Week 3 EOC: Photo Challenge of the Week

This is the storyboard of a production I am working on.  It is a commercial about a car in a garage.  The whole time you see close ups of the car in low key lighting as a woman talks about the vehicle and the amazing buy you would have if you purchased the car.  Also, the whole time you hear the sound of the engine as though it is racing around corners and through a track. 

Then you pull back to reveal the car in a garage with a man standing in the corner with a PVC pipe blowing into it making the engine sounds.  He suddenly stops when the light turns on.  Another man in the garage doorway has his finger on the light and is looking at the stranger in his garage, "What are you doing in my garage?"  The man with the PVC pipe hesitates, then darts out the garage.  Outro logo and information.

© Robert Haney 2012

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

I am currently employed with a local Las Vegas Media company that covers a ton of events weekly in Las Vegas.  We are currently establishing and programming an application you can download and use for a phone and view live streamed content from our cameras around Las Vegas. 

It is a great job since I am constantly meeting new people, helping with my networking, and getting paid to sharpen my camera skills.  I am technically hired as an intern, however, I must have said something they liked because I was almost immediately ushered into directing and producing the promotional videos we have planned.  Good for me, but at the same time, it became very stressful balancing school, work, and family life. 

Outside of that, I am also working on a reality show produced by myself where we watch people learn how to race.  I can’t say much more than this or go into detail since we are just now wrapping up and it is only the pilot season.  However, I have never seen this kind of thing done before and feel it could be a great start to my career.  As soon as production is finished, we will pitch the short season to major networks to see if they like it, and wouldn’t mind budgeting a real 12 episode per season show.  My plans are very big for this if it becomes successful because what I am doing now is only about 40% of what I want to be doing. 

Assuming everything goes well, I will hopefully raise the bar on the automotive entertainment industry.  That is my ultimate goal for financial recognition.  I have other plans, but this is the most likely for me at my current place and time.  

© Robert Haney 2012

Week 2 EOC: Photo Challenge; Work Picture

This is me with Xzibit after CES.  I was invited to cover the after party and shortly after CES ended I rushed over to check that out.  It was a blast working this CES, however, I was disappointed to see so many things mimicking each other in technological use.  Lots of ipad stuff, lots of headphone gear, even the automotive industry all demoed the same things.

Here is another of me filming the event.  Hard to see what I am looking at but there are models demoing a new headphone "style" on a run way.  The headphones were a somewhat new design where the head bands were interchangeable.  Some were very bland and lame, but others were very flaunty and gaudy.  Over all, I couldn't see a reason to buy them, but who knows, some DJ out there will probably want giant feathers sticking out of their head.

© Robert Haney 2012

Week 2 EOC: Get Some Copyright Law Under Your Belt

 The Copyright Act of 1976 – This act significantly revised the copyright rules in effect since 1909 in the US.  It is referred to as Title 17.  In 1980 the law was rewritten to include computer software under the category of “literary works.”  An extension of the law was approved by Congress in 1998.

This is important to protect my personal writings and enables me to have the rights to do what I want with my work.  I am able to sell the rights or give temporary rights etc.  It also enables me to be recognized for my writing work.

http://www.library.ucla.edu/copyright/2123.cfm

The Copyright Royalty and Distribution Reform Act of 2004 – To amend title 17, United States Code, to replace copyright arbitration royalty panels with Copyright Royalty Judges, and for other purposes. <<NOTE: Nov. 30, 2004 -  [H.R. 1417]>>

This will discuss royalty rates for compulsory licenses.  This amendment goes over all the financial aspects of rights.  Royalties, novelties, etc.  When you get work and want to get paid this is the part of your rights that supports what you make, how, and how that rate is respected by contract and laws.

http://www.copyright.gov/legislation/pl108-419.html

The Intellectual Property Protection and Courts Amendments Act of 2004 – This protects the rights of intellectual property by preventing and punishing theft and counterfeiting on copyrighted material.  Basically, you download something off of the Internet, this would apply here with the new amendments trying to pass in Congress right now.  This, however, doesn’t apply to the Internet as of yet. 

