The curious case of ... a lack of character

When I studied film writing under Professor Ken Jones at San Diego State University in the 80's, he always told us that 'your main character needed to be a different person at the end of your story than when he started out.' Jones also said that 'your main character needed to discover something about himself that gives him a direction and purpose for his life'.
Seems that the writer of 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' hasn't heard Professor Jones' points, although this may the fault of F Scott Fitzgerald's original short story on which the film is based.
In any event - whilst the premise of the film is intriguing, a man is born old and gets younger as he 'gets older' - Benjamin Button seemingly has no moral base in his life, no direction and simply reacts to the situations and opportunities presented to him. He falls in love with the Tilda Swinton character, then moves on to Daisy, played by Kate Blanchett then leaves her.
Certainly he changes - and what a masterpiece of make-up and special effects as he gets younger and younger, but these is nothing redeeming about his character at all. In fact he seems entirely amoral, which gives the film a very bleak outlook.
Sad - because the potential for the Benjamin Buttons character to reveal something positive about the human condition was certainly there in the premise.
Maybe next time?
Happy New Year.

Outsourcing web design off shore ....

Because I am starting a new business, I decided to revamp my web site. Son Nathan from Blacklist Studios did the design for me, and provided me with a psd file in layers with all the elements of the new design.
I have a number of local mates who do web site coding from psd files, doing all the cut-ups and integrating with the content management system I use.
However this is never cheap and as I was chatting to a mate he said why not use the web to 'hire a coder', someone usually resident in India or South East Asia at a much lower hourly rate. I had heard that this was a growing web business and so I went to www.elance.com, created a profile for myself, authorised my creditcard and pitched the job I had to their pool of web coders.
I had four quick responses from IT guys in India and one in Indonesia, to whom I 'gave' the job.
I have had to put the agreed charge ($120) into an Escrow account which I will release once the job has been completed. I am able to view the developing site and work back and forth with BV as he works on the design.
All started well, but he took much longer than agreed to do what I asked and then it was the wrong size. I almost cancelled on him, but today he e-mailed me and said he had been in hospital and very ill. I have told him that I am happy to continue - given his illness, but he needs to commit to some timelines.
Been an interesting process, managing someone you don't know over the web via the ELance interface. I was in 2 minds about continuing with him, given that I hadn't heard from him for a week - but I thought he deserved another chance ...
I'll let you know how it goes and hopefully you'll be able to see the results very soon.

So, that was Christmas

December 26th and Christmas has come and gone for another year. After a day of church services and then lunch with the family (ever growing) and friends, I can look back and say it was a good day.
Christmas seems to mark the end of one year and New Years Day the beginning of the next with the week in between like something you 'sneak' from your life to do stuff that you'd never have time to do at any other time. Things like rent a DVD or go to the movies of just a lazy afternoon walking the esplanade at Cronulla.
For me its the calm before I launch into a new year of business - which although is looking OK for the first 6 months, will need some marketing and some 'selling' to make sure that next Christmas I can continue to enjoy time with the family and friends.

Australia. Just go and see it

Last night, after a great meal at a local Thai restaurant, we went to see 'Australia' - Baz Luhrman's much hyped and much discussed film epic. Its been called a cross between 'Out of Africa' and 'Gone with the Wind' and having now seen it, I can see why some people might have categorised it this way. The verdict? We liked it. We didn't 'love' it - but we did enjoy it and would recommend it.
Here's what we liked ...
It told the story of life on a cattle station in the Northern Territory during WWII. The setting was magnificent, the landscape inspiring and the sheer difficulty of making a living in the harshness of such a remote part of our country was well depicted. Learning about this part of our history was a plus. The underlying issue of half-caste aboriginal children and the whole stolen generation story was a key part of the story. In 'Australia', 'Nulla' - the half caste aboriginal boy played brilliantly by Brandon Walters, has a happy ending, but many thousands did not. To see the sadness of this policy depicted as a key part of the story was also a plus - we learnt something.
The everpresent 'King George', an aboriginal witch doctor and Nulla's grandfather was a brilliant piece of writing. His presence at key parts of the story gave a whole other dimension to what we 'white fellas' would see as just life. Another plus.
The raid on Darwin by the Japanese and the aftermath was another plus - here was another part of our history that whilst I was aware of, had never experienced. Another plus.
The cinematography was stunning - lots of beautiful magic-hour shots and aerials swooping over the landscape. Mandy (DoP) has a great eye.
Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman? Certainly Hugh is great eye candy for the ladies and whilst I would call myself a Nicole fan, I just couldn't warm to her character, and she was certainly playing a character. I think the problem was the writing, rather than her acting, although as the film moved into the attack on Darwin, her characted certainly became more 'real'.
Its a pity that so many have been so critical - but given the hype, you were expecting to see something magnificent. It wasn't magnificent, but it was another step in Australians telling their own story and that of their land.
Its worth seeing for that reason alone.

