In the middle of the night...

The past few days I've been struggling to sleep. Whether it's because I'm worried about my current situation with having no job and worrying that I'll run out of money or that I just can't stop my mind from racing I don't know. Last night was particularly bad so after over an hour waiting for sleep to embrace me I got up and went to my workshop.

I decided to sculpt. Nothing in particular, and I had no plan or idea about what I wanted to do. No reference pictures or anything - which hasn't yielded the best results. I have a polystyrene head (the type that look a bit like a mannequin's head and shoulders) that I coated with Le Beau Touche. I just need to build it up into something. Then the plan is to cast it. This isn't for a project or anything in particular, just for practice for sculpting.

Well, anyway I didn't do much, just added an angry / demon type brow, made the nose bigger and hooked, added lips and made the chin more defined and pointed. After that I went back to bed and was able to get a bit more sleep.

Maybe creativity is the cure for insomnia?

2013 - A Rollercoaster

Well, 2013 is reaching it's twilight and the sun of opportunity is setting so it's about time for a review of the past 12 months.
It's gone very quickly to say the least and it feels like only yesterday (excuse the enormous cliché) that I was scribbling down my hopes for 2013.

It's been a tough couple of months as I was made redundant in October and although I found a temp to perm role a couple of days later, that didn't work out and so I found myself unemployed 2 weeks before Christmas. In fact I'm currently writing this whilst sat, waiting to sign on at the Job centre - good times...

Also, the world has lost some brilliant souls this year. Firstly my lovely partner's (Dave) Uncle Keith who was such a great person and a joy to know - taken so suddenly. Also, an old friend of mine,  Roger Holyoake. Although sad that he has gone he went the way I want to, relaxed and having a good time on holiday. He was also one of the few people who was kind to me as I was growing up in foster care. May you both rest peacefully wherever you have gone now.          

But while the past few months haven't been the best, I have accomplished quite a lot this year and I probably could have accomplished more if I had tried harder. Ahhh my good friend hindsight...

Firstly I had the honour to work with the brilliant Millennium FX twice this year both for Bloody Cuts' short films. First on 'Don't Move' (watch here) then on the example film for their short film competition 'Dare' (again watch here)

I also had the pleasure of working with the immensely talented James Moran (of Doctor Who - The Fires of Pompeii and Severance writery fame) on one of his shorts and also a music video.

In fact I have worked on 7 shorts this year. Mostly with Dave Scullion and Dave Puckridge unless previously stated. The others are:

• Summon the Scareclown 
• Sixth Sense
• The Summoning
• The Cure

Yep, lots of 'S' names! Also 'The Summoning' won the Frightfest ident competition.

I made my first silicone prosthetics this year and have since made many more.

I attended my first IMATS this year and made some amazing friends all across the UK and the World of which I continue to be inspired and proud of their incredible talent. I hope that these are people realise how incredible they are.

This year I also did a zombie makeup workshop for high school kids which was a great experience and made up some zombies for the Timeout Halloween party. I've also been paid for doing makeup which helps to validate that I'm at a level where my work is worth paying for.

 Now I'm sure that I've missed out some of my achievements but in some ways I think that that's a good thing as this is getting pretty rambly. 
I'm sure you don't want to hear about my holiday to Rhodes in September or the awesome Christmas I've had (literally the whole holiday period has been the best Christmas ever - from our annual Horrormas - Christmas horror film watching party on the 21st to now really) either so I think I'll wrap it up here.

I hope you have all had a successful and enjoyable 2013 and that 2014 presents the opportunity for you all to achieve and strive for more.

Happy New Year!

Xxx

Zombie Cheek

Today I did the below test makeup – not for a particular project but for practice – practice makes perfect as they always say! I sculpted and moulded the prosthetic a month or so ago, but haven’t had the time to apply it. It’s supposed to be a kind of ripped cheek thing for a zombie character.

The appliance is Platsil Gel 10 encapsulated in Super Baldiez and painted with Skin Illustrator.

Due to the fiddly raised bits, the piece was a bitch to get out of the mould and I have to admit that I almost gave up altogether, especially when some of the Baldiez bits started to tear because I was trying to pull the piece out too hard. Lesson: use slightly more release agent!

I used Pros Aide to adhere the prosthetic to Dave’s lovely face – no problems there. Then when I started to stick around the nose I realised I’d “made a huge mistake” and that the edges were going to look awful.

I persevered and have come to the conclusion that it doesn’t actually look that bad. I mean it’s not great, but considering I haven’t tried a piece like this before I think it’s not too shabby. I can’t decide whether it looks better with or without blood… you decide!

