#1 – 800,000 Kilometers and Counting
Two things I love – travelling and road-trips. But compared to Gunther Holtorf, I’m a total amateur! His 18-month road trip from Germany to various parts of Africa has lasted 13 years and over 800,000 Kilometers. More amazing is that his Mercedes G-Wagon has been with him every step of the way. Inspiring and heart-warming stuff from the BBC.

#2 – Banned in Dubai

I caught this via Emirati filmmaker Ali Mostafa – The U.A.E. have banned a PS3 game that depicts a future where Dubai has been destroyed by a series of catastrophic sandstorms. There also seems to be some aspects of the story line that depicts the U.A.E. government as neglecting Dubai when the disaster happens.

I grew up in the U.A.E. and have always wanted to see a film set in a post-apocalyptic Dubai, or a Dubai of an alternate universe. Given the films that have been shot in Dubai in the last 20 years, I think the country should have a thicker skin when it comes to film/games/books that are set in the city – it’s a sign that it is finally considered one of the leading cities in the world. Thoughts?

#3 – The Aura Camera
For the inevitable photography entry this week, I bring you the camera that claims to be able to capture the colour of your aura. While I’m very skeptical about the technology, the photos are certainly stunning.

 #4 – Superman Begins

Last week we finally got our first look at the Superman reboot, Man of Steel. In a word: Epic. But that word could have just have easily been: Nolan.

This is very clearly Christopher Nolan’s vision for Superman. In the trailer we see a bearded, brooding Bruce Wayne Clark Kent who has escaped society by running away to Bhutan working on a fishing ship – the whole thing feels very batman-begins-esque. But who cares, it looks amazing; from the voice-over (2 versions, one by each father) to the muted colours and beautiful, hand-held shots. I can’t wait to see this.

#5 – Tokyo Story
Last night I went to a special screening of Yasugiro Ozu’s masterpiece, Tokyo Story. If you haven’t seen it (I hadn’t), it is available on DVD as part of the Criterion Collection. This brilliant, beautiful film, which appears on many lists of top-10 films of all time, will make you re-think your priorities in life and how you treat your parents.

This post is almost a week late! Last weekend I went off to Dubai for some fun in the sun and didn’t have time to write up my 5 things. So instead I’m going to do 2 this week, probably overkill, but at least I’ll feel better about myself.

#1 – It’s Not About the Numbers, Dummy

Everyone who works in social media should know that follower numbers or “likes” are misleading. Engagement is what is importnat – what is the point of having 200,000 followers if nobody cares about what you are posting? So it’s no surprise that a BBC investigation suggests that companies paying for Facebook likes are wasting there cash. The follow up blog post, which responds to doubters, makes some great points too:

“Any marketing director still chasing “‘likes’… shouldn’t be a marketing director.” ….. That message does not seem to have reached some major brands. Look at the Facebook page for BMW’s Mini. A banner across the top trumpets: “3,000,000! Thanks to all our Mini Facebook fans!”

But look at where those “likes” come from – the Mini page is most popular amongst 18- to 24-year-olds in Bangkok. Is that the campaign’s target demographic?

It’s good to see more evidence to support something that I’ve always struggled to make people understand when it comes to social media.

#2 – Brandalism
Love street art? Do you like to dabble in a little civil disobedience? Then you’ll love Brandalism, a UK based movement that is taking over the countries billboards.

#3 – The Lethal Presidency

Esquire’s Tom Junod has written a scathing look at what he calls The Lethal Presidency of Barack Obama; Lethal referring to his use of drones to kill suspected terrorists, including those with US citizenship. Whatever your opinion on Obama, it’s an interesting look at what may become a new trend in they way wars are fought.

#4 – Suck It, Wolverine

Bringing the tone back down to something a bit more silly, a trailer for a new game based on one of my favourite Marvel characters has hit the Internet. But are they going to do Deadpool justice? I’m not entirely convinced but Marvel have to make amends for what we saw in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

#5 – Stormtrooper Moonwalk

No comment necessary! That’s it for last week, more tomorrow.

#1 – Asimov’s Shortest Story
I’m a big fan of short stories and have loved science fiction since I was a kid. Few are better at doing both of those things than Isaac Asimov and his shortest story of them all is brilliant in it’s simplicity and message. “Silly Asses” – indeed.

#2 – The Death of RIM
In a previous life (well, until 3 years ago) I used to work in mobile with a particular interest in devices. Even though my job has changed, I still like to keep an eye on that industry and it has been interesting watching two old giants, RIM and Nokia, slow and spectacular fall from grace. Rui Carmo, one of the people you should listen to when he talks about mobile, has posted some great insights into his experience with RIM and why they find themselves in the mess they are in.

