Chris Hislop's Theatrical Musings

Disclaimer: the views and opinions expressed in this blog are not necessarily the views held by FringeReview. Please address any complaints concerning anything offensive or inaccuratein these blogs  to our editors at gubbins@fringereview.co.uk

Chris Hislop is a Brighton-based writer/theatre practitioner. He blogs/reviews for FringeReview, as well as working on a variety of writing and theatre projects, most recently a film script, an unsuccessful TV pilot and a Brighton Fringe show called When All the Crowds Have Gone.

In this column/blog, I will muse on the various thoughts bouncing around my noggin. I'll also regale you with stories from my various theatrical projects, and hopefully entertain and amuse in equal measure. If you want to get any information through to me about your show, project or venue, I'm always happy to link and comment, please contact me on 07748160632 or chris.hislop@gmail.com.

For all previous blog articles, collections of writings from other sources, etc, please visit http://chrishislop.wordpress.com.

30/08/10 - That Was the Fringe That Was

This week sees the end of both the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the Camden Fringe, marking the putative end of the summer fringe season... and what a season it has been. In my mind, the summer fringe season runs from the beginning of the Brighton Fringe until the end of the Edinburgh Fringe, and not saying that there aren't other Fringe Festivals, but for most fringe thesps and fringe comedians in this country, that's what they look and work forward to.

So, fringe season in this country is over, and what can we draw from that? Well, the so called 'recession year' for the Fringes seems to have been a little pre-emptive: again, more acts than ever performed in Edinburgh, more tickets than ever were sold at Brighton... I was one of the ones saying this year might be a little tight, but it seems all of the doom-and-gloomers and nay-sayers were proven wrong. Maybe the Fringe is indeed recession-proof: maybe there will always be performers and punters, no matter where the global financial market is at the time... Something to think about again next year, perhaps.

Also, this year marked my first experience at the Camden Fringe; I started off by slating it a little, but have come to enjoy it towards the end. My main issue, which still hasn't changed, is that I don't know quite what to make of it: it isn't a mini-Edinburgh, and it isn't trying to be a mini-Edinburgh, which I find peculiar: I mean, it runs at exactly the same time, surely there's some kind of relationship? Apparently not: maybe it is just trying to be a cheap alternative. However, looking back on it, I have to say that it has affected the quality of the acts involved: one five-star for a whole Fringe Festival is simply not good enough. There needs to be a reason to take your show to Camden, a way to inspire big acts with big ideas to get involved: I'm not sure what that is, but the Camden Fringe needs to find it to be more than just 'the cheap alternative': not the best slogan I can think of!

At the end of the fringe season, I also find myself thinking about the companies involved: what happens next? A typical Edinburgh show will end the festival with the following: great stories, a fantastic time had by all, much rest needed, a large financial debt, a couple of decent reviews and a worrying sense of 'what next?'. Unless you're one of the lucky people who met a producer or who got offered gigs all over the country, chances are you're now realising how much you spent and how little you've received in return: is having the time of your life and some reviews really worth a couple grand of debt? There is the argument that you've spread your name a little, made yourself more fans all over the country (maybe even the world!), but when will that pay off? When will that lead to paid work? When will that get you more than a hearty slap on the back? The common answer is "we'll do it again next year and have even more people watching the show", but that's another huge debt you may not be able to afford... Do we just give up and call the Edinburgh Fringe a really great holiday?

Either way, now comes the long, dark winter of creative furtiveness: unless you live in a big city with a vibrant Fringe theatre and comedy scene, it'll be quiet for a while now. Will you go again next year? Is it really worth it? Somehow, I think most of the fringe lot will always convince themselves that the answer is yes.

25/08/10 - Moved

Well, the move is now done: I am officially a London resident. It's currently raining cats and dogs, but apart from that I'm quite liking it: lots to do, plenty of old friends to catch up with and new ones just made... there seems to be plenty of work here as well, although I am being a bit slow in picking up on it all: still, hopefully I'll be living AND employed gainfully here before too long...

I'm struck by how different London is to work in: from a theatrical perspective, there is just so much more happening. From launch nights to scratch nights to new shows that need reviewing to new projects, there seems to be more going on than sleepy old Brighton could have handled; I already feel much more part of a theatre community than Brighton ever managed to properly instill. Hopefully, that'll develop into more work and exciting news soon: I'm already working on a new script about Goya and his Black Paintings...

From a screenwriting perspective, there is similarly plenty afoot: loads of new work to apply for, including a couple of full-time paid jobs: unheard of in Brighton-town! The stuff I'm already working is also ticking along nicely: we're THIS close to pitching to some very big producers for this film, so the big screenwriter dream may be closer than previously hoped... although it may still be a while before I know anything more, so bated breaths should not be held quite yet.

I guess I feel much more at home up here than I ever felt in Brighton from a work perspective: that old Brighton syndrome of letting things tick along slowly, of sliding over possible work opportunities because they were just 'too far away' is blasted out of the water here: I've applied for more new jobs in this couple of weeks than I did in the last six months! It's so easy to switch off in Brighton, to coast along on a wave of things-are-fine-not-perfect-but-fine: this is a new work beginning!

That being said, Brighton was home for over five years, and I do miss it a little. I'm quite happy being anywhere, but there is still a pang of regret at leaving the first real home away from home that I made for myself. No more drinks in the Hop Poles or the Bee's Mouth, no more coffees in Pavilion Gardens, no more cups of tea in Naked... some things simply can't be replaced. I think it's time to find the London alternatives instead.

So, a new beginning, a new selection of possibilities, and hopefully a bit less career stress! We shall see.

11/08/10 - Standards

That's more like it! After yesterday's rant, I've now seen a Camden Fringe show with some passion, some heart: the review'll be up on FringeReview (and here) sometime today. I didn't mean to imply yesterday that no Camden Fringe show had that kind of heart, I just hadn't seen any yet; now that I have, I'm feeling a bit more relieved about my next couple of weeks reviewing in Camden. I guess that energy and passion in theatre is just one of my inalienable standards.

We all have standards for various things our lives: some of us have greater standards of hygine (we all know someone like that), cuisine, social interaction... We all have this little set of rules we apply to all situations we find ourselves, and passion is a basic standard for me when it comes it theatre. It's a live art form: if you don't have some love for your work, some respect and fear of what it can do and what it can cost you, your work will always just pootle along and not engage your audience on a deeper level than pure enjoyment. I'm not saying this is something that all of the plays I reviewed earlier this month were suffering from, just that this is something I have seen more and more Fringe shows seem to lack.

It's not like such passion is the most important part of a theatre production: it's important that the project starts from that kind of basis, but, of course, there is so much more that needs to be done to make it a good show. I just need to see some passion in theatre: if we are not passionate about our art, what is this? Just another job? No, it's still a calling and a gift, and there's still something slightly magical about it: treat it with respect.

Anyway, passion in theatre is one of my golden standards when it comes to reviewing. You see, if the company feels passionate about their work, I feel passionate about telling others about it, about critiquing it fairly and accurately, about rating it so others know what to expect. This doesn't mean I won't review shows without passion and enthusiasm, but I do find it harder; I'll freely admit to that.

I'm not sure if this is a strength or a weakness in me as a reviewer; probably a little of both. Then again, as a reviewer I need to have a set of standards I stand by, don't I? Or am I a cloudy figure, completely mouldable and adaptable to each piece I see? Or just a little bit of both?

10/08/10 - Is Fringe Theatre Becoming More Lacklustre?

This article has been edited: I went a little overboard with the ranting...

Is it me? I've spend the last couple of days really looking deep into my soul, making sure I'm not taking out that Daddy never bought me a 15th birthday present (don't worry, he did: it was Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, for the wrong console... oh Dad!) on some recent fringe shows that I've seen, but I've been finding them a little... lacklustre. That certainly doesn't mean that all Fringe shows are, nor that any particular Fringe Festival is, it's just a trend I've noticed in fringe theatre over the last couple of years.

I think it has to do with the collusion of mediocrity: a neat little phrase coined by the inimitable Paul Levy. If you are in a mileu that doesn't strive for excellence at all times, you will start to congratulate each other for something that, outside of that mileu, would not be regarded in as favourable a light. Once this cycle starts, the bar where excellence is registered slips lower and lower as more and more work that is barely average outside of this mileu is applauded and graded highly within it.

What does this mean for fringe theatre? Well, it's all too easy to see the parallel: shows that are well-reviewed and attended by audiences within a fringe environment may not be rated so highly outside of it. Still, within their own context, it seems fine for fringe theatre comapanies to not spend a fortune on costumes and props, to not get involved, passionate and excited about their work, to not aim for the highest standards of excellence as, within their mileu, even the slightest effort is treated with the highest accolades.

My point? I've seen quite a bit of this recently. The efforts, to the outsider, seem a little lacklustre, and it's disappointing. I'm not pointing any fingers here, just noting something that fringe theatre is going to have to deal with at some point. And I'm not saying I know what the answer is, just that it's a shame that it exists.

PS: I'm dead chuffed that Brighton-based comedy collective, Casual Violence!, are having an amazing Edinburgh Fringe, with 4 sell-out shows in as many nights and one 4 star review already! Read the review

here

, and book tickets

here

to see their brilliant show, Dildon't.

03/08/10 - Edinburgh Fringe 2010 Mini-Preview: The Wake

03/08/10 - Edinburgh Fringe 2010 Mini-Preview: Fame! the Musical

03/08/10 - Edinburgh Fringe 2010 Mini-Preview: Guest Who?

03/08/10 - Edinburgh Fringe 2010 Mini-Preview: Lorca is Dead

02/08/10 - Dealing with Rejection

25/07/10 - Edinburgh Fringe 2010 Mini-Preview: Dan Antopolski

25/07/10 - Edinburgh Fringe 2010 Mini-Preview: Daniel Rigby

25/07/10 - Edinburgh Fringe 2010 Mini-Preview: Dildon't

These are mini-previews for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2010: click on the show title to get ticket bookings through the Edinburgh Fringe website, and on the company to go to their website (if they have one). If you have any recommendations or would like a mini-preview, please comment or email chris.hislop@gmail.com.

DILDON'T / Casual Violence! / theSpaces on the Mile @ the Radisson

6 - 21 August / 21:10 / £5/£4

Brighton-based comedy collective Casual Violence! are one of the big up-and-coming acts this town has to offer, and are a must for all fans of dark (and slightly twisted) comedy. Although better known for their sketch shows, this new full-length piece (45 mins) captures their surreal and sometimes horrifying sense of humour, as well as giving ample opportunity for all members of this new group to shine, from the character actors to the on-stage musicians.

I will freely admit that I know these guys quite well, but this recommendation does come more from a genuine enjoyment of their work than anything else... In this case especially, as they have managed to combine a dark and almost unpleasant theme and setting (a second-hand sex shop) with some surprisingly mature and clever comedy. No, it isn't all dick jokes, nor is it divorced from its setting; it's just the right combination; a bit crass at times, but often a wee bit wiser than that.

So, if that sounds like your sort of thing, definitely take a wander down the Mile and grab yourself a ticket for this new and exciting comedy collective. Also, look out for the live music: really something quite special.

FOR FANS OF: Psychoville / League of Gentlemen / Jam

23/07/10 - Progress Report... and Edinburgh

Whenever I start doing a lot, this blog always seems to be the first thing to suffer: that, compiled with that general it's-too-hot-to-do-anything summer lethargy, means it has been far too long.

I wish I had more to report on the writing projects: the sitcom I was hoping to write is still with the producers, and I'm hoping to hear something about it soon. I always find it very hard to gauge how long these things are going to take... a youthful voice in me always wants to hear about these things quickly, expects to be got back to in a scant few days, that sort of thing. Rarely is that the case, and understandably so: the people whose attention I am trying to get are very busy bees, although I do find the waiting hard.

It's also interesting how long a project takes to wind around: for example, a film concept I was working on over six months ago (and I thought all but over) has reared its head again: an important meeting next week and a real possibility of it going into production! It just shows how you can never really count a project out.

Apart from that, I've been trying to get myself an agent: not really something I thought about much before, but in hindsight should really have been something I tried to organise sooner. Still, better now than never: again, I'm hoping to hear back from some soon.

In theatrical terms, there is a lot more happening (less just being talked about): I'm reviewing a new show at the Finborough Theatre this weekend, which looks great, and will be my first London review for FringeReview: hopefully the first step in my move up as a reviewer. I'm glad this has come about so soon: the new flat in London is now all sorted, so it's nice to have some work to do immediately, as well as the meetings previously mentioned.

As well as that, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival is now only a scant few weeks away, and I have formulated a plan. Although I won't be going this year, there are plenty of shows up there that I know a little about, either having seen previews, seen the act or comedian before or just heard on the grapevine of their brilliance: therefore, I'll be doing quite a few mini-previews in the next couple of weeks! Think of them as shows I would see if I was going.

Anyway, the first of these should be up tomorrow: I hope people either in or going to the Fringe this year will appreciate the suggestions! If you have any shout-outs for shows that you're in or have seen a preview for or whatever, feel free to comment or drop me a line: I'm always happy to pass on a message.

12/07/10 - Netstars

Netstars: a bit of a new idea over here. The concept is quite simple: a netstar is a person who has become famous purely over the internet. In Korea and Japan, this is not only much more common, but would you be surprised to hear that netstars often move into mainstream media, with a decent amount of success?

Why am I telling you this? Well, it's a common fantasy among writers and performers in this country (and, to an extent, in the rest of the Western world) that someone sees your video on Youtube, or a cleverly written blog article or script you posted online, and makes you a star. As far as I can gather, this happens very rarely, and we haven't really embraced the same concept of the netstar as other parts of the world have. Why?

Well, the first hurdle we have yet to clear is the idea of who makes a netstar a netstar. There's still a pretty clear hierarchy in terms of our media structure, with programming being decided by commissioners and the like. In netstar terms, there are no commissioners or producers: it's their popularity on the internet that makes netstars flourish. This seems to be a message that still hasn't sunk home in attempts to broadcast online over here: it isn't about attracting one 'big fish', but about everyone else discussing, watching and linking to your content.