 

Outsider Makeup Test

On bank holiday Monday we did the first make up test for the short film me, Dave and friends of ours will be making this coming weekend.

I have to say I was quite happy with how it turned out. I made 2 new prosthetics for the test (only my second time making any prosthetics) and they came out pretty well, the only issues were the edges which was down to the cap plastic which tore slightly when I was trying to put a frame on them.

Luckily the edges were quite easy to disguise and the finished look was one that even me (the perfectionist) was happy with.

So *all* I have to do for this weekend is make 2 more prosthetics from those same moulds, sculpt and cast a head wound, sculpt and cast a face wound and do all of the makeup and effects for this film this weekend. I’m pretty excited and rather annoyed that my normal day job is getting in the way of me working on all these things. I’m also sorting out catering, namely in the way of making numerous cupcakes and sandwiches.

So busy weekend ahead! But I’m loving every moment of it – even if I’m slightly scared about screwing something up.

I don’t want to spoiler anything so I’ll leave you with this picture of me doing the test makeup on Dave Puckridge AKA The Outsider

A year of firsts

So far this year, I have achieved 3 personal firsts:

1) Did my first life cast - so it may have only of been of a hand and my plaster mix was a bit thin and therefore it fell apart a bit but still... First life cast.

2) Got my first workshop!! I know it's a bit pretentious to call it a workshop but what the hell!? And it may not look like much but everyone had to start somewhere and I am determined to create masterpieces here:

3) First prosthetic - I am currently in the process of making my first ever flat mould prosthetic and thus first ever prosthetic. It's currently in the last stage before application and I am eagerly awaiting the curing of my silicone. I'm scared it's going to turn out pretty shitty but also incredibly excited! I truly can't wait!

Ok, so there have been other firsts this year so far, such as my first (and hopefully not last) time working with the amazing Millennium FX, getting my first make-up credit on IMDB (for ‘Don't Move')… and other stuff I've done but probably forgotten about! Anyway, I'm a fan of threes and that's why my list was so short!

Obviously it's only April so who knows where the next two thirds of the year will take me - bring it on!

Hitchcock and workshops

We've moved house! OK, so we've been living in our new place for 11 days now so it's not a massively new thing but still, new house!

The new place is in Leytonstone, literally the other side of London to where we used to live (North Acton) and is the birthplace of the mighty Hitchcock, which means there are cool mosaics of him and his films in the tube station (photos to follow) and a hotel named after him. On the way here when we were in the hired van with the hired man (men with ven anyone?) we got stuck in traffic for an hour and a half so it wasn't the most pleasant experience! Not to the mention the cavalcade of awfulness the move came with...including filthy flat, lack of promised furniture and a toxic, chemical stench.

All problems aside we are finally settling into our new home which has a garden and a shed and most excitingly a big spare room which me and my lovely man, Dave are going to turn in to a study / workshop - so I will finally have somewhere to do makeup other than my kitchen !!! Now just have to find a decent workbench...

Thoughts and Thank yous

This time last week I was on the set of Bloody Cuts' latest instalment "Don't Move". While I still can't tell you too much for fear of spoiling anything, I thought I'd tell you a bit about the experience.

I was there as "special effects make up assistant" and was assisting the amazing and talented Millennium FX team - truly a dream come true (yes, I know how cheesy and childish that sounds.). I was also ecstatic when I saw that I was on the call sheet - a first for me.

The Millennium FX team consisted of Kate Walshe, Cliff Wallace, Tim Quinton and Simone McDonald. All of them went out of their way to make me feel welcome and part of the team and it truly was a great experience working with all of them. I honestly can't thank them enough for agreeing to let me help out and also for being 4 of the nicest people I have ever met.

Although I let Kate know in advance about my experience (which is not 'substantial'...!) I found myself mucking in wherever I could and learnt so much about the industry in such a short time, from some fantastically experienced people. I do hope that they found me helpful (and that I didn't get in their way too much!!) because it was genuinely brilliant being part of "Don't Move".

The rest of the Bloody Cuts team were absolutely top notch as well and I truly think that "Don't Move" is going to be a brilliant short. Both the Barrett and Franklin families deserve a special mention  for their amazing hospitality, even for me - the crazy, inconvenient vegetarian!

On a serious note, everyone involved was absolutely brilliant and deserved a good drink afterwards. They were also some of the nicest people ever.

