I am pleased to announce that The Borderline is an official selection for the SOTAMBE International Film and Arts Festival (SOTAMBE IFAF) to be held in Kitwe in The Copperbelt from 22nd September. I look forward to seeing you there.

ZedPipo: an Introduction

‘You are what you do’, a well-worn phrase that, rightly or wrongly, seeks to encapsulate the identity of an individual within the confines of a profession, job or social role. Capturing identity in a photograph, or indeed a painting, creates a caricature that attempts to summarise an element of a subject. But does it capture their character?

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Postcards from Zambia: A New Photographic Response

Although oppressive times may be becoming scarcer, albeit remaining in living memory, it is time for a change in outlook; there have been developments in the mechanics of photography: a transition from film to digital photography enabling the simple and instantaneous production of images for newspapers, magazines, poster-prints, slideshows and websites, mobile phones, social media or the photograph album; photography is more a media for the masses than ever before.

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Writing Film Scripts 9: Facts of the Matter

Watch lots of films that you like and imitate them. Watch them twice or even three times. Figure out what the films are about and write it down. Look for and note down the inciting incidents and when they happen; find and note the nature of the transitions at end of the first and second acts. Or does it have five acts? Find the midpoint and note the winds of change in story direction. Watching one film once is not watching films. Look for events and observe characters and put them in your film. Do not copy dialogue unless its in the public domain and used as irony, “I’ll be back” famously from Terminator.

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The Zambians (3): Image and Realpolitik

Milk collection in Choma

The image itself

There are hardly any iconic pictures in public circulation and only a few in public exhibitions; so, now let us look at the rest of the world’s photographs and why they may be important. The saying is there are no new photographs: the blind woman or man, the people in the underground, signs, and others; they have all been taken by famous photographers of the past. If you take a picture of a blind person, it will be compared with Paul Strand, Lewis Hine, Gary Winogrand, Walker Evans, Ben Shahn, and others. This of course is irony by default - it has been done before - in its most unintellectual form.

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Writing Film Scripts 8: Read On

So now that you have written lots of scenes, you will notice there are distinct sequences, elements of story that combine to make the full story. Each Act is likely to be one or more sequences that are spaced by time and fade in from black and fade out to black. Tarantino uses these as Brechtian breaks. Have you discovered distanciation yet? Each element is a ‘Short’ film and can be written as such in the script, but there is no explicit formatting for sequences in writing scripts so I use colour coding in scene views/index cards or, in Final Draft, Format > Element Settings > General to start a new page with its own capitalised and underlined italics title for sequences or acts.
Read more here 

Postcards from Zambia: Globalism, technology and social change

Despite the Polaroid camera being sufficiently developed to take positive colour photographs in 1964, the world’s press recorded Kenneth Kaunda taking Zambia to independence in October that year in black and white. Although this is where the Zambian colonial project ended for Britian, it is where the globalisation project started, a positive feature of a changing world for some, the domination of the Third World by the First World for others (Ashcroft, 101). 
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The Zambians (2): Events in Photography

Photo-mechanical reproduction

The arguments of whether a photograph is truthful, or whether it is art, really pale into insignificance when what really mattered for the development of photography was the capacity for mass reproduction; that is photographs being used in newspapers and magazines with the development of half-tone printing in 1880, which is part of the electro-chemical-mechanical means of printing photographs by printing press still used today. The unfortunate truth of demand for imagery in publications, however, is that few photographs are used and not necessarily fully consumed at that. Alternatively, photographers often print one to ten enlarged prints for sale, claiming to destroy the (digital) negative to increase the value of their photographs. This conflicts with the spirit of Walter Benjamin’s recognition of one of photography’s greatest assets in The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.

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Postcards from Zambia: Mass Tools (3)

In the 1920s and 30s, democracy and media reproduction emerged together, and photography and cinema were key mass media tools. In 1925, Ernest Leitz Optische Werke in Germany released Oscar Barnak’s lightweight 35mm still camera, called the Leica I, which used standard cinematic film but with a frame size of 36 x 24mm. With Dr Max Berek’s lens on the Leica, quick and quality photography became easier for newspapers and amateurs, and created opportunities for photojournalists like Henri Cartier-Bresson (Jeffrey, 243).

