August 2020 - The Diary

 In August I again worked on PROJECT 19, later renamed A PERFECT WORLD and I self-shot footage throughout this month, combined with more scripted scenes. Great to see this ambitious project coming together! Fab to meet up with the creative team behind ORIGINS OF THE LAOICH in Glasgow  

and a superb costume visit to Slater's Menswear in St Enoch, and a lovely, beautifully fitted suit as seen above! Really looking forward to shooting this film, which is set in both the present and the 1700s. But before that I had more ADR recordings to do at my home studio for the short film THE CASTLES OF 

BEACHCOMBE BAY, pictured above. Really impressed with the editing job on this as we all shot our scenes separately on green screen, but they have managed to splice it together seamlessly! Also in August I recorded another SHOOT THE BREEZE podcast with the usual team and our guest Chris Brookmyre.

My commercial for Legal & General PENSION DRAWDOWN also went live on the website late in August (below) and the trailer for the BBC Scotland series BLOOD OF THE CLANS was released

as it will be broadcast next month! Here is a little taster pictured below of what looks to be an epic show!

So, another busy few weeks done and have now booked three more gigs for 2020 this month, all challenging roles and all very very different..! Again, thanks to everyone I worked with this month.

July 2020 - The Diary

As the lockdown due to Covid-19 began to bite, I was back in London this month to work on a corporate video commercial for HSBC with the multi award winning Media Zoo at their HQ on The Thames in Chelsea. A fun, socially-distanced shoot once again, then straight back into the car and the long drive

back to Glasgow. Thanks to Alex and all the team at Media Zoo for a really nice shoot! A quick admin catch up before loading up the car and into costume and back down to London for another commercial.

Again, a fun one day shoot in deepest Surrey for UK CYCLING with a great cast and another really fun job recording a road safety campaign video. Then back to Scotland for some ADR voice over work on the short film  BURN ON ARRIVAL, more auditions and landed a role in Fraser Coull's next production.

A busy month, lots of travel but great to keep the work coming in despite a worldwide pandemic, which is closing down the industry bit by bit every week. Thanks to all the actors & creatives I worked with in July

 

June 2020 - The Diary

A few quite exciting auditions this month, but again all have projected later start dates as this Pandemic continues into another month, however there has been a marked increase in castings these past four weeks. The photo below represents the 'new normal' of rehearsals and auditions at present

via Zoom and Skype, but at least it is beginning to pay off! Lucky enough to have landed another nasty bastard role in short film THE CASTLES OF BEACHCOMBE BAY this month and headed down to a sunny and beautiful Bristol to shoot my scenes at the brilliant green screen studios at 

Vision Eyelight in Portishead. Huge thanks to Director Kate Robinson and Writer Steff Clark for casting me and for a superb, safe and considerate shoot and a lovely apartment to stay in as well! Absolute pleasure working with these talented folk and a lovely cast, even if most of it was all

completely virtual! A superb experience and hopefully we will all get together again in the future to shoot a feature film version of the scenes we just shot. Kate has worked with the likes of Clint Eastwood, Bernardo Bertolucci, Steven Spielberg and Stanley Kubrick (The Shining) so we were

in great hands and this was a fascinating and very satisfying shoot and the first actual film set I have been on in months. Drove back to Glasgow and shot some more scenes for AJ Sykes PROJECT 19 which is really beginning to come together and has a possible distribution deal in the pipeline.

Loved being back in Bristol once again and to be back in front of camera on another super indie project. But with the film industry now closed for 15 weeks we are still a long way from things returning to any 'normality' soon.

May 2020 - The Diary

We are into a 3rd month of the lockdown now and still no real signs of improvement and so have managed to keep active on my film project and working on another couple of voice over projects, having now set up a mini home studio! And with the cancellation of my other screen projects I

have decided on another radically different 'look' for the time being...surely a shoe-in for casting of a Billy Idol stage show? Still managed to squeeze in a few auditions this month and landed a short film trailer shoot with great people. Shooting this next month (hopefully) in Bristol. But with over 40,000

deaths in Britain due to Coronavirus, there are far more important things to worry about. Our industry will return one day and already some television series have restarted limited filming, but until a vaccine is found & becomes freely available, personally I cannot see any return to the way things were for a very long time. Stay safe everyone x

