An artist whose work I respect quite a lot posted earlier today that he was amazed by the number of friends he had vs the number of comments he got on work, events etc. I have to say that I feel the same thing on here, I have 392 "friends" on here but far less than half that as "Likes" on my studio site...I won't go there because it's just whining.
Ron Gilbert coined the phrase "The illusion of Interactivity" back in my Lucasfilm days, convincing the player that they have freewill when, in fact, they are only hamsters in a semi complex maze. Facebook and other social media sites want us to believe that all of our "friends" on the site see all of our posts. That is what most people actually INFER, despite the fact that FACEBOOK (in particular) send out memos about changes in their service, usually to the benefit of the investors and the detriment of subscribers, but these are read less then they are and get lost in the wash of cast photos and raging political trolls.
At best estimate you can expect 35% of your "friends" (how many of these folks have you actually met?). Once you actually send out to the people FACEBOOK selects to send your post to it appears in those peopl'e newsfeed. There it competes with political rants, adorable cats, FACEBOOK ads and TONS of articles on LINKBAIT sites.
Now we get into a Social media version of the Drake Equation, you have sent out the post (to the people who FACEBOOK or whoever think should receive it), it has been dumped into the social bouillabaisse of their news feed, you have fended off the linkbait, avoided the internet street corner screamer, pummeled the cat (doggedly telling you to HANG IN THERE) and have arrived at your viewer. At this point you have to make enough an impact on their retina to wake them up and get their attention. Then you have to get past the mental "shrug" of them just thinking "huh" then going back to the cat picture for their daily motivation.
So you have gotten past the FABCEBOOK Gate Keepers, ended off the adorable animals, gotten their attention...NOW you have to get them to ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING! Social media for the most part is there for people to AVOID doing something, and you want them to PARTICIPATE?? They have to move the mouse to click the LIKE button, to comment they have to THINK!
Look at the shape of the world these days do you see much evidence of people actually THINKING???
So if you actually reach a few individuals who respond, count yourself blessed!
Monday, January 12, 2015
Saturday, January 10, 2015
...and God Winked YET AGAIN
Friday I had a series of medical visits. The first was to meet with a nutritionist, the latter to meet with my GP about progress with my Heart Failure recovery.
The first one was interesting in that I discovered that I have, when I want, the ability to listen when I should and retain important information. In this case it was in regards to my diet and eating habits. Since my diagnosis I have become obsessive about the amount of liquid I drink and the amount of salts I consume and when I shared that with this practitioner of the nutritional arts she was most pleased. She sent me away with some handy fliers and a good feeling about what I knew I should be doing, I just need to keep putting it into practice. Not as easy as it may sound as I have come to the conclusion that my generation, late baby boomers or "tweeners" as we are often called, have served as sort of "crash test dummies" for the food industry and my eating habits reflect that.
My second meeting, the one with my GP was also quite upbeat, which is nice considering the last time I had visited that Kaiser I was in the emergency room. My Doctor told me that despite the gloomy demeanor of my cardiologist (who assured me was the best in his field but could be rather abrupt when dealing with patients) I was doing well. I received assurances that if I apply myself (as I know that I should) that I can regain more of vitality and energy. I just need to stick to the program.
Work has been slow this week in the studio, paying work I mean from clients, so I have been working on regaining my facility with some that formed the backbone of my identity for a very long time. You might say it actually was the work that I was meant to do. That is 3D modeling and animation. It has been like dancing with an old partner and realizing that even though you have been apart for years that when you are together you rhythms match perfectly and everything just flows. It has felt like that. At the same time though I kept hearing the voice of "reason" telling me that going back to something I love so much, when there is no promise of work attached, was foolish and I would be better served to be cold calling potential clients for web design etc.
My friend Pier says that at moment like this God often chooses to "wink" at you. Today God winked at me in the form of afternoon exhaustion (my Doctor says all of my current problems stem from lack of sleep and that is something I will be working on in the coming weeks) and a movie I had not seen (but wanted to). The film was HUGO, based on the book THE NOTEBOOK OF HUGO CABRET (which I loved. Martin Scorcese is one of my favorite directors and many of my friends had been shocked when I told them I had not seen this film in particular, that they (my friends) thought it was film MADE for me in particular.
