Hello! My name is Elder Wilkes and I would like to share with you this most amazing book.

Last night I was treated to the spectacular stage show that was The Book of Mormon. I’ve had the tickets booked for about six months now up in the nosebleeds of the Prince of Wales Theatre that I was worried wouldn’t allow me (and the guys I booked them for) to enjoy the debauchery on stage with restricted view tickets – how wrong I was.

I am a huge fan of Stone and Parker, their off brand of near the knuckle humour and biting social commentary is not only something that directly appeals to me but is what I hope to one day replicate in my own work. I can remember growing up watching South Park and have evolved from a young teenager smoking pot and watching it giggling at the foursome being allowed to say naughty words at inappropriate times to being a young twenty-something smoking pot and enjoying the often not-so-subtle way that the foursome now highlight the ills of society at large, and Butters. OK especially the Butters episodes.

Ever since that I heard that The Book of Mormon was coming to the UK I was determined to get tickets. I read the reviews online and in the paper which just goaded me further to find them come Mormon hell or high water. The Guardian called it “racist” and the Mail branded it “utterly offensive” – at least it seems that the right and the left agree on something. I was not disappointed.

Considering myself quite hard to offend and as a militant agnostic I was sure that there would be nothing religious that would do anything other than roar with laughter but at moments I was pushed near to this feeling that I have never experienced before, it might have just been discomfort but I’m told that it was offence by Google MD after looking up my symptoms. The constant references to AIDS (although not unexpected) was a little much for me and aside from getting me to squirm in my seat felt like old material for the duo.

Trying not to ruin the show but The Book of Mormon follows two Mormon missionaries Elder Cunningham and Elder Price who are sent to Africa to do good and try and convert the native population to the church of latter-day saints. Obviously when there they find that the reality is very different from the Lion King (The only reference for Africa that our heroes have) and instead of Simba and co that are greeted by a cast of characters in the village who get them to curse God in their native tongue, a young villager Nabulungi (Nintendo Wii… or whatever her name is) who “texts” her friends with a type writer and finally an evil war lord General ButtF***ingNaked (don’t ask). Their dilemma only worsens as when they arrive at the mission base they discover that not one villager has been baptised in the history of the mission, not ideal for Elder Price who sees this as his chance to prove his Mormon worth.

As the story continues the heroes and, ensemble, break into various brilliantly written and choreographed numbers. Elder Cunningham gains his first baptism taking a religious act and making it oddly erotic, Elder McKinley teaches us the value of repressing homosexual urges by “switching it off” and finally Elder Price belts out a favourite of mine: “I Believe” detailing the absurdities of the Mormon religion that he’s willing to stand in the hope of one day getting planet Orlando all to himself.

In the end it turns out that Elder Cunningham’s own take on the Mormon teachings is the thing that inspires the villagers to say no to the Generals demands for circumcision and not the “official line” that the church takes complete with death stars and making love to frogs. Nabulungi discovers that religion might not be a “just what it says on the tin” deal and Salt Lake City might not actually be the Promised Land and rather just an ideal to aspire to, a metaphor if you will. At this point Trey and Parkers barbs are no longer at the Mormon Church rather at all organized religion, in particularly those who take the readings of holy books literally. It even appears that they are doffing their cap to the organization that they wish to lampoon with Elder Price and Elder Cunningham ultimately being the ones who through what they have learnt as Mormons (be kind, good, honest…) returning to save the day. Or is it that they are trying to make comment on the lack of practical applications for religion in the modern day?

With the Mormon mission disbanded in Uganda in the end the last number is a rousing finish repeating the amazing opening Hello with a twist. The Ugandan missionaries are now preaching from the “Book of Arnold” that Elder Cunningham made up on the spot to help the villagers through their struggles. In a final compliment to Mormonism it appears that Trey and Parker are entirely letting them off the hook, they realise that it might be a little farfetched to believe that a man who found some golden tablets at the bottom of his garden was actually recounting the third book of the bible but so is thinking that a man fed five thousand people with only a handful of loaves and fishes or that another managed to part the red sea in half. Being a Mormon does sound a little kooky, but if you really think about it so does being a Christian, Muslim or Jew it’s just that those particular organizations have a little more legitimacy because they have been around a little longer. At the birth of Christianity, Christians were being fed to the lions for their “strange” way of thinking. I think that a few off colour jokes on the stage is a much better way to examine our differences. How far we’ve come.

