[Above: two very different devices that are truly indicative of the first half of 2026!]
At the tail end of last year – which had been particularly quiet year for the industry – a little part of me had started to worry if my greatest adventures and accomplishments were all behind me. But I was wrong. I couldn’t have predicted all the good stuff that was coming next. The first six/seven months of 2026 were so chock-a-block that it almost became a blur, and this year is moving far too quickly for my liking, but boy am I thankful for everything it’s brought so far.
So, before we get any further into the second half of the year, I wanted to finally take a moment to update you on everything that’s happened recently, as well as giving some early details about what’s coming next…
[Above: with my cohort and the fab Alex Rühl at the BFI NETWORK Film Hub Midlands Immersive Storytelling Lab in January.]
The big news came early on in the year, when I started work on a new – and slightly unusual – directing project! Encouraged by producer Jo Lewis of Hipster Studio, I had been interested in learning more about VR filmmaking for a while, and together we started developing a VR short called Treehouse. So, when my local BFI NETWORK Film Hub Midlands advertised their first Immersive Storytelling Lab, I knew it was the perfect time to apply. I was delighted to be one of only 10 selected participants, receiving intensive training and key foundational knowledge from inspirational VR filmmakers (Alex Rühl and Charlotte Mikkelborg), as well as trying out a range of equipment and even getting the chance to pitch Treehouse, which meant I was able to get some valuable feedback at the outset of the project.
And then, almost directly off the back of that training weekend, Jo and I were lucky enough to receive funding from Belfast XR Festival’s Amplify:XR lab, which enabled us to create an early demo version of Treehouse as well as receiving more training from XR Experts based around the world. In a whirlwind of sudden activity, myself, Jo, and Creative Technologist Elliot Mann found ourselves jetting off to Belfast, taking part in Amplify’s development lab as well as having a guided tour of some of the phenomenal XR facilities Ireland has to offer (including Studio Ulster!), before focusing on the prototype build for the next few months.
[Above: team Treehouse in Belfast, pitching at the Amplify:XR lab and visiting Studio Ulster.]
So the majority of my Spring was taken up by the first stages of creating Treehouse, but I absolutely loved it; I learned so much, and the project came together really smoothly (shout out to tech wizard Eoin Peel for helping us with the build!). Being paid to write and direct anything narrative-based is also quite a rare occurrence for me, even now, and so I can only feel gratitude for the time I’ve spent on the project so far.
The next step for Treehouse will be showing the prototype to people and trying to raise funds to move the project forward, so I’ll be posting more about that in the future. In the meantime, you can find out more about Treehouse on the Hipster Studio website.
It can take a long time to create a film in VR, and I’m also itching to get going on something else creative, now that the first stage of Treehouse is completed, so myself and Jo have another particular project up our sleeves – more on that later in this blog post.
And although I’ve relished geeking out in the world of VR, that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped loving traditional filmmaking. In fact, the very same weekend I was accepted into the BFI NETWORK VR Immersive Storytelling Lab, I purchased my first Super-8 camera! I gave it a test run, capturing the nearby Matlock countryside on my birthday walk (results above), before shooting a music video with local musician – and one of my oldest friends – Lucy Day. For that shoot, we actually used some rolls of expired Super-8 film that I had left over from the Ashes shoot (!!), so neither of us are sure how the footage will look – or if it will even come out at all! I’m in the process of sending off the exposed rolls to be developed, so stay tuned for updates. All being well, I’m hoping to offer more Super-8 services to clients in the future, as well as exploring the potential for more analogue elements in my narrative work.
[Above: representing Lacuna at Beeston Film Festival in April.]
The other exciting news is that Lacuna has started its festival run! Back in April, I attended a sold-out screening of the film at the BIFA-qualifying Beeston Film Festival (who have been big supporters of my work since the early days), and we were even nominated for ‘Best East Midlands Focus’ at the festival. Around the same time, Lacuna received its first review, when Midlands Movies shared these very complimentary words. I’ll have more to say about Lacuna in future blog posts, as we’ve just received two more selections from BIFA-qualifying festivals: Mansfield Town Film Festival and Worcester Film Festival. Those screenings will both take place in September, and I’ll share details on my social media pages as soon as I know more. The Lacuna crew have also been working on a trailer for the film, which is almost ready to share. So it’s been an exciting time for the project, and I’m thrilled to be sharing it with audiences on a big screen again.
And my previous short film, A Different Place, has also continued to do me proud, even four years after it was first shot! In February, the film was briefly back in cinemas, as it screened ahead of Harry Lighton’s Pillion at the beautiful Ritz Cinema in Belper. Myself, co-writer Tommy Draper, and lead actor Michelle Darkin Price were in attendance, and we got to answer some excellent and considered questions from the audience. There is another screening of A Different Place coming up TOMORROW at 6:30pm, as it will be playing at The Queen of Bradgate in Leicester, as part of the Girls Do Film ‘Unruly Women’ film night (tickets available here).
[Above: A Different Place was briefly back in cinemas in February!]
I plan on releasing the fully-accessible, audio-described version of A Different Place on the Triskelle Pictures YouTube channel, so I’ll get that sorted and uploaded as soon as I get chance. The standard version of the film has nearly had 270,000 views now!
There’s also a screening coming up for an even earlier (but still much loved) film of mine, Night Owls! It will be playing at the Beeston Film Festival Japanese Showcase, on Sunday 23rd August. Tickets will be on sale soon.
