Daley James Francis2013-05-19T21:38:02-04:00Daley James Francishttp://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/author/index.php?author=daley-james-francisCopyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc.HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Daley James FrancisGood old fashioned elbow grease.How Florida Won Over This Cynical Travellertag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.32629672013-05-12T12:29:23-04:002013-05-14T05:15:57-04:00Daley James Francishttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/daley-james-francis/
The truth is though, if you really want to find it, you can find some culture, quiet escapes and pretty awesome day trips as well as theme parks and chaos. The great thing about having so much competition in the tourist stakes is that it often drives the prices down, so if you keep your eyes open you can find some great deals.
The Ultimate Cynic...
My friend and I were taking a five week road trip from New York to Miami and back, and I have to admit that I was not looking forward to Miami or Florida in general. This was mainly because I have no tolerance to heat whatsoever (so visiting a place with tropical storms and 98% humidity at 38 degrees was a really good idea) and I pictured the area as the kind of place only a child or a stereotypical British tourist could possibly enjoy.
I moaned all the way from North and South Carolina - which I loved - to Miami about how I was going to have to deal with humidity, Mickey Mouse and my ever-expanding waistline all at the same time. It seemed that the further south we went, the bigger the food portions were getting, and the tighter my shorts were getting as I was having a daily Man v Food battle. On this trip, food was definitely winning...
Hello, Miami
When we arrived in Miami, the weather was absolutely insane. We checked into our hostel and went straight to Miami Beach, and the weather went from hot and sunny to cloudy to thunder and lightning and back to hot and sunny again in a heartbeat. It was like The Day After Tomorrow without the terrible acting... and the whole end-of-the-world bits... But it was pretty crazy nonetheless.
We broke up the bouts of weird weather with a few Bulldogs - which consists of 2 bottles of Corona in a giant margarita - and suffice to say, it was an acquired taste. But the chilled out Miami vibe was starting to make an impression on me. What didn't make an impression on me was the ridiculous amount of body beautiful guys walking around. I had to suck my gut in a little bit, but I was fooling no one...
Surrounded By Alligators
We used Miami as a base to take the Dodge that we'd hired and drive out into the Everglades to check out some wildlife. We drove out to the Everglades Alligator Park and took airboat tours out into the local waters. Two Japanese tourists were absolutely terrified as we slowly pulled up alongside a few alligators whose eyes were peeping out of the water at us. The Japanese guys were thinking that they might attack. The alligators were hoping we'd bugger off so that they could get some peace and quiet. It was pretty cool to have our boat surrounded by alligators. I was tempted to have an Ace Ventura-style wrestle with one, but decided against it.
Orlando
My friend had started to notice that I seemed to be enjoying myself, and that I wasn't moaning about the commercialism and the weather quite as much as I was before the alligators and the many, many Bulldogs we'd consumed. I just laughed and said: "Wait until we get to Orlando..."
The main strip in Orlando is insane. There seems to nothing but restaurants and hotels, and it took us absolutely ages to find somewhere to stay and fill our fat cheap tourist faces. When we finally did, it cost us about $10 each to absolutely destroy ourselves in true Man v Food style. I was proud (and disgusted) with myself, before realising that the next day we would be hitting the theme parks. Maybe filling my face was a bad idea after all...
As I mentioned before, the competition in Florida is so immense that we found great deals for food, drink, accommodation and fun. We thought that we were being undercharged sometimes because it was so cheap. How do these places make any profit? It beats me, but thanks for the burger. It was quickly dawning on me that Florida was rubbing off on me and I had become a full-on British tourist, or maybe just less of a boring cynic? The jury was still out...
My friend and I got some pretty amazing deals via some theme park coupons we picked up online. Again, we were expecting the theme parks to be the most expensive part of the trip, and that the cheap food and accommodation was all a ploy to bankrupt us on fast rides. But we picked up 2-4-1 Wet 'n' Wild tickets using the coupons and had an insane day on the slides. We were screaming and giggling like a bunch of five year old girls. I'm pretty sure we were having more fun than the kids, although when I went head-first down the Black Hole I almost had a heart attack. I felt a little older in that moment.
When we left Miami to take the long drive back up to New York, my friend and I were laughing our heads off as we recounted memories of the ultimate American tourist destination. I quickly realised that it had won me over with sheer enthusiasm, and I wondered if I was becoming less cynical in my old age. Then I remembered the Black Hole incident and swore never to go on a water slide ever again for as long as I live.]]>Is the Traditional University Route Still The Best for Business?tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.32581222013-05-11T06:06:53-04:002013-05-13T10:41:51-04:00Daley James Francishttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/daley-james-francis/
I was a mature student at university at the time, and I can still remember the outrage. I also remember being one of the only people who believed that it was a good thing that the fees were going up, because it would weed out all the idiots and parent pleasers who were going to university through obligation or because "their mates were". I was torn to shreds for this view, with most people stating that with the fees being £9,000 a year, poor kids wouldn't have the opportunity to go to university.
My reply to that was: Good.
Not good because they wouldn't get the chance, but good because university in this country has become something that we take for granted. It shouldn't be a privilege just for the rich - that wasn't my point - but a privilege for the people who were going to give their degree 110% knowing that when they came out, they needed to earn good money in order to pay off the debts they've accumulated. What's wrong with creating a little desperation and competition in people?
In the 2010 film The Social Network, the President of Harvard Larry Summers says to the Winklevoss brothers: "Harvard graduates believe that it's better to create a job than to find one." Although the film is mostly a work of fiction based on the true story of how Mark Zuckerberg created the social media giant Facebook, that entrepreneurial spirit could - and should - apply to everyone, whether they are Harvard students or a broke kid from Hackney who can take a computer apart and put it back together again in the blink of an eye, but is not likely to apply to university because of the fees.
It seems that at the moment, you're either told that university isn't an option, or that there are no jobs. To that I say: Make one up. That's what I did. I graduated, worked in a job I enjoyed for nine months to have a bit of money behind me and then I turned freelance in order to have complete control over my career and give myself some flexibility. My confidence is higher now than it ever was working for somebody else. As long you never stop wanting to learn about what you choose to do - from reading, workshops, interviews and any other method you can get your hands on - there is nothing to hold you back from being a success in your chosen field.
In America, they are trying to create alternative routes to the traditional university route towards a career in business. They have options such as online business programs, which are similar to the Open University in the UK. All you need is a laptop that works and the time to do the work. You can balance it with work and take time to attend workshops and lectures outside of your online degree because you're not bound by geography.
