Laura & Ben: St. Patty's Day Kailua Wedding

Laura and Ben got married on St. Patrick's Day at a private oceanfront estate on Kailua Beach, Oahu. Although the weather forecast called for heavy rain, the luck of the Irish prevailed and Laura and Ben had a beautiful outdoor wedding. The ceremony, which included a butterfly release, was attended by about 75 friends and family members. A festive St. Patty's Day theme was carried throughout the wedding from green table linens to the green frosting on the cupcakes from Hokulani Bakery to the flowers in the bride's hair. The table centerpieces incorporated colorful Siamese Fighter (Betta) fish! Congratulations to the happy couple!

Eleventh Hour back in the UK

According to The Guardian, Virgin Media's Living TV has picked up the first US season of Eleventh Hour for screening from April 8th.

The show, from CSI producer Jerry Bruckheimer, has been one of the biggest hits of the US TV season, averaging around 12 million viewers on CBS.

The drama stars British actor Rufus Sewell as biophysicist Dr Jacob Hood who investigates scientific crises and oddities. It is based on the British series by Stephen Gallagher.

The drama will air on Living, owned by Virgin Media Television, later this year after the cable and satellite channel completed a deal with Warner Bros International Television Distribution.

The Virgin Media Television head of acquisitions, Amy Barham, said: "Strong, compelling with hard-hitting storylines and a great cast, including an amazing performance from Rufus Sewell, Eleventh Hour is a great addition to Living's drama line up."

Living TV already has a number of US series in rerun, including the CSIs, Without A Trace, and Cold Case. But I'm told that they aggressively pursued exclusive rights in Eleventh Hour in order to get the first run of a Bruckheimer show. David Allen on the Techwatch industry news site explains the move thus:

Living TV is part of the Virgin Media Group, which has stated that it intends to sell off the content division UKTV. Bringing in a top show like this should make the figures look attractive to any potential new owner.

I'll try to get confirmation on that April 8th date. If it's correct then the UK run of the show will pick up as the season ends in the US. I've now seen a pre-air of Medea, my second script for the show and the season finale, and I'm absurdly happy with what I saw.

The white-hot speed of creation and production really pays off. Taking a year or more to develop something pretty much guarantees that it'll have drifted away from you by the end of the process. The actual writing hours are about the same; the damage lies in the weeks and months it can take others to read and respond. On this story I don't think I had to wait more than 48 hours for any notes call, and the average notes conference lasted 20 minutes. And then - I don't know if this is universal practice, or specific to the Bruckheimer method - within the hour I'd get an email with my outline or script attached, footnoted with all the comments from the discussion.

I ran the pre-air on my computer but I'm saving the family screening until I get hold of a copy of the broadcast version. Pre-airs and screeners aren't the show yet. They're working drafts with temp music, missing effects, and low-res watermarked library shots; if you see one and then see the real thing you notice a significant difference.

Which makes it very hard for me to understand those people who'll sit through a camcorder-pirated movie, all the while gloating over how they're sticking it to The Man.

Hualalai Resort Child & Family Photography

This family vacationed at the Four Seasons Resort Hualalai on the Big Island of Hawaii and contacted me to take family photos and pictures of their adorable little girl. I spent a Saturday afternoon on the Big Island with this lovely family. The little girl was a bundle of energy!

Storque Debut!

www.bonzie.etsy.com

www.meluseena.etsy.com

www.lilycobweb.etsy.com

www.irisdesigns.etsy.com

www.anniedesigns.etsy.com

www.cuada.etsy.com

Gals as previously mentioned........

Etsy approached us a wee while ago to pull together a feature of the Irish variety to coincide with Paddys Day during the month. We jumped at the chance to pull some of our favourite Ireland Based etsy peers together for a Storque article titled "Etsy Local".

