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The Finals Countdown

They say that no-one remembers who came second; equally, the losers of football matches are relegated to pub trivia answers at best. But for some of the football fans at the Proudfoot Company this is a big week, with both Fulham and Portsmouth contesting for major trophies. In a matter of hours, Fulham go up against Athletico Madrid in the final of the Europa Cup, with a pretty solid chance of glory. On Saturday, plucky Pompey - dubbed the 'crisis club' by the media for the entire season - face the Goliath that is Chelsea in the FA Cup final, with a considerably less good chance of victory. Good luck to them both.

Nothing is certain; both teams may cause upsets and fill the office with joy. The favourites may of course do what favourites usually do - we hope to be spared humiliation. And there will be nothing but respect if one team manages to achieve their place in footballing history and the other becomes a tricky question on 5 Live's Fighting Talk.

It turns out that a couple of things ARE certain: in this office we will remember what happens in these two huge matches, even if our teams fail this final test of the season; and we will be back next season, tryinig to urge them on to even greater glory.

Play Up Pompey - and Fulham!!

A Weekend in Geneva

Eddie and Michael got stranded in Geneva due a cloud of volcanic ash....they had a Flip camera with them.......http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ow64avFJonE

I AM A PAINTBRUSH

I am a paintbrush. Watch my film here

What I learnt in Spain

Just back from a week in Madrid with Jonathan Glazer, Brazilian futebol ace Kaka, four 3D camera rigs and a crew of just over 100 on a shoot for Sony Bravia. It was a tough but fun week and I learnt a lot.
1. Making TV commercials is hard. That's why I stopped doing it nearly 10 years ago and that's why it would take a team of especially strong wild horses to drag me back into it again. Doing what we do - the Making Of the commercial - is much easier and much more fun!
2. Jonathan Glazer is alright. He probably deserves all the hype and he remains approachable and friendly. Creatively, he has a strong sense of what he wants and he keeps going until he gets it. This 3D commercial should be amazing.
3. Kaka is not as good at football tricks as I thought he would be. But he is much better at performing on camera than I thought he would be so I guess we are evens. And he is a nice guy.
4. Mike James is a terrific cameraman and is very good company on a long shoot. I knew this already but it is always good to discover that something as crucial as this is still correct.
5. The rain in Spain falls wherever and whenever it feels like falling. And last week it fell everywhere, a lot, and it was accompanied by enormous and very uncomfortable hailstones.

Birds and Guitars

I am a frequent visitor to the Barbican Centre and often head there after the Proudfoot office closes to catch a film and grab something to eat. Occasionally I’ll also visit to see something a bit less run of the mill: among the things I saw there last year were a spectacular one-off concert with Grizzly Bear (my lo-fi indie idols) featuring the London Philharmonic orchestra, and a screening of cult film “The Room” with commentary from comedians Graham Linehan and Peter Serofinowitz – another memorable experience, although for rather different reasons (the event was part of the Barbican’s “Bad Film Club”, so I’ll leave you to work out the rest…).

The Barbican is apparently the largest multi-arts centre in Europe and also plays host to art, theatre, dance and educational events. Not being much of a connoisseur in these fields I hadn’t thought to properly check out what else is on offer, but earlier this month I stumbled upon an “installation” in the Centre’s Curve gallery.

The entrance to the space tells you that held within is “a new commission for The Curve by Céleste Boursier-Mougenot”, and as you enter into darkness with strange ambient noises playing in the background, you’d be forgiven for wondering what on earth was going on. But as you get to the last quarter of the gallery (which is literally named after the shape of the space, a long semi-circular corridor), suddenly everything is illuminated and you are greeted by two things: birds and guitars.

Mr Boursier’s idea is remarkably simple: he has placed several electric guitars and a few cymbals on stands, hooked them up to amps, and filled the space with 40 zebra finches. The flock of finches use the guitars as perches, and the cymbals double as feeders, with piles of bird seed scattered over them. As the birds land on the instruments or occasionally pluck at the strings they create a unique and ever-changing sound.

He may have added a couple of effects, such as reverb and echo, but to my surprise, the resulting noise sounds remarkably musical. Boursier is a trained composer, and he is fascinated by the musicality of the sounds that surround us in everyday life. His previous works apparently include an installation of 13 vacuum cleaners which have harmonicas attached to their suction nozzles. He likes to orchestrate situations that will produce unusual sounds, but he wants to enable the sound to occur in a random and unaffected way. As you walk in between the instruments in the Curve you notice that your movements can also affect the birds behaviour, and on the two occasions I have visited the experience has felt and sounded completely different.

