Chief Productions

A few weeks ago I had my second stint as a runner, this time at Chief Productions.

Chief Productions Logo. They answer the phone and go "Hello Chief!"

I'm hoping all this experience will mount up and put me in good stead for a job in the future in TV. The guys there were really great, and I'm not just saying that encase any of them find this. It's going to be a long time until I forget that Karen likes an Earl Grey with one sugar, Andy likes a stupidly strong coffee with no sugar, and Colin likes his tea with a third milk. There was also an opportunity to talk to Chief's main writer, and I showed him some of my stuff and wrote a small sketch for him. When he talked about going to Greenland to film a short pilot, I became very envious - no wonder this industry is so hard to get into. It turns out that many of the guys who work at Chief are involved in making comedy sketches, and actually had made some stuff that I'd seen. This was great because a common interest was found, and I hope to some day help out these guys whether it be writing a sketch (ideally) or on location. Fingers crossed..

Visit Scotland Advert: Pre-Production Meeting

In November of last year I won a competition by Visit Scotland to create a quirky and innovative advert idea to promote Scotland to groups of 20 to 30 year olds. The competition was open to all delegates on The Network 2011, which is billed as Television's 'number one talent scheme' by many in the Television Industry. Tern TV are to help with the creation of the advert, as are two competition runner ups; Lisa and Owen.

I woke at 5am. By 6am I was stood at my local railway station, a short walk away. I shared the station platform with a man who was sleeping on a bench, until another few commuters showed up (to which I was thankful). It was pitch black and I was freezing, but I was excited and didn't care. I hopped on a train and got to Manchester for 7am. There I met Lisa and Owen, and we began the journey to Edinburgh. We arrived in Glasgow Central at 10:30am after a lengthy chat on the train. Lisa revealed she'd just done some work experience and was starting paid work, and Owen was in University and had work experience planned. Lucky people.

We were told in an email from Holly Blake, a coordinator from The Network, that Tern TV was a short walk from the station. Despite it being cold I was excited about the prospect of a short walk around Glasgow, as I'd never been there before and thought I'd be able to take in a few sights before we arrived at our destination. We met Holly, exited the station, crossed the road, and were there. I guess Glasgow sightseeing will have to wait for the advert.

Me, Holly, Lisa and Owen were then welcomed into Tern TV's offices and met David Strachan, co-founder and joint managing director, and Andrew Blackwell, development and corporate producer. David and Andrew explained that they had been discussing the original idea and had decided, that due to the current climate between England and Scotland, that the idea needed to be changed. We discussed new takes on the original proposal for about three hours.

We all decided on an idea, and then me, Lisa, and Owen were told we had to pitch it to Ruma Cummins, a consumer PR Manager from Visit Scotland. Andrew, who had previously worked in advertising, gave us some last minute pointers as Holly greeted her outside the room. Ruma entered and we all pitched the idea - most of which we had come up with twenty minutes prior. We were all extremely enthusiastic in the pitch which must have come across as Ruma appeared to love it. She left shortly afterwards, and we all patted ourselves on the back.

Me, Lisa, and Owen - with help from Holly and her artistry, set about creating a rough storyboard. This took around two hours, before we showed our ideas to Andrew, who appeared to be amused and impressed. The beauty of the idea is that it's easily adaptable to any location in Scotland. It's also fun and quirky, as required by the brief, and fulfils all other criteria. Everybody who was told about the idea embraced it and was enthusiastic, and therefore we're all really positive about it.

We left Holly, Andrew, and David, crossed the road back to the station, and got the train back to the North West. We passed the journey talking about the idea amongst other things. We all live close to each other (Owen and Lisa live in Manchester, which is twenty minutes away) and therefore we can meet easily, which I believe we'll be required to do in the near future. When I arrived in Warrington, I got a taxi home. The Taxi Driver asked where I'd been; "Glasgow" I said, "I was at a pre-production meeting for a Visit Scotland Advert." He turned his radio up and didn't speak to me again. I do not believe he is happy with his job.

It may be frustrating to have read this and for me to have not shared the advert proposal despite consistently talking about how great it is, but I don't know how much I'm allowed to tell you. You'll find out soon enough though. and if all goes to plan, as some scenes are quite ambitious, it'll be hilarious. May even involved a famous Scottish voice...

