#OlexShow Olex Smith

What is it like to give up everything for a dream and what can a tragic Hollywood production teach us?  

Today we will put headlines aside and pay a tribute to a woman, mother, wife and a cinematographer - Halyna Hutchins.  

Originally from Ukraine, member of ICG: International Cinematographers Guild (IATSE Local 600), she graduated from American Film Institute in 2015.  Her graduation project “Hidden”, co-filmed with director Ryan Farzad, was shown at the Camerimage International Film Festival in Poland.

In 2018, she became one of the first eight female filmmakers to participate in the Fox DP Lab, which was created to empower female filmmakers.   In 2019, American Cinematographer magazine named her a "rising star" of cinema as a Director of Photography.

"Darlin’", a horror feature lensed by Hutchins and directed by Pollyanna McIntosh (The Walking Dead), has premiered at the SXSW film festival 2019 playing internationally at the Edinburgh Film Festival and received several international film awards.  

Her work on Adam Egypt Mortimer’s art house superhero action film "Archenemy", starring Joe Manganiello, premiered at Beyond Fest 2020 and was in official competition at the Sitges International Film Festival, receiving a nomination for Best Motion Picture.  Halyna’s recent work also includes "Blindfire", a feature film written and directed by Mike Nell  received Best Crime Drama at the Houston International Film Festival, 2020.  

Halyna Hutchins shot 30 films (short, features, TV series).  On Thursday October 21st 2021 while working on the latest feature western film #Rust at Bonanza Creek Ranch in Santa Fe, New Mexico she received a deadly wound from a shot fired by an award winning #AlecBaldwin (main actor and producer of the film ) with a prop gun that turned out to be loaded with real ammo just before the next take of a film.   

According to Los Angeles Times the same day a few hours before the incident a group of cinematography union crew members walked away from the set, to protest the working conditions of a low-budget film production. It was also reported that a few days before, the stunt double of Alec Baldwin accidentally fired 2 real rounds, from a prop gun which raised a number of concerns within the crew members, however these concerns were not addressed and production was rushed to continue. Safety protocols standard in the industry, including gun inspections, were not strictly followed  (according to the witnesses). Investigation is ongoing with no charges filed as of now.   

A mother and a wife, Halyna was only 42 at the time. Her story proved that hard work and passion for your craft can make wonders and open many doors in life regardless of where you start from. My heart goes out to her family, friends and co-workers as well as all film industry workers who have suffered major injuries and lost their lives to their profession and a “The Great Silent”.

On today’s show I am privileged to welcome a very special guest - a Nifty Gateway featured digital artist, art director, 3D illustrator specializing on dark visuals and decorative art, based in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK - Bill Elis.

Born in Greece he grew up on the soil of a 1000 year old ancient civilization, surrounded by classical pagan Hellenistic, Orthodox Christian and contemporary graffiti street art, which later would lay the foundation for his unique personal style through the blend of the three.    After moving to the UK, while studying multimedia and production, digital art and technology at Plymouth University he got introduced to the world of new media, 3D digital art and started learning Blender and Cinema 4D. 

Searching for his personal style, yet undervalued by the conventional physical art galleries and dealerships, underpaid by the add agency world he focused on his own work and created “50 skulls” project inspired by ancient history and cultures, which would pave the way to his international fame and formation of Bill Elis the digital artist we know.  He has collaborated with many brands including: Formula 1, Red Bull, Nike, Coca Cola, Apple, X-box, Play Station, Netflix, McLaren, Cann Lions, Lionsgate just to name a few.   

His art works are commissioned by legendary gaming franchises like Diablo, Mortal Kombat, Hollywood film productions like John Wick, music industry legends Ozzy Osborne, Apache, Warner and Sony music and many others.        His personal NFT collections: “Brides of Lucifer”, “Relics of mortal past” and  “In Memoriam” are the quinteense of his personal style - bold contrasts and colours, complex machinery, and the macabre with a hyperreal and futuristic quality.   

Today he is a renown 3D illustrator and digital artist, who's works command respect to digital art as an independent art form. He creates book covers for best selling authors, his name appears in the credits of Hollywood productions and his art works sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars on popular NFT digital art platforms like Nifty Gateways and others.  

#OlexShow​ brings artists, musicians, show business and creative Industries actors together to share industry insights, educate and inspire as well as help our audience learn, grow, develop and prosper.

Go_A line up: Kateryna Pavlenko (@monokatee) - vocals; Taras Shevchenko (@tarasyku) -  producer, DJ; Ihor Didenchuk (@ihor_didenchuk) - flute ("sopilka"), vocals; Ivan Hryhoriak - guitar.

