Big News Day

Well, for me anyway. And I hope it works out very well for you too.

Expect to see me on the contributors roll of a big, well-read and rather nifty film website today.

Yep - it is one of the big ones. Yep - you most probably read it already. Yep - I'm going to be doing what I used to do over here but doing it over there now. Nope - I don't mean Forces of Geek, though I will still have Union Jacked there. Yep - you should start scouring the big sites in about.... oh.... eight hours after I post this? Maybe? Ish?

If you don't find me, I'll be back here in 24 hours or so to tell you exactly where to look.

And... er... though this sounds like the death knell for film ick, it really isn't.

Again, The End?

Hey you! Yes, you. You can download a trailer for Joss Whedon's Dollhouse. It's in FLV, but is better quality than the version on YouTube - and doesn't have the placeholder bits of Buffy that the YouTube trailer did. This is the finished article and it's really very interesting indeed. Not to mention ahead of schedule: expect the show to start in January. 8 months from now. Better news, however, is that the show appears to have more than the initially understood 7 episode order because I've been sent some quotes from Whedon in which he mentions Tim Minear writing and directing not only the 7th but also 8th episode. If 8 instead is our lot or not, I have no idea, but I'm placing my chips on 13. Let's see a year or so from now how right or wrong I am.

I know that film ick officially finished up months ago, but recently I've been trying to get writing again. I'm currently negotiating for somewhere to publish my stuff... and negotiations, while convivial, promising and encouraging are also rather slow. But I think I'm about to start up very soon. Cross your fingers for me - it's a good platform, somewhere I'd be proud to contribute, and it will give me access to a lot more info, people, bits and pieces than I have managed alone.

Not to mention paying, just a tiny bit, meanign I can afford to make time to do the job. Which is nice.

Upcoming Crash Course

Here's the local press ad (not designed by me) for the applied film technique and practice workshop I'm doing the week after next - that is to say, we'll be conceiving, writing, shooting and doing post on a/some short movie(s).

If you can come to Oxford every day for the week, you might want to buy yourself a place because they're always huge amounts of fun.

Greetings, Salutations, Goodbye

Here's a music video I directed a few years back for Piney Gir and her song Greetings, Salutations, Goodbye. Piney's had a couple of videos since, but... I didn't direct any of them. This one's good, though. The production was a little bit fraught - talent late, budget slashed (to almost nothing), producer flaking out, all the usual - but I pulled together what we got into something quite like my original vision. I hadn't seen it in a couple of years before uploading it, but it was good to see it again. I'm quite proud of this one. And the song is pretty darn catchy too.

And if you're looking for a music video director, drop me a line...

[EDIT: Googlevideo seems to be having some kind of conniptive spat. If the video below won't play, there's always YouTube to fall back on]

Big Ideas

Rachael had a great idea for Movie Minesweeper posts. From now on, they're going to start with a quick list of all of the subjects covered within. This should mean all subscribers to the e-mail list can see at a glance what's within before clicking over to the site.

Anybody else have any ideas?

My two Film Workshop teams have shot their films now and we're editing a little before the premiere on Thursday at Somerville College, Oxford. From conception to completion, each film will have received only eleven hours of work. There have been several hours of theory in the classroom between - at least for the workshop members also on the Film Studies summer course - but, really, these were some very speedily created movies.

Amazingly, they're not bad at all and will get some good solid laughs, I'm sure. I'll post them here later this week, just to excite the students even more.

The Great Shave

Dominic Frisby has some ideas about how stand-up comedy should be filmed: the camera should be hand-held; there's no need to compose or balance anything in any particular way - just point and shoot; the sound should be taken from a mic on or near the camera, not through the sound desk.

Comedogme '07: He's the Lars von Trier of comedians. Sort of.

A new clip on YouTube puts this theory to the test... and I think it works just the way he wanted it to. The scene has been called The Great Shave, and to find out why, you'll have to watch.

I was the man with the camera in his hand and, yep, you can hear me laughing on the soundtrack regularly.

Daniel Bellamy's Video Diary

I've been very busy this weekend - but there's plenty of posting coming soon, and some really good stuff too.

In the meantime, to tide you over, here are a couple of sketches I directed for a TV pilot a couple of years back. They star Dominic Frisby, who is a stand-up, voice over artiste, writer and character comedian.

The first is certainly the lesser, but it sets you up a bit for the much better second one so give them a go in order.

Oh - and I didn't upload them, but I'll apologise for the bad digitisation quality anyway. That's YouTube I guess.

Hey! We're In John Waters' Daily Paper!

film ick have had their say in a Baltimore Sun article about Heroes by Tricia Bishop. Glad to see I'm not the only one rolling their eyes at the show.

Romance Is In The Air

Just for you this Valentine's Day. Why not forward the link along to your loved one(s)?

And maybe your enemies too.

Kisses On A Postcard

Kisses on a Postcard is the new name for Terence Frisby's musical about his youth as an evacuee, or vacky, during World War II. Currently, fundraising is afoot in order to get the musical mounted in the West End.

Looking at the official site, I found a short series of clips from a previous production; a production that was filmed by myself. Take a look - not so much to see a few snippets of my handiwork, more to get an idea of the musical. Kisses on a Postcard has got a great book, and with some better music and sufficient investment, could very well end up a bit of a smash.

Here's hoping, anyway. Terence Frisby is an undervalued writer - these days, at least.

You Tube Surprise

I have just stumbled across an old comedy sketch I directed on You Tube.

The Holiday Spirit?

A short Christmas viral. Could be sent as an e-mail Xmas card quite happily, I suppose. Not at all sappy and has a twist in the tail.

Enjoy.

UK Exclusive Simpsons Trailer

A mix-and-match of the US trailer and the Spanish one I linked to just a couple of days back, there's nothing new, as such, in this UK exclusive Simpsons Movie trailer, but it is, at least, badly encoded and in the wrong aspect ratio which affords some degree of novelty.

Click the link for the stream.

For further viewing, there's a certain Paperlung video you might be interested in. Or not. S'up to you.

[EDIT: A better version of the trailer is available now - but only in Windows media, however. The UK Exclusive tag has been suddenly dumped - gee, thanks Fox]

Do What Thou Will

The music video for Do What Thou Will by Paperlung is online now. Paperlung is the new band fronted by Sice, formerly of The Boo Radleys. The single is coming out in January, courtesy of Shifty Disco.

I directed the video. Please take a look and then spread the link.