Get At Me World!

This last year of school has gone by so quickly. I’ve had so many great experiences and so many amazing opportunities. I’ve also had the pleasure to meet dozens of influential people. I graduate in 5 days with a Masters degree! I’m proud to say that I soon will be the first person in my family to graduate with a Masters degree. I am so grateful for my family for supporting me and loving me through the last few years. They believed in me and still have faith that I have what it takes to be successful doing what I love.

            I have big plans for my future and I don’t count on them being easy. My parents always told me that you could do anything you set your mind to. I believe them and I believe in myself. I plan to move to NY in the near future to begin my journey. I will work for a production company to gain experience and learn how a real company operates. With in the next year or two I plan to take my production company “Red Scarf Creative” and begin competing with all the big name production companies all over the world. We make bold decisions and will establish ourselves as a top film production company. We plan to specialize in the production of music videos.  We will then move to commercials once we have created a reputation for quality work. We are also in the planning stages of creating short films that we plan on sending to festivals with in the next year.

            I want to thank everyone who has followed this blog this past year. I hope you’ve learned something new or at least were entertained by my opinions on the industries latest updates. I will not continue posting on this blog but will continue blogging on my own personal website as well as twitter and facebook. I have provided links below for anyone who is interested in following this trip I call life. Thank you and good day!

http://www.getryansheehy.com/

https://www.facebook.com/GetRyanSheehy

https://twitter.com/#!/GetRyanSheehy

Get at me world!

KICK STARTER [dot] com

During this weeks blog post I will be talking about alternative ways to fund your creative ventures. Everyone utilizes different methods to fund their personal projects. Some people use their own money and some people have bake sales. If a person is dedicated and has all their heart put into their personal project; they will eventually find the funding to produce.

There are several websites that you can visit that can help you raise funds for your business ventures. I have found one website that’s been around for a few years now that specializes in helping creative people fund their own creative projects. This platform is known as KickStarter.com

The idea behind Kick Starter is brilliant. This is a video platform where you create and edit your own pitch video for anyone to view on the Kick Starter website. People are then able to view your pitch video and if it is something that they are interested in, then they will donate to the cause.  There is a catch though. You must set a goal for your project. You need to set an amount of money that you need to create your project and you need to set an amount of time that you have to raise that money. If you don’t meet your goal in time, then no money is taken from the donor and you get squat. This insures that the people making the videos don’t use the money for anything other then the projects as promised.

I have known several people who have used kick-starter to fund their short films, clothing lines, and small businesses.  Below I have attached a pitch video that a close friend of mine created in order to gain funding for his short film titled “Moon”. The project has been shot and is currently in the final editing stages.  Enjoy this clip and Utilize this website, it is a great method to fund you creative projects. 

Guy Kawasaki

On this weeks blog post I will be taking about an angel investor and business professional,Guy Kawasaki . Guy was born and grew up in a rough town in Honolulu, Hawaii called Kalihi.

Guy claims that he was not poor but he had a tough childhood growing up. He lived in a rough part of town and did see much of his father who was always working.

One of Guy biggest role models growing up was his English Teacher Harold Keables. Keables taught Guy that the biggest part of writing was editing. This lead  guy to writing 10 books. And as Guy jokes “one book ten times”

He has received his bachelors in psychology, Masters in from UCLA and his Doctorate from Badson Collage. During Collage he worked for a jeweler where he learned how to sell. Guy claims that this is where he begun learning business.

After collage Guy went back and forth between many jobs working for both Microsoft and Apple computers. Guy has also started several businesses. One being an Angel investor firm called Garage.com. Guys business helps small and up coming business raise money. Today Guy now invests money into smaller companies to get them started in exchange for a percentage of the company. Gradge.com is now a venture capital firm.

In one of Guys blogs he speaks about the Keys to writing a successful business plan. Guy writes a business plan not just towards investors explaining financials, but also towards management of a company explaining objectives and then the how’s, when’s, where’s, and who’s. 

