stealthypenguinmedia

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Light At The End Of The Rainbow

Cheesy title to start with, why not. 

Last month saw the release of my 3rd short film entitled ‘Lola’s Rainbow’. It has become an artistic achievement for me. On the surface level it’s my longest short film to date. Not a huge achievement but one none the less. It’s also my best one so far. This is something I’ll cover in more detail later on. What most may not though however is that it’s a massive personal accomplishment as well. This is what I wanted to mostly focus on.

3 Years, 3 short films. 3 increasingly frustrating productions. 

Starting with Mr Happy. A true passion project. The origins of it are well documented. I watched the pilot for Mr Robot, got inspired (mostly by the cinematography), & decided to attempt to make my first ever short film. I had no expectations. No established standards. I just decided to make something. It turned out to be really successful. I was so pleased with the final product. Then it was released into the world... I could have never predicted the reception. It felt like my coming out party. I was showing the world what I could do at that early point in my art.  Moving on to Nevermind, my second short film. I had now established what I could do. The idea was to do something bigger and more ambitious. To prove that I could. Unfortunately I made the drastic mistake of aiming too high. I tried to do too much. I continued to handle basically all of the behind the camera work while taking up a main role in the cast. It’s just not possible. It also quickly became a production hell. Organising & scheduling a cast of 4 proved to be extremely difficult. So difficult that I missed the original release date simply because it was nowhere near complete. It wasn’t released for another two months. Once it was released the reception was lukewarm at best. Nobody seemed to care & this just added to an increasingly dreadful part of my psyche. Now I’m going to explain something before I move onto talking about Lola’s Rainbow. I doubt I’m alone when I say this but as an artist I’m always looking to improve. I never want to stagnate because the moment that happens is the moment when my love for this dies. So imagine how it feels when you can’t get it out of your head that the best thing you’ve ever made was your first film. Something I made with less than half of the skill/experience I have now. Don’t get me wrong, I know I’ve improved since then. But it felt like the evidence wasn’t there. No matter how much I felt I was improving, the validation wasn’t there. As I’ve previously mentioned the reception to Mr Happy was amazing. However I never repeated that. No matter what I made, I never got close to it. You have to understand how much that eats me up inside as an artist. I started questioning whether I was actually improving. Whether I was good at what I do. Whether it was worth continuing to do this. Not a healthy mindset to be in. Short film number 3. Which would come to be known as Lola’s Rainbow. Wanna know my process for this? Prove that I am good. Prove that I have gotten better. Prove that Mr Happy wasn’t a fluke. Really not the mindset any artist should be in when they make shit. But that’s where I found myself. So i set out on making the most ambitious project I could but remembered my mistakes from Nevermind. My goal was to remain behind the camera so I could focus on it. Admittedly I ended up in front of the camera for part of it, but for a brief enough amount of time not to be a big issue. This was a project that started with the end. Which was originally much darker than what it eventually changed to. Literally all of my projects seem to start with an idea for a shot/scene, then I go from there. Anyway once again this turned into production hell. For different reasons though. While I still had to schedule with the same cast, this was less of a pain as we didn’t all have to be there at once. No it turned into hell because of the mindfuck that was organising it. Shooting with the intent of telling a story over a continuous set of days is a pain in the ass. Especially when you’re telling a similar story each day. There’s also my mindset issue. I hit rock bottom during production. Mentally I was done. Checked out. Considering saying fuck it and giving up all of this. I have a bit of a perfectionist’s attitude, not as bad as most though. My attitude makes it so that if I think i can’t do something as well as I want to, it’s hard to bring myself to do it at all. So imagine being at rock bottom with this attitude. Literally every time I shot something during this period I couldn’t look at the footage for awhile. And when I did look all I could think was ‘this is all shit’. Fortunately I managed to get out from rock bottom and kept pushing through. Eventually it came to the edit and I realised that I’ve actually done a pretty damn good job. While finalising the edit I began worrying about audience reaction. I was worried it wasn’t going to be the most accessible film. I stuck to my guns though. Fortunately it paid off for me. The reception has been fucking marvellous and it put me on cloud 9. Knowing that I’ve finally bested Mr Happy has taken a weight off my mind.  So yes as stated it earlier it’s an artist achievement but now you know why it’s so much more to me. So thank you. Thank you for being a part of that.

