October 3, 2007
MeeBOX, STARDUST, LADIES & GENTLEMEN PILOT NEWS!
MeeBOX NEWS!
I’ve just had a couple of days filming with a proper digibeta crew this week for my BBC3 pilot, MeeBOX. Pop video/commercials whizboy Dougal Wilson was directing and every department was top notch. One of the things we shot was a fake clip from one of my Hollywood star character Famous Guy’s films (a sci-fi thriller) and it looked exactly as I’d hoped it might, which is very seldom the case with these things. In fact everyone was so good at what they were doing that a couple of times I felt a little embarrassed of some of the less well formed ideas that we were working on. Thing is, a couple of days like this eats up a large proportion of our meagre budget so you may as well shoot as much as you can even if you only end up using a couple of bits. The majority of the show (which is broadly internet themed) is going to be shot on mini DV, webcams, digital cameras and the like.
The digibeta shoot was a lot of fun though and we got some great stuff but when I got back last night I felt a little sick that I hadn’t spent some more time thinking about the point of a couple of bits! We’ll see how they look when they’re edited. I’m indebted to those who came along to help with little scenes here and there including Jo Bobin, Gareth Tunley Leah Charles, Tony Law, Jo Neary, Matt Berry, Emma Pierson and my dad, a.k.a. BaaadDad. I hope they had a good time too.
The only downside was that the filming coincided exactly with the worst cold I have had in a while. I was feeling a little dodge on the eve of the first day but assumed it was the usual feeling of vague physical collapse I often get before I do anything of personal importance in my life but it just got worse over the course of Monday and Tuesday and now I’m writing this in bed having had a night of feverish dreams. One of them was about working in a deserted fast food joint that had pubes scattered about the counter. That can’t mean anything particularly good can it? Anyway I’m feeling pretty positive about the pilot, which we still have a good couple of months left to work on so I’ll keep you briefed from time to time.
STARDUST PREMIERE ILLNESS QUANDRY NEWS!
The question preoccupying me right now, is am I going to feel well enough to attend tonight’s star-pebbledashed premiere of Stardust in London’s glamorous Leicester Square? I asked my Mum to come along with me and she’s making the long journey from Reading this afternoon so I don’t want to let her down, but what if I go along and sneeze on De Niro then he gets my cold and it affects his performance on the incredible ‘return to form’ film he may be working on? Not that he isn’t on form in Stardust of course, he’s great and very funny but still, I have to be responsible. Oh fuckit, I’m going to dose up on Lemsip Max and go along. Apart from anything else I want to say a personal thankyou to Neil Gaiman, the author of the graphic novel from which the film was adapted. He got in touch the other day to say that he’d brought me back a Stardust poster from Japan and I’m on it! How cool is that? And how incredibly nice of him to think of bringing me one back! So unless I take a significant turn for the worse later to day I’m going to put a bad suit on and head over there!
I’M IN ‘LADIES AND GENTLEMEN’, C4, FRIDAY 12th OCTOBER 2007, 10PM
The pilot I shot back in June by Peep Show writers Sam Bain and Jessie Armstrong is being shown next week as part of Channel 4’s Comedy Playhouse series. The cast includes Reece Shearsmith, Darren Boyd, Lucy Punch and Rosie Cavaliero as well as myself and is a sitcom set in Victorian England. I have no idea what its chances are of getting commissioned as a series but I was a little unsettled by the fact that Radio 4 recently ran a series with a superficially similar sounding conceit called Bleak Expectations starring Mitchell & Webb regular James Bachman. Apparently it was very good although I didn’t hear it. I can’t quite work out if that’s a good thing for Ladies and Gentlemen’s chances or not. Regardless, I hope you’ll check out the show when it airs on Channel 4 on the 12th. This is a picture I put together as an invite for a screening a while back as well as a picture of me and Reece who I’m still kind of in awe of being a big League Of Gents fan. Excitingly, he and Steve Pemberton are going to be making a new show for BBC2 next year! Should be wickles.
CHECK OUT THE PETER SERAFINOWICZ SHOW, THURSDAYS, BBC2, 9:30PM!
I’m not in it or anything, I’m just excited about it. Here’s a bit here. Apart from being someone whose work I enjoy hugely, Peter is the person who got me into You Tube, which I guess you could say has indirectly lead to me being able to do this BBC pilot so cheers Peter! I’ve no doubt his BBC2 series is going to be a smash so why not get in at ground level and check it on Thursday then you’ll be the one with the hot new catchphrases in the playground on Friday morning. Is that how it still works with comedy? I need more Lemsip.