Archives: Challenges

A Twitter buddy of mine this week posed the following question:

Would you use [product placement] to fund / part finance a film?

Followed closely by this Tweet, which makes no secret which way he’s leaning.

All this is, of course, highly appropriate just now with the UK about to start allowing product placement for the first time. ((The BBC have got a great article on it and its perceived impact here))

I do think product placement has a place in helping to fund the TV and film industry over here. Apart from anything else, who are we to turn down sources of funding to get things made – not just for us but, potentially, more and better off-the-wall, risky TV drama and other formats it may help fund?

The issue for me always comes with the compromise that a filmmaker or an artist has to accept in order to allow for product placement.  If you have to change elements of your script to accommodate a product you need to take a long, hard look at the reasons behind it and not fool yourself that it’s a “creative” decision.

That’s not to say all changes in the name of placement are a bad thing ((you wouldn’t see a huge amount of harm in switching a character’s car from a Ford to a Seat, for instance, as long as it says the same things about his life, social status etc)) but I would always shy away from placement-based rewrites that affected anything more than a passing glance or irrelevant detail.

The key decider for any product placement-based changes has to be this: if someone were offering you the same sum of money without a product to push, would you make the changes they’re suggesting just because they’re giving you the cash?

If the answer’s “yes” then either a) they’re surprisingly good story analysts and you struck luck or b) you’re a sell-out and I wish you a long and happy career.  Just don’t fool yourself into thinking you’re making great art as you pander to the the money-men’s whims.

It’s entirely possible to incorporate product placement in a creative and ethical way, but we should all beware of those people who will become slaves to the product, rather than serving their story.

Sky Atlantic, the brilliant new HBO-inspired channel from Sky, is currently running a number of great, classic shows from the beginning. Last night, I caught up with the Pilot and first few eps of ER, a show I used to adore but only started watching from around Season 4 or 5.

The pilot isn’t anything all that special: there isn’t much in the way of plot; it’s just a random collection of traumatic events and an introduction to the characters. I’ve seen many better pilots in my time.

What’s easy to forget some 17 years on from that first airing is just how revolutionary and innovative E.R. was at the time.

Never before had a medical drama been shot in such a kinetic, absorbing style. Never before had a show allowed its characters to speak “normally”, without qualifying what “O2 sats” or “insanelylongmedicallynamedthingy” was. Never before had a show stretched its character’s personal arcs across more than a few episodes before nicely tying them up.

Now TV can’t get enough of the verité style; the best shows all worry more about the characters than the events; our favourite shows stretch character arcs and storylines across entire seasons ((or even longer in some cases (LOST) )), without wrapping things up nicely at the end of each episode.

It’s easy when we look back at our old favourites ((be they TV shows, films or any other artistic or creative endeavour)) to see them in the same light we see things now. But if we’re going to continue to innovate, it’s vital that we don’t forget what innovation looked like in the first place.

Remembering how someone set about doing things differently can inspire us new creative heights, allowing us to see how people looked at things from new angles and created something fresh, exciting and–ultimately–hugely influential.

What innovations did your favourite films and shows introduce? How did they change the landscape and inspire other creators to go further?

Everyone has bad days. It’s a natural thing; life can’t always be sunshine and popping candy.  The trick is not to let bad days absorb you and pull you down into a spiral of bad mood, bad attitude and – as a result – more bad days.

One of the purposes of my original blog (archived here) was to constantly remind myself of the good things in life; the simple things that happen every day to make you smile. ((hence the title: Smile Through It))

Getting through bad days is all about finding that kernel of goodness, that moment of levity, that scrap of positivity and grabbing hold of it with both hands. It’s not always going to make your bad day go swimmingly, but by looking for the good in every bad day, though, you’re opening yourself up to the positive experiences, rather than closing yourself off: that road leads to wallowing.

Don’t sweat the bad days, just try to find the good that you can carry forward into tomorrow so you don’t let the day that’s gone before rule the next day, or the next, or the next.

This week I discovered the many pros and the major curse of staying regular.

Since re-branding my blog ((and myself, to a certain extent)), I’ve been blogging to a steady schedule of Monday, Wednesday, Friday for new, authored content, with Pick of the Web linked-content on a Tuesday and Thursday.

Last week, I didn’t blog on Thursday and Friday as I was busy taking stock of things in my life. In those two days, my readership on the blog halved. Just three days when the blog was devoid of new content.

But worse than that, it’s stayed at a lower ebb and is only now (after 3 days back on the regular schedule) starting to pick back up towards its previous numbers.

Blogging regularly is great in terms of building an audience; if people know when you’re posting, they know when to come looking and they know what to expect from your blog. But beware of committing yourself to a schedule of posts you can’t sustain.

Much better to follow a simple, one-post-a-week formula (such as that employed brilliantly by Clive Davies-Frayne on Film Utopia), than it is to attempt daily posts that you can’t keep up, or to release new blog content in a scattershot manner whenever you feel like or are able to write it.

Work out what you can realistically achieve, define your schedule and stick to it. Staying regular is the key to creating value for the people who read your blog as religiously as you write it.

Sometimes things run smoothly and beautifully and you feel like there’s a little monkey automatically greasing your wheels as you trundle along without having to think about it.

Sometimes you discover that the monkey’s been somewhat lackadaisical in its commitment to keeping the running smooth and things start to crunch and grind and slow you to a halt.

At times like these, it’s important to take a couple of days to pause and reflect on why things feel that way. While the answers may not always be simple, you’re always better to face them head-on than try to ignore them and plough on regardless.

Sooner or later, that monkey’s going to bite you in the butt. Pay attention, take regular stock and be honest with yourself and you’ll be able to get out of the way before it really sinks its teeth in.

For years the iconic sports brand have been telling us to ‘Just Do It‘. It works as a slogan because it’s short, it’s snappy and it’s easy to remember.

It also works because it’s true; the single best way to make anything happen is just to do it.

If you’re sitting around thinking of all the things you ought to be doing, you’ll never get anywhere. If there’s something to be done just get up and get on with it. The sooner you do, the sooner it’ll be done and you can get back to the other tasks on your To Do list ((or just chilling out)).

Even when it comes to big things, although you made need to break them down into smaller, more achievable chunks, you start down the road by simply taking that first step.

Yesterday, after much delay and dilly-dallying, I finally committed myself to attacking the 3 Peaks Challenge later this year. How? I contacted a journalist friend at my local paper and got them to run this piece on me to help me find a trainer.

Not only will I hopefully get some expert supervision and advice, but I’ve also announced the trip to the world in a way that will keep me honest, make me stick to my goals and motivate me to achieve what I’ve set out to do.

Expect more on the 3 Peaks and my journey towards it in the coming weeks. But, right now, what are you doing to “just do” today”?