Week Seven Photo Challenge: Screenplay Cover

This screenplay was written for a school project for my Short Form Scriptwriting class in early 2011. It is currently undergoing a second rewrite and on its way to a third rewrite after which it will enter preproduction.

The script, as it is now, is approximately sixteen pages in length. With the new rewrite, it should be closer to twelve to make the story a little more concise. There are a few superfluous scenes and lines that can definitely get edited out.

The story is a satirical take on our views of the world as a collective. The story follows a living woman who is madly in love with and wants to marry her zombie.

However, in this fictional world there are two types of zombies. Reanimates are those zombies who have simply died and come back to life. They still retain most of their human aspects; speech, logic, motor skills, etc. The other type of zombie is called Decomps. These zombies are zombies who have died, decomposed and come back to life. They do not retain any humanistic traits after they are reanimated. They are the classic Romero zombies.

         This story, obviously, focuses on a reanimate named Jeph. Spelled phonetically because the first sounds he made when he came back were juh eph.

         This story is the first story I have written that has political and social commentary. While it does touch on the subject of homophobia and homosexual marriage, it is still a light hearted story meant to entertain and not to preach. 

Week 7 EOC: Biggest Challenge

The biggest issue I am going to run into while attempting to complete my business plan by week ten is time management. I am currently enrolled in six classes, which takes up twenty-four hours of my time before adding in the added time it takes to do homework. Adding in homework time, we’ll say an average of four (4) hours per class for five out of the six, this brings me to up to approximately forty-four (44) hours worth of work. My final class calls for approximately eight to ten hours of work outside of class. We’ll call it nine to be safe. This brings me to fifty-three (53) hours of work to be done before we add in my work schedule. I work anywhere from twelve – sixteen hours of work. For easy math we’ll call it an average of fourteen hours per week. Add this to my already 53-hour week and we are up to sixty-seven (67) hours.

            Just for school and work, I’m working on 67 hours per week at the moment. Sometimes it’s more sometimes it’s less. This is no including travel time to get to and from school and home. It can take anywhere from thirty minutes to one hour to get from my home to school. We’ll call it forty-five minutes one way for driving. So this is an hour and a half per day that I have to travel to and from school and home. I travel this six times a week bringing my travel and work hours to seventy-six (76) hours.

            I am also trying to help get my friends business going by providing the video side of his productions. So I have to add anywhere from an hour to ten hours of freelance work per hour; which could bring my hours up to eighty-six (86) hours if I have a full load of work and school.

            On top of this I am up for two job offers; which are amazing offers. One is to work as an assistant editor at Top Rank for my former co-worker who will then be my boss. It’s a great opportunity to learn and make connections. On the other hand, I have been offered a video production supervisor position making $28,000-$32,000 annually. It’s not a great amount of money, but the connections and experience I’d get from this would be phenomenal.

            The biggest issue I’m going to run into for this business plan is time. Finding the time to finish this assignment; however, I know for a fact that I will be able to finish this project on time.

            It’s an exciting project to finish. It’ll help me out quite a bit when I graduate and start my business. 

Week 6 EOC: How do I see my role starting in the industry?

“Surviving in the film industry is tough and having talent is just the start. It's a small and competitive industry and the key to success is ensuring that the right people know about you and what you can do - it's not necessarily who you know, but who knows you.”*

How do I see my role starting in the industry? I see myself starting in the industry as a peon. Someone low on the totem pole. My experience in the industry so far confirms that the aforementioned quote is so true. I was able to work on the set of Katy Perry’s “Waking up in Vegas” music video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-pUaogoX5o). I got that job through a contact I had met at the school. My friend had gotten to know the career services staff that, in turn, knew the people in town from the production company from Las Angeles who were in town to make the video.

Once my friend got hired on, he was looking for extra hands to help assist in the creation of the video. I was the first person called to become a production assistant on the set. From there, I met the art director who would love to work with me again. So I was able to get an in with HSI (LA).

“The film industry exists on word of mouth - you'll find employment from people putting you up for work and you'll soon realize you're only as good as your last job. You have to work at raising your profile if you want to find the right opportunities.”*

         I believe this best way to create business, especially in the freelance community. 

* all quotes are from http://www.skillset.org/film/jobs/article_3688_1.asp 

Week 6 BOC: Market Analysis

V. Market Analysis

Our company provides a video production service. This service will fill the needs of companies and individuals alike. There is a high demand, especially in this economic downturn, for advertising. Our company will meet that demand with quick, high quality, broadcast-ready and inexpensive high definition videos.

