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

I knew it! I knew it! However many balloons you think you need, get twice as many!

That goes even if you are buying 500 hundred. And if people laugh at you on the phone when you say the words, 'I think we need one thousand balloons' ignore them.

However, 500 balloons still make a strong impression.

Why am I going on about balloons so much? Last weekend we shot the first part of a music video for an unsigned Nottingham band called 'Supermojo'.

It involved filling the stage with balloons.

Everything all came about very quickly on Monday, an idea was forged and changed, and changed again, but we managed well and had a great night shooting.

Special thanks to Polestar Studios who catered for our late night, inflated rubber bag escapade.

Here are a few photos of the shoot.

We've been lucky enough to display some concept art as part of this years Design Event for the 'Uses of Intelligence' exhibition.

The art is for a project in development called 'SIMOX'. Originally a short, but now feature length, the film follows the final days of a monolithic city which has a society based entirely on surveillance culture.

The work is being displayed at Washington Arts Centre until 21st November 2009.

It's this theme of surveillance, and more importantly surveillance devices which tied in nicely with the exhibition.

The element which seems to ignite peoples imaginations about the film, is the cctv camera on six insectile legs, which crawl over the city to spy on it's inhabitants.