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Grown Men Riding Children's Bikes

noreply@blogger.com (Jackson Juliani) — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 21:42:00 +0000

What is it about grown men riding small BMX bikes?

I'm not talking about 20year old Pro riders pulling amazing stunts but midlifers 40+ cruzing the streets of North Fitzroy.

I saw a pair this afternoon outside Dench cafe. One with a fluro helmet the other with a giant 'save the bay' sticker on his.

I understand midlife can be a regressive time often involving sports cars and affairs. But this is regression of a different type - grown men dressing a recreating like tweens.

The Short Message Service - get your phone ready for this Next Wave performance

noreply@blogger.com (Tim Stone) — Mon, 10 May 2010 07:25:00 +0000

Jackson Juliani is performing in the Short Message Service as part of Next Wave 2010 - No Risk Too Great.

The Short Message Service sounds like fun - if you're in the audience.

The structure is simple: Two performers stand onstage and receive SMS commands from the audience. They will do what they are told. Part game, part experiment, but all performance, The Short Message Service uses technology to interrogate what happens when a group of strangers gain control over a couple of willing volunteers.

Things I've learnt #12

noreply@blogger.com (Tim Stone) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 11:22:00 +0000

Don't argue with experts. I love an old adage as much as the next guy. But Don't argue with experts' is not an old adage - probably because if people didn't bother arguing with authority or, experts of any field of human endeavour, most of us would still be collecting dung in the middle ages. So while I do think its important to challenge or argue authority when you don't agree with it, I also think that there is an equally significant counterpoint; 'Don't argue with people who claim to be experts', and why? Because while arguing or challenging a real expert may actually produce some alternative ways of thinking about things. Arguing with someone who claims to be an expert; but isn't - is just a complete waste of time.

With the advent of the interwebs came access to the wealth of human knowledge and endeavour ,(and a bunch of adult content, malware and online gambling), which meant two things for experts; firstly they were suddenly undervalued and secondly there were an increased number of people who claimed to be experts but are in fact not.

An ode Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 01:42:00 +0000

As far as the narrative/situation comedy with developing story lines and characters The Office is up there as one of my favourites. Its totally in the area of all-time-classic. I remember compulsively working my way through the 12 episodes and Christmas specials, crying and laughing by the end. Very few comedy series have achieved this.

Checkout how they got the series up at www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/extra/video/p0045qvq/

Rob Sonovobitic of Rob Sonovobitic Real Estate

noreply@blogger.com (Tim Stone) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 01:17:00 +0000

I first encountered Rob Sonovobitic of Rob Sonovobitic Real Estate last year when we were developing radio skits as part of our entry to ABC Local Radio The Comedy Hour. (Actually, does anyone know whatever happened to The Comedy Hour?)

Over the years, I have developed an inherent distrust of Real Estate Agents. I've stayed around at auctions long enough to see Real Estate Agents drive home the dummy bidder. I've attended rigged auctions complete with hired goons pretending to be neighbours. I've waited in Rental Offices long enough to over hear Real Estate agents conduct illegal rental auctions over the phone. I've been screwed out of my bond by a Real Estate Agent claiming a lack of tenants during a 1% vacancy rate.
But they aren't all bad - when I was a Location Manager I met an old style Real Estate agent who had style, wit, charm and warmth; and a family business without a next of kin. He virtually offered me a job. And Mr Coverlid of the now closed Coverlids Real Estate Agency in Swan Street Richmond was an absolute gent. So what about Rob Sonovabitic? Well Rob is back, he's left the confines of the larger agency and he's going out on his own. I can't wait to see him develop.

Stitch Workshop

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 08:19:00 +0000

Tim and I attended the Stitch workshop, a joint venture between the ABC and Film Victoria to develop new screen comedy projects.

The workshop was held at the Windsor Hotel, one of the top hotels in in 'down town' Melbourne. And featured comedy professionals such as Steve Kaplan (Hollywood comedy fix-it man) and Mike Bullen (Cold Feet).

