Somali TV show
I am interested in producing an ongoing low-budget Somali serial, and I'm looking for talented Somali writers to help me create this. We have the equipment, a tv studio and access to an experienced crew.
What I am looking for is a group of talented writers in London to create an entertaining TV show about modern life in the diaspora, reflecting all aspects of Somali culture, the good and bad (even though I have no intention to be disparaging about Somali culture in any way). I'm thinking equal parts funny and dramatic, tackling various Somali-relevant issues in a fairly light-hearted way.
I am looking for people who:
- have a fluent grasp of both Somali and English, written and spoken.
- can understand and identify with Somali people of all ages and with all aspects of Somali culture in Britain
- are open-minded and inclusive
- are not afraid to tackle sensitive issues
- and most importantly, have a sense of humour about everything.
Previous experience is not necessary, and I'm looking for writers of various ages and different backgrounds.
Understand that this is a low-budget endeavour, as such any payment will be deferred. However, I have fairly advanced camera and lighting equipment at my disposal, and an extremely talented and well-trained crew. I'm just looking to rope in people who want to create something fun and lighthearted in their spare time to entertain the Somali people.
Ideally I am looking for a group of 3 to 5 writers to spend one day a week creating a long-running show, in the style of American TV writing.
We are ready to shoot a pilot as early as April, and if you live in London or you know someone who does and wants to get involved please e-mail me at xuminatrix@hotmail.com. If you have any writing samples, short stories, scripts etc., you want me to look at, you can send them to that e-mail address too.
Feel free to ask any questions, and please spread the word if you can, thank you.
Labels: Somali TV, writing
Speaking poetry when words have failed me
Just a quick post about a
poem written by my friend
Idil. It came to me at a time when I was feeling frustrated, pessimistic about anything to do with Somalia. This poem taught me I had no right to despair when those have back home haven't done so.
Bravery is the man with no armour
who goes forth like his skin
is made of iron.
She has the sort of depth and sincerity that seems to come effortlessly to the gifted. She is one of the most talented young (Somali) artists I have met.
Read some of her work on her
Myspace.
Music video account
So I want to shoot a documentary soon, but I'm not entirely sure what to do it about. I'm not interested in doing something that covers a big subject and sticks mainly to the history and facts. I'm more interested in human lives, individual acomplishments and suchlike. Example: WWII in general = I don't care. Stories of survivors = I care. Anyone got any suggestions, people you wanna recommend, stories or activities you think might be interesting to cover.
I'm sort of trying to feel around for a subject that I can care about. I have a few things in mind, but they have all been extensively covered I think. I would like to do something with Africa or the Somali experience, but not exclusively, I'm open to all suggestions. Anything related to or based in the UK is a plus.
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I meant to talk about the
Jay Harvey shoot at some point and the video in general. It was my first music video shoot, and I wasn't so much as nervous, but more like, I didn't know what to expect. I had been talking with Jay and his manager for months, originally we were supposed to start filming in November, but something usually would come up from both sides that would push the schedule back even further. I thought of filming on Mini-DV, but eventually they wanted something with a better resolution and a glossier look, so we went for High Definition.
My DP had cancelled at the last minute, but luckily Jay's management arranged someone else. But on the day of shoot I found out that he was booked for another production. That meant that he could work with us but he had to be out of there by 2pm, since filming for the
La La La video wouldn't begin until 4pm, he could only work on some shots of the second video. This had me worried, but it turns out that it was for the best. Because without a DP, my crew and I had to improvise the lighting and I can tell you that that little experience has taught more than three years of studying filmmaking ever could. I was just thrust into it and I knew the shoot would be in trouble if we didn't come up with something. Sure it took us longer to set up, but we ended up having fun with it. It was meant to be a club scene, so we could be a little funky with the lights if we wanted to, which made things easier.
Managing the extras was more difficult, the trouble was I never knew how many people were going to be in it, so a lot of the time it was just a matter of waiting for enough people to arrive. Then some people got a bit drunk and wouldn't listen, and you know since I'm not paying them, I couldn't really fire them or you know, hit them with a whip. So I put them into teams and that seemed to work a little, some got a bit competitive, calling out to the other teams. It was fun, and it kept them in front of the camera, which is always a good thing.
But it was hectic, and shooting two different videos in the same day is never a good idea, and sure there are lots of things I'd do differently now, but you know, I could have done a lot worse and considering all the things that threatened to disrupt the shoot and the strict time limits of the venue we were filming in, I'm pretty happy with the video that came out of it.
Best part of being a director? Yelling "It's a wrap".
