Every so often when traversing the glorious commercial connectivity of the internets, you get a brief reminder that sharks lurk and drift in the shadows beneath the browser chrome.

We had one of those occasions recently when looking to hire a location for a production. I should mention at this point, that if someone asks for a deposit upfront via Moneygram or Western Union transfer, it's a scam.

Scammers really aren't anything new. The image above is a related fragment from the scam of an early 19th century scumbag, Gregor MacGregor.

In 1820, Greg had the profitable idea of making himself a prince of a fictitious country, Poyais.

Well, why not eh?

He then set about conning people into buying shares of land, some of whom (about 240) took the voyage to settle this fertile central american land of plenty.

180 of 240 optimistic settlers died once reaching their destination, finding nothing but jungle and fever. Greg made a lot of money off the back of peoples optimism, and then snuck off to France.

What we encountered was far less dramatic and likely perpetrated by people less fortunate than ourselves (certainly less than the privelaged military status of Gregor MacGregor allowed).

Still, that doesn't mean we can't string them along and have a little fun, now does it ;)

Read on for the fun part.

What do you do when the powers that be (bee see) like your writing, but refuse to make your movie film?

Paul has been rather prolific in his penmanship lately. And I love being greeted in my overflowing inbox by one of his succinctly subjected emails.

It's the attachment that has my attention, the sweet-sweet juicy bit. Paul's dark, emotive and violence stained literary muffins.

Back at the end of August, it began this way. 'Stuff' said the subject line. 'Paul's First Stageplay 1.pdf' was the attachment. 'Time for a coffee' I thought.

After writing a full feature length called 'Redhand' and not having any luck getting it picked up, unfazed Paul set about writing three exploratory stage plays about younger versions of it's central characters.

And now, after months of work, some talented actors have taken the first of these three, called 'Pink Confetti' and prepared a rehearsed reading.

It's being performed in London a few weeks from now, and I can't wait to journey down and experience it!

So, that is how the beginning ends.

Read on for the full press release from Producer Katherine Beresford.

And I'll let you know about my trip and how things went.

Thanks to all those who applied!

As always, the response we had was exceptional.

The final cast will be decided in a few weeks after an audition here in Newcastle.

"Burn this and eat the ashes. Then it will begin."

Thus echo the inciting lines in Graeme Beech's new short film, a surreal psycho-drama dealing with grief, denial and the occult.

The dates for principal photography have been set in early March and we've been industrious behind the walls of the Spiderhouse these last few months to bring this to life.

The casting call is out and we've already had a great response, so thank you to everyone who's contacted us so far.

Please read on for full details

Against my better judgement, I recently journeyed the rather dubious world of old-school games console emulation.

Essentially, this required poking around the Ugliest Web Sites Imaginable™ this side of Hades.  Imagine a Ukrainian website about Lego... crashing angrily ... and then imploding into the very bowels of the internet.

And all of this just to dig out the video games of my youth.  Shudder and wince.

Okay, here's a quick 'How 2' for those of you who have no clue what I'm talking about:

All you need to know is that there are some very nerdy places on the internet with a PC emulator for every old video game and console that history has wisely forgotten.

I suggest you read on and then do likewise...