I don't like to be the person that complains all the time, but, it seems that things are happening that have to be commented on in public.
Back in May FilmAmora.com purchased a half page ad in a new magazine called 'The Lifetimes Magazine'. They have an embarrassment of a website that I won't bother to link to.
The contract clearly states that we are buying space in the July issue. Well...it's almost September and no magazine has come out. So, a few weeks ago I started enquiring and the person in charge of the magazine - Donald Beskine, who also runs the Marbella Business Centre - referred me to David Townsend of something called Global Media, the company that would be handling the advertising now. I had several lengthy conversations with David where it was agreed that as the Lifetimes Magazine would not be happening any time soon that my money should be refunded.
So, I turned to Donald Beskine for the refund. On average I phone Donald five times a day. This week alone I have left 15 messages. He will not return my call. He did, however, send me this email:
"I have now had a chance to review the file for your advert.
I do not understand the basis for your demand for a refund.
There is no basis so far as I can see for a refund and we are confident we will be providing you a good advertising service." -- Donald Beskine
Well, Don, the basis is that THERE IS NO MAGAZINE! Donald refuses to give me a publish date. Or even let me know if the magazine is in pre-production.
Now, of course, getting ahold of David Townsend at Global Media also becomes impossible. A further 6 messages this week alone to him.
All in all I have phoned the two of them over 40 times. I am starting to feel like a stalker! But I have to ask - what kind of company doesn't return calls, from PAYING CUSTOMERS, after 40 attempts?
All I want is to know what's going on! Is there a magazine coming out? If so...when?
So - if you are thinking of doing business with Donald Beskine, Lifetimes Magazine, David Townsend or Global Media (all down here in the Marbella area) then I would offer you this cautionary tale.
I have emails, phone bills, contracts and so on to back all this up by the way.
So, dear reader, if you have some time and want some fun, why not phone Donald at 952 850 052 and see if you can get through! The first one who gets Donald to call me gets a free month's subscription at FilmAmora.com!
Thursday, 21 August 2008
Saturday, 16 August 2008
A tip I have about Dufflet Pastries
The chocolate and raspberry cake is the best cake I have ever tasted. When we used to live in TO we would buy them… since moving it is one of the things I miss the most!
When I was over a few years ago doing some consulting I bought three of them and had them delivered to the office… and they were STILL amazing!
See more progress on: Dufflet Pastries
Sunday, 10 August 2008
Amazing - my favourite place
I was reluctant to go at first – but I literally fell in love with the country in between getting off the plane and getting into the car to take me to Tokyo. I’ve been back at least once a year ever since.
Japan is the only place I’ve visited (and I’ve been around the world) that I enjoyed WHILE I was there – it wasn’t something I thought back on how great it was. It was great in the now! (Ok, other places have had flashes of that, but Japan was the only one from start to finish).
See more progress on: Visit Japan
Tuesday, 22 July 2008
CADE Marbella
The government of Andalusia have a division called CADE (Consejería de Innovación, Ciencia y Empresa). For NINE MONTHS I have been trying to solicit their assistance in ANY way with FilmAmora.
I thought maybe they would be interested in helping me find employees: No
Funding for innovation: No (we aren't innovative, despite the fact that no one in Spain is doing what we will do)
Funding for a creative pursuit: No - we aren't creative because despite the fact that we will be producing video content and streaming video content of other filmmakers in Spain.
Today was the last straw, really. A month ago I went up to Marbella to meet the particularly unhelpful and incompetent Eva Pizarro Leon. She asked me for a business plan, which I supplied (all 25 pages of it with SWOT analysis and everything! Aren't I clever lol).
It took her a month to read it. Until this morning. She read the first 2 pages, did a google search and told me that because we weren't in the first page of results (duh, we aren't accepting customers yet! How can we be high on Google!) and because there were 4 other companies doing this already she thought we were a waste of time and to go away.
