Thursday 3 December 2009

A Very MOVING Occassion!

Hey folks! We're not blogging here anymore. If you wanna keep reading, head to our wordpress account!

http://manalivestudios.wordpress.com

It's been emotional...

L.

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Monday 9 November 2009

The Adventures of Moonface and Torchboy

Hello out there!

Today's blog is just a cheeky wee one, as I'm just squeezing it in at the end of the day. This weekend's been crazy busy - we've been filming some fun sketches for the Scottish Social Work peeps, as well as attending the premiere of "Terror 'Neath the Tay" on Saturday night at the Dundee Odeon cinema.

We were invited to the premiere by one of our youtube chums, Kyle Titterton. He got in touch and asked us to make a fake trailer to be screened before his main feature (which was very entertaining, I have to say!). Along with our good chum, Alexander Bethune, we came up with this...



We were concerned it wasn't going to be well-received on the night, but fortunately people were in a silly mood and we got a respectable number of giggles.

The best thing about it all though, was seeing the benefits of building relationships with other local film-makers and people in the "industry". Our friend and mentor, Justyn Rowe, once told us that we should get to know as many other people in the same line of work as us, and not be afraid to help them out. They may be your competition, but they are also a powerful ally and resource!

Anyway, that's all for now!

Have a great evening!

L.

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Wednesday 28 October 2009

Surprise, Surprise!

Happy Wednesday!

How's it going out there, peeps? Today it's bright and sunny here in Dundee, which is most unusual. But enough with the tedious formalities! Here's part 6 of my notes from the writersroom seminar...

SURPRISE

When you are writing a screenplay, you want to write something that is fresh and original, but there are only a finite number of basic plots that you can work with (I'm going to do a blog on these basic plots later too) so you need to know what's different about your version. What unique perspective are you bringing to the story? What's your original touch? How are you going to surprise the audience?

When you watch a movie, or read a great story, there should be a sense that the ending was totally inevitable, but at the same time unpredictable. What I mean by this, is that, once the dust clears, you should be able to look back and see that it was obvious the story would end like this. Everything should "add up".

A good example of this would be the movie "The Sixth Sense", by M. Night Shyamalan. The story is about a child psychiatrist (Bruce Willis) who is working with a young boy that claims he can see ghosts.



If you haven't watched it, don't read any more as there is about to be a terrible spoiler...

...at the end of the movie, it's revealed that Bruce Willis' character (the main character throughout the film) is actually a ghost. This is a great plot twist in the movie, as, when you look back over the film, you can see that it really was quite obvious, but not (to my mind anyway) predictable. Now, not all stories need to end with such a mind-blowing twist to be a success, but they do need to come to a satisfactory resolution that has been built up over the course of the plot. Many movies start off strong, but lose it at the ending. This is usually because the writer simply hasn't done enough to suggest this kind of conclusion to their story.

An example of a movie that (in my opinion) utterly fails in this principle, is the film, "Vanilla Sky".



Don't be fooled by the great trailer. This movie uses the technique that children are taught never to use in writing class, the "and then I woke up" lazy-ass ending. The writer has created all these confusing yet interesting situations/circumstances and twists in the plot, but then, instead of rewarding the faithful viewer with a great resolution that explains everything, they cop out by saying it was all a dream. Awful stuff.

So, that's all for this section. Many of you may disagree with my thoughts on "The Sixth Sense" and "Vanilla Sky" (as there is potentially some case to be made in suggesting that Vanilla Sky does, in fact, point towards its ending), but hopefully you can see the principle behind what I mean anyway.

L.

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Tuesday 27 October 2009

Show Me Emotion, Tra La La La La....

Hey!

We're back after a nice long weekend, and, sadly, I'm now a year older. Yup, a lot can happen in a weekend. Today we were going to be out filming a silly fake trailer for a superhero film, but there was too much rain. Hopefully we'll have it done before the end of the week and we can post it for your entertainment.

In the meantime, here's the next part (part 5) from the writersroom seminar the other week...

EMOTION

When you're writing a screenplay, it needs to matter at a human level. What I mean by that is that the characters and their individual stories need to be more important than the "concept" behind the film. This obviously links in with what we were saying about character in the last blog, but refers more to the journey that you take your characters through than the characters themselves.

A good way to do this is by showing the vulnerabilities in your characters - the chinks in their armour. A great example of this is the film "Leon", which is one of my favourite movies of all time...