Wowowowow
Went to see Mr. K'naan perform at the Cargo yesterday. I totally got rocked the hell out, yup, will write about the single most inspiring gig of my life tomorrow (if I can be bothered). Also, I got pictures!
Oh pick me, Mr. Spielberg!
I hope
this comes to the UK. Spielberg, the Lord and Supreme Ruler of Hollywood is gonna hold a reality-tv contest to find the next hot filmmaker. Oh dear God let there be a British version of this show.
Finally there's some use for reality TV.
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I am trying to negotiate with the Fox Netword for the biological access I need to Kiefer Sutherland, in order to have his baby. I have made it my life's mission to have
Jack Bauer's offspring, I shall be single-minded in my purpose and ruthless in my methods.
It's the natural instinct of every woman to procreate with the man who is most likely to put a knife in a man's eye, because, dammit......
there's no time.
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Will watch MI:3 later, mostly because I'm such a J.J Abrams fan. Even though Tom's a little scary, he's good at what he does, and what he does best is ride on a motorcycle while stuff blows up around him.
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Scrubs is currently the funniest thing on TV. Long since meant to be my baby father, Zach Braff has been overrun by the baddest mofo in town. For a brief period I was torn between my natural love for geeky socially incompetent doctors and brutal terrorist-stoppers who can stop a nuclear bomb while saving stupid random people's lives. But how can I resist a man who will kill me to save the lives of millions.
Update - Jay Harvey video and other stuff
Yup, the video I directed for Jay Harvey's song La La La is at last up on Myspace (actually it's been up for a while, but I sorta forgot to announce it). Unfortunately the image/sound quality of that version is not too great, so I'm currently working on a better version, so you can see the amazing detail on the curtain on the upper right-hand corner, should you wish to.
Go check it out at Jay's site:
http://www.myspace.com/jayharveyinfoHis second video for the song
On your own should be up there shortly, check back in a week or two.
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I'm preparing a few other video projects for the summer. I'll post more details later (i.e when I'm allowed).
Still working on a Somali/British feature film as well as a few other short film projects.
This blog will soon be redesigned to be much prettier than the template and
xuphilia.com will be merged with the site for my production company
Shinra Productions------------
I'm still looking to work with new artists on video projects, as we are currently trying to expand our showreel, we're willing to do a video for nothing, zip, nada. If your song/project is original enough we're happy to supply all the crew and camera and stuff, direct and edit it for you and deliver the video on a nice silver platter*
*platter may or may not be silver, depending on our mood, election results and the going rate for the Yen.
K'naan gig - How to rock in tiny places
I meant to write about the day I went to see the fabulous
K'naan opening for the Australian artist
Xavier Rudd on April 8th at the Shepherd's Bush Empire. However I can't write about that due to Idiot-virus I had caught that day, where I forgot to check if K'naan was actually performing there.
Turns out, he wasn't.
At first I thought it was a
no-show like at his previous gig. But it turns out that he opened the night before. So here we are, my friend and I, queueing to get all the way to the front, boxed in at all sides by a bunch of Australian hippies.
We were worried at first when we couldn't find a single other Somali person there, normally news like this gets out fast and the whole portion of the Somali community which doesn't condemn Western style music drives out like a herd to accost one of the few famous people we have. (Sure we have
Iman, who's not bad, but tends to make some Somali people uncomfortable and Ayaan Hirsi Ali who makes a whole lotta people uncomfortable and who is just plain embarrassing).
Xavier Rudd wasn't bad, actually he was surprisingly good and any guy who can play several instruments at once deserves my admiration. The point however was that we were there to see K'naan and possibly touch him.
But genius struck my friend and she decided to check out his website when we got home, and lo and behold, as if to compensate us for my stupidity, there he was holding a
free gig at the
Market Place the very next day. We knew we were in the right place when the bar was full of Somali people following other Somali people, as Somalis can be trusted to do.
A bit late, but finally he came on. There was no stage, the sound was crap but K'naan totally rocked it. Too bad the only thing letting him down was ironically, the Somali crowd who came there to support him. Behind me were two guys who kept muttering about how skinny he was, loud enough I think for K'naan to hear who was standing right in front of me.
Anyway, he seemed a bit put off by the whole atmosphere and the venue (which was ridiculously tiny). Despite all that, as soon as he started with the fact-paced
In the beginning K'naan was on form, faultless and stirred with what seemed to me boundless passion. What I saw him do in that miniscule cube of a bar, no artist can fake. Here you have a lone man, and three guys on instruments and with faulty mikes. But when the music stops, and K'naan voice just rants off a long piece to silent room, I swear I was shaking.