I gotta say it was great to be given the royal treatment; networking over a lavish buffet lunch, brainstorming on stylish leather couches and even the opportunity to admire a fine artwork while using the gentleman's.

If this is what the high life has to offer, "Bring it on!"

I say. In a way it was like being a giant baby, you aren't required to think too much about day to day things and even the the slightest discomfort is always met with someone apologising to you and trying to make amends. Having trouble opening a door? - there's a man it a top hat to do that for you. Need a document shredded three trust worthy staff will "...see to it right away." Feeling a little hungry, here, a matronly woman offers her breast for you to suckle on.

If City Homicide fans were like LOST fans...

noreply@blogger.com (Tim Stone) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 03:38:00 +0000

On Monday 10th of August 2009 at 8:30pm Tim Stone featured prominently in the opening sequence of the premiere episode of Channel 7's Series 3 premiere of City Homicide - The Money Shot. OK well it was just my name - but it's all valuable screen time people - screen time. And what I'm proposing is that if City Homicide fans were as dogged as ABC's LOST fans - then the Producers and Writers of LOST (I'm looking at you J.J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse & Matt Reeve and the rest of you who aren't household names) would have milked a sequence like this to create a feedback loop for fans that would reveal future plot points. And if City Homicide fans were like LOST fans they would be at this very instant pouring over screen grabs from the show and Googling every single name and email subject heading looking for those clues.
But this is Australia and I doubt whether City Homicide viewers in Australia are doing anything in the way of decifying upcoming episodes - instead they seem to like playing City Homicide Survivor in the Message Boards.
But to give the writer / creators of City Homicide credit (John Hugginson &
John Banas), the scripts this year are pretty tight. A bit dialogue heavy for my liking and the characters are constantly sprouting exposition - but it's just to pull you forward through the story at a lightning pace. It ain't The Wire, they don't have the niche cable audience or the budget and there aren't too many low angle lingering shots of silence measured character studies but it works.

The power of a press release...

noreply@blogger.com (Tim Stone) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 00:31:00 +0000

Since the Stitch workshop we've been approached by a couple of production companies, an emerging platform and a couple of budding screen writers. It's amazing what a Press Release from Film Victoria can do. It's great to get interest in PrisonPals.tv, a project that is still tightly under wraps, perhaps akin to someone offering your unborn baby a career as a striker for Manchester United. Anyway it's great - fills in the time while we wait for an outcome.

Mipcom has a lovely train station.

noreply@blogger.com (Tim Stone) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 01:00:00 +0000

I've always wanted to go to Cannes, I mean - Mipcom. I have actually been to Mipcom - I mean Cannes, before, and what can I say - what a fantastic train station. In 2000, the train station made a significant impression on me and since then I have harboured a yearning to return. And it's not as if I haven't tried to get there on a junket in the past. This year we applied for MipTV Content 360 - but I was hesitatant about the trailer we cut in January after some user testing - so we didn't send it. On hindsight, we should have just dived in and sent it in, nothing to lose and it felt like a near perfect fit for a cross platform initiative MSN were developing. It's difficult to explain a cross platform project on paper to a group of people half way round the world - you need facetime or visual material at least.
To make things even more appealing, this year Mipcom is also on my birthday, offering 'first time' producer discounts and Jerry Seinfeld is a speaker. I mean what more do you want? Apart from free air fares, accomodation and a contract ready to sign.

Nothing like a deadline

noreply@blogger.com (Tim Stone) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 21:52:00 +0000

We have a deadline to produce a rough cut and shooting script version of our Prisonpals.tv webseries pilot. The deadline is Monday, 15th June; day 1 of Stitch Comedy Workshop. It's a self imposed deadline. Because in reality we don't really need to have anything ready - we are already in the workshop, so having a rough cut and shooting script of 20 episodes - is just a massive bonus. A deadline has an amazing effect on your work ethic; you work your arse off to get there, you work all weekend, you get up early and work before your paid job, you work late into the night and your social life takes a back seat - in short it sucks! But the upside is you tackle the insurmoutable tasks and break them down into little TO DO LISTS, you stop making excuses for not having found a editor and you cut it yourself. You make critical decisions effortlessly - you become your very own JJ Abrams (or Jerry Bruckheimer).