The main character is a cold-blooded assassin, who cares about no-one and lives a life of solitude, but everything changes when he decides to save the life of his next-door neighbour - a young girl. As the film goes on we get more and more glimpses into the true vulnerability of Leon's character, and the emotional journey he goes through. If you've not seen the movie, I highly recommend it.

Essentially, the best scripts/movies (really, the best stories) should generate a physical response as you read/watch them - whether it be laughing out loud at the jokes, getting goosebumps at the revelations, holding back a tear at the sad bits, looking cautiously around the room at the scary bits, involuntary gripping of the armrests during a tense scene, or, best of all, combinations of all of these things and more. You can't get any of this if the audience don't care about the characters, and there's no point aspiring to anything less than this. If this is not your goal, you're wasting your time, and if it is, then check your scripts back afterwards and be sure you're generating the feeling you want your readers to feel.

Peace for now!

L.

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Thursday 22 October 2009

If You Want To Make It As A Writer, You've Got To Have Character(s)

Yo! Welcome back! This is part 4 of my notes from the writersroom seminar. Check out the other parts in our last three blogs. :-) Today we're talking about...

CHARACTER

One of my favourite TV shows ever is "The Shield", a police drama about a police station that is right in the middle of LA gangland. The main character, Vic Mackey (a corrupt cop), is an incredibly interesting character. Not at all a likeable person, but SO entertaining to watch. You're always wondering what he's going to do next. Here's a scene to show you what I mean, but be warned, it's pretty gross and the language isn't suitable for kids. Mackey is the bald one...



Whenever you're writing a character, you really need to make them compelling on an emotional level. No amount of fiddling with the other details of your script will help if you don't have compelling characters.

There's no real way of being "taught" how to do this, but you can examine the characters you've written and if you can't connect with them, or they seem dry, or stereotypical, or if they all seem to have the same "voice", then you know you need to work on them some more. They need to be somebody that you want to spend time with, not necessarily somebody that you like, but somebody who makes you want to know what they're going to do next and what's going to happen to them.

Part of this is making sure that you take your characters on an "active journey", and by this, I mean that the character is motivated by desires or needs, and that they face obstacles or come up against dilemmas that get in the way of these desires. How they deal with these situations is how you reveal the nature of your characters and make them identifiable.

Another part of it is making sure you don't play into the trap of using stereotypical characters, but instead create them as individuals. The last thing that Paul Ashton (of the writersroom) said about character that really, really struck me was, "what does your character see when they look at the world?" It seems so simple, but if you can get your head into the character, and think about how they view the world/people around them, you can think about how they see it differently from everybody else. This will make it easier to write for them - they will become more "alive", interesting and individual.

That's all for today, peeps. Catch you tomorrow.

L.

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Wednesday 21 October 2009

The Plot That Sucked

Hello faithful blog readers!

Back again today with part 3 of the notes from the writersroom seminar. Today's should be fairly brief...

COHERENCE


Your script needs to have a strong plot that holds everything together. This should be fairly obvious to anyone who's an aspiring screenwriter, but there are so many people who get it wrong! You can have lots of great ideas, good scenes, etc., but you still need a clear plot that connects these things and also comes to a satisfactory resolution.

One example of a film which (in my opinion) fails to accomplish this, is "The Boat That Rocked" by great writer Richard Curtis. It's full of great little scenes and moments that can be comedic, touching, or even heartbreaking. As a whole, however, it is very unsatisfying. The overall central plot is extremely weak, and there are too many little plots all happening at once, with no real resolution or sense of story.

It's very easy to get carried away when you're "in the zone" and to try to do too much, but you need to beware of being distracted from the focus of your story. You may write a scene that you really like, but, if it's not moving the plot along, does it really need to be there?

Lastly, you need to know the world, tone and genre of your script, then make sure that you are faithful to this throughout. What kind of story is it? This harks back to the stuff about format from part one of these blogs, but again - your audience needs to know what they are watching, and to "get it" very quickly. There's nothing wrong with writing in a specific genre, the trick is learning how to be original and surprising within that world.

Alright. That's all for part 3. Catch you later!

L.

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Tuesday 20 October 2009

Stuck "In The Middle."

Good day to you.

Here's part two of my notes from the writersroom session last week...

GET THE STORY GOING

When you're writing a script, you need to "hit the ground running". When readers are going through a script for the first time, they make a decision based on the first ten pages. This is because television isn't like cinema; if people lose interest they will simply turn over or turn off. Obviously the script has to be just as engaging after these first ten pages, but if you spend too long setting up the story, or introducing characters, people won't bother waiting to see what happens.