Wherever you live in the world, as long as you have a decent internet connection you can learn and you can earn. There is no such thing as an internet recession, and there's nothing stopping wannabe business types from getting to where they want to be if they take the initiative to find ways to learn. A traditional university degree still carries a great deal of weight in the world and comes highly recommended, but it doesn't have to be the Holy Grail.
"I don't think the outcome would have been any different. And I would perceive three years at university as a waste of time. I would have already made £200,000 by then. I'm a commercial person, not an academic."
There you have an example from a self-made man who was driven and got to where he is now by having a drive and determination that saw him succeed. Noble Prize winners might raise an eyebrow at the notion that university could be "a waste of time" for anyone, but that is the point: University is the traditional route, but it's not the only route to success. As soon as people realise that, the less angry they should feel about tuition fees and start planning world domination instead, whether that involves going to university first or not.]]>Are Drug Coupons a Valid Way of Saving Money?tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.32515482013-05-10T07:15:25-04:002013-05-11T20:12:17-04:00Daley James Francishttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/daley-james-francis/
There isn't a great deal the average man, woman or family can do to aid our countries out of recession other than to keep working and to keep spending, but as we all know, that isn't always an option, hence why coupons have become vitally important to hard working families, the elderly and the unemployed as they try to find ways to save money as they try to balance their books. It's not easy for most, but luckily there are money saving options out there.
Drug coupons have become a phenomenon since the world plunged into recession. The main reasons for this are of course the money saving side of things, but also because of the rising costs of prescriptions and the unpredictability of some people's life insurance policies. If it keeps rising year after year, how can you be sure if you're going to be able to pay for it and stay covered? When your financial troubles are potentially putting your life at risk, you need to look at the options available to you, and drug coupons have answered a lot of people's prayers, particularly on the US market.
What are Drug Coupons?
Drug coupons are usually found online, and are distributed to consumers via doctors and pharmacists as a way to help them save money on any prescription drugs they may require. The main categories of drug coupons are for the likes of high cholesterol, acne and allergies, among others.
A drug coupon is a coupon intended to help consumers save money on pharmaceutical drugs. They are offered by drug companies or distributed to consumers via doctors and pharmacists, and the popular are internet drug coupons. There are coupons available for drugs for many issues such as cholesterol, acne, migraines and allergies, but there are many others. A number of pharmaceutical companies use drug coupons as a marketing tool in order to reach a wider audience with their products in the hope that they will continue to use them in the future and ultimately pay for their subscriptions down the road.
No doubt you will have seen, read or heard the various magazine, newspaper, TV and radio adverts that these companies spend millions of their cash on every year. This is big business in the US, where supply and demand for these drugs is extremely high yet not everybody is able to afford them.
Are they Safe?
Fortunately for the consumers, a prescription for any drug coupon needs to be signed of and handed out by a licensed physician and a registered pharmacist, meaning that you will have the peace of mind that you will always receive drugs that are inside their use-by dates, the correct drugs will be handed over and the correct dosage will be adhered too. Drugs coupons are a far less risky proposition than drug samples, which can just be handed out to anyone on a trial basis without the added safety of a pharmacist or physicians word.
The twin bonuses of being safe and saving money are good enough reasons for anyone to use drug coupons for any ailments they may feel need treating. Healthcare costs a lot of money, particularly in the United States, so more and more people could turn to these coupons as an alternative. However, it is important that people don't become dependent on these drug coupons and start bypassing the risks and side effects of drugs in order to save money. You should always consult a doctor before making any decisions, even if it will save you a lot money each year.]]>Term Life or Mortgage Life Insurance: Which Do You Choose?tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.32511232013-05-10T06:04:26-04:002013-05-10T06:59:42-04:00Daley James Francishttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/daley-james-francis/
However, according to a study conducted by the LIMRA during Life Insurance Awareness Month in September 2012, three in American households are uninsured, with half saying that they need more life insurance. That could be as many as 35 million people without any life insurance at all, or not enough to cover them as much as they would like to be.
The study also found that 12% could not decide what type of cover to buy, 10% were afraid to make the wrong decision and 8% did not know enough about life insurance. This highlights a distinct lack of knowledge about life insurance, and that would indicate why so many of these people were opting about rather than opting in.
But where does could lack of coverage come from? You could argue that a lot of the people who are not insuring themselves for life cover are afraid of the financial ramifications of taking out any kind of policy. In this climate, any expenditure has to be kept to a minimum. But resting on your laurels is a big risk, and - at the risk of scare mongering - you never know when the worst could happen. Surely it is better to be covered and be able to maintain your lifestyle should anything happen? It is a dilemma for many households.
Weighing up the Options
Two of the most popular options for life insurance are term life and mortgage life insurance. They are extremely popular because they give reassurance to families after the worst case scenario happens and somebody is lost. In the case of mortgage life insurance, it covers the balance of your mortgage if a person listed on the mortgage dies. There is no way a partner of a deceased loved one will want the burden of sorting out their mortgage during such a stressful and painful time, and the mortgage life insurance makes such tasks a little easier for you.
Term life insurance has become extremely popular due to its flexibility. It pays a death benefit if a person listed on the insurance policy dies, and that money can then be used on anything from the mortgage, credit cards, debts or any other expenses of the family, including school fees. It has a distinct advantage over mortgage insurance in this instance, and also because the coverage can continue as long as you keep renewing the policy. A mortgage life insurance policy ends once the mortgage is paid off. There is no reason for a renewal afterwards.
The big question then, is term life or mortgage life insurance? The flexibility of a term life insurance policy has given it the edge because of the freedom is leaves for the people left behind to spend the money as they see fit. What also influences a decision to have a term life insurance policy is that it does not have to be changed every time you move house. A mortgage life insurance policy can be a hassle if you move around, as it only covers the amount of your mortgage, which will of course change as you move from home to home.
