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Recently re-reading Robert Rodriguez‘s REBEL WITHOUT A CREW, the story of the making of EL MARIACHI and a filmmaking career, I came across this quote:

Low-budget movies put a wall in front of you and only creativity will allow you to figure out how to get around that wall. The less money and/or resources you have, the more you are forced to be creative.

And what is a movie anyway? A completely creative endeavour. Anything you can do to get away from the things that aren’t important, the better chance you have of being truly creative.

Robert Rodriguez, Rebel Without A Crew

Love him or hate him, we could all learn a little about creativity from Rodriguez.

Creativity isn’t about the money, the resources or the box office draw; it’s about telling the stories you want to tell in any way you can tell them, even if it’s not what you originally envisioned for them.

Exercise your creative muscles and get your project made, however you can. Finding your own way around that wall will harness the true power of your own creativity. And who knows, it may just unlock the doors to the studios.

Last summer I did a stint making short videos for THE PRODUCTION OFFICE LIVE. The show is presented and produced by my friend, author, filmmaker and blogger, Chris Jones. Its mix of interviews with genuinely valuable insight and lively studio chatter, saw it quickly become a favourite among indie filmmakers across the world1.

Chris and his producing partners have recently launched a crowdfunding campaign for the second season of the show to give them enough capital to run the show professionally. Take a look at their IndieGoGo page to find out more (and back them if you can).

The campaign itself has one key element that too many filmmakers2 miss: “perks” or “rewards” that backers genuinely want3 at minimal cost to the production.

Too often crowdfunders come up with lists of brilliant bonuses, but if you’re giving away a $40 T-shirt to people who back you to the tune of $50 it doesn’t take a genius to tell you’re not going to raise the amount you need to make your show. Some would argue even a $10 T-shirt on a $50 pledge is too much of a chunk to give away.

What Chris & Co have done is to come up with a crowdfunding model whereby they offer great value to contributors at little cost to themselves. That is the ultimate lesson in crowdfunding best practice not only because it gives the show the best fundraising model, but also because as a backer you know you’re money is going to help your favourite show get made, not to produce the rewards you’ll receive for putting your hard-earned in.

Well done to Chris, Judy, David and Gemma for creating a great campaign for a great show. I can’t wait for the new season4.

1. literally, with viewers in the US, Germany and Australia among other places [↩]
2. and crowdfunders of other art forms [↩]
3. such as a credit on the show, a visit to the studio, a VIP pass to the always-awesome wrap party [↩]
4. which will also, incidentally, be featuring the return of the LOWDOWN from yours truly [↩]

The alarm wakes me at 8am, which is the latest I’ve been up all week (I figure I deserve it). I get out of bed, shower and rouse K so we can make our 9.35 train to London.

We get in to Town and K heads off to Angel to Uni, where she’s meeting her study group to polish up their joint project while I head down to Waterloo to meet up with HC, a filmmaker friend of mine. It’s good to finally see her as we live a life of constant “we must meet up” messages and rarely manage to find time that both of us are free to actually do it.

We pick each other’s brains about various work-related thing, as well as chatting about new projects we have on and our hopes and plans for 2011. The hour-and-change we spend in a lovely little South Bank café1 passes way too quickly before I’m back on a tube and headed North to Angel.

I meet K to accompany her to a meeting with her Uni that she’s organised to try to sort out arrangements for her placement this term, which goes very positively and we’re in and out inside half-an-hour.

K smuggles me in to the uni library using one of her study-mates passes and I stick my head into their room to say hello to the group and thank Sc for her card. They carry on working and I sit in the main library study area and battle (unsuccessfully) with the WiFi before giving up and settle into preparing a business plan for the new project I’m working on with CR that doesn’t require ‘net accesses.

While I’m working I get an email from a Twitter contact who was involved in Danny Lacey’s LOVE LIKE HERS offering me a Line/Co-Producer role on her new short. As it’s on my Blackberry, I can’t read the script, but I file it away to come back to later once I’ve got chance to access the ‘net and read it.

