I have know Michael and Natasha for a fair few years now and have worked with them more times that I can count both separately and on joint projects. Accomplished in their craft (many awards on their mantlepieces, visit their sites to find out more), it is always a pleasure to work with them. When we met up with Natasha a few weeks ago she told us their plans for their new project. For them, a break from the traditional approach to making a film, throwing caution to the wind, a JFDI attitude firmly in place and without "puppet masters" in the form of financiers. Just getting together a group of willing, enthusiastic and talented individuals and "making a movie". With a two week break in our hectic schedule (things always quieten to a dull roar at the beginning of the school holidays) it seemed too good a project not to get involved with so Team Aquila have jumped in with both (or should that be six?) feet.

Julia will be flying solo as 1st AD for the first week of the shoot and will then be sharing 1st AD and production manager duties with the awesome Andy Tea for the following two weeks. Ideally suited for the job as she is organised to the max, likes everything in it's place and is bossy as hell.

Adam will be stepping out of his comfort zone to assist DOP Ed Moore on the Canon 5D. A great producer and European "Borat Dancing" champion, Adam will turn his hand to anything if given half a chance. We have shot quite a few pieces on the 5D so far this year and I think he is looking forward to taking the camera to its limits on such a fast paced schedule.

In a turnaround for the books, I will be keeping the home fires burning back at @aquilatv towers with the rest of the gang, collecting the rushes at the end of the shoot day, backing up, syncing and sorting the clips ready for the edit at the end of the shoot. Working in a tapeless environment poses new challenges in backup and storage and I have a few ideas I have been dying to try out. This doesn't sound like I'm doing anything new here. Correct. My challenge has been to set out a "social media springboard", getting the production started with it's own blog, Audioboo, Twitter and Facebook accounts, ready for everyone to start telling the story of the production.

There are still a mountain of things to organise before Monday, schedules to produce and fine-tune, kit to prepare, a life-size buddha to find and a horse to audition (can you audition a horse?)

I have been a fan and supporter of the Flatpack Festival for a few years now but have been a little lax in finding out more about what they get up to for the rest of the year. I occasionally see tweets about something 7inch are doing (generally while its happening, or the day after, so no chance of popping along) but have not really prioritised finding out too much more. Although what they are doing seems of interest to me I just never think about it in time.

Fortunately, Ian contacted us to see if we would be interested in helping out with some kit for their latest project which meant I knew about it in time to go along...

“In partnership with Birmingham City University, 7 Inch Cinema present a weekend of screenings and events celebrating the remarkable range of drama produced at BBC Birmingham during the 1970s and early 80s under producer David Rose.”

The event kicked off last night at the mac with a Drinks reception that was filled with “ex-Pebble Mill” faces, many who I have not seen in years and was a great chance to catch up with them over a glass of wine. As with most of these things people get engrossed in chat and so getting us to stop talking and move into the theatre took far too long... Great for us but a headache for the organisers who really need to try and keep things running to some sort of a schedule (sorry!). Unfortunately this meant that David Rose, powerhouse of the Regions Drama department, had to cut his introduction short, making last minute edits to his speech. I could sit and listen to him talk all day. (He will be chairing a discussion this afternoon at 4pm at the mac as part of the weekends proceedings.)

First up was an information film showing “Pebble Mill, purpose built centre for the region.” What started off for me as a bit of early 70's nostalgia, laughing quietly at the hairstyles, camp floral shirts, smoking at your desk whilst hitting the keys on a typewriter, quickly turned quite emotional as I saw offices, corridors, workshops and car parks (yes, car parks) that I had spent many hours in over the 5 years I “worked there” and had changed little since. I say “worked there” I was really only an outside contractor, dropping in and out four or five times a week for a couple of hours at at time. To me it seemed more than just a building, first it was a rush of “I'm working at the BBC, for real??” but very quickly it became a place of shared vision and I looked forward to spending time there in an environment where people felt passionate about what they did.

Many hours were spent in the canteen or club, putting the world to rights over a couple of pints too.

I can only imagine that these feelings must have been even stronger from those in the room that had spent an entire working lifetime there. Emotions, vision and ethos that I feel have not been carried over to “the new place”. I always feel a little sad on the occasions I drive past on the A38, looking through the gap in the trees and the corner of the building that was visible from the road, now just empty sky.

First to be screened was a 1973 “Play for Today”, “Shakespeare or Bust”. A gentle comedy about three miners from Leeds who make a pilgrimage by canalboat to Stratford to see a play. Sharply written, slow of pace (compared to modern tastes), a comedy of manners, words and 70's sexism. A real gem, with fantastic scenes shot in Gas Street Basin with the newly finished Alpha Tower standing proud above our cities skyline in virtually every shot. Fantastic to see how much has changed and yet remains the same after all these years.

Favourite line from the play, Janet Suzman, when asked what roles they play on stage... “He's Anthony... I'm his bird, Cleopatra.”

A packed schedule of events runs right the way through the weekend with screenings and discussions from 11-7 today and 12-7 tomorrow. Highlight for me will be the 4pm discussion chaired by David Rose. Will be great to hear what he has to say as he was cut short last night. For a list of screenings and discussions visit the mac website.

For me, Pebble Mill will always have a special place in my heart. Thanks to Vanessa and Ian for putting this weekend together and helping us old duffers relive past times. 

In keeping with the Iron Man theme of the week, another clip by Patrick Boivin. I have been a fan of his stop-motion antics since I stumbled upon a transformers piece he did last year. take a few moments to visit his site if stop motion interests you at all. the "behind the scenes" videos are illuminating and at times jaw dropping ( a motorised dolly n track improvised out of a thomas train set? ). More of his work can be found at http://www.youtube.com/user/PatrickBoivin Enjoy!

Being a die-hard Iron Man fan I can appreciate the time, energy and love that has gone into producing this "trailer". Fan made films so often fail to live up to expectations, this however is truly astonishing. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. All I can say is... "if these guys don't have jobs, give them some"

Its been weeks since I have posted anything here, will get round to it sometime soon I hope. Thought I'd pop up a quick post with the finished product that we did with Stavros Flatley, for the Road Safety Partnership. It's a short road safety film that will be shown in the cinemas before kids blockbuster movies. Shot on the Canon 5D with Dave Cawley as DOP, Julia Higginbottom directing and Adam Kirtland-Leach producing.

Premiered before STREETDANCE 3D during this last half term, it looked awesome on the big screen, if I say so myself.

Working with Demi & Lagi was a great experience, probably had the most fun on their shoot so far. Look forward to working with them again on the sequel...

BUNK3R.TV

Been a few hectic weeks here at Aquila towers so have not had time to catch up on the web streaming happenings for a while. 

Only a few days after we were hitting the nets again with more awesome content, this time live streaming from Authority 2.0. Hosted by MA Social Media students from Birmingham City University (@hadleypaul & @jigar_patel, the conference showcased alternative media practices, encouraged open discussion and presented West Midlands Police with solutions to some of their digital communication challenges.