New Strictly Come Dancing Line up.

#Stictly Come Dancing new line up - Friday 22nd September is tipped as being the start of the new series of Strictly Come Dancing. It may well be a tribute night to the great Bruce Forsyth who sadly passed on the 18th August. Both Stuart and I got to work with him on the Generation Game, Stuart went back and twice did Stunt Fight episodes where he judged the public. If only we had YouTube back then we might have those memories but it was without doubt a different era. Shirley Ballas replaces Len as head judge. Shirley, 56, of Wallasey in the North of England is a Latin dance champion nicknamed, The Queen of Latin. A big hit in the USA as a judge on Dancing With The Stars, she is rumoured to have outshone job rivals Anton Du Beke and Brendan Cole at auditions for the new #SCDseason. Maybe, but I suspect both are being readied for another panel leaver or double take over. The Sun claims that the following celebs are confirmed.
Gemma Atkinson from Emmerdale
Ruth Langsford the ITV presenter.
Davood Ghadami from EastEnders (there is always one)
Mollie King from The Saturdays (always a pop star)
Brian Conley, TV funnyman.
Rev Richard Coles is a priest and former pop star with the Communards.
Joe McFadden from Holby City. (home BBC team member)
Aston Merrygold's a dancer known as the JLS pop star may start as favourite.
Simon Rimmer from Sunday Brunch.
Susan Calman a Scottish comedian from QI, Have I Got News For You and Mock The Week.
Charlotte Hawkins, news reader from Good Morning Britain.
Debbie McGee is a TV personality and past tennis partner of mine in Barbados for a few weeks.
Chilly Akudolu, actress and comedian from Holby City.
Jennie Peacock MBE is a Paralympic gold medallist will be the first disabled celebrity to grace the show.
Alexandra Burke, winner of X Factor 2008.
It is also thought that the Strictly on a ship will have a shake up next year, so will the new judge and new dancers takes to the seas in 2018.Share the news.

http://dorisvisits.com/b718-scd2017/

BMPCC for sale

So we at Doris Visits are changing camera because we have changed what we are doing. We used to shoot drama so this camera was ideal, we now have a team shooting a travel show, so it is the wrong camera. Whilst the key and camera are fantastic and have been used to shoot loads, the focus is finite on those lens and needs the care you shoot drama with to make sure the right plane is in focus.

On travel we would like it all in focus, and automatically and fast, so the fixed lens doc camera Canon XC15 is now preferred. The BMPCC is on Ebay from today offers from £275. Practically everything else sold over night to camera guys who wanted bits to add to their kit.

http://dorisvisits.com/camera-kit/ 

A funny thing happened on the way to the camera

Never say no

They do say never say no, but I don't know who they are. Still there are those who wait to be employed and those for a corner shop to rent and the film and acting game is the same. You can wait for the phone to ring or demand a salary, or make a web series and win awards and get noticed. Ewe are all artists and Picasso did ask for a dollar each time he picked up a paint brush. Enough said, but we have always made and invested in films, and had we not many of the pop videos we made back in the day would never have turned into making The Krays, I would never have been able to give myself such a huge credit at the front of the film as Stunt Coordinator and got an instant career bump, and then been able to afford to make my own films etc...

The road trodden is never straight. So, just as I am at think tank conferences at the British Screen Council and with distributors learning a little about on-line morphication, (there spell checker deal with that one!) My wife asks if she can make something for the web. Coincidence my composers (Mar k Blackledge who is brilliant and has his own studios) said his son wanted to direct, so I threw about 20k at setting up a small camera set up to make web series. There was no way they were shooting that on my 5k Red Epics!

After 61 episodes of Shades Of Bad and winning countless awards, we had shot in Norway and Barcelona as well as the UK, just for a laugh and just because we could, and we ended up with a travel show - DORIS VISITS www.DorisVisits.com

Now some 200 travel films later in less than two years, we have an on line travel shop web base and people are booking hotels and cruises through us. You see when I started as a trainee DJ at radio 1 & 2 back in 1973, then went into commercial radio a few years later I never knew I would be cast as the DJ in a TV soap before the decade was out. I never knew once I got into TV that pop videos would be invented or I would produce and direct via a weaving route in and out of action.

I certainly never thought I would be a travel agent. But that is why you should never say no. Just saying, if you need a hotel use our link through Doris Visits, it is an official Bookings.com affiliate link as is our one to Monarch, P&O and a dozen other cruise lines and Tour Guide functions. That is because of volume of content and traffic, and it all came from no where.

So, the hair pin bend, and there always is one. I am given scripts all the time. Some to direct some under the guys of would I direct when what they would really like is for me to produce so they can direct. They are all normally poor. But, I was brought a series of books. Very raunchy female romance books. Why Me !!! ????  Now my wife Jean, now presenter on Doris Visits has often been heard to say that when I am offered female lead things. She nearly dies when I was asked to direct a film with Claire Danes in the USA by a producer who thought my output was female lead (Devil's Gate with Laura Fraser, The Scarlet Tunic with Emma Fielding etc) .... I stray. These books lacked a direction but had legs. It is that wonderful line I am sure is from a Linda Seger I read years and years ago... so we want to buy your script, it just needs a complete rewrite - here's why.....  Years later when I understood Hollywood a little more I wrote my own take on it, The Script Writing Cheat Guide, which I must update. But these books were / are still I have yet changed them that much, but wait. Are still about an older woman released from you will find out what in good time and when she is ready to tell you and can tell you, at an older age into life. So, to cut top the chase, she realises the clock is ticking and she wants to discover what most do in their teens. As an agoraphobic, by a route to be discover she swaps the house for a steel box otherwise know as a cruise ship. It is a fascinating look at life, and somehow I was the fit... female lead, cruise industry - obvious! (no there is no action.)

