From Crackle: How To Deal With Telemarketers
Sunday, October 21, 2007
WE WAS ROBBED!!!
I have Good News, Bad News, and Good News again.
Let's start with the bad.
CHAPTER I - A ROSSDONIA STORY OF CRIME, LOSS, and LOVE
This past Thursday, My Sexy Fiancé Veronica-- and I got to have a nice lunch, then she was to drop me off at work. That part went off without incident. What I was not expecting was the panicked phone call a few minutes later when she informed me that our house had been robbed.
I hauled ass to get home. Surprisingly, the police were already here. They didn't take anything too big. Aside from My Sexy Fiancé Veronica's-- laptop, everything else was small. CD's, DVD's, my cameras, camcorder, and a handful of other smaller items were gone. They got in through the back window because the storm window was open and they were able to pry the window open.
The phone from my bedroom was off the hook, as well as in our bedrooms, all the drawers were overturned. This was a simple quick, low risk grab, but what worries me is that they might come back or tell someone else to get the big stuff now that we've been thoroughly inventoried.
Now, for the worst part of my story. On route to the homestead, My Sexy Fiancé Veronica-- called me back. She told me the cats were missing. Since the back door was open and the front door unlocked, they were both gone.
All my stuff, my worldly possessions seemed so much less valuable. All I cared about was finding my cats. By the time I walked in the door, there was Coussette, sitting all prim and proper on the floor and more than a little vocal, telling us what happened – not understanding that we can't comprehend "Meow". Where was "V"?
I searched the house upside down. The cop wants to ask questions, but I want to find my boy. Under every couch (except the one in My Sexy Fiancé Veronica-- room where it has been sufficiently turned upside down), I look. Nada. TJ comes in to help and we drive around the condo complex and even the apartments across the street. After 3 hours, my thoughts go very dark. I check every dumpster for his body because I know "V". He is a demon sometimes, so I imagine him being himself scratching and/or biting anyone in the house, and those being not so amused.
As My Sexy Fiancé Veronica-- leaves for work; I set cat food out the front door and the back door. The weather was great, so I leave the windows open to listen for him. Nothing. I ask every person who walks by if they've seen a little black cat with a white underneath. No one has seen or heard anything. Finally, two girls tell me they saw him around the corner. I haul ass, but nothing. I lock the place up and circle every single building in the complex again. Nothing. No trace, no people, nothing. Did they take him? Did he run away? Did they hurt him?
When I get home, I collapse in exhaustion and being distraught. I truly believe I'll never see the little bugger again. I start to lose my shit. As I do, the phone rings and its TJ, covering for me at work. As my thoughts drift again to my baby boy…. That little bastard starts head butting me. He was hiding upstairs for over 5 hours. "V" walks a little funny, as the thieves has hit him or thrown him. He was hurt, but not too bad. Obviously he was terrified, but I was so happy to see him. He would not be pet or touched for over half an hour. Eventually, his back was sore, but okay.
For the last several nights, he has slept very close to me (usually on me), and he's recovering nicely. "V" is spoiled, but I love the little terrorist.
In the aftermath, our insurance is not covering any of this, not even with deductible. I said over and over again that I didn't care about my stuff; I only wanted my cat back. Now I have to live with that promise and I do. I lose over 600 DVD's, but I still have "V". That's what matters most and every time that little bastard head butts me or gets in front of my monitor while I try to edit, I smile, knowing I have not lost what is most important to me.
Even in the end, even criminals can't take away the warm glow of Rossdonia these days. As the next chapter will further demonstrate, Karma pays me back rather quickly for my losses….
CHAPTER II : MARKETING ON THE WEB
I don't work as hard as I used to when it comes to web video. I used to do it a lot more because I had new material. It's been a long time since I did more than a webdocs for HORRORS OF WAR, which is starting to grate my head. As I have said, I'm ready to move on, so in gearing up for the next feature, I'm testing a few things.
Getting back to directing actors, working with script, and editing are all like any other art form – you need to practice to get better, and practice to stay sharp. So I delved back into the art of the short form because I was asked to by someone at Sony Pictures for their site CRACKLE.COM. I chose to make HOW TO DEAL WITH TELEMARKETERS as a victim because it's something everyone can relate to. So my first test is to see if what I find annoying/interesting/popular holds true. Do people want to watch a video about torturing telemarketers?
The second test was involving the workflow, testing technology in the shoot using tapeless shooting on a hard drive instead of on tape, shooting in HD, editing in HD, and working with another editor. How are my communication skills? Working with actors again had its ups and downs. I will be more careful in casting in the future. Like any other aspect, I have to keep in shape with actors and work with them more often.
Working on a soundstage and set as opposed to location was new for me, at least as director. I've worked crew on sets before, but this was my first time to experiment with that environment. Playing with moving set pieces and lighting were fun, but I still have a lot to learn there. A lot. I did not get the lighting I wanted, but I was not communicating what I wanted well enough.
Given the "sketch comedy" style of the piece(s), I decided to break them up into shorter vignettes (see how to spell this John?) and release those as separate items on all the sites but CRACKLE.COM. The goal is to get "viral marketing" going on the other sites for the individual bits. If any one of them catches on, then they might watch more, or even if they like one and hate another, I get some idea what worked and what didn't. I'll put the compilation exclusively on CRACKLE so that it is more of my main focus. My original intent was to enter it into the SHORT FILM contest, but since there isn't a true "narrative" in these, it felt more appropriate to enter it into the Sketch Comedy contest called "MOVING TARGETS". The prize is still $15,000 and you meet with Sony Picture's TV execs as opposed to Movie Execs.
