UPS sucks, this is a given. But I think I have figured out why everyone hates what I call 'the brown menace' - we are looking at the relationship all wrong.
See, we pay them for a service and therefore we assume that, like an employer paying an employee, certain elements are a given.
But no.
If UPS was the employee, us the employer, then here's how a day would go
1 - Punctuality. No idea when the employee will show up for work. Attempts to nail down an arrival time met with hostility
2 - Quality of work. Just because you paid to have the employee show up with something (see #1) doesn't mean that the item will be intact
3 - Accountability. If the employee does something wrong or doesn't come in, it has nothing to do with the employee. They don't have to provide a reason, or, if there is a reason you can bet that that specific employee had nothing to do with the problem.
Are UPS employees allowed to act to their company the same way their company acts to us?
BTW, someone has the domain name upssucks.com, but not the balls to use it!
Thursday 29 December 2005
Friday 23 December 2005
How long is long enough?
While in Vienna this week I have been working on MBLL (My Black Lesbian Life for those not in the know). The idea has gone through various stages. Originally I had envisioned it as a stage-play. Then a short. But now I am wondering about a feature.
In my experience that is always a bad idea, because you do it because you are in love with the characters, but perhaps the story isn't there.
I think it might be better to do a short that is packed to the brim than a feature that causes sleep.
Also, I have written the outline for the short and I like it. It is funny and odd and another one that a certain crazy american actor will be interested in (the same who is taking up With Sand Alone).
I love writing outlines because you don't have to get into the nitty gritty, but you get all the fun of seeing the story progress. A great outline will always (in my experienc) produce a great script.
I write this blog because I am afraid to just get off my ass and write the script!
In my experience that is always a bad idea, because you do it because you are in love with the characters, but perhaps the story isn't there.
I think it might be better to do a short that is packed to the brim than a feature that causes sleep.
Also, I have written the outline for the short and I like it. It is funny and odd and another one that a certain crazy american actor will be interested in (the same who is taking up With Sand Alone).
I love writing outlines because you don't have to get into the nitty gritty, but you get all the fun of seeing the story progress. A great outline will always (in my experienc) produce a great script.
I write this blog because I am afraid to just get off my ass and write the script!
Thursday 22 December 2005
Sites
Recently I've teamed up with my friend Anders to launch a series of sites aimed at people down here on the Costa del Sol. Take a look!
Our landing site:
CostaSites.com
For your next car:
CostaUsedCars.com
For all that junk you want to sell...or buy!
CostaBuyAndSell.com
And, when you are looking for a new home, or to move out of the one you have:
CostaRentalProperties.com
Take a look. If you live down here I think you'll find something you are looking for. I personally think it is about time that someone did a comprehensive, professional set of sites like these.
Our landing site:
CostaSites.com
For your next car:
CostaUsedCars.com
For all that junk you want to sell...or buy!
CostaBuyAndSell.com
And, when you are looking for a new home, or to move out of the one you have:
CostaRentalProperties.com
Take a look. If you live down here I think you'll find something you are looking for. I personally think it is about time that someone did a comprehensive, professional set of sites like these.
Tuesday 20 December 2005
Dulce Pontes
I am up in Vienna again - this time for Christmas, or Xmas as I prefer to call it - and I didn't bring that much music with me. But, I did bring 'O Premiero Canto' by Ducle Pontes . Dulce is from Portugal and theoretically sings Fado, which is a form of music 'native' to Portugal. But, this isn't like any Fado you hear in a bar in Lisbon.
The album - and it's the only album of hers I have - is nothing short of a miracle. It contains amazing vocals and beautiful sounds, transforming the music into something haunting.
When walking through the streets of old Vienna it turns a simple trundle home into a scene from a movie. I can say this has only really happened on such a level to me once before. That was back listening to King Crimson's Larks Tongues in Aspic while walking through Canatara Woods. Suddenly the woods were not the woods, they were a copse in another world.
She is award winning - and not your usual Grammy-type awards. She wins awards (like for this album) for "best reflect[ing] Portuguese culture and history". She's had tracks on film scores and has worked with the Italian master of film music, Ennio Morricone. They have appeared together several times at classical music festivals in Italy, where she won another of these incredible awards as:
"ìcultural operatorî, for reviving the works of JosÈ Afonso and Am·lia Rodrigues, for her sensitive and genuine interpretation of the best musical and poetic portuguese traditions, and for her collaborations with celebrated international composers. At the award ceremony Dulce was introduced as "inventor of the new fado""
And she is 3 years younger than me.
