Of Geeks and Artists

My Masterpiece

2010-03-21T14:47:00.001-07:00

My father died at the end of 1998 and I took the job of contacting employers, credit card companies, and the like, to tell them of his death and get addresses to which to send death certificates. Since then I have been playing with the idea of putting together some type of guide to help others through this arduous and painful process. My original idea was for a hard cover book, but I know the pitfalls of trying to publish a physical book.

For the last few years, I have been touting the benefits and joys of first Web 2.0 and, now, Social Media. Well, I have put my money where my mouth is by using one of the online publishers--LuLu.com--to publish an e-book:

My book, Worksheets and Checklists - After the Death of a Loved One, is what I call a non-linear book. It contains several introductory pages--title, copyright, dedication, disclaimer, how to use this book, and description--followed by 35 or so worksheets and checklists that one can use when a loved one dies. There are a number of things that need to be done when a person dies--arrange for a funeral, call a lawyer, call the executor--and this book helps you keep track of what has and hasn't been done. The non-linear aspect is that since it is an e-book, you can pull and print any checklist or worksheet you want in whatever order or quantity you desire. It is fully bookmarked and the the description section is fully linked.

I hope you can take a moment to look it over and perhaps recommend it to someone who my find it useful.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

del.icio.us tags: death, deceased, checklist, worksheet, funeral, loved one, friend, family

2008 Latest Edition - Did You Know 3.0 - From Meeting in Rome this Year

2009-01-02T08:13:00.001-08:00

A definite must-see video.

Christmas

2008-12-24T20:24:00.001-08:00

Christmas Lights, originally uploaded by Dolor Ipsum.

Soon it will be time to hit the hay on Christmas Eve and I would just like to take a momement and wish anyone who reads this Merry Chistmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year. In this time of uncertainty we need to take a moment to give thanks for what we have and enjoy the time we can spend with our families and friends.

Psuedo Scorpion

2008-11-01T19:44:00.001-07:00

Psuedo Scorpion, originally uploaded by Dolor Ipsum.

My wife's co-workers brought her this little psuedo scorpionto identify and she brought it home for me to photograph. it is tiny--about the size of a grain of rice--so I needed to use my 10X macro lens.

Art

2008-05-28T19:23:00.001-07:00

I just realized why YouTube and the other video hosting sites are so great: they bring "art" back to filmmaking. YouTube allows anyone to show the world their video expression of their soul and this expression is the true definition of art.

In my humble opinion: the lawyers, the professionals, the naysayers, and the critics be darned, for this is truly a wonderful thing.

Technorati tags: filmmaking, youtube, art

Thyme in a Bottle

2008-04-20T18:49:00.001-07:00

What kind of video can you create that will fit in 31 seconds? One like this one for starters. I had a thought, slapped my trusty Flip Video Ultra on a tripod and was able to put this together from start to finish in about half an hour.

Creating videos is now on par with sketching pictures in both speed and simplicity. The new compact camcorders are now on par with pencils and paper.

Irish Dance Neo-Style

2008-04-10T19:48:00.001-07:00

Here is an example of taking a very old danceform and adapting it to today's societal tastes. We need more people to think out of the box like these performers are.

Flip Video Ultra Series Digital Camcorder

2008-04-07T18:30:00.001-07:00

Back in 2006, when I first started my filmmaking hobby, I dreamt of the day when I could get a high-end prosumer camera like the Canon HV series or the Panasonic AG-DVX100. This dream changed when I bought my daughter a Pink Flip Video Ultra Series digital camcorder, and yes, I did say pink.

My daughter loved the camera because it was easy to use, as easy as using her cell phone camera, but unlike the cell phone, this camcorder holds 2 GB of video, records great video (640 X 480 SD), has great sound, is is as easy to use as a point and shoot camera. It doesn't stop there. The camera has built-in software for downloading videos, creating movies, uploading to YouTube, and e-mailing, all at the touch of a button. Just plug the camera's built-in USB plug into an empty port and away you go.

Having heard her praises, I went out and bought one (in black, of course) and tested it out while the wife and I walked our Chihuahua, Desi, in a nearby arroyo. I took about 5 minutes of film which I condensed into a 2 1/2 minute film I call "Desert Walk":

Once I shot the film (about 19 separate shots), I downloaded the AVI files onto my hard drive using the software contained in the camera. Once downloaded, I converted the AVI files (which were not compatible with Sony Vegas Movie Studio 6 Platinum, my editing software of choice) into MPEG 4 MOV files using AVS Video Converter, then edited them using Vegas Movie Studio (I used a built-in filter to fade the color and add scratches). I created a short soundtrack using Sony ACID Music Studio with help from Sony Sound Forge Audio Studio, then uploaded the whole kit and caboodle to YouTube. This took all of about 3 hours including the filming.

The ease of use of this camera can only be appreciated by actual use. Unlike my miniDV camera, the Flip uses two AA batteries and, since it stores the video in flash memory there is no tape transport hum (the only sound I recorded was wind which is why I went the soundtrack route.)

The bottom line is that this camera is a little larger then my cellphone, yet stores 1 hour of SD video that I can download directly into my computer. My daughter loves it so much that she carries it in her purse to take those spur of the moment videos.

I recommend the Flip Video camcorder to anyone who wants to explore the world of filmmaking without having to shell out hundreds of dollars to do so.

Long Shots

2008-02-25T18:55:00.001-08:00

My wife and I just finished watching Invasion, a movie unlike anything we have seen before. Invasion, directed by Albert Pyun and starring Virginia Dare, Scott Paulin, and Don Keith Opper, takes place on the night of May 19th, 2004 in the town of Lawton, California and deals with a meteorite-carried plague that infests the town. Though this may sound like a typical space zombie film, it is not. What makes it unique and thoroughly enjoyable is the use of a dash-mounted HD video camera which is to great effect in creating the creepiest atmosphere we have ever seen. The key is the fact that you experience a one-hour-plus continuous, uncut scene, which is only possible because of the nature of video cameras.

In a typical film camera, scene length is limited to the amount of film you can load into the camera. Typically, this ranges around 8 to 12 minutes depending on frame speed, and film size. Now, that is the maximum scene, which was used to great effect by Hitchcock in "Rope" where the film was shot in ten takes ranging from a little over four minutes to a little over ten minutes.

Today, those film limitations have been eliminated through the use of digital storage. MiniDV tapes allow you to shoot a continuous, one-hour, shot in standard-def, or you can store directly to hard drive or solid-state drive if you are shooting high-def.

The director Invasion uses the power of digital storage by shooting the film primarily in one hour-long, continuous scene shot from the dashboard of a police car as it moves through a secluded park in the middle of the night. Since the camera is "bolted" to the dashboard, your only viewpoint is out through the front window. Since it is night, your depth of vision ends at the end of the cruiser's spotlight. Occasionally, a video link with the police station shows up as a b/w picture-in-picture insert in the video feed, but for the most part the story is told in the style of an old-time radio (OTR) drama, i.e. through dialog.