Afterwards I didn't touch him, mostly because I didn't want to get banned from future performances.
Brilliant man, can't wait to see him perform properly at his next gig, which is sometime in May if I'm correct.
First Stage Completed
Finished shooting two videos back to back for urban/R&B artist
Jay Harvey. Shot on HDV over three crazy days.
Will be spending the next few weeks cutting, grading and suchlike. It will be available on my site as soon as it's done. Shooting for my next video project will start mid-February.
The hearstopping cruelty of the human brain
Been watching endless documentaries to find footage and inspiration for a music video. We're going for a chaos and war theme, and watching hours of human madness is making me a little depressed. Saw documentaries about rape, about nuclear disasters, about war, about conspiracies, assassinations, genocide, ..... and oh my God, were Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett ever right when they wrote:
...nothing [the demon] could think up was half as bad as the stuff they [humans] thought up themselves. They seemed to have a talent for it...They were born into a world that was against them in a thousand little ways, and then devoted most of their energies to making it worse.
I don't like humanity at the moment. Why doesn't everyone just sit the fuck down and think for a change. No more summits, no negotiations, nothing... let's all sit in a circle and just
think for a fucking moment.
Eventually they'd all realise that nothing they do makes any sense, right? ..... right???
All you need is science
I really ought to read more, I used to be such a bookworm. I've practically grown up in a library, but lately I can barely make it through one novel every two months (this from someone who used to go through a novel a week).
Currently reading Bill Bryson's excellent
A brief history of nearly everything. It tracks the progress of science in really really simple terms for simpletons like me. I used to be of the firm belief that science contributed nothing but exam stress and nerds to society. However, this wonderful book taught me that science created everything! That science - as misunderstood as it is by the people who practice it - is the key to everything! Science is the path to enlightenment, science is what makes the world go round..... wait...I think that was love. But I'm sure love is science and science is a pretty little flower in a field of irrational weeds.
Science is nice and happy and fluffy, and apparently (as it is claimed by the people who think their lives are justified by it) nothing like the monstrous ideology I used to think it was.
But still, all this talk of atoms and expanding universes sounds like witchcraft to me. You only have to read about
Stephen Hawking's 11
dimensions crap to think that the world had gone and made itself all dark-ages again.
Ehh, I could barely get my head around the world when it was still three-dimensional.
Everything's so complicated now. I miss the good old days when everything was flat and atoms didn't exist.
Sticky seats, spare tickets and sexy writers
Currently listening to:
The Killers -
Andy you're a starI'm totally obsessed by
Firefly. It is seriously the best thing to ever grace my tv screen (well technically my computer monitor, but still). I love love love love love it. I think right now, I'd rather have another season of Firefly than a relationship with the outside world.
People go see the movie version of the series,
Serenity, so it makes lots and lots of money and those greedy executive bastards decide to bring the series back.
Also, it'll be the best thing you'll see all year.
...
Now to in some way contradict my earlier point, I should stop going to the cinema so much. Tickets don't come cheap but I can't seem to stop going to the
The Filmworks Greenwich (my dealer of choice). Sure dvd rental's a lot lot cheaper, but there's something about those sticky seats and overpriced fizzy drinks that really gets me going. I like my screens big and the rooms sold out.
...
I've got tickets to a signing with
Neil Gaiman on the 8th of November. The sinfully sexy writer I've been meaning to abduct for many years. Everytime I get close, one of my contacts messes up, (Butcher Bill, I'm serious, that axe is for intimidation purposes only). However one day, one day I'll kidnap him and spend the next 10 years brainwashing him into thinking he loves me.
He's so gorgeous and his writing aint bad either (actually, it's brilliant, but the sentence seems to flow better that way). When I met him last year, he asked me what my name was and I replied Xu. He then said that he hadn't met anyone whose name started with an X that day, which I'm sure meant that he's passionately in lust with me.
I wonder if I'll be the only X again. I wonder if he'll finally admit his feelings for me this time. I'll keep you updated.
Also got tickets for a screening of the film
MirrorMask, a film directed by Dave McKean (master illustrator, of among other things
Sandman covers) and written by Mr. Gaiman. It's showing at the
London Film Festival and my dearest dearest friend Michael was kind enough to get me tickets. :)
Can't seem to persuade him to come with me to another signing though. He only came last time because
Jonathan Ross was hosting the event. I guess Lenny Henry doesn't excite him as much. :(
...
I've got a spare ticket for Athlete, but I can't find anyone who's even heard of them to come with me.