Hopefully a life insurance policy will not have to be used in such tragic consequences, but it definitely highlights the importance of having one. Everybody wants to protect their loved ones, and with a life insurance policy, you can do that whether you are here or not. The efforts to educate and raise awareness need to be doubled in order to ensure the secure futures of our families. There is no excuse not to be covered if you understand what the policies are, how much they cost and how important they are to you and your loved ones.]]>You've Finished Your Novel... Now What?tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.32440842013-05-09T09:59:54-04:002013-05-09T10:00:05-04:00Daley James Francishttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/daley-james-francis/
When that eureka moment hits you though, what happens next? That huge PDF file on your computer isn't going to leap out and sell itself. You have to know how to put it out to your audience and go through the steps you need to take to get it ready for consumption. Here are a few steps you should definitely take before approaching agents, publishers or self-publishing services:
Proofread Your Novel
The first step once you have reached "The End" is to proofread your novel to the point where you can almost speak it verbatim. It may seem like OCD or a little over the top, but it is incredibly easy to allow spelling and grammatical errors to creep in, and for you to spot sections of the novel that could easily be cut or altered to read better. The more you read the material, the more you will understand just how important it is to keep doing it. There is nothing worse than having somebody else point out a mistake or duff line, especially if they are the people who are going to be putting their weight behind the novel.
Get Feedback from People You Trust
Although you might trust your parents and love them unconditionally, this isn't exactly what this means by getting feedback from people you trust. If you have other writers in your family, that's great, but otherwise it isn't a great idea to get them to read it and give you feedback. Family members are far less likely to give constructive criticism and are far more likely to say something like "I really liked it," which is not very helpful. You are far more likely to get the type of feedback you are looking for by sending the work to fellow writers that you are in contact with, friends and colleagues who will be honest about the work, and any lecturers, teachers and industry professionals that you know and whose opinion you trust and value.
Give Your Manuscript a Post-Feedback Read-through
Once you have received feedback from your circle of trust, you can start to evaluate what they have said they liked and what they felt didn't work, and see if there are any patterns in the feedback. Did they all agree that one particular scene or character didn't quite work, or that a piece of the writing excelled more than the others? It can be difficult to get criticism and feedback, especially when you may have felt the novel was completed, but it is really important part of the process. Other writers can view the work in a way that you never can -- without emotion and ego -- and once you have their feedback it will be time to see if the manuscript will need further work as a result, and give the novel the post-feedback polish it may need before heading to publishers and agents.
Make a Recording
The meteoric rise of the podcast and audiobook has seen millions of popular titles turned into spoken word, and this is a format that all writers should consider. The recording of your novel could also be used in the editing process, as nothing highlights errors and substandard work than hearing the work read aloud. You should only consider recording the piece when you are completely finished with the editing process. Listening to the finished product in its entirety should be the last step before the final of all final edits, when you know that there is nothing else you can do to make the work any better. Once the novel is completed, it is worth considering having your work produced into a professional recording with a professional actor reading the work. Covering all bases -- recordings, eBooks and the printed word -- will increase the selling potential of your novel by making it available in various formats.
Start to Build Interest
The days of releasing a novel into the world and crossing fingers and toes in the hope that it explodes into the public consciousness are long gone. Writers have to become their own marketing division and build interest for their novel. If you can start to build momentum and the level of interest for your work, you can really sway the decision of agents and publishers who are going to invest in you and your work, and can get demand for your book at a solid level before it's even published.
Social media is extremely useful for building interest for your work, as is keeping a regularly updated blog on your website that details your writing journey, the process and allows you to grow a fan base and interact with potential readers of your work. If you have a list of subscribers to your websites blog you could use that as an email campaign to let them know about the release of your book. It will at least give you an idea of how many copies you are likely to sell from the start, before the larger scale marketing campaign begins.
Your website is important to giving you an outlet to showcase your work and let your audience know what you are all about. Although the written word is what you are all about, creating some video content for your site -- including a trailer for your novel and an interview with you, the author -- is a great way to give you a really professional profile and will show agents, publishers and readers that you are for real, and that you are embracing technology and new forms of marketing to reach a wider audience. It's no secret that publishers prefer it if writers do the majority of marketing themselves. It saves them time and money!
Public readings have become an essential part of building a writer profile. There are hundreds of opportunities in towns and cities to put together events and readings, including book launches (when the book is published). You can start to build a following in your local writing community by reading excerpts of your work to audiences. Pubs, cafes and halls are always looking for interesting events to put on -- if they're not doing it already -- so take advantage of these opportunities and start building momentum for the big release.]]>Things to Consider When Buying Car Insurance from Comparison Sitestag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.32439502013-05-09T07:25:47-04:002013-05-09T10:24:48-04:00Daley James Francishttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/daley-james-francis/
How do you know which provider is better?
When it comes to shopping around, you can often be bombarded with special offers and discounts if you take out an insurance policy for other areas of your life too, including contents insurance, building insurance and travel insurance. It can get pretty confusing pretty quick, and you might end up paying more than you would like to because you're thinking you're getting a better deal by buying in bulk. There's a chance this could be true, but for the most part its best just to stick to your guns.
You should always do your homework and shop around. There's some great deals out there, and sometimes the best ones aren't the cheapest. The more cover you have, the better chance you have of being protected against anything that might go wrong. Just don't go crazy and protect yourself for alien invasions or anything crazy like that, although I don't think that car insurance policy exists just yet.
Sometimes what stands out are the little things. For example, the car insurer Monkey offers to donate £10 to the charity of your choice when you renew with them. They've donated £45,490 to charities such as Mind, Children with Cancer and Meningitis Research via Just Giving, and for some people this could be a huge factor in making their decision of who they want to shop for car insurance with.
How can you get the best deal?
If you're already insured with a company, it doesn't hurt to shop around to see if you can find a better deal somewhere else first before renewing with them. But before you get excited and switch, why not get on the phone to your insurer and let them know about the deal? Chances are they will find you a better deal with them, and you'll be on to a winner. The worst thing that can happen is they don't match it and you switch to the better deal. It might take a bit of time but if it saves you money, it's got to be worth doing.
Also, if you consider that a number of comparison sites will cut down on cover in order to be the numero uno cheapest guy in town, it means you might not be getting a good deal, just a cheap deal, and there's a difference, especially when it comes to making a claim. When you order anything - such as Broadband for example - you look at the speed and whether it's unlimited before you look at the price. The same rules should apply here, too. Saving pennies and being covered for what you need don't always go hand in hand.
Another way to find what the best deal is for you is to make a checklist of everything you want to be covered for. Ask yourself these questions:
How many miles do you drive every day/week/month/year?
What kind of car do you drive and how long have you had it?
How many people drive the car and are they going to be insured on the same policy?