Totally Stitched up!

noreply@blogger.com (Tim Stone) — Thu, 21 May 2009 04:43:00 +0000

Yo, yo, yo. We made it through the Stitch interview round of ten projects and now find ourselves amongst the final 6 projects! The final round of Stitch consists of a the three day intensive comedy workshop with a bevvy of international comedy experts including Steve Kaplan - who has been a massive influence on my practice.
Again, I found out via a phone call from Jackson and although this time he wasn't channeling Sick Rick - he wound me up; telling me we weren't successful and that our inclusion was actually a bit of a mistake, he kept stringing me along to a point that I felt physical unwell...it went something like this:

...Sorry Timbo, we didn't make it...yeah, yeah, I know...bit of a bummer, I was really dissapointed too...so when she said we didn't get in I said you've got to be f#cken joking? Are you guys f#cked in the head? Do you know what you're doing? What do you mean non-linear story telling is going nowhere [!] and nobodies interested in the web...

The expletives and the tone with which he gleefully told of our failure that made his story transparent.

We've been Stitch'd

noreply@blogger.com (Tim Stone) — Mon, 11 May 2009 04:07:00 +0000

At approximately 7pm tonight I received a phone call from Jackson in full flight as Sick Rick; "You sick little puppie!". Sick Rick, a neighbourhood pervert character we developed some 18 months ago when I was living in Newtown, Sydney, can be pretty confronting at the best of times. So after the barrage of sexual innuendo and heavy breathing Sick Rick finally managed to confirm the reason for his call; Prisonpals.tv had been shortlisted for Stitch - a comedy initiative from Film Victoria and ABC TV, and Jackson and I were required to attend an interview in a matter of days. To be honest, I had almost completely forgotten that we had even applied for Stitch and never really gave a thought that we would selected given the wealth of television comedy writing talent in Australia - fortunately I was wrong. Apparently, Prisonpals.tv had been shortlisted from over 200+ projects, had made it into the final 10, and we know has to come up with the goods in an interview to make the final group who would attend a 3 day professional comedy workshop. We had but two days to prepare for that interview.

Film Victoria support Prisonpals.tv with scoping funding.

noreply@blogger.com (Tim Stone) — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 21:26:00 +0000

Film Victoria recently announced the recipients of the latest round of the Digital Media Scoping funding initiative and Prisonpals.tv was on the list. Prisonpals.tv received the initiative to assist in marketing of the prison based comedy interactive tv series to platforms, broadcasters and telcos.

Shootstreet, the team behind Prisonpals.tv were over the moon that Film Victoria had committed to funding this stage of the project. "We are over the moon" said Tim Stone, co-creator of Prisonpals.tv. "The marketing of this project is so important to us, we want to ge this right and give the project the best chance it can to generate an audience online." The Prisonpals.tv team were faced with a decision during filming the pilot, should we shoot, edit and upload the series to a platform as we go, or hold onto the IP and do this properly. "Coming from an online marketing background, I new we couldn't give it the marketing push it needed to generate an audience during filming. Film Victoria's funding will give us the chance to do this right and we are really grateful." Tim Stone said.

