#007 ⤑ Surviving The UK Visa Process
Keep A Stiff Upper Lip, Location Visits and Becoming A Book Publisher
The state of the UK Visa system with its anonymity, delays, outsourcing and contradictory websites has been an expensive adventure that’s more British than anything I’ve experienced in a long time.
If you don’t have an outdated ‘stiff upper lip’ and you don’t keep your ‘chin up’ and take a fairly bland, unemotional, self-controlled attitude towards it all, you’ll have a right mare, throw a strop and go madder than a bag of bees. (Never heard of that last one till the other day).
But now it’s been dealt with and I’m finally reunited with my wife and my son.
She is legal, we are legal and he is back in pre-school. So we’re currently winning but suffering a mild bout of reverse culture shock. This includes 6-8 quid beers, grey London, dealing with elderly family members, getting the work and career back on track and me trying not to revert back to geezer mode - which is difficult.
FILM NEWS - FIRST LOCATION VISIT
I’ve been writing a scriptment (half script, half treatment) which will form the basis of my first fiction feature. It’s going slow and steady, but for that extra bit of inspiration I went up with the family to visit a friend in Shropshire where I’m looking to shoot a section of the film.
With ruins, tunnels, land and sheep - lots of sheep, it will make a great place to shoot and just a weekend away has given me the energy to get this ‘scriptment’ over the line.
Shoutout to Tom #disastertourist for showing me the ways of the black country. Really looking forward to heading back and getting this film made.
STICKERBOMB EVOLUTION - SBPRESS
We pulled the trigger.
We have transcended from authors to publishers.
It’s been a hot minute evolving from authors to publishers but happy to say, it is happening. We’re prepping our ‘flagship’ Stickerbomb sticker book. This means working out logistics, costs, distribution and shipping. We are also taking pre-orders on our first range of artist monographs which are a just couple months away from sale.
It’s all very exciting and we’re proud to evolve and rebuild the business.
SODO EXPRESS
My short film Sodo Express continues to do its thing in this post-covid, hybrid digital-physical world.
Wednesday, October 27th we have a screening online with the Milan based Innuendo film festival. To get tickets to the entire festival head over to their Vimeo.
November 6th, the Paonia Film Festival are screening Sodo Express at the Historic Paradise Theatre in Paonia, Colorado. They’ve got a great line up of films and for more info head over to their site here.
Big thanks to Brennan in Paonia, Colorado and all the team who have been so supportive with me and my film during the year.
Alright that’s me again. It is good to be back after a little break. The weather is getting colder, things are greyer, but keepin’ it movin’ as ever.
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Place And Process was a weekly letter from Suridh Das-Hassan but is now more realistically a fortnightly newsletter.
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