Archives: Writing

Ben Craig, a Scottish director who made his short film MODERN TIMES for a budget of tea and sandwiches, has been taking some heat on his Vimeo page for the definition of “no budget” given the very nice Sony EX3 he shot it on and the studio space he used for a flick that’s now gathering some major buzz from Hollywood agents and execs1.

The truth is that Craig shot the entire film using equipment and a studio borrowed from a photographer when it was free at the weekends. He then set about doing all the visual effects himself, learning the software as he went.

The bitterness of the commenters is hard to fathom2. If we as filmmakers want to make the projects we’re passionate about, we need first to focus on building a contacts book of creative collaborators – a network of mutually beneficial relationships.

By asking first “What can I do for them,” before “What can they do for me,” we can not only start relationships on a positive footing, but also potentially open doors to exciting opportunities that will never come the way of those filmmakers who spend their time bemoaning the fact that they don’t have the resources that people like Ben Craig or Gareth Edwards3 had.

Sometimes selflessness and generosity is the best way of being selfish and getting what you want. I guess that’s what they call Karma.

1. as per yesterday’s Hollywood Reporter blog piece here [↩]
2. although sadly all too common [↩]
3. the director of the similarly home-made (effects-wise) MONSTERS [↩]

My body decides that 6.30am is a good wake up time this morning and, as the room is freezing and the wind is rattling the door, any chance I have of convincing myself to go back to sleep is thrown out of the window, so I get up, close the window over lest the same fate should befall the lovely K1 and head downstairs.

I make myself a cup of tea with the penultimate tea-bag in the house2 and sit down to catch up on emails, news and blogs from the last two days since I’ve been out of the office for most of them. I promptly let my tea go cold and debate whether to walk to the shops but a) it looks freezing outside and b) I’m digging too far into the news blogs to leave my laptop.

By late-morning I’m all caught up on everything I’ve missed and have worked my way through two scripts that were in my To Read pile. I fire off an email of feedback to the writer/director of one of them, but promise myself a second read of the other, since it’s being pitched to me as a possible new producing project and I think it needs a more careful evaluation.3.

K eventually rouses herself and announces (shock of all shocks) that she actually had a good night’s sleep and feels rested and happy – not a common thing for K of a morning. She also informs me that we’re popping next door at 2 to give Wee C4 his delayed Christmas present that various events colluded to prevent us handing over pre-Christmas (or even pre-New Year).

Back from that we take a stroll down the road and pick up some tea and milk, then K hits the sofa to dig into some statistics homework while I clean up the kitchen, including mopping the floor from Thursday’s jumping cider incident (it’s been a bit sticky since).

That done, I head upstairs and have a chill out in the bath, followed by some relaxation, then make a few phone calls that I needed to catch up on, including chasing up a commission that came my way yesterday.

Phone calls finished, I try (and fail) to wrap my head around K’s statistics stuff to see if I can be of any help, but drawing a blank on that I instead fall back on my dinner-cooking talents and rustle up some griddled pork and accompaniments.

After dinner, K hits the sofa again and I head up to the office to check messages and update the blog. When K’s brain has exhausted itself and her mind is a whirl of statistical mess we play a quick game of Bananagrams before heading to the movie room and throwing in the original BBC STATE OF PLAY series, which K’s never seen. I realise I’ve forgotten just how much I love this show as we get through two hour-long eps back-to-back and could quite easily have stayed up and got through all 6 in one straight marathon, but I’m keen for K to rest up before Uni starts on Monday, so I drag us both to bed for sleep.

1. although that’s hardly likely as she sleeps like the dead once she’s nodded off [↩]
2. naturally leaving the other for K the tea monster [↩]
3. the first of the scripts is another project i’ve been producing that’s been slowly working through numerous drafts over the last few months [↩]
4. the neighbour’s 3-year-old [↩]

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 [↩]

The story goes that wherever he performed, Elvis insisted that his dressing room was placed 1000 yards from the stage.  As he walked those 1000 steps to get to his arena, he would slowly focus his mind and get into the head space he needed to perform to his best abilities.

