Feeling great I’m up at 6:30am and checking e-mails on my phone. I do my washing up from the night before and hit the computer. I reply to a few people and respond to Neil’s ideas positively as I really like them and send an e-mail to Jevan the www.pizzaman.eu web designer. There are a few more updates I need him to do and he’s also performing on the full viewing night. It reminds me to buy a bus ticket from London to Cardiff and send an e-mail to the editor depicting what exactly I want on the DVD if Pizzaman. I think things will have to be pretty basic unfortunately as I can’t afford to spend time on making it look great. At this point it has to be what it has to be. A bad philosophy but one that… There is no justification. I need Pizzaman to be over for my own sanity. I’m very proud of what we achieved with no money but I must consider budgeted production with some serious production values from now on.
After making my lunch to take to work I get myself to another train where I write the blog. The laptop is taking a battering. If anyone would like to sponsor me with a new macbook then please get in touch, I will use it all over the world and sing its praises for you. I write a lot and get to Wimbledon late for work. I have to work for an extra twenty mins at the end of my shift. In my breaks I get to read my book and nip to café Nero in my lunch to type up more blog. With an espresso in my stomach I write for the Olympics slightly unsure if any of it is going to be legible. I also think about creating original content for WalesOnline. I have an idea to interview the people who run the London Welsh centre as I know they love the publicity. It would drive my career, prove my Associate Producer factual TV skills and help me to understand a story’s construction. A life long learning.
Thursday evening comes along and I get home to do some yoga. My body judders afterwards in the shower half way between feeling good and feeling abused but ultimately feeling good. I cook for my girl and send a few e-mails from the lap top while uploading my diary/blog entry. I love writing. I love it more than life itself (I see the irony here, no life, no writing). I love the expression, I love the articulation and I love the freedom. No-one telling me it’s wrong or I should abide by these rules or these stipulations, I am truly a free man. It’s my argument against Factual TV. Too many cooks. No freedom. All you can really do that can be considered in any way artistic is point the camera in a certain way of framing or the cleverer way to display artistry is in how you organise what you do. I think the organising is a real art form and has multiple guises.
Friday sees me up early on the yoga mat before hitting the laptop again. I’m looking into taking control of the Chimp Mailer system. Teilo has been in charge of the newsletters through this system and I’ve stayed away. As nothing is being created for the mail out I am taking the reigns and working it out. It’s not as hard as I thought it was going to be but takes a lot longer than I ever thought it would. I try not to get distracted by Facebook messages asking what I think about the Short Film ‘On Road’. I realise the mailer is a bit like creating a web page which is something I really need to spend time learning. I’m fascinated by the nuances. In truth I’ve always been a little scared and never taken the opportunity to over come this techno-phobic tendency. I feel the fear and do it anyway. I learn a lot. I barely manage much before I’m on the train again writing the campaign material on my way to work.
My business book is coming to an end along with my service sector sanity but I manage to sell five memberships before I’m on my way to a meeting with Jim Gault from the MeetUp group. I have no idea what to expect and create an image of a young man bursting with ideas and enthusiasm. I’m shocked to realise it’s an old guy from Scotland who’s just retired. A pleasant fellow who tells me he’s been trying to make short films for the past five years while teaching English to foreigners in France and other parts of Europe. He talks so quietly that I have trouble hearing a word he’s saying. I find it so difficult that I have to put my ear fairly close to his mouth. It feels a little strange, not that they ever touch (please don’t go there). Our meeting is short and reminds me to make sure my sound levels are good when I film anything. He agrees to film me talking into the camera for a film review at the Westfield Shopping centre. I get home to start watching Sister Act with my girl and hit the sack soon afterwards realising the yoga is making me more tired than I first realised.
Saturday comes and I’m up again at 7am. I jump straight on the computer to check out the mailer. I begin building a definitive template. I link URLs and attach images, I paste explanations and pose questions for myself to work out, I think about layout and aesthetics. I jump twenty steps ahead and dream of an online business with an award winning web page I built myself. I call it a day to catch the 10:01am train to Hither Green as I’m meeting Dean, an old friend from Remedy Productions where we transcribed the footage for The Beginner’s Guide to Voodo with Preston from the Ordinary Boys/Big Brother fame. Dean has been working on this years big brother as an editor and has agreed to teach me about Final Cut Pro, a programme I really need to know more about if I am to succeed on my journey.
I get there and am greeted by the smiling Dean. We exchange our pleasantries and get right on to business. He runs me through the editing programme. A lot of it I remember from university and I surprise myself about the things I know, I’m getting back on the bike after a long sabbatical. I enjoy finding out and I think Dean is a good teacher. He’s thorough, attentive and lets me do it myself after he’s finished and I’ve written all my instructions down. I actually really enjoy the day. He even feeds me with info about the keyboard short cuts. We cover digitising, exporting, image capture and of course common or garden editing within the machine. He suggests breaks and compliments me on how much we’ve covered today. I’m actually impressed by his methods. Before he kindly drops me to Lewisham station he shows me some of the stuff he’s been working on. I like it and vow that I’ll work with him again. What a gentleman!
On the train back I call my baby and we hook up to see Wall Street 2 in Westfield. I’m quite impressed but really hate two things, the old man’s whistling and the scene where Charlie Sheen appears. I have a lovely evening on the whole and head home and to bed.
I’m up early realising I haven’t done yoga for a day but refrain and hit the computer to put the 15 Days Of Pizza campaign into the Chimp Mailer. I’m getting much faster than not being able to do anything but still it takes an age to get the first newsletter up to a workable speed. A lot has to do with the Mailer incompatibility with my old laptop and the certain ways in which the Mailer needs to be used. It takes me two hours to do one template. Despite the frustrations I continue and manage another just before lunch. My aim is three in a day although I notice the date and know I have to do more if I’m to succeed. I teach myself about finding pictures, linking multiple URLs and photo-layouts. I find people’s music, specific websites and interesting ways to tell my Behind The Scenes stories. I make each vibrant and interesting with the hope that they’ll make people want to click through to the episodes they’re promoting. If anything I need the first five to be really cool because I think it’s easy to not see the rest of the series by being a little disinterested in the first three or four episodes. I watched the whole thing the other day and think its really good but the first few don’t do the rest justice. In fact our fears of not having a strong enough first episode are fully realised. We even made it the last episode to focus on so we’d give it more attention. I think we gave it too much attention and killed it with too much love, it doesn’t grab you immediately.
So lunch comes and goes and I have no inclination to eat. I stare at the laptop getting more and more frustrated by the Mailer’s lack of speed. A few times it crashes to my horror but I reboot to find it automatically saved. I thank my lucky stars and continue working until the X-factor results at 8pm. I manage six complete newsletters. It took me a day and I feel unusually satisfied. Sitting at a screen all day usually means I feel drained and useless despite the amount I’ve done but this time I feel I’ve done myself justice and begin to realise how much fun it can be to build your own website. I’m certain this is something I’ll be doing in the future.
The night is brought to a close by watching Life Is Beautiful, La Vita Bella. I stifle a cry at the end of the incredible movie and hit the pillow once more to recoup my energy for the forthcoming week on the phones.
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