I cannot describe how powerful this form of filmmaking is, especially to someone like myself, who is very used to listening to OTR dramas and podcasts. Even as I listened intently to the dialog, I found myself peering into the dark past the end of the spotlight, looking for something just beyond the edge of the beam.

Now think about filmmaking not in terms of scenes and acts, but as one continuous visual scene with a start, middle and end. Think about a screenplay that makes far more use of dialog then visuals. Think about principle filming could be done in a day? Put it all together and you have a film that follows a very unique paradigm that merges the old "film the train coming into the station" with virtually unlimited shot length.

I recommend anyone interested in filmmaking watch Invasion and think about how one can use the storage capabilities of today's HD cameras (or even SD cameras) to shift the filmmaking paradigm.

Technorati tags: filmmaking, pyun, filmwerks, Invasion, Infection, digital, video

Oddities in the YouTube Section of Cyberspace

2008-01-21T10:58:00.001-08:00

Several months ago I posted a video contest entry on YouTube--it didn't win.

The video sat for about three months, gathering around 600 views, until last weekend when interest in the video exploded. It is now up to almost 8,000 view, 14 comments, and seven rating and I am not quite sure why. The real interesting thing, though, is the comments and where they are from.

So far, and assuming that the information in the commenter's profiles is correct, I have gotten comments from Great Britain, Romania, Norfolk Island, Brazil, New Zealand, Germany, and the United States. Some of the comments have been positive and others negative. The major problem that commenters seem to have is that the trailer doesn't tell what the story is about.

I always thought that trailers were marketing tools whose soul purpose was to entice people into spending hard-earned money for the chance to see the movie. Whether or not the trailer tells what the story about is moot if it, the trailer, gets people curious enough to go see the movie. Case in point: the first Transformers Movie trailer. That one caught my interest and led me to pay cash-money to see it at the theater.

So, what is the purpose of a trailer? Convince people to see the movie? Tell what the movie is about? Both? Neither? That is truly the question.

Technorati tags: filmmaking, the nines, contest, trailer, film

Wormwood

2007-11-17T19:45:00.001-08:00

Now that the television and film writers are on strike, we are all looking at the possibility of a dearth of narrative fiction in the form of television and film, so I thought I would mention a viable alternative: podcasts. Ah, but not just any poscasts. The ones I refer to are top-shelf, professionally produced serials in the true tradition of old-time radio shows like The Shadow, Buck Rogers, and House of Mystery--shows that whet your whistle and cause you to wait with bated breath for the next installment. The first of these I will discuss is Wormwood.

Wormwood, produced by Habit Forming Films, LLC, follows the adventures of Dr. Xander Crowe, psychologist turned occult investigator, as he investigates the town of Wormwood and searches for the truth behind his vision of a drowning woman.

Wormwood is not your typical small town as it is plagued by mysterious murders and disappearances, many of which may be tied to a creature called the Muddy Man. Oh, did I mention that one of the Doctor's hands is always covered by a glove and that he has been marked for death by a mob boss? And then there is the mysterious (and acerbic) Sparrow, the Doctor's assistant, who seems to know a great deal more about the occult then she lets on. Wormwood has enough intrigue to fill a major metropolis, let alone a small town.

The cast of Wormwood are fantastic, especially the mysterious Arthur Russell who plays Dr. Crowe (always use his title when you talk to the good doctor.) According to his bio, Mr. Russell:

"...appeared through a side door after auditions were over. He claimed that only he could play the part of Doctor Crowe, that the role had appeared to him during a vision quest in the aboriginal dream time."

So far I have listened to 16 episodes of Wormwood and all of them have left me hanging on the edge of my seat in anticipation of what will happen next. The cast is top notch as is the writing and audio quality. This is one of the best produced podcasts I have listened to and one of the most entertaining. I recommend Wormwood to anyone interested in the horror/occult/mystery genres of literature or old time radio.

Now pardon me as I listen to Episode 17 - Asunder of Wormwood: A Serialized Mystery.

Technorati Tags: OTR, Wormwood, Mystery

Paradigm Shift

2007-10-09T19:47:00.001-07:00

It seems that the music industry's marketing focus is about using litigation (or the threat thereof) and attempts at DRM to force people to pay for the music they listen to. This effort is based on the fact that music in digital form is extremely easy to copy and give away. We (the wife and I) think that it is time for all smart people to sit down for a moment to think of a way for people to 1) be able to freely listen to music while 2) allowing the artists, writers, performers and publishers to make some money. In other words: we need a paradigm shift. Here are some thoughts to ponder:

Current paradigm involving the public (i.e. a normal citizen obtains a copy of a musical recording): Legitimate copies are generated by the publisher and sold to the public in various physical and electronic forms. Each copy is sold with the understanding that only the official copy is authorized and that the copying and/or distribution of unauthorized copies is strictly forbidden. Musicians, writers, and publishers receive proceeds from the sale of each official copy.

Problem with this paradigm: unofficial copies abound which dilutes the revenues from the proceeds of the sale of official copies.

Possible paradigm shift: Assume that rampant unauthorized duplication and distribution will occur, so uncouple revenues from sales and couple them to a secondary stream such as advertising, concerts, appearances, merchandising or licensing. Use the unauthorized duplication and distribution as free advertising for the stuff you are selling.

Remember, you only make money on the first sale, then like used books or cars, no revenue is generated by resales or giveaways of the original, authorized material. Using the shifted paradigm, every sale works in your favor as advertising.
Current paradigm of using fear and intimidation to spur sales: Of course, everyone knows all of the laws pertaining to fair use and copyright, therefore everyone who has a computer and listens to music is a thief, right?

Problem with this paradigm: people really don't like to be stereotyped, especially as bad people. This paradigm will eventually lead to a serious backlash by the people who you expect to shell out a lot of hard-earned money for a little plastic disc or an electronic file. People are already having a hard time justifying $15 for a disc that has 14 tracks of which they only want one.

Possible paradigm shift: Assume that most people (customers!) are honest, law abiding citizens who are not aware of the issues regarding copying of copyrighted materials. Instead of litigation, try education and information. Try offering services that make it easier to buy one track at a time. Ditch DRM and make it easier for users (customers!) to use MP3 players. I think that there is a rule of law that states: "innocent until proven guilty."

These are just a couple of thought provoking ideas that I put out for your consideration. I will publish more as I come up with them.

Technorati Tags: copyright, music, DRM, lawsuit, litigation

I wish you could have seen it.

2007-10-01T19:14:00.001-07:00

As a joke, I pulled a bunch of short clips from the raw footage we shot for my daughter's instructional West Coast Swing DVD set (promo here). The gist of it is that there are about 20 or so 1-second shots of the kids saying alright and OK when segments start. My wife thought it would be great to set it to Kenny Loggins' Theme from Caddyshack (via his Greatest Hits Album), which I did. To say the least, it is hilarious.

Now the sad part: you will never see it. I don't have the time (months, maybe years) or the money (hundreds, thousands, maybe tens of thousands of dollars) required to license the music properly (assuming I could even get all of the licenses,) so you will never see my masterpiece.