I often draw lessons from films, like Sufi teaching stories or Zen Koans. I didn't really expect anything like that from this film but I warmed up some pasta and settle down to hopefully fall asleep. There were messages in the film though, not tin foil hat kind of messages but aspects of the story that spoke directly to me like a targeting LASER. So now I sit in front of the computer, writing this and trying to decide if I should try and sleep or continue to work on this project I have set myself, safe in the knowledge that thing remain better than I thought they are at the beginning of the week, and in the background I hear the universe chuckling at me...
The first one was interesting in that I discovered that I have, when I want, the ability to listen when I should and retain important information. In this case it was in regards to my diet and eating habits. Since my diagnosis I have become obsessive about the amount of liquid I drink and the amount of salts I consume and when I shared that with this practitioner of the nutritional arts she was most pleased. She sent me away with some handy fliers and a good feeling about what I knew I should be doing, I just need to keep putting it into practice. Not as easy as it may sound as I have come to the conclusion that my generation, late baby boomers or "tweeners" as we are often called, have served as sort of "crash test dummies" for the food industry and my eating habits reflect that.
Work has been slow this week in the studio, paying work I mean from clients, so I have been working on regaining my facility with some that formed the backbone of my identity for a very long time. You might say it actually was the work that I was meant to do. That is 3D modeling and animation. It has been like dancing with an old partner and realizing that even though you have been apart for years that when you are together you rhythms match perfectly and everything just flows. It has felt like that. At the same time though I kept hearing the voice of "reason" telling me that going back to something I love so much, when there is no promise of work attached, was foolish and I would be better served to be cold calling potential clients for web design etc.
My friend Pier says that at moment like this God often chooses to "wink" at you. Today God winked at me in the form of afternoon exhaustion (my Doctor says all of my current problems stem from lack of sleep and that is something I will be working on in the coming weeks) and a movie I had not seen (but wanted to). The film was HUGO, based on the book THE NOTEBOOK OF HUGO CABRET (which I loved. Martin Scorcese is one of my favorite directors and many of my friends had been shocked when I told them I had not seen this film in particular, that they (my friends) thought it was film MADE for me in particular.
I often draw lessons from films, like Sufi teaching stories or Zen Koans. I didn't really expect anything like that from this film but I warmed up some pasta and settle down to hopefully fall asleep. There were messages in the film though, not tin foil hat kind of messages but aspects of the story that spoke directly to me like a targeting LASER. So now I sit in front of the computer, writing this and trying to decide if I should try and sleep or continue to work on this project I have set myself, safe in the knowledge that thing remain better than I thought they are at the beginning of the week, and in the background I hear the universe chuckling at me...
Friday, January 9, 2015
Quote found on the Loo...
I was about to sit down on the potty to get my business done when I looked to an article in Forbes. I came to the article through FACEPLACE and what it's content was is actually irrelevant, the ad that came on before it became the important bit:
"In the midst of winter, I that there was, within me, and invincible summer.
And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there's something stronger - something better, pushing right back."
-Albert Camus
In the face of 2015 starting out in a less than stellar manner, and dreams coming vividly to me last night of Robin Williams in a War Zone and a vast open barracks, built inside a cathedral filled with Marines who were in turn filled with despair. In face of all this a simple quote mad me feel better.
Here's hoping you find your quote of the day..today and everyday.
And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there's something stronger - something better, pushing right back."
-Albert Camus
In the face of 2015 starting out in a less than stellar manner, and dreams coming vividly to me last night of Robin Williams in a War Zone and a vast open barracks, built inside a cathedral filled with Marines who were in turn filled with despair. In face of all this a simple quote mad me feel better.
Here's hoping you find your quote of the day..today and everyday.
Thursday, January 8, 2015
Dealing with Nutbags...
SO yesterday a bunch of nutbags went into the offices of a French satirical magazine and killed 12 people with assault rifles. They did it to avenge the honor of a man who has been dead for several hundred years, honor that had been besmirched because the people in the office drew funny pictures of the dead guy.
Notice I am leaving the whole idea of philosophy and religion out of this discussion because the truth is, no matter what your cause of belief system you never have the right to kill another person because of it. Full Stop. Period. End of story. You can look at it from another way, if you have the right to do that to one someone who doesn't believe the way you do the, by extension, someone else has the right to come into your home or office and kill YOU.
Don't use justification based on the fervor of you belief or how important they are to you, that just makes you sound like an eight year old who is explaining why it was his right to eat the cake that was for dinner or a room mate who uses Sartre to establish her imperative for eating your leftovers from Beni-hanna the night before, it don't fly.
