EOC Week 10 - Final Exam Evaluation

This class has opened my eyes in a perspective that I have never seen the real world in the way this class presents itself. I would have never thought of myself being a businesswoman and that I would understand how to run and create a business. And after learning more and more about what it takes, especially in the creative side, it doesn’t have to be that hard to pull it off. It’s not going to happen overnight, but much planning and preparation needs to be done to make it happen. Knowing what kind of customers you need and how you are going to make these customers want your product (business) is key. Outside of the book and strategy, another thing I have learned from this class is determination and confidence that you can do it and WILL do it. “Action speaks more than words.” My idea for my business plan is a coffee shop with live music. I like mom and pop’s kind of businesses because they are real and they connect with costumers more than just thinking of making it big and receiving money. And after doing this assignment for this class, I have really considered doing and opening this kind of small business someday. It really is something I can see myself pulling it off. As far as keeping up with all the assignments, I kept with all my tweets and blog posts. For the actual business plan, I was hard for me to express in writing how I envisioned the plan in my head. I was missing a few things but I at least tried and had everything for my production binder. Later on I intend to fix my business plan.

BOC Week 9 Photo Challenge - Producer's Choice

I was the producer for a team production. We re-sound designed the movie Night of the Living Dead (1968). What we were in production for was Foley, ADR, SFX, Scoring, Mixing/Mastering, and Video Editing. We edited down the movie into 42 minutes that would fit in an hour block of television time. I was in charge of Foley production and had all the master tracks for all the individual area stems. I did all the audio editing as well. Once I received everyone's individual work, I was responsible in putting it all together as we did our weekly screening previews of or progress up until the due date. This whole experience was alot of fun but very tedious and frustrating work. Working with others is not easy but we all pulled it through and delivered a great final product. The pre-production documentation was not a delightful experience but it is something that needs to get done for all your spotting sheets to keep all recording sessions run smoothly with an outlined schedule. For these "mockup" job assignments, I had to fire the General Manager at midpoint production and hire a new classmate to fill in. I did the necessary to make the production process what it needed to be and with more strict deadlines. This project was alot of fun!

EOC Week 9 - Tennis Clinic

As all of us deal with having work to pay the bills, Rob Johnson was bold enough to quit working for a newspaper to follow his dreams. Living in Orlando, FL he decided that he was going to teach tennis, his passion, at a couple resorts. The theory was simple in charging only $50 an hour and the hotel would get 10% of it. To start off, he invested $500 for custom "Coach Rob's EZ Tennis Academy" T-shirts. The good thing about Rob is that he was pursuing his passion as a Tennis player and he got to do that everyday. The bad thing about his plan is the lack-of plan that was involved. Already knowing that his placement of living was Orlando would've been the first red flag because the weather includes humidity, and lots of rain. Having these weather issues blocks off hours or days of income. Most of his clients were children that were forced to take lessons by their parents and in result, he had to babysit rather than teach. Along the way, he also realized that teaching was not for him because his passion way playing tennis. Learning about Rob in this article showed me the importance of doing research and building a business plan correctly before getting yourself into a situation that will ultimately backfire.

BOC Week 8 Photo Challenge - You as the Professional

Attending The Art Institute and moving along through my courses, I have learned from fellow colleagues that having your own equipment helps you when doing projects for school and freelance work. Without equipment no work can be done. Let alone, not having the right equipment work can't be done well. An advantage that the students have at my school is that we can check out equipment we want anytime for 24 hours. This includes HD professional cameras, microphones, cables, lighting equipment, etc. Unfortunately for me, I live about 24 miles away from my school. It is not very advantageous for me to check out equipment to be returned the next day when I don't have class and have to make long drives roundtrip. Due to this fact, I started investing some money to provide myself with better and professional equipment for my projects and my work. I have built up my list with studio monitors, microphones, headphones, audio interface/preamp, hard drives, audio recorder, audio and video editing softwares, audio plugins, and other miscellaneous stuff. I don't know how I was able to buy all this, but as you can see from the picture that I tweeted, "I'm just a pro."

BOC Week 7 Photo Challenge - Screenplay Cover

For my commercial scriptwriting class we were assigned to write commercials every week. One of the assignments was to write a Public Service Announcement (PSA) for an existing company. I chose to do my PSA on Save the Music foundation. I chose this one because it is important to me that children are able to have the opportunity to have music programs in their school. It's been a huge controversy for many years now because the first programs that are cut financially are music classes while keeping all sports. I am against cutting funds for music because without music the world would not be the same without it. Music is the only universal language. It is also proven that children learn and concentrate better when they are involved in music classes than when they are not. My PSA was about a composer who is writing his next orchestra piece in his apartment. There are no words and all you hear are bits and pieces that are happening in his brain. He writes on staff paper. He gets ready into a tuxedo. He gets in a cab rushing out to make it to the concert. He is late. He gets to the theatre and runs to the music stand to give the first downbeat to the orchestra when then he realizes as he looks up that there are empty seats in from of him and looks behind him to the audience to an empty theatre. Silence.