[stealthypenguinmedia]

Lola's Rainbow is a film about the mundanity of life. It's about feeling trapped in the everyday cycle of repetition. The rainbow is symbolic for many reasons to many different people, however for Lola it symbolises a way out. In a world that is often dull and vapid, the rainbow’s bright colours call to Lola. Dreaming of chasing the rainbow and actually doing it are two different things. Most of us give up and accept that life doesn't get better than the cycle that we find ourselves in. EAT. SLEEP. WORK. REPEAT.

This film is likely not to work for you if you have a short attention span. It reflects that feeling of being trapped in the cycle. It's likely to feel slow and may even bore you at parts but that's the point. I wanted to communicate the way Lola felt to the audience. If this means alienating those of you who can't bring themselves to watch a 20 minute film then so be it. Art isn’t always about making people smile & laugh. Sometimes it’s about making people reflect on their own lives. As an artist it’s important to not waste the audience’s time. I would not be releasing this film if I felt it would waste your time. However I understand that not everyone will appreciate this. But that’s okay. If everyone liked everything then this world would be rather dull. I just hope that I can find an audience who does appreciate it. 

So with that in mind I ask you to do me a favour. Whether you enjoyed it or you know people who would enjoy it, please share this around as much as you possibly can. A lot of hard work went into this. More than most will ever truly understand but hey, I love doing this so it’s worth it.

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It's happening...

[stealthypenguinmedia]

Episode 25 of The Igloo podcast is now here. 

This one feels like a return to form in the sense that we actually have some good debate/conversation mixed in with our usual bizare nature. So go give it a listen and decide for yourself. 

Remember to share it around if you enjoy.

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We haven't made a music video for awhile... So that's exactly what you're getting today. 

This is a music video for the song Goner. Originally a Twenty One Pilots song but we chose to do a cover of it by Dodie Clark. For voice accuracy and copyright reasons... 

Anyway we're quite proud of this video. It's got some beautiful shots in it. Be sure to give it a watch and then share it around. It's helpful! 

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Episode 3 of the SPM Podcast is here. With what is possibly the greatest thumbnail I've ever made... 

Anyway give it a listen and share it around if you enjoy. It really helps!

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The Igloo is back and better than ever. Okay, maybe not.

Anyway here's this month's episode of The Igloo podcast, it strays a bit from our usual style and turned more into a catch-up session for us lot. 

Whatever the case, give it a listen and share it around if you enjoy.

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Is This Thing On? (Update Time #11)

Isn’t it great when you look down the back of the sofa and find something you forgot existed? That’s what keeps happening with this blog...

Catching Up

So where to start. How about the fact that we’re 4 months into the year and we’ve managed to keep our promise of two videos a month. Pretty good if I do say so myself, at least we’re beating out our pathetic attempt last year at maintaining any semblance of a schedule. That change has been a lifesaver, I’m no longer stressing about getting content out and therefore am living an easier life. Oh if only that were the case, instead I had to deal with the most stressful month of my life because of University. Got so bad that it triggered a really bad episode of my stress induced IBS. So that was fun. But at least the channel wasn’t the cause of that, so that’s a plus. 

SPM Podcast

In case you missed it, myself and Lea launched a new podcast. I came to realise that The Igloo is definitely not everyone’s cup of tea but I still love doing it so I didn’t want to change it drastically. Instead I decided to create a new podcast with Lea which is much more organised and is an easier listening experience. You wouldn’t believe the amount of work that goes into putting an episode together. Anyway we’re both enjoying making it, unsure about the reaction because I seem to get the same reaction for everything we do these days but whatever...