Ukrainian electro-folk band Go_A blew up Eurovision 2021 contest with "Shum" song in May 2021. Their song "Shum" became №1 on Viral 50 - Global playlist on Spotify just 3 days after their appearance on Eurovision 2021 contest in Rotterdam, Netherlands. But what do you know about them?

On today's #OlexShow​​ we talk about street art in the USA and the World,  documentary film making, resistance art, social activism, human rights, BANKSY, US elections, far-left Indecline activist group, making of "Saving Banksy" film and "The Art of Protest" as well as why street art can be sold on international auctions for $700.000 but can't be donated for free to art museums with Colin Michael Day - film maker, director, DP, editor,  award winning content creator based in Hollywood L.A.  

 Colin Michael Day - award winning director and documentary filmmaker based in HollyWood, L.A..   Born to a family of a news cameraman he grew up around local news media rooms in Sacramento and got introduced to journalism from a very young age.   He has shot nearly 100 short films profiling some of the art world’s most infamous personalities including legends of the American street art scene: Ralph Steadman, Retna, Doze Green, OS Gemeos, Ben Eine, Anthony Lister, Risk, Revok, ROA, Herakut and Niels Shoe Meuiman.  

He has also shot film projects featuring Snoop Dog, Sanjay Gupta and Kyrie Irving.   He’s collaborated and created content for broadcasting networks like CBS, CNN and IGN.   His films tell stories of rebellion, freedom, social and political, mainstream and underground culture, opening a window to the counterculture world that only an insider might get an access to.  

His first documentary feature film “Saving Banksy”, shot in 2017, featured on Netflix it has received a Critics Pick award by NY Times and positive reviews by LA Times, Village Voice, HollyWood Reporter, and SF Chronicle.  

In 2020 he has released his second feature socio-political documentary film “The Art of Protest” in collaboration with the Indecline street art activist group, featured by Roling Stone magazine it raises uneasy topics of political correctness, social activism, resistance art and human rights.

On Tuesday March 30th 2021 Napalm Records premiered a long waited - Paint the Sky With Blood (Official Music video) featuring Alexi Laiho and his latest melodic death metal project - Bodom After Midnight band. The music video premiere took place on Napalm Record’s official YouTube channel and was watched simultaneously by over 2700 people at the same time. In the first hour after release it was watched over 30.000 times.  

Paint the Sky with Blood is also the name of the 1st track and the whole EP record put up by BAM already after tragic news about the premature passing of the front man and the co-founder of the band - Alexi Laiho.   

Ironically if not for the Pandemic the band would have done what Alexi loved the most - touring and playing live shows. Paint the Sky with Blood EP is going to see the daylight due to the tragic coincidence.   Paint the Sky with Blood EP is available for pre-order and will come out on April 23rd 2021, via Napalm Records. 

The music video by Ykä Jarvinen is outstanding and will go down the history of heavy metal for its unprecedented value as it became the last depiction of Alexi Laiho in full glory, doing what he loved the most - playing music.  His legacy will stay alive and carry on as long as his songs are listened to and solos are played. Rest in Power Alexi Wildchild Laiho - you will be remembered!

Are you a music artist trying to make a living with your craft while Global Pandemic has erased all your live shows? 

Tune in for 10 tips on how to make money from home, when playing live is not an option.

The World has faced some drastic changes in the past 5 months and millions of musicians worldwide faced financial struggles as it was not possible anymore to play live. However, the biggest opportunities come along with the biggest challenges and in 2020 more and more music artists Globally have a chance to make a living with the help of Internet. In this video Olex will share 10 tips on how to secure your bag, without playing a single live show. Tune in and take notes! — Your experience in this time is invaluable and if you have tried any of these ways to generate that extra revenue stream or know of other ways, feel free to share your experience in the comments. Please take a second and say ‘Hi’ in the comments and let me know what you thought of the video … p.s. It would mean the world to me if you hit the subscribe button ;)   

Performance Rights Organisations (PROs) in the Nordics:  

Finland (TEOSTO): https://www.teosto.fi/​

Sweden (STIM): https://www.stim.se/en​

Norway (TONO): https://www.tono.no/en/​

Denmark (KODA): https://www.koda.dk/eng​

Iceland (STEF): http://stef.is/



Olex is a music video director, photographer, dop, music journalist, social media content maker as well as creative director at ALM Studios media production. For the past 3 years he has followed and documented numerous live shows by Nordic's and Europe's prominent Rock'n'Roll music artists: ACCEPT, Battle Beast, Children of Bodom, Marko Hietala, Michael Monroe, Sólstafir, Stratovarius, Sonata Arctica, Scooter, etc, shot music videos, branding and promotional content for Finnish, Swedish, Icelandic, German and Swiss rock'n'roll and pop bands. He is also the host of OlexShow, a show business and creative industries show online.