We will draw our customers from the Las Vegas valley. Since we will be based out of the Las Vegas area, this will be where we will conduct most of our business. Since we are locally based, we can build and maintain relationships a lot more easily than if we were based out of another portion of the state or even another portion of the country.

I believe that if we are located in the Summerlin area we will be able to get the greatest amount of business. It is approximately half way between North Las Vegas and Henderson so we can travel to either end or stay in Summerlin to obtain business. If we were to be based out of Henderson or North Las Vegas, we would have to travel further to get to our other customers. Having a central location helps us get to our customers faster or, in some cases, alleviates the amount of driving our customers will have to do in order to get to us.

Week 5 EOC: Progress Towards my Four Professional Contacts and Progress on Networking.

     I am not entirely sure which four professional contacts we are talking about, but I will do my best on this post. I have already acquired my four professional contact business cards. I have one banker from Bank of America, I have a small business banker from Wells Fargo, my insurance agent from State Farm, my lawyer Mr. Busch, and one technical advisor Mischa Barton who was previously a media director at Real Media Group here in Las Vegas before relocating to Ohio.

         Wells Fargo informed me that their tellers are all considered bankers as well, but I had already gotten my banker card from Bank of America. Both agencies were extremely helpful and told me that if I had any future questions I could call them any time and they’d be glad to answer any questions I had. The small business banker seemed extremely eager to help me; which is nice.

         My lawyer was actually my sister’s attorney during her divorce; however, he said he knows a few intellectual property lawyers and an entertainment lawyer. So he said to hold on to his card and let him know if I ever need anything he can get me in touch with whoever I would need to be in touch with.

         The State Farm associate was an oops. I happened to be walking by the State Farm office across the street by Smith’s and wandered in to inquire whether or not they had business insurance packages. They said that any of their staff would be able to help me and handed me a card.

         The technical advisor, while we weren’t told that we needed one as of yet, came through a random freelance gig I had obtained a while ago. She was helping us film a television pilot for a show called “Sound Check” she was extremely helpful during the whole shoot and offered us advice on who to deal with getting funding for things, dealing with talent, and getting proper permits.

         As far as networking goes, I am trying to make myself familiar with it a bit more. I am not as good at networking as I should be, but we had an exercise on networking in my Advanced Communications class that helped me quite a bit. I learned that I need to work on posture and articulation. I get nervous and when I do, my articulation gets hindered. Knowing this will help me in the future though and hopefully I can get better at networking to get to know others in my field and create opportunities. 

Week Four Photo Challenge: Movie Poster

This poster comes from a short form video project I worked on. I was a camera operator for one of the shots indoors and for all of the shots used in the end of the short. The short was written for the screen by one Timothy Salmon specifically for a short form video contest hosted by onvidi. The short came out to be just over three minutes in length.

On top of being a camera operator, I was also the supporting male lead. The shoot lasted two days; one of which was inside Timothy’s house. The second day was spent shooting down south at the dry lakebed south of Henderson, Nevada.

The information at the bottom of the poster posted here is what is usually seen on a standard movie poster. Some of the information is not currently on the movie poster. For instance, the Motion Picture Association of America, or MPAA, has not rated the film and therefore we cannot add the ratings box.

From a design standpoint, I felt as though if I added the writer’s and the director’s credits that it would look a bit awkward so I left it out. Timothy Salmon filled those credits as well.

This movie poster was a bit tricky to create. I had two other projects in mind for this project, but none of the frames in them felt as though they would make a good poster. This one just seemed a bit stylized and ambiguous, which I thought would lend itself well to the marketing of the short film.

EOC Week 4: Executive Summary

            The concept of my business is to provide high quality high definition video products to clients. We will focus on creating content to the clients’ specifications. Whether it be documentaries, shorts, features, live event, commercial, or corporate videos. We will also be able to deliver products on various different ways (dvds, on the web, tapes or on hard drives).  We will utilize the latest and greatest in the digital world to create our videos. We will Avid, Final Cut Pro 7, and Adobe Premiere editing suite. We will utilize adobe’s After Effects program for motion graphics and visual effect. We will run high-end professional cameras such as the JVC GYHM790 and the Sony EX1. We will also use more portable cameras depending on the shoot’s needs such as the Canon 7D, 60D and 5D MkII.

            This is not new per se, but it hasn’t been around too terribly long. With the price of high definition equipment dropping rapidly, this type of business is rising. However, to ensure the quality of the product being made, one needs to have a high quality business to look to. Not the run of the mill production house.

            Since the market the business will function in is the Las Vegas market (with the potential to spread to surrounding markets), the main market for the business will be casinos and other various businesses with a minor market in individual consumers such as independent filmmakers.

