The Documentary

Welcome to my blog. I’m a passionate storyteller, teacher, adventure-journalist and sportsman.  This blog explores those subjects.

Two Cultures, One Body is a travel-adventure documentary in which I take my father’s ashes to be immersed in the Ganges, India.  I look at what migrant heritage means to mixed-race and second-generation people in Britain, by following my father’s migratory route in reverse, along the Hippy Trail, which thousands of English kids took to uncover the riches of Indian culture, myth and religion.

 

• Presenter/Producer: Ash Bhardwaj
• Producer/Director: Russ Malkin
• Cameraman: Ben Bishop
• Production Manager: Lisa Downs

As an adventure journalist, I have written for Bremont’s Magnificent Man, Sunday Times Travel Magazine, Beyond Limits and Various ski magazines.  I also work in adventure film and television production with Big Earth.

My First Video Commission.

This month I had my first commercial commission for a video: a new product launch for management consultancy firm, Kepner-Tregoe (KT).  Having seen my work for Martin Gosling, and the trailer for 2 Bodies, 1 Culture, KT asked if I could help them produce a video to support a new software product, “Portfolio Manager.”

Brief:  To produce a video to explain “Portfolio Manager,” generate interest in the target market and elicit a demand for a more in-depth demonstration.

Kepner-Tregoe trains clients in project management and strategy change, and had created a software tool to assist clients in embedding their processes and manage projects.  KT wanted to offer this product to existing clients and were planning an email campaign to high-ranking executives in companies that already used their services.  They wanted a video that would demonstrate their product, show how it fits with their wider strategy, gave the client some new information and would keep the client interested.

They were planning on a simple video: a screen grab of an on-screen demonstration of “Portfolio Manager” with a voiceover; this is the standard model within the industry.  Whilst portfolio management is an interesting subject, it is hardly entertaining, leading to a low view-rate and dwell-time of  videos.  Kepner-Tregoe wanted to know if I could produce something that would be different to what clients might have seen before, whilst still having the integrity to demonstrate the high value of this product.  Well, of course I could!

Approach:  I approached the project as half informational, half documentary.  I knew that I would have to include some software demonstration, but wanted to keep this at a minimum.  Customers don’t just buy into a product – they buy into a story and people.  Pete Wright is the main consultant behind Portfolio Manager and he talks succinctly and engagingly about his product.  I wanted to have him explain the wider strategy, before going onto the product demonstration.

The Treatment:  I wanted to include General Views and PTC from Pete explaining what “Portfolio Manager” is; why we should be interested in it; and how it works.  The software demonstration would have the bare minimum of screen time and cut as often as possible to PTC from Pete offering a more engaging explanation to the viewer.  I wanted to bring in a second voice of authority, to add context and relevance to high-level decision makers.  For this, we did an interview with European Principal Sam Bodley-Scott.

The Shoot & Edit:  I spent time with Pete coaching him on presentation techniques, vocal exercises and doing dress rehearsals of the shoot.  We did the whole shoot in one day at K-T’s European office, and whilst the shoot was story-boarded and sections planned out, Pete ad-libbed, to make the video as natural as possible.  The edit combined the camerawork with screen-grabs of the software.  I found that audio from Pete’s PTC was much better, as he had a perceived audience, so spoke better.  To aid the gaps between talking, and to keep the video moving along nicely, I used a remix of Coldplay’s Clocks, the familiarity of the tune making the video more appealing.

Result:  I am absolutely delighted with the result, as are KT.  It gave me the chance to combine my acting and presenting skills in coaching Pete, with the camerawork and production skills developed through making the India project with Russ Malkin, and the editing skills I had developed doing the Italy video, Martin’s promo and Hungry Man.  KT are enormously happy with the film: it is far easier to watch than anything they have produced before, making it much easier to share, and resulting in a much higher view-rate from clients.  Commercially, it is producing great results too.

It was a great process to build confidence in my skills as a film-maker, delivering a project on a commission and exceeding the expectations of the client.  I’m looking forward to more commercial projects in the New Year, whilst continuing to make personal projects.

6 Easy Tips for Getting Into The Outdoors

So, after my Secret Compass expedition to Brecon Beacons, I thought I’d put together a few thoughts on the best things to do to get yourself into the wild outdoors from a standing start.

