Whisky, Films and New Year's

Well It's officially 2011...

I sincerely hope its better than the crappy 2010... Well actually 2010 started off not so bad... and continued to be fine for a few months... and then the Music incident happened during exams and that's kinda set the tone for the rest of the year.... I had some respite from the Police, Bitches and Slebochs at various points in the year, Such as the wonderful 5 weeks in Glasgow at SYT (which I am applying for again this year, 5 week acting in Resi), the Fun weekend in Glasgow for the Bowling for Soup Concert oh and of course Showstopperz Throughout the year...

 

I may have been off school for a full half a year now but I will still be sitting at least most of my prelims in January with everyone else... This poses it's own problems... I haven't been into the school building for about 5 months and it still represents a lot of physical and psychological baggage for me. Things probably wouldn't be too bad if it weren't for the recent actions of another three people, which those of you who I've told will know, were completely unjustified and Malicious. I really don't know how I'll react to seeing the three people who could potentially, quite literally and seriously destroy my life. But I suppose that's what Solicitors are for... And I have an Awesome one :-) Doesn't mean I'm still not scared, or worried, but hey, I've got more in the way of true friendship, trust, respect and companionship than they ever will so I can get by.

I'll definitely still be needing some help getting in those doors though...

 

For the last two weeks, I've been working my arse off trying to get this film complete before the new year, unfortunately that hasn't happened and my self enforced deadline of Sunday... well that ain't gonna happen. It's about half way complete but I still need to record the voices.

It'll be worth it though. I trying an almost completely new Animation Technique and Style and it is certainly looking really good already. If you've been following my twitter account (@cerberusfilms)you'll probably have seen some of the concept and finished art... at least for some of the characters and locations. I'm thinking it'll be done by Wednesday at the latest... I hope.

 

I'm applying for the Scottish Youth Parliament (SYP) this year... who knows I may get elected... I can give it a shot. And things are moving on the ME project... I'll let you know of any developments. 

So, so far 2011 has started off well... although I suspect with a slight hangover after a mistake with the whisky bottle... I didn't quite see how much I was pouring and... well.... you can't let decent whisky go to waste :-D

 

Happy New Year

 

Much love my Friends and down with those who oppose us.

 

Oliver V. Smith

Travel.... grrrr

Well my travels haven't exactly got off to a good start.

I'm currently writing this on my phone from the arrivals side of security.
I've been here since 04:45ish. My flight to Schipol was supposed to leave at 06:05 but aberdeen is closed until at least 07:00 due to snow.
I've been rebooked onto a flight at 11:20 but I will still miss my connecting flight to Abu Dhabi so instead I'm flying to Munich from Amsterdam and then onto Abu Dhabi. I've got about 3 1/2 hours between each flight.... still gotta wait another 5 hours before my first flight though.

We set off last night at about 20:00 by car and arrived at the travelodge at about 23:00... didn't get to sleep until 02:30, got up at 03:40... :'(

I'm now standing in the customer service queue specifically for Amsterdam... hoping to change my flights so I can fly to Dubai Directly from Amsterdam....

I'll update you as things progress.. wish me luck

Much love my friends

Oliver V. Smith

P.S. in relation to the photo... thank the force/god/omnipotent being

A long three months...

It's been a long three months for me.
There have been moments where I've been stressed out, overworked, overemotional and generally dead, but now, I think I'm finally starting to turn around.
During the past few days, I've been enjoying myself properly for the first time in months. I've got some really good things going for me now...
I've got a good part in Showstopperz
I've got Techy work
I'm working on a non-documentary film (which is amazing because I've spent the past year editing documentary stuff)
I'm finally starting to get on top of all my work and catch-up
I have wonderful tutors (Jacqueline Sillars-mother of two of my best friends/exs, but that's another story- for English and Mrs Fenn- the nicest and best Maths teacher that ever lived- for Maths
I can finally see an end to all this madness
And I have found my real self and who my real friends are.

