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.