Just got back from a CREDO cinema screening at the Grimm Up North! Horror Film Festival at the Odeon Printworks in Manchester.

It was great to see CREDO playing on the big-screen especially as we had a really good audience reaction at what actually was it’s cinematic premiere. The only sadness was that the screening was being dedicated to the memory of Stephen Gately.

For me personally, I loved doing the Q&A’s!

I was on a “Directing Your First Horror Feature” panel where the discussion was all about transferring the skills from making short films to feature films and about what lessons we had all learned from directing our debut horror flicks. There were four directors on the panel, so myself and the directors of three other indie UK horror flicks – SPLINTERED, GNAW and THE FALLOW FIELD.

What really struck me was that we all had very similar experiences – that we didn’t find directing our first feature film that different from directing either shorts or TV, that we all struggled with the night shoots, that finding objectivity in the post-production was our biggest problem, we were all working on our next feature and that actually, all of us were just really normal not-up-ourselves (sorry to use this word) “nice” people who just happened to love horror.

After the screening, I did another Q&A with my producer partner Alex Wakeford and our gorgeous star from Credo, MyAnna Buring, about exactly how / where / why / how quickly etc we made CREDO and again, I just loved talking about it! I could have talked about it for hours. It just gave me a real rush. (Although it was a bit weird, doing the Q&A being surrounded by a dead very bloodied model sheep and decaptitated heads which were part of the Grimmfest Exhibition.)

And I loved talking all things horror with all the other directors / actors / horror fans present.

The thing that really struck me was that I absolutely felt that I belonged in this world of horror and fear. And I felt really proud that a film I directed was one of those being screened. It felt right and it felt good.

So thank you Grimmfest. Hope to see you same time next year.

CREDO screening dedicated to the memory of Stephen Gately

I recently did an interview for the folks of Love Horror about our horror film CREDO, covering how we came up with the idea, how the film came together, spooky stories about the shoot, what we’re doing next and supposedly some words of wisdom to anyone wanting to make their first feature film!

Check it out and let me know what you think!

http://lovehorror.co.uk/?p=2009

Just seen one of the best things in my horror film-making life. Our horror film Credo dubbed in Russian.

We sold Credo to a Russian distributor and they’ve just launched it with a new poster!

Credo in Russian

I love it – makes Credo look like a sci-fi time-travelling horror all about people holding up skulls setting fire to themselves which is exactly what it is, apart from the sci-fi time-travelling fire skull part!

Apparently the title has been changed to: Sign of Darkness

To me, that’s a better title than The Devil’s Curse which Lionsgate called it.

But the best thing is watching clips of our film dubbed in Russian. It’s fantastic. Makes it much scarier! Loving the accents and the expressions in Russian.

Here’s a link to a clip: video.raid.ru

And to watch more clips, copy and paste this in to Google:

Знак тьмы

Go Russia and the Baltic States!

I know I haven’t posted for a while but things on the horror front have been relatively quiet this summer.

I’ve been focusing my attention on a new factual baby DVD series on pregnancy & childbirth that we are launching:REAL BIRTH STORIES which maybe for some people the ultimate horror!

Real Birth Stories 3 DVD boxset

On the horror front, CREDO is screening at the the Manchester Halloween Horror Festival “Grimm Up North” this Halloween and I think I’m down to do a Q&A, so if you’re in the area, drop by and say hello!

Meanwhile, still working on our next horror film so will keep you posted. And now the nights are drawing in and it’s starting to feel a little bit colder, am starting to feel the chiller vibe so could be a scary winter.

And although I haven’t written about it for months, my ghost from the basement is really starting to make its presence felt recently. More of that to come…

So I thought after unleashing our horror feature film CREDO in the UK then life would get a bit less hectic. Hmmm. I was wrong.

Suddenly, things that were set in motion months and even years ago are all starting to happen right now, all at the same time, then I’m also initiating new projects…

Back to Credo. It’s selling ok and having it’s own little life. In fact, I was really excited to find it stocked in my local HMV! It’s had a good run of publicity -  on GMTV, This Morning, The Mirror, Mail on Sunday etc and had lots of net coverage. As we’re also selling from our own website – www.altofilms.com – we’ve having to fulfil orders on a daily basis (that’s me stuffing the envelopes!) so numerous trips to my local post office.