Apart from that, I think there's a greater emphasis over here on specific projects over individuals. I don't have any research to support this, but I get the general feeling that we're more likely to follow or watch a certain project or idea, say a video review series, over looking into the entirety of a single person's output. The concept of the netstar relies on being interested in someone, not in something.

Maybe that's why, now that some of these ideas are taking seed over here, we're more likely to accept singular projects over new, web-based celebrities. With the first commissioned TV show based on an iPhone app (John Bishop's World Cup Diary), I tempted to suggest the beginning of a trend: we won't have netstars in the Western world, so much as netertainment (nentertainment? net-entertainment? entertainet?): TV shows and the like being spawned out of iPhone apps, internet videos and the like, rather than taking a talented person out of their own room and into a the world of mass media.

I have no idea whether this will come to pass, or indeed whether we will in fact see the opposite (for example, you could claim that Paris Hilton was one of the first big netstars over here with her... ahem... video exploits), but it seems plausible. With big producers like Henry Normal discussing such issues in The Independent (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/funny-business-henry-normal-explains-why-his-new-project-is-no-joke-2021124.html), it's certainly a topic that will be in the interest of the mainstream media for the foreseeable future.

Maybe it's time we starting thinking about distinct, separate and detailed online projects, rather than the tried and tested continual delivery of stuff about ourselves into the ether?

12/07/10 - Back to Life, Back to Reality

Showing my age with that title, I reckon... So, yes, I'm back. If you didn't know I was gone, don't worry, it was my honeymoon, I didn't advertise extensively where I was going to be: wanted a bit of piece and quiet with the missus.

Enough of that, though: the world is busy, and there's plenty to chat about! First, and most exciting, the TV career has taken a big stride forward: I've been writing a pilot script for a big and very successful London production company... but I really don't want to say too much until I've found out what I can and can't say. If there's anything more nerve-wracking than waiting to hear what people think of scripts, concepts, excerpts and that sort of thing, it's not quite knowing anything about how this process works... You can only play it by ear for so long! Still, I'm excited, and will update here when I know what I can say (and how excited I should REALLY be).

Apart from that, the show I directed for this year's Brighton Fringe, When All the Crowds Have Gone, will be making a move up to London soon! We're still script-tweaking, but will be talking to venues very soon... Keep your eyes and ears peeled! It's probably quite fitting, then, that I too will be making the transfer to London soon... Yep, I'm leaving my beloved Brighton in the next couple of months for the capital. Brighton has been very good to me for the past 5 years, but I'm in need of a change of scenery.

And there is, of course, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, as well as the Camden Fringe soon! I won't be in Edinburgh this year, but I'll gladly share some tips in the next couple of weeks... again, keep a look out, Edinburgh attendees and enthusiasts! As to the Camden Fringe... well, I hope to be doing a little reviewing myself (details, again, still to be confirmed).

So, that's what you can expect in the next couple of months: an impassioned goodbye to Brighton (maybe an article series), Edinburgh Fringe Festival previews, possibly some Camden Fringe reviews, as well as ramblings and the always exciting insights into my burgeoning theatre and TV career! I do feel truly revitalised: ready to take a big bite out of life and all that. It's good to be back.

21/06/10 - An Interlude

I am currently in an interlude: a moment between hours. I'm actually not doing that much. I am now married, but it wasn't difficult or strenuous. I don't feel quite as hounded as I normally do by the need to work or just generally get things done. I have read before that the modern work ethic, the idea of working as much as you can continually, is a flawed approach: some of the most gifted and brilliant people in the world combine moments of high activity with low energy hours, working in bursts and resting in between. I'd love to say that I'm resting between super-motivated work stretches, but maybe I'm just dossing about a little and letting life flow by me, I don't know. Either way, I do feel rather contented... or maybe that's just being married now to someone so delightful.

In the end, I'm in a slow phase, and will be on my honeymoon for a couple of weeks from now. I'm worried that it might just be slacking off rather than a work break, but am determined to make these weeks a true relaxation time: I've also promised it to the wife. I expect you will hear little from me until I return.

05/06/10 - Brighton Sans Fringe

26/05/10 - Eat Your Words

Me and my big mouth... I need to watch my words a little, it seems. In that vein, I'd like to issue a retraction on the blog article published recently called 'The Fringe Is In Recession!': I have been reliably informed that the ticket sales for this year's Brighton Festival Fringe are indeed up. Just to clarify: the Brighton Fringe Festival did sell more tickets this year than last.

Does that mean that the Fringe is, in fact, not in recession? I couldn't tell you. I've been reading a couple of articles addressing this issue in the London Fringe today, and a lot of them imply similar points. The reason I bring this up is a phrase used in Matt Trueman's excellently written article in the Guardian (read here): absolutism. It's easy to look at an experience and claim an absolute approach: it is rarely correct. I will gladly admit that I took an unfortunately absolute approach, following my experience of the Brighton Fringe Festival, and that the conclusion I drew is probably not the absolute truth. I'd like to revise my comment that the Fringe is in recession: it merely seems to be, that is all, from my experience. I will freely admit that, as a writer, I have a tendency to over-state, and in this case I probably did.

However, this doesn't mean that the Fringe ISN'T in recession: I still firmly believe that it is, as a reviewer, theatre-goer and theatre-maker. I do think that it's time we all spoke about these topics openly, instead of hiding behind a wall of 'we're all doing fine'. The national media seems to be picking up on the topic, and I hope we'll hear a response to this from people involved in the running of fringe theatre and festivals soon: indeed, the Brighton Fringe Office have promised a response, which I will gladly reprint here.

It seems, from the various responses I have gotten, and the articles that I have been reading, that there is to be a general critical eye being cast over fringe theatre and fringe festivals, in the hopes of uncovering if we are in a recession, and how this will affect fringe theatre-makers. I'd encourage everyone to make their voices heard, be it through comments here or however you see fit: we need to tease out where fringe theatre is at, and what needs to be done to keep it vibrant, alive and watchable. Matt's final note, in the Guardian article linked above, is that responsibility should lie with individual directors, which I only partly agree with: it should lie with anyone in a position of power in the fringe theatre world. If we are indeed in a recession, we all need to work together to find ways of keeping fringe theatre watchable, accessible and fun: in the end, isn't all about entertainment?

24/05/10 - The Fringe is in Recession!

Oops, was I not supposed to say it out loud? If we squeeze our eyes as shut as we can, plug our fingers in our ears and tell it to go away, will it? No, of course not: the Fringe is now in recession, ladies and gentlemen! Don't believe the lies you'll be told: numbers were NOT up this Brighton Fringe Festival. There were NOT more performers, there were NOT greater audience numbers than ever before, and there were NOT more tickets sold than ever before. Sure, if you discount some of the venues that didn't do so well this year, maybe the numbers do look a bit better, but that most certainly is not the point.

So, the recession has finally hit Fringe theatre: it had to at some point, we were saying we thought it might at last year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe (2009). but no, this seems to be the year where the proverbial has hit the fan. There were less acts in the Brighton Fringe, and the work I have seen has had the general air of... well, less-money-spent. In some cases, this was used inventively and simply, but in most cases it seems people were more shocked than enthused by how little they had to spend compared to last year. In many cases, it seems the energy just wasn't in it from the start: more than one show I went to review was cancelled last minute, and audience numbers were more like the Edinburgh Fringe's handful than the Brighton Fringe's typically-slightly-bigger handful: we're talking audiences in the 5s and 10s as opposed to the 15s and 20s.

So, why now? One would have thought the Fringe would be one of the first places that slightly-less-well-off audiences would start to cut their losses, but I guess the charm and cheapness of the Fringe actually attracted MORE audiences at the beginning of the recession, so sure were they that £5-£10 tickets for an evening's entertainment would be worth it. Maybe this is just the backlash from that: people who used the Fringe as an alternative to London or Chichester, got disappointed, and decided not to come back. Or maybe we've just reached the point when the even more meager funds than normal put into Brighton or Edinburgh Fringe shows just aren't worth £5 tickets anymore?

Either way, the Brighton Fringe is definitely, 100% in recession throes, and it will not end well. However, the question on my lips is this: how will this affect the Edinburgh Fringe? If the Brighton Fringe is a sign of things to come, will Edinburgh also see a downturn in ticket sales and in acts coming to perform? I don't think it'll be as drastic as that: my guess would be that the Edinburgh Fringe core will be unaffected. Popular shows at the Underbelly, Gilded Balloon, Assembly, etc. will still be just as popular: if 100 of those audience members are missing this year, it won't bankrupt the producer. However, smaller shows, like those offered by some of the more up-and-coming venues (Sweet, C Venues, Zoo, etc.) will need those casual observers to get audiences in at all, and they will be the ones that suffer the worst. Even in a recession, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival will be the biggest arts festival in the world: just more of the focus will be on the bigger acts, as they'll be the ones that can afford to go this year and will go again next year. Maybe this recession will see the beginning of a new Fringe for the Edinburgh Fringe itself: maybe the Free Fringe will see a huge rise in audience members looking for a cheap night out? Those seem like the most likely to me currently.

At the end of it all, the important point is that the Brighton Fringe is now a part of the recession, however it tries to spin that it isn't (and it will). How will this effect your own experience of Fringe theatre, be it as a performer or as an audience member? Do you agree, or think I'm reading it all wrong?

21/05/10 - New Super-Modern Theatre Beyond the Realms of Reality

Thanks to post-modern theatre and post-post-modern theatre (and heaven knows have far we've come on THAT front), we now live in a theatrical culture that is on a constant look outwards and upwards, always looking for the next big thing or the next innovation. The fringe theatre scene seems to be the ideal place to let some of the pieces float around, and it's fascinating to see where different groups think we will be going next. I wanted to look into a couple of these advances: be the teensy-tiny steps or so far into the future that they're almost incomprehensible!

So, starting out small: obviously, the Internet is advancing into our lives with all the decency and tact or a freight train:

How many of our friends on Facebook are really our friends. or for that matter, how many of your friends are NOT your friends on Facebook? (Have a look, you may be surprised.)

Do you Tweet everything that you do? Or just some of it?

Do you read the newspaper online?

It seems we're moving further and further into the realm of cyberspace (which I neither condone nor condemn), and it's nice to see some recent theatre shows that try to talk about these topics. I reviewed My Second Life by Broken Leg Theatre this Brighton Fringe Festival (2010), and there's a show that took the differences between our real lives and our online lives completely to heart: it even won a very deserved Argus Angel. However, for my tastes it didn't go far enough. Sure, the basic thematic is excellent, and I love the scenarios that evolve around the topic of having separate lives online and off, but it wasn't discussed. It wasn't debated by the characters. All this play did (very well, I should add) is portray characters in their lives inside this psuedo-reality and in their own existence: I wanted to hear what they had to say for themselves! It's interesting to note: this new area of thought seems to be appreciated as a framing device, but not for the actual discussion of the content.

A further quibble of mine was the fact that none of the show was actually online. For a show about the internet, there were no computer screens, no projections, no online characters: everything was performed by the actors. A stylistic choice, perhaps, but surely a show called My Second Life could have taken place on Second Life? Maybe the scenes online could have actually been online, or there could have been a twist of the online scenes being real and the offline scenes being online - or something similar? We have a brand new world at our fingertips, and what we seem to do is pussy-foot around it rather than involve it in our work. Is the entertainment world so scared of the internet?

On the converse, of course, is that there needs to be some level of theatricality to proceedings, otherwise the audience will be to confused to watch or even take part. Originality must either take one giant step and be perfect, or take smaller steps and ease the unwilling audience along. An example of where this didn't work is a recent project I was semi-involved with, #SuchTweetSorrow. This was supposed to be an online production of Romeo and Juliet, played entirely through the medium of Twitter, but I couldn't really make head or tail of it. That's not to say it was badly done or organised: I love the inventive thought behind the idea, I just think it didn't quite take that one big step. It needed a bit more theatricality for me, a small step forward rather than a giant leap that no-one could follow:  maybe a line for line reproduction on Twitter, an event of sorts that was the whole play through a different medium. There must be a way to make this idea work - more thoughts to follow I'm sure!

I suppose it's a question of innovation: do you often find yourself lagging behind the next big thing, or do you often feel 100% in the time and the moment? Probably, like me, you'll skip in between the two, trying to keep up-to-date about some things and just doing and being it naturally for others. The point I'm making is: to keep theatre innovative, we need to be discussing these new technologies, we need to be using these new technologies, but we also need to know where we're coming from. You have to take your audience along for the ride: challenge them to take that first step with something new and different, but don't necessarily try and drag them further than they can go.

Anyway, I hope to see much more online theatre and entertainment. I think there is plenty of scope for some more interactive and exciting ideas with the internet: hopefully this has inspired you to have some of your own. Take the first step!

17/05/10 - Secret Theatre

11/05/10 - What I've Been Up To

No blog articles yet this Fringe, Chris?

No, not really. I've been a bit busy.

Busier than usual?

Amazingly, yes. I've been writing on article series on Indieoma.com (some of which are printed on my blog, others are linked through to in the same place) on my Brighton Fringe production, When All the Crowds Have Gone, as well as running the show!

How did that go?

Yeah, really well, big audiences (for the Fringe), mostly vociferous in their approval, an excellent cast and a couple of great reviews (also reprinted on my blog)... we're going to take it to London. No plans yet as to when, but the thought is there! I'd read the Indieoma articles if you want to know more: they're basically a production diary of the whole process from beginning to end.

Cool. What else you been up to?

Well, in the middle of the run of When All the Crowds Have Gone, I also organised and ran The Critical Incident, a workshop day on freedom. That was also very successful, a nice mixture of professional bits and pieces and more random and vague musings, as well as an excellent evening event and a couple of new, innovative theatre shows. I'll be analysing one of them, The Passage, on here soon, not as a review but as an analysis of themes and ideas. I tried to review it, but felt I wanted to do more than that: I wanted to go through it and critique the concept in detail. So, yeah, that'll be here soon.

