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...