BLOG 4

Well well well my main man Carlo the wonderful editor has gone back to Italy. I am 95% finished on the episode three and just need an editor to finish off some cut and paste stuff and throw in the credits. The good thing about editor favour hopping on a project with no budget is that you get different styles coming into the post production. Carlo did an edit which involves me and a Dictaphone looking paranoid ... the final edit was very quick with my facial expressions and the colour of the screen is yellow. Carlo opted for the yellow because Detective films in Italy use a strange yellow colour. So we even have flavours of culture in Radio West Pier.

I have to hand it to Carlo his editing is top banana, the fact that he speaks pigeon English and didn't understand the storyline and yet could still (without a storyboard I hasten to add) piece together the narrative and visuals with grace, impressed me no end. Should a signed cheque come our way I will fly over to Italy without hesitation and handcuff Carlo to the next 10 episodes of Radio West Pier.

People like Carlo, you have to treat like gold dust as they are few and far between. A no budget production can result in a low priority editor. Radio West Pier has had unbelievable support and I personally see this as a compliment to the concept as people are interested enough in the first place to put the time in and move the idea along.

Recent developments
FRIENDLY ADVICE

Well I had a hot lead for the BBC Manchester who has now departed company from the BEEB. I was informed via an auto office reply. I could say this was gutting but it is important not to allow your mind the luxury of being disappointed. I will just simply move onto the next contact now and re approach the BBC with the Radio West Pier concept. The entertainments industry is bed of intermingled diamonds and empty promises. It is important for me not to take any of it too seriously and at the same time be as professional as possible. What I am trying to say is don't take anything as concrete until the contract has been signed but move past set backs because a set back is only a sign that you need to do something differently or even a sign that you are getting closer to your goal through pushing forward. Lets face it if you stop someone else will only take your place and carry on where you left off.

I feel like this blog is turning into a tutorial for aspiring entertainment industry type people so I will now move back up the page and give this section a title and call it errrrm
'Shaping your thinking and not letting your mind be affected by the impact of the odd mental juggling ball hitting the deck through disappointment once in a while'.

Actually that's too long a title I will just call it friendly advice. Hold on a minute I will just scroll up to insert the title.....................................................................................................................................

Ok I will extend this blog but for now I have been assigned as the press guy for Brighton Wok a martial arts feature film building up to a big premier. I need to clock off for a meeting. So far my only dedicated reader for my blogs is my good friend Nadia who oozes loveliness.
So Nadia and the rest of the waiting world
Peace
Matt be back soon Whistler
x

Sniffing out a new editor can be difficult ..... TO BE CONTINUED

Well here's an example of how a low budget comedy episode can still come up smelling of roses. With only 8 hours to go before filming our latest scene which is the middle part of Episode three of Radio West Pier there were a few essential details to consider. Where do I get a cameraman? where do I get a green screen? and will the weather hold out. All three factors seemed equally as difficult to deal with at the time.

The scene was of me inside a 1930s Chevrolet. This is the interior shot for our swimousine which you can see the animation for in episode one and two. Its a kind of underwater spaceship and is designed to carry our guests to Radio West Pier H.Q.

I don't want to go into more detail on episode three as it has not as yet been released on myspace and RWP is planning a national press launch in September 2007.

So back to the logistics. Green screen ... where, when, how.
Well back at Eric Mahogeneighs house (the co-writer of our audio pod casts except for Rico's musical talents which I wrote myself), there was a huge flimsy piece of board, with a vile, putrid and brightly coloured painting of a dwarf on a toad stool in a countryside fantasy land setting. Every time I pulled painting out from behind the settee it stirred something negative up inside the tenants of flat 4 at TWO PIERS housing co-op in Brighton. This flat has been like a second home for me over the years, as it has been like a portal for me to connect with like minded individuals and at times usually on a full moon I have felt very sane their, given the activity that has taken place. Its the notorious party flat of a huge housing co-op and tenants their don't hold back. Although don't let me paint the wrong picture this is a space which has been stigmatised by controversial tenants and general madness. The calm has settled in now after a prolonged storm and relationships are blossoming and the vibe is one of Sunday papers scrabble and civil chit chat.