I realised a few weeks ago that I can't and won't be bothered with people that have betrayed my trust or hurt me purposely and especially stupid, ignorant arseholes, and I mean that in the broadest and nicest possible sense.

I intend to expose the highland education system for the incestuous, cowardly, immoral 'family' it really is. I've spoken to a lot of people, and I mean a lot in the last 3 months and I find astonishing how so many people can have similar if not the same complaints at the same people and yet not do a damn thing about it.
Well I for one am going to do something about it.
I want to be become rich, famous and successful, not for the money, but for the power to influence and change things for the better so that children and others like me will never be wronged by this sort of thing again.

Don't get me wrong, there are people in the system who are good, all of my subject teachers for example, but they are forced to do what the incestuous higher ups tell then to.

I've also recently decided that I do want to make film my career when I leave school. I've toyed with the idea before, but I really do want to, I think I could be happy doing something else, but film is my passion, sure I don't just go out and film everything and I'm not constantly doing things like that but it's what I do.... It's what defines me as a person and it also brings me unbridled joy like very few other things can, as does my singing.

Reno, in the unlikely event that you're reading this I want to say thank you, thank you for everything... You may not know it but you have been a massive influence on me, I respect you greatly and even when it may not appear like it, I listen to everything you tell me and try to act on it as best I can. Without you I probably wouldn't be back into acting and I never would have found that I actually have a good singing voice. So thank you again... You are truly a brilliant person.

For those of you who don't know who Reno is, he's been my singing teacher for the last year and MD for Showstopperz Juniorz (the musical theatre group I'm part of). He used to be (and I should add, still could be if he wanted to) a very successful opera singer.
He's generally a rather awesome guy :-)

I have had the honour and privilege of working with some of the most talented and amazing people in the entire of Scotland in the past few years at Scottish Youth Theatre but now I'm also getting to work with some amazing people on my doorstep at Showstopperz. I'm afraid I must single out a few of those who really are stars though- Josephine Sillars, Layla Monteith-Grace, Abi'fail' Fraser, Ines Macintyre, Megan Fairley, Rachel Haston.... I mean no offence if your name's not on there, it's just that there's not enough room for all the people I want to say.

This really has turned into a massive ramble but people still seem to read it... I've had over 200 views on my personal blog and close to 700 on the Cerberus Films one.

I don't even know if I have said what I was meaning to say when I started this blog but hey ho.... I find it helps clear my mind.

In going to finish with something I found very amusing the other day whilst wasting time on the Internet.
It's lifted from a friend of mines formspring, if you're reading this, you should know that I do find your tweets hilarious and that they provide much needed joy. (and get some self confidence, you're really talented, go for what you really want, you will succeed, if I do become, as you put it 'a big time director' I will remember you and ask you to work with me)
Anywho... Enough ranting.... On with the twisted hilarity....

Question-"Have you ever experimented with the same sex?"
Answer- "I've kissed a few girls. But that's not 'experimenting'. That's just inebriation."

As always, much love my friends, especially to those of you who really matter to me, I hope you know who you are...

Oliver V. Smith

Noooooooooooo..... Oh and some thinking

The bloody, damn, idiotic, overworked, underpowered, loveable computer of mine has died :-( :'(
Along with it went the script.... As well as a load of footage (but the footage can be restored as I still have the tapes).
Thank god it didn't take down my two external hard drives aswell....
I need a new mac... Preferably a Mac Pro 12 core with ooh say 32gb of ram :-) and 6TB of expandable storage :-) spread over 4 drives, two super dual layer DVD drives and a brand new ATI HD graphics card....
Oh and best till last.... The 12x 3.6GHz processor....

Ah but that would cost £10,000 and I simply don't have the kinda money myself... Time to get my thinking cap on... But not before I try and recover the script tomorrow, otherwise it's back to square one....

If that does happen I may well ask if anyone would like to help actually write the script....

Hmmm

Time to think me thinks....