Bicycle Store in Mwachisopola.

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Writing Film Scripts 7: Filling it Out

Often, I do not have nearly enough to start at this stage, but I switch the left-hand pane to Page, so that I can start writing the script. I am not able to plan the whole screenplay as some people can, so I just start writing, nearly always from the beginning, which I am pleased to be good at! Not everyone can; in fact, most cannot. For those of you with starting difficulties, start wherever you can, anywhere in the script. Just CTRL-2 and type in the scene heading, whether it is EXT. or INT., the rough LOCATION, and whether is it DAY or NIGHT.

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The Zambians (1): Reality and Art

This is the second book on Zambia by Peter Langmead in which he continues to argue that the preservation of the nation’s social history is more important for Zambians and for global heritage than the persistence of Western post-modern indecisiveness about whether documentary photography is important or to be trusted.

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Damyna the Musical: A Brief Outline

A tranquil African village is thrown into turmoil when Damyna, a poor abandoned girl, becomes torn between her love for the boy she grew up with and the handsome, suave stranger who strides into her life. Damyna is brought up by a kindly ‘aunt’ who has paid off her father’s moneylender to secure the girl’s freedom. She grows into a young woman knowing that the aunt’s son, Por Phiri, is not her brother, contrary to his believe that they are siblings. Read more

Writing Film Scripts 6: Stuck in the Middle

The three acts and the inciting incident have been mentioned. Before that, in the film, the viewer should know what the film is about. Blake Snyder calls it the theme and wants it in the script on page five! Some sum it up too briefly as Love, but because this is a great piece of English literature, more thorough answers abound. The book’s title gives it away and it is thereafter enshrined throughout the book, which is superior in every way to stating it on page five, but do not underestimate this rule!

Writing Film Scripts 4: Blinking Hard Work

After the action statement, fragmented or not, put your dialogue under the character’s name in capitals. Get the implied action and dialogue from the four chapters into the four script pages. You live with judgements on inclusions and exclusions for the rest of the adaptation, but they make it yours.

Harry Hama on location, crew in the background.

Was that interesting? Not at all what you were expecting I am sure. Further, all you have done, if you did it, is physically organise Jane Austen’s material to fit, just the mechanics, without the continuum between Jane Austen’s era and yours, ‘[i]t is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife’ that is your real contribution.

Have you wondered why I might be writing this? I do not need to, I am even ‘retired’, but I am narked by the books based on workshops of enthusiastic students with ideas and no practical experience, but it is an approach to ‘knocking’ out textbooks, even if they are flawed to practitioners, who do not tend to write books anyway. There are exceptions, of course: they are more relaxed, but about something else: Stephen King’s book ‘On Writing’ is excellent; others are David Mamet’s book ‘On Directing Film’; Mike Figgis on ‘Digital Filmmaking’; and Walter Murch’s ‘In the Blink of an Eye’. None of these are textbooks, and none are about scriptwriting per se, but they will give you practical insights into writing film scripts.

But I have digressed: many people want to write film scripts, and some ask me if I can help. I live in Zambia, but this is not the reason: there is literacy and then there is literacy. I repeat, if you want to write ‘professionally’, you need to read a lot and write a lot. It is often said, we all have a book in us, and it is probably right, but if you are not writing frequently, it will take a long time because you do not know how to write or have a style. I am wrong? What is odd about numbers in this text; what is odd about the titles in this text; how about capitalising proper nouns – when should it be Prime Minister and when should it be prime minister?

With your biopic, the film script will never be finished, be in doubtful English and have no market; while, adapting a recognised book from the literature canon, you will discover how to write a film, inherit an timeline and pacing, and have a saleable script in the end. Kenneth Branagh did lots of them, wisely. Eventually, you will write your own material, but it is less costly when it is out-of-copyright. No, I did not follow my own advice!

Best regards,

Peter Langmead

P.S. Please have a look at my website here, for all sorts of interesting things about my film productions, operas and books on social photography. Remember, if there is no spit on the lens, you are not close enough - I do not know who said that but it is true. Write to me if you have a question.