The album - and it's the only album of hers I have - is nothing short of a miracle. It contains amazing vocals and beautiful sounds, transforming the music into something haunting.
When walking through the streets of old Vienna it turns a simple trundle home into a scene from a movie. I can say this has only really happened on such a level to me once before. That was back listening to King Crimson's Larks Tongues in Aspic while walking through Canatara Woods. Suddenly the woods were not the woods, they were a copse in another world.
She is award winning - and not your usual Grammy-type awards. She wins awards (like for this album) for "best reflect[ing] Portuguese culture and history". She's had tracks on film scores and has worked with the Italian master of film music, Ennio Morricone. They have appeared together several times at classical music festivals in Italy, where she won another of these incredible awards as:
"ìcultural operatorî, for reviving the works of JosÈ Afonso and Am·lia Rodrigues, for her sensitive and genuine interpretation of the best musical and poetic portuguese traditions, and for her collaborations with celebrated international composers. At the award ceremony Dulce was introduced as "inventor of the new fado""
And she is 3 years younger than me.
Saturday 17 December 2005
Getting enthused
Last night I went out to a dinner party. It is the kind of thing respectable adults to as an excuse to drink a lot.
During the course of the evening, of course, talk turned to writing and film. I have learned that everybody loves film and would love to get involved in it in some way.
Whenever I talk about filmmaking, and especially writing, with people I find myself enthused and infused. Writing, telling stories, is the thing in my life that fills me with passion. And I love the process, the plotting out of a story, the hammering it into shape.
Certain writers, usually amateur ones, hate the idea that their story might change. Or be changed. They think that it falls from the sky, complete. That if one aspect is changed it will lose it's precious uniqueness.
First, no story is unique - and simultaneously ALL stories are unique. But they are not precious jewels. They have to be open for interpretation and manipulation to fit into the mould.
I want to produce commercial material. Forgive me, but I like films that people want to see. So to do this you have to understand structure and expectations. I have about 6 different structures that I will choose from. I find what one strikes me as resonating with the story and then I hammer the story into that structure. I find doing this liberating, not confining as some writers complain.
Perhaps it is my music background - music is all about structure. You learn early on the rules. Building upon those rules lets you create something unique (there's that word again) yet identifiable. I apply that to my writing as well.
As I get more feedback on my writing I am more and more convinced that my approach works, at least for me. Start with an idea, find the structure and let the two drive the development forward.
Anyway, its the morning after the night before and I am rambling.
During the course of the evening, of course, talk turned to writing and film. I have learned that everybody loves film and would love to get involved in it in some way.
Whenever I talk about filmmaking, and especially writing, with people I find myself enthused and infused. Writing, telling stories, is the thing in my life that fills me with passion. And I love the process, the plotting out of a story, the hammering it into shape.
Certain writers, usually amateur ones, hate the idea that their story might change. Or be changed. They think that it falls from the sky, complete. That if one aspect is changed it will lose it's precious uniqueness.
First, no story is unique - and simultaneously ALL stories are unique. But they are not precious jewels. They have to be open for interpretation and manipulation to fit into the mould.
I want to produce commercial material. Forgive me, but I like films that people want to see. So to do this you have to understand structure and expectations. I have about 6 different structures that I will choose from. I find what one strikes me as resonating with the story and then I hammer the story into that structure. I find doing this liberating, not confining as some writers complain.
Perhaps it is my music background - music is all about structure. You learn early on the rules. Building upon those rules lets you create something unique (there's that word again) yet identifiable. I apply that to my writing as well.
As I get more feedback on my writing I am more and more convinced that my approach works, at least for me. Start with an idea, find the structure and let the two drive the development forward.
Anyway, its the morning after the night before and I am rambling.
Thursday 8 December 2005
Pinter
I just finished watching English playwrite Harold Pinter's Nobel Laureate speech. Pinter was awarded the 2005 Nobel Prize for literature.
I wonder if Pinter's speech will get much time over there in America. Probably not. First of all, he's not american, and I know how you guys like to keep things local. Second, he's a playwrite. Third, the speech was highly critical of US foreign policy over the last 50 years.
Pinter, in addition to being one of the most influential playwrites of any country in the last 50 years, is also highly active politically. His website has many of his writings on current affairs. I find it significant that Pinter took this opportunity to voice his (and not only his) opinions on the evil wave of politcal tyranny that america has cast across the earth since the end of the second world war. In that time America has supported, either directly or indirectly, every military dictatorship in the world, even if it had to go in and topple them every now and again and put in a new one.