Now before you write me off as pacifist understand that I come from both a military family and have a profound understanding of the history here on this Blue Marble. There are times when one group of people (or individual) get so out of hand from the accepted norm that they have to be dealt with. The Nazi are the prime example of this, although I hate to invoke that word ("Nazi") because there is the chance of triggering the social triggers they carry with them, namely that when yo compare another person or another individual to a Nazi you immediately lose veracity in your argument. Still it is an example when the rest of society looked at the actions of a group of people and said:
"You know you really shouldn't do that"
to which the Nazis replied
"Piss off"
So then the majority of people got together and decided to reason with the nazis...with extreme prejudice.
Can you see the difference? If you can't then please stop reading my BLOG because at one point or another I am sure I will say something offensive and I don't want you charging into my studio with a gun and a balaclava.
Wednesday, January 7, 2015
Going Buggy
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Tuesday, January 6, 2015
Stream on consciousness #01 for 2015
Breakfast can be such a hassle when you have a dickie ticker (bad heart). Most people pay little or no attention to nutrition and how hard it is to really get it in America these days, they just buy what they like or what shouts the loudest at them on TV. When you find yourself having to address the issue, look at the facts (minus as much hyperbole as possible) you quickly discover that since the 1950s the population of the US has been used as an endless stream of CRASH TEST DUMMIES for the food industry (I refuse to call them BIG FOOD because that sounds like a pitch for McDonald's or Denny's). Knowledge of what has what effect on what part of your body can leave you paralyzed with fear, staring at an open refrigerator or cupboard. Even though the scale revealed the horrible effects of this past holiday season I went for a cuppa joe and a bagel smeared with Orange Marmalade from Scotland.
Monday, January 5, 2015
Insertion
Had a pretty good day yesterday, finished up another quick snippet from a Video CoPilot Tutorial (trying to do at least one a day) as well as got more work done on setting things right in the shop/studio/green screen room. The latter is slow going because I have so much to clean and get rid of but I am making progress.
The most recent shot I did was very satisfying in that I have reached a level of facility that everything just flows, which is where I need to be. I am not going to get work doing tutorials though, which is why the green screen room is so important going forward. At the same time they provide a way to exercise my VFX muscles, learn more and most of all THINK.
The latter can be a curse though because I am very adept at doublespeak and that can lead to downward turns. So as I am working away at my videos I try and keep an open mind and not get too impressed with myself and what I am doing. I have to "readjust" my timeline and remind myself that I am no longer staring in rapt awe at somebody from ILM, hearing about how this new fangled doo-hickey called motion capture is gonna revolutionize film and remind myself that the iPhone 6 has build in slo-mo, image stabilization and more memory than the CRAY XMP had at Digital productions. I need to remember that kids in high school learn motion tracking before they master algebra.
Still, here's yesterday's shot for your perusal.
The latter can be a curse though because I am very adept at doublespeak and that can lead to downward turns. So as I am working away at my videos I try and keep an open mind and not get too impressed with myself and what I am doing. I have to "readjust" my timeline and remind myself that I am no longer staring in rapt awe at somebody from ILM, hearing about how this new fangled doo-hickey called motion capture is gonna revolutionize film and remind myself that the iPhone 6 has build in slo-mo, image stabilization and more memory than the CRAY XMP had at Digital productions. I need to remember that kids in high school learn motion tracking before they master algebra.
Still, here's yesterday's shot for your perusal.
Sunday, January 4, 2015
Resolutions and bucket lists
It's so nice that I hold no stock in New Years Resolutions, it makes it much easier that the couple I didn't really instantiate but thought about have already been broken. A pal of mine posted of MYFACE that he had gone to the gym everyday for a year, I have yet to be since the start of the new year. Also yesterday I was so caught up in the hurly burly of my Quixotic pursuit of my bucket list that I did not make it back to the BLOG to entertain you all, my dear imagined readers.
I had not heard the term "Bucket List" before the film of the same name came out a couple of years ago, a film I have not so much avoided as just ignored. Once I had learned of the concept I spent some active time trying to forget about it. You get like that, actively denying, when you are in transition from youth to age and have a bad heart.
"I'm not old, I'm not old" goes the mantra, repeated like a metronome as you time the next beat of your damaged heart.