#3 – Why I Hate My Camera
Sometimes you come across a post online that hits the nail on the head – this is one of them. I used to write technology reviews, mostly about mobile phones, and Steve Giralt covers everything that I hated about that process; the haters, the fanbois, the trolls – most of whom hadn’t even used the technology in question. Most of all, the feeling of being unable to get your camera to capture the beauty your eyes see really resonates with me. I hate that feeling, but it also makes we want to become a better photographer. It pushes me to challenge myself and to learn more.

#4 – The Dark Knight Featurette

It seems like I can’t get through one of these posts without including an item related to comic book films. This is not a bad thing. This weeks comic-goodie is a 13 minute featurette of Christoper Nolan’s final chapter in his Batman series. Epic! So epic that some people are willing to pay for a flight to go see it. As a bonus for this item, and something that should be an item on it’s own, The Fast Company have a great article on the war between Marvel and DC in the film world. Great stuff.

#5 – Motorbike Porn

I have secretly always wanted a motorbike. But given that I live in a country where – a) People drive like maniacs and b) It’s hot as hell 6 months of the year, I haven’t bought one. Doesn’t stop me looking though! Something futuristic and something purely classic.

That’s it for this week!

OK, here we go:

#1 – British Airways London 2012 AD
For the past couple of weeks I’ve been working on a TV commercial for Qatar Airways. During our research phase we came across this new AD from British Airways:

A pretty cool commercial based around the #HomeAdvantage campaign. However, if you head to British Airways’ Facebook page, they’ve added an extra element to the AD. Type in any UK postcode and towards the end of the trailer the plane will taxi past that address! What an awesome way to take advantage of digital video and Google Maps to make a once generic AD more personal. It may seem gimmicky, but I ended up watching the video all the way through 5 times (BA sneakily didn’t include a scrub bar on the video player), each time with a different post code that I know and love back home in England. Big win!

#2 – Anatomy of a Scene: The Amazing Spiderman
I love the New York Times web-series Anatomy of a Scene. Love!

This weeks episode celebrates the fact that everyone’s favourite, neighbourhood Spiderman coming back to the big-screen. “The Amazing Spiderman” is already out in most territories (I’m seeing it tomorrow) and this will give you a little glimpse into Director Marc Webb’s thought process.

And if you like that one, you’ll probably love the rest! Check out their archive. Also, sticking with the Spiderman theme, I (badly) voiced this fun little video package for DFI, released today.

#3 – The Death of Film
If I ever want to shoot a film on 35mm, I better hurry the fuck up! It seems like every week there is another article about film that is filled with doom and gloom. Today’s entry: The Independent report that Martin “World Cinema Foundation” Scorsese has finally accepted defeat and has made a permanent move to the world of Digital. What do you think? Are the days of 35mm coming to an end? Can anything be done to stop Digital from taking over completely? Is it necessarily a bad thing?

#4 – Lebanese Censorship
Once considered the most free country in the Arab world, Lebanon seems to be moving backwards (FYI – I am half Lebanese) when it comes to censorship.

Last year, Lady Gaga found her “Born This Way” album banned for being offensive to Christianity (rather than for just being offensive to music). Films are, of course, another target for the censors. Progress seemed to be made with the announcement of  the “Forbidden Film Festival” last year, which screened film banned from the 2009 and 2010 Beirut International Film Festival. Incredibly, even a film in that festival was banned before it could be screened.

And it looks like things are getting worse with the news that more films have been banned in 2012 than ever before. With brain-drain already a huge issue for Lebanon, it seems the same will continue to happen to our best creative minds as well.

#5 – Aflamnah
A newly launched crowd-funding website aimed specifically at the Middle East. Unnecessary addition to the already crowded crowd-funding space? Or a tool that excels by catering to a niche crowd? Time will tell, but I like what I see so far.

#Bonus
A couple of video bonuses this week. Dub-Step Robots and one of the most weirdly appealing animations I’ve seen in a while. Enjoy!

#1 – The Dark Knight’s Late Rise

Can’t wait to see The Dark Knight Rises on July 20th? Live in the MENA region? Well guess what, you’re in the *only* region in the world that will have to wait until August 16th to see Chris Nolan’s latest Batman. “Not fair,” I hear you cry – too right! Not to worry, Michael Maksoudian over at Movie Blog Buster has your back and has begun a petition to scream foul play. I’ve already got DFI on board so spread the word and sign today.

#2 – 2012 Nissan Patrol SWB

Ever since I was a kid growing up in Abu-Dhabi, I’ve loved the Nissan Patrol SWB (Short Wheelbase). I saw them do things like this and this. When I moved back to Doha in 2010, I saw one at the end of Sophia Al-Maria’s excellent short film “The Racer”, and my love was reborn. I went to Nissan but they were about to launch their new Y62 Patrol and had discontinued the SWB version. Fast forward 2 weeks ago and I’m driving past the Nissan dealership in the window I see the re-launched Nissan Patrol SWB 2012 4.8 V6 (PDF link), a special release by Nissan Middle-East. One week later, it was mine. I’m all grown up, my first brand-new car!

