Feb 27 2012

Normality – A Movie (that you’ll never see)

A few years ago we decided to try making a movie. We’d cut our teeth, as it were, on a couple of sketch show episodes and naturally made the assumption that a full length film wouldn’t be too difficult a task. Yeah, right. We planned on using the cast from The Village, with the relatively new editions of Rich Hatton and Chris Sheppard.

Initially the process went really well – the script took shape nicely, Dan and myself did a couple of joint drafts of the script, then took a turn each, before combining forces again to finalise the story. We focused on a plot about the lead character having a date in a few days – he has some friends over for the night and the following day realises his lucky underpants were missing. Cue silly plot. A silly plot that had too much in it, which I suppose is to be expected for a writer’s first script. Along with the missing underpants, we threw in stories about Chris Normal being hounded by the press, a 24-style search for the underpants that ran far longer than it should have, and a hefty storyline where Normal appears in court (for budget reasons proceedings took place in Normal’s front room), charged with copyright infringement – little did we realise that eGay was a real website…

Once the script was finished, at least to the point where we We went to the effort of having a batch of scripts printed up, one for each member of the cast, and it clocked in at 140+ pages plus the filming schedule, character breakdowns and everything else we thought would be useful to the cast. I’ve still got a pristine copy of that script tucked away, along with a cast signed copy and my own, of course. Once again with the beauty of hindsight, if making the film now I’d have trimmed the script down to 85-90 pages max, streamlined the plot and removed anything that didn’t push the story forward.

This spate of good fortune pressed over to the first couple of filming days, the first batch in July 2005 (covering all of the “on television” segments, of which there were many), and also the first official day of filming in September, on which we recorded the intro sequence and most of the scenes that required the use of Dan’s house. We then moved over to the bulk of the shoot which was taking place at my house. Apart from the fact we were rushing to get things done, most of this earlier material works well enough, although again with hindsight we should have spent more time getting coverage – shooting from a number of angles to ensure enough footage for the edit. Who shoots a dialogue scene with the camera half a room away from the main character, and then doesn’t shoot any close ups? That’d be me…

We also needed a woman. These were frequently in short supply and, much like Cliff Thorburn, were an unknown quantity. Luckily at that time there was one working on our department at Tesco at that time who was willing to show up for an hour and record the very, very brief scene where Chris Normal, our titular character, meets his date and a series of unfortunate things happen to him, all in a row. Rachel’s brief appearance worked well and it seemed as though we would actually meet our very tight schedule.

Then it all went to pot. At the time we were also involved in producing a little fanzine called Satan’s Fishtank (we even made it into HMV stores for 12 months, go us), and rightfully Dan and Rich took some time in the filming block of September 2005 to make sure the fanzine was ready for release on time. As we still had a huge chunk of the film left to shoot, the schedule went to pot and we never recovered. Over the next 6-12 months we tried filming the rest of the script but it never really came together again. In hindsight replacing Chris with Si Emms, whilst seeming a good idea at the time, did not help us finish the film – we ended up reshooting half of the film replacing Chris with Si, and going back and watching the original footage Chris did a really good job given that we gave him a lot to do and a very short time in which to learn it. As a result the “workprint” of the film I put together is a disjointed mess. Si and Chris share the same character, due to a furniture change Chris Normal’s sofa changes from a soft red to brown leather and back again, and the continuity was all over the place.

That said, there are some really good sequences that I’ll be using should we ever get round to making it again, in particular the part where Chris Normal sneaks into his friend’s house and confronts them, thinking they’ve stolen his lucky underpants. He then experiences the shock of his life as the two friends stand up and reveal they’re wearing bras. Hopefully that’s quite funny on its own, visually it’s even better.

We then tried re-working the script from scratch, but at that point I think we were heading in different directions and nothing came of it – it was certainly more grandiose than the original but with a simplified plot. I’ve since gone back and written a sequel to the original script, mostly as a practice exercise, and started plotting a new version of the story. This one reigns in a lot of the more, shall we say, expensive ideas, and forms a funny story that doesn’t rely too heavily on deus ex machina. I’m about 20 pages into a new script which I’m surprisingly happy with, trimmed the cast down a bit and, I think at least, crafted a story that suits the characters and the world they inhabit without dwelling too much on things that don’t work. There have been a lot of lessons learnt since the first attempt, so the version of Normality that you do, eventually, get to see will be worth your time. Hopefully. Just don’t expect to see eGay or lucky underpants.

Feb 26 2012

60 Second Retro Gamer – Episode 48 – Virtua Tennis 2 (Dreamcast)

Our 48th episode of 60 Second Retro Gamer, and bringing us ever closer to our 100th episode overall, the review this week is Virtua Tennis 2 for the Dreamcast. Rich is on review duties again, there’s more coming from myself and Ant over the next few weeks, promise.

If you want to listen to the podcast we made for this episode, go to www.randomstoat.com and choose the Retro Gamer RSS feed from the top menu, or go through iTunes and find us on there.

