The Road Was Long

What a weekend. What a week. What a month - or two.

The documentary footage went down very, very well and I had a totally amazing night at the Awards Ceremony; I'm not sure why, but I was quite weirded out by the whole evening but I guess it was seeing the exact same reactions and emotions I had experienced, rippling around the 300-odd people in the room as they watched the very footage I have now seen and mucked around with so many times. Needless to say, it was a very emotional night for everyone involved after such an intense period working on the whole project. A big shout out & well done to all those on the 'arrangement' side as well as my production side. The event wouldn't have been as successful without incredible communication, hard work and dedication all round.

And so...next on the list.

If you are a regular reader of this blog you will be aware of "0110", and whilst moving towards the latter stages of the recent documentary/interview footage editing, I was also slowly making headway with the early development of "0110: Twisted Tales and Glorious". I am very pleased to say we now have our Writing Team and what a top bunch of talent they are. I am thrilled to be starting work with them very soon, but more on all of them over at the 0110 website. Keep your eyes peeled here and there for a load of info coming your way very soon. In fact, the diaries have just been updated.

There's an awful lot going into the cauldron at the moment but until I've got my fresh newt tails and chameleon claws to add to the mix, you'll just have to hang around to see what the result is.

Well, that's it from me for now. Hope you're all having fun and you've located and freshened up your snuggly jumpers - make sure you don't catch the sniffles and stay cozy.

Almost

This week finally sees the screening of the documentary/interview footage I have been working on lately. It will be encompassed within an 'as live' broadcast award ceremony and, I must admit, it's all looking and sounding rather lovely.

Much thanks goes out to the wonderful people who let me and my trusty crew into their lives and stories - there is a vast amount of extremely strong footage to be shown that will be sure to produce quite a few lumps in the throat. What these men, women and children have been/are going through makes what I do seem so damn insignificant, but at least on this occasion I could help orchestrate bringing these marvellous stories of bravery and fights against all odds, into the public domain.

For this opportunity - and all the others heading my way soon - I will be eternally grateful.

Now - onwards.

Gratitude

Hello there.

A little bit quiet on the Tenacious front at the moment. I am nearing finalisation of the 0110 Writing Team but also holed up in an edit suite, having just finished producing and directing some startling documentary footage. More regularly than not of late, life has been taking me to lots of dark places with low oxygen levels, however, the results are always most congenial and by the look of the footage, this past shooting experience is no exception.

Being surrounded by so many courageous and remarkable men, women and children recently and then touched by their truly remarkable stories has been a terribly humbling experience. I've now sat in on the edit for more than 22 hours since yesterday morning - such is the vast amount of gobsmacking and heartrending footage we shot.

The rough edit is very much on it's way now and I can only hope the final cut shows these amazing people for what they are - strong, selfless and without a doubt, heroes.

The Tweet Promo

My darlingest bits of binary

You may scoff at self-promotion but I'm afraid I gave Tenacious PR the day off for a pic-nic, so further to The Crises of Codec (same codec lots of issues), you can now view the promo trailer for "Tweet the Dice/#twitstunt" if the urge so takes you. 

Take a clickety click here.

Shooting from the Twit

Here are a few photos taken by the lovely Ben Ottewell at the #twitstunt section of "Project Mute" filming last week. 

There are loads more stills which will be here, there and everywhere soon, but here is a little selection that sums up the evening of the shoot for me. Hopefully these will give you feel of what was, in effect, a night of total and utter virtual insanity.

The Tenacious Training schedule is going very well, although I haven't had two secs to update the blog, it is making me leave my desk/phone/Mac for at least an hour and a half every day which really is a blessing in disguise. I totally need a little time to 'sort my brain/prioritize' and running/the gym etc does that for me. However, the blog update will need to wait as today's  - actually, this weeks' - to do list has become immensely long. 

And there goes my lunch break - one day I'll learn to eat instead of faff with photos or video clips. 

Today is 'madly prepping for edit day' as well as trying to fire out a load of proposals for new work coming in, so, on that note, I am going to love you and leave you, andwill be back before you know it.