Getting that Motorcycle Karma ...

Last night, family, friends and colleagues of the four guys in the pic gathered at the Chauvel Cinema in Sydney for a preview of a one-hour documentary called 'Motorcycle Karma'. The guys, who all work in the television industry had headed off to India just before Christmas, 2004 to ride motorbikes across the southern part of the sub-continent. One of them (AJ, 2nd from left) is our son and the doco's cinematographer. The verdict? Brilliant. Entertaining, funny, poignant and sad as the guys 'ran into' the 2004 Tsunami that devastated South East Asia. The doco, which has been sold to the National Geographic Channel, follows the boys as they firstly look for 4 Royal Enfield motorbikes to hire, learn to ride them (2 of the guys had done little riding before) and then headed off for a 'boys own adventure'. As parents of AJ, we loved it - but the whole audience cheered and laughed and cried (I'm sure there were a few tears) as they allowed us to share in their journey.
The doco has its own web page - www.themotorcyclelesson.com (one of the project's working titles) with a whole stack of information and some stills from the trip.
The guys are hopeful for more sales - but I can thoroughly recommend it as a great piece of television .... but then I am biased and very proud of my son's work behind the camera.

A personal note ...

Having three sons with my wife J continues to be a delightful experience. As they're all now in their 20s - its great to see them finding their own place in the world. This weekend I was privileged to be invited by my youngest (23) to join him and his mates for his bucks weekend.
Although he doesn't get married til the middle of January, the guys decided to hold the traditional 'guys weekend' before Christmas.
In my day - 35 years ago - a guy would never have invited his Dad to join him and his mates for the bucks weekend, but things have changed and as a Dad, that's great. This is the second one I've been to - but I have been careful to only hang out for a few hours.
We went bowling - yep, lawn bowls the game of old blokes. First time for me although some of the other guys had bowled before and they're all younger than me! Made me feel heaps better.
My son's mates did the traditional thing - putting my son through a series of 'dress' changes with the word 'dress' taken literally.
I left them on Saturday night and drove home - feeling that life couldn't get any better.

Christian Television in Australia ... starting the conversation

One of my passions is Christian television - I've made a far amount of it in my life, some of it I'm quite proud of although budget was always an issue (not enough). (I worked on Turn 'Round Australia for 20 years for the Nine Network for Wesley Mission; the 'Discovering' series with Gordon Moyes [That's me on the left with DoP Rob Draper in the Judean Hills]; 'Face to Face for TEN and now the Australian Christian Channel)
Last month we saw the last commercial TV network drop their weekly half-hour Christian television spot provided to churches through the various Christian agencies. This was announced as they shared their plans for 2009. I asked the programmer if she realised she was announcing the end of what had been a forty year tradition? She didn't.
As I sat there with a colleague, I thought there should have been more I could have done to 'save the timeslot', but when there is no longer an obligation by the networks to air Christian programs and when some Christian agencies have not kept up the relationship between themselves and the network, the outcome is a foregone conclusion.
All Australian commercial networks say they'll 'consider' Christian programming at the appropriate time of the year, Easter and Christmas mainly - but weekly programs seem to have gone all together.
What do you think? Should commercial television networks in Australia provide this time at no cost or should they treat Christian programs on merit?
Be keen to have your comments ...

The first signed consultancy contracts are in ...

I said this blog would be an account of my setting up my own business, so key to a new business of course is just that - 'business'. My current employer has offered me two days a week starting from mid-January, so we're underway.
Key to attracting more business will be my web site, which, come January, will be up and running and which will set out the 'offer' very clearly. The site will have some videos of me, doing a pitch plus some other videos of previous projects - plus a list of current clients and projects.
Also set up the bank accounts on Friday.

My business cards have arrived ...

Much excitement (well, almost). My new business cards arrived today from son Nathan's creative talents at Blacklist Studio (see his blog link on the right). Here are some pics of me holding two, so you can see each side of them. Cool eh? Even wearing my orange shirt to match the card colour. Nate selected the quote marks .. pretty cool for a Communications consultant's logo, don't you think?
Hey - be the first to have one, e-mail me and I'll send you one - free of charge. martin.johnson@bigpond.com
See ya ...