The final test was related to the first – marketing to see if people would respond to the material. Given that the intent was the Internet and specific sites, I think the statistics answer fairly well. My results are that YAHOO VIDEO so far was boosted this by making it the "FEATURED VIDEO" and got me over 9,000 views in less than 24 hours. I won the Editor's Award for Oct 19th from Sony Picture's CRACKLE.COM for the movie. Other sites are slower going, as YouTube sits in the hundreds of views, but the pool is much diluted on their site. It's a LOT harder to break through there these days. YouTube has become a brand name and there are literally millions of videos of any yahoo doing anything for :10 seconds to sift through.
Now in terms of the individual vignettes, the one where I simply made a video of what most people visiting Rossdonia have personally witnessed. I ask the telemarketer/bill collector to hold on, start playing soothing elevator music and start to speak into the receiver "please stay on the line. One of our residents will be with you shortly" and eventually hang up. I thought this would be funny to demonstrate, so that was the impetus of this project. George Caleodis contributed many ideas to the mix and Ouila! We had ourselves a new web series of videos.
We'll check up on the statistics and numbers in the next blog to continue the hypothesis as it experiments its way to full on theories. Various techniques of promotion and hype have not been implemented fully yet, but as I do, we'll check these against the stats. That will be the next blog, my faithful acolytes.
As it is, I am not distraught about the break in. We've taken several measures to prevent further break ins, including an alarm security system and some window protection (thanks TJ!).
Keep Feeling Fascination, my acolytes!
- The real PJR, accept no substitutes!
Let's start with the bad.
CHAPTER I - A ROSSDONIA STORY OF CRIME, LOSS, and LOVE
This past Thursday, My Sexy Fiancé Veronica-- and I got to have a nice lunch, then she was to drop me off at work. That part went off without incident. What I was not expecting was the panicked phone call a few minutes later when she informed me that our house had been robbed.
I hauled ass to get home. Surprisingly, the police were already here. They didn't take anything too big. Aside from My Sexy Fiancé Veronica's-- laptop, everything else was small. CD's, DVD's, my cameras, camcorder, and a handful of other smaller items were gone. They got in through the back window because the storm window was open and they were able to pry the window open.
The phone from my bedroom was off the hook, as well as in our bedrooms, all the drawers were overturned. This was a simple quick, low risk grab, but what worries me is that they might come back or tell someone else to get the big stuff now that we've been thoroughly inventoried.
Now, for the worst part of my story. On route to the homestead, My Sexy Fiancé Veronica-- called me back. She told me the cats were missing. Since the back door was open and the front door unlocked, they were both gone.
All my stuff, my worldly possessions seemed so much less valuable. All I cared about was finding my cats. By the time I walked in the door, there was Coussette, sitting all prim and proper on the floor and more than a little vocal, telling us what happened – not understanding that we can't comprehend "Meow". Where was "V"?
I searched the house upside down. The cop wants to ask questions, but I want to find my boy. Under every couch (except the one in My Sexy Fiancé Veronica-- room where it has been sufficiently turned upside down), I look. Nada. TJ comes in to help and we drive around the condo complex and even the apartments across the street. After 3 hours, my thoughts go very dark. I check every dumpster for his body because I know "V". He is a demon sometimes, so I imagine him being himself scratching and/or biting anyone in the house, and those being not so amused.
As My Sexy Fiancé Veronica-- leaves for work; I set cat food out the front door and the back door. The weather was great, so I leave the windows open to listen for him. Nothing. I ask every person who walks by if they've seen a little black cat with a white underneath. No one has seen or heard anything. Finally, two girls tell me they saw him around the corner. I haul ass, but nothing. I lock the place up and circle every single building in the complex again. Nothing. No trace, no people, nothing. Did they take him? Did he run away? Did they hurt him?
When I get home, I collapse in exhaustion and being distraught. I truly believe I'll never see the little bugger again. I start to lose my shit. As I do, the phone rings and its TJ, covering for me at work. As my thoughts drift again to my baby boy…. That little bastard starts head butting me. He was hiding upstairs for over 5 hours. "V" walks a little funny, as the thieves has hit him or thrown him. He was hurt, but not too bad. Obviously he was terrified, but I was so happy to see him. He would not be pet or touched for over half an hour. Eventually, his back was sore, but okay.
For the last several nights, he has slept very close to me (usually on me), and he's recovering nicely. "V" is spoiled, but I love the little terrorist.
In the aftermath, our insurance is not covering any of this, not even with deductible. I said over and over again that I didn't care about my stuff; I only wanted my cat back. Now I have to live with that promise and I do. I lose over 600 DVD's, but I still have "V". That's what matters most and every time that little bastard head butts me or gets in front of my monitor while I try to edit, I smile, knowing I have not lost what is most important to me.
Even in the end, even criminals can't take away the warm glow of Rossdonia these days. As the next chapter will further demonstrate, Karma pays me back rather quickly for my losses….
CHAPTER II : MARKETING ON THE WEB
I don't work as hard as I used to when it comes to web video. I used to do it a lot more because I had new material. It's been a long time since I did more than a webdocs for HORRORS OF WAR, which is starting to grate my head. As I have said, I'm ready to move on, so in gearing up for the next feature, I'm testing a few things.
Getting back to directing actors, working with script, and editing are all like any other art form – you need to practice to get better, and practice to stay sharp. So I delved back into the art of the short form because I was asked to by someone at Sony Pictures for their site CRACKLE.COM. I chose to make HOW TO DEAL WITH TELEMARKETERS as a victim because it's something everyone can relate to. So my first test is to see if what I find annoying/interesting/popular holds true. Do people want to watch a video about torturing telemarketers?
