If you didn’t know I’m already a fan of J.J. Abrams, didn’t watch “Felicity” but I started paying attention after “Alias” and I’ve seen everything he’s ever had is hands in making. This is a great talk about the what inside the mystery box.
The mystery box can be anything, the fun part is figuring it out.
Any content creators want to help make mystery boxes?
Hmmm… maybe I’ll give Felicity a second chance.
What? A visual guy doing an audio podcast? That’s right I had my trusty Zoom H2 with me so I talked to a few people. The place was noisy and packed with people I think my H2 did a great good job of picking up the conversations. I have several and I’ll post them over the next few days.
Now about the summit. What a night! A lot of energy and hope being brought to Chicago last night. Great speakers and a lot of motivation. With the idea of people working together and figuring you how we can become the New Media Capital. This was just a preview to what is coming in Sept.
There is already a lot going on in this town but an event like this will start linking up the individuals and companies that want to get it done and get more out of the work they are doing. CNMS08 is putting the world on notice!
My first talk is with Marilyn McConnell, Director of Sales for Pixel Brothers. I think she knew the night went well too.
“Veoh wants to move beyond the PC to mobile devices, and is putting a lot of resources behind developing its behavioral ad targeting platform for video.”
You can read the full story from TechCrunch here,
Yeah I want “behavioral ad targeting” and so should you. Here’s why…
As a consumer I tired, TIRED of seeing ads that have nothing to do with me. I never want to see Comcast, female hygiene products, hair-loss pills, or male enhancement drugs. Why should I? It’s a waste of time for me it’s a big waste of money for the advertisers. I do want to see ads that know what I want. I might not always buy it but I’ve got a greater chance of doing just that.
As a content creator, it would be great to have ads that is relevant to my content or might be relevant to my viewers. That way it enhances the content and they are less annoyed by commercials breaks.
A few notes:
1. It really does have to be relevant ads.
2. You can’t share my profile with my friends or make it public, (no one cares what I just bought online)
3. The ads have to be different than repurposed commercial breaks. I just watch something that was 2 minutes long. The commercials shouldn’t be longer than what I just watched.
This will be a whole new. I know people will resist this and think it’s weird or creepy. But I want to know where to sign up so hey get my commercial feed just right. I think once people see how much better things will be more people will adopted it.
Here’s a must read for any content creator out there. Rebel Alliance by David Kushner at Fast Company. I have to admit I missed this the first time I got my issue of Fast Company. I got caught up in the “Ning” article because I was working on making a few Ning groups. Plus I was reading a few books that centered around “LOST” the very stuff they are talking about in the story! Oh yeah ands some stuff in Heroes, and Battlestar… whatever those shows rock!
A friend of mine mentioned this to me and was surprised I missed it since I pretty much talk his head of about this stuff and he tends to get a glaze over his eyes every time I talk about “transmedia”. I didn’t have a name for it so maybe that’s why he got a glaze… But, that’s what they call it’s just as good as any. Thanks Fast Company!
I think you could do this with just about any show. There’s no need for shows to really go off when the season is over. It’s just more opportunity to dig your fans in deeper. They could have done with Gilmore Girls. Yeah I watched that too. They could have had a website that looked like Stars Hallow Village website and you could go to town meetings and vote on things thing in the town, or tried to vote certain Councilmen off the Village Board, you know who I’m talking about. Anyway I’m getting off track.
This is a tremendous opportunity for show to reach out and find new audiences not to mention bringing up talent that is just chomping at the bit to get the chance to create this kind of stuff. I don’t want to just say “new” talent. Because there are a lot of people in places that don’t fit into the age range of “new”. They are just talent and should still be looked at as a resource.
I suggest though when shows want to make this leap they should reach out to fans of the show that have the production skills to pull this off. Not only would they treat the show with respect but they already know more about the show than most of the writers I bet. And these days it won’t take nearly as many people as you think.
But I’m just going to toss this out there. This works with anything like theme parks and nature preserves as well. I’m picking them because it drive me nuts that they are missing such a great opportunity. But I’ll just stick with a Zoo for example. Last weekend the wife and I were at the St. Louis Zoo. I know they like to sell you over priced food and plush toys for the kids but every time I look around I see plants and trees I think are fantastic. Why don’t they sell those too? I’m sure some of them are grown there or near by. How else do they keep the park beautiful? Just grow a few more and sell them see what happens.
