BAFTA award for best director

A few weeks ago I mentioned that BAFTA Scotland had nominated me for best director in their new talent awards. On Friday Dave and I (and our families) were in Glasgow in a packed grand theatre for the BAFTA ceremony. I had totally convinced myself that much as it was absolutely amazing to have been nominated here, we could never win this award.

Well, it turned out I was wrong about that. The host opened the Best Director award envelope and read out that the winner was me. 

After lifting my jaw from the floor I headed for the stage wishing I had made a ‘just in case’ speech after all. Winslet would have been proud.

We heard that BAFTA’s jury had liked how personal Echo Wall was as well as the scenic beauty of the places we filmed. I am still feeling a touch bowled over by all this. But it’s brilliant for sure to get this recognition. 

This week Echo Wall also won best Scottish film at the Fort William Mountain Festival and best film at the Glasgow Mountain Film Festival.

Fort William Mountain Festival showreel

For the past wee while, I've been doing a lot of work for the Fort William Mountain Festival - managing the content on their website and cutting their showreel, which I've just finished recently.  It's made up from all the best bits of the films submitted to this years International Adventure Film Competition, taking place on March 10th.  Hope you like it!

A date at the Baftas

Next month I have to be in Glasgow for the Bafta new talent awards ceremony. Unbelievably, the reason is that I’ve been nominated for an award for best director for Echo Wall! I heard this news about a week ago (but was instructed to keep quiet until Bafta’s press launch today) and still trying to make sense of it.

It’s really great that Bafta liked Echo Wall enough to get a nomination at this level. It’s certainly a huge vote of confidence for the film and made me more excited to work on future film ideas.

I’ll post up some pics from the night when it comes around.

Velvet Antlers Iced Carrot Cake

Oh yeah, it's as good as it looks. This week's recipe is our Carrot Cake, made last night again by Dave, who couldn't wait any longer for Claire to get it made!

Ingredients:

250 grams of carrots, grated

3 medium eggs

130ml vegetable oil

150g caster sugar

230g self-raising flour

1/2 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda

1/2 teaspoon of baking powder

Icing:

120 grams cream cheese

120 grams icing sugar

Preheat your oven to 180 celcius or gas 4. Mix your eggs, oil and caster sugar together in a bowl, then add the flour, baking powder and a bicarb and beat the mix well. Stir in the grated carrots and pour the mixture into a lined loaf tin. Bake for 50 minutes until browned and firm on top. Leave the cake in it's tin for 5 minutes on a rack, then turn it out to cool while you get the icing ready.

Mix your cream cheese and icing sugar tegether and beat well until its really smooth.

Ice with a pallet knife and put the cake in the fridge for a bit if you want to firm up the icing.

Tip: get your husband to do all of the above.

20% off all hampers pre-Christmas sale

Hell, if Marks and Sparks can do it, so can we. We're taking 20% off all our hampers for the final 9 days running up to the last Christmas posting day - December 19th. Get your order in for a hamper before 2pm on Friday 19th December and it will arrive with you or your lucky recipient in time for the big day.

Velvet Antlers at the Christmas Market

Today (Wednesday) Dave and I are taking Velvet Antlers to the Christmas Market, Lochaber College, Fort William. Drop in and say hello if you are about. A good time to get a look at our hampers and some other cools stuff we will have with us. We're there 10am-4pm.

See y'all.