Now though I am being more realistic about it, there ARE things I want to see/do before I shuffle off this mortal coil. None of them involve base jumping (I mean jumping out of a perfectly good airplane with a parachute is bad enough, climbing to a really high place to jump...yeah right), some involve travel, all involve cameras.
From the outside of my skin it looks like I don't do much other than work, Pier gets on me about. Friends in the past have done the same. Jeff was possibly one of the few people who understood why I am the why I am. Set aside the "adult onset autism" that causes me to ccocoonin front of my computer and you will find that I simply love what I do. That is not to say though that what I am doing is what I really WANT to do and that is where the perversity of my bucket list comes into lay. A lot of people have told me...
"When you are laying on your deathbed your last thoughts won't be I WISH I HAD WORKED MORE!'
...very true. In my case, however, it will be more like...
"...I wish I had done better work!"
When I set my feet on that road that Bilbo was so afraid of I wanted to make movies, specifically I wanted to be a cinematographer. The trouble is that once it was time for me to go off to college there was no money for me to film school, real film school. I was also distracted by the adventure that was club racing and I went down that road for a few months/years. When I went back to school though it was to study video (something new at that time) and film. I got distracted by the lure of graphic design (something I have alway had a knack for) and a steady paycheck. Still I made a couple of shot films and the love was always there.
That was the way it went, distraction after distraction happened and the money was never there for the tools to do the task. Computer graphics was a link back to the world of film, a train I almost caught, but in the end it all remained just outside the reach of my extended fingers. Once Nicholas came along, well when yo are a Dad your priorities change (up to and including commuting 5 hours a day).
The anxiety of last year though set me to thinking that life is too short and if I want to do tis, now is the time. Additionally we live in an AMAZING time for geeks like me, the tools to do film quality work are 1/10000th of what they used to cost and the distribution avenues are many and varied. It give me motivation to go to the gym, 'cause I want to live to see what is next.
GOtta go, need to get outta the BLOG and back into After Effects.
I had not heard the term "Bucket List" before the film of the same name came out a couple of years ago, a film I have not so much avoided as just ignored. Once I had learned of the concept I spent some active time trying to forget about it. You get like that, actively denying, when you are in transition from youth to age and have a bad heart.
"I'm not old, I'm not old" goes the mantra, repeated like a metronome as you time the next beat of your damaged heart.
From the outside of my skin it looks like I don't do much other than work, Pier gets on me about. Friends in the past have done the same. Jeff was possibly one of the few people who understood why I am the why I am. Set aside the "adult onset autism" that causes me to ccocoonin front of my computer and you will find that I simply love what I do. That is not to say though that what I am doing is what I really WANT to do and that is where the perversity of my bucket list comes into lay. A lot of people have told me...
"When you are laying on your deathbed your last thoughts won't be I WISH I HAD WORKED MORE!'
...very true. In my case, however, it will be more like...
"...I wish I had done better work!"
That was the way it went, distraction after distraction happened and the money was never there for the tools to do the task. Computer graphics was a link back to the world of film, a train I almost caught, but in the end it all remained just outside the reach of my extended fingers. Once Nicholas came along, well when yo are a Dad your priorities change (up to and including commuting 5 hours a day).
The anxiety of last year though set me to thinking that life is too short and if I want to do tis, now is the time. Additionally we live in an AMAZING time for geeks like me, the tools to do film quality work are 1/10000th of what they used to cost and the distribution avenues are many and varied. It give me motivation to go to the gym, 'cause I want to live to see what is next.
GOtta go, need to get outta the BLOG and back into After Effects.
Friday, January 2, 2015
First Friday
The first Friday of 2015 and the boy is on his way back to school. Kind of an intensely emotional day as one might imagine. I am sorry to see him go but excited to see what he will do this coming semester.
Now that the distractions of the holidays are past I can get back to my real focus, building on the studio. The last 2 years I have spent every spare cent I had (and some I didn't) on the gear I need to do the things I wanted. Some people go base jumping for their "bucket list" I am building an effects studio. In my estimation I have everything I need for a start, except the room to set up a reasonably sized green screen. This is going to be my focus in the coming days, along with taking a cattle prod to clients to get the day to day cash flow flowing once again.
The interesting things about building the green screen area is that to do I have to face the demons of my shop and the boxes and boxes of...stuff. If I was able to look at the contents of those boxes objectively I would be able to say that it is, for the most part, CRAP.
