OnMeJack

Did you Come in Alone?

2008-05-28T23:12:00.003Z

What intrigues me the most about the analytical thoughts, is my memories of essay writing at School and University. Where you had to reference source material, using the Harvard technique. The implication being you’re not smart enough for original thought, which admittedly, arguably, I’m not. All ideas had to be based on sources acquired elsewhere.

I had one essay come back where I had been marked down, because I had made reference the Matrix connection to Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman, without backing it up by saying somebody had written about it first. Whereas I got marked positively, for openly referencing a source, which had no connection to the essay, but made me look smart. Hobbe’s Leviathan, I believe.

One of my principle areas of thought takes me to Warren Ellis's Come in Alone. A collection of articles on Comic’s and comic writing. Having re-read it recently I was struck by how many of the points relate to Podcasting and I aim to highlight that here over the upcoming blogs, as well as looking at other areas of media study, and discussing it with Podcasters.

Is having a blog quaint?

2008-05-26T13:05:00.005Z

I started writing this blog not knowing why. other then that was what you were meant to do.

Since that time I’ve wondered what I should blog about, should it be about my media work, well that’s fine, except in 2006, when I didn’t really do any media work.

Should it be my personal life, whilst that has always given people a laugh, I live in seemingly an American Teen drama world, of complicated interrelationships, people saying things they wouldn’t normally say, existential breakthroughs and end of season cliff-hangers. But who really wants to know about that.

And other sundry ideas.

I’ve been very interested in online media since university and have often been heard mumbling in the corner that the ‘tinterweb was the future.

And it’s that that I’m going to be talking about here. Looking at those that are already casting and blogging, and discussing with them why they do it, where they started, what they enjoy and what they hope to see happen. One of the things that I love is that once work is posted alone, if I don’t watch it then, then I can watch it much later. I have only recently found and fell in love with Four Eyed Monsters and look forward to the DVD, having missed the online screenings.

I have been a fan of blogs and pods for years now and will be discussing a few of my favourite things and trying to find out what happened to those that no longer exist online.

I hope to have conversations about Podcasting Vodcasting, Video Blogging, Webisodes and seeing what terms if any should be used, and how we can help to define them for an offline world. Looking at online content that has made it into the mainstream, and what if anything that means.

I’m based in the UK and will be looking at offline communities of online media; I also hope to discuss analytical thoughts or other people’s analytical thoughts towards these areas.

Since I’ve started developing my own Online Media site, The Chimp Presents, which I along with others will also be blogging about, I have been researching existing sites like never before and am constantly seeking new content. Though keeping up to date, as Steve Garfield once commentated, can become a part time job.

Essentially, the ideas will develop and grow and I'm looking forward to where this rambling idea will take me.

Episode 5: By now we were all so tired, that i forgot to post this blog

2008-04-18T12:18:00.002Z

Written by George Wielgus and Dom Lawson this was by far my favourite script and a lot of what I liked never made it to the screen.

Finishing the two part story and the series as a whole. I love Matts portrayl of Dylan and Doug as the clown.

Not all the pieces come together fully but by now that fact people were still talking to each other was a miracle. And I didn't take fully responsibilty for my own failings to communicate for quite a while.

Im still proud of Stepping Stones but unfortunetly its greatest achievement is that it exists at all. It wasn't tried before and to my knowledge wasn't attempted again. I was asked to run the student tv station the following year and we successfully produced a series of live music shows broadcast on to the net. Pioneers.

As and when im going to update what the rest of the Stepping Stone survivors have been up to.

Tired now.

Be seeing you

Stepping Stones Part 4: Well look at you breaking the rules

2008-03-16T21:21:00.001Z

Time is short and memory is vague, can I write a piece about each episode?

So Episode 4, written by Amy Flanighan and Nina Bailey, contains flashbacks. Which is naughty, soaps don’t have flashbacks.

It was also the episode which was nominated for a NASTA, which led to a nice little jolly somewhere.

Matt Clarke sign seals and delivers the episode; he takes Bruce from a one-joke character and given the room shines. Matt, also a student at Bournemouth asked me if he could have a role as an editor on the production as that was his specialism. Due to time constraints I had to say no, we needed him on set. I felt bad, but not that bad.

Looking at the party scene, not only did we get to leave the flat again, whoop whoop, but you can see that some people clearly weren’t up for another party shoot. And so the house is quite sparse.

