Oh boy, the sheer terror of it all. Will it collapse? Will nobody notice? Will I get a thousand emails from people who can't download it?
The site is now LIVE. And I am about to find out the answer to all those questions.
I've spent a week now, with some friends, downloading it to death and testing it to destruction. We found a fair few glitches to be sure, but in the last few days everything has been peachy - fast downloads, all payments work fine, easy navigation.... what could possibly go wrong?!!!!!!
Tomorrow (technically today actually, but after fitful sleep) I'll be on BBC Radio 5 Live's Breakfast Show at 7.55 am. If you are reading this in the week after Friday 28th December, you can listen again at the Breakfast Show website - click on Friday's Listen Again at the top of the page, and navigate to 7.55am. Then later in the morning at 10.30 am, I have a more leisurely interview with Posy's mother, Misha Herwin, on BBC Radio Stoke.
Being the first at something is kinda great and all, but I keep wondering.... "is there a very good reason WHY I am the first to try this?!" As I say, I think I am about to find out.
But I just want to savour the moment for a second, before whatever-comes-next comes next. I can finally say the words I wasn't sure I'd ever be able to say, even up until last week...
SAM JACKSON'S SECRET VIDEO DIARY IS RELEASED!!!!!
Now download the movie, download the documentary, and tell me what you think!
Friday 28 December 2007
Friday 21 December 2007
The BBC, and the insanity of it all
I'm not sure I can tell you where the last 48 hours have gone. I remember flashes... I remember standing outside an empty house in Chiswick at night, where I thought my video master disks were (I had the wrong house number), and thinking if I don't break in and find them, I'll never get the film released. There are blurry mental images of tearing up and down stairs between two computers, trying (and failing) to coax them into life uploading files. I remember sending one email every three seconds to the brilliant Robert Geake, who has been writing the scripts for our web servers and has gone way beyond the call of duty (like so many poor souls on this film). And I remember the distinct feeling at one point, that it was all too late, that in the pre-Christmas crush, our film just wasn't going to happen.
But - oh the joy of it - I was wrong. The shopfront works, and in tests the entire movie has downloaded in 15 minutes, which is incredible. The documentary is there too, all is ready to go. And it's Chriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiistmaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaas!
I'm scheduled to appear on BBC Radio 5 Live's Breakfast show on launch day - Friday 28th December at 7.55am (though the time may change - you should also be able to listen later via their Listen Again web service). There's a few other possibilities too, I'll keep you posted.
For now I'd like to say a big thank you to everyone who has got me through the last 48 hours, especially John Godfrey and Sarah Bradley at the brilliant authoring house Meedja, Robert Geake, Paul Blake and my poor, very long suffering family.
Happy Christmas to all! x
But - oh the joy of it - I was wrong. The shopfront works, and in tests the entire movie has downloaded in 15 minutes, which is incredible. The documentary is there too, all is ready to go. And it's Chriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiistmaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaas!
I'm scheduled to appear on BBC Radio 5 Live's Breakfast show on launch day - Friday 28th December at 7.55am (though the time may change - you should also be able to listen later via their Listen Again web service). There's a few other possibilities too, I'll keep you posted.
For now I'd like to say a big thank you to everyone who has got me through the last 48 hours, especially John Godfrey and Sarah Bradley at the brilliant authoring house Meedja, Robert Geake, Paul Blake and my poor, very long suffering family.
Happy Christmas to all! x
Tuesday 18 December 2007
One week to go...
Everything is very calm here, we are totally organised. The films are ready to download, the shop is fully functioning. Our meticulously crafted media strategy is running like clockwork. Bring it on!
Actually, now I re-read that carefully, I now see it is a pack of lies. I've had two years to get ready for next week, and it's going down to the wire.