The second test was involving the workflow, testing technology in the shoot using tapeless shooting on a hard drive instead of on tape, shooting in HD, editing in HD, and working with another editor. How are my communication skills? Working with actors again had its ups and downs. I will be more careful in casting in the future. Like any other aspect, I have to keep in shape with actors and work with them more often.
Working on a soundstage and set as opposed to location was new for me, at least as director. I've worked crew on sets before, but this was my first time to experiment with that environment. Playing with moving set pieces and lighting were fun, but I still have a lot to learn there. A lot. I did not get the lighting I wanted, but I was not communicating what I wanted well enough.
Given the "sketch comedy" style of the piece(s), I decided to break them up into shorter vignettes (see how to spell this John?) and release those as separate items on all the sites but CRACKLE.COM. The goal is to get "viral marketing" going on the other sites for the individual bits. If any one of them catches on, then they might watch more, or even if they like one and hate another, I get some idea what worked and what didn't. I'll put the compilation exclusively on CRACKLE so that it is more of my main focus. My original intent was to enter it into the SHORT FILM contest, but since there isn't a true "narrative" in these, it felt more appropriate to enter it into the Sketch Comedy contest called "MOVING TARGETS". The prize is still $15,000 and you meet with Sony Picture's TV execs as opposed to Movie Execs.
The final test was related to the first – marketing to see if people would respond to the material. Given that the intent was the Internet and specific sites, I think the statistics answer fairly well. My results are that YAHOO VIDEO so far was boosted this by making it the "FEATURED VIDEO" and got me over 9,000 views in less than 24 hours. I won the Editor's Award for Oct 19th from Sony Picture's CRACKLE.COM for the movie. Other sites are slower going, as YouTube sits in the hundreds of views, but the pool is much diluted on their site. It's a LOT harder to break through there these days. YouTube has become a brand name and there are literally millions of videos of any yahoo doing anything for :10 seconds to sift through.
Now in terms of the individual vignettes, the one where I simply made a video of what most people visiting Rossdonia have personally witnessed. I ask the telemarketer/bill collector to hold on, start playing soothing elevator music and start to speak into the receiver "please stay on the line. One of our residents will be with you shortly" and eventually hang up. I thought this would be funny to demonstrate, so that was the impetus of this project. George Caleodis contributed many ideas to the mix and Ouila! We had ourselves a new web series of videos.
We'll check up on the statistics and numbers in the next blog to continue the hypothesis as it experiments its way to full on theories. Various techniques of promotion and hype have not been implemented fully yet, but as I do, we'll check these against the stats. That will be the next blog, my faithful acolytes.
As it is, I am not distraught about the break in. We've taken several measures to prevent further break ins, including an alarm security system and some window protection (thanks TJ!).
Keep Feeling Fascination, my acolytes!
- The real PJR, accept no substitutes!
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Let's face it people, Avril Lavigne speaks like Lord Byron or a 5 foot 1 inch tall peroxide blond Hemmingway. With words like "She's like, so whatever!" – That really sums up life you know? It really is that simple. I know have the international CD single that has no less than 7 language versions of "Hey Hey, You You, I don't Like Your Girlfriend" and I torture My Sexy Fiancé Veronica -- with multiple repeat listening.
Combine that with THE HUMAN LEAGUE's greatest hits and we've got ourselves a dorkfest, musically speaking. Don't you want me baby? Keep feeling fascination. These are all valid statements of my emotional and mental state.
As is now becoming apparent, I delved into the making of another short form piece. I shot on HD and worked with a semi familiar crew. This was a quickie project to appease a request from Sony Pictures' CRACKLE.COM, where I have been wracking up the views for a few months now. I'm experimenting with viral marketing to see if I still have some instinct as to how to get views and the interest in subject matter. Also, it helped to get back in the saddle a bit.
For my techie, filmmaking geeks – we shot with the JVC HD110 HD camera, John Whitney edited for me in AVID XPRESS PRO, but I did the finishing pass, sound mix, and titles/FX in the full ADOBE CREATIVE SUITE. We had lavaliere mics on the actors as well as a boom. I mixed the best audio levels from both tracks and added the rest myself on about an average of 6-8 stereo tracks of audio. It's amazing how much time an energy goes into the creation of a soundtrack, music, and effects, to make a good sound.
Sound represents 50% of the experience of any movie, so it's astounding how few filmmakers take the time to make and work with good sound. Nothing will rip you out of a movie faster than bad sound, and yet so many movies, especially from amateurs don't work on or with their audio more.
My Sexy Fiancé Veronica -- and I are preparing for a journey to Milwaukee, Wisconsin for a film festival in a few weeks. I can't wait. I'll see several people I met via INDIECLUB, as well as from the other appearances and speaking engagements. I can't wait to meet Uwe Boll. He seems like such a character, but I just confirmed a long sought after dream – I will meet Mark Borchardt from American Movie. In 2000 I met Sara Price and Chris Smith at the Drexel Theatre after the screening when they did a Q&A. The only thing to top this will be to meet Mike Schank and to buy his CD "Songs I Know" and possibly engage in a 1980's metal thrashing guitar solo.
All seems to fare well in Rossdonia these days. The weather remains unseasonably warm. I still have work, and continue to get paid for it. I'm just enjoying the peace and sanity from without.