Play safe.

Onwards, kiddies. Always onwards.

Shoots, Logs & Turning Cogs

It certainly has been a nutty week. Busy? Pah! I stare 'Busy' in the face, slap it and shout, "Boo! Betchya can't catch me!". Ahem, maybe not those exact words.

Right from Mega Meeting Monday through Wacky Weirded Wednesday to Forgoodnesssake Friday it's been marvellous, and I am very glad to report an extremely - nay - intensely successful week, all the same.

Wednesday, of course, saw the first day's shoot of many to come, on a small but beautifully formed part of "Project Mute". The day and night went swimmingly and I can quite honestly say I had a blast. The location and it's staff were brilliant, and all the peeps who took part in #twitstunt were fantastic. Realistically, an evening spent with Charles Batho, Dan Rebellato, Elinor, Stevyn Colgan, David Turner was never going to be very dull. Like me, I sincerely hope they enjoyed the whole [if slightly surreal] experience and I do apologise, on behalf of the tipsy or less dextrous Tweeters, to those of you who perhaps accidentally received the odd (actually, very odd) Tweet... ;)  

I am going to take this opportunity to say a huge big thank you to my amazing Cameramen, Neil Oseman and Andy Alderslade who gave me the gorgeous footage I asked for plus more; Cameron Price and Sophie Foster for their expert running skills - and also for Sophie's unfazed response when I decided to chuck her in the deep end by asking her to sit in on the experiment filming; Ben Ottewell for clicking away like a mad man, covering every angle possible for stills, and Glen Cobby for rigging, running, jumping, bowing and crawling at my every demand and then taking the responsibility for the all-important footage data! Every one of you guys really rocked my night. Anyone who followed the evening on Twitter will no doubt have had a few good giggles - as the beer flowed it was indeed interesting to see how loose people's fingers, if not tongues, became. T'was certainly a night I will never forget!  

So, all the beautiful looking HD footage is now logged, imported and awaits the edit which starts in ernest, along with the voiceover recording and graphics work, next week. I am really looking forward to seeing this baby come together now as it officially marks the beginning of a pretty long term commitment for me. Very exciting indeed.

And then, just to top off the Week That Was, yesterday morning, whilst discussing the virtues of organic cakes and some of the footage shot on Wednesday (yeah, honestly), I had one of those really odd 'meant to happen' conversations. This has now led to the very likely possibility of me Producing and Directing a live broadcast/interactive event within the next month or so, which is a totally excellent prospect.

Rock and roll, man. Effing rocking and rolling.

Onwards.

Three...two...one...

***Update, 13:33***

If you want to follow the 'conversation' that will be filmed as part of "Project Mute", then you'll need to be signed up to  Twitter and click #twitstunt in some of my tweets - here I am @laragreenway - or, sign into Twitter as normal, and then click here. 

We will be running live from 20:30 BST - anything before that will merely be link testing from location.

Ithunkyoo.

Standby: in five...four...

Well, me hearties, tomorrow day/night is very much the Big Day/Night for yours truly as it is the very first day/night of filming for "Project Mute". As this project is a mixture of short, medium and long term objectives there will be quite a bit of nattering on about it, here, there and everywhere.  Well, actually mainly on this very blog. And this blog. And perhaps maybe somewhere else, who knows.

So, the location is locked and signed off, my lovely HD kit is all gleaming and ready to be whisked off tomorrow morning, my legal paperwork is (99.9999%) in place and will be 100% by 10:00hrs, my insurances are valid, my house has turned into a storage facility of crates of gaffer tape, cables, adaptors, multiways, chargers, memory cards, card readers, Macs, First Aid Kits, cheque books (ha!), toolkits, reams of paper (as my lists of lists of lists are becoming ridiculous) and most amusingly, my gorgeous Crew are all ready and *think* they are working with someone sane. More fool them.

I was considering live blogging with my spare hand during the filming tomorrow evening, but I'll need to see how things go in our set up and run through and I may need both hands when I am directing/holding my head in a vice-like grip/rocking, looking at the monitors etc etc etc. This footage is basically being shot as 'live' from 20:30 tomorrow evening, so no margin whatsoever to go back and re-shoot material. Yeah - that's a nice thought: LIVE. 