#3 - Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash sessions from 1969.
Enjoy!

#4 – Filmmaking in Doha
Shh, don’t tell anyone but this post was supposed to go up last Thursday. I was distracted because I spent the whole of last weekend  being the 1st Assistant Director on a short film Directed by my colleague Waheed Khan. This is just the latest endeavor by filmmaker friends in Doha. Check out Ben Robinson’s fantastic “Topaz Duo: Cosmic Phoenix”, which picture locks this weekend and Zabaleen, a brilliant, poetic Documentary by Justin Kramer that is due towards the end of the year. And if you have some free time, check out these two shorts that came out of a 24 hour film challenge I ran in Doha earlier this year.

#5 – I Am a Camera
Finally, ever wondered what would happen if you swallowed some 35mm film? No me neither, but these guys did – and they tried it out!

That’s all for the first edition! See you next week.

It’s a brilliant place to work! Why, you ask? Good question. It’s a great place to learn.

I know this because I’ve pretty much learned everything I know about filmmaking from DFI and the people who work there. I’ve learned how to shoot. I’ve learned how to edit. I’ve learned how to produce, direct, present, run sound, write scripts, chase leads, conduct interviews, read voice-over, act.

At DFI, I have learned a lot. But crucially, I’ve learned how tell a story and make films.

And for the last few years, filmmaking is all I’ve wanted to do. I do it for DFI. My weekends are spent working on the film-sets of my friends and writing shorts that I hope to direct, someday. My spare time at work is spent learning to operate new cameras and the intricacies of lighting a scene.

But for all my enthusiasm, I felt that a lot of the films that I spoke to with my colleagues and friends languished in the script or concept phase. We were aiming too high, too worried about whether our short would be strong enough to get in to a film festival or was about too sensitive a subject or if we had enough budget or equipment to do it justice.

By aiming so high we’d lost sight of what was really important. To practice our craft. To turn our ideas into reality. We yearned for perfection and ended up with nothing. We went through 2011 and (apart from one super-amazing short) came out with practically nothing to show for it.

OK, this is getting a bit too serious.

Lets rewind, oh, about 15 years. My friend has a camcorder and some WWF (now WWE, but I’m old-skool, yo) wrestler figures. We decide to make a film, straight to tape, one line at a time. Nobody would ever see that film. It would never win any awards. But we had hours of fun just making up a story as we went along, just for our own enjoyment.

I remembered that story as I was on holiday in Lebanon in December after an unfruitful year of failed film projects, stalled edits and flakey-film-friends. I thought of the number of times I’d been on the brink of a great short film with someone in Doha, only to see it fall through when we aimed for the sky or just didn’t follow through.

I decided I wasn’t going to let this year be the same. This was going to be my year of creating. Anything – literally, anything. A film, a blog post, a photo, a tweet, a sketch, a short story, a comic book. It didn’t matter what it was, and it certainly didn’t matter how good it was.

I started slowly. I set-up  a Tumblr page and tried to see if I could dedicate myself to posting regularly. I took more photos. I tweeted more.

But, as I mentioned at the beginning of this post, film is my chosen medium. So I decided I needed to stop making excuses. If nobody was going to get into the spirit, then I was going to have to do it for them.

So 3 weeks ago I sent an email to everyone I had ever spoken to about making films in Doha. Everyone.

I had a challenge for them – a simple one, and one that is a staple in the world of film. It was the first Doha 24 Hour Film Challenge.

The rules were simple:

1) 1 Camera
2) 1 Location
3) Natural light only.
4) No professional actors. Actors would be picked from crew.
5) 24 Hours, from concept to screening.

5 days later I had 12 volunteers. 24 hours later, we had made out first film, “Rainbow in the Night”:

2 weeks later, just this weekend, we completed the second Doha 24 Hour Film Challenge. This time I switched up the rules:

1) The story must be told in a single shot. No cuts!
2) Natural light only.
3) No professional actors. Actors would be picked from crew.
4) 24 Hours, from concept to screening.

It took us 14 takes, 6 practice runs and a quick 2 hour sound edit to complete “On Any Given Day”:

In 3 weeks I had created more than I had in the entirety of 2011. I’m proud of both of these films. They were made by a group of filmmakers who have now developed into a team. We weren’t aiming to get into film festivals – we wanted to have fun doing what we did best.

And because of that, we ended up doing what we wanted to do all along – make films. And in my opinion, they’re pretty damn good too!

