Bohemian Rhapsody [Banned Book Review: Brave New World]

I've already mentioned Lovy Boheme and her Banned Book Vlog Project - a quest to read and review a wide range of banned and censored books. Here's the film we made together during her recent visit to London: a vlog review of Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World."

Most of this film was shot on location at Fulwell Cross Library, one of the extraordinary buildings designed by architect Frederick Gibberd and constructed in the 60s. As Lovy says in her blog, the library staff opened up the building after hours and could not have been more helpful, even advising on the correct pronunciation of "Aldous."

Where the brass bands play and feet start to pound...

Shot on miniDV, edited and post-produced in Blender 2.5. With thanks to Lewis and Mike, the staff at Redbridge Libraries and Redbridge County Council, the Blender and Freesound communities, and a big shout out to everyone at blogcatalog. Happy Banned Books Week!

Videolog Heaven

Two cool vlogs for you today. Natalie Tran, communitychannel, is absolutely my favourite on the YouTube comedy scene. She's my twin sister separated at birth - she has to be, there's no other explanation for our identical sense of humour. See? Here she tackles realism or otherwise in hacker movies, something I mentioned in my review of Antitrust.

Blogger and vlogger Lovy Boheme is "a gal who has dedicated her life to the written word." When she's not writing super-creepy flash fiction, Lovy is working her way through a massive pile of banned and censored books, reading and reviewing each for The Banned Book Vlog Project. Here's her review of "Huckleberry Finn." I think this is a worthy undertaking but I also have an ulterior motive for posting this. Just saying. You should also know that September 25th to October 2nd is Banned Books Week in the US: get your copy of And Tango Makes Three, then go to Lovy's blog to find out more.

[Edit 5.9.10: removed extremely embarrassing mistake. I don't think anyone noticed though :o ]

Location, Location, Location

My latest foray into amateur filmmaking wrapped on Wednesday evening. I'm keeping the details of this one under my hat for now, except to say that it's a collaboration with another blogger, and will use a hybrid of vlog and mini-documentary styles. It should be edited in a couple of weeks and will eventually go up on YouTube. More details plus production stills coming soon.

Today's Lesson Learnt The Hard Way is: always clear your locations in advance - and by "in advance" I mean 1997. Our plan to shoot in a local building with striking architectural features was set up during the past week, but almost fell through on the day when (it seemed) nobody could be found anywhere in the region who held either the key or the passcodes for the building. Cue an afternoon of anxious phone calls.

Happily everything was resolved by evening with minutes to spare, and once again I'm amazed at just how helpful people can be sometimes. After a shoot you end up feeling grateful to everyone - the library and council staff who never gave up trying to find a way in, my brother who helped me to operate three cameras simultaneously, or the narrator's travelling companion who proved to be a kick-ass clapperboard operator. Even though it meant waking him from his nap 14 times....