Category: Hobbies

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Digging out old Projects (Steve’s Birthday 2009)

I had long promised to take Steve (one of my life long friends from Round Table) up for a flight.

In 2009 I finally delivered on that promise, and we went for a bimble for his Birthday.

Earlier today I was digging through some old footage on one of my backup drives when I stumbled across this video “birthday card” I made for him, and thought it worth uploading for prosperity.

 

Whilst the camera is a bit shaky, you have to remember that the person holding the camera was not a professional videographer, and they were using what can best be described as a “Box Brownie” (Panasonic Lumix TZ10 if memory serves) to film things from the back seat whilst I sat in the Captain’s seat as “Pilot Flying”

Still, it was a fun day and I think (hope!) that Steve enjoyed the trip!

I guess by 2019 I need to take Steve up for another flight, and we should actually land away somewhere .. perhaps Le Touquet for lunch .. or maybe somewhere further afield like Nice or Malta!

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Raindance HND – Prologue

Not long now until the start of the Raindance HND.  I suspect I will be the oldest person on the course by far, certainly in my group (Group B) although I have now met some of Group A and they seem like some really nice guys (especially Simon and Orlando!)

People are asking me why I’m doing this, as well as what is going to happen to my business(es) while I’m working on the course.  Well the answers to that are somewhat multi dimensional, but I will endeavour to clear up any potential misunderstandings or just dampen the FUD 🙂

The future of websites and the internet is most certainly video.  YouTube is already the world’s second largest search engine, only eclipsed by Google – who oddly enough now own YouTube.

I think it is wise to invest in the future of the internet and future technologies early, and as such I am working to re-skill and re-tool before the flood gates open.  Now of course this is slightly selfish as video and film has been a passion of mine for many years (I think I made my first short movie when I was 8 years old on super 16mm film) … So a tad indulgent maybe, but I still maintain that it will be beneficial to the business(es) and our customers as a whole going forwards.

As for what is going to happen to the business(es) I run now (Fido/etc) – they will continue to operate just as they have done for the last 16+ years.  I am not leaving the planet, I will still be in contact daily, however I am going to be in pre-arranged “meetings” Wednesday and Thursday for most weeks until 2020.  This isn’t much different to how things have operated in the past.  I’ve operated the business whilst being in South Africa, America, France, Germany, Spain and many other Countries.  I have holidayed and the walls haven’t come tumbling down. In fact, on the whole, I’ve found the business has thrived and has hardly missed me on a day to day basis. 

Staff well being is key to a successful business.  I have been struggling to find things to keep me happy for a while now (especially since the divorce), and refocussing my energies on an HND and MA will (I think) be good for me, and as a result will be good for the company as a whole – which also means good news for customers.

I will be in London a lot more, if anything I will be closer to a number of our customers and potentially able to make meetings or perform out of hours maintenance more easily.

In summary I see this as good for Fido, good for my own mental well being and good for the future of our endeavours as just when everyone starts to say “do you think we should be doing something with video on our websites, we seem to be slipping behind the competition because they have lots of video explainers / they have a slick marketing campaign with video / etc” – I will be able to say “Don’t worry, we’ve got your back!”

So don’t worry!  The Future is Bright.  The Future is still Fido! 

(and yes, I have formed a production company called “JFDI” … and yes, I do hope that it will do exactly what it says on the tin!)

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JFDI

After hearing lots of “we really should make a film of this” and “we really should get started” and lots of other “really should” and “don’t know where to start” comments from friends and my thinking “for God’s sake just JFDI” I decided it was time to get involved and help out.

 

This is where JFDI (The Joint Film Development Initiative) 🙂 came from.  Instead of sitting back saying “I wish we knew how to” friends can now say “Jon we want to do this” and we have a framework and a structure to get started.

 

The idea is that we now have everything from script writing, scheduling, funding,  a pool of Actors and locations, Directors, Producers, pre and post-production and more.

 

The chance to get out there and start doing … hopefully the chance to make that dream come true – and at least have a lot of fun while we’re doing it!

 

So if you have an idea and you don’t know where to start, get in touch and lets get that screenplay written, the shoot scheduled and start to make a movie!