On Sunday we held the cast and crew screening of Automatic at The Old Market in Hove.

First things first: The Old Market is a really good venue. There’s a spacious bar with plenty of room for everyone to grab a drink and catch up. The staff were friendly and competent and made sure everything ran smoothly.

We had a fairly large cast and it was fantastic to see so many of the people who helped me to make my vision for the film possible. Everyone seemed genuinely pleased to meet up again after nearly a year. Eventually, I managed to herd everyone into the main hall.

As this is my first feature, I have to admit I was dreading the screening, but as time passed and the story unfolded, I began to relax a little. No booing – no one walked out! People seemed engaged and, after 106 minutes, the credits rolled to a round of applause.

Phew!

I got up and nervously offered to answer any questions. One friend made some very kind remarks, which I hurriedly acknowledged before suggesting we all head back to the bar. Luckily, I remembered to mention that I’d arranged for a photographer to be available for the photo call.

Katariina Jarvinen set up her lights and we all had fun posing in front of the large Automatic roller poster. Back in the bar, the mood was upbeat, with everyone reminiscing about various episodes from the filming and speculating about possible sequels.

A huge thank you to everyone who helped to make this film possible. All the actors, of course, and the numerous supporting artists.

Morgan the cinematographer whose excellent eye managed to bring to life what I’d originally visualised on paper.

Alistair and Adam , our two sound guys, who managed to capture some great audio, often under very difficult circumstances.

Jamie Dickinson for colour grading, and James Gasson for sound design.

Mark Tournoff for securing access to our main filming location, and many, many more people who contributed along the way.

I owe a particularly big thank you to Angela Elise Munnoch, who stuck with me from the initial writing, right through filming and post-production.

The film has been entered into various festivals, so all we can do is wait and see what happens.

In the meantime, I suppose I’d better do some reading to find out how to flog it!