What started out as a simple easy day actually ended up quite full. My son Ted said he wanted to go over to his friend James' house to play, and I wanted to walk the dog, and Mia wanted to go to the fancy dress shop, and Hattie wanted to go into town... what to do? Then it hit me. Walk the dog into town, via the end of James' road, via the fancy dress shop, then back out of town towards home. Quite a hike actually, but good. Haven't had as much fresh air as that for weeks. Then home for some highly unsuitable foodstuffs and a movie.

Later on I worked on my script and Hattie and Mia worked on Hattie's story. I get into fights with Hattie about things she wants to do with Microsoft Word. I guess I get a little pissy when I get tech support requests from the kids, because I want to spend my time with them doing other things than fixing computers which I do all week.

Anyway Mia is a whizz with office software so it's a win win.

I can't recall much after that. Fell asleep watching something, but don't know what. We spend a lot of time watching Finnish comedy shows at the moment. Probably "Vintiot". Proper funny.

Bought a lottery ticket today. Lucky 13? No, of course not. It's stupid isn't it? You don't believe in 13 being an unlucky number, because it's all about Judas being the thirteenth apostle, and Friday the 13th is also supposed to be unlucky - god knows why - so you don't believe that... so why am I buying a ticket believing that because I don't believe it that somehow this will be my lucky day? People are very strange and myself doubly so.

Final day of prep for the video project. All four teams now have stories to write, have chosen two tunes from the CD I made, and are all primed and ready to be fired off into a life of misery wanting to make films for the rest of their lives. Well some of them I hope.

I found out that a few well known production companies accept pitches from first time producers, and I'm thinking it would be worth a punt to send the synopsis of "The Sacrament" to a few of them to see if we can get development money. Getting the actors to come back to film the rest of the movie will be hard enough so hopefully some money might make it easier.... wait, did I talk about this yet?

Okay, plan B is in action now. I'm going to film the opening sequence and as much of the rest of it as we can afford to get in the can in Easter break, then the rest of it in the first few weeks of Summer vacation. I can use the opening sequence as a marketing and money gather tool. Plus it might persuade the actors to return. I'm hoping that people having done some will want to finish it and come back for more.

I really hope they like the story and believe in the project, but it's hard to take on other people's passions, I know. Plus it'sjust occuring to me I have a real problem on my hands as most of the actors I'm using will be graduating and going off into the real world come the beginning of the summer, getting agents, getting real movie work. I might lose out or at the least have to wait a long while to get my people back. It's a tricky manouver.

Anyway, I'm going to write to everyone I can think of to get money to make the film. I even thought about writing to Madonna. Well she only lives a few miles away over in Wiltshire. She might be interested in funding a local film or at least helping get money for it. I mean she's married to a filmmaker so she must know how hard it is to get money to make films if you are not already in the business.

Suffice to say I will leave no stone unturned to make this film. I have to do it this year because too many years have gone by and I've not done it. I have my production designer and I'm really hoping to persuade a friend of mine to do the storyboard, but he's a busy bloke and I don't want to eat into his time. Let's see if we can get some production money then I'll be able to pay him and it won't be so much of an issue. I'm looking for a really hot 3D artist too, because although I could do all the backgrounds myself, producing and directing and writing are enough of a full time job as it is. Well see. It all hinges on the money to hire the camera and monitor. Get that and we got ourselves a movie.

Once again more of the same. Work a little in the morning, then teach.

Don't get me wrong, I love the teaching. Being able to fire up a bunch of young talented and hungry for action young people is a source of endless joy for me. But the physical demands of the job are manifold, from rushing around getting everything ready, running up and down stairs carrying monitors and ghetto blasters and long power extension reels takes it out of you. Plus there's the kind of emotional commitment that comes from wanting to instill a passion in people. You have to gee them up, it's like a performance, one that you have to repeat time after time, and that's where you end up shagged at the end of the day.

Plus I have a lot of money worries at the moment and that's distracting. I'm hoping to get a consolidation loan to sort it all out but I'm afraid my credit rating is so low by this point that they'll say no. What I'll do after that I'm not sure, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Anyway, onto happier topics. The day is done and only one more day of prep work for the project and we're done.

Same again today. Hurried morning followed by teaching all afternoon.

This group were a bit slower to get going, and I felt like I was pushing them uphill. Getting really tired now.

Asked a few of the actors I want to be in my film if they would be interested in working with me. They all said yes. Basically I have the dream cast I was hoping for and I really hope I can keep them online until we can shoot something. It would be such a letdown to lose anyone at this stage.

Time for bed, I'm bushed.

First day of actual students, and we get right into the video project right away. I had a morning of doing all the tasks I would normally have in a day, but at 2pm I have to stop working and go and till 5pm. It's going to be a bit like this all term apparently, whhich is starting to worry me a little bit. Teaching every week? Next they'll actually want me to work for a living? :)

The group today were pretty quick on the uptake, they assigned the pre-production roles of production co-ordinator, technical co-ordinator, location manager, casting director, art director etc. without much trouble, and they seemed to like the CD of music I'd chosen for them to choose two tracks from. I've used good pop music from Finland so they don't choose tracks they like but ones that suit the movie they are making. They came up with a story from the seed plot I gave them, and we brainstormed it very quickly.

