So, I arrived back from Sundance early on the 31^st Jan. It really was the most amazing 10 days filled with a really strong selection of American and international films and documentaries from all over the world. One of the things that struck me was how young a lot of the film makers seemed this year, or maybe I’m just getting older. Both are probable and inevitable.

It was also a good festival in terms of film sales and there was quite a buzz developing for many of the films. Mike Cahill’s low budget existential Sci-Fi movie Another Earth was bought by Fox Searchlight and the films star, the multi-talented, actor, writer and producer Brit Marling seems set to become one of the new darlings of American independent cinema.

Paddy Considine’s feature debut Tyrranosaur starring Peter Mullan and Olivier Colman was another film which audiences were really talking about. It was a dark script which I had read early last year and ultimately passed on a meeting for because I could not see through the hopelessness of the subject matter which started with a dog being beaten to death and progressed through wife beating and domestic rape to manslaughter and another killing of an animal. I spent much of the movie close to tears due to the extraordinary performances by Mullan and Colman and Paddy displayed such an assured hand that he created an entirely engaging and heart breaking low budget British film that was not gratuitous in it’s depiction of violence and was an incredibly honest depiction of ordinary people in extraordinary situations.

The Q and A’s for my own films Here and On The Ice continued throughout the week to very receptive audiences throughout the Park City venues and also two screenings held out in Salt Lake which was mostly attended by local residents as opposed to the Sundance festival crowd. Both films also screened at the Eccles theatre which is the biggest of the Sundance screening venues and holds 1,600 people. Following the screening of Here I was asked a technical question about the cinematography in the film and I started to explain to the audience member how we shot with two 35mm camera, one 3-perf. and another 4-perf and how we shot additional ‘B-roll’ with Ben Foster as we made our unit moves between locations. I then found myself exploring the bigger questions regarding my approach to shooting this film. The day before I met someone at a party who jokingly suggested that due to the incredible landscapes we were presented with in Armenia my job was not that difficult. I pointed out to the audience that there was a degree of truth in this statement as the strong script, amazing actors and fantastic locations meant that outside of the obvious logistical and technical aspects of my role as DoP, the most important aspect of my job was too respond ‘correctly’ or ‘appropriately’ to the performances and environments within each seen and if I did this then the cinematography would naturally fall into place. I think the cinematography in Here was very much about ‘finding’ the film and letting the film present itself rather than imposition.

On Friday I eased myself back into work, aside from January’s colour correction, to shoot another 16mm promo for the British soul/hip-hop act Ben Drew aka Plan B. This involved a one day shoot in Enfield at an amazing house which had not been redecorated since the mid 60’s. It had the most amazing designer furniture and décor and we shot several scenes with Strickland Banks’ (Ben’s alter-ego) girlfriend played by Vickie McClure (Lol in This Is England ‘86).

Whilst in London I also visited the cutting room of the BBC2 drama ‘The Crimson Petal and the White’ which I shot last summer/autumn and is due to broadcast in April of this year. They have locked 3 of the 4 episodes and I am due to start colour correcting / grading on the 21^st through March. The cuts are looking really strong and I’m incredibly pleased with the look of the series. It was my first TV drama as a DoP and I feel really lucky to have been trusted with all four eps. of this prestigious period drama starring Romola Garai, Chris O’Dowd, Gillian Anderson and Richard E. Grant. We shot on the RED one combined with some nice old 70’s Canon K-35 35mm lenses and it was the first time I had used this camera for a long drama. I was really happy with the results and as shooting on film was not an option from the start I felt happy I could nudge the production away from using the Sony 900 cameras that I had used on Four Lions.  

I finished the week being interviewed by Sebastian Doggart for the Telegraph as he is writing an article concerned with the British presence behind the camera at Sundance this year and he is also a big fan of my work on Ballast. He assumed that I was based in London and it was nice to correct him and fly the flag for Newcastle and the film makers and industry members based here. This week sees me teaching a cinematography workshop on my old media production course at UNN before heading back down to London for an interview and work on a Henry Holland viral shot on the Canon 7D. I’ll be sure to post again soon.