When logging was for loggers...

noreply@blogger.com (Tim Stone) — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 07:10:00 +0000

It's Xmas holidays. It's an Australian Summer and I have approximately two weeks of holidays left until I head back to gainful employment - so what am I up to? I know what you're thinking - He's just chillin' in the club with his holmes and chugging on brewskis? But oh no my friends - not me. I'm in the midst of tape logging. For the uneducated, or just for anyone who doesn't have to tape log. It's an arcane art, similar to book reading, of looking back at all of the footage you shot during your little 'art project' and writing down (or logging) the timecode of each scene - alongside the timecode you might make a note like "fluff" or "best take" or "wtf raotglmao paw b2b dogshit". Anyways I have 19 x 1hr tapes to log.

fear of foam

noreply@blogger.com (Tim Stone) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 21:29:00 +0000

I have a fear of foam rubber. Polyurethane. I don't know when or how it developed, but I get the chills just thinking about touching it. For me it's the dry and abrasive feeling it gives you on contact. Just touching it for me feels like it's sucking all the moisture out of me and filing off the top layer of my skin.
So making puppets out of foam rubber is not going to be easy for me. But this is the task I want to start with. So I've started sketching the Rat trying to work out if he's working or not - how I could make him. Puppet making is a skill you need to learn from a puppet master over a long period of time. Me, I'm taking a DIY approach and using the internet. But already I can see splinters in the puppet community on the best construction techniques. Then I start to think that perhaps these splinters have been engineered to keep the novices out. I mean when I got quotes on getting puppets made they were around 1K minimum. So part of me thinks that puppet makers the world over are fighting the open book world of the internet by posting wildly different construction techniques and materials online.

creative retreat - day 3

noreply@blogger.com (Tim Stone) — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 06:41:00 +0000

Day 3, final day and proverbial crunch time. The blow-torch has been applied to 2 of the 3 finalists, the Rat Taxi project almost went up in flames where Home Invasion sailed through easily. The Rat Taxi project hit the same wall it hits every time I try to drive the project forward. How do you write compelling comedy scripts set entirely in a cab - with an anti-hero hero and a procession equally as unlikeable antogonists? I mean sure you can write them, you can even write a few good ones - but the formula quickly loses it's power for me and the stories just beg to get out of the cab and for further character depth. So anyway, I had a breakthrough just as I went to bed - but that breakthrough ain't sitting too well with Jackson - and he's right. He meditates for about 30 mins. before we start - something I used to do but quickly replaced with caffeine and cold water to the face. So I know he's head is much clearer in the morning than mine. The problem was the cab, the vlog style and the cab stories - as a whole it just doesn't gel. But we are both keen to continue working with puppets. We decide to push on and let the project resolve itself within the limitations we set for ourselves.

The Guru character, in contrast, seems completely fire retardent and sails through without a singe. The Guru is still in his infancy, he's a morphing of 'The Shepherd', a character Jackson created while at VCA, there is a Youtube clip of him - but I can't find it at the moment, and Anthony Robbins, Peter Sheahan, Mike Walsh and Steve "I love this company" Ballmer.

cabin fever - a thing of the past?

noreply@blogger.com (Tim Stone) — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 05:29:00 +0000

Thought it worth mentioning that thanks to internet enabled mobile phones Cabin Fever is now a thing of the past. People would usually either revert to canibalism or have spiritual epiphanies during extended stays in isolated log cabins during winter. Life's distractions now follow us everywhere - thanks.

Jackson "I've got a iphone" is continually checking his email, doing internet banking and all kinds of none retreat style activities during our down time. While I'm checking my forwarded work email and constantly logging into YouTube to check out the video I was asked to make go 'viral' - it's called 'Why athletes should wear pants' and it was part of a test I set myself to see if I could actually market something in YouTube - being that I'm meant to be a New Technology Marketing whiz. I'm impressed to see that it's steadily clocking around 1700 views a day and has hit 17,037 on day 2 of our retreat, my goal is to get 50,000 views by the end of the Olympics - but that seems such a big task.

creative retreat - day 2

noreply@blogger.com (Tim Stone) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 11:48:00 +0000

Day 2 already? I feel like I didn't really sum up day 1 that well. Well just look at the photos. We worked hard and long days, well, we worked in shifts, one writing the other rugged up on the couch and supplying critical and significant input.
The first day I guess we covered our main concerns behind everything we do. What we want to say. What we want to be remembered by - kind of deep philosophical stuff that is best summed up by a photo of me on the couch. After that we listed our current collateral; characters we have developed, video shot, scripts written or drafted and other things ideas floating around. So everything came up: The Guru aka The Shepherd, Ronnie the Rat, Home Invasion, Dojo, Sick Rick, Rob Sonofabitch Release the Man, The Pink Office, Caveman and various sketches we've both been working on.

