21. Landmark end of Season finale - Shades Of Bad web TV series

Landmark end of Season finale - Shades Of Bad web TV series

This is truly a landmark end of Season 2; episode 40 of Shades Of Bad sees 'the lady serial killers in training', leave the kitchen and house for the very first time! They have to dispose of their first dead body, our Hollywood nominated guest actor Richard Beaumont, whose character Reg is now deceased.

Shades Of Bad is a TV web series with an amazing 40 episodes up live, and like all players, teams and organisations there have been highs and lows, but this episode is perhaps the best ever. All episodes are now listed on IMDB.com (give us a click and a review please) as it stands up as a proper multi episode 'box set like' TV series that can be downloaded and watched on modern TV sets via YouTube. Smart devices may even be able to use the click and follow on function which skips titles and make it almost continuous.

The dark humour is at it's darkest in this special episode. Doris fires out suggestions as to what they should do with the body as Wilma ponders becoming a romantic author.

While the Dexter-like characters develop, remember it is Doris's house, so visually the garden is over-the-top Desperate Housewives! Buster has LED strip lights all round the pool in the garden which has a lit fountain. Watch and share.....

Where next?

The serial may appear to have peaked, but will return after a few weeks of celebration with Season 3 which is all but shot. Here is a teaser with one of the new stars, Olympian and World Champion Derek Redmond playing the gangster Drek who headhunts Doris for greater things and sees the ambitions of the show escalate along with her greed for personal success.

So Season 3, with Shades Of Bad's very own version of Idris will commence in a few weeks as the Rio Olympics get nearer - funny that (a line he comes out with when referring to 'white powder').

But, Shades Of Bad TV will continue to be more than continuous. The team are currently in Dubai shooting DORIS VISITS the travel show spin off. The film on cruising the Norwegian Fjords reveals a little taste of what to expect in Season 3 when Drek send Doris to Norway to collect a package. That was not shot as an actual travel film but the out takes have been turned into one.

Whilst the Dubai films may surface it is material behind Shades Of Bad that will be out next week as a celebration of having finished Season 2. Next week we will be releasing three films, one a day from Wednesday on HOW TO FILM. One shows how the sound was sync to picture for episode 56 in the woods when the girls and disposing of yet a future dead body.

This will run into a second week when the films will include a special on how the music is chosen and laid on the pictures. That episode shows how the music was chosen for this weeks grand end of season episode 40 above.

Then, Shades Of Bad will be a new beginning, something we have been experimenting with. The first 5 episodes cut together into a new 'all in one' mega 10 minute episode with a new slant that we hope you like. Then, on the work bench are the next two mega episodes; the second is episodes 5 to 10 and the third 11 to 16, the later being hacked in the re-edit to condense just the best. Then new viewers will be back to the 3 minute coffee break episodes that our regular followers have been treated to.

On top of that the team fight with other commitments are we will be in NY State in May to shoot Niagara Falls as we recce our next Feature Film project...... and in March cruising the Caribbean as seen here .......

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20. Not so happy Valentine, it is just a posh word for 'client'....

Shades Of Bad rather reflects the darker side of life. So what do we do for #Valentine? 
It has to be very dark, stay with it.......

Doris: What have you done to my kitchen. This is where I unpack my takeouts!" A line from episode 36 when Doris arrives back from a celebratory weekend at a spa to find Wilma has made an Emily Pankhurst type protest about being left to run her mini brothel and it has gone wrong..... too dark?

The humour in Shades OF Bad is more than often if not always deeply politically motivated and sometimes has just the occasional little knock at bankers and local councillors. (Reg our councillor was nominated in Hollywood last week, see previous blog).

The show itself was also nominated at Finow in Germany this week, so some of the buttons the team press are connecting.

With Doris we have tried to give her the zero remorse attitude that most people take to work on a daily basis, the need for cash and fame that would have a government sell off its nations utilities and protect the bankers that destroyed millions of people's lives. 

We cannot do as much as the major films that will steal the awards this year; SPOTLIGHT that tells the horror of child abuse by catholic priests, and THE BIG SHORT that asks how the super greed of the bankers has not found them all in prison. But we do our bit from Doris's kitchen.... (prepare to leave)

So how do we approach #Valentines day. Well, as you know if you have been watching, Doris had an unwanted Mother-in-Law after her husband left her for the next door neighbour, her best friend Wilma. So Doris has started a little brothel and the mother in law seems to be busy but Doris thinks that Wilma can take the better clients, the Valentines.

by the way.....