Ultimately The Book of Mormon is fun, brash and dabbles in the water just over the line of acceptability, but that’s what it should be and was always going to be. It’s going to give regular musical goers a bit of something different and will certainly appeal to fans of South Park who might not usually consider venturing to see something at the theatre. After looking in the programme that I purchased as a memento of the evening I found that the Mormon Church has taken out add space between details about the cast and crew with slogans such as “The Book is always better” and “You’ve seen the show now read the book” not only a brilliant move on behalf of the Mormon marketing department but also something I think should be admired. With so many religious groups getting shirty at even the slightest criticism thrown their way (I’m looking at you Islam and you Scientology here) Mormons around the world should feel proud that no one tried to sue for millions, no one blew themselves up outside the opening night and rather they embraced the western principals of free speech and saw the show as a possible chance to spread their word further. Mormonism seems to have missed their stroppy teenage phase that most religions go through (See The Crusades for a time when Christianity was hanging obscure indie bands on their bedroom wall and dressing in black from head to foot)  and has gone right to being a mature adult who is comfortable with what they are.

Religion is now old hat for the South Park gang as seemingly they’ve lampooned ‘em all. Where will it be next for Trey and Parker? The truth is I don’t know but I believe that it’ll only get better, badder and more uncut.

Last Nights 'Skint' - burning tents, cage fighting and merged families.

Skint is something that I never really thought that I would watch but after hearing a lot from social media and having watched the two previous episodes on 4OD basically back-to-back the other day and found it so fascinating that I was keen to catch last nights episode and was parked in front of the TV eagerly waiting for it to start. I was hooked on the show from the moment that the narrator uttered "Scunthorpe... Aside from having a dirty word in its name..." (I'll let you go back and read it again)

Dean and a very small section of his huge family.

From the Tweets and Facebook statuses that I've seen I was expecting Skint to deliver a damming verdict of the working class that would show us the kind of behaviour that we have been accustomed to  seeing on shows such as The Jeremy Kyle Show, Shameless and to a lesser extent things such as Cops on Camera. This so called "Chav-o-Vision" that some commentators on the left say is turning us against each other and helping dismantle the welfare state rather than focusing all of our energies on attacking the 1% they so desperately believe are the only problem in this world at the moment (See Phil Thornton on Independent voices for a rather damming verdict of working class portrayal). Now don't get me wrong there was plenty of drinking, smoking, foul language, large broods and drug taking but everything was framed so specifically, dealt with so evenly that I went through a very mixed bag of emotions that I wasn't quite sure how I felt about the Westcliffe Estate.

The show started as it does every week at "The wall" the central gathering point on the estate and a thriving black market for the residents where anything can be obtained for a price. As the camera mingles amongst those at the wall one of them gives a rather damming description of what it means to be on benefits that would have been as equally at home in a comment thread on the Daily Mail website.  It's the usual stuff that we see about the working class simply condescending voyeurism, is it simply  that it is lazy documentary filmmaking? Is it the actuality that cannot be avoided? Or are channel  trying to show us that "the poor" are a social problem that need addressing? (how they're not sure - but that's your job mr politician)

We return to Dean, something of a personality that could (and should) have his own show in the future.  His family are heading on a holiday to a caravan park and does his best audition for a role as a presenter on Location, Location, Location with hilarious consequences. You can tell that the two parents love their children and although their discipline is often harsh and some exchanges between Dean and his step son in a middle class environment might raise some eyebrows they are doing the best they can in what must be a difficult situation. What I would love for Channel 4 to do is return to the family in six months time when the coalitions welfare reforms can really be felt and see how they are coping with only £53 a week. I can imagine that belts would have been tightened further but Dean and his family will still be a united front and be going about a similar routine.

The hardest watch of the night had to be Kieron, a drug addicted shop lifter whose insistence that he is clean is rather different from a reality where his eyes swivel in his sockets and his speech is so slurred you're often trying to unpick his words from the last sentence as he starts the next. At the moment in the hostel when he explains why he first started taking drugs you understand why he is in the situation that he's found himself in and can really identify with his predicament. The most tragic part of the night is when he is thrown out of his sheltered accommodation and the crew return to see him put up a tent, that never feels like he legitimately acquired, already out of his box on a fistful of valium that he's taken it's a struggle but he manages. As the crew leave him alone in the park that he calls his bed for the night he begins lighting up a cigarette, not a great idea in something made of mostly flammable materials. The camera pulled out to show him alone in the park and the commentary said something about him getting back on his feet. What I was expecting to happen was the tent to burst into flames and the camera crew rushing in to try and save him but ultimately then realising that he was probably better off dead.

One of the story arcs that I found most fascinating last night was that of Dean's step-son leaving school. We found out that he has flunked out of school with one lone D at GCSE. He seems content and just plays on the playstation as he confesses to camera about his grades. One of his options was the army, he was in the cadets and seemed keen on the forces as a future career. The documentary made reference to the fact that there is an army recruitment office in most poor working class areas making a possible slight at the forces only taking young men and women from deprived backgrounds as they have no other choice. If I were Dean's step son the army would be a very alluring prospect, it would take me away from the dangers of the estate, get me a good education and broaden my horizons. However, in another narrative he could return from a combat zone a broken man with PTSD and simply slide back to life at the wall.

