Blog

Blogging on Found In Time

2010-10-10 10:58:31

Since most of the work I'm doing these days has to do with Found In Time, I've decided to focus my blogging efforts on that site instead of trying to maintain two blogs. You can still grab my older entries from the list below, but if you want minty-fresh content, head over to the Found In Time site - FoundInTimeFilm.com. When post starts to wrap up, I'll return to posting in two places. Enjoy and as always, please send me your feedback.

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Looking At Mediocre Movies

2010-06-04 05:59:46

Way back in the stone age, when I was starting to pick up HTML and CSS, I looked at a lot of websites to learn good web design. The problem is that looking at a well-designed site doesn't really tell you much, since (ideally) the user experience is seamless. Enter the brilliant WebPagesThatSuck.com, a great teaching aid. It really is possible to learn good design by looking at bad design. As an aside, I find that about half of the film agent, manager, cast, crew, vendor, and production company sites I've visited this year (and that's a LOT) suck. All apples-to-oranges comparisons aside, if you can't communicate clearly in a static, relatively inexpensive medium, why should I do business with you in a fast-paced, capital-intensive one?

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How NOT to Screw Your Sound Editor

2010-05-05 14:31:22

I realize I've been doing "big picture" blog entries lately, and thought it might be good to hone in on an area where independent film folks often get into trouble: post sound. This is w-a-a-a-y too big an area to cover completely in one blog entry. But here are some thoughtful tips on how to plan for sound post.

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When Common Sense Makes No Sense

2010-03-30 07:38:44

I've been thinking a lot lately about certain "every day" concepts and sayings as they apply to the realm of film production. That's a pretty broad topic that has the potential for a great deal of navel-gazing. I'll keep most of the less productive thoughts to myself and pass along a few practical insights. The last blog entry was targeted at producers; this one is probably more applicable to people who are starting out.

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The 5 Most Annoying Things I've Heard Producers Say

2010-03-01 18:53:50

I often feel that I inhabit three different personas. There's the happy-to-be-alive, creative person, who's excited about working in film, tries to see the brighter side of life, and is probably insufferable to be around. Then there's the salty, bitter, but organized line producer, who's tired of slogging it out in the independent film world for little money and less reward. Both personas wrestle for control with the geek who loves to take stuff apart, learn new programming languages, play with Photoshop for hours, and be a mini-MacGyver ('look, I fixed a fan that originally cost me 10 dollars').
This week it's the salty dog's turn, to talk about the five most annoying phrases uttered by producers. You have been warned.

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