So, the SOLO CRUISER book series was in development and the table I set up (writer's table, development table) sat and criticised as they do. But I wanted to see ten episodes. Forget film, film is dead. Forget books I have no skills or interest. I needed to see a structure that worked for TV. I have an older Bridget Jones type, we all love her, where she is going but it is a mess. How would you handle it? So far this is what we have done. I have changed each book to be around a real cruise, the books starts the moment you board, ends when you get off. For arguments sake, Southampton to Southampton, round the Canary Islands. Then we have a time line, we have a looming end, we have a fixture. Book one ended up being placed into a cruise template of the Canaries that was Doris Visits Azura Cruise A628. Book 2 ended up being based on Arcadia Cruise round the Baltics and the third of Violet Becket's story, now more confident in direction uses bits and bobs of cruises in the Caribbean.

Look it is a tough life, but someone has to do it, and remember this is years of work with no fees and me investing, so that would put many off. I happen to thrive on it. My connection was this other little piece in the jigsaw, Amazon Editor Simon Okhill who came to me and got me to put my Brit Flick Freight into book form. He had the cruise project and made the fit.

What is next? Well having spent years advising soaps, and loving Jimmy McGovern's work, I can see the SOLO CRUISER books series as a soap, but each of the characters coming to the front in film fashioned with their story. That was a battle, but I seem to have one that Violet's story, as fascinating as she is, is only three books long.
Her Virgin Voyage
The Perfect Storm
American Portrait
and Panama On Your Six is a rewrite using Tank Commander Kieron Phipps as the new solo cruiser for the next series / three books. Those who know me will see a little of my influence in book 2, The Perfect Storm which is much darker.
All versions of the books are selling and as such will come up easily on Amazon searches, but I have added links. They are free on the Kindle library. What we are doing now is a simple break down into ten episodes and location structures because we obviously can't shoot it all on a cruise ship. But it will look like at as we all know, and quite wonderful. I need series two, which is three more books and I guess it is a five year project.
I also have insisted on Light versions of the books, not just the full fat versions. So there are two Virgin Voyages; Book 1, Virgin Voyage is very raunchy, but Her Virgin Voyage is the lighter version some 2500 words shorter. Book 2 is in two versions which are less than 500 words apart, and book three I think can survive in one version.

Life is strange, but who knows what will come next. The secret is to never say no.

Stuart St Paul

James Whale moves to Talk Radio

James Whale moves from BBC Essex to Talk Radio

Our good friend and supporter of all Doris does, not obviously in the script, she is a killer - James has moved to Talk Radio. James who was in the celebrity Big Brother House did go back to local radio for a few weeks but the offer to tempt him back to national radio was too huge.

He can now be heard on Talk Radio daily, Monday to Thursday 7pm to 10pm. My guess is the only way that the BBC would have kept him was to offer him a national slot, and Radio 2 is deadman shoes almost literally. Working for Sky TV and Talk Radio give James a national platform and hopefully we will see him back with a TV show of some form very soon.

James appeared in, episode 32 of Shades Of Bad just for fun, as Detective Inspector James Whale and has been a supporter of the Doris Shades spin off show DORIS VISITS which is a travel channel dealing with mainly adventurous seniors and causing, but we are talking ski, golf and ride the white water rapids of the Zambezi. 

Stay connected to us on twitter DORIS VISITS, Facebook DORIS VISITS and www.DorisVisits.com

     

Doris serial killer - Killing with a sandwich, or playing with a sand wedge.

Doris Shades Of Bad - serial killer in training, takes a break

It is good to hear when a serial killer takes a break, but having watched many of the TV shows on those who investigate such disturbed people, they can't take a break. Something stops them. In the series we started Doris killing with poisoned sandwiches, then she used a Sand wedge. Despite more than the allowed par swings, she did not kill the bin man and he ended up her partner in crime... sadly Wilma and Doris both came to an end in Season 3.
So Doris is on a break, and swinging that sand wedge as she reviews two golf courses. Stayed logged to the new channels as well as the drama channel if you like her travel show as we have REMOVED it from the Shades OF Bad channel and given it it's own identity.

Visits considers two different Golf Weekends in the UK

Although Doris Visits is predominantly a cruise travel channel, we find fellow adventurous and like minded golfers and skiers when cruising. Not in the golf nets on the top deck of the ship, but normally in the 19th hole! Sometimes known as the crows nest or the Glass House....

So, as those who travel and are adventurous sometimes have the same interests, we have added a couple of UK fun weekend golf retreats. One north of London, one south.

TUDOR LODGE - Maidstone - Marriot Hotels

Tudor Lodge has one 18 hole coarse. It is a good coarse, varied holes. Side information is that the foxes come out to see you on the 10th, bold as brass, because they know you might have stopped for food and expect you to share.