BOC Week 6 Photo Challenge - Special Effects

This is a screenshot picture of a project that I was working on for my Advanced Editing class. The theme was "Tell a Story" so it was completely free game of what I could do to film and edit a short story. Since this was my 3rd video editing class, I wanted to challenge myself and bring something new and different to the table. In my head I envisioned that someone had stolen the "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign on Las Vegas Blvd, and there would be a detective and witnesses to unravel the story of what really happened. I also wanted it to be comedic. I went to the strip and asked random people to answer the question "Who was it? and What did you see?" This was a really fun and funny experience to deal with drunk people, which made the video the better. As for the detective, I for sure wanted him to be in silhouette and I used a practical effect where I took a lighting kit and aimed it to the wall with a black background to have the silhouette effect which worked! I was proud of myself in accomplishing my vision into my work.

EOC Week 6 - How Do I See Myself Starting in the Industry?

As of right now, I have only half a year until my expected graduation date. What I need to between now and then is focus on my portfolio for graduation and put together my demo reel. In the meantime, I plan to expand outside of school and bring in outside work to my demo reel, which would set me aside from my fellow classmates. An advantage to that is networking and meeting new people to expand those connections needed in the industry. After graduation I see myself starting in the industry working on little projects and charging a small amount and build by reputation by word of mouth. Aside from doing projects on my own times, I am going to also seek and hope to be a part of a company which will advance my career forward. In order for me to find a job, I can apply like crazy to various jobs postings or I can successfully be connected into one through my networking and connections. I plan to mingle with those in my field and constantly meeting new people to get my foot in the door.

BOC Week 6 - Monty Lapica

Monty Lapica is a Las Vegas native who has aspired to be a producer, director and writer in the film industry. He is the founder of Thought Division Media Company “creates television ads, and offers Internet and multimedia services for major companies worldwide” (Business Press, Akers). His company is in Las Vegas because it made sense to him to offer services from his hometown, plus that Las Vegas is not as competitive as Los Angeles. Although he enjoys the advertising aspect, he enjoys being a filmmaker more because it is more fun. At the age of 24 he wrote, directed, co-produced and was the actor for his documentary film “Self-Medicated” in 2004 (IMDb). “Lapica has given back to his hometown through the creation of the Las Vegas International Film Festival, the largest independent film festival in Nevada (Business Press, Akers). Monty Lapica has become so far and successful because he has been determined enough to follow his true passion, film. How he got there is through networking in Los Angeles and Las Vegas companies, and building a reputation of himself. He started out as a small company just doing commercial jobs but his clients also were interested in web and mobile production in which he then expanded into doing that as well because it was high in demand. Lapica’s career has blossomed into greatness and still has more to go to become the next Steven Spielberg.

BOC Week 5 Photo Challenge - In the Director's Chair

This is a picture that I Photoshopped myself into for this week's photo challenge. I found this picture of the writers and director at a pre-production meeting of Saturday Night Live (SNL). I love this show because comedy is one of my favorite genres and I have a great sense of humor. I have always wanted to be a part of SNL in some kind of way. I have even considered myself wanting to be one of the characters and make people laugh. Making people laugh is one of my favorite things because when that happens, I know that at that moment, any kind of stress that I have and anyone else has, is relieved from it. My skills in Photoshop is not that great, but I at least put myself in there with a laughing candid picture along with the others in the picture. Especially next to one of the writers of the show. Maybe one day I can be sitting on that table or being a part of any other production process for SNL.

BOC Week 5 - Market Analysis - Customers

The Beat Café will fulfill the demand for a venue that supports live music and a place to relax and enjoy good coffee and good company. I will draw my customers mainly from the university area located around Paradise to attract students, faculty, young professionals and most importantly, locals. There is a majority of café-restaurants in the city, but very few catering strictly to coffee and live music. A typical customer ranges between 18-45 years old, both males and females will equally frequent the venue and we will serve customers from all backgrounds and income statuses, including students, local residents in the neighborhood, tourists, and professionals. This wide array of groups is all potentially strong customer segments. The benefit of this mix of customers is that it helps maintain consistent business throughout the year. For example, while tourism is strong all year long in Las Vegas, it peaks during the summer months. Conversely, the student population is not as strong during the summer as it is from September through June of each year. Also, by appealing to several market segments, Beat Café does not become overly dependent on any single consumer group. For example, several local coffeehouses with primarily student customers do poorly during the non-school months. They must also market themselves anew each year to the incoming students. I will avoid these peaks and valleys in business with a mix of customers.