Rossdonia's activity level has increased exponentially. Editing happens no less than 6 nights a week. Several of which are for the Derek's ETERNAL, more are for a feature length documentary on the Making of Horrors of War. I also did all my own post work on these shorts in between, and I shot and will soon edit a very short musical piece for my cousin, Ian in HD at the studio as a camera test and a post production workflow. So Rossdonia is afire with filmmaking activities.
Working on ETERNAL has many benefits in that I am training another army of assistant editors and that in itself if a microcosm of the real process. They are doing the logging, creating bins, subclips, and organizing everything for the actual editing process. I will let the assistants do a first pass of all the scenes to get us to the assembly, then I'll work directly with the director (the Derek) to fine trim and reduce the film down to its final form.
Aside from the politicking of the politicians, the world seems to be a better place for now. Of course when the real estate bubble bursts, we might all be in deep Shiite, but until then, stay cool my acolytes. Stay way cool.
- Peter John Ross
Combine that with THE HUMAN LEAGUE's greatest hits and we've got ourselves a dorkfest, musically speaking. Don't you want me baby? Keep feeling fascination. These are all valid statements of my emotional and mental state.
As is now becoming apparent, I delved into the making of another short form piece. I shot on HD and worked with a semi familiar crew. This was a quickie project to appease a request from Sony Pictures' CRACKLE.COM, where I have been wracking up the views for a few months now. I'm experimenting with viral marketing to see if I still have some instinct as to how to get views and the interest in subject matter. Also, it helped to get back in the saddle a bit.
For my techie, filmmaking geeks – we shot with the JVC HD110 HD camera, John Whitney edited for me in AVID XPRESS PRO, but I did the finishing pass, sound mix, and titles/FX in the full ADOBE CREATIVE SUITE. We had lavaliere mics on the actors as well as a boom. I mixed the best audio levels from both tracks and added the rest myself on about an average of 6-8 stereo tracks of audio. It's amazing how much time an energy goes into the creation of a soundtrack, music, and effects, to make a good sound.
Sound represents 50% of the experience of any movie, so it's astounding how few filmmakers take the time to make and work with good sound. Nothing will rip you out of a movie faster than bad sound, and yet so many movies, especially from amateurs don't work on or with their audio more.
My Sexy Fiancé Veronica -- and I are preparing for a journey to Milwaukee, Wisconsin for a film festival in a few weeks. I can't wait. I'll see several people I met via INDIECLUB, as well as from the other appearances and speaking engagements. I can't wait to meet Uwe Boll. He seems like such a character, but I just confirmed a long sought after dream – I will meet Mark Borchardt from American Movie. In 2000 I met Sara Price and Chris Smith at the Drexel Theatre after the screening when they did a Q&A. The only thing to top this will be to meet Mike Schank and to buy his CD "Songs I Know" and possibly engage in a 1980's metal thrashing guitar solo.
All seems to fare well in Rossdonia these days. The weather remains unseasonably warm. I still have work, and continue to get paid for it. I'm just enjoying the peace and sanity from without.
Rossdonia's activity level has increased exponentially. Editing happens no less than 6 nights a week. Several of which are for the Derek's ETERNAL, more are for a feature length documentary on the Making of Horrors of War. I also did all my own post work on these shorts in between, and I shot and will soon edit a very short musical piece for my cousin, Ian in HD at the studio as a camera test and a post production workflow. So Rossdonia is afire with filmmaking activities.
Working on ETERNAL has many benefits in that I am training another army of assistant editors and that in itself if a microcosm of the real process. They are doing the logging, creating bins, subclips, and organizing everything for the actual editing process. I will let the assistants do a first pass of all the scenes to get us to the assembly, then I'll work directly with the director (the Derek) to fine trim and reduce the film down to its final form.
Aside from the politicking of the politicians, the world seems to be a better place for now. Of course when the real estate bubble bursts, we might all be in deep Shiite, but until then, stay cool my acolytes. Stay way cool.
- Peter John Ross
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
RANDOM ACTS OF COLLEGIAL MIASMA
Well, this Friday night my cousin Ian Ross will be here while prepping for a gig on Saturday. His father, my uncle has surgery here on Sunday, but it looks to be minor. My uncle is responsible for getting me into Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith, whilst I am responsible for introducing him to Stevie Ray Vaughn and other more modern bluesmen. I gave up music many years ago. I never felt I conveyed my intentions to listeners very well. No one “got it” and as an artist trying to express yourself, there is frustration when your thought or idea is not being interpreted. With filmmaking, I feel I was getting my ideas across right out of the gate.
I recall the night I had an impromptu screening in my attic to about 15-18 friends of my first 6 short films, the “Back Office” series. Several guests were people I had been in bands with over the years. I was blown away by their responses. It was validating, unintentionally, that several people liked what I did as a filmmaker.
Back to the present time, I am finishing my next personal project, a series of short films. Working with another editor has its benefits. Working with an editor who understands rhythm and pacing has even more benefits. Since we’re both working class Joe’s at this point, it’s a lot harder to get things done fast. I took yesterday and today off work to try to get things done and I’m glad I did. I got 5 out of 9 segments finished off with final audio and graphics work.
In these little vignettes, I still felt the need to challenge myself in some ways, so I did titles that are tracked to the background and worked with more jib and dolly shots, along with a little rack focus, you know – things not normally scene in a Sonnyboo movie. My main focus, since picture was complete, was to finalize the sound mix. This involved altering voices to sound like they are on a telephone, music from a source boom box, and mixing dialogue recorded from 2 microphones. Then I would add music and effects tracks – yes even on :40 second long clips. Sound is 50% of the experience of any movie, so I try to spend as much time on that as anything else. I finally got to work with Arya from Cleveland on some music scoring.