Short Film #3

Hey look, it’s that time of the year where I start to put serious work into planning the next summer short film. I’m progressing quite quickly, I’m writing the screenplay while still planning it. So that’s a thing... I’m aiming to have it written by the end of Easter half term. The funny thing is, even if I do get it written it’s still very dependant on a certain life event happening so it may not even see the light of day this summer/year... As usual I’m not being very forthcoming with details. That’s because of the reason I just mentioned plus the fact that I’m terrible at explaining my own films without completely giving away the entire plot. Oh, and did I mention I’m still writing and planning it. There’s that too.

Conclusion

Wrapping this up here as I’m writing these posts at 3 in the morning again. If our start to the year is anything to go by, we should have a pretty good year in terms of content production so strap yourselves in for that. Myself and Lea are coming to end of our first year of University so that’ll also hopefully clear up some time for us. As long as Trump, Putin, or some other moron don’t completely destroy the world 2017 should be pretty good for Stealthy Penguin Media. Now if only someone would hire us to make shit for them, that’d make this year a great one...

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​Here's the other video for the month of February. It's a small little video that Lea wrote. It also happens to be one of the warmest videos we've shot, in terms of shot lighting. So a far cry from our normal videos. 

Anyway definitely give it a watch and share it around if you enjoy. The latter helps us a bunch.

[stealthypenguinmedia]

Hey all, sorry for the radio silence this month. Been pretty busy and haven't been able to find time to make much. Anyway we've got an episode of The Igloo for you today. This one is pretty good if I do say so myself. 

So be sure to give it a listen and share it around if you feel so inclined. Enjoy. 

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We've got something a bit new for you this weekend, we've had issues scheduling The Igloo so I thought it'd be a great opportunity to finally try an idea I had. 

This podcast is less hectic than The Igloo and is most likely something that's much easier listening as there's only two of us and we have a structure to it. So I recommend giving this one a shot and seeing what you think. 

Remember if you enjoy it be sure to share it around as it helps us a lot.

[stealthypenguinmedia]

Starting out the year with a video I actually made last month. It's a short documentary I had to make for a university project where the only requirement was that it was around 3 minutes in length.

You don't truly understand how difficult it is to compress information until you have a time limit in place...

Anyway this documentary was possible due to the boys in Alive In Salem. I was having issues deciding upon a topic and they were more than happy to allow me to follow and film them at a gig. Be sure to head over to their page and check them out if you haven't already.

So here it is, my documentary entitled 'To The Stage'. Be sure to share it around if you enjoy, it's really helpful!

P.S - Lea will not be uploading a documentary due to an agreement she made with her participants.

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In case you hadn’t listened to our end of year video, I made an important announcement regarding the future of Stealthy Penguin Productions.

For awhile now I’ve been contemplating a rebrand, our current name and branding was of a lower standard than I wanted. On top of that SPP is a terrible shorthand name, especially for those with a childish sense of humour. That’s why moving forward we shall be using the name Stealthy Penguin Media.

SPM Moving Forward

It’s more than just a name change, it’s an ideological change. We want to be able to carry this whole thing forward with the dream of potentially making it into a business. Thus it’s important for us to have a name that we’re happy being represented by. This change doesn’t mean a change in attitude, we’ll still be doing everything we used to. Just with a slight difference.At the start of 2016 we set out the goal of releasing a video every week, we failed in dramatic fashion. More like we crashed the car and flipped it numerous times before finally settling in fast moving rapids heading towards a massive waterfall. See, I can be poetic. Anyway this failure took a massive toll on myself, I became increasingly more frustrated and fed up. I could no longer find the energy to make anything. That’s why moving forward into 2017 we shall have a schedule that has more leeway. The plan is to release two videos a month at the minimum. This means one episode of The Igloo podcast and some other video. There may be times when we release more than this, but it’s not a guarantee. 