This lead to our first ever complaint. Let me explain.... a gentleman contacted me saying he would no longer watch Shades OF Bad as we were making fun of the mentally ill. He was referring to the fact that the mother-in-law is put to work in the brothel unknowingly, with Doris convincing her that all the customers are the same man but that she has facial recognition dementia. I replied and apologised that we had not been clever enough to make the point clearer, but no one in the show is mentally ill, unless you suggest that Doris is a psychopath, then yet, hands up. What the show is knocking is how as a nation we accept when it is convenient, that we can pursued each other what they should believe, from bringing a child up in a religion and having them confirmed, to selling. It is no different unless you wish to excuse it as so. Our exchanges ended and my guess is he will not watch and may have been more offended, but we just try and highlight the odd by the obscure and keep it light and dark. So the brothel is the key to our Valentines reach, though it is purely a vehicle to get Doris noticed and as society reveals many people will do many things to get noticed. Doris is later head hunted for far greater crimes. But back to Valentines day, the day of the BAFTAS and the revealing of crime ..... (my vote went to The Big Short).

As Doris says, 'well, you have rather lat your self go". But in a thought she adds, "but if we keep the lights off".  Wilma's protest goes wrong and Doris berates her when she returns....

It does get a little edgy when Wilma grabs for a knife with the wrath of Thatcher.

So, if you are on a smart device you can just click next episode and jump the titles, otherwise let us explain...... how the two girls get to leave the kitchen soon.

Doris defeats Wilma as she always does as she has bought a gun, and she has Wilma feel the guilt and scrub the kitchen. Maybe Wilma should buy her a new one. It is always reflects an attitude of what Doris can get out of life. Wilma takes the butt of it.

So, Doris is now convincing Wilma that she should do the better clients, the ones she can call #Valentines.

The upshot is that Wilma not wanting to do that, will agree to do other things, and as you will see by the end of 38 they have a dead body in the kitchen. Wilma will have to stay and they will have to leave the kitchen to dispose of the dead body. The show will grow and season 3 will be more ambitious. Enjoy. Do engage......

19. IMDB number rocket up.... numbers count for actors

IMDB number rocket up.... numbers count for actors

Is web the new fringe theatre.... 

This week I am tweeting about numbers, not just because we went to Odette's restaurant in Primrose Hill. The reservation was made in an unknown name but they knew we were to arrive because our daughter Laura Aikman who has quite a few followers, had tweeted she was looking forward to it, so the reception they gave was just a touch more special ..... but because one of the actors in Jean's (Jean Heard) web TV series Shades Of Bad saw his IMDB numbers sky rocket.

Richard Beaumont hit numbers approaching 6,000 this week, and take it from me that is great. I know that you may not be able to see the numbers unless you subscribe to the 'pro' version but these numbers gauge the response to actors and their box office and social media numbers.

When I tell you that Ricky, as we know him, doesn't even know what a computer is and thinks tweeting is what the birds do in his garden, it make the arty little geniuss achievement even more special. It also makes it more special when I suggest that unless there were huge re-runs of Digby the Dog, the show he is on is Shades Of Bad, where he is brilliant. What also triggers numbers and notification was that he was singled out for nomination in Hollywood this week, as best Guest actor in a TV Web Series, SHADES OF BAD.

Let's ponder, as a fan of Edinburgh Festival and the Fringe where Jean has taken two productions we have funded, I can say that actors do that in the hope they will get a good review, possibly be seen and find a room to work. Yet, however hard they work that town they could not get nominated in tinsel town or see their IMDB numbers rise.

So is fringe the new web theatre. YES !!!!!!

Since July last year Shades Of Bad has enjoyed a place in the world web chart that Indie Series put's together, and the actors have spent less time than they have when touring a play and less money. Should any casting director wish to see them, they can send a link to any of the 40 episodes live and find one that is closest to the casting brief.

As we hit 2016 everyone is making web series and my guess is there will be a web series TV channel soon. They will be buying up (maybe on share deals) the best series. If I had the energy I would. Who will be the first, the guys at ZooliTv? Who knows, me thinks there will be many. As well as Makers we are on a number of channels.

So, I want to say, well done Jean and the team for competing against TV shows with huge crews when Shades OF Bad is made with two crew. One shooting, one post. It has stretched to five. (I am not including me and Luke who just put the money up and point a finger, that role is just credit worthy it is not real).

This week the show was also nominated at FINOW in Germany and it has been nominated in heralded in France and Italy. Isn't the web wonderful, and isn't it fantastic that you can get yourself out there?

So, Ricky, show them your stuff. (I didn't know which episode to put up so went for 31, but see 32 and on) some of the earlier ones are good too. He joined in Ep 31, then sadly, bites the dust at Doris's hand)

Please take a moment to subscribe to our YouTube Channel, we are soon to start a full HOW TO WEB SERIES, SERIES from concept to marketing.

18. Two New Shows from Shades Of Bad despite Berlinale prep

Two New Shows from Shades Of Bad this week despite prep for Berlinale, advance filming and an office revamp!

You may ask what is Shades Of Bad, or what is Berlinale and an office revamp?