The film isn't encoded yet, hence the website scripts that will run on the servers aren't finished. Much of the time waiting has been spent nervously ringing round media and press types. If we were a proper film company, we'd have the money to employ PR people, who know who all the journos are and can place the story. However, the monthly budget for a real PR company exceeds our total production budget, so that isn't going to happen. I've been reliant on trawling the web and the help of my friend Lyndsay for some leads - to whom go HUGE thanks.
I've discovered that most journalists are already drunk by now in the pre-Christmas haze, and unable to plan one hour ahead, let alone a week ahead. However, there are one or two promising leads, and I'll let you know if anything develops. But all this raises a tricky little problem.
On the one hand, we don't want so much attention that the servers collapse under the load. On the other, we don't one one man and his dog there on launch day either. Right, let's nail my colours to the mast... I'm going to aim for between 200-300 downloads over the first two or three days. And then the idea is that this thing will be a slow burn - as people discover the film, find it's (hopefully) actually better than they thought, and then they can pass on the word, all viral-like.
Anyone wanna place any bets?
Actually, now I re-read that carefully, I now see it is a pack of lies. I've had two years to get ready for next week, and it's going down to the wire.
The film isn't encoded yet, hence the website scripts that will run on the servers aren't finished. Much of the time waiting has been spent nervously ringing round media and press types. If we were a proper film company, we'd have the money to employ PR people, who know who all the journos are and can place the story. However, the monthly budget for a real PR company exceeds our total production budget, so that isn't going to happen. I've been reliant on trawling the web and the help of my friend Lyndsay for some leads - to whom go HUGE thanks.
I've discovered that most journalists are already drunk by now in the pre-Christmas haze, and unable to plan one hour ahead, let alone a week ahead. However, there are one or two promising leads, and I'll let you know if anything develops. But all this raises a tricky little problem.
On the one hand, we don't want so much attention that the servers collapse under the load. On the other, we don't one one man and his dog there on launch day either. Right, let's nail my colours to the mast... I'm going to aim for between 200-300 downloads over the first two or three days. And then the idea is that this thing will be a slow burn - as people discover the film, find it's (hopefully) actually better than they thought, and then they can pass on the word, all viral-like.
Anyone wanna place any bets?
Sunday 9 December 2007
Copyright, Schmopyright
It's been another regular week in the life of Sam Jackson's Secret Video Diary. First my computer blew up (as documented in the post below), then later I managed to take out quite a bit of equipment at 2nd Sense post production just by turning it on. Ooops. The documentary had an inexplicable bit missing (the bit where I was explaining how everything goes wrong, as it happens), and there was apparently no way to retrieve it with my PC in bits.
As I say, just another ordinary week in this production.
So why am I still doing stuff to the films anyway? In a word, copyright. We had the music rights to six commercial tracks for our festival screening, but this was no use for a general release. It took a full 18 months to get people to allow us to use their tracks on a percentage basis of receipts, rather than an upfront payment we could never afford. Indeed, more than one person in the industry has told me that them doing this at all is "unprecedented", and they are not intending to ever do it again! It's amazing where persistence and sheer bloody-mindedness can get you.
A long way, but not as far as I'd have liked, in truth. Not everyone played ball. It was a real shame in the case of Basement Jaxx. The band's manager was incredibly helpful, and even came to our Raindance screening. The record company and publisher were both great too. So what was the problem? It turns out that the track (Red Alert) used a sample from a band called Locksmith. Their publisher was great... but their record company simply didn't want to know. It felt such a waste... the goodwill of everyone else in that long chain of people was for nothing.
But copyright is more than music. We'd naively made reference to a national newspaper in our festival version, which the paper has taken great offence to. So this week meant replacing any verbal or visual references to them, as well as laying down the full new soundtrack with various bits of music replaced (and also taken the opportunity to do a shiny new slightly more cinematic sound mix).