This covers all packaging and copyright materials on publications.  It defines a felony offense to be punishment for copying without rights to the intellectual property.  Very serious stuff.  
http://www.glin.gov/view.action?glinID=182624


© Robert Haney 2012

Week 1 EOC: Photo Challenge; Film Festival

Video Click Here

I created this project using xtranormal.  The webpage was introduced to me by my teacher, requesting each student to make a short 1 minute film that we could consider our own.  I decided to do a short skit on a phone call I experienced during my time working at an Internet Service Provider (ISP).  I always considered that work to be unnecessarily stressful and very upsetting.  I often go frustrated (not showing emotion over the phone to the customer, of course) and had to vent my rage by complaining or writing about my complaints.  Secretly, I had it in my mind I would one day make a comic about all these experiences I had since I had a .txt file that was almost a full MB in size of nothing but notes and conversational recordings.  No audio at all. 

This story follows myself as I try to explain to a woman her email problems.  The entire tech support follows like this:  She emailed friends and got a bounce back message claiming something, she couldn’t tell me what that error was so she had to click on a link I sent her, fill out a very short form that should take no longer than 20 seconds, and that is it.  Nothing else will need to be done on her end.  What you don’t see in this short film is the call lasting almost 30 full minutes, of almost the same exact conversation from here.  I do not know if the woman suffered from some kind of mental problem, or if she was playing a game, all I know is that this was one of the most remember able conversations I had working at the company.  At the time I wasn’t laughing, but when I stepped back to think about what happened, I realized it was a comical modern day recreation of “Who’s On First” by Abbott and Costello.  

© Robert Haney 2012

Week 2 BOC: Intellectual Property

The Internet blackout is interesting in many ways.  I think the real reasons are actually not being talked about.  Many people don’t realize that what congress is trying to do will greatly hurt small business, up and coming artists, and people who make their money basically re-inventing how media is delivered.  The fact the congress is even considering a law that would make it illegal to do anything with content that is directly your own, or advertise content that isn’t directly your own, or basically even have an idea that isn’t directly your own, is pretty scary.  There are many other things going on in this law that could be talked about, as well.  I always kind of felt the laws we have in place today (NDAA especially) are the reason we left Europe in the beginning of “The New World.”  To me, this could greatly hurt my career and make it extremely difficult to achieve my goals, because now I won’t be able to afford making films and it would be very hard to get money from others to support the film, when it isn’t their film to support in the eyes of this law.   

That being said, I think online piracy is only kind of bad.  The actual amount of stolen online content barely affects the overall income of any production.  If it DOES affect it, then the budget was too small to potentially make money to begin with.  And since many films utilize viral networking to get “free” advertising from the audience, this will pretty much make the audience the target of hefty fines.  I think it would suck to have my films stolen, but at the same time I am a realist.  If I am so big the films are getting stolen, I wouldn’t have to worry about money anyway.  I actually always felt the Internet was about freedom of speech.  All speech.  Including the negative stuff you sometimes see.  I may not like it, but people have a right to say it.  And since it is only the Internet, I can do something very simple.  I can close the window if I am not liking what I am seeing.  I can’t help but feel like this is another step forward to make the rich people richer, and the poor up and coming incapable.  Can’t really explain the magnitude of absurdity this law represents in 300 words.  I know the copywriter law is something needing revision, but the way they are revising it is just wrong.

© Robert Haney 2012

Week 1 EOC: What sacrifices are you willing to make for your Career?

I am willing to make multiple sacrifices.  Some of which I have already made.  I gave up a reliable car, a steady job, and almost all of my friends just to attend a college.  I have lost my health, my time, and my social standings in the groups I used to be a part of.  I can’t even run a 8 minute mile anymore and I used to be the fastest on my high school soccer team.  That really upsets me right there.

In addition to these sacrifices I have constantly battled with losing my family.  I am even leaning towards sending my kids away for potentially 2 years, just so that I can become established without hindrance.  Another issue from family is that, because the AILV college is so financially demanding, with such a high demand on time, I was never really able to pay for things or hold down a decent job.  So I work freelance.  Which in Las Vegas means I don’t make much.  And since my parents don’t help I am constantly struggling.

Through the process of my studies I wish to attend a school, an internship, or some kind of networking event/position in Japan and Great Britain.  I wish to study foreign filmmaking methods in many different cultures.  If I can afford such a goal, I hope this will one day make me a great and successful director. 

Lastly, I will talk more specifically about a production.  This production has almost destroyed my car due to mechanical problems I can’t address.  But this is yet another example of what I am achieving.  Because of all this sacrificing I am able to achieve my first ever reality show production.  It is going well, it is getting done, and because of this, I have argued constantly with my kids’ mother.  At the cost of my mental strain, I am able to produce a show that I hope to push the boundaries of the automotive entertainment world.  

For the weekly photo bit, here is me at CES.  Audio had a pretty darn cool exibit. 

© Robert Haney 2012