Finally the evening ended on a high with a cage fighting father looking for success in the ring to help bring his family everything that he wanted such as trips to the zoo and the amazing birthday's they deserve. In the ring it wasn't to be as he lost the fight but everything felt very much like the end of Act II of his story where he was going to overcome the odds in Act III and give the audience the resolution that we wanted for him. Finally it came in him getting a job working in a warehouse and he gushed to camera about how this Christmas was going to be the best ever and you genuinely felt for him. Could it be that this shows the compelling power of sport or was it simply a way to have us happy at the end that something has worked out for someone in a situation where there is far more bleakness than hope?

At the end of the show I felt almost exhausted by what I had gone through. Ultimately I like the residents  on the estate, they had all be humanised but they had their problems that I'm sure will anger those on the right and those on the left equally. Trawling through the tweets on the #skint the episode was widely received as yet another chance to demonise the working class and a few took their shots at the welfare system as expected, others aimed high obviously like me seeing the human side to the residents, and the trolls aimed low as they always do. However, the discussion about Skint goes further with Humberside Police issuing a statement about the programme and a local school trying to bring the Producers to account at a meeting after many of the students being distressed about what they have seen on TV.

Ultimately Skint is just the next in a line of programmes that will come out over the next few years that could be considered "Poverty Porn". I don't take the leftist line in believing that this is "State propaganda" and nor do I believe those on the right who think that this is a call to arms to dismantle the welfare state to stop the commoners "breading and smoking their drugs". It's just another piece of sensationalist documentary that Channel 4, by remit, is required to produce (See Dogging Tales, Big Fat Gypsy [insert anything here], The Undatables... The list goes on) plus showing a working class family just getting on with life on the corner of the estate wouldn't make compelling TV - they'd just be like the rest of us, and who the hell wants to watch sane, rational, normal people on TV anymore?

Finally, at the end did Channel 4 go all post modern? As the woman walking past the park blurted out: "What are you looking at yearh f***ing perv?" I suddenly realised that for an hour I had been watching an intrusion into someone else's life for no other reason than I kinda wanted to know how "the other half lived" it was a strange experience but I enjoyed it and am looking forward to next week already!

Amazon/Love Film Pilot season

I've stuck with Love Film through a lot - I tried to leave them several times over the course of my contract but find it a lot like trying to dump a needy girlfriend. The excuses to stay range from: all your stuff is at ours, we can do better I promise to please stay with us *sobbing on the other end of the phone* eventually every time that I've spoken to the "breaking up" department I seem to have been given a free month to try again and we've just carried on like nothing has happened. Their selection of films online is still terrible and I find myself with two rented DVD's that I have had for nearly 6 months that I haven't watched and probably won't ever get round to.

*Aside* "Come join Netflix Ted, you know you want to.

 When Netflix released the amazing House of Cards I watched most of the episodes on a friends account and then set up a free one on my Xbox that I immediately cancelled allowing me to watch the remaining episodes. However, with their promise to find new original shows to broadcast in the near future I was very tempted to once again jump ship and become a paying customer of Netflix - dumping Love Film in the process.

However, when browsing the limited selection of features last night on Love Film I was shown an advert for Vikings (Cheaper looking Game of Thrones hoping to cash in on the aforementioned shows popularity) a Love Film original series. I was intrigued but that's as far as I've gotten with it (possible blog to follow) but it then lead me to Amazon/Love Film Pilot season which got me sidetracked. Could it be that Love Film are seeing the success of Spacey and co on their rivals service and see this as the way to go?

The main problem I have is that I have had no idea that this has been going on. With House of Cards you couldn't move in London for seeing Spacey's face on the underground and even well established film magazines and websites were talking the series up. As of yet I have heard nothing about either Vikings or the mentioned Pilot season. What exactly is going on at Love Film towers and is this something for wannabe TV producers to be getting excited about, other possible avenues to get their ideas made? Or is everything so shrouded in secrecy because Love Film don't want to be drawing to much attention to themselves in case this is a flop?

Right so "Pilot Season" basically is a 14 pilots for new original TV shows (8 adult comedies, and I'm guessing 6 children's shows) that will be voted on by the general public in a democratic fashion with the winner becoming a series on Love Film for all subscribers to enjoy. The only issue with this is that people are idiots when it comes to democracy; how else would you explain George Bush, David Cameron or the Liberal Party? Basically I think that all this is a bit of a faff and we should just let the winner of the Amazon/Love Film pilot season green-light belt be decided by royal rumble. Let it begin!

Fake Republicans, not as funny as the real ones.