Best,

Lol

So, i arrived into Park City yesterday for the opening night of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival in Utah. I love this place! There is always such a great atmosphere generated by a mixture of international film makers, cinema lovers and skiers which awaits you as you step into Salt Lake City airport. I flew out here from New York where i had only the day before been checking the quality of the HD master for Braden King's feature 'Here' starring Ben Foster and Lubna Azabal which plays in U.S. competition tonight. Alongside 'Here' i am also supporting Andrew MacLean's feature 'On The Ice' which i shot in the arctic landscape of Barrow, Alaska last spring and which also plays in the U.S. dramatic section of the festival. By default this also means that i am automatically nominated for the Excellence in Cinematography award so i have my fingers crossed. Either way i am at the festival with two films that i am extremely proud of and have worked incredibly hard on helping to get this far. I feel several celebratory beers coming on.

I travelled the 26 miles from the airport to my condo in Park City in an airport shuttle with a number of other actors, producers and journalists, one of whom was an actor from 'The Wire' and another had acted in the film 'Pariah' which was to open the festival in just a few hours. After negotiating the darkening snowy landscape and unclear signage we finally dropped every one off at their respective accommodation and i headed onto Main St. to meet the cast and crew of 'On The Ice'. It's so nice to see everyone again after our two months of filming out on the frozen arctic ocean and i hardly recognised people out of their heavy arctic clothing. We ate before heading to see the opening night film, Dee Rees' debut feature 'Pariah'. This was a moving and beautifully shot story of young African/American lesbians growing up in the suburbs of New York. Following this we headed to see a midnight horror movie called 'Silent House' which played at the Yarrow Hotel and was produced by one of our producers Lynette Howell (Half Nelson, Blue Valentine). It was an interesting and pretty jumpy horror flick apparently containing 13 continuous shots originated on the Canon 5D which were then seamlessly edited together to produce a feature movie from one apparent continuous take. A really interesting idea although the ending i felt, like many movies in this genre, failed to deliver.

Okay, so i'm wrapping this up for now as i have to get ready to attend the screening of 'Here', the first of the two premiers today followed by a Q&A and then a party to celebrate. We have 6 screenings of each film in total which means that i will attend 12 Q&A's starting with 2 today. I had better start memorising the answers to all the technical questions and recalling how we actually shot the films. It all seems like such a long time ago now. In truth i haven't actually left my apt. today as i gave an interview to UK magazine televisual with re: to my work on the BBC drama 'The Crimson Petal and the White' which i shot last summer/autumn and spoke with FujiFilm U.S. about an article they are writing for 'Here' which we shot on 35mm Fuji film stock. It will be nice to finally wander out into the snow.

Goodbye for now and i'll be sure to update very soon.

'Here'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbEW94IG9qg

'On The Ice'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgHFoS283_o

Ion Cinema Article

http://www.ioncinema.com/news/id/6064/top-100-most-anticipated-films-of-2011-10-names-to-remember

Monday I went to see the preview of Prima Primavera the new movie out of Vita Nova produced by Steve Bowden. A packed house at the Tyneside, and a really good movie. Proves that multiple finance, multiple input, multiple nationality crews and multiple locations across Europe can produce something far, far better than the dreaded Europudding, and that resilient producers who know what theyre doing can deliver from the North East. Well done Steve and his team!

But I guess its that time of year you look back on the past twelve months and reflect, and look forward as well. At DigitalCity Business weve had an amazing year. Weve continued putting out innovative business growth initiatives [check out the Business Growth Workshop System and the iSD scheme on the website]. Weve really cranked up business development activities for the businesses in the cluster, making connections and doing business for them as far afield as Japan and the USA. Theres a few things in this regard that should make waves in early 2010 [more keeping an eye on reports then]. And we completed Boho One, which Im sure was a fair achievement as any of you who know it will confirm. But were also close to seeing it through its first six months of operations, which is another thing entirely. And as one person whod already successfully built and opened a building in the North East confided to me a few months before we opened, with me completely frazzled and dazed by the insanity of it all: dont worry, the last three months of a build project are the worst. Actually theyre not - its the first year after it opens that will kill you

Actually, weve had surprisingly few snags to deal with. Its steadily filling up, and theres a good, diverse range of companies coming in, and with them in the building really is beginning to work the way we wanted it to. And thats all about collaboration. Boho One was designed with collaboration at the heart of the way we thought about it. It almost forces people to bump into each other and strike up conversations that lead to ideas that lead to new business.

