The Shining, just a wonderful set of credits
The Semantic Web, beautifully explained
Long time no blog. Sorry about that but I’m sure you’ll manage. I’ve recently been doing a hell of a lot of production stuff for clients which has taken up a gigantic amount of time, on top of that I’ve been doing some very exciting work around education. More on those soon. Much, much more as it happens.
Anyway, in the absence of having anything substantial to post I just wanted to draw your attention to a rather beautiful documentary. I’ve been, in retrospect perhaps a little ineloquently, excitedly babbling about The Semantic Web for what seems like an absolute age. Having had my head stuck in computers and the internet for most of my life, I find it absolutely thrilling that we finally seem to be getting to the point where using one is an intuitive experience. It’s not there yet, not quite, but we are getting there. When we do you will find computers, not to mention all other items of digital media kit, being used in a far more creative way by a far greater swathe of the world then they already are. So it’s pretty exciting, enjoy.
A story about the Semantic Web
Interviews with:
Tim Berners-Lee
Clay Shirky
Chris Dixon
David Weinberger
Nova Spivack
Jason Shellen
Lee Feigenbaum
John Hebeler
Alon Halevy
David Karger
Abraham Bernstein
Some inspirational skate videos
I’m not quite sure how I’d get on skating nowadays, it’s been the best part of 15 years since I’ve actually been on a one but I know one thing, no self-respecting man in his thirties should be seen riding a skateboard. Unless of course that man is Tony Hawk, then it’s OK. There’s still something I find hugely entertaining about skate videos and I found a little cluster of bookmarks the other day that I found gave me a little refresh and allowed me to return to what I was doing before in a great frame of mind.
Adam Kimmel presents: Claremont
Claremont is the brainchild of Adam Kimmel, New York Suit Designer (and fashion label), who decided that there was no better way to publicise his new line of suits than to embark on a 60mph downhill skate. No? Me neither. Anyway, it hots up about two minutes in.
Tony Hawk, the 900
This video is pretty self explanatory. It is one of the most inspiring moments that I have ever witnessed in sport, watching live as he completed a trick he had been attempting for a decade. In case you were wondering, the 900 is a vert ramp trick involving two-and-a-half revolutions in the air. Tony completed it at the 1999 x games after 12 attempts.
Mouse, a film by Girl skateboards
This is a seminal film by Girl skateboards directed by now famous, but in 1996 very much less so, director Spike Jonze. It was as influential as it was referential, see how many other films you can pick off in the clips below. Also, if you are a fan of any of the Tony Hawk skateboarding games then you may recognise some of the settings.
Carl Sagan – ‘A Glorious Dawn’ ft Stephen Hawking
Here’s a lovely little vid I found where, via the gift of autotune, Carl Sagan – renowned astronomer, author and astrophysicist – sings about the beauty and complexity of the universe. Not to be outdone Professor Stephen Hawking, with that distinctive voice of his, pops in for a verse to give us the benefit of his tuneful knowledge too.
Cliffhanger video – Sheffield gets the Parkour and MTB treatment
As if Volleyball wasnt enough, the good people at this week’s Cliffhanger festival have produced this fantastic viral. Cliffhnager is one of the UK’s largest outdoor outdoor-pursuits festivals, based in one of Sheffield’s biggest green spaces. Anyway, enough of me prattling on about how blinding it is, it takes place this Saturday and Sunday. Visit the site for more info.
Cliffhanger 09 from Weekday Productions on Vimeo.
Yaay, we’ve won the World Cup!
Some news reached me today that I am very, very happy about.
Yorkshire Events, the guys I am currently working with, won their bid for the 2010 UCI Mountainbiking XC World Cup. I’m absolutely made up that we won it as I was desperate for it to get the recognition it deserves. The real kicker is that, particularly with bid stuff, nobody wants to know if you didnt win the event. This wouldve meant something I was very proud of would be the proverbial ginger stepchild.