Business processes

They say that getting your business processes in place and working is half the battle when you start to run your own business ... that and managing cash flow. Moving out of a PAYE situation into doing my own 'thing' is going to force me to do the paperwork on a regular (ie - daily) basis.
This doesn't come naturally as 'my people' have always done this sort of stuff before, but now I am 'my people'.
So, finally got the ABN and the ACN and the tax file number all in place so once the bank says OK and sets up my bank account - should be OK.
Almost finalised my first three agreements with my (still) current employer - so at least there is the promise of some funds coming in from the start.
Then I'll need to start the marketing phase.
Anyone recommend a book on consulting?
Off to a wedding today - every blessing to Tim and Sarah.

So, what am I worth ...

Had one of these conversations tonight. It was a very pleasant setting, looking over Sydney's Rushcutters Bay with something nice to drink and something good to snack on, but working out your worth is never easy. Especially when its with someone you have worked for for the past six years and they're being quite generous in what their offering you.
So - I've postponed my answer - only by a day or two, but maybe some brilliant phrase or strategy will come to mind by then ... or maybe not.
I'll let you know ...

Back to work and back to business ... mine

The tag line under the title of this blog promised that it would be a regular account of my moving from being a staffer with a non-profit organisation to a consultant in the same sector. So, here's my first posting on this topic - a very personal one for me.
I started working for an employer in 1966. Now, 42 years later and seven different employers I am about to start a new career, that of working for myself.
Why now? Its hard to pin-point a single reason, but it's a combination of, "if I don't do it now, I never will," through being fed up with battling Sydney's traffic every day (up to 3 hours a day commuting) to wanting to simply be more in charge of my own future.
When I spoke to my accountant, who set up my Pty Ltd company structure, he said he was always surprised at how may people had 'sat in that chair' and said they were 'scared at taking this step' and then 12 months later said it was the best thing they ever did. I'm hoping that that will be me.
I've also heard the joke, "how do you start a small business?" "Just start a medium sized business ... and wait."
Each of my three sons now run their own business - you can see their web sites listed on the right, so that's also an incentive. Great thing is that they work in similar areas to me, film making, graphic design and photography. The image above (reverse of my business card) was designed by Nathan from Blacklist Studios. Check out his blog also - some nice stuff there.
In the next month I'll be setting up my home office (with help from J) and putting my marketing campaign together, which will be mainly web and e-mail based.
More tomorrow ...
Martin

Travelling in style ...

Never thought I'd experience this, but with no public transport between Seattle airport and the ferry terminal to Bainbridge Island, where the Lausanne meeting was held, the system is to use a local limousine company. Last time I did this the guy picked me up in a Lincoln Town Car - very nice, but this time he turned up in a stretch limo for both trips.
So last Sunday I travelled from the airport in one of these and today, Grace and I travelled back to the airport in one. It looks dark outside, but that's because the windows are shaded and of course the flash stops the camera down.
You can see some more pics on my web site. Click here
Lots of fun ...

So, what are the key global issues?

This is the happy snap of the group meeting in Seattle. It's always great to meet with Christian communicators from around the world. We're grappling with how we involve Christians world-wide in creating the global agenda for the October 2010 meeting. There is a very strong feeling that we need to move away from the tradition of leaders (usually American) determining what they think needs to be discussed at such gatherings. The team wants a global discussion for at least 12 months prior to the conference from which the key issues that Christians worldwide are concerned about, then influence the conference agenda.
What are the issues? Is this a conference that will finally kill off the 'Prosperity Gospel' teaching?
Let me have your comments .....
For more on plans for the Capetown Conference ... click here

The perfect Christmas gift?

Saw this together with other similar ones outside a local store in Poulsbo, Seattle. Its a plastic dome about six feet high, inflated by an air blower. The air also inflates the Santa image inside and sucks up polystyrene beads that then float down like snow.
There were some other ones featuring 'The Grinch' coming out of a chimney, plus one of the stable with Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus. Probably all made in China, but as you can see ... just $99.95 US.

Sunny in Seattle

I'm back in Seattle at a conference at Masterworks looking at the Communications issues around Lausanne's Capetown 2010 Conference. Arrived Sunday night but on Monday I played tourist on a beautiful late Autumn day. This is the Seattle needle - like our Centrepoint with a ferris wheel in the foreground.
I also visited Pike's Place market - some great produce on display.

This is my blog - stay tuned for more stuff