Now, you may suggest that I just put it out on YouTube--no one will know, right? Wrong! I have better things to do then respond to removal notices from law firms or lawsuits by the RIAA.

Your loss. Sorry.

Technorati Tags: filmmaking

The Joys of the Electronic Communication

2007-09-27T17:21:00.001-07:00

As a self-proclaimed geek, I am constantly in the mode of wondering why something is the way it is. For example, why is Technorati ignoring this blog and not my other blog. For some reason, Technorati's spiders stopped visiting this blog at the end of August. I write and I ping, yet nothing happens.

It must be my breath.

Technorati Tags: technorati, spiders

The Nines Trailer Competition

2007-09-23T15:21:00.001-07:00

John August, noted writer and director of films, has a contest involving the creation of a trailer for his new film--The Nines--using footage that he supplies. For more details,go here; for an FAQ, go here; for a teaser, go here; and for the Internet Movie Database entry, go here.

Here is my entry:

YouTube - Trailer for The Nines

Enjoy!

Technorati Tags: thenines, trailer, competition, filmmaking

Geek's Guide to Publishing a Book Part 11...

2007-09-16T11:23:00.001-07:00

Finis

All good things must come to an end, and so to this missive on publishing a book.

Synopsis:

Determine your audience.
Determine a publishing model.
Create a marketing plan.
Write a darn fine manuscript.
If you plan to traditionally publish then find an agent and or publisher.
If you plan to vanity publish then research, research, research before signing anything (this also means you probably want to get a lawyer.)
If plan to self-publish then create a business plan that outlines who does what. Once you have a business plan, then create a financial plan. Be realistic! It is a business and you can seriously lose your shirt!
If you plan to use LuLu.com or blurb,com, then make sure that you have completely and thoroughly edited and corrected the manuscript. People really dislike typos and grammatical errors.
Remember: you have a marketing plan, so follow it.
There are no guarantees. The best you can do is maximize your chance of success, not guarantee it.

Good luck and I wish you the very best.

Technorati Tags: publishing, writing, marketing

Geek's Guide to Publishing a Book Part 10...

2007-09-16T11:10:00.001-07:00

Selling.

What venues are available to an author for selling their books?

There are basically two ways of selling a book: physically and virtually. By "physically" I mean in a brick & mortar store like a bookshop, a store of some kind, and even a craft show. In a "physical" setting a buyer must physically enter a venue to purchase or order a book.

Virtual bookselling, on the other hand, is done via a Web site. The buyer reads a description of the book, then orders it. The book may be physical in nature, or it may be an electronic version that can be immediately downloaded into the buyers computer.

What is the big deal about cover prices?

The price that a bookstore pays for a book is based on a percentage of the cover price, usually 60% give or take. Bookstores usually buy books from suppliers who in turn buy the book from publishers at some fraction of cover price, usually 50-60%. Thus, the publisher can make a gross profit of 40-50% of cover price, the supplier can make a gross profit of 10-20% of cover price, and the bookstore can make a gross profit of around 40% of cover price. Remember, all these business must subtract all expenses they incur when they sell the book, from the gross profit to get the net profit. It the per book expense is $10 and you only make a gross profit of $8, you lose $2 on each book.

Bookstores buy their stock?

Yes, yes they do! Just like most independent stores they have to put up a lot of money up front to purchase stock. Let's say a store has 100,000 books, each with an average cover price of $20. The stores outlay for stock would then be 60% of the total cover price, or about $120,000!

What are returns?

Since the 1930s, bookstores have enjoyed the privilege of returning unsold books to the publisher or, getting a larger discount (or free shipping) in lieu of this return privilege. This can complicate things, as you can imagine.

Are bookstores the best place to sell books?

Maybe. Maybe not. If your book is published by a conventional publisher, then the matter is out of your hands. If you self-publish, then you have to look at the numbers and at the demographic of your target audience. Let's say that it costs you, the author, $10 a copy for a book with a cover price of $20. If you want a bookstore to sell it, they will want a minimum of 40% off cover, or a price of $12. Thus, you make about $2.00 a book. On the other hand, the bookstore may want a 50% discount in lieu of a return privilege. In this case you would get no gross profit per book.

What is fulfillment?

If someone buys a book from a publisher or distributor, the book should be shrink-wrapped, boxed and shipped. This is fulfillment. If you are a self-publisher and you have printed, let's say, 2000 copies of your tome, you will have to store those copies until such time that someone orders them. If you traditionally publish, vanity publish, or publish with LuLu.com or Blurb.com, fulfillment is taken care of by the publisher.

Where can you sell your book?

Anywhere that people are willing to hand-over money in exchange for a copy of your work. Garage sales, truck stops, convenience stores, grocery stores, craft shows, used book stores (we carried titles from local authors at the used bookstore my wife and I owned,) flea markets, book signings, and from the back of your car:

Audience	Venue
Truckers	Truck stop
Bicyclist	Bike shops and coffee shops
Adventure enthusiasts	Outdoors stores
History of coffee in America	Coffee shops and cafes
Hunting	Gun shops and outdoors stores
Marketing for small business	Office supply stores

What about public speaking gigs?

If you are an expert at something and have written a book on that subject, then a public speaking gig is a fantastic way to sell your book. Set up a talk and make sure you have a pile of books available for purchase in the back of the room or out in the foyer.

Bottom line?

Look at your situation and look at your customer. Where do you think they would buy your book?

Geek's Guide to Publishing a Book Part 9...

2007-09-16T10:03:00.001-07:00

...More on Marketing.

I just read an interesting post on Booksquare.com about how Apple is going to save the publishing industry. One part that caught my eye was the mention of using YouTube to post video trailers for announcing books. This is just another example of thinking out of the box and making use of the power of technology. Now, an author can have a web site with descriptions of their work, excerpts from their work, blogs about their work, reviews of their work, podcasts about their work, and short videos about their work. And it doesn't stop with web sites. Authors can create promotional CDs with marketing videos or create marketing DVDs which can be sent out as multimedia Web 2.0 press releases. The possibilities are endless.

What about producing these videos? One idea I saw in a recent blog was to solicit the services of film school students who need material for various projects. The blog dealt with music videos, but I think book trailers would be of interest to some of them.

You can also produce your own video if you want. If you browse through YouTube or any of the video hosting sites, you will soon find that the quality of the videos range from horrible to professional. You can create your own piece using a program as simple as Windows Movie Maker (which is free with Windows XP) to something as complex and expensive as Final Cut Pro to knit together sound, sills, and video clips into a movie that you can then upload to YouTube. As usual, you have to be the judge of whether or not your piece is good enough to fill your needs. As an example, here is a trailer I did for my brother's book, The Moon Chasers.

YouTube - The Moon Chasers Promo

Just remember: you have to think out of the box and get creative with your marketing efforts.

Technorati Tags: publishing, writing, marketing

The Moon Chasers

2007-09-08T14:54:00.001-07:00

Back in 2003, my brother wrote an action/adventure novel that was set in 16th Century Puerto Rico of an alternate timeline earth. The novel is called "The Moon Chasers" and, forgetting for the moment that he is my brother, it is a really good read.

