ten Thousand Pictures of You and played around with some tech demo stuff, but because my other pursuits took up so much of my time I never managed to get a finished game together. I'm hoping to become more productive and finally complete something playable. My designs are very complex, so I've resolved to pare one of them down as much as possible and actually complete it.

To that end I've begun work on a game I've had in mind for years, called ATTACK OF THE BADDIES. My ambitions for it grew way out of control: a single/multiplayer hybrid FPS/RTS/RPG with destructible/constructible custom buildings, customisable weapons & vehicles, full chain of command macromanagement, world economy, living ecosystem, civilian population, procedurally generated tech tree and dynamically-scripted missions. No wonder I never got started! So I'm constraining this version (which I am denoting as version 0.1) to a single-player outdoors FPS with one pseudo-RTS conceit, standardised buildings, one vehicle type, a few standard weapons and a handful of upgrades. The game rules are going to be quite basic but hopefully hinting at what future versions might bring. I've decided to produce a comprehensive design document before I type a single line of code to keep me focused and disciplined.

I hope to have this fully playable first version produced by the end of the year. I'd like to share my workflow and experiences in this blog: I've no idea if anyone will be interested, but there you go! I hope it's of interest to someone.

Seeya!

Panel Beating

2009-09-30T20:14:00.000+01:00

I applied recently to Screen South for development funds for Tom. Not a huge amount of money and none of it for me, but it'd be a good thing to get them investing: once someone puts money into something, they're much more likely to want to help that project go forward to justify their genius in having been into it since the first year infants. I had my panel interview today. Not sure how well I did: the general sense I got was that they don't much care for the film but that they like me.

Apparently Tom is too similar to Twilight AND Let The Right One In. (Chalk sandwich, vicar?) They also said it wasn't similar ENOUGH to other films. Maybe I should make it "Fight Club with vampires - people would go and see that". It was also too dark - British filmmakers cannot make films like Let The Right One In: the only reason it's been successful is because it's Swedish. Hmm. Not sure that's the attitude that won the war. (By the way, although Tom has some common ground with Let The Right One In, it has a completely different plot, characters, tone and theme. Not to mention I wrote mine fucking ages before it was made. Fucking Swedes, they ruin everything. I know I'm going to have to run the gauntlet about LTROI many, many times.)

Our talk was robust without descending into a spit fight, and though I'm not holding my breath for this award I've always had a great relationship with Screen South, so I hope if they read this they realise I'm being tongue-in-cheek. Some of my friends and family tell me I should just agree with whatever The Man says and do what I'm told but for me that's not the route to meaningful art and I hope The Man would agree. See you in the job centre...

Jury Service

2009-09-16T13:48:00.006+01:00

Brilliant! I've been invited onto the jury panel for the inaugural Winchester Film Festival. It runs 9-11 October and as well as figuring out how I can abuse my power, I'm taking part in a discussion workshop on Sunday 11 Oct at 2pm called The Film Food Chain. My good friend David White from City Eye (who have supported me throughout my filmmaking career) is also on the panel.

Sock it to me

2009-09-15T17:52:00.001+01:00

I've been asked to play the lead in SOCK, the indie feature debut of filmmaker shock-jockey Sam Walker. Brilliant! I can't give away too much about the plot, but it's going to be dark, funny, weird, a little sexy and an amazing challenge.

There's a facebook profile for you to friend up with here and a blog for you to follow here.

Here be my films

2009-09-05T19:39:00.013+01:00

Here's a couple of my films:

Well here we go

2009-09-04T17:14:00.001+01:00

Hullo! I'm an actor, filmmaker and maybe one day games designer. I'll be adding to this blog as I embark on the making of my feature film debut THE LONELY LIFE OF TOM CAMPBELL, along with other projects. Consequently, it will be filled throughout with my thoughts on (i.e. bile-soaked railing at) the industry and the variously-coloured hoops through which I'm sure I will be made to jump holding a squeaky toy in my teeth. I hope you will find it by turns entertaining, informative and sexually arousing.

I'm probably not going to do myself any favours by being too candid, but I find the industry endlessly fascinating even at its most infuriating, so this could end up being an interesting document to someone, somewhere. Probably not though. I'm VERY boring.

Seeya!
Robin x