My CSR Project 2: Saved by Eating

If you did not eat carbohydrates all last week, and briskly walked 45 minutes at day after breakfast, your BS will be fine by now. But you did, did you not! If you are foolish enough to eat a bread sandwich, even a brown one, you know your BS is going to be high. It is too late, it is done. For me, my eyes will go out-of-focus, my ankles will ache, and my feet will hurt. I will become aggressive and tired. If I had really been as stupid as that, I would run 10km, about an hour, starting within half-an-hour. In preference. I just would not have had the bread, chips, pasta, rice, and you will not be doing it again, I hope.

Is there something wrong with real tomatoes? And I do not mean processed cheese when I say a slice of cheese! Asserting processed food has some type of sugar, added or concentrated, is a fairly safe assumption.

Here is my stand-by diet for getting back into control.

Breakfast: two eggs, fried in olive oil or butter if you like, and with ham or bacon if you like. If you wax lyrical about saturated fats in butter being bad for you, or the nitrates in ham and bacon, remember that nobody cares if you die with or without your feet.

Lunch: beef, chicken, pork, cheese, eggs with a salad made from lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, olives, radishes, peppers, with olive oil and vinegar - I do not need oil and vinegar now-a-days because my taste buds have recovered. I did not say vinaigrettes from the supermarket, I said oil and vinegar; any kind of oil is fine, including palm oil and avocado oil.

Dinner: vegetable soup, but not made with nshima, potatoes, rice, pasta, couscous or any other carbohydrate. Watch out for Indian ‘vegetable’ curries because they often include potatoes, peas, lentils and beans that are high in carbohydrates; they will come later. They are good but not while you are trying to get your BS under control. My alternative is an omelette without milk, with butter, cheese, ham, bacon, tomatoes, and any other vegetable you like. Please do not rant about Glycemic Index (GI) to me, I am diabetic, but we will get to it.

If you need to snack, which I do, a slice of cheddar cheese is good, or ham; otherwise, seeds or nuts, not cake or biscuits, not even oat biscuits, and not fruit. Homemade guacamole or baba ghanoush I like with celery or carrots, but not hummus because it is made from chickpeas, so not for now.

Tea or real ground coffee, not with milk but butter or double cream is fine, and no sugar. I did not say yogurt and cut the wine and beer for now. Yes, I do know about resveratrol. Never anything like Coke or Fanta. Go for a walk, now, or, better still, after every meal. One of them should be 45 minutes, the others can be 20 minutes. Get a dog!

If you succeed with this diet without cheating, you do not eat any carbohydrates. If you walk everyday, a week from now you will not be getting up at night and sleeping better, your feet will not hurt so much, you will lose three kilograms or so, your eyes will be in focus and your BS will under 6 mmol/L. If you cheated, your BS could be anywhere, and you are not serious. I know because I am a diabetic and you do not fool me.

Best regards,

Peter Langmead

What Is Going to Happen?

For some reason, many believe the situation that prevailed before COVID-19 is going to prevail after COVID-19. It is not. Whether you consider it to be better or worse than the past is a subjective judgement. Everyone will have a view based on their business and life style. This is my opinion.

There are half-a-dozen people working in my company that will be influenced by my decisions, which are a function of what is happening in our environment, which is Lusaka. Most of them are working at home and two are living and working at the office, essential workers dictated by computing power or failsafe productivity. Everyone else is working from home where they suffer from 12-hour power outages everyday during which they cannot work. They work any hours that ZESCO gives them, including through the night.

I am older now, explicitly vulnerable to COVID-19 by age and diabetes, so I am not working nights; but remember being younger and happily working into the night. Especially for those with children, being at home must be a bonus; further, time is not wasted travelling to and from work. I can see many office workers preferring to work at home.

This is not so straight forward however: a professional company has an office as a matter of presence, prestige, a meeting place, and a place of work with reliable utilities. Not having an office is not an option for a professional company and working from home is not what professionals do. Sorry, but the definition of whether you are left at home or required in the office is a measure of status - freelance is not really a professional category and is a synonym for being somewhere between being employed and unemployed, underemployed.