Much love my friends

Oliver V. Smith

Noooooooooooo..... Oh and some thinking

The bloody, damn, idiotic, overworked, underpowered, loveable computer of mine has died :-( :'(
Along with it went the script.... As well as a load of footage (but the footage can be restored as I still have the tapes).
Thank god it didn't take down my two external hard drives aswell....
I need a new mac... Preferably a Mac Pro 12 core with ooh say 32gb of ram :-) and 6TB of expandable storage :-) spread over 4 drives, two super dual layer DVD drives and a brand new ATI HD graphics card....
Oh and best till last.... The 12x 3.6GHz processor....

Ah but that would cost £10,000 and I simply don't have the kinda money myself... Time to get my thinking cap on... But not before I try and recover the script tomorrow, otherwise it's back to square one....

If that does happen I may well ask if anyone would like to help actually write the script....

Hmmm

Time to think me thinks....

Much love my friends

Oliver V. Smith

Showstopperz

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Well today is our first rehearsal for our winter show with Showstopperz.

I’ve already been told of a few of the songs I’m doing…

One is The Islander by Nightwish

I absolutely love this song… and the best thing is… Reno wants effects just like it :-) happy days for FX :-D

Anywho….

Much love my friends….

via Writerous

Hmmm… testing Writerous

Right i’m testing the new writerous plug-in for Windows Live Writer. It should allow me to post to Posterous from Live Writer… Fingers crossed

via Writerous

Explanations, Migraines and Meh… Oh and a bit of a Competition thing…

Anyone who knows me will know that Meh is my most used and favourite word in the history of language… well except for Arghh but that’s a completely different story….

I’ve been decidedly meh for several weeks now… and there it is the start of another depressing blog… aha that's where you’re at least slightly wrong…

Ok so it’s a little depressing at the beginning… basically a summary of my life over the past few weeks but then I promise to come up with something a bit better…

 

I’ve been in school a total of 8 periods since the summer holidays, that’s 1 whole day at the beginning and 2 on the last day of term. I’ve spent my time doing school work, going to a psychologist, going to the doctors, occasionally playing a computer game or two and editing (btw the I’ve begun uploading the Gjoa Haven Stuff to YouTube).

Now that takes up about 50% of my time, the rest (here comes the sob story lol) was consumed with anguish, upset, stress, anger, hate, rage, crying, sleeping and worst of all Nothingness… I wrote a short story with the theme of nothingness for English before the summer, You may be thinking (if you made it this far through my rambling) that nothingness is good, it isn’t, feeling nothing is kind of a blessing for a while but its also confusing. I don’t know how I feel about my current situation right now, I know that the main perpetrator of the whole music business I had was not who I originally blamed, sure he’s still a bit responsible but it actually turns out to be Sue High, the depute rector and SQA ‘Coordinator’. I probably shouldn’t even have said that but hey, she can’t hurt me any more than she already has.

The point of that rant is to explain if I’ve appeared off with people and haven’t replied much to texts and Facebook messages etc…

Anyway back to what I’ve been doing, I got dumped (can’t blame her really… long story short I’ve been a pretty shitty boyfriend, and also the bad timing doesn’t help), went to Copenhagen and Kentucky, got paid some money, finished editing the Showstopperz DVD and… well that’s about it apart from the concert last Sunday… that leaves me with today… rather airy fairy on migraine medication…

Hmmm… I’ve been trying to decide what to do to make up for the depressing bulk of the blog and to reward those of you who have made it this far down… I’ve drawn up fairly blank…

Well I did until an Idea struck me literally 3 seconds ago… I can’t reveal the surprise just yet but it’s to do with film… here’s what I want you guys to do, either leave a comment with your name and email address or send me an email (oliver.cerberusfilms@gmail.com) with your name and I’ll get back to you with more information… I’m afraid I’m still putting the plan into action at the moment.

This offers only open till 10pm Tuesday and can only be done by people in Scotland I’m afraid.

So to anyone whose read all the way down to the bottom of my illegible and and randomly put together post, this is my way of congratulating you. Oh and the final condition is if you’re under 16 you will need to be able to get written consent to take part in a film (potentially even if you’re crew).