I attended another writer's seminar, not that long ago, that was taught by the successful playwright, Colin Teevan. He spoke about the same thing, and called it "the ticking clock". You shouldn't have a story that begins on page seven. It should already have started by page one! You need to find out where your "ticking clock" begins and ends, so that your story doesn't start too late or finish too soon.

The best thing to do is to start off "in the middle" of something, and show your characters in action. You can give backstory and character depth, but do it as the story moves, not before. Also, you should beware of doing too much backstory and exposition (explaining things). The audience is much more intelligent than they are often given credit for, and don't like to have everything spelled out to them.

To show you what I mean, here's a clip of the opening scene from "The Matrix"...



This is a great example of "hitting the ground running." We begin with a phonecall between two unknown people, and are simultaneously aware that another, separate party is running a trace on their call. In this first conversation, one of the characters talks about how they are going to kill someone, and the other talks about the potential importance of this person. Suddenly, they become suspicious of a trace and end the call, and we immediately see that the police have traced the call and are about to bust down a door. An incredible action sequence follows.

There has been no explanation, no backstory, you know nothing about any of the characters. Who are they? What are their intentions? How are they able to do these remarkable things? Why is the woman being hunted? Who were they talking about on the phone? The audience have been hooked right into what's going on. Straight away, you're "in the middle of something."

I hope you found some of that interesting/helpful. There'll be more from my notes on the writersroom seminar tomorrow.

L.

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Friday 16 October 2009

Form of an Ass

I got today's blog title from an exclamation made by a writer I follow on Twitter. I thought it was funny and it contains the word "form", which is what I'm talking about today...

So!

Yesterday I promised I'd fill you in on some of the points from the Writersroom roadshow event that stood out to me on Wednesday. The main part of the talk was delivered by Paul Ashton of the BBC Writersroom, and he gave a rundown of ten things that they look for in a script.

Much of this stuff you can also find in other writing courses or in books on writing for tv/film, but it was still good to have it re-iterated and there were a few things Paul explained in a fresh way that I think will really help in some of our up-coming projects.

Today, I'll just write about the first point...

FORM

Television shows always fit into a specific format, for example, half-hour sitcoms, serial dramas (two/three hour-long episodes, like jane austen), one-off sixty-minute documentaries, etc. So when you're sending in a script to the BBC (or any other channel), you have to make sure you know what kind of show it is that you've written, and that the format is appropriate. Don't send in a two-hour long episode of what is clearly half-hour sitcom material.

You also need to look at other shows in the same style as yours. Although you want to tell your own original story, people are used to a specific form when it comes to certain types of programme. If you're doing a crime drama series, you should be watching other programmes of a similar nature, and figuring out how they work - how they tell their story.

When you're writing the script, you need to always be clear about what you mean, what you're trying to say. Script readers don't necessarily have all the background information that you're aware of, or all of the painstaking notes you've taken as you've worked on your story. If you don't make sure all the important info is there, the chances are that they're not going to "get it".

Finally, it's important that you don't "direct". Just get the dialogue and action onto the page. Leave all the camera moves and things up to the director. An example of this could be where you write about how a character gets a shock of realisation. In the script, you simply have to say something like, "We see a look of realisation on Kevin's face." It's up to the director/actor how this is then shown on-screen. The script is the blueprint. The starting point that everything else is built from.

Alrighty. That's all for today, but hopefully there was some interesting stuff in there for ya. Lots of it seems like common sense, but apparently the Writersroom gets inundated with a plethora (I love that word) of scripts that haven't thought about these kinds of things. If you can make sure you bear them in mind, you'll definitely stand out as someone who knows what they're doing.

Adios for now!

L.

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Thursday 15 October 2009

Bee Careful to Follow our Blogs!

Hey!

So, we're back in the blogging game again today. We have been busy bees of late, which is more than I can say for the poor actual bees who seem to be dying out in some kind of bee apocalypse.

We've decided to re-focus our blog approach. So far, it's just been a case of letting you know what we've been up to, like crewing as the cameramen for this music vid, for example...



...but from now on, we're going to be posting more regularly, and sharing lots of the different things we've been learning on our quest to become great film-makers.

