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Mark's First Post

2009's been a hell of a year, but I guess one day, if we look back at it, everyone at DigitalCity will agree that despite everything going down the pan across the world in the economic sense, we've actually achieved quite a lot. Like opening Boho One - the new flagship building in the Tees Valley for the digital media, digital technology and creative sectors. And seeing Bohouses - a really fantastic set of live-work spaces for creatives going up alongside. If anyone ever tells you putting up a building is easy, you can correct them - it really is a labour of love. You can make up your mind whether it was worth it by taking a look either in real life [we're just yards from Middlesbrough station] or online at http://www.dcbusiness.eu/. The funny thing was, when we started building I was really at sea over how to be a ‘client' for the building: until one day, maybe three months into the build when I realised a build project was a group of very talented people coming together at one specific site for a defined period of time to produce a creatively imagined project. Which is very much what a film set is all about - and that I knew about that.  And not only that, but the launch of The Difference Engine - http://www.thedifferenceengine.eu/ - is really, really exciting. It's new approach to business start-up - a mentor-led acceleration programme offering £20,000 of investment capital and sixteen weeks of intensive business development for great digital technology ideas. We've been a key partner from the very first inkling of the idea, and now to see it taking its first steps is really great. The way everyone went for the idea makes me think that maybe the North East is one of the very best places in the UK to get things up and running.

And what about filmmaking? I've got a project on with Steve Bowden at Vita Nova: a thriller with dark occult overtones. I need to be careful about what I say about it at this point, for reasons that will hopefully become apparent over time, but we're pretty excited by it because there's a lot of good feedback, it's pretty commercial, it looks like it could be a franchise, and it has something real to say; which is, I suppose, the kind of film I like...

But it's not easy combining the two roles: Steve's getting quite used to getting emails at 3, 4, 5am in the morning. The last one was because he'd asked me to think about one aspect of the film: frankly, what he was suggesting seemed bonkers to me, but I got thinking about it, woke up with the solution, couldn't get back to sleep, and decided to get down to work. And he was right, 100%. That's the power of having really good producer. As long as you listen to them.

Back to films I like, films I've watched in the last few days. I stumbled on Moby Dick on TV yesterday - I've seen it many times before but it's a truly great film and rewards repeated viewings. I watched it with my eight year old son Xavier and he was utterly captured by it: not bad for a film made before even I was born, and I think his reaction speaks volumes about great stories, well told. Oddly enough I was in Madeira two weeks ago, where its director John Huston had intended to shoot on location but was thwarted by a desperately sea sick Gregory Peck... kind of ironic given he starred as Captain Ahab. And because of the film we're developing I've been watching Jean Cocteau's Orphée. Another film I've seen often, and another you can add this to my favourites list...

And there's Flash Forward on tonight.

December 01 2009

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