At some point I am planning on writing full length blogs for each video we do, but as it’s gone midnight as I type this I’m just going to say: it’s a tennis game – if you like tennis you’ll like the game. I promise to write a bit more about the next video we release, which should be popping up on Wednesday (29th Feb).

I’ll also be popping back on here tomorrow (or should that be today?) to write my regular blog entry. Think I might move my weekly blogging to Sundays as I don’t seem to have the time on Friday night at the moment. I’ll give Sundays a go for now and see how we do, seems to have worked quite well the last couple of weeks!

Feb 22 2012

60 Second Retro Gamer – Episode 47 – Chu Chu Rocket

Thought I might start sharing our YouTube videos on here seeing as I tend to link to the audio projects. So here’s the first episode via WordPress, Chu Chu Rocket for the Dreamcast. There are, obviously, a lot more videos on our YouTube channel so please take a look if you like this one. You can also download a podcast about this game from www.randomstoat.com, which is essentially the three of us talking about the game. Enjoy!

 

Feb 17 2012

Taking it one movie a day at a time…

I’ve set myself a bit of a challenge this year, and I hadn’t even planned it (some might argue these are the best challenges to set yourself). Rather inadvertently, as of this moment I’ve managed to watch 47 films in 2012 alone – that’s just short of one movie per day, and does not as yet include any visits to the cinema.

The funny thing is, as stated above, I hadn’t planned to do this. I started keeping a list of films I’d seen recently around the end of January, just to track my viewing habits. On reading the list I realised I’d watched 27 films throughout January – it really didn’t feel that much. At that point I realised that, impending apocalypse aside, I could easily watch 366 films this year, with the majority being first time viewings. Of the 47 so far, I’ve only seen 5 of them before. I’m expecting the 1 a day figure to drop when I’m through with Lovefilm, only 70 movies remaining on my list, and then after that the drop will come. Possibly. I’ve always had an interest in films – my movie collection on DVD comes to about 600 films, with almost another 100 or so on Blu-Ray (okay, it’s 92). Scary stuff. I think my excuse for watching so many is that, through some kind of osmosis, I will gain a better understanding of plotting, pace and structure of films. I usually stick with science fiction, but my collection is varied enough to suit most moods. No rom-coms in sight, naturally, unless you count Shaun of the Dead (that’s a rom-zom-com anyway, so no it doesn’t), but there’s so many hours worth of entertainment in my collection you can forgive the fact I own Super Mario Bros and Dungeons & Dragons. Or is admission of owning those films still punishable by death? If so, I retract my statement.

I’d say that osmosis is working to an extent – whilst it’s an audio series, it took me 6 months to finalise the story for Trent Samuels series 2. Once I nailed that plot (to the wall. With a nail gun. Or No More Nails) the stories for 3-6 flowed naturally. Shot myself in the foot slightly given that I’m planning to re-write series 1, but still… Films from a variety of sources and directors are helping shape my own writing style, even if so far I’ve been writing sci-fi comedy that’s hugely derivative of other, more popular source material, it’s made something like Trent Samuels start off as a Flash Gordon homage and slowly morph into its own thing. Yes, each episode ends on a cliffhanger (ignore the specials) and follows the traditional serial structure, but otherwise it’s a beast unto itself, and I think a lot of writing ends up like that. Going back to movies, the Transformers trilogy (as it currently stands) receives slight disdain from me for focusing too much on the humans, or on the other side of the coin having something like X-Men First Class treat the characters, history and more importantly the story with some respect. Those two examples have taught me to respect my characters, respect the story and, most importantly, to not call something “Transformers” and find out that they’re really only the focus for 50% of the running time. I’ll keep watching films throughout 2012, both old favourites and first time viewings, and subsequently keep learning, absorbing information and honing the work I do. It’s the sensible way of doing things, I feel.

I’ll be keeping the blog updated with regards to my progress. It’s not a particularly interesting or noteworthy goal, but I’m going to persevere. On that note, my other targets for the year are…

  1. To read on average 2 books a month – this started well in January (four full length novels and a novella), but February hasn’t seen me complete a single novel as yet. Right now I’m halfway through Let The Right One In, so that just leaves me to choose which book I’ll move onto next. There’s that many to choose from it could take a while. I’ve had to lay off buying books on the Kindle for a while, just so I can catch up on what I have. I still check the Daily Deal every day though. Idiot.

  2. To write and release a ridiculous amount of material. I have this goal every year, but my time management and planning has improved immensely so I foresee no problems with this. He said. 60 Second Gamer is back on track and we have loads of material ready for this, so it leaves me plenty of time to go and work on other projects, compared to previous years.