So I started with Alpha House with a heavy hitting cast including John Goodman (weight advantage) showing a bunch of bumbling Republican senators who have to share a house together in DC with much hilarity ensuing. The "jokes" here are at the expense of conservative politics but are often not as funny as some of the actual sound bites that you can get from American politicians, or the Daily Show putting a spin on them. Ultimately just lazy writing that we've all seen before but might be good if there's money thrown at it as there's some talent attached. Being the first in the ring it only has to posture around the place to look slightly alright.

But what's that? In comes Dark Minions a cheaper version of something that you might see on Adult Swim where two average joes find themselves aboard an intergalactic warship in order to try and make ends meat. Not only can it not stand toe to toe with Alpha House but it's the kind of show that trips on it's way to the ring and is disqualified on a medical technicality.

Next comes Browsers, I might be one of the only straight men of my generation who likes, nay loves, Glee and Browsers is desperately trying to be Glee and it needs to take a lesson from the show - don't try and be something your not. Browsers is a good premise set in a Huffington Post like publication it could attract a good audience of those interested in the world of online journalism. However, every so often the cast insist on breaking into songs that have me awkwardly twisting in my seat to try and escape the noise. Glee works because of the characters, there are none I care about here. Goodman eats them all one by one in the ring and spits them back out where they came from.

With so much time taken on poor mans Glee *COUGH* I mean Browsers. Alpha House is now tired and on the ropes so as Onion News Empire snakes under the ropes it doesn't need much to push Goodman et al over and slide them out. Set in the offices of the Onion News Network it's pretty much if Sorkin had decided that he was going to smoke Mary Jayne rather than sampling the white powder when writing The Newsroom, and try his hardest to write something that isn't funny - at all.

By this time in the evening now I'm tired and Betas (another great idea poorly, so poorly, executed) and Supra-Natural (terrible, terrible) barely make it past the opening 5 minutes before I turn them off frustrated that they were included in the line-up. Onion News Empire tosses them both aside one by one and looks dead a-head for the next challenge.

That's not Woody Harrelson 

And it comes in the form of Zombieland that struts to the ring with a swagger that only a toddler in a tiara knows how. It's crass, it's boring and it's not the movie of the same name by any stretch of the imagination. Where Eisenberg and his band of merry men and women brought charm and character to the end of the world after the first, overly long, "joke" finishes clanging you're left with what is now just flat characters and a painful remake of what was one of my favourite movies of 2009. It's not very often that I'm on the zombies side, but this time I'm actively rooting for them!

In the end, after a hard slog of a battle the champion of the "Pilot Season" has to be Zombieland. It has the following from the film and people are going to want to see what happens to Tallahassee, Columbus, Wichita and Little Rock in the future. Even if it is that they are doomed to star in a bad sitcom.

The main question though that I have to ask is not the winner of this round but what is next for the winning show and how is it that Love Film have managed to produce 8 terrible shows all at once whereas Netflix has managed with House of Cards to create a gripping TV series that rivals anything that even the likes of HBO are churning out at the moment! Maybe I might have to look at new ways to let them know at Love Film that: "It's not you it's me." unless Vikings can save my subscription.

UPDATE - The Guardian reports that Amazon have picked two pilots to greenlight Alpha House and Betas - http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2013/may/22/zombieland-tv-show-axed-fan-power

'Source Material' Shoot

'Source Material' is an idea that I have had kicking around in my head in one form or another for about 6 years now. It's something of a cross between Stranger Than Fiction and the Adjustment Bureau where a 'coder' (Chuck) who works for a company called 'The Corporation' who are in charge of writing "life" as it were. Without them keeping the narrative of things ticking over everything would go to pot, or at least so the bosses of The Corporation do.

Chris and Ted trying to discuss shots even though it's late

 Chuck has always thought that he was destined for greater things. In his mind he should be in charge of writing for the President but instead he has got landed with someone boring and mundane. In previous drafts of the script Chuck is constantly trying to move to writing for someone who is deemed a "success" and eventually decides to alter the narrative so that his character accidentally becomes one. This then spirals out of control with him having to fight for the control of his characters soul eventually having to meet him and directly intervene in his life in order to save him.

Ben Rosen getting a touch up before he goes on camera

In this short version it was simply that Chuck meets the girl (Kate) that he thinks that he is meant to make his character fall in love with and in turn falls for her too. He then only has a limited amount of time to rewrite the narrative in the hope that no one from The Corporation finds out what he has done. However, was it all meant to happen his way with the ending shot seemingly being another coder sat in the lobby writing away as Chuck lies in bed happy with Kate.