And collaboration is whats increasingly at the heart of the way I see 2010

You may have heard of Northern Net by now. The idea behind it is a really sound one that if we give digital media, digital technology and creative businesses in the north of England the tools to be able to join together and collaborate, theyll be able to go after bigger and better projects that individual companies alone would never get. Its the rationale behind SohoNet in London there, the system allows the film effects houses get together and compete on something like an a even footing with the world giants such as ILM, Digital Domain and Weta.

Now I would say that this idea is a sound one, because it was myself andf Mark Dobson at the Tyneside who first wrote up the idea for One NorthEast. And good on them, as they took the idea forward with the other northern regions to fund and then build Northern Net.

It means you now have the opportunity to team up with companies right across the north, and exchange the media youre developing with them quickly and securely from places called Media Access Bureaus such as the ones at the Tyneside Cinema, NFM and Boho One [most of these also have other resources at Boho One we have a render farm].

But its not all been plain sailing. No big scheme is. And one of the things that hasnt quite gone right is the link between putting the high speed connectivity infrastructure in place and getting it going, and creating the collaboration buzz so that companies are primed and eager to do joint projects. So what we have is in early 2010 is the NorthernNet system going live at the same time as activities to encourage networking and collaboration across the north. In my view the activities should have come earlier, but this is the real world, and maybe better late than never

But they are coming, and Id encourage you to get stuck in, attend the events, and really make an effort to figure out how you can exploit a system the regional development agencies have spent a lot of money on providing you with. And make your voice count if you feel the thing could be improved, or if you feel there are better ways to find the great companies in Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester or wherever you want to work with, tell NorthernNet. No other part of the country has this opportunity, so its up to us as the digital media, digital technology and creative sectors to make the thing work.

The answer burst my bubble, and made me think and then change a lot of things in my life [and realise how stupid I'd been forgetting all I'd learnt as I ran a post-production company in my 20s]. It was a real Road to Damascus moment. And in a way it led to DigitalCity and the North East. And now, given what's about to come our way up here, it'is causing me to think once again.

I'm sure you're all aware by now that there's the opportunity next year to see considerable funding flowing into the film and media sectors. There's been a huge effort over the past eighteen months or so behind the scenes [now you can really answer what the region does for you!], and it's resulted in a fund that could really change the game up here. At the same time, Northern Net is coming online, and that's another huge investment in the north's digital media, digital technology and creative sectors. all this could mean really good times ahead...

But only if we're ready for it.

At DigitalCity I see huge numbers of businesses and pre-starts come through the doors for help. It's what we're there for, and it's great helping really talented people figure out how they can forge meaningful and fulfilling lives out of their talents. But all too often, getting them to realise the quickest way to achieving their goals is a well-run and profitable business [be it one that's a freelance enterprise or a mammoth company] is really hard. And it's compounded by the age-old and pretty noxious myth that creative businesses are somehow different to other, more mundane enterprises, and work to different rules. They don't: not having a clear and well developed business plan will leave you rudderless; and cash will kill you as fast as it will the corner shop.

Yes, there are differences. Creatives tend to walk to a different beat where the ultimate goals are often not monetary. But have you ever seen anyone turn up at the Oscars on public transport? We tend to characterise it this way at DigitalCity Business: there's only 1% difference in the business DNA between a creative business and other businesses; 1% is the DNA difference between humans and monkeys; in business, creatives often act like monkeys.

At DigitalCity Business, we're working hard to change this and we're getting there: there's no doubt the businesses involved with us are getting smarter as individual companies and that feeds onto the cluster as people and companies network and collaborate. And organisations like NFM and DigitalCity are doing all they can - but in the end you tend to get what you deserve.

So what I'm saying is that if we - as individual media producers, and as the North East sector - are really going to benefit from new all the new opportunities, we need to get really smart.

Because they may not come around again.

Enough of the highhorse [high monkey?]...