The plan as it is now will be to release 1-2 vignettes a week as a viral type video, although I will oblige one site with an edited whole piece as was requested of me by the studio that owns that site. I will market these little bits as I have all Sonnyboo shorts, but it was an exercise for the upcoming feature with workflow of the system, working with a very small crew, and getting my legs back into directing – although I may crack and do 1-2 more shorts beforehand. I have a backlog of pieces, not the least of which is the SNOWMAN short I’ve been trying to do for 3 years, but it’s hard to plan around definite snow, especially snow that you can make Snowmen with.
The editing process on ETERNAL is in full swing here at Rossdonia. Five nights a week, people invade my living room and work to prepare for cutting. The first stage, especially with 28 hours of footage, is to sift through it, organize it into bins, sub clips, and get everything notated so that actual editing can begin. Organization lies at the heart of a multi-editor project. The script supervisor’s notes create the foundation for everything we do. Thank God the Derek had a good script girl. It will take at least another 2-3 weeks to get the bins set up to start editing. Once we start, the process will move in high gear. HD editing is roughly the same except without broadcast monitoring. Oh well.
This weekend will determine the final stages of commitment for my next feature, which is shaping up to be March 2008 for shooting. I have a team of people, some old, some new, that I will choose to work with. They say you should write for what you have, and the scenario has just opened itself up to me. Combine that with my marketing savvy, and we’ve got ourselves a recipe for fun and profitability.
We just celebrated our 1 year anniversary of getting “V”. This also means we mourned the 1 year anniversary of the passing of SPAZ. COUSSETTE has not been the same, but she bounced back in many ways. As I told My Sexy Fiancé Veronica, COUSETTE has not played “Chase Game” even once since SPAZ died. She isn’t as sad as she was last year, but a part of her went with SPAZ and she took some aspects of him into lifestyle. “V” is an irrepressible personality with equal parts sweetness and evil. His fur matches his personality. Most mornings he wakes me up by crawling up my back and purring loudly on my neck or head when he lumps down to fall asleep. I cannot help but be touched.
All else fares well in Rossdonia. As the sun fades earlier and the leaves fall, my spirits rise and my wardrobe gets better since I have a lot of Cosby sweaters. The mighty VANS are put away in the closet until the return of spring. The long cold winter awaits, and with it many new adventures.
Stay Tuned my acolytes. The Boo will have many things to say in the near future.
- Peter John Ross
I recall the night I had an impromptu screening in my attic to about 15-18 friends of my first 6 short films, the “Back Office” series. Several guests were people I had been in bands with over the years. I was blown away by their responses. It was validating, unintentionally, that several people liked what I did as a filmmaker.
Back to the present time, I am finishing my next personal project, a series of short films. Working with another editor has its benefits. Working with an editor who understands rhythm and pacing has even more benefits. Since we’re both working class Joe’s at this point, it’s a lot harder to get things done fast. I took yesterday and today off work to try to get things done and I’m glad I did. I got 5 out of 9 segments finished off with final audio and graphics work.
In these little vignettes, I still felt the need to challenge myself in some ways, so I did titles that are tracked to the background and worked with more jib and dolly shots, along with a little rack focus, you know – things not normally scene in a Sonnyboo movie. My main focus, since picture was complete, was to finalize the sound mix. This involved altering voices to sound like they are on a telephone, music from a source boom box, and mixing dialogue recorded from 2 microphones. Then I would add music and effects tracks – yes even on :40 second long clips. Sound is 50% of the experience of any movie, so I try to spend as much time on that as anything else. I finally got to work with Arya from Cleveland on some music scoring.
The plan as it is now will be to release 1-2 vignettes a week as a viral type video, although I will oblige one site with an edited whole piece as was requested of me by the studio that owns that site. I will market these little bits as I have all Sonnyboo shorts, but it was an exercise for the upcoming feature with workflow of the system, working with a very small crew, and getting my legs back into directing – although I may crack and do 1-2 more shorts beforehand. I have a backlog of pieces, not the least of which is the SNOWMAN short I’ve been trying to do for 3 years, but it’s hard to plan around definite snow, especially snow that you can make Snowmen with.
The editing process on ETERNAL is in full swing here at Rossdonia. Five nights a week, people invade my living room and work to prepare for cutting. The first stage, especially with 28 hours of footage, is to sift through it, organize it into bins, sub clips, and get everything notated so that actual editing can begin. Organization lies at the heart of a multi-editor project. The script supervisor’s notes create the foundation for everything we do. Thank God the Derek had a good script girl. It will take at least another 2-3 weeks to get the bins set up to start editing. Once we start, the process will move in high gear. HD editing is roughly the same except without broadcast monitoring. Oh well.
This weekend will determine the final stages of commitment for my next feature, which is shaping up to be March 2008 for shooting. I have a team of people, some old, some new, that I will choose to work with. They say you should write for what you have, and the scenario has just opened itself up to me. Combine that with my marketing savvy, and we’ve got ourselves a recipe for fun and profitability.
We just celebrated our 1 year anniversary of getting “V”. This also means we mourned the 1 year anniversary of the passing of SPAZ. COUSSETTE has not been the same, but she bounced back in many ways. As I told My Sexy Fiancé Veronica, COUSETTE has not played “Chase Game” even once since SPAZ died. She isn’t as sad as she was last year, but a part of her went with SPAZ and she took some aspects of him into lifestyle. “V” is an irrepressible personality with equal parts sweetness and evil. His fur matches his personality. Most mornings he wakes me up by crawling up my back and purring loudly on my neck or head when he lumps down to fall asleep. I cannot help but be touched.
