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.

Continuous Content allows Compilations that gives your audience new layers on the content

Compilations work

Behind the scenes are one thing, and you have to do it, but they, with the product give you more product.
I spent many years attached to ITV as a creative head of department and advised on many shows, being attached to Emmerdale for 26 years and famously now meeting Status Quo on Coronation Street (whom I had not seen since the 1970's when I was a radio DJ). During this time much of my work found it's way into ITV 2 compilation specials, like best Emmerdale Weddings etc... you can make a compilation of anything if you have bulk content.

We have ended up in cruise travelling, but it doesn't matter which market you choose. The point of this blog is that after making a number of movies, then 61 episodes (so far) of the on line drama Shades Of Bad, we have in the last year posted 100 travel films on Daily Motion and have an active OPERA TV APP.

The art is to film now for the current and also add bits for the future unknown compilations. Coverage I hear you shout. Yes I agree, and links and turns to cameras. One day you will need them.

Then there is the art of on-line ANNOTATIONS. Now if you don't know what these are, these are boxes you add after UPLOAD and they are a feature of Daily Motion and YouTube to add a click here now box, to go to another film. So compilation, addresses the viewer to watch the multiple content.

As an example, I offer this last effort. 

It contains
MADEIRA, LA PALMA, TENERIFE, GRAN CANARIA, LANZAROTE, LISBON, the annotations send you to an episode of Shades and individual travel films. The Viewer can choose like wading through a multi choice environment.

Now filming car boot sales is easier and more likely to get you a TV gig, and is easier, but it is the style and the lightweight crew that is the secret, and the shots in between shots that you need.

Shades Of Bad is not over but as a small company it all has to wait it's moment, and with the Canary Islands off the work bench (well almost) we have started - at last - to reload the Fiji content.
The Bula Quo movie content, interviews and vast behind camera material that we never knew what we might want it for. Now, we are levelling it into a web series and attaching it to the travel channel as we seriously think about re-writing the sequel Namaste Quo. Rick is at a stage where he will choose what he does and he wants to do more film work, so the sequel looks more likely than a new album. But hey, the film was what brought the last album.

When we wrote that a few years ago Caroline did not feature again but an Indian girl. Francis Rossi immediately insisted that Laura Aikman came back as Caroline. She was at the time shooting Amar, Akbar & Tony with Karen Divid now in Cold Feet, who agreed to play the Asian girl in the show. We will see how much of those plans come together, but, it is about to go onto the work bench. Watch out for the first Bula Quo web episode....

How we store and coordinate the channel data

How much data is 2 films a week? Three? How to prepare and save money...

With Gamers and YouTubers smashing the art of web series entertainment, those of us with film ambitions of any kind look to the future and ask what will work? What does it take to have continuous output? Will I need to upload to the new Facebook video platform everything I have ever done? Where is it? How much data is that?

Established web contributors and real series makers have thousands of fans and videos. Content is king and they are at the top because, by accident or design they have succeeded. What you do not see, as it is not Factor where the failures are televised....  is the queue of people that stretches round the block and back who failed; those with a dream and a huge exaggerated idea of their own ability and talent. But even those who fail are interesting. Being persistent is what counts. The continued content. Push push push and push harder. The ones in the middle are forgettable, the ones who just made three or four films.

It is the singer-songwriter, the content producer that rises to the top. The one who builds an audience, who listens and adapts. Content has been disposable in the first YouTube generation, maybe Game content is disposable as it dates. However, the second generation of content providers are making content that will last. Content that is not just stored at Google and may be required on new and yet to be launched platforms.

Continuous content is what makes a series and a channel. Learning your audience and growing with them. So to run continuous shows requires more than just a dream to sing or act or pick up a camera. It requires data and planning.

It will take time. I spoke with a guy who has a very successful travel channel with thousands of videos and 140k followers. He is 8 years in and just turning the corner. 
From Shades Of Bad we developed www.DorisVisits.com and we have just hit 100 films in just under a year as well as our drama series.

The Grey Pound

The secret is to find something you can do or provide to an audience that needs to and wants to consume it. Doris Shades Of Bad was a drama series made by mature or senior women, testing the on-line market to the grey pound market. The grey pound market was responsible to over 50% of all purchases last year so it has a positive, but few use the web as their off spring do, so it has a negative.

What can you make that they want, and it certainly is not a drama series. They sit in front of a box for those. But like all markets that are not served by the tele box in the corner, whether how to wear a haji or put make up on dark skin, there are audiences out there who want content. Your job as a film maker is to make films... for an audience!

Content and volume

If you are going to make content you will need to work out how much and when and how and where to store it. Doris is stored in coloured plastic boxes!!! See here. Enough of those fancy expensive drives!