A very happy Austin at the bar

Basically the shoot was another great experience for myself and BottleRocket Film. We've come on leaps and bounds from our first outing together on the 48 Hour SciFi Challenge and hopefully when Source Material is cut and finished this lessons that we learnt will show. The cast were great, the crew were amazing (and a special thanks to the staff at Ennios in Southampton who were amazing hosts for the two days that we were with them!) and we managed to not only film everything that we wanted but actually finished a-head of schedule and a tiny bit under budget!

Ted directing Austin in the opening shots

Personally I learnt lessons from being involved in helping out  on The Fitzroy and watching Andrew direct that piece and had a much greater understanding of what it is to be a director. I'm not at the point where I understand everything about the craft but I'm slowly getting there I think.

More direction of Austin in the lobby scene

The lessons that we learnt are much the same as before but now with the need to be looking at more ambitious shorts we know that we have to start attracting not just more people to work with us but have to also start looking around for more money. Out of necessity we have frequently had to either be in our own films (Chris Richards is now a staple motif in our work - some might call him a modern day Hitchcock!) and often we have had to share a few roles amongst each other that isn't ideal but I think that we've managed to pull it off. In future productions I think it is now essential that we ensure that there are enough people to fill each role in the film and stick solely to their jobs.

Emma and Joey at the table in the restaurant

I am also indebted to my friends who came along and helped out on this production for nothing other than my eternal love and respect. Everyone who we called on stepped up to the plate and really made the film their own. It has really made me think hard about how I would like to conduct myself if I were ever to really make this filmmaking malarky my full time job, I would want to ensure that everyone on the production was treated as fairly and equally as possible right down to how the "profits" of the film were distributed.

So to the future. I've got until mid September when my year is up and I'm happy with what I have achieved so far on this adventure; but there is no real money in short films and unless we get lucky and one of our videos manages to gain thousands of views we're never going to establish ourselves as a legitimate production company. We've got plans to make another few short films this year but after we have maybe got five or six under our belts I would really like to start looking a tackling a feature film - hopefully as early as late next year. This is obviously a pipe dream - but if you can't dream big, what's the point in dreaming at all?!


If anyone wants to see some more photos from the shoot, or keep up to date with BottleRocket's adventures like our Facebook page here:

https://www.facebook.com/BottleRocketFilm

We've got some time in the editing suite booked on the 5th June so look out for the rough cut making an appearance shortly after but we're hoping to have some original music written for the piece that will accompany the final cut hopefully before the end of June!

Why everybody needs a little Sheldon in their life.

Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons) of The Big Bang Theory is the only character holding the franchise together. Odd, dysfunctional and often downright rude and objectionable he is the lynchpin on which the whole franchise now rests. No longer gripped by the off and on relationship of Penny and Leonard, the not so subtle references to Raj being a little “sweet” and the show even seems to be running thin on Jewish jokes to throw at Howard it is now often up to Sheldon to save each and every episode with his misunderstandings of the world and childish naivety.

It seems that even the writing staff knows it. In episode Seventeen of season Four The Toast Derivation the group realize that Sheldon is the one that holds their group together and without him nothing really seems as interesting as it should anymore. It appears that now the rest of the group from that moment on are simply supporting characters in “The Sheldon Cooper Half Hour”.

Although the show has now moved on to try and become more of an ensemble piece: Raj now has a girlfriend who is even more damaged than he is, Bernadette and Howard and married and living together and even Stewart from the comic book store got an outing when Howard was in space. The only real interest I now have is in the development of the relationship between Sheldon and Amy. They’ve taken the “will they, won’t they” to a whole new level of sexual tension, the closest that the pair have come is in the latest episode The Love Spell Potential where the two retire to Sheldon’s bedroom to let the die in dungeons and dragons do the talking taking their pieces into some compromising positions, and often I find that the screen time that the two share has so much more tenderness than that of the “normal” relationship between Penny and Leonard. The writing is superb at these points where the team find a double entendre in what is often something as simple as rubbing vapo-rub on a chest, or dissecting monkey brains. It seems to hark back to the dialogue in the great screwball comedies such as Bringing Up Baby or Some Like it Hot.  I find myself as a bystander in what must be one of the oddest pairings of individuals ever (aside from Ryan Gosling and Bianca in Lars and the Real Girl) willing for Sheldon to see the light, or Amy to finally take matters into her own hands and show him what he’s missing!

Also, without Sheldon the show would not be devoid of giggles (it’s still a funny show with some great gaffes and good set-ups) but the real roars and belly laughs would be gone. As mentioned before while the other jokes are wearing thin, we’ve already seen the “he must be hiding in the closet” character a hundred times and there are plenty of other shows that give us a few good Jewish on-liners; but as of yet no one has put whatever Sheldon is on screen, there must still be a goldmine of situations to drop him in and just let the character write itself. Let’s take Sheldon to the zoo, the swimming pool, God forbid church and just see what happens.

