Hi, we’re Dangerous Doug.

Dangerous Doug is a collective of like minded film makers, based in Cardiff. We have between us a wealth of experience in the film and TV industries and as a collective we have been making mainly music videos for local bands over the past five years. We have filmed Sibrydion, The School, Spencer McGarry Season, the prolific Pagan Wanderer Lu and our proudest moment so far KUTOSIS, to name but a few.

We first became aware of the “We Are Cardiff” project sometime last year and thought it would make a great film. A few months later and we find ourselves on board helping to make the film happen. We’re very excited to be working on such a project as we are all now Cardiffians ourselves, ranging from lifers to people that were wooed to the city to set up new lives here. We love Cardiff for our own reasons and hope to find out more about parts of Cardiff we never new existed from those who also live here.

The We Are Cardiff film is in it’s early days of production which is moving along nicely.  I think this bodes well for an exciting, informative and entertaining journey. We hope to successfully translate all of that to the film itself.

Doug x

I know it sucks. I really wish we could pay everyone a shitload of cash. But we’re running the project on a shoestring. And we’re pretty certain that the end product is going to be a super duper lovely film that will get a load of coverage at film festivals around the world next year! And that’s pretty good exposure for your music, no??

If the film ends up making a load of cash, we’ll be paying everyone who has volunteered time or skills in the first place. It’s only right and fair. We’re not about making a massive profit. We just want to make enough to cover costs and get the thing out there. That’s the most important thing!

SO – ARE YOU A CARDIFF BAND OR ARTIST WHO WANTS A SHEDLOAD OF EXPOSURE??? Send us music that we can use license-free in our film. You’ll be hitting a massive audience who might never get to hear your music.

Email us on hackflashflash at gmail dot com, and send us your ditties. We want to hear them! There’s no deadline for this, so we’ll keep posting the link til we’ve got enough music.

(be aware – if you’re a signed band, you’ll definitely have to check with your record label or management that they are happy for you to do this … we don’t want any legal battles!)

peas
x

We got some wicked press in plastik magazine (thank you lovely Adam Smith and Marc Thomas for featuring us on there once for the fundraising effort and then with this article). I had pretty much resigned myself at that point to the fact that we were going to have a bunch of different people working on the film, throughout the project. Which was fine. But then….

I had a meeting with a couple of film makers last week. They were interested and loved the project enough to want to take on the whole thing.

They came to the meeting with a handout for me. AND they had made a mini trailer for it!

I was, obviously, overjoyed, not least because the one thing this project really needs is people who know what they’re doing to guide it from a technical point of view. Storytelling, ideas, interviewing, I can do all that stuff. But I haven’t the faintest ideaabout actual, practical film making (and things like legal considerations), and it’s a pretty steep learning curve from scratch. Much better to have experienced folk at the helm, guiding the ship. And I think I’ve found some!

This is obviously going to take the film in a bit of a different direction that if it were a more collaborative effort. There may still be opportunities for other film makers to get involved and help out in places (especially later on in the year for covering big events like Swn). So keep in touch with the blog if you’ve already offered your services, as we’ll be putting out another shout later on when we need more hands.

I’m going to ask them both to write guest posts for the blog, introducing themselves. I’m excited. I’ve got a good feeling, as they say!

I’ll also post the short trailer that they’ve made soon for you. I hope you like it as much as I did.

They’ve also agreed to work on a short introductory version of the film (maybe five minutes long), which we’re going to use to try and get some funding from local businesses and brands. If you know of any local businesses who’d be keen on spending some advertising budget on a film that promotes their home city, please let us know!

Other news about music for the film coming soon… stay tuned.

happy monday

x

I thought I’d just give everyone who I’ve met a little shout out. We’re going to be covering some AMAZING things, no?

- National Theatre of Wales. These guys do some amazing work in the community, and I’m excited that we’ll hopefully be documenting some of that work that happens in Cardiff this year. They also have a really successful online community, which you should check out…

- Cardiff and Co. These guys work to bring private investment into making Cardiff an attractive visitor destination – for the public and for businesses. They are also extremely well connected and know pretty much all the big events going on at any time. They spearhead the Creative Cardiff umbrella for all the events that take place in Cardiff in October (which you may have noticed is a pretty damn busy month!)

- Lisa Heledd Jones (Storyworks). Lovely Lisa tipped me off on about a million different events and people that I should cover. She also part runs the alternative comedy night Junket Club, who may be having a very special event later this year…

- Tom Betts (Secrecy, Chapter Moviemaker). Tom is involved in so much it makes my brain hurt, and he’s given me so much advice it probably made his brain hurt. But you should definitely check out his debut feature Secrecy, and also the monthly meet up on Cardiff based indie film makers at Chapter, Chapter Moviemaker.

- Matt Callanan. Matt is an independent film maker, who will excitingly be filming the TED X CARDIFF event taking place here in March. Did you manage to get a ticket?

- Tiger Bay Brawlers roller derby team. The Tiger Bay Brawlers are a ferocious snarling bunch of blood thirsty roller derby femmes who will kick your head in. Not really! They’re Cardiff’s premiere roller derby dames, and they’re damn good! We’ve been supp0rting the Brawlers for some time and we’re chuffed to bits that they’ve agreed to let us cover one of their extra special bouts this year for the documentary…

- High Contrast album launch party, Catapult Records. Our old buddy drum’n'bass producer Lincoln ‘High Contrast’ Barrett is going to be releasing his next album The Agony and the Ecstasy in 2012, and we’ve been invited to film part of the album launch party at Catapult Records, Cardiff’s only dance music record store based in the Duke Street Arcade (and the only in-store he’s doing anywhere to promote his new album). Linc is also big into film and directed his music last video. You should check out his blog for his various musings…

Ok. That’s your lot for now.