These Storque features shine a spotlight on one particular locality and highlight the local talent, while personal photography gives a more intimate look into the folk behind each etsy shop theirin. We had a ball contacting all the Irish Local Participants and everyone got in front of the camera and brought us to their favourite local spots to share the Emerald Isle with the Etsy community. It was a lovely feature to be in and if you fancy a browse through the article take a look here.

Thanks to all the participants too, everyone did a brilliant job on it.

x

bonzie & ger

Our New YouTube Channel!

Gals,
We have just added our very own "Bonzie" YouTube Channel! I hope you enjoy our mini movies bringing you lots of pieces to enjoy, collections,studio tour, road trips and basic random happenings. We have just added our first video detailing a sampling of some of our personal favourites from last years body of work. Im new to movie making so its going to be a learning curve and lots of fun.

Join in the fun at http://www.youtube.com/user/BonzieDesigns

x
bonzie & ger

Young Sherlock

Happy to see that my old friend Andy Lane is the writer chosen to helm a series of Young Sherlock Holmes adventures approved by the Estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

According to the announcement on the United Agents site, "The Colossal Schemes of Baron Maupertuis (is) due to be published in Spring 2010. The books will begin in the 1860s and will detail the life of a 14-year-old Sherlock Holmes."

The books will be published by Macmillan and the initial deal is for three novels.

Client Corner ~ Lindsey

Gals, we were so excited when we received our clients Lindsey's photographs! I just love the rawness, the edgyness of these and had to check out the photographer that Lindsey worked with.

Talented photographer John Yates of http://www.beyondbrokenmedia.com/ is a stunning artist creating very distinctive work with a deconstructed edge, and urban sensibilities!

We had no idea Lindsey was such a great model herself and turns out she also has a rockstar boyfriend and wore our piece to a concert the Saturday she received it. I love to hear the personal stories of the new owners of our work, it really gives us a sense of the global reach of the internet and the journey that our pieces take after they leave the studio!

Thanks to Lindsey Farrar for sharing her stunning modelling pics with us all and to John for taking such cool work!

In Style..............

Bonzie & Ger

Lanikai Beach, Oahu - Honeymoon Portraits

David Stockton

Congratulations to David Stockton on winning the American Society of Cinematographers Outstanding Achievement Award for his work on the Eleventh Hour pilot.

From the ASC's website:

“Cinematographers are people with unique abilities who accomplish extraordinary things under challenging circumstances,” said Christina Hendricks who presented the award to Stockton.

The other nominees in the television movie/miniseries/pilot category were Oliver Bokelberg, BVK for “Breakdown,” the pilot of MY OWN WORST ENEMY (NBC); Michael Bonvillain, ASC for the FRINGE pilot (FOX); Jon Joffin for “Night One” of THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN (A&E); and Kramer Morgenthau, ASC for the pilot of LIFE ON MARS (ABC).

Nominee Jon Joffin was also responsible for the photography of Rum and Gunpowder, the feature-length Crusoe pilot (listed, charmingly, as two separate episodes on the IMDB - episode 1, Rum, and episode 2, Gunpowder!)

The feature film award went to Anthony Dod Mantle for Slumdog Millionaire, while Nelson Cragg took the episodic TV award for his work on CSI: For Gedda.

Micropayment

The Guardian today quotes Tony Cohen, CEO of Fremantle Media, in a call for a micropayment system to cover the downloading of new and catch-up TV programming.

"Cohen, revealing details of Fremantle Media's submission to the Digital Britain report, said there was a case to look beyond the current charging mechanisms for TV shows on-demand – which start from about 99p per show – and look "afresh" at the potential of micropayments."

I'd go for this. 99p is too much to pay for something the other guy got for free. But if the cost is negligible then you don't hesitate, and the idea of paying pennies instead of watching an ad makes total sense. I hate ads and I wouldn't miss the 5p - I think nothing of burning a 30p DVD to watch a downloaded show.

As to the practicalities of it, pirates have already tested the model for a foot-dragging industry whose first response to the idea of micropayments was "but that's far too complicated," before coming up with their latest unworkable piece of Digital Rights Management software.

