A few glimpses of some of the work we have shot so far for the feature film I’m currently writing and directing:

‘Latitude’ tells the story of two technology fanatics whose lives are about to change, a tiny little bit, as they descend into a bizarre reality in their geeky hunt to find the world’s ultimate technology, which they believe is hidden in a game called Geocaching.

It is currently in production in the UK and USA, so this is an early look just to give you an idea of what we’ve been up to on this ultra-micro budget feature film that deals with issues around technology, obsession, reality, sanity and control.

The aim of the film is to take a critical look at technological determinism and to challenge some of the conventional logic and common sense that surrounds digital utopianism. Many of the themes in the film are drawn from some of my concerns around the digital: surveillance and control, illusions of freedom, information overload, technological fetishism etc that I have been observing everyday in my own, and other peoples, lives.

The other less pretentious aim for the film is to see if we can do it on such a low budget and to learn from our mistakes along the way.

Stay tuned for updates as the film progresses. We will also do another trailer once we get closer to releasing the movie, alongside a ‘Making of…’ to show how we made this feature film for next to nothing. And as ‘The Medium is the Message’ – we also plan to distribute the film in a number of experimental and open ways- further exploring some of the ideas and themes that the film is trying to tackle.

Starring – Jonathan Leinmuller, Andy McGillan, Christopher Dunne, Rachel Adams and Josh Ubaldi.

Production – Peter Woodbridge, Mick Le Mare, Rebecca Pittam, Richard Neal, Jake Humbles, Ross Varney, Adam Davies, Sam Soane, Alex Hacking, James Colley, Suzi Globe and many many more marvellous people who have helped us along the way.

Music used – ‘Reversed Reality – Igor Dvorkin, ‘City Streets’ – David Michael, ‘Wilderness’ – Philip Guyler available at audionetwork.com/

Find out more about Latitude at http://www.latitudethemovie.com
Follow us at http://www.facebook.com/LatitudeMovie and http://twitter.com/#!/latitudemovie

Or better still send me an email – first name @latitudethemovie.com to find out more

Over the past few months I have been working on a project, with a number of friends, students and colleagues, to create a feature film about technology.

The film, called Latitude, follows two technology addicts who discover, through a hobby known as Geocaching, a secret that sends them on a journey to California to uncover the ultimate technology. Here’s a bit more about the film here:

The film will ask important questions about our contemporary fascination with technology. In many ways it will be a metaphor for examining themes such as technological fetishism and the Church of Apple, freedom and the web as well as surveillance and open culture. We are currently exploring innovative ways to shoot and distribute the film, actively using the analogue and digital technologies that the theme of the film will be dealing with. We are also planning for the film to be accessible and experienced in new ways: such as through the activity of Geocaching and other geo-locative modes. We also plan to fragment the film up and hide it across the web.

It’s an exciting project for me as it will be a culmination of a number of ideas that I have been working on over the past few years and it is great to be working on it with students from the course that I teach on. Everyone is taking a real risk with doing this; so it’s exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time. But isn’t that what University is all about?

The plan is to produce a short documentary piece set in the subways of New York speaking to ordinary people about the world above. As we travel under some of the most iconic imagery of our contemporary culture (World Trade Centre, Wall St…) we will speak to people about their thoughts and feelings on the various crisis effecting neoliberalism.