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Here’s a topic for discussion. I truly believe that persistence is the most important quality when doing anything remotely creative. Skills and natural talent of course help an awful lot, but it’s persistence that makes our ideas see the light of day. Now meet The Treeman, a chap from Liverpool who can play the guitar and write songs. He’s become somewhat famous on YouTube because of the video below and is also a new hero of mine because if he embodies one thing, it’s persistence. If you’ve ever tried to do anything that is difficult, you will no doubt connect with this man.

I do warn you, the video is a little alarming to start with but oh god, is it funny too.

It’s to no surprise that he’s got a bit of a following because of that rather vibrant video. The more fantastic thing is that he’s actually finished recording an EP and is booking gigs off the back of this fame. Of course there are going to be a large amount of ironic fans out there, but i’d also like to think that the majority of the fans find something inspiring about him.  I’d hazard a guess that it isn’t his emotive lyrics or spine tingling chords, but more the fact that he’s actually battled with the creative process and come out of the other side with a finished article…and perhaps overcome a few of his own inabilities too. To be honest, i find it quite refreshing just to focus on that instead of whether the final output has any redeemable quality or not.

asd

Many are the times we’ve seen a mediocre production of a badly written script based on a lacklustre idea, and thought to ourselves, “it’s a crime that good money is being wasted on such arse.”

But sometimes on the other hand, you just have to hold your hands up and admit that some people are just better than you, and feel humbled by their mere existence. This was certainly how I felt when I came across the gem that is “Dalston Superstars.” Enjoy!

The past couple of months have been somewhat busy down in the Kent offices of The Bakery, and it takes an idle late evening to finally get round to some overdue admin work. Please find below some of the things that i’ve been working on recently. Everything you see has been designed and made by myself (with the exception of the odd bit of artwork here and there).

This film was promoted in the local newspaper. Being the jaded cynic that I am, I obviously expected it to be rubbish.

Well blow me, it’s actually very good. And in fact perfectly appeals to the jaded cynic in us all.

I was so amused I thought I would share it with the rest of you…

All records true on 31st December 2011

MOST VIEWED OFFICIAL BAKERY VIDEO (YouTube.com/bakerytv or Vimeo.com/thebakery)
3) 2,441 views – Pipe Smoking: Cherry in a Falcon (since Feb 2010)
2) 3,359 views – David O’Doherty interview part 1 (since Jan 2010)
1) 4,784 views – Crap audio transcription rewrites classic novels 2/2 (since April 2010)

MOST VIEWED CO-PRODUCED BAKERY VIDEO (hosted by external YouTube accounts)
3) 7,149 views – Kent Uni is… (since Nov 2008; produced for KentUnIs)
2) 16,460 views – Advertising with Bells on (since Dec 2011; produced for Fold 7)
1) 41,534 views – Sty TV winners’ introduction (since July 2010; produced for WickedPigUK)

THE NEVER WORK WITH ANIMALS AWARD (recognising screen time and variety of locations/difficulty of acting)
3) Numerous chickens and sheep, for Job Market Julian: Why do a placement year? (1/3) Farmhand
2) 2 reindeer in an office, for Advertising with Bells on
1) Aslan the dog, for Sty TV comedy challenges – episode 3: Invasion

MOST PRODUCTIVE MONTH IN BAKERY BLOGGING HISTORY
3) May 2009 – 13 posts
2) December 2010 – 24 posts
1) December 2011 – 30 posts

MOST CENSORED BAKERY PROJECTS

3) Job Market Julian: Before settling on a Norwegian lumberjack, the third of our Job Market Julian trilogy was of a more religious flavour. We fancied making the most of Canterbury’s impressive Christian scenery and historic reputation, by having Julian apply for the post of Archbishop of Canterbury. Our intention was a fun, surreal, but respectful comedy sketch that painted Julian as a hopelessly inappropriate candidate, lacking in experience for such an important role. This idea was vetoed by the University of Kent. I can’t help but conclude that this is an example of an over-sensitive decision being made on behalf of people who don’t really need molly-coddling. The University also vetoed our suggested desktop wallpaper tagline “Employers get hard for bar charts,” on the dubious grounds that this too could offend religious people. We countered this by buying the domain www.hard4barcharts.co.uk