Day 2 was more a process of applying the blow-torch to characters, sketches and projects we thought could work. I guess it was actually applying a the blow-torch and then trying to the fit the charred remains, in whatever shape it was, into the triangle shape on the peg board of life. A shape determined by limited time, money and resources of the project. Anyway, what came out the other side of the peg board was examined for signs of life. I developed this highly complex project planning process based on a leaked document from Google HQ. It's roughly the same process they use to assess new recipes for the Google cafe.

holiday houses - where magazines go to die

noreply@blogger.com (Tim Stone) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 11:26:00 +0000

It's hard enough to have a house these days, let alone a holiday house - so who the hell has a holiday house as well? Well, I'll tell you - it's the Baby Boomers. Ahhh, the Baby Boomers, they could have changed the world, but instead, during the great after party of generational change the majority of them decided it was time get a grip and make some money. Anyway it seems that most of them invested in property and rightly screwed the next generations by keeping them out of the property market.

Anyway, I myself should get a grip and rather than reflecting on the house, reflect on the project and I will, just after I make a final point; holiday houses like doctor's waiting rooms are the places magazines go to die; Elle, National Geographic, Cleo, Vogue, Interior and other housey mags - they are archived in seasonal home libraries up and down the Australian coastline.

creative retreat - day 1

noreply@blogger.com (Tim Stone) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 06:59:00 +0000

We depart at 10:30am from the small gothic mansion Jackson calls home in Northcote. I get a bucket latte from the cafe around the corner thinking this is going to be my last decent coffee for 3 days - I was right. The further you are from the inner city the less likely you will find a decent coffee. I call it the caffeine quantity theory. After that little distraction we depart. Jackson can't stop showing off his new iphone, he thinks the Melways is now redundant. Every time he gets it out I say, "I've got an iphone", just to give him the shits. But it's actually is a tribute to a meeting I sat in when someone, who was presenting some promos, midway through conversation, pulled an iphone out of his pocket and announced - "I've got an iphone", as if this was going to seal the deal.

So the house is awesome, it's not ramshackled at all. It's built in what they call Australian vernacular style - meaning it looks like it's been built by a religious DIY cult; rough stone walls, meeting dark stained timber, lots of Further Education class stained glass windows. But it's great, it's huge, it has a mezzanine, a kitchen much better than the one in Richmond, and in the distance, between the dunes - the ocean. We set up, we cook, we eat and then we start.

creative retreat - DIY religious cult

noreply@blogger.com (Tim Stone) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 06:27:00 +0000

The night before we left for the 3 day creative retreat, I met my friend to pick up the key and have a few beers. He just happened to mention that a religious cult also use the beach house for annual retreats. That the house, is actually some hippy inspired enclave, built from wood, stone and stained glass windows, that it just happens to sleep up to 30 people and that the religious cult not only pay a premium price to stay there and the house next door, they also do repairs on the house while there - So the DIY revolution has even inspired a Religion. Does this also explain the explosion of Bunnings stores across this country. My marketing mind see's a niche market right there.

I'm no stranger to retreats on the Mornington Peninsula. I did a weekend Aikido retreat not far from where we are staying. We did sword training on the beach in a squall one night and damaged the foreshore vegetation the next day during un-armed training. I ended up getting some serious back pain that weekend. A deadly combination of martial arts and holiday house trundle bed. Before we left I had fantasies of getting out my martial arts gear and re-creating moments of a Sensei on a solitary retreat - meditating on the beach at sunset, fighting a wave - that sort of thing. I'm laughing just thinking about it. Unfortunately this didn't happen. The only arts that took place were of the literary kind.