Filming on board ship - even the small Volunteer Holiday ships

Filming on board ship - even the small ones like the Adonia with which Carnival have started a Volunteer Holiday group called Fathom

We were still very much into shooting the web series Shades Of Bad when we went on the Adonia as celebrity guests. Stuart was talking about Emmerdale and Mrs Brown's Boys, two of the shows he has worked on, and we circulated the ship knowing it was to go out of service.
The guests on that ship loved it and as the rumour spread and was confirmed there was a general feeling of loss. This was now the smallest ship in the P&O fleet and it was being moved to a new program.

There is a very interesting program by Carnival Cruise company which owns P&O and has taken the Adonia and some of the other ships from the fleet to form a new cruise company called Fathom.

I wish we had filmed the Adonia the last time we were on it, but we had not really started Doris Visits then, and although it was an idea and we were filming Canaveral, Key West, Bequia and Barbados we never filmed the ship. Part because we knew it would be out of service in a year, part because Doris Visits as a travel channel had not formed. Certainly I now wish we had.

However we had shot around ten episodes of Shades of Bad while on a Norwegian Cruise, and two episodes while on a Mediterranean cruise, so shooting on the move suited the kit we had bought for Shades Of Bad. It just needed refining. The latest addition to the kit is a fisherman's belt that carries everything.

The aptly named Shakespeare Agility Belt has numerous pockets. The Black Magic Pocket Cinema Camera with lens and attached radio mic receiver goes in the main pocket. Twelve spare charged batteries in front left mini pocket and as they are used the dead ones go in the right pocket. Left pocket is ND and other filters, right pocket sound bits and change colour furry wind shields and spare mic batteries. Click here or use this link to get the belt that turns you into a walking film truck. http://amzn.to/2dzFWC2

For the kit that goes into that belt see previous blogs, but I wonder if the news and doc crews will head out with volunteers on these ships and work as light. Or maybe they will just use the camera phone like the news guys. Funny to think that we have now sold both our Epic Dragons and this is the new current kit, in a belt. Click above for the belt, see previous blogs for kit.

The Adonia will visit Puerto Plata for four days/three nights on one-week cruises from Miami, starting in the spring, docking at Carnival Corp.'s soon-to-open, $85 million port, Amber Cove. The cruises will be bi-weekly – alternate weeks the ship will be sailing to Cuba. They will take volunteers to areas that need help, teachers and contractors and workers, who for a few days can go ashore and do good work, then retreat to the ship at night.

These new volunteer holidays may have come just when needed. Despite the storm some areas have people living 40% below the poverty line, which is why such terms as Impact Travel are being used.

Officials of Fathom have interesting backgrounds and have impressive credentials. COO Kurt Kroemer has worked in a lot of areas including fighting genocide and human trafficking and was also an executive with the American Red Cross and the Make-A-Wish Foundation of America.

The ships that have been moved to this are the smaller ships. Adonis was the smallest P&O ship in the fleet and some might say the most charming. The piano bar was always great fun, and the more random the pianist, the more random the night. Where else can you have nights like that on land, entertainment like that on land. It does not exist. So, do good by day, and relax by night.

What have you got to offer while you experience a cruise ship holiday with a difference.
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If you have never cruised you will still be wondering what could be so wonderful. We did as I have said. Had we not been posted on a ship as part of an ITV public relations program we would never have started. However, as converts we have mentioned the offer that SAGA have which is to offer your first cruise with a deal that if you do not like it, they will remind you. See our web site for those details.

So, there are many ways to discover this fast growing floating hotel army.

30. Doris Visits the Royal Yacht Britannia on the Queens 90th birthday.

Doris Vists the Royal Yacht Britannia on the Queens 90th birthday.

The Shades Of Bad team planned a well tweeted visit to Edinburgh on the 21^st April 2016. It was to shoot a film for the spin off show Doris Visits. Here at the production company we had been contacted by two local lads, Sam and Findlay, who wanted Doris to Visit Edinburgh. They produced a list of top visitor attractions and we noted that cruise ships stopped there so it fitted our remit. We decided to drive given the kit.

What we did not put together until we were in the car travelling and listening to the radio, was the ‘two plus two equals huge prize’ scenario. It was the the 21^st April and it was Queen Elizabeth II’s 90^th birthday and her decommissioned yacht The Royal Yacht Britannia is Edinburgh’s number one attraction. We went straight there before meeting our local team and found bands playing and the whole place felt heavy in music copyright issues. Doris would not be able to commentate in her normal way. However, after the band left we found a wonderful sign that encouraged us to make a complete film on Britannia not just add it as part of a general Edinburgh film.

 

One of the reasons it is the number one attraction in Edinburgh might just be because it totally allows you to support it in social media. Maybe they know that only positive will come of it as they have such a great product. Whether you are a royalist or not, this is history at its best. It is fantastic. The Royal Yachtis detailed right down to the bone china, attaché case and the personalpictures. You see everything from the Queen’s bedroom to the state room, fromthe officer quarters to the medical surgery and laundry. It is an incrediblevisit which was an effort to edit down to under ten minutes. It will take you acouple of hours as there is more to see and much to study. We learnt a lot andwere grateful of this unplanned birthday treat.