Here is a short promo I did for it (it took me two years to finally put it together from footage I shot back in Pratt, Kansas):

You can check-out Thomas' book at www.thomasrcarey.com.

Do you have a book that you would like to promote via a short video? Check-out our web site to see how we can help you.

Technorati Tags: marketing, video, YouTube, Books, publishing

Geek's Guide to Publishing a Book Part 8...

2007-08-28T19:41:00.001-07:00

...Marketing Plan

No matter how good your book is, you have to inform people of its existence and you have to convince them to buy it. Better yet, you need to convince them to convince others to buy it. This is called "Word of Mouth" advertising.

How do you do this informing and convincing? Here are some methods:

Reviews both paid-for and unsolicited. This technique requires that you hand out a number of books to people who you want to review your work. The actual number of review copies that you use is dependent on your cost per copy and the amount of money you have budgeted for marketing. More on this in a moment.
A web (1.0) site. This is really good if you want to post excerpts, reviews, previews for upcoming books, and a schedule of upcoming personal signings.
A web 2.0 blog where you can discuss your work and answer questions from your adoring fans. You can also interlink with other authors' blogs so that you can work that "Word of Mouth" advertising on a global scale.
Book signings. These can be held at local bookstores, coffee shops, craft shoes, art fairs, swap meets, and wherever you can go out and press the flesh of your adoring fans. For some reason people love to meet authors in person. Just remember to have stuff available (pens are really good) that has contact information (web address) available. Also, bring a stack or two of books with you that you can sell to your adoring public.
Give two or three free books to the managers at gas stations and truck stops to sell. Make sure you leave contact information so that they can get a hold of you to reorder copies when the freebies run out.
Donate copies to libraries.
Set up public speaking gigs where you discuss your book writing experience and have a few copies available for sale at the back of the venue.

Now, keep in mind that this is going to cost money since it costs you $X per copy. If you traditionally publish you book then the publisher will supply you with a number of copies. If you self-, vanity, or lulu/blurb publish, then you will have to pay for every copy that you hand out or sell on your own. This is where having a budget really comes into play since you need to know how much money you have available to purchase these marketing books. It makes no sense giving away $5000 worth of books if you think you will only sell $4000-worth.

Bottom line: get budget numbers, then get creative.

Technorati Tags: writing, publishing

Geek's Guide to Publishing a Book Part 7...

2007-08-26T14:17:00.001-07:00

...Marketing budget.

Unless your manuscript is picked-up by a publisher who is willing to shell-out marketing funds for your tome, you have to be prepared to come up with some type of marketing plan so that you can inform the buying public that your work is available and, most importantly, why they should buy a copy.

A recent poll shows that one in four people did not read a book in 2006, and that those who did the typical number of books they read was seven. And I have seen numbers that indicate that people who do so an average of about 70 hours a week. And they say that aliteracy is a fallacy.

So, you need to tell these people that your book exists and that they should buy it (and maybe even read it!) This is the heart of marketing and you need to do it if you want to sell your book.

Now, if we were talking about something like a skateboard, we would be figuring out all of this stuff before we made anything because we would first figure out who we are marketing the board to and then we would tailor the board to that market. An example would be to tailored a board for people for people who are into a certain comic book or graphic novel character. The idea is to come up with a customer demographic, then come up with a product.

Writers, in general, do not work this way. All of the ones I know come up with an idea, then write the book, then try to figure out how to sell it.

If you are in the latter camp then you have to first think about who you are going to sell your finished tome to. Next, you have to figure out how many tomes you are going to sell, which when combined with the profit you make per copy, gives you an idea of how much money you can theoretically make, which then tells you how much money you can spend on marketing (in some cases you may have to spend your own marketing funds even if you are traditionally published.)

Assume for the moment that you make $2.00 per book and you you have calculated that you have a potential customer base of 10,000 people who may be persuaded to buy your book. This gives you a potential profit of $20,000 if you sell one book to each of those 10,000 souls. The question is how much can you spend (gamble) on marketing materials? Another way to look at this is: "how much do you trust your potential sales number?" Remember: until you sell the books, the money you spend will come out of your own pocket.

Once you establish a budget you then need to establish a marketing plan, which is the subject of my next post.

Technorati Tags: publishing, writing

Flagrant Plug

2007-08-23T21:42:00.001-07:00

Just to take a break from publishing, here is a promo I did for an instructional dance DVD series we filmed, edited and produced for our daughter:

We are trying to start up a service for producing videos and video resumes for dancers, performing artists and anyone else who is interested. Details can be found on our website.

Technorati tags: video, dance

Geek's Guide to Publishing a Book Part 6...

2007-08-21T19:50:00.001-07:00

...Printing Options

To create a physical (non-electronic) book, you must put ink to paper. Today, there are two primary technologies available to do this: traditional offset printing and print on demand (or POD.) Both have pros and cons and your choice is mainly based on what you are trying to accomplish.

Traditional Offset Printing - Traditional offset printing involves using a large printing press to print many pages (24, 36, 48-depending on the size of the sheet and the size of the pages) on both sides of the sheet. The pages are printed such that that the sheet can be folded into a signature which will have three sides trimmed off. Multiple signatures are then assembled into a book body. This type of printing is very cost effective ($1-$2 per copy) when quantities of more then ~2000 are printed. The problem is how to store 2000+ copies of a book, especially a large hard cover.

Print on Demand (POD) - POD is made possible by computers and laser printer technologies. There are systems available today that can literally turn out a single copy of a book, complete with cover, in less then an hour. There is some thought that someday bookstores will only contain electronic copies of books which will only be printed when a customer orders them. The downside is that the selection of book types and sizes are limited, though this is changing. Also, the cost of POD printed books are much higher then the cost of comparable traditionally printed books when the trad books are printed in quantity.

So, which one should you use? The answer totally depends on which publishing route (Traditional, Vanity, Self, or LuLu/Blurb) you take, the type of book you want, the size of the final product, and the number you plan to sell in the first run. For example: you are printing a black and white, hardcover tome of standard size and you are positive that you are going to sell 5000 in no time. In this case traditional offset printing would be a good first choice as long as you had the money to pay the up-front costs, a place to store all of those books and had a plan on how to ship them. On the other hand, LuLu.com or Blurb.com may be a better choice if you didn't have the startup funds or the storage capability, though you would have to take a long, hard look at the costs versus the cover price.

Remember: each project is different. There is no single best answer.

Technorati tags: publishing, writing

Geek's Guide to Publishing a Book Part 5...

2007-08-19T10:23:00.001-07:00

...Options.

An author has options for getting their work published. As you read what follows, keep in mind what has been presented to you in previous posts.

Traditional publishing - This is the Holy Grail of publishing--someone actually pays you, the author, for the right to publish your work. Now, since they are paying you for this right, they will have some (a lot) of say in what is actually published (remember "content editing") and how it is published. But, they do take care of all those other tasks (sometimes they even let you input your own thoughts.) The biggest problem is just getting a publisher to look at your stuff, which is why many authors search out the services of an agent. Of course, finding an agent (especially if your are unpublished) is probably as hard as finding a publisher, but no one said this would be easy.