Maidstone is just south of London, less than an hour by car or train from London. Only 20 minutes from Ashford International and Eurotunnel, 40 minutes from Dover and close to London Gatwick Airport plus major rail and motorway links, it is very easy to get to.

BELTON WOODS - Grantham - Q Hotels

Belton Woods is quite a family escape with a lot to do. There are two courses, the middle one, the lakes has quite a few water hazards as well as a few long holes. The Woods is slightly higher and wraps around the lakes. That means there are 36 holes to choose from.

Grantham is up the A1 beyond Peterborough, for us it is a mid way to meet friends from the north of the country. This link should take you to their site. They have other sites, the one in Northampton has a bowling alley as well.

I won't bother our non golfing cruise followers here with more detail, but the films look at the hotels, family facilities and the golf courses hole by hole. If you are a golfer, then do go to the web page and take a look. Click here.

Follow Doris Visits on Twitter and Facebook and share.

Doris Shades Of Bad works with fellow actor again on ship again.

Doris is on the road, and works on a cruise ship with fellow Shades Of Bad actor.

Episode 59 saw Doris go to Barcelona to deliver nanobots. They are used to take over the world. Who ever trusted her with them needs their head read. The actor in Barcelona was Manuel Martinez, he is real name is withheld as he is working under cover. Click here for the episode.

Doris has just been in the Canary Islands thinking about how and when she will take over the world, there has been a little problem as one of the actors was taken ill, so the show is on a break.

However, while on board she got to work again with Manuel Martinez. If you wish to know more about him click this passage and it will take you to the funny man's page on our site.

For those of you wondering what she is filming, you might like to take a look at the small film made there....

Beware, she is back..... and off to Grantham for the weekend. 

Doris Shades next stop Tenerife, Canary Islands

Doris Visits Tenerife, Canary Islands on the P&O ship Azura A628

Tenerife is the largest of the Canary Islands and it has an active volcano, Mount Teide, which often rumbles and has a dramatic moonscape landscape now a National Park. Other landscapes here are the verdant valleys and lush plantations and vast pinewoods to the glorious beaches. There is a lot to see, but a great bus service throughout the island which I tested.

Santa Cruz

Tenerife’s cruise port Santa Cruz de Tenerife has grown from a fishing village to the capital city with 300,000 inhabitants. It is a welcoming city with classy bars and restaurants, shops, and interesting museums. It is easy to walk into the city, follow the blue line, cross the road, round the lake and the tourist office is hidden under an eco garden. The city begins right outside the port gates. If you chose to stay in the city you will find a café-lined boulevard leading to the Plaza de Espana, at the heart of the port’s main shopping area. If you prefer museums and galleries, try the Museo de Bellas Artes, which contains works by Bruegel. The Museo de la Naturaleza y El Hombre shows topography, flora and fauna.

However, I fancied an adventure and wanted to test the buses. The first was a simple tram to Trinidad, not the island but the Avenue in the old city of La Laguna.

La Laguna

Is definitely worth a visit and will take a half day to explore the old houses in the main street. Again, it has a tourist office, get off the tram, walk to the top of the road, turn left, walk a block then turn right and it should be on the corner. Ask someone, everyone is helpful. See my film on Laguna and you will be enticed.

PUERTO de la CRUZ

I could have got the bus direct to Puerto de la Cruz and we did get the bus all the way back. But from La Laguna we got the number 30 from the bus garage at the other end of Trinidad.

Here is a tip, get off at the Botanical Gardens then walk down. You will then pass the Orchid Gardens where Agatha Christie and William Wilde, Oscar’s father have stayed, and then can walk down to the sea. If you go all the way in you have to walk UP to the gardens and they close at 6pm.

It is likely your ship sails late from Tenerife so you have time to do the gardens and go down and enjoy Puerto de la Cruz for late afternoon and early evening. The promenade is very attractive and the coastline is dramatic. We treated ourselves to a lovely lunch overlooking the bay.

As always we will eventually cover them the gardens in a separate film .. another time.

We had plenty of time to explore as the ship didn’t sail till 10.30pm but I have to admit we were exhausted at the end of the day.

If you were in Tenerife with us please share your comments and photos with us on www.DorisVisits.com

Tours available from your ship will probably include

Northern Panorama
Loro Parque
Gardens of the Valley
Puerto de La Cruz and Orotava Valley
Mamas and Tapas
Mount Teide National Park
Mount Teide Cable Car
Playa de las Americas on your own
Puerto de la Cruz on your own

Shades Of Bad sends Doris to Madeira

Doris Visits Madeira with an overnight stay.

After three days at sea which seemed to fly by, we arrived in Madeira, otherwise known as the Garden Island because of the wonderful display of sub-tropical plants and flowers. A few months before we arrived there was a terrible bush fire that destroyed homes and killed three people. The results were seen from the cable car.

You can walk into town from the ship and it is easy to see the route and how far it is.
It is hardly surprising that large and colourful flower markets are one of the most arresting features of Funchal, Madeira’s capital, though next door is the fish market that reminds you the island has a history of using the sea. Madeira is also known for its aquarium where you can dive with sharks, rays, morays and hundreds of other fish. Whale and dolphin watching are other featured activities for visitors to the island which is about twice the size of the Isle of Wight.

The market town is easily walkable and the further you go the steeper and narrower some of the streets become. On Santa Maria street, where there are many restaurants art work can be found on most of the doors. It features on the main Madeira film. Locally made wicker furniture gives a positive aroma to the clean air. Lacework and tapestries are also local trades as is the ubiquitous Madeira wine.

