Steve Jobs

            I am currently working on a business start-up. So far the main issue I have had is in describing the nature of the business. You see I have created a new service, which inherently means the creation of a new industry. This creates a problem when I am trying to describe what the business does to people who have no frame of reference for comparison. However, that just changed because of Steve Jobs.

            It has recently been announced that the CEO of Apple Steve Jobs has passed away. This is a sad event with wide spread cultural ramifications. The home page of Apple  has a picture of Steve Jobs with his name and the dates 1955-2011. Additionally, they have set up a page with an epitaph on their site. That page also contains information for people to contact the company with personal thoughts and memories of Steve Jobs.

            Additionally, areas outside of the company have been affected. Every social networking site now has pages dedicated to the memory of Steve Jobs. Web comics such as XKCD and Abstruse Goose  have posted memorials. Even sites that are normally satirical such as Some E-cards have included memorial materials on their web site.

            This is the service being offered by Pelicat. The chance to have your final message spread across all of your social media applications in order to give a farewell notification to all of your online friends all over the world. Despite the terrible loss of Steve Jobs he is now my best example to others of what my new service provides.

            While the loss of Steve Jobs is a sad event, I can’t help thinking that it is rather profound that even in his passing he is helping others like myself to push forward with innovative new concepts and services. Hopefully we will all be able to continue following his example of creativity far into the future.

Media medium

            There is a recent article on the entertainment business blog Business Exchange  about a DJ and music producer named Carl Cox. It can be seen at http://blog.allusb.com/2011/08/carl-cox-all-roads-lead-to-the-dancefloor-usb-album-debut/

            This article describes how Carl Cox has just released a new album exclusively in a USB format instead of the more conventional CD. The article goes on to describe other groups who have done the same thing. It also describes some of the numerous advantages including bonus photos, music videos, links to online material, and a memory capacity that can hold a far greater amount of music than the conventional compact disc.

            I find this particularly interesting due to the fact that the music industry tends to lead the film industry in technological advance. Right now most people in the film industry are focused on the film distribution capabilities of the cloud. However, customers have already issued a wide range of dissatisfied criticism against the idea of having all of the media they have purchased kept on a server that they do not personally control. The fears of mass file deletion, selective media censorship, and poor long-term site maintenance are at the top of the list.

            These are issues that can easily be avoided by following the example of Carl Cox and many others in the music industry. It would also present a number of serious advantages that most movie enthusiasts would enjoy.

             You see, a conventional DVD can only hold 4.7 Gigs of data. The raw digital footage that movies are edited in runs at approximately 1 Gig per minute. This means a full feature film would need a digital storage medium of roughly 90 Gigs for full resolution. This is why Blue Ray is so popular. A Blue Ray disc can hold up to 27 Gigs of memory.

            However, a search on USB drives will bring you to the illustrious Lexar Corporation. Lexar produces USB jump drives that reach storage capacities up to 128 Gigs. That’s roughly 5 times the capacity of a Blue Ray, which in turn has 5 times the capacity of a conventional DVD. In short, a high-end USB drive could hold 27 movies at the standard compression rate of one DVD. Or, it could hold one feature film at the full digital resolution that normally only the editor gets to see.

            Switching film sales to USB would be great for movie enthusiasts who want the best image quality possible. But, it would be even better for production companies that would be able to maintain existing distribution systems for highly lucrative returns with an actual reduction in manufacturing costs and time since USB drives can be loaded faster and cheaper than discs can be burned.

            The question is: will they bother following the logical advance into this medium, or will they just do what they are told by the corporate lobbyist with the most expensive suit?

Deception

I have just viewed an interesting talk on TED.com by Marco Tempest. It can be seen at

http://www.ted.com/talks/marco_tempest_the_magic_of_truth_and_lies_on_ipods.html

In this video the speaker makes some excellent points about the positive uses of deception. It really goes back to the basic concept of suspension of disbelief. This is the psychological technique of temporarily engrossing the attention of the audience to the point where they briefly forget that they are viewing a work of fiction. The deeper the suspension of disbelief becomes, the more enjoyable the audience finds the production.

People will believe what they want to believe. The key to developing a successful strategy for using deception in a positive manner is to provide a nonharmful method of conceptual reorientation that leads people to a conclusion that they would have reached on their own. Or, more specifically, it’s about giving people what they don’t know they want before they realize that they want it.

The concept of using deception tends to have a negative image attached to it. This is only exacerbated by books like The Art of Deception in which Kevin Mitnick describes his use of personal deception to cause damage to individuals and businesses through computer hacking.