Apart from DigitalCity Business, with the usual round of meetings, surgeries and events spiced up by work on a complicated and demanding funding bid, I've been working on a feature synopsis this week, and a showreel. Doing that I came across a film I made for the Tyneside Cinema a couple of years ago and decided to post it up

We shot Flickering Light at the time the Tyneside was about to be redeveloped and was looking for funds. I think there were maybe five or six films made: most of the others were documentaries but I thought it might be fun to look at the place from a different point of view. There was little to no money - really only enough for the equipment - but my regular crew very kindly agreed to go for it. And they're great people, all north east based. Cinematographer Warren Harrison comes from documentaries, and is a senior course leader at Teesside University. Ken Brown did the sonics is based at Sunderland [the film's worth playing loud]. And Matt Dennis is simply one of the best film editors I know. I think there's something really wonderful when a director can walk onto a set, and whatever the size, know everyone on the crew is better than they are at what they do...

Hope you like the film.

And what about filmmaking? I've got a project on with Steve Bowden at Vita Nova: a thriller with dark occult overtones. I need to be careful about what I say about it at this point, for reasons that will hopefully become apparent over time, but we're pretty excited by it because there's a lot of good feedback, it's pretty commercial, it looks like it could be a franchise, and it has something real to say; which is, I suppose, the kind of film I like...

But it's not easy combining the two roles: Steve's getting quite used to getting emails at 3, 4, 5am in the morning. The last one was because he'd asked me to think about one aspect of the film: frankly, what he was suggesting seemed bonkers to me, but I got thinking about it, woke up with the solution, couldn't get back to sleep, and decided to get down to work. And he was right, 100%. That's the power of having really good producer. As long as you listen to them.

Back to films I like, films I've watched in the last few days. I stumbled on Moby Dick on TV yesterday - I've seen it many times before but it's a truly great film and rewards repeated viewings. I watched it with my eight year old son Xavier and he was utterly captured by it: not bad for a film made before even I was born, and I think his reaction speaks volumes about great stories, well told. Oddly enough I was in Madeira two weeks ago, where its director John Huston had intended to shoot on location but was thwarted by a desperately sea sick Gregory Peck... kind of ironic given he starred as Captain Ahab. And because of the film we're developing I've been watching Jean Cocteau's Orphée. Another film I've seen often, and another you can add this to my favourites list...

And there's Flash Forward on tonight.

 Well that's me for now, off to join the undead.

I have a sincere interest in developing talent which comes from having been inspired myself by my role models when I was starting out.  The guys that helped me were so generous with their time and expertise and I realise now how important that advice and encouragement was to my ambitions and achievements.  I enjoyed running an intern program at Pixar last year, showing a set of bright young things the ropes and giving them some crucial on the job training.

I have a five year history with the North East of England which began when I visited the Animex International Festival of Animation for the first time.   I was pleased to be invited last May to help the Tyneside Cinema's rebirth in to Art Deco loveliness and promote their learning program.  Northern Film & Media also put me in touch with a talented local young animator - Gary Carse from Northumberland and i've been giving him some tips in his college training.

There seems to be a lot of support for new talent in this part of the world. So, it was fun to look at the films on the NFM website made by so many aspiring and accomplished moviemakers.  It was hard to pick from so many but here's a few I liked:

Generations-- while many filmmakers are satisfied to simply set a mood, this work reaches farther.  This talented group of filmmakers fashion a miniature 3 act story in just a few well-chosen shots.  The story is driven as much by the camera as it is by actor Harry Herring's nuanced expressions.  Plus, they had me at bicycles.  My Dad loved the Tour de France!

Slow Dance-- another complete beginning, middle, and end packed into a tiny, super-nutritious, bite-sized morsel of a film.  We younger folk often forget that our elders aren't necessarily as old as they look.

I've heard it said that everyone's personality ripens at about age 26-- and that even as the decades roll by, we remain that person trapped inside the wrinkly body.  Ever looked at an 80 year old person and see the fellow 26 year old inside?  I recommend it.  What a cute film!

Anyway, gotta go for now.  I'll write another blog about the wonders of Animex 2009 when i've had time to digest it (and get over the jetlag).

p.s Check out Gary Carse's nomination for Outstanding Achiever of the Year http://voting09.colaawards.com/

We also want to focus our new writers on their specific audience. This show is for young adults, so we're using a fresh, young cast and want our viewers to feel understood and catered for. We also need to deliver the right product for the commissioning channel which has a cheeky, risk-taking, young-at-heart ethos. Even though sketches can be wildly different in subject, we're striving to find a coherent tone which makes the show unique. Poo jokes are always good too.