I would suggest you get there early, as it opens and before it is busy, or late as we did. Then attempt the rest of Edinburgh as per our other films. Another tip is to take ear phones or head phones and ask for an audio guide with a neck strap.

You might just want to use your camera a few times.

Our secondprize was finding that Edinburgh was the origin of Harry Potter. None of uswere fans of the books or films, so the Potter era had escaped us all, otherthan my visit to have lunch with a colleague at Levesden when he was on themovie. And it was just another film set and I have grown up on film sets.

But then,when you think and remember, yes, Edinburgh was where it started. Then, walkingthe streets it all makes sense. Every building inspires such wizardry. We hadeven seen close friend’s production of Potted Potter at the festival more thanonce and never focussed on it coming from there. We have a separate ‘HarryPotter’s origins film’, which you can get to by clicking here.

The main Edinburgh film covers a good few of the other attractions, Arthurs Seat to the Castle, the Royal Mile to Restaurants and buildings. You need more than a day and good walking shoes.

The £4 all day bus pass is worth considering too if you wish to get to places in and out of town.

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9. Doris Travels, the new spin off travel show as the girl goes as a girl does!

Hi all, and just to make you envious I am writing from my balcony in Barbados with a Banks beer.  But as you can see I am working, or have stopped working to blog. Shades Of Bad the web series is quite an experiment. Those of you who who have read blog and articles from our website will know that I spent 26 years on a UK broadcast soap, and have a creep of directing both movie and second unit on major hollywood movies, so enough was enough, the world and viewing habits were changing and I decided to go alone. I started Shades Of Bad for actress Jean Heard at her suggestion. The show was then my idea and the content shocked her to the core, but there is no point in not being more edgy and more political when on the web.

So, why am I working in Barbados and what am I doing apart from the age old adage of rumours of the director and lead actress sharing a room are exaggerated. I have just finished editing 7 films and my portable hard drive is out of space, so hence the blog. We have been away travelling and have made seven travel films, one on Bequia (near Mystique), one on Miami, one on Cocoa beach Canaveral, another is on Antigua, this one on Barbados and my favourite was Key West a place I have always wanted to stop at. (films will go up end November and links will appear then)

Here is the logic and why the plan. Consider marketing can be looked at as speculative selling, selling

something people did not want or did not know they wanted, and the second selling something they do want or need. The drama series Shades Of Bad falls into the first. No one is looking for a web series. Looking seriously at the figures sport is worth 75 billion, the gaming industry 45 billion and the complete TV output is a poor third at around 30 billion. Drama is a proportion of the output along with the game shows, documentaries and entertainment shows. Travel shows however are a tool for the traveller and along with cookery shows still strike high.

So, the series Shades Of Bad we knew would be hard to market, and we needed content to be there. So now with 26 episode up as of mid November, and 42 finished, Doris could take a break. She even did a season one reflective compilation before we left which is an excellent catch up show.
She can take a break especially as her filming for episodes 43 to 47 is all done and dusted and was shot last year when we travelled to Norway. We may well cut a Norway film together and voice over it and add it to the travel shows. So in the drama Doris has been head hunted by a villain who you will meet in the spring, been sent abroad to collect a package; Norway. They can carry on without her and she can now start the travel shows as 'Doris Visits', which will have a market we have a small foothold in for other reasons. 'Doris Visits' will be available from end November 2015 with links to the drama and she will make references to it, as she is that character.

Similarly we could cut a travel show with the Fiji footage from when we shot their with Status Quo.

The logic here is the cross platform use that I have been used to for years. As you may know I madeThe Krays and Bula Quo with music stars, just as TV actors I have worked with, like Robson Green have fishing shows etc.... Once a character is established they can, because the public know them, share things with them. That is the logic, so the web opens up doors to allow us to create those and in three years from July 2015 when we started, we aim to have up and live over 100 episodes in their short form, have re-editied then to 11 minute mega cuts (which are then a half hour TV length joining two together, ITV is currently 21 minutes 30 seconds per half hour). We aim to have about 60 travel films and some others on 'How To'.  Then there is the book, WHO DIE TODAY which is out now and covers the first 40 episodes. I was to start writing the book for Freight while I have been away but I have been too busy. My work as an author is always pushed back and I have a new movie in prep when I get home.


The logistics work load and investment is huge but that will be a TV channel. If we have time we will cut some of our movies and the behind the scenes materials into other playlists. It is an interesting time to see how content works. We have yet to really get started with Maker Studios which is the Disney label we have signed to so the workload is endless.

So, the travel connection. I started my career as a broadcaster and radio DJ so have always presented and spoken at events. When on Emmerdale I was posted to a cruise ship as part of the PR to talk about how the soaps are made, and after 26 years on Emmerdale as well as stints on Corie, EastEnders and Take The High Road I have a few tales to tell and thousands of stills. I was then asked to expand and include how I went from DJ to TV and some of the huge movies I had been in. So, as a celebrity guess on cruise ships, I can make use of the stops and the footage may find it's way into all sorts of outputs whom we are talking to. But, I stay away from the front of camera, it is all done as Doris.