In a Handful of Minutes

Why yes, this is the website for the webshow In a Handful of Minutes. We review everything....else. If you want to know more, check out some of those marvellous page links at the top!

[handfulofminutes]

Handful Review #100: The Uncanny Valley

After watching that, you may be interested in reading a short blog post I wrote about doing Handful and What Comes Next. You can also check out oliverbrackenbury.com for news on my projects and ways to follow me online!

[handfulofminutes]

In a Handful of Paragraphs

Below the cut is a short essay of my thoughts about wrapping up In a Handful of Minutes, a webshow I've done on and off since July 2008, and what's going to come next.

 When I started the show I naively vowed to do at least one hundred reviews, not really knowing at the time how much work that'd be. Five and a half years later, I've met that goal with a hundredth review that I feel very proud of. I'm also pretty dang proud of the show's entire run, even with all the little rough edges that came from having to do it in my spare time while learning so much about video production along the way. It would have been nice if it could have earned enough money to become my day job but OH WELL.

The tiny amount of money I made through Google Adsense and merchandise was spent recently on four of these “plak” mounted posters. One goes to me and the others to my three friends who ended up being integral parts of the show for its entire run. I could have spent this on a big night out or invested it in newer projects, but I felt it was important to create a more lasting memento than a bunch of files we may not have the software to read in ten years or uploads on a website that could vanish in one big Silicon Valley fart. Let's face it, life goes too damn fast and if you don't mark the important accomplishments or occasions then it can be all too easy to feel like nothing much has happened during your time on this Earth.

Handful certainly satisfied its reason for being brought into the world in the first place – keeping me sane by giving me something I could, almost all by myself, make happen on a regular basis. I love working on larger scale webseries and films but the times when I'm powerless to make anything move forward are pure agony. The more collaborators, the more likely you'll be held hostage by their schedules or worse. FUN FACT: I once had a short film project I'd spent three months writing & re-writing just evaporate when the director/producer moved to the other side of the globe...and told me by email a month after he'd left.

Handful also pushed me to try new things or dig deeper into stuff I was already interested in, such as urban exploration, burlesque, professional pillow-fighting and even more esoteric stuff like lucid dreaming. Anything that helps take you out of your daily bubble is pretty okay!

And it was great to get to build a modest audience of cool people, some of whom I had the pleasure of meeting at the first two Vidcons! I've also enjoyed getting their letters when I ran the Handful Mail Club, as well as writing to them in the first place. The social media noises have been quite welcome as well! I really don't want to lose touch with these lovely people post-Handful! Which brings me to...

What Comes Next

The two aspects of Handful that I loved most were writing and interacting with people who were kind enough to regularly watch my videos. I want to move away from labour intensive graphics and focus on those two. I want to take a quality over quantity approach. I want to share my writing not only in videos but also in paragraphs!

This year I got heavily back into prose, writing more short stories as well as my first novel. The latter is nearing the end of the editing phase and I hope to begin approaching publishers after New Years. Also coming down the pipe are a novella I want to try self-publishing as well as the novelization of a feature film script I wrote in 2012. This may seem a little out of the blue to fans of Handful, but I've been writing nonstop since before I could even print my own name. One of my first videos of 2014 will likely be me sharing with you four year old Oliver's first story, as it was dictated to his mother at the time. Yes, there will be recreations of the original illustrations by lil' Oliver!

Interacting more with the nice people who look at the things I make? Yes, please! I'm still brainstorming how to do this well, but I expect I'll continue to be The Guy Who Always Replies when it comes to Youtube comments or Twitter and I can see Google+ hangouts in the future.

The challenge right now is to figure out just what the right balance will be of videos, interaction and prose as well as how to handle it all. Like basically all artists, I very much want to make what I care about most into how I earn a living. I'll admit, I've got my eyes on Patreon & Gumroad at the moment.

For now, if you've ever enjoyed anything I've put online and would like to see more then I'd suggest subscribing to my Youtube channel and/or following me on Twitter.

[igotopinions]

[handfulofminutes]

Assorted Olivers from past Handful of Minutes episodes that I thought I’d share in the run-up to the big 100th review.

Which goes up TONIGHT AT 8:30pm EST, oh yes!

[igotopinions]

[handfulofminutes]

HANDFUL ONE HUNDRED IS FINISHED.