Now point of confusion, is it a Halloween party, I really can’t remember. Because if so then that sets this in November and means that the whol series happened in the first term of Uni. So I choose to say no, they just chose to wear Halloweeny type costumes. Right.

The episode also over ran. Which was a hassle for putting it on youtube.

By this point communications between a lot of the crew had broken down. We were tired, and I under appreciated a lot of people. And at the risk of sounding whiney, didn’t always feel the love myself. To the extent that there was some who all communications broke down with for the final year of Uni.

And to those people I would like to say sorry and thank you.

At the end Mark Williams got a special jokey shout out in the credits. Whilst a lot of the first year runners were great, Sian as previously mentioned took one for the team. Mark went above and beyond, putting more hours in then were legal. Though this was back in the day he was reliable.

To be continued

Be Seeing You.

Stepping Stones Part 3: Oh my God who’s your daddy?

2008-03-15T13:50:00.001Z

Episode 3 written by Matt Handrahan, Tom Lane and Sam Guest, is my favourite episode. And the two scenes book ending the episode are may favourite of the whole show.

Laurence, in a running theme you may have noticed, did his best to ruin them. He also cast Anakin Skywalker, writes ITV Drama Premiers and has an uncredited directorial role in the Matrix sequels.

The role of the Landlord was written specifically for Terry Turbo, who had sent us a glorious showreel for an earlier project. The eloquent dialogue was crafted especially and Laurence attempted an 11th hour rewrite to tone it down. Thankfully the Landlord was handled with zeal.

I remember Darius being very nervous about the finale and what was to be shown, he need not have worried. If we weren’t going to film hot nurses in the shower we deff weren’t going to film his secret sauce cooking.

Also look out fro the great disappearing cameo by Stephanie Stevens.

The episode is also of note in that it was the first episode to properly leave the flat, and the only episode to actually have a scene set in an external location. This was due to a very tight shooting schedule and a tighter budget.

Now remember not to forget about the package, otherwise the end of Episode 5 will make even less sense.

To be continued

Be Seeing You

Stepping Stones Pt 2: There’s a hat party going on right here

2008-03-14T23:56:00.000Z

So Episode 2, which was originally Episode 1, in which a party is had, and that’s pretty much it. This episode does a great job of furthering the characters established in Episode 1, previously Episode 2.

The character of Kara as played by Vicky Lloyd, is arguably the main character of the ensemble, playing the naïve girl out of her depth at University. Vicky came to us in the more random of manners. Stepping Stones managed to get a small mention in the local paper, with regards to casting. Vicky’s mum, if I remember correctly, saw the article and sent it to her in Wales, and she came all the way down to audition and we loved her.

Dylan the roguish ladies man, played with zeal by Mark Gibbs came through the more traditional means of PCR. In episode 2, there is a scene where Dylan is in the shower with two Nurses played by Natalie Giles and Sexy Lexy. Laurence it soon emerged when faced with the possibility of filming two sexy nurses in the shower elected to shoot with them behind a curtain. I know I speak for a lot of people, when I say I cried.

Myself, Natalie Giles and Laurence Topham, did casting. Generally speaking Laurence would explain the production, Natalie would go through a scene with them and then I’d be left with the paper work at the end. Now part of my questions were, this is a production for Student TV, how do you feel about swearing, violence, sex and nudity. Now as far as I remember all the actors came back with a standard, it’s acting, I don’t have a problem with that, except for Felicity Rhys who played Catherine. She said very fairly that for nudity should would expect to be paid. Now it never came up with her character, but to this day it did leave me wondering, how much is a fair starting rate? Wouldn’t want to be rude after all.

Darius Merrimen as Bob, gets me every time in episode 2. Episode 1, showed how his housemates treated him. Episode 2 showed how all treated him. And just the ending where he’s clearing up during the party just kills me. Plus the final shot of the episode was a pick up. Darius came back and because it was a night shot, had to wait till after the wrap party to film, even though the Director and camera team had enjoyed the wrap party. Which just goes to show how the crew treated Bob as well.

Matt Clarke steals the show as Bruce, the creation of Matt Handrahan, based heavily on somebody he knew. Bruce was a character of much amusement for Roger Laughton, then head of the media school, who believed all Bruce did was fall out of cupboards. He does it twice. Which makes me think Mr Laughton only watched the first 5 minutes… So good is Matt, I forget how few scenes he has in the beginning.