What will happen though is a proportion of employees will be left at home to work, and that is going to have two outcomes: in the short term, less office space is required, resulting in a decline in office rents; and nobody is getting salary rises until there has been some movement towards normal. The combination means less demand for nearly everything other than food, internet, digital media. Let us hope. The world needs a sea change.

Writing Film Scripts 2: the Adaptation

As dull as this may be, the start is about mathematics. I suggested books in the first part of this series on purpose. Practice your moderately redundant reading skills and learn from them, because I am not telling you what is in the public domain. Done it? I am talking about what you get from experience, not from reading, but you need to read first.

A film script written in a scriptwriting programme is about 120 pages of A4 or Letter size for a 2-hour film. I use Final Draft but Celtx is also useful. One page of script is one minute of film. Blake Snyder’s dogmatic rules are well-advised. Really, do them, but know you can throw them out later. If your first ten pages to the 'inciting incident' do not hook the reader, rewrite again because, at that point, your script is binned without a rejection letter.

Three months is what you expect to be paid for a 120-page script. In Zambia, you would be lucky! A tv-hour, an episode of a series, is around 56 minutes, 56 pages, which is an hour of programming with advertisements. A tv-½ hour is more saleable because ½-hour gaps need filling. Smart writers design their films to fit ad breaks because they are time to ‘put-the-kettle-on’; smarter writers take advantage of the enforced Brechtian point.

What does a book for adaptation look like? On average, feature films have 60 scenes. A scene defines a location, simply EXT. FOREST - NIGHT or INT. OFFICE - DAY. It is the senior class of the scriptwriting hierarchy in your writing programme. If the film is 120 minutes, 120 pages, each scene is two pages, two minutes. This is a rhythm. If four scenes are concurrent in the same location, I maintain the four scene headings to ensure there is tangible change between each in the two-minute rhythm. If you do not, the director, cinematographer and editor will.

You probably dimly recall writing at school and having to conform to the beginning, middle and end philosophy of Aristotle. This is the three-act structure used by many. There are other models, Shakespeare uses five, but there are always at least three. The halfway point is also a staging post. So, what is the perfect storm in three acts and sixty chapters, and happens to be one of the finest examples of English literature, famous for its opening paragraphs?

Fortunately, the BBC, other British film institutions and the film industry are (or were) obliged or predisposed towards writing scripts to support the British education system, which has resulted in excellent films and series with meaningful quotes straight out of the nation’s great literature, including Shakespeare, Thomas Hardy, Jane Austen and Charles Dickens.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, one of the greatest novels of British literature, is in three acts and has 61 chapters. The first volume/act is 23 chapters, act two is 19 chapters, two minutes per scene for a feature film, or ten chapters to a tv-hour episode in a six-part series. So, one chapter is two minutes or six minutes.

Best regards,

Peter Langmead



P.S. Please do have a look at my website here, for all sorts of interesting things about my film productions, operas and books on social photography. Remember, if there is no spit on your lens, you are not close enough - I do not know who said that but it is true. Feel free to ask questions. My last film is 'The Borderline', which can be watched here.

Writing Film Scripts: in the Beginning!

Hi! I thought you might like to read my new article: Writing Film Scripts: in the Beginning! https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/writing-film-scripts-beginning-peter-langmead

Damyna the Musical Soundtrack: Oh, What A Man!

Hi there,

If you click on the link below, you can enjoy the song 'You May Think I Am a Curiosity' from the Zambian movie 'Damyna the Musical'. You can find my website here, the Facebook page for Damyna the Musical is here and the Facebook page for my latest movie, The Borderline, is here.





Watch the full Movie here.


Damyna the Musical Twitter

Damyna the Musical Soundtrack: You May Think I Am A Curiosity (2)

Hi there,

If you click on the link below, you can enjoy the song 'You May Think I Am a Curiosity' from the Zambian movie 'Damyna the Musical'. You can find my website here, the Facebook page for Damyna the Musical is here and the Facebook page for my latest movie, The Borderline, is here.



Watch the full Movie here.