This will help you find the right policy for you instead of having to sift through all the information to find what it is you need. You should know your insurance policy as well as you know your car: Inside out! Some companies may give you a set number of days to change or cancel your policy, but others may charge you to do so. Read up on your policies and always read the terms and conditions carefully. They're not just there to waste paper!
The best advice anyone can give to somebody looking to get car insurance through a comparison site is that they should be honest when applying. If there are discrepancies on the applications that are discovered later on down the road, you can quickly find yourself with a cancelled policy, a big fat 'no' when it comes time to renewing it, or the worst case scenario: A refusal to pay out.]]>Procrastination Is Not a Crimetag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.28048352013-03-04T06:17:09-05:002013-05-04T05:12:01-04:00Daley James Francishttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/daley-james-francis/
Procrastination can be a great writing prompt that suddenly sees you burst into productive life. There's so many articles and books out there that make writers sound like hugely insecure people that are one step away from doing a Kurt Cobain impression. But it simply isn't the case, or certainly doesn't have to be.
Great things are almost never born out of forcing creativity, so embrace procrastination in its many great forms and enjoy it. The relaxing vibe that surrounds it will soon spring you into action.
Watch a Film of the 'So Bad it's Good Variety'
In an interview with Creative Screenwriting Magazine in 2007, Jeff Goldsmith asked Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg how they dealt with writers block during the writing process of Hot Fuzz. Their response:
"We'd watch a Chuck Norris film. Or a Steven Seagal classic."
They also mention that it was great to watch Steven Seagal's Out for Justice and it not be classed as procrastination, as they were watching an action film whilst writing an action film, after all. This is perfect advice, and something that this writer has embraced wholeheartedly. Nothing springs you out of writers block and procrastination than watching something that is within the genre that you want to work in, and is a mixture of good fun and completely awful.
No offence to any Steven Seagal fans, but Out for Justice ticks all of the boxes. The scene in which the pony-tailed beefcake beats up everyone in a bar full of guys who failed the Goodfellas audition is amazing and terrible all at the same time. There should be Oscars handed out for films that are outrageously entertaining whilst being completely rubbish. Out for Justice would be talked about like Gone with the Wind if there were such an award.
I guarantee that by the end of watching this film, Wright and Pegg turned to each other, said "Right!" and then ploughed forward with their screenplay with a new sense of urgency.
Google Yourself Stupid
The internet was invented so that writers could procrastinate their way back to their story: Fact. The search engines are a fantastic way to kill time before you find the right way to end the first sentence of your novel.
In the 1987 comedy classic Throw Momma from the Train, Billy Crystal's character is trying to write his second novel, and can't complete the opening sentence. He has 'The night was...' but he can't complete it, and he goes through half a dozen trees and shortens his life by ten years through stress over it.
If the poor bugger could have swapped his typewriter for a laptop, he could have watched videos of cute cats falling off things or read hundreds of articles written by unpublished hacks like me offering advice to writers to reinvigorate himself. These poor writers who lived in ancient times before YouTube, how did you manage to write a word? Bless 'em.
Procrastination is not a crime. Embrace it and enjoy it, because soon you'll be agonising over every word of your novel, short story or screenplay. Procrastination should be enjoyed not endured, if only in small controlled bursts.
Daley waves the flag for procrastination as a good thing for productivity. If you agree with him, get in touch via www.millionpens.com and lets embrace our inner procrastinator!]]>Writers Can Learn From Lance Armstrongtag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.27416962013-02-22T11:16:03-05:002013-04-24T05:12:01-04:00Daley James Francishttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/daley-james-francis/
You Either Die a Hero...
Lance Armstrong is not Batman. But Harvey Dent's iconic line "You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain" from the film The Dark Knight could easily be used to describe the fallen idol. If Armstrong had failed to beat cancer in 1996, the Lance Armstrong Foundation that was set up the following year and the hugely successful Livestrong charity would have had to have been created posthumously, and it is highly unlikely that he would have been pursued so doggedly by the people who have ultimately led to him being cast as the villain.
In a story, it is always interesting if the villain does not believe himself to be one at all. It creates more conflict for the reader if he or she is torn between agreeing or disagreeing with them. When the villain has a plan that ordinary folk could quite easily see themselves doing, it makes the story all the more compelling.
Ask yourself this: Would you have taken performance enhancing drugs if you knew you would get away with it, and it would lead to glory, untold riches and adulation? Ask the same questions of the hero in your story and you'll have a real page-turner on your hands.
Autobiographies and Fiction Go Hand in Hand
There was a case recently of a library that had shifted Lance Armstrong's autobiographies It's Not About The Bike: My Journey Back to Life and Every Second Counts from the 'Biography' section to the 'Fiction' section. Although this is quite amusing, it actually brings up an important question: Are all autobiographies and biographies just a work of fiction based on real events?
It is virtually impossible to remember everything exactly how it first occurred, without hindsight and the weight or years clouding your judgement. As the great Irish playwright Brian Friel once wrote: "To remember everything is a form of madness". There will have been plenty of lives whose accounts will have become significantly more interesting in the transition from memory to paper, and Lance's now famous works of fiction are just another example of somebody printing the legend.
Controversy Sells
There are two things you can guarantee will happen to the literary world following Lance Armstrong's admission of guilt (if you can really call it that). First of all, his third book, a tell-all account of his life in and out of the sport of cycling, will be released within the next couple of years. The second is that it will sell more than the other two combined.
Controversy sells, and a fallen idol's story sells more than most. Writers can do a lot worse than to look to Armstrong's story for a classic rise, fall and (maybe) rise story, and with the world of sport and celebrity as a backdrop: What could be better than that?
Suffering Builds Character
There are a number of novels, films and plays out there that you can flick through without finding any conflict or reasons to question anyone or anything that is happening on the page, stage or on-screen. Without conflict and the age-old dramatic rule of intention and obstacle (somebody wants something and something else is standing in their way), dramatic storytelling falls flat pretty fast.
If Lance Armstrong was the main character of a novel or a film, he'd have definitely been through the mill: Hero. Sporting legend. Cancer survivor. Charity fundraiser. Comeback king. Drugs cheat. Bully. Villain. He's done it all, and there's even a father-son story within there, with Armstrong's son defending his father until the father is left with no choice but to tell him the truth. It's the kind of story worthy of Steven Spielberg or Paul Thomas Anderson.