Berlinale / EFM is the first film market of the year and the workings of the film market were brought home as we did our office revamp and burnt piles of old scripts like energy brickets. I remember being at Cannes one year towards the end of the market and watching all the offices turn out the hundreds of scripts they had collected from hopefuls. They are in bulk tossed into large rubbish bins in the corridors. The truth is, most of the sales and distribution people will tell any hopeful; 'sure I'll read it and get back to you', then the hopeful writer is gone in less than a minute. If you refuse to read the argument and explanation takes longer and is harder. Basic festival training, smile, take the script, dump it. Logic dictates they will not pay excess baggage on piles of paperwork as they fly home via a
quick stop over. That was pre digital, but we had piles of paper scripts in our storage, many ours like the TV series the BBC had on option from us for years back in the 1980's called Smith and Patel..... all now burnt. Three days of burning, two filing cabinets removed and a larger desk top. The edit suit moves downstairs, under the desk top re 7 G-Raids totalling 52Tb, more than the filing cabinets could hold.

For those who watch the series the office is on the left as you come in the front door. The door seen more in season 3 which starts uploading soon.

 Shades Of Bad is a free to view TV Channel. We don't have to ask distributors to take our products, we have our own TV Channel on YouTube. (please subscribe) So, we can choose what we make and build product between our movies. This week we release two shows not the normal one drama episode and we slip to release between Sunday and midweek to fit in more with the Indie Series Network Chart.

All demands have had us running in circles this week as the European Film Market in Berlin is the first big film market of the year and sets the tone for Cannes and one actor from Shades Of Bad went down with flu which meant a change to the shooting episodes last Sunday. It happens and the team reacted. That does not affect the released episodes as shooting are still over 10 episodes in front of post production.

The two shows released this week are episode 37 from the main dark drama  series and another tricky 'how to' film in the Ask Doris series. Doris tackles removing and repairing a multipack from a front door at chez Doris where the series is filmed. Given the maintenance there it could keep her and that series of films very busy. That maintenance and moving offices round also hit this week. It was a thunderous endless week.


Whilst we are not attending Berlinale this year our sales representatives are. Let me explain what that means to the film maker. Due to changes at the last sales agency for FREIGHT, one of our movies we took an offer to move it to METRODOME. Freight (Facebook link) is a very edgy film about sex trafficking here in the UK which stars Billy Murray, Craig Fairbrass and Laura Aikman. Released in 2010 the Facebook site and rentals are still very active. It is a good film and we are proud of it. Freight now moves to Metrodome with a possible sequel but time is our worst enemy daily, weekly and as each year escapes.

A rethink has been going on here at INDYUK and we redesigned office space and moved two of our movies to Metrodome.
First goes BULA QUO starring Jon Lovitz and Status Quo the rock legends Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt as well as old colleagues Craig Fairbrass and Laura Aikman. Metronome have also agreed to take the sequel Nameste Quo and with Francis Rossi this week announcing Quo have finished electric rock touring the sequel stays a discussion point for 2018.

Metrodome will be selling our movies now which allows us to get on with the job of production because there is not enough time to do both. They have approaching 50 staff; sales and distribution is more important than production.

Time is our worst enemy daily, weekly and as each year escapes but I would like to visit Cannes; I have been going there to the film market for over twenty years. Note I refer to both as markets not festivals, and whilst they both have both, it is the market that keeps them as industry calendar keys. This is a picture from years ago, myself, Doris as she is now, and our real life daughter the much younger Laura Aikman. her first Cannes was a whirlwind from her coming with us to Hugh Hefner's birthday party to meeting the late Robin Williams in a unisex toilet.

But we are not the only ones in Shades Of Bad with famous offspring, Lynn Beaumont who plays Wilma is, with Reg (Richard Beaumont) parents to Charlotte Beaumont. Both daughters have huge careers ahead of them. Richard is a nominee for the world web awards in Hollywood for playing Reg ... well done Richard.

Shades Of Bad TV has thus far succeeded to release a new episode each week, it is a very dark amusing drama that has political undertones knocking many things wrong with society from bankers to those who induce others to believe things about themselves. Some say it is the web cross between Breaking Bad and Desperate Housewives but there is more than a touch of Dexter creeping in now as we head towards the end of Season 2.
This week's episode is episode 37 and we are heading to a disturbing end to season two. I would suggest you go back down the playlist and maybe join at episode 31 if you have missed a few. Then hit the click next buttons to eventually get to 37. Or maybe jump in at 36, a catch up on last week's release which saw Wilma pull knives on Doris, who told her she had a gun.

Follow through to this week where the kitchen is a mess as is their relationship rollercoasters on with more than just an elephant in the room of the shared husband we never see. If you have been with us since 31 you will know there is a dead body somewhere. If you are up to date here is 37.

