Chris Jones's Blog, page 20

What are you doing this weekend? Want to watch a stunning cold war drama and true Brit indie film?

My good friends Shamim Sharif and Hanan Kattan have their third feature released in cinemas this weekend. It’s called ‘Despite the Falling Snow’ and stars Charles Dance and MI:5 actress Rebecca Ferguson. It’s a beautiful film and 100% indie too. Both have committed to sharing with us their insight and journey so we can learn how they have managed to successfully make three stand out movies.

But right now, all of us can make a MASSIVE difference to their film. If you want to do something extraordinary this weekend, go see the film and take a friend or six!

For Shamim and Hanan the next 24 hours will define the success of their film. They have a goal is to hit the cinema ‘house nut’ so their film is held over for a second week. This will have a knock on effect with international sales and UK broadcasters who are then more likely to buy the film.

So this is your chance to pay it forward and help platform UK filmmakers, UK film and in due course, I will make it happen than they share their extraordinary journey with us all in a very tangible way.

It’s playing in 60 cinemas and I promise it will be a great night out for you and your friends.

See you in the front row!

Chris Jones

www.ChrisJonesBlog.com

PS – If you want to know what the house nut is, and why it is important for your film release, there is an article HERE from my Movie Blueprint book.

Litopia After Dark Radio Show

Last week I was a guest on the wonderful Litopia After Dark radio show which you can listen to below.

I was sharing the airwaves with authors Shamin Sarif and David Sanger and what resulted is an hour of wonderfully eclectic conversation around writing. Loosely.

http://www.radiolitopia.com/enclosures/lad/lad_265.mp3

 

The official site is HERE.

Onwards and upwards!

Chris Jones

My movies www.LivingSpiritGroup.com

My Facebook www.Facebook.com/ChrisJonesFilmmaker

My Twitter @LivingSpiritPix

Sign up to my mailing list for updates on

events, books and free film making tools

Filmmakers: How to sell a product AND change the world

For me this short film perfectly illustrates how traditional advertising AND powerful filmmaking can not just co-exist, but flourish. It’s an exciting trend that we are seeing over and over.

The reason why this works so well is that it offers a powerful truth AND also offers a solution. Crucially, it’s not a quick fix or even ‘buyable’ fix, but it’s one that feels right and resonates. Nor does it seek to shame anyone, make them wrong or send them on a fear / guilt trip. Instead it chooses to inspire change in behavior. That’s remarkable for advertising which would normally prey on fear.

Great stuff and let’s hope manufactures continue to see the value in great and truthful storytelling.

Onwards and upwards!

Chris Jones

My movies www.LivingSpiritGroup.com

My Facebook www.Facebook.com/ChrisJonesFilmmaker

My Twitter @LivingSpiritPix

Sign up to my mailing list for updates on

events, books and free film making tools

The Singularity 50… What do YOU think our future history looks like?

We want YOU to help write the backbone for the next Create50 book.

The next book from Create50 is ‘The Singularity 50’.  It will be SciFi stories of 2,000 words or less about the day leading up to the Singularity, and the actual day that technology looks down on humanity, evolving beyond us.

We plan to launch the initiative at the end of March but we want you to get involved in shaping it now.

Like with Impact, we are putting together a timeline for The Singularity 50, identifying some of the key events and crucial turning points leading up to the day of the Singularity, December 22nd, 2067.

We want this timeline to inspire our writers, and also to offer a consistent framework so that ALL the stories feel part of a single world and time period.

SO… We are opening things up to the floor, and asking YOU to help us build upon, and better, our proposed future history.

This is YOUR future history, as much as it is ours, and we want you to have as big a say as possible.

What you see below is our current proposed timeline. It’s NOT fixed and 100% editable. A starting point. All we know is it starts today and ends in 2067… 50 years from the publication of the book in 2016.

Take a look at it and if there’s something you think is missing, or not quite right, or could be explained better, then leave your comments ON THE BLOG HERE.

We will take the best ideas and incorporate and re-edit the Future History of The Singularity.

So to be super clear.