Damyna the Musical Twitter

Damyna the Musical Soundtrack: See You Then

Hi there,

If you click on the image below, you can listen to the song 'See You Then' from the Zambian movie 'Damyna the Musical'. I hope you enjoy it.



Watch the full Movie here.

Damyna the Musical with subtitles

Damyna the Musical, one of many Zambian movies from Africa with songs and music that you can watch on YouTube and find on Google, has subtitles in Arabic:

دامينا الموسيقية، أفريقيا، الأفلام الزامبية، الأغاني، الموسيقى،

, Chinese, 达米娜音乐剧，非洲，赞比亚电影，歌曲，音乐，

Dutch: Zambiaanse films, liedjes, muziek;

French: Afrique, Films zambiens, chansons, musique;

German: Afrika, Sambische Filme, Lieder, Musik;

Italian: Film zambiani, canzoni, musica;

Portuguese (Brazil): África, Filmes da Zâmbia, músicas, música;

Russian: Дамина Мюзикл, Африка, Замбийские фильмы, песни, музыка;

Spanish: películas zambianas, canciones, música.

Watch the full Movie here with these subtitles.

Damyna the Musical Soundtrack: Pretty Young Thing

Hi there,

I hope you enjoyed this song 'Pretty Young Thing' from the Zambian musical movie 'Damyna the Musical'.



Watch the full Movie here.

Damyna the Musical Soundtrack: Stand a Chance

Hi there,

This is the song 'Stand a Chance' from the Zambian movie 'Damyna the Musical'. I hope you enjoy it.


Watch the full Movie here.

Damyna the Musical Soundtrack: Iwe Damyna

Hi there,

'Iwe Damyna' is a song from the movie 'Damyna the Musical. Click on the image below to watch it. Enjoy!



Watch the full Movie here.

Damyna the Musical Soundtrack: The Fates of These (3)

Hi there,

The song 'The Fates of These (3) is from the movie @Damyna the Musical'. Click on the picture below to watch it. Enjoy!




Watch the full Movie here.

The Borderline, Trailer

Synopsis

What does it profit a man if he gains the world but loses his mind? In a desperate bid to make a success of his life and become rich in the future, Faustino, a poacher and failed gemstone dealer, sells his soul to the devil. Paranoia, despair and nihilism shimmer in the unsettled corners of his vanished convictions, mislaid in the shadows of the deep rivers, dusty plains and homeless cities of his mind. 

Faustino is introverted but becomes aggressive and aggravated if he is confronted; he is jealous of his wife’s imaginary infidelity, which conceals his increasing insanity. Enya is willful and manipulative, between a treacherous femme fatale and her loyal antithesis, and denies Faustino’s continuous and violent abuse in her home.

 Hama is unhappily irrascible, trying to explain to himself his persistent and dangerous liaisons that transcend the murky underworld, corrupt police and hedonistic military. Wakuda is inherently evil; he enjoys luring his uneducated and naïve clients to their fates with his psychotic notions and their delusional beliefs of easy money.

Faustino negotiates with Wakuda to be rich by abusing his mother and is expelled by the headman, later murdered. Suspicion falls on Faustino after he disappears into the bush. Enya calls private investigator Hama to find Faustino before the police kill him, only to find he is her enigmatic but spooky former lover. Faustino is blamed for a series of murders in his absence.
Can Enya and Hama find the real murderer and beat the police and army to him on the remote Lunsemfwa River?


This trailer needs some community contributions.

Watch the full Movie here.

Damyna the Musical Soundtrack: Getting Along Fine

Hi there,

'Getting along Fine' is a soundtrack from the movie 'Damyna the Musical'. I hope you enjoy it.



Watch the full Movie here.

Damyna the Musical Soundtrack: Have You Been Here For Long?

Hi there,

'Have you been here for Long?' is from the soundtrack of the movie 'Damyna the Musical'. I hope you enjoy it.



Watch the full Movie here.

Damyna the Musical Soundtrack: Oh Mother!

Hi there,

Here is the song 'Oh Mother!' from the movie 'Damyna the Musical'. I hope you enjoy it.



Watch the full Movie here.

