Monday 31 August 2009

Grand Designs is Here!

Ladies and Gentlemen Christel Films is pleased to announce the first episode of its Doctor Who Fan Series. Grand Designs is the first episode of four specials this year culminating at Christmas and New Year and then in a full 13 part series next year.

Thanks for the people that have been visting the site since it was setup only a few months ago and to the many who I hope will visit now that Grand Designs is up and ready. Grand Designs will be up here for 5 days and then on the episode page permanently. All that is left to say is enjoy...


I should point out that it is best watched full screen as the text may appear a tad blurry. Sorry, I will fix this for the remaining episodes.

It IS Coming...Today!

I am currently in the process of uploading Grand Designs through veoh and trying to get the quality just right.
Keep checking back throughout the day...hopefully it will be up soon.

Saturday 29 August 2009

2 Days to go! (Or Perhaps Not!)

With only two days to go to the launch of grand designs I am still yet to really figure out how much interest is out there and who is reading this website (Plus I really want to avoid being one of those annoying people who just advertise on cboxes). Therefore I propose a challenge to anybody reading this. If, and this is a big if, if I get at least 15 comments on this post then I will upload the episode early and release it Sunday night(30/8/09) instead of Monday morning(31/8/09). They must be genuine comments and any spam will just be removed.

The challenge is set.

I also apologise that some may not see this a 'treat' in the same vain as the others but I thought it might be fun to do. If it works you get to see the episode early.

Friday 28 August 2009

3 Days to go!

With just four days left todays 'treat' is a short snippet from the script of Grand Designs, enjoy...

SECNE 012 – INTERIOR TARDIS

The Doctor enters the TARDIS console room. Now refitted he surveys the room quickly before moving over to the controls. As he does so the ship is jolted and alarms and explosions sound. The DOCTOR is buffeted about the ship.

DOCTOR – What?!.... What?!... What?!

DOCTOR – Oh what now? Whoa…A Collision…But that’s not possible…

The shaking and alarms still sound as the DOCTOR rights himself and taps away at the controls.

DOCTOR – But you didn’t move..I was here the whole time. There is no way something crashed into you…Whats that?! An alarm in the secondary control room. But you don’t have a secondary control room….do you?

SCENE 013 – INTERIOR TARDIS – SECONDARY CONTROL ROOM

The Doctor enters the secondary control room to find it burnt out and severly damaged. He surveys the room quietly before placing himself on the chair in the centre.

Visit tommorow for an extra special snippet that is still under wraps...

4 Days to Go!

As promised the next post is upon us and today sees the mockup of a DVD cover that would be used if the episode ever got released. Not that it will mind being just for fun but I thought it might be nice to do. Enjoy...

















Be sure to visit again tommorow when there will be a sneak preview of a segment from the script for Grand Designs.

Wednesday 26 August 2009

5 Days to Go!

As promised here is the next post counting down to the release of Grand Designs on August 31st. Today's snippet is five new still images of Grand Designs that haven't been seen before. Enjoy...
























































Visit tomorrow for a sneak peak at the DVD cover I mocked up for grand Designs.

Tuesday 25 August 2009

6 Days to Go!

With just 6 days remaining until 'Grand Designs' Goes live I have written a post for each day counting down until the launch of the episode. I will try and put a little sneak peek or a small giveaway of some sorts into each of the posts and have some interesting ideas lined up.

Today is a history of the many versions that my fan series and indeed this episode went through before becoming what hopefully lots of people will see on August 31st 2009 (Its in italics so that it forms a commentary-type narrative)

Originally conceived over 2 years ago I first started thinking about making a fan series after seeing the end of Doctor Who Series 2 and watching Rose leave. Not happy with this as a resolution I planned a very rough 13 episode series that dealt with her return and used ‘the movies’ from Lionhead Studios to start animating it.

However it soon became clear that I had been far to grand with my ideas for the series and that what I wanted to do simply wasn’t possible. Coupled with this was the fact that at the time I had a very slow computer and hadn’t really written the scripts for any of the episodes.

From there the series then got cut down and lengthened and eventually I decided that I could do an 11 part series that culminated in a multi-doctor story against a new enemy called the editor. Whilst this looked much better (Thanks in no small matter to the purchase of the stunts and effects expansion pack) and even had a website and some trailers it was still too rushed and the plot had more wholes than a sieve.

I was just about to give up when something happened that really inspired me to start again but to do things properly. My computer hard drive through a wobbly and deleted my iMovie project folder so I lost all I had previously done. From there on in it was a new start. A lot of the old stories got binned and I decided to start small and work up, hence the four specials that are being released this year.

