As it’s been a free listings weekend on eBay I have been going nuts getting as much stuff up there as I can. All proceeds go to helping Casimir Effect through Post Production, I have raided my shelves and started listing all the books I have spare, read or don’t want any more.

I have listed a few geek items such as my much loved Laserdisc player and the laserdiscs to go with it. This would look cool in any geek collection; there are even the original three Star Wars films.

There are more than enough books to keep even the dedicated reader busy for… oh… let’s say a week.  Have a look at our eBay auctions and see if there is anything you fancy.

For the filmmakers out there I have listed the spare rolls of gels so you can grab a bargain if you’re in need.

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I may have mentioned before that I planned on doing personalised CJS ID badges. Well if you go to the store you can grab one of these. Remember to e-mail through a picture and the details you want on the card.

These are great for Cosplay, or something different for that special someone or friend. Each ID badge is custom printed and laminated in the same way we made the badges for the film.

To go with this we are doing a limited run of Replica Dr. Robert Cameron ID Badges. These will be available until the end of the year. So if you want to grab a Replica to complete your GDL collection now’s the chance. We also have a couple of LAB coats left on eBay so you can grab one of these to and start a costume.

Extra Special

We are selling a full set of prints in one auction so this is a chance to grab the last full set available for sale this is set No. 14. Set No. 15 will be given away as part of a competition.

Edit

We’re looking to have the edit locked by the end of the next week, then it’s over to Clarky for the music, and I’m going to start digging into getting all the dialogue and sound sorted. I’m tuning Gareth’s voice trying to get that warm and sweet vocal tone you normally get in film and TV. It’s a lot harder than you think, just to get it to sound right and keep all the detail and tone of a person’s voice.

Cancer Research

As mentioned in a previous post we’re helping promote awareness for Cancer Research. Joanna Davies has a just giving page she has put together for a Kiss-a-thon she is doing, all money goes to Cancer Research.

On the same note Monique one of the Fans and Supporters of Casimir Effect has been recently diagnosed with Cancer, and were trying to think of something special we can do for her. Any ideas are welcome.  Other than Gareth and related project I’m not 100% what takes Monique’s fancy however if you know her send her our love and poke us if you can think of something for us to send her.

The Novella

Just to let you know the Novella is out there the printed versions from Café Press should have been arriving this week. It would be cool to have some pictures of you with the book. I have one here from @z_cochrane, looking all dark and mysterious behind the book.

Well it’s been a busy week; we have the novella finished and up for you to buy. We’re now moving on to the Making of Casimir Effect book, this will have exclusive interviews, images, and other cool stuff. We’re also looking at a twitter retweet competition and a pack of signed images from our main cast for the store.

I have spoken to the Atrium, we’re hoping that mid-November we will start seeing some of the work they have been doing on the title sequence and teasers. Then from here we can get to grips with the SFX and other elements of post.

Apparel

As some of you know we have had issues with our screen printers, we apologise again for these delays, we have just received a part order.  All the Dr. Bob design orders have been packed and will be posted tomorrow.  The last remaining items from the Dr. Bob Design are now on the store and ebay, these all have 25% off.

Because of the screen printing issues we have decided to look in to embroidered patterns as they can be made just up the road and will expand what we can actually get our designs on. This will include the usual items plus bags, sew on patches, bear t-shirts and another items that are soft enough for the embroidery machine to handle.

As we are changing our apparel we will also be ending the Casimir Effect Logo design, so as of the last day of October this design will be removed from the store. So if you are interested in getting one for a Christmas present now’s the time. We are still waiting for some of this design to come from the printers and we hope that a few more orders will spur them on to getting them done.

The new designs should be available at some point in November.

Novella

Sales are going well, it seems café press are faster than I thought and some of the first books are being sent out to people. I have yet to order one for myself, I’ll probably throw an order together this week or next.

Buy: Casimir Effect – Novella, pp84, perfect bound. – £8.50
From Cafe Press.