Of course, all she did was look at Google. So, if she had looked at the companies she mentioned she would have seen that one was in Argentina (!), one simply had Alquiler (rental) in the keywords and pages but actually only sold, one was the website from our supplier listing titles that video shops could buy to rent out and the other was the one I listed in our business plan as competition (though they only have 8,000 titles to our 38,000 and cost 3 times the price).
Yes - she is that incompetent! But, she is the guardian of the money. It is seemingly in her best interest to not give it out!
She told us we were not innovative even in our technology... but she never asked for information about the inner workings of the website. She said 'it was just a website' and of course websites can't be innovative, can they Google, Amazon, Facebook?
Anyway, that's that I guess. We are doomed to failure now (according to her).
CADE, Consejería de Innovación, Ciencia y Empresa - you are simply an excuse to give incompetent bureaucrats who can't contribute to society a job.
I thought maybe they would be interested in helping me find employees: No
Funding for innovation: No (we aren't innovative, despite the fact that no one in Spain is doing what we will do)
Funding for a creative pursuit: No - we aren't creative because despite the fact that we will be producing video content and streaming video content of other filmmakers in Spain.
Today was the last straw, really. A month ago I went up to Marbella to meet the particularly unhelpful and incompetent Eva Pizarro Leon. She asked me for a business plan, which I supplied (all 25 pages of it with SWOT analysis and everything! Aren't I clever lol).
It took her a month to read it. Until this morning. She read the first 2 pages, did a google search and told me that because we weren't in the first page of results (duh, we aren't accepting customers yet! How can we be high on Google!) and because there were 4 other companies doing this already she thought we were a waste of time and to go away.
Of course, all she did was look at Google. So, if she had looked at the companies she mentioned she would have seen that one was in Argentina (!), one simply had Alquiler (rental) in the keywords and pages but actually only sold, one was the website from our supplier listing titles that video shops could buy to rent out and the other was the one I listed in our business plan as competition (though they only have 8,000 titles to our 38,000 and cost 3 times the price).
Yes - she is that incompetent! But, she is the guardian of the money. It is seemingly in her best interest to not give it out!
She told us we were not innovative even in our technology... but she never asked for information about the inner workings of the website. She said 'it was just a website' and of course websites can't be innovative, can they Google, Amazon, Facebook?
Anyway, that's that I guess. We are doomed to failure now (according to her).
CADE, Consejería de Innovación, Ciencia y Empresa - you are simply an excuse to give incompetent bureaucrats who can't contribute to society a job.
Tuesday, 24 June 2008
Studio Time
I'm up in London laying down bed tracks for the new David Waldner album. Playing drums is Brian McLellan, ex of Vega4, and on keys is Martin Jenkins. We're recording at The Way, which is a cool little studio in Hackney with some amazing equipment (including a nice old Neve console). Behind the console is Luke Buttery, who is getting some great sounds.
I love being in the studio and it is doubly exciting this time. Hearing Dave's latest batch of songs and listening to them evolve as we lay them down. Its what I used to love back when I was doing a lot of recording.
Hopefully this is the first of a few sessions as we build up the album.
I love being in the studio and it is doubly exciting this time. Hearing Dave's latest batch of songs and listening to them evolve as we lay them down. Its what I used to love back when I was doing a lot of recording.
Hopefully this is the first of a few sessions as we build up the album.
Wednesday, 28 May 2008
See ya, Syndey
On Monday Sydney Pollack died. He was, as I am sure you know, an amazing director and not a bad actor either! There will be thousands of web-tributes to him, so, I will just add my voice to the crowd in that respect.
But, I am writing this because it was just Sunday night that I saw Pollack on a TVE (TV España) programme about the treatment of film by television networks. Pollack was there because of the lawsuit that the Danish Directors Guild brought against DR (Demark's nationalized TV station) with regards to the showing of a Pan and Scan version of Pollack's 3 Days of the Condor. The Director's Guild argued that it was a violation of a piece of art. it was shown in Danish court with the original cinemascope version, but a hilighted area indicating the pan and scan. It was, at times, laughable. There were fights where you couldn't see the other person being fought!