Since I’m not buying the food or the toys, why not the plants? It’s just another great way to spread the Zoo’s message and give me something unique to talk about and share.
If you don’t think you can do it with your show drop me a line. Chances are I’ve seen your show. I’m kind of silly that way. I bet I would have some ideas.
I’ve been using Celtix to write scripts for video shorts, for about 6 months now and have to say it’s fantastic! If you’re writing a script for a movie, television and even plays. You should give this a try. I’ve tried out Final Draft and a few other script programs. I will say I only tried them out during their demo period which was very generous but it just didn’t cut the mustard for what I needed.
But what Celtx is really good for is writing scripts for web-fiction and mini series style scripts. It’s great for the whole project and keeping track of many scripts that will make up the many episodes. That was the main thing I wanted.
In the project library you can place all your assets, scripts, character descriptions, location descriptions, props, animals, stunts, effects, the list goes on and on. You can give as much detail about these assets as you want and it’s easy to manage. As you add them and you write about them you are prompted for those assets as you write. I’m sure that’s standard among other script tools.
I’m really only scratching the surface with Celtx and as I get deeper in to the stories I’m working on and the characters I’ll be using the asset generator to keep track of thing and help develop my stories.
One of the best features of Celtx is the ability to collaborate with other writers. I’m already using it that way and they even provide a server for the exchange of the project files.
If you want you can open it up for other people to read and get feedback on. Not sure if I’m ready to do that just yet but as far as sharing with my co-writers it’s great. There can be some issues when exchanging the project files but it’s pretty easy to over come so try saving different file names at first till you see how the different assets are merging.
If you are looking for a loaded script writing software this one is for you. Let me know what you think.
Now does someone has any ideas for getting older typed out screenplays into a digital format that I can dump into this or any text editing program I would appreciate any advice. My original scripts are not in a digital format. Sorry it’s very old school.
Celtx is available in Windows, Linux and OS X. It’s all open source and free! What’s stopping you?
If you get a really good fortune from a cookie does it start from the time you finished your Chinese meal or when you finally get around to eating the cookie?
I just want to know when to start the clock.
Right on Discovery Channel! It makes the world look like a fun place.
I’ve shown this to a few people and they were like so? But for me it’s World 2.0. I like the idea of everyone working together and singing a song and just being amazed by this world and all it has to offer. Not only in nature but it’s people too.
For some reason I feel like drinking a coke…
I won’t bother anyone with my nerd explanations of why this commercial doesn’t make sense, but I just have to know…
Can someone please tell me why Mars is the in the background?
Is Woods on Phobos or Deimos?
Yeah I’m a nerd and proud of it. I’d like the Art Director, Commercial Director or the Product Manager to explain why our beautiful blue marble is red. Did they just want to match the drink?
Ok, yeah I will bother you… the audio says “Tranquility”, “The Eagle has Landed” yeah maybe a vague golf reference but both are moon references. Not only that we see the Earth at the beginning…
I guess I’m going to answer my own question… maybe he’s aiming for the Mars because he’s already concurred Earth? At least make him look through a big honkin’ telescope to line up his shot for what should have been a tiny red dot!
I guess they haven’t watched the History Channel!
Have you always wondered why you hear about the film contest about 1 week before it’s due… Well sign up here and you’ll hear about some great film making contests in enough time to get your masterpiece done.
Filmaka.com also has a nice selection of international shorts that are worth checking out.
It’s a simple rule when I find a cord of mine that needs a tie it gets it! No exceptions, yeah even the small USB cables. The great thing about these is they have a built in loop to keep it attached to the cable so you’ll never loose it.
This is a must have in every video makers took kit. I keep them right next to my trusty Swiss Army Knife. I always carry at least one roll of these in my book back and my camera bag. They cost around 5 to 7 dollars but having them on the roll is worth it.
You can find out more the brand here, or try to find them at Lowes. Even on their website they only list these. As you’ll notice you can buy them in a 5 pack for 3 dollars. I personally don’t care about the color codes. I just want my cable to stay wrapped. If you find them in the store buy everything they have because you’ll never see them again there. I mean why would they sell you 50 for 5 bucks when they can sell you 5 pretty colored one for 5 bucks.
Now I just wish the company that makes these would give me a widget to put on my site. So I could get a steady supply of these. Believe me you start getting to the end of the roll fast and you think what am I going to do?
Film by Sean McMenemy
Hello Lombard
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