Winter quarters.

 A wonderful sight here in our Italian Mountain village It was the annual move of the cows from the high pastures to their winter quarters. Superb animals, all with massive bells arouund thier necks and huge bouquets of floweres on their heads..all surrounded by their families in traditional costume..lotsa kids...Beautiful weather for it.. Love it.

Visitors

Thank you everyone..The visitor numbers to the site have now exceeded over 71,000.....keep it up.

Streamers

 We are having great fun watching the Streamers from various companies..A massive choice of evening viewing..I recall the days when we only had one choice  BBC1..then BB2..The ITV lincences blew the industry apart....fortunately it eneabled me to get a start in the industry.  I loved every minute of it.

One thing that is impressive with the Streamers..  The Production values..  The quality in almost every department is superb..Lotsa talented folk out there ....and vast amoutns of money..Long may it coinue..One day perhaps we can all enjoy 'HATRACK' when it reaches the right production company... working on it.... Keep a lookout.

Book sales

 Good news today..  Our books are selling well  'The Fiddler'..'Maginty's Quest' and 'The Stack'

The Fiddler'  Set in Italy ..about a young farmhand who trieds to join Mozarts Orchestra...The journey changes his life..massively

Maginty's Quest..Three small sea creatures rescue a pirate who is also a magician and he gives them a quest..250 years later they carry it out..A great young readers romp.

The Stack..A family dynasty tale..It begins in the first wordl war and concerns the activities of two young British soldiers who seek out the NEW WORLD and continues up to the present time..Locations are UK..Gallipoli..Australia and USA

All three novels began as Screenplays and then  adapted into books..

All available from Amazon.  Check them out,,RJ

'HATRACK'

 Hi everyone..This is Richard Dodd..the owner of this site..nice to see you all visiting..At the moment I am working on a new TV streaming project called 'HATRACK'.

The concept has been viewed by a number of A list industry professionals and they have all given it an enthusiastic  thumbs up.  It is mainly aimed at a teenage audience but for the first time it will involve them  both in the viewing and the spin off game..

The concept has been offered to a number of Streaming companies and we await feed back..

More on this as/if  we get it.

In the meantime if any of you want to post your experiences in the industry then please feel free to offer them up and I will see they are published...

Talk later.  RD.

Rape ..and its consequences

 This a slightly off topic post but it is relevant and I may have posted it before but please stay with me.

Some years ago I lived in a very smart apartment block in Kensington London. A two bed place..on the top floor..  Mega..  Surrounded by great restaurants, bars and shops.

At that time I was the D.o.P on a prime time show for  UK TV..As usual the production company..in an attempt to keep the costs down.. had hired a very rundown studio (Abandoned factory) In a  remote part of East london. To call the studio a permanent health hazard for the crew would be an understatement..  Full of bird dropping,  appalling toilets etc....everything about it was wrong

It was about an hours tube ride from Kensington.

 Because of the filthy conditions I chose to wear the oldest scruffiest filming  clothes I had..  Raggy faded jeans.. a well worn sweater and the oldest well worn  jacket that was at least 30 years old and looked it.

At wrap on a particular day I dashed across to the tube station,  caught the train and made it home at about 9 pm.  As I approached my apartment block a woman who looked to be in her sixties was approaching from the opposite direction.  It was obvious we were aiming for the same large glass doors. I held my keys up as we closed.  She ignored me and opened the door ..entered and then closed.it behind her.

Odd.. but I was cool about it.  She began to walk down a quite long corridor to the elevators.  I waited until she was approx half way and then went inside.The woman stopped and turned 'Who are you?'

I waved the keys  'A resident'..'I dont believe you, Ive never seen you before and a scruffy person like you would never live in this place'

I was a little shocked..but this was London and some funny folk live there..  I walked past her and arrived at the lifts . Pressed to button.The indicator said the carriage was on the top floor ..the 7th

I heard the woman behind me start to scream at the top of her voice  'RAPE..RAPE..HES RAPING ME  HELP'  and she kept on shouting as she threw herself ont the floor,  pulling her blouse out of her skirt and kicking her legs about..  Still screaming 'RAPE' etc.

The lift was taking its time and there was no one else in the corridor..My entire life and career now hung on someone being in the lift or entering the building..A woman in obvious distress was writhing about on the floor,  her clother were in disarray and and she was screaming 'RAPE' 

Who would any one believe?.. the very upset woman or this very scruffy man who obviously did not live there,  altho he did.  If the police had been called  then I would have been detained.  Taken to a station to be questioned.  No doubt held overnight.  Would not be on set in the morning and it would soon get out that I had been arrested on suspicion of rape..  NO SMOKE WITHOUT FIRE..  In my business the phone would never  have rung again..ever.

What should happen to a woman who does this. Should she be charged with a crime  Even if I had ultimately been completely cleared the smell would have lingered  forever.  

Just askng

Adverts..Advertising.

 Adverts:

Recently a very large Advertising Placement company carried out a survey on 'The Chelsy Swann Blogsite' to see if we were suitable too place ads on.

In spite of having a decent hit rate the Company stated we were not diverse enough to attract their Client ..Fair enogh.

The point about the site is it is aimed primarily at those people who want to be part of the Film/ TV/ Advertising world...at all levels.

Having spent a number of decades working at the top level in these categories I can honestly say that whilst all three are immensely satisfying in a number of cases as a career choice I  made infinitely more money working in the Advertising section. Sometime I would earn the equivalent of a full years salary working for a Drama production companyin a couple of weeks working on a commercial,,and I have worked on a helluva lot of commercials.

I am still fascinated by the process and find myself analysing an ad as it bursts onto the TV  screen.  How many set ups. How many times do I see the product..Why do car ads never show the  nterior..the most important bit.. the bit you get to see as you sit in the car for many hours a week. Why dont they concentrate on the selling bit ...This product is good, this is why..buy it.  Job done.

The visitors to the site are aiming to be employed in the industry, at whatever level, it is Highly paid, you get to travel a lot, creative, exciting, glamorous and they will all become big spenders..But the site is not deemed to be 'Diverse ' enough.

As most of the posts are from my own personal experience I seem to have covered many aspects of the business.  Two lost at sea episodes, A spell on a Nuclea submarine, being catapulted off a a massive Aircraft carrier, being in a war zone, Crashing in a chopper, the pilots amazing story, filming in all parts of the world..and thats just for starters..The site is primarily aimed at the folk who may want to be a part of all that. I would have liked to see ads on the site..they are samples of our work....maybe someday..