Mostly the crew and friends make up the extras, of which episode 2 is flooded. I think all the crew, maybe not the editors who were locked in a room, and the writers who are too ugly, cameo in the film. Check out Laurence’s cameo in Episode 4, funny as. I mentioned the episode one-guest stars earlier, in this episode we have Aidan Goatley as ‘The Frenchman’, to this day he doesn’t understand how he got talked into that. We didn’t even know each other that well at the time.
Yvie Mcgee in episode 4, originally auditioned for Catherine, and we really liked her, she just wasn’t quite what we were looking for and looked too similar to Vicky Lloyd. In the end I had the cameo role extended for her. We cannot of course forget Terry Turbo and Doug Anderson’s cameos in Episode 3 and 5 respectively. Ill talk about them more with their respective episodes but it goes without saying that Laurence did his best to ruin it.

I still regret how I handled the script for this episode, what was submitted didn’t fit with what I was looking for as part of a Soap Opera or in line with the scripts. And neither the writers nor myself could come to an agreement on how to move forward, and I wish I’d have had a script editor to assist. In the end we hacked away the element that didn’t fit, George Wielgus came up with some ideas during the shoot and in the end Luke Thompson did a great job, taking what was and is essentially a series of scenes and editing them to the music. Watching the episode again, I’d forgotten how much I’d enjoyed it.

Finally, I was lucky enough to get an early copy of the series to Tony Garnett, who I am a huge fan of. I remember it clearly. I was working as a script reader, and Tony Garnett stormed into my office and demanded to know what he had just watched. And essentially tore me a new one for having a party episode for episode 1. He couldn’t tell what was going on or whom anybody was and it’s only due to the persistence of his PA, that he watched the rest. He later sent me a letter saying well done, comparing it as a student ‘This Life’.

To be cont…

Stepping Stones pt 1

2008-03-13T01:33:00.002Z

Stepping Stones was a Student Soap Opera Produced by OnMeJack Productions and Bournemouth Media School for Nerve TV

It ran for five episodes each approx 10 minutes long and won the NASTA for best title sequence, but lost out on best student drama, in a controversial decision by Paul Cornell.

This is Episode 1, although it was originally written and produced as Episode 2, for reasons I will explain later.

I originally pitched the concept of a Student Soap Opera to Iain Smith, in 2002 after I had successfully failed in a previous student TV endeavour. Iain however took the idea in his stride and gave his support pretty much as soon as I finished pitching it.

The Bournemouth Media School was understandably initially resistant to the idea, I had devised a scheme to produce the series over the summer break between the second and third years and that it would count towards the work placement requirement of the degree. The project never would have succeed however without the support of Roger Laughton, Paul Inman and John Foster.

And I must make sure to thank again, the above the duty work of Vicky Edmonds and Naomi Gayler, without whom the project never would have been completed. It got very tense on more then one occasion.

Not lets be honest, Stepping Stones isn’t great, though it has great moments and the fact that it exists at all is great, even if at one stage I fell into depression that I had successfully reset Hollyoaks in Bournemouth.

Laurence Topham came to direct Stepping Stones because, well at the time I’m not entirely sure, for a start I thought his name was Lance, and whilst we didn’t know each other that well in the beginning, we soon fell out by the end. A situation, which wasn’t truly resolved till we worked together on a couple of years later on Young But Not Carefree and Chop Chop Liz. I can clearly remember the moment when I approached Laurence to direct the series, but can’t remember before that. I was fairly determined that course members would work in roles suitable to their courses. However Laurence was a Interactive Media degree student, and maybe that was a strong factor, the lack of politics that could be involved on the BA TV production course was huge, I myself was a scriptwriting student, which was part of the initial resistance to me leading the project. I don’t mean to imply that Lance shouldn’t have been directing, though I certainly felt that way during the shoot, especially thinking that maybe having more then one director as much for himself as for the project. He certainly had enthusiasm and talent and a capacity to ruin some moments in the scripts that I know I certainly was looking forward to. I love him and wouldn’t be without him.

The script writing team were all students and eventual graduates of the Scriptwriting course, and consisted of Matt Handrahan, Anna Karlsdottir, Noah Payne-Frank, Amy Harrison, Richard Kearney, Sam Guest, Tom Lane, Amy Flannigan, Nina Bailey, George Wielgus and Dom Lawson.