Anywho enough of my rambles…

 

Much Love My Friends

Posterous.... Randomness....

Ok I'm trying out this new app... Posterous which seems pretty good and links in everything I use... Twitter, Facebook, blogger and YouTube... And anything else I ever want/need to use in the future... So I'll be giving it a try as it makes blogging a whole lot easier (I can do it from my iPhone anywhere in the world)
I'll still be using all the other services though.... Well enough of my ramblings

As always
Much love my friends

Oliver V. Smith

Random Blog- Mainly about SYT :-)

I felt I should probably blog again tonight after having promised to for so long…

I’m including a couple of videos from my time at SYT this year… For anyone interested in drama or technical theatre it really is the best place to spend your summer… I did the technical course again this year and hope to do it again next year…

Here are four videos that I took whilst there…

SYT Resi 2010 Bring Me To Life

 

SYT Resi 2010 Bring Me To Life Sped Up

SYT Resi 2010 What I've Done

SYT 2010 Techies

SYT 2010 Glasgow Foundation Course Jai Ho

Well I’m going to Glasgow tomorrow with some friends to see Bowling For Soup at the O2 Academy so I most likely won’t blog tomorrow and I’m not back till late on Monday due to a Solicitors Meeting in Glasgow on Monday :-) but I’ll blog when I can.

 

Now I’ll leave you all with this wonderful video of the one and only Rory Beaton… even if you don’t know him it’s funny…

Rory Beaton California Gurls

Much Love My Friends

Tiredness

The title explains it all really… I’m knackered, shattered, drained, exhausted and generally dead…

Its an interesting feeling really… not quite in my body yet not quite out of it either, I feel almost disengaged from most of the world and its various stimuli…

This is how I’ve felt for the past 2 months… every day and night… it’s a depressing thought but something that anyone and everyone who’s ever had or is close to someone who’s had CFS/ME will know well. It’s the most common symptom… it usually combines with something called ‘Brain Fog’ which is essentially where the brain just fogs up and you can’t think at all… not good to have in the middle of an exam or 10pm the night before an essay is due….

People tend not to believe in CFS as its not a condition that they can see… on the outside the person can look perfectly fine but on the inside they’re practically dead, can’t think, feel sick and are about to collapse. There are some signs people can notice, such as an almost zoning out or in some cases, head on a desk snoring…

I’m trying hard not to turn this into a rant but if I don’t stop this line of thinking now it will become one…

I want to tell you all about an exciting project that I’m beginning that puts most other film projects out of the window for a short while and then hopefully for a much longer while early next year… but I can’t without giving to much away… when I’ve sorted the Scriptwriter I’ll blog about it… sufficient to say that the title is

M.E

I quite like it myself… here’s some concept poster art I did to kill time…

Well I shall blog again but I really should try again and get some sleep… for the thousandth time tonight…

Much Love My Friends

New Video- Skate Bank 2010

Not Much to Say, check it out and I'll be blogging again very soon
(btw... Watch it in 720 HD it looks wonderful)

Much Love My Friends

Oliver V. Smith

WOW its been a while

Well what can I say it's been an awesome... if not knackering summer.

For those of you who don't know I have spent the entire of the past 5 weeks in Glasgow participating in my 4th Scottish Youth Theatre Summer Festival as a Technical Student. Wow was that fun.

First the technical Bit... I GOT TO PLAY WITH AND USE THE MOST AWESOME DESK EVER INVENTED TO CONTROL LIGHTING.... THE ETC ION

The ETC Ion Lighting Desk

I've been working in the Tron Theatre in Glasgow for the past 2 weeks Rigging, Focusing, Programming and Oping Lights. I love all of you people at the Tron... Lovely Lovely people to work with Particularly Mark, Barry, Steve, Malcom and Karen.

