Employment Status – Worker v Self-Employed

A recent tribunal ruling Autoclenz v Belcher & Others means that tribunals can look beyond the terms of the contract to see what is actually happening in practice. Companies that use self-employed contractors/consultants, etc should have an appropriately worded agreement in place which includes clauses related to freedom, substitution, tax liabilities, etc and be very careful not treat them as… Continue

Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People®



As a leadership trainer, I do kind of bang on a bit about a whole range of management models and techniques that people who lead others should be thinking about to get the best out of their teams. One of the models I particularly like for the creative world is Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. It's pretty interesting to see that many of the more… Continue

For a number of years, I have been delivering ‘Networking in the Creative Industries’ workshops for freelancers. The opening session is developing your own ’30 Second Commercial’. All too often, when asked what we do, many people simply reply with a three or four word response – I’m a director, a colourist, I’m a floor manager, etc. With respect, you are probably in a room full of floor managers so how do you stand out? That initial statement you make… Continue

The Great Apostrophes Debate

I've posted this following a minor (and really good childish) dispute with a colleague. Warning: Lots of alcohol isn't always a good thing.



The rules concerning the use of Apostrophes in written English are very simple:

1. They are used to denote a missing letter or letters, for example:

- I can't instead of I cannot

- I don't instead of I do not

- it's instead of it… Continue

I've delivered a number of creative thinking workshops recently and when we look at brainstorming ideas, most people quite happily claim to be fully familiar with the process and frown at my dumb question of checking if they are aware of the actual process of brainstorming. It's at this point, I sometimes refer to my faithful old tried and trusted handout based on the fantastically simple work of Alex Osborne. Given the current climate of the absolute… Continue

CREATIVE THINKING

Random Input Storyboarding



Storyboards go back to the very beginnings of cinema, with Sergei Eisenstein using the technique. In the world of animation, Walt Disney and his staff developed a Story Board system in 1928. Disney wanted to achieve full animation and for this, he needed to produce an enormous number of drawings. Managing the thousands of drawings and the progress of a project was nearly impossible, so Disney had his artists pin up their… Continue

Picture yourself, sitting at your desk, looking at a favourite image on your wallpaper glowing from your screen, the buzz af the external drive backing up your work in the background and the sun streaming through the window, really warm, pleasantley warm. You feel great. You've seen your diary for the next few days and you have some brilliant meetings coming up. Sounding off new ideas, a bit of future gazing, a bit of banter and chat and generally finding an idea that your gut-feeling says yes,… Continue