My First Time As A Runner

On the weekend of the 7th January I was a runner on The Big Question, in which Nicky Campbell hosts a series of ethical, religious, and moral debates. The show came to Warrington and I volunteered for work experience. As I'm often applying for entry level roles such as being a runner, then this is I believed would be a much needed boost for my CV.

On the Saturday I met the other runners, and the researchers who were in charge of delegating tasks to us. We were given our duties for the following day, in which two episodes would be filmed; one that goes out live at 10am, and another that would be aired the following Sunday. We were there for two hours, doing some preparations and getting familiar with the building layout. We were then told to meet at 7am the next morning.

Before I left I asked if any of the production team needed help locating anything in the town, as I come from Warrington and know it well. The show's producer replied "do you know of any Newsagents that will be open at 6am tomorrow?" ... I looked up and pondered. I had no idea. Then, 24 hour Tesco popped into my head. "There's a big Tesco nearby" I said. "Will the Taxi Driver know how to get there if I say 'Big Tesco' to him?" she replied. "Yes, without a doubt" I said, leaving before anyone else would ask my anything.

As I lay in bed that night I realized that 24 hour Tesco is not open for 24 hours on a Sunday. But there is a Tesco Garage just outside it, and that should be open, so hopefully the producer will see that and go there, and I won't get a telling off when I went to work the next day.

I woke at 6am the next day, and jumped in the shower. When I exited I had a text message on my phone; "Hi James, it's Katie (one of the Researchers) any chance you can pick up two copies of the Observer before you come in today?" I replied saying that I would, and got a response "Can you also pick up a big jar of Instant Coffee?" I replied saying I would again. I ran (this would be a re-occurring theme of the day) to my local Newsagents and got the goods, Then ran back home to get a lift into the town centre from my Dad.

I arrived at ten to 7 and had a breakfast that was provided for free; a full English. Amazing. I then went into the Green Room and awaited the guests. My job was to look after the special guests that had been invited to speak on the show. Edwina Curry was one of these guests, for example, who had been invited to talk about Margaret Thatcher. I talked to many of the guests and offered them tea or coffee, and saw to their requirements. One requirement was that somebody wanted a croissant, in which I had to tell one of the production staff "Listen, it's Warrington at 9pm on a Sunday ... I'm never going to be able to get one" and so Toast was offered instead.

As I knew the town centre I kept being sent out to get stuff; biscuits, bottles of water ... in between making tea and coffee. Once the show was over I escorted some of the guests to their taxis and then we set up the room for the next show's guests, in between having another free meal.

The next thing I was required to do was stand in the car park and tell people where the empty spaces were. After half an hour of that, I helped with the cloakroom. Katie (as mentioned before; one of the researchers) then came over and said, as a reward for running around across town, that if I wanted I could watch the show being recorded from the Broadcast Truck - which probably ended up being the highlight. I have ultimate respect now for TV Presenters, for making a really hard job seem easy. The people in the truck were constantly talking to Nicky, who had to listen to them whilst engaged in another conversation with guests.

After the second show finished, I walked a guest to the railway station and then helped tidy up. We left at around half three - so a good full days work in the end. Everyone was really nice and it only helped reinforce my enthusiasm for wanting to work in television. I worked in my normal day to day job the day after I remember thinking "yesterday I was with Nicky Campbell and Edwina Curry" as I was making sure there was the same amount of rollwrap on each display in the store.

Gave her coffee, gave him tea, her tea, him coffee...

If I read this back I bet it would sound like something a child would write after they've been the Zoo. So I won't, and I'll risk there being some pretty embarrassing spelling gaffs.

Let Louche

If you follow me on twitter, you'll have noticed that I've been plugging a website lately, almost twice a day. That website is www.letlouche.com and is a website that I have designed to showcase mine and my co-writer's talent, in the form of weekly sketches that we're going to post all over the web (Youtube, Funny Or Die) ... ALL over the web!

The idea came from what Brian Limond (aka Limmy, a Glasgow based Scottish comedian) did with his website. He posted regular sketches and content, and slowly built a following. That's what we aim to do - we're including a link in the bottom right of all our videos, and hopefully with Twitter and Facebook we'll build a small fan base. The aim being to showcase our writing talent.