Now a brief word about financial side of selling a book: Traditionally, books are published with their price printed on the cover (sometimes it is part of the barcode on the back of the book.) This "cover price" is the basis for the amount of money everyone makes off of selling the book. For example, take a book with a cover price of $10:

Publisher sells book to a distributor for 55% off cover price discount. Thus publisher gets 45% of cover as revenue. In our example this equals $4.50.
Distributor has paid $4.50 for book and resells it to a bookstore for a standard 40% off cover price discount, or $6.00. The distributor thus pockets the difference or $1.50.
The bookstore sells the book for whatever it can, but remember: it paid $6.00 for the book.
According to Poynter, the average royalty is 10.7$ of net, or what the publisher actually gets after discounts, returns, etc. In our example, the author would get $0.48. At this rate, a book would have to sell 100,000 copies a year to net the author a salary of $48,000 (by the way, if you get an agent, you pay them out of your royalties.)

So, for the traditional publishing route: writing the book was hard, finding a publisher is hard, finding an agent is hard, and you will have to sell a lot of books to make any money. On the plus side: you didn't have to spend any money.

Vanity Publishers - This works like traditional publishers except that you have to pay the vanity publisher up-front to publish your book. Vanity publishers make their money primarily off the authors. Vanity (or subsidy) publishers have a real bad rap in the industry, though some seem to be on the up and up. Remember: vanity publishers want money up-front to publish your work and may have little or no say in the process.

Self-Publishing - Ah, the choice of thousands of authors world-wide. You become your own publisher by starting your own publishing company. Going this route means that you are responsible for all aspects of the publishing process, including the part where you tell yourself how your story needs to be changed to make it more marketable! In my humble opinion, a self-publisher needs to either know all of the aspects of publishing, or be able to hire people who do. You will also need to have significant funds to cover operations until the revenues come in. This option really works when the author is honest about why they are publishing and are willing to treat the venture as a real business, not a work of love.

LuLu.com and Blurb.com - These two were made possible by the Internet and the personal PC. In a nutshell: you write and prepare your book for publication (which may require the use of the services of other people) and upload it to the website. When someone buys a copy of your book a chunk of the purchase price goes to you while the rest goes to the publisher. There are no up-front fees for uploading and setting up--they make their money off of sales, just like you. You set the price and thus your profit.

Next time: What the Heck is POD?

Technorati tags: publishing, writing

Geek's Guide to Publishing a Book Part 4...

2007-08-19T09:07:00.001-07:00

...More on Publishing.

Las time, we talked about what publishing was, but in a kind of abstract way. Here is a sort of non-comprehensive list of things that a publisher does to turn a story/idea into a marketable book:

Proofread and copy edit manuscript with the intent to eliminate any and all spelling and grammatical errors.
Content edit the manuscript with the intention of making the book more marketable.
Check the manuscript for legalities such as libelous statements.
Design the cover art.
Design the cover layout
Decide on the format of book (hard cover, paperback, trade paperback, coffee table book, etc.)
Decide on the overall design of the book including paper used in body of the book, cover materials, dust jacket materials, etc.
Design the interior layout of the book.
Decide on the fonts used for the different parts of the book.
Typeset the book.
Arrange for any appropriate illustrations to be created and/or licensed for use in the book.
Arrange for an ISBN number for the book.
Arrange for a Library of Congress Catalog Card Number for the book.
Arrange for a barcode for placement on the back of the dust cover.
Arrange for delivery of Advance Reading Copy/Uncorrected Proofs to reviewers.
Arrange for printing.
Decide on a cover price.
Arrange for distribution or order fulfillment.
Arrange for storage of books prior to shipment to distributors or sellers.
Write and implement a marketing plan.
...

Unless you are a true polymath with access to all the necessary resources, you will have to have someone perform these functions (and any that I missed) for you. Like I said: writing a book is only 10% of the job.

Technorati tags: publishing, writing

Geek's Guide to Publishing a Book Part 3...

2007-08-19T08:41:00.001-07:00

...What is publishing?

Just a scant few years ago, having a book published meant writing a manuscript, submitting it to a publishing company, who, upon acceptance, would pay you a royalty for the privilege of printing and selling you tome. Upon acceptance, perhaps before, you would hire an agent, who would take over the onerous task of dealing with the publisher. The publisher, in turn,would take over all of the tasks that were associated with turning your manuscript into a real, physical book. You, on the other hand, worked on your next tome.

Today, this has all changed and it has changed because of cheap PCs, cheap laser printers, and the Internet. Unfortunately, many would-be authors seem to still be caught in the pre-Internet mind-set.

Before we continue, go and grab a hard cover book, preferably one with an intact dust jacket.

Now, take your book and examine it closely:

Look at how the covers are made and attached to the body of the book.
See how the pages are grouped together (these are called signatures) and how the groups are assembled together.
Look at the dust jacket and its artwork. Does it have a barcode on the back?
Open the book and examine the first few pages. Note how each is laid-out.
Now look at an interior page of the book. Notice the font used, line spacing, and font size. Look at how the words are laid-out on the physical page.

A book is a physical manifestation of someone's story or idea. It can contain a person's dreams, knowledge, and/or experiences. For this discussion, though, the most important aspect is that a book must be designed, the information transferred, and the book assembled. In my humble opinion, publishing is literally the transformation of the abstract into the physical.

Geek's Guide to Publishing a Book Part 2...

2007-08-18T20:39:00.001-07:00

...Reality Bites.

The reality of the situation is that no matter how good your story is, you must first get it turned into a book, then you have to sell it to potential readers. By some estimates, writing a book is only 10% of the work--the other 90% is getting it published and getting it sold. No matter what method you use to publish a book, you will need to expend a great deal of energy to market and promote it. Like the wise man says: there is no free lunch.

Since you are reading this tome, I suggest that you check out Dan Poynter's ParaPublishing.com site for a plethora of publishing statistics which every would-be author should know about publishing. I also suggest that you do an Internet search for terms such as publishing, book publishing, vanity publishing, and self-publishing. The path to enlightenment is paved with many keystrokes.

Technorati tags: publishing, writing

Geek's Guide to Publishing a Book...

2007-08-11T17:34:00.001-07:00

...or "A Wise Person Explores Options Before Leaping from a Cliff"

Several years ago, my brother published a book and asked me to help him market it. This simple request led to my wife and I joining a bookseller's association and opening (and closing) a bookstore. In typical geek fashion, we learned everything we could about the book publishing and bookselling business, and this knowledge is what I want to share with you in the next few blogs.

Today, we will talk about motivation and basic business sense.

Someone once noted that everyone had a story to tell. This is all well and good, that is, until someone wants to sell said story to the public. Telling a story--either by writing a book, recording an audio book, or creating a video--is a work of art. Once your decide to sell it, though, it becomes a business venture, just like making and selling pies. This fact seems escape most would-be authors (and musicians, and filmmakers.) From the get-go, if you plan to make money writing then you need to plan the whole venture as a business, otherwise you could quickly join the vast throngs of starving artists and failed businesses.