Knowing your audience is as important for online content as TV productions. We're currently developing short-form videos to support our TV programmes and new ideas just for the internet. The main aim is to make content so good that viewers want to share it with their friends and ping it all over the web. Easier said than done!

Pour Quoi - I love this video. One of the things which is fantastic about making online content is the immediacy of it. Producing TV shows is brilliant too, but it's a lengthy process, which makes it hard to be topical. Ideas which seem fresh and relevant now, may well be hackneyed by the time your idea hits the small screen. People who create content for the internet can have it uploaded in hours. From Britney Spears shaving her head, to faddy sports like free running - there's the potential to produce comic ideas at whirlwind speeds and have them seen when they're at their peak.

I Like - simple, original formats are also great for online viewing. Because internet content is so often watched out of context, a really pure format can be a huge strength. A bit of titillation often helps too - which is why I'm ending on I Like Nudity, a very cute short by Back To Front Animation.

It's been a crazy last week at work tying up loose ends before the Christmas holidays - a feeling I'm sure many of you are familiar with. Before I disappear up North to stuff my face for a week, I thought I'd blog some more of my wandering thoughts.

For the last few weeks we've been sorting and sifting through a mountain of submissions for a sketch-show we'll be producing next summer. We had hundred of sketches which we discussed X-Factor style as a panel. I'd like to think I was the Cheryl Cole of the group, but it's fair to say I'm much more Louis-like. Sometimes a sketch which prompted uncontrollable mirth from one member of the team, raised less of a laugh than an eyebrow from another - but largely we were singing from the same hymn sheet. What we were really looking for were rounded, considered characters who the audience would care about and instantly become familiar with. It's just the same with comedy as drama.

One short-film which really sprang out for me this week was Father's Day. The film hinges on a really neat conceit: a tired taxi driver has finished for the night, but agrees to take one last pick-up because it's his daughter's address. However, instead of it being his daughter waiting outside, it's an obnoxious little rotter who's actually just slept with the girl. The character of the father and the young man are set up adroitly and with speed: a beloved photo here, an obnoxious comment there. When the taxi driver overhears the young man insulting his daughter on the phone- the viewer is left wondering what he'll do. We know he's a religious man, but we also know he dotes on his daughter. The film genuinely builds suspense and shows the makings of two interesting characters. Admittedly the young man shows no light alongside his vicious shade - but Father's Day achieves a lot in just over 5 minutes and is testament to the importance of taking care over character.

And sometimes you have to throw the rulebook out the window, because an idea which doesn't work on paper can be strangely effective when performed live or recorded. Take Bananaman by Straitjacket. I'm a big fan of Straitjacket's absurd comedy concoctions and had already enjoyed Bananaman before I came to the site. The ridiculously over-blown music underscores the stylised acting well and there's some good dialogue along the way. However, the bit which always makes me laugh out loud is Bananaman's pronunciation of ‘pyjamas.' Now, if I'd been sent this sketch as a script, I have to admit, it wouldn't have made me laugh. That's why I admire people who go out and produce their ideas. It doesn't matter if you can't afford Hollywood production values, sometimes it's the best - or only - way to show your script's potential!

That's all from me for now

All the very best, and have a wonderful Christmas

Davina

I work as a TV script-editor and online content producer and can truly say being a geek to the core my whole life has paid off. I love my job. I currently work with a small, but amazingly innovative and gifted team who are passionate about great writing, fresh ideas and new talent. As you all know from this very website - developments in technology now mean that content which was traditionally solely the domain of TV  -made by a small band of elite producers - is now readily, easily and phenomenally successfully created for the internet by almost anyone with a big idea and dash of inventiveness. However, what has remained the same across vastly differing cultures and hundreds of years, is an audience's love of captivating stories populated with rounded, engaging characters.

One of the main criticisms I hear from the producers upon reading a new script is "not enough story."  It takes a real skill to set up a fictional world whilst simultaneously bewitching a viewer with a brilliantly conceived plot - or three. TV and film writers and producers think they have it hard with their allotted 30 mins, one hour or more. They should spare a thought for short-film creators. I love it when a comedy or drama creator is spurred on, rather than put-off, by the unique challenges proposed by short-films or series. Consequently, for my inaugural gawp round the site I specifically set out to find a couple of drama films which ingeniously filled their limited time with unlimited narrative possibilities.

