Christmas lights in London and the sheer mayhem of Black Friday

Black Friday may not be a good day to travel into London.

Yes, we went in, we had booked to go to a film award screening, so we decided to take a camera and shoot the Christmas lights. We never looked at a diary and figure, 'that will be London's busiest day!'

What is an award screening? This is what film makers call award season. That is not the same period as the press call award season; the press will be referring to the film awards post christmas. That is because they will be talking about the actual ceremonies, the winners and losers.

We are lucky enough to have worked in the industry as movie makers and distributors long enough to be officially called veterans, that means free cinema attendance and other luxuries. We are also voting members of BAFTA and European Awards. That means pre Christmas the distributors and film makers are fighting for ours and others votes. They need the laurel on their film. To that end the private screening rooms in London are awash with screenings and gatherings, wine, mince pies and the directors and talent running panels after the film and discussing the making.

There is often a wave of opinion that is constant, the film we watched had a pretty consistent chatter that it was not really good. There can be strange trends with films being favoured that do not deserve it. That might be conscious or sub conscious political voting to ensure survival, employment longevity or people will vote for their own films and their friends. Hopefully the overall membership is so large and widespread that the 'old guard' does not win the election they thought they would. The institutions may not have the control they used to. However, huge numbers may consciously or subconsciously support those they need to stay relevant.
I am not suggesting it happens anywhere, but only using this scenario of how a possible example could work, but I am sure does not happen... Supporting institutions where your films are funded or distributed might be something you would choose to do. If that ever happened, and I am not suggesting it does, it might or could extend to the big guys with huge memberships, like say BBC Films or other huge players. If their staff and those with deals needed them to be relevant to ensure their continued employment or their deals to be repeated, then it might be wise to support their other funded films. If such an outrageous idea, as example only, was extrapolated to then extend into 'bodies' who where maybe people who fund any organisations need to vote to justify their decisions.
I hear Danny Kaye singing the King's New Clothes, as they are altogether in the altogether. I am sure that might have happened in Danny Kaye's time, but not now. Or will political voting always exist. My example is one of of the many possibilities that I am sure does not play out in real life, but could if humans were so self natured. A theme many films have been built on, like Wag The Dog.

Advertising and popularity will always gather public attention and votes when the public can vote, this can be seen in magazine lead awards. Television plugging of their brands to viewers. So how does the independent ever win? Good question. How does the unexpected win an election and how angry might the others be if that happened, should we ever see such an upset happen? In politics such annoying mishaps will cause those with real power to change boundaries to the system they previously loved and fought wars over, or demand recounts.

There is an interesting change in the world, and that is all based on information and access. Well, at least in any country with better than the UK's 4% end users having fast broadband (which is most of the rest of the world, Korean 60%, Japan 70%).
The trend where the public are allowed such freedom, is one of the public voting against what they are supposed to. Or, to explain it another way, they vote for what they want and not what they are told to do.
I was at a meeting recently when a movie distributor on a panel was bemoaning the fact that a film in release can now be killed on first night. he explained that a surge of tweets can sway public opinion before the film has had a chance. That the film is destroyed. An audience member gave a very eloquent reply which I wish I had recorded or noted, but it was to the end that public opinion was real, and rather than ignore it or moan about it, why did they just not make better films instead or trying to wrap their poor product in huge amounts of persuasive advertising. The audience applauded. Once again the system (chosen panel of experts) had been beaten (by the public).

So it is nice when we get a film to trend, and on that Black Friday day, I just shot the Christmas lights in Carnaby Street, Oxford Street, Regent Street and LIberty's windows. Actual clicks are real, and it is nice. If only one could know how viral works. I guess when social media hits become more needed, then there will be farms or outsourced fingers with accounts to give force views for those who can afford it. ... or does that happen? I am not likely to spend money on a two minute Christmas film so these numbers are right.....  but as any lawyer will tell you, it is not about what is right, it is about what you can prove.

Strange world ....

Film is here if you won't be travelling to see the lights in London. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x53luk4 http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x53luk4

Why is the press so poor, is it that they cannot get past their opinions. Are they just web series makers, or just competing with web series?

Listening to the news shows, how much they contradict themselves, how much they are opinion lead, are they any better than an end of term web series?

News is disappointing, not because their is bad news, it is because news editors feel they have the ability to preach. I think the public have got wise to this, have stopped trusting even old standards like the BBC and Radio 4 as well as politicians. It reminds me of the film NETWORK, when Peter Finch goes to the window and shouts, “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!”

Now it is important to state here that that is actually what he says. He is more often as not quoted as saying 'I'm mad as hell', not 'I am as mad as hell'. Is this important? Yes, because I think that the public have gone to the voting booths and screamed that they are not going to take it anymore, and voted. They have voted Brexit and Trump.

