Jon Ellison

 Once again, it's that time of year when Christmas draws near and the worldwide population commence their plans for celebration and shopping for gifts, ingredients for Christmas dinners and so forth. You might be thinking "what has that got to do with the main topic of this article and vice versa". With Christmas around the corner, it's worth noting that Disney films have been broadcast on terrestrial television during the holiday season for years. I even briefly mentioned this when I celebrated Disney's 100th Anniversary . So putting those things into consideration, and as I promised, I thought I'd give my thoughts and ideas on what films Disney could produce. I realised that the organisation has not experienced a brilliant year, financially. So consider this a little bit of help that I'd give to them. In no particular order, here are some ideas; Fantasia 3(000?) Since its release in 1940, Fantasia, which is probably the first film I ever watched (we did ...

 The Beatles, even after over five decades since their split, have long been regarded as one of the most influential and popular bands in music history. Lately, their most recently released single, Now & Then , has made the news. Inspired by the latest news and as somebody who grew up listening to the Beatles and being the son of parents who owned a few vinyls by them, I thought I'd analyse my personal favourite songs to have been recorded by George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. For each song, I shall be as brief with my reasons as possible.. So, here's my Top 11; Number 11; Octopus' Garden I start this list with one of the rarest songs sung and written by Ringo. I'd say that Ringo is the most underrated Beatle out of the others. To me, Octopus' Garden showcases his talent as a singer and songwriter.. But it also highlights how as imaginative he is as his colleagues. Number 10; Day Tripper As a family, we had Day Tripper on one of our ...

 Yesterday, I came across an article in The Guardian. It seems that the publishing company known as Puffin Books is altering the language used in the many books by Roald Dahl. Roald Dahl is one of those authors whose works I grew up with . I was always intrigued by the themes he covered; the wide world from the children's points of view, the dangers they faced, and the fact that some of his stories had pure antagonists as the main focuses (such as  The Twits  and  The Enormous Crocodile ), class themes and his courage to include macabre elements in his material, regardless of the target audience. There were some of his books read to me when I was at primary school and I even had some of his books. Roald Dahl is one of the influences behind my writing. And after reading that particular article, it personally irks me that such a publishing company, even though they published Roald's novels, would "fix" the language within these products. Roald stayed true to his art no...

 So apparently, today's the 12th day of Christmas. I say apparently because I never fully believed that there were actually twelve days of Christmas, aside from Christmases Eve and Day and Boxing Day (December 24th, 25th and 26th). I'd've thought it was just some silly carol that suggests that there are 12 Days of Christmas. But my family follows this tradition and that is; when it comes to the 12th Day, i.e. 5th January, now's the time to start taking the Christmas decorations down. I would've thought it was Boxing Day, but in our family, we have a few other traditions each Christmas and this holiday just gone was no exception. For us, Christmas Day is family time and not only did I spend time with my parents and my older brother, but we were all invited to join some of our other relatives for Christmas Dinner. We had a mixture of turkey and pork and some vegetables and we had music associated with the holiday playing in the background. Sounds familiar doesn't ...

 Happy New Year readers! It's that time again where we celebrate the start to a brand new year after a night of boozing in town and singing Auld Lang Syne or however one prefers to celebrate. It's also the time when we reflect on what's happened and what we'd been through over the previous year. In addition, it's the time to plan some New Year's Resolutions. This might be one of the lengthiest posts I've ever published, so grab yourselves a cup of tea or something as we go through the highs and lows of 2022. So, where to begin with how 2022 went? Well I feel that one should start with the negatives and then the positives as it's always best to end on a positive note. So here goes. Firstly, I'll start with those who passed on over the last year. These include; June Brown Bernard Cribbins Angela Lansbury Jet Black Robbie Coltrane Lynda Baron Meat Loaf Christine McVie Ashvin Luximon Terry Hall Matt Zimmerman Vivienne Westwood Maxi Jazz Raymond Briggs Mi...

 As this is a monthly activity, the intention was to write a blog post sooner, but very important business stepped in, hence the delay. However, I would like to introduce to any fellow writers reading this, a Guild which I recently joined that may come in useful. The organisation I'm referring to is the Writer's Guild of Great Britain . It is a trade union that was formed to unite writers of films, TV shows, radio plays, books and so forth. This one was recommended to me by a mentor I know from Northampton. Of course this is early days and I've just started getting the hang of it. But it's been a good impression so far. I've even spotted well-known creatives on the website including Tony Robinson whose credits include as the actor of Baldrick in Blackadder and as a writer for a few children's history-based TV shows. There are a few sources of membership you can sign up for and these include Full Membership, Candidate Membership, Student Membership and Affiliate ...

 Normally, I write scripts and songs, but mostly scripts. However, due to a serious incident that happened to me recently - this one involving one of my vehicles, I've been prompted to write this poem. This, I call; Think Again. Robin Hood may have robbed from the rich to feed the poor, But all for a justifiable cause. Even with sets of wheels around him, He'd so never waste 'em. Because he used one thing constructively; his brain, So unlike certain folk who need to think certain acts again. If you think busting other folks' automobiles is funny, Think again. Think that it'll earn you lots of money? Think again. Require smackers to keep you fueled on cocaine or crack? Think again. You need cannabis, ecstasy or smack? Maybe you should think again. Think that wreckage and looting makes you cool and hip? No. Think again. What would do with the loot? Earn a seaside trip? Then think again. Shelter from the rain? Think again Will the cops keep you out of the chains? Mate,...

 Just recently, I've entered one of my short films into a monthly film festival known as Lift-Off Sessions. The film is one which I made just a few years ago. It was shot in my hometown, Leicester, and partially in association with Seven/Five Productions, which was then a collective of independent filmmakers across the county of Leicestershire. I was recommended Lift-Off Sessions by a friend of mine who I knew through Seven/Five when he told me about it during a screening at a festival in Coalville. At the time, that very same film I was referring to was being screened there. For those of you who don't know, Lift-Off Sessions is an online monthly film festival based at Pinewood Studios. What happens is that they screen each film that has been entered on Vimeo for a certain period of time and provides the audience an opportunity to cast their votes, whichever film gets the most votes also gets shown at the Los Angeles Lift-Off Film Festival. All that have been entered are scree...

 Hello everybody, before I start, just a little update; the script that I submitted to Wiki: The World's Fastest Screenplay Contest had entered the quarter finals and has since been labelled as an Honourable Mention. So my next step shall be to try and get the script submitted to a film production company. As some readers may know, a few months ago, I achieved a masters degree in Creative Writing. Through my early posts, I mentioned that I mostly write film scripts. That being said, each of us had to write an essay about meeting one of our favourite writers. It was pretty much more like a story than an essay and the project itself didn't exactly have to be true. Some of us eventually made up our stories.  I originally thought about writing about how I met Shane Rimmer at the National Space Centre in Leicester, but it was hard to think about what to write around it. Eventually I decided to eventually write about how I "met Quentin Tarantino" instead. Just to point out ...