Engagement film: Ben and Lisa

I’ve never had the pleasure of producing an engagement film before. When I found out that my friends Ben and Lisa were getting married I asked if I could create one for them.

I’m very happy with how it came out. They played it at their wedding with a warm reception. Congrats you two!

http://www.vimeo.com/7761158
(Click on HD to watch in HD)

Director / Editor / Producer
Brian Potter

Color Correction
Danielle Potter

Patience and focus

Patience and focus. Patience and focus are not my greatest strengths.

Patience

As I continue down the road of developing my next film I find myself becoming impatient to get the story together. It’s looking like this will be a close to if not a feature length film. I’ve never done anything like that before. I’m used to working on short pieces around 2-10 minutes in length. So pulling together a film that could potentially be 100 to 120 minutes is daunting. I remember looking at “The Making Of” on the special features of DVD’s. I always thought to myself “Man, if I could just have whole year to focus on a film and nothing else, that would be awesome.” That sentiment is still true it’s just that I want to spend time with my beautiful wife, work my full time job, do outside work, a flashmob group etc at the same time.

“Man, if I could just have whole year to focus on a film and nothing else, that would be awesome.”

I feel that the story I want to tell deserves my patient attention. It’s going to Read the rest of this entry »

Lessons learned for my next film

I am in the process of developing my next film. As I move forward with the project I started reflecting on some things I learned from my previous two films. I’d like to share these lessons with you.

Lesson #1: Don’t put your story in a box.

The second film I worked on with my good friend, Clay Banks “Graves Method” was a fine example of this principle. We had, I believe, a really touching story to tell. The problem was we had to write the script to fit our short shooting schedule and run time. We tried to jam in a mental problem, marriage issues, a deep psychiatrist character and much more into a 10-15 min run time. In the end it was rushed and confusing. There was too much going on “under the surface” stuff that didn’t get a chance to pop it’s head above the water and character relationships that were shallow, to say the least.

The current film I am working on was a promise I made to myself. I told myself the next film festival DVXUser put on I would enter. I checked the website periodically until they announced the next fest: “Loss”. This was a perfect fit as I had seen a video on YouTube recently that really touched me. I won’t be sharing the exact details of the story since it’s still in development but suffice to say it fit perfectly for the festival. The problem was as I began to research the story and develop the concept I realized the 6 minute limit would be very difficult to work with. Bottom line, don’t sacrifice story for time limit. If you have to, extend the production and do another fest.

Lesson #2: Keep it to yourself.

I have the bad habit of giving too many people too much information or access to Read the rest of this entry »

My first film: “Fatal Illusion”

“Fatal Illusion” was produced in 2004 for the 168 Hour Film Festival. It was written and pre-produced in one week then shot, edited and delivered the next for the festival. In over 150 films entered we ended up in the top 10. I won a gold merit award for “Production Design“.

I’m very proud of this film and am happy to share it. Read the rest of this entry »

Perkins’ 14: First Feature Film Created Via The Web

“Massify, the online collaboration site for film makers, recently reached its goal of creating the first ever fan-created film with the completion of Perkin’s 14, a horror flick scheduled to premier January 9 – 15 during Horrorfest III.” http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/first_feature_film_created_via.php

Looks like Massify, the website dedicated to democratizing film making has come out with their first feature! Way to go, guys! Trailer below:

YouTube Preview Image

40 Days of Purpose with Danilo Montero Project

40 Dias Con Proposito DVD
40 Dias Con Proposito DVD Week 3 screen grab

I’ve been working on the “40 Days Of Purpose” DVD for the Spanish ministry at Lakewood Church. It is a six week series that will go out to over 300 home group leaders. I’m going to do a full post on the process in a week or two. In the mean time, I’ve uploaded week 3 of the DVD here. Enjoy!

Company spotlight: Internet Jock

Internet Jock provides professional voice over work with a fast turn around at an affordable price. I recently produced a project for Houston Para Cristo and utilized their services. Take a look here.

Their ordering process is intuitive and easy. You can upload sample voice overs, text files and more for your voice over talent of choice. One of the many features is the ability to have your VO time calculated based on the text you provide.The client was very pleased with the product and I was so impressed with the work done by Internet Jock. The DJ I requested even called to verify that the length of the VO was a little more than 30 seconds. I told him it was just fine and he delieverd the VO within the hour.

Check out Internet Jock today!

Video Interview – Frank Cowan Crisis Communications Expert

I had the privilege of interviewing Frank Cowan, a crisis communications expert. Frank Cowan retired the first time in 2002 after 20 years as an Instructor/Public Information Officer with the CSTI, San Luis Obispo, specializing in Crisis Communications. Please take a minute to view his full bio here.

In this interview, we’ll cover private property rights, trespassing, dealing with authorities and the “new media”. I am very grateful to Frank for his time and hope he can join us again. Read the rest of this entry »

Exceptional post on RAID systems

Check out Life Zero’s blog post on a super fast 4TB RAID system for under $2k.

A Short Love Story in Stop Motion by Carlos Lascano

http://www.vimeo.com/877053

A couple of pencil-outlined birds escape from a little girl´s drawing, leading us through the life she dreams of.
you can find more about the making of at this link in Lascano’s page: http://carloslascano.com/carloslascano/vid_ashortlovestory.html