Until it emerged that the site wasn't as legal as it claimed to be, I was signed up with a Russian music download service that operated a beautifully simple micropayment system. I paid them 20 quid and then every time I downloaded a track they deducted a few pennies from my account, until the pot was nearly empty. Prices were set so low that I bought freely and never stopped to think about the cost. Every now and again, I topped up my account. I have a London Transport Oyster card that works on the same principle.

Of course, I now know that prices were set so low because they were stealing the music. But it was an easy, elegant way to buy content, and the industry can achieve the same pricing levels through sheer volume. I grew up with TV that was paid for one of two ways; through ads you couldn't skip, or a license fee you couldn't dodge. Both were forms of micropayment, in their way, though there was no direct link between the levy you paid and the show that you watched.

It's different now. I don't watch anything 'live' - the timing's never convenient and you're stuffed if interrupted. All my viewing is downloads and boxed sets and DVR, and stuff I swap with friends in the same way we pass around recommended books. While I'm happy to go on paying the license fee - those clamouring for its abolition would be the bitterest voices raised after the irretrievable loss of a UK production base - ad-funded programming gets nothing out of me at all. I've a red button on my DVR that skips forward 3 minutes. Bang, the ads are gone.

Sorry, guys. But here's 5p. Carry on.

Just a super shot!

Gals,

As the last of the St Patricks Day shananigans trickle off, I wanted to share this fabulous picture taken by my Father at the Fireworks at the weekend. Its just a great shot and it really captured the atmosphere on the night!

x

Bonzie & Ger

Happy St Patricks Day Everyone!

So in honor of the day that is green we wanted to wish you all a very Happy St Patricks Day . We hope you all enjoyed it yesterday wherever you were and whatever you got up to. We both enjoyed a day off without any sewing which was a much needed break. I know a lot of you were "wetting the shamrock" yesterday so I can assume the collective hangovers today are in full swing!

We awoke to find out that we had been featured on "Brendas Wedding Blog" as part of a collection of green pieces to introduce into your wedding theme. This feature brought us a wonderful new client Allyson who whipped up the green silk wrap that was featured for her own wedding. All round a lovely outcome and hopefully it will bring the luck of the Irish to her special day too given the day it was bought on.

If your a discerning bride you simply must visit Brendas Blog, its an absolutely stunning visual resource of all things bridal not to mention all things stylish. Check it out here.

x

Bonzie & Ger

Client Corner Kim

Gals,

We were so excited to receive our client Kim's pics from her wedding album that we had to feature her on our blog in "Client Corner" . Kim was an absolute darling client who opted for the whole works, a fully embellished bonzie corset with oppulent gold raw silk slinky fishtail and tulle underskirt, a tudor inspired bolero, a veiled headpiece, an adorned victorian inspired bag and a wrap. It was such an enjoyable project watching all the pieces come together to create such an elegant ensemble. Kim married her soul mate Aaron on a cruise with all their family and friends and they make an absolutely delicious couple.

We love the exotic colors of the scenery in these wedding pics and Kim and Aaron have such a glow! We wish them both the very sbest on the adventures ahead, its been such a pleasure to be a part of your special day. :)

xx

bonzie & ger

CHECK OUT KILA!!!!

Gals, as Paddys Day approachs there is plenty of fun and frollicks on the streets here this weekend. On Saturday night I went to see an amazing firework display on the quay here in Waterford which was absolutely mindblowing. I had seen fireworks before but these were totally chereographed to really great music and 100,000 people lined the streets to join in. During the night an Irish band played live on stage and they absolutely rocked the crowd. Heres a vid of them rockin at another gig, they are an awesome group, I was very proud to be Irish on Saturday night! Check em out, they call themselves Kila!

A Spring in our Step!

Gals,

After a long and rainy winter here in Ireland we have sourced high and low for some bright vivid colors for our raw silk dupioni wraps as Spring approaches! Its a nice sunburst of color in store and hopefully there will be one that catches your eye. ( My favourite is the Apple Green)

In Style............