Now, why this talk about business? Writing a book is an expression of one's soul, is it not? Ah, grasshopper, you forget that money is needed to create the physical expression on one's soul. Hammering out a manuscript requires nothing more then a pencil and paper, both of which are relatively cheap. Upgrading to a PC isn't too costly, especially if you can rent one at a local Internet cafe. The bottom line is that creating the basis for a physical book requires mostly time--yours and/or someone else's--and the cost of that time is in the eye of the beholder. It is like any art--you must suffer for the sake of it.

The business part of this is when you want to turn that manuscript into something that someone--your customer--wants to pay cash-money in return for the privilege of owning in some form--paper book, e-book, CD, cassette, DVD. Physical manifestations of anything cost money to produce, they cost money to ship, they cost money to market, and, heaven help us, they even cost money to sell. These costs are what drives the need to change the paradigm from art to business.

Next up: Reality Bites.

Technorati tags: publishing, writing

Geek's Guide to Publishing a Book...

2007-08-11T17:33:00.001-07:00

...or "A Wise Person Explores Options Before Leaping from a Cliff"

Today, we will talk about motivation and basic business sense.

Next up: Reality Bites.

Technorati tags: publishing, writing

Accuracy...Who Would Have Thunk It?

2007-05-23T07:57:00.001-07:00

I just read an interesting article on the New York Sun Web site (via mediabistro.com) that tells the story of controversy that surrounds the publication of President Carter's recent book: "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid". I found three paragraphs particularly interesting:

"According to a statement shown to The New York Sun, Ms. Greenwald, who calls Mr. Carter's book "error-filled," plans to ask that a fact-checking system be set up to prevent material errors in books Simon & Schuster publishes and that a code of ethics be adopted for its publishing division."

The idea of fact-checking of articles is not new, especially for journalists or anyone who has published articles in peer-reviewed journals. I find it interesting that this sort of thing isn't a staple in the non-fiction book publishing arena.

Second:

"Books have become a venue for misinformation, Ms. Levin said. To address this issue, Camera sought to locate codes of ethics for publishing nonfiction books, but could not find any, she said."

Think about it: without fact-checking or peer-review, how would you know if any non-fiction book was based on actual facts or had any semblance to accuracy?

Finally:

"A law professor at Harvard University, Alan Dershowitz, said he thought a code of ethics for publishers was a good idea. Journalists and book publishers want to hold everyone responsible but themselves, he added."

And there lies the rub. If the publishers fact-check non-fiction works, then the publishers are responsible for the information contained in the work.

In this age of rampant plagiarism, anti-social behavior on the web, and pseudo-factual biographies, I think it is time for explicit accuracy to become the norm. Implicit accuracy and self-policing by isn't working, so let's fix the problem and move on.

Technorati tags: publishing

Video Resume

2007-05-14T11:43:00.001-07:00

Video resumes are in the news as a way of separating yourself from the pack of job hunters. The usual warnings apply: make it look and sound professional, and you probably want to leave out those scenes of you working out in the gym.

Here is the first one of mine--this one geared to my technical side:

Technorati tags: video, resume

More Unintended Consequences

2007-04-23T06:27:00.001-07:00

I have just finished reading an interesting blog about Ireland's decision to pay authors royalties on books checked-out of libraries. On the surface this sounds like a good idea, but the Law of Unintended Consequences may rear its ugly head in ways that neither Ireland, nor the blog's author may have foreseen. This is a classic example of Geek vs. Artist.

Firstly, the blog's author goes a step further by putting forward the idea of paying authors a royalty every time a used copy of a book is sold:

"There is no reason an author shouldn't be compensated for a sale of a used copy of their work. It is not a technology issue since the same technology that tracks the sales of new books can track the sale of used ones too."

Again, this sounds like a good idea, but why stop with used books? Why not extend this idea to any work of art? Think about it: painters, sculptors, knitters, quilters, and anyone else who produces "art," should be paid a royalty every time there work is resold. Seems fair, doesn't it?

Why stop at art? Anytime something is resold the manufacturer of that something loses the revenue of an original sale. Every used widget the that is sold means a new widget is un-sold, so why shouldn't we give manufacturers royalties for every re-sale? It would probably be a boon to a beleaguered Detroit. Seems fair, doesn't it?

If books are special because they are art, then all art can be treated the same way.

If books are special because they can be resold, then all resellable items should be treated the same way.

Seems fair, doesn't it?

Technorati tags: books, used

del.icio.us tags: books, used

What I am Pondering at this Very Moment

2007-04-11T15:53:00.001-07:00

Perfection is a goal that is always just out of reach.
You go to school to learn, not get good grades at any cost. If you learn the material, then good grades will follow.
There are an infinite number of points between A and B.
I wonder how bad the water damage is above the back door.
I really need to redo the scene menu on that last DVD I made.
I really miss my wife. Luckily, she will be home tonight.

and lastly:

I really need to get back to work on that 1-sheet.

Have a nice day.

Vlogging the Night Away

2007-04-10T10:34:00.001-07:00

This is sort of a companion piece to a recent post I made over on my Dolor's Rants blog. This one, though, is in the form of a video podcast (which makes it a blog!):

I truly believe that the problems that we see in the blogosphere, today, are problems that have been around for a very long time. Even though humans have progressed technologically, they are still in the stone age emotionally. The best we can do is teach our kids so that they can better interact on a social level. As for the rest of us: how can you teach an adult about personal responsibility, human decency, and common sense?

Have a good one.

Technorati tags: civility, blogging, vlog

del.icio.us tags: civility, blogging, vlog

Expectations

2007-03-11T20:24:00.001-07:00

FADE IN:
INT.COFFEE SHOP-DAY

Two men, Dolor Ipsum and his cousin, Lorem, are sitting at a
coffee table drinking coffee and having a conversation.

Around them are several other people having conversations,
drinking coffee, and just enjoying the day

DOLOR
Like I was saying, I have been
reading a lot of filmmaking blogs,
lately, that seem to be complaining
about the number of amateur work
flooding the market place.

LOREM
Well, its true, isn't it? I mean,
aren't there something like 1,000,000
videos loaded on YouTube.com every
month?

DOLOR
Yep, and I have heard that something like 30,000
screenplays are being registered every
year. By some estimates, there are
over 2,000,000 screenplays looking
for a home as we speak.

LOREM
And what about Independent Films,
the ones made by "Professional"
filmmakers.

DOLOR
I saw an estimate of something
around $5,000,000,000 in film will
never see the light of day.

LOREM
That's amazing. How many films do
make it to the paying audience?

DOLOR
I think I saw a number from the
MPAA which sets it at around
600 per year, with an average pro-
duction cost of $65,000,000 per film. Yet,
with all that money spent, less
then half the films released make
enough money to break even.

LOREM
So, what's the complaining about?

DOLOR
I'm not sure. Some complain that
the newbies are making it harder to
sell films. Others think that
newbies have overinflated egos and
end up messing-up pro-indie films
by over-inflating their
credentials. Personally, I think it
may be a case of Certification
Fever.

