Eibon Films - News

The new trailer on Yahoo Movies of the remake of George Romero’s THE CRAZIES. 

Normally when faced with such a remake I would simply ask “Why?” This time I don’t need to. I already know why. Hollywood has run out of ideas and needs to find a new corpse to flog.

At least this time they have picked a film that is in need of a remake.

The original is good. I even have it in my collection. But it is not great.  There was always something lacking as part of the film experience. It has a brilliant core concept. As a piece of propaganda is has a powerful message. And yet it lacks that thing that makes me want to watch it again any time soon.

The trailer for the new version clearly has the missing horror watch-me-again element; the scares, the atmosphere etc. The question is, have they managed to retain the other elements and not f it up??? We’ll just have to wait and see…

DEXTER SERIES 4 - the plot twist in the finale - is an epic FAIL! It does’t work and is so flawed with logic holes. It just feels shoehorned onto the end and totally ruins the otherwise perfect denouement. I won’t debate it here, in case people haven’t yet seen it. But right now I am livid! Grrrr!

It is such a shame, as the rest of the series was actually quite strong…. and it appears that I am not alone - although no one has obviously stated the central flaw in the fairytale ending.

Okay.. if you want to read it…. then READ MORE below… Read the rest of this entry »

No reason… just because… ;0)

Have you signed up for Script Frenzy?

Yes that’s right, I’ve barely finished Nanowrimo and now I have signed up for Script Frenzy and I am considering attempting writing 100 pages in 30 days. I already have three scripts competing for my loving attention during that month; jostling for first place.

I must be mad! I know I’m not drunk… not yet anyway, but I am working on it. ;0)

I’ve just been reading about the new offering from Adobe - ‘Story’ - designed to enable Adobe to encroach on the world of writing applications.

You can create Screenplays, Novels, TV Commercials etc, complete with Character Bios, Loglines and genre info etc as very starched and sterile looking ‘projects’. You can import from packages such as MS Word, as well as the usual offenders such as Final Draft and other screenwriting apps.

So far it looks like a very primitive version of something like Celtx and Scrivener, merely dressed in the Adobe CS look-and-feel. However, it’s real strength may be the ability to work online and offline, work collaboratively and benefit from the tight integration with other future Adobe apps - especially any production / breakdown software they might be planning, or OnLocation etc. The ability to share XML and meta data within the rest of the eventual new release of the video production suites, to build the end product, may be the real string in its bow.

It will be interesting to see how much this early version will eventually retail for. Right now you can obviously try it out for free.

Watch the video presentation (19 mins) HERE.

Find out more and download a trial version HERE.

The Hacintosh has landed - and is working perfectly, thank you very much.  The only thing different from that pictured is that when operational mine runs Snow Leopard 10.6.2 - the Mac OS.

It hasn’t been the easiest customisation and it is not complete. It took days of a very talented friend’s IT skills to negotiate the dodgy instructions previously documented by various non-English speaking IT geeks and a certain amount of trial and error; as we deviated from the plans to have it as a dual boot (Win XP and Mac) systems. Instead, it is nothing but Mac software, with various kernel extensions - to enable certain functionality, such as getting the sound working and customising the battery life indicator.

I have swapped the Wifi Card for a Dell 1390 Wifi Card, as the Mac OS treats it like the Apple native Airport card, and now the Wifi works. All I have to do now is upgrade the RAM before it is a fully functional writing productivity enhancing tool.

The main test - that of getting the machine to run iWork and Scrivener etc is complete. It works perfectly, albeit on a much smaller and less powerful machine than I am used to. Now all I have to do is put it through a week of rigorous testing, before I consider the customisation complete and sell my EEE PC. I may even stick an Apple sticker on the back. ;0)

Lessons learned are that if I had an £80 extra to spend, buying the Dell Mini 10 would have been far easier to do.

In other news, I have been greatly enjoying John Connolly’s “THE GATES” - a hilarious and very entertaining Adult tale for Children. I wish I had the merest ounce of his talent. It is definitely helping me to rediscover my love for the written word.

Yes I completed the first draft of my nanowrimo novel yesterday - 56,103 words in 30 days!

Unfortunately I was distracted by work stuff and the fact that I hadn’t slept in two days and missed my chance to bump up my final official word count, before they locked the servers. Oh well… at least I know I not only completed the challenge early, I also finished the actual draft.

I will now take a month off from working on the novel, in order to get some distance from it. I will go back to working on my long delayed feature script and then come back to it in the New Year and then do the major structural rewrite fixes; before eventually looking at the quality of the prose etc.

Some people are dying to read it of course - which is nice (I’m sure that won’t last once they read it ;0) - But it is a long way off from being readable or worth sharing. However, I may just look at putting together a test chapter to see if people enjoy it and want to read more. But such thoughts can wait. Before I do that I desperately need to get my fitness levels back up, enjoy some quality reading and find my love of the written word again and find my hidden style.

A belated Happy Thanksgiving to any Americans out there. I seemed to lose all track of days while doing this competition, besides knowing how many days I had left in the challenge of course.

In other news, the last short story I penned was deemed unsuitable for the chosen publication I had designed it for; which was a great shame. However, I have been assured by others that this is apparently nothing to do with the story’s merits or the quality of the writing. Anyway, I am sending it off to other publications for consideration, so I’ll keep you posted on further developments.

Also a friend at work has installed the Mac OS on my new netbook to create a Hacintosh! What a star! So I shall soon be able to use my favourite writing software on the move and be just that little bit more productive! Waheyy! Bring on the festive season and a New Year of writing!

I am loving my early Christmas present from the missus - a Western Digital TV HD 1080P Media Player.

If you, like me, are an avid film fan and prefer the illusion of a minimalist lifestyle (that is, hiding the sheer volume of things that you own, by turning your DVDs into ripped versions that you keep on external storage - and thus freeing up your shelf space) this gadget may very well be the perfect device for you.

There’s nothing better than being able to visually browse your entire media collection from your own couch, via the handy remote, rather than standing around in front of your shelves for hours working out what to watch… as I do. Yes I know, I’m sadder than a sad thing on a moody day… but I often while away the time thinking about what to watch, when I get a free moment, rather than actually watching it!

Read the rest of this entry »

Yes, for me Nanowrimo should be over. After all, I completed the 50k challenge days ago. However, despite [insane] work demands I have managed to knock out 2,000 words more. The only problem is that I still have a few words (2.5k at least) to knock out before I can consider this rough and ropey 1st draft complete.

Apparently you get a free voucher for a proof copy on Create Space as part of the deal. So even if I don’t share my dodgy novel, I will have a physical reminder of my effort; a manifestation of my blood sweat and tears.

I have hit 50K a week early! Nanowrimo is not over, although I have already completed the challenge. I still have to finish my novel, but the pressure is off to compete with others on getting to the magic marker. I am only competing against myself now! and I have one and a half chapters left to write.

Not bad for someone who had failed to even start the actual challenge, the last two years running, due to work getting in the way. It just goes to show what can be achieved if you plan properly and stick with it. Something that I am not always know for, when it comes to writing.

Of course the real issue is will it be worth reading? ;0)

Unfortunately I am back at work tomorrow, so my daily word count will be considerably reduced. Ah well….