So I've been back at my normal office job for four days and to say that I've found it hard to adjust is a massive understatement. Made ever so slightly harder when I found some fake blood on my shoe as I wore my set shoes to work and was hit with a nostalgic pang.

"Don't Move" has been such a great experience and was honoured to be a part of it. It has always been my worry that I'd spend so much time on make up supplies, books and DVDs only to work on the set of a film and not like it - unlikely I know but still could happen. However I had a brilliant time and was comforted in the knowledge that I'm on the right track. Already the highlight of 2013. I really can't wait to be on set again - hence why it's been very difficult going back to the office.

This post has turned into a rambling mess of thoughts and thank yous - kinda like an Oscar acceptance speech - I can only apologise but will only finish with one last thank you - thank you to everyone involved in the Bloody Cuts family / machine - please stay awesome!

Back in London

I'm back in London after a long weekend in Norfolk helping out on the set of Bloody Cuts' latest slice of horror "Don't Move"

It has been amazing and I have had one of the best weekends ever but will have to save the long blog post for later as I am absolutely knackered and could do with a long nap / cosy up on the sofa before I have to go back to work tomorrow.


Just a final note (before I curl up) to say a massive thank you to everyone who was there this weekend for being incredibly hardworking and unbelievably nice even when stressed and tired.

Jessica Taylor and the Weekend of Secrets

This weekend something really exciting is happening - due to the nature of what it is and a certain NDA I'm not sure exactly how much I can tell you about it.

So I'm taking inspiration from Dave's blog when I tell you that...

On Friday I will be going to *blank* to be *blank blank* to help with *blank blank*

I am excited and also absolutely terrified as I'm not really sure what is expected of me.

Anyway, whatever you're up to this weekend have a good 'un and wait anxiously for me to report back when I can.

2013

Happy New Year!

I'll do a proper "happy new year" blog soon but this is just a quick one to say I'm starting the year as I mean to go on - I'm doing make-up at home.

Last year I didn't do nearly enough make-up so I'm hoping going to rectify this in 2013

Have a good one!

Kickstarter / Bloody Cuts

Amazing news! My amazingly talented, writer boyfriend David Scullion has had one of his short film scripts chosen to be made into episode 8 of Bloody Cuts' 13 episode short film anthology.

If you don't know who / what Bloody Cuts are, then shame on you but you can check them out here

Now the only problem is that they now need to raise £2,500 to fund the filming of "Don't Move" (Episode 8 - Dave's script) and so they have set up a Kickstarter campaign in order to do this.
I have already pledged and in return will receive some of Neill Gorton's DVD sets which show you how to make silicone prosthetics (I have quite a few books on this but I find it so much easier being able to see how something is done step by step) which I am really excited to receive.

I was lucky enough to go to Bloody Cuts' Christmas Party a couple of weeks ago and I have to say they are all genuine and lovely people who really deserve the success they have acheived.

So if you can spare a bit of your hard earned dosh (even as little as a £1) please help these awesome people raise the cash to make episode 8 and to go that one step further! Just click here

*shakes bucket hopefully*

Bunker 51

This time last week I participated in another two zombie events at Bunker 51.

After a week of a stinking cold I have to admit that I wasn't feeling my best and was quite worried about how I would cope with 6ish hours of being shot at.

Luckily all went ok aside from a few particularly painful hits from paintballs and airsoft pellets which resulted in me wearing two padded suits for the second event - I admit it, I'm a wuss!

I really enjoy being part of Bunker 51 and look forward to seeing what the future holds and how it can develop - I spoke to my friend Alexys* who organises most of the zombie part of the events at Bunker about a few ideas I have and am hoping we can work together to make the make-up effects even better than they are now (not that they're not good already - Just read the review MSN gave us)

The best part of Bunker is that I am starting to have a lot more confidence in myself and my abilities (even though I know I can always improve) and with that comes the confidence and belief in me from other people - which I find amazing, especially from people that I greatly respect (such as Alexys) as people and fellow make-up artists.

The next event is in 2013 (that in itself sounds terrifying) and I can't wait to get into it again and hopefully start planning some brilliant make-ups.

* Alexys is an SFX make-up artist who has worked on the Harry Potter films, who I met while working at the London Bridge Experience & Tombs in 2009.

MSN TV Article

Please check out the below link:

http://on-msn.com/10ScPfd

That, my friends is an article of a reporter's experience at Bunker 51 - the zombie themed survival training experience with paintball, airsoft and laser tag thrown in - of which I am involved in. 

