Uprising!

Lying in bed still, it's been months, absolutely months, since I've laid in till this side of midday.

Never mind! I'm having a chilled out wknd, last couple of weeks have gone so quickly they've blurred. Also, another out of character thing to do was completely turn my music off on the way home from last night's gig- gave me an opportunity to mull over what is actually going on in my little world.

Talking of last night- a great quaint gig in Tysoe, good laugh and a nice little earner.
I get paid to play amazing music to people! How did I stumble into that one!? Very grateful. Ended the night on Muse - Uprising, winner winner chicken dinner.
Setup all my kit in the living room earlier- did take up some space but Mum was particularly keen to keep the lights show for good!

Time to get up and go and watch some more Christmas lights been turned on in Banbury.

Mistletoe and Wine

It's practically Christmas time in Manchester. The German market is in town - giving the whole town centre  a lot more warmth and festivity. I did have a little browse the other day, all I could smell was ginger every now and again and sausages.

If you've not seen it, it's basically a load of wooden log cabins with shops in - selling all sorts of ornaments. There was one stall with the largest collection of snow globes I've ever seen! Whoever placed that order should be reprimanded.. it's similar to Anthony acquiring 1000 business cards with the word Editor spelt wrong. How the heck they're both going to get rid of cards and globes alike I'll never know.

It's been a fun week actually, we've released the Liam Blake video which is doing very well - Pretend TV are in the process of uploading it to their channel, we've had good feedback and lots of publicity.

Also, Anthony and I have been back in the Radio Studio! With quite a high demand for studio time at the uni, we've had to come in extra early to get a good few hours to ourselves. So in essence we've been doing a breakfast show.

Producer Anthony hard at work there. We're calling the show The Source - new music that will change your life. Look forward to hearing that on air in the new year.

I'm at home this weekend which will be nice. DJing tomorrow night then meeting people for coffee and beers in between. Sunday is Banbury xmas lights switch on - wonder if it will be like last year.... Banbury Sound are there which is nice, a good time to catch up with some friends.

All in all, a relatively nice few days ahead.

-

Liam Blake - You & Other Stories: Explored

Finally, our mini-documentary is ready to go! Thanks for your help, love and support through production, we've had a right laugh and a good fun time making it.

Hoping its the first of many projects like this, for now it's my pleasure to present our You & Other Stories Explored film:



Hope you enjoy! Please share with all your mates, we're really trying to let as many people know about Liam and his fantastic music as possible.

Thanks.

I am in a church...clubbing! God is a DJ..

Sat on a train to Sheffield

Currently sat on a train, tapping away on my phone, and you know how much I hate typing on this thing. Just left Manchester Picadilly, I have a Costa latte, baguette and a bag of general tat for Sheffield this weekend- in my pocket I also have 6 copies of Liam Blake - You & Other Stories: Explored, DVDs of the mini music video documentary we finished last night. Also in that pocket I have a Booths pen, some stickie notes and my marbles, which I found last night after I lost them whilst editing this week (metaphorical). Deep coat pockets eh.
I've just finished listening to Radio 4's Media Show podcast with Steve Hewlett. I listened to 2 of those shows: one that delved into the Levison enquiry and the other gave an incredibly insightful look at MediaCity's impact on indie producers and it also examined the state of BBC local radio vs commercial local. Bauer MD Dee Ford's interview was so informative, great to hear that. Also nice to hear Alex Connock featured - he gave a fantastic talk at Salford University in MCUK last Monday, very interesting look forward to how TV is adapting to the future. Got so many notes.
That's one of the very perks of being based at the heart of the Northern media landscape. Great talks and opportunities. An interesting stat that Connock mentioned in the podcast was how 90% of northern media comes from Manchester as opposed to Leeds, Newcastle etc...v interesting, Peter Salmon's piece on that podcast was inspiring too. Manchester is the place to be, so what a lucky boy I am, having a laugh every day, working hard with some great people in an enthralling place and I'm not letting the chances slide by.

You'll know if you read this blog that I've been working tirelessly on this mini documentary music video with Liam Blake with two friends of mine. The piece has been filmed by Sebastian Padget and edited by Anthony alker. Directly the result of Anthony pointing out Liam playing in Cafe Nero and then me developing a contact that bequeathed an opportunity for us. Thus, an incredible chance to put our skills to the test and for my hair to grey slightly with the relentless stress a producer endures. One of the most exhilarating projects I've been involved with and I'm so proud of what we've created.

It's also reinforced a few things. This was my first true stab at Producing something properly. The Leatherat music video for my Media Studies A2 project was a great process but imagine how good it could have been with more extensive pre-production, inc location scouting, story boarding properly, creating a shot list that could actually be followed strategically. The process was 'ad libbed' in reality, with chunks of the video being the product of spontaneous filming. Then editing was mainly done with a vague storyboard.

This project was different. I planned it thoroughly, I shot-listed, drew up a production schedule, risk assessed, detailed the locations, journeys and scene details and I used a brilliant programme called Celtx- which really has so much functionality in Pre-production, it almost makes you feel guilty if you 'don't' fill out the various planning forms. I thought I'd do it all properly, including production and post. What would be the point in doing a similar production process to the Leatherat video?- I'd learn nothing new. As it happens, I have picked up so many new skills and I feel enriched as a result of doing things properly.

Back to the reinforcement point- doing this project and producing it properly, has reinforced my deep love of Radio. Yes, I had a great time, learnt a lot and I would do it over and over again, but it doesn't ignite the same driving passion as I get when I do radio work.

However, I went with some mates to go and watch Celebrity Mastermind be filmed at the MediaCity studios the other day, I watched the production team work so professionally and with such coolness. There was not a hair out of place on any of the crew, everybody very composed and I heard the director and producers on talkback in the floor managers ridiculously loud headset and they were having a right laugh. Great vibe. Inspiring.

Very much looking forward to showing you the finished product. Tomorrow I'm at Sheffield Xmas lights delivering the DVDs to Liam and his manager, and it will be on YouTube very soon...then, it's time to implement everything I've learnt over the last couple of weeks about social media. Time to go viral!