1.  Start Small

Don’t decide to climb Everest or find the source of the Nile on your first expedition.  Start with something manageable – a day-walk, or perhaps an overnight in less hostile country – stay at a campsite in the Chilterns in summer.  Even Bear Grylls started small!

2.  Go With Someone Who Knows What They’re Doing

I went with Secret Compass.  It means someone else can take care of the more cerebral elements, such as route-planning, navigation and safety, whilst you become familiar with the environment and more basic challenges.

3.  Don’t Spend Loads On Kit Straight Away

You don’t know what you need or what you’ll use.  Borrow some from others until you’re committed, (another reason to go with a guide or company).  But…

4.  Invest well in boots

They will determine your enjoyment more than anything.  Don’t be oversold as to needing hardcore mountaineering boots if you’re just going to be walking – don’t go over a grade B unless you’re regularly going to be using crampons.

5.  Set Yourself Goals

To begin with it may just be to get to a certain country pub; then it may be to get up Snowdon; next it might be completing the Welsh 3000s.  Setting goals gives you a sense of purpose and a tangible way to measure your growing achievements

6.  Join a Club or Society

There are local clubs in nearly every town that will organise walking and camping trips.  It motivates you, reduces the effort you have to put in to organise each trip, and gets you meeting loads of new people with interests that match yours.  Start with the British Mountaineering Council (BMC) website, which will redirect you to local organisations.  If you are under 25, get involved with the Duke of Edinburgh scheme immediately!

Overall though, it’s just about giving it a try – getting out there and enjoying our wonderful environment.  Yes, you might get cold and wet; but believe me, that’s half the thrill.  And when you get back to the office and tell your colleagues what you’ve been up to, they’ll not only be jealous.  They might be inspired to join you too.

Check out the BMC Website for more information and local contact.

Have a look at Secret Compass’s website for information about expeditions and their internship programme.

The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, or DofE, is a multifaceted way of teaching young people skills, confidence and experience.

An Unexpected Internship: Navigation and Mountain Training with Secret Compass

How would you choose to spend a weekend in December?  Being dragged around the shops to find presents?  Getting smashed at the office party and snogging the secretary from accounts?  Or camping out on a freezing mountainside in the Brecon Beacons.  Naturally being a man of great fortitude and a sense of adventure (as well as a lack of foresight when it comes to considering seasonal changes ) I went for the third option.  Also, I don’t work in an office, so the second option was out.

Spectacular views in the Welsh Mountains

So, late on Thursday night I piled into a van with Lev Wood, managing director of Secret Compass, and three of his interns to learn camp-craft and navigation skills in the Brecon Beacons.  This is the home of the British Army Infantry Battle School, and also the landscape of SAS selection, so I was under no illusion as to this being a bit of Chilterns orienteering.  Secret Compass is an expedition company set up by Lev Wood and Tom Bodkin, with the aim of taking people on genuine adventures and expeditions to remote and undiscovered locations.  Each trip has a tangible objective to be accomplished and a genuine level of difficulty and personal challenge for clients: the recent trip to the Wakhan Corridor involved two solid weeks of trekking in wild mountain country with river crossings, no trails at all, and staying with local tribes.  The aim was to find the source of the fabled River Oxus.

Wood and Bodkin are former Parachute Regiment officers and graduates of the aforementioned Battle School, which is where the sense of determination and objective comes from in their expeditions.  And it’s also why Lev was delighted to show us around his old stomping ground.

Secret Compass have a truly fantastic internship programme – unlike many companies that make their interns pay to be coffee bitches, Secret Compass offer incredible opportunities and training.  In return for preparing dossiers for expeditions they are interested in, SC interns are trained in Expedition Management, Navigation, Group Leadership, Camp-craft and Survival Skills.  Plus, they get to go on the expedition they’ve helped plan.  Ali Wilde, who is planning the Madagascar Coast-To-Coast trip explains, “We are able to go to places that no-one else is going, with a sense of genuine adventure.  And we are learning from, and being mentored by, guys who have done this time and again, not just as soldiers, but in their own lives and civilian leadership too.  We are learning life skills, adventure skills, business skills.  All whilst going on incredible trips and having great fun!

It’s the best job in the world, and I’m learning so much.  Lev and Tom are inspirational guys with a real passion for what they do.”

