Legendary filmmaker Ken Russell has died, following a series of strokes. This is indeed a sad time for the arts in Britain, as a beautifully flamboyant staple of British cinema has shed this veil of tears aged 84.  

It has to be said that when Ken Russell was truly hammering away at the very edge of sanity, he directed some of the best films that us brits have to offer. "Wake 'em up" was generally Ken’s keyword, and it is certainly true that you can seldom go to sleep in a Russell film. If you do, you’ll have nightmares. He was one of the last of the great British romantics, who never lived to see the uncut, unadulterated release of his seminal masterpiece – ‘The Devils’(1971)

Russell was born in Southampton to Ethel and Henry. He was educated at Pangbourne naval college and studied photography at Walthamstow art school. He pursued life merrily and drank with the fervent determination which is so often a trait in English intellectuals. After some time in the merchant navy (in 1945) and the RAF (1946-49), he tried life as a ballet dancer and was a freelance photographer before eventually arriving at the BBC.

Led by the success of his stint at the BBC, Russell progressed into the cinema. His debut came in 1963 with the low-budget, little seen comedy, French Dressing. But his first real commercial success came in 1969 with his version of Lawrence's Women in Love. The film brought Russell an Oscar nomination and the rest, as they say, is history. A long career with film-studios both oversees and at home followed. Though he became an increasingly auspicious wild-card for financiers due to the risky nature of his work, he always observed the golden rule of film production - never cease to be original.

He will be sorely missed by innumerable fans world-wide, leaving behind a vast legacy of contentiously progressive art. Enshrined within his huge cannon of work is a kind of immortality which only comes with being a true artist. Rest in Peace Ken Russel.

Most TV productions are forced to strike a balance between artistic quality and shamelessly commercial concerns, with the latter so often winning out (E4’s new Desperate Scousewives, anyone? Thought not). However the Chinese state is determined to push creative considerations right to the fore of its nation’s programme-making, and the latest initiative in this quest is the banning of adverts during TV dramas and movies.

Unlike the controllers at ITV2, China’s ruling communist party is keen to raise the quality bar for its TV productions. And if that means government regulator, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, getting nasty with Chinese programme-makers who have grown fat and soft through the lure of easy commercial lucre... well, then so be it.   

For instance, last year saw the SA of RFT (as it's known to friends and well-wishers) moving to cut the number of entertainment shows being made in China. Then, earlier this year, it entirely banned Supergirl, China’s answer to American Idol and the nation’s most popular TV talent show.

And now its newest scheme for cutting down on the mind-rotting dreck infiltrating the minds of the young and impressionable via the medium of idiot box is to prevent adverts from being shown during any programmes running for 45 minutes or longer, with this likely to affect dramas and films in particular.  

The ban comes into effect on 1 January 2012 and, in the wise words of the SA of RFT, it is expected to help ‘fully utilise the TV networks to build a public cultural service system, raise the level of public cultural services, protect people’s basic cultural rights… and leave the people satisfied.’ Yeah!

Check out a clip from Supergirl below, to see what the Chinese people are missing out on/being saved from.

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Thanks to the popularity of online video and the ease of creating it, the TV auditioning process could be getting a lot more social. Web video site Playkast has been aiding long running TV show Family Feud (That’s Family Fortunes to us) find new families to be on the show through web video uploads.

Not only does this make the auditioning process a lot easier and quicker than mailing in a tape or a DVD but it also means the producers have a direct connection to a host of potential contestants. It also creates a host of content that can also be used in the show itself. Uploading through Playkast means the videos become a lot more social, and sharing is encouraged creating more buzz for the show.

The stats don’t lie either with 500+ uploads, over 100,000 views of the Playkast tab and over a thousand shares across Facebook all within a five day period this month.

The possibilities for the use of this type of auditioning could range across a number of productions; reality television springs to mind immediately and could bring a dose of new life to a flagging genre that has been overtaken by the faux-reailty shows such as The Only Way Is Essex and upcoming Desperate Scousewives (I didn’t make that up, its actually a programme).

If you want to discover what online video can do for your business, why not check out SpectreVids.

Film Production in Hollywood has roused ghosts of excitement in the belly of this particular author lately. This is due to watching the trailer for ‘Being Flynn’, a new movie directed by Paul Weitz and starring Robert De Niro, Julianne Moore, Paul Dano, and Olivia Thirlby.

 Dano stars as Nick, a young writer who volunteers at various homeless shelters in Boston. During one of those volunteer nights he is stunned to find himself looking into the face of his estranged -- and now homeless -- father, played by De Niro. The father was himself a brilliant writer, but his talent never translated into being a good father, leaving Nick with no shortage of issues to work over with the man who has unexpectedly rematerialized in his life in the least-expected way.

I find that I have the (sadly) rare feeling of genuinely looking forward to a new release from the film studios. Not only does this look like a mature, interesting movie, but it might also herald the legendary De Niro’s return to worthy material, and that is something which we should all pay to see. The film does not currently have a release date, but we should expect to see this sometime in 2012.

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We all know how popular online video is, but for those who just think its about sharing videos of unruly dogs here’s an infographic explaining how much more visual engaging web video can be when it comes to displaying information on your website.

60% of the executives from the survey said they would watch a web video before reading the text version of the same information. 65% said they have visited the website associated with the content after finishing viewing. It is worth noting that the 300 executives questioned in this survey represent companies with more than $500 million of ad revenue at their disposal.

If you want to impress those executives with a web video for your brand why not get in touch with SpectreVids for a cost effective solution.