Spencer Hawken
Bio
A multi-award nominated filmmaker with a passion for travel, film, finance and social media.
Stories (25/0)
How buying a house saved my life
As 2021 began in the UK the government made it a touch easier to get on the housing ladder, or for those on it, easier to move up it; the reason boiled down to the global pandemic, trying to build both trust and security. For my partner and I, we had planned to have a big move in 2022 the government initiative however pushed that forward by a year.
By Spencer Hawken9 months ago in Humans
How To Create A DCP
Every filmmakers has a passion to see a film on a big screen, but in order to get that film on that big screen, a DCP (Digital Cinema Package) will need to be made. This is a package that makes a film play perfectly on a cinema projector, for some festivals, they will accept a MP4 or Mov file but as you grow and target bigger festivals a DCP is no longer an option, it’s a requirement.
By Spencer Hawkenabout a year ago in Geeks
I don’t want to think about Annette Crosbie having sex!
For a decade Annete Crosbie was best known for playing Victor Meldrews long suffering wife Margaret in the smash hit BBC comedy One Foot In The Grave and for most of us, that’s just how we like to see her. But recently subscription streaming channel BritBox who partner with Channel 4 have been raiding the annals of the channels first movie releases way back in the early 1980s with surprising results.
By Spencer Hawkenabout a year ago in Geeks
Snagging The Exorcist
In the 1980s our home was rushed into the 20th century with the arrival of a VHS recorder, this arrival awoke something I had missed for several years, a love of horror. My love of horror began in the late 1970’s watching late night double bills of horror on BBC2, I’d love to say I remember the first films I saw, but I cannot. This love of horror drifted as my mother and father divorced, my Saturday night horror partner (my father) leaving home and my passion for horror while it remained, was forgotten until the arrival of the recorder. Suddenly I was taken back, through the power of recordings I was able to watch all the late-night horror I could get my hands on, which was not a lot, one film a week to be precise. As my passion of horror grew, I became acquainted with the video library just up the road from my home. I spent many days hiring movies and watching them, broadening my love of horror. But one day my visit to the video library led me to a mysterious list on the counter, the list said “horror movies for sale”, one title on the list stood out it was called The Exorcist.
By Spencer Hawkenabout a year ago in Horror
Where your community counts
In the suburbs of London sits the town of Romford, where you will find the greatest not so hidden gem in the city. Ciao Bella is an Italian restaurant that sits a stones throw from the railway station at the gateway of the town. The restaurant has been here for a good many year and is one of the best known of Romford’s independent eateries, but why is it so well known?
By Spencer Hawkenabout a year ago in Feast
Why writing nonsense could be a bigger issue
During a period of unemployment in the early 2000’s I found myself writing online, first at review sites like Ciao and Dooyoo, then as I became bored of writing product articles, I migrated over to the sites Helium and Triond. When I moved, my finances moved, not in small ways, but enormous ones. My writing over on the review websites earned me $40- $80 a month, whereas over on the other sites I was earning $2000-£4000 a month easily. Now before you hit Google I need to point out that all of these sites have gone, all changed their format, others just came to a close, we’ll that’s what they told me!
By Spencer Hawkenabout a year ago in Journal
How much do you need to retire in the UK
So, I should begin with an apology, unfortunately this article is geared towards people in the United Kingdom. Unfortunately, the rates and variation of other countries are just too big a task for my tiny brain to figure out what it is that you need to retire in other countries.
By Spencer Hawkenabout a year ago in Lifehack
How to enjoy Venice more
How can you enjoy Venice more? Well for a start you can embrace the fact that Venice isn't just one island and I know this sounds silly but many a confused over exactly how big Venice is, the main island of Venice which contains Saint Marks Square is just one of around 100 small islands in a lagoon that sit in the Adriatic Sea. Many can go to Venice literally only embracing the main island thinking that all those other islands that they passed on their arrival are really nothing very much to do with Venice at all, but the magic of Venice is stepping out of your comfort zone taking a walk off the beaten track so to speak and venturing to some of the other islands. The other thing of course is that you could actually look on the main island, beneath the surface are some true marvels. Why am I for writing this because for many years now I've been returning to Venice amazed by the magnitude of this giant external museum and people saying to me “why do you keep going back to Venice, it's rubbish I've been there there's nothing to do there's nowhere to take your kids it's just only suitable for you know romantic couples” but Venice is far from just a place for romance.
By Spencer Hawkenabout a year ago in Wander
Tips to get your film to distribution
If you are an independent filmmaker there are serious things that you need to consider that are beyond the boundaries of just making a film, better still of course making a good film. And that is the art of movie marketing. The danger of all filmmakers is the ability to do one but not the other, in those fledging years you need to have skills in both. If you are a new filmmaker, finding your way in the world, getting that all important distribution deal is a challenge you really need to think about from the offset. Every filmmaker knows their vision and assume much will just follow naturally, the chances are a million to one however, and this is a painful element that means that most filmmakers will only ever make one film. Here are my top tips to getting your film to distribution.
By Spencer Hawkenabout a year ago in Geeks
How to get attention to your film
It’s a sad fact of filmmaking, but almost 75% of filmmakers I have encountered in my life have no idea how to treat their film when its finished. How to get it seen, how to build an audience. Distribution is another country, a topic I will discuss in a later post. The biggest issue with this is that as a result, that same 75% of filmmakers have also not budgeted for it. So here are my top tips to get your film noticed.
By Spencer Hawkenabout a year ago in Geeks
Why people Troll
Until about 6 months ago, I honestly believed that trolling was something that happened to the youth. At 47 years old I’d travelled my life without harassment or bullying, but then out of the blue a hate campaign began, and it took me completely by surprise
By Spencer Hawkenabout a year ago in Humans
Dude where’s my hashtag
I first wrote a variation of this article on the now defunct Triond back around 2002, it was one of my most regularly read articles, a bare minimum of one-thousand five hundred people made the search each and every, month and for the duration of Triond’s life earned me enough money each month to buy a loaf of bread and maybe a little more omen a good month, not bad really for something that took me only a few minvites to write, when Triond closed down some years later the article I had written had been read over 3 million times. Surprisingly, while the article is long gone as is Triond, I discovered only yesterday that Apple Mac users are still stumbling upon this issue some 19 years later, it’s still one of the largest used Apple Mac search references, according to Google anyway, so who am I to argue?
By Spencer Hawkenabout a year ago in Lifehack