[Above: reuniting with the Ren team in Cambridge for a screening of the series.]
Series 3 of Ren: The Girl With The Mark, produced by my regular collaborator Neil Oseman, was released online at the start of April. This included the episode Jo Lewis directed, for which I edited the director’s cut. To celebrate this release, the cast and crew were invited to a marathon screening of all episodes, in Cambridge, including the episode I directed for Series 2. It was such a treat to see my Ren work on the big screen for the first time, as well as catching up with everyone and reminiscing about our memories from the shoot.
What else happened in the first half of the year? Well, I continued to share knowledge and give back to other local filmmakers, particularly those who were earlier on in their journey; I delivered my regular Production Design masterclass for BFI Film Academy students in Lincoln in January, I spoke on a panel about sustainable careers at the BFI NETWORK Midlands Industry Day in March (which I talked about more in my last blog post), and I did an interview with Shuska Productions that focused on a similar topic to the BFI NETWORK panel.
[Above left: speaking on a panel at the BFI NETWORK Midlands Industry Day. Above right: meeting with some of my fellow Midlands Movies Awards judges at the Mockingbird Cinema in Birmingham.]
I was also one of the judges for this year’s Midlands Movies Awards, which meant watching through a lot of submissions; it took a long time, as I had to juggle this around all my other work, but it was wonderful to see the different voices and creativity coming from my local region. And although I was sadly unable to attend the awards ceremony itself, I learned a lot from being on the other side of the submission process for the first time ever, so I plan on doing a separate blog post about that next.
In terms of my client-facing work, I wasn’t able to take on quite as much as usual in the first half of the year, as I had to dedicate myself to Treehouse, but there were a few notable releases, including the commercial my company Triskelle Pictures made for Apothecary Mead, as well as social edits for Dormouse Books, The Cabin of Makers, and more. With Summer in full swing now, I have recently been very busy with client work, including the latest Beat SCAD Walk Event and the first ever Love Belper Town Festival, which we shot yesterday; Love Belper Town Festival was a huge undertaking, but a fantastic one, as I helped to book and organise their entertainment schedule in addition to capturing the event with my camera team. I’m working on the edit for that film now, so you can expect to hear more about it in future blog posts, as well as the Found Festival commercial we’re going to be capturing on site next month. It’s actually the 10th year I’ll be making videos for Found Festival - and their previous iteration, Towersey Festival – so that’s quite a milestone!
And last but definitely not least, there has been some exciting news regarding the features side of my work! In the very same week that I found out we were accepted into the Belfast Amplify:XR lab, I was invited to an interview for some early development funding for a new project called The Scent. Although I ultimately didn’t get the funding, I was so excited to get through to that stage, and I came away with some useful feedback as well as a boost of confidence that the concept was strong. It’s inspired me to develop the idea further and try and find alternative funding sources. With Jo Lewis back on producing duty, we’ll be sure to share more details about that project as things progress further.
Working on my features is actually my biggest priority, and yet finding time to work on them on spec is nearly impossible. So at the start of this year I joined a local writing club, to add a layer of accountability and to help me dedicate at least one hour a month to my feature script writing. So far I’ve been using these sessions to polish up another draft of Night Owls & Early Birds, which is nearly complete, and so I’ll be moving onto The Scent and also The Barn in the near future.
[Above: moodboard for Tokos, which will be the next film my team and I make - but we need your help!]
So what’s next? Well, as I’ve been hinting at throughout this blogpost, it is time to make something new (alongside the feature development and working towards the next stage of Treehouse). There is one – potentially final – short film that my team and I have been eager to make for a long time now, and that is Tokos, an ambitious one-take thrill-ride set in the mind of a young man who discovers he is about to become a father for the first time. The film will be produced by Jo Lewis through Hipster Films and Triskelle Pictures, the script was written by myself and Tommy Draper, I’ll be back on directing duty, and we’ll be enlisting more crew and revealing more team names soon. There are also more details about the film on my 'coming soon' page.
Everything is telling us that now is the right time to make this film. Stylistically, it’s a culmination of all the work my team and I have collaborated on over the years, as well as potentially giving us a platform to explore some of the new technological skills we’ve picked up over the past seven months. The feedback on the script has also been incredibly positive, with people pointing out that a script about parental fear feels particularly poignant in these modern times when less people are choosing to have children.
All we need now is funding. And, having explored all other options, the only path left to take is crowdfunding (as revealed in this video I released on Triskelle Pictures’ socials last month). Most of my films used to be crowdfunded, so this isn’t new territory for me, and I look forward to using Tokos’ funding campaign as a way to connect with new audiences; however, I know that crowdfunding is easier when your social media channels perform well, and – due to my workload – I’ve been neglecting mine a bit lately! So I’ve been trying to get those up and running a bit better, which means, somewhat belatedly, getting myself onto TikTok a couple of weeks ago.
So there will be a crowdfunding campaign for Tokos very soon, likely in the second half of this year, providing the team can make that work around their schedules (as I said before, festival season is keeping me very busy with client work at the moment!). But I’m really looking forward to talking more about Tokos and taking my followers on the journey with us by sharing updates through the film’s production. I hope you’ll all support the campaign when the time comes; crowdfunding certainly isn’t easy, if anything it’s even harder than it used to be, but I can just feel how much Tokos wants to get born, how ready it is to come into the world – and with just a bit of help from you all, it will happen.