  3. To listen to every show we released for Digital Village Radio. I have an archive of episodes that would take approximately 7 days of non-stop listening to get through. We recorded them way back in 2009 and it’s taken me this long to listen to them. I’ve got the three longest running shows left to work through – Ant’s, Rich’s and my own. Slightly narcissistic listening to my own radio shows, but it’s been that long since I made them I can’t remember anything beyond the first few episodes and the crushing disappointment of having no listeners at the very end of the project. Still, it was a good practice run for when we launched 60 Second Gamer and our many, many podcasts…

  4. Finally, for now, is my goal of listening to all of the music in my rather hefty library. I’ve been working through it for a few years and only reached the letter K. Bearing the lengthy gestation period of this goal, you might think finishing off half the alphabet in a year is impossible. Previously, yes, but I’ve finally got my iPod to scrobble everything I play to Last.fm. Before I was limited to listening to music solely on the PC/Mac in order to scrobble tracks as it was always a bit patchy on the move, but apart from a few flubs now and again it works perfectly and I can scrobble to my heart’s content.

Feb 12 2012

All it takes is a little bit of snow…

Sometimes it’s fun living in the UK – we obsess over the weather for most of the year, but it’s particularly bad when the snow is apparently on the way. The supermarkets receive a sudden surge in footfall as shoppers strip the shelves bare of bread, milk and other “essentials”, like a plague of disgruntled locusts. The last week has been no exception. Admittedly last Saturday we had a decent downfall of snow, and I had about three inches of the stuff to clear from the roof of my car before setting out, but by Sunday afternoon the roads were clear and people could go about their business as normal. But if you’d asked anyone about it beforehand you would think it was the end of the world, that the apocalypse was upon us and we all have to raid the supermarkets lest we get snowed in and, Grud forbid, have to leave the house and go somewhere ON FOOT.

I have no complaints about the snow itself, mostly because at the moment I don’t drive to work and it’s only a 10 minute walk away. Even if I did venture out in the car the roads are usually sufficiently quiet enough for me to get where I need to go without having to rush, enjoying the heated conditions within the vehicle whilst admiring the snowy landscape outside. The alternative to this is to go out for a walk in it – not only does the local area look much nicer when covered in a layer of snow, but more animals decide to make their presence known. In the massive snowfall we had at the end of 2010 we followed a fox through the streets as it hunted for food. Sadly I didn’t have a decent camera to take pictures of it, but it was something we don’t see every day. Indeed, I usually see foxes going about their business every few days lately – we even saw an urban fox roaming the streets of Loughton when on holiday last year (no snow that time). If you take the time to look then you’ll see an abundance of wildlife wherever you are.

Back to the snow – I have three complaints about snowy weather – first and foremost is the “panic buying” and insistence from residents that the council should do more to keep roads clear etc, when clearly the council can’t usually do anything until the snow falls before stepping in – gritting a road shortly before a heavy downpour of snow will not make a jot of difference. It’s also a waste of resources and council funds are usually stretched too thinly as it is (or at least, that’s what they tell us). These are also the same people that complain when the bins aren’t emptied at the allotted time because the snow has made the roads unusable – never mind that you can’t get your car/van/etc out of the drive, the bin collectors should make it in their MASSIVE vehicle with minimal damage to the local area. And then there will be complaints about that when the snow finally melts. Oy.

The second is people who drive in snow as if everything is normal and there is no risk of them ending up upside down in their car. I passed my driving test in 2008 and I decided to drive to the shops whilst the snow was still falling (yes, I was crazy). But like the good little new driver I was, I took my time, went slowly and used gear changes to slow down rather than the breaks. I made it to the shops with no problems and on my way home saw a car on its roof – clearly they had taken the corner too fast and had a bit of a tumble, to put it mildly. There didn’t appear to be any other visible damage, or even a driver for that matter – they were probably that embarrassed they’d made a prompt exit. Fast forward to 2010 and admittedly I did get stuck down a side road after misjudging how bad it actually was – it also didn’t help that it’s all on a slope which was cunningly hidden by the snow. After digging under each tyre and managing to turn the car around without smashing into anything, we escaped – lesson learnt. Now, up to last weekend where I drove to Tesco around 9.30pm. The roads were slushy and slippy, but thankfully there wasn’t much traffic. In one instance a driver approached from some distance away and sat on my bumper. The only response to that is to slow down more – if they want to go crazy and overtake me in the snow then they’re more than welcome. But they didn’t and they turned off on the next island, allowing me a free run all the way to Tesco, reaching 4th gear on the final approach down the hill. The shop itself was like a ghost town. I used to work there a few years previously, in particular after the shop closed on Sunday evenings, and even then it didn’t feel quite as desolate. Apart from a few hardy souls who had braved the journey (and it really wasn’t that much effort), it was just me and the staff who, because it’s retail, aren’t allowed to leave under any circumstances. The sky could be on fire and they would be expected to remain in store just in case a customer wandered in, on fire, and demanded to know where the extinguishers were kept.

