The Road is Hard

As most of you probably know I'm currently on road working on a cross country production based out of a tour bus.  Every day we shoot and every night we sleep.   Today is the first time that I've had anytime to write because the schedule is tight and the quarters are even tighter.

Outside of the lack of time and lack of space its actually a really fun production to work on.  All of my co-workers are fantastic and just as overworked.   We're all in the really interesting head space where you are constantly functioning and all of us are thinking super fast.   Its kind of like this overworked zen space where there's no room for any day dreams or bullshit like that, just getting shit done.  

As a result of this recent clarity -  I really haven't been going on many mental tangents and I've got nothing I particularly want to write about.   So I'll just do the smart thing and  try to make a list of insights I've picked up working in each city so far on the tour.

Seattle, WA

 - If your shooting in a museum type situation put some wheels on the bottom of your tripod.  It will give the effect of the viewer actually moving through the museum and you don't ever have to get a close shot of a particular piece and deal with all the Rights and Clearances crap.

- Seattle Folk look like a lot of fun.  Its all the good taste of New Yorkers without the pretension.

- Do an idiot check of your rental vehicle at the end of the day no matter how badly you want a beer.   

-  Losing a tripod equipment sucks.

Eugene, OR

- Where there is communal gardens there is pot/hippies.

- The iphone google maps application is useless when you can't tell what is North, South, East, or West.  

- The Unversity of Washington Bookstore has EVERYTHING - including tripod systems.

- Tripod systems are way  cheaper in the middle of nowhere.

San Francisco, CA

- Lombard street is dirty with tourists

Los Angeles, CA

- A schedule that doesn't allow for showering is f**ked.  

- Anyone who says they don't want to be on a reality show secretly wants to be on a reality show.

Scottsdale, Az

- Arizona is hotter than a camel's grundel.  

Ira Glass

I used to find Ira Glass really annoying, but he has grown on me.  Does this officially make me a white person?  

Check out these quick interviews with him about storytelling.   The one discussing "anecdote" and the "moment of reflection" is my favorite.  I wish someone had expressed this idea so succinctly in the past.  

The Democratization of Film and Television - Everything But the Money

Everyone knows that the technical costs of producing video have sunk in the past ten years.  Owning an edit used to be a venture that was upwards of 80K, now you can edit on the Macbook and buy one for just under 2K.  We've also seen the same happen with the capture systems - a beta cam used to cost as much as a car, now you can shoot on a 3 CCD DV camera which you can get for upwards of 2k.  Even distributing you material on the internet is free - however just don't expect to get paid.

With film and video production becoming so ubiquitous why haven't we seen more of a resurgence in independent productions?   It seems like the last time independent cinema was experiencing a resurgence was the hey day of Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodrigues.  Back then they were still shooting everything on film, a much more expensive medium.   So now with Camera and edit systems much more accessible how come we haven't seen a boom?

My theory is that although its cheaper to shoot and edit video its still needs some sort of financing system.   We've seen the entry points to getting the equipment lowered, but the entry point to getting financed and paid for your work is still mysteriously beyond reach.  

I could make a great documentary - pay for it out of my own pocket - but if I can't find a distributor I'm out so many days and dollars.   This is why all we're really seeing out of the democratization of video is short form video and documentaries.  Scripted material seems to have no place in this movement other than short comedy sketches.   

So what needs to happen to the industry for an independent video producer to make money without producing branded entertainment or doing freelance work for the networks?  

Here's my theory - we need some sort of video micro-financing system.  I was browsing Pop Tech! the other day and I stumbled upon this interesting idea from Jessica Flannery who runs the site Kiva.org.  Now I know her idea is much more worthy - she's alleviating poverty - but why can't we have something similar for independent productions? If we did have a Kiva-esquw site - professionals who work on productions  for spec can recoup.  This would also lead to a built in audience for a lot of productions because whoever invested in the idea could also help in marketing the production through social networks.  It also would give audiences a stake in what's being produced so maybe audiences could counteract the mob mentality of hollywood producers - hey guys how about one more super hero movie while your at it.  

I think with the democratization of film financing we also need the democratization of commercial film distribution.   Now I know that everyone thinks this is a tricky thing to do  but there is one person who could step in to make this a lot easier - I'm looking at you Steve Jobs. 

If the itunes store would take any videos - not just ones from major distributors we could democratize the whole process.   A filmmaker could make a film of any length and sell it on line.   A filmmaker could make money without having to go to any meetings and he or she could build a following that supported their style of production - not hollywood's.   One could theoretically make indies for the rest of your life without ever having to get a big Hollywood star involved and sink the money into important things like the story and production.

I hope Steve is headed this way because frankly nothing is on cable right now.    

Day 2 - Feedback

Well its day 2 and I wouldn't exactly call the blog a success yet.  I've gotten two pieces of feedback one positive and one negative - so I guess that puts it in the neutral category.  Here's are the comments sent to me verbatim.  

From:  Ben

Subject:  Blogging is Gay

really gay

My response:  Yes but at least its less narcissistic than twittering.  At least on a blog people can check in on your thoughts and you actually have enough room to put a little content down.  You can actually compose something worth discussing that may be relevant to your group of friends.   With Twittering its like "do I really need to know what you're doing every hour?"

Todd is enjoying the sunshine  

Anne is handing her boyfriend over the the feds

Robert is coming to his senses

Amy is contemplating whether anyone cares

Ben is letting Ted know that blogging is gay

Ted is thankful for Ben's feed back and this bag of dicks he found for Ben to snack on.

Here is the other piece of feedback I received.

From:  Mike

Subject:  Blog

nice blog, dude.  want to hang out tomorrow and play mariokart?

My response - thank you for the positive feedback, and yes I always want to play mariokart.  

Day 1 - Allow Me to Introduce Myself...

Hello and welcome to my blog "The Video Game".  While its perfectly understandable to think this blog is about video games -  it has nothing to do with them.  This blog is about my efforts to get my video production company off the ground and figure out ways to get paid to write, shoot, edit, graphicalize (can someone invent a verb for this already?), and produce video.  

I don't play video games, video is my game!  Please reread that last statement and try to imagine me looking tough while I say it.  

While probably everyone who's reading this now already knows who I am here's a little bit about me.   I'm a writer, producer, editor, and director who sometimes dabbles in graphics.   I've been working in production since 1998.  I started as in intern at the MTV Summer Share in Seaside Heights New Jersey.  I worked my way up since then working on everything from The Tony Awards to The Real World.  After doing a couple years as a permalancer at mtvU I decided to go freelance last September.  After a little less than a year of freelancing and putting together a bunch of sweet equipment I am finally forming an LLC.   

That basically brings us to today - I finally paid the publishing fee to form an LLC in Brooklyn.  Shit is expensive!  I better get some work out of this.