Grand Designs came from an original story that I ‘penned’ but had a name change. Originally called ‘the Helsinki incident’ it became Grand Designs after I had mapped out a story arc for the four specials, so although it sounds like a random name there is a point to it.

With the stunts and effects installed for the movies I had the freedom to shoot how I wanted. Grand Designs had a proper script and on August 31st will become the first of hopefully many doctor who episodes.

Be sure to visit tomorrow when I shall be uploading new and exclusive still pictures from Grand Designs.

Friday 21 August 2009

Grand Designs Final Trailer

So here it is. The final trailer for the first episode of my doctor who fan series entitled Christel Doctor Who - Grand Designs. This trailer is not designed to be very long or spectacular. Hopefully it does exactly what I intended, disclose the date of the release of the episode.

The episode will be put up on here first and its appropriate page on the right and then in two parts on youtube.

Enjoy...


Wednesday 19 August 2009

The Planet of Souls

With grand designs finished and all ready for release (Bar actually being uploaded) today I decided to start looking at the second of this years four specials 'The Planet of Souls'. I virtually wrote this and Grand Designs together and so I actually have 90% of the footage for the episode already exported from the movies game and ready to play about with in iMovie.

As for a release date I have absolutely no idea. School term starts in less than a fortnight now and I have lots of lesson planning and preparation to do but I hope to aim for November kind of time.

The planet of souls does excite me because one of the first scenes I did for it in the movies(stunts and effects) was the cliffhanger at the very end and even though I do say so myself it plays out fantastically and hopefully is a complete shock and although it might not be obvious from Grand Designs there is an overarching plan to the four episodes.

Meanwhile...We have the announcement on Friday about the release of Grand Designs to look forward to and then of course the actual episode itself.

Monday 17 August 2009

It is coming...(Finally)

After months of hard work and graft I am pleased to announce that the first episode (of hopefully what will be many) is finished, and ahead of schedule unbelievably! Coming in at just under 15 minutes Grand Designs pits the Doctor against a new enemy known as the next of Kin.

I have updated the plot hints section to give away a few tit-bits before the big debut. As for a release date there will be a (very short and hastily put together) trailer on Friday as I am going away until then and haven't had time to make a longer one.

Please spread the word as I am very excited about this and hope it to be the start of something very fun and enjoyable for everyone.

Friday 14 August 2009

New Trailer Incoming (2)!

I now have the first episode 90% complete and hopefully it will be ready soon. Therefore, I also hope to have the next trailer for the episode up by the end of the coming week.

Im a currently going through the process of cutting bits from the episode as I watched a rough first draft the other night and parts just didn't make sense.

Look out for the new trailer this coming week as well as an update to the episode fact file that will be happening mid-week.

Saturday 8 August 2009

Coming Soon...

Just a quick post to keep people informed of what is happening in the next couple of weeks. I have nearly finished the first episode now and although I would like to think people will like it I'm trying to spread the word as much as possible so that I can get lots of feedback when the episode does finally 'air'.

With regards as a release date yet I am not making any promises I am still working at tweaking the look and sound of the episode and will have to start lesson planning for the new school year soon so I wont make any definite dates until I know that I can stick to them.

I can say though that there will be another two trailers before the release of 'Grand Designs' and that one of them will be coming within the next fortnight. Plus I have also made some asthetic changes to the site moving the links to the episodes up and adding permanent links to my three favourite who sites. Enjoy!

Tuesday 4 August 2009

TARDIS Test Video

Okay this is the short piece of TARDIS test footage that I have been talking about in previous posts. Its not a short episode, so there is no story to it. It literally is just a test that I did to see how I thought the TARDIS arriving and departing should look and I've put it up to see if everyone else thinks I got it right or not. Comments and (constructive) criticism are welcome. Enjoy!

Sunday 2 August 2009

New Pictures and 'Concept Art'

Today I have uploaded a few more photos of the Doctor to the 'Grand Designs' section of the site. I have also put below a few more 'concept' pictures of the TARDIS up to show it in different envrionments. I should have a video test of the arrival and departure of the TARDIS by the end of the week. Enjoy and comment (please :) )...


















Saturday 1 August 2009

Whats Next?

Following the (relatively) successfull upload and premiere of the second teaser trailer for 'Grand Designs' the coming weeks promise to be just as exciting. I am currently playing around with the finer points of the 'post-production' and I hope to showcase a small test piece showing the TARDIS arriving and then departing again in order to give an idea of the final quality that I want to achieve.