So this week we had to confirm new delivery disks of the two afore mentioned films and get them to Metrodome and negotiate small points in clauses to close the film deals. Delivery items are what you contractually deliver when you make a film, it can go on for more than some pages and include access contracts to artists, behind the scenes footage, indexed stills, audio and video interviews, and the movie in various formats with and without titles, the copy with no dialogue and the times script for foreign dubbing as well as layered artwork and clearances... I won't bore you but thousands of pounds in a variety of materials make up a 'film'. Bula Quo sits on 12Tb of achieve hard drive and the standard delivery is just under 2TB. If you hold two copies that is double. It was all there but it has to all be legally checked again and it spurned a re-organisation.

As well as delivery, we shot two new episodes for the future (numbers 50 and 54, with yet another new character, Oliver Degnan who last worked with us in The Usual Children in 1996). Plus get out this weeks episode and another episode of ASK DORIS. That is something we are filling up but not shouting about too much just yet as it is so diverse. Episodes 47,48,49, 51, 52 and 53 all require Derek Redmond who we cannot get until March - he is a busy man. So we will shoot the Barcelona interiors next here in the UK.

We currently have two spin off shows we are building; ASK DORIS has an ambition of about 12 episodes a year, DORIS VISITS is about 25 episodes a year with is own BLOG and the continuing very dark drama SHADES OF BAD may well continue as an episode a week for some time. That alone is 80 plus episodes a year and a movie every now and again.

The travel show, Doris Visits, is being picked up by papers, bloggers and advertisers and we have confirmed and booked and paid for Dubai, with the Caribbean also looming to pull time out of the calendar before the summer starts.

But here is the thing, for the Status Quo fans, to go along with the new world sales by Metrodome and the USA release on Amazon, we aim to run a new series on the web of much unseen Bula Quo material and stories and behind the scenes and interviews, when we have the time. This keeps everything alive for the future sequel and will explain much of what we might try and achieve as we aim to fuse Bangra rock Aquostic albums and tours. This will be different to the Status Quo / Bula Quo playlist we already features on the Shades Of Bad TV channel with Quo. It has the films release of behind the scenes including the Fijian / Hawaiian unplugged sound track to Bula Quo my favourite is Down Down.

There are also changes there to as we start a complete re-edit into broadcast and box set lengths, so Shades Of Bad may find other life.



In the mean time, here is the left of field ASK DORIS episode out this week, as she mends a VECTIS MULTIPOINT LOCK.

Go figure...

17. Censorship, what crosses the line is Shades Of Bad

Censorship is a huge issue, in Television it is often called Compliance. The rules are unclear, the guidelines confusing and the standards sometimes convenient.

Some things are obvious, graphic sex is out, graphic violence is out ... or are they obvious, and as the song says, Time, Time Changes Everything.....

So there was a time when 'artists kissing' was out, 'same sex artists kissing' was out, 'nudity' was unacceptable yet now all of those things are accepted. The line gets pushed, many many times rightly, sometimes with agendas. Often we see nude men and women in perfume commercials, just turned away. The rules are flaunted.

First and foremost the audience should be informed so they understand what they are watching, and with a title like Shades Of Bad, they should except bad. Hey, subscribe now. To be honest, we don't think our show SHADES OF BAD is bad, but it sometimes makes us think.

My career has been a constant one of clashing with sensors and compliance heads. I have spent 30 plus years as a director who specialises in action and choreography of the much violence for major broadcasters. The broadcast soaps know how far they can push, they know they want the headlines, and they know how many formal warnings they can accept a year. It is a bit like radio stations banning songs, sometimes it is the best thing for a song to be banned. Relax, Don't Do It.

We have got to episode 36 of Shades Of Bad and we have restricted it to be viewed by over 18 only, mainly because Wilma pulls a knife although she never uses it. The title says Shades Of Bad, the picture has her with a knife, the audience is told clearly. Trouble is afoot, don't watch if offended. Personally I find the predicament is more disturbing than the knife, so over 18 is fine. By the way I play the man leaving.... not that you see me.

Just having a weapon can be a problem. It is my understanding that you still cannot, within the UK have a poster where the gun points out to the crowd/ viewer/ audience ... did you know that. Look at all the cinema posters. You can hand a gun point sideways at a head but not out at the public.

In television the handling of a knife is always a problem, and one cannot hold it to the throat face or eye... unless that has changed.

Sure we can argue some of the most distributed of children's films are both violent and disturbing, none perhaps more so that a baby deer having it's mother killed. But animation and style of violence can change acceptance. Look at Tarantino's wonderful films and see the extreme of violence and of blood and how it becomes surreal and accepted by censors. I contrast that with issues like I had on my movie Devil's Gate which was about abuse in the home, and although it was never show the film was said to be so disturbing in it's performances from the wonderful Laura Fraser and the frightening Tom Bell, that the censors felt they had to give the end away, the huge reveal by stating on the poster, this film refers to and insinuates ...... blah blah. Devil's Gate was one of my many directorial outings where is was not violent but disturbing. Whilst I had less sex and abuse than one might consider was in Eastern Promises my film on sex trafficking again found me talking seriously to the sensors; Freight was deeply disturbing.