What was exciting for me was we were able to have a writers room weekend, something not covered on the course, to create the show. On the first day we established the characters and the second the individual plot lines of each episode, incorporating specific elements I wanted covered. Matt Handrahan’s contribution was especially clear to the extend that he gained a story credit throughout the series.

The writers then teamed up to take on a specific episode. Something that with hindsight I wish I had done at the time, was give Matt a role as Script Editor for the series, to ensure that the series had a consistent feel and also to maintain a barrier between me and my peers, as I was for all intents their boss on the production, which could create some weirdness.

Episode 1 was written by Amy Harrison and Richard Kearney. Richard was in the year below us, I don’t remember having read any of his work, and I think we just got along, which just goes to show. Story elements that had to be covered specific to this episode, was the arrival of Kara, arguably the main character’s family. It’s a relatively straightforward episode in relation to the rest of the series. But did have a final image for Laurence to muck up.

The guest stars of the episode were David Hepple, a main stay of Bournemouth Productions and Sonia Doubell, and both veterans of the never properly finished earlier project a Family Story. The family’s contrast of accents was due to our inability to decide were the family came from, lets just say they moved around a lot. And lets not forget a special message for Sian Fever, gamely taking one for the team in the opening scenes.

The series was filled with scenes of a sexual or forceful nature. Laurence it turned out had quite a delicate nature, much to my constant annoyance. Episode 2 was meant to finish with Hepple’s father character catching his elder daughter, played Doubell performing a sexual act on one of the housemates. Not that you can tell.

To be continued…

Be Seeing You.

Yellow brick road 4/7

2007-07-04T22:37:00.000Z

New Companion For Dr Ten and Partner for Gene Hunt

Nathan Fillion to join Desperate Housewives

Tim Clague suggests you check this out

Weekly A Softer World

Brilliant

Yellow Brick Road 20/6

2007-06-20T11:37:00.000Z

Amanda Congdon on ABC

Mac or PC Rap Video

Googles Public Policy Blog

Lib Dem Ministers?

An underground pub. I love it

Yellow Brick Road 19/6

2007-06-19T18:58:00.001Z

Director for Bond 22?

Gaping Void

One Red Paperclip, the book

Lauren Mccubbin Prints for sale

French maid TV

Yellow Brick Road 18/ 6

2007-06-18T20:53:00.001Z

Hard-hitting 'traffic collisions' film unveiled

A softer world

Great gapingvoid ideas

New look total film

NO FERAL DUE TO TAX

the t'interweb is a wonderful place

2007-06-12T18:01:00.000Z

Mike Wieringo has a new website

Supergirl to join smallville, to little to late?

These guys are trying to make sure the minimum wage is kept in the tv industry

Missed it the first time? Find out how to make an earth sandwich or what’s the ugliest myspace page

Watch this

Links to better things

2007-06-11T18:18:00.000Z

page one of the very last planetary

wired article on free porn warning adult material links

classic gaping void

George Monbiot

This guy wrote Human Nature/Family of Blood worship him

The Game They Play

2006-07-18T13:27:00.000Z

Available on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkhqAVRuB4E

An Italian Fantasy Western.

Produced in 2005, I was mainly responsible for production management and script editing!

Written and Directed by Olaf Olgiatti.

Shot over two days, one day in a non-soundproofed studio using green screen and another on location. Using a faulty DV Camera.

All very Lost in La Mancha.

It was a big idea squeezed into a short film.

Whadya think?

A Comic Book Love Song

2006-06-28T11:38:00.000Z

I discovered it via Brad Meltzer and the band is The Metasciences

And I like it a lot.

http://www.kibblesmith.com/metasciences/pencils_down/02_four_color_love_story.mp3

Very busy today so can’t talk for longer, but I liked to know what you think, as I’m sure so would the band.

Be seeing you.