Firstly, Eyeless: the first thing that'll grab you here is the striking aesthetic. However, as in the dating world - good looks accompanied by little substance get boring very quickly. What made this film stand out for me was the way the initial story, the story we think we are meant to be following, is superseded by another narrative.  The film opens on two unlikely accomplices fleeing with the spoils of shop robbery amidst the sounds of sirens. However, even more exciting is the tale of obsession and betrayal which unravels in its midst. It's stylistically languorous but dense with ideas at the same time.

And to finish what is fast becoming a mind spill of epic proportions - a word about After by If Films. Again, beautifully shot, but what I liked here was the promise of a wealth of stories and human experience packed into 60 beautifully utilised seconds. I would be intrigued to find out more about of these characters and their individual narratives.

I'll be back with more garbled thoughts and observations soon!

Davina

Some real gems have been submitted to the site and I hope I've done them justice by bringing them to light. However, there are more gems than blogs and I apologise if I haven't mentioned your clip, but there just aren't enough blogs to go round.

This week has been pretty good at 4Laughs. We've set up interviews with some top TV comics (Frankie Boyle and Sean Lock), the Comedy Report has been edited and is ready to rock and roll and I'm awaiting an email from The Fix to tell me the winner of the latest WOO competition. Everything seems to be going well. A little too well...

So with a few moments to spare, I'd like you to cast your minds back to when you were interviewed for a job. Yes, that's right, you can remember the nerves, the sweating, the mumbling under your breath of how you are a team player but you also enjoy working alone (a.k.a ‘The Fear'). But do you remember being so intimidated by another candidate that you tarted yourself up, got changed twice and had a bit of fisticuffs all in the waiting area? Well, these ladies sure know how to get the interviewers attention in the quality film Envy http://www.northeastmovies.co.uk/films/189/envy brought to us by Tom Marshall, M. Rozdoba Hallows, Arabella Arnott and Zoe Kang as part of the IF Films 4 Hour Film Challenge.

I really liked this film. The absurdity in such a high-pressure situation where appearance and first impressions count so much it frightens me into laughing. I think everyone's been there and has either seen someone mess up or done it themselves, one false move at an interview could mean game over. A really nice touch was the slagging off on the phone - there is no way of making someone feel more insecure than looking, whispering then laughing whilst being on the phone and in another language. Great stuff!

So, now I leave you, but not for long as I've been asked to judge the next Magic IF Film Challenge on 30 November! I'm dead chuffed and excited with the chance to visit Tyneside and check out some of the excellent nuggets of quality comedy produced. I'm looking forward to meeting some of the readers of this blog and the people behind NEM.

GOOD LUCK to everyone involved with the project and a huge THANK YOU to everyone who's parted with blood, sweat and tears to produce some the most interesting, thought provoking and pant wetting films in the comedy section.

My final thought this week is if anyone wants advice or support with comedy related ideas just email 4laughs@channel4.com

That's all from me.

Bye!

This week, I'm pleased to announce, has been a little calmer. I still have a lot of chasing to do for the Comedy Report (clips, animations and interviews) but everything seems to be running smoothly. Famous last words!

Last week I left you with the impending arrival of the 4Laughs Window of Opportunity competition winner who won the chance work with Sam and me on the Comedy Report. All went exceeding well and fun was had by all... especially by Sam, who seemed to have ‘too much' fun dressing up as Santa and gallivanting around the set. It's such hard work being a presenter...

This week I'm looking at two very different styles of comedy. Firstly, as it's nearly Christmas (sorry, for using the C word), I'd like to mention a cool little animation, Tentaclaus.

Animated humour is one of my favourite forms of comedy. Anything is possible in animations and the boundaries of sketches are stretched into nonexistence. I love the clean lines, bold colour and quirky story of Tentaclaus. It reminds me of a clever little animation (not quite as seasonal), Oktapodi HQ http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=VaM9mrnOMJo However, I like a bit of darkness to balance out all the child-like light heartedness in animations, something that Tentaclaus does perfectly. I can't really say anything else about it without ruining the surprise, but it's well worth a gander...