What else can we expect from you soon?

Plenty of reviews... it is the Brighton Fringe, after all! They should be starting from tomorrow, and will be for FringeReview and FringeGuru. I'm also debating writing an article on reviewing... still not sure. It would be quite vitriolic if I published it, you see, so I'm still weighing that one up. There are also a couple of new ideas bouncing around in my head: I might be expanding some of this online stuff in various new and exciting directions. Still in the planning stages though. Otherwise, there's a couple new work projects that may be of interest... but more about those later.

One final question: do you think interviewing yourself is pretentious?

Undoubtedly.

26/04/10 - My Critical Incident Workshops: Freelance Writing and Pop Magic!

This is pure marketing: I don't think I can really spin it any other way! Below are the two blurbs for workshops I'm running in The Critical Incident Brighton 2010, plus all the linkage you may need to book tickets, find the event and attend! If you're a good friend and want to come but haven't got the cash, call me to organise something so you can still attend.

FREELANCE WRITING

For the last six-ten months (depending on how you look at it), I've been working as a freelance writer, writing reviews, articles, TV concepts, and earning from them as a career. At 23 and with very little experience, I'm very proud of this, and would like to share some of what I've been doing, as well as discuss how others have or are trying to make this career work.

I also want to use the opportunity to share some of my thoughts on working freelance in a creative field:

Can you be a true innovator, or do you need to follow the status quo?

How do you make yourself the most desirable creative innovator around?

How do you juggle various different jobs at the same time, all requiring different levels and types of input?

What is the best way to keep yourself working when you're your own boss?

How do you find freelance creative work?

This workshop will mix some of the more practical questions about working freelance and the art of freelance writing itself. I'd love the opportunity to share and discuss with other freelance creatives, or people who've always wanted to have a go.

PART OF THE CRITICAL INCIDENT 2010 BRIGHTON

May 6th, 16:00-17:00, Phoenix Galleries

Tickets are available through the Brighton Fringe box office, or can be booked on the main Critical Incident website.

POP MAGIC!

For quite some time now, I've maintained a healthy interest in the occult, from more esoteric magical practices to simple, effective lessons in lifestyle. A lot of it is quite out there, and alienates plenty of rational people with its spurious and eccentric claims. However, I have found plenty of useful material in this miasma of pseudo-religious mumbo-jumbo, and would like to share it with anyone who might be interested!

Before I get too deeply into the workshop details, I'd like to quote the 'wickedest man in England', Aleister Crowley:

In this book it is spoken of the Sephiroth and the Paths; of Spirits and Conjurations; of Gods, Spheres, Planes, and many other things which may or may not exist. It is immaterial whether these exist or not. By doing certain things certain results will follow; students are most earnestly warned against attributing objective reality or philosophic validity to any of them.

I'd like to use the same principle for this workshop (without the Sephiroth, if possible): you needn't believe or disbelieve magic in order to attend; it is immaterial whether magic is real or not. All I ask for is an open mind, or at least the willingness to test a strong sense of disbelief.

In this workshop, I will cover the basics of what I perceive as magic and how this can be practically applicable to anyone (yes, anyone). I also want to discuss this occult topic, and see what people think of it all, using work by Grant Morrison, Mark Pesce and others.

If you'd like to experience and entirely new way of thinking, this is the place to start!

PART OF THE CRITICAL INCIDENT 2010 BRIGHTON

May 6th, 12:00-13:00, Phoenix Galleries

Tickets are available through the Brighton Fringe box office, or can be booked on the main Critical Incident website.

Thanks for reading; I hope plenty of you can come.

20/04/10 - Creative Cubby-holing

05/04/10 - The Fringe Guide Hides Many a Secret

28/03/10 - The Fallout from the Advice

My goodness... thanks for all of the lovely comments on the various bits of advice and anger about bad advice I've put on here in the last couple of days, the feedback and chats have been lovely and exciting. Cheers all! And many thanks to What's On Stage for featuring this blog on their featured blogs for Friday! Very kind, very kind. Either way, I wanted to use the opportunity to comment on, well, some of the comments, and on the other fallout from this whole experience: there's plenty to talk about!

First of all, I have had plenty of comments on the two articles themselves, mostly 'steady on' to the angry rebuttal of John Caird's book, and 'right on!' to my own pieces of advice for young directors, but there were some more detailed comments I wanted to dissect. There seems to be the general impression that Mr Caird's book may be aimed at slightly younger directors, just starting out on the scene, and that I my vitriol on his advice to work in the theatre may have been a little misplaced. I take both of those points, but both actually shine an even worse light on John's advice.

First of all, if John Caird's book is directed (hah!) at a younger audience, this raises a couple of problems for me: a) it's still condescending, no matter if they're 15 or 25, and b) why is he selling a book to under-20s for £22.50? Is it for the parents to buy for the kids? Is it just a marketing ploy? As well as that, I take that I may have reacted to his 'work in the theatre' line a bit aggressively, but it is a cliche that, I think, does more damage than good. Anyway...

There's also a great response article to John Caird's article in the Guardian, an article by Chris Hill called 'Think Outside the Box'. Have a read, again it opens in a different window, so you won't lose this page: go for it. It makes a great number of points about John's article, and I'm pleased to see that Mr Hill's article takes a much more moderate approach. In the end, I don't have the energy to argue with it, party line: nice article!

How did you find this whole back-and-forth? Did you find my advice useful? More so than John Caird's?

26/03/10 - Ten Pieces of Useful Advice on How to Be a Theatre Director

Yesterday, I had a bit of a rant about a recent Guardian article by John Caird, purporting to offer advice to young directors. It's below if you want: I'd encourage reading it before reading this rebuttal. While my article yesterday was more of a pouring of vitriol, today's is constructive. I will be offering my ten pieces of useful advice to young directors, advice that will be more practical, more useful, and generally less condescending than John Caird's book (which he was promoting in the Guardian article) sounds like it will be.

I wanted to start with the following: I am not a West-End director. I don't get paid vast sums of money for my work. In other words: I'm still a young director, just starting out. This advice isn't delivered from on high, this is stuff that has helped me in the last 2-3 years of my life. If that makes me more or less qualified is up to you to decide.

Anyway, enough preamble: here are my ten pieces of advice.

#1: You are an artist.

If you approach directing like any other artist approaches their job, you're on the right track, creatively as well as professionally. Professionally, you have to accept that this will only earn you big bucks and be in a successful career once you've made your big break.  See yourself more as the artist, working in his loft, or the composer, writing scores after a long day at the office. Get a part-time job. Find other methods of earning, because this won't be a money-maker anytime soon. Creatively, use your artistic licence to be experimental. Try out all of the weird and wacky things you think of, give yourself the ability to try things out, so that, if it does become a career, you know what works and doesn't.

#2: You will make mistakes.

Everyone makes mistakes, and you aren't the exception. Nothing will ever go exactly to plan, play out correctly, or work well on stage. Don't despair though: it's important to make mistakes, as long as you learn from them. Every time something goes wrong, make a note. Write it down. Make sure it doesn't happen again, and take those experiences on to the next project.

#3: Get yourself some training.

No one is born brilliant. You need to train to become a director, however works best for you. Drama school is a viable option, as are some practical University courses. If you're like me and don't deal well with direct teaching, dive straight in and start. Take advice from older actors and directors. You need to learn how to do what you do somehow: find what works best for you and get started.

#4: Find yourself a scene.

Directors don't work in isolation: you need actors, producers, stage managers, as well as an audience. There is bound to be a theatre scene somewhere around you: a local drama group, a Fringe Festival, a general Fringe theatre set-up, a University Drama Society, and so on. Whatever scene it is, join in! Add your own spice to what's already present, and make yourself some friends and contacts: these are the guys who will help you do what you want to do, for the time being.

#5: Be freelance.

There seems to be this myth that forming your own company is the right thing to do: this couldn't be further from the truth. If you're a free agent, able to put on your own shows with some money you've saved and the like, and work freelance with other directors at the same time, you'll become more open to fresh ideas (that aren't necessarily your own), and will avoid that awful clique mentality that seems to pervade the British theatre culture. Just be a free agent: be available to all, as well as self-motivated enough to work for yourself. If you surround yourself with a self-congratulatory group of friends, you'll be so stuck in your little world that you won't notice how boring your work has become. Avoid it outright.

#6: Learn to hob-nob effectively.

You will need to find people you can work with, and you will need to learn how to make sure you meet the important friends and colleagues of those in your scene. You will need to be self-confident, friendly and approachable, otherwise opportunities simply won't come your way. Read some books on basic NLP and body language, learn to behave in a manner the other person would want you to: these are very potent weapons in your arsenal. Just don't use them all the time, otherwise you will lose any credibility you may have built up for yourself.

#7: Do what you want to do.

Simply put, don't take on jobs that aren't your passion, just because they're connected to the theatre world. Again, a lot of young people make this mistake, and it's a killer. We all like to think that doing PR for this company means they'll know who you are, and doing some stage-managing for this theatre will get your foot in the door, but it simply doesn't work. People will admire and respect you much more if you just do what interests you, whereas if you'll take on any job for them, they'll just see you as desperate. Show some cojones, stand your ground, and do what you want to do.

#8: Go to a Festival.

Yes, they're expensive, and yes, you won't make any money, and yes, it'll be trying, tough and possibly ruinous, but these are the best places to make contacts you'll desperately need. Save up with part of your scene, spend the four-five grand you'll need to get there and put on a good show, and hope it works for you. The goal here isn't to make money: banish that from your minds. This is about marketing yourselves, pure and simple. Invite everyone you know, invite everyone they know, go to all of the parties while there, hob-nob to everyone you can meet, and see what comes of it. If you're unlucky, you'll walk away with a list of emails and phone numbers, infinitely useful in expanding your field of work. If you're lucky, you'll walk away with the one contact that will make your career. Edinburgh's obviously the best example here, and should be the first place you consider going.

#9: Become a people person.

If you aren't naturally (I certainly am not), then you'll need to find a way to deal with people. Directing is all about dealing with people, from the hob-nobbing above to working with actors, producers, etc. You need to know how to get what you want from people. There are a million different ways to do that, and they will influence how you direct people, but you need to start experimenting and finding the approach that works for you. There is so much to say here, and I'll probably dedicate an article to it later; the main point is that you need to learn how you deal with people, and get brilliant at whatever method works best for you.

#10: Give yourself a time frame.

Like most artistic endeavours, some of the best directors will never get the respect they deserve. Their work won't get seen, or the one piece that guy from the National sees was rubbish, or their stage manager let them down, or whatever: be prepared for failure. Very few people make it as directors. It's particular hard, as it's a live art form: an artist's work can be find in lofts after they die, a director's pieces can't. Accept that it might not work for you, and plan it out practically: don't spend the rest of your life in a part-time job. Set yourself a time frame in which to really go for it, to reach for the stars, and a point at which to resign it to the hobby drawer.

So, there you have it: practical, useful, direct advice. This is all from experience, and from mistakes that I have made over the last years (yep, #2). It may be a bit harsher than Mr Caird's Directing for Dummies, but it is a harsh world to get involved with. I echo his sentiment that you need commitment, passion and talent to make it as a director, and you'll more often fail than win.

Still, I hope the above is useful advice to all you aspirants out there; certainly more hopeful than the Guardian's lame attempt at advice anyway, I hope. Let me know what you think!

25/03/10 - How Not to Be a Theatre Director...

25/03/10 - The Return of the Prodigal Writer

And again, loyal readers, I've let you down. A month without an article, you say? What is this? Where has he gone? Nowhere, really. Although there is a lot of great stuff to report!

The TV career's off in leaps and bounds: after an exciting meeting, the project I've been working on for the last six months is go! Once we've found a slot (time a channel has available), we'll be making it, and a couple other ideas seemed to pique some interest... It's all good! No word on the movie yet though; if everything was going smoothly, something would be wrong, right?

Apart from that, all of the Brighton Fringe projects are ticking along at a hearty pace. The Critical Incident line-up is swelling by the day: it's going to be an unforgettable event, with loads of great workshops, debates, everything! Very excited about it all. When All the Crowds Have Gone is also shaping up nicely: rehearsals are going well, the cast, bar none, have thrown themselves into the project, and the results, so far, have been very exciting indeed; this will be a project I'll be proud to put my name to. Forgive the PR exercise, but tickets are now available for both: buy them at http://www.brightonfestivalfringe.org.uk, just search for the titles for listings and the like.

Apart from that, a new project has just been seen on the horizon: I'll be directing a short film after the Festival, a brilliant little piece called Decimate by my good friend Craig Jordan-Baker. We're just doing all the prep work now, and I'll keep you all in the loop once I've got more info.

All that, and it's my birthday tomorrow! Huzzah.

So, to pastures new! We're in the exciting run up to the Brighton Fringe! Expect masses of press releases about all of the shows this year, more and more comment from me as this all hots up, as well as the venerable Mr Levy (check out his Column (wink wink) at http://www.fringereview.co.uk), as well as all the other bumph I work on when time permits (sorry, boss, your work is more important than this freelance stuff...).

What are your plans for the Fringe? What are you working on? What will you be seeing? Communication is the key, folks!

09/03/10 - Give Yourself a Critical Incident!

Phew. This Yelp Scout job is a lot of work... I think I'm still trying to find the ideal way of doing the work. For now, it is slow, methodical and dull. In the meantime, I've finally written and sent off the full film treatment: hopefully some word from the big cheeses soon! Once the word is through I can tell you what it's about... Until then, patience! The panel show is also with another production company... Let's see how that goes. Apart from that, I'm on LinkedIn now! Have we worked together? Connect with me here: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/chrishislop

While all this is going on, I've been doing quite a bit of work on The Critical Incident, the workshop day I'm helping organise for the Brighton Festival Fringe 2010.  The Critical Incident is a really special event: something I feel very strongly about, in all of the iterations I've experienced it in. I wanted to use the opportunity to talk about my experiences, the critical incidents I've experienced from it, and encourage you all to attend the event happening as part of the Brighton Festival Fringe 2010!