In my early stages of visiting FLAT 4 the mad party scene was never a scene I wholly embraced and I often became cynical about the mechanics of housing co-ops and discussions around colour coded buckets and shower mats. I suppose I am speaking from bitter experience as I gave TWO PIERS a go once in a different building on the other side of Brighton and I didn't suit my personality two many contradictions and seven tenants living under the same space all equally as keen to lead separate lives. The pinnacle came for me when the living room door was repeatedly left unlocked meaning that anyone could gain access to the whole building. One day I left a message to the rest of the house that the door had been left unlocked and p.s Has anyone seen the television ? (the TV had been hidden by myself in the Office upstairs). My mission was to make the other tenants visualize theft and how we should be more aware blarde blar. The crux of this was that I was just being smart arse but the irony was that it worked the door was always locked from that day on . Anyways dirty laundry you don't want to hear more of this (boring your boring) .... I am saying this to myself to steer me in another direction.

This aside Erics real name Rick Wood lives at Flat Four and he appreciates my sense of humour which instantly qualifies him as a friend. Where Rick and Flat 4 are concerned I can take things a bit too far at times. I did once ask Rick if I could store my Radio in his living room of course forgetting to mention that the Radio was actually a 1930s wireless that needs three men to carry. I tatted this in Hove when some clearance guys were about to chuck it onto the back of their van and I slammed on my brakes in my VW transporter wound down the window and shouted "hold it ! hold it right there, you are not taking that radio anywhere, I can make very good use of it in my comedy show"

The wireless had an ash tray on top of it steeped with stubbed cigarettes and in the middle of it was one cigarette stubbed but standing upright to attention. I figured this was the last cigarette of the tenant before popping his or her clogs. The feeling I got from the ciggies was that it was probably an old lady. The back of the wireless displayed all the inner workings the gold speaker Cassy and wires. The cob web was the same colour of the wireless ... brown. You can see the wireless on episode one of Radio West Pier....

I would like to think that if the old lady was looking down they would think wow my wireless ended up on set at a TV Brighton production of Radio West Pier.

BACK TO THE PAINTING :
The offending painting was removed from behind the settee and dragged halfway across Brighton to my friends flat in Hove and I then hoofed it to the local painter decorator shop to buy a tin of paint for green screen. Low and behold their was one tin in the bargain basket that matched green screen requirements perfectly. For £6 I now have ample green screen paint and the dwarf on the toadstool has a new home. Well its actually stored in the garage of the guy who owns the Chev as he did say that film making could be his next move as there was no way I was going to drag this noisy beast of a wobble board back along George Street again with its scraping noise that travels from one end of the Street to another.

I must admit though dragging it home first along the seafront from Ricks was hilarious. I was gripping the wood behind me and a gust of wind would lift the whole thing in the air. The wind on the Brighton Hove seafront can be very powerful at times. I remember when I used to run along the seafront in the morning and if the wind was behind you it was like your feet barely touched the ground and I would say hello to a runner coming towards me at slugs pace with g-force expressions and strewn hair and enough time to have tea and scones before putting his left foot in front of his right.
Back to the green screen:
It was like I had a big rectangle cape, it would have done Bat Fink proud. Getting from one street block to the next was a nightmare though the wind would force me to one side. Passers by were mesmerized by my sense of striving forward... the sound of the end of the board scraping along the floor as I dragged it was deafening. Walking through pedestrianised George Street with the board later was a film in itself the sound of the green screen been dragged with Carlo my Italian editor and young aspiring Brighton film maker Pete both carrying mad props stopped the cafe and restaurant punters in their tracks. And all the time I was feeling anarchic and thinking I'm making a film I'm making a fucking comedy show and nothing is going to stop me and the fact that your all looking at me with a bemused not quite sure what context to put this situation in look just strengthens my comedy blood into Vimto shaken and not stirred with cornflour.