We make clear on the website that we're not actors. We don't like to act, we're more the 'ideas' men and like to give people the problem of trying to understand our vision. Regardless, we're acting away at the moment, until we can hopefully get some help from casting calls or people emailing us to offer a hand. We're also now committed to doing a sketch a week, as the key to any good blog/website is regular updates (Once a week. That's all it takes).

So check out www.letlouche.com and marvel at the design. Then watch the sketches. Then like the page. Then tell your friends. Then come back next week. Then tell more friends. Then I'll love you. You should also, hopefully, see a dramatic rise in quality through the year with the sketches, as we become more familiar with cameras and editing. See, at least if it doesn't work, then we'll have something for the CV ... "I made a website for my sketches that people didn't like."

Green Screen

In preparation for mine and Sean's new (not so if you've seen my twitter feed) top secret project, I decided to look into making a green screen. I was looking at prices on the web for green screens and was struggling to find one for under fifty pounds, but then I came across a Youtube video of a 9 year old using a curtain for one, and decided there must be a cheap alternative. I decided to try buying a few sheets of green card. Total cost - £10. Significantly better than I thought.

Very ill. They used to use blue screens didn't they?

Me and Sean placed the metre by half a metre card together, and used masking tape on the back to connect it all together. Then I used more masking tape to tape it to my living room wall. Then ... we had no idea what to do with it. We had a perfectly good screen of green, but few ideas. I was ill, and Sean was tired. I'm pretty sure that's why what we filmed is as weird as it is. Editing the footage on Adobe Premier was easier than I imagined - you drag a 'Keying' file to your footage and then use an eyedropper tool to select the green. Easy.

See? Great result in my opinion. I was worried that the edges of the sheets would show up (in the picture of me above, look at how you can see a black line above my head) but there were no problems at all. A full working green screen. All for ten quid. Now we just need to come up with some good ideas to use it, perhaps a bit better than what's in the video...

The Big Question

A few months ago I went for an interview for The Network At Work, a paid work placement offered by The Network (featured in my first ever blog post). Whilst waiting for my interview I met a girl called Katie. By the end of the day we were both following each other on Twitter. Fast forward to a few weeks ago; I believe it was around lunchtime on a Monday, and whilst on Twitter I happened to see a tweet from Katie, saying she needed runners for 'The Big Question' (BBC). I messaged her, and, a few hours later, I had applied for the role on offer.

A faith and ethics program presented by Nicky Campbell

I found out yesterday that I've been successful in my application. It's a voluntary runner job over two days in a few weeks, for when 'The Big Question' comes to Warrington. That's pretty handy, huh? A TV show coming to my doorstep. I'm pretty excited, and it will also look great on my CV. I count myself lucky that I happened not to be working that day, as if I were I would have missed the tweet, and thus the opportunity. I follow thousands of people on twitter, so it's a miracle I happened to see it on my timeline, which flows down the page like a slow trickling waterfall.

Apart from getting lucky breaks on twitter, I'm planning to do a small project to help pass the time. More details to follow in a few days. I don't know how excited you should be.

How editing a game from 1997 in my early teens has made me want to be a writer/director

I'm going to tell you something now that not many people know. You ready? You sure? Actually, I'll ease you into it. A month before my tenth birthday, I got a magazine called 'PC Gamer', and in it were demos of The Curse Of Monkey Island, and Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II. I feel this demo disk, for better or worse, infiltrated my soul and made me a geek. Also, a Lucasarts fan - the company that made them both. There was also a demo of Wipeout on the disk that didn't work because my computer wasn't good enough. Who knows, if I played that, maybe I'd have turned out to love racing, and cars, and cool things. But I didn't. I was now a Star Wars fan.

Best. Game. Ever.
(Or maybe just better than Flight Sim 95)

So on my birthday I got Jedi Knight, which to this day is my favourite game (along with Monkey Island, and other late 90's classics like Theme Hospital and Tomb Raider). I think the reason I liked Jedi Knight so much was because the only other game I had was Flight Simulator 95, which looking back was a badly drawn cockpit moving over pixelated ground, so anything in comparison must have been amazing. Then a few years later, browsing the internet extremely slowly on my 56k dial up, I stumbled across the Microsoft Gaming Zone.