All else fares well in Rossdonia. As the sun fades earlier and the leaves fall, my spirits rise and my wardrobe gets better since I have a lot of Cosby sweaters. The mighty VANS are put away in the closet until the return of spring. The long cold winter awaits, and with it many new adventures.
Stay Tuned my acolytes. The Boo will have many things to say in the near future.
- Peter John Ross
Monday, October 01, 2007
Degenerates Denigrating the Defeatist Turpitude
Well my acolytes, 'tis a dark night. The moon has passed into shadow, and the demons of the past arise. I speak of course about the fact that Kelsey Grammar has a new sitcom and Charlie Sheen still has a highly rated show on Television.
When last I wrote, I spoke of the locally produced documentary COLUMBUS IN FOCUS, a doc about the local film scene and some of its filmmakers. The documentary spawned a single negative review, but several positive ones. In the maelstrom of postings about the Columbus film scene as it stands and where it has been – one thing cannot be denied. Columbus filmmakers like a good fight.
If you look at the last 7 years, it becomes abundantly clear that the people in our film scene invariably watch, participate, or comment on all the petty battles, both large and small. On OhioFilmandVideo.com, people you could watch the number of people viewing threads swell in great numbers whenever a tiff would occur. When the epic battles ensued, the views would go into the thousands. The same happens today. The only surge on that old site in the last year is when the moderators allowed people to bash anonymously and go crazy on some guy, although he deserved his licks; it was not the proudest moment.
After the bad review of COLUMBUS IN FOCUS appeared on the mighty KARMACRITIC.COM site, no less than 7 filmmakers from Columbus joined the site and most of them participated in the discussion and flat out fighting about the views and opinions. I mentioned the KARMACRITIC.COM site and its benefits on the Columbus forums many weeks ago. Only a single filmmaker joined the site after that. Someone posts the equivalent of screaming "Fight! Fight!" in a high school cafeteria, suddenly 7-10 filmmakers suddenly decide to join the site, ignore the benefits and community – just want to either take part in the fight or spectate with front row seats.
Now I love a good debate, but fighting is another matter. Stick to the issues, please. It's not personal. I had a wonderful debate with Sean McHenry, Deep Blue Edit, and we never devolved into name calling or getting personal, no matter how heated our discussion got. At the end of the day, we can shake hands (literally and figuratively), so I feel like there's some hope, even in our dark Ohio State Buckeyes Scarlet and Grey stained hearts.
What was brought up once more was my alleged responsibility as a "leader" in this city's film community. I'm not a leader. Perhaps I fancied such things 5 long years ago, but not any more. I want to make films. The End. I have no responsibility to do or say anything except make my movies and let people know about them. I find anyone who looks up to me or views me as a leader as foolish.
I'm just some yahoo making movies and I'm really only in this to make my movies. I help some people when the mood strikes me or if someone asks, but really I'm in this for me. I don't pretend to be a saint or some philanthropist. In many ways, I'm sure I'm an ass to people, but who the hell said I had to be anything else? I don't recall seeing a contract stating that by being a filmmaker I had any obligation to help or do anything for anyone. I do what little I do for other people because I feel compelled to. There isn't anything deeper or more to it than that.
Let's move on shall we? I brought the assistant editors together tonight for a pow-wow on how to best attack and start cutting The Derek's movie ETERNAL. We have a game plan, and cutting starts tomorrow. I figure with 4-5 nights a week cutting, we can expect to get a lot done in less time. Much like GOODNIGHT CLEVELAND, my role will be more of a "Post Production Supervisor" until the assembly is done. Then I'll step up to the plate and get more involved creatively and time-wise myself.
Things are moving slower on the mini-project shoot I did. Since the main deadline passed (hey, thanks Dennis!!! Just kidding), I am in less of a rush and I want to do a few things more professionally on this project. I will take my time and wait until I have tweaked and played around with it more. I'm working with John Whitney as an editor and it's a different experience to collaborate on something I normally would do entirely myself – now working with someone else. I don't mind the mixed schedules, it's the creative control. I really don't mind and that's funny to me. I thought I'd freak out or just be itching to grab the footage and tinker. I really really don't. I expect by early November, this will be public, at least some of it will be.
I have to re-edit and tweak one of my MOVIEMAKER TECHNIQUE videos for VIDEOMAKER MAGAZINE. I'm adapting one of the videos for my first article with them. I think it's cool to be a freelance writer. I'm a professional writer again.
I have two feature films in mind for 2008. I have been debating for some time which one to go for first. The one with the lower budget seems to be winning out, less because of money and more because of how it will be shot. During my tenure tagging TV spots, I had one of those divine inspirations in terms of marketing, so that tipped the scales heavily in favor of the 2nd feature. My mind is rapidly coming to closure on the commitment. I have held off so that I can just feel what will be "right". This idea looks like the most ripe and in a month it might be ready to fall off the tree and we'll get married.
Another thing that cinched it was the shoot I just did. If I can use aspects of what went right as a model, then this is do-able, shooting on weekends with my limited budget already available to me. I won't have to quit my job, and work around it. I can continue to make money and not give up my whole life as I did before with HORRORS OF WAR. This will be a less ambitious project, but with more control with me, especially where the marketing and selling will be concerned. Had I had this idea, I would have made this before HORRORS OF WAR, but sadly it was conceived of much later. In this case, I will also take a solid 6 months or more to post it. Post production often gets mishandled due to deadlines. I'm a self motivator (no really), and so it will be finished, but I need to let it take its natural course. In many ways, even in the case of a comedy, perhaps even more so with a comedy, you need to find the movie inside what you shoot, and chisel away in editing and re-examine what works and what doesn't over and over again.