Lev offers some navigational advice

I was there to learn some much-needed man skills – navigation, camp-craft, safety in the wilderness.  A pack full of water, food, tent, sleeping bag, dry clothes and various essentials came in at over 30lbs.  I mentioned this in passing to Wood, who looked me in the eye and quite simply stated, “No-one’s forcing you to come.”  Suitably chastised, I had a quick swig of Man-The-Hell-Up and strapped on my bergen.  Nav theory involved learning how to identify features from contour lines, following bearings, re-locating, triangulating and various other, very important, things that Bear Grylls talks about on the telly.  We spent some time trying to figure out where we were, and headed on up the mountain.  Lev let us wander along for a few minutes before explaining an elementary mistake that had led us in the wrong direction.  180 degrees in the wrong direction.  As we started to climb, the 30lbs started to become far more obvious – as had my recent lack of gym and rugby time!  Some of us were struggling more than others, which led Lev to talk about group management – you are only as fast as the slowest group member and you have to get the right balance of setting a good, challenging pace and burning out – its a mix of reigning in the fastest and ensuring that those at the back are maintaing their spirits.

I was somewhere near the middle, but thoroughly enjoyed the snack and water stops!

The team on the Pen Y Fan ridge

With stories of SAS challenges ringing in our ears, we climbed Pen Y Fan, but rather than complete the gruelling Fan Dance, we took a lovely route out as the sun set and camped out in a forest block for the night.  With the winter sun not around for long, we were tucked up in our tents by 7pm!

In all, we spent three nights camping out, with two full days on the hill.  I learned a lot, not least of which is that practice makes perfect – I now know that some of my kit is surplus to requirements and that some needs replacing.   Brecon was a great challenge, but as Lev says, you can practice anywhere.  ”Just head up to the Chilterns for a day or two and get used to camping out – packing your bag, your wet/dry routine, route selection.  You can even do navigation practice in London!  All you need is a compass and an OS map.”

Secret Compass’s expeditions are really worth a look, if you want to challenge yourself and win the “You’ll-Never-Guess-Where-I’ve-Been-It’s-Not-At-All-Touristy-Competition” at work.  And if you are looking for a career in adventure and expedition, get in touch with Secret Compass if you’ve got some skills that they might need in return for an internship!

Visit their website.  Follow them on Twitter.  Like their Facebook page

Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem

What more can be said about Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem?

Mark Rylance as Johnny Rooster Byron

The play revolves around the events of St George’s Day in a town on the edge of Salisbury Plain.  Johnny “Rooster” Byron is a Romany gypsy, and the council have finally arranged the legal essentials to have him evicted to build new housing.  Rooster is a Peter-Pan-type character who sells speed to local kids and hosts wild parties; telling tall tales (including an inspired monologue about his conception) and snippets of English legends.  On St George’s Day, a local fair is held and antics ensue against the background of one of the young “rats” leaving for Australia, the May Queen going missing and Johnny’s impending eviction.  The story is compelling, fun and troubling.

I first saw this play 2 years ago during its first run at the Royal Court Theatre.  Back then, it was the best play I had ever seen.  Two years later, I went to watch it with my favourite arts companion at the Apollo Theatre, and in that time, the play had transferred to the West End, had a run on Broadway in New York, and now returned to the West End.  Unlike in film, it’s a rare opportunity to watch a play you love more than once – the cast changes; a new director puts a completely different twist on it; no-one produces it again – so it was wonderful to have the chance to see it again, by the same company, with the same actors.  But, would it live up to the expectations of my memory?

The original poster for the film, capturing a sense of English myth

I settled in nervously, worried that my memory of the “best play I’d ever seen” would be undone: it’s still winning 5* reviews, so the critics like i, but would I?  Nearly all of the cast have stayed on including, most importantly, Mark Rylance as Rooster Byron.  So much has been written about this performance that it’s hard to say anything new: a chaotic performance, that throws the audience from humour to contempt, solidarity to pity.

I feel lucky to have seen acting of such intensity – subtle, funny outrageous, ambiguous, mercurial and completely enveloping.

I’ll be honest – I didn’t understand Jerusalem’s “message” if there was one: Byron is an anti-hero, clinging to his lost youth; he is an absent father, a drunk, and sells drugs to minors.  What is his relationship to the missing girl?  What’s in his eye?  But all that seems to be fairly irrelevant.  The play need not have a message – it’s just an entertaining romp, with poignant moments, and an ambiguity.  Themes are explored: fatherhood, responsibility, friendship, loyalty, abuse; but, it doesn’t need to have a pleasant resolution – after all, real-life doesn’t.  Myth and legend are blurred in Rooster’s story-telling as an “indigenous force of nature”: does he believe in giants and fairies; is he magic; how was he conceived; what happened with those Nigerian traffic wardens?  Bits and pieces of William Blakes’s eponymous poem, from which the title is derived, are alluded to throughout the play, adding to the sense of age and legend.  The play is an exploration of belonging and Englishness – the theme of modern Englishness captured me – soul-less housing estates, disenfranchised youths, bureaucratic council officers – What Is England?  