To be continued ....

Utensils and Radio West Pier remaining scene

Chuffin Nora he's back well whatever next I hear you cry.

Well I think now is a good time to post my second chatty blog as there is new stuff, stuff of a surreal nature. Over the weekend Geatan and I travelled to Oxforshire to perform our Monshamto taste laboratory control centre puppet and crazy chef two man show. Our gig was at Britain's first kids food festival. The fezi was to promote food awareness we were lucky to get there to be honest as the battery was dead in the car that morning in Brighton, but by shear luck ... or maybe not, some might argue magic, the local furniture shop chappy was hoofing it past with his dinky dog in toe (one of those deceiving types that is actually a voracious canine specimin that strategically uses its incisors to dangle from your knee caps when you bend down to stroke it due to being hypnotised by a deceiving puppy dog persona.) The furniture shop chappy kindly offered to put the jump leads on the battery and we got the show on the road.

On arrival we set up the new bell tent (ooooh luxury camping enough room to swing a welly) and then proceeded to prepare for our first show. As this was the first event of its kind there was only one other tent in the camping field it was like the Glastonbury mirage ..no mud and enough space to have a mini Olympics with ginger bread men.

Over a period of two days we met two jelly girls who walk with a stern posture whilst balancing jelly on their heads a guy who drives a moped with a cabaret bar towed to the bike with a comedy guy being pulled along in the bar enclosure at high speed and a whole host of other walkabout theatre acts. The real surreal element was topped with army patrol, day and night, this was down to an army base being located on the other side of the runway.

On the second day Geatan and I was having a cuppa and who should turn up but Antonio Carluccio and the organiser was happy for us to have a photograph standing next to Antonio holding Mr Prong our king size fork utensil and Bubba our king size spoon. I think Millie the ladle maybe have been in on the photo also. Highlights are always welcome in life and this was one of them. Antonio has just set up a new restaurant in Brighton hmmm maybe there is scope for a adult disco performance from our Utensils dressed in funky gear.

Our performances went down well to the kids and one kid came up to me after a show whilst I was carrying part of the set back to the performers tent and said
"excuse me .... that was the best show I have ever seen". Then he turned his back and went to meet his dad. Its moments like this touch you and make it all worth your while.

The bottom line is our live show doesn't have to be an Oscar winning performance with accolades coming out of our ears ... just so long as the kids enjoyed it that's what counts. Although I have to say they do like my handstand at the start, its funny every show we do the handstand seems to get longer maybe this is a metaphor for the show getting stronger. Geatans puppetry is engaging and hilarious hes a top chap to be working with.

Well I seem to be focusing this blog on my latest Utensils involvement and not Radio West Pier. This is partly due to the fact that doing this show is taking me away thinking about RWP all the time so I may as well let you guys know more about me and the fact that I am touring with this show throughout 2007 ...... maybe now is a good time to plug the Utensils we do private parties for kids. We had a show the other week in Husterpierpoint. The Booker's also live in Singapore and originally spotted the show on the internet in Singapore and booked it over there via the internet. As this was our first private party a veil of excitement came over us. The excitement of knowing that the internet can make interesting things happen. Myspace is good for that also if you go to the home page I have collaborated with the Tristram Shandy Drinker and a sitar player called Eva and her partner who plays a minimalistic clown called naughty.

Well its 12.02 a.m and I have been preparing and painting a window frame in the flat directly above me and every time I close my eyes I can see my hand sanding down the wood. This is what I do to keep the pennies rolling in and to stop the letting agents from charging a £15 admin fee for late rent.


There is more but for now I am kerrknackered

Whats to come in the next blog

(oooh I say you can enlarge words and make them red. How modern !!!)
Why our green screen had to be dragged along the seafront in Brighton
The missing scenes of Radio West Pier episode three being filmed today.
General prose and nonsensical zen possibly.

OVER

P.S If you spot any bad grammar please feel free to point it out .. my proof reader is sat on the couch reading Conversations with God ... not as dubious as it might sound by the way.