Do you have your own 1000 steps? A routine or system that helps you get your head into gear?

For me, it’s making a hot drink1 and walking up the stairs to my home office. As soon as I close the office door and place the hot drink on the mat on my desk, my brain is in work mode and I’m focused on my To Do list for the day or the week.

Routines and systems are brilliant productivity aids, especially for freelancers working from home. They keep you focused on the task(s) in hand and keeping you from becoming distracted.

If you want to do more, achieve more and make the most of your day, find your own 1000 steps to performing your best.

1. green tea at the moment as I’m desperately trying to cut down on my caffeine intake [↩]

New Year started, as most do, at midnight. K & I were down at the Black Bottom Club in Northampton for the second year running. This year was a little different, with a rocking indie band as opposed to the more chilled jazz band of last year. Different, but not worse.

After seeing in 2011 we eventually rolled back home after a detour to drop S&G off at theirs around 2.30am. I drove, which meant sobriety for me, but K was not so hampered by the restrictions of driving laws and just about managed the stairs to bed before crashing out.

Being in bed after 3am, I was pretty disappointed that my body decided to wake me at 10am. Granted, 10am is a pretty good lie in for me, but I felt like I could do with at least a couple more hours.

I get up, grab some brekkie and make some tea and sack out on the movie room sofa to explore the 007 game K picked up for me this week to go with the free PS3 she got on her new phone contract just before Christmas. I get one stage in (the pre-credit sequence) before her ladyship awakes and comes to join me.

I shut the PS3 off and come downstairs, making us both tea. We opt for a movie and flick through the Sky planner, eventually settling on SAVE THE TIGER, a Jack Lemmon flick from the 70’s that neither of us have seen or heard of. Turns out to be pretty good, but halfway through K’s not liking it and heads off to catch some more Zzz’s. I finish the flick while updating the blog and being sure to pimp it on Twitter before shutting down to head up for some kip myself.

I realise as I’m getting upstairs that I’m not actually tired enough to sleep, so I wonder what to do with myself. I to-and-fro up and down the stairs, make some coffee and a cuppa for the not-sleeping-either K and leave her to try out her new Mario 25th Anniversary edition game on the Wii.  I head upstairs to the movie room and throw on WAR OF THE WORLDS as background while I do some stuff online.

No sooner is it on, however, than I change my mind and decide it’s about time I sort the DVD collection out. It’s been randomly thrown on shelves since we moved in August and it drives me nuts having to hunt out the film I want to watch when I used to be able to grab it from my stack without a bother in the flat.

I empty the shelves and discover I’ve got enough DVDs to entirely cover the floor and I set about constructing a heavily-geeked up system of storage, based on genre, director and other random categories.

Around 4,30 I finish up the sort, although still with minor adjustments to be made, and jump into the shower before we head over to my ‘rents for a New Year’s dinner of roast lamb with all the trimmings. Awesome meal down, we chill with the ‘rents and play some Bananagrams1 before heading back to ours and getting in just after 9.

K retreats to bed, nursing a delayed hangover and over-eating-itis2, while I jump on the corner sofa downstairs, legs up, old episodes of ED from Sky+ playing the background while I download the NYE pics and write this, the very first ‘new’ post on the combined archive blog.

I note my paunch staring at me as a look down on the laptop screen and realise just how important my fitness goals for this year are. The belly will be banished.

Despite aiming for a 2 ep max, I end up on the sofa until nearly 1.30am at which point, 5 eps in to a mini-ED-a-thon, I close up shop and head upstairs.

1. an awesome game that both Mum and I bought for presents this Christmas, based on our deep love of playing a friend’s version [↩]
2. a sad curse of my Mum’s extraordinary cooking [↩]

Some of you may know1 that before olilewington.co.uk came SmileThroughIt.com, a blog that charted the progress of my life in the uncertain times leading up to my life-saving double-lung transplant in 2007.

