So I feel like I just spent most of my day watching Youtube. The sad thing is that this is very easily done. I'm easily distracted...oooh puppies...
I spent a lot of time trying to get my two main channels both linked to my Adsense. I finally managed after many hours reading help forums and watching tutorial videos. Eventially I managed to unlink my channel that was linked to a blocked adsense and relink it to the proper one. Sounds easy I know but believe me, it wasn't. I do find it odd that you need a seperate google account for each of your Youtube channels but you can only have one Adsense.
I even rediscovered a Youtube channel I set up back in March 2010 called KatemadisonTV which I'd totally forgotten about. It's badly in need of content.
So I decided to look into this as I am lucky enough to be a Youtube Partner and although I have some ads on some of my videos I have yet to see any, ££££ benefits :-)
So I started looking around at what people say about making money from Adsense and Youtube. I been subscribing to various Youtubers for a while now and am always thinking how cool it would be to be able to make a living from Vlogging but have yet to try it out.
I mean you can see some attempts on my Actorsatwork Channel like my vlogs from Cannes last year etc but my problem has always been to get the videos editted and out promptly and keep them interesting.
So the conclusions of the day are that I need to blog and vlog more. Oh and not get distracted and to get on with the rest of my stuff on my to do list. ;-)
Saturday, 3 September 2011
Friday, 18 March 2011
Movie Budgets
I just watched Tristan & Isolde plus the making of. They kept talking about the very small budget and how it was so hard to do anything with such a tiny budget. However no one actually stated the budget. After much googling some sources say it was $31 million.
Now I'm watching The Last Legion which is said to have had $67 million though I don't think it looks as good personally.
Anyway for my next feature I planned to try to find a "small" budget. By that I meant between £1-5 million. I managed to do 'Born of Hope' for only £25,000 with a lot of beg, borrow and stealing, however if low budget for a historical fantasy is about $31 million or £19.3 million then expect I must be nuts thinking we can make The Last Beacon for so little.
Ah well, never stopped me before ;-)
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Now I'm watching The Last Legion which is said to have had $67 million though I don't think it looks as good personally.
Anyway for my next feature I planned to try to find a "small" budget. By that I meant between £1-5 million. I managed to do 'Born of Hope' for only £25,000 with a lot of beg, borrow and stealing, however if low budget for a historical fantasy is about $31 million or £19.3 million then expect I must be nuts thinking we can make The Last Beacon for so little.
Ah well, never stopped me before ;-)
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Thursday, 26 August 2010
Showreels
Any of you who are actors or filmmakers will have had to put together a showreel to show others what you can do in your chosen field. I have had one for a number of years now which I try to keep current and interesting, though unfortunately it's changed little in that time. I am currently looking at it again and wish to improve it which has reopened thoughts that many of you may be familiar with.
Very generally there are two types of showreel, for actors at least. One contains clips from short films, commercials, TV shows or features that the actor has been in. The other is created by a showreel company or similar. The actors may recreate a scene from a famous film or a stage show or even perform a monologue.
Now as far as I know the common thought is that the first version is the best. Clips from films you've actually been in show that someone has liked you in an audition enough to cast you and that you have been in a film that's made it all the way through to completion. It shows that you can actually do your job on a 'real' production and have worked with a director etc.
There are two problems with this. Firstly, the catch 22, you need to get work to get a showreel and you are more likely to get work with a good showreel. It's not impossible though so this is not a major problem. The other problem, and this may be controversial, many people make films, but many of them are pretty poor. Sorry but you know it's true. You may get a role in a short film, you most probably work for little more than some expenses, if you're lucky, but is it going to be good enough for your showreel? You may even find that the film is never edited and finished, or it is but you never receive a copy. The film is finished but the quality is very low, the shots are bad, you have no nice close ups, or the poor script has damaged your performance. My point really is that you could spend a lot of time, money and effort working on quite a number of short films for very little return.
NB. I do think working on shorts is extremely useful no matter what the quality as you can use them to practice your craft and work with new people. You never know where that short film director might go. However this discussion is about getting good footage for showreels.
I was going to add some showreel examples here but I'm questioning it now. I wanted to show you what I think are bad examples but now feel bad about highlighting people. This does bring me to the point that although showreels are invaluable tools, put together a bad one and you can kill your career before you've even started! I have thought someone was pretty good in an audition only to change my mind after watching their showreel.
So where am I going with this little rant. Well despite having been in this game for a number of years I think my showreel is quite limited. I have at least 3 or 4 short films shot over the last year or so that I have yet to see. I therefore find myself having an old debate.