My third and final complaint is the inevitable freeze that follows and the slippy footpaths that result. I admit not much can be done about that beyond issuing a handful of grit to every constituent to use as they see fit. In my case the problem is the walk to work, which is fine until I reach the hill below work and have to navigate the slope doing a bad impression of a mountaineer. Suffice to say I would be rubbish at endurance tests or any height/snow related climbing, in any capacity. Back to the snow of 2010, after the initial torrent we received I remember falling over on ice about five or six times, with no damage done. I remember walking along as normal and the next thing I know I’m looking at the sky. It was literally that fast – slip, straight on my back, no impact. There was even one time I saw a frail old lady making her way down the hill and I prepared myself to leap in and help her should she end up in trouble. Ironically I then slipped and landed flat on my back and it was her job to ask if I was okay. Thankfully I was able to laugh, get up and go on my way, albeit with a touch more care and forethought.

That was not the case the next time I slipped on ice. I had reached the top of the first hill, the area where I had slipped the most often the previous 5 or 6 times. I made it past the post box on the level area at the top of the first rise, and made my way as normal towards the underpass leading to the last section of hill. Then I slipped, and unfortunately realised I was falling to the ground. I tensed up, bracing for impact, and landed hard. This one hurt, a lot. I managed to get up and carry on into work, but I’d done some damage to my right thigh and it was painful sitting down in one position for more than a few minutes at a time for several months thereafter.

It was a minor obsession for people I spoke to on Thursday this week, when a further issuance of snow was forecast, to the point where the severe weather warning was dished out. For most it was from the perspective of being able to get home from work or even to reach a meeting venue etc. I took great delight in watching the ever-changing forecast from the Met Office, ranging from a heavy downpour forecast for 12 hours overnight, to light snow for 6 hours to the light dusting that we actually received. One plus point was that the icy footpath near work had a fresh layer of snow on it, thus making the journey up the hill a much easier affair. Assuming they have the forecast right for the beginning of next week, the ice may be on its way out. If not, I will once again run the gauntlet and potentially slip over. Ironically as the roads are clear now, it would probably be easier driving to work, but that would be the lazy approach and besides which I have some letters to post…

Jan 28 2012

January – Progress!

As this will probably be my last blog of the month, I thought it might be best to recap what’s gone on in the last 4 weeks and the progress that Random Stoat has made. Compared to previous years we’ve had a pretty good month, all told.

The main project throughout January has been a wedding video, the first paid work we’ve done and I think the edit has worked nicely. It’s certainly given me thought for doing that sort of thing again as the day itself was great and the editing work afterwards not too taxing. The main focus for this project was to capture as much as possible for the bride and groom – as the final product is intended for them and not a vanity project on my part then there was a lot of focus on ensuring the finished product was suitable for them. Thankfully that appears to be the case, and I’m now putting the final touches to the DVD for them. A demo reel of the day itself will be up on our YouTube channel shortly.

Around my time editing the wedding footage I’ve also been working on scripts for two audio series – first, drafting a Buck Rogers-esque audio series that I first wrote in 2009, and the usual work on Trent Samuels. Whilst I haven’t yet finished writing 6 series this month as planned, I do have solid stories for all of them and the recording process will probably take a day, maybe two, and then the editing process begins. The recording dates have slipped from February to April, which gives me time to work on more material. So while it’s likely my original planned release schedule will slip back a couple of months, once material starts going out it should be a reasonably continuous stream from that point on. I think they main thing is to not release too much too soon, but release enough to keep people interested. Based on that, we’ll probably be seeing a mixture of audio and video productions throughout the year, with 60 Second Gamer running almost continuously from February onwards.

On that note, we’ve also resumed work on 60 Second Gamer and have a load of material going up on the site soon. I discussed possible changes to the format and the style last week, and that will carry on being a work in progress until we hit mega viewing figures (a pipe dream, perhaps). I think the video and audio quality is at its best for now (until we can capture footage in HD), my next plan is to improve the quality of our cheap little sketches so they’re not the quick throwaway things they are now. They deserve more, in my opinion, so that’s why we haven’t rushed into filming more and just churning them out. I’d rather be happy with our output at this stage than what we did before. Yes, it’s always a work in progress, but at the same time we’ve been improving in every other area but the sketches remain a little basic. Once we have a gag in place for the game I’m doing basic storyboards and then we’ll record it. Doing it properly for a change! I’m also looking into buying a better microphone for the camera – I own a cheap imported shotgun mic which works well enough but doesn’t really work as a shotgun mic – it picks everything up rather than what you’re just pointing it towards.

And just to wrap things up nicely, we had another email request for more PS2 reviews in our retro podcast. When we were recording our last batch of podcasts yesterday we realised how many games we still have left to review – as far as retro is concerned we’ve barely touched anything from the Dreamcast, the N64 or anything before the PS1. I think our plan this year will be to cover a broader range of games and to get as many reviews up as possible (same as every year). So far 2012 hasn’t been too productive on the 60 Second Gamer front, but over the last 2 weeks we’ve prepared podcasts for 26 episodes. All that’s left now is to quickly film the sketches and then it’s onto the next batch – there’s a lot of more recent games on our list as I think I’ve previously mentioned, but based on the feedback we’ve had recently I think a nice selection of budget games for the older consoles will also go down well. My next task over the coming weeks is to try and find even more games released by Blast! Entertainment on the PS2, as they seem quite popular. A brief search on Amazon has pulled up a load of licensed tie-in games from Blast! that look hideous. I think a small Amazon order may be at hand… I found one by chance on my last trip to Birmingham city centre – Beverly Hills Cop on the PS2. Absolutely terrible game from what I’ve played, but the review should be fun, and it gives people a chance to see games they would never in their right mind consider playing. Random Stoat – taking the video gaming bullet so you don’t have to.