The old blog was hosted over at WordPress.com (http://smilethroughit.wordpress.com) and served as a way for me to keep a little perspective on the things going on in my life.

Long story short, I’ve migrated all of the old SmileThroughIt archives onto the olilewington.co.uk servers so I have an easy-access archive of my entire blogging life. You can check out the old blog’s archives2 right here.

I’ve just re-read my very first post on the blog and it makes for insightful–if scary–reading. Baring in mind the fact that we all know it ended happily, it’s odd to look back and see just what kind of head space I was in at the time.

Browse and enjoy at your leisure3. The updates on my professional and creative life will continue on this site, business as usual, so you can readily ignore everything on the other page if you so wish.

Happy New Year, one and all – here’s to a happy, healthy and prosperous 2011.

1. and some of you may not [↩]
2. and the latest daily updates, starting this week [↩]
3. or don’t – it’s more an archive for me anyway! [↩]

Today marks the first day of my return to day-to-day life blogging. Back when I was ill and immediately after my transplant, I spent about 2 years documenting almost every day of my life1 . Back then the intention was to give me something to focus on beyond the long wait for transplant, or for what would happen if I didn’t get one in time.

I’ve lapsed off the personal blogging over the last 12 months, but have decided to return to it as I’ve slowly felt myself losing that little bit of perspective that the blog gave me on my life and how things were going.

I also hope by writing a daily journal on my activities, it may spur me to be even more dedicated to getting work done and achieving my goals, rather than losing myself in Facebook and Twitter when I’m supposed to be being productive.

Here’s a new year, a new chapter and a hugely successful 2011.

PS – I don’t actually expect anyone to find this site either interesting or of use, but I felt I needed to write a little intro post on here to explain why this blog’s so dull. The real action is over at olilewington.co.uk

1. The archive for this blog, as you will see, has been migrated onto this one, so the entirety of my blogging life is collected in one place [↩]

As we all settle back for a well-deserved 48-hour respite1 from slaving at our respective grindstones, it’s as well to remember to keep your writerly radar pinging throughout the festive season.

What with the trapping over-excited children, confused elderly relatives, stressed-out parents and chefs on the rampage in one confined space, mixed up with a drop of misunderstanding and too much booze, Christmas and New Year can be a real goldmine for writers.

That’s not to say everyone wants to see the inner workings of one another’s families, but it’s the interaction, the banter, the (often forced) joviality that combine to offer up little moments of genius that, if you’re paying enough attention2, you’ll find cropping up in your work in the year(s) to come.

So raise a glass, kick back, chill out and enjoy the goodwill of all mankind, but remember to keep your writer wits about you – you never know when you might strike paydirt.

Merry Christmas to one and all and a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year!

1. or more, if you’re lucky enough to enjoy time off until 2011 [↩]
2. Even if that attention is subconscious, thanks to writer’s osmosis [↩]

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 [↩]

I caught Gareth Edwards’ new, much-lauded flick, MONSTERS, at the cinema yesterday and was mighty impressed.

It’s by no means perfect – some of the characterisation is a little rushed, while some of the more minor characters are almost ignored as “featured extras” and a couple of the action sequences don’t pack the punch they maybe could have, fear-wise – but I really, really enjoyed it.

The best thing I can say about it is that I loved it for the movie it is, irrespective of the budget and visual effects work that went into it.

A great film is a great film and I’m always slightly disappointed when I come out of a flick and think, “That was great, for the budget they had.”

I’m really hoping Gareth Edwards is snapped up to write a “Rebel Without A Crew”-style book about the making of this film; I think it would be hugely inspiring to all those filmmakers with the talents to do what he’s done but without the balls to go out and do it.

It makes me want to shut myself away for six months and learn the ins and outs of AfterEffects so I can do the same thing.