It will not surprise you that Funchal is also the base for tours to the islands botanical gardens; the fishing village of Camara de Lobos where Churchill went to paint, this also features on our main Madeira film. Camacha, the wicker centre; the Levada walks, part of an ancient irrigation system; and to Reids Hotel for traditional afternoon tea, making cruises to Madeira a must do. Many of these sites and more feature in our madeira film.

The Monte Tropical Gardens

The Monte Tropical Gardens are so extensive that you could spend a day there and walk back to the ship. Inside there is a three storey museum and the gardens and the museum feature in their own film although a short piece is in the main Madeira film. In the museum you will see art and sculptures from Zimbabwe and an exhibition of stunning minerals and stones.

The Toboggan Ride

Lastly the toboggan ride is great fun and one of the things Funchal is famous for. We thought we would show you the run in full although it is shown briefly in the main film. If you want to know what the toboggan run is like the full four minutes is covered.

The cable car, tropical gardens and toboggan ride are enough for one day without all the other things the island has to offer.

If you have been there, or were there with us, please add your comments and pictures to our web site click here

Tours available from your ship will probably include

Tea at Reid’s
Famous Toboggan Ride
Evening with Folklore (if overnight)
Deep Sea Fishing
Cable Car and Toboggan (see film above)
Nevada Walk
Jeep Adventure
Discover Whales and Dolphins by ‘rib’.
The Caves of São Vicente
Eco City Tour, Tuhxi Madeira
Farmers Market and Botanical Gardens
Leisurely Scenes of Madeira

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.
Please follow us and like us for more cruise news... and visit our web site for more cruise news www.DorisVisits.com

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.

Does Drama make money, can web series offer deals ... how about 'like your first cruise of money back?'

Product! Content! Money! - and now a cruise deal to offer Doris's followers

I have been to so many panels where so called experts explain much, but it is all quite simple and most artists, me included over the years have ignored the basic facts 

Make what the public want, not what you want to make. 

Sure if you have no interest in selling, having a distributor sell, or making money that can be ignored ... but, if you want your film to play in a cinema someone has to clean and maintain the place and they want to be paid.

Facts are simple, drama is worth around 35 billion, sport 45 billion and Gaming 75 Billion. Films related to Games the studios like.
This is the first year that advertising spend on-line has over taken advertising on the television ... and I saw earlier this year adverts for people to read the Metro rather than just read their phones while travelling. Not only do they have to give the paper away free, but then advertise to get people to read it.

You can lead a horse to water ... BUT 

So we tested the online market with a recurring web series Shades Of Bad, and sure we won awards, were voted no2 show in the Indie Series World Chart, Jean Heard was twice voted Best Actress... but none of that is currency at our local Indian restaurant.

What we did while we were making it was study, watch trends, move the show about and learn. 

It is about what we can do and what the public want and although the drama is taking a sabbatical, DORIS VISITS was born as a test along with others things we discarded, and the travel show has produced 100 films in 8 months. We plan to hit 300 films within another three years and have 6 cruises and two ski trips already booked for next year. That is now a work load and an organisation nightmare for edit and release.
But travel has an audience you can target, like Gamers do which is why it works. Drama does not.

So, as Doris Visits has just started a relationship with SAGA CRUISES, we can offer their first cruise deal. Book through our link and obtain a deal where SAGA state - If you don’t love your first Saga cruise, SAGA will refund your fare! Thanks to SAGA for offering this to all Doris Visits followers. Click here to explore the deal in full. http://bit.ly/2dXDvLE

Click this text to go to the link. please share

Take a look at www.DorisVists.com and see the films. We are now re editing them all slowing and at the same time producing TV slot 30 minute shows.

If you never watched Shades Of Bad, start here and work through all 61...

If you never watched Shades Of Bad, start here and work through all 61...

What Lens do we use?

What Lens ?

I just blogged that we use a Black Magic Pocket Cinema Camera for the web series Shades Of Bad and questions came in as to what lens we use. You are all correct it is a smaller sensor and the camera natively uses an EFS lens, the smaller lens with less glass. 

Sure it is OK to use the EFS, but we worried about low light and tried to forward think some situations where we might get into a low light situation. The cameramen we were set up to use wanted to use Canon EF USM lens if they could, not to use the auto ficus, but just they are better lens.

CONVERTER

There are simple passive converters then there is the Metabones which we opted for.

-1 The metabones is active so the negative is that it draws from the battery especially in low light when it is helping you see in the dark - to counter balance that the batteries are real cheap and we carry 12 in the kit.
-2 The second small negative is that on really fast lens the Metabones is so good, added to the camera, that in bright sunlight it just over exposes so we have had to buy ND's which is not a bad thing. We have had up to 6ND and a UV filter on the standard lens and more on the 80 to 200 which seems to be the brightest.

+1 is that you can use the EF Lens.

There is a metabones for most conversions, so before you think a camera won't fit a lens, look at the Metabones. Click here for details.


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The Kit used to shoot Shades Of Bad

Shooting Shades Of Bad - the Kit

Shades Of Bad was a departure into the web for us. Maybe we won't turn back!