I have to mention that the reporter also says that "The effort the Bunker 52 crew go to is freakishly amazing; I half expected the actors playing the zombies to look like amateurs wearing shoddy Halloween costumes but instead they looked like they could have stumbled straight from a blockbuster movie set – or a grave." and "The zombies in Bunker 51 look scarily realistic," going to show that all the effort with make-up and costume is worth it and we have achieved what we have set out to do. 

I am bursting with pride to be involved with Bunker 51 (I was anyway but this article cements it) not only because of the scaring people and zombie-ing around (of which I do of course enjoy) but also because I was involved in doing the zombie make-up alongside other people and is it incredible to have my make-up recognised, especially as this is not something people generally comment on when they go to an experience / event like this. 

I am completely over the moon with the comments we have received from the reporter and others and am looking forward to continuing my involvement. 

And...get that, two posts in one day - I must be ill!

I am in the below photo - though you can barely spot me - I'm just below the lovely lady with the red hair

Extreme Horror Saturday

Yesterday, to get over my nightmare I decided to spend the day watching 5 depraved and twisted horror films.  Clever, I know...

We watched (in order):

1) Switchblade Romance
2) Antichrist
3) I Saw The Devil 
4) The Woman
5) Audition

Personally I didn't think they were that extreme and depraved which I'm not sure what that says about me but I must say I really enjoyed them. Which I know is a bit weird considering the films' subject matters. 

Also on show was some great SFX work and beautiful direction. 

We did our best to avoid Gorenography / Torture Porn films because I can't be dealing with that crap - I feel that they are quite lazy films - and instead went for films that were concerned with good characters and story telling. Something to note as well, is that the majority of these films have a strong / powerful woman protagonist / antagonist which is something I don't feel is done very well in modern horror or, necessarily in cinema as a whole. It was quite refreshing to see a woman who is strong and even if she is a bit mentally unstable, you are able to understand the reasons why and empathise with her. 

So, that was my Saturday - I could go on about it forever but thankfully I won't. 

At least it took my mind off my bad dream...

Dream / Nightmare

I'm just trying to recover from a terrible nightmare that I had last night. I don't have nightmares very often (like once every few years) and most of the time I don't even remember my dreams so this is one that really shook me as it was so vivid and I could sense everything. I could feel, smell, hear and taste everything.

I won't go into too much detail about what happened but basically a horrible disaster happened which I unfortunately experienced but luckily I survived.

I don't normally buy into all that dream interpretation stuff but my dream messed with me so much that I thought I'd have a look at what a few said it meant.

Keyword 1: Disaster

Dreammoods.com : To dream that you are in a disaster represents your personal anxieties and fears of change. You are afraid of not knowing what is in store for you in the future. 

Dreamdictionary.org : Disaster in your dream represents your fear and worry for your future or fear for change. Otherwise, be a bit cautious because it may be a predictive dream and it could happen in your life.

Keyword 2 : Survivor

Dreammoods.com : To dream that you are a survivor of some disaster or accident means that you will prevail over your current problems. You need to look at the bright side of things no matter how bleak things may be at the moment.

Dreamdictionary.org : Doesn't have it
 
 Like I said, I don't really buy into this stuff but I think I'm going to try writing down a list of things I need to do and also maybe write a plan. Also, this weekend I'm going to try and relax because I've felt bit strung out recently.

Long time no speak...

Hello gorgeous people, 

My apologies at my absence. Life has been a little crazy - with my day job and the things I've been doing in my spare time - I've been finding it difficult to find time to blog (a girl needs to relax at some point as well...)

So you would probably like to know what has been keeping me from blogging so here's a brief rundown. 

1) My day job - which sadly takes over most of my awake time 

2) Over Hallowe'en I was doing some stuff at a scare event at a laser tag arena

3) I went for a long weekend to see my family in Switzerland and for Dave to meet (any of) my family for the first time. 

4) I've also been doing some stuff with a scare event involving paintballs and airsoft (glutton for punishment you might say)

More on all of this soon - I promise. 

Also, I must confess that I find it difficult to blog as I don't know what my voice should sound like on here - whether I should be 100% professional and job / make-up focused or just be myself - I have decided on the latter and therefore vow (yes, vow!) to blog more. 

Things generally have been quite good and I'm happy with where I'm at at the moment - I feel like my confidence is growing and as I feel like that's one of the major things holding me back, that's a very good thing. 


So, with any luck, you'll hear from me very soon.

Have a great weekend!