The second film is from a couple of guys who've featured on 4Laughs in the past and always make me smile - it's Straitjacket with their film, Walk Left. As I mentioned in my first blog, I love nonsensical humour and these guys really bring it when they create comedy. Set on a beach in a medical journal style, Walk Left is brilliant for two reasons. Firstly, it's just so simple. Whenever my husband and I see a stranger in the street with a funny walk, we immediately say ‘Oh, poor bloke, he's suffering from Walk Left Syndrome'. Not a good reflection on me, but the sheer unusualness of the film sticks in your mind. Similar to Richard Herring's live show ‘Someone Likes Yoghurt' taken from a time when he bought a load of yoghurt from a supermarket and the checkout girl said ‘someone likes yogurt...' in a knowing way. This is another example where my husband and I discuss strangers in shops who‘ve an inordinate amount of one product in their basket.

Returning to the film (and away from what my husband and I get up to), the second point I'd like to raise is about set. Set is so important when you're filming a sketch. The more natural and real a set looks the better the effect. I'm always disappointed when a sketch is filmed in a bedroom or garage, the illusion is spoilt from the off and the effect of the punch line, no matter how good, can get lost. However, this is executed perfectly in Walk Left. I can imagine the list of ideas for the film being quite short and whoever suggested ‘pavement' got quite a glare. The sound is done well, as filming on a beach can be beautiful, but also disastrous for sound quality. The overlay of the narrator, who you assume is a medical professional, turns a silly jape of a man walking into the sea into a well-scripted fascinatingly funny little film.

My final thought this week is please support local comedy clubs. If you enjoy comedy then there is no better place to experience a full hit of the stuff than at a comedy club. Many people assume that their local club won't have the top comics in the circuit performing there - WRONG! Find out for yourself, go on!

Join me next week for my final blog where I'll be discussing more of your films and the world of comedy,

Bye!

This week has been a bit bonkers at 4Laughs (I think most weeks are!). I've not only been organising the October Window of Opportunity (WOO) competition, but also setting up the new one, showing our new member of the team around the world of C4 Comedy and prepping for the Comedy Report (CR).

The Comedy Report is a monthly 3-minute vodcast hosted by comedian, Sam Avery. The idea behind the CR is to promote snippets of current comedy in short form downloadable content. Available on C4 Comedy and in a mini-player on the homepage, the CR brings busy comedy lovers a bite sized rundown of the latest comedy buzz, including news, reviews, interviews, DVD, books, audio, film, mobile etc...

Preparing for the CR is a fun, yet laborious process. I have to chase people for content, which isn't much fun and can be quite stressful. This week will see the November CR go live on the C4 comedy site and the December Christmas filmed. After I gather the content and pop it in a crib sheet, Sam writes himself a script. However, this week will be different, as we will have the winner from the October WOO and I plan to incorporate him into a Christmassy sketch. http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/C/comedy/comedyreport/index.html

Speaking of two or more people, I'd like to bring to your attention to the innocent little flick ‘Two or More Players'. http://www.northeastmovies.co.uk/films/163/two-or-more-players

I was drawn to the film as I'd always liked Twister as a child, but with an eight year age gap between me and my brother I only ever got to play it at birthday parties.

With a couple of ‘twists' (see what I did there) and a nice jumpy bit (which made me hic-laugh) this comedy was definitely going to be on my list of favourites. The character, abandoned by friends and family, takes up one of the only games you need to play with someone else. The comedy lies in the fascinating character and the retro quirkiness of Twister. Although I think the limping Polish Twister player was a nice touch, I fail to see why he had to be Polish?

Next week will be fairly quiet for me. I'll be seeking out a new WOO competition and checking out some more comedy goodness on North East Movies.

If you've never ventured on to 4Laughs, then why not? 4Laughs is Channel 4's user-generated online comedy portal. The project brings together and develops brand-new UK talent to create short-form content for broadband, mobile, television and live events. Our creative community includes over 1000 new writers, directors, performers and animators regularly producing, submitting and reviewing new comedy. However, the best way to find out is to experience it for yourself... http://www.channel4.com/4laughs/

This week has been pretty manic. Every month, I organise and host a national competition (Window of Opportunity or WOO for short) on 4Laughs aimed at getting comedy enthusiast's work published and seen by the peeps in the comedy industry. This month's WOO was an in-house prize, to work on 4Laughs' Comedy Report (shown on channel4.com/comedy), but still the workload piles up! As November starts today, the new WOO must go up, this time it's for a comedy and music magazine called The Fix. The winner of this will be given the chance to work for a day at The Fix offices in London - a great opportunity for someone interested in writing and journalism.