We shoot a number of things from movies to web content, but we have just sold our Epic Dragon cameras and now are concentrating on web content. Our main web series are ‘Doris Visits’ the travel shows, and ‘Doris Shades Of Bad’ the drama series. For both web series we wanted to keep the quality at 2k, which is the quality of most current televisions bought and sold. That is certainly as good as most TV shows if not much better than daily soaps and lower level TV which are often shot at 720 lines and they are interlaced. If  I have lost you there I apologize, but most shows are now HD which the retailers are currently calling 2k.

The camera had to be small and I did not need fancy add-ons like slow motion. I just needed a camera that is used widely on the professional market and the cameramen that came in would be able to use. So, I asked them and Black Magic came out tops. I have seen recent blogs where the BMPCC goes up against some newer cameras and it wins hands down.

The kitchen that Shades Of Bad was all going to be shot in is small by filming standards and none of the walls fly away or have traps. I mean none of the walls are force and can be removed. What you see is the space we had. The BMPCC was ideal and there were few other coices. Stills guys compremise, but we never needed it to take stills, we just needed a dedicated movie camera.

It can shoot 2k raw but that means huge files and is over kill and would certainly be well beyond our Apple based edit suit, so we shoot at 1080 uncompressed. The edit still struggles when the shows get to 30 minutes, but we manage as most of the travel shows on line are around five minutes. The episodes of Shades were always going to be around three minutes.

All stop... it changed. As film makers our ambition was bigger and before long we were testing outside night shoots, filming in the woods and then going abroad. Just because we could and web series did not normally go to that expense. For us it was all a test, and adventure. It has generated a new series, the travel show Doris Visits which in 6 months has produced 100 films, over 80 of which are loaded. Now we have groups of actors and financiers coming to us to ask about the next step; shooting a movie this way.

If you are looking for a camera to shoot movies, take a look at some of our films on Doris Visits. This camera does not shoot stills. It is a movie camera. I will address more of our kit in later blogs.

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Heading to the end of Season 3 - wow, that is a lot of work !

Shades Of Bad heads to the end of season 3


As we head to the end of season 3 it is quite odd that the Barcelona sections shot last June have cut into the footage shot just months ago in the UK. In Barcelona we had the chance to use actor Gary Keates who works his character Manuel Martinez in international cabaret. Gary, a senior member of the Magic Circle has been talking to us for some time about doing a series on street magic, but as with most entertainers and actors who are working, they are always working. The goos in his calendar as about as bad (or good) as the dates in the Status Quo calendar. We know because we have been trying to find a gap that works for both with absolutely no success.

So, Gary takes us into Barcelona, episode 58.

Then the interiors of Barcelona are shot in the domestic office of Nick's in Chorleywood, almost a year apart exactly. And for a web series crew that has never used a costume or a make up department but acts as if in the theatre and expects the talent to look after themselves, can you spot any difference in Doris ???
In episode 59 Nick Simons plays the evil jeweller. Having directed this episode myself I wanted to make it feel different. I want to feel like Doris was away from her normal safe haven and in someone else's back yard. So I turned off the lights.

Then in the magic of cinema, to use such a pun with a qualified magician, we jump back a year, into Barcelona and see Doris leave. Now, when we shot this we had not written the script inside the office but I suspected that Doris might kill the jeweller and run. At least she would have stolen some or all of the nanobots, because let's face it, having been jilted and now being offered the chance to take over the world .... so, does the story flow seamlessly?

The web series has been a huge success and someone in the office came up with a great idea. Well, is it. Who knows. A young actor had just spent £450 making a showreel on video to use on line. They had also spent the same making a voice reel. I guess if you are entering a profession it is no different to spending thousands on training, but the ethics aside, it was not very good. Not only that it looked rather cold and vacuumous (my spell checker hates that word, which is why I like it even more).

We give new cameramen and directors a chance and produce pretty good episodes. So the idea was that an actor could suggest an episode to fit in between any two and become an 'a' episode ... like 56a, a policeman stops Doris after she has killed the refuse collector Ben Manstead (Bin Man's Dead) in the woods. They could set up whatever they need to play a 4 to 6 page episode with Doris for £350. Now that is cheaper than the other guys were charging. We would work with them on the script, and finish the episode and put it up in sequence as a showreel of .... and an episode, which we keep usage rights to and allow you usage rights. Same/same.... Owning content and having your own platform for PR is going to be essential for any actor in the future.

Having spawned the idea the others here said it would never fly, and I must say the money does not entice me to do lots, because the money just does not cover the effort and equipment. However, it is an idea and you just never know what it brings. It might just bring the best ever episode of Doris Shades ever. Episodes in a web series can be entered into festivals, you could win a Best Actor Award.

That is a serious remark because twice Jean Heard was voted best actress in a world web series by We Love Soaps / Indie Series Network in the USA. 

News about episode 61, the last episode in Season 3, and where the series is going will come soon, but we are trying to clear the decks ready to head off on a cruise to the Canary Islands to shoot episodes for Doris Visits... which is the spin off series you must have seen.

So will you be episode 62 ????  or 55a.... have you got what it takes to win an award and have faith enough to put energy behind the belief in your talent. 

PS if anyone out there knows how to wrap text round a YouTube film in Blog spot, do tell.... 

see our new adventure www.dorisvisits.com, and make us a film ....

Doris Shades is a woman, she has needs. Revenge is amongst them.