Autumn

There’s a chill in the air and the nights are slowly but surely drawing in. The changing seasons make almost every cell in my body tingle with excitement as I anticipate the sound of stepping on the first crunchy brown leaf.

Ok, so autumn is here and although I may have expressed it in a slightly wanky way (see above) the long and short is that I’m excited. Autumn has always been my favourite season, even when I was a child. I always feel like there’s a sense of mystery and potential in the air.

When I lived with my mum (only up until I was 9 years old - due to problems that I may or may not mention at a later time) she would take me "trick or treating" every year. And every year it would rain. I remember getting so excited about sorting out my costume and make up and I’d get a little bit upset that it never looked how I saw it in my head. I miss those times, when there was magic in the air, along with the rain and I was just another kid dressed up for Halloween and on those nights I never worried about a thing. Halloween is, and always has been more important to me than Christmas – I’m not sure what that says about me…

Of course it’s no coincidence that the start of autumn means that Halloween and World Zombie Day are just around the corner and of course I’m busy thinking about what to do costume wise for both of them.

Updates on actual make-up stuff

I know I’ve been doing my “brief write-up” (I honestly did intend to make it brief – but hey! – I will finish it off soon…) of FrightFest but decided to take a break to tell you about some actual make-up stuff.

So firstly – I have a project. It’s a vampire photo shoot that someone wants to do. Sadly I think they may have slightly misunderstood what type make-up I do as I think they are wanting me to make them look model quality beautiful and there will be barely any blood / effects involved. In fact I was even asked if I could do the make-up in a “nearby café”… hmmm – I tried to be as professional as possible and calmly responded that I didn’t think a café would be a suitable or appropriate place to apply the make-up. They also don’t seem to understand the need for light or the need to tell me what they want so I’m just going to run with it and give them (hopefully) what they want. I’m going to try to do a test on myself or Dave tonight to see what will work. I am however optimistic about this shoot – any experience is good experience and hopefully the make-up will look great and I can get some pictures for my website that I’m attempting to design  – the shoot is  supposed to be on Sunday 16^th September so I’ll update afterwards, success or otherwise…

 

Secondly, I almost had another project – one that I was both really looking forward to and shitting myself about. I was supposed to be doing the make-up for a short / promo piece which would be taken to help try and sell Blue Green Yellow Dead. I was soooo looking forward to it and was excited about trying all the effects Dave had thrown in but sadly this came down to money. I hate money. I couldn’t afford to go to Germany (where the short is being shot) so that’s that.

I’ve also been so excited that we don’t have a major event to splurge money on this month (such as FrightFest or moving house) that I bought quite a bit of make-up bits. I’ve bought a Neill Gorton life casting DVD and some alginate, some syringes, tubing, pumps and a tarpaulin (more attempting trying out some blood effects) and a selection of various make up bits from Charles Fox (including some fangs for the aforementioned Vampire shoot) spent a *bit* more that I intended but hey ho it’s all necessary

Right, I’m off to turn my boyfriend into a female vampire and splatter my kitchen in fake blood. Good times!

FrightFest : The Films : Part 2 : Friday

For me personally, Friday was not the greatest of days filmwise...

The day started with me groggy eyed and quite tired which didn't bode well for the rest of the day / weekend - feeling like I'd just woken up from receiving an anaesthetic (not a hangover just exhaustion leftover from my boring but busy office job) we had to change hotels. So it was an early start and quite a bit of rushing around but luckily we made it back to the Empire for Nightbreed: The Cabal Cut

Now, I'm not sure if it was because of the aforementioned tiredness or because I haven't seen Nightbreed before, but Nightbreed: The Cabal Cut was a bit lost on me. Halfway through I felt like I'd somehow passed out and woken up having missed vital parts of the film - I have no idea if this did actually happen but I don't remember falling asleep or waking up so I can only assume it was just the pure confusing nature of this cut. Basically, it's the original Nightbreed cut together with a load of fuzzy, lost footage which the makers found on some old VHS tapes - some of which is barely audible and some of which you feel like you have to squint and turn your head sideways to have a chance of knowing what was going on. Don't get me wrong - some of it was great and I'd love to see the original Nightbreed at some point or even maybe this cut of the film just not when I'm so tired.