EOC Week 5 - Midterm Evaluation

This class has opened my eyes in a perspective that I have never seen the real world in the way this class presents itself. I would have never thought of myself being a businesswoman and that I would understand how to run and create a business. And after learning more and more about what it takes, especially in the creative side, it doesn’t have to be that hard to pull it off. It’s not going to happen overnight, but much planning and preparation needs to be done to make it happen. Knowing what kind of customers you need and how you are going to make these customers want your product (business) is key. Outside of the book and strategy, another thing I have learned from this class is determination and confidence that you can do it and WILL do it. “Action speaks more than words.” My idea for my business plan is the coffee shop with live music. I like mom and pop’s kind of businesses because they are real and they connect with costumers more than just thinking of making it big and receiving money. And after doing this assignment for this class, I have really considered doing and opening this kind of small business someday. It really is something I can see myself pulling it off.

BOC Week 4 Photo Challenge - Movie Poster

This is a movie poster for a short film that I had originally composed the music for. It was for the 48 Hour Film Festival. The chosen genre for our group was "silent film." I originally wasn't participating in this event, but I joined later because they needed a pianist who knew ragtime and can compose on the spot. This is where I got the call and became on board! It was a really great opportunity to experience the real world and how the audio/video world work in the film industry. It got intense and extremely stressful but myself and the engineering team were able to pull it off, barely! It was surprising that alot of the music you hear in this short was previously recorded as improvisation without a locked video edit, or a guide for that matter and still worked when plugging it to different scenes. One of my favorite parts was playing along with when Chap was trying to sip out of the other guy's drink. It's a great comedic short. Click here to watch Lady and the Chap!

EOC Week 4 - Executive Summary

My business, Beat Café, LLC is not only a café for friendly, stimulating conversations, and a relaxed environment, but also a venue for fun and entertaining live music performers from different genres. There are only 3 other known café-venues in the city that have struggled to maintain a constant customer volume. My efforts to engage college students and young professionals are to build a sense of community and solidarity, and most importantly a fun space to mingle. I will strategize my marketing efforts to catch the attention of these customers by having a large presence in their college campuses, professional office districts, and frequented retail stores. I will differ from my competitors in that I have a very specific goal geared towards a very specific population, so my coffee and food products, as well as music performer would be geared towards them. I plan to take out a business loan for $10,000 dollars through a trusted bank and with my qualified business partner plan to oversee a budget and annual growth rates reach 15% in 5 years.

BOC Week 3 Photo Challenge - Story Board

Here is a storyboard for a commercial that I'm going to shoot within the next two weeks. It's going to be a 30 second commercial in advertising this restaurant. It's located at the end of Chinatown on Spring Mountain and Decatur. The cuisine is Argentinian and also providing and serving other south American countries. Argentinians are known for their mate and their assorted meats, "parilladas". It's served on a grill plate with different cuts of meats and types. There are different variations on which one to get. How I'm going to do this video production is have two cameramen (a friend and me) and we're going to capture outside appearance, inside appearance, closeups on the chefs cooking, the bakery, the merchandise, and designated plates desired to show alone. There won't be an announcer, it will only be candid video capture and the information will be all voice overed. It should be fun! 

EOC Week 3 - Where are you now and where are you going?

Right now I have five classes left to graduate and I need to start thinking about what I'm going to do after graduation. Before attending this school I knew nothing about Audio Production. I was just a musician all my life. I’ve always been musically inclined and music is one of my passions. Attending this school has made me appreciate music much more to know the basic theory of audio in general and how it works. But since I’ve been enrolled, I have left behind being a musician and just been focused in school. As we’re required to crossover with the video world, I have come to love video and film as well. That’s a whole different beast, but I can see myself working with video. I’ve always loved movies so now I can crossover between both worlds. I’ve came in contact with an arranger/composer within the last month, and it has got me thinking in getting back into playing the piano and possibly being able to be an arranger/composer myself. I can see myself in many different situations, and I feel like I will want to do more than one thing because I tend to be well-rounded and that way I won’t be bored because there will be something new to be doing everyday, within the audio, video, and musical world.