Because of the way my mind works though most everything in there has some sort of emotional attachment (what can I say, I am an emotional kinda guy). I have come to understand though that this accumulation of effluvia has me, quite literally, being held back by my past. If I want to move ahead into the future I will have to shed much of this like a snake sloughing off a skin it has outgrown. Anyone who knows me, I means really knows me, will understand that this is really easier said than done. I have the innate super power that imbibes objects with special properties, far beyond those of mortal men. It is like when an object is attached to a person or an event that is near to my heart i freeze the moment into a tangible aura which I then connect to the object. This being the case you can understand that another part of me, the superstitious part that harkens back to the Black Forrest in winter or the frozen Moors, has a fear that if the object goes the memory goes with it. If I lose the object then I lose a little bit more of something/someone who is gone.
this is easy when we are talking about a few cards but when you infuse books with memories thing pile up. Airbrush texts I used at the start of my career, old discs from project long dust all forge the chain I need to bear. I guess it is time to take out some emotional bolt cutters.
 |
| My field kit as it was when I went off to the 2014 SCCA runoffs. |
The interesting things about building the green screen area is that to do I have to face the demons of my shop and the boxes and boxes of...stuff. If I was able to look at the contents of those boxes objectively I would be able to say that it is, for the most part, CRAP.
Because of the way my mind works though most everything in there has some sort of emotional attachment (what can I say, I am an emotional kinda guy). I have come to understand though that this accumulation of effluvia has me, quite literally, being held back by my past. If I want to move ahead into the future I will have to shed much of this like a snake sloughing off a skin it has outgrown. Anyone who knows me, I means really knows me, will understand that this is really easier said than done. I have the innate super power that imbibes objects with special properties, far beyond those of mortal men. It is like when an object is attached to a person or an event that is near to my heart i freeze the moment into a tangible aura which I then connect to the object. This being the case you can understand that another part of me, the superstitious part that harkens back to the Black Forrest in winter or the frozen Moors, has a fear that if the object goes the memory goes with it. If I lose the object then I lose a little bit more of something/someone who is gone.
this is easy when we are talking about a few cards but when you infuse books with memories thing pile up. Airbrush texts I used at the start of my career, old discs from project long dust all forge the chain I need to bear. I guess it is time to take out some emotional bolt cutters.
Thursday, January 1, 2015
Going Green
Of late, between episodes of "DOC MARTEN" or back episodes of "BIG BANG THEORY" (don't ask) I have been catching up on ARROW, which is a modern take on the GREEN ARROW DC comics I loved when I was a kid. I started reading Green Arrow when Neal Adams was drawing the book, I have always been a huge Neal Adams fan and his work on GA was classic stuff. That was the initial hook that got me into the series, what kept me is what I have started to think of as "B Movie Television".
When I was going to college, and first wanted to work in VFX, they were the province of epic studios with epic wads of cash. By combing that dough with creative people the studios made MOVIE MAGIC, with dual packed film in custom optical printers and motion control cameras that filled up buildings and moved 4 pin Mitchell Camera that weighed the same as a VW Microbus. The stuff those artists, guys like John Dykstra and Robert Abel, did that caught my imagination and I was hooked. I spent a lot of time and money trying to get a chance to work on films back then. I never got to, got sidelined by this new industry called "Computer Games" but I never lost my love or desire for that field.While I was working on TIE FIGHTER for Lucasarts I read an Interview withe George Lucas who said that he saw the next "ILM" coming out of a garage and and staffed with a group of dedicated artists armed with High 8MM cameras a desktop computers. That was when I found myself agreeing with George, again. It was the beginning of "B Movie Filmmaking" in my mind.
Through the 1990s and the early part of this century we saw the rise of the new technology, starting with FOUNDATION IMAGING and their wall of AMIGAS to do BABYLON 5, through STARGATE and BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (and most things done on Syfy) the trend has grown and the ramification of it make me smile like a Cheshire Cat.
Now granted, the huge effects house still dominate films (vis-a-vie the wondrous monster that is WETA) and that will continue to be the case for the most part. Dollars buy processing power and the CPU you have the more you can get done. At the same time though shows like ARROW, and THE FLASH and the king of them all GRIMM continue to blaze a trail for the NEXT generation of VFX guys, the kids who grew up doing motion capture on their phones.
I cannot wait to see what they come up with
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