Another helpful key I took from Guy was “Less is more”. Guy says this referring to the length of business plans. Keeping a business plan at 20 pages or shorter will increase the chances that it will be read. Guy also states that every 10 pages over 20 pages will give it a 25% less chance of being read. Investors want you to get straight to the point. If it’s worth their time, then they will throw you a bone.

http://bpexpertviews.blogspot.com/

http://www.guykawasaki.com/about/

http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/01/the_zen_of_busi.html#axzz1ZBZHQ400

Search Engine Optimization & Photography

So search engine optimization is my topic of this weeks blog post. By reading some of my blogs you may have noticed that I post a bit about filmmaking and photography… Well Photographers are known for having a large web presence. A lot of photographers have websites with a large number of impressions daily. If you don’t have a huge web presence and you’re a photographer, I found the perfect website for you.

Check out this website. It has 10 awesome tips for Search engine optimization!

http://blog.webdistortion.com/2009/03/26/seo-for-images-photography/

I will now go over a photo of mine and show how I’ve utilized some of these tips. Image keyword planning is the first tip. This tip is pretty much telling you to be specific. Being broad is not going to get you to the top of search results on google. This website used the example “Large oak tree” I’m going to use an example from one of my own photos on flickr.

 

Happy old man

Jim was a happy man today

83 years old and still got it.

www.Getryansheehy.com

Tags below:

"Old man" "hot girls" “83 year old man” “beach sunset” “napels florida” "golf coast” “swimsuit model” “happy old man” “West coast” “models” “Bright light"

“ Gorgeous swimsuit models”

This photo also appears in several groups that are targeted towards specific audiences. I posted the photo in a few flickr groups such as Photography students, flickrista, editorial photography, and group with experience. I gave this photo a title that is comedic when it is paired with the photo. In the description I included my website to promote myself.  My website is currently in the making and does not include much of my work yet but it already has over 4000 page views in less then a month. Another thing that I utilized is Tagging. With in my tagging I included several essential tags that will help optimize my photo for search. I included things such as photo description, location, and esthetics of the photo.

Please check out that website and help yourself to some awesome tips!

For this blog post I will be talking about the new Red Epic and the 5D Mark II. I have provided a link to a Film Riot test shoot comparing both cameras side by side shooting the same scenes with the same lighting. It was very curious to how closely the images compared. I am an owner of the 5D Mark II. I love this camera and use it for both photography and for videographer. It is a great piece of equipment at a very affordable price to professional filmmakers. Unfortunately because of the design of this camera, there are many faults that come along with it. One huge problem is that the camera is shooting on a 21megapixel sensor. The Red camera is shooting on a 14-megapixel sensor. This may confuse some users. To the average person a 21 mp camera sounds better then a 14 mp camera. So I will break this down for you. The 5D shoots HD video. 1920 x 1080 that is around the resolution of maybe 8 megapixels… possibly less. This being the case, 21 mp at a resolution of well over 5000 would have to squeeze down to the size of an HD size image. This comes with aliasing, line skipping, slow refresh rates, and rolling shutter. All of these problems are a huge down fall for DSLR users. The Red epic camera offers a 14 mp sensor. This is much better because there is no squeeze factor. This camera doesn’t just shoot HD video. This camera also shoots 2K 4K and 5K. These resolutions surpass those of 35mm motion picture film. With that said, 14mp has the same amount of lines as a 5K image. This camera is the future of filmmaking. There have been several Hollywood films that have already begun shooting with this high quality digital camera. Films like the new Spiderman, and the New Pirates of the Caribbean. I am happy to say that I will be shooting a music video using the Red Epic camera in late September. I am very excited to be working with the Red jumpsuit apparatus again and being able to play with this amazing camera! Thanks for reading! New website! www.Ryansheehy.US http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZKIi4KfHec&feature=relmfu