Pinter called for Bush (and Tony Blair) to be brought before the international court for the catalogue of crimes they have committed. These are not implications and conspiracy theories - these are facts.
Pinter wondered about the tide of opinion in America and its reaction to the constant stream of deception that comes out of the white house. Will Americans ever grow wise to it and demand more truth in their politicians?
I hope that you all get the chance to see this moving speech from one of the masters of the English language (much better than me). Hopefully the video of it will be up on the site soon.
Update:
A transcript of his speech is here
Some exerpts:
On Nicaragua:
"Six of the most distinguished Jesuits in the world were viciously murdered at the Central American University in San Salvador in 1989 by a battalion of the Alcatl regiment trained at Fort Benning, Georgia, USA. That extremely brave man Archbishop Romero was assassinated while saying mass. It is estimated that 75,000 people died. Why were they killed? They were killed because they believed a better life was possible and should be achieved. That belief immediately qualified them as communists. They died because they dared to question the status quo, the endless plateau of poverty, disease, degradation and oppression, which had been their birthright."
On Dictators:
"The United States supported and in many cases engendered every right wing military dictatorship in the world after the end of the Second World War. I refer to Indonesia, Greece, Uruguay, Brazil, Paraguay, Haiti, Turkey, the Philippines, Guatemala, El Salvador, and, of course, Chile. The horror the United States inflicted upon Chile in 1973 can never be purged and can never be forgiven.Hundreds of thousands of deaths took place throughout these countries. Did they take place? And are they in all cases attributable to US foreign policy? The answer is yes they did take place and they are attributable to American foreign policy."
On Justice:
"How many people do you have to kill before you qualify to be described as a mass murderer and a war criminal? One hundred thousand? More than enough, I would have thought. Therefore it is just that Bush and Blair be arraigned before the International Criminal Court of Justice."
Anyway, I urge you to read it. Knowledge of opposing views (or support of your own) is NEVER a bad thing.
I wonder if Pinter's speech will get much time over there in America. Probably not. First of all, he's not american, and I know how you guys like to keep things local. Second, he's a playwrite. Third, the speech was highly critical of US foreign policy over the last 50 years.
Pinter, in addition to being one of the most influential playwrites of any country in the last 50 years, is also highly active politically. His website has many of his writings on current affairs. I find it significant that Pinter took this opportunity to voice his (and not only his) opinions on the evil wave of politcal tyranny that america has cast across the earth since the end of the second world war. In that time America has supported, either directly or indirectly, every military dictatorship in the world, even if it had to go in and topple them every now and again and put in a new one.
Pinter called for Bush (and Tony Blair) to be brought before the international court for the catalogue of crimes they have committed. These are not implications and conspiracy theories - these are facts.
Pinter wondered about the tide of opinion in America and its reaction to the constant stream of deception that comes out of the white house. Will Americans ever grow wise to it and demand more truth in their politicians?
I hope that you all get the chance to see this moving speech from one of the masters of the English language (much better than me). Hopefully the video of it will be up on the site soon.
Update:
A transcript of his speech is here
Some exerpts:
On Nicaragua:
"Six of the most distinguished Jesuits in the world were viciously murdered at the Central American University in San Salvador in 1989 by a battalion of the Alcatl regiment trained at Fort Benning, Georgia, USA. That extremely brave man Archbishop Romero was assassinated while saying mass. It is estimated that 75,000 people died. Why were they killed? They were killed because they believed a better life was possible and should be achieved. That belief immediately qualified them as communists. They died because they dared to question the status quo, the endless plateau of poverty, disease, degradation and oppression, which had been their birthright."
On Dictators:
"The United States supported and in many cases engendered every right wing military dictatorship in the world after the end of the Second World War. I refer to Indonesia, Greece, Uruguay, Brazil, Paraguay, Haiti, Turkey, the Philippines, Guatemala, El Salvador, and, of course, Chile. The horror the United States inflicted upon Chile in 1973 can never be purged and can never be forgiven.Hundreds of thousands of deaths took place throughout these countries. Did they take place? And are they in all cases attributable to US foreign policy? The answer is yes they did take place and they are attributable to American foreign policy."