Well, this is the first in a long line of blogs discussing the birth of Radio West Pier. The inspirations, the methodology of blagging on a wing and a prayer to keep your dreams alive and moving forward.

In short, I (Matt Whistler), the creator of Radio West Pier will be spilling out my thoughts to help me deal with my obsessive creative juices that force me to continually blurt out new ideas to anyone within my vicinity.

Ok so I'm hamming it up. I mean really my girlfriend... I cant keep my gob shut... ideas just bubble up at a rate of knots and my whole being needs to deal with the idea. In most cases I just blurt it out wait for instant feedback as a basis for something that meets with approval or outright
"no I said no definitely not it wont work".

To put it frankly I am a pain in the arse and need to slow down when it comes to thinking of ideas feverishly.
Most inventions I thought of years ago and when there is a gust of wind and the Universal Zeitgeist Signpost swings round and bonks me on the head I put pen to paper and extract the idea from my brain to something tangible.

This tangible item may include any corner of any news paper the yellow pages, a rizla (I don't smoke myself but virtually all my friends do) or gaps between previous scribbles gone by. I have even been known to send text messages to a friend near by with my thoughts because there wasn't a pen available at the time. The last text read Grandstand and old lady next door. Thinking constantly about new ideas does have obvious draw backs. There is a part of me that feels stimulated and immersed in the rich tapestry of life in the context of what feels like visionary thinking and their is another part that wants to pack my brain in a box of feathers and let it rest on top of a mountain for a couple of weeks just to chill out and live in the moment.

Living in the moment now there's a thing. I personally live in the moment by visualizing and grasping and shaping a new idea 99.9 % of the time. Even though my personality is outgoing their is a withdrawn artist side to my being. In other words I am something of a Walter Mitty constantly slipping away from my immediate reality into something dream like (and that's without drugs). I have studied aspects of Buddhism though and understand its principals, some of my more interesting days have been when I have left the front door and mentally told myself "Right I am going to have no expectations today" and really by saying that I am saying : no goals. This acknowledgement in my mind has opened up doors for positivity and good things ahead.

Just in case you think I am rambling, I am, and enjoying every minute ... its my first blog man!!!.... a new creative endeavour yippedi dooo daaah knicky knacki noo and a rinky dinky doo to you too ooo booopi dooo skilladiddlie skadali ... Ok Ive gone too far now STICK A SOCK IN IT Or should I say pull a mental curtian across my brain go backstage and reassess what the next flow of thinking is going to be. Yes, here it is, its arrived, MY WRITING (on paper that is).

My writing tends to be in any direction except backwards and accompanies arrows linking thoughts and ideas. (sssss) the sssss that I have now placed in brackets was due to the s key flying out of my keyboard and happened when I slotted it back in place... it's still quite wonky but my guarantee has run out on the laptop so I will have to type think and deal with the sssss oh shit the key came off again. I think I wwwww oh fuck the wwww has come off nowww. My keyboard is falling apart.

3 HOURS LATER

I am now continuing the blog on my friend's PC. The friend is Geatan. He runs a healthy eating for kids Internet show and can be seen on www.theutensils.co.uk
Geatan and I have formulated a travelling show which involves Monshamto castle and an evil drink. Their is a great Bondian moment and some amazing puppetry with large king size Utensils. I have just been to Glastonbury. The set was last minute and the script
under rehearsed. However, the spirit and shared vision behind entertaining kids was high energy. We didn't even let our props/set girl who trashed half the set and ripped eyes off the puppets a day before the debut performance put us off. She was escorted off the site and I have to hand it to Welfare they did a great job. I don't want to reveal her name but there was a lesson learned on my part. You cant always help people with mental health issues and in this situation my heart was ruling my head.