The first Critical Incident I experienced was at the Brighton Fringe 2009, when I'd just met and starting working with Paul Levy, architect of The Critical Incident and head editor of FringeReview. I went along to his event, primarily to show my support and interest in his work, and ended up having a really excellent day, going to a couple of workshops and generally chatting about topics that interest me. After leaving, I realised I'd had a special experience: I'd sat in a workshop, chatting to people interested in similar topics to myself, about things that I really wanted to talk about. At this point, I was at the beginning of a six-month meltdown, a journey from the over-worked, over-stressed young man I was then to the Zen guru I am now... well, on-my-way-to-Zen guru I am now ;) This day was, I think, part of what engendered my change in life direction.

4 months later, I was helping organise and leading a workshop in the Edinburgh Fringe 2009 Critical Incident, and in the full-blown throes of the end of this 'breakdown', taking and turning down work in equal measure, unsure of where I stood in my field or what I wanted to do. In this miasma of uncertainty and difficulty, The Critical Incident was a ray of light in all this mess. I had a chance to listen to some very intelligent and interesting people talk about their fields of expertise, as well as run my own workshop on something that particularly interested me: soundscaping. In this case, the whole day was my critical incident: was this what I wanted to do? In that case, why was I working on everything else I'd taken up to the Festival, all the baggage I was dragging around with me? From that point on, this critical incident in my life energised me to focus on me, find out what I want, and then attack with all guns blazing... and it worked!

Now, I'm in the throes of organising the Critical Incident for the Brighton Fringe 2010, as a producer, and I'm hoping for yet another critical incident this year! I'm in a generally better state, and I now want a positive push in the 'right' direction: what better place than a workshop day, based around the theme of freedom, with workshops by various Brighton luminaries and creative thinkers?

If you feel the need for a critical incident of your own, check out http://thecriticalincident.wordpress.com, The Critical Incident Interative Nexus! Alternatively, if you want more info on critical incidents and the like, check out Paul Levy's blog for loads of useful info and an insight into the mind which engendered this whole idea: http://rationalmadness.wordpress.com/.

01/03/10 - Yelping Around a Lot

As you may have noticed, if we are connected through the cultural black holes of Facebook, Twitter, GoogleBuzz or something similarly awful, I have recently been publishing a lot of reviews on Yelp.com, as well as being named a Yelp Scout. I thought I'd shed some light on this, as well as reminisce on my experiences so far, as it's been a while since I've written so many reviews in one go!

Simply put, Yelp have hired me to kick-start their site in Brighton. It's a local reviews site: basically, anyone who is on Yelp can review anything they like and they feel is worth sharing... I'm chewing up their reviewing policy, I'm sure, but it's something like that. And they hire Scouts, like myself, to check all of the listings are correct, add pictures, and generally kick-start the reviewing on the site! There's a lot to do every week, but it is generally quite casual, and fits well into my other current writing work... although there is a lot to do.

Anyhow: Brightonians, I need your assistance! Tell me of this fair city's hidden gems! Where do you go on a regular basis? Which hotspot would you like to share with fellow Brightonian creatives? Post a comment, or email me with your suggestions!

Non-Brightonians! Are you coming down for the Brighton Festival? Do you want to know where's good and where's... not? Check out my reviews! http://chrishislop.yelp.co.uk

21/02/10 - My Reviewing Rota

It has hit that time of year again, where the rain begins to pour and the British Fringe theatre crowd starts to plan their busy schedules for the upcoming Brighton and Edinburgh extravaganzas. As a reviewer (one of my main Fringe occupations), I have started to plan my many endeavours, as I want to cover as much as possible, while still doing justice to my other work, and not over-stretching myself (hello Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2009).

So, with that in mind, I have three reviewing gigs in the pipeline! One is a little under wraps, but suffice it to say I will be reviewing a lot of Brighton before the Festival kicks off, and not just theatrically! More info as the work is confirmed. I will also return to my FringeReview roots, so often underused throughout the year, and cover as much theatre and performance as I possibly can. Finally, I will almost certainly be reviewing comedy with the wonderful fellas at FringeGuru as well, hoping to balance out all of that Fringe theatre with some chuckles and giggles.

In light of the above: send me press releases people! Tell me about your Brighton Festival Fringe show! Be it comedy or theatre, let me know about your show, so that I can add you to my ever filling schedule! Either leave a comment at

chris.hislop.wordpress.com

, or drop me a line at chris.hislop@gmail.com. I look forward to hearing from all of you, and good Fringe-ing!

12/02/10 - Thieving Fringe!

01/02/10 - Auditions!

This weekend, I'm running auditions for Where the Crowds Have Gone, the Brighton Festival Fringe show I'm directing. The details are below: in the meantime, I'm thinking about the whole "auditions" spiel.

Until very recently, I was thoroughly against the idea of auditions. As a director, I found auditions a little difficult: I couldn't see an actor doing a speech, and know if they were right for my show. Would I be able to direct them? Would we see eye-to-eye? Would they be open enough to my sometimes-esoteric directing methods? How is one little speech going to tell me enough about them as an actor?

As a younger man, I did what most young men do: I dove in the opposite direction. Instead of auditions, I reverted to meetings; meeting and interacting with actors seemed the better approach. I got a chance to interact and chat with actors, meet them and learn more about them, see how we interact, etc. However, this approach soon created a different, obvious-from-the-outside problem: I had no way of knowing how talented an actor this person I just met was.

So now, I'm somewhere in-between. I'm still not sold on auditions: am I seeing how good an actor is, or how well they audition? However, as a director, I need to know that the person in front of me can act, as well as a little about them as a human. So far, an audition followed by a chat is the best I can do!

Anyway, below are the details for the auditions I'm running this coming weekend. If you're interested in coming, details are below!

AUDITIONS FOR WHEN ALL THE CROWDS HAVE GONE

When All the Crowds Have Gone is a new play, written by Lucy Nordberg. It will be performed at the Brighthelm Centre, during the Brighton Festival Fringe, by Chris Hislop.

The play follows the story of John and Geoffrey, two brothers whose divergent life paths have come together. John is a media mogul, and has just broken 50. Aware that he is now entering the twilight of his years, he wants to leave some sort of legacy. Thus, he invites Geoffrey, his estranged brother, to join him in his luxury villa in California, so that he might write John's biography. Geoffrey, a talented writer, struggles with his own choices as a writer, and now faces an even greater challenge: how do you write a biography for someone you don't really know.

Wrapped up in these events are John's younger, some-would-say trophy wife Miranda, as is Helen, Geoffrey's wife and agent. We also encounter, Scott and Brad, two film director brothers, as well as Candy, a young model, and Janet and Franklin, a Richard-and-Judy style TV chat-show couple.

The play will be performed in the first week of the Brighton Festival Fringe, in the Brighthelm Centre. Actors will need to be available intermittently throughout February and March, and will need to be generally available throughout April (job and other work demands not-with-standing). The work will not be paid: however, there will be gifts offered throughout the process. Legally, I can't really say more, but more will be explained at the auditions.

All are welcome! Experience is a bonus, but not necessarily a given. If the above has piqued your interest, please read below about what to do next.

THE AUDITION PROCESS:
1. If you would like to come, please call me on 07748160632 so that I can organise a time for you to come on the day and audition, and also give you directions if needed! The audition day is Saturday, February 6th, and auditions will be between 11am-6pm. You will only need to be available for one hour.

2. Please pick one of the two male/female scripts below, and come prepared to perform it.

3. Come on the day, perform the script, and be prepared for a chat and a couple of possible interaction scenes.

4. Keep Sunday free, as that's when recalls/more auditions if you can't make Saturday) will be held.

Thanks for reading, I hope to see as many of you at the auditions as possible.

Cheers!
Chris Hislop

MALE AUDITION SCRIPT #1:

JOHN
(John was born in England, but has lived in America for most of his adult life. Your decision which way his accent falls. He has just broken 50.)

Don't worry, I'm not sick either. I'm still up at six, doing all of the things I did before I bought this house. But sometimes, if I'm honest, I get to thinking about my age. I'll be an old man soon. And then - well, it's a strange feeling. I figured it was going to get in the way of my work if I didn't do something about it. Maybe it's there for a reason. I had to deal with it. It was time to think about posterity. Then it struck me - I could delegate. So I called you. I want you to write my biography.

MALE AUDITION SCRIPT #2:

BRAD
(Brad and his brother Scott are late 20s/early 30s film directors. They are American, and a mixture of nerdy/cool.)

We decided to tell the story in relation to the stories that inspired them. We know they were into the whole business of getting as much notoriety as possible. They collected newspaper cuttings of criminals,. They were after the money, sure, but the driving force was media coverage. It's a statement about what people will do to get famous. Its about the nature of fame.

FEMALE AUDITION SCRIPTS #1:

MIRANDA
(Miranda is John's wife, and an actress. She is American, mid-20s.)

No, you never mean anything. You look deeply sorry for me. Like you'd look at a sick animal. [English accent] 'Oh, poor thing, I can't imagine what goes through the head of something so simple, but it must be just dreadful.' [Normal accent] Well, I feel sorry for you. A clever woman, falling for him. At least I had some kind of excuse. And now, I can be tough. I've gone through this before. [She walks up to JOHN] Goodbye, John.

HELEN
(Helen is Geoffrey's wife and agent. She is late 30s/early 40s and British.)

It's not that. It's not that at all. I just feel like I did when I left home. Frightened, but I had to do it. It was a stagnant life. And what did I build for myself? You said it. Something respectable. A traditional business and a marriage. Well, Geoffrey doesn't want the marriage and I don't want the business. Not anymore. It's got nothing left to offer me. I'm back to where I started. I want more. I want to do something different, before it's too late.

25/01/10 - Work Work Work Work...

My goodness. Has it really been over a week? Well, depending on where you're reading this, it's nearly been two... mea culpa, loyal readers. Impossible as it may sound (for a writer), I've been working my little socks off.

I thought I'd take the opportunity to fill you all in on what I'm working on. Unfortunately, in many cases, I can't... really... tell you. So, whenever I say the following, please insert the following:

Big TV Ideas: Some TV concepts I've been dreaming up, worked on with various clever clogs, and are now somewhat presentable, but probably not going to be on the telly-box anytime soon. The are good ideas, just not finished yet. And if let out of the bag... well, an idea, as they say, is fleeting.

THE Big TV Idea: Now, this I've been working on far longer, and will hopefully be on the telly-box sometime this year! Exciting. This I can tell you a little more about: it's a panel show, it'll be both silly and competitive, and I'm working with some industry big-wigs, so very cool fun.

The Other Big TV Idea: I've had the pleasure of meeting some industry professionals lately, and we're sticking our heads together for something involving their products, and also their field, which is something entirely new and a bit special. This is still very much at the planning phase, but definitely coming up... roses! (wink wink)

The Project: I wish this was as ominous as it sounds, but sadly, Bond-villainhood eludes me. It is actually just a bit of Exec Producing for the lovely Mr Paul Levy, on workshop day The Critical Incident. Bond-villainworthy or not, it is an amazing day of varied workshops, this year around covering the noteable topic of Freedom. If you're interested in taking part/running a workshop/finding out more about it, check out all of this sexy web content: http://www.thecriticalincident.com/index.html

Lucy's Play: I think the titling for this has gone slightly wrong... it doesn't sound anywhere NEAR as ominous as the other ones. This is the Brighton Festival Fringe show I'm directing, written by the talented and delightful Ms. Lucy Nordberg. It's called When All the Crowds Have Gone, and is about brotherly ties and family, as well as Anglo-American relations. John, a media mogul living in the US, hires his brother Geoffrey, a British writer, to write his biography, but can they see eye to eye? It's an absolute stonker of a script: very dense, detailed and theatrical, as well as containing Ms. Nordberg's exceptional poetry, as seen/heard in her recent smash Edinburgh success King Arthur. Just organising the auditions for this: watch this space (and others) for more details.

The Film: Excellent, back to ominous form! This is a big old whale of a project, a titanic behemoth of a masterpiece that, again, cannot be revealed as yet. Sorry chaps and chapettes, it's important to keep this one under wraps for now. Let's just say, it's probably one of the Greatest Stories Ever Told. And may get filmed somewhere hot and sunny. Enough said!

The Ominously-Named Plot to Take Over the World: Nope. Schtum. Lips sealed.

So, do we all know the rules? Do we all know which phrases to replace? Let's see how you do:

THE Big TV Ideais going very  well, important meeting this week, hopefully some of the Big TV Ideas

will come up. If not, still worth sitting on for now, and the Other Big TV Idea

is still in creative planning for now. The Film

is hopefully going to be made! I've written a detailed treatment for some meetings later, fingers crossed and all that. The Project

has come off to a good start: lots of planning and booking and registering and all of that nonsense; keep up to date on the website! As for Lucy's Play, I can't wait to start the ball rolling on the creative side of this project, it's all been planning so far, but it looks like next week the floodgates will be open! As for The Ominously-Named Plot to Take Over the World? Lips well and truly sealed. ( cough) Zombies! ( cough)

15/01/10 - Workcandy

workcandy [wurk-kan-dee] (wûrkkān'dē) - noun 1.   An item of "work" (in your own definition) that has no extrinsic reward.

In my work as a writer, I often encounter workcandy: projects that look and sound like a lot of fun, but will probably offer little reward. For example, running this blog is pure workcandy: it doesn't provide for me, and yet it feels like a form of enjoyable "work". Obviously, workcandy comes up more if you have a job as wide-ranging as "writer", but it also applies if you have a hobby that you see as a profession, eg. actor or artist.