Byron’s character taps into a sense of mystery and longing for something more interesting than the meaningless of existence that simmers beneath the surface of modern life; it taps into the hunger for mythos rather than the logos that society tells us should be the only concern.

You are never quite sure where you stand with Byron, although I think that in the time since the Royal Court that ambiguity has lessened and he is a more positive character.  Perhaps the play has lost a little of its rawness since I first saw it (after-all, they have performed it quite a few times), or maybe it’s just that I knew the story already.  But the key moments have lost none of their intensity, such as Byron’s meetings with Dawn, his son, Marky and Troy.  The final meeting is set perfectly against a Sandy Jenny song that adds a tone of poignancy and a sense of the mythical world in which Byron lives. 

Jerusalem is now completely sold out.  If you can get a ticket, by hook or by crook, then you have to go.  Rylance as Byron is one of the theatrical events of our generation, that will be remembered alongside McKellan as Lear or Olivier as MacBeth, and this play is only as good as him.  As the play’s writer, Jez Butterworth said, “As far as I’m concerned you might as well burn this script after we’ve finished with it because I don’t see how anyone else could do it as well as he does.  You need to feel the charisma of a genuine eccentric, someone who gives you goose-pimples when they walk on.  Mark Rylance just has all that, naturally.  What he brings with him is a real fire – heat and light together. When he’s on stage, you get proper illumination.”

I don’t know how you’ll get to see Jerusalem – but I’m smugly enjoying the fact that I did!

Doug Allan – Frozen Planet Cameraman. Top Tips for Filming Wildlife in the Arctic.

Polar Bears Play Fighting

The other day, I was fortunate enough to meet Doug Allan at the Royal Geographical Society.  Doug was the principal cameraman on BBC’s critically acclaimed Frozen Planet series, and is about to receive the Second Bar for his Polar Medal.  Which basically means he’s spent a ridiculous amount of time in the Polar regions (his first trip lasted two and a half years!).  When I asked him why, he said, “If you ever go once, expect to go back.  The environment is so pure, the light is incredible.  It’s so vast and scary, but absolutely beautiful – you can’t really imagine it.  Yes, it’s very cold, but I’d rather have freezing feet than to be bitten to death by mozzies.  It’s an incredibly clean place – you’re never going to have your skin go rotten because of some bizarre fungus!”

I will bring you a full interview with Doug Allan in the New Year, but for now, here are his top tips for filming and photographing wildlife in the Arctic:

• Go to where the animals are most plentiful: Churchill Bay in Canada for polar bears; the edge of the pack ice for whales.
• April is the best time for polar bears: the light is spectacular and the ice is stable.  June is the best time for whales as the ice begins to break up.
• Go with a guide company for logistics, local knowledge and Inuit trackers.  Mammals are characters, with moods.  You need empathy to know which animals will let you film them and which will attack.  Good guides are essential.  Try Arctic Kingdom.
• The best transport is a skidoo – spot the animal from half a mile away, approach to within 100m, then get closer on foot.  Leave a team-member on the skidoo to scare off polar bears with a flare pistol if they charge.
• Polar bears have a personal space of about 25m.  They will accept your presence up to 50m if they are in the right mood, and you approach calmly and slowly.
• Leave iPods and phones at home – get in tune with the animals and environment to build empathy.  It makes it easier to understand them, and you’ll enjoy the wilderness!
• The bare minimum photographic kit is: a Digital SLR; the widest-angle lens you can afford (for wide shots); and the longest telephoto lens you can afford (for close ups).  For Frozen Planet, some of our lenses are huge!

Doug And A Leopard Seal

Doug also gave me some specific tips on making films of wildlife:

• Learn the grammar of film-making by watching documentaries to understand what shots you will need to make a good film.
• Get a lot of footage: as a rule of thumb, for 1 hour of finished film, you will need 10 hours of material – which will take 100 hours to edit!
• Be incredibly patient.  Television makes us think that exciting behaviour is happening all the time, but 1 minute of broadcast footage takes 1 week on the ice, watching and filming!
• Generally, a 10-minute film of one animal’s behaviour will be better than 1 hour because of the amount of footage and varied behaviour needed to make a good story.