One thing I’d like to ask. If everyone who has read this far could share this post, it’d be appreciated. We want this year to be so much better. That’s why this change is acting like a reset for us. We want to move on from the negatives of last year and focus on making this year a much more positive experience. Sharing this post will help us know that people are ready to support us. 

Thanks in advance, and here’s to an exciting 2017. 

[stealthypenguinmedia]

Closing The Year Out (Update Time #10)

Discovered I haven’t written an update post since May... So realistically I should have a bunch of stuff to catch up on. Probably not gonna get through it all.

Nevermind

Last month we finally saw the release of my second short film, Nevermind. That project turned into the biggest pain in my ass. I originally planned for it to be released in August on my birthday, we hadn’t even gotten half of it done by then. It dragged on far longer than it should have, then on top of that I had to rewrite a bunch of stuff. This includes creating an entirely different ending due to issues we had executing the original one. Despite this, I’m fairly happy with the final product. I feel it’s shows that I’ve grown as a creator since Mr Happy. While far from perfect it works. This just means that i can and will do better with projects from here on out.

Short Film #3

Transitioning perfectly from Nevermind, now begins the planning and talk about my next short film. Surprisingly I already have an idea of what I want to do, the only issue with it is that I’m highly dependent on something happening. I don’t want to go in-depth at all, I just want to make it clear that I do intend to create another short film next year. Hell, I’d like to do more than one but it depends on how everything goes. Working on one of the damn things is painful enough.

Closing The Year Out

This year hasn’t been the greatest for us, we almost immediately broke our goal of a video a week due to my moving issues. Then throughout the year we’ve had other difficulties and complications that have prevented us from uploading. I want to close the year out strong though. We have the next month’s worth of content entirely planned out. I always say this though, I’m never 100% certain that we can get a video out every week even when we’ve planned. On top of life, I normally get in my own way. Whether that be a lack of desire to work or an inability to come up with anything to do. I’m my own worst enemy. 

Life

A small little section to address some stuff. Both myself and Lea are currently doing a foundation degree course in Media Production, we’ve been fortunate in being very un-busy since starting the course. However the deadlines for the first assignments are fast approaching, obviously we’re going to prioritize that over the channel. Luckily though nothing we have planned is particularly time consuming so you shouldn’t really notice a change, just wanted to clarify in case.

The Future

So once again we’re left talking about the future. Where we may go, what we may do, etc. We’re already in the process of planning out what we may potentially do. This includes making adjustments where needs be, figuring out what we want to do with the channel, and just Stealthy Penguin Productions as a whole. If we go through with our plan, you’ll hear about it come the first day of the new year. Part of the plan is something I’ve been battling with for awhile, I’m doing a bunch of work to see if I can get it to work and if I’ll be happy with it. 

Conclusion

Wrapping these up is always the most difficult part of writing. I suck at conclusions so I’m just gonna leave you with a link to a band I saw support Panic! At The Disco when I went to see them in Cardiff. Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9e2gW1y1nE&index=3&list=PLh_lLp9WeXQdj3k3gYsIUMv9CfCaG_TZ7

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A day late... This time it's not my fault, YouTube bugged out for me when I tried to upload this Saturday night. 

Whatever the case, here's the behind the scenes video for Nevermind. It's quite a long watch so I doubt many will watch the entire thing. However if you're at all interested in how we operate and what was going on behind the main camera then this is the video for you.

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Would you look at that, we're releasing a video in the middle of the week. Well it's for good reason, I didn't want to drag out Nevermind longer than needs be. So today the bloopers have been uploaded, on Sunday the behind the scenes will be uploaded.

Doing this means we can move on to new videos. Anyway here is the blooper reel for Nevermind, it's half the length of the actual film... - 

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We're back with this months episode of The Igloo Podcast. Which just so happens to be the 20th episode we've released. That doesn't include the original pilot or the lost episodes.. 

Anyway you can expect the usual antics that you've come to know and love from us on this episode. Go give it a listen! - Liam