Do you have any workcandy on the go at the minute?

10/01/10 - Virtual Reality is Still a Form of Reality

Being a sympthetic-to-leftist, just-stopped-being-a-student 20-something year old, I occasionally poke my beak into the Guardian, and recently there's been a spate of very good articles (I know, quelle surprise!) about  video games. Normally, I grimace at these articles, passionate be they in their support or disdain for the various avenues of video-gaming, but these are a surprisingly open and well-researched, with both positives and negatives... basically, good journalism. Seriously, have a look:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/games

Now, I'm very much in favour of video games, and I wanted to add my two cents to this discussion. It will be nowhere near as well researched as the above articles, but it will be from the heart ;)

Video games have become a hugely important part of a lot of people's lives in the last couple of years, myself included. The virtual worlds you're allowed to inhabit and control are both exciting and invigorating, often portraying large-than-life scenarios and characters. You make difficult decisions (within the game context) on a regular basis, and have to problem-solve and use hand-eye co-ordination to survive within the game world, to be allowed to continue within its strictures. In simple terms, you're introduced into a new world, and given the abilities to go out and inhabit it, maybe even master it. There are so many positives to be gleaned from such interactions, so many ways in which an hour or two on a video game is more powerful, more demanding and more rewarding than any film or TV program, and I'll focus on the two that excite me the most: creativity and games.

The most important aspect to me, as a creative person working in a creative field, is the creative power imparted by video games. Unlike television or film, video gaming takes place in a purely virtual environment. There are no real actors or real scenarios, but fantastic alternatives. In other words, there is no creative limit to what you may see, to what you may experience. If watching various TV shows or films can show you what happens in the real world, video games show you that there are no limits to your imagination, to your power to dream up anything that crosses your mind, and that is a truly special gift.

However, first and foremost in most people's minds: video games are games. They are a test of skill, of mental acuity, of hand-eye co-ordination, of... whatever can be dreamed up and tested. I often describe myself as a player of games: I have loved them from the first I can remember. Luckily, my parents are also lovers of games, and we would play together frequently, be it Monopoly or Scrabble or Carcassone or Chess or Bridge or one of many, many others. This interest in games drew an interest in video games, which I took to in a huge way. The combination of a variety of skills, plus some luck, appealed to my gamer's mind, and it became a fast hobby.

Anyway, the point is that these are games; you're being challenged to learn new skills and abilities to play them, and these are more than just press-A-to-not-die and the often-quoted hand-eye co-ordination (although, for someone who has never been a sports person, I throw and catch surprisingly well!). There's decision-making, often with difficult consequences, facing peril and knowing what to do, being confident in the face of difficult odds... These are important life skills, and have helped make me more confident, outgoing, exuberant and enthusiastic about what I attempt. These experiences are just as important as some of the other experiences I've had in my life, be they in a real or virtual context.

It's also important to note how virtual worlds have become more pervasive over the last decade. Huge online games have taken off in a big way, as has the blogosphere, Facebook, Youtube... these are all forms of virtual reality, or an even more exciting mixture of a virtual and real world, with real-life consequences to virtual actions. There's nothing wrong with engaging in a virtual world, if you're learning from it, and using what it gives you in real life, especially if the two overlap. I'm not saying current video game attitudes are perfect, far from it, but I think there is a lot to be gained from it. Just because some virtual realities become too real for some, or more acceptable than the real world, doesn't mean that the whole concept is flawed. An education in virtual reality, and what it means, would be sensible, and I would certainly encourage some form of discussion of the matter.

How does everyone else feel about this? Do video games have inherent issues? I look forward to your comments!

02/01/10 - Creative BOOM!

If you listen carefully, you can hear the echo...

Sorry for the dearth of updates folks, but I have been in a drunken, tired state of creative frenzy for the last week. Ideas have been pouring out of my fingers, and I can't wait to take on this year!

As I was saying to a fellow in a posh cocktail bar on New Year's Eve, I often find this time of year to be hugely creatively explosive. I think it's a combination of too much to eat, too much to drink, too much spare time, banal Christmas TV and a general sense of goodwill, along with many others: my mind always starts racing. Little comments made by relatives, friends and strangers become more significant, and combine to create wonderous, brilliant ideas. Unfortunately, I need to keep these close to my chest for now: ideas make money my friends, and I don't want some of this gold-dust escaping until I can legally say it's MY gold-dust!

Does anyone else find this time of year inspiring, especially now that the new year has broken, and everyone's diving into the chances that new beginnings offer? If the Christmas egregore is a drunk Santa (see below), then the New Year egregore is an overexcitable guru, telling you that the stars and your bank-balances and everything is in alignment: now is the perfect time to join a gym/give up smoking/swear less/be nicer to frogs (delete where applicable). This is one I really enjoy: there's nothing better than riding the crest of a global sense of starting from scratch, or using that energy to build on what you already have. Join the wave; be creative and happy, and have the best New Year possible!

PS: You've earned a bit of a treat: read a possible section of dialogue from one of The Big Ideas on http://chrishislop.wordpress.com. I hope you enjoy it!

27/12/09 - 2009 {Retrospective} / 2010 {Prophecy}

For the last couple of years, I have made an effort to forecast the next year, to look at retrospective information in fields I find fascinating (which exists in droves at this time of year), and use the information to extrapolate what next year will bring, in a whole range of fields at once, in a William-S-Borrough's-cut-up for the Internet Generation. Here is this year's attempt:

This year has shown a decline in light entertainment and programming, with TV and films still being affected by the online-watching boom that is BBC iPlayer, 4oD, and so on. Popular shows have had a lot of web information and content. The move of light entertainment from the TV to the computer screen is already beginning, and 2010 looks to be the year the online-TV boom starts to truly affect the programming. We'll be seeing more TV shows made for the online market, maybe even some made to be broadcast online and nowhere else, as well as shows that combine the online capabilities of Youtube et al with regular broadcasting to make an all-round, comprehensive entertainment experience. Channel 4 has made huge headway by combining forces with Youtube, meaning any content they place online, be it original or already broadcast, can be discussed, tweeted about, tagged, commented on, and so on easily and efficiently. Other broadcasters will lag behind until they can find a similar medium for discussion, which will become a new form of advertising.

This increase in web capability for TV shows will also bring an increase in web content; more stuff online means more for people to look at. In his brilliant book Futuretainment, Mike Walsh describes such information as a Sleeve, an extra layer for an existing product. These include fan sites, extra info and videos online, and so on. 2010 will bring a huge increase in Sleeves, with more and more stuff available online to watch alongside your favourite TV show. Misfits, Channel 4's Heroes-with-Asbos show, already started this trend at the end of this year, with extensive online games, videos, info, Twitter updates, MySpace and Facebook pages, and so on. More shows with similar Sleeves will follow in its wake.

2010 will also be the year of the reality show; X-Factor, Susan Boyle and Britain's Got Talent had an exceptional 2009, and 2010 will see more of such shows, with more Sleeves (as above), as well as big broadcast slots, as this is one of the few TV shows left where the time medium (being on at a certain time on a certain channel) has any significance. It has to be on at a certain time, as the results are delivered at a certain time. With light, fictional entertainment, pre-filmed and pre-planned, the time medium is irrelevant: 2010 will show more and more TV time taken up by live shows, by programs that need the time medium to keep you hooked. With Big Brother on the way out, and light entertainment shows hopping more and more online, there will be some big gaps for similar shows, where the live medium is the most important part of the process.

The thematic and stylistic content of the year is the hardest to deduce, but there are plenty of signs pointing towards a more outrageous, silly and over-the-top paradigm becoming the norm. The recent successes of Flight of the Conchords and The Mighty Boosh crowd are big signposts, as is the popularity of artists like Anish Kapoor and Anthony Gormley, and musicians such as Lady Gaga and Muse. Everything is big, epic, colourful, over-the-top, splattered and clashing, awkward and huge; see Lady Gaga's outfits and stage-shows, Muse's music videos, stage shows and album artwork, Anish Kapoor's wax-splatter-gun and Anthony Gormley's loud, shrill fourth column, as well as John and Edward Grimes lasting as long as they did on X-Factor. To counter this, there has also been an increase in the charmingly cultured alternative, suave and gentile seriousness over wacky, insane humour, eg. all of the recent fashion films (Coco Before Chanel and The September Issue), and the moments where these two worlds collide (How to Lose Friends and Alienate People and The Devil Wears Prada). There are many, many more examples of this wacky, over-exuberant energy that seems to be continuing, which I also link back to the move of entertainment towards the online market, where things have to be vivid and over-the-top and wacky and flashing to attract the most attention.

Finally, a couple more one-off thoughts, then bed-time for Zoroaster:

- Thanks to expenses, the Iraq War enquiry, as well as the number of dead soldiers shipped home from Afghanistan, the recent rise of the laughable BNP, David Cameron and Gordon Brown's numerous faux pas, confidence in government will remain at an all time low. Even an election will do little to spark interest in the disenfranchised, disinterested middle class. This lack of confidence and interest could lead to international problems, as this will be seen as a sign of weakness.

- Barack Obama will be under a lot of fire: his health-care reforms are seen as a threat by middle-America, his Nobel Peace Prize seems like more and more of a joke, considering his recent drone-bombing of civilians in Pakistan, and he's gone from the Saviour to Mr Sit-On-His-Hands. Without some big successes in early 2010, America will face similar political apathy as the UK is facing currently, again weakening their international position.

- Michael Jackson's sad passing will leave a vacuum to be filled by numerous Princes and Princesses of Pop. Expect to see many a self-mythologising and aggrandising music star in the next year, trying to reach Jacko's level of public appeal, respect and understanding, and expect people to give them plenty of chances: we need someone to look up to, artistically.

- The vampire boom will continue, with more TV shows (True Blood) and more films (Twilight) to play to the new vampire/goth/teen market.

- Cheating will be raised to new heights of immorality, and the concept of honesty will gain acceptance and prevalence again, as a backlash against Tiger Wood's infidelity, Flavio Briattore's crash-setting-up and Theirry Henry's Hand of Frog.

- Beards will be the new hairstyles, with Brad Pitt, Keanu Reeves, David Beckham and Prince William (for a short time) leading the way, and charity concepts such as Movember gaining cultural significance. Also see Mariah Carey's music video for Obsessed.

- The 80s will stay in fashion, with the popular over-the-knee boots, jumpsuits and shoulder pads staying en vogue, although high fashion will go the way of Christian Lacroix: bankrupt, unless it becomes more high street tenable.

- I doubt we'll lose our global obsession with plastic, but maybe, just maybe, we'll realise all of this semi-recyclable waste is doing to the planet.

- The rise of video game brands as Wii Fit, Rock Band and Modern Warfare will revitalise the market, but a split will start to form between the old-fashioned, shoot-'em, punch-'em, etc, boy games and the new, rounded, playable-by-all family games, probably with more family games being made for consoles and the old style of video-gaming being relegated to PCs.

- And finally, a hope: more and more religious and spiritual diversity, as a more prevalent internet culture makes access to more and more esoteric ways of thinking both possible and likely, especially those that encourage a sense of imagination and diversity.

I am drained of thought.

21/12/09 - Child-Like Christmas Cheer!

It's the most wonderful time of the year, according to some, and the Christmas egregore is running rampant, throwing snow over unsuspecting coastal towns and generally spreading his nigh-on universal message of love, happiness and greed.

I cannot deny how Christmas splits me. On the one hand, being able to give and receive presents from friends and family is lovely, as is the general cheer in the air, the bon vivant nature of life that seems to permeate the fabric of space and time from the end of November until the beginning of January. Nearly everyone seems to relax, and spend more money on themselves, and fully imbibe a sense of goodwill to all. An example: I've helped countless people up after falling over on the ice floe that is currently Brighton. Would I do that any other time of the year? Perhaps, but I wouldn't book-end each rushed and embarrassed "thank-you" conversation with a gauche and cheery "Merry Christmas!".

I think I find this time so trying sometimes because it seems so fleeting. I genuinely make an effort to show goodwill to all on a regular basis, and so this Christmas-goodwill-bonanza seems a little reductive. People don't ascribe a sense of goodwill to their own attempts to better themselves, but to "the Christmas Spirit".

You see, I think the Christmas egregore is a rampaging spirit, a bit of a bull in a china-shop. It whirls into everyone's life, demanding a short run of peace and happiness, with the promise of happiness, over-eating and presents to assuage any feelings of anger at being pulled out of a daily norm or routine. It turns this "Christmas Spirit" into a quid-pro-quo situation: be nice to others, and the cosmos will arrange itself to make sure you get the best Christmas Day: the most presents, the best jokes in your cracker, etc.

I feel we should be showing a sense of "Christmas" cheer on a regular basis. Showing goodwill shouldn't just be a holiday thing, or something that is rewarded with shallow goods: does stopping to talk to the poor student, standing on the street corner with his clipboard, asking for money for the homeless, in a threadbare jacket with icicles dripping off his nose, really entitle you to that new book? A bigger slice of Christmas cake? The succulent turkey breast?

Shouldn't you just do it because it's a good thing to do?

I think the only way to approach Christmas these days is through a child's eyes. I find I enjoy myself far more if I just ignore all of the more rational, discursive angles of the Christmas egregore. I don't want to see the tacky, fake-Christmas-tree wielding, gluttonous man, one too many mulled wines sloshed over his Christmas jumper, his pockets wadded with cash, throwing handfuls of cheer and laughter over everything and stumbling off before the consequences catch up with him. No, I want the child-like vision of Father Christmas, a rosy-cheeked man bringing love, gifts and happiness to all, if just for a short time. Now, I'm off to eat more chocolate than healthy, drink a mug and a half of mulled wine, and play with my Lego.

On that note of throwing doubt onto your Christmas fires, I wish all readers a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

(egregore: is an occult concept representing a "thoughtform" or "collective group mind", an autonomous psychic entity made up of, and influencing, the thoughts of a group of people. The symbiotic relationship between an egregore and its group has been compared to the more recent, non-occult concepts of the corporation (as a legal entity) and the meme.)