I am writing this blog with pure channeling energy and when I say that I mean sometimes I don't really feel I am thinking and that the thinking is being channeled into me via a higher force. Ok so now at this stage in the blog you are thinking 'this guy is starting to sound like a fruit bat'... Well you might be right I sometimes feel like a fruit bat, especially after years of family and friends telling me " you're mad" you're crazy"
It's all in good humour but I guess if I had to sum myself up I would say I am eccentric and very aware of my eccentricities and boundaries that can be creatively crossed from time to time. It could be argued that I am a dangerous person to make a suggestion to because I will respond " you could be onto something there."

I have to say by the way that I am really enjoying writing this blog because I feel like I'm taking a walk around my brain. Its almost like if there was ever such a thing lucid typing as opposed to lucid dreaming. Anyways, I digress. This is one of the lines from a chap who I came across on myspace site... the Tristram Shandy Drinker whose real identity I cannot reveal.
'I digress' was used by him on an audio review he kindly put together for Radio West Pier. You can see the link on the top right hand side of the myspace page ... he's a very funny guy.
I initially asked if he would kindly write a review and he came back with an audio master piece ..... what a nice guy. This was the first time that I realised the power of myspace and that through all the spam and odd random wannabe friends desperate to get noticed, there are genuine opportunities for collaborations.
I digress

"What the hell is he waffling on about?"

Well allow me to explain.

An idea comes into my head I write it down and act on it within 24 hours then keep the wheels in motion until the end result is there. I suppose the job description in the nine-to-five world would be an events coordinator. I tend to work on top down theory which is a positive thinking theory that originally came from Harvard university which means you think of an idea and then in your organisation you go straight to the conclusion.

Example :

I am the person responsible for setting up the worlds first naked speed dating event.
Without a venue, without a naked person and without sponsorship etc I ran the press and told them that an event was going to happen with x amount of people with a theme.

The theme was 'The Garden of Eden' and the night called 'Would you Adam and Eve it'.
The press were informed that there would be Adam and Eve present' there would be angels in costumes, Puck from Midsummer Night's Dream' would be there and we would even have an Inspector Clouseau keeping tabs on everyone to avoid lewd behaviour.

After three court appearances, 2 venues, International publicity and a bidding war with the press, the event finally went ahead. There was one minor problem... On the night, my partner in crime, Mike, who was on a mission to promote the World's first water powered engine through his band, formed in 48 hours, called The Galactic Rainbow Orchestra. Mike and I didn't have the cash to pay for the venue hire and after Mike inviting punters in another part of the venue into our gig, messing the sound guy about and leaving me to deal with the media arrivals (which included Channel Four documentary makers and silicone implanted dolly birds from News of the World pulling pints behind the bar topless), I decided the stress was too much and I donned a Jimmy Saville wig, slipped past the manager who was jumping up and down in a fit of rage, shouting at the band
"You pagan whores"

Unfortunately, the instruments were held to ransom by the manager of the Sussex Arts Club until we could claim them back.
For me personally this event made history, certainly in the speed dating world. Later that year, there was naked speed dating in Glastonbury and the media called it The Year Britain Went Naked. There was a naked DJ in Leeds and the World's biggest naked roller coaster ride. A whole host a nudie stuff. Now I am not trying to say I am responsible for half the population throwing their trollies off, but what I am saying is that my brain works in such a way that I conceive an idea and then find out soon after that the idea was at the start of a big wave... a trend... a crest that tied into my idea or should I say the idea that was fed into me by an Alien life force perhaps... 'who knows?'

I don't want to go all whacko on you know but some of the stories I could tell you about my life's experiences. I often sit back and wonder why fate is following me with density. Maybe it was to do with when I was born, star signs and time of birth. Well I've swung enough tangents for one night and haven't as yet discussed Radio West Pier or my World records in years gone by and how I came by the name Matt Whistler.
More importantly I haven't as yet introduced you to my good friend Rick (writer's name Eric Mahogeniegh) and as he will be reading this blog sometime soon, I had better let you know now he will feature heavily in the next blog. Eric is the other half of Radio West Pier as can be seen on our video where we are blatting around the Streets of Brighton in Fisherman's oilskins.

So for now its over and out.