After Nightbreed: the Cabal Cut there was an interview with Italian horror legend Dario Argento. This should have been great but was slightly hindered by the language barrier (not his or anyone's fault but it may have been a good idea to get an interpreter in - I mean they managed to get one for the Chilean director of Hidden in the Woods!) but was generally quite interesting in parts especially when Argento started to tell a story about Rutger Hauer, a bush and a Russian woman that I'm sure wasn't supposed to be for public consumption. Also his views on remakes were great and similar to mine. However, a massive shadow was cast over this interview once the audience Q & A started - some of the dumbest questions I've ever heard asked, some weren't even questions at all but were, instead a love letter told to over 1,500 people and then, a woman came up with a wedge of paper filled with questions she wanted to ask Dario including her asking him to come to her home country (France) and make a film with all French actors - she even asked if she could give him a script she had written!

After a short(ish) break there was a Chilean film called Hidden In The Woods. I should have seen the warning signs when the director came on stage before the film and said in broken English (despite having an interpreter at his side) that he thought we would like it as it is about sexy girls and is quite funny - this being said about a film that was about rape! The film itself was terrible. It started promisingly but then got worse and worse and the subtitles parallelled the falling quality of the film as it went on. Featuring a cum spitting montage of a girl who has been raped and is prostituting herself to feed her sister and nephew and a tasteless shot of her boobs jiggling around all over the place in a titillating fashion right after we have just seen her get horrifically raped. As I said the subtitles were awful and completely laughable in places (the whole cinema was in stitches at times) with varying spellings of "hooker" such as "hoocker" and odd phrases such as when a character asks "how are you?" and the other character responds "Sunday"...I could go on forever...IT WAS NOT GOOD to put it mildly

Next was V/H/S which was a generally quite good horror anthology. There were a few really good short stories within this collection but by this point I was getting a bit fed up of seeing the same character over and over again; the misogynistic, frat boy type male stereotype who's main ambition is to capture a naked girl on camera. The films were generally well made and all were well acted and there were some great effects as well but I was at the point where I wanted to see something new.

We didn't see [REC]3 or Stitches as we had already seen both as screeners before FrightFest - so briefly, I thought [REC]3 was ok but didn't think it could stand up to the previous 2 films which I thought were brilliant - it seems I didn't like it nearly as much as everyone else did as everyone was raving about how much fun it was but maybe it's because me and Dave didn't watch it with the right crowd i.e the FrightFest crowd. Stitches was quite good - the Inbetweeners meets IT in my opinion and was good enough and quite funny but I feel slightly odd about it as I've seen the short film Stitches by BloodyCuts and kind of feel the feature is a slight rip off.

So instead of seeing those last too we grabbed a couple of quick slices of pizza (it's amazing how you can forget to eat), freshened up and headed to the Phoenix Artist Club...until around 3.30am...more about that later.

FrightFest 2012 : The Films : Part 1: Thursday

So, FrightFest 2012 is finished for another year and I have to say it flew by.  

I don’t normally review films and I know this blog isn’t about film reviews but I’m going to give you a quick run through the films I saw and what I thought of them…

Thursday kicked off with Paul Hyett’s directorial debut with The Seasoning House. I’m pleased to be able to say I really liked it and while it isn’t the type of film you can say you enjoyed (with it being about forced prostitution and all…) it really was one of the highlights of the weekend. It was also beautifully shot and had a really interesting tonal shift towards the latter half of the film that while lots of people (I hear) didn’t like and thought was odd and ill-fitting, I thought it worked really well. Rosie Day was also absolutely brilliant as a young, deaf mute and carried the film without uttering a single line of dialogue – that girl is going to get an Oscar one day! I really look forward to watching again as I went into it at FrightFest not knowing anything about it.  

Lightening the mood after The Seasoning House, Cockneys Vs Zombies did exactly what you would expect. While probably slightly biased (I was a zombie extra in this) I really enjoyed it. James Moran’s script was great as expected and the film was only slightly let down by some slightly crummy CGI flames and a fairly obvious plot. It was great fun and it is guaranteed to make you laugh. A great addition to the British Comedy Horror subgenre (I don’t know if that’s an actual thing but I’ve said it anyway) I also made the cut and got a few seconds of screen time so if you want to spot me – I’m the redhead in the hideous dress with sequin shoulders in the docks scene. But still it was a great experience to be on set and even better to see the finished result.

Grabbers was the last film on Thursday and by the time it came on I was very tired – me and Dave had been up since 7.30am and the only food we’d had all day was veggie sausage sandwiches at breakfast – I suspect this is one of the reasons I wasn’t completely won over by Grabbers – being distracted by my rumbling stomach and thoughts of pizza. It was, however a very good film and I thought the effects were quite good and the film was quite funny but felt it was lacking the special something that I felt it needed though as I said this could be due to my distracting hunger and my tiredness.