Developments...

Hello there

A few bits and pieces of news to share with you, some exciting developments are coming up.


1) Filming to start soon!

Finally, myself and my friend Jon, lead vocalist of the band, Alien Stash Tin, whose new promo video I'll be directing, have set aside some time for some initial filming.  We'll hopefully be heading into the bands rehearsal room on Saturday 18th August armed with cameras, lights and my new green screen to do some testing.  In the first instance we're just going to do some preparation stuff, trying out cameras, angles and light setups plus some test/concept footage with the green screen.  While there is a chance that none of the footage will end up in the final video, it should give us an idea of what is possible with the setup we have, and most importantly, whether we can get the quality in terms of production values that we want for this project.  I've got so many possible ideas for shots, set ups and tricks that I'd like to try, probably more than we can realistically utilise in one project, so it will be good to test them all out without much pressure to figure out what we can do well with the gear we've got, I want to go into shooting proper with the whole thing more or less mapped out in my mind.  So, you'll have to wait at least two weeks before I can show you any results, I'll document the whole thing and will share as much of the experience on here as I can.

2) More people viewing the Blog

Just logged in to see that the blog has hit the 50 views mark.  These are humble beginnings, I'm targeting filmmaking forums on the net and trying drive a bit of passing traffic to the site each day, and so far that seems to be working.  Don't know if we'll pick up any avid followers, but I expect we might possibly when I have some proper footage to post, there will be spikes in interest to coincide with the bigger developments.  Most interesting thing I note is that I've had 9 page views from Russia today, am I developing a fanbase in the East?

3) Coming Soon - The Crash and Burn Movie Podcast

Myself and my afore-mentioned friend, Jon from Alien Stash Tin, will also be teaming up to record a regular podcast to accompany this blog.  Its going to be a fairly casual thing, while I expect we will discuss this video project a little, mostly we're going to be talking generally about movies - what we've watched recently, what new films we're looking forward to and we'll have a regular section where we each highlight a few films we like that share a common theme.  Its all going to be pretty light-hearted and while we're definitely not attempting to make it a mainstream/blockbuster focused podcast, we don't think its going to be too pretentious, as a lot of the left-field movie podcasts I've come across seem to be.  Over time I hope its going to be a vital companion to the blog.  Debut episode could potentially be recorded this weekend, so expect an update maybe as soon as Sunday evening...Stay tuned.

4) A New Link

I've added another superb filmmaking forum to the links list, welcome to the 'Film Maker Forum.Org' - another vibrant and informative forum packed full of talented filmmakers, check it out.

5) What I've Been Watching

Sadly, I've had such a busy week at work, then when I get home my better half has been a bit poorly this week so I've had to look after her and the kids a fair bit, alas I have not got any further with watching Soylent Green.  I really want to finish that as I've got some many other movies lined up to watch.

bye for now

Jim