That brings me back to Shades OF Bad, it is a compilation of so many un made movie scripts lying on our shelves and does knock acceptable white collar crime and the acceptance of so much seen on the news or done in business. I just put it all in the female character of Doris Shades in a kitchen and it becomes unacceptable. Episode nine where she claims she has a child locked in the cellar is surreal, but if you try and take the show seriously it is horrid. However the direction and performances are such that lead by the title one should expect that nothing is real.

We thought long and hard about the effect of episode 9 on the audience so as well as the title we ran a notice on the front advising viewer caution and that it was not for young children. However, it should not be marked as over 18 for much of our audience is a mix of two groups; young students and a middled age group.... we would have thought middle aged women as it is a series about 3 rather odd women, but the group is fairly even, both women and men. We also hid the show and ran a program advertising that it was a little more sinister than the others.

Let us go back, Doris is a woman scorned and pledges to get her own back on her husband by killing him. That is just war of words. But she means it, it is real. A woman who wants revenge. It is a great premise to start a surreal series.

Doris Shades fails to kill her husband, fails to kill the mother in law and then sets the older women who begat the cheating husband to work in a brothel she runs from home. We avoided the footballer jokes and so much we could have done, but will Doris ever forgive her best friend and neighbour Wilma who was that woman and whom she continually persecutes? By episode 16 the brothel is in full swing and so much is discovered about Doris and the no remorse attitude she has to life like the suburban banks she has as neighbours who go off to the city each day to commit crimes that are never punished. (that is episode 2 of the 21 minute broadcast lengths)

The politics of the show are clear and hopefully amusing, but although Doris effectively sets up a business as a drug dealer, a brothel runner, and a serial killer from home, we never see sex, drug taking or violence. The common place visual of someone snorting a line of coke has no place in Shades Of Bad, we have other agendas.

So Doris Shades, a good lady turned bad, where do we find references. Breaking Bad saw a good teacher turn bad, it was not a show that one would say was for over 18 only, but one that might not at this period in time make day time viewing without a warning although on Netflix you can watch at any time. There is more violence, shooting and weapon work on any of the police series found on television during the day.

So we reach episode 36. Now we have gone over 18. This is because Wilma pulls a knife on Doris and although she doesn't use it, we felt a self restriction was wise. Why? This is because YouTube do not have the same format of censorship; they have an off and on button, 'the over 18 or not'. We can't go, over 14 or 15 but we can help the viewer make a choice. If you are a viewer, and you have watched previous episodes then episode 36 will be understandable. If you are not up to date with the show I suggest you start at the fantastical almost Shakespearian wedding in the kitchen; episode 31 and use the click next buttons to run on.
'Is he a gangster?'
'No just a local councillor'.

....  beyond their over 18 they have viewer guidelines which we do not break. There will be a fight between the two women, but my guide line was keep it funny like Bridget Jones and excellent piece of work by the late Peter Brayham.

Again, sure video games are worse, much product on YouTube is worse, but we all have to have lines. Whilst we are on episode 36 and you may say the first dead body has been a long time coming, and one is coming, the broadcast length edits of the show mean this is still early on in the series.

Doris is now to be head hunted, she is introduced into greater crime and we will take the audience into areas that will cause concern and shock. Whilst there will be no sex and little violence the line will be danced around.

The author - Meet Stuart St Paul as he talks to James Whale.

16. Spin Off Shows - the character of Doris Shades builds as stars join as guests.

As we speed into 2016, Doris Shades now has two spin off series to Shades Of Bad, each have their own playlists on the TV Channel SHADES OF BAD TV, which is now on 5 platforms and with over 11,000 views in just 6 months on YouTube alone; ASK DORIS and DORIS VISITS. Having spent 26 years as a creative head of department on Emmerdale I realise how long it takes to build such a platform and fill it with product.

The veiwing numbers are a study in themselves, and sure if we made an abusive Christmas record we would get a larger viral response, but social media is changing as fast as methods and habits of viewing, so we are building a product base in a style for a third phase of social media use and future watching habits. The plan maybe risky but it is aimed at longevity. Shades Of Bad is designed to be edited into broadcast lengths and the first will be tested on YouTube soon.

We love it when we get great reviews so please tell us when you see something in print. Here is the Comedy Cake review.  We also enjoy being on the radio, here is a link to the James Whale Radio Show which has a very informative interview.  Here is a link to the USA We Love Soaps review.

As well as the spin off series and diversions to the main web soap Shades Of Bad, there is a great love for compilations, but one can only have a compilation if you have a wealth of product. Shades Of Bad has 35 episodes up (Jan 2016) and has not missed a week. Some of our episodes are fantastic works while one or two fall short and that is something else a series has to learn from. With a tiny crew of people who all have other lives and other filming and personality commitments the scheduling and the shot reservoir is something that has to be manned and watched. Now dealing with our biggest star yet, though we say

that every time we move up a notch, just finding the time when we can all meet to shoot is hard. Derek Redmond is a world star, athlete and olympian, so him joining the series for episodes just prior to the Rio Olympics is one of the many planning goals we try and achieve. Future planning is way in front of that and the day Shades Of Bad cannot improve is probably the day is takes a rest from filming.