Meanwhile, I’m about to launch a factual special interest DVD series (details to be announced soon) and in fact, a duplicating company is replicating 1000’s of DVD units as I write this. So lots of technical conversations about artwork and DVD authoring spec’s plus lots of business discussions with the fulfilment company (we’re having another company fulfil the orders on this DVD series as there’s only so much envelope-stuffing a girl can do!)

Meanwhile, our film workshops seem to be gaining momentum and proving to be much more successful than we first thought – with people messaging me daily asking for details about the next workshops and what we’re planning on running next… (The next workshop is on June 20/21 – two days of practical workshops on directing).

Meanwhile, we’re also setting up our next feature film to shoot later this year.

Meanwhile, so then I thought, I know, I have a few seconds spare each day, so why don’t I try and set up 10 short films, each 10 minutes long to be shot over 10 days. And you know what – other people are starting to switch onto this idea and actually it might just work….

Meanwhile, there’s my blog to write and I haven’t even mentioned my ongoing mission to contact the ghost in my kitchen!

Is it just me or is every UK indie film-maker this busy?

Our Brighton Film Workshop!

Our horror film CREDO is now on sale on DVD in the UK in shops and on-line!

The last couple of weeks have been really exciting as there’s been  quite a bit of publicity in the press and on TV: a clip from CREDO was shown on GMTV and This Morning and we had press coverage in the Mail on Sunday, the Mirror, the Telegraph, the Metro and quite a few regional newspapers plus coverage on MSN, Yahoo, Virgin Media and also I think Credo is also going to be in a couple of film magazines. (Let me know if I’ve missed any!)

This is amazing considering CREDO is a small indie film with not much in the way of a marketing budget and with no advertising!

What is really exciting is that it’s finding an audience – people are writing their own online reviews and comments on CREDO and suddenly it’s got it’s own life, which makes me feel immensely proud!

Meanwhile, as we’re also selling the DVD from our own website, we’ve also become a little DVD fulfilment factory – processing online orders, printing address labels, stuffing envelopes, weighing parcels on our kitchen scales combined with numerous trips to the local post office.

I always seem to be served by the same lady at the post office counter and every time, she  tries to flog me the full range of Post Office phone cards, travel insurance, foreign currency exchange etc etc and each time I smile and politely say “No thank you” but inside I am screaming “You’ve asked me three times today already thanks!”

We’re also about to launch another DVD series in a couple of weeks (a factual series with nothing to do with horror!) – so things are about to get a whole lot busier…

The button is soon to be pushed for promoting Credo’s UK release on DVD on 25th May.

Lots of media PR is planned over the next few weeks to raise awareness of the film including some featuring Stephen Gately. All this so that people hopefully rush out and buy the DVD (or probably more likely the case nowadays, to saunter off and order online).

But none of it really involves me. Credo now has its own life, it’s own destiny. Credo’s fate now lies in the hands of the media, internet and press coverage. And hopefully, it will soon have it’s own fans!

It’s almost three years since we first came up with the idea to make Credo as a low-budget indie UK feature and it’s been a long and sometimes difficult process but it’s been a fantastic journey.

I thought at the time the hardest part of making the film was the shoot, but actually that was only just the beginning! As I’m not just the director, I’m also one of the producers, the hardest part was securing international and UK distribution. It’s been a steep learning curve and I’ve learnt many lessons.

Actually I’m really pleased and proud of the result, that amongst other territories we’ve sold, we’ve had a Lionsgate release in the US (under the name The Devil’s Curse) and also that the film is being released by Guerilla Films in the UK on May 25th.

I think if you’re a producer as well as the director of your first low-budget feature film, you’ll only know what that really means when you are half-way through doing your own spotting script as part of a very long list of deliverables as you have no money to pay anyone else to do it.

It will be late at night and you’ll be up against a tight deadline. You’ll be going through the film frame by frame and slowly going a little bit doolally, writing down every shot, every line of dialogue, every visual effect, every lighting cue, every sound & music cue and that’s when you really know what indie film-making is all about.

But then again. I wouldn’t want it any other way.

(Be interested if any other director /producer had there own spotting script moment on their own film??)

Anyhow. Hopefully you’ll soon see the results of the button being pushed for Credo. Let me know if / when / where you see Credo publicised!