18/12/09 - Zen Writing

I tried something new today. This morning I was stuck on a writing project, and I thought I'd try something a little different. Instead of writing from a practical, rational perspective, I thought I'd try and just start from somewhere randomly creative and strangely inspired.

In this situation, I was trying to work on the base concept for a documentary, but had little idea of the hook, the catch. I knew the theme, the basic structure, all of the nitty-gritty materials, but I needed a construct to fit it into, a set-up for the whole series that would take it from a collection of facts to a watchable and exciting documentary. No matter what I thought of, it didn't seem to take the concept anywhere. I felt more than a little stagnant.

Normally, to countermand this sort of creative block, I go for a walk, or go do some cooking, or just take some time off. However, at this point I was nearing a meeting, and needed some creative impetus, and I needed it quickly. So, I thought I'd try some zen, a non-direct approach to the problem.

"What would you not expect to see in a documentary?" I decided I'd start with the opposite of what I was looking for. I started making a list, and quickly realised each of the items I'd written down wasn't necessarily wrong for a documentary, just not expected. Is there anything wrong with a documentary with a plot? Or characters? I realised documentaries are often united by thematic content, but thought, in this case, I'd try something different. I planned out the documentary series with 'characters', ideas and concepts that develop and interact throughout, like characters as part of a plot.

With this little thought, the whole concept fell into place, and the documentary now has legs! I might try and do this more often...

16/12/09 - Contentment

Sorry for the recent paucity of updates... I've been trying to get to a point with most of my work where I can have Christmas for just me and my fiancee. Also, working on getting A Fistful of Snow published here, trying to get all of the music links, even video links in place!

In the meantime... I feel exceptionally content. Things have slotted into place very nicely over the last year, and I've managed to create a successful starting point for my life and career. My retainer recently got extended to cover, well, nearly everything and anything: come the new year, I can make anything I'm interested in "work", I can write about anything that tickles my fancy, which is a very exciting state of affairs to be in. The other work I'm doing is rewarding and I enjoy it just as much as my own projects; I genuinely bound out of bed to get some work done every day. Or at least lie in bed and work...

Otherwise, I'm looking forward to getting married in June, and I bought some lovely new trousers! The fact that I have the spare time to approach new projects, as well as indulge in extensive hobbies alongside my job is a godsend.

However, there is a problem with all of this contentedness: I feel rather guilty. I feel like a should be out there every day, trying to push forward and strive and so on. I've lived my entire life as a forward push, an attempt to push into new territory, meeting new people and striving, every day, to make each day more important and exciting. A practical example: my Dad retired a couple years ago, while I was still living at home, and my teenage mind couldn't understand that he wasn't working, that after retiring he was happy to just relax and be content.

I think I now finally understand: that'll never be me. I feel trapped by my contentedness, stagnant when there is so much out there to strive for. I think I'm reaching a nice middle ground, where I can be basically content, if still aiming for the stars. I now at least understand my Dad's desire to be content: It is a wonderful feeling to know that you're successful, that you have been successful, and are content with your life as it is. I just don't think I'll ever fully find that fullest sense of contentment. There's a niggling voice in the back of my head, a little gremlin pointing at the stars, saying "We should be there! We can be there! Next year, we'll be millionaires! We'll be successful beyond all ken! Come on, man, let's go!" I think it's time to let him out again, if only a little bit. I need some more forward momentum, if not for my career then just for me.

It's been a wonderful year this year. Thank-you to everyone who had even the smallest part in making it so.

12/12/09 - A Day at the Races

This week has kept me a little on my toes... plenty of work to be going through, plus I've been hacking and coughing my way through most of it... cold's gone now, but now my stomach's mumbling and grumbling away. I really need to take better care of myself. Although, when you're bouncing all over the country attending bizarre events, it's not surprising if haven't been eating properly.

Yesterday, I spent most of my day at the Cheltenham Races, and it certainly ranks highly in my bizarre index. As a friend put it: never have I seen so much tweed and Burberry worn un-ironically. The Cotswolds masses were certainly out, and I'm pretty sure I stood out like an eccentric sore thumb with my jacket-and-T-shirt combo. However, I was there with a nice mixture of friends and TV people, so I hope we all stood out as much as each other... Although I may have been the only person not wearing a tie.

As my first real experience of horse-racing, beyond a pub and a bookies with my producer about a year ago, I was pleasantly surprised. It really is fun, with all of the wheeling and dealing, hearing rumours from people and betting on this, that and t'other; all it takes is the acceptance that you have little to no control over the races. Sure, you can try and look and see if the horse's coat is glossy (top tip!), if the jockey's famous and/or successful, ask the trainer, etc, but in the end, I think luck prevails foremost. This is what makes it so fun to watch... I'll have to be careful not to get too sucked in, I don't want to spend too much until I really have a better idea of how it works! I reckon I might take the time...

Other peculiar things I noticed: many of the horse's names have homosexual overtones (The Package? GAY DONALD?), some of the odds are so long that a £2, on a fluke, could win you £1000 (!!!), and that people take this exceptionally seriously. I got a quick glimpse of a very different world, a rich and serious world where tiny, infinitesimal details make the difference between huge money and huge loss, and enjoyed dipping in. Could I handle long term exposure? Heaven knows. For now, I'm happy to do my work, enjoy my life, take it all with a pinch of salt, and do my best not to become Nathan Barley. I don't think I can really ask for more!

08/12/09 - This 'Viral' Thing is Out of Control

If this entry seems a little aggressive, or like more of a rant than my more bucolic, regular style, it is because I'm very angry. Almost seething.

I had the pleasure of watching the second half of 2012 yesterday, the new Roland Emmerich movie. I had been studiously avoiding it, having read the awful reviews and not wanting to subject myself to another overwrought Hollywood blockbuster. In watching, it was OK. Painfully predictable in places, as well as scientifically harrowing, but forgiveably so for the blockbuster potential of watching the whole world fall down around our ears, resulting in the deaths of 5.6 billion people. A suitable eschatological ideal for all of the fear-mongers out there? A reminder that the dollar crashing is not the end of the world, this is? Possibly. Either way, not the best, nor the worst film, a decidedly average blockbuster. Not an issue.

My issue arose from a little browsing on the Internet this morning. 2012 has some of the most horrifying, the most ethically unsound and harrowing marketing I have ever experienced. As is the case with most modern films, it has gone down the 'viral' marketing route: an attempt to use interactive websites, social media websites, etc. to sell the ideas and themes of the film, over just releasing text and trailers. It is the done thing these days: no big Hollywood blockbuster is released without some clever online marketing, beyond the basic "click-on-this-ad-banner" and "read-this-scrolling-text-bar". I have feared for a while that this type of marketing may be out of control, with there being no limit to how far viral marketing can spread, and what the producers of 2012 have done seems the beginning of the end.

I will try to keep this description as factual as possible: 2012's tagline is 'We Were Warned', and the plot contains many such elements: a scientist warns the world's governments of the events of 2012, and they don't tell the world; the Mayan Long-Form Calendar ends in 2012, and so son. This has also been extended to the marketing. Sites on offer include a pirate station that tells of the apocalypse, and an institute telling people about what the government is covering up. Now, because this is 'viral' marketing, there are no disclaimers saying that what these sites purport is not true, nor that their content is fictional. According to David Morrison, of NASA, they have received over 1000 emails from concerned people, wondering if this is true, including teenagers talking about taking their own lives if such events will occur.

This is a horrifying trend. Obviously, some of these people have accessed these sites without realising what they're based on, or they've been following the film, seen these sites, and become scared by what they're saying. The problem is, these sites have done nothing wrong, legally. I'm sure there's a disclaimer, buried somewhere, but it has obviously been missed by some. I'm not even that affronted by the marketing's playing on people's 2012 apocalypse fears, I'm worried about where the limits of this viral marketing are, and that people aren't being educated in new media well enough to know how to deal with these things.

The only way we have to educate ourselves about the new media, and now to use the Internet, is currently through trial and error. In America, there are signs of making computer and Internet usage part of the national curriculum, but what about the last generation of "screenagers", who are being sent into the world with no methods to approach this kind of aggressive marketing, who are more likely to loose their money to spam emails, who are more likely to fall prey to online scams? There needs to be some kind of legislation or Internet bylaw that protects people, until we are all educated enough to look at a fake apocalypse, advertised by a website, and not grab the cyanide capsules.

Douglas Rushkoff has made the point before, that we need to be educated on new media and viral marketing, and what it means for the human race. Viral marketing needs limitations, at least until we can all be savvy enough to take everything that we read online with a pinch of salt. It took me ages to allow my understanding of "truth" to coexist with the online world I was frequenting, and I still don't think I have all of the psychology of it ironed out. I doubt anyone today is that connected.

What does everyone else think? Should there be limitations, while our online-savviness catches up to the marketer's ploys? Or is it unavoidable?

06/12/09 - What the Fringe?

It has hit that time of year again, where all of the thesps start to make their Fringe plans. The actors start casting their eyes for audition notices, wanting to see what bonanza they'll be involved with, while the directors and producers should already be in the process of organising the next big spiel, especially in terms of the Brighton Festival Fringe (May). However, this year's August plans are a little more complicated...

Normally, Edinburgh is the given address for most thesps during August, as the Edinburgh Fringe Festival attracts most of the performers, promoters and reviewers to the Scottish arts capital. However, this year may see a much more divided Fringe! With a London Festival Fringe happening at exactly the same time, as well as the Camden Festival Fringe happening at exactly the same time... Where do we go?

And, furthermore, what is the point? Why have two Fringe Festivals, both aiming to be 'the biggest this year', at the same time, with Camden at the same time (always small yet fine)? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that most of the audience for these festivals will be the same people; what is the point in splitting the mass up?

I suppose there is something to be said for taking the pressure off Edinburgh, where the population purportedly doubles during August, as well as giving some of the smaller acts a greater chance to shine. That being said, the effect more likely to be achieved is the opposite. More festivals doesn't mean more exposure, or more acts. Chances are, the same number of performers and promoters will be peddling their wares for the next couple of years, if not less thanks to recent global recession. With audiences split between the capital and Edinburgh, as well as acts, chances are less people will come and see the small acts, and more will come and see the big ones, some of which I hear will be doing both anyway (if money is little to no object, why skimp on publicity for the next DVD?).

So, my prognosis: this year will see the slow decline of the small acts at Fringe Festivals. The big acts will be on everywhere, pulling in large audiences (as always), while smaller, less celebrity-heavy acts will suffer. With audiences split between Edinburgh and London, the small acts will get less people 'giving them a chance' or 'trying something new'.

On the other hand, as time goes on, both Festivals will find themselves niches. My guess is London will become the more 'comedy' festival, and Edinburgh will stick with its avant-garde theatricality, and this will resolve itself. However, for now, it is a mess, and it is a shame that the organisers of the London Fringe Festival couldn't have tried to make this year a bit easier for the crowd they purport to be organising this for.

Still, instead of just shouting doom and gloom, I intend to wait and see what happens next. I think I'll have to hit all of them... Lots of travelling in August! Where will you be? Were you planning to take something? Do you think this will affect you?

05/12/09 - In Praise of Tom Waits and Spotify

03/12/09 - Why I Publish My Writing Online

If I had to list all of the questions I get asked as a self-employed writer:

How do you make it work?

How do you find work?

Why do you publish your writing online?

The answers to the first two, I think, have been answered quite comprehensively in this blog, and can be summed up with two words: luck and determination. However, I believe that the answer to the last question is directly linked to the above two, and that publishing your work online is the only way forward in this day and age, and will make finding work, and thus making a writing career work for you, much easier.

I publish my work online because it increases the amount of work I get. It's really that simple. The more work I have published online, the more people read it. The more people read it, the more people want me to write something for them. The days of with-holding material and worrying about copyright are obsolete. Am I worried someone will perform one of my pieces, and pass it off as their own? Or even if they don't pass it off as their own, not give me the credit I deserve? Or financial recompense? Not really. To be expecting any of that is more than a little big-headed. If someone is inspired by my humble work, and decides to read it, let alone perform it, I'm honoured someone has done me that service, and that I have been able to inspire them. If something is confidential, or I think it's worth keeping for later projects, I don't publish it, but everything else either goes straight up, or will be going up soon.

Some people find this hard to grasp, and I don't blame them. There is still a lingering belief that whatever someone writes is theirs, and theirs alone, and thus shouldn't be seen for free, nor should someone have the ability to take it. The new Internet Copyright Bill is indeed trying to uphold these standards, but how is that possible in a generation that has Youtube? Cutting out all of the illegal stuff, who hasn't listened to a band on MySpace? Watched someone's Youtube videos? This is the marketing of the future: making it all free and available to all. The trick comes in making people want more.

Some famous comedians, Dan Antopolski among them, have recently been bellyaching about this trend, and how their material becomes hackneyed and sterile within one or two shows, as the joke is uploaded to Youtube, Facebook, and various iPhone applications within hours, and soon the whole world knows it. Admittedly, it has become harder to work as a comedian: your material is passed around very quickly, and the pressure to write more day-in-day-out has gotten higher, but this shouldn't be resisted and belly-ached against. This kind of new marketing is what's making some of these new, big names so famous, and the fact that Antopolski's Funniest Joke of the Fringe was common knowledge within hours of him having the award presented to him just shows his popularity. For more info on this, Maggie Brown's column in The Stage last week (last week of Nov 09) covers this topic from the comedian's perspective.

So, there's the rub: you can't be precious about your material any more. The idea of writing in an ivory tower is obsolete, as is not getting your material to as many eyes as possible. Just to give you an idea: publishing my material online has already helped arrange 4 jobs for me to date, some of them very well paying... If you're a writer, don't hesitate, publish your work now. It will pay off in spades. Put yourself out there!

01/12/09 - A Little Downer...

