August 4th, 2008
Despite concerns of dozing off with jet-lag gnawing at my heels, I went to see the new X-files movie with a positive and hopeful frame of mind.
The movie, just as with the first installment, has been criticized as being little more than a long TV episode. Really, I thought, what else can you expect from [...]
June 1st, 2008
Changing it up this week with a show from Waterstones bookstore, maidenhead, and an interview with the prop maker from the first three Indiana Jones movies, and the famous golden idol from Raiders of the Lost Ark (though she didn’t say much).
January 19th, 2008
UPDATE May 2008: The PodShow discount offers in this post are no longer available - buy from Amazon.
UPDATE March 2008: Amazon have reduced their price on the N810 to match the PodShow offer.
Yes, I want a Nokia N810 Internet Tablet. Having played with the one spare unit floating around the office over the past [...]
January 3rd, 2008
We can have their donuts, their missiles, and their fast-food fed wobble-bottoms, but we will never have their mailboxes.
The most disappointing aspect of this slice of Americana which will always be out of our reach in the UK, is the imagination - if not necessarily the required creative and practical skills to do a decent [...]
September 2nd, 2006
The take-up of new listeners to podcasting is, according to survey sources earlier this year, about to surge, yet the number of new independent podcasts appearing is on a definite lull right now.If you fancy putting together a podcast, here are specific areas where there is very little competition in the UK for niche audiences (in no particular order).SportFootball and F1 are covered, but where are Cricket, Rugby, Rallying, Tennis?… There’s a whole wealth of subjects here which are simply not covered by independent podcasts, and very little by commercial ones.Health & FitnessWe are apparently rapidly catching up with the US on the size of our butts, so fitness and health are areas we should have covered.FinanceThere have to be some money experts out there who want to reach out and give advice to the growing millions buried in growing debt.
February 23rd, 2006
Writing a screenplay without knowing where you have to end up is like popping over to see your Dad after he moved but didn’t tell you where he moved to.How can you possibly take your protagonist on a journey through the story if you don’t know where he/she needs to end up…. And without understanding where the story is to end up, it is virtually impossible to make a clear step to that ultimate goal each scene.I know you want to know the ending, but I’m not spitting it out here, other than to say all is back to normal…
February 17th, 2006
That’s the theme of the creepy goings-on in my little world of horror right now.After an epic writing session on Wednesday (which took so much out of me I couldn’t even blog about it until now - OK, so I forgot), the structure of the opening scenes, probably the first 30 mins or so, are established, the central characters and their conflicts are set up and all is steadily heading its way to death, destruction and severed limbs of all kinds.Now comes the tough bit…. The establishment and build to that crucial point of no return, the beginning of Act 2 (for three act aficionados out there), the Commitment (Act 4 of a Nine Act structure) or Crossing the Threshold (if you are into the 12 Steps of Mythic Story structure).If you are not into screenwriting then I suspect you’ve just grasped a molecule or two of the most important element of a screenplay (after characterisation, dialogue and plentiful coffee of course) and that’s structure.