LOREM
Certification Fever? What's that?

DOLOR
It is something that hit the
computer industry a few years ago.
When PCs came down in price, a
whole lot of people bought them,
and a whole lot more people wanted
to help the buyers fix the new
computers. Many of these fixers
were ill-trained and had little
practical experience, so a lot of
companies--Microsoft, Novell,
Cisco, etc.--created certification
programs with the thought that you
had to learn something to get
certified.

LOREM
I remember that. Isn't
certification still hot?

DOLOR
Yes, as far as I can tell. Now, in
filmmaking they have "Film School"
which is like "Culinary School" for
chefs, or "Design School" for
interior designers. The key here is
that they are all supposed to
standardize terms such as
filmmaker, chef, or fashion
designer, so that employers know
that they are getting the real
deal.

LOREM
There is a "but" here, I can here
it in your voice.

DOLOR
But, the downside is that employers
will put certification first over
experience. Ideally, there would be
a balance where people with
experience would be on equal
footing as those who are
certified,degreed, or have attended
this or that industry school.

LOREM
Why?

DOLOR
There are many certification/degree
programs that do not require
practical experience, and there are
many experienced people who have
not kept up with developments in
their chosen field.

LOREM
Bottom line?

DOLOR
If you are going to hire someone,
do so by interviewing them, check
references, check-out their resume,
and make sure that you have
contingency plans in place in the
event that you have to can them.
There are no guarantees.

LOREM
That sounds like good advice.

DOLOR
Thank you. More coffee?

The camera pulls-out slowly as the two men stand-up and walk
away to re-fill their cups.

FADE-OUT:

Technorati tags: filmmaking

Creativity Unleashed

2007-03-06T11:50:00.001-08:00

I just finished listening to a podcast by filmmaker and podcaster Charles Tashiro, where he talks about the not-so-good old days of filmmaking when movies were shot on physical celluloid film and the costs and pitfalls associated with the medium.

Today, the physical aspect of recording moving images has changed so that the images recorded on a mile of celluloid film can now fit on a small tape cassette that can fit in your shirt pocket and be reused dozens of times, or it can be recorded directly to computer memory!

Film isn't the only medium that is being changed by technology. Look at broadcast radio which is morphing into podcasting, or television which is morphing into vlogging and YouTube!

In my humble opinion, technology is removing the physical impediments thus opening the way for creativity. It is like a runner getting better shoes so that she can run without pain, thus allowing her to concentrate on running, or the painter who can buy mass-produced pigments, canvas, and brushes which allows him to concentrate on painting, not the physicality that allows him to paint.

The big question now is whether or not more people will rise to the challenge by at least trying to unleash their creativity? Only time will tell.

Technorati tags: art, technology, filmmaking

del.icio.us tags: art, technology, filmmaking

Cinematographic Still Life

2007-02-07T09:52:00.000-08:00

I look forward to those times in my life when I have an epiphany. I recently had one of those experiences when I saw this piece by filmmaker and podcaster Charles Tashiro:

What does "Cinematographic Still Life" mean to me? It describes a whole new genre of filmmaking that fuses conventional filmmaking with painting and photography. In a traditional "still life" the artist/photographer captures a moment in time, a moment that represents something to the artist/photographer that they want to remember and share with the world. Still life art can be filled with hidden meaning, so it is much more then just a snapshot, which is why we can spend hours looking at picture of a simple bowl of fruit.

Now, what if we add another dimension to the still life paradigm--time. Take a still life of a bowl of fruit and add to it shadows of leaves rustling in a breeze, or perhaps a small spider running across the fruit--now you have added a whole new level of wonder and excitement to something that was once static.

This idea can be taken to other, similar genres such as landscapes or even portraits. Think about a lovely painting or photograph of a pond seen in the fading sunlight of a fall evening. Now add the dimension of time as represented by ripples in the water or perhaps a bird flying by. A portrait of a person takes on a different perspective when the person suddenly smiles or blinks.

Now, the other piece of this art form is the display. Technology has given us digital photo frames (c.f. Digital Foci's Image Moments) which can handle video files such as mpeg-1, mpeg-2 and even mpeg-4, or you can hook up a small DVD player to a 15' LCD display and use it on a tabletop or a wall (in our studio we have a player and monitor which have been running almost continuously for over six months now!) The possibilities are almost endless.

So, check out Mr. Tashiro's video and maybe give Cinematographic Still Life a try. I know I am.

Tags: art, filmmaking

Marketing Art

2007-01-13T18:11:00.001-08:00

Marketing art is at best a crapshoot. This fact is made readily apparent to anyone who writes a book, creates a painting, or makes a film. Art is an incredibly personal thing that should be driven by the emotions of the artist, not a marketing committee. The problem is that some forms of art are very expensive to create, or take an inordinate amount of the artist’s time to create—time which may be needed to earn enough money to eat and afford shelter. Starving artists have been and will be the norm and I don’t think there is any way around the problem.

Why do I say this? Because, people all have different tastes and when you try to make money by selling something, you want to maximize the number of people who want to buy your something. To do this you need to adjust your something so that it appeals to the largest group of people possible—you want to make your something commercial. Art, on the other hand, is personal, an expression of the artists soul. This expression may appeal to millions or it might only appeal to the artist, but that is the nature of art.

The point I am trying to make here is that artists need to decide why they are creating a work. Many authors are worried about how to make money with their writing, yet they resent when anyone makes suggestions on how to make their works more marketable. It is almost as if they are shoving their work into the public’s face and saying: “buy this because I wrote it!” Filmmakers, meanwhile, are lamenting the number of films that are bombing at the theaters, yet they all want to create something that is purely their vision.

The bottom line: if you don’t care about making dime-one on your work, then it is your art and your vision, and you should just create what your heart says to create. On the other hand, if you want to make money from your work, then it must please your audience, you know: the ones who are shelling out the money from which you get paid.

Tags: art

Instructional Video

2007-01-12T15:03:00.001-08:00

I have been playing around with the idea of creating a series of instructional videos which are based on our experiences building-out the dance studio. Here is the first one which is the Introduction:

This one was filmed using a consumer miniDV camcorder. The audio track was recorded on a separate digital recorder and added to the video during post.

When I get time I will film the next episode which will deal with choosing and installing the sheet-goods floor.

Tags: dance studio, filmmaking

Anti-Improv

2007-01-05T09:55:00.001-08:00

Our last theatre production--Miracle in the Heart of Darkness--was a deliberate experiment in the use of improvisation and ad lib in an amateur production. We designed it that way because so many of our actors and actresses (80% give or take) were completely new to the theatre scene, so memorizing lines and consistently showing up to rehearsals were new concepts to them.

All that being said I think that the four shows went very, very well and everyone had a good time. We had a few problems, especially with no-show actors, but because of the structure of the play we were able to "adapt" the script (and the players) to the changing cast and venues.

I am now playing with an idea for a script which I like to think of as being anti-improv in nature. The plot is made up of a primary story intertwined with two sub-plots which react to the primary story while the characters in the primary story are unaware of the two sub-plots. The whole play (or it might end up as a short film) requires extremely tight timing by the characters, timing that is so tight as to make ad libbing and improvisation impossible.