The spin off series are there to build on, they are there to be added to in this timeless medium of download media and changing viewing habits. As we return from Courchevel where we shot the latest travel show, the ski lift map was an app and your position was tracked on your phone. The world is changing fast and we can only build ready for it.

The first is a PLAYLIST where Doris Shades fixes stuff. ASK DORIS. The first three very

different films made in 2015 to start the Ask Doris playlist is of fixing stuff. It is an experiment in itself and one we will continue and have plans for these films take time, they are by design and nature all very different and deliberately not obvious but are there to help people with problems, but are also amusing and short enough to be watchable media.
ASK DORIS, she can do anything, and does, is a good line. Obviously not true but the idea is to encourage, to look for answers and save money before being ripped off. That, as a message is in line with much of the underlining political message in Shades Of Bad.

It started when Doris mends her Health Rider exorciser. Then the second was by design when the Vacuum broke. The third, closer to home is how to hide a body microphone which the actors had problems with until they discovered this method from experimentation. Now getting good sound means post dubbing and they hated that.

The second spin off PLAYLIST is a travel site, simple and informal. It has t's own style and DORIS VISITS. The travel show should have been started years ago, we have talked about it at length as we genuinely travel. 2014 we were in Hungary, Slovenia and Austria working for HBO on the major show Strike Back, and if only we had shot some travel footage. 2015 we were on a world tour as celebrity guests for a cruise operator and travelled China,

Vietnam and Cambodia across to the Mediterranean up to Venice.  It was a cruise to Norway that we shot the first drama episodes of Shades Of Bad abroad. The Behind The Scenes Video shows glimpses of the filming and Norway and Barcelona. Now the playlist sits for itself as a list of travel films with many more planned this year. However the best laid plans are often changed and who knows where our stars and crew will be taken.

We also have other playlists on the Shades Of Bad TV channel which take you off to our previous films. The Bula Quo playlist is an example. We do have material to pull a new series together on that adventure in FIJI but again, time is our enemy.

We think we have nailed a format that the audience understands is our style. Shades Of Bad TV is beginning to have a style. In 2016 we should tackle the subscription to the channel. It is a misleading word as it implies details and fees, but all we ask is a subscription on YouTube which is no more than a follow. Then you get an email overtime we post a new video. Please subscribe to the channel and watch us grow.

We hope you find something in our blogs which is of interest.

Author biog here.

15. VOTING for the big awards ....where are Jennifer Lawrence, Lily Tomlin and Seth Rogen?

T'was the night before nominations and all through the house ...... yes Christmas has been and gone, but the flood of films and marketing that started late November has not stopped. The night before the short list is announced I traditionally look at the pile of films I have not got to see and ask 'what have I missed?' Last night I binged watched although it was too late to vote. I was glad I missed 45 Years and sad I had not found A Bigger Splash ..... it happens.

Today, Friday 8th January it intensifies...... the shortlist of BAFTA FILM AWARD nominations is announced and the critics will criticise and us with the vote will look at the shorten list and watch again.

My favourites were Spotlight, The Big Short, Bridge Of Spies, The Martian, The Revenant, Steve Jobs, Beasts Of No Nation and Mad Max. They got most of my votes; were they in there? Yes.

So who at Shades Of Bad, a little home made web series gets to vote on the big stage and why?

Shades Of Bad, the weekly web series is made by two families ... wow that sounds like the start of Romeo and Juliet; so much in life is poetic. Both families have a voting member.

The Blackledge family; Young Buster directs Shades Of Bad (like us on Facebook please) as readers will know, but at around 20 years old (maybe 22, must ask) he does not have the stripes to vote in the awards. His father Mark Blackledge is a voting member in the 'composer chapter' and he offers the music in Shades and the post production. His inventive work on the pig farmer episode shows his confidence and skills. Mark who has worked on endless numbers movies and TV whether credited or not, has just started

a full on TV series for the Cartoon Network. His time will be precious and Shades Of Bad will have the begging bowl out for his time and may have to use previous music cues and mix in FCPX.

The St Paul family is Doris (actress Jean Heard) who also co-owns INDYUK that has made many films from The Scarlet Tunic, Devil's Gate, Freight and Bula Quo all without one cent of public or Lottery money. Stuart St Paul is the voting member there in the 'director chapel' and again Shades is far from his first morning call but is using many of his old scripts that have been hiding on shelves for years.

