If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

I just spent a week in the mountains with a group of kids. It was amazing how, and how fast, the news of Michael Jackson’s death spread into that remote corner of the world. Within minutes, all the girls had received a SMS from their friends, and everybody – regardless of age – was talking about “Jacko”.

I was never a fan of his, but liked his older music. I remember buying “Thriller” as a birthday present for my older brother. And that album really showed his potential, his amazing talent. Wish that he had had better friends to protect him from himself.

Here’s a great video shot in high speed, “Stranger in Moscow”.

Audio slideshow: Michael Jackson – man and music (BBC)

Flash press camera

By Christine Berrie

As a follow-up to yesterdays’s post on Clients not paying, here is one from the writer’s perspective – but that one works just as well for any one who has ever worked for “deferred payment.” I’ve done that mistake as well, and of the maybe dozen (mostly short) films I’ve done that way, I ended up getting paid exactly zero times. And I have never met a single sould who did end up getting some money from a deferred payment job.

If you need the experience, you may consider working for free – just do not fall for the production assistant’s crap promising money down the line. If a film by chance should turn out to be a financial success, any self-respecting producer will immediately start a new production company, sell all rights to the film to this new company, and can rake in all profits.

And when it is time to make the next, proper budgeted, film, guess who they will not call? You. Because if you work for free, you can’t be any good, right?

Harlan Ellison with sharp, sharp teeth

Ellison is a veteran Hollywood writer, and even he get occasionally asked to do freebies. Here is an extract from the documentary “Dreams with sharp teeth”

If you are intrigued as I was, have a look at the well made trailer:

It made me order the DVD.

Every once in a while you will get a client that will ask for a favour. Be it an extra round of editing, extra graphics, or 50% off. Imagine if we would do the same in every day situations – we would be ridiculed. Yet, every one working in the creative realm will get asked sooner or later.

Here’s a film that shows how ridiculous this really is. Enjoy.

An exhibition called ‘Sight Unseen‘ has opened at the California Museum of Photography which showcases the work of twelve blind photographers from around the world.

The curator of Sight Unseen, Douglas McCulloh, explains how visually impaired people are able to capture such beautiful images.

See the gallery, visit the virtual exhibition, or over at the BBC some (commentated) photos.

Jay Moeller has been working as an editor for over 10 years. Here are her 21 (funny, fitting) tips to clients on how to behave in the editing room

Sorry I’m late is a short film that first looks like a computer animation, but it is actually made with real people, old-school stop-motion animation and a very witty way of playing with perspective. You can see the youtube version below, but I would recommend to see the higher res version. On the dedicated website you can also find some extensive behind-the-scene footage. Enjoy!

It is not often that I get to play games, and even more seldom that I write about them, but Splitter is a game that has many of the elements I like:

• It takes no time to learn
• You can play it for just a few minutes (perfect while waiting for a render)
• You have to think about solutions
• There are many solutions to each puzzle
• No killing necessary
• You can restart each lever without penalty
• And it involves real life physics

Another game I can recommend is Buggles Connect over at the Casual Collective. Here you can play against other online players. It is quite fun trying to guess what the other player(s) might do and adjust your own strategy accordingly.

You place your markers in an empty spot and try to grab as many little Buggles as you can. Whoever has caught most of them at the end of 10 rounds, wins.

Enjoy.

Here’s a visual representation of my blog:

You can make your own Wordle over at, well, wordle.net