Both Stu and myself are interested in all the different aspects of film-making, so it'll be a bit of a mish-mash of subjects, plus we'll be doing some reviews and other random stuff too, but hopefully that means there'll be at least one thing a week which will keep you interested. :-)

Last night we were at a special seminar in Dundee, put on by the BBC Writersroom. It was a really informative look at improving your writing, as well as an opportunity for them to remind us about their upcoming screenplay competition. If you're a writer, you should check out the Writersroom website and get yourself signed up for their email bulletins!

Tomorrow, I'll be posting a couple of the points from their seminar. Stay tuned!

L.

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Thursday 23 July 2009

Promises, Promises...

Well, well, well. I promised a blog every day didn't I. Sorry about that, but we've been MAD busy! We're in the middle of a major event in Dundee right now, called "LOVE DUNDEE", and we're doing a lot of music and video stuff for it.

In the meantime though, here's a vid of me smacking myself in the face with a shovel. This is an out-take from the vid we made for this year's Virgin Media Shorts competition. Please click the link below to view it on their official website, and register to rate/comment. It would be seriously appreciated! :-)



Click HERE to see the finished vid.

Also, check out these nasty parkour fails. Horrible stuff...



'Later!

L.

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Thursday 16 July 2009

"As God once said, and I think rightly..."

That's a genuine Margaret Thatcher quote. Classic. I found it while I was searching for good quotes from famous people about life, religion, belief, etc.

You see, yesterday and today, we've been working on some videos for a big church event that's happening in our city next week, called "Love Dundee". I've been searching for quotes that could be used in one of the vids, while Stu's been pulling together clips from classic, instantly-recognisable movies (like The Matrix, or Pirates of the Caribbean).

Many won't know this already, but our office is actually in the vestry of a church on the Perth Road, Dundee. The church is called Gate Church International and both Stu and I are really involved in the work that goes on there. We're both Christians (Shock! Horror! Please don't run away screaming, atheists and liberals!) and can tell you why, but that's for another blog.

The church use the vestry on Sundays as their room for live internet broadcast of services, and they have some cool computers and software. We made a deal with them, where we get to use the office rent-free, but have to make video announcements for them every week (plus the odd major event like this one coming up).

I'm telling you this, because it's a really cool thing to think about if you're starting out in film-making. What people or organisations do you know, or have links with, that have amazing equipment or studio space you could borrow/use/hire, etc.?

Think creatively! Not just about the content of your films, but how to get them made too! My band just finished a demo, and we managed to get some sweet recording time at Abertay University by offering the free use of our tracks in videos produced by their "Whitespace" team (which means we also got free advertising!!!).

A wise friend in business recently said to me that "money should never be an excuse not to do something", and he was right. If you have a creative goal, don't write it off just because it's too expensive. There's (nearly) always a way.

Peace.

L.

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Tuesday 14 July 2009

Robo Boogie

Hello out there, blog fans (yes, Phil and Pavel, I'm talking to you)!

What a long time it's been since our last blog! Never fear, a new wave of blog euphoria has swept the "man ALIVE" office and we intend to blast you with a barrage of blog-type ammunition every day for the foreseeable future. We're even about to set up a new youtube channel that will provide little easter eggs for you, yes YOU, to check out as you read. Isn't that special?

Today, Stu and I are deliberating over some ideas for our new project with the Scottish Social Work department. The aim is to communicate the Codes of Practice in an entertaining way, and we've finally all agreed that the best way to do this is to bring a very small robot into the mix. If you have any ideas for funny scenarios involving little robots, feel free to send them our way, although we'll nick them and use them, so be warned!

One of the reasons we've taken so long to blog again is that we've been away in Poland, which was INCREDIBLE! If you'd like to hear about why, or you just want some banter, please add us on facebook (stu/liam) or twitter (stu/liam) or both, and send us a wee message.

In the meantime, here's a couple of our most recent sketches to keep you occupied...





Much love!

Liam.

P.S. When you say someone is still "green", you know, like a "rookie", is it because bananas are green when they're not ripe? curious...

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Monday 18 May 2009

Some Work and No Play Makes... sheesh, I'm bored of typing...

Brothers and Sisters of Blogdom.

Greetings.

I am writing to you after what was possibly the slowest week in the history of man alive. At least since the "tuna digestive" famine of 2007 (a bleak period indeed).

Our productivity hit an all-time low, we had to film exterior shots for a promo of incredibly dry subject matter in weather of an incredibly wet persuasion, and, speaking of persuasion, I even got a bit confused...



In other news, we watched Star Trek, saw the end of LOST - Series 5, and worked on a new, innovative and, above all, scientific approach to dieting. Oh, and I went undercover at the X-factor auditions in Glasgow. So stay tuned to our blogs, 'cos there should be more on these things later and they'll be worth the wait. I'm SURE of it.