Peas!

x

So. We’re looking for footage – preferably shot in HD (we know, we don’t ask for much!) filmed in Cardiff on this New Year’s Eve just past.

You could be at a house party, at a club, or in town…

if you can provide us with some of this, PLEASE DROP US A LINE! hackflashflash at gmail dot com.

As ever, your faithful friends…

We Are Cardiff

x

Brilliant day shooting the first wassail at the riverside community garden at the pontcanna allotments on bute park. More and better photos soon – thanks to everyone there for having us, esp jenny for being so accommodating (the last photo was taken by her too, credit where credit’s due).

READ IT HERE

terribly nice of them.

Not much else to report today – other than OUR FIRST FILMING SESSION is going to be happening THIS SATURDAY!!

I can’t tell you where, or who with. That would be spoiling the surprise, eh? The wonderful James Cuff is going to be filming, and photographer Simon Ayre is coming along to take some snaps. It will involve roast chestnuts, hot apple cider and chasing the evil spirits away… I might leak something to the blog for you to take a look at afterwards (if you’re lucky!)

I’m very excited….

Some wonderful things have happened during the break – lots of local artists and bands have offered to let us use their music license-free for the soundtrack to the documentary, which is excellent news. Many wonderfully talented camera operators and film makers have also offered cameras, lighting rigs, plus their time, time, skills, and advice, which are gratefully received! So thank you everyone who has donated, either cash or time. We’re still in need of help – so if you have any technical ability or you can just offer a pair of hands and feet, please let us know, we need all the help we can get!

I’ve also had time to think about the structure of the documentary, and after some advice and ideas from the wonderful and ever-generous Tom Betts of Chapter Moviemaker (and feature ‘Secrecy’) fame, I’ve decided that the documentary is going to be a year in the life of We Are Cardiff – starting with New Year this year (so, now!) and ending with New Year 2012.

So, this means that the action is going to have to start pretty quick-smartish… and I’m going to update you with a list of things that I need. Hopefully, some of you will be able to offer some of these things!

-       We need you to suggest events for us to cover in 2012! As the documentary is now going to take place over the course of a year, we have great scope to cover local events, but we need you to suggest them. If you know of something awesome that’s going to be going on (especially in local neighbourhoods away from the city centre) at some point this year, then PLEASE SUGGEST something we should cover. If you’re in a band and playing some sort of awesome gig somewhere, let us know. If you run a cabaret troupe and you’re doing a show on a car park roof, let us know. We’re talking church fetes, craft fairs, sponsored silences, dog walks, charity litter picking, naked bike rides – WHATEVER YOU’RE DOING, WE WANT TO KNOW! We can’t promise to cover everything, BUT we’ll definitely have a look. What better way to celebrate the wonderful things that go on on your own doorstep, eh?  Please leave your suggestions in the comments underneath this blog post OR email them to hackflashflash@gmail.com. The more information you can give about the events we should cover, the better!

-       We still need people to support the campaign. Donate some spare pennies by visiting our Indiegogo campaign, offer your time or skills by emailing hackflashflash@gmail.com and letting us know what you can do. Also, please forward details of the campaign to EVERYONE you know. Word of mouth is a beautiful thing, right?

The website has been running since mid-2009, with the aim of inviting real people of Cardiff to talk about living in the city, what it means to them, and what makes it such a special place. Now we’ve decided to take the project to the next level, and make a full length documentary film about the fine residents of this fine city. You can see more information about the film and exactly what we’re planning to do with it here.

If you are a Cardiff-based artist/musician/group who feels as strongly about this city as we do, then we need your help!

We’re looking for someone/some people to create the theme music for the documentary. The music would be used at the start and the end of the film, and also possibly weaved into the fabric of the film (perhaps throughout some scenes) though we’ll be using other music as well.

We’d be looking for a piece of music that’s between 30 seconds to 1 minute 30 seconds long (to allow for using it in the documentary as well). And we’d want you to have composed it especially for the project, as a bespoke creation that’s been inspired by what we’re making.

As you can tell from our fundraising page, we’re running on absolute minimal cash and relying on lots of very generous people to donate time and skills. If we hit our fundraising target, we will only be able to pay you a very humble amount for licensing your music for the film (we’re not sure exactly how much yet, but it’s looking likely to be between £50-£100).

If we go over the target and manage to raise more (or if by some miracle the film gets picked up by a load of festivals and some incredibly forward thinking intelligent individual wants to invest in it!) then we will of course renegotiate to make sure you get a fair deal.

To start with, we’d just like you to have a poke around the We Are Cardiff site and read the information on our fundraising page. Try and understand what we’ve done so far and then what we’re trying to achieve with the film. If you’re interested in participating, send links to your work (Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Myspace etc) to us on hackflashflash@gmail.com, with a short introduction to yourself and the sort of piece you think you might like to make for us.

We have absolutely no restrictions for who can submit work – our only stipulation is that you be based in Cardiff (or a stone’s throw from) and be interested in the project. We don’t mind if you’re a serious composer , a punk band, a samba band, a male voice choir – whether you make acoustic music, or electronic: reggae, rock, r’n’b, techno, folk, or anything inbetween … if You Are Cardiff, we want to hear from you!

Please bear in mind that if you are a band or artist that is currently under contract with a record label, you will need to check with your label that you can compose something for us outside any contract you are currently in.

We’ve set a tentative deadline of 7 January  FEBRUARY for you to express interest (and send us links to work you’ve already done). We hope to choose a collaborator by the end of January. It’s a really exciting project and will be a chance for you to get your work heard by an entirely new audience. So get your links sent in!

We’d like to extend massive thanks to the Welsh Music Foundation for helping us put this together – YOU GUYZ RULE!