The documentary was an interesting piece, especially when it came to the area of sound. It argued against the dubbing of movies, saying that an integral part of the movie is the voice of the actors. An actor is hired not just to stand there and move his mouth, but to give life to a character in all ways, including speech. The irony is, of course, that Spain and Italy are 2 of the few countries that continue to dub - and TVE is the biggest violator, all but refusing to show subtitled films.
One interest piece of trivia was the handling in Spain of 'Fort Apache', the seminal John Wayne movie.
There is a scene in the movie where Wayne speaks to an Indian (or Native American, if you prefer) through an interpreter. In Spain Wayne speaks to the interpreter and the indian speaks in this very odd 'ooga-booga' type language. Ironically, in the 'real' version of the film the Indian is speaking Spanish! This ridiculous act of dubbing is still available in Spain today.
Anyway, hopefully Spain (and Italy, and all the other dubbing countries) will come to their senses and see films for the art that they are and leave them unadulterated.
Yeah, right.
But, I am writing this because it was just Sunday night that I saw Pollack on a TVE (TV España) programme about the treatment of film by television networks. Pollack was there because of the lawsuit that the Danish Directors Guild brought against DR (Demark's nationalized TV station) with regards to the showing of a Pan and Scan version of Pollack's 3 Days of the Condor. The Director's Guild argued that it was a violation of a piece of art. it was shown in Danish court with the original cinemascope version, but a hilighted area indicating the pan and scan. It was, at times, laughable. There were fights where you couldn't see the other person being fought!
The documentary was an interesting piece, especially when it came to the area of sound. It argued against the dubbing of movies, saying that an integral part of the movie is the voice of the actors. An actor is hired not just to stand there and move his mouth, but to give life to a character in all ways, including speech. The irony is, of course, that Spain and Italy are 2 of the few countries that continue to dub - and TVE is the biggest violator, all but refusing to show subtitled films.
One interest piece of trivia was the handling in Spain of 'Fort Apache', the seminal John Wayne movie.
There is a scene in the movie where Wayne speaks to an Indian (or Native American, if you prefer) through an interpreter. In Spain Wayne speaks to the interpreter and the indian speaks in this very odd 'ooga-booga' type language. Ironically, in the 'real' version of the film the Indian is speaking Spanish! This ridiculous act of dubbing is still available in Spain today.
Anyway, hopefully Spain (and Italy, and all the other dubbing countries) will come to their senses and see films for the art that they are and leave them unadulterated.
Yeah, right.
Sunday, 25 May 2008
Writing - Does Everyone has at least one (good) book in them?
So, earlier this year, after suffering a serious case of burn-out, I decided to take a bit of a change of direction and cross a few things off the old bucket list.
One very big entry was 'Write'. Of course I have been writing seriously for the past 6 or 7 years now, concentrating a lot on screenplays. But, I had a book idea that I first came up with 25 years ago. (How is that for depressing??!). I'd written a short story version and a screenplay version, but I felt that what the story really needed - or should I say that I felt what I really needed to do with the story - was a novel.
So I started out on it.
You might think it is crazy. But there is the adage that "Everyone has at least one good book in them" (And if and when it comes out I hope I don't get a review like this one!)
So I started in on it.
I have the prologue up on it's own blog that might contain hilights from the book. We'll see.
More sobering links!
Everyone does not have a novel inside them
You’re an Author? Me Too!
So you think you can write?
One very big entry was 'Write'. Of course I have been writing seriously for the past 6 or 7 years now, concentrating a lot on screenplays. But, I had a book idea that I first came up with 25 years ago. (How is that for depressing??!). I'd written a short story version and a screenplay version, but I felt that what the story really needed - or should I say that I felt what I really needed to do with the story - was a novel.
So I started out on it.
You might think it is crazy. But there is the adage that "Everyone has at least one good book in them" (And if and when it comes out I hope I don't get a review like this one!)
So I started in on it.
I have the prologue up on it's own blog that might contain hilights from the book. We'll see.
More sobering links!
Everyone does not have a novel inside them
You’re an Author? Me Too!
So you think you can write?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
