As Christmas closes in, after three days of editing and mastering the opus of all wedding videos for my girlfriends sister Maria, I can relax into a delightful evening with the final two episodes of ‘Dexter’… Mmmm, lovely Christmas eve!
I have had a lot of feedback from the Apple TV blog, mostly about both X-Box and PS3 doing the job much better than Apple TV. I agree that they do, and throw in loads of extras too, but neither X-Box or PS3 are suitable for most people who just want a simple box for TV, videos, music, photos and a little internet. This is, as usual, where Apple win out as they have done their research and designed a specific simple and elegant solution, and not an all bells, all whistles catch all. I guess I want the best of both worlds!
So undoubtedly, if you like games, don’t bother with Apple TV, X-box and PS3 offer so much more for about the same money.
Rumour has it that the BBC has a new box on the horizon called Canvas, a kind of hybrid between Freeview and iPlayer (in HD). No monthly charges too, so Sky are mad as hatters.
OK, so a little Christmas warmer for you. In early January, a feature film called EXAM, which I associate produced, is released in UK theatres. The clip above is kind of the setup for the movie and it speaks for itself – I hope you enjoy it. As Mark Kermode put it, it’s kind of ‘The Apprentice goes to hell…’ Already we have grabbed loads of great reviews, including this one here from Total Film. We are planning a special event in January where you can come and see the film on 35mm in a theatre, and then meet the team for a real indepth Q and A session on how the film was made. And director Stuart Hazeldine, is a great speaker too - you may recall he did a session for us a while back, on screenwriting. You can listen to that podcast here. If you want to know about it, join our newsgroup and you will get an email with details when we have them. As a teaser, the film was shot on 35mm, runs in real time, and was shot entirely in sequence in one claustrophobic set.
Right. Mince pies. Carving knife. And ‘Dexter’ season finale!
Onwards and upwards!
Chris Jones, Film Maker and Author