Doris Shades is a woman, she has needs. Revenge is amongst them.

There is a tipping point which makes most people turn bad. Doris met hers when her husband left.

The picture below is from episode 56 when Doris dumps a dead body in the woods.
Another dead body.

Doris knew when show woke up to an empty bed that he was never coming home. She knew when her best friend and neighbour came by for coffee that morning that she would have to breach the subject, that she, Wilma was sleeping with her husband. But hey, that shouldn't break up a good friendship. He is the shit, not her, and he should die. Wilma her friend should kill him for her.
Now you can see this is a dark strange series, and we have now put up 61 episodes and although Doris tried to kill Brad she failed. She just happened to accidentally kill a lot of other people along the way. She accidentally became a serial killer and we accidentally had a series on our hands.

GUEST STARS

Guest stars have included James Whale from Celebrity Big Brother (ep 32), Olympian Derek Redmond (eps 43 to 54) and child star now a little older, Richard Beaumont (ep 20 to 40).

Although you can jump in anywhere, and I can suggest lots of different places to jump in, it is your call. The deaths don't start for a while so there are a few character building episodes where she wonders what to do with the mother-in-law that lives in now her husband has been such a shit. Well, she must pay. Doris starts a brothel and enslaves her. You see, Doris may look at life oddly, but so does the corrupt salesman when he cheats you out of your life savings. Doris Shades Of Bad is a dark series that runs a subtle (sometimes not so subtle) look at the remorseless crime mindset that bankers have when they travel into the city of London each day.
The difference is Doris starts her crime venture from the kitchen and as her drug empire gets noticed as she expands by selling grass to pig farmers (ep 13, very funny) then she us headhunted for greater things.
Having killed the local councillor, and fended of the police detective (This years Celebrity Big Brother favourite Detective Inspector James Whale in episode 32), 

the big gangster of doom arrives in episode 43, ex Olympian Derek Redmond in his first ever acting role.

You could jump in around then when the young trash collector knocks on the door and refuses to take the dead body in the wheelie bin unless they pay him, but then you will have missed them putting the dead body in the wheelie bin, episode 40.
Maybe episode 56 when they have killed the bin collector and take his body to the woods. 

It is a little bit Breaking Bad as a good woman gets bad, it is a little bit Dexter as she ruthlessly disposes of people, it is a lot Dangerous Housewife!

Can I suggest, that if you have never watched you start at the beginning ....  or somewhere, and power through them and catch up, then share. Please. We need numbers. Please share. Click this text to go to the YouTube full playlist. Please list below which is your fav ep, or when people might jump in.

On Daily Motion

If you want to go beyond, Daily Motion has episodes 60 and 61 up, click here. 62 will be shot in the next few weeks and then as we are trying to get another huge guest star for episodes 63 to 65, we may or may not be on time with those...... Click here for the Daily Motion channel.

Doris Visits

Now there is something strange. Derek the villain sent Doris to collect a package in Norway, so we got the idea of a travel series. Yes, Doris now has a travel series and a TV deal on Opera, and there are over 100 films, still loading some. And we expect to have 300 within, we hope three years. Click here to sample the travel TV show on your computer.

We ask that you pay it forward, please share........

Different length programs play differently

From Coffee Break 3 min eps to full length Programs

There is a class system in the UK almost as strong as India. Ask any director or actor who works in TV. Those constantly trusted with 30 minute programs find it hard to move to the hour slot. Those in the hour slot often can't make it into the specials and multi parters. There are exceptions and these are normally exceptional people, however, the number of times actors leave say a soap to try and move on, then return two years later after they could not climb higher.

I spent 26 years on Emmerdale as well as the films and TV shows I did, but as an action coordinator we seem to be immune from that which is unique. Actually for us in effects and action we are trained on big product shows and the smaller shows love to have the huge accident. I joined Emmerdale to plan the Plane crash and stayed on retainer for a quarter of a century.

Shades OF Bad was a suggestion of my wife and co owner of INDYUK Films which has made features and never before ventured into TV of any form. I had sat at the British Screen Advisory Council meetings and lectures for a few years and the web was being extensively researched. So, I agreed and we started a coffee break show that was meant to always be three minute episodes.

I did cut the first 5 together to make a mega introductory episode but after the followers were way into episodes in their 40's, though new viewers may have watched or started via the longer episode it was still only 11 minutes.

However it was obvious it worked better, was more powerful and drew you into the story more. I have just just episodes 56 to 61 together and they make, even with some harsh cuts, a 27 minute episode. I have not released it as it is for discussion with our distributors Opera and Daily Motion before we decide what to do with the series.

However it is very interesting because you can cat more harshly as you have so much more product. However the grading and mixing done for three minutes needs to be rematched across the longer episodes.

I guess because we wrote the series from longer form ideas and cut them down, they do add up back together, but the exorcise is hugely interesting. I have just come out of a screening and two notes that toped up in the long form were never mentioned in the short form. In other words, the three minute coffee break episodes are not scrutinised as harshly as the show is in longer form.

One note that bugged a few in the longer form was the time between two incidents happening seemed wrong in the longer form. I can see that, but in the short episode as it stood alone, that never mattered. Long form is more demanding and the edit will be fun, what comes out of it will be interesting, but Shades Of Bad has way over 4 hours of material which we know can cut, work and play totally different. It is like a master class in editing.