It is unclear if the birds know about their temporary rock-god status, but they seem pretty at home; on my second visit I noticed a couple of them trying to weave a nest between the strings of one of the guitars. They will be maintaining their residency for another couple of months yet, and entry is free, so I recommend paying a visit to the Barbican before these guys get signed and embark on a world tour.

Shutter Island

For some reason or other Wendy and I decided to go and see “The Girl With The Dragon Tatoo” last week. Nicely done, but I gather it’s a cut-down from a two part Swedish TV drama so some of the plot is irritatingly sacrificed, maybe you should just read the book, although Noomi Rapace who plays the Lisbeth Sander character is great. So this week we brave Scorsese’s “Shutter Island”. Scorsese’s latest is another long one and seems to have had mixed reviews, so you wonder, is it worth the time? Nevertheless you go along knowing that Marty is at least going to show you some interesting moments, even if it is flawed. The way Scorsese moves the camera or moves the performers within the frame is always elegant and inspiring to watch, his style is economical but somehow we are always aware that his eye is there – we are being shown things in a particular way for a reason.

Well let me tell you “Shutter” is certainly worth going to see and in years to come might be seen as one of Scorsese's best films. What he does with this story is subtle and clever and it’s only on coming out of the cinema after the final twist you begin to remember how his careful direction has lead you though the narrative’s many layers. The beginning is deliberately pulpy, by that I mean the camera angles he chooses, even the dialogue has echoes of a fifties comic book. Gradually the visual styles change and Scorsese uses different filmic devices (all beautifully executed) to draw us into the final denouement. Without wanting to spoil the ending, one often comes out of mainstream cinema wondering what you have carried away from the experience, in the case of Shutter Island I was reminded of something Jonathan Miller once said to me: “as scientists, we know more about deep space than how the human brain actually works”. Maybe we all have a little bit of “Patient 67” about us?

Proud foot

Proudfoot have a shoot in Geneva at the moment and it has coincided with the first few days of spring. It's new year's day in the natural world and Michael has started the ball rolling with what looks like a new resolution to exercise during shoots. I'll be taking my running shoes next time I'm working abroad- they might even help when someone tries to steal the camera.

Dark Days - or a new beginning?

It has finally happened. A decade or more of poor management, short-sightedness and greed have caught up with my beloved Pompey and we are now in administration and surely doomed to relegation. Plenty has been said about the personalities involved in the surely temporary downfall of this great club and those involved will be cursed by Pompey fans for at least the rest of their days.

Now that administration has finally happened I feel bitterness - at the string of petty crooks who have played with club as if it were a bauble or a trophy girlfriend, and anger - at the officials of the Premier League, who have apparently been drugged by the wealth and glamour of modern football to the extent that any ex-con could pass the 'Fit and Proper Persons' test, let alone an Arab swindler or a Russian arms dealer. I also feel a sense of relief - an enormous weight has been lifted from the fans, the only innocent party in this whole sordid mess and the only ones who will be punished by the points deduction (a senseless punishment, in my view).

It is all rather sad, grubby and pathetic. And there are serious concerns about many other clubs, amongst them Premier League clubs, whose owners have lead them down a similar path to that which has seen Pompey stray dangerously close to the cliff edge. They must get a grip now while they still can. My first game was against Rotherham in August 1981. It was a rich mixture of mud, sweat and the odd flash of talent and I was hooked from the first minute of that 3-1 victory. David Gregory was an instant hero. Watching from the the well-behaved Family Enclosure in the South Stand, I immediatey wanted to be part of the noise and passion of the Fratton End, even today considered Britain's best group of fans, and some decades later it was a huge thrill to take delivery of my first Fratton End season ticket - ear-splittingly close to John Westwood and his famous bell. And my wild ride as a Pompey fan began.

It is easy to become addicted to success; Pompey fans loved every minute of our brief period inthe limelight. We spent decades in the lower reaches of the league - more than a decade in second tier alone - and suddenly found ourselves getting promoted to the Premier League, going to Wembley 3 times in as many months, winning the FA Cup, winning games in the UEFA Cup and establishing ourselves as a footballing force to be reckoned with. It was fun. And there may be some more fun to be had during the rest of this season. We still have the excellent Avram Grant, who seems to have fallen in love with the club, and it looks as if we will keep at least a few decent players. We may even get to face Harry Redknapp's Tottenham (Pompey in disguise?) in the FA Cup semi final at Wembley in what would surely be the most ironic game ever held at Wembley.

The future is out there. We should, at least, now survive as a club. We thought we had seen the last of grounds like Selhurst Park but we will be back at the top level one day.

Play Up Pompey!

New Proudfoot Showreel

At long last, our new showreel is ready to view. This is just a taster - a full reel of our very best work is available by contacting simon@proudfoot.tv

Enjoy.