January has also been quite productive for me both in reading and watching movies (if you can call that productive). By my count I’ve got through four novels on the Kindle and I’ve lost count of the number of films I’ve got through since 01 January (maybe I should have kept a list…). I think I’m averaging about 5 movies a week at the moment – as it happens I’ve watched 2 while prepping and writing this blog (Saw 5 and Young Guns). In fact I should probably start blogging the reviews of said films after I’ve watched them. But then that would make sense wouldn’t it? Suffice to say at this rate my Lovefilm subscription will be done and dusted before I know it. My Netflix subscription will continue regardless as I’ve not had any complaints about it and there’s plenty on there, newish and old to keep me busy. That and the price, which is incredibly cheap.

So all things considered it’s been a good month – I’m hoping that progress is just as positive by this time in February.

Jan 21 2012

Getting the ball rolling

It’s been a while coming, but we finally got back to making 60 Second Gamer last night, hence no blog update. We have about 25 reviews waiting to be edited together, most of which are waiting for intro sketches. Sadly with the dark evenings throughout winter it makes life a bit more difficult when it comes to the daylight sketches, so we’ve not done much of that lately. The focus last night was to record a few podcasts (yes, we do them in bulk, sorry to spoil the illusion. If there was one), and to get another couple of voiceovers in the can.Tuesday next week we’ll be doing more of the same, then eventually it will be down to those awkward mini-sketches and then that’s 13 weeks of videos ready to go! The focus after that will be on some more recent games like Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, Uncharted 3, Modern Warfare 3 and Assassins Creed Revelations. 60 Second Gamer has never been about reviewing games within a couple of weeks of its release, so I’m tempted to actually create a tagline for our videos stating as much.

Our process in creating an episode is rather simple – there are four separate areas before we start the edit – there’s the intro sketch, where we head out into the real world, usually in an isolated area so we can film without interruption. If you’ve watched any of our videos you’ll know the sketches are cheap and cheerful, for want of a better term. The other elements are capturing the game footage (takes quite a while, that), then recording a podcast for said episode and both writing and recording our individual voiceovers for the review. All of these elements are then thrown together in the final edit, following a bit of work from myself to make it look as pretty as possible – again, if you watch the videos you’ll notice it’s always been a work in progress.Eventually I hope we reach a design and a format that works nicely and looks the part – it’s been a gradual process since we started in 2009 (has it really been that long?) but I’m certainly happy with the current batch of episodes. I’ve discussed previously how much easier it is to put a video together when using a Mac, so I won’t go into any great detail again. Suffice to say that as soon as I’ve worked my way around the editing suite and had a bit more practice, I’m sure we’ll have an even better template in the next 12 months that is less… I don’t know, static I suppose. I’m talking more about the “reviewed by” and title slides than anything else, they just feel a little too basic. But then you could argue that they’re basic by design and it isn’t necessary to enhance them any further, which is a valid point.

I’m aiming for about 50 episodes to go up on our channel this year, if we get any more out then that will be a bonus. This year will also mark our 100th episode of 60 Second Gamer, a milestone in itself. I’m also hoping we find time to go back and continue with The Movie Review – we’ve still got a load of ideas for that, even if the number of films I’ve seen at the cinema lately has taken a nosedive. I think that, given I watch a LOT of films anyway, it might be worth covering what we’ve seen recently rather than “this is what we went to the cinema to watch”.

My work on Trent Samuels continues – Series 2 is pretty much finished, bar a couple of drafting sessions, and I’ve now put together a brief episode breakdown for series 3. I did initially get stuck on the idea of repeating what I’d already done for series 1 but with a new villain replacing Tony The Absorber. Instead I’ve gone back to the source, in this case the original Flash Gordon serials starring Buster Crabbe, and see how they plotted the series out. Apart from defeating Ming, there was never really an ongoing story and in fairness the 1930s audience didn’t really need it – it was enough to be taken on a flight of fancy each week. I’ve decided to emulate The Goonies in terms of story – the two opposing sides after the same treasure. I had some constructive criticism about series 1 in that the first episode is a bit slow, which would also explain why there are less people who made it to the second episode. So, series 3 will get off to a pretty fast start and will continue thereon for the full 6 episode run. I doubt I’ll have all 6 series written by the end of this month as planned, but the recording dates have now slipped to April so I have a bit of time to finish them off, get the drafts done and probably start work on the next project. That’ll be interesting. If nothing else I have to be strict with myself and choose one or two different ideas for now, create the characters and the world and go from there. I’m certainly not short of ideas, just yesterday I had the opening prologue of a novel just appear fully formed in my head. Sadly I’ve no idea right now where that story will go, so it will be temporarily relegated to the ideas bench until I have a plot to accompany it. A nuclear explosion is involved and an alternate history is created. To say more would spoil it.