When we launch the story writing process in March, we want this future history to be locked so we can all nominate a time and place for our stories – we will know what has happened in the past and where we are at, and will happen in the future.

Importantly, the story you choose to tell does not need to be about any aspect of the future history, this is just a guide to ensure all our stories feel part of a whole.

And we imagine that around half of the final book will be stories in the years from today, leading to the Singularity in 2067, and the other half will take place on the day of the Singularity. (Note this is not a promise of a fifty fifty split between stories, it will all depend on the final work).

We also imagine a series of tech companies to lead the way, perhaps conglomerating. Feel free to imagine their role. We have called it GCorp for now, but feel free to invent new companies and names.

Ask questions too.  A good question will throw up an enticing imagined answer from the community.

OK… So please improve, (argue to move or remove stuff), augment, add too, imagine, invent, reinvent… to this existing timeline below.

Leave your comments ON THE BLOG HERE and we will update as we go…

Countdown to the Singularity… Our future history

2017 – Self-driving cars are introduced onto the roads in the United States. Other countries the world over follow America’s lead.

2020 – Winner of the $5million A.I. X Prize is announced. The winning team created A.I. software that assisted with the logistics of humanitarian aid campaigns.

2023 – There is widespread implementation of machines used for hospital diagnostics.

2024 – Human error crashes lead to a ban on human-controlled cars in Switzerland.

2028 – Introduction of automated cargo planes.

2029 – The world economy crashes due to oil shortages caused by continued Middle East and Russian unrest.

2030 – The United States deploys Infantry supported by AI controlled automated soldiers to pacify the middle east.

2032 – The first sexbots sell in their masses.

2035 – International Technology Council is established.

2037 – Humanity steps foot on Mars, aided by AI and Quantum computers.

2039 – AI and quantum computing combine to create free clean energy, patented by Californian company GCorp. The war in the Middle East ends abruptly, though local unrest grows.

2042 – New regulation on the Use of Artificial Intelligence Technology is implemented following a tragic death.

2048 – Household robots become available for the wealthy.

2050 – Introduction of automated passenger planes.

2052 – Global pandemic of Bird Flu threatens to bring planet to knees but AI and Quantum mechanics quickly develop 100% successful vaccine that is easy to manufacture.

2056 – A.I. given Nobel Peace prize for work in the pandemic and saving lives.

2058 – Courts in Germany are handed over to A.I.

2060 – Household robots are now in the majority of homes in the West.  A.I. now the primary cause of divorce due to hacked pleasure code being easily inserted in to A.I. code.

2061 – Increasing incidence of hacked A.I. units being used for crime, including murder.

2063 – Anti A.I. Abuse Law passed in the United Kingdom. Quickly adopted around the world.

2065 – A.I. and newly invented ‘infinite quantum’ computing proves / dissproves the existence of a God (which do you think and what would happen?).

2066 – The final development… The Singularity.

Right.. Over to you… Add your thoughts and remember to suggest a year…  

And please share this far and wide.

Emma Heath

The Singularity Team Leader

Chris Jones

Create50

Listen to Joseph Campbell Lectures: The Power of Myth and Storytelling online and free

Anyone who has seen me speak at the London Screenwriters’ Festival or come to the Guerilla Filmmakers Masterclass will know that I hold in high regard the ‘heros journey’ story model.

It was first and most comprehensively written about by Joseph Campbell (and famously plundered by George Lucas with Star Wars).

Many story models are useful, but many are also very rigid and highly structured. In contrast the heros journey is flexible and fluid and for me it feels more like a set of principles and not a set of rules.

I just came across this archive of lectures from the man himself and I have begun the journey of listening to them myself. Listen to the first below via Spotify.

And listen to the entire series on Spotify HERE.

I hope you find them as insightful as I have done.

Onwards and upwards!

Chris Jones

My movies www.LivingSpiritGroup.com

My Facebook www.Facebook.com/ChrisJonesFilmmaker

My Twitter @LivingSpiritPix

Sign up to my mailing list for updates on

events, books and free film making tools