The Boss comes in and directs episodes 58 and 59 after a film set accident

Stuart St Paul steps up and directs two episodes 58 and 59

to view films click the text where directed......

Stuart St Paul is often called an enabler as he makes things happen. He has invested in many projects, has owned many post facilities and camera hardware and won various and numerous awards including Best Director.
The Hollywood reporter referred to him as a Tri-Hyphenate, highlighting he had written, directed and produced. But Stuart is best known for action and stunts. Two years ago, although technically not working on the set on a huge stunt day in Hungary, he was there when a explosion was allegedly much larger than the tests by many multiples and large enough to swell and burn him. Since then he has been sitting in the back ground and advising as his wife ran the business INDYUK FILMS. Under Jean they halted film production and just made a foray into the web. INDYUK saw the female lead web series Shades Of Bad, that might not have arisen if Stuart was in charge. Stuart was rarely on set, never interfered with Buster Blackledge's direction nor Jean's direction after Buster, nor and more recently Lynn's directorial debut. Stuart, as Jean's life partner just agreed with her to finance the show and permanent equipment it which means they never hire anything. He has then just sat back, watched, occasionally advised and as the others are heard to say, he often criticised. For his IMDB credits click here...

However, after what is almost a two year break from work he has now directed few episodes of Shades Of Bad in a move to get back in the swing. Shades hardly represent the big toys he normally organises and takes responsibility for, but he has started to down size and put his two Red Weapon cameras and the Scarlet up for sale on RedUser.

Shades Of Bad has evolved a lot as he has taken more notice. He pushed Buster to shoot outside at night, then in the woods. Then challenged the girls to write and direct. Now, he has taken a trip to Barcelona with actor Gary Keates and Jean who plays Doris. Starting at 10am, in 4 hours he had shot the 'to and from' the Jewellers shop and was having lunch in a bar. His attitude has changed a lot in two years. But as Stuart says, when you have nearly been killed you think differently.

Stuart then recreated a Jewellers office at actor Nick Simons' house where he shot the interiors of Barcelona. The other sections are in his and Jean's house where Jean makes most of Shades Of Bad. Where as Buster preferred the kitchen, Stuart pushed actor Oliver Degnan for an edgy performance style and a walk into a new area. Stuart likes scenes to be busy visually.

Whether there is visible a difference between the episodes is for the eye to see, they were both shot as fast as the older episodes. Whether Shades Of Bad has entered a new era, or signalled one, a few motivated well known actors have taken notice at the shooting possibilities. They are asking Stuart to look at advising on how they can make their own films with a micro crew. Shades Of Bad has now over 3 hours of edited drama and never had a make up or costume or continuity department. Actors work this way in Fringe Theatre, what they need is the assistance of an enabler to turn their art into film.

Episode 58 - Doris arrives in Barcelona. They started at 10am and were in a bar have shot two episodes by 2pm. The house inserts were shot at the end of the shooting of Derek Redmond's last episode and are actually just a few shots cut in. Click this text for the episode.

Episode 59 - interior jewellers, Stuart was experimenting with pushing the Black Magic PC Camera after reading the manual and blogs on photography because he did not use the camera as well as he could on a sunset episode in low light (ep 61). On the ship on the way home. The episode that was created in the bar before it was shot will still stand as episode 61, but in 59 with no crew and just three small lamps he has pulled the curtains and deliberately worked in the dark.

The music he has used is from the film he directed Bula Quo and his long time friend and composer Mark Blackledge. Again it signals a mood change in Shades Of Bad though the Bula quo music has been used before in the Cat Fight episodes. 
Jean represents Mark at INDYUK if you are looking for a great self contained composer, who uses real musicians as well as samples.  Click here for the great interview with Jean and Mark in his composing studio. Click this text.

Actors Nick Simons and Oliver Degnan are also represented by INDYUK, they both left the profession for proper jobs and a proper wage but are both still very confident infant of camera.

INDYUK can be found on most sites and via the home/contact page on www.DorisVisits.com

Enjoy......   

Doris & Wilma write and direct a Female Hot Crazy Matrix episode

When should the cast start to direct?

Well, the girls of Doris Shades Of Bad completely took over in episode 57 ..... here's the journey.

The day you think you have stopped learning you are in trouble, every day is a school day. But it is amazing how many people who are so new to the industry want to direct. Well, now is the time, there is no excuse. It has never been so easy to start; web is the new fringe theatre. 

The two actresses on Shades Of Bad get to do it all - write and direct - for one episode, episode 57 released this week on YouTube. Click here for the advance private Daily Motion link.

Web Theatre. Web is the new Fringe

The web has now made anywhere your theatre, you can film on the street, in the tube, in the woods and do not have to build a set. So, with the world your oyster and the phone in your camera, it is time to experiment. Those with a natural flair will become tomorrows enablers.

I often compare acting to football because it is such a grounding and obvious comparison. How many years is it before you allow a footballer to be either the captain, or the manager? But, do those who work that hard from the start get noticed right from the kick-off and are shaped for better things? Shaped because they are future captains? Yes, it is how our film stars are made just in the same way as footballers. Those who put the time in get the rewards.

I think some actors make great directors and I love watching old colleagues like Kevin McKidd be so successful in the USA where he has been a stand-out regular cast member in the medical drama Grey's Anatomy for many years and is now showing he is an excellent director. I worked with Kevin first on Small Faces, then Hideous Kinky and we crossed paths many times. 

