Optimism

I'm reading a book at the moment about one mans quest for optimism.

At first, I felt the book was a pretty weak attempt at creating a lightweight, humorous read for people simply looking to pass the time.

However, as I often find with reading, if you persevere and force yourself to keep on reading, you get rewarded. The book is really starting to explore some interesting ideas to do with optimism, positive thinking and creating your own destiny.

The problem with a lot of these ideas is that to most people, they sound like silly, hippy, peace and love rubbish.

But this stuff actually works - it's completely true.

I don't want to take up time explaining why I believe it to be true, but I suggest you try it - for the next few weeks, remain positive. Try to look for the best in everything and tackle problems with a cool head. It'll make you happier.

Liquid Soap

Have just finished the filming of the first two episodes of Liquid Soap.

We were scheduled to shoot for two days but due to a few delays, we also had to do some shooting yesterday as well.

The days were long and tiring, not only from having to hold a boom mic up for long periods, but also mentally tiring from intensely listening and concentrating for long periods.

It's only when you have to listen intently for long stretches of time that you realise how little time you actually spend listening in your everyday life. Today I simply cannot handle anymore intake of audio data to my brain.

I really enjoyed my time on the Liquid Soap set and learnt a lot during the experience. By the third day I was happy enough, and felt confident enough, to take lead of the sound recording and felt that I could deliver what was needed for the filming.

I have decided upon two rules for success in the sound recording for film industry. These rules also apply to other industries, and to life in general I guess.

Firstly, remain patient and calm at all times. On a set, things can get confusing and stressful, but in order to produce good work, you have to be able to rise above that and retain your focus. I also noticed that a lot of decisions will get made without informing the sound team and in order to react to these decisions, you have to keep an awareness of what is happening around you.

Secondly, and I keep bringing this idea up on this blog, quality must never be sacrificed. As a creative individual, you have an original idea of what you want to create, and you must see that through and sacrifice nothing. That'll do simply will not do!

I can't wait for our next shoot which is in a couple of weeks time.

Is High Culture Doomed?

Thankfully no.

The Internet has put cultural decisions directly into the hands of those who wish to experience whatever we think of as High Culture.

Read blogs, subscribe to podcasts, e-zines, discuss things in forums and form your own opinions using the information available.

It doesn't matter what such and such who writes for the guardian thinks anymore. It doesn't matter who has topped Radio 4s playlist this month.

High Culture is not doomed - it has been released from its commercial shackles. The old ways of the media are doomed.

(This post is a revision of a revision of a draft that just wasn't working. It might not make any sense but that's OK, I hope the main point I'm making is kind of clear-ish.)

Secret Project

I'm a little embarrassed that I describe lots of projects in this blog which I intend to work on, then don't. There are countless posts explaining exciting things that I am about to work on but strangely, there are never follow up posts giving details of how these projects are coming along - this is because I probably never actually start them and definitely never finish them.

There is one project however that I have been considering for a while now. It's a mammoth project that I have no training for, have never done anything similar to it before and if I was to explain the project to people, they would probably think I was going slightly crazy. Either that or they would just instantly dismiss the idea thinking that I was simply talking rubbish.

So for that reason, I have started work on a project, and I'm going to keep it entirely secret to save myself any embarrassment. The first anyone will here about it is when it's finished. And then they will be amazed.