In other news, I continue to be impressed by Netflix, but then Lovefilm also seemed to have stepped up a gear with its offerings – all of Lost is now available to view, and despite a lot of mixed opinions about how it ended, I enjoyed it. Hopefully it will still be available once I’ve reduced my list of movies (right now I’m watching The Mechanic via Netflix, to do the same with Lovefilm would cost me £3.49), but if not the DVD or Blu-Ray set might be in my price range by then…

Jan 13 2012

Writing in January – Trent Samuels and other projects

For some people January is the month where they pull out the exercise gear or decide that these cold, dark winter months is exactly the right time to stalk the roads of Britain wearing shorts and an ever so slightly reflective jacket that an oncoming vehicle will only see mere seconds before running you into the dirt. I can tell it’s January just from going out for a five minute drive – four joggers all deciding to run down the main road rather than use the footpaths. Because, you know, that’s safer.

For those of us who have no real interest in exercise (healthy eating perhaps, but exercise? not so much), we find alternatives to this exercising frenzy and their insane desire to play chicken with oncoming vehicles. For me, my plan has been to finish writing Trent Samuels, all of it, draft another audio series that I first started writing in 2009, and start writing a novel/novella. Thus far, bearing in mind that I’ve also been editing a wedding video this month, I’ve almost finished writing Trent series 2 and put together a rather large wad of notes for Trent series 3-6. One thing I hadn’t anticipated was having to re-write series 1, as a lot of it falls a bit flat in retrospect. And don’t even get me started on the audio quality – hindsight is a funny thing, but then having much better audio equipment to hand is a bonus.

Anyway, writing Trent – I started writing series 2 in March/April 2011. I had a vague idea of the plot and some of the key points of the story, but I started writing and just wasn’t keen on the story I’d decided on. For whatever reason it just didn’t work, so I stopped working on it. Then the weeks and months went on and all of a sudden it was November. No new Trent was ready for release, so I threw together the Festive Special 2011 script in order to get some material out there. Meanwhile, I worked on the story for series 2 and tried to make it work. Then, whilst Ant wrote music for the 2011 Festive Special, the story clicked and I was able to link the special with series 2 and, as it happens, future series too. Thankfully I’ve already got the story in mind for the remaining four series, so I’m hoping I don’t cause too many problems for myself when it comes to actually writing them. That will be something I kick start in the next few days and we’ll see if I can hit my writing target for the month.

On that note I know for a fact that I’m not going to manage 25,000 words for a novel/novella this month, it’s just not going to happen. I’ve got the ideas now at least, but I need to take time to plan the stories and then throw myself into it. That will probably be the target for February. For now, again trying to find my writing voice, I’ve started writing some short stories (could turn into longer tales) about Trent Samuels and that universe. This is mostly because I know how the characters sound and how they would react in certain situations, so giving them an internal monologue isn’t that difficult. From previous experience I know coming up with a brand new story isn’t too difficult, but then populating that world with unique characters is the hard part. I had a similar problem with the other audio series I’m working on, but once I’d got their voices in my head (not as crazy as it sounds…) I found the scripts practically wrote themselves. That’s the big problem with the novels – I haven’t had chance to do enough work on creating the characters at this point. So, that’ll be February.

I started the month with the year planned out, at least from a writing perspective. Thus, January will be the month that I draw a line under the Trent Samuels scripts, as I’ve been working on them in one sense or another since 2005. There’s still going to be a lot of work on it throughout this year and probably next, but the difference is that will all be production and post production. I have no doubt that for every 10 project ideas I have only 1 will get made, but then I want to write as much as I can so we’ve got more to work with. I’m honestly not too bothered about fame and fortune (although that would be nice), but the main aim is to entertain and if what I’ve written does that then all the better. Thus, the more I write the more chance we have of pulling in visitors to the website and entertaining all of you lovely people out there.

Going back to the point about Trent Samuels prose, I think that could be a very entertaining side project once the main audio series is all said and done. There’s scope for plenty of adventures in that universe which could then potentially be adapted for audio later if I saw fit. The other entertaining notion is the audio books – what better opportunity for the cast to play their own roles again, and the universe of Trent and his merry band of adventurers lives on in another medium with a bit more room to breath. I’ve not really helped myself to be honest, the 15 minute running time for an episode of Trent is based solely on the Flash Gordon serials of old, where the pace was fast and the cliffhangers absurd. I’m not quite sure we’ve got quite the same pace as those old serials, mostly because our cast don’t deliver their lines with the same frenetic pace – I get the impression each script of 1930s Flash Gordon was actually 45 pages long, but they talked so fast it was all over and done with inside 15 minutes.