That makes it all sit a bit more casually in my guts.

On that note, I'm off to check a list. Please, don't take the p*ss - it's a healthy obsession of mine. Besides, there is always a list that needs checking somewhere...

Onwards, baby. Ever onwards.

A Bit of This and That

Apparently there's no rest for the wicked - right? In that case, I am certainly no goddamn angel.

So far this week, I have been cracking the whip on the music video, a short film, a feature documentary and a feature adaptation - not much rest, like I say. Plus, there is a new addition to the Tenacious family - but more on that breathtaking news later.

Things have really started motoring on the music video with lots and lots of meetings set up for next week. I have been fine tuning my treatment and storyboards in order to have the strongest, most thorough vision possible, given the budget and time constraints. Bah humbug, Easter - you always arrive at a very busy time of year for me! Bugger you, your bank holidays and your creamy chocolatey-ness for causing a hiatus in my working life! Oh, but before moving on, I should say a big thanks to the very lovely director, Schuman Hoque, who answered my music vid sync plea in a most honorable and timely fashion - cheers mate!  And thanks once again, Lucy.

Next up, a location I have been after for a little while, kind of fell into my lap the other day, which was really rather lovely. It floated like a fluffy feather, ever so gentle, and bounced off my forehead with a tickle and dropped to my knee with a little kiss. Short film phase 1 issue now dealt with. Most fantastic news. Then there's the feature adaptation and the documentary...well, I am less inclined to chat about them as it's very early days at the moment for both, so more on these over the months to come, I'm sure.

And that leaves me with the other Tenacious blog family addition - Tenaciously Training - to be more specific. It's more of a ramble at great speed than a blog to be honest, but by merely having it up in cyber, it will ensure I stick to my training schedule - well, that's the thought process behind it anyway. This new blog will also eventually form an important part of a very exciting project I am working on. Again, very cloak and dagger, but if it comes off, you'll be the first to know. Honest. Well, after the Producers, anyway.

So, a quick shout out to a few other cyber peeps who are chipping away at the old block quite furiously at the moment - Sir Daniel of Stack is very nearly there on his very exciting short film "Origin".  Only a couple of weeks to go before he launches into production now - everything is crossed for you in this direction, mate!  

Also, a nod in the direction of those splendid chaps who have been working very hard pulling together the pilot for their new sketch show called...erm..."Splendid".  Apparently - or so I am led to believe - they have started infiltrating t'Interweb here, here, here and here with their silliness, but being a fan of Yoga, I couldn't possibly comment.  ;-)  Best of luck with the pilot, chaps! 

Phew. I'm off for a lie down after all that. Not.

*rushes back to top-up furiously intense typing and research habit*

Onwards.

Texture Like Sun

Nice to see a bit of sun creeping in slowly again today. Always brightens up a Monday morning, a bit of blue sky and golden twinkle up above, doesn't it?

I very much enjoyed getting back to basics today - next to skiing or heading out with my stills camera for the day, I find there's no better way to clear my mind and make way for new ideas than pottering in the garden, and specifically, getting ready for the coming seasons. Making the soil and various pots ready for planting up over the next month or so gave me a nice break from my desk, and as with a lot of creative folks, I quite often find when my mind is put to another task, current work niggles and problems can sometimes resolve.  

By mid-afternoon I was gladdened by the fact I had finally nailed the outline for a new screenplay - ready for fleshing out - and came upon the missing link for a documentary project I hope to have up and running this Autumn. Both of these intangible details had been nagging at me over the last couple of weeks so it was a relief for the final pieces to fill the gaps. I also had a mini-eureka moment when I realised what had been lacking from a previously written screenplay - hastily written post it notes have now been stuck onto the front cover of that one, as it will need to wait it's turn for the moment!

Ever onwards. A busy week ahead now, with lots of research, calls and meetings to sort out.  

Hope you all have a good one.