There is reportedly a Lance Armstrong movie in the works, and there will be thousands of authorised and unauthorised biographies written by writers desperate to attempt to piece together the jigsaw of a once-great athlete who fell spectacularly from grace. Any writer who has observed Armstrong's story over the last 20 years will have plenty of material to form their own stories, featuring their own flawed characters.
Daley is currently writing The Avengers 2, starring Lance Armstrong, Oscar Pistorius and Ben Johnson as Nick Fury. He can be found at www.daleyjfrancis.com]]>Do Roller Shutters Illicit a Negative Vibe in the Retail Community?tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.26609152013-02-11T07:16:16-05:002013-04-13T05:12:01-04:00Daley James Francishttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/daley-james-francis/
The issue and fear for a lot of retail shop owners is that with poverty comes desperation, and with desperation, there comes crime. With unemployment still high, the chances of their being an attack on a premises increases, and this leads a lot of businesses to seek the security products that will protect them against vandals and thieves.
One of the most popular defences against retail crime over the years has been roller shutters. These solid steel applications are often seen on busy retail streets when all the businesses are closed, and are big business because of how difficult they are for criminals to shift and get passed. But there have been a few instances recently where shopowners have been denied the right to put up shutters on their shop by councils, for fear that they illicit a negative vibe and create a deadening effect on the local area.
The West Yorkshire Police are quoted in the guide, stating:
"External solid shutters hide shop fronts and window displays, and reduce light to the pavements, thus creating a deadening, unwelcoming and neglected effect on the high street.
"These effects present and unfriendly appearance and can create a perception of an unsafe environment on the high street.
"External roller shutters are also easy targets for graffiti, which can add to the detrimental impact on the street scene."
In another case in December 2012, a Pharmacy in Burton on Trent was denied the permission to put up two shutters. East Staffordshire County Council stated that "security shutters can have a deadening effect on the street scene, increasing the fear of crime and careful consideration has to be given to their siting and design."
It's a tricky situation. On the one hand, there are plenty of people who would agree that shutters that haven't been taken care of or are prominent in areas that are run down can definitely illicit a negative vibe and a bad feeling when you are in those areas.
But at the same time, retail store owners deserve the right to go home at the end of every night with the feeling that they are safe and secure and their business isn't going to be a wreck when they return the next morning. If you're living in an area with a high rate of crime, shouldn't you instantly be in the right to protect yourself the best way you can?]]>Marriage... Who Needs It? I Do... Don't I?tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.26455672013-02-10T09:16:56-05:002013-04-12T05:12:01-04:00Daley James Francishttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/daley-james-francis/
We haven't done the whole 'relationship by numbers' thing very well, really. A lot of couples you can set your watch by: They meet - Six months in they get engaged - Married within 18 months - Kids after 2-3 years - Divorced by... Just kidding, although I know a few people who have.
My girlfriend and I have done it a little differently. We met at work while both of us were still at college, which meant the 'courting' phase lasted a little longer than usual. Then we moved in together after 18 months and that was fun for 2 and a half years, until I turned around to her and said: "Let's have a year in Australia."
Being the kind of girl who is easy going yet eager to have fun rather than watch the four soaps, read 50 Shades of Grey and be in bed for 10pm, she replied: "Let's do it" to the Australia question and we set off to that far off land to explore all of its beauties.
We had a fantastic time and made a pact not to sit on the East Coast like a lot of the idiots (sorry, the English) do and sit getting drunk in one area of Sydney that's full of Brits then go home and say "I've done Australia!" to their mates. We explored the country, and spent more time on the Lonesome West (called so because it's huge but there's hardly any people there compared to anywhere else) than anywhere else.
It was truly life changing, and our relationship became stronger as a result.
So this is where you get married, right? I hear all five of the readers of this post who haven't bounced back to Google yet say. You guessed wrong!
We came back to the UK just at the beginning of the recession, and finding a job and any form of stability was like a Big Brother Contestant trying to find their dignity: Hard, I tell you. Hard. But we pushed on and struggled through it, but it took time and a toll on the adventure spirit that we'd gained from being in Australia. I love this country as much as anyone, but we're a negative bunch. I soon became the cynical man I was before I left for Oz, and the one I remain to this day.
Just when we started to get a little financially comfortable in our lives, I dropped a bombshell. "Y'know, I'm 29, it's time I took the plunge..." Drum-rolls for the big romantic gesture, please... "... And go to university." Oh.
"Oh" is also essentially the response I got from my long suffering girlfriend, too. We'd been together for nearly eight years at this point and although neither of us ever talked about marriage or was that interested in it, it was becoming expected of us. My sudden turn into the academic arena was unexpected by 99.9% of the people we knew.
After three years of studying Creative Writing and Journalism at De Montfort University, I finally had the confidence and the skills to pursue a career in writing; something I'd wanted to do since I was a kid but never had the nerve to do. But I did now, so I went for it.
But before any of that, I decided that, at 31 and without any more excuses to stay at the maturity level of a small child, I asked my girlfriend to marry me on her birthday. She said no. Just kidding. She said yes. Then she said: "Does this mean we're serious now?"
We'd been together 11 years by this point.
The run up to the wedding has been pretty stress free, but within almost 18 months to go, I'm sure I'll probably look like Christian Bale in The Machinist by the time I walk down the altar. We've been on wedding directories and I've found more than one wedding magazine next to my Boxing News and Empire collections. The 20 year old me would have run away by this point. These days, I'm quite enjoying all the wedding bliss.
I'd say the moral of this story is: Don't be pressured into the traditional route of weddings and babies. Do what makes you happy. At the end of the day, chances are you'll come round to all the traditional things eventually. In our case, road bumps and Australia aside, we've done it our way and it's worked out fine. We've got some pretty good stories to tell our kids and the only regrets we'll have when we're old is that we didn't "accidentally" lose our Visas and live in Australia illegally when we had the chance.
]]>Writing an Action Script: Learning From the Masterstag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.25592932013-01-26T17:29:32-05:002013-03-28T05:12:01-04:00Daley James Francishttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/daley-james-francis/Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, Predator and Kill Bill Vol 1 are of the once seen, never forgotten breed that any budding screenwriter should get their hands on and study front to back.
If you watch these kinds of movies, you understand straight away that they all have similar features, but if these features are well written and steer clear of clichés, caricatured characters and pointless, booooooooring exposition and storylines, you could have a classic on your hands. Here are a few rules to follow that should set your action film on the right foot.
