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Posts tagged as “BBF”

(copyrighted) Music to my ears

I’ve got this problem, well it’s not really a problem. More like a catch-22. Anyway, I’ve got this short film I wrote and directed where reality TV is mocked. Half the short is basically this clichéd clip show of the “greatest moments” of the program. For a clichéd clip show I obviously needed music that reinforced the ridicule of the situation. I was out of time (it was actually a school project) and didn’t think twice to use copyrighted music. Indeed, the crappy commercial music suited perfectly the short.
So here we are now.
I would like to send this movie to festivals but for obvious copyright issues I can’t. I faxed several request (8 in totals) to publishers and labels and stuff, only one got back to me so far: I had to pay between 250 to 500 dollars to use a 20-second background music (not even the crappy commercial one)! I should also point out the fact that this short is strictly non-commercial, and had/has a zero-dollar budget behind it.
This leads me to either:
a) wait for the other requests to come through and miraculously be free
b) send the short to festivals despite not having the copyrighted rights to the music
c) find copyright-free music

Ultimately I went with c).
I came across this great site where there are tons of music from around the world under creative commons, which means (depending on the group) you can freely use the music as long as you credit the artist.
This site is Jamendo. It’s awesome.
One problem though.
I’m looking for crappy commercial music, and I can’t seem to really find it over at this indy site.
It’s been weeks now since I’ve tried to replace the copyrighted songs. Replacements has yet to be found.

Oh and the songs I’m talking about are:
Coldplay’s The Scientist©
Fergie’s Finally©
(the crappy commercial music bash was actually towards Finally, not The Scientist)

In other news, Ken Levine just posted a great post about “why writers direct”.

Yet another boring blog? (let's hope not)

Yes I’m lazy. No I’m not lazy enough to not do a blog about my wonderful life adventures.
Is it unfortunate? Let’s hope not.

But before I even begin to talk (or rather write) about me now, let us talk about me then.
And by “then”, I mean a short biography of what my life has been. And by “us” I actually mean me.
Yes it’s a blog, about me, deal with it (or please write a nice comment).

So who am I?
I’m Spider-man.
I’m a frenglish guy who currently resides in France.
That’s a problem mainly because what I want to do is write for TV.
I want to be a TV Writer.
I hear what you’re saying right now, and my answer is: hell no, not French TV. It would take hours, nay days, to explain my despise towards the so-called programs here.
Actually, now that I think of it, I believe I can sum that up in three words: Rip-off, Dubbing, Useless.
Fortunately, I won’t indulge in a post-long detailed explanation on that (perhaps another time) because it’s 1AM.

Okay so back to business. I’m frenglish, that means half French, half English (or rather British here). My dad is from Newcastle and my mom from Paris.

Long story short, I love TV. I don’t just love TV, I live for TV.
That and writing.
In English.
I just don’t like to write in French, and I don’t really to know how to “really write” in French, if you catch my drift.

I lived almost all my life in France, save for a year in NYC. So you can see just the level of difficulty I’m confronted with to go to the U.S., to stay there especially, to work there.
Immigration here I come. (better not say that here, you don’t know who’s reading)

Anyhow, if all goes to plan in 5-year time I should be in L.A. for good.

Resistance is futile. I’m determined. I’m prepared. I’ll be back.

Also don’t forget to check out all my BBFs on the right. Truely awesome blogs full of advices on the biz and more importantly life.

Before I sign off, some maths are in order:
In this post we had 5 “Me”s + 25 “I”s = lots of moi.
Indeed, this blog is the true definition of blog (a shared on-line journal where people can post diary entries about their personal experiences).
Let’s really hope my life is not that boring.

Flashback/Flashforward Edit: As for the actual purpose of this blog, please refer to this post.