Bonzie & Ger

Hey, Look Who We Got

Helen Slater has joined the cast of Medea, my Eleventh Hour season closer that broadcasts on April 2nd. Yes, she was Supergirl, but she's done loads of other stuff too.

I was curious to see how our numbers would look after Thursday night, given that we were up against George Clooney's return to ER. Which was supposed to be a "secret", apparently, though even I saw the memo about a month ago. The episode was Olfactus, by Angel Dean Lopez and Ildy Moldrovich. According to TVbytheNumbers.com, "ELEVENTH HOUR was first in households (7.4/12), viewers (11.78m), while averaging a 3.7/09 in adults 25-54 and 2.8/07 in adults 18-49."

No, I don't know what most of it means either. I do know that CBS shows get big numbers but tend to pull in older viewers, which is a yin-yang kinda thing. I think a network's dream would be for every 20-year-old in the country to watch a given show while everyone else dies and leaves them their money. Which they then blow on the stuff they see in the ads.

In sheer numbers, the show does pretty well. Nothing to do with me, I hasten to say. I'm praising the work of others, here. It gained viewers in the weeks after its debut, which doesn't usually happen, and it's sustained a season average just shy of 12 million - the peak was January 15th's H20 by Kim Newton and Heather Mitchell, which reached 15.5 million (and was directed by the UK's Terry McDonough, from the original series).

How will my season finale do? I don't know. We're up against the last-ever episode of ER, and we've got NCAA basketball pushing us out of the timeslot for the two weeks between now and then.

But hey. It's got Helen Slater in it.

Gallic Noir (2)

Back in June of last year I blogged about the excellent French cops'n'justice show Engrenages. Slick, stylish, seedy, complex, and wonderful to look at, it had been screened in eight subtitled parts on BBC4 and did much to convince me that in the midst of UKTV's creative meltdown there's still one channel where you don't have to park your self-respect on the way in.

(The show was retitled Spiral for English-language audiences. Strictly speaking, Engrenages translates as gearwheels or machinations or any one of a number of terms that make lousy titles)

The impulse to enthuse came from the discovery that the second season was right then being screened in France by Canal Plus. In its BBC4 September press pack, the BBC's Press Office included season 2 in the Autumn/Winter schedule. Alas, it's now March and there's still no sign. The DVD boxed set is available from Amazon France but appears to carry no subtitles - although if anyone knows otherwise, I'll be happy to hear about it.

Here's the Season Two summary from the international sales brochure of Group Telefrance:

A torched body found in the trunk of a car: a "BBQ" in police slang. A settling of scores between drug dealers, the point of entry into organized crime.

Aziz is a gang leader. The only thing to rival his violence is his volatility. His word is law to a team of lowlife dealers who ply their trade in working-class areas and the chicest districts of town. At the head of the team are the Larbi brothers who take care of larger-scale operations.

Roban, Berthaud and Clément investigate the "BBQ" and soon find themselves up against the huge machine that lies behind this sordid crime. Out of greed, Ms Karlsson makes a pact with the Larbi gang and sets out to bring down Captain Berthaud.

From urban social violence, we plunge into the heart of organized crime: international trafficking, snitches, double lives, arms dealing… As each new piece of evidence is unearthed, the case grows in complexity and danger. Only one way to break up the network: explode it from the inside.

Undercover specialist Samir joins Berthaud's team. He manages to infiltrate the gang as the Larbi brothers' new driver. His mission: to witness the delivery of illegal substances from big-shot Moroccan drug smugglers to the Larbi brothers. A wild journey that takes Samir into deepest Spain, where maintaining contact with him is crucial. Every second counts. The slightest slip-up means certain death…

A fascinating trip into the drug-dealing world at every level of its organization. Nail-biting suspense, constant tension, a furiously-paced season with characters that become increasingly dark, disillusioned and distorted.

Newlywed Photo Session, Oahu