A Real Hero
Every single action film needs a great hero to take it to the higher plateau where the likes of Die Hard and Lethal Weapon live. This doesn't mean that you have to create a larger than life beefcake who eats bullets for breakfast and walks through walls. The best action heroes have flaws and issues, that's what makes us root for them - the fact that they're just like us.
The audience doesn't care about invincible war machines without any personality; they care about ordinary Joe's doing extraordinary feats. That's why there are five Die Hard films and counting... John McClane is an ordinary cop - and a bit of an asshole - who gets put in harm's way and manages to beat the bad guys, usually by the skin of his teeth. It's why we love him, and why he keeps coming back. The sequels may be nowhere near as good as the original, but the audience keep buying the tickets to see him.
A Worthy Adversary
Every hero needs a great villain to make him up his game and keep the audience tuning in. If the hero is just blowing up faceless goons and firing bullets at stuntmen, it all becomes very boring very fast. What takes an action movie from a violent bore-athon to an epic action classic is having the villain come up against somebody who can fight as hard as him, outsmart him and be interesting enough for the audience to stay intrigued until the inevitable final showdown.
The worthy adversary can be a shadowy reflection of the protagonist, a sharp-suited intellectual or a silent assassin, but they have to be well written, rounded individuals or the audience won't care about the conflict. Take Lethal Weapon as an example. The main villain's right hand man, Mr Joshua, is the perfect villain. He's a cold, quiet type, but deadly. By the time he comes up against the fast-talking but mentally unstable Martin Riggs, the audience is fascinated about the outcome, which is uncertain from the moment they come to blows until the last man is standing.
Dialogue and One-Liners that Zing
The best action movies have explosions, amazing action scenes and gun fights galore, but all of that means nothing without having well written characters that have been given fantastic dialogue via the pen of the screenwriter.
If you think of every action movie classic, you can associate at least one incredible line of dialogue from it. The films of screenwriter Shane Black are notorious for their incredible dialogue and one-liners. Here are just a few great examples of one-liners from his films:
B-Movie Actress: So what do you do for a living?
Harry: Uh, I'm retired. I invented dice when I was a kid. How about you do?
Harry: Do you think I'm stupid?
Perry: I don't think you'd know where to put food at, if you didn't flap your mouth so much. Yes I think you're stupid.
Martin Riggs: That's very thin.
Roger Murtaugh: What the hell, thin's my middle name.
Martin Riggs: Your wife's cooking, I'm not surprised.
Joe Hallenbeck: This is the '90s. You can't just walk up and slap a guy, you have to say something cool first.
Jimmy Dix: [to himself] Okay, what would Joe do at a time like this? He'd kill everybody and smoke some cigarettes
Great dialogue and one-liners are great to break up the action, give the audience room to breathe - not to mention something to laugh at - and can reveal a lot about a character. Keeping to Shane Black's writing as an example, the character of Joe Hallenbeck in The Last Boy Scout is a washed-up Private Eye, but we also know that he used to be a top U.S Secret Service agent, so when he's wise cracking to bad guys, the audience knows he can reach back inside himself and back up his words when he has to. It makes the character intriguing, not to mention hilarious.
There's No Such Thing as a Secondary Character
This is a really important point to remember, because so many writers don't. Your protagonist - and your villain - aren't enough to sustain an entire film, or keep the audience's attention for an entire film. Even the very best action films need back-up, and they come in the form of the other characters. The term 'secondary character' can be seen as a derogatory term, because in a good film, there aren't any secondary characters. Every character should serve a purpose, even if it's just for a set-up and pay off for a joke. Con Air is a perfect example, as this great article from Bang2Write explains.
A great example of this is in Martin McDonagh's In Bruges. The character of the Ticket Seller has just two scenes, but they're integral to the story. Towards the beginning of the movie, the miserable Belgian is so anal that he won't allow Brendan Gleeson's Ken to break a 100 Euro note to go to the top of the Tower. Later on in the movie, psychopathic gangster Harry (Ralph Fiennes) wants to go to the now-closed Tower for a final shootout with Ken. When the Ticket Seller gets in Harry's face and denies the crime boss access to the Tower because it's closing for the night, he's pistol whipped to death by a furious. It always elicits nervous laughter from the audience. Perfect set up and pay off, and it tells you everything you need to know about the enigmatic Harry in a single moment.
Set Pieces That Stay in The Memory
You can have the best protagonist, antagonist, storyline and plot points in the world, but for an action movie to join the ranks of the classic, there has to be at least one set piece that blows the audience away. The term 'set piece' implies that it has nothing to do with the story and is just there for the purpose of wowing the crowd, but this is just one of its main purposes. If the set piece exists for no other purpose than just to spend $150 million, it'll be get forgotten pretty quickly if the rest of the film sucks. There's been a lot of movies made with the sole reason for their existence being to blow shit up in cool ways, but they don't appear on Top 10 lists, they get played at 11pm on Channel 5.
Action set pieces should drive the story forward and include character development within them. A classic example of the perfect action set piece is in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight. In the scene, Harvey Dent is getting a police escort across the city, but The Joker has an ambush ready for him. The scene has everything: Exploding helicopters, car chases, a great villain against a great hero... and bazookas fired at cop cars.
The scene tells you everything you need to know about Messrs Joker and Batman when the two men collide, with The Joker on foot and Batman on the Batpod. The Joker doesn't care about living or dying, and is prepared to be run down by Batman when The Dark Knight. But Batman has one rule: He won't take human life. His moral code makes him better than a criminal, but it loses him the fight. The 'set piece' ends with Batman swerving out of the way of The Joker and colliding with another vehicle. It's the perfect end to the perfect set piece, and means so much more than spending millions on blowing up cars.
]]>Creating a Short Film From Scratchtag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.25495512013-01-25T07:55:32-05:002013-03-27T05:12:01-04:00Daley James Francishttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/daley-james-francis/
The most important thing to remember when you're just starting out is: Things will only get better. Rome wasn't built in a day, and Citizen Kane wasn't written in a day. Screenwriting and filmmaking takes time and dedication, as well as some great ideas!
There is a very good chance that the first few films you write and commit to film aren't going to shake up the world. What's important at this stage is that you're practicing your craft and getting better with each film. Quantity = Quality if you learn from your mistakes and you don't become an egomaniac!
Writing The Script
There are hundreds of scriptwriting books out there in the world; it doesn't take long to find them. Robert McKee's Story or Screenwriting for Hollywood by Michael Hauge are solid choices, but there are also quick and easy articles on formatting and writing a script that can help you get a footing as to what you need to be able to tell a good story on film.
