A guide to making better movies, based around the podcast of the same name. Phil South is a filmmaker and teacher who lives and works in the West Country of the UK. He has as they say in Hollywood: "a number of projects at various stages of development".
About Me
Name: Phil South
Location: United Kingdom
is a writer and film maker based in the South West of the UK
Sorry about the absence. Been very busy moving house and other things which have kind of gotten in the way. Plus Matt moved to Cambridge so most of our chats will have to be Skype driven now, which adds some technical complications.
But we'll work all the bugs out and be back online soon. Once I'm settled in my new house and set up my home studio, we'll be back.
Due to various hi-jinks and shenanigans, the first episode is finally up and running. There was a pilot stage where the show was up but in an unfinished form for testing purposes. Now it's live.
It's a good show, a nice starting point. We talk about a lot of our basic ideas about film making and make a few broad, bigoted and sweeping statements about the film business. Okay so we can talk, we have our own show so we can say anything we like, but do we know what we are talking about?
Well yeah, we work in the business, myself training film and TV technicians and Matt is the founder of a company which makes groundbreaking previz software. We eat sleep and drink films. And we are very angry that we don't get to make more films, so we sublimate some of this formless anger into criticism of the work of others. Cool huh?
Hope you like the show, please subscribe if you like it, and if you were thinking about buying Hollywood Camerawork please consider using our code. Yes, Making Better Movies is honoured to be sponsored by Per Holmes' Hollywood Camera Work, a masterful course in how to do great camerawork. This is the only course you need. Go to www.hollywoodcamerawork.us, enter BETTERMOVIES on the 3rd page in the School Acc# field. This will deduct $120 from your order on the following page.
Well okay when I said "soon" I wasn't counting on my gargantuan workload since the new year. The first episode is in the can and probably the second, but I just haven't had enough time to edit and present them in the way I'd like. I'm trying to set aside some time to do it this coming weekend, but I'm not promising anything. Fingers crossed.
Meantime you can enjoy this excellent short from Atomfilms by Jason Reitman, Oscar nominated director of the movie "Juno". This short is cute and funny but a little bit rude so you might want to turn the sound down a bit if you're at work.
A good film is when the price of the dinner, the theatre admission and the babysitter were worth it.
Alfred Hitchcock
We finally got around to doing the first episode yesterday, and possibly another one besides... and very much fun it was. We got about an hour and a half of audio from which I will almost certainly be able to squeeze two podcasts. I'd like to add some other stuff as buffers and palate fresheners, ads and some music from the lovely Jonathan Coulton.
I've yet to edit it, and may not before the New Year, but we talked about a great many things, the "magic" of cinema, hypnotism, the best time ever to be a movie fan, CG backlash, and mentioned a lot of books by Charles Stross, Robert Rodriguez's "Rebel Without a Crew", House of Cards, and many other things. I'll put a full episode guide together when I publish the feeds.
Oh yes, and we mentioned the the Scary Mary video. (see below)
This recut of the Disney classic 'Mary Poppins' was made by myself (Chris Rule), with assistance by Nick Eckert. This is TOP-QUALITY for YouTube and TAG-FREE.
This contains the musical piece "A Violent Attack" composed by Caine Davidson for the film 'An American Haunting,' "Stay Awake" written by Richard and Robert Sherman for Disney's 'Mary Poppins,' and stock sounds from iMovie.
Please do not support the low quality versions other people have uploaded to their channels illegally. Thanks to all!
It was inevitable to me that in the run up to the first episode of MBM that at some point it would occur to me to make a blog to go with it. I mean apart from the thing that there is a lot to say, I feel that there needs to be another channel. For comments, for corrections, for follow on topics. And also for random solo rants that don't belong in the show.
Why? Well, I don't really want to burn the podcast doing dedications, answering all the comments and questions etc. I just want to make it about the subject of the day and that's that. It's a kicking off point for all the other multimedia goodness. It's not "Two Way Family Favourites" as my father would say. (Old UK Forces radio dedication show from the 60s.)
So when is the first podcast up then? Weeeelll, yeah I'm glad you asked me that question.
Oh, what you wanted an answer? Oh ok, well the truth is I'm not sure. Matt Kelland, co-conspirator and soon the be mostly regular co-host, is kinda busy right now, as am I. But everything is in place for the big launch, which I've said is now December. The frequency of the posts will vary. Of course I'd like it to be weekly right off the bat, but unless we can monetise (pay for) it somehow immediately that's not going to happen just yet. But it's the plan.
I'm very excited about our sponsors, and I'll be working closely with them to bring you cool offers. First off the bat is Per Holmes at Hollywood Camerawork who is offering all MBM listeners big money off his ground-breaking camerawork course with the presentation of the special code you will hear in the broadcast. So listen for that and save bigtime.
Okay, go to get back to prepping for the show. I'll post more updates as they arise, but if you have any queries send me mail at mbm-at-ideasdigital-dot-com. (You know how to read those anti-spam email addresses, don't you? No? Aw that's just adorable...)
