“It’s the media apocalypse! Pull up an oil drum.”

Hi, I’m Chris Frampton. I’m a filmmaker, PDN award-winning photographer, writer and web designer, and this (gestures grandly) is Flyweight Films, my little media production company. Specifically the blog part, so welcome to that.

This blog might not be what you’d expect. Specifically, this isn’t a blog just for filmmakers, with all sorts of articles on how to fix 4:2:0 artifacts on DVC downconversions in Final Cut Pro (whatever that means), and comments that sound like a conversation overheard at a car show. This is a blog about filmmaking only inasmuch as filmmaking is creative work. Because essentially, this is a blog about creative work. Or more specifically, this is a blog about what it’s like to be a creative worker, whether you’re a student, freelancer, advertiser, or commercial artist of any sort.

So, topics?

• The Media Shift. It’s the media apocalypse! Pull up an oil drum. Magazines are dying like dinosaurs, nobody wants to pay for music or movies anymore, professionals are turning out derivative shit and amateurs are…. Well amateurs are turning out derivative shit too but their shit looks just as good as the professionals’ and cost almost nothing to make.
• Advertising. For the past 40 years advertising has been the river into which our greatest creative minds have pissed their talent. Now, literally overnight, advertising has hit the wall. We want to share brands, products and ideas, but we can smell an ad message a mile away. Advertisers are faced with a choice: either stop lying, or learn to lie better. Of course the cowards are taking the second option, but I’m going to show you how to take the first.
• DIY. That’s “do it yourself”, for the acronym-challenged. Want to produce your own internet talkshow with only a snapshot camera? Want to screenprint your own clever protest t-shirt? Want a list of creative services worth paying for? Want to launch your own digital production company? Survive the recession with your business intact?
• Creative protagonism. This is the big one, la raison d’etre. Creative protagonism is my light-hearted but serious-minded approach to growth and innovation in media and the arts in Canada and around the world. It isn’t necessarily about doing good, it’s about doing work that takes risks and pioneers new approaches through vision, passion and decision-making. I’m obsessed with understanding this idea and the people who embody it.
• Pecked apart by ducks. This is pretty much the opposite. Ever wonder why Canadian TV sucks? Why movies that look so promising turn out to be insipid and derivative? Why ideas that could transform your business end up dying quiet deaths before they see the light of day? Because while they may start out as singular creative visions, by the time they’ve been sanitized for the oversensitive, simplified for the simpletons, and made to bow down before every vain blowhard who’s asked for an opinion, they’re broken, bland and hollow. How do we stop the cycle of PABD? By dragging its grisly results out into the light and ridiculing it of course!
• The creative life. Does your mother still ask you if they’re paying you every time you tell her about your work? When you pass a billboard, do you try to guess what font they used? Did you ever try to use poetry to get laid? Do you know what the H2 means on the end of your pencil? Did everyone in high school think you were a witch/axe-murderer/lesbian? You, my friend, are a “creative type”, and you’re not alone. Let’s join hands and sing kumbaya.
• News. You really want a description for this one? What I’m doing, what you’re doing, and what’s going on. News.

So like it says in the about, Flyweight is a production company but also a creative playground for me as a director and producer. Maybe more importantly than that it’s an idea — that image making and media production doesn’t have to be expensive, cumbersome and corporate to be hard-hitting, and this blog is an opportunity to expand on, discuss and feel that idea out a bit more.

You’ll find lots of opportunities on this site to make comments, share or spread the word about something, get involved or just get in touch with me, and I genuinely encourage you to do any and all of that as often as you want.

And while I’m too busy to promise daily posts, I will try to get something up here every week. To make life easier for yourself you might want to subscribe to this site so that you can receive notifications via email or RSS when there’s new content.

Lastly, for those of you wondering what the hell a “Flyweight” film might be, flyweight is a weight class in boxing. You’ve probably heard of the more popular heavyweight or welterweight. Flyweight boxers are 108 to 112 pounds, believe it or not. Fast, agile, with no extra bulk, any flyweight fighter still packs a devastating wallop. That’s what media needs to be now.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

(Like this?) 3 likes

Email this post to a friend

One Response to “What the hell is a Flyweight film?”

1. Chris Frampton says:

   May 5, 2009 at 1:35 pm

   God I’m terrible for this, aren’t I? Saying I’m going to do a blog and then not doing it? You’ll notice I’ve turned the “blog” section into the “news” section in order to hide my shameful overcommitment. Well the good news is the less time I spend writing screeds against the media establishment the more time I can actually spend producing. See? Half full.

   Reply

• Select a Category
• Blog
• Videos
  • Commercial films
  • Shorts