I love my job. I've been working in comedy for over three years and there is so much happening in comedy on all platforms that sometimes it's hard to keep up! Browsing through the comedy short films, I noticed a few names popping up that have made an appearance on 4Laughs. A favourite of mine, which will be my pick of the week, is Pour Quoi by The Suggestibles. http://www.northeastmovies.co.uk/films/39/pour-quoi This film is a piss-take of the short-lived urban sport of Free Running. In the film we see the ‘team' practicing and performing Pour Quoi in and around train stations and city shopping centres. This film can't help but put a grin on your face from start to finish. The mockumentary style filming, the pseudo-Frenchmen who make no sense and when the guys are skipping and hopping about, I just sit there and giggle. The Suggestibles turn this film from being a weird jumble of surreal ideas to a comprehensive deadpan frolic. This film really appeals to my sense of whimsy and nonsensical humour - definitely worth a watch.

My final thought for the blog is that anything can be crafted into comedy, even pasta, as seen in the latest WOO winner's work.

Join me next week when I will be blogging about creating a Christmas special of the monthly vodcast, The Comedy Report...

See you then!

Anyway, you don't come here to hear about me. News in documentary land, in UK doc land anyway, has been the return of The Family, an updating of Paul Watson's ‘Reality TV inventing'-series, also called The Family. The premise is that reality TV has become so meaningless that a return to its roots is essential to keep it relevant. The fact that Watson's original series was groundbreaking and unlike anything else ever on TV, and this rerunning is a rewarming of an old concept, sort of makes that seem ridiculous. The series looks great, using all modcons to give us an intimate look at a ‘normal' family, don't get me wrong. But this is nothing new and it won't have any kind of dramatic impact because we're so used to seeing ‘unimportant' lives lived on TV hour after after now. What would be really shocking is seeing someone escape cameras for as long as possible - an idea like that was pitched at Britdoc earlier in the year. Of course, making a documentary about that is something of a black hole - a film about someone avoiding being on film - but that's what's so good about it!

Anyway, speaking of black holes, and onto black birds, well done Ross Phillips for The Birdwatcher - http://www.northeastmovies.co.uk/films/249/the-birdwatcher (thank you Roxy at NFM for the tip!) - a beautiful animation that's given me a smile on my face all day. There is something sinister about birdwatching - I've done it myself - and watching this film made me wonder if it's the constant tension and fear that something's about to spring on you and that you might miss the tiniest detail you've been waiting all day for. Despite it being funny and cute, this film also really made me recall that tension, which is an amazing achievement for something so superficially twee. And I love all animation too anyway!

Well, that's the basic idea anyway. What I love about the job the most is helping filmmakers to develop their ideas and find ways to get them exposed on the biggest stages possible. As you'll see by my biog, I used to be at FourDocs and finding new platforms for documentary remains a massive passion for me - we're in a place at the moment where documentary and all independent film could really thrive if the potential of  the internet for showcasing film and video is used to its full potential, but like all technology innovations, it can be squandered and quickly drained of its utopian possibilities if brilliant creative people don't seize that potential.

Anyway enough waffle from me, and onto some films. As you might expect, I started first looking at the factual films on here. Now I'm a real old-fashioned man when it comes to documentary, despite my desire for new technology, and I love observational docs without voiceover and unnecessary musical accompaniment. So strange as it may seem considering it's way too long, I was very drawn to Artperson 28.10.07 which had a Warholian charm to it, especially with the almost-indecipherable grunting of the man behind the camera. I'm not totally sure what the filmmakers' intentions were, but this really worked for me as a raw slice of barely-mediated factual video.

And it also made you very aware of where this film came from geographically, which is what I'd also say about Joe, a lovely very-short film from Middlesbrough. This doc really showed you can engage a viewer in a good character in a tiny amount of time, and leave a lasting impression. Making a good doc isn't tricky when you have the basic elements of good character and narrative and this did - it's the same for one minute or one hundred. You don't need to have a thumping soundtrack or invent false situations for real people to go through - just find someone and something really interesting and make a movie.

I'll be back soon with reviews of more (maybe even non-factual) films really soon...