April 2020 - The Diary

As expected, all of the productions I was earmarked for last month have now been either cancelled or postponed. Realistically it is difficult to see any return to work as an Actor for the forseeable. Until a vaccine is found there is no safe way of working in tv or film. Theatre is impossible. There was some

hope however! We recorded some scenes via Zoom, for the play HER FATHER'S VOICE which I have been working on for the last 18months as part of the Research & Development process. Been pretty productive during this enforced solitude and the magic of technology enabled us to tape

another few episodes of SHOOT!THE BREEZE with another fab guest Ally Begg, chatting all things Aberdeen FC related. Great fun and again this episode will air later in the month. Was lucky to be cast in a rather interesting Feature Film project and began shooting bits and bobs of that this month!

As promised, here's the link to last month's football podcast with the legend that is Andy Cameron
at https://shootthebreeze.podbean.com/e/shoot-the-breeze-episode-16-with-andy-cameron/ We will post up the next episode I recorded with Ally Begg in next month's blog. The auditions have all but

dried up now and despite the lockdown I am keeping up my training and maintaining fitness, catching up on my accounts and trying to stay relaxed and positive that things one day will be back to some sort of normality. Until then, stay indoors and stay safe folks x

March 2020 - The Diary

March started off just as brightly with a glut of self tapes and auditions to keep me busy, and again it was back into the old motor to zoom up and down to Londinium for more face-to-face castings for some excellent projects. Exhausting, but Glasgow-Edinburgh-London-Manchester- Glasgow in 24 hours was the highlight!

Here's a wee preview of the self tapes recorded and the palpable exhaustion in my face after another 1000 mile round trip!

Spent more time on the motorway this month than ever and hopefully it will all pay off ?? Some really exciting auditions and am again beginning to book in work for this summer which is already looking every bit as good as last year.

Home for more tapes and then...back on the motorway yet again! Confirmation of a feature film in July and delighted to have landed another cracking wee cameo in another. Booked a commercial in London and travelled down to Enfield in North London to shoot it, this time staying overnight in a

the local Travelodge and arrived in cold and wet conditions just as talk of the Coronavirus hitting Britain began with worrying figures. Another good fun shoot with a brilliant crew for the latest
LEGAL & GENERAL ad in another excellent location (pictured below).

However this was to represent the last acting job of the current period. Only a few days later the whole industry was shut down, and remains in lockdown as I write. There was just time to reunite with my old sparring partner from the HIGH ROAD days, Andy Cameron, as we recorded a fun

episode of our Shoot! The Breeze football podcast. As expected, Andy was in great form and was such fun catching up and chatting about the old days and of course, all things football. The episode
will be out next month and I will post a link when it airs. And so, what was a very positive month

ended in these awful and unforseen circumstances. But it all pales into insignificance as the death toll began to rise in the UK this month and thoughts and prayers to all of those affected and to the brave NHS staff who are fighting the virus every day x

February 2020 - The Diary

Lots of travel this month, starting off with a return to Birmingham for COLOPLAST UK live gig with the usual fab group of actors (pictured below), followed by another roleplay in fantastic Dublin the following week..! Great chance to meet up with long lost family in Ireland and a fab job once

again. Finally got to spend time with our fellow family historian, cousin Ite Wall (below) in Stoneybatter, where our ancestors lived in the 19th Century. Wild and wintry conditions and a bumpy flight back but straight into the car and back on the road to London to shoot a Corporate Video with

another superb cast and a brilliant location at The Belt Craft Studios in  Seven Sisters. Long but really fun and enjoyable day shooting this video for The Royal Society Of Chemistry and a great laugh with the crew and this cast below!

Landed a few more corporate gigs for next month and back on the road to Scotland immediately after I wrapped to record more urgent self-tapes and again, thanks to my agent IAM for keeping me busy!

Tapes submitted and back on my travels and another gig in Birmingham with COLOPLAST UK and greeted by this fab artwork in the rather snazzy Malmaison Hotel where we were staying and working the next day. Beautiful hotel and another fabbo live gig with the usual gang.

So a nice and busy month, with lots of work and travel and heaps of auditions and already an offer or two to mull over the next few days!