DanThornton

Tech, Geekery, Pop Culture, Miscellaneous

Supporting new British film ‘Meet Pursuit Delange’

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Back when I was employed at Motorcycle News, I happened to have a conversation with a nice chap who had produced some kind of amazing mix of live action and graphic novel. The fact that it also had bikes in it basically combined three of the biggest loves of my life – comics, movies and motorcycles. It’s no wonder I was interested in finding out more.

The man behind the project, Howard Webster, is one of those people who seems to go from one fascinating project to the next, so I’m glad we kept in touch.

And his latest work is a new British film starring the likes of Jason Flemyng, Stephanie Leonidas, Colin Salmon and Right Said Fred.

If that doesn’t sound intriguing enough, there’s more…

After putting a call out for anyone interested in being an extra, and assuming that I didn’t end up on the editing room floor, it may be possible to catch a glimpse of me in the film. It’s a non-speaking, and indeed, non-acting role, as Howard wisely decline the chance to cast me as a leading man, and instead offered me the role of a media company executive. Fortunately it’s not featured in the trailer and therefore my ineptitude can’t affect the pre-release promotion.

What I can say is:

  1. The fact that I’ve kept in touch with people, and the fact that social media has made it easier, continues to lead to amazing opportunities years after we first connected.
  2. Making films is incredibly difficult and extremely hard work. So to get something made to a high standard, and with such a quality cast, is ruddy impressive. Especially when even the lowliest extra (me) was made to feel welcome and given as much help as was required on set.
  3. There really are an amazing amount of people on a film set. And despite having been filmed for various projects in the past, it’s incredibly hard not to stare at the expensive movie camera on rails a few feet away.
  4. I don’t know how much of the scene I was in made it to the final film. But I do know the script I heard was bloody funny. And the professional thespian required for the shoot, Ben Starr, was extremely talented, funny and very understanding about working with a group of people with varied and somewhat limited experience in many cases.
  5. Thanks to Howard, I’ve managed to tick something off my bucket list. Although I still need to finish writing my own scripts soon.
  6. I’ve never had as many admiring glances (I assume they were admiring) from ladies when walking through London as I did with the required makeup for filming.

 

If you can make it, the premiere of the film is on Thursday, October 1st, 2015 at the VUE Picadilly with a Q&A afterwards, and a second screening takes place on Friday, October 2nd in the afternoon. Both are part of the Raindance Film Festival and are very reasonably priced…

 

Why I envy designers and developers

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It’s relatively common to find people who will happily admit they’re not technical, or can’t code.

It’s reasonably common to find people who will admit they can’t draw or design, even if they still have a habit of making ‘helpful’ suggestions.

It’s not very common to find people who are aware that they can’t string a decent sentence together. It’s somewhat understandable when all our days are increasingly filled with texts, emails, and social media updates. And that’s even if you don’t have a job which requires written work.

Workbench by alicjacolon.com/
Workbench by alicjacolon.com/ (CC Licence)

All of the work I do for my business is around content and communication. Whether it’s client explanations and updates, consumer-facing writing and media, or improving the meta data and information structure for SEO and increasing conversions.

I’ve been employed full-time as a writer, formally studied literature and journalism, and taught writing, journalism and marketing (including on behalf of organisations including the Press Association). Out of the top handful of magazine publishers in the country, I’ve worked for, freelanced or trained at almost all of them.

And I then spend my spare time attempting to bootstrap a digital publishing company, which started literally with nothing. For a long time, I was the sole writer, editor, sales and admin person for any website I worked on.

So hopefully by now, I can string a reasonable sentence together. Although I still get nervous every time I start to write, and a compliment for work I’ve produced can put me on a high for days.

Which begs the question why it can be so difficult to explain the situation to someone who needs great writing and content to promote themselves, or their business. And why they often find it hard to accept that they might not be doing the best possible job – especially when they want to dump it all on the cheapest intern or member of staff they can find.

Those are the times when I really wish I was a proficient coder. Or welder. Possibly an electrician like my father.

State of Digital’s Future of Search Google Hangout

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I was honored to be part of State of Digital’s Google Hangout earlier today, which was based around the question ‘What is the Future of Search’.

It was a really interesting discussion, and was expertly hosted by Bas van den Beld. In addition to myself, the other invitees were Dixon Jones, Gianluca Fiorelli, Krystian Szastok, Russel McAthy and my old friend Tim Stewart. It eventually ran to 90 minutes which you can watch below.

Beyond the fact my happiness at being involved managed to overwhelm my self-conscious desire to avoid appearing in photos and on video, it also reminded me of a few video and webcam lessons and techniques which I completely forgot to do – so for those who want to look a bit more professional in any Google Hangouts, webcam videos or live chats, I’ll run through my mistakes over on TheWayoftheWeb blog.

But it’s definitely reinforced my aim to be involved in more video and speaking opportunities this year. Just need to get a haircut first…