Polar Bears Playing at Sunset

Incredibly, as one of only 8 people in the entire world with a Second Polar Bar, Doug has never suffered a serious cold injury.  He learned his trade in the bitterly cold Antarctic winters and puts it down to knowing the fine line between being cold and doing yourself damage.  Here are his top tips for cold weather safety:

• Accept that you are going to get cold, but err on the side of caution.  Learn where your limits are.
• Get the very best cold-weather gear you can afford and learn how to use it first: at -20° you can get in trouble very quickly.
• Take action at the first signs of frost-nip – when patches of skin go white and don’t change colour with pressure, get warm and into shelter.

Doug Allan

For full details of Doug’s speaking tour from February 19^th – March 29^th and  Doug’s debut book, Freeze Frame go to www.dougallan.com

This Is My Winter – A Review

Xavier riding an ice chute in Chamonix

The other day saw the general release of Timeline Missions’ This Is My Winter - their 2010/2011 film featuring Xavier De La Rue.  Whilst not even 30 minutes, it is one of the best snowboarding films I have ever seen.  Why?  Because the crew that made it, and the rider it features, are pushing the limits of snowboarding and snowsport films in a way that no-one else is.  There are no hip-hop tracks with hundreds of jumps in the back-country, nor characters in bandannas iterating hackneyed phrases about “doing what they love and riding with their bros.”  This film is an adventure like no other.  It is as much about the love of the mountains as it is about snowboarding: Xavier doesn’t just ride powder lines from a helicopter – he hikes, rappels, abseils, ice-axes and walks his way into lines more technical than anything I’ve seen since Steep; he regularly rides carrying ice axes.  At one point he rides over a pure ice sheet and stacks it.  Two days later he tries it again.  The opening scene on the Aletschhorn captures Xavier slowly edging his way down an ice-face; helmet-cam shots that made me queasy; only the howl of the wind, scrape of the ice and the beep of the radio; an aerial shot that shows how insignificant humans are on the mountain.

The production, edit and photography are top quality – the product of Xavier working with Director/Cameraman Guido Perrini, Producer Matthieu Giraud and Photographer Tero Repo – but the heart of what makes this film so good is that it tells a story: it’s an ob-doc, not just ski-porn.  Guido, Matthieu and Tero are as important to the end product as Xavier, and they feature in the talking heads and cut-aways in a way that contributes to the narrative: Tero talks us through the background to the Couloir Copt ice run; John Shaw provides context for the Anthamatten section.

Xavier - This Is My Winter

Xavier’s talking-head pieces are eloquent and charming; likeable and honest.  He admits that he is terrified.  The way he rides is, “directly linked to that fear [of the snowpack]… it’s just coz I’m freaking scared!”  It is insights like this, into the mind of the world’s most lauded and celebrated rider, that makes this film unique, and you feel that this is down to the relationship that Xavier has with the film team.

His descent of Aiguille Du Plan with Andreas Fransson is “snowboard-mountaineering at its fullest,”: fascinating in its concentration and technicality.  Whilst Xavier admits that “it’s not his cup of tea [because] you are under the goodwill of the mountain whether you make it down or not,” Fransson revels in “walking from home and you don’t know how this is going to go…. that little glimpse of sartori.”  High-risk philosophy, Andreas!  Xavier looks more comfortable with Samuel Anthamatten who, at 24, was runner-up in the Men’s Skiing category of the Freeride World Tour 2011 – Anthamatten “always likes to have that Alpinism background to give that confidence” which results in the best images of the winter: big European lines in super-exposed no-fall zones whilst carrying an ice-axe; fast, fluid riding with big mountaineering descents – something only a few people in the world are doing right now.

Xavier is not just a fearless rider that will go places that others fear to tread (or carve).  He is a phenomenally smooth and talented rider too.  His open-armed, straight-lining style is immediately identifiable; he’s won everything he possibly could and he is utterly peerless in the world of freeride snowboarding.  On the FWT he is admired above all others, and this film gives a glimpse into just why that is.  The Timeline team have put together a great product and I can’t wait for their next film.

Find out more about Timeline Film.

Visit Xavier’s Facebook fan page.

