NeilCocker.com

As i mentioned the other day, I managed to blag myself for a private screening of Danny Boyle’s new film Slumdog Millionaire. The director Danny Boyle was there to introduce the film himself and was every bit as enthusiastic, genuine and charming as he’d come across as in previous interviews I’d heard with him. He also said that this was also only the second ever screening of the film, so we all felt pretty priveleged to see it ahead of it’s January release.

It’s set in Mumbai, India. And it shows it as an incredibly vibrant, chaotic, beautiful city full of wealth and devastating poverty. It’s a fantastic film and I can’t recommend it highly enough. It certainly makes up for the last third of Danny’s last film Sunshine, which had started out so well…

It was quite surreal to be driving home later that evening and hear about the terrorist attacks on the city that I felt like I’d come to know over the previous two hours. It was really sad to think of all the bloodshed, and my thoughts immediately turned to the author of a blog I’ve been following recently, who is discovering the music industry in India. Fortunately she appears to be safe and, I think, back in the UK.

In other movie news, the next night I went back to the Soundtrack Film Festival to see Hunger, a film about the hunger strikes by Bobby Sands and other IRA prisoners in the eighties. It’s an incredibly powerful film and certainly one of the best I’ve seen this year. It’s gruesome, shocking and very stark. There’s almost no dialog for the first third, and then there’s this intense scene that is almost entirely made up of one shot of Sands talking to a priest. It goes on for about 20 minutes (I think) and is utterly transfixing. And then it falls into near dialog-free imagery until the end. It’s not easy viewing, but essential.

The film was followed by a Q+A with Northern Irish DJ/producer/composer, David Holmes. His soundtrack for Hunger is incredibly minimal. Almost non-existent. He said that he was keen to avoid the obvious pipes and drums cliches, and as such moved towards very simplistic droning and monotone piano pieces. Of which there are actually only three in the entire movie. However, the lack of emotive music seems only to lend it more authority and power somehow.

In other news, it’s intriguing to see that Twitter may be acquired by Facebook. I wonder if they’ll be able to integrate it in to their platform and turn it into a money making machine.

And it’s worth checking out this presentation on how young people will use the web in 2009. And definitely watch the short video underneath from my mate DK, expert in all things “social media“.

A great list of useful blogs, links, useful tools and advice for singers, songwriters, producers and bands etc etc.

From Ariel Publicity’s blog.

Continued from yesterday…

I’m looking forward to Soundtrack Film Festival. It’s not often you get the opportunity to have masterclasses with the likes of Danny Boyle and David Holmes. And I’m lucky to have an invite to the opening night showing of Danny Boyle’s new film Slumdog Millionaire (pictured above). It opens in January and is getting amazing buzz on the film-geek blogs! It was all filmed in Mumbai, India. Which brings me neatly to…

Claire Edwards won a British Council competition to find music industry entrepreneurs. As her “prize” she is spending two weeks in India meeting movers and shakers in their own music industry. I’ve finally caught up with her blog (updated daily while she’s in India) and it makes for great reading. And those of us in the creativie industries really need to be educating ourselves about what’s going on in the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China). In “the west” we really only have our knowledge economy that keeps us ahead of the rest of the world. We’ve lost a huge portion of our industry and mmanufacturing to these countries and it won’t be long before their vibrant creativity floods the market. This isn’t a statement of fear or xenophobia. I’m a huge believer in globalisation as a force for good in most respects. But as an entrepreneur i’m keen to keep my eye on the competition! Read more about it at BRICpop.com.

And finally, I’m really excited to be working alongside the Predictagoal* team for the next couple of months. It’s gonna be a really exciting project. Can’t tell you much more than that though. And to keep the sense of “cloak and dagger” going, myself and a mystery person have just signed a deal with major label for a secret project. I promise to tell you more. But only when I can…

p.s. Anyone fancy doing a mental detox with me?

p.p.s. Us Brits r teh g33kiest!!!

* The link’s dead at the moment, but the site will re-launch very soon.

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Continued from yesterday…

I’m looking forward to Soundtrack Film Festival. It’s not often you get the opportunity to have masterclasses with the likes of Danny Boyle and David Holmes. And I’m lucky to have an invite to the opening night showing of Danny Boyle’s new film Slumdog Millionaire (pictured above). It opens in January and is getting amazing buzz on the film-geek blogs! It was all filmed in Mumbai, India. Which brings me neatly to…

Claire Edwards won a British Council competition to find music industry entrepreneurs. As her “prize” she is spending two weeks in India meeting movers and shakers in their own music industry. I’ve finally caught up with her blog (updated daily while she’s in India) and it makes for great reading. And those of us in the creativie industries really need to be educating ourselves about what’s going on in the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China). In “the west” we really only have our knowledge economy that keeps us ahead of the rest of the world. We’ve lost a huge portion of our industry and mmanufacturing to these countries and it won’t be long before their vibrant creativity floods the market. This isn’t a statement of fear or xenophobia. I’m a huge believer in globalisation as a force for good in most respects. But as an entrepreneur i’m keen to keep my eye on the competition! Read more about it at BRICpop.com.