Onwards and upwards.

-t-

Philippe was stranded in Doha because his employer was refusing to grant him an Exit Permit to leave the Country. Like most Gulf states, Qatar requires foreigners who wish to work in the country to have a local sponsor. However, unlike other Gulf countries, Qatar give sponsors the authority over whether their employee is allowed to leave the country or not. A law which some western organisations say is akin to modern day slavery.

When I met Philippe he had been stuck in Qatar for nine months and had been living at the residence of the Belgian Ambassador to Qatar for six. He had seen his multiple efforts to get out of the country blocked at every turn and, after staying out of the public eye for so long, he seemed ready to tell his story to the world.

Deborah, who is an author and journalist (and also Tweets), had already persuaded Philippe to set-up a Twitter account and we decided to help him get his story out over Twitter and on a Blog. A few late nights later, Phillipe was prepared – He had a Blog set-up, he’d put together a Press Release and he had got the hang of Twitter and started putting some teasers out about his story.

Last night he flipped the switch and today there has been a number of articles about his case in the Belgium press, a huge interest in his Blog and a slew of followers on Twitter where, inspired by Dan Baums strategy, he is telling his story 140 characters at a time. It has been great to see the story spread over Twitter and watch Phillipe take phone call after phone call from journalists and politicians just 24 hours after getting the ball rolling. His friends have even put together a Phillipe Liberation Front group on Facebook after he updated his status with links to his Blog and Twitter feed

@hostageinqatar on Twitter Search

It really is a testament to the power of social media that by using Twitter, WordPress and Facebook, Philippe has been able to make enough noise to attract the attention on international media within a matter of hours. Every one of those services is completely free as well. It goes to show that, as long as you have a compelling story to tell, the tools are out there for you to reach a large, international audience, if you use them wisely.

Warren Ellis once wrote “Journalism is like a gun. You’ve only got one bullet, but that’s all you need, if you aim it right. Aim it right, and you can blow a kneecap off the world.” I think the same goes for Social Media. I hope we’ve managed to aim this right to help Philippe get home to his wife and kids.

You can read all about Phillipes story at his blog and through the press release. Personally I’d reccomend you follow the story on Twitter as that will have some more details and will give you an idea of his personality and what he has gone through.

My borther showed me this trick a few years ago and I have been doing it ever since. All you need is a Twix and a hot cup of coffee to create chocolaty goodness. Watch the Video to see how it’s done. I’ve also been told that the same can be done with Penguins (the chocolate bisucit, not the residents of Antartica) and something called Tam-Tams. Enjoy!

It’s generally accepted that an Application is usually faster, better looking and can be more feature rich as some device hardware can’t be accessed from within the browser.

When it comes to Twitter applications on mobile devices, a native Application is the clear choice. The UI is generally awesome, you can have extra features such as TwitPic support and location support, and you can leave it running in the background so it can alert you to new tweets, DMs and/or @replies. When it comes to Twitter Applications the browser should lose hands down.

However, when it comes to the iPhone, things are a little different. There are, of course, a bunch of great Twitter applications for the iPhone avialable through the App Store. Most of them are free and have all the features a Twitter-Fanatic will need. The problem is that the iPhone doesn’t allow for Multi-Tasking so none of these applications, as great as they may be, can run in the background.

Why is this a problem? Well if you want to do anything else with your iPhone like check your email or make a call, you have to exit the application. You then have to reload the application again when you want to check your tweets which can take a few minutes at start-up.

Enter Dabr, by far the best web based Twitter application for any mobile phone. It comes as feature filled as is possible from within a browser and looks clean. You can check your replies, search, follow, unfollow, favourite, re-tweet and everything else. In fact the only thing it can’t do is post Twitpics (but can on a handful of devices) and geo-tags, which is down to browser constraints. Take a look, you certainly won’t regret it.

So why choose this Browser application over Twitterific or Twinkle? Simple – The browser is one of the few native applications on the iPhone that *can* multi-task. Within the browser you can run up to 8 tabs simultaneously which allows me to check my email while my tweets are loading up or read a news story (Note: I know Twitterific and others can open links within its own browser but you can’t open pages you want to visit from that ‘browser’. It’s not the same thing). Also if I want to do things like make a call or run another application the Browser stays running in the background and re-loads again as soon as I open it up. Sure it isn’t true multi-tasking like you get on Symbian and other devices but it’s as close as I can get on the iPhone.

The other advantages are that Dabr is totally AD free, unlike some of the Free iPhone Applications. It’s also a lot quicker when refreshing that the native Apps. But if all that wasn’t enough there is another great reason to use Dabr. The developer behind it, @davidcarrington, is great at responding to user requests within days and ever a few hours in some cases. Just send your requests to @dabr on twitter and you’ll be heard