Should I just write, shoot and edit some footage especially for my reel? I think the answer is yes.
I have clips from films I've been cast in so I've ticked that box but rather than wait around for new films, I will do my own. My plan is to intersperse my existing film clips with new original footage I create.
My other reason to do this is that this industry is so over populated and there is so much competition, you need to show a casting director what you can do. If you'd love to play a tough gangster chick but your showreels and headshot only shows a sweet girl next door, why would a casting director think to get you in for an audition? Show them you can do it and they might think of you when a job arrises. Also, why wait for someone else to stereotype you? If you want to do romantic comedies, then why not put some clips of you doing just that in your showreel.
Anyway, this blog entry is way too long. Just thought I'd put that out there. If you have thoughts please write in the comments. If I end up filming some stuff I'll keep you informed.
Very generally there are two types of showreel, for actors at least. One contains clips from short films, commercials, TV shows or features that the actor has been in. The other is created by a showreel company or similar. The actors may recreate a scene from a famous film or a stage show or even perform a monologue.
Now as far as I know the common thought is that the first version is the best. Clips from films you've actually been in show that someone has liked you in an audition enough to cast you and that you have been in a film that's made it all the way through to completion. It shows that you can actually do your job on a 'real' production and have worked with a director etc.
There are two problems with this. Firstly, the catch 22, you need to get work to get a showreel and you are more likely to get work with a good showreel. It's not impossible though so this is not a major problem. The other problem, and this may be controversial, many people make films, but many of them are pretty poor. Sorry but you know it's true. You may get a role in a short film, you most probably work for little more than some expenses, if you're lucky, but is it going to be good enough for your showreel? You may even find that the film is never edited and finished, or it is but you never receive a copy. The film is finished but the quality is very low, the shots are bad, you have no nice close ups, or the poor script has damaged your performance. My point really is that you could spend a lot of time, money and effort working on quite a number of short films for very little return.
NB. I do think working on shorts is extremely useful no matter what the quality as you can use them to practice your craft and work with new people. You never know where that short film director might go. However this discussion is about getting good footage for showreels.
I was going to add some showreel examples here but I'm questioning it now. I wanted to show you what I think are bad examples but now feel bad about highlighting people. This does bring me to the point that although showreels are invaluable tools, put together a bad one and you can kill your career before you've even started! I have thought someone was pretty good in an audition only to change my mind after watching their showreel.
So where am I going with this little rant. Well despite having been in this game for a number of years I think my showreel is quite limited. I have at least 3 or 4 short films shot over the last year or so that I have yet to see. I therefore find myself having an old debate.
Should I just write, shoot and edit some footage especially for my reel? I think the answer is yes.
I have clips from films I've been cast in so I've ticked that box but rather than wait around for new films, I will do my own. My plan is to intersperse my existing film clips with new original footage I create.
My other reason to do this is that this industry is so over populated and there is so much competition, you need to show a casting director what you can do. If you'd love to play a tough gangster chick but your showreels and headshot only shows a sweet girl next door, why would a casting director think to get you in for an audition? Show them you can do it and they might think of you when a job arrises. Also, why wait for someone else to stereotype you? If you want to do romantic comedies, then why not put some clips of you doing just that in your showreel.
Anyway, this blog entry is way too long. Just thought I'd put that out there. If you have thoughts please write in the comments. If I end up filming some stuff I'll keep you informed.
Friday, 6 August 2010
Let's do lunch
So Wednesday was an interesting day. Chris Dane and I drove off to Brighton for a meeting with Michael from Spice Factory and Stealth Media. We had randomly had a meeting with Jason from Stealth when we were in Cannes and had obviously made a good impression. A couple of weeks ago Chris sent them a copy of the 1st draft of "Blood Traps" our supernatural period horror film and it turns out it rose above the usual crap their script reader has to go through. It then got passed around the team and they all liked it and wanted to meet.
So Chris and I drove down and went out for Lunch with Michael and chatted for what must have been about 3 hours or more about films and about Blood Traps. Now before this meeting, Blood Traps was written so that we could go out and make a film this year with about £20,000 we could scrap together, shoot it in Scotland and London and pass it off as Canada, act in it ourselves and hope to sell it in Cannes next year. However, over lunch we were suddenly talking about getting a Canadian Production Company on board to Co-produce, a known director, named actors and a budget of 1million or more.