BOC Week 2 Photo Challenge - Professional Photo

This is a picture of me engineering at Digital Insight recording studio. The client was a local rapper artist who was working on his next album. Alongside, he also brought in other artists to be featured as vocals in some verses or as background vocals. In the live room we used a tube condenser Audix microphone that ran into the Avalon tube condenser preamp. This was a pretty cool experience because I was able to work with real clients and to utilize my knowledge on the spot and work on a timed schedule. Not only is making the client happy about what he wants, at the same time it is also the engineer’s job to rush things along to not waste time and make the process long. I was able to keep that in line. Usually when recording rap artists, you record the same verse at least three times, each on a separate track, panned left and right and the one with overdub to exaggerate and bring out certain words pop out as the artists desires. The whole process was about three hours to record three different songs at its entirety. I was able to obtain and perform proper etiquette as an engineer and made the workplace enjoyable for everyone present. It was really fun to be able to engineer in a real life, professional situation!  

EOC Week 2 - Get Some Copyright Law Under Your Belt

http://filmmakeriq.com/category/screenwriting/protecting-your-work/
While only a subcategory to this massive online filmmaking community, this webpage is loaded with great content. Often pooling top stories from around the internet it gives you some of the most entertaining and useful information that I have come across. For someone looking for specific examples of copyright in action this is a great page.


http://www.alllaw.com/topics/intellectual_property
Intellectual property is the area of law that deals with protecting the rights of those who create original works. It covers everything from original plays and novels to inventions and company identification marks. The purpose of intellectual property laws are to encourage new technologies, artistic expressions and inventions while promoting economic growth. When individuals know that their creative work will be protected and that they can benefit from their labor, they are more likely to continue to produce things that create jobs, develop new technology, make processes more efficient, and create beauty in the world around us.


http://fairuse.stanford.edu/
This website, which has been up and running since 1996, is filled with many different pages all with information pertaining to copyright laws and regulations. The webpage is updated pretty regularly with new stories and examples of practices. Actual attorneys and professors are used for insight giving a balanced view and opinion about certain topics.


http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html
This page is filled with a good amount of quick and dirty questions and myths that may have been lurking in your head about copyright. The explanations are very simple and they don't try to through the legal jargon book at you. For someone looking for a couple of quick tips and popular questions this is a good site.

http://www.technologies.msu.edu/inventors/intellectual-property
Intellectual property (IP) is any work or invention that is the result of creativity, such as a manuscript or design, and can be protected by statute or legislation, such as patent or copyright. It includes inventions, discoveries, know-how, show-how, processes, unique materials, copyrightable works, original data, and other creative or artistic works. IP also includes the physical embodiment of intellectual efforts (e.g., models, machines, devices, apparatus, instrumentation, circuits, computer programs and visualizations, biological materials, chemicals, other compositions of matter, plans, and records of research).

BOC Week 1 Photo Challenge - Xtranormal Film Festival: Courage!

For this assignment, we had to participate in an online film festival. We were given the xtranormal.com website to make an account and to make up a video that is a minute long. You can choose different characters and themes. I didn't really know what I would do, but it had to be comical. Upon deciding what I wanted to write about, it dawned on me that people don't stand up for what they believe and let life pass by and take crap from people and situations. That's where I decided to base it off "courage." Being in the entertainment industry, you have to be able to be courageous in putting your work out to the public. Even if your ideas and work get shut down, persistence and having a little faith and courage will one day make it big. There are many examples where people are able to be successful and because they don’t know how to achieve that, it never happens. Even if you didn't think it would. At first it reminded me of the Wizard of Oz, and so I took a bit from that and added some other things on my own. I titled it Courage!

EOC Week 1 - What Sacrifices Are You Willing to Make for Your Career?

As much as no one can't have everything they want at all times, making career choices is something that life brings to you to experience. Starting with the fact that I’m currently attending college, unfortunately I am getting by with a “pay your bills” job. Most, if not, almost everyone usually goes this process and it is sometimes dreadful and painful when you are not in your line of work and your desired work, let alone, a part time because taking more than a full load at school is already enough to try and handle. But as time passes and you get closer to graduation, the thought of a “real” job is now to think about. Where do I go? What job should I take? (If different offers on the table) and what am I willing to sacrifice for the bigger picture in the end? Unless you know somebody from within the company, and even then it’s hard to make it work, you’re going to have to start at a low-paying, very bottom position in a company, and eventually work your way up. Let’s say this is for your line of work, but what if there’s a job position that pays very well, but is not in your line of work? Either route there is a sacrifice to make. For the time being, I think I am more willing to take the good pay, with benefits to save money first until I make the other sacrifice to take a pay cut, which I would have money stocked up from the previous job, to then work myself up in the chain in my desired line of work.