Hi

Not a good day, 2 days work down the drain!!!,

The community area of the site is proving to be a real headache ..... I got so close to getting it all configured and looking as I wanted it, then ........ it's gone, I have no idea what happened, obviously I wasn't concentrating and it just vanished off my server, tiredness maybe but, it was so close.

Now after a small shout (aaaaaaahhhhh!!!! - something like that. ) i'm starting again, so just after setting a launch date i've lost 2 days.... maybe it wil be quicker the second time round? - or maybe it won't.

Well it won't get fixed talking to you now will it, ..... as I say in the song- tomorrow - bring it on :-)

and back to me...

Hi

"Give them a forum and they shall speak",

Well so the saying goes, I have succesfully installed and integrated a forum into the website using PhpBB, If i can do it anyone can. I'm looking forward to communicating to all of you out there and being able to get some interactivity into the site.

It is really important to me to get feedback on what works or not, that way I think I can move forward successfully

Thanks and I look forward to you loging on and having a chat

and back to me...

Hi

So what have I done today, well mostly today has been writing for the website, I have been writing an account of my first photo shoot, the whole experience of building up to the day, here's an exerpt;

I had spent quite a bit of time researching on the internet looking for a good photographer who specialized in photographing artists / musicians, I wanted to make sure that whoever I got to do the job understood the image and mood I wanted to try and achieve.

The name Michael Williams had come up quite a bit and when I saw his web site www.michaelwilliams.co.uk I knew that he was exactly the right person for me. He was also recommended by the nice people at the Unsigned Guide a true resource for all things to do with getting a music career off the ground.

I rang Michael and immediately he was pretty keen to try and do something, I sent him over some MP3's (unfortunately crashing his already full email inbox) of the tracks so he could get a feel for the style and image I was after. I was very surprised and impressed at his willingness to listen to my thoughts and really try to make the photo shoot a success for both of us, after all I am an unknown singer / songwriter and with his credentials I was expecting a little bit less of a constructive process. He had a locations in mind , a place he had wanted to try for a while. We fixed a date a couple of weeks ahead giving me a little bit of time to think of the image and yes - outfits!. me a catwalk model huh, I think not.

to read the full account use this link

www.richardhingley.com/biography/photoshoot.html


and back to me...

Hi

I'm feeling so much better today which is great, I spent a lot of the day finishing the article for the User magazine, I'm sure it will be edited down but at the moment it's around 2000 words. The website is still coming on, i've added most of the sample tracks off the album but there is so much more to do. Only 35 days left, sounds a lot but as I have a full time job it doesn't leave much time.

Writing the biography is always going to be difficult, so I will write most of it and then have it looked at by a third party, writing about yourself is always a bit strange.

I'm really excited about the launch of the site and getting some feedback on the tracks etc. it will be strange to get a mail from someone i've never heard of who has surfed the web and stumbled across my site. I think I am ready for the adverse comments but as long as it's constructive.

anyway back to the writing, so me? now where do I start?

and back to me...

Hi

I haven't been feeling to clever today, a bit under the weather. As I mentioned yesterday I have been asked to write an article for the Avid user magazine which I have spent some of the day doing, for all you tech heads out there it should make an interesting read, it will definitely find it's way onto this site at some point soon. It is really about how I recorded the track "The day the walls fell in" and then shot and edited the video around Las Vegas

I also have been re-mixing the track for 5.1 surround to be able to maybe give it out on DVD as a promo, it's interesting when you go back and look at something again fresh how things can look different, I would love to rework some things but sometimes you just have to say STOP!!.

The website is coming along as well but my focus is to get the article out by the end of the week.

and back me....

Richard

Hi

Well the bad news is I hate coding for websites..... creating visually is fine but when it's all lines of code it drives me nuts. All I want to do is some blog integration and the most simple things seem somewhat difficult.

So what's the good news?, well the story of how I shot and edited the Video for "The day the walls fell in" (check out the video on the site) and the workflow and equipment used is going to be published in Avid access the User Magazine for Avid. The worklow in putting it together is new so hopefully will make an interesting read. The magazine has great circulation so hopefully it will generate some traffic for the site, it will be interesting to see.

Anyway back to reformatting

and back to me...

I wonder if anyone will read this... I love this blogging already

Well i've taken the plunge and i've set the date for the website going live

1st September 2005 @ midday GMT - gulp

My mind is racing now with all the things I have to do to make sure there is enough content on there before the launch. The first thing is to try and work out a countdown clock with flash to insert into the index page to let everyone know how long to go.

I suppose I should also arrange a mail out to all my friends and colleagues, maybe someone will actually logon then, well it could be the quietest launch in the whole world if not.

And the priority is to have the music samples on the site from day 1, after all that is what this is all for.

See what i mean gone midnight and i'm still going...

and back to me...

Ha ha, creating my first blog well that was the easy bit..... hmmm, now how do I seamlessly get it into my website....

phone a friend
50 / 50
ask the audience?...... oh you're not there yet are you.

phone a friend it is... but who?

and back to me....

Hi everybody it's time to try out this blog thing, I know it's all the rage but quite honestly I'm behind the game, so I'm desperately trying to get my website finished for a launch day sometime in September, but there is so much to do, I want to get as much content on there as possible so hence the start of the blogging.

It's funny when I started this project, I thought no problem, write a few tracks, record and master them, finish an album shoot a few videos and create a website to help promote it..... hmmm I'm not sure I knew what I was letting myself in for :-). But what a journey and I can feel myself seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Oh did I say I have a full time job as well?

I don't want this blog to be in anyway political or controversial, all I want is to write an honest account of my efforts to write, record and sell an album of my own to see how far it will go.

You out there are the judge and jury on this and so it should be, but together with your comments on what is good and bad and the power of the internet i beleive it could work. Wouldn't it be fun to take an unknown artist with ambition and yes ok I'll admit it some talent on a journey to the unknown.

I will expand on this in later blogs

and back to me....