Shows that get to run as long as Greys Anatomy, and it has now been running longer than ER, allow the team to learn and then expand by directing if they show the flair to be able to see the 'whole picture'. Shades Of Bad reached that at episode 56, because, Lynn knew she was leaving the show and there was a gap for another episode between 56 and the next. 

I suggested they look at the male Hot Crazy Matrix and work out how Wilma (who has stolen Doris's husband) tells her to find a man. Now, whether you like Hot Crazy Matrix or not - don't knock success, learn from it. The main original film was shot in ten minutes for a laugh and has over 15 million views and is in discussion with Hollywood Studios about how this might progress as a film or a TV series. There have been two or three female attempts to parody this, all have failed to even dent a respectable number of views. So, that is what I threw at them..... In our story, Doris is being sent to Barcelona which was to be episode 57, I can delay that a week if they come up with an episode. Plan it, shoot it. I managed to get Buster to come back and do camera and tech crew for them, but let them direct.....

Directing is a tough job managing a huge team of workers and technicians, managing time, respecting a budget (most directors are sacked on day three of a movie because they cannot do that time/money bit). Also they work with story and a couple of actors but seriously one would hope most of that was done before walking on the set. Now is the manufacturing time. It is a tough job to get right, and not until the producer walks on the set looks at his watch and says, 'what's the hold up?' do you start to feel the need for speed. PRESSURE. 

The producer might get the answer, 'no, not today, don't have a go at me today!' but, they expect that, they have done their job. As I said, directors who do not head it, find themselves sacked three days later.

I did walk on and say that after an hour of nothing, I was as un welcome as all producers doing that.

So, when you are at work, which are you?

Are you the crew member or actor that stands and chats or the one who watches every department and learns? Are you the next David Beckham who is sponge like; watching and learning.  How many Wayne Rooney's are there, very few. How many hours did David Beckham stay behind every day after training to practice placing the ball with passes and shots - it is said 2 extra hours a day. Greatness is thrust upon those whose dedication knows no bounds. If you are an actor who never trains and whose first question when arriving on set is, 'when can I finish only I have a ......' You might not be director material.

So, time and experience are the enemy when you are starting and have neither, and both are your friend to use and abuse when you have credits. Here is where the web series has opened the future. You have a chance to film and film. 

How many episodes before you can call yourself a series?

This is a great question and I upset a few people a year ago when I asked this. A series is at least 7 in the real world and that is a test. That is a shot comedy series like Mrs Brown's Boys. 13 episodes is a normal season for drama, 26 episode a more modern number in broadcast for US TV like Blue Bloods and Madam Sectretary. If you have only three or four, or five, that is normally called a 'five-part drama'. A four or five part drama can sit and do, in one week. It is not a series.

Now it is different. There are huge web series out there. A year ago there were fewer web series and very few who could produce content. Now there are huge numbers, far greater than Shades Of Bad which has shot 61 episodes thus far and has started a travel show with more episodes that 61 in a shorter time. Over 140 shows in a year, some great ones, some not so great. The travel show will outlive the drama, see a sample here.

Jean started directing when we lost the initial director Buster Blackledge at episode 43 when Derek Redmond joined. Buster was himself a brand new director and although he had over 40 episodes to his name with two well schooled actresses (and well schooled guests) he did not appear so keen on directing an athlete in his first acting role. Jean Heard who plays Doris was ideal to work with Derek redmond because she was not actually in the UK sections of Shades Of Bad in her house, because Derek sends her abroad to collect a package. Jean's work is mainly in Norway, leaving her free to direct the UK sections as well. See episode 44 onwards for Derek in his first role and Jean directing. Click here.

When Jean started directing episode 43 episode 56 had been shot, like soaps and series we shoot out of order. The Barcelona sections of episode 58 and 60 were shot after episode 6 a year ago.

It is not fun, it is a job. A repetitive job.

OK, so I have been doing it for over 40 years, with a few major credits and over 26 years attached to a daily soap as a creative, so I can suggest that the creation, whilst wonderful is repetitive. That is where experience works. (I get to direct episode 58, the first one I have directed, see next weeks blog)

After 56 episodes, and episode 56 is a return for Buster Blackledge to direct the three girls in the woods on location. An opportunity he could not turn down and perform. Still only him on crew with me assisting moving three lights and car headlights for him. See 56 dumping the dead body by clicking here .......

Hot Crazy Matrix for Girls

So were the girls inspired by the hot crazy matrix?

There is no doubt when directing, you learn more about your own crafts and how important it is that the team all work together. They did, they are buzzing about how much they did learn which I find inspiring. In Shades the film crew is always one person doing lights and camera, the actors look after their microphones, place them test them and listen to them, then look after props. 

Their biggest downfall is marketing. They don't have the marketing thing yet and every actor is first and foremost a marketing machine. 1 for themselves, 2 for the production. Stars are locked in hotel rooms for days seeing journalists every 15 minutes on a film release. Dragged between every TV show, and tweeting to the fan base they have built. How big is your fan base. How important an acting commodity are you?

I do intend to sit them down and do a BTS interview, that is needed. Neither took stills while doing episode 57 so I have none to add. For now, be content with the episode. Click here for episode 57. It is  a good one.