Brotherman by name Brotherman by nature

Today, I'm going to talk about a special short film project that I am working on with my friend Thomas aka Brotherman.

When I first started writing scripts it initially seemed to me that the film industry was like a vault on lockdown, with an increasing number of production companies not accepting unsolicited material. I wanted to make a film about a struggling artist to reflect how I felt at the time.

Brotherman is a hiphop artist, the beat the canvass that he paints his masterpieces on. I've been a fan for a long time and it pains me not to see him as a household name. This man is so comfortable with a mic and the English language, I wouldn't be surprised if he was born with a microphone in one hand and a dictionary in the other. Music is meant to inspire and that's what he does with his intelligent and conscious outlook on life. Even if he had a labotomy and had half his brain removed, he would be able to produce music with more substance then most of what is in chart music today.

Anyways, I didn't personally know Thomas, but I knew he'd be perfect for this film idea. I contacted him via email and he was interested and after exchanging a few ideas back and forth, I went up to London, where he lives to meet him. For me, as a fan it was kind of surreal when I first met him and before I knew it 12 hours of chatting and drinking a few beers had past. By 3 in the morning we still hadn't written anything. But we had it all there from various things we had talked about and I learnt a lot about his life and his music which made it really easy to get a rough storyline together and talk about what scenes we wanted to include.

We need to get another writing session done, which hopefully we'll do over the christmas break, then as soon as I am finished with my major uni projects, we will start filming. We aim to do it with a zero budget and by calling in a few favours from friends.

I'm really positive that if we nail the idea correctly, the film will be good. Really good. I hope it will also open doors for the both of us and that Brotherman will get the publicity for his music that he deserves.

I'll keep you posted.

Griffithisms

Griffithisms is a section I've decided to dedicate to things that members of my family may say or do.

I was thinking about something my sister Julia said to me recently and couldn't help but laugh so it would be a shame if they go un heard.

Julia: "I'm thinking of changing my gym."

Me: "Why's that then? Don't you like it there?"

Julia: (looking at me with a concerned look) "I don't know where it is..."

Classic Julia. That's why I love her.

More to come people.

Just another day

So, this morning I promised to give my housemate Majid a lift to town. I dropped him off but was running late for a guest lecture with an agent at my uni. I really didn't want to arrive late for this, so rather than driving back home and walking into uni. I thought I would try and get into the car park right next to my building. I thought the best way would be to pretend to be a guest lecturer so I could get past the Car Park Security, also known as the Gustapo of car parking...actually I just made that up (I tried to park there before and couldn't get through.).

I stopped at the barrier where the man in the fluorescent jacket was waiting, watching me with eyes which said to me, You can't park here, son! "Hi, I have a guest lecture today" (Not technically lying) The man looked at me "what's the name?". I was wondering wheter to use an alias or whether to use the name of the guest lecturer I was going to see, but I figured he was already there "Uh...John..Griffith" I said my surname really quickly in an attempt to fool the man. Hoping he'd be too embarrassed to ask me to repeat it. He said nothing as he checked the list on his clipboard "it's not here". What else was I expecting? I was tempted to fold my hand and reverse my car the hell out of there. For some reason I decided to stay in character "It's probably because I'm helping out a colleague today, I was only asked yesterday".

He asked me the name of my colleague. I made one up, then he said "maybe you're on the list at the front gate. Let me radio through - What was your name again?" I thought he was on to me. After all what kind of guest lecturer only has two plastic hubcaps on their car?!

I told him my name again, increasing the delivery of my surname. He did his radio voice thing (Sierra, Foxtrot) then said "Is there a John Griffin on the list". I was thinking this is it - he knows I'm a liar! He knows and he's going to kill me!" then without hesitation a reply came: "Yes!". I couldn't believe it, He made me a pass and through the gate I went. "I am literally the smartest man alive!" is what I told myself.

It's the little victories!! Anyway John Griffin, if you so happen to be reading this and are wondering why the hell the security would not let you park your car today or when you arrived they told you that you are already there, I am truly sorry for that. Really, I am.