That's basically where I'm at. Work is work. I'm burning out, but it's not so bad. I looked at my bank account today, and I'm not dying. I'm not rich by any stretch, but I don't struggle have the dry spells that occasionally plague freelancers.
One last thing. I'm still fascinated with the crazy people who obsess over your faithful narrator. I guess it's because I don't view myself as someone worthy of much attention. These blogs are really just mini-journals for my own edification and for a few friends. I find it fascinating to look at my webstats and see so many repeat readers. Some individuals read the same blogs dozens of times in one day. I think I've re-read my blogs maybe 3-4 times. I'm not that obsessed with me, and I am my own 1 fan! Maybe I'm not and I don't realize it.
I am fascinated with obsessions over someone like me, who hasn't really done anything that spectacular or original. I set modest, obtainable goals. When I achieve them, I definitely pat myself on the back, but I don't think that's arrogant. I am proud of my achievements, but they are admittedly small. Is that really so wrong? I'm not doing it to seek the accolades; I do it for business reasons.
It is very true that projecting an image of success will result in other people seeing you in that light. It's hardly a deception, as I am not lying or saying I'm doing something that I am not doing, IE winning awards, getting distribution, etc. What it comes down to is the pessimist versus optimist argument that plagues humanity through all its days. Some people will look at these little accomplishments and say, "These aren't very significant!" and other people will view the same things and go, "Congratulations! That's great!" Which one are you and why? I have found in my own quest to be a filmmaker, there are more optimists in the actual film industry and more pessimists in the local film community. Which one should matter more to me? <>
I dislike experimental films. I don't detest them, but they aren't really original and they are full of clichés. In 2001, using all the underexposed film from the original black & white BITTER OLD MAN shoot, I hobbled together a spoof of an avant garde, experimental film. Originally I called it THE Bitter Old man. Seeing a temporary gap in Sonnyboo Entertainment, also known as "BOO-TAINMENT --", I digitized my only copy of this atrocity and put it online on a few sites. I trimmed about :45 seconds out of it and changed the title to "THE DEATH OF SONNYBOO " since I thought the title would be provocative and the footage shows my little ginger-bread man mascot committing suicide off a bridge.
Strangely, many people gave it genuine reviews. On YouTube, I have over a 125 views in less than a day. On Sony Pictures' CRACKLE.COM, I even won the EDITOR'S CHOICE AWARD for today October 1st. How's that for an unexpected surprise? That makes my awards count on their site at 40, as in 4-0, double digits. The views are in the 20+ millions. If anyone wants to make a competition out of short films, that's 40 awards, and 20+ million views. Does that really make me a better filmmaker than anyone else? Does that somehow make the movies themselves "better"? I think not. You can excel in filmmaking without having an antagonist. Not everyone can, apparently, but it is possible. I wasn't even trying to get this fake short in a contest, and yet I won an award today. Funny. I hate competition, yet I won.
The world is a wacky place. No two ways about it. WACKY
Peace to the acolytes, and gentle curses to the wierdos
- Peter John Ross
When last I wrote, I spoke of the locally produced documentary COLUMBUS IN FOCUS, a doc about the local film scene and some of its filmmakers. The documentary spawned a single negative review, but several positive ones. In the maelstrom of postings about the Columbus film scene as it stands and where it has been – one thing cannot be denied. Columbus filmmakers like a good fight.
If you look at the last 7 years, it becomes abundantly clear that the people in our film scene invariably watch, participate, or comment on all the petty battles, both large and small. On OhioFilmandVideo.com, people you could watch the number of people viewing threads swell in great numbers whenever a tiff would occur. When the epic battles ensued, the views would go into the thousands. The same happens today. The only surge on that old site in the last year is when the moderators allowed people to bash anonymously and go crazy on some guy, although he deserved his licks; it was not the proudest moment.
After the bad review of COLUMBUS IN FOCUS appeared on the mighty KARMACRITIC.COM site, no less than 7 filmmakers from Columbus joined the site and most of them participated in the discussion and flat out fighting about the views and opinions. I mentioned the KARMACRITIC.COM site and its benefits on the Columbus forums many weeks ago. Only a single filmmaker joined the site after that. Someone posts the equivalent of screaming "Fight! Fight!" in a high school cafeteria, suddenly 7-10 filmmakers suddenly decide to join the site, ignore the benefits and community – just want to either take part in the fight or spectate with front row seats.
Now I love a good debate, but fighting is another matter. Stick to the issues, please. It's not personal. I had a wonderful debate with Sean McHenry, Deep Blue Edit, and we never devolved into name calling or getting personal, no matter how heated our discussion got. At the end of the day, we can shake hands (literally and figuratively), so I feel like there's some hope, even in our dark Ohio State Buckeyes Scarlet and Grey stained hearts.
What was brought up once more was my alleged responsibility as a "leader" in this city's film community. I'm not a leader. Perhaps I fancied such things 5 long years ago, but not any more. I want to make films. The End. I have no responsibility to do or say anything except make my movies and let people know about them. I find anyone who looks up to me or views me as a leader as foolish.
I'm just some yahoo making movies and I'm really only in this to make my movies. I help some people when the mood strikes me or if someone asks, but really I'm in this for me. I don't pretend to be a saint or some philanthropist. In many ways, I'm sure I'm an ass to people, but who the hell said I had to be anything else? I don't recall seeing a contract stating that by being a filmmaker I had any obligation to help or do anything for anyone. I do what little I do for other people because I feel compelled to. There isn't anything deeper or more to it than that.