All quite amazing and exciting if it actually happens, though it also means we are back to not having a project to film and act in this year. I wonder if we can write something new that we can film for about £20,000? Back to work :-)
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
So Chris and I drove down and went out for Lunch with Michael and chatted for what must have been about 3 hours or more about films and about Blood Traps. Now before this meeting, Blood Traps was written so that we could go out and make a film this year with about £20,000 we could scrap together, shoot it in Scotland and London and pass it off as Canada, act in it ourselves and hope to sell it in Cannes next year. However, over lunch we were suddenly talking about getting a Canadian Production Company on board to Co-produce, a known director, named actors and a budget of 1million or more.
All quite amazing and exciting if it actually happens, though it also means we are back to not having a project to film and act in this year. I wonder if we can write something new that we can film for about £20,000? Back to work :-)
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Wednesday, 21 July 2010
Cannes Vlog Day 2
So it's taken quite a while, new computers etc but finally here is Day 2 of the Cannes Vlog! The other days should follow very shortly.
Day 2, which was actually the first full day in Cannes, felt pretty full on. We did so much walking, some of which was pointless as you will see, which is always the case in Cannes. You need good shoes and even then it might not help. I hope you enjoy the video. More coming soon.
Day 2, which was actually the first full day in Cannes, felt pretty full on. We did so much walking, some of which was pointless as you will see, which is always the case in Cannes. You need good shoes and even then it might not help. I hope you enjoy the video. More coming soon.
Thursday, 8 July 2010
Standing In
Today I'm on set as a stand in for camera tests for a new film called One Day. I'm standing in for Anne Hathaway and the film is being directed by Lone Scherfig the Danish director who did An Education.
This is my third day on the film. The first was at Angels, the costumiers being a human walking clothes dummie, trying on various potential costumes. The next was my first day on set as Anne's stand in. I met Anne and Lone who were both lovely and even spoke to them over lunch and they were asking about what I do and I was promoting Born of Hope to them. I wonder if they'll take a look?
So today was more of the same. A 7:30am call after I foolishly went to bed at about 3am because I'd made a pitch video for my Pirate Movie fundraising on IndieGoGo and wanted to get it up on YouTube and the indieGoGo site but it wasn't working for some reason. I finally gave up before it got light and I'd have had to go straight to work with no sleep at all! Two hours is ok right :-S
So in theory it's not going to be too late a day today. Which is good as I'm due to go watch a show tonight that an old drama school friend of Chris is in.
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This is my third day on the film. The first was at Angels, the costumiers being a human walking clothes dummie, trying on various potential costumes. The next was my first day on set as Anne's stand in. I met Anne and Lone who were both lovely and even spoke to them over lunch and they were asking about what I do and I was promoting Born of Hope to them. I wonder if they'll take a look?
So today was more of the same. A 7:30am call after I foolishly went to bed at about 3am because I'd made a pitch video for my Pirate Movie fundraising on IndieGoGo and wanted to get it up on YouTube and the indieGoGo site but it wasn't working for some reason. I finally gave up before it got light and I'd have had to go straight to work with no sleep at all! Two hours is ok right :-S
So in theory it's not going to be too late a day today. Which is good as I'm due to go watch a show tonight that an old drama school friend of Chris is in.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Saturday, 3 July 2010
Networking
I went to another networking event the other night. It was the Wrap Party for The Production Office Live, the internet show from Chris Jones and the team at Living Spirit. After 10 weekly shows they realised that they were spending more time organising the show and not actually making movies. That's the problem with social networking etc, it can take over if you're not careful.
Anyway, despite the Phoenix Room in London feeling like we were all in an oven, there was a nice amount of people there supporting Chris and the show and networking with each other. Networking is a funny thing. I don't consider myself very good at it and following up by contacting people from their business cards is something I'm especially bad at. My poor communication was actually highlighted to me when I got chatting to a screenwriter who, it turned out, had emailed me at least twice before and never recieved a reply. My problem is that I can often flag emails to follow up on rather than email straight back. Then what happens is I get more emails, more are flagged and they start to disappear off the bottom and some never get a reply. Crazy I know and I know I need to get better at this. I really do. I apologise if any of you have emailed me and never heard back. I need pestering I really do.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Anyway, despite the Phoenix Room in London feeling like we were all in an oven, there was a nice amount of people there supporting Chris and the show and networking with each other. Networking is a funny thing. I don't consider myself very good at it and following up by contacting people from their business cards is something I'm especially bad at. My poor communication was actually highlighted to me when I got chatting to a screenwriter who, it turned out, had emailed me at least twice before and never recieved a reply. My problem is that I can often flag emails to follow up on rather than email straight back. Then what happens is I get more emails, more are flagged and they start to disappear off the bottom and some never get a reply. Crazy I know and I know I need to get better at this. I really do. I apologise if any of you have emailed me and never heard back. I need pestering I really do.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
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