Entertainment Law blog V2

Copyright or Censorship
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sieMkGRcxuU
This first video I choose to watch dealt with Youtubes very strict Copyright infringement laws. The narrator Anthony Lawson had a tiff with Youtube stating that one of his videos was in violation of copyright infringement. Youtube did not give him any other detail about his violation. Youtube had taken his video down and then threatened to take down his account and all of his videos if it ever happens again. Anthony compares Youtube to the Soviet Union stating that according to Youtube you are Guilty until proven innocent. Youtube penalizes you and then threatens you before they even tell you exactly the crime you committed. Anthony’s video is somewhat comedic and witty and it lightens the situation a bit. His case stands that his videos are all spoken on topics that are very opinionated and controversial. He believes that someone made a claim, which only inconvenienced him.

Charlie Crist Official Apology to David Byrne for Copyright Infringement
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4k13LmlcUE
This video was an Apology video sent to David Byrnes. Charlie who was running for a government position had an ad campaign that utilized David’s song with out his permission. Charlie got into a bit of trouble for this legally. This is a common law suit when it comes to film. People think that even if they purchase a song that they have licensing to it. I have already told myself that I will not be producing any promotional content with any songs that I do not have the rights to use. If I don’t have rights and the video doesn’t count as fair use, then the music should and will be left out.

Going out of business sales are a rip off.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYcXa2rvHSo

This was a news bit from ABC news in 2008 that focused on liquidation sales from two closing companies Linen n things and Circuit city. There was a secret camera that they brought into the store that they used to uncover this conspiracy known as liquidation sales. This brings up lawsuits of misrepresentation, which can get their liquidators in a bit of trouble. The secret cameras revealed that the underneath the stickers that marked the new price, there were stickers that marked the old price. In most cases the old prices were 20-30 dollars cheaper on select items in the store. What the store did was boot all the prices up to the original retail price and then knocked them down 10-20%. The stores originally known for their deals would sell these same items on clearance for 30 to 50% cheaper. Misrepresentation can be a big factor in the advertising world that can potentially get you sued. As the filmmaker I would like to find out if misrepresentation would be targeted at the goods or services company or the filmmakers that create the advertisement.

Entertainment Law

For my 8 followers,

I will be repeating a previous blog with all new information. This blog will focus on Entertainment Law and ways you can get sued. So listen up and do the opposite of everything you read here!

I read an article about one of Brittany Spears’s latest music videos “Hold it against me”. It is well known that this video is filled with product placement. That is because Sony is one of her largest endorsers. One thing that she could have gotten the filmmakers sued was the lack of advertising in the videos. I am sure that Brittany’s record label had a requirement of screen time that the Sony labels had to be in the video. If the Filmmakers did not provide enough advertising in the video then Sony would not be happy and probably try to sue the filmmakers.

http://www.billboard.com/news/britney-spears-hold-it-against-me-video-1005042232.story

While searching for lawsuits I stumbled upon a pretty good site that explains how to avoid sticky situations with the law. Always get the proper right for the music that you play in your films. There is more then one kind. You will need “Synchronization rights, a master use license, soundtrack rights, and performing rights…” This article also discusses rights and Licenses; also control of the project. Everyone behind the scenes must be on the same page for story as well as business and distribution.

http://entertainment-law.lawyers.com/blogs/archives/7811-Filmmakers-How-to-Avoid-Lawsuits,-Part-I-of-II.html

Probably one of the most recent law cases in Film would have to be the use Mike Tyson’s facial tattoo created by Victor Whitman. Mr. Whitman stated that Warner Brother’s did not attempt to contact him to gain rights to use his artwork to promote their film. This was a bad decision on Warner brother’s part. Victor had the ability to stunt the release date. Instead Warner bothers bought out Victors tattoo and now has the rights to the artwork for life. Warner brothers learned their lesson. Get rights or don’t use someone else’s material.

http://jathomaslaw.com/blog/?cat=8