Right, yes. This is geeky isn't it? You've probably come here from my twitter, or you've seen the link to this blog on something TV related, and are now wondering how on earth this relates to anything this blog promises to be about. Well I'm getting to it, just stay with me.

So I was on 'The Zone' (that's what we used to call it, us cool people) and realized you could play Jedi Knight multiplayer! This was a revelation. I then discovered The Massassi Temple, where you could download addon levels for the same game. Most of these were Multiplayer levels which you could play with other people, but there were also Single Player levels. These are levels in which you have to complete objectives against computer controlled enemies. I started making my own Single Player levels when I was around 12. 

At first the appeal was 'I'm editing my favourite game' but soon the appeal became the cinematic cutscenes that you could create, in which characters will interact, a ship will blow up, a puzzle is revealed - generally, something important happens that's crucial to the objective. This, as I see now, is my first experience directing. There were so many limitations with the game (bad graphics, stiff character movement, no facial movements) that when you did a cutscene you had to make it interesting, or else you'd get bad reviews and people would stop playing your work. Which isn't good, because the work that goes into these levels is ridiculous. So you'd have to find voice actors, make sure there were plenty of camera angles, add music, make sure the 'sets' were well lit and there was plenty of stuff going on, etc...

Let's jump forward to 2007, and in a rare visit to The Massassi Temple, I notice that there is a Single Player competition going on. I hadn't edited Jedi Knight since I was in High School, but I was quite annoyed at the fact that I had all these skills associated with very specific editing programs, and they were no use whatsoever. Other people had learnt to play guitar. I'd learnt to edit a game made in 1997. So when I saw that there was a competition, with a cash prize, I jumped at the chance and entered. And won.

Nobody questioned why there were Egyptian
Hieroglyphics in the Star Wars universe...

I won with an episode called 'Magrucko Daines and the Crypt of Crola', which I actually started when I was twelve and simply found it on a floppy disk and finished. I updated the project a lot better than my thirteen year old self could ever hope to dream of. Now, I'm not going to lie - it was f***ing weird editing something that I'd last worked on when I was thirteen. Finding stuff that I'd written was baffling and made no sense. I found characters that were named after girls I'd fancied in school. Weird is an understatement.

My love of Greek Mythology makes an appearance

Then a year later, I won another competition with the sequel; 'Magrucko Daines and the Dark Youth'. The name and plot of which was also created by my thirteen year old self, to be completed once the first episode had been made. Obviously another cash incentive spurred me back. Since then though, I've retired. It's too time consuming, not much fun, and hardly anyone plays the game any more. The editing community was on life support anyway at that point, and it's just a matter of time until the website vanishes.

However, the sequel contained significantly more in-game movies with over four hundred lines of dialogue. It was whilst I was editing this that I realized that this is what I want to do. No, not edit a game from the late 90's, but create my own stories and direct them. Perhaps also making them in real life, instead of on a game that crashes your computer randomly. After completing the sequel I set around writing a sitcom with my friend Sean, and now years later I find myself waiting to film a project for real. In real life! With a clear career goal, which I didn't have for a long time but now, to have one at last, is liberating.

I do play my levels from time to time, because I love the in game movies and puzzles I created. I laugh at the poor guy, who voiced Magrucko Daines, to do every single sound possible that the player could make. This involved different types of breathing, screaming, grunts, gasps, sounds for when he got hit with different weapons - it's not everyday you get a file entitled '200screams.zip'. Also, another reason I like playing them is because I put a stupid amount of in-jokes and easter eggs in them that only I know about. For example, towards the end of the first Magrucko adventure, the player has to escape a Crypt full before it collapses. There are evil flying skulls everywhere. The last one that attacks the player is actually just my face. It brings me great joy to think that my own face has attacked literally thousands of people. I doubt anyone noticed.

The editing for the two 'Magrucko Daines' adventures never actually took that long. Just a few hours here and there a week for a month, as I'm a master of the software due to the time I spent on it during my youth. I'm just thankful that it finally came to something, and in a way was worthwhile as it helped me realize what I wanted to do with my life. Having said that, I do wish I could time travel back to the young, thirteen year old James Fletcher, and tell him two things; One - learn to play the guitar instead, and Two - you'll see a naked woman one day. In the flesh.

If you happen to have Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II then download my levels HERE and HERE