Not “almost” finished, *finished*. It’ll be going online this Sunday at 8:30pm, as the Lord intended. Joe and I spent a lot of time on this guy to make it worth the wait. We look forward to hearing what you think.

[igotopinions]

[handfulofminutes]

HANDFUL #100 IS COMING REAL SOON YOU GUYS

[handfulofminutes]

Toying with this for the background...

100th review coming soon, by the by!

[handfulofminutes]

Review #99 The Dunning-Kruger Effect

I guess that means the next one is our one hundredth review! Gee, I wonder if we have anything special planned?

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[handfulofminutes]

On a related note, it'd be super cool if you share this video so that more people (re)discover the show! I've got big plans for review #100 and it'd be swell if more people saw what I'm cooking up.

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[handfulofminutes]

Last week we looked at frustration with too little sexiness this week it's a group of people who are all riled up about TOO MUCH sexiness.

Next week? Just the right amount of sexiness, I guess?

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[handfulofminutes]

People are still into "sex", right? I hope so, otherwise this episode will be a real dud...

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[handfulofminutes]

Remember how I promised I'd be pretty quiet until new episodes were coming out? Well I sure was quiet and now, guess what?

NEW EPISODE THIS SUNDAY, GUARANTEED. PROPER REVIEW. VEST, NARRATIONS BY JOE, GREENSCREEN ETC.

And then, if all goes well, a new one each Sunday for at least three weeks following that. I'd like to say four, but our big 100th episode may take a little extra time to get just right.

YOU GUYS, I AM SO EXCITED. 

Here is a tiny preview of a screenshot, I'll be super impressed if anybody guesses the topic from the background graphic.

[handfulofminutes]

Links to all the stuff I mentioned!

http://youarelistening.to/

http://youtu.be/by0ZuOuMTJA?hd=1

http://twitter.com/#!/HandfulOfMinute

SHIRT?: http://www.igotopinions.com

SITE: http://inahandfulofminutes.com/

TWITTER: http://twitter.com/#!/HandfulOfMinute

TUMBLR: http://handfulofminutes.tumblr.com/

[handfulofminutes]

Use this! Use it every day.

I feel like I was kinda channeling Frezned, check him out here: http://www.youtube.com/user/frezned

SHIRT?: http://www.igotopinions.com

SITE: http://inahandfulofminutes.com/

TWITTER: http://twitter.com/#!/HandfulOfMinute

TUMBLR: http://handfulofminutes.tumblr.com/

[handfulofminutes]

WHAT IS IT? WHERE DOES IT *WANT*? You can check out the Molesters here: http://www.punkbrighton.co.uk/moles.html

SHIRT?: http://www.igotopinions.com

SITE: http://inahandfulofminutes.com/

TWITTER: http://twitter.com/#!/HandfulOfMinute

TUMBLR: http://handfulofminutes.tumblr.com/

[handfulofminutes]

I'd love to make #dadpunk a trending topic, oh man...

My friggin' Dad: http://youtu.be/LzNTwtkfkdk

Amazing Steampunk keyboards: http://www.datamancer.net/keyboards/keyboards.htm

What's that map he's mentioning?: http://youtu.be/UTXXXRgQbi8?hd=1

Sweet Fever?: http://www.sweetfever.tv

SHIRT?: http://www.igotopinions.com

SITE: http://inahandfulofminutes.com/

TWITTER: http://twitter.com/#!/HandfulOfMinute

TUMBLR: http://handfulofminutes.tumblr.com/

[handfulofminutes]

What's that map he's in front of?: http://youtu.be/UTXXXRgQbi8?hd=1

Sweet Fever?: http://www.sweetfever.tv

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[handfulofminutes]

Man, I feel so much better now that this is out there. Remember, help me out by sharing this video! THE WORLD NEEDS TO KNOW. If you share my condition then I guess you'll like this blog: http://babesonbikes.tumblr.com/ The short film I wrote (not my usual style but maybe you'll like it ANYWAYS): http://youtu.be/ihF6QJBgOE0?hd=1

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SHOP - MORE EPISODES -  RECOMMENDED LINKS -  FACEBOOK -  PODCASTS -  TWITTER

GOT AN OPINION? DROP US A LINE AT HANDFULOFMINUTES @ GMAIL . COM