L.

Wednesday 29 April 2009

Back to "Work"

Hello again, faithful readers (yes, both of you)! :-)

We're back from a week off, which mainly involved lots of going for coffees, playing video games, catching up on Prison Break and hitting the pubs. Essentially it was just like any other week in the office.

This week we've been busy setting up meetings and getting ready for our next projects with the Social Work and the NHS, but we still made time to chat about some personal issues....



...and last night we went to see Wolverine for "research purposes". It was enjoyable, but not great. Go see it for yourself and tell us what you think!

L.

Tuesday 7 April 2009

Shall Nimoy Return?

Hey raiders of the lost blogs,

First things first, has anyone seen the trailer for the new Star Trek film. I've never been known to get excited at the thought of a new Star Trek film but I saw the trailer at the cinema the other day. It looks pretty darn good I have to say.

That being said, lets get down to the good stuff. Who wants to see another sketch? Ok ok, here's one that you will only have seen if you've already checked out the manaliveblog channel on youtube.



More sketches on the way people so check us out at least once a week for something cool.

Stu

Thursday 2 April 2009

Chain Gang

Yo!

So, you may have read Stu's last post where he said we were working on, "yes, this is why i became a film-maker" stuff. Sadly, today he is at home, eating humble pie, weeping, and saying the word "why?" to himself quietly.

Here's the lowdown - Stu and I were invited to join in with a "chain film" project. This involved us receiving a film from another film-maker, watching it, producing our own film based on something from their film, and then passing that on to someone else. We agreed wholeheartedly, especially as the finished work is supposed to be shown at the DCA (Dundee Contemporary Arts) Cinema. However, we forgot about this until Monday, and it had to be finished by... Tuesday!

So, together we watched the other film and studied it, and the best we could come up with was a silly short about a pteradactyl in the woods. We "scripted" it and "organised" to shoot the next day. The rushed finished project is unlikely to rock Hollywood, but hey, it MIGHT gently nudge a small village like Helmsdale or something.

Prepare for the horror that is....

TERRORDACTYL!!!



Was it worth us missing out on two of our weekly sketches to make this? Haha, yes! It was fun.

'Laters.

L.

Wednesday 1 April 2009

Friends of Steve Buscemi

My friends in Blogworld!

So far its been a great week for the man ALIVE boys. We've been out and about doing some of the more mundane film makery stuff as well as the "yes this is why I became a film maker" stuff. Yesterday saw Liam and myself take to the woods to film our newest short film due to be screened at a local art centre ('center' if there's any American followers) later in the year. More on that later, unfortunately its not edited yet so I can't add it to this post, so instead i'll add a couple of our more recent sketches.

BUT BEFORE THAT, Liam and I are really excited to say that thanks to the communicative powers of TWITTER, we've been able to chat to THE REAL Steve Buscemi. A friend of ours Mr Gregor Maltman messaged Steve on twitter suggesting he watch our Award winning Matt, Ben and Buscemi. In short, he watched it, he liked it, and he told his 7000 strong following to check us out. So if you're here because Mr Buscemi sent you, WELCOME.

A special thanks obviously goes out to Gregor and the man ALIVE Award for 'making our week the best ever' goes to the man, the myth, the legend, Steve Buscemi.

Enjoy the sketches!





Cheers!

Stu

Thursday 19 March 2009

Tax Doesn't Have to be Taxing, but it F***ing is!

Yes!

Tax is a flaming (that's the starred-out word in the title, obviously) nuisance! This week we finally caught up on a year's worth of "book-keeping", and sent off some forms to the inland revenue, who were trying to fine us £100 (each!) for not filling in yet ANOTHER form they'd never sent us or even told us about! Every form was as pointless as the next one and contained the EXACT same information. One even started with our business name and tax reference number, then proceeded to ask for our business name and tax reference. Twice!

My tax fury was so intense that I had to let Stu take over for a little bit while I went outside to smash a bin lid to pieces with a spanner.

Still, some good news as Matt, Ben and Buscemi will finally be making it to the small screen sometime in the next couple of weeks on Paramount Comedy. We actually cringe watching it now, but it's still exciting!

Below is another of our recent sketches. We've been firing out 3 a week, so keep checking www.youtube.com/manaliveblog to stay up-to-date. Like all sketch stuff, these are pretty hit-or-miss, but let us know what you think! Constructive criticism is always welcome, and even insults can be funny.