I will keep you posted as to any progress in this project.

After the Play

2006-12-20T10:18:00.000-08:00

The play—“Miracle in the Heart of Darkness”—written by my wife Jo and directed by me, has been performed, so I thought I should share some thoughts about the experience with you (these have to do specifically with our situation):

Need to make the cast smaller and have understudies for all speaking parts. Possibly we could rotate the understudies so that everyone gets stage time.
Need to reduce the number of locations (office, town hall, town square, etc.) preferably to one.
Need to reduce the time span to one day so as to eliminate costume changes.
Need to inform the cast of the storyline and the need to ad-lib within the parameter space defined by the storyline (sorry, slipped into geek-speak.)
Need to make sure that cast and crew alike are informed as to the importance of showing up for practice and performances.
NO SOUND EFFECTS (see item 4).
The minimalist set was great. Need to keep that.
No two venues are even remotely alike. Assume nothing and be ready to adapt.
Gaffer's tape is your friend.
Spike tape is your friend.
Bring our own sound system.
Make sure that the play does not hinge upon sound equipment or stage lighting, but that it can make use of such if it is there.
Headsets for the walkie-talkies.

The first practice run, in Stafford, went well considering that I couldn’t see the stage very well or hear the play (I ran the sound effects and miscued more then a few.)

The second practice run at the Masonic Center in Wichita went much better (I could see the stage and hear the play, so cuing the sound effects was easier.) We did, though, eliminate two of the sound effects because of difficulty with timing due to ad-libbing. We also had one of our actors (who played the Mayor) go missing, so we substituted one of the stage crew (she was wonderful.) We also had another actor who couldn’t make the show, but we just pulled her character from the scene—the other actors just improvised.

The first official show—the Premier—was held at the Carpenter Auditorium of Pratt Community College. For various reasons, we didn’t have use of the stage lights, so we ran the play with the house lights on during the whole show. I got the sound miscues down to two and felt that the show ran well, especially considering that only three of the nineteen people involved had any stage experience. The only real problem was that the actor who played the Sheriff ran late, so we substituted his wife—she did great.

Our final show also went well. Hats off to the cast and crew who made the whole thing possible.

Tags: community theatre

Why Use a Cellphone?

2006-11-20T15:40:00.000-08:00

Why all of this interest in using cellphones to capture stills and video? There are numerous digital cameras and digital video cameras available that are small and inexpensive, yet take superior pictures. Why, then, all of this interest in cellphones?

Convenience, pure and simple.

To shoot a short movie, all I have to do is pull out my phone (which I carry with me everywhere) and start shooting. Total spur-of-the-moment filmmaking. As close to video stream of consciousness as one can get. Yes, the resolution isn't great and I only have 15 seconds to shoot, but these are limitations that can be overcome. The main idea is that having the phone with me where ever I go frees me to film whenever the mood strikes and if I film something striking I can possible repeat the shot using higher quality equipment.

Cellphone filmmaking can be about spontaneous as one can get short of wiring a tap into one's visual cortex.

Tags: filmmaking, cellphone

File Format

2006-11-19T06:38:00.000-08:00

I am currently using an LG AX355 cellphone which records video in 3G2 file format. Unfortunately, my NLE software--Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 6.0--does not recognize this format, so I have to convert my cell phone shots to WMV (windows media video) format.

I have tried several different converters (download.com makes this easy) and have chosen AVS Video Converter due to is power and ease of use. I found dozens of converters, so try several out to make sure they do what you want. Whatever converter you use make sure it works with your cellphone format and is capable of batch (multiple files) conversions. If you work like I do you will have a lot of shots to convert, which makes batch conversion essential.

Tags: filmmaking, cellphone

Audio

2006-11-15T13:43:00.000-08:00

Generally speaking, the cellphone filmmaker needs to record the audio track separately from the video track and synchronize the two tracks during post production. There have been several methods proposed to accomplish this, but I find using a digital (also known as a tapeless) audio recorder does the trick. As an experiment, I shot a video of myself while I recited a nursery rhyme. At the same time I recorded audio using a Marantz PMD660 Digital Recorder (unmodified and using the internal microphones.) When I finished I loaded everything into my NLE software and produced the following video:

The difference in audio is striking. The digital recorder track is much clearer and more distinct. Also note the difference in volume levels (the cellphone was closer to me then the recorder, yet the audio is barely audible.) Even though I did not use a slate, I was able to nicely sync the digital recorder audio track with the video track.

I don’t doubt that as interest in this field grows the cellphone manufacturers will come out with phones that have much higher audio quality. Until then, the cellphone filmmaker will have to find innovative ways to record audio. But, then again, hasn’t that been the case for conventional filmmaking as well?

Tags: filmmaking, cellphone

Framing

2006-11-15T10:21:00.000-08:00

One of the first things you will notice about the film, Breakfast, is that a number of the shots have framing problems and this is true. I found that framing a shot using the small cell phone screen is difficult, especially since I had icons cluttering the top edge of the screen and buttons cluttering the bottom.

To check this out I shot a short video of a stationary object and created a jpeg file from one of the frames. The object, a small tube of CD-Rs, should have been centered in the frame both vertically and horizontally. The frame cap shows that it is centered horizontally, but offset vertically by about 12%. I cannot explain this, but I can adjust for it by appropriately offsetting my framing during filming.

Now, whether this is a quirk of my camera or systemic of video-equipped phones is anyone’s guess. What this does illustrate, though, is the absolute need for the fledgling filmmaker to become intimately familiar with his/her equipment before using it to shoot actual footage. This is true if you are using a cellphone or if you use a full-blown 35mm movie camera.

Tags: filmmaking, cellphone

Cellphone Filmmaking

2006-11-09T12:29:00.000-08:00

Recently, I upgraded my cellphone to one that is equipped with photo and video capabilities. Right now the big thing in filmmaking is making films with and for cellphones, so I thought I would try the latter. Here is the result:

This is an extremely rough cut, but it is a rather good proof-of-principal in that I was able to take a series of 15-second (maximum for this phone) long shots (there are 18 in total,) e-mail them to myself, convert them to a format my editing software could use, and then splice together a film.

I will discuss the particulars in later posts.

Tags: filmmaking, cellphone

Introduction

2006-11-09T12:28:00.000-08:00

Filmmaking has never struck me as a spur of the moment activity. Because of the nature of the non-linear stucture of film, the size of the equipment and the expense consumables (i.e. film), I consider film to be one of those plan-ahead activities. This view changed at the beginning of 2006 when I wrote and directed a short film:

It took me about five weeks to write and tune the script. It took four hours to shoot the footage and four more hours to edit. I think the result is pretty good. The interesting thing is that we used a comparably inexpensive prosumer digital camcorder (no film!) that downloaded directly into the editing computer.

Think about it, creating a short film without having to pay for film and processing. What are the limitations for the amateur would-be auteur? Is there a way to make money doing this? We will talk more in later posts.

Tags: filmmaking, digital