Southern Comfort & Walton

This is the first of many blogs that focus primarily on the progress of my final year project for my Media Production course at DMU. Before I begin, here’s a little bit of information about my project:

Title: The Barrow Kipper: Legacy of a Monster
Genre: Documentary
Summary: In the 1800’s, the fossilised remains of a marine reptile were discovered in a Leicestershire village by a local quarrying company. Since the animals’ discovery, Barrow Upon Soar has taken up the fossil as part of the villages identity. But what is the Kipper, and what is the story behind its discovery?

At first I thought explaining what the Kipper was would be easy, but looking at cladograms and the research of people such as Smith, Benson and Ketchum, I have recently discovered that what the New Walk museum describes as plesiosaur, Rhomalaeosaurus Megacephalus, is actually a new genus of pliosaur unknown to science. Though the latter can be disputed, the fact that the family rhomalaeosauridae belongs to the pliosaur clade is indisputable, marking a distinct error in the museum’s classification!

Already I feel like my choice of subject matter has been justified!

Everyday Life: Live

Genre: Rom-Com Musical
Certificate: 18 
Approx. Duration: 110 minutes
Approx. Date: September 2012
Venue: Rawlins Community College*
Charity: SUDEP (Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy)
Ticket Price: £5 on the Door

Play Information:
John and Vannessa Walton are a dysfunctional family, living as two singletons of different generations in a small village. When a mysterious man arrives from Spain, Vannessa thinks she’s found the man of her dreams, whereas John has woman problems of his own! Will they find true love? It’s all about to kick off!

Cast:
John ………….. John Walton
Vannessa ……. Nick Wright
Emmeline …….. Beckii Smith
Rio ……………. Rob Cross
Cliff …………… Josh Warner
Hannah ………. Lizzie holliday

Everyday Life: Live is written by John Walton and Nick Wright, for charity. We look forward to seeing you all next year - let the rehearsals begin!

*This venue is open to change.

Casting the main roles for the comedy musical has now been completed. As of yesterday afternoon, the cast role is now thus:

John………….John Walton
Vannessa…….Nick Wright
Rio…………….Uncle Rob
Emmeline……..Beckii Smith
Cliff……………Josh Warner
Hannah……….Lizzie Holliday

This means that with a completed script and a complete cast, rehearsals can now begin in preparation for going on stage next year. A huge thank you goes out to everyone involved, and hopefully we’ll have a few supporters once we have a date!

Although, to be honest, there are still one or two changes I wish to make to the script, none are really game-changing, so to speak. Will update again soon!

Though it is true that this blog has been set up to archive my professional life, as it would be, today I feel the need to share a bit of my personal life with you in the form of a poem. Enjoy:

As we hit the bottom, I see through eyes older than mine; wise and understanding, yet tinted with the sorrow of thousand hearts;A filter that screams with poignant pain, yet is masked behind a faux smile. Unable to comprehend, unwilling to remove the mask, instead content to take the anguish to spare another. This Knight of light who once stood tall, now turns to night as darkness falls.

It has no real structure, it is far from professionally written, but it expresses my thoughts in a way I cannot do so otherwise. Better turn the hot water on now, the shower takes a while to heat up!

It has been a whilse since our last little update into the goings on in my media life. I shall try to split this up into a few sections, keeping you up to date but not completely bored out of your skulls!

Everyday Life: Live
The charity play is secretly moving along quite nicely. The 78 page script is complete; the crew is happy with it now, and the venue is all but sorted. We have a few meetings with Rawlins Community College in Quorn to arrange and attend, but if my understanding is correct, we will be able to waive the hall fees should the school itself become involved in the production. Of course, this depends on whether the school wants to be affiliated with the production itself, which all depends on their verdict regarding the script. This means that, no matter how happy we are with the story at the moment, things are likely to change. A likely date, meanwhile, for the show to go ons tage is around the 9th September 2012; Vannessa Walton’s birthday.

Technical Project & Technical Report
Although the original idea here was to create a pilot episode for sit-com Publish That, recent ideas have cropped up that might be more academically viable. The crux of the issue is that we have to work towards answering a question with our projects, and a sit-com is much more difficult to answer queries with! As such, I may create a documentary exploring early cinema, and ask when the period ended and why. It’s only an idea, but it’s one that is growing significantly on me!

Well that’s all for today my wee bains. More updates to follow sooner next time!

Today is a momentous day for Everyday Life: Live - the final draft of the script has been completed! So, here are a few things for you to know:

Name: Everyday Life: Live
Genre: Rom-Com-Musical
Certificate: 18
Approx. Runtime: 110mins
Approx. Date: ??/09/12
Proposed Venue: Rawlins Community College.
Charity of Choice: SUDEP (Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy)
Ticket Prices: £5 (Of which 100% is donated to charity!)

Cast:
John - John Walton
Vannessa - Nicholas Wright
Emmeline - Sarah Mutton
Rio - Open to Audition
Hannah - Lizzie Holliday
Cliff - Joshua Warner
Waitress - Open to Audition
Immigration Officer - Open to Audition
Party Goers - Callum Golding, …

Number of Songs: 13

Any other questions, feel free to contact us on Twitter @johnwwalton! Hope to se you all there! Please be aware that due to language, we have decided to make the play 18+ only. This might be negotiable in some cases, as ultimately it is up to parental discretion, but you have been warned!

So, this will be the biggest update for a while regarding Everyday Life: Live.

The first draft of the script is complete. At 72 pages long, it’s a bit shorter than I’d hoped for (90 pages) but there’s plenty of filler scenes that need adding, and a lot of scenes that need extending a bit (or completely changing. I’m lookingat you, Scene 11, you cheeky thing, you!)

Casting has officially begun! Without further ado, here are the actors cast thus far, along with the names of the characters they will be playing:

John Walton …. John Walton
Vannessa Walton ….. Nicholas Wright
Emmeline Carmichael …. Sarah - Louise Mutton
Hannah Darby …. Lizzie Holliday
Party Goer 1 …. Callum Golding

So there’s a little sneak peak at some of the characters for you! Song-wise, I’ll spill three songs and try andlet you guess where they fit in;

Me and My Shadow - Robbie Williams
She’s a Lady - Tom Jones
Hound Dog - Elvis Presley

Me and Nick are currently arranging vocal coaching, so hopefully by the day we go live, we’ll be able to pull off singing these songs somewhat decently!

Dates and Venue-wise, we are looking at September 2012 at Rawlins Community College in Quorn, Leicestershire. Bit of a wait to go, I know, but we are amateurs with no idea what the fudge we’re doing, so it’ll give us time to sort this thing out!

What else … Tickets will be set at £5 per-person, since every single penny goes toward SUDEP, Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy, in honour of Richard Betts; a guy who touched all our hearts. We understand that this is a steep price, but your money goes to a good cause! In fact, if we fill 112 seats, and everyone donates at least £2 as well on the night, we can raise £784 for SUDEP! That’s nearly a grande!

More updates soon as they come, keep with us! In the meantime, check out the webisodes of Everyday Life on YouTube by simply searching Jesusranchjohn in the searchbar and going to my channel! Thanks for your support; it’s going to be an unforgettable night!

Just a brief update about the current status of Everyday Life: Live, really. The script is finished-pending-changes, and casting has already begun. Fingers crossed that  rehearsals will begin next month.

Myself and Nick, producer and Vannessa Walton actor, have enlisted the help of a vocal coach to improve our singing voices, whilst meetings are being arranged to find a venue and outside help from old friends and mentors.

Things are in motion that cannot be unwrought. It’s go time. Big update tomorrow.