            The majority of the business will come from businesses needing commercials, training videos, live event coverage or online media to deliver to their consumers.

            The minor market my business will cater to is the individual such as independent or student filmmakers. We will offer both services and equipment rental to these types of people.

            Most of my competitors are only focused on big companies. They want to make the videos for the casinos and only the people they know they can make money off of. I want to make videos for everybody and anybody. If the mom and pop store needs a commercial on a budget, I will work with that budget to an extent. I will be able to reach a wider audience with my work than that of my competitors in town.

            Immediately off the bat, I want to be able to keep my business afloat. I don’t need to try and turn a profit right away. The main goal starting off is to get my abilities out there. I cannot make a profit from a market that I cannot get into.

            In the long term, I would want to be able to turn a profit. Spend one thousand dollars on a project and bring in three to four times that.

Photo Challenge: Storyboards

     This photo is submitted for the week three photo challenge wherein we are supposed to prepare a nine frame storyboard and post it to our blog. The storyboards I have are from a commercial shot a few weeks back for Zebra Cakes. The commercial was written and directed by one Michael Rueca. I was the cinematographer in charge of all things camera and lighting.

            The commercial is thirty seconds long consisting of about eleven shots or so. The commercial was edited by Michael and submitted for a class assignment to Tim Kelly. The storyboards prepared were not able to be found so I had to recreate them using shots from the actual commercial.

            Storyboards are an essential part of every production. This is a service that my company will be offering to clients.

BOC: Identifying Competitors

Aardvark Video & Media Productions

AMG Studio

Atomic Television

Driftwood Entertainment

808 Post & Production, Inc

First Call Productions, LLC

Goodwyn Productions

Raven Productions

Spectra Video Productions

702 Productions

Bipolar Media LLC

DK Productions, Inc.

Hot Shots Productions

DAV Productions

Mr. Camera, INC.

702 Productions

http://www.702productions.tv/

            703 Productions’ services include HD production, HD production, multi-camera production, producing, crewing & staffing services, film production, video editing, dvd authoring, live event production, media encoding, live show directing, film & digital still photography, dvd duplication, studio rental.

They will compete with me because my company is geared towards full HD video production from pre to post. We would offer dvd authoring, media encoding and live event productions as well.

DAV Productions

http://www.davproductions.com/

            Services include advertising, PR, corporate and event production. They produce commercials, documentaries, motion graphics & animation, fundraising videos, product demos, training films, video news reels and more. For pre-production they offer concept development, budgeting, script writing, storyboarding, location scouting, shooting schedules and over all production management.  Post production services multiple HD Avid and Final Cut Pro suites, video editors, motion graphic artists and graphic designers.

            They’ll compete only in commercial, documentary and corporate event productions. They offer a few more things that my company would which would hurt my company. A possible restructure is in order.

Goodwyn Productions

http://www.goodwyn.com/

            Production services: Panasonic HPX 500 HD cameras, chrosziel matte box and filters, HD monitors, Panasonic HVX200P cameras, P2 Cards with HD capability, Mini DVCAM, Beta-SP cameras and tape, Sony D-30 Broadcast lights, complete camera and audio packages, table top studio with complete setup. Post production: final cut pro editing suite, after effects, photoshop, illustrator, sapphire plug ins for spectacular effects, music and sound effects libraries, extensive stock footage library, 24-hour editing services, studio recording room, voice over talents.

            They’ll offer more in the post production ends. They’re production services seem to be a bit less structured. They seem to just be a, “We have equipment” company. They’ll offer a little more flexibility in their production including mini DVCAM and Betacam, which I will not offer.

Atomic Television

www.Atomic-tv.com

            They are a production, broadcast, film, visual effects, multimedia company… Not entirely sure what that entails. They’re website says, “Atomic television has all you need to get your message out. From concept to completion our creative and dedicated team will be there for you! Production crews, post-production, motion graphics, equipment rentals, duplications and more!” However if I try to see the details of what they offer I am brought to a coming soon page. They seem to have a lot of studio gear and offer equipment rental.

            It seems as though they are really geared towards concerts and live events. While my company isn’t going to focus on these things they are part of our offers and these guys are some competition. Their videos look great and seem to offer a full package. These guys are nothing to look passed. Decent career route if my company goes belly up.

EOC Week 3: Where are you now and where are you going?