Pre-order Credo now!

So last night was the UK premiere of CREDO and a world premiere of this extended edition never-seen-before cut including the special 11 minute prologue starring Stephen Gately – all ready for its UK DVD release on May 25th.

The screening was part of the London Independent Film Festival and it was a sell out, so the Roxy cinema was packed full of cast, crew, friends, family and hopefully horror movie fans!

Even though I’m really proud of CREDO and especially proud of what myself, Alex, the cast and crew and everyone else who worked on the film, of what we all achieved, this is only the second time I’ve watched the film in front of an audience.

I found it really nerve-wracking and ended up spending most of my time watching the audience watching the film. I was acutely aware of every single moment when the audience relaxed, when they were hiding behind their hands and every moment they jumped. All I kept thinking was that ok, in the next scene, will they jump at xxx? So not a laid-back experience but still, I enjoyed being a voyeur watching the audience!

Luckily we had an amazing response to the film and according to the audience, everyone seemed to have really liked the film and better still, CREDO delivered on the scares. (In fact my friend Emma said the film had scared her so much she was too afraid to go down to the loos in the basement after the film had ended. Not sure what she did instead…)

Then I did a Q&A after the screening and I was expecting some really tough Jeremy Paxman style interrogations but actually I really enjoyed the Q&A. I answered questions on everything from what the budget was, what was the hardest scene to shoot, what would I do differently if I had the chance to shoot the film again and what was I going to do next (hit the bar for a glass of wine thanks!)

So a really good night and many thanks to everyone who came along to support the film.

Credo DVD Pre-Order Now!

So our horror movie CREDO is being released in the UK by Guerilla Films on DVD on May 25th. Running time is 93 mins. Cert 15.

This will be the extended edition including the very special 11 minute prologue featuring Stephen Gately in his fantastic feature film acting debut.

But by special arrangement with our distributor, what is really exciting is that you can buy it direct from us, the film-makers at www.altofilms.com and you’ll be the first to see it!

Credo DVD

To celebrate its release, if you do buy CREDO from us (and you can pre-order it from the site right now!), then you will also get a set of 4 specially printed CREDO postcards for FREE. These postcards are available nowhere else in the whole world so it’s a bit of a coup.

Credo Postcard Set

On top of that, you can also buy the official CREDO poster – again available nowhere else. And Credo t-shirts are also coming soon.

Credo Poster available now to buy!

And we have also have links to buy our list of our all-time favourite horror movies.

The UK version of the DVD includes a 24 minute behind the scenes CREDO documentary called the “Five Essentials of Horror” which gives you the real insight into what making a low-budget horror is really like.

But there’s also a very special bonus feature. It’s a never seen before interview I did with Stephen Gately where he talks about his supernatural experiences, his belief in demons and his lifelong ambition to die in a horror movie…

So just think, if you do buy CREDO or anything from our site, it’ll most probably be the director herself that looks at your order, puts the DVD / postcards / poster into the envelope or poster tube, sticks on the label and pops along to the local post office to send them off. How is that for personal service from a film-maker!

Following on from the success of our Film Directing workshop last Saturday (I call it a success as we had some amazing comments!), I’ve just set up another two more one-day workshops in Brighton.

Sat 9th May – another Film Directing workshop

Sun 10th May – Film Lighting & Camera Techniques workshop

Here are some photos from the first directing workshop.

Film Directing workshop

Film Directing workshop 2

I’m particularly fond of the orange blinds which is part of the reason why we’ve changed venue and are now holding the next workshops in a professional film studio in Central Brighton.

You can just see me in the first photo. That’s my head sticking out of the top of the red-head lamp.You can see Alex in the second photo. That’s his head cut in half by a boom pole.

In the morning, we did some practical directing and acting exercises and then in the afternoon, we shot scenes from three Hollywood films – Pulp Fiction, Pretty Woman and Silence of the Lambs – chosen as they’ve got some great scenes for two actors.

What really surprised me was how good the scenes were as directed by the student directors, which is amazing considering some had never shot anything before in their lives. Each scene had real style. Some focused more on the performance of the actors, others focused on getting innovative angles and shots.

But every single scene was different and each one had a unique vision.

It just proves what I’ve always thought, that anyone can direct, it’s just having the confidence to say “I’m a director”.