Welcome to December.
Here’s the recording of the December short story I wrote for the Calendar of Tales, which I made with everyone for the Blackberry Keep Moving project.
(Feel free to put Decembery Music behind it and mash it up with anything you like.)
I am on a good un today, in a fine ol’ mood(so far at least).
Made much, much better by ‘A calendar of tales’ being released..and having got to be a small part in it all.
Neil gaiman has been a favorite author of mine for a long time now and I used to read Coraline to my youngest daughter Mercy (it is also one of her most frequently watched movie favorites).
When I first saw the ‘call’ for submissions I knew I had to give it a go..tbh I didnt think we stood a cats chance in hell of getting anywhere given the standard of entries, so when the ‘youve been selected as a shortlister’ email came through I was thrown sideways, though not as sideyways as when another email came through saying that Neil himself has chosen my two entries(for March and Jan) as runners up..and we were going to be on the website..
It took around 10 minutes to calm down a really hyper 8 year old when I told her :D TBH that part was probably the best moment of it all, to see her so excited.
They even used the pirate shot in one of the blackberry videos o.O
Up until recently I had hit a wall workwise, we run a ferret rescue centre from home, so time to shoot was sparce and I had let it all slide, my inspiration had just buggered off..and the lack of spare time to shoot only compounded that..
Its given me a well needed ass kicking all this, to start picking up my camera more often…
In fact, its given Mercy and I a lot more than we thought..and a massive massive thank you to Neil Gaiman himself.and all those involved :D
Not scary. No eye-buttons. Mostly I’m just talking about art, and moving on, and looking back on what we made with the Keep Moving project and the Calendar of Tales.
The final one of the BlackBerry Keep Moving videos. This one was filmed last month in the UK, in Regent’s Park, in the St Pancras Hotel, and in Soho, where I had dinner with some of the artists… The end of it is magical.
So I entered this for a contest Neil Gaiman did with Blackberry and it didn’t even get shortlisted for the prize or anything and then I was mad at it for being so rubbish but now I know it’s good so I guess you can look at it.
I wish we could have shortlisted everyone. So much great art…
The third of the BlackBerry Keep Moving films, shot in LA about ten days ago. Yes, I really am as tired as I look – the day before I did the 13 hour Chu’s Day signing, then flew to LA… But there are such beautiful shots here of the beach and of the birds…
It opens with me reading the end of the February Tale.
Rebloggable by request…
I’ve talked to BlackBerry about it: they are embarrassed, and told me they are drafting a new set of Terms and Conditions which actually reflect that the art is solely for use in relation to the Keep Moving Project, A Calendar of Tales, and is not to be used by them for any commercial purposes beyond the project.
And as they explained to me, “Regarding us taking ownership of people’s work (i.e. – them losing the copyrights), in fact this is not what the T&Cs say! I think we’ve suffered from an unfortunate case of misconstrued legalspeak. We’re licensing people’s artwork for use, but they retain all rights to their own work. To do with it what they will!”
I’m hopeful that the new set of T&Cs will be clearer, and have asked them to put something up to clarify all this for the worried, the troubled, the confused, or the nervous.
Neil Gaiman has teamed up with BlackBerry 10’s revolutionary Keep Moving Project, asking your imagination to bring his series of short stories called “A Calendar of Tales” to life.
Contribute your work now to get a brand new badge and use an exclusive Neil Gaiman Journal Skin!
Really, you should do this, if you make art. I am really excited to see what people make in response to the stories…
A Calendar of Tales. Your Part…
So. There’s Amazing Art out there on the web. I watch it being made on Tumblr all the time. That was part of my inspiration for this project, when BlackBerry asked if I would be interested in making something in collaboration with the world.
I wrote 12 stories, inspired by tweets that came back from questions I asked on Twitter. The Q& A process in itself turned into a sort of magical art-connection thing in its own right. It was beautiful.
The idea now is that people get to make art inspired by the stories. And then we put up the art and we make a real paper calendar with art and stories and an online version too, with LOTS of the art…
The Second Stage of the BlackBerry project is now live. The 12 stories I wrote, one for each month, based on tweet-suggestions,are up and available to read online or for download.
I’m waiting for them to put up the instructions on how you can make art to accompany the stories… In the meantime, here’s a short video of the day between the tweets going out and the stories being written…