Anyway, I’ve babbled on enough for one night I think. I’ve got a wedding video to finish and 26 episodes of Trent Samuels to write within the next 14 days. Time’s a wasting!

Jan 09 2012

Netflix Launches in the UK

I’m a subscriber to Lovefilm, and I rather like the postal service they offer – I’m currently on the highest package, receiving 4 discs at a time and a mixture of TV, movies and video games. I’ve tried their streaming service before (only films included in the package I’m on, naturally – £2.49 or £3.49 to stream a single film? I’ll pass), and it’s not exactly been impressive to date. Recently yes, it’s shown signs of improvement, no doubt boosted by the impending launch of Netflix, but I’ve always found the selection lacking on occasion, and the quality has been enough to offend my HD-demanding eyes. This comes as quite an ironic statement given that my first experience of HD was at a friend’s house and I can honestly say I saw no difference between that and standard. Oh how silly and young I was (well, younger, it was in 2008 I think…) But, I digress.

So Lovefilm’s streaming service has not seen much use since I signed up for it, which is coming up to 18 months now. The video frequently drops out and the best connection I’ve ever had has been through my iPad (other tablets are available). But then as I’ve said, the price does cover physical discs in the post as well (and games, don’t forget the games), so that’s the main reason I signed up and that’s where the bulk of my use goes. The fact I have an option to stream is a bonus, and not the main reason for my sub. Saying that, the sooner I can reduce my list to less than 100 films I’ll be happier…

Now, Netflix. This is purely a streaming-only service, so no discs or games through the post (although if you do want to stream games, OnLive isn’t too bad – not my cup of tea, mind), so naturally the streaming experience has to be top notch if it’s going to take off. After using it for a few hours this evening I’m happy to report that first impressions are very good indeed. The price is possibly the best part of it – £5.99 a month for unlimited streaming, giving you access to everything on the site. That’s pretty impressive, and the launch line-up for me is enough to justify that – I think there’s about 30-odd films  I can watch immediately, as well as a selection of TV series that I’ve wanted to watch but never got round to. I’d like to see Buffy, Angel and probably Fringe show up eventually, assuming it’s not too difficult for them to acquire the licence, as they’re all shows I want to see but don’t really want to spend money on the box set. I’ve got enough DVDs to keep me entertained until Doomsday (not the Neil Marshall film).

Secondly, there’s the streaming quality. Now, I’ve tested Drive Angry, Deadspace: Aftermath and the first episode of Spider-Man The Animated Series from the 90s. As you’d expect for a cartoon developed in 4:3 aspect ratio, the quality is fine and adequate for general viewing. I wouldn’t expect it to be amazingly high quality unless the studio decided to remaster every episode, and I don’t think there’s any call for that to be honest. As for Drive Angry and Deadspace: Aftermath, both films started in slightly lower quality before building up to just shy of standard HD. I’m no audiophile so I can’t really comment on the sound quality, and to be honest my hearing is so bad anyway it’s a bonus if they’re speaking clearly. None of this high quality audio for me thanks, I’ll settle for the picture alone.I was planning on doing some writing tonight, besides this blog, so I’ll probably get settled for the evening in a bit and pop another film on while I finish Trent Samuels series 2.

Now, even better is I told my brother about the service as well and within a few minutes we were both streaming films simultaneously. Usually when the household does anything like that, the connection slows down completely and the film doesn’t so much as judder to a halt but staggers drunkenly towards the door, raises its glass in a salute to the room in general, then falls out of the window. Not so with Netflix – perfect streaming quality for both of us for both films. I didn’t see any artifacts, lag, dragging or drunken staggering towards the exit. It was pretty much like having the DVD or knock-off Blu-Ray in the player and watching it like that, which was fantastic and totally unexpected given my experiences with Lovefilm. You can also pause the film like a DVD/Blu-Ray and return to it later, and although I didn’t really look at it in any great detail it did appear to have chapter selections as well, but I could be wrong about that (happy for someone to correct me on this!).

Admittedly the PS3 app looks a little awkward, but I understand the Xbox version looks a little better. I can happily stream via the PS3, my computer or the iPad and know the quality is going to be there. The only thing I would hope they improve is the selection available to us – it’s quite limited at the moment but for launch day this is good enough for me. The fact I also have a free trial for the first 30 days sweetens the deal more. Cancelling looks a painless process, but to be honest I think I’ll stick with this for a while and see how it goes. Besides which, I’ve got all of Spider-Man, X-Men, The 4400, Robotech, Moschops, The Thick of it and The Imbetweeners to watch before I leave. Yes, I know I should have watched The Imbetweeners, but I’m doing it now, okay? Jeez…

