I can’t sleep, like most nights, so I thought I might as well get round to sharing the actual story behind Shattered Pieces. I wanted to keep it a surprise for when the film is finished, but there’s no point of keeping a production blog if nobody understands what I’m doing!
I won’t give away too much. I’m not very good at selling this, so it will probably turn most people away! I’ll give it try.

Shattered Pieces opens with a man, Ted Wilson, waking up battered and bruised in an alleyway. Confused and in deep pain, he steps out— his face fills with horror. London has been destroyed and abandoned.

The film is made up of various parts of his memories, in a non-linear style, as he tries to piece together what has happened and why he is there.
We soon realise that this isn’t really a story about what happened to London; but instead about a relationship between Ted and a girl, Sara Baliam, forming, growing strong and then falling apart.
A tragic love story set in an unstable world.

I hope that makes sense and doesn’t seem too bad. I’ll refine it once I get on the computer. This iPhone app is pretty handy. If I get the chance to, I’ll be blogging on set!
It’s going to be a busy few days doing last minute preparation before the shooting starts on Saturday.

I’ve just finished the shot-list for the short film, and sent it to the Assistant Director, KC Thiruchelvam. We begin shooting on the 11th April, so only a few days to go! It’s going to be intense.

I have also received the newspapers which I have had specially made. They will be used in the backgrounds of the film, to add more depth and reality to it. They look just like real newspapers! I think I’m going to have to explain the basic story of the film soon. I’ll do that when I get a bit more time.

From the newspapers, you’re probably going to think the film is something political. It isn’t. The focus of the film is a relationship between two people, Ted Wilson and Sara Baliam. It just happens to be set in a political world, just like the world we live in, but I’m using it in an artistic way (I hope). As their relationship breaks down, so does their world. The way I try to explain their world breaking down is with a political side story, very similar to the New World Order, which I have named Global Order or G.O. for short.

Today I got to meet the actors I have chosen to play the two leads, for the first time since auditions. They are Drew Dillon, who will be plaing Ted, and Claire Garvey, who will be playing Sara.

It was the first time the two of them have met, so it was really just for the three of us to get to know each other, and to go over a few points in the script.

We also went to Hamleys to look for a cuddly toy (that will be used in the film). It was a nice relaxing day and I’m really looking forward to shooting this film with them!

Here’s a photograph of me (just about), Drew, and Claire somewhere on Regent Street.

I’m writing this on my iPhone, knackered, so there may be a lot of spelling mistakes and things that don’t make sense. I’ll edit and correct it later when I’m not so tired.

As you may have guessed, today auditions for my short film, Shattered Pieces, were held.

It was my first time auditiong anybody (a lot of firsts as this is also my first live-action film). It was a tiring but great experience. Casting director, Rory O’Donnell, and I auditioned people while Andrew Ormes and my brother, Adeel Ahmed, looked after those that were waiting.

We auditioned non-stop from 10:30am to 6:30pm. It’s going to be such a hard decision to make as all those that auditioned were great.
Tomorrow I’ll be looking through the tapes and then chat with Rory again to make a decision.

I’ll post more soon.