Crude Diaries

Sold 100th Crude share

Location SF office (in my house) | Mood Internal satisfaction | Date 25 June 2005
John Battsek convincing people to fund Crude McLibel finally made it onto BBC2 a few weeks back - a mere ten years since I started - which ramped up the Spanner Films publicity 10000% and meant we today sold our 100th Crude share, I

First confirmed Crude character

Location Outside the (closed) Eurostar office at Paris train station | Mood Incredulous to not be cold lying on stone floor in shorts and t-shirt in middle of night. Good old global warming. | Date 14 June 2005
Our plan to save a few quid on non-exchangeable Eurostar tickets has backfired and left us spending the night in a Paris train station. (Could have got a hotel for four hours, but felt too bad spending our sponsors' cash). Lizzie is sleeping next to me, but I'm not sure we should leave 10,000 quids worth of camera equipment unguarded all night. So I'm texting friends in different time zones, finally listening properly to the brilliant Holy Joy album (as heard on McLibel) and updating this threadbare diary.

Paris Airshow

Location Sitting on floor in corridor in weird Chinese-owned hotel in Paris as only place where WIFI works | Mood Annoyed | Date 12 June 2005
Airbus's mockup of their really really big new plane at Paris Airshow.

17,500 quid in the kitty

Location Lying on sofa at home, Camden | Mood Relief | Date 14 December 2004
I can't remember being really scared about anything for a long, long time. Walking home through the woods aged 17 after watching Silence of the Lambs is still my worst ever. And getting locked up and given tea by the dam construction company on our first night in India was fairly terrifying.

Signed up John Battsek today

Location Bus back from Tottenham Court Rd | Mood Very excited. Toes tapping | Date 20 May 2004
Two years have passed since thinking of the idea for the film. Been busy finishing Drowned Out and making a DVD of McLibel.

A film about oil

Location In bed at home in Camden | Mood Quietly confident | Date 26 June 2002
I was snowboarding through perfect powder yesterday, so didn't really want to wake up and answer the phone. But it did insist on ringing and ringing on the landline and then the mobile and then the landline, till I suddenly panicked that my dad was dead and leapt to it. It was my filmmaking friend Alex Cooke, wondering why I was asleep at 7.45pm when we were meeting in Kings Cross at 7.30pm to go to a documentary seminar. She was remarkably understanding and suggested we forget it, but - thankfully, thankfully - I felt bad and cycled down there quick.