Production Quality vs Authenticity
I used to believe that production value was detrimental to presenting authenticity in performance. I thought a stripped down street performance as more real than a Hollywood movie. I was afraid to make things too polished as to avoid pushing my audience away. Entertainment is fake A painter uses paints (pigments that block light) to […]
Favorite Garage Portrait Lighting
This is my favorite way to easily light for a portrait. Get out of direct sunlight and let the ambient light outside a garage door light the subject. It’s pretty straight forward. The ultimate would be a black garage, but this white one with all the garage-type stuff does fine. I have an extra light […]
Generosity + Security
Seth Godin recently put out a podcast about protecting ideas which funnily sounds like it was written by me. I don’t spend a lot of time trying to protect my ideas. I have faith that the things I create are not easy to implement I like making new things because they need to be made […]
You’re the Hero
I’ve spent a lot of energy in my past waiting for a hero to save me creatively, financially, business-wise, socially, etc. The hero always came, but it was always me. I want to remind my readers that we have a lot of awesome parts. If we survived this long, we’re making it work. Things might […]
Followers ain’t Fans
Think of things we are fans of. We tell people about them, we look forward to the next thing they create, and most importantly we buy from them. For someone or thing to deserve our fandom, it needs to be awesome, yes… but it also needs… brand / unique identity consistency benevolence prolificness dependability value […]
Get The Reps
My relationship with practice was not good as a kid. I thought practice was about non-stop self-criticism and really sinking in to the fact that I’m messing up over and over. “I’m not good enough” was the mantra. We’re now in an age of over-educated and under-experienced creatives. We have so many ways to learn […]
Buoyancy
The message is not positivity or optimism or silliness or cleverness. The message is a story of resilience. Even our saddest great journeys have a glimmer of hope for the hero. Let’s send out a beacon of buoyancy to the world today. That’s the light that spreads. Positivity without humanity is cynicism.
Not for Everyone: Entertainment Long Tail
A lot of us keep struggling to be popular. If only everyone knew about us, we would be loved by everyone and it would be great! Popular is not the only approach, and thanks to the new climate of the world, unpopular things are even more desired and accessible. We can be unpopular and cash […]
Entertainment Responsibility = Generosity
When we say “I’ll do this thing,” then we do that thing to top level, we are doing a generous act. We are being leaders. We are telling our audience “You relax, I’m serving you everything you need in this realm.” It’s not easy to say “I will be a standup comedian.”(promising lots of laughs) […]
Ask For Feedback
When trying to reconnect with someone who trusts us, we often think completely backwards on three things. Give them a lot of information Try to help them Ask them for something big TMI, Pal A big huge email is a lot of responsibility. This is the gift we’re giving someone when we perfectly craft a […]
The Diff: Webcam / Fancy Camera
Some other things to consider that I forgot to mention in the video… mounting a webcam is meant to sit on a desk or mount on a computer. that’s easy. It’s light weight. A zv1 or other camera will need some kind of screw mount; either a tripod or some kind of camera tripod adapter […]
Our Entertainment Competition Illusion
One incredible part of taking a commercial acting class from Chuck Marra & Megan Foley Marra was the opportunity to sit in on a whole day of auditions. I sat in the back of the audition room with two other students watching 67 actors. We heard the same four sentences about an Indiana gas company […]