Posts under 'Business':
This past weekend, Psychic Bunny started production on its very first feature film, “The Echo Game.” It’s a low budget horror film in the style of the slasher films we grew up with and still love, complete with some pretty awesome murder scenes. It’s also a great chance to pull together with a lot of people we have worked with over the years as Psychic Bunny has grown and do something really fun. We’ll keep you updated on production and post as we move forward. It’s going to be a good time.
Here is an incredibly shabby cell phone photo I took on set:
This past weekend I had a very unpleasant interaction with a fellow creator who is in the process of making a feature film. He’s written a script that’s very solid, good even, and he asked for people to read and critique it. I did. And then I discovered that he wasn’t looking for a critique at all, but for unabashed praise of his genius. He refused to accept that there were any problems or inaccuracies in his script, and an already unfortunate discussion just went downhill from there.
But there’s a silver lining to every cloud, right? This whole thing got me thinking about my creative philosophy for success, and how it might differ from other peoples’. I thought it might make a good discussion.
As we plow ever onward into the new media megafuture, one thing thoroughly gumming up the works has been copyright, and what exactly it means in a digital age. Copyright no longer serves its intended purpose, to encourage creativity. The idea was that if a creator could maintain control of their work, other people couldn’t just rip it off, they’d have to go make their own. That’s not how it worked out, digital is making it even worse, and very few people are trying to adapt.
Lots (seriously, LOTS) more below the fold. This is an issue that is ignored, but I believe has a huge impact on the entertainment industry. More people should care.
Pretty good article over at NewTeeVee, apparently tonight YouTube is launching new TubeMogul-like analytics for your videos.
The cool part looks to be these maps that show you how popular your video is all over the world.
The site is down right now as I post this (they are making the very site updates I speak of) but I’m excited to check it out tomorrow. We are HUGE in Canada, and I can’t wait to have more proof of this. I’m also super curious about what states our videos are most popular in. Then we can compare with a map of Hillary/Obama delegates.
Thought this was pretty poignant for everyone who does art/film/fiction.
Since Super Tuesday, the election coverage has been focusing a lot on Obama’s small-donor, grassroots support – a nice little story of how smaller donors have together financed the largest campaign fundraiser in history. This has been possible largely through collective action online (organized through MoveOn.org and the like) and by simple direct response. It’s easy for almost anyone to take a few minutes and Paypal $20, $50, whatever… and that is driving this kind of change.
So I started thinking, why doesn’t something like this exist for film financing? It turns out, it does!
This here is pretty great: This fellow bought a font from Letterheads, and it managed to get uploaded to a file sharing site. He refused to get it taken down, so they want to charge him for the extra downloads that have now been generated. This is a real case of piracy hitting home because the designer that made the font takes home 70% of the sales there, so this is directly affecting him. As the economy becomes more specialized and direct delivery of media becomes a reality, piracy will start to hurt the little guy more and more. Letterheads has had to up the price on that font to pay off the outstanding fee (and get that money back to the artist):
“In order to recoup these losses, LHF Garner must now sell for $39 (32% increase). $9.50 of each sale will go to pay down Randy’s bill. When Randy’s bill has been paid in full ($944), LHF Garner will revert back to it’s original price of $29.50. Of course, if anyone would like to purchase a single copy of LHF Garner for $1000… well, that would work too.”
Oh yeah, and they published Randy’s email address. I like it: Vigilante font justice.
I was thinking about making this post a sort of meta-reflection on the human condition in virtual space, but in the end I wanted to kick my own ass for even thinking such pseudo-intellectualist nonsense. So instead, this important piece of news:
Linden Lab has just stepped in to ban virtual banking inside their Second Life simulation.
This just blows my mind. And here’s why: (more…)
According to this 2008 tax info I just got from the City of Los Angeles, the city has majorly consolidated business activity classifications, so now Psychic Bunny’s operations lie under the category of “Child Care Provider, Multimedia, Telephone Services, and Tugboat and Barge Operators.”
Ok people, so this story starts out, I’m shopping for a new cell phone on http://www.wireless.att.com (I can never remember the web address for that site, so I always just type in www.cingular.com knowing that it will scoot me right there.) I’m waiting til midnight because I’m guessing that there will be good sales on thanksgiving day, and there are. In fact, the new Samsung Blackjack 2 just came out, and it’s only $150, which yesterday, is what the original Blackjack cost. Now the Blackjack 1 is only $75, new, or hey, you could buy it refurbished for $100! I really hope nobody’s that stupid. (I have decided to get the blackjack 2, which is twice as awesome in general and for once I’ll have a new phone on the day it came out. Suck on that, iPhone.)
While I’m shopping online for this phone, and checking on the various specs between the Blackjack 1 and 2, a window pops up. It asks me if I would like to chat to a salesperson about my phone choices. AGGGGHHHH!!!!!
I click “CHAT”….