Doris from SHADES OF BAD - new travel show spin off as the girl goes travelling!

Hi all, and just to make you envious I am writing from my balcony in Barbados with a Banks beer.  But as you can see I am working, or have stopped working to blog. Shades Of Bad the web series is quite an experiment. Those of you who who have read blog and articles from our website will know that I spent 26 years on a UK broadcast soap, and have a creep of directing both movie and second unit on major hollywood movies, so enough was enough, the world and viewing habits were changing and I decided to go alone. I started Shades Of Bad for actress Jean Heard at her suggestion. The show was then my idea and the content shocked her to the core, but there is no point in not being more edgy and more political when on the web.

So, why am I working in Barbados and what am I doing apart from the age old adage of rumours of the director and lead actress sharing a room are exaggerated. I have just finished editing 7 films and my portable hard drive is out of space, so hence the blog. We have been away travelling and have made seven travel films, one on Bequia (near Mystique), one on Miami, one on Cocoa beach Canaveral, another is on Antigua, this one on Barbados and my favourite was Key West a place I have always wanted to stop at. (films will go up end November and links will appear then)

Here is the logic and why the plan. Consider marketing can be looked at as speculative selling, selling something people did not want or did not know they wanted, and the second selling something they do want or need. The drama series Shades Of Bad falls into the first. No one is looking for a web series. Looking seriously at the figures sport is worth 75 billion, the gaming industry 45 billion and the complete TV output is a poor third at around 30 billion. Drama is a proportion of the output along with the game shows, documentaries and entertainment shows. Travel shows however are a tool for the traveller and along with cookery shows still strike high.

So, the series Shades Of Bad we knew would be hard to market, and we needed content to be there. So now with 26 episode up as of mid November, and 42 finished, Doris could take a break. She even did a season one reflective compilation before we left which is an excellent catch up show.
She can take a break especially as her filming for episodes 43 to 47 is all done and dusted and was shot last year when we travelled to Norway. We may well cut a Norway film together and voice over it and add it to the travel shows. So in the drama Doris has been head hunted by a villain who you will meet in the spring, been sent abroad to collect a package; Norway. They can carry on without her and she can now start the travel shows as 'Doris Visits', which will have a market we have a small foothold in for other reasons. 'Doris Visits' will be available from end November 2015 with links to the drama and she will make references to it, as she is that character.

Similarly we could cut a travel show with the Fiji footage from when we shot their with Status Quo.

The logic here is the cross platform use that I have been used to for years. As you may know I made The Krays and Bula Quo with music stars, just as TV actors I have worked with, like Robson Green have fishing shows etc.... Once a character is established they can, because the public know them, share things with them. That is the logic, so the web opens up doors to allow us to create those and in three years from July 2015 when we started, we aim to have up and live over 100 episodes in their short form, have re-editied then to 11 minute mega cuts (which are then a half hour TV length joining two together, ITV is currently 21 minutes 30 seconds per half hour). We aim to have about 60 travel films and some others on 'How To'.  Then there is the book, WHO DIE TODAY which is out now and covers the first 40 episodes. I was to start writing the book for Freight while I have been away but I have been too busy. My work as an author is always pushed back and I have a new movie in prep when I get home.

The logistics work load and investment is huge but that will be a TV channel. If we have time we will cut some of our movies and the behind the scenes materials into other playlists. It is an interesting time to see how content works. We have yet to really get started with Maker Studios which is the Disney label we have signed to so the workload is endless.

So, the travel connection. I started my career as a broadcaster and radio DJ so have always presented and spoken at events. When on Emmerdale I was posted to a cruise ship as part of the PR to talk about how the soaps are made, and after 26 years on Emmerdale as well as stints on Corie, EastEnders and Take The High Road I have a few tales to tell and thousands of stills. I was then asked to expand and include how I went from DJ to TV and some of the huge movies I had been in. So, as a celebrity guess on cruise ships, I can make use of the stops and the footage may find it's way into all sorts of outputs whom we are talking to. But, I stay away from the front of camera, it is all done as Doris.