Teenage Girls Rob Man they Met on MySpace

2006-06-28T09:42:00.000Z

You can't trust anybody these days;

A Jacksonville man says he was duped and robbed by two girls after attempting to meet with a woman he met on the internet.
The victim says he chatted online with a woman, known on her MySpace.com profile as “Natalia”, for two weeks before deciding to meet with her. He says her profile showed sexy photos, and a blurb which said “just lookin’ for something fun”. That brief, friendly description was all he knew about her before they planned to meet.
"She sent me a message saying she thought she met me somewhere," says the victim.
They decided to meet at what she called her home at the Bentley Green Apartments.
“I went to [the apartment] and knocked on the door, and there was no answer. So I called her and said, ‘I'm here’ and there was no answer."
That is when two girls who were 14 and 15-years-old, approached him saying they knew Natalia, the girl he thought he'd be meeting. They also said they knew where he worked at what car he drove.
"This was not the girl that the picture was of on MySpace," the victim said.
Now sensing something was wrong, he was ready to take off, but was stopped by a shocking discovery.
"[One of the girls] took [a] gun out and put it to my head and told me to empty my pockets."
The girls didn't get much because the victim had forgotten his wallet. They let him go, unharmed, and he called police.
Police did a search of the area and found the two teens with another male suspect. They searched a purse and found two loaded handguns.
Myspace.com may have been developed for friends and music, but this victim had to find out the hard way that not everyone is logging on for the right reasons.
The so-called Natalia did tell the victim that she was 18, so he was shocked to learn he was actually talking to a 14-year-old. He says he has since removed personal information from his MySpace profile, like his salary and the kind of car that he drives.
Those teenagers are now charged with armed robbery and carrying a concealed firearm.

Why does my thumb hurt?

2006-06-26T08:55:00.000Z

Because games consoles are evil time sucking things.

I haven’t owned a console since the Sega Mega Drive, I got it by swapping with a friend my NES. Those were the days, up down left right, two buttons, it was a simpler, more innocent age.

Now you have 8 buttons, two joysticks and a port for bodily fluids. You have to dislocate your wrist just to control the thing.

When I first got the NES I stayed up all night playing Mario Bros, I was 13, and I din’t stop until my hand literally seized up.

After the mega drive I didn’t really play computer games for a long time. At Uni, I seemed to upset the crowd with what was deemed ‘button bashing’ i.e they had spent the better part of the week perfecting the super deluxe death move, and I had beaten them with a tried and tested find two buttons that work and just keep moving.

Well recently I discovered Pro Evo 5, it is the world cup after all.

And so I have in my bag a folder full of work and the best of intentions.

Just one game though, see what it’s like, ok two just so I can get the hang of it.

Best of three. And I won 5-0 against a guys whose been playing since well forever.

It’s now Monday morning, I’ve lost what feels like a cm of skin of my thumb, and I’ve still got a folder full of work.

There is a lesson.

Basically, I work best by playing England, in a 5-3-2 formation, on the counter attack.

Bournemouth Based Scriptwriters

2006-06-23T12:23:00.000Z

Talking of Tim Clague yesterday, if you are a scriptwriter living in the Bournemouth area of Sunny England then you might be interested in this: http://projectorfilms.blogspot.com/2006/06/film-makers-bbq.html

I can’t make it, but hopefully you can have a good time.

Being a Story Whore

2006-06-22T11:48:00.000Z

Through the Bournemouth Screen Academy I was lucky enough to get Tim Clague as a mentor. Tim is an all round great guy and hugely motivational. One of the areas of concern he had about me was balancing of time, and he’s right, I can spend a lot of time getting nothing done.

As well as running my own Limited Production Company producing promotional materials, I have a healthy love for the short film genre as we all being part of the ever increasing crown who want to work in film or TV.

Being a graduate of the Bournemouth Media school, I met a lot of very talented creative people and that’s part of the problem.

At least once a week I’ll decide that I must cut back and focus on key projects and do something crazy like earn a living. So ill go through the ideas, projects that have stalled, for whatever and ill put them away and know for sure that I’m focusing on key projects.

Guaranteed within 48 hours I’ll get a phone call saying ‘I’ve had this great idea’
And if I can smell even the slightest whiff of something in it, then I latch on to.

As Grange Hill said ‘Just say no’

More on these projects later.

Be seeing you.

Once more with feeling

2006-06-21T14:22:00.000Z

So lets consentrate on actually writing the blog and then worry about if we have anything to say,
rather then the other way round.

OnMeJack

2006-04-01T10:48:00.000Z

Hi,

so I have a blog.

I'll be using it for news, reviews and providing links to the wonderful online world.

As well as the obligatory ads for work produced.

Should you feel the need please drop me a line, hopefully I'll say something of interest at some stage.

We're going to be updating the template, in line with the new website so bare with us, we apologies for any inconvenience, your custom is important to us.