And finally, I’m really excited to be working alongside the Predictagoal* team for the next couple of months. It’s gonna be a really exciting project. Can’t tell you much more than that though. And to keep the sense of “cloak and dagger” going, myself and a mystery person have just signed a deal with major label for a secret project. I promise to tell you more. But only when I can…

p.s. Anyone fancy doing a mental detox with me?

p.p.s. Us Brits r teh g33kiest!!!

* The link’s dead at the moment, but the site will re-launch very soon.

.

Well, it’s been a crazy few months. Hence the lack of blogging.

But here’s some cool stuff I’ve been doing, reading and seeing since I’ve been away from this blog. I’ve actually written so much stuff that I think I’m going to separate it into a couple of different posts, otherwise the amount of links might just intimidate you. But if you have an itchy clicky finger then you’re going to love it….

I spent all of last Thursday and Friday at the Sŵn Festival interactive seminars. There were some fantastic presentations on the “Interactive” side with social media expert Mel Kirk from Aardman Animations, Matthew Cashmore from Lonely Planet, one of the founders of Dopplr – designer Matt Jones, and Tim Morgan from Mint Digital. All the presentations were fantastic and left me with loads to think about. And then on the Friday there were good, positive discussions with some music industry types. I particularly enjoyed catching up with Andrew Dubber for the first time, and whose music industry blog I enjoy. Definitely worth a read, as I think I may have mentioned before. And now he owes me a pint, so I’ll use that bargaining chip to tap him for info one day!

The image on the top right comes courtesy of the blog of productivity “guru” Merlin Mann, which I’ve really been enjoying. Very often his posts comprise just a single photo. There’s a real simplicity and wisdom to it. He recently posted a quote from a nun: “The only rule is work. If you work it will lead to something. It’s the people who do all of the work all the time who eventually catch on to things.” I need to remind myself of this next time I feel like my laptop is an inescapable extension of my body – it will be worth it. And it’s something I believe. Although I am trying to gear my life towards smart work, not endless, fruitless hard work! It chimes with the bottom quote on this page from publisher and author William Feather, who’s got some real gems in his locker…

As previously noted, I’ve been spending a lot of time (alongside the brilliant Claire Scantlebury from Cardiff Web Scene) putting together the UK’s very first Ignite event. We’re really excited about it. We’re actually a little worried that we might have to turn people away if it gets too busy!

Part 2 to follow tomorrow….

Well, it’s been a crazy few months. Hence the lack of blogging.

But here’s some cool stuff I’ve been doing, reading and seeing since I’ve been away from this blog. I’ve actually written so much stuff that I think I’m going to separate it into a couple of different posts, otherwise the amount of links might just intimidate you. But if you have an itchy clicky finger then you’re going to love it….

I spent all of last Thursday and Friday at the Sŵn Festival interactive seminars. There were some fantastic presentations on the “Interactive” side with social media expert Mel Kirk from Aardman Animations, Matthew Cashmore from Lonely Planet, one of the founders of Dopplr – designer Matt Jones, and Tim Morgan from Mint Digital. All the presentations were fantastic and left me with loads to think about. And then on the Friday there were good, positive discussions with some music industry types. I particularly enjoyed catching up with Andrew Dubber for the first time, and whose music industry blog I enjoy. Definitely worth a read, as I think I may have mentioned before. And now he owes me a pint, so I’ll use that bargaining chip to tap him for info one day!

The image on the top right comes courtesy of the blog of productivity “guru” Merlin Mann, which I’ve really been enjoying. Very often his posts comprise just a single photo. There’s a real simplicity and wisdom to it. He recently posted a quote from a nun: “The only rule is work. If you work it will lead to something. It’s the people who do all of the work all the time who eventually catch on to things.” I need to remind myself of this next time I feel like my laptop is an inescapable extension of my body – it will be worth it. And it’s something I believe. Although I am trying to gear my life towards smart work, not endless, fruitless hard work! It chimes with the bottom quote on this page from publisher and author William Feather, who’s got some real gems in his locker…

As previously noted, I’ve been spending a lot of time (alongside the brilliant Claire Scantlebury from Cardiff Web Scene) putting together the UK’s very first Ignite event. We’re really excited about it. We’re actually a little worried that we might have to turn people away if it gets too busy!

Part 2 to follow tomorrow….