As a writer, it's very important to remain positive. More often than not, you're waiting on contracts, waiting on payments, waiting on jobs, and it can sometimes seem like you're not actually doing anything at all. In these times, it's important not to let things bog you down, or let bills worry you, etc. Self-belief is a huge part of making this work, and that self-belief has to keep you going sometimes.

I've hit a bit of a rough patch with the above. I'm having trouble remaining positive. While everything is going swimmingly, I've also got a lot of worries right now. Now, things I normally wouldn't worry about (late payments, waiting on a job confirmation) seem more worrisome the normal.

I hope I can pull myself out of this funk, as, when I'm worried and not being positive, I don't chase the people I need to chase, or move forward with some things that just require a little gentle pressure. I think writing this has made some headway... I do feel a little more like chasing people and taking the knock, if needed. Onwards and upwards!

29/11/09 - 'Fossilised' Language

I often get described as someone who looks and sounds older than he actually is. My age is often guessed at 4-5 years above my actual age, and, although I'm hoping it is partly due to the beard, I think there is an element to which my language and diction are those of an older man. My mother describes my language, as well as hers and my father's, as 'fossilised', but I'm not sure if that's the right word.

This 'fossilisation' arose due to the following: my parents moved to Germany 25 (24?) years ago, and I was born and raised there. They taught me English based on what they had been taught in the 50s and 60s at school, which is why I sometimes use phrases that may seem outdated. This, combined with my own love of words (bolstered by many Scrabble games), has led to my own, quite 'mature' sounding language, because the only points of reference I had when growing up were my parents' English.

This was also compounded by my schooling: going to an international school with, mostly, American ex-pats. I soon developed an American accent, so as not to stand out, and British English became my home language. It's almost as if I split my language: proper diction and grammar at home, Americanisms and colloquialisms at school.

When coming over here, I clearly had to combine the two, as I certainly didn't want to sound American in my 'home' country. Instead of becoming one whole language, though, I think I've now developed it into a collection of different vocabularies, which I call on depending on who I'm talking to. While I'm not sure how aware of this I am in general conversation, and can hear when my voice sounds stronger and harsher depending on who I'm talking to... Is anyone else aware of their voice changing, depending on who they're talking to, or their diction, vocabulary, etc?

This obviously also translates into my writing, although I'm not sure how much. Does my writing read like a piece by someone older than 22? I don't feel that I can define it as such, that I'm to close to see my writing as anything other than... mine. Any opinions here would be greatly appreciated, if only for my own curiosity!

I think my parents' language is 'fossilised', the phrase is more than apt. They've left a culture, and their language seems antiquated compared to what I hear from most others. I think my own language is more adaptive, as I'm now living within the culture they left, but vestiges of the original fossils I learned are still lurking there, colouring my language, and making me sound much older than my tender 22. At least, this is the view I like to take, I'm sure it's just as possible I sound like a overblown old fart, lost in his own hyperbole, or a pretentious child with a dictionary/thesaurus application on his iPhone. Let me know if either of those are the case: there's a middle ground to be aimed for here!

27/11/09 - Meeting the TV People

I had the pleasure today of taking part in a meeting with one of the heads of BBC Worldwide, about a panel show project I'm working on and part-own the concept for, and I can happily report that things are going well. However, instead of try and talk around the actual show itself (under wraps until everything's moving along a bit more smoothly), I thought I'd talk about the experience. I didn't quite know what to expect, from the building to the people I was speaking to, let alone how well the idea for the show itself would go down; would it be all business? Would these guys be fun as well? Is the stereotype of the aggressive TV exec true?

First things first: the BBC "White City" block of buildings is very intimidating. It all feels a lot like a business park, with lots of big buildings with well designed open and leafy bits, as well as the obligatory Starbucks. The inside of the building I entered was similarly designer-friendly: lots of nouveau furniture, more open spaces, and lots of artwork. Hands seem to be a big theme at the BBC... No idea why. Anyway, I was ushered in, along with David Brook, the very media-savvy producer I work with, and we had coffee bought for us in the cafe, instead of the expected office meeting.

The execs were... nice. Totally against stereotype, they were pleasant and chatty, and we spoke about everything in a very casual and friendly way. Certainly not what I was expecting! Sure, they were direct, sometimes even blunt, but I prefer this kind of no-nonsense interaction. I didn't feel cowed, or unimportant, or underappreciated, or anything of the things I was dreading.

I suppose that's the point really: stereotypes are made to de defied. There's probably a lot of apprehension about meeting people with as much power as these guys, or at least as much percieved power, and it proves that apprehension can often lead to fear and unfortunate generalising. I was so worried about whether I would say or do the right thing, and I instead felt more comfortable than I thought I would. There was clearly a lot going on under the surface, a lot of references to people and documents and so forth, but the general atmosphere made the what I thought would be awkward very genial and made the work chat flow quickly and easily.

So, a lovely day, far less stressful than I expected, and a meeting well run. OK, OK... I've been trying not to say anything about the show itself all of this entry, but I will let this slip: it's a panel show, and should be a welcome break from the fifteen-millionth repeat of Mock the Week! Enough said.

26/11/09 - Musing on Filming and Directing

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of being in a music video for my friends Ben and Georgia, also known as the very talented Bitter Ruin. It was only the second time I've acted in front of a camera, most of my experience being theatrical (bar one short student film), and the experience was... interesting.

This was the first time I'd worked with a professional director and a professional crew, and I found their professionalism really refreshing. They managed to get the job done, slowly but surely, without fuss and hassle. The process didn't seem stressful nor rushed, just cool, calm and methodical, despite time running out and specific camera shots and angles taking a lot of time to set up. On top of this, their polite and pleasant directions and thank-yous made the whole process so much easier, and they way they dealt with unruly bar-staff (we were filming in a pub) and the like was extremely impressive. Seeing this confident and professional work was inspiring, and certainly gave me something to aim for in my directing. Watching them work was extremely valuable, and gave me something to do during the long shoot.

If the above sounds catty, I certainly don't mean it to. I just didn't realise how long it takes to film, and how little of that time I would actually be working. Most of my day was spent watching or relaxing, and it took a lot of effort not to get bored. It seemed like most of my day was in preparation for my 5-10 shots, my minute/minute-and-a-half of screen time, which wasn't rehearsed or planned beyond when we were doing it. The uncertainty of whether what I was doing is good or right was... frightening. However, none of this felt rushed or unplanned, and the ability to feel able to make contributions in this kind of powerful, creative environment was wonderful.

I almost feel like my experience yesterday reminded me of good direction, of how to make people feel appreciated and still get the job done quickly and professionally. If I could take a smidgeon of that creative force and add it to my direction, I feel I'd be achieving something new and special in my own work. Maybe there is something to be said for leaving actors to their own devices for hours on end... I was so ready to do my scenes by the time that I did that my ego flew out of the window.

On the other hand, I did finish the day very tired and exhausted, after doing very little work, or maybe a lot over a very short time; I can't be sure until I see the results. All I know is I want to be in that position, I want to be a good enough director to inspire that kind of energy, focus and drive so naturally and effortlessly. If anything, yesterday showed me how far I still have to go, reminded me of where I need to improve. Much to be thought about!

25/11/09 - Milestones

In lieu of a couple of brilliant pieces of news today, I thought it time for a little retrospective of my 'career' to date, and the massive steps it has taken forward since I began on this path properly 3 months ago. My main goal here is to find definable markers, moments where I feel my work, popularity or success made a definite move forwards, and to analyse what made those steps so successful.

I started writing quite young; I'm sure my parents remember more than I do. I know there were some theatre pieces I typed up and adapted when I turned 16-17, and first started directing, but the two projects that stand out most from that time are the newspaper I started and my first, fledgling novel.

The newspaper was your typical student rag: a populist, lefty outcry, written under pseudonym (for the first couple of months at least), with more than a couple wildly aimed stabs at authority and 'the man'. The Free Press was fun to write and more than a little gauche in places, but it was my first real taste of people reading my writing, and of churning out material on a regular basis. I remember thoroughly enjoying the whole thing, although it did peter out as final exams came up and university beckoned. People stopping me, or at least chatting to me about my writing, and what I was writing about, was a pleasant break from scribbling furtive notes in Moleskines and tapping out long, surreal novels on my lovely old computer.

The first novel was also a true milestone. My English teacher in my last two years of school, Troy Blacklaws, was a huge inspiration, and as I became a sounding board for some of his new pieces of writing, so did he inspire me to start writing longer material. I don't think we were ever going to be friends; I was generally quite a good student and a bit of a goody-two-shoes, whereas he clearly liked his students to be cool rebels, but we did bond over writing. Reading his new attempts at a third novel, and his manuscript of his second, inspired me to attempt my own. I'm still very proud of it: the first chapter of Fall of Day can be found on my blog, and I cherish the email I received from the publisher I sent it to, praising my style and wishing me luck for the future. I knew what I wanted to be from that point on.

In hindsight, blasting out of school with that much praise and belief was both a boon and a major hinderance. As my friends will attest, I certainly don't lack confidence or bravado, but I similarly have trouble with criticism. While my experiences in school gave me an unshakeable belief in myself and what I wanted to do, they also left me thinking it would be a constant, upwards path. It wasn't.

University was an eye-opener, in more ways than one. In a writing sense, my confidence took an early nose dive. It took me a year to write anything new, the well-respected Squares (available to read on my blog), which I've never been 100% happy with. I hit a wall of perfectionism: I couldn't face work that I didn't think was perfect, and Squares suffered under that, going through a large number of rewrites, even during the directing process. The second play, Concrete, never left the drawing board, although I have been reworking it recently (the first act is published on my blog, the second will be soon).

Both of these rather difficult writing experiences, despite not being the most pleasant, are still important milestones, as they led me to push myself harder and further than ever before. Diving in the deep end, I started trying to adapt various 'big' pieces of theatre (the beginnings of my version of Faust can be found on my blog as well), and finally had a break-through with Oedipus (to be published on my blog soon). I wrote Oedipus in about a month, reading and researching as I went to create a powerful and caustic retelling of the myth, which I then staged at the Brighton Festival Fringe. While it got nowhere near the success of the next project, it was a huge step forward as a writer, a fully realised writing project that I was proud of and reminded me of my own self-belief and style.

However, if I was happy with Oedipus, it was nothing compared to A Fistful of Snow (also to be published on my blog soon). A short comedy 1-hander, written in tandem with Danny Alder, A Fistful of Snow won awards, 4 and 5 star reviews, and gave me some much needed success and a confidence boost. I felt like my writing was finally being appreciated, that I could walk around with my head held high, that my self-belief was deserved. When Danny and I were offered the chance to take the show to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, which fitted nicely into my recently-begun reviewing career, we accepted.

At this point, I had also started reviewing for Fringereview.co.uk, something I still do to this day and enjoy massively. It's exciting to think that my writing can be for someone else, that I can entice others to come to some of the great shows I've had the pleasure of seeing at various Fringe Festivals. This is one of my more important milestones: a first realisation that my writing can be more than just for me, an important break in the selfish process my writing had been up to this point. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe only compounded this point, and led me to one of the more difficult decisions I've faced in my life: to actually approach writing as a career, and try and make it as a self-employed writer.

Since then, my new-found self-respect added a level of honesty and simplicity to my self-belief, and pushed me to aim high. Now, I'm deeply involved in an upcoming TV project, and a possible film script, with more material just over the horizon, and the world feels like more of an oyster than it ever has before. I feel I've taken huge steps forward with my writing in the last years, but humility has taught me to look back as far as I can, to try and start from the beginning, to better understand where I've come from, and where I'm aiming to go.

I'd encourage others out there to look back for the moments where what they do became more realised, as the journey often seems to be an exciting one to look back on. Has anyone else taken a trip down memory lane recently? Do you also find it makes the direction you're moving in clearer? Comments please!

23/11/09 - Inspire This!

After a couple of relaxing days of rest, I feel vitalised, refreshed and ready to tackle the projects I'm working on.  I find this is how I best inspire myself: by letting ideas float around in the back of my head whilst enjoying myself doing something simple and enjoyable, be it meandering around an art gallery, cooking, or watching TV. I think I'm quite lucky in this regard; I don't need to do drastic or expensive things to keep the creative juices flowing. However, my approach does also lead to easy distraction, and I can sometimes spend days on a new book or a new video game and completely lose focus. Where's the middle ground?

I think part of the issue is my rather varied focus. I find I often skip between various thoughts, feelings, emotions, ideas, etc. in the course of a conversation, let alone a day, so I often need quite rigid and direct focus when I'm working on a particular project. That being said, if the ideas aren't flowing, I do find switching off with a good book or by cooking a new recipe really keeps me going, but what if I then get distracted by it? The easy answer is intense work and banal distractions, but (from experience) I just get bored with the banal distractions, and look for more engrossing ones, leading to said issue. The obvious answer is in the variance: break up 'brain' work with something far more physical, ie. walking, but then laziness kicks in. Why go for a meander and let my brain power-nap when I could be watching the latest episode of whatever's-popular-and-I've-been-following-on-TV?

I've found, in the past, that I can't maintain a healthy balance either. Splitting my day into work and work-break doesn't work, but neither does splitting my week. I think I've found a more natural rhythm, basically week on week off, sometimes longer, sometimes shorter. So my days fall into relaxing, with occasional scribbled notes, whilst engaging with someone else's stories and ideas (through any medium), or intense writing, broken up by walks, cookery or half an hour of TV brain-space. The trick is starting every day on the premise that it is the latter, but accepting that the former is not 'bad' or 'unproductive', but a necessary part of the process. I think the days where I spend an hour or two on browsing various online journals and wikis are where I get most of my ideas from, along with all of the other unavoidable cultural bumpf.