The concept gains further notoriety through the expansion of ideas like social engineering as described by Sarah Granger. Social engineering is an specific methodology for following the negative example initially established in The Art of Deception.

This then leads to larger issues of corporate deception such as the clean coal ads described in Dirty Business. This represents the common practice of corporate funded special interest groups that parrot the message that the company itself would like people to accept.

The important thing, however, is that all of these techniques can be used to encourage a positive message rather than a destructive force. By following the message of Marco Tempest it is possible to help people to help themselves in a way that seems to them as a matter of their own volition.

Film Office

            The film office is an invaluable asset to the production community. More importantly it is an asset to the entire area by bringing in jobs and millions of dollars in revenue annually. However, the film office is in a constant war to maintain its’ existence. The terrifying thing is that the enemy that is constantly trying to eliminate the existence of this beneficial service provider is a group who think they are doing the right thing by limiting government spending. The problem is that they are all “early exiters”.

            An “early exiter” is a person who jumps out of their seat at the theater and runs for the door the second the credits start to roll. If you ask them why, they will tell you that the credits are long and boring. That is where we have a problem.

            The people who want to eliminate tax incentives for production companies and cut the budget to the film office always say that providing for the film industry is just a matter of handing tax dollars over to rich movie companies. But, the people who say this are all “early exiters” who have never stayed in the theater long enough to see just how many people are actually employed by an individual film production.

            It’s a bit of juxtaposition. First, they say the list of people employed by a production (the credits) is too long to sit through. Then, they say that film production doesn’t benefit the community. How is this possible? If the industry creates so many jobs that you can’t even sit through the list of people who work on one single project, how can the industry not be financially benefiting the community?

            This then leads to the second problem. Those who fail to see the benefits for the community then try to eliminate the office all together. That’s where you end up with situations such as what happened to Lisa Strout. 

            Lisa Strout was the Director of the New Mexico Film Office for seven years until she was let go

during an administrative shake up where the “early exiters” decided the film office wasn’t needed. Fortunately, she was then hired as the Director of the Boston Film Office where they obviously have a better grasp of the benefits that can be provided to the community.

            In the end, the only suggestion I can think of is this: Anytime a politician suggests tampering with their local film office they should be required to sit through the credits from every movie ever shot in their area. Seriously, the only thing that brings in more money is tourism. Getting rid of the film office is like destroying everything in you neighborhood that the tourists might want to see. It is nothing more than an ill informed attempt to shoot yourself and your neighbor both in the foot.

            If you are unsure where your local film office is check this link HERE. And, don't hesitate to send them an email just to show your support. The more people there are in the community who show support for the film office, then the more support the film office will be able to provide for that community.

Multi Tasking

            With the never ending stream of projects and oddities that I seem to be perpetually swimming in, I have decided that it would make more sense to cover everything I do in this blog rather than just the one specific project.

            The scooter documentary will still receive full coverage as it progresses. But, I will now be covering every other facet of my preoccupation at the same time. This should lead to a far more entertaining experience for everyone. It will also provide a deeper look into the weirdness that effects everything I work on.

Road Rash

They say an image is worth a thousand words.

Yeah. That pretty much speaks for itself. And, what is says is,"ouch".

    But, far be it from me to complain about a little bit of road rash. This may slow down my typing for a little while, but it won't slow down my life. It's not my camera hand. That's all that really matters.                                                       

Budgeting

            Accounting is an art form entirely in it’s own right. Most people in the creative fields approach it with a mixture of fear and awe. This is why the people who know how to create and maintain a budget are generally the highest paid people in a production company.

            However, if you are working on your own independent production it becomes your responsibility to draw up the budget proposal before anything else can begin to happen. Sadly, that’s where a lot of otherwise good ideas fall apart.

            The good news is that there are a variety of services and products that can help. Obviously the best method is to simply hire an accountant. But, if you’re working on an independent production that might be too expensive. Your second option is to research products specifically designed to help you. One of the best I’ve seen is Movie Magic Budgeting. You can find it at http://www.entertainmentpartners.com/Content/Products/Budgeting.aspx

            Your third (and cheapest) option is to do everything on your own. For a producer who has never dealt with accounting before that can be worrying. Have no fear! You are not alone.

            There are some amazing resources available to people with the determination to teach themselves how to cover all the bases. Of these, the best resource I have found is provided by Dependent Films. On their page titled Tools & Utilities for Filmmakers the have provided templates for almost every possible piece of documentation you will need during your production.

            As it just so happens, I have replaced several of my own templates with ones that I found on their site. And, as for this particular documentary, I just need to polish off a few final details and my budget proposal is complete. Hooray! One step closer to actually picking up my camera.