Moving into more general Big Bang terms – why is the show so successful other than the character of Sheldon; because, it’s made geeky cool. The nerd was becoming less as less of the bridesmaid and finally allowed to be the bride; no longer simply the supporting character they were now the protagonist. Over my lifetime it’s no longer a big deal if you collect comic books, superhero’s are downright mainstream now and being overtly involved in your favourite TV show is accepted (though blogging about  them for more than 1000 words might be pushing it a little!). The Big Bang Theory came about just as it was becoming more and more acceptable to be a nerd riding the wave of the zeitgeist, just as all good TV should. 

Though, ‘Shouting into the Viod’ (http://butmyopinionisright.tumblr.com/post/31079561065/the-problem-with-the-big-bang-theory) blogged this about the Big Bang theory:

And here’s my issue, here’s why The Big Bang Theory makes me feel uncomfortable. We aren’t laughing with Leonard, Sheldon, Raj and Howard. We’re laughing at them. Chuck Lorre has given us four exceptionally intelligent, nerdy main characters and he’s positioned us as an audience against them. When I watch Big Bang it becomes more and more obvious that I’m not supposed to relate to the guys (or more recently Amy Farrah-Fowler). I’m expected to relate to Penny. You only need to pay attention to the audience laughter to realise that TBBT relies on positioning us as an outsider to the nerds, as someone like Penny who doesn’t understand their references, their science, their vocabulary even, and who doesn’t care to learn.

The lengthy blog went on to explain that the author thought that Community was much more on the side of the nerds than TBBT (Thank you for that acronym!). Although I love Community I think that the show is far more concerned about being a self-referential post-modern construct than it is about celebrating nerd culture and praising the character of “the nerd” (although there is a healthy dabbling in it). The Greendale 7 are not and can never be real people, they are far, far too out there. They are a construct that can only exist in the world that the story has created, without Greendale there can be no them. Although we care for them, and more importantly for the school, there is no real interpersonal drama the group will always be accepted and always be loved no matter what hijinks they get up to next. TBBT really absorbs you into the world of what it means to be a geek because the four main characters, they are us, they suffer the same problems that we do and we feel for them in their struggles to be accepted in a world with little understanding of them. Shouting into the Void argues that we are Penny in the series observing the group whereas I would argue that Penny herself is more part of the group than we realise (she herself struggles to be accepted and one could even argue that she is a closet geek herself) rather she gives an outsiders perspective on the situations the group find themselves in and we can all laugh together at the absurdity of behaviours that we too demonstrate, it’s no bad thing. If you can’t laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at?!

I often wonder what it might be like to have a friend like Sheldon, although some of my friends have some social dysfunctions none are in the same league as Dr Cooper. Some viewers have asserted that Sheldon’s behaviour is consistent with Asperger syndrome but the writers have flat out denied that was a basis for the character. Series co-creator Bill Prady had this to say:

 "We write the character as the character. A lot of people see various things in him and make the connections. Our feeling is that Sheldon's mother never got a diagnosis, so we don't have one"

I think I’d like it.

It appears though that not everyone agrees with me, see the other side of the argument on why TBBT sucks so much here: http://www.sickchirpse.com/the-big-bang-theory-sucks/

Another poem - this time to try and win something!

So I got all clever and decided to try and write a poem to try and get on a course with the London Screenwriting Festival and John Yorke - I thought that I'd put it up here so that you can see my attempt too!

My name is Ted Wilkes and I’m a young writer who quit his job

in hopes of finding my dreams with the humble pen.

I would find this course a great way to exercise my frontal lobe

and give me the chance to find my creativity again.

I’d love one day once I’ve written a screenplay of my very own

to also don an academic robe

and allow me to teach others to pay off their student loan

by selling their scripts around the globe. (Or at least Harvey Weinstein)

I will give this course my all, and promise to behave

and not just learn myself, but help others with the goals they wish to reach

and one day soon if the critics do rave

about my work I shall remember this course in the Oscar speech.

Enter by sending your own little ditty - or just a couple of sentences about why you deserve to win to this address: contests@londonswf.com 

Late to the party - They're making a 'Ratchet and Clank' movie!!

Now this is huge news for someone who spent far to much time in his teenage years steering Ratchet and his robot partner Clank around various pixelated planets collecting nuts and bolts and generally trying to find out which bits of the scenery you can smash with a wrench!!

It appears as if the video game franchise is finally getting its big screen debut! With its quirky humor and lovable characters Ratchet and Clank was always screaming out to be turned into a film and finally Blockade Entertainment and Rainmaker Entertainment have begun production with the creator of the video game Insomniac assisting with the screenplay and character development.T.J. Fixman, who has worked on all of the recent R&C games is currently writing the script for the film.