Understanably the World Cup bid has been a bit of a long shadow on the horizon for me for a while. It’s been hovering over me like the sword of Damocles, having submitted the bid in late April and it’s actually one of the things that I am most proud of in my career, certainly the item of print I’m most proud of. To say it was just print though would be doing it a bit of a disservice, it was a very complex project made up of two bid books, a part CGI part live action DVD and a gorgeous presentation box. I had the pleasure of working with a slew of very good people who all pulled together in the right direction to pull it off.
I’ll post some of the beautiful stills as well as the excellent bid DVD in the next week or so.
Is this the coolest single shot take ever?

you claaaaaahn
If you are a film buff like me I think you may well be in for a treat. Obviously the greatest single shot take was either Goodfellas, or The Godather….yes probably the godfather. Anyway, though this is crammed with CGI and all sorts of other shenanigans is is undenyably beautiful.
It’s to advertise a TV, here’s the beta version from the agency and here’s the final superduper one with director’s commentary and HD options as well as how it would look with the ever so slightly superfluous Ambilight feature.
All hail Swede Mason
There are very few people who, in my mind, are undiscovered geniuses but this guy has to be pretty close. Swede Mason seems to have the unerring ability to take the seemingly mundane aspects of the rockpools of pop culture and turn them into the funniest, most original little videos there is. Here’s a link to Swede Mason’s Youtube channel, show him some love.
Here he is turning Ex-Stone Bill Wyman’s love of metal detectors into some form of pseudo-kraftwerk goodness:
Here he is twisting some of the most touching scenes Neighbours ever managed into a weird, warped and lovely scratchfest:
Lastly, here Swede takes an already pretty perfect film and makes it funnier, well roughly a second and a half of it:
Sheffield gets spiked!
Here’s a volleyball promo I did with my erstwhile collaborator Phil Parkin of Quickfeet Productions, the campaign itself was hugely successful getting over 200,000 views in six weeks. This is the “off campaign” version as many of you who know me will attest, I am a stickler for measurement and monitoring.
The FIVB Volleyball World Championships first round take place at Sheffield’s English Institute of Sport on January the 2nd, 3rd and 4th, and to celebrate Yorkshire Events have taken volleyball to the people of Sheffield with this short film.
The film starts with GB Men and GB Women’s Volleyball teams facing off in a practice match from which the ball escapes. As the volleyball makes its way across Sheffield it takes in some of the city’s more iconic sights and is helped along its way by Sheffielders as they go about their daily business. Along the way the ball passes through the hands of some familiar faces such as Premier League Referee Uriah Rennie, Chinese snooker stars Ding Junhui and Liang Wenbo and the hotly-tipped-for-2012 heptathalete Jessica Ennis.
The soundtrack for the film is provided by unsigned, up-and-coming Sheffield band, The True Gentlemen, with their storming tune “Toxic Reservoir”. The True Gentlemen are currently on tour playing to packed houses and are earmarked in the music press to be one of the breakthrough acts of 2009.
Sheffield has become the home of British volleyball with the EISS housing the British indoor squads, while the venue is the number one choice for many national teams around the world to stage their training camps in this country.
EIS Sheffield is also the location of the British Volleyball Federation’s (BVF) High Performance office and has hosted numerous major events including Volleyball England’s National Cup Finals and the European Championships
The FIVB Volleyball World Championships first round take place at Sheffield’s English Institute of Sport on January the 2nd, 3rd and 4th, and to celebrate Yorkshire Events have taken volleyball to the people of Sheffield with this short film.
The film starts with GB Men and GB Women’s Volleyball teams facing off in a practice match from which the ball escapes. As the volleyball makes its way across Sheffield it takes in some of the city’s more iconic sights and is helped along its way by Sheffielders as they go about their daily business. Along the way the ball passes through the hands of some familiar faces such as Premier League Referee Uriah Rennie, Chinese snooker stars Ding Junhui and Liang Wenbo and the hotly-tipped-for-2012 heptathalete Jessica Ennis.

Regular readers of the blog (of which, admittedly, there aren’t many) will probably have been wondering why the lack of updates recently. The reasons are many and varied but the day job has been pretty hectic, lots of important and creatively draining meetings have been distracting me, I’ve been doing some serious decorating on our ramshackle 150 year old house and also I’ve been on holiday – see the pic of me and the little terror on the beach for proof.