2) The Wicked Pig Challenges: Surely the most troubled Bakery project of them all. There were few aspects of this short series that weren’t messed about by the confused and contradictory client. The result – despite some top quality ingredients – was a lumpy, under-cooked, over-seasoned souffle. Drowned in barbecue sauce. My favourite censorship issues here involve the client sending us to the offices of Zoo magazine, organising a tie-in competition with said publication, before immediately performing a target audience u-turn and asking us to re-edit our men’s magazine content for a child-friendly audience. Yes, really. Cue the rotoscoping out of a cartoon cock, and the removal of images of Zoo magazine’s boobs from our footage. Other censorship highlights include the hilariously jumpy client asking us to pixellate Matt Damon’s face where it featured incidentally on a cardboard cut-out. Let’s also not forget that despite extensive re-editing, episode 4 was entirely abandoned by the client and has never been released. Their demands had got so surreal by this point that they sent us all the way to Paris, asked us to invade France and (in the same video) complete an entire art-based challenge set by the readers of Zoo magazine, only to finally insist that the resultant video must be under 4-minutes duration and aimed at mums who pack lunchboxes.

1) Konkers: 4 or so years and several repeat runs after the original broadcast run, 2011 was the year Konkers was unexpectedly reevaluated as obscene. CSR’s slightly premature 5th birthday rerun of all 6 episodes suffered so many cuts they cannot all be listed here. Where previous heads of speech had been happy to put our sitcom out, fucks and all, as early as 7pm in the past, new man Daryl Smith laughed in the face of precedent by painstakingly trawling through the series and removing anything vaguely sensational. Seconds of silence or reversed dialogue now sat where before there had been references to drugs or sex. My favourite examples of censorship include the removal of the line “bathe me in yogurt and spank me till I’m raw” from episode 6, and – both wonderfully and bizarrely – the removal of the word “motherflapper” from Konkers USA, despite it not actually being a swear word. Meanwhile, both “piss off” and the Jay-Z sample “the bitch ain’t one” were allowed to stay. Daryl also informed me that some lines had been removed because they sounded homophobic, although he never revealed exactly which lines these were. Speaking as the not-at-all-homophobic author of the series, this was a surprise. Although presumably it related to the Harry and Barry sketches, featuring as they do two blokey simpletons who try unconvincingly to persuade themselves they are homosexual, armed only with a handful of misguided, outdated stereotypes. It requires the audience to understand that the stereotypes are offensive and inaccurate to derive amusement from the idiocy of Harry and Barry. An audience with a sense of irony and intelligence would probably grasp this, and I like to credit the listening public with these attributes. Sadly some censors are less generous. Daryl expressed regret about the extensive cuts, but – like an ice-hearted Tory MP – implemented them anyway.

IMPORTANT MENTIONS

The Sty TV winners’ introduction achieved its 41,000-odd views due to the help of commercial backing from the Wicked Pig Challenges’ client. Most of these views occurred in July 2010 alone. By contrast, the 2nd Most Viewed Co-Produced Bakery Video,  Advertising with Bells on achieved its entire 16,000-odd views in December 2011 alone, and did so without direct commercial seeding, relying on media contacts and viral effect.

Meanwhile, The three winners in the Most Viewed Official Bakery Videos category all achieved their successes due to association with pre-existing audiences. If you want several thousand views, you are advised to either heckle the prevalent software of a major corporation,  get a famous comedian in your video, or smuggle yourself into the YouTube pipe smoking community. You are not however advised to upload videos with such misguided titles as Ninja Kitten Baby Justin Beiber Sex Tape as this will result in only about 79 views.

Jimmy Kimmel messes with the kids of America, which turns out to be pretty funny:

Here’s a similar thing he did for Halloween:

On the twenty-fourth day of Christmas,
The Bakery gave to me:
Some traditional Christmas viewing

Yesterday I watched the first five minutes of this timeless delight, and was quickly reminded of an age when Christmas had a most definite magic to it. I can’t figure out if that’s because this film was a staple piece of my childhood viewing, or because it just perfectly conjures up the essence of Christmas. Perhaps it’s both. Either way, I simply can’t think of a more appropriate thing to put up as The Bakery’s last advent calendar entry.

Enjoy.