The Empire Strikes Backyard Trailer

October 26, 2008

It’s brilliant. [Read more]

Star Wars: The Emperor’s New Clones – Complete Movie

October 26, 2008

The full TENCLO movie, in all its glorious completeness. Enjoy! [Read more]

TENCLO Battle of The Heroes Music Video

October 26, 2008

TENCLO Battle of The Heroes Music Video

In the great tradition of the Star Wars prequels, Backyard Productions has produced its own ‘Battle of the Heroes’ music video, showing making of documentary clips, as well as previously unreleased footage from the film itself. The video can be seen on YouTube here. [Read more]

The Calico Sequence – Ain’t no Sunshine

October 22, 2008

The Calico SequenceAs some of you may know, I have an interest in singing, recording and mixing vocals / music. I’ve always enjoyed singing, from being in the choir at school, to good old karaoke nights down the pub, but recording wise, I’m just starting out over the past couple of years. Now I have a place of my own again, I’m keen to set up a little home studio (very basic!) and resume recording. I thought I’d share a track with you that I worked on in collaboration with an old housemate, Edward Clark. He’s a budding music maker, with a number of great tracks online. You can find his work / album / latest updates at The Calico Sequence website, and also on MySpace. We worked together on this particular track, the vocals were taken from a cover recording I made a couple of years ago, which were remixed with Edward’s backing, which I think gives the track a great contemporary feel. If you’ve already heard it, please accept my apologies – I hope to have more tracks soon!

Ain’t no Sunshine – featuring Ed Hollingsbee (MP3 direct link)

Please bear in mind that I am not a professional vocalist. I sing because I enjoy it, not because I hope to make a career out of it! Having said that, I do aspire to improve both the vocals and the recording production. Constructive comments welcomed!!

A little bit about the Blog section of the BYP site:

In setting up this ‘blog’, we intended for it to be a small corner of the website where the members of Backyard Productions would have the opportunity to present some of their more personal opinions, events, news and work that does not fall under the auspices of ‘official’ Backyard Productions business. It is meant to enrich the BYP site, providing a broader range of more dynamic content for our visitors and encouraging wider community participation. We hope you enjoy seeing a more diverse side to the people that make up the company! Our eventual goal is that more BYP members will post here regularly.

Please bear in mind that the opinions posted here do not necessarily represent the official ‘position’ of Backyard Productions.

The Ulitmate Budget filmmaking book!

October 19, 2008

shut-up-and-shootI was at the Institute of Videographer’s (IOV) annual convention last week (Oct 16) and apart from drooling all over the great new camcorders, jibs, cranes, dollies and editing kit, I did take a look at the books section.  I found a real gem called “Shut up and Shoot” by Anthiny Q Artis.

It looked good, with some nice pictures eay words and big (making the £17.99 price tag a bit more attractive).  It wasn’t until I got home however, when I realised just how VERY GOOD it is.  It was as if I had written it myself (perhaps I should have!).

It details how to innovative in budget filmmaking.  Some of the tricks I knew, many I did not and even as an expericed budget filmmaker, I found it a really good read!

Better still, there is also a website with great up to date links for aspiring filmmakers.

If you get the chance, you MUST buy this book, it explains in one place what my other numerous filmmaking books only try to achieve.  Thier website is www.downanddirtydv.com  Check it out!  YOU CAN GET IT ON AMAZON HERE.

Doom Raiders DVD available to buy!!

Doom Raiders DVD available to buy!!

October 19, 2008

Well who would have guessed it? Finally, Doom Raiders is now available for pre-order on a number of sites, including Play.com, Amazon.co.uk and WHSmith online (Just search for Doom Raiders on their sites!) Sales of our great spoof adventure will help us make our next film, so tell your friends and buy one! NO, Buy […] [Read more]

James Earl Jones Recites the Alphabet… Very Slowly

October 10, 2008

Genius footage from Sesame Street which predates ‘Star Wars IV – A New Hope.’ You can hear why he got to play the voice of Darth Vader, despite his relative youth at the time (well… he was thirty eight). He was the first well known celebrity to appear on Sesame Street in 1969 (the pilot episode) and went on to appear in several others. He apparently recorded another alphabet for Sesame Street after his Star Wars role.

From IMDB: According to Jones, when George Lucas was trying to cast the voice of Darth Vader, his immediate idea was to cast Orson Welles. However, he felt that Welles was too well-known for the role. So instead he looked for an actor with a deep voice, “like Orson Welles” which is how he got cast. [Read more]

TENCLO Documentary

October 7, 2008

TENCLO Documentary

A 60 minute, real documentary of the making of TENCLO has been completed and uploaded to YouTube for your viewing pleasure! Please take a few (well, 60) moments to check it out! It follows the entire ordeal, from building sets, filming, drawing lightsabres and finally the night of the premiere… [Read more]

Bring Back… Star Wars

October 6, 2008

Justin Lee Collins went on an adventure to bring back the magic of Star Wars. Followed by a film crew, he travels around America and UK, attempting to get interviews with the actors from the Original Trilogy and bring them back together for a reunion. [Read more]

Fanfilms Documentary Released

Fanfilms Documentary Released

October 5, 2008

At last, FANFILMS – What are they all about?… has been released!!! As part of his Masters Degree in Media Production, BYP’s Executive Bully, Darren Scales, has produced a unique 30 minute documentary on Fanfilms. Darren has interviewed fanfilm makers, professionals from the creative industry and media academics. Darren explores the world of fanfilm making, […] [Read more]