On Justice:
"How many people do you have to kill before you qualify to be described as a mass murderer and a war criminal? One hundred thousand? More than enough, I would have thought. Therefore it is just that Bush and Blair be arraigned before the International Criminal Court of Justice."
Anyway, I urge you to read it. Knowledge of opposing views (or support of your own) is NEVER a bad thing.
Monday 28 November 2005
Yippee
Well, the person I had so hoped would direct has expressed interest. The match is near perfect for many reasons. Now we can start finalising the script and then the fun (not!) task of doing breakdowns, budgets and scheduling.
Tuesday 22 November 2005
How?
How do people write in these things every day? I am doing to much to spend time writing a bloody blog!
This week is one of those horrible weeks where paying work takes over and the real stuff has to sit to one side.
I want to be getting on doing breakdowns of WSA so I can start scheduling. Also going around and taking some pics of the locations to make it a bit more real and get people excited.
But oh no...the almighty dollar/euro/pound has to come first. But that's ok I guess. It is important to keep one's goals in mind and work towards them. An airplane is offcourse 95% of the time - but it is constantly making little corrections. The same for me.
This week is one of those horrible weeks where paying work takes over and the real stuff has to sit to one side.
I want to be getting on doing breakdowns of WSA so I can start scheduling. Also going around and taking some pics of the locations to make it a bit more real and get people excited.
But oh no...the almighty dollar/euro/pound has to come first. But that's ok I guess. It is important to keep one's goals in mind and work towards them. An airplane is offcourse 95% of the time - but it is constantly making little corrections. The same for me.
Wednesday 16 November 2005
Beginning
This is my first feature production. I have the script out to a few people - one director who I would kill to get, one exec. producer (read: $) source.
If the exec doesn't come through, but the director does, then I have other $ sources.
It is a daunting task ahead. I am probably nuts to try this.
But I am.
If the exec doesn't come through, but the director does, then I have other $ sources.
It is a daunting task ahead. I am probably nuts to try this.
But I am.
Tuesday 15 November 2005
Vienna
I am in Vienna this week. I have been in Vienna before. Marcie and I came here to visit our good friend Steven Henson a few years back around Christmastime. Now it is almost Christmas again (!) and here I am.
This time I am here to help out a certain large bookmaker do their thing.
Vienna is a cool place (see my [url=http://www.philsmy.com/wiki/index.php?n=Travel.Vienna new=true]wiki[/url] on some of the things here). It has a good vibe - a lot like Amsterdam in a way (sadly without the coffeeshops). There is such history here. The collection of peoples (mostly from the Balkan area) over the last 200 years has made it unique. It is NOT like Germany!
It is a joy to get away from Spain. To have vegetarian restaurants! Culture! It's like another planet.
This time I am here to help out a certain large bookmaker do their thing.
Vienna is a cool place (see my [url=http://www.philsmy.com/wiki/index.php?n=Travel.Vienna new=true]wiki[/url] on some of the things here). It has a good vibe - a lot like Amsterdam in a way (sadly without the coffeeshops). There is such history here. The collection of peoples (mostly from the Balkan area) over the last 200 years has made it unique. It is NOT like Germany!
It is a joy to get away from Spain. To have vegetarian restaurants! Culture! It's like another planet.
Monday 14 November 2005
Starting out
This is the next short film. The script is done (of course with revisions once the actors are on board). I have cast 2 people, and need two more.
This one will be more of a production, with schedules and everything!
This one will be more of a production, with schedules and everything!
Completed
We finished 'PLL PKM' It was a learning experience for all of us involved - both behind the camera and in front.
The two Anna's had never acted before, and I think they did an amazing job.
I had never really shot something like this before. You have a million and one things to think about on a shoot, and when you don't have a Production or Script Supervisor it is bloody hard to remember them all!
Of course there are things I would do differently, but the goal of 'PLL PKM' was to finish it and learn along the way.
Thanks guys for all your help - especially Simon O.
The two Anna's had never acted before, and I think they did an amazing job.
I had never really shot something like this before. You have a million and one things to think about on a shoot, and when you don't have a Production or Script Supervisor it is bloody hard to remember them all!
Of course there are things I would do differently, but the goal of 'PLL PKM' was to finish it and learn along the way.
Thanks guys for all your help - especially Simon O.
Tuesday 8 November 2005
Not another one!
Yes, another attempt at a blog. Of course, the problem in the past has been my boredom with the process, not neccessarily the software or the system. But, I'm willing to give it another shot.
What do you think?
What do you think?
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