I also get an email from THE PRODUCTION OFFICE commissioning me for 12 new eps of THE LOWDOWN for them this year, which is a really nice boost. I’ve had great feedback in the past on the videos I’ve done for the show and it’s always flattering to be asked to come back and do it again. I accept without hesitation.

When K wraps up her study group, I pack up my things and we stroll back up to Angel and grab the tube to St Pancras, where we’ve just missed a train home. There’s one every half-hour, though, so it’s not the end of the world and we hit Foyles bookshop to kill some time, with me wading through the business section as a bit of market research.

We hop the train and ride some, K zoning out with tiredness while I read an eBook on her iPad for the first time. I’m impressed at how nice it is to read on it, as I’ve only used it for games and “useful” apps before. The workflow for reading PDFs is a little fiddly, but once they’re on there, it’s great.

We get home and swing by KFC for K and I whip myself up some chicken mayo sandwiches from the leftovers in the fridge2. We watch some SIMPSONS while we eat, then head up to the movie room and the PS3 to stream the first ep of FAMOUS AND FEARLESS that we missed on Monday, which we jump through the key moments of before coming back down to tonight’s Sky+’d final. It’s such an odd show – potential to be very, very good, but the live studio format necessitates quite a lot of padding. That said, if it weren’t live it wouldn’t have the same edge to it, so it’s a bit of a conundrum for the producers. It’s great to see Chris Evans doing good TV again, though – I miss TFI FRIDAY.

It’s late once F&F is over (well done Charley Boorman) and we take ourselves off to bed where I read for all of 10 minutes before conking out.

1. Earl Grey for her, green tea for me, both served in little bowls [↩]
2. K’s not a sandwiches kinda girl [↩]

A friend of mine Tweeted this yesterday afternoon, managing to precisely pinpoint the best way of getting what you want from 2011:

“Ink your goals rather than just thinking them”

Tamsyn O’Connor1

Rather than making resolutions that we won’t stick to, it’s much better at this time of year to set yourself goals and targets for the 12-24 months ahead and review your old ones.

The best way to ensure that you finish up 2011 and head into 2012 the way you want to is to take ten minutes today to sit and write down exactly what you want to get done this year.

You can scribble it on a piece of paper and stick it to the fridge; pop it on a post-it on the side of your computer screen; even make it public by posting it on your blog or Facebook profile.

Whatever way you do, the simple fact of having your goals and dreams for the year written down in a concrete form will force you to focus on what you want to achieve, keeping you eye on the proverbial prize.

The more we focus on what we want–rather than what we don’t want–the more success and happiness will come our way.

1. script writer, associate producer and Love Like Hers‘ spectacular 1st AD [↩]

As we enjoy/endure the lull between the Christmas break and the New Year’s celebration it can be hard to be as productive as we may like to be.

I find this week is much better used for creating a Plan of Action for when the New Year kicks off in earnest next week.

Having a plan for what you want to do and achieve in 2011 will not only help you to hit the ground running, but also take advantage of the energy and enthusiasm of a fresh start to keep the momentum up.

The most important thing you can put into your plan for the first couple of weeks of January is something that pushes you far outside your comfort zone. The sooner you go beyond your own boundaries, the sooner great things will start to happen. And the earlier in the year you do it, the more likely you are to use the jump in confidence to help you progress through the next 12 months.

Just imagine what it’s going to feel like looking back at this period in a year’s time and feeling flushed with pride that all the great things that have happened to you came from one simple action. A Plan of Action.

The week leading up to Christmas is always a weird one. Whether you’re at home, at work or both1 no one is really interested in doing anything and it’s never a hugely productive period2.

So how do we make the best of the week before Christmas and the odd limbo of the following week before the New Year kicks off?