It turns out that Lovefilm have recently dropped their prices to compete with Netflix – £4.99 as opposed to £5.99 for Netflix. I would say that Lovefilm need to invest more in their streaming quality and availability of popular films before they can compete from a streaming perspective, but from the perspective of physical media I think they have the market sewn up and I for one am not going to cancel my Lovefilm sub just because there’s a rival on the market. Instead, I’ll play them both off against each other until I have no use for one or the other, much like a gladiatorial battle that lacks blood and anything remotely offensive. That is the natural way of things…

 

Jan 06 2012

Writing, Inspiration and the Writers Yearbook

I’m running slightly behind the times, but I’ve recently received the 2012 edition of the Writer’s and Artist’s Yearbook. I’ve previously owned the 2009 and 2011 editions and with the best intentions had planned to use them after writing a fantastic novel, a batch of short stories and an array of short films and audio productions that would set me off on the rocky road to a full time writing career. Sadly that hasn’t happened yet – spending most of my time editing 60 Second Gamer on the PC put a stop to that – but now thanks to a streamlined editing process and a much shorter wait for video to render, I’ve got more spare time for writing and planning for the year ahead. Thus, purchasing the latest copy of the Writers & Artist’s Yearbook was necessary if I’m going to achieve my aims this year.

I’ve barely read this latest edition, but a brief glance at the e-book section at the back has already kick-started a few ideas that will help me get 2012 off to a positive start with respect to my writing and my videography plans. I had originally planned to write a novel in 2012. No easy task for someone who, despite wanting to be a writer for many years, hasn’t yet developed a writing habit. Except for this blog, which since November I have planned to use to get into a regular writing habit, for one, and to try and develop my writing voice for another. My key problem with novel writing is that I have the ideas but as soon as I start the first chapter I re-read what I’ve just done and it feels like it’s coming from somebody else’s pen, pencil or keyboard, take your pick. So I’ve never really got very far into any novel that I’ve ever wanted to write, and usually retreat to the relative safety of scriptwriting instead.

Not this year. Admittedly for now I’m giving up on the full length novel idea, as I’ve never done it before and need to try my hand at shorter writing lengths before building up to a proper story with explosions and everything, like a Michael Bay film with a half-decent story. So the plan instead is to write a few short stories  and take one of my novel ideas and turn it into a novella. For those not in the know, a novella is just a shorter novel, apparently it’s anything from 10,000 words up to 70,000 words (thanks, Wikipedia). My aim is a 40,000 word novella and I have just the story for it. But first I’ll write a load of short stories that won’t ever see public release to find my writing voice and to slowly build up to a single story over 40,000 or so words. I think that’s an easy target for the year, bearing in mind everything else I’ve got planned.

From this I can hopefully build up a few sales/downloads of my stories either through the Random Stoat website, Smashwords or Amazon’s Kindle page, perhaps continue writing novellas for the interim until I either build up the confidence to write a full length novel or, even better, write something of sufficient quality that would warrant submission to an agent or publishing house and turn my writing/videography thing into a career at long last. On top of that, I’m also planning on writing series 3-6 of Trent Samuels (yep, there will be 6 series in total), after which we’ll likely record them in bulk and release them sequentially over the next 2 years. Forward planning, indeed.

That’s not to say that I’m giving up on 60 Second Gamer, our movie podcasts or writing an excessive number of projects for my own amusement. Far from it – these projects will be ongoing and I have sincere hopes that by the end of 2012 the Random Stoat website will be overflowing with original content, 99% of which will be free and available to everyone. It might sound a bit far fetched at this stage, nay you might even say overambitious, but currently I’ve got ideas that will eventually result in a single Random Stoat podcast feed, consistently updated with a variety of podcasts and original audio series – more on this in a later blog by the way, they’re all still in the very early stages of development – then there’s my aforementioned novella which I’d like to see available on the Kindle by the end of the year, probably a couple of short films, and hopefully on top of all of this some business coming in for wedding videos, corporate videos and music videos as appropriate.

A lot of this is bolstered by the viewing figures for our YouTube channel (click here to take a look). In 2010 we had 4000 hits over the 12 months. Not too bad, but not particularly high. Then in 2011, no doubt influenced by the 60-odd extra videos we released, we had almost 14000 hits. That’s quite a sizeable leap in viewers, and I’m hoping we can carry on with this progress throughout 2012. We’ve hit a bit of a snag recently in that Ant now isn’t available during daylight hours, so that’s limited our sketch filming ability somewhat, but as the nights grow ever so slowly lighter we’ll be recording months of material in advance to get us through the winter months. Or, at least, that’s going to be the plan. It will be nice to see how the year treats Random Stoat, and it will also be interesting to see if we can make any more progress in popularity, podcast downloads and putting out high quality material.

Just to indicate how prepared I am this year – for the first time I’ve got the Trent Samuels Festive Special planned for a September recording date rather than the usual three weeks before Christmas routine that we’ve fallen into the last 2 years. This year, make no mistake, the Trent Samuels Festive Special will be released BEFORE Christmas. Shock horror. Suffice to say, the Writers Yearbook will be helping me through every step of the way, and I’m looking forward to the year ahead as a result.