I was talking to somebody yesterday about my “web presence” and realised that I had neglected this blog. I guess it’s a good sign; it shows that I’ve been busy (or pretending that I’m busy), but I’m sorry to those that follow my blog regularly (all three of you; or two if you exclude me).
I also want to apologise to all those that have emailed me in the last few months and haven’t received a response from me. I’m not being snobby. I’ve just been very busy and there isn’t enough time in the day to reply to every email I receive. I’ve actually got a backlog of emails! So if you can forgive me, please do email me again so I can try again.

Anyway, as you sort of know, I wasn’t so happy with Shattered Pieces (which by the way I will be uploading it in a few months time, for those interested). I’ve stopped sending it to film festivals now so I can focus on my future projects. I’ve got a few rolling, and I can tell you about two of them:

First off, I’m writing a spec feature length screenplay. It’s something I’m feeling very positive and excited about. I feel like my creativity and humour is back, after the dark period that is “Shattered Pieces”. So you’ll be hearing me going on about it a lot in the months and years to come.

Now on to the juicy project all of you will probably see; Aqeel.TV!
AqeelTV will be an online YouTube channel with no-budget comedy shorts I will be creating. It isn’t to showcase my great filmmaking skills. Instead, it’s just a little fun side project for not only me to experiment with, but anybody else that wants to get involved. I’m currently writing a few little bits that might be interesting but this is really an open call to anybody that wants to get involved.

So if you’re interested in filmmaking, whether it’s in front of or behind the camera, and if you’re in (or can be in) London, send me a tweet on Twitter, email me or leave a comment on this blog. Let me know what you’d like to do and once I’ve got a good list of names, I’ll contact you all.

While AqeelTV is being cooked, please subscribe to the YouTube channel and spread the word and get your friends to do the same. If we can get many subscribers, and eventually viewers, YouTube can set up a proper channel and promote it! Do it now: www.Aqeel.tv !

I actually stopped submitting to Shattered Pieces for a few months now. I think it’s time for a new start, to focus on jobs and new projects.

That being said, I’ve just been told by Big Island Film Festival that Shattered Pieces has been selected in their film festival in Hawaii! It might just be the perfect excuse to visit the state.

The festival will be running between 12 to 16 May 2010 at the Mauna Lani Resort (Hawaii). You can check out their website for more info at: www.bigislandfilmfestival.com

Shattered Pieces has been selected to be screened at the 8th KaraFilm Festival in Pakistan. A bit of bad news though; due to the current situation in Pakistan, the festival has been postponed! I hope things improve for both the KaraFilm Society and Pakistan as a whole.

Check out their website for more info at: http://www.KaraFilmFest.com/

Shattered Pieces has been selected to be screened at the the Victoria Independent Film Festival in Australia! The festival will run on 15th January 2010! Check out their website for more info.

Great news so soon after finding out Shattered Pieces is in the Stepping Stone film festival, I’ve just got an email from Newport International Film Festival in Wales, saying that the film will be shown at their festival and that it has won an award for “Best Short Film Actor – Drew Dillon“!

The film will be screened on the 7/8th December 2009 at the Cineworld in Newport.

Shattered Pieces is part of the official selection at this year’s Stepping Stone Film Festival, which will be held in Chennai, India on 13 December 2009!

Due to problems with one of their main venues having water damage, the London Young Film Festival had to be postponed until a later date. I now have the date, time, and venue Shattered Pieces will be showing:

Shortwave Cinema, London SE1 3UN
11th November 2009 at 19:30.

This will be the “world premiere” of the film. It is complete, although there are a few bits that could be fixed. I showed the actors, Drew Dillon and Claire Garvey, the film and they seemed to be happy with it. I just hope everybody else likes it!

You will have to pay to get in, same amount as a cinema ticket (I think) and it will have all the other “Best of UK Shorts” films which should be fun. Oh, here’s the Facebook event page:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=156939664218

As the post title suggests, Shattered Pieces has been accepted into the London Young Film Festival (LYFF). This makes it the first film festival to be showing the film.

LYFF is a festival aimed at promoting films by filmmakers under the age of 26 years old.

The festival will be between 12-17 October 2009. Once I know more about it, I’ll post it here.

Check out the festival’s official website: http://www.lyff.org.uk/

I’m submitting the finished-ish version of the film to festivals, while I’m doing the final finishing touches to it.

I’m currently doing the motion graphics for the end credits. It has scattered letters everywhere (the ” Shattered Pieces”) but when the camera moves to certain positions, it reveals the name/credit.

Also, Shattered Pieces has got it’s own listing on IMDb. Exciting. Check out the title page: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1509243

Bye!

The film is finished! Chris Reading (sound) has just sent me the final sound mix with his sound design and Vince Pope’s music. Very exciting. It still needs a few tweaks here and there, and need to add the credits and titles, but it’s all done.

I’m going to send them off to the first lot of festivals this weekend. I’ll post more details when I get some more time, but wanted to share the news.