Rather than sitting at your desk procrastinating and clock-watching while dreaming of warmer, sunnier climbs, why not make use of the semi-downtime to make some progress on those little pet projects that have been kicking about in your head for the last three, six or even twelve months?

You know the ones I’m talking about: the projects that you love but just haven’t found time to focus on. The projects that you want to make a reality, but you’re not ready to share them with others just yet. The projects that really excite you, that fill you with drive and passion.

Too many great projects get lost in the maelstrom of everyday life and work, so use this little two-to-three week window to really reignite that passion.

If nothing else, just by working on a project that energises you for a few weeks, it’ll help launch you into the New Year with renewed vigour for achieving your goals and making the most of your life, your career and your talent.

1. working from home, that is [↩]
2. unless your in Panto, in which case you’re rushed off your feat right about now [↩]

When does promotion become procrastination?

When social media goes bad (cue over-the-top American-TV intro music and flashy title sequence)1.

We’ve all been there: listless, unmotivated, snowed under with things we just don’t want to be doing with our day.

We just sneak a peek at what the Twitterverse is up to before we get down to it. We just see who’s thrown a sheep2 at us before we put our noses back to that grindstone.

Before we know it, we’ve lost hours of our day to commenting, reTweeting and generally putting ourselves about, always telling ourselves that it’s all in the name of networking and promoting ourselves, our product or our project. Which it very often is.

But it’s vital not only to your productivity, but to the success of said product or project, that we pay attention to those warning signs of procrastination. There’s no point in marketing yourself if you’re never going to have anything to deliver.

So shut that browser down, Command-Q Tweetdeck and set yourself to task. You’ll be glad you did when you jump back on later to Tweet “I finished it!”

1. Apologies to my American readers, I couldn’t use British TV as all our shows are pretty bland and boring when held up against the US. Two ends of the same spectrum, I guess. [↩]
2. Does anyone actually throw sheep any more? [↩]

I’m writing this at an almost respectable 7am, but considering I’ve been awake all night it doesn’t feel like the start of a new day.

Why have I been awake all night, I hear you ask? Or is that the voices in my head? They crept in about two hours ago and are pretty insistent on staying there. But I digress.

I have a weird and wonderful brain that kicks into gear at random moments, which is fantastic for creative and lateral thinking, but not so good when it steps up to overdrive just as I settle down for some well-earned kip.

And so it was last night, when my head hit the pillow mere minutes after hitting on the most amazing concept for a HUGE new project. The real beauty of it, though, is that it’s not a ‘new’ project. Rather, in a flash of awkwardly-timed, knock-out inspiration I found a way of tying together no fewer than FOUR existing projects into one symbiotic whole.

For those of you familiar with transmedia storytelling, hold your groans. I haven’t just wedged a bundle of ideas together into one unconscionably complicated and sprawling hole. I have – you may be surprised to know – actually thought it through.

Some of the ideas were already concrete in my head, other were more shapeless and still others were small moments of “wouldn’t it be great if I could…”. But they all shared a common theme that I just hadn’t identified before, a theme which will – hopefully – over the coming few months, be explored through a wide range of stories and across a variety of different media; not least, I suspect, this blog.

This is going to be a HUGELY ambitious project, but one I passionately believe in. I’m going to need a lot of help and support along the way, but that’s what you, dear reader, are there for. Together we can not just explore, inform and entertain, but hopefully expand and engross as well.

Here’s to 2011 and a new world of excitement. Won’t you come and join me for the ride?

PS – regardless of project-related bloggage, there’s going to be a lot more content on the blog in the weeks and months to come, so stay tuned (or come back more often than you have been…)

At last! After three weeks of mad cutting, re-cutting and finishing, I’ve got through all three days of the London Screenwriters’ Festival Video blog. And I’m quite proud of all three, if I’m honest.

Here, for you delight and delectation, is the final day of the festival. You can also read about it on Chris Jones’ blog, too, and show your support on my Vimeo page, if you’re so inclined.