The press are still delivering opinions. Let's lay this out. Forget your opinions but just take on board the facts. The morning after Trump was elected the markets in the UK dropped by 1.4%, then clawed back to .75% loss within an hour. Radio 4 took on board an expert who explained that and gave those figures just before the news. The news then started with the headline, and this is the BBC radio 4, that the markets had dropped by nearly 2%. It is not just a contradiction, but an insult to the expert they employed before the opinion led headline. It is as wrong as mis quoting Peter Finch, and it is why the public have voted.

You may be able to lead a horse to water, but apparently you cannot make it drink. I am now going to quote Radio 4 news again as headlining that the Croydon Tram was doing nearly four times the speed limit at the bend. The facts are that is has been released that it was doing 43 miles per hour on the blend which has a 12 mile an hour speed limit and the BBC's own Radio 5 lead with the headline that the tram was doing three and half times the speed limit.

So, is Radio 4 currently being edited by an opinionated red top journalist who wants to guide the public? It is just a question, because the real news is that the rail the tram was on had a speed limit of 80km per hour or 49 mph coming out of the tunnel just before the bend, and that is within the legal and accepted speed limit. Given the trams full laden weight I have heard it explained that it would take 120 meters to stop.

Using BBC maths, which has no bearing on what would happen in reality, that would require tests, for the tram to slow down to 12 miles per hour, a reduction of four fold, or one quarter, we might suggest it could take 90 meters of the 120 meters suggested it would take to stop. So the real question is why is the 12 mph speed limit sign not 90 meters back from the bend because on hitting the sign is may be too late to be able to slow. So what is the real news? 

Is the real news just great adjectives and headlines to grab the viewer, stirring opinions to have people talk about it? It the news has turned in to Jeremy Kyle type magazine programming, then society has lost it's rudder, and that is an important observation. I was honoured to be at a lecture, or think tank as I like to call it with the head of OfCom's Sharon White in the chair, recently. The audience were all heads of broadcasting. A serious meeting where all agreed that news coverage had hit an all time low pre Brexit with claims of house prices escalating, world war 4 and the like, and news editors just taking unchecked fact and expanding on them. All agreed how disgraceful it was yet no one is doing anything about it.

Most of my movies have been politically driven. Freight is about sex trafficking, but it is more about the fact that UK politicians threw quotes about how bad Britain was to get elected then did nothing about it. Devil's Gate was about incest within the family and the absence of any child protection. Even The Scarlet Tunic was about the attitude towards Catholics in 1802 but the executive producers totally removed that story line from the movie and I think damaged what was a wonderful film. So, the simple web series Shades Of Bad is full of political parallels, and hey .... lets be an editor when we can. But it is drama not news and one hopes for a distinction.

I thought I would share something I have just read which I can take no credit for, and I encourage you to read the whole article. It is perhaps one of the most sensible things I have read in the whole Brexit and Trump era. That may mean that no one wants to read it, and the press will totally ignore it, which is why I decided to give it the Peter Finch treatment and shout about it.

The full link is below and a click on this line, and you may leave me now because I am just going to quote from it, but I will try to do it without opinion.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/reflections-trump-presidency-one-week-after-election-ray-dalio?trk=eml-b2_content_ecosystem_digest-hero-22-null&midToken=AQHosgkCW7d0xg&fromEmail=fromEmail&ut=1qvUiAgvbffDw1

I do suggest you read the article which is from people who invest your pensions and investments. Just taking a headline in a complex and well balanced piece, it includes....

.....Our very preliminary assessment is that on the economic front, the developments are broadly positive—the straws in the wind suggest that many of the people under consideration have a sufficient understanding of how the economic machine works to run reasonable calculations on the implications of their shifts so that they probably won’t recklessly and stupidly drive the economy into a ditch. 

New Fraud detected for house buyers

Buying a HOUSE, then beware

Our friends at Capricorn Financial would like to make you aware of a new form of online fraud that could target anyone purchasing a property. It's called 'misdirection fraud' and it is costing homebuyers £2.8 million in financial crime each year - a figure that's potentially set to grow.

In a nutshell, hackers will monitor emails between all parties in the mortgage process (client, solicitor and broker). When the hacker identifies a financial transaction is about to take place, they email the homebuyer, under the guise of either a solicitor, mortgage broker or financial institution and ask them to make their deposit into an alternative account - the fraudster's account. The unsuspecting buyer follows the instructions and the criminal collects the proceeds.

Capricorn Financial want to protect you from criminal activity by raising awareness of this growing issue. Solicitor firms are starting to make their clients aware of this risk and we'd encourage anyone in the process of buying a property to confirm bank details with their solicitor before making any transactions, especially where bank details are changed close to the completion date or details are received via email.


Anything like this we would like to just tip you the nod about.







There are also many scams included in booking holidays, when the holiday maker finds they don't have the holiday they thought, which is why we always, when we can, direct you to the holiday makers main web site. They are the ones offering the deal in any case, so all you need to know is there and you have the safety of having booked direct.

P&O Main site, click here

Fred Olsen Site, click here

Saga Site, click here

Also, by booking with the company itself, you will be dealing direct with the company if something goes wrong. Use the link on our site and we score for the referral, so there is no need for a third party to handle your money.