Our Awesome Set Being Built

Our Awesome Set Built (Well Almost)

Here we're doing the plotting.... Oh by the way the show I was working on (mainly) at least the one I was oping was called The Court of Miracles written by Peter Arnott who is rather awesome.

Thats Neil G there doing the very tiring and laborious job of Walking the set, basically he has to stand in certain places (where the cast will be standing) whilst the LD (Lighting Designer) Kate, and the Director Fraser and the DSM (Deputy Stage Manager) and DSM Tutor (as our DSM was a fellow technical student) Jane and Ashleigh (respectively) oh and myself... program the lights and decide whats best (when I say myself, I was there just pushing the buttons).

Kate Bonney (LD) Modelling our lovely UV (Ultra Violet) Bulb

We used the UV Bulb to light a word painted onto the set in UV paint so that it would glow brightly.

We had a lovely and amazingly talented MD (Musical Director) called Ross and a brilliant Choreographer called Jenny.

The show was awesome but so was the resi. Whilst down there we stay in the university of Strathclyde Residences off of Collins Street with 5 Residential Staff (Employed by SYT to keep an eye on us)... well at least the people staying in Supervised Resi.

It starts off normally with
Broghanne and Rory in my room

Calum (non resi but a legend) and Ethan ready for the Civic Reception

This is where things go pear shaped
Rory and Ethan doing some strange things

God I miss SYT, I'm gonna be writing a few more blogs very very soon about SYT, but since this is 2:30am this will do for now.

Much love my friends

Oliver V. Smith

Long Awaited Update

OK... So its been what 4 months. Jeez

What have I been up to in that time you might ask? Hmm, well... in all honesty... not a huge amount really. Well apart from defending my integrity over a claim of Plagirism from the School Music Department (therefor making me fail my Standard Grade). Thats one hell of a long story that I will write about once its all over and done with. Sufficent to say, I will not be doing anymore music in School, so long as Gillface is there (oops... did I say that out loud :P )
You're probably thinking I am pissed off and slightly incensed by this... You'd be right.
But enough of Depressing matters for the time Being.

Cerberus Films (particularly Cerberus Radio) are back in Business. We are doing weekly Podcasts (or at least we would be if my computer was co-operating- The person who said Macs don't have problems was lying through their teeth). Anyone can join in and my good friend Panda (his blog is Andrew's iLog) is gonna be helping each week by being a wonderful Presenter (at least thats what he says :P )
I'm also doing a lot more Short films. I hope to try and churn one out at least once every two weeks (homework permitting).

OH OH OH OH OH OH... I almost forgot to say that I will be attending Scottish Youth Theatre (or SYT for those of you who are fond of your acronyms- that is the right word right? oh well) on the 5 Week Residential Technical Theatre Course. Rory Beaton and I will be doing an almost (if not) daily Podcast of life there and through the wonders of my iMac and a very handily placed BTOpenzone hotspot, I will also be uploading films from our time there (watch out for a few possible short films aswell as vlogesque things) so Subscribe to my Youtube Channel please, the links on the left... I mean right... well its somewhere.

Thats about it for now. I'll be posting more often from now on, I promise

Blog 001- How Else Do I Start It?

Hello seems to be the best way to begin, nice, polite, cordial, not as informal as ‘hi there’ but still fairly comfortable.

This Blog will probably sound like a mindless ramble of the teenage mind but dotted throughout will be, what I hope may be useful information for up and coming Young Film Makers and Technical theatre orientated teens.

Well what should I talk about? Hmm, well, this week I’m breaking ground on my latest film project, talks have started with the script writer and things seem to be going positively.

Last week I started Mickel Therapy (http://www.mickeltherapy.com/) with Dr David Mickel for my CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome). At first I was very sceptical of the whole idea dismissing it as mumbo-jumbo or psycological babble, but when you start thhinking about it, it actually makes a lot more sense than the current views on science and the human body.

 

I think that might be it for my first blog entry as its 2am. I’ll hopefully keep this updated every couple of days and make it a bit  more imaginative.

Goodnight to you all (or should that be good morning)

Ollie