Week 9 Photo Challenge of the Week: Myself as a Producer

This is me Producing.  Tons of paperwork and me buried underneath it all wishing I was doing something else.  But that doesn't mean it doesn't get done, nor does it mean it gets done incorrectly.  I have done great things producing my own productions and managed to get a sponsor for a reality pilot while I was still in school.  How many people do you know who can say they produced a reality pilot before they even graduated?

As producer I know how the industry works.  I don't have a lot of experience in it, but when it relates to me, I get the job done well and efficiently.  I'm not fond of paperwork but I have learned from many professionals the correct way to do the job, and because of it, the productions I work on and prepare for go much smoother than most productions.  I plan for almost every situation I could run into. 

For example, if you look at one of my productions relating to the Initial D project, you will see a professional piece with decent actors and a great set.  The place had good lighting, the cars were organized, the actors were dressed, it is almost as if things went perfectly.  This was not the case, at all.  During the filming of the video, our wireless lavs wouldn't work, our lighting failed, and both of our original vehicles didn't make set.  Thanks to my planning, and thanks to my ability to prepare ahead in the even problems arose, I had two more cars on back up, we ADR'ed on location to keep proper ambience, and the lighting was anticipated so we used a faster lens on the camera.  All of this planning meant I produced a quality production with the appearance of the final project that everything worked out well. 

Week 8 Photo Challenge of the Week: Business Suit

This is an image of me in a suit.  I am standing next to my father, and the both of us are attending a funeral.  This image was taken more than three years ago.  This is how rare it is to see me in a suit.  I wore a black silk with a hint of blue and charcoal gray.  The red undershirt was picked out by my father because I apparently have no fashion sense for dressing professionally.  The tie also was a choice of his, which I'm not sure was the best by anyone's standards. 

The relevance of a suit depends on the relevance of importance it is to a business.  I've gotten away with many interviews not wearing a suit, and I almost always ace my interviews.  Most of the time, when I don't get a job from an interview, it is because I didn't meet the job qualifications.  But I still walk away with them loving me.  I think the business suit is a standard kind of going the way of the dinosaur.  It seems to be more of a traditional sense now than a required attire.  Most of the time, the people wearing a suit are really high up on the business ladder or attending a very formal meeting of sorts.   

Modern culture today is starting to push away from these kind of traditional formalities.  That is why I think it is all the more important to know your suits.  In the event you have a meeting a where a really nice suit is important, not only important but symbolic to your success story, it could define your you and determine your future status in the position you are mingling with.  It is a good idea to have a nice suit ready for any occasion and to know about the suit itself.  Don't just wear it because it fits you. 

Week 4: Photo of the Week Challenge

This is the movie poster for Week 4's Photo of the Week Challenge.  It is a short film I produced and directed a couple years ago.  It is quite possibly the most important film of my life because this was the very first film I have ever made.  It marked the beginning of my actual career in the film industry.

The movie is called "One Minute Pitch" and follows the life of a young man and his career at a production house.  It starts off with him being hired on as "low man on the totem poll" status.  He is a P.A., or runner, the kind of position that has you running around doing all the grunt work.  He meets his first chance to move up in the world when the Producer of the studio house steps into the elevator with him.  Unfortunately, another gentleman riding the elevator ruins the young man's chances and he misses his once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.  Following the story you see the main character miss out once again, each time, bringing him down as though he missed out.  With the conclusion of the story riding on his decision to pitch his ideas and try and take the fast road to the top, the Producer strikes first and offers the opportunity he was waiting for based on the irony of the young man's missed moments.  It is short, has a bit of comedy, and most of all, a successful project. 

Working on this project taught me a lot.  I Produced, Directed, Edited, Filmed, Lit, and did half the audio for the whole show.  It was extremely rough because the lighting and audio guy didn't show up leaving me to do everything on my own.  It showed me the importance of a reliable team.  It also showed me one of the many ways a movie can suffer.  All in all though, once it was done, I had fun and realized it was one of the things I really want to do in my future.

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 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 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