Bug Eyes

Six interviews and two chapters done so far. Models of Success book is, at least writing-wise, 70% complete. We are still pushing for a mid-march launch.

Over the next couple of days we will be recording the end credits song, written and performed by Enas, as well as re-record the entire voiceover for the three historical vignettes. A technical glitch with the earlier recordings is forcing us to redo them.

The production team has been focusing recently on getting the film ready for screening by the end of the month, as well as exploring new and exciting venues to screen it here in Bahrain as well as abroad. I will announce the plans once they are finalized.

My own writing has been suffering greatly because of all this and I can’t report any developments of progress on any of my other projects. But I am back to considering my options with the collection, Moments, as I have said before here that I might go POD again with it. The manuscript still needs tweaking though.

Speaking of current projects, I will be talking about that and a whole lot more in a new interview which will soon appear on Cerebral Waste.

[Nice to Meet You] Anyway

Earlier today, Enas, Sarah and I were interviewed on the ‘Ma’a el Shabab’ live show on Bahrain Radio (Arabic). Show hosts Mariam and Yazin were delightful and we ended up having a wonderful time during the one and a half hour session.

We basically talked about Models of Success, the movie and the book, spoke about our personal experiences, our roles in the production, gave our views on the themes and issues the film tackles as well as the role of women and its significance.

I was also asked a few questions regarding QuixotiQ (which Mariam actually read, and, to my relief, liked), my writing and future writing-related projects. The show will be re-broadcast on Bahrain AM radio tomorrow Thursday, 23, from 12pm to 2pm. Make sure you tune in.

It’s great to see such young and talented radio presenters doing their best to show support to youths in Bahrain, their issues and activities. The weekly programme focuses on just about everything that concerns youths, socially, educationally, culturally, politically and even sometimes religiously.

Speaking of media, a half page feature ran in today’s Al Wasat newspaper, in the films page, written by Mansoora Amir, in which she interviewed Art, our DP Mohammed, editor Mazen and myself.

But I got a bit of a stinker this morning. Dubai-based Zodiac Publishing rejected my manuscript for Moments, the collection of short stories, because it “didn’t fit our current editorial schedule”.

Ah, shucks!

Read my recent review of Ryan Adams’ 29 on Ear Medicine

Marching Ahead

Ladies and gentlemen, we are getting somewhere.

Eevn tough development has not been consistant these past few days, we are still progressing and covering a lot of ground with the Models of Success project. We’ve found ourselves a young and talented music composer who is going to create an original score for the film. Hashim Al Alawi runs his own studio, Mellostudio.

Art and Mazen have basically looked at most of the footage from the three day shoot, I understand there was about 6 hours worth of film to go through. We are hoping to have a rough cut in our hands by Sunday.

Yesterday, Art, Sam and I went out to get some b-roll footage for the film as well as still images to sue in designing the book from the traditional village at the Bahrain National Musuem. We got some pretty good footage and images which we can work with. But the strong winds forced us to keep our Bahrain Fort session very short.

Also, we kind of figured out the basic layout of the book and we feel that we are now on to something. I better write the rest of it pretty quick though.

Don't forget to visit the MoS Photo Diary for the latest images from the production.

The Dreamworld of Mirrormask

I couldn’t contain my gasp when I discovered that my DVD rental shop had a copy of Mirrormask, the film created by (my god) Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean. I first mentioned about the film in December 2004, on my old journal. It’s been a long wait, but I’ve finally seen it.

It was good, pretty good actually. Breathtakingly, out-of-this-world, entertaining good. If I’m being cruel, I’d give it 3&1/2 stars out of 5. There was nothing outstanding in the story itself, but the world which McKean and Gaiman have created was truly fantastic. It’s what you'd expect of a dream! Strange, sometimes scary, sometimes odd, sometimes cute and sometimes profound.

liked the little girl playing Helena n her sidekick was funny too. There were sum pretty fab moments, and all the elements of a classic Gaiman fable were there. The quirkiness and bizarreness! The wittiness. But I think what took the wow factor out of it, for me, was the story in that it was pretty much predictable, a bit conventional. Still, I enjoyed every minute of it and I wouldn’t mind watching it once or twice again. I must see film, I might add.

Unfortunatly, we don’t get films like that on general release in local theatres. But the Mirrormask DVD is out already!

With a Little Help From My Friends

Due to an injury, I've not been able to get a lot done in the past 24 hours. Somehow I hurt my shoulder and using my right arm has been a little painful. But I'm on the way to recovery and I should pick up where I paused.

We are now in post-production and Art is going to be busy editing the film with Mazen in the next couple of days. This is supposed to give me time to focus on the book again. I still have several interviews to conduct and two historical/backstory chapters to complete. I should get together with my designer Sam to get an update on things.

And now you can keep a closer look on the development and progress of Models of Success by visiting the newly created MoS Photo Diary, where we'll be posting all sorts of images related to the project.

On another note, Reem Khalifa, the journalist/columnist of Al Wasat Newspaper, spoke about yours truly in today's column. You can read it here (Arabic).