When you're writing a short film, you need to keep the writing concise and to the point. There's not much point in creating a 25 page Tarantinoesque monologue with gunfights and explosions if you don't know what a lens is and you have a budget of £3.27.
That doesn't mean that the quality of the film is going to suffer. Some of the best short films have no dialogue whatsoever. Check out Christopher Nolan's Doodlebug for a great example. He went on to direct Memento and The Dark Knight Trilogy, so there's hope for us all.
You're telling a story - and a short story at that - so give yourself the best opportunity to impress by keeping the idea simple and creating a screenplay that is easy to follow and can help you tell a great story on film.
No Budget? No Problem
As mentioned before, trying too hard to impress is not the way forward when you're making your film debut as a screenwriter or a director. A good story can be created with very little money and a simple premise. This means staying away from pages upon pages of dialogue, action or fight scenes that will require stunts and special effects sequences. That is, of course, unless you can get access to all of these for free. If you can, well played! Just be careful...
A great example of somebody who came up from a no budget background and broke through is Edgar Wright, the director of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. He spent his teenage years making no budget short films with his friends, but the more experienced he got, the more opportunities arose for him to work with bigger budgets and prove himself. Wright went from making no-budget films to releasing a low budget film called A Fistful of Fingers in 1996 at the age of just 20. This led to directing gigs at the BBC before Spaced paved the way for the aforementioned Shaun and Hot Fuzz.
I'm Putting a Team Together...
Most film directors will tell you that they are nothing without the team they build around them: DOP's (Director of Photography), actors, sound guys, PA's (Production Assistants) and producers; they all make the film happen by working together as a unit and collaborating together to create a great piece of work.
Although you won't have access to a huge team, just having a good cameraman can be enough to create a good short film that showcases your talent and potential. At the end of the day, nobody will expect you to create a masterpiece in your first time of trying. What matters is that you keep improving and learning all of the time. If the right person sees your work, you might then be given the opportunity to make a film with a larger budget. That's when you can really start to make an impression.
In 2011, I devised, wrote and produced a short film in 48 hours, with nobody but a cameraman, two actors and one additional friend as back-up. It was called Forecast, and it was a simple two minute film that highlighted the dangers of staying in an abusive relationship. The film didn't win any awards, but it led to other, bigger projects. That's what it's all about at the development stage of a filmmaking career.
Now What?
The internet has made it incredibly easy for amateur filmmakers to get their work out to a wide audience. YouTube and Vimeo are the biggest websites that feature film work, and they definitely reach a bigger audience than any other site.
But once they're up there, using Twitter, Facebook and various other social networking sites will help you get your work viewed by interested folk. You never know, your film could go viral! Plus, you never know who might be watching and looking out for new upcoming talent.
There are also online and offline short film festivals to look out for. Whether your film was shot on an iPhone or a decent level HD camera, there are festivals and competitions out there for you to showcase your work. Find them and enter them. Good luck!]]>No-Budget Venue Ideas for Your Bandtag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.23148702012-12-17T08:18:39-05:002013-02-16T05:12:01-05:00Daley James Francishttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/daley-james-francis/
To get your sound out to the masses, the two most popular ways are still the internet and constant gigging. Artists like Ed Sheeran have made their mark on the industry by playing as many gigs at as many venues as possible and built an audience that way. The Artic Monkeys made a very similar, selling CDs at gigs that allowed them to keep playing and building a following that would see them go on to great things.
This approach of selling music at gigs has been popular for decades. It will always be the grass roots way of building an audience and much cooler than the reality TV approach.
Some bands prefer to take the internet approach to stardom these days, with YouTube launching the likes of Justin Bieber into the hearts and minds of the world. All you need is a camera that can upload to YouTube and a bit of talent. Who knows who could be watching? Your video could go viral in a matter of minutes. 42 million people have now seen Bieber's cover of Chris Brown's 'With You'.
Taking the more traditional approach of gigging, here are four examples of ways for bands to get gigs. Some are more conventional than others, but all of them cost nothing to put on. When you're just starting out, that's a pretty useful budget to have!
Live Stream from Your Bedroom
It wasn't so long ago that the likes of Sandi Thom were making waves by setting up MySpace accounts and performing gigs online. Despite Justin Timberlake attaching his name to the brand, MySpace isn't the force it once was, although bands and music artists still use it and the format still works perfectly for music artists to get their voice out there.
There are a number of ways to set up a live broadcast for your gig, and it doesn't have to be at the O2 Arena to be exciting. The rawness of a live performance could be great even from your bedroom. Just make sure you don't have anything embarrassing on your walls. Your Doctor Who bed sheets should probably be out of shot too. You don't want to find yourself in an American Pie situation, you want the focus to be fully on the band, and on the performance.
Go Old School with Your Garage
The term garage band still sounds as cool as ever. It's an iconic image, and your band could make it even more iconic by having your garage as the venue for one of your gigs. If you have a roller garage door or similar, consider using it as the curtain, slowly raising it to reveal the four guys who are about to rock the crowd. The crowd might not be enormous, but remember that only 35-40 people turned up at the famous Lesser Free Trade Hall Sex Pistols gig in 1976. Gigs are what you make of them, so get plugged into that garage and make the term 'garage band' your own.
Open Mic Nights
Pubs, clubs and bars all over the country offer their stage to musicians at Open Mic Nights. Sometimes you can witness a little bit of magic at these events, as a complete unknown artist steps up and pours their soul out on stage, or a local band gets up and makes a god-awful racket that is so bad it becomes good because it's so much fun.
Open mics are extremely popular for grassroots music fans who want to hear good music, and for bands who are just starting out and who want to try out their burgeoning material in front of a good crowd for free. It often takes a while before a band can get a good set of gigs together, so open mics are often perfect for bands to gel as a live unit and improve their confidence in front of a live audience. It means that when the bigger - and paid - gigs start to come in, the band has done their apprenticeship and now they're ready for bigger and better things.
Low Budget Festivals
Festivals have grown so massively over the last decade, you hardly know where to begin when you start considering which one you want to go to. Glastonbury, V Festival and Reading/Leeds have launched hundreds of other festivals of varying size and quality. It has also created opportunities for small and local bands to play at festivals that have been set up in local areas.
