Under a pseudonym: Author, Screenwriter, Playwright, TV Writer, Lyricist, Design Book Artist
With my local team: Producer (micro-budget video movies), Web Series Producer/Director, Writer/Artist/Producer (FX Videos and a Zine)
Michael B.
what I've been upto
I’m currently writing a graphic novel with an illustrator friend, and a web-comic with another artist friend, and a graphic novel series which I'm illustrating myself - we are trying to start a studio - the plan is to earn some money from freelancing and selling some of my writing - to put away enough cash to hire my artist friends and some coders to work on games and movies together - with them committed to my projects on a part-time basis. This will hopefully be in 2023.
I'm also character designer on the graphic novel and I'm keen to get gigs doing art direction for films, especially gore, puppets and animation.​ With plans to also develop personal-space events and a unique creative contest.​
I have an old blog of Movie Reviews, Collecting Comic Books, Crewing for Film, etc. which I have here​​
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I'm writing a theatre script as well, to submit to Playmarket NZ.
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I have begun writing a 2-year dystopian novel research and manuscript project, and 3 new full length novels and a novella this year - due in September (with 2 more novels, 9 scripts and a book of short stories, I'm hoping to develop substantially by December) I'm also working on my masterpiece novel, a truly original and great novel, a digital product design research project and a new screenplay (with research) inspired by Jurassic Park (the film) and Animal Factory (by Steve Buscemi), as well as a design drawing research project, 5-7 game narratives, a fringe festival theatre project with friends, 4 tv scripts, several comic projects and 4 experimental self-published books.
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And I have 5 script contests and 2 pitch events this year, with 3 screenplays completed and 4 screenplays nearly finished and a total of 18 writing projects due this year.
I'm also writing some movies which I aim to produce: Following my zero-budget feature video documentary movie, a three-part anthology feature video movie on a $6k budget called Trilogy of Creepy.
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Planning to release an animated short in December 2022, plus the first 30mins in 2026, of a 2d animated feature film (30mins per 3yrs: in 9yrs from 2023), and another animated short - stop-motion in 2026. One of my contest scripts is an animated film as well, and another is an animated tv pilot script. I plan to begin production on some of the movie projects in 2023.
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I'm also aiming to hire some coding help in 2023. I'm learning design drawing, production design, cartooning, fantasy map-making, an open-source InDesign alternative called Scribus, and vector art/Photoshop colouring.
more...
Continued
I plan to produce an interactive visual novel FMV indie video game based on one of my first screenplays. And using a game engine, an indie video game I am writing the script for this year and teaming with three artist friends to make in 2023. as well as another Twine project I'm currently writing.
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I'm developing over the next 4 years, a collaborative project with an artist friend, about dungeons. In the next 12yrs I'm hoping to complete 7 indie games.
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I am interested in developing tabletop games.
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I have had poetry published and been offered a paid poetry gig based on audience response when performing my poems live. Some of my poetry is here.
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I'm also keen to write song lyrics. It would be cool to start a band just to do the soundtrack for one of my movies, also writing a rock opera would be fun.
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I love music in the background while I write.
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I just try hard not to be a cliché... But I'm a book nerd, wargaming nerd, movie nerd, horror nerd, retro video gaming nerd, indie game snob, metal head, filmmaking nerd/foreign film snob, design/cartoon nerd, comic fanboy, vintage coder, eternal student, and multipod. With an inner child who is a Screamo + Roots + Primus, Greta Van Fleet, RATM, Sucidial Tendencies, Ten Years After, Coal Chamber/Devildriver, Neil Young, Iggy, Aphex Twin, Daft Punk and Efterklang fanboy.
Interview
excerpt
Amanda: So I mean, you have quite a vast body of work already. And you're quite prolific. And you're constantly writing. Do you ever have the day off? Michael: day off? I took a day off today. A: Yeah. Was it good? M: I was itching to write at the same time. Yeah, I rarely take a day off. I take a day off when I absolutely have to get something out of the way. That's like a house chore. A: Yeah, yep. Well, you said that, well you said lots of things - that you're inspired by Troma, and that you'd like a vast body of work to look back on? And that's your ultimate goal. M: Yeah, that's the ultimate goal. Yeah, that and ideally, create something that didn't exist before. When I was a lot younger, I wanted to be an inventor. Yeah, and software development, or digital product design is really exciting. But my natural skills are more in storytelling and visual design. Yeah. I do have a lot of ideas about designs for products or inventions or toys and things like that. But it's all interaction design a lot of the time. And sometimes I'll put it in a story or I'll put a story in a game or I'll, you know, I kind of mix things together. And I do a lot of cross, not cross-pollinating. But mixing tools, mediums, processes.
