John Dierckx - Renaissance Man
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Monday, 19 February 07 - 09:21 PM (GMT +12:00) By kyle southam in General |
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I would like to introduce the site of a friend of mine (a made guy), John Dierckx. Check him out at http://johndierckx.terapad.com John is one of life's thinkers. I get on well for him because I just drop a dime, give him a call and he does all of my thinking. The good thing is that John is one of these philosophers who is on the level and doesn't lead me of the garden path with his thoughts. I try hard not to think....To quote C.J. from Reginald Perrin --- "Reggie, my father caught me thinking one day. C.J. he said, Philosophising doesn't get the dishes done." (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073990/)
John also happens to be one of New Zealand's leading fraud investigators. Check his other sites out at http://dierckx.terapad.com and http://www.dierckx.co.nz
John has recently written up on the dangers of CO2 emissions, which was probably after just having taken a car ride with me with the windows up. The great Greek thinkers were so pre-occupied with thinking that many times they left the house without any pants on. Pythagorus' hypothesis originally came to him after receiving a rather nasty draft up his theorum. If there was money in thinking, John would have a bank account the size of Bill Gates. Now, I'm not sure if I would like to see either John, or Bill without any pants on.
Epicurus basically said that man can live in supreme happiness, fortified by the continual experience of modest pleasures. For John, those are a good long black and the occasional ciggie.
Check out his web sites. You'll be a better person for having done so.
Kyle
Tough Cops
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Monday, 19 February 07 - 09:43 AM (GMT +12:00) By kyle southam in General |
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In Los Angeles the Cops are so tough, I went up to one of them and said, "Excuse me, how do I get to Universal Studios or should I just F*(K off now?"
I was a little concerned when I moved from New Zealand to L.A. The Police here do not carry guns. When walking down the main streets of Beverly Hills I saw guards standing outside Jewellry stores with .45s strapped to both hips. I was rather concerned with the fact that they give guns to people who don't look like they could spell "gun". 
In New Zealand, there is always a poor old bank guard, who stands unarmed. There was one the other day on the high street who was so weedy, he looked like he was having trouble supporting the hat on his head. What can these guys do when there is a robbery? Reminds me sort of of the guard on "Dog Day Afternoon" with Al Pacino. He collapsed and had an Asthma attack.
Kyle
The Swapshop
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Saturday, 17 February 07 - 10:46 AM (GMT +12:00) By kyle southam in General |
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If you have five minutes, check out a couple of friends of mine who run The Swapshop here in New Zealand (www.swapshop.co.nz). "Tell them Groucho sent you....." - for those of you who are not old enough to remember (I am certainly not), that line came from the famous old television quiz show "You Bet Your Life", hosted by the one, the only, Groucho Marx --- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042171/
Kyle
Radio Advertising
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Thursday, 15 February 07 - 03:10 PM (GMT +12:00) By kyle southam in General |
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There are some fantastic advertisments on the radio and television for that fact and there are some ones that are seriously lacking. The key thing about radio is you can concentrate on certain demographics and get results quickly. The problem with some adverts is even if they are on the correct radio stations to target the certain demographic, they are not written in a manner that will appeal to the target audience. The key message can be dulled by bad writing. The same can be said for Television advertising.
I was sitting through an advert for something the other day and the reason I say something, is that I can't remember what the heck the product being advertised was. Now how effective was that advert? Sometimes I try and guess what the advert is about before the message comes through and even when the so called message does appear, the feeling I am left with as a viewer is "What???!!!"
If you are a client and you hire a good writer, then let the writer go for it. Do not try and micro-manage the writer. A good writer will take your key points and write the copy around them. You can then come in after to help adjust the tone. Unless you are just trying to build up your brand name, you want people to call you. I have listened to adverts that do not encourage the "punter" to pick up the phone and ring the advertiser. I have lost track of how many radio adverts do not actually create the need for the product, nor encourage you to make that call. In fact, the phone number may be buried somewhere within the thirty second slot.
When you are looking for a writer, the writer has to know how to sell. We at the Writer's Factory have sales backgrounds and have the ability to turn our sales knowledge into a powerful advertisment.
Call us on +64 3 310 3114
Soap Operas
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Thursday, 15 February 07 - 02:39 PM (GMT +12:00) By kyle southam in General |
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There are people who blame writers for the boring activities in a soap such as Coronation Street, The Eastenders or our own popular (hmmm....) Shortland Street, but in reality the writers are bound to a strict storyline that people called story-liners come up with. A story liner may say that in this episode, Madge finds out her budgie has spontaneously combusted and at the end of the episode she finds out that she has just had the milkman's love child. In between the shop owner gets robbed and the milkman runs over the village postie's bike and they go out on a date. The poor writer now has to string all of these ideas together with dialogue and action.
There is quite a bit in writing for a soap in which timing is everything. This scene has to be just the right length, this scene has to end on a cliff hanger and the writer has twenty two minutes in which to deliver all of this, timing dialogue for commercial breaks laid out by the producer's of the show.
Kyle Southam's BIO
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Monday, 12 February 07 - 09:41 AM (GMT +12:00) By kyle southam in General |
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Kyle was born a small writer on a wee patch of dirt that broke away from Australia about three billion years ago called New Zealand, to be more specific, Wanganui. Kyle eventually found his way to Los Angeles via the United Kingdom and as a struggling writer lived in an area so rough you could walk five blocks and never leave the scene of a crime.
During his L.A. tenure, Kyle worked on sitcom pilots and pitches for U.S. production companies as well as works of his own. He is a published writer, has two screenplays to his credit and has ghost written on a couple of screenplays.
Kyle has worked with movie directors, company directors, producers, actors and other such dubious people in helping them turn silk purses into sow's ears, or is it the other way around?
The Writer's Factory launches
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Monday, 12 February 07 - 09:37 AM (GMT +12:00) in General |
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The Writer's Factory, powered by Terapad.com (http://www.terapad.com/) was launched today featuring blog, forums, image gallery, online shop, event calendar and more.
The Writer's Factory can be accessed at http://thewritersfactory.terapad.com/.
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