     At this point and time I am just starting out in my career. In fact, I am not even in my field quite yet. I am doing the random freelance jobs at the moment, but as for being in my field, I would not consider myself far in my field. I am in my field as a freelancer, but that is not where I would like to be.
         In the Vegas market, from what I’ve been told, it is all about corporate gigs and commercial products. This is where I would like to be in the next few years. I plan on staying in Vegas for a while and most DFVP students disagree with my thinking. They believe that commercials and corporate won’t lead to anything in the actual film world, but I have the opposite feelings. The more practice I have with lighting and camera, regardless of what I am shooting, the better I will end up in the long run. Since this is not what I want to be doing, I am going to take my time in this part of the industry to practice and become even more skilled in my trade so that when I eventually do get into the film industry I will feel as though I am ready to take on the task at hand.
            Where I would like to be in the long run is in the film industry making feature length movies. I wouldn’t mind either working for a big production company or an independent production house. Owning my own company would be amazing, but I know the amount of effort and time that I would have to put in would be exhausting. Eventually, if I had the manpower and time, I would love to own my own production company. Being able to make all the creative decisions while making my film would be amazing. No one could tell me what I can or cannot do during production.
            Over all, I want to be part of the movie making process. 

Week Two Photo Challenge: Me Working

     This is a photo of myself on the set of the show “Sound Check”. I was both the director and the cinematographer for the shoots during “Sound Check”. Together with my crew, we created a half hour pilot to air on Las Vegas TV. The episode ran for three weeks.

During the shoot, we utilized the latest technology in the digital film realm including the Canon 7D, JVC’s pro series GY-HM700, Panasonic’s HMC150 and various audio equipment.

The pilot took about seventy hours of shooting and forty-eight hours of post-production.

This particular picture was taken during a group interview with a few bands who were performing later that night during a joint concert sponsored by Vitamin Water.

Working as a director I coordinated a team and was able to be a part of the project from beginning to end. I was involved from concept to post-production.

I believe this photograph is a great example of me working. It shows my ability to take on different positions at once. I was directing, monitoring audio levels and setting up lighting. The photo shows my camera operation and my audio monitoring.  In this photo we can see the GY-HM700, which is a high-end broadcast camera. A category of camera  that most new to the business filmmakers and videographers haven’t had a chance to use. This helps to exemplify my abilities on set.

Week Two BOC: Website

     I have already chosen a domain name for my website for graduation and I have a working site at the moment. I just need to tweak it and get finish projects up there. Right now all I have are place holders.

     However, I wasn't sure if you wanted a website for us or for the production company we are making. Either way, I have both. The production company website is empty, but the layout has been made (for the most part) just have to change a few minor details here or there.


Personal Website: www.johniewood.com
Production Website: http://johniegwood.weebly.com/

Week 2 EOC: Get Some Copyright Law Under Your Belt

     Getting to know copyright law might seem pretty scary. After all, copyright law is very extensive and covers various different fields. To help keep frustration to a minimum I've included some links to help you on your journey to understanding the basics of copyright law.

     1. Copyright.gov_FAQ: Want to understand what copyright is or what falls under copyright protection? Check out copyright.gov and their FAQ section.

     2. Intellectual Property Lawyers: Looking to talk to an intellectual property and copyright lawyer? Check this website out for a detailed list of lawyers in your area.

     3. Examples Of: Here are some interesting examples of copyright disputes.

     Knowing copyright law is essential when venturing into a creative business, or any business for that matter. Knowing whether or not your work is being abused or if you're inadvertently abusing the works of others is extremely important. You want to be 100% sure that you are following the law exactly to save yourself from lawsuits and hefty financial obligations.

Week One EOC: Sacrifices I Am Willing To Make For My Career

What sacrifices am I willing to make in order to have a successful career after graduation? This is a question that has been bouncing around in my head for some time now. Graduation is coming quickly for me. As it does I need to start thinking about how I am going to form my career. Where will I go? How will I start? Perhaps the most important question is what am I willing to give up?

I used to believe that my career could wait for various reasons; but, as I get closer and closer to graduating, I get more and more excited and realized that my career comes first. I need to focus on my career before anything else. If that means that I have to sacrifice friendships or relationships then I will do so. It will be sad but necessary to ensure that I can get my career off the ground.

Having met the real world face to face recently I realized I am willing to sacrifice my current lifestyle to move forward with my life.  I am more than willing to live poor now to ensure a brighter more comfortable future for tomorrow.

I have always had the idea that suffering now and living better later is better. If you put off giving up some things until later in life, you are ensuring to have a rocky future. If everything is sacrificed early on then you have an uninterrupted future ahead of you.

It is this mindset that I have that allows me to be willing to give up what I have now in order to reach success. I do not believe that I can achieve my dreams without giving up something in return. My end goal in life and in my career is not to be rich and famous. My end goal is to be happy. Sacrifices must always be made to achieve happiness.