Ben Brooks breaks down some excellent thoughts over at the Brooks Review about meetings in today’s digital age, particularly with regard to using iPad.
Jan 28
Oct 20
check out this short interview i did in Grand Rapids this past weekend. after my two-hour seminar for the GR film community, we headed over to McFadden’s for a quick bite, and i recapped some info for the guys and gals at Michigan Film Reel.
enjoy!
Aug 10
don’t worry, this isn’t about politics. it’s about your brain.
anyone’s brain really. first, stop reading this post, fix some tea or coffee and sit and read the following articles for the next few minutes, avoiding distractions, phonecalls, facebook, etc.
“Author Nicholas Carr: The Web Shatters Focus, Rewires Brains” on WIRED (Michael Hyatt recently linked to another incarnation of the same information).
“The Creativity Crisis” by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman of Newsweek.
what does this mean to the creative? what follows is my largely uneducated answer to that question.
Aug 07
this post is the answer to a question asked by Michael Woodard on an earlier post, and i thought the answer might be of use to others as well. be aware that this comparison is strictly my own opinion, and i would be delighted to hear from others that see things differently.
continue reading »
Mar 25
the development process is, in my opinion, the most important part of the production process. i feel way too many take it lightly. a lot of young filmmakers focus on the finished product. a polished finished film is critical if you want to be taken seriously, but if people spent as much time in development as they did in after effects, the world of short film would have even more value than it does today.
the development process should really be spent developing story, developing a visual form around that story, and then acquiring the resources they needed to tell that story. this includes the marketing scheme, release structure, etc. if you don’t know where your film will play, then you don’t know who your audience is, and you don’t know how to speak to them.
there’s lots of great tools out there to use during the development phase. i can’t cover all of them, but i can at least point out a few things i’ve found helpful (and free).
Feb 03
over the next few weeks, i’ll be doing a series on parabolos portable production. the past few films i’ve worked on have allowed me to realize the possibility of modern technology to really revolutionize the way parabolos (my film production company) does film production. the change is huge whether i’m approaching it as a director, a producer, or a 1st AD.
with the proliferation of smartphones, laptops, new devices like netbooks & the iPad, and ever expanding, ever faster Internet connections, film production has the potential to be more simple, streamlined, economical, and portable than ever. while many filmmakers are already harnessing this power on their own, i’ve had some great trial-by-fire experience and developed some workflows that others may find useful. i am sharing them here as i feel that, while content must be secured and kept secret as a precious, intimate commodity, process must be shared if we are going to advance the artform and develop it artistically.
Dec 09
pomodoro going well today. getting a lot of reading done. some books i have are to shape my long-term goals, some is purely out of curiosity, some are for entertainment (read: enlightenment), some for education & professional development. i should probably categorize them to better schedule reading time throughout the day.
i really do love reading. wish i could do it more often w/o feeling like i’m avoiding “real work.” same goes for watching movies.
back to the books…