Working later in the afternoon has its problems. I normally leave at 3.30-4.00pm most days as I get in so early, so leaving after 5 means I hit all the traffic going home. It's pretty much a 1 and 1/4 hour trip on a clear road, but lately the roadworks have made it more like two hours each way. That's a lot. Be glad when the teaching stops and I can go back to getting in before anyone gets there and bunking off before traps me into doing just one more job.

Urgh. Late night. Mia started ploughing her way through the rest of the Star Wars movies and I finished and sent my proposal around 1am. Up at the crack of dawn to motor in to Bristol to attend this meeting...

Then as I arrived I thought, damn it, number one I'm way too busy for this, number two why lend my influence (such as it is) to a meeting which frankly the political nature of which gives me the heebie geebies and the outcome of which I have no control over. I opted out. Instead I got all the computers sorted out and ready for the new term, and ordered a bunch of new stuff which we're going to need. Hard drives for the broken G4s, some memory for my computer which is starting to barf under the load, a DVD recorder to prevent having any fights over the one we have, and an external DVD burner to add on to our ProTools machine which has a busted CD burner.

Then I had some time in the afternoon to prepare for my classes tomorrow. I'm teaching all four 1st year groups every afternoon this week, preparing them for this year's 1st year video project. As I've probably said before, it's a 5 minute dramatic video which they have to write and crew, and I'll be producing and directing. It's an exercise in learning the correct working procedures for making films, so planning, shooting, editing and mastering. What we end up making is in fact largely irrelevant, but I try and make it interesting anyway, because why the hell not? If I have any sub-agenda on this course it's to fire people up, give them a passion for filmmaking they didn't have before. I can easily do the stuff we're meant to cover. I can do the other stuff too.

Anyway enough about that. Mia's Finnish friend Tonya came round to see Mia and they spent the evening watching a Finnish language crazy travel show called Madventures. I have no clue what was said, but it looked like two crazy tattooed Finnish dudes daring each other to eat snake penis on desert islands, oh, and spitting a lot and yelling Finnish cusswords at the tops of their lungs. So my kind of show in other words.

Woke up at 6.30am this morning. Damn my body clock. I usually get up at 6.00am or so to go to work, but as I get older it's becoming distressingly difficult to just sleep through when I don't have to get up. So I got up, no point in fighting it. I made a cup of tea, had a ciggie and logged into blogger and caught up on the last few days of Diary Creme.

After a hour and a bit of time learning stuff on Lynda.com, I went back up to bed and slept through till 12.30pm. Ah bliss. I've learned that you can get enough sleep but you have to work at it.

Today we had to wash the dog, but that turned into more of a whole day project than we thought, as we trimmed and brushed her, then bathed her, then dried and brushed her again. It took between 1pm and about ten to four. Then I had to run out the door and go to ASDA to get milk, coffee, Pepsi Max (our coke of choice) and Minute Maid orange juice. All drinks. Hmm. What's that all aboot, eh? What can I tell you? We are drink oriented household.

Case in point - cool food hack of the season: I love vanilla and I love coke but I like Pepsi better than Coca Cola. Problem. Plus Vanilla Coke tastes nasty to me, kind of an unpleasant aftertaste. So I put a splash of Cream Soda in a glass and fill up with Pepsi Max = Vanilla Pepsi Max!!! You can do the same thing with Cherryade to get Cherry Pepsi Max. Great taste, and you can use really cheap soda as your mixer. I get the ASDA own brand sodas for the kids and they are perfect for my mixing experiments. You should also try Cola + Orange soda = a previously unknown taste explosion. Why don't they make orange coke? It's like a kind of Terry's Chocolate Orange in a glass. :)

After taking Yo home and picking up Ted we came home and ate spaghetti and sauce and the kids got their stuff ready for school and then bed. Mia watched Star Wars "Revenge of the Sith" which we have on rental from Amazon.co.uk and while she did that I got my work done. I wrote up the notes for my course I'm teaching this term starting on Tuesday, the first year video project as I said a while back, and tried to finish my proposal for my book which I'm submitting to Focal Press in the USA. They asked me for a proposal for a 3D graphics book based on an idea I submitted months ago, and I've worked it up into a proper proposal over recent weeks. They should be back at work properly like me tomorrow, so I need to finish it tonight. Might be up late, not sure.

Tomorrow we have to endure a couple of presentations at a meeting for all staff members all morning. I'm trying to figure out a way I can avoid it as I have a buttload of work to do before term begins in earnest on Tuesday and I was hoping to get stuff done and escape relatively early. But I've been told that while attendance isn't compulsory, we kind of have to be there. Figures. I guess I'll have to fit my work in around the meetings again. D'oh! Come Tuesday we're in the pipe, 11 weeks of interruptions puctuated by temporary solutions to any problems which arise, no time to yourself, few lunchbreaks, and yet moments of sheer elemental joy at jobs well done, students getting the point of what your talking about, young people eager to learn and the ever present joy of creation and filmmaking. It's a freaking rollercoaster and no mistake.

Oh and by the way, some of you who know me well will possibly be wondering why I am so much less profane in this blog than I am in real life. Ok. Two reasons: 1) I made a conscious decision to be more creative and think of more interesting words rather than just effing and blinding all the time, and 2) I happen to know for a fact my mum reads this blog. It's bad enough she knows I smoke, let alone swear all the time. (Hi mom!) I know what you're thinking, I'm 45 years old and so why should I care? Well, I counter that with mind your own damn business. It's my blog and I'll do whatever the fudge I like.

:P