Insomniac senior community manager James Stevenson wrote this on the PlayStation blog.

"The truth is, we've wanted to do a movie for a long time! Ratchet & Clank's action, humour and galaxy-spanning adventures have really been the basis for a fantastic game series, and we think it'd translate perfectly to the big screen."

Below you can catch the films teaser trailer:

The Future of Community- From Paintball to Annie's Boobs!

#sixseasonsandamovie was the cry that went out on Twitter - and for the Eagle-eyed amongst you dotted around the place in various episodes on chalk boards and posters around campus - however, how much life has NBC's Community really got left in it, and will we ever see the Greendale seven finally graduate and move on with their lives and I can with mine? Or is that really the end of the darkest timeline?!

Community - Big fan!

Ever since the first episode of Community I have been hooked. The mixture of pop culture references, crazy (and I mean crazy) characters and self-referential humour was perfectly balanced for me to enjoy the 20 minute offerings each week and still be hungry for more. As the season(s) developed and things got increasingly zany I stuck with it and became something of a super fan! Anything that the show could throw at me I lapped up: paintball, the darkest timeline, pillow forts even a Pulp Fiction tribute things seemed to just be getting better and better. That is until the latest season.

With the departure of creator and showrunner Dan Harmon there was always the worry that the show might lose its way and with him being replaced by David Guarascio and Moses Port (co-creators of Aliens in America) some might have cause to be worried about the future of Community. I stuck with it and was disappointed with the results characters stagnating, re-hashed jokes, the dreaded "Changnesia" farce, puppets and even the writers appearing dismayed with the results (Abed - "Remember when this was a show about a community college") - Though in their defense the "Intro to Knots" episode was a favorite of all time.

What's next for the Greendale 7?

After catching the finale last night I was certain that this must be the end of the show that I have passionately followed from day one. With Jeff graduating the study group has ultimately lost the one thing that has been keeping them together this whole time. It was a fitting end, we started with Jeff's struggle to graduate and now we have resolved that problem and he rejoins the world a better man, and with that the final nail in the Community coffin must have been hammered  in.

However, after doing a little web browsing I found out that the show has been renewed for a fifth season that is likely to lift the show finally into syndication (it only need 16 more to get to the magic 100th episode) or finally kill it dead. What worries me the most is where on earth the show will head now? It has ultimately lost its driving lead (Jeff) - though more and more recently the show has become more of an ensemble piece you have to worry that the dynamic will have shifted so dramatically that the show will be unrecognizable. Never fear though I've given it a go and thought of a few directions that the writers could look at taking the show (if any of them are reading this I could do with a job and am willing to work for free!!!)

1 - The return of Jeff I - Winger returns to Greendale as a professor of something (maybe law, maybe something more ridiculous) and of course the study group pick his class as an elective praying for an easy ride.
2 - More paintball - Everyone loved them so bring it back first episode of season 5 - double header (like they should be) this time Saving Private Greendale.

Paintball - you know you want it back in a big way!

3 - Barry Trotter and Astronomy 101 - With the study group now doing astronomy as an elective next semester (season) there might be a chance to go all Harry Potter here (a lose grounding I know, but they've made bigger leaps on the show!)
4 - The return of Jeff II - With City College (or even the air conditioning school on campus) making a legal challenge to the very existence of Greendale Jeff has to return to save the school and the study group that he loves.
5 - Bring back Annie's boobs - Sure the monkey, that's what I meant.

Bring back Annie's boobs!

6 - Abed and the "dreamatorium" - Taking Jeff's departure hard Abed tries to use the dreamatorium for the greater good and goes within a dream within a dream to try and get Jeff to return to Greendale - It would be a cheap Inception rip off but god damn it I want back in the dreamatorium!
7 - The other timelines - We've seen a lot of the darkest timeline recently (let's have more of dark Annie please) but what about the other ones? What is happening in them?
8 - The Walking Greendale - I could die a happy man after this! It has to happen once in my life - my two favorite shows having a baby and boy it'd be lovely (I know that a Halloween episode in season two was like this - but it didn't got far enough!)

And that's all I've got at the moment - none really all that well thought out - but it was fun for a moment to play out my very own season 5 in my head.

Just another word about crowdfunding as it's something that I've been looking at a lot recently. The biggest successes on Kickstarter of late should get the Community fan base really, really excited. Vernoica Mars and Zac Braff both of which have huge, passionate followings have gathered huge amounts of funding and support for their films - maybe if NBC can't see it in their hearts to get Community on the silver screen if we all dipped into our pockets a little we really could make #sixseasonsandamovie a reality!

Away from my rambling about Community this guy from PBS Ideas Channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/pbsideachannel?feature=watch) has something far more educational about Community if you can be bothered to learn about post modern meta narrative constructs (who said I went to university for nothing!)