It seems hard to decide where inspiration comes from, as most of the elements are so varied. No doubt they come from what I read, what I watch, what I experience, but nothing beats just browsing the web about a topic that interests you. Luckily, I can do that on the go as well with my beloved Blackberry, so every moment can be a new idea, or at least learning about something random and strange. Which then, often, leads to one of those highly creative days, as described above... There is a system here, a method to this madness, all tied together by approaching every day like I'll write something brilliant, and keeping a positive attitude if all I create is empty crisp packets and a new arse-groove in the couch.

Has anyone else tried to analyse their process as a writer, and where their inspiration comes from? I'd be interested to hear how others approach this peculiar job.

19/11/09 - Comedy... And Where We All Fit In

I blame Danny Alder. One of my closest friends, and also a very talented bastard, Danny gave a presentation yesterday on comedy and stand-up at an event I organised, and has set my mind racing again. I always saw my place on the other side of the microphone, the reviewer, the spectator, the writer, but my ego always gets a say, and he wants to stand at the front and deliver. However, am I really good enough?

I know I'm terrible at stand-up comedy, but I also feel that I shouldn't be. I'm more than comfortable delivering in front of crowds, I'm a good writer, I'm verbose and love the sound of my own voice, I have loads of ideas on how to present myself and what sort of material I should do, but it has never worked. My one experience behind the mike was awkward and terrible, although I was much younger. Also, while I love the idea of presenting my jokes and ideas to others, I'd hate having to change 'me' to perform, and I know I'd have to.

I think my problem here is shared by a number of stand-ups I've seen. I know I'm funny. My work is respected and well-reviewed. That being said, I'm not the one people laugh at/with, I'm the one in the background, deciding where everything goes. I'll never be the one standing in front of the crowd, unless I'm working for someone else. There's a part of my mind that can't give up on being the performer, but I'm putting my foot down. If I perform, it'll be on someone else's terms, otherwise I'm relegating myself away from the stage. The moment I start performing my own work, I'm going to have to let go of that part of me that is critical and direct, and that would only diminish my own ability.

So, I know I shouldn't, and won't, try and get into stand-up. It's one of those dreams that will never be realised, and maybe that's a good thing. If you're a stand-up now, stand back for a minute and think: is this the best place for you to be? Are you a stand-up? What do you think?

18/11/09 - Working as a Writer

This is a basic attempt at a transcript of a presentation I gave on working as a writer. It'll probably approach what I had in mind over what I actually said on the day.

Hi, my name is Chris, and I am a writer. I work as a writer, I have managed to reach a position in my life where I can live off my own writing, and that is a great thing. There is some acting and some directing in there as well, but mostly, my writing sustains me. I'm incredibly proud and lucky to be in this position, and I'd like to share with you what I have done to get there. With a bit of luck, you can get there to. I'm not saying this is the only way to make this sort of career work, but I will tell you what helped me get where I am today, and advise you on the choices that I made.

I decided to become a writer six months ago, after my Brighton Festival Fringe shows made money and were poised for an Edinburgh Festival Fringe run. I needed to find ways to make money out of my writings, so I did what most people do: I overshot. I thought Edinburgh might be able to be a money-maker, so I started taking on other jobs around writing as work. This ended up being more of a psychological head-spinner than anything else, so my first piece of advice is, don't try and multitask your writing. Do something else on the side, but separate your own writing from that work. I got them all tied together, and that partly caused a feeling of being unmade after the Festival.

I was lucky, in that a producer saw the show I co-wrote in Edinburgh, and offered me some work. I took it, excelled at it, and got a hefty cheque for the film concept he'd asked for. Suddenly, I was on track: I had a producer who liked my work, and through him met others who wanted me to write for them too! Which brings me to the second thing I've learned: make influential friends. If you can find one influential person who will care about your work and promote you, you're on the right track.

So, now I write, that's my job. Do I always write stuff I want to? No, but I try and give it my own flair and style. That's the most common question, followed quickly by: how do you discipline yourself? How do you get jobs done. I always have a goal of writing x number of words a day, but I never do. I just write as much as I can, spend a lot of time blogging and on Twitter and Facebook, self-promoting. You need to self-promote to get anywhere with writing. See if you can write reviews, or articles for online publications, or god-knows-what-else, just put it out there.

There is plenty of work out there, even in a recession. Just keep writing. discipline yourself to write as much as you can whenever you can, publish as much as you can online, get yourself out there in as many ways as you can (online and off), and hope you get that lucky break! It worked for me; it can hopefully work for you.

15/11/09 - Ego Acting Up-Date

After a couple of days, a couple of chats, and some very elaborate and excellent comments on my blog, I have come to some conclusion about the ego acting thing. I now know what I meant to say, and how it affects my life as an actor and director.

First of all, a big thank for all of the comments, keeping the issue alive in the old noggin, as I couldn't let it go. It kept swirling around my head: was I worrying about something nonexistant? Was I trying to typify something that needed its own space to develop? However, yesterday, during a rehearsal, it dawned on me what the point of all this ego stuff was: the question isn't whether, as an actor, you apply your ego to your work. The question is whether two people's egos match, and it is the collaboration between the egos that makes the work so fascinating.

I realised this during a rehearsal for the current show I'm doing, and that I couldn't align my ego with my director's. I, as a director, like to work with big egos. I like the interaction, the ability to subsume my ego or to ask an actor to subsume theirs, and I have finally understood why: I have the self-confidence to accept live criticism. I like people questioning my thoughts and ideas in a rehearsal space, I like the discursive nature of such interactions, but can accept that not everyone does. The director I'm currently working with isn't like that, and, although I had an initial sense of anger and disappointment yesterday, now that I've thought about it I do understand what this process is.

Does my method make me a better director? In my eyes, yes, but in real life and practically? Possibly. I don't think I have the right to judge. At least I now know why I like interviews over auditions, a chance to know someone over a chance to see them act. However, I can also see how this approach can be dangerous: I've worked with actors before where I've liked their ego more than appreciated their talent, and all this ends me up with tight and powerful casts performing averagely. Just as my approach has flaws, wanting actors who will enter the rehearsal space and just do what you say is similarly constricting, and although the show looks and feels good, I feel underappreciated.

Every process has its flaws, and its good to know what you do, just as it is to recognise what others do. This is about ego, but its about everyone in a space collaborating, using their egos to make the experience inspiring and entertaining, while also working hard to create some exciting and fascinating theatre. I feel I'm more likely to want to create powerful and exciting stuff when I feel appreciated and understood, but maybe I just need to switch off and be an automaton for the master director. Does this make more sense? On which side of this metaphysical fence do you fall? Comments please!

11/11/09 - Ego Acting Up?

I was having a friendly conversation with a director chum recently, and we were weighing up the pros and cons of ego in actors. It's undeniable that actors, directors, and other theatre-types are often overburdened with an excess of ego, but have the ability to sublimate it when it comes to work. However, is this sublimation actually a positive process? Is it good for the actor to lose all sense of ego onstage, to become a completely blank slate for the director to make his mark?

We came to the conclusion that there, generally, isn't a right or wrong answer, but it is interesting how our thoughts differed. My friend wanted ego-less actors, actors who were happy to take on and do anything he asked of them, which was equated to acting professionally. I agreed with him that this was important, but not necessarily what was most important to me in actors: I want actors who will bring something to a performance, who will inhabit the characters they are creating with their own reactions, born of their ego, that cannot be replicated. The discussion then continued around whether this was actually ego, which may have had something to do with the fact that I am working for him as an actor and definitely showing too much ego, but nonetheless...

I find the whole concept of ego, in this context, fascinating. Are actors sublimating their ego to take direct orders from a director? Or are they using their ego to embelish their scenes, characters and projects? How does this differ from serious work to comedy? Do you need an ability to work with and use ego, as well as knowing how to shut it off? What does everyone else think? I certainly haven't come to anything conclusive.

05/11/09 - Acting Corporate

With an acting career that's finally paying off, it's hit me how it is entirely not what I expected when I first wanted this sort of work. I always thought I'd need more training, or at least some sort of 'big break', but no; it's just sort of happened. Jobs that pay a little have come up in dribs and drabs, and it's all started to add up rather excellently. Interestingly, they're not your little plays in back-water towns, they're corporate gigs. They're workshops and short pieces. They're a side of theatre I didn't really think about, or realised existed until I got involved myself.

Now, I have no idea how widespread these type of gigs are, but I do recommend them, not only for the steady work. I've discovered so much more about myself as an actor in these jobs than I thought I would, and the difference in audience reaction is really striking. People aren't there to be entertained, they're often there to learn, or understand, or gain something from the situation beyond a laugh and a nice evening. The attention they give is a huge step from what I'm used to.

Final note: Nearly all of my old writing bits and pieces (that are in any way worth reading) are now on http://chrishislop.wordpress.com, have a look!

31/10/09 - Halloween... Or That Painful Time of Year

I do try so very hard not to be a grouch around this time of year, but I truly despise Halloween. As my friends will attest I'm not into the whole dressing-up thing, but that's the least of my gripes. In fact, most of it is a nice night: a lot of people out drinking, lots of parties to hop between, and not much to do the day after... The problem is the way it invades every aspect of my life. That may seem a little unfair, as it is a holiday that everyone wants to get involved with, but it saturates everything for so long before and after the event that it ranks with Christmas in the holidays-that-are-done-to-death drawer. In the same way that singing Father Christmas statues seem to be available from September, tacky Halloween nonsense is available from mid-July until December, and for the past three weeks every house has had pumpkins in the windows and the like. Even moreso than that, you can't even pop to the cinema or watch TV to switch off, every ad is accompanied by blood-curdling screams as ASDA announces its 'frightening' price crunch, and every channel shows zombie films.
 
This leads to my main gripe: entertainment gets sucked up into this cultural vacuum, and I find that both disappointing and a little disconcerting. Is there nothing worth talking about for the sake of it? Why are all of the plays/comedy nights/events Halloween-based? Is there nothing worth being original over? Rant over, now off to get drunk and find pictures of myself in devil-horns on Facebook tomorrow.

27/10/09 - A Night so Very White

This year's White Night was certainly a night to remember. Huge numbers, and some exciting and interesting events, made for a rather scatty evening... But the energy and enthusiasm was infectuous, and so I found myself dragged to multiple events, drinking myself into an artistic stupour!

The sheer variety of events to behold was incredible: a simulated bike-ride, including an underwater section, tarot-deck life modelling, artistic lectures, a room of peculiar performance art... these are just some of the sights I beheld, along with the ubiquitous Brightonian crowds of revellers. Now, instead of going into detail about each event I partook in, I'm more interested in discussing some of the slightly more contentious issues of the night, as, despite all of the artistic merriment, I'd urge the organisers to a long, hard look at how the night went: there were some huge issues.

Firstly, there were simply not enough events for the number of people who descended on Brighton town. Everything was booked out, or packed up to the hilt with arty folk, and the whole thing felt rather uncomfortable. The amount of alcohol that seemed to flowing around certainly helped things to glide along smoothly, but that didn't make much of a difference to the people sandwiched between some awkward performance art and a house of poets (you'd think I'd made it up, but no). There need to be more events, bigger events, and events that can be meandered in and out of, not various private showings. The balance was clearly a little off, and there seemed to be a lot more people meandering the streets than actually taking part in something artistic and different.

Which brings me along to my second point: there seemed to be a huge number of places getting into the White Night spirit, even if they weren't 'advertised' in some sort of fashion. Most of the pubs I entered were selling artwork, and the resulting arty discussions with some of my not-very-arty friends were some of the best chats I've had recently. It'd be great if there were a bigger encouragement of such events and simple additions to the night, it made the whole night seem pleasantly inclusive, and the antithesis of the snobby art fairs that seem to haunt the Corn Exchange like the plague.

Finally, clearly this year there was the issue of White Night falling on a Saturday evening. It seemed like all of Brighton had taken to the streets, and it was amazing to see different social groups integrating and enjoying the arty happenings without visible prejudice. There is something to be said for having White Night on a popular night out, and even trying to get some of the larger cultural hot spots more involved (the Odeon, some of the huge nightclubs, etc.). White Night is on the cusp of becoming huge, a possible next 'festival' for art and theatre in Brighton, and it would be good to see it grow. I hope these suggestions go some way to making it the collossal event it could be!

Oh, and an AOB: most of my writing, and writing about me and my work, is now over on my blog at http://chrishislop.wordpress.com. Check it out! I will add more stuff as I scour the back catalogue!

26/10/09 - White Weekend

White Night, the Nuit Blanche of south England, went off without a hitch last night. I say last night, although it is now actually a few days after the event, and I'm still recovering... The whitest night of the year was so chock-full of stuff, it turned into a longer collection of days lost in the madness of artistic pretension. I'm looking forward to commenting on it all, when I've had a chance to let me body clock adjust...

24/10/09 - The Return of the Blog!

Good lord, it's been ages. To all of you readers out there, my apologies for the yawning abyss that has been this blog for the past few months. Despite all promises made, of blogs to be written and tales to be told, I still haven't delivered. This changes today.

I want to start by explaining: I was a little lost after the Edinburgh Festival. I found myself questioning a lot of the decisions I had made about my life and what I wanted to do with it. The venerable Mr Levy described it as being 'un-made' by the experience, and I'm more than inclined to agree. I needed to question what I was doing, whether it was furthering my 'career', and whether I actually wanted to do it; all issues that I didn't realise, but were affecting me very strongly.

So, after much soul searching, I have drawn myself together. I'm finally doing something I love for gainful employment (well, very nearly), I'm working on some exciting new projects, and not letting myself get drawn into work that I'm only doing for the sake of not doing my boring-as job. I'

I'm writing more than ever before, and I feel... better? Paul describes it as 'flow', and I think that word aptly describes what I'm trying to achieve with my life, and this blog: a sense of excitement and variance. Yes, I have a lot to say, and no, it won't always be topical, but now, I think that's alright by me.

In that vein, expect shorter blog articles, random topics, and much more blog articles. The blog has returned! And it's here to stay.

Addendum

All of my blog articles, from various sources, including reviews and other writings, can be found at http://chrishislop.wordpress.com. Take a peek!