Four people is the total crew on Shades Of Bad, Stuart writes, Buster films, Mark post produces,  Jean Heard manages the show, the schedule and call times and also costumes and make up as well as art direction and props - then she plays Doris. FOUR PEOPLE! So where do all these award categories come from... and which ones do they never award...
The BAFTA AWARDS are huge and bigger now because they are just before the Oscars and hence there a huge influence. That influence has changed the, dare I say, somewhat old fashioned TV and very British lead voting the BAFTA's may have had many years ago, into what is now a award major force. There are awards every week of the year for film, TV and web, maybe every day of the year there is an award ceremony somewhere, but BAFTA is now a world leader.

Shades Of Bad crew try to influence it's two long time established chapel member voters like the bulk of marketing, but Mark and Stuart (me) both have film running in their veins and opinions enough.

Shades Of Bad though, to be honest, is one of the many (or few) incubators that is internally funded and from where tomorrow's stars are nurtured. Buster's first film is now in development and you will hear more about that. An ex olympian and TV celebrity is cutting his teeth as an actor.

So as Stuart and Mark are both long established vote holders here is a quick one line on how it works; in the prelim rounds they only get to vote for their 'chapters' plus Best Film, director and actors. After this morning they have a reduce field of films to consider (the nominees) but they vote in all categories. The run up to the close of the large list is manic with voters being invited to receptions and wined and dined, stars turning up to answer questions as touched upon in our previous blog. Old movie stars, new web stars......

Just as the public are wowed by the big names, the voters are too because we know that the system filters the good product by the best talent being offered and capable of choosing the best opportunities, hence delivering as whole the best films. Voting members meet, they know each other and are friends, and at Christmas they circulate. It is a perfect voting period but congested. There are films that they agree on and films like Steve Jobs which seem to dived people.

This mornings results to reduce the huge list to five nominations in each catagory are the work of these thousand or so industry veterans speaking out on films, and one can interpret the short list in many ways. Interpreting the list and what the critics say is always interesting. Film makers and the film 'experts' often differ.

I am not surprised that the only nod for Tarantino's Hateful 8 is for script, his three plus hours has proved too long and maybe too formulaic and predictable to be supported in bulk and maybe he will be disappointed. I offered one vote for Hateful 8 but mine went to Jennifer Jason Leigh as best supporting actress. It appears the rest of us were also split in a film we loved, admired and then equally did not.

Another interesting analysis is when the writer is nominated but not the director, as in Steve Jobs. Boyle did a great job but Sorkin gets the nod for the script which kind of singles him out as the real creator, rightly or wrongly. Personally I am a huge Sorkin fan and loved the movie and performances but I had wine with others over Christmas who did not agree with me about the film. Fassbender still nudges the best actor for me and I always like Kate Winslet whom I worked with a on Hideous Kinky.

Films do split people and there are two front runners at BAFTA this year in Bridge Of Spies and Carol both with nine nominations. I loved Spielberg's film and felt he was back at his best but Carol left me cold and looking at my second screen. Worth a special mention for Bridge Of Spies is colleague Mark Rylance whom I worked with on Grass Arena in the days when the BBC made Screen 1 and 2's and called them plays and did not take Lottery money as well as their other public funds to make television they call film.

Bridge of Spies
Best Film: Kristie Macosko Krieger, Marc Platt, Steven Spielberg 
Director: Steven Spielberg
Original Screenplay: Matthew Charman, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen 
Supporting Actor: Mark Rylance
Original Music: Thomas Newman
Cinematography: Janusz Kamiński
Editing: Michael Kahn
Production Design: Adam Stockhausen, Rena DeAngelo
Sound: Drew Kunin, Richard Hymns, Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom 

I did not vote for Charlotte Ramplin in 45 Years whom some commentators felt was omitted from the best actress short list. The television film angered me for the money thrown at it by multiple free money funds whose lawyers and executives help add up to budgets that are hard to justify as an independent or in modern film sales. 45 Years like Shades Of Bad it is often two people in a kitchen, but they had millions not a crew of three total and a budget of zero. The true oversights from Best Actress was without a doubt; Jennifer Lawrence in Joy who was amazing, but sadly the film was not the best and my guess is not enough people had time to view it and an amazing performance from Lily Tomlin in Grandma which I can only image was not viewed by enough people as you do have to choose. There is always a danger that on a bad first scene or 5 minutes you swap to another film on the huge pile and a clunky unnecessary first scene in Grandma may have put off some people. Stay with it, it is a good movie.
None of us avoid the smaller films but I watched A Bigger Splash at 1am this morning and loved it, too late. Ralf Fiennes deserved note for a bold and unusual performance but when I look at my five votes I am not sure he would have squeezed anyone out.
Not only does the home team vote perhaps help British films a little on the east of the Atlantic but one might consider there could be a need to rubber stamp funding choices with a tick by voting for films that have had investment choices, and as you may see from the titles some films have more executive and funding bodies than crew. It will be interesting to see how many of these UK funded films find their way into the Oscar lists, again, just analyising as you would hope politicians do... but having watched The Big Short it is unlikely.