Peace,

- Ted

Where do ideas come from?

There is nothing more satisfying in the world than having that moment of inspiration that leads to a fully formed idea, or even just half of one, flashing across the inner movie screen in your head. When you start seeing things come together in your mind, scene after scene from fade in to fade out with the credits rolling. 

But where is it that ideas come from?

It’s one of the questions that people have been asking me a lot recently and to be honest I don’t really have a clue how or where ideas for screenplays pop into my head. They seem to happen at random and without much warning and often as quick as they come unless I write them down – they’re gone!

I’m a great believer that everyone in the world has a story to tell that would be great on the big screen. That great love lost, that passion that you have for something no one else knows about, the big secret that you’re still keeping from secondary school.

Though how do you know that one story your bursting to get out on the page will be any good? That’s the beauty, you don’t and you never will unless you start writing it and let the inner movie in your head run free. Start looking at your flashes of brilliance as a window box that you have to nurture each and every day adding a little water (ink) here and there, letting it see the light (giving it some breathing room) trying new things to help it grow – taking your characters on a journey that might not have an ending just yet but by the time you’ve finished writing you’ll have a beautiful little herb garden prospering around you. I think that I might be confusing metaphors here; but I think that you get the picture. Write every day and let your imagination run wild – you can always edit it later.

Anyone who says that: “I’m not creative enough to be having ideas all the time” wind me up. We’re all creative in our own ways – we find ways to express ourselves all the time and you have to take your own way of expressing yourself to the page. I once got told that the muscles you need to write are just like any other in your body – if you don’t use them they get weak and flabby. You need to write to be able to learn to write – so basically what’s stopping you!

Finally, for those of you who still might be struggling to find your opus or muse I know that actually getting started is the hardest part, that’s until you get to the middle of ACT II and you feel that you’ll never see the end, and after that there’s how you get to the end look back and realize that you hate everything that you’ve written. What I’m trying to say is that writing can be hard, but only as hard as you make it. When I’m ever struggling to write I just remember this little ditty and it all seems so simple again:

Want to be a writer but don’t know how or when,

Find a pad of paper and grab a humble pen.

So you’ll be pleased to know that I’ve finally finished the self-empowerment seminar and here are a few tips that in my six months of writing full time that I’ve found have helped in the creative process:

-          Write little – Unless you’re one of those people who can sit at a screen for hours on end typing away work in short busts with little breaks in-between! You’ll get more done in that time and can reward yourself with treats and breaks that helps structure your work day. I’ve found it really helpful to buy myself a desktop egg timer (called boss). She makes sure that I work for 20 minutes straight (with no break or internet) and then get 5 minutes off after 20.

-          Write often – I don’t entirely believe in working on the same project every day but you should at least be writing something 365 days of the year. Put simply writer’s write stuff. Get a blog, a twitter account, email people, just get something down on paper at least once a day every day. My address is 4pagesormore for a reason – it’s what I aim to do every day without fail.

-          Write to a deadline - It’s amazing what having a self-enforced deadline can do to you. But don’t just trust yourself to keep to the deadline tell everyone you know that you’re going to complete this screenplay in a month and they are to hound you to read it if it’s not done. You’ll be surprised how a little peer pressure can get you working away rather speedily.

C. Hunt dancing with a chicken in his underpants, and apparently we're still all doomed!

So after my second week on set with The Fitzroy I'm tired but so so happy to have been involved with what I know is going to be such an amazing finished film! The time that I've spent on set has been invaluable and I've learnt so much about how films actually get made and all the little things that go on during the shoot that no-one ever really tells you!

Now more than ever this last week that I've spent on the set has shown me that this is what I really want to do with my life and that by hook or by crook I'm going to end up making films regardless of what is thrown at me! It was just the best experience being surrounded by people who are passionate about films, and the project and all of a sudden the stuff that I was doing locked away in my bedroom typing away became really relevant and I wasn't just "crazy Ted at the pub" talking about characters that only existed in my head!

David Gant as the hilarious Mr Thompson rehearsing his catchphrase to camera! 

Dedicated students Kat and Briony working in the art department and on deadlines! 

Me in the corridor set at the end of the day. 

The art department working late to change the set for the last three days of shooting.

The Green Rock River Band playing on set! Amazing music and the guys kept us entertained!

Photo of the cast and crew - just like in Primary School at the back because I'm so tall!

Have a look at some of the pictures of the shoot - it was a seriously amazing experience both professionally and personally. If there are any film/media students reading this get yourself on Kickstarter now and look around at some of the projects that are nearing completion. Like me you'll have no money to be able to give them but get in contact and offer your time - it might even be better than a donation and the experience that you'll gain will be invaluable!