And then there was the updated closing credits. Our list of actual crew is tiny, like many low budget films I guess, but even more so since we were effectively using a documentary crew of 3 rather than a full drama crew of 25. But our list of thankyous is perhaps longer, and certainly not exhaustive. Without many of the people and organisations credited, there really wouldn't be any film at all. Note to self... rather than be bitter about the few people who haven't played ball with us, perhaps I should think a bit more about that huge list of thankyous at the end of the film.
This insane week in particular, having caused them so much grief, I should especially big up Steve, Richard, Tudor, Joe and John at 2nd Sense... cheers fellas. And sooooory!
As I say, just another ordinary week in this production.
So why am I still doing stuff to the films anyway? In a word, copyright. We had the music rights to six commercial tracks for our festival screening, but this was no use for a general release. It took a full 18 months to get people to allow us to use their tracks on a percentage basis of receipts, rather than an upfront payment we could never afford. Indeed, more than one person in the industry has told me that them doing this at all is "unprecedented", and they are not intending to ever do it again! It's amazing where persistence and sheer bloody-mindedness can get you.
A long way, but not as far as I'd have liked, in truth. Not everyone played ball. It was a real shame in the case of Basement Jaxx. The band's manager was incredibly helpful, and even came to our Raindance screening. The record company and publisher were both great too. So what was the problem? It turns out that the track (Red Alert) used a sample from a band called Locksmith. Their publisher was great... but their record company simply didn't want to know. It felt such a waste... the goodwill of everyone else in that long chain of people was for nothing.
But copyright is more than music. We'd naively made reference to a national newspaper in our festival version, which the paper has taken great offence to. So this week meant replacing any verbal or visual references to them, as well as laying down the full new soundtrack with various bits of music replaced (and also taken the opportunity to do a shiny new slightly more cinematic sound mix).
And then there was the updated closing credits. Our list of actual crew is tiny, like many low budget films I guess, but even more so since we were effectively using a documentary crew of 3 rather than a full drama crew of 25. But our list of thankyous is perhaps longer, and certainly not exhaustive. Without many of the people and organisations credited, there really wouldn't be any film at all. Note to self... rather than be bitter about the few people who haven't played ball with us, perhaps I should think a bit more about that huge list of thankyous at the end of the film.
This insane week in particular, having caused them so much grief, I should especially big up Steve, Richard, Tudor, Joe and John at 2nd Sense... cheers fellas. And sooooory!
Sunday 2 December 2007
Bang
If there is an enterprising scientist reading who fancies doing a PHD on why, with weeks to go before an important deadline, my computer explodes without fail, then please do contact me. It happened during filming with Posy, it happened before Raindance.
Three hours ago, it happened again.
This time it appears to be the motherboard. Which also really means that, for compatibility reasons, you pretty much have to go the whole hog and get a new processor, memory, yadda yadda. All very nice I'm sure, but on Wednesday I have the small matter to attend to of finishing two movies, and the all-important hard drives are currently sitting in a rather pathetic looking carcass that, until tea time, used to be My PC.
Finishing-the-movies is what this post was originally going to be about. At the moment, you see, the version I have is, um, not entiiiiiiiiiiirely legal, for various copyright reasons. The all new (and improved!) version that will be released in under 4 weeks will be. But, you lucky people, I will save such exciting tales for another day as I need to lie down in a darkened room for a while.
Three hours ago, it happened again.
This time it appears to be the motherboard. Which also really means that, for compatibility reasons, you pretty much have to go the whole hog and get a new processor, memory, yadda yadda. All very nice I'm sure, but on Wednesday I have the small matter to attend to of finishing two movies, and the all-important hard drives are currently sitting in a rather pathetic looking carcass that, until tea time, used to be My PC.
Finishing-the-movies is what this post was originally going to be about. At the moment, you see, the version I have is, um, not entiiiiiiiiiiirely legal, for various copyright reasons. The all new (and improved!) version that will be released in under 4 weeks will be. But, you lucky people, I will save such exciting tales for another day as I need to lie down in a darkened room for a while.
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