Check out Tero Repo’s webpage.

Channel 4′s Global Entrepreneurship Week

Channel 4 Building

As I stumble my way around the miasma that is the media industry, I have come across patches of light.  One of these areas of illumination has been the 4 Talent scheme and Colin Campbell-Austin.  I found Colin through Twitter, and if you have any interest in media or television, he is definitely a man you should follow.  Channel 4 have a fantastic statement of intent: “Mission With Mischief” and they are outstanding at finding and supporting new talent at every level of the television industry.  Part of this was the excellent events as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week; run and curated by Colin, his energy, enthusiasm and support for the participants was outstanding.

The week provided us with the unique chance to take part in workshops, “audiences with” and seminars relating to the media industry.  With media being such a huge field, it was instructive to learn about the different sectors, job-roles and paths one can take in the industry.  The “How To Get That First Break” session, with Producers and Production Managers from the independent sector was hugely illuminating – it made me realise just how hard it is to get a break in television, which had the added benefit of making me realise how well I’ve done to get meetings with Sam Anstiss at BBC.  Stories of long, hard slogs and working your way up the ladder are par for the course, which is reassuring when you feel like you’ve been banging your head against a brick wall for months.  It can feel incredibly lonely and disheartening sending emails to production companies, only to be knocked back time and again, so simply being able to meet others in the same position (or who once were), to reassure yourself that you’re not the only one suffering setbacks, is extremely reassuring.

The Audiences With Commissioners gave some great tips for getting your work noticed and credible: go to the right commissioner; work your idea through and consider why it should be commissioned; attach yourself to a production company to get through the door.  Commissioners get hundreds of ideas pitched via email every day – they simply don’t have time to meet everyone, and if you haven’t even convinced a production company to like your idea, you’re not going to convince a commissioner.  Finding out about Channel 4′s excellent multiplatform developments was exciting and inspiring.  Kate Quilton really understands the way viewers use different media formats to consume and interact with content.  The recent Hippo project was just brilliant, and Channel 4′s appetite for risk and pushing boundaries is driving the UK television industry in the right direction.

There was great general business advice: May Busch’s Concepts For Leaders seminar was about the skills of leadership and decision making.  She learned them in the Investment industry, but they are applicable to every field.  It’s important to remember that media is a business, not just about creativity, and skills of entrepreneurship are essential in a freelance industry where you are your own brand and business.  Something that was mentioned time and again was the importance of good mentors – with very few staff jobs (and the development, training and mentorship that comes with them), it is essential to create and maintain your own support network, based on delivering excellent service and products every time you get the chance to work for someone.  Your reputation is your brand and it is something you should take great pride in.

Reputation and branding were the focus in Darren Gordon’s workshop.  The key was to think about your passion and feelings – what do you evoke in the people who work with you?  Imagine you are a brand, so think about how you want to be perceived.  Figure out what you are good at, what you enjoy, and stick to it.  Place yourself around like-minded people, especially those who are successful at what they do.  David McQueen expanded on some of those themes in Simple Rules of Communication: how do you get your message across when there’s so much competition and noise?  It’s all about making sure your message is understood.  Stories are the best way to get people to understand what you are about, so your brand is your story as much as anything else.  I’ll talk more about his rules of communication in a later post.

Overall, it was an inspiring and educational week – I met some great people and felt much more galvanised about my new media career!

Follow Colin Campbell-Austin on Twitter.

Check out the Channel 4 website.

For more on Darren Gordon’s work, go to DNA performance.

To learn about David McQueen’s excellent work on communication, go to his Magnificent Minds website.

Check out May Busch’s Leadership Education.

Pink Slip or Blank Slip?

Great little video I came across about how you interpret being fired from a job – now that you’ve got all this time, what are you going to do?  Mope about it, or set about creating a new career and identity? With unemployment in the UK approaching 9%, this is very relavant now.  Really nicely shot too.

Head over to the website to learn more about the Lemonade Movie.

Director Eric Proulx really lives the story of this film, so check out his website Please Feed The Animals.

Daring Dynamos: Freeze Festival

Tom Nelson and Phil Saunders are cycling around the world visiting festivals and raising money for War Child.  They’re practising their cinematographic and festival-attendance skills in England for now, so have a look at this great video they made of their trip to Freeze Festival in Battersea.

Find out more about Tom and Phil over on the Daring Dynamos website.

Follow them on Twitter