Damyna the Musical Soundtrack: I Have Had A Dream

Hi there,

Here is the song 'I have had a Dream' from 'Damyna the Musical'. I hope you enjoy it.



Watch the full Movie here.

Damyna the Musical Soundtrack Album Release Imminent

So I made a bit of a mess of submitting the album of Damyna the Musical Soundtrack to TuneCore yesterday and realised last night that I had not finished editing some of the lyrics to their requirements, so I guess I am going to be getting it back for corrections. Bother!

Watch the full Movie here.

Damyna the Musical Soundtrack: The Fates of These (2)

Hi there,

Here is the song 'The Fates of These (2)' from my movie 'Damyna the Musical'.



I hope you enjoyed 'The Fates of These (2). Please comment. Thank you.

Watch the full Movie here.

Damyna the Musical Soundtrack: You May Think I am a Curiosity (1)

Hi there,

Here is the song 'You May Think I Am a Curiosity (1)' from the amazing Zambian movie Damyna the Musical.



Did you enjoy 'You May Think I am a Curiosity (1)'? Please comment.

Watch the full Movie here.

Damyna the Musical Soundtrack: What Is Your Name?

Hi there,

Here is the song 'What Is Your Name?' from the amazing Zambian movie Damyna the Musical.



Did you enjoy 'What Is Your Name?' Please comment.

Watch the full Movie here.

Damyna the Musical Soundtrack: Coming in a Car

Hi there,

Here is the song 'Coming in a Car' from the amazing Zambian movie Damyna the Musical.



Did you enjoy 'Coming in a Car'? Please comment.

Watch the full Movie here.

Damyna the Musical Soundtrack: Pouting Por

Hi there,

Here is the song 'Pouting Por' from the amazing Zambian movie Damyna the Musical.



Did you enjoy 'Pouting Por'? Please comment.

Watch the full Movie here.

Damyna the Musical Soundtrack: Doubting Given (2)

Hi there,

Here is the song 'Doubting Given (2)' from the amazing Zambian movie Damyna the Musical.



Did you enjoy 'Doubting Given (2)'? Please comment.

Watch the full Movie here.

Damyna the Musical: Doubting Given (1)

Hi there,

Here is the song 'Doubting Given (1)' from the amazing Zambian movie Damyna the Musical.



Did you enjoy 'Doubting Given (1)'? Please comment.

Watch the full Movie here.

Damyna the Musical Soundtrack: Quite A Party!

Hi there,

Here is the song 'Quite a Party!' from the amazing Zambian movie Damyna the Musical.



Did you enjoy 'Quite a Party'? Please comment.

Watch the full Movie here.

Damyna the Musical Soundtrack: What Are You Doing Here?

Hi there,

Here is the song 'What are you doing here?' from the amazing Zambian movie Damyna the Musical.



Did you enjoy 'What Are You Doing Here?' Please comment.

Watch the full Movie here.

Damyna the Musical Soundtrack: Dead Indebted Dad

Hi there,

Here is the song 'Dead Indebted Dad' from the amazing Zambian movie Damyna the Musical.



Did you enjoy 'Dead Indebted Dad'? Please comment.

Watch the full Movie here.

Damyna the Musical Soundtracks: Here We Are in Town

Hi there,

Here is the song 'Here We Are in Town' from the amazing Zambian movie Damyna the Musical.



Did you enjoy ' Here We Are in Town'? Please comment.

Watch the full Movie here.

Damyna the Musical Soundtracks: Oh, Ah, It's Me

Hi there,

Here is the song 'Oh, Ah, It's Me' from the amazing Zambian movie Damyna the Musical.



Did you enjoy 'Oh, Ah, It's Me'? Please comment.

Watch the full Movie here.

Damyna the Musical: Good-looking Woman

Hi there,

Here is the song 'Good-looking Woman?' from the amazing Zambian movie Damyna the Musical.



Did you enjoy 'Good-looking Woman'? Please comment.

Watch the full Movie here.

Damyna the Musical: When I was Young

Hi there,

Here is the song 'When I Was Young' from the amazing Zambian movie Damyna the Musical.

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Did you enjoy 'When I Was Young'? Please leave a comment.

Watch the full Movie here.