Two web shows a week is content, content that will be re-visited in compilations, in re-edits, in reference material. Material stored at HD takes space. Since starting Shades Of Bad in June 2015 and adding the saved media not yet used from two of our previous feature films which will enter the new on-line TV channel in some form, we have 60Tb. For those of you who think size does not matter, think again. Sixty terabytes! We did move to thunderbolt drives when we bought the Red One cameras and through the Epic and Dragon era to edit on Apple, but they have since lost the drive for that technology. We have started to look for other ways to save data. We have now followed the method our composer used slide in and out pluggable hard drives that just go into a dock. This has to be the tidiest way to save data

CHEAPEST HARD DRIVES

We now use hard drives that seem to be inside the other fancy equipment that increases their price, 
http://amzn.to/2eAJSUS

These blank hard drives are solid and reliable and the cheapest way to save data. 6Tb is currently about £200 / $200

To ignore how you are going to service and store your web content is daft, because no matter how hard you plan it will change if your series works and expands. Need for data will continually grow with your success so it is best to plan and plan for hard drives that will live through any change in computer by a simple lead to the docking station.

Drive that can be filed away in cases.


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DOCKING STATIONS

We connect the hard drives as required with a docking station such as this
http://amzn.to/2eFnXe0

But we may get more fancy as our demands are growing. Even the back up files we move away from our computer to a separate drive or the computer gets clogged !

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Data can then be re-visited, re treated as trends and markets change. Episodes edited, tighten, recoloured and made into compilations. 70% of all time will be at the edit, at the computer, marketing and servicing it. keep everything and keep it filed. The stuff I threw away years ago, I wish I still had.

Take a look at our series Doris Visits, aimed at the senior market with cross over. The latest film from Madeira. Click here in Daily Motion.
Or for Madeira Tropical Gardens look below in You Tube. You will need that product to ever serve new platforms.

The cameras used to shoot a web series

Shooting Shades Of Bad - the Kit

Shades Of Bad was a departure into the web for us. Maybe we won't turn back!

We shoot a number of things from movies to web content, but we have just sold our Epic Dragon cameras and now are concentrating on web content. Our main web series are ‘Doris Visits’ the travel shows, and ‘Doris Shades Of Bad’ the drama series. For both web series we wanted to keep the quality at 2k, which is the quality of most current televisions bought and sold. That is certainly as good as most TV shows if not much better than daily soaps and lower level TV which are often shot at 720 lines and they are interlaced. If  I have lost you there I apologize, but most shows are now HD which the retailers are currently calling 2k.

The camera had to be small and I did not need fancy add-ons like slow motion. I just needed a camera that is used widely on the professional market and the cameramen that came in would be able to use. So, I asked them and Black Magic came out tops. I have seen recent blogs where the BMPCC goes up against some newer cameras and it wins hands down.

The kitchen that Shades Of Bad was all going to be shot in is small by filming standards and none of the walls fly away or have traps. I mean none of the walls are force and can be removed. What you see is the space we had. The BMPCC was ideal and there were few other coices. Stills guys compremise, but we never needed it to take stills, we just needed a dedicated movie camera.

It can shoot 2k raw but that means huge files and is over kill and would certainly be well beyond our Apple based edit suit, so we shoot at 1080 uncompressed. The edit still struggles when the shows get to 30 minutes, but we manage as most of the travel shows on line are around five minutes. The episodes of Shades were always going to be around three minutes.

All stop... it changed. As film makers our ambition was bigger and before long we were testing outside night shoots, filming in the woods and then going abroad. Just because we could and web series did not normally go to that expense. For us it was all a test, and adventure. It has generated a new series, the travel show Doris Visits which in 6 months has produced 100 films, over 80 of which are loaded. Now we have groups of actors and financiers coming to us to ask about the next step; shooting a movie this way.

If you are looking for a camera to shoot movies, take a look at some of our films on Doris Visits. This camera does not shoot stills. It is a movie camera. I will address more of our kit in later blogs.

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Ep61 goes live while Doris is away filming on board ship and in Canaries

Ep61 goes live while Doris is away filming on board ship and in Canaries

Away shooting more Doris Visits, but we release the very final episode of Season 3... and yes, it is on board ship as Manuel chases Doris with an eye on Romance. Remember the series started when her husband left her for the next door neighbour and her best friend ... not that that should destroy a friendship LOL...

Now, Doris has gone through quite a lot, but the man she was sent to meet in Barcelona seems to have taken an eye to her.

So, the series takes a break. You may ask whether it is the last ever episode, but no. We think there is life in the show yet, but we have plans for something a little different.... stay watching Doris Visits.

The latest shows on the travel front are the ones on the Costa Del Sol. Here is the one on Mijas.

The rest are easy to find, take a look on www.DorisVisits.com