Catch you later.

L.

Wednesday 11 March 2009

More Quality Sketches

Hey there bloggie wogs,

I wanted to make sure all our viewers are getting their fill of man ALIVE quality entertainment so I thought it would be a treat to post another couple of sketches Liam and I have been working on so far this week. Unfortunately due to some terrible goings on in the man ALIVE office we have been unable to finish any sketches at all.

Instead here are a couple of videos that show the terrible events this week in the office. Fortunately the cameras were rolling as the action happened. That's because man ALIVE understand the importance of always being prepared.

O.k enjoy the videos.





Love and peace,

Stu x

Friday 6 March 2009

New Comedy

Hey blog junkies,

been a busy week at man alive, so unfortunately i didn't get to interview a kangaroo BUT I WILL, however not this week. hopefully next week. Just keep tuned in for it.

We decided this week that we are going to make 3 sketches a week and post them on youtube and probably on here as well, so make sure you have a look and tell us what you think. We expect some of them to be a little crazy, but just trying to experiment





Love and Peace, enjoy the sketches! (only got two this week so far but are filming one this avo)

STEWIE!!

Tuesday 3 March 2009

Crushing Blow

Hey people who read our blogs,

A fairly stinging defeat for the man ALIVE guys today. We entered Empire magazine's "Done in 60 Seconds" competition, (remake a famous film, make it last 60 seconds), which we did quite well in last year (top 10).

Well, results are in and man ALIVE were asked to stay at home again this year, not making it into the top 5, or even the top 13. So thats pretty bad, but pair it with the fact one of the top 5 films was made by another Dundee film maker, and you can probably tell we're feeling a bit down. Of course we're happy for the success of the other Dundee guys and their film Roverfield, and i'll be voting for them to win for sure, flying the Dundee banner and all that.

Check out Cloverfield/Roverfield at: http://www.empireonline.com/awards2009/done-in-60-seconds/

here's ours. Hope you enjoy them.



Stu

Friday 27 February 2009

Animal Art

Hey man ALIVErs,

Stu again here with another sweet blog. If you read yesterday's post then you'll have tried to check out the websites I mentioned because they sound way cool. Unfortunately due to technical issues the websites aren't working. I can only apologise but perhaps this will make up for it.

Watch this!



Peace and love x

Stu

Thursday 26 February 2009

Not As Funny As Limmy?

Hi man ALIVE fans, Stu here!

Its been aaaaa(ages)aaa long time since I last blogged, I usually let my employee Liam do all the company communications whilst I attend to more important matters like photoshopping moustaches, monacles and pipes onto the faces of well known animal stars. Feel free to check these out at www.highbrow-animalhumour.com or www.pets-of-sherlockholmes.com

Anyway, its been an incredible day for man ALIVE Studios today. We took an early morning road trip through to Dundee's west-coast big sister, Glasgow and visited some very nice people at The Comedy Unit, (producers of Chewing the Fat and Rab C Nesbit) to talk a bit about our blossoming careers. To put it bluntly, and that is how it was put to us, we've got nothing. Its true, we made one comedy piece that won a competition a year ago, and have somehow been given the opportunity to talk to top industry people about...US!

"You're not the best, but you're not the worst" is a phrase that was used, most graciously and honestly, in our meeting this morning, but despite being no further forward in our attempts to achieve Andy Millmanism (check out extras for the reference), we couldn't be more excited about our future in Comedy.

And this is great for all our viewers too because we've realised just how much more quality entertainment we need to produce in order to break through. So I'm starting by getting everyone geared up for a daily stream of man ALIVE blogging and twittering.

You MUST check us out. Comment us and we'll get back to you and when we get big you can show your friends that you were there in the beginning!

Alright, peace and love

Stu

Thursday 15 January 2009

Happy 2009!

Okay, it's a little late, but, considering the frequency at which we've been posting blogs here, it could've been a lot worse!

Hope everyone is keeping well? We've been hard at work (most of the time) and would like to kick things off with our newest video; a promo for this year's "Dare to be Digital" competition.



Hope you enjoyed it! It was great to work with people like Mario and Solid Snake. We even managed to grab an interview with the plumber himself!



He was a little threatening...

Anyways, we'll try to keep you posted on all that's happening here over the next 12 months, and who knows, maybe someone will read it!

L.

www.manalivestudios.co.uk
www.youtube.com/manaliveblog
www.youtube.com/manalivestudios