Let's move on shall we? I brought the assistant editors together tonight for a pow-wow on how to best attack and start cutting The Derek's movie ETERNAL. We have a game plan, and cutting starts tomorrow. I figure with 4-5 nights a week cutting, we can expect to get a lot done in less time. Much like GOODNIGHT CLEVELAND, my role will be more of a "Post Production Supervisor" until the assembly is done. Then I'll step up to the plate and get more involved creatively and time-wise myself.
Things are moving slower on the mini-project shoot I did. Since the main deadline passed (hey, thanks Dennis!!! Just kidding), I am in less of a rush and I want to do a few things more professionally on this project. I will take my time and wait until I have tweaked and played around with it more. I'm working with John Whitney as an editor and it's a different experience to collaborate on something I normally would do entirely myself – now working with someone else. I don't mind the mixed schedules, it's the creative control. I really don't mind and that's funny to me. I thought I'd freak out or just be itching to grab the footage and tinker. I really really don't. I expect by early November, this will be public, at least some of it will be.
I have to re-edit and tweak one of my MOVIEMAKER TECHNIQUE videos for VIDEOMAKER MAGAZINE. I'm adapting one of the videos for my first article with them. I think it's cool to be a freelance writer. I'm a professional writer again.
I have two feature films in mind for 2008. I have been debating for some time which one to go for first. The one with the lower budget seems to be winning out, less because of money and more because of how it will be shot. During my tenure tagging TV spots, I had one of those divine inspirations in terms of marketing, so that tipped the scales heavily in favor of the 2nd feature. My mind is rapidly coming to closure on the commitment. I have held off so that I can just feel what will be "right". This idea looks like the most ripe and in a month it might be ready to fall off the tree and we'll get married.
Another thing that cinched it was the shoot I just did. If I can use aspects of what went right as a model, then this is do-able, shooting on weekends with my limited budget already available to me. I won't have to quit my job, and work around it. I can continue to make money and not give up my whole life as I did before with HORRORS OF WAR. This will be a less ambitious project, but with more control with me, especially where the marketing and selling will be concerned. Had I had this idea, I would have made this before HORRORS OF WAR, but sadly it was conceived of much later. In this case, I will also take a solid 6 months or more to post it. Post production often gets mishandled due to deadlines. I'm a self motivator (no really), and so it will be finished, but I need to let it take its natural course. In many ways, even in the case of a comedy, perhaps even more so with a comedy, you need to find the movie inside what you shoot, and chisel away in editing and re-examine what works and what doesn't over and over again.
That's basically where I'm at. Work is work. I'm burning out, but it's not so bad. I looked at my bank account today, and I'm not dying. I'm not rich by any stretch, but I don't struggle have the dry spells that occasionally plague freelancers.
One last thing. I'm still fascinated with the crazy people who obsess over your faithful narrator. I guess it's because I don't view myself as someone worthy of much attention. These blogs are really just mini-journals for my own edification and for a few friends. I find it fascinating to look at my webstats and see so many repeat readers. Some individuals read the same blogs dozens of times in one day. I think I've re-read my blogs maybe 3-4 times. I'm not that obsessed with me, and I am my own 1 fan! Maybe I'm not and I don't realize it.
I am fascinated with obsessions over someone like me, who hasn't really done anything that spectacular or original. I set modest, obtainable goals. When I achieve them, I definitely pat myself on the back, but I don't think that's arrogant. I am proud of my achievements, but they are admittedly small. Is that really so wrong? I'm not doing it to seek the accolades; I do it for business reasons.
It is very true that projecting an image of success will result in other people seeing you in that light. It's hardly a deception, as I am not lying or saying I'm doing something that I am not doing, IE winning awards, getting distribution, etc. What it comes down to is the pessimist versus optimist argument that plagues humanity through all its days. Some people will look at these little accomplishments and say, "These aren't very significant!" and other people will view the same things and go, "Congratulations! That's great!" Which one are you and why? I have found in my own quest to be a filmmaker, there are more optimists in the actual film industry and more pessimists in the local film community. Which one should matter more to me? <>
I dislike experimental films. I don't detest them, but they aren't really original and they are full of clichés. In 2001, using all the underexposed film from the original black & white BITTER OLD MAN shoot, I hobbled together a spoof of an avant garde, experimental film. Originally I called it THE Bitter Old man. Seeing a temporary gap in Sonnyboo Entertainment, also known as "BOO-TAINMENT --", I digitized my only copy of this atrocity and put it online on a few sites. I trimmed about :45 seconds out of it and changed the title to "THE DEATH OF SONNYBOO " since I thought the title would be provocative and the footage shows my little ginger-bread man mascot committing suicide off a bridge.
Strangely, many people gave it genuine reviews. On YouTube, I have over a 125 views in less than a day. On Sony Pictures' CRACKLE.COM, I even won the EDITOR'S CHOICE AWARD for today October 1st. How's that for an unexpected surprise? That makes my awards count on their site at 40, as in 4-0, double digits. The views are in the 20+ millions. If anyone wants to make a competition out of short films, that's 40 awards, and 20+ million views. Does that really make me a better filmmaker than anyone else? Does that somehow make the movies themselves "better"? I think not. You can excel in filmmaking without having an antagonist. Not everyone can, apparently, but it is possible. I wasn't even trying to get this fake short in a contest, and yet I won an award today. Funny. I hate competition, yet I won.
The world is a wacky place. No two ways about it. WACKY
Peace to the acolytes, and gentle curses to the wierdos
- Peter John Ross
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