Buy: Casimir Effect – Novella, PDF, eBook. - £4.99
From Web Store.

The Novella would make a good Christmas present or stocking filler for a friend and loved one.

On the Set Day 3

As we’re trying to bring you something tasty each week we thought we might over load you this week with Day 3 of the set photographs. There aren’t many here, as we’re saving some for the Making of Book.

[View with PicLens]

Well this week has been busy, from meetings with Lynnette talking about the making of book, to the Blue Gillespie gig. I’m surprised I have had time to work on the novella, thankfully I have, the lexicon is done, I’m just waiting to get the introduction back from our editor, then replace the changed text, get the cover tweaked and upload to Cafe Press. Also were looking to do an ebook/PDF version through our web store as soon as we have a good ebook conversion.

Most of this post is just updates but some new stuff will be added at the end. We have lots of positive feedback on the new site; hopefully it’s a lot easier to find things now. We also have a new like button at the bottom of each post, click it and let your facebook friends know you’re reading.

We’re working to get the Novella ready for sale this weekend; however we’re having a few hectic days in the middle of the week, so it maybe early next week. The lexicon is done, it just needs a few more read throughs to make sure it’s easy to understand.  We’re looking to do two versions of the Novella; one physical copy through our Café Press store and another digital, which will have a PDF and ebook reader format or two. The electronic might be a week behind the physical, as you generally don’t get compatibility issues with paper.

Then we’re on to the making of book, some of which will be looked at this week when Lynnette is here in Cardiff. The book will have previously unseen stills, behind the scenes pictures, and other fun stuff to take you through the journey of film making.

As always we’re underfunded and over stressed, but we will get there with your help, everything we have done so far has been made possible with the help and kind donations of our supporters. This shows that with enough people interested and behind a project it can be made a reality. Something which until recently had never been possible.  We may not be the first but we are on the opening wave of creative people making projects with crowd funding. More than anything it shows that the people of the world still respect and want creative works yet there is never enough respect shown to the creative industries for all the hard work put in.

Read more

Casimir Effect Novella

About 5 years ago the director wrote a shot story as part of a science fiction convention competition, the story was never finished but the core of it was developed. The story of the first time traveller, as woman as yet unnamed who tried to travel into her own past to give herself advice to stop her life going to hell, she was similar to Alice, but was originally married to Bob and the time travel experiment failed. Rather than travelling through time, the plot revolved around alternate universes and ended up with several different Alice’s? A great story, but possibly not a great movie, I won’t give too much away as not to spoil the better bits which we kept.

We took some of the core elements of the story, and reworked them to make them more filmic and visually interesting. We also brought in other character from the NeuroSys setting, characters we knew well and loved who would add an element of intrigue and subtle hints to clandestine events and activates. This would also bring Casimir Effect into a bigger and more vibrant world which could be used to add depth and substance to the story. This also offers us a bigger world to use should we get the chance to expand or redevelop Casimir Effect for television.

In December 2008 we planned the core plot points or each character using index cards, we shuffled them around until we had a structure and plot development that was interesting and offered an air of mystery.  The cards sat on our wall for about 2 months each few days we looked it over added or move something to make the story as interesting as possible. We then told the cards down and left it for a few more months, to give us time to detach ourselves from it so we could come back with fresh ideas.

April 2009 we began the first draft of the treatment, however we realised that to get the most out of the story we had to write it as prose rather than a condensed treatment. This enabled us to dig deeper into the characters and the subtext of the story. So we batted the Novell back and forth until we reached the fourth draft, then we let it out to people we knew and trusted to give us solid feedback about what is wrong and what is right. We then worked hard on the fifth draft to make it tight and keep the characterisation consistent.

By this time it was June and we started to look at turning the story into a script, we know we would have to change things and loose some elements but this is how things go when adapting a story.

In the next instalment, script development, revisions and read throughs.

<< Read Casimir Effect Origins part I