The Oxjam Festival is a great example of a festival that is popular for smaller and local bands and artists from around the UK. It runs all through October with a ridiculous number of events around the UK, all organised by volunteers who know and love their local music scene. It is run to help Oxfam raise money for their charity, and plenty of local venues get involved. If you can get on the bill at one of these events, you've got a great opportunity on your hands.]]>Content Writing: Finding Inspiration and Getting the Job Donetag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.21748332012-11-28T19:22:57-05:002013-01-28T05:12:01-05:00Daley James Francishttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/daley-james-francis/
This is all part of the process and should be seen as a challenge, as any writer worth their salt will tell you: There is always a way to find an angle that is appealing and engaging for the reader. The best place to start is looking through what products and services your client provides, and have at least a basic understanding of that. If you don't have that, how are you going to convince your client that they should be working with you?
The Think Tank Is Open for Business...
Once you've got a baseline of what your client is all about, you can open that think tank of ideas. Brainstorming is always good. There's nothing more invigorating than bouncing ideas off colleagues. Just don't get upset if they come up with better ideas than you. If you can return the favor and give them some cool ideas for their clients, all the better. Set challenges for who can write the post that gets the most interaction with users. Seven Facebook Likes to 6 = I win!
If you work alone, there is a pretty good think tank that you may have heard of. It's called the Internet. The search engines are your starting point for great research and you might find the inspiration for how to crack that niche within those billions of pages that spring up in front of you.
Don't Be a Dupe!
When you're scouring the Internet for ideas and inspiration, you can find some pretty amazing stuff that should spring the grey matter into life. But there's a thin line between being inspired and creating duplicate content. Sometimes you can do it without even realizing it, so it's important that you find your own unique view on a subject. There's nothing wrong with being inspired by something and making it your own. It's worked pretty well for the careers of film-makers like Quentin Tarantino, who wears his influences on his sleeves. As long as you're transparent with your sources and inspiration, there shouldn't be too much of an issue.
What Are YOU Interested In?
If you're going to write 500-1,000 words on something, you'd better have an interest in it, because if you don't, your readers sure as hell won't. You don't want the bounce rate on an article you've written to be 1-2-meh... You want people to keep reading. That's the challenge when you're writing about something that on the surface isn't going to have the far-reaching fun factor. Writing for a niche is tough, so put yourself in a good position by giving the subject your voice, by trying to connect the subject with something you're interested in.
Say one of your clients is a manufacturer of fireplaces. On the surface, only the owner of the business and somebody looking for that particular product will be remotely interested in it. But if you can find an angle within that niche that engages the reader, then you're onto a winner. Try and step out of yourself and view your content from an outsider's point of view. Would you keep reading?
If we keep to that fireplace example, there are plenty of ways to write about the first part of that word. Fire is dangerous and exciting, particularly if you're watching Steve McQueen battle The Towering Inferno with his team of fire fighters. Already we've made a connection between fireplaces and a big budget Hollywood movie.
Being interested in something and finding a way to mix that with what your client does for a living is fun and can lead to some pretty decent content if you don't go too far off on a tangent. There still has to be the connection, even if it isn't clear on the surface. It's simply not enough to use the shameless link building techniques of the past, as this blog post by www.inbound.co.uk points out by highlighting the shocking history of link building. It's all about engagement in 2012 and beyond, so get creative and get that brain ticking.
And Finally... A Writing Tip!
Graham Greene, author of Brighton Rock and universally recognized as one of the greatest writers of all time, had a superb way of battling writer's block. He would leave a sentence half completed when he stepped away from his notebook or typewriter. This really works, as it takes away the writers need to find the hook to get started again. There's nothing worse than staring at the blinking cursor (something Mr. Greene wouldn't have had to worry about, the lucky devil) trying to find the right words to set you off on your writing voyage again.]]>Studio Ghibli and Pixar: Two Big, Beautiful Giantstag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.21755952012-11-22T11:28:55-05:002013-01-22T05:12:01-05:00Daley James Francishttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/daley-james-francis/
These days hardly a week goes by without an animated film released at cinemas. They are so commonplace now that sometimes you can forget which one is which, they are so similar. They usually fall into two categories: talking animals acting in very human ways and learning life lessons along the way; or human stories that could not be told in real life without the budget the size of the economy of a small country.
Some of these films succeed, some don't. Some of these films stick in the mind after we have watched them, some are forgotten by the time we've left the theatre. But the studios keep them coming thick and fast. The choice is there, that's a good thing at least.
The giants of the Western world are Pixar, Walt Disney and DreamWorks. They have dominated the market over the last 15 years - or 70, in Disney's case - and scored some of the biggest financial hits at the box office over that time, and have now joined forces with Pixar.
Pixar have been very consistent in terms of quality control, with the likes of the Toy Story trilogy, Finding Nemo, Wall-E and The Incredibles not only breaking box office records, but also appearing only critics end-of-year 'best of' lists. They have also made the transition from being nominated for the Academy Award for best animated feature to best feature, period.
But fans of animated films from around the world knew of a company that was blending beautiful visuals with stories since 1985, and worldwide acclaim has now found them too. Their name is Studio Ghibli and they were founded by Hayao Miyazaki in Japan.
John Lasseter of Pixar has been friends with Miyazaki for thirty years, despite neither man knowing the language of the other. It is a friendship built on respect and the love of each other's work. Lasseter oversaw the American dubbing of Spirited Away and beat the publicity drum which resulted in the 2001 masterpiece winning the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
Studio Ghibli's influence can be seen all over Pixar's work, from the emphasis being on story above all else to the risk taking on subject matter and ideas. Would Wall-E have been made by a studio that wasn't influenced by Studio Ghibli?
Toy Story 3, an animated film so beautifully realised that was nominated for Best Picture, saw John Lasseter pay homage to his friend and hero with a cameo from the world's most famous blue troll, Totoro. It is a lovely touch, and one that Studio Ghibli fans from around the world must love. I found myself pointing to the screen and saying "There's Tororo!" every time he came on-screen... I'm 31 years of age.
But folks older than I love Ghibli as much as I do. Check out Terry Gilliam's piece for Time Out about My Neighbour Totoro. Then watch it for yourself.
The more Hollywood relies on remakes and pours money into superhero franchises that are safer bets at the box office, the more people will turn up to watch these beautifully drawn animated worlds brought to life. As long as Studio Ghibli and Pixar are open for business, it will be worth our effort and money every time.]]>