My favourite film was Spotlight which sadly only got three category nominations, but then when taking on the church one can expect it to be avoided by a significant section of voters. At a wine and cheese party over Christmas I was with a fellow BAFTA voter who said he loved Spotlight and it had his vote but his wife refused to watch it. The point of the film is you should watch it and it is brilliant. Fantastic snappy script.

Spotlight
Best Film: Steve Golin, Blye Pagon Faust, Nicole Rocklin, Michael Sugar 
Original Screenplay: Tom McCarthy, Josh Singer
Supporting Actor: Mark Ruffalo 

It is a sign of the times that an action film has got into the shortlist. There was a time when commercial films appeared to be shunned by BAFTA voters and large action movies still seem to be. The hugely important category of Stunts is till ignored by BAFTA yet there are sections for just about every other department and tea maker. Still as the industry says, the actors do all their own stunts and the directors direct all their own films ... having said that the scene everyone seems to talk about on The Revenant is Di Caprio's fight with the bear and I wonder who really put that together. So to see Mad Max in there is a turning point in film voting appreciation, and with seven nominations. But note, no nomination for the stunt coordinator ... go ask yourself what the film is made of!!!

Mad Max: Fury Road
Cinematography: John Seale
Editing: Margaret Sixel
Production Design: Colin Gibson, Lisa Thompson
Costume Design: Jenny Beaven
Make Up & Hair: Lesley Vanderwalt, Damian Martin
Sound: Scott Hecker, Chris Jenkins, Mark Mangini, Ben Osmo, Gregg Rudloff, David White 
Special Visual Effects: Andrew Jackson, Dan Oliver, Tom Wood, Andy Williams 

Star Wars also gets in there which when put into perspective is amazing because they never sent screeners to the voters, so only those who got to screenings would have voted. As the screenings we all over the busy Christmas period one has to say the film must be as good as everyone seems to say it is.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Original Music: John Williams
Production Design: Rick Carter, Darren Gilford, Lee Sandales
Sound: David Acord, Andy Nelson, Christopher Scarabosio, Matthew Wood, Stuart Wilson Special Visual Effects: Chris Corbould, Roger Guyett, Paul Kavanagh, Neal Scanlan 

I loved The Big Short, the way the film makers just throw it at you, that this was some kind of major fraud for which no one has been arrested and even someone in a bubble bath with no banking knowledge can explain how stupidly corrupt this was. I loved it. There should be a film about the alleged frauds in some film making as the cases make the tax courts on a regular basis now.

The Big Short
Best Film: Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Brad Pitt 
Director: Adam McKay
Adapted Screenplay: Adam McKay, Charles Randolph 
Supporting Actor: Christian Bale
Editing: Hank Corwin 

I did like the movie Steve Jobbs and it's honesty about how they designed a product that doesn't work too well with anything outside the brand... sorry I got sidetracked. But as much as I love Idris Elba who will now get my vote as best supporting actor for his amazing performance in Beasts Of No Nation, I would have preferred to have been challenged with the choice of voting for him or Seth Rogen who I think is a huge star continually proving how broad his spectrum is. For me he has stepped into the shoes of the much missed and multi talented Robin Williams.

Steve Jobs
Adapted Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin 
Leading Actor: Michael Fassbender 
Supporting Actress: Kate Winslet 

Brooklyn for me was great piece of TV but not a film, and it appeared to have been shot hand held then stabilised as the wall paper seemed to have turrets. Stabilisation of the most important part of a picture (person) has the effect of making the background dance and I was annoyed that 5 major funders and teams of execs seemed to have made that choice in post and not while shooting. The film obviously did not grab me beyond being a good old fashioned BBC Screen 1.
Similarly I have mixed feelings on the Danish Girl. I like it, and Redmayne was amazing, but I am not sure I felt he was stretched or it was equal to the other five I had as Best Actor.

I can't list everything, but take it from me, we have missed out on Jennifer Lawrence in Joy, Seth Rogen in Steve Jobbs and A Bigger Splash plus a missing award section for stunt coordinator again when Mad Max gets 7 nominations and DiCaprio's fight with the bear is a talking point.
There are TV films whose corporate and lottery funding muscle have perhaps lifted them higher than they may achieve in LA in a few months time, but I could be wrong.

For the full list.  Visit the BAFTA site for a full list of films and their nominations.

Also remember that their is a film festival every week of the year somewhere, and the lower leagues is where tomorrows stars are found. Shades Of Bad, the web series where we fund a new young director to learn and shine can be voted for in the world web series chart each week. It has rarely been out of the top ten. Please vote for Buster's Shades Of Bad.

And for a no budget web soap that hits the US / World top ten each week with no crew, no Lottery, and no money ... check out this weeks episode. Shot in RAW 2k and fully scored, which not all television can do with all the funding they get... The awards, a time to balance one against the other.

Maybe you can vote for Shades Of Bad... here. You get a vote...