Happy New Year!

As 2013 draws to a close, I want to wish everyone a creative and prosperous new year.  It's been a long year for me, but I've managed to keep my writing going throughout.  In fact, I've been writing every day now for over four years.  I've always worked on some kind of creative project with video shorts and the like, but I've been focusing on writing lately and I'm happy that I've been able to keep it going that long.  My small amount of free time each night is spent working on my craft.  I think my writing has improved, but I'm looking forward to next year where I'm sure it will only continue to get better the more I work at it.

I'm also looking forward to getting another draft of my WWII novel done, getting some feedback from readers, and looking for (and hopefully landing) an agent.

3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . . HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Storm Kids Book Idea

I've had an idea now for a while about a kid and a thunderstorm.  I needed a break from my horror movie and this seemed like a nice change of pace.  Like the other children's books I've been working on lately, I'm just working on the basic idea and plotting out each scene.

Crazy Family Feature Screenplay Update

Merry Christmas!  And what a way to celebrate than to work on a horror movie.  I needed to get working on the story anatomy for this.  It's a violent story, so I don't know how much I want to work on this during the busy holiday season, so I'll probably switch to something lighter in a few days.

Duck Kids Book Idea Completed and Storm Kids Book Idea Outline

This one didn't take long, it's only going to be a short board book after all.  And there wasn't much research to do and it's only the outline for it, so a pretty simple project.  I may work on this one sooner rather than later to get me into the swing of writing again and to work out my children's book muscles.

The storm idea is one that I've had for a long time, so it's quite satisfying to start researching and outlining it.  It's about a kid who's afraid of thunder, and when the power goes out he must dig deep within himself to not be afraid anymore and save his family.

It's time to sign off now.  A few more special presents need to be wrapped for the big day tomorrow.  Merry Christmas everyone!

Duck Kids Book Idea Outline

This is a cute, board book idea I came up with and since I'm on a roll right now with children's stories, I thought I would work out the details on this one.  It will be about not conforming to everyone else, but to be true to yourself.  This should be a fun book to read to my kids when it's finished.  Which I'm not sure when it will be.

Pirate Kid Book Outline Done

All the research is finally done (yes, there was research for this kids book), and actually, I find that I have to done some amount of research on all of my writing projects.  It's a lot of fun learning about new things that pertain to your story.  I almost feel like a micro-expert when I'm finished.  Of course after working on several other writing projects a lot of that knowledge falls by the wayside.

Anyway, the basic outline is done and this looks to be a really fun story with a great multi-cultural appeal.  This one was a lot of fun working out and I can't wait to get it written.  But as I said earlier, it will be a while.

Monkey Kid book update

My son decided he wanted to work on our monkey kid book again.  It's been a month since we worked on it and before that our time working on it was spotty.  I'm hoping he'll continue to be excited about working on it again so we can finish it.  He'll have a winter break coming up, so I told him we should work on it every day so we can finish it by the end of the year.  It was fun working on it again and a great time spending it with my son.

Comedic Cowboy Novel outline completed

Or so I think.  I have a solid story with great characters and a lot of funny scenes.  I have a pretty good idea now of where it's going:  how it starts, how it ends, and what will happen in each scene.  I have a rough idea of how each scene will work into chapters, but I'll go over all of my notes and see if I come up with anything else and make sure I think it all still works.  I'll work on that more when I'm ready to write it.  Which will be . . . I don't know.  I still need to do a couple more drafts of my WWII novel, and write up my next screenplay.  It will be months away, probably next fall, but we'll see.

The end of the month

This is just a quick recap of the month.  I finished the Dragon Animated Screenplay and reading the Anatomy of Story book.  I've just been going strong on my Cowboy Novel outline.  I came up with some really fun and hopefully funny ideas that really challenge the characters and makes them grow.  This one has been fun to figure out as well since there isn't a lot of historical research that has to be done.  Since it takes place in outer space, I have a lot of leeway on what I can do and not be questioned on it too much.

Pirate Kid book idea

Because I have all the time in the world, (cough, cough) I started doing some research for a children's book idea about a pirate.  A funny image of a pirate popped into my head and I decided to go with the idea.  I'm planning on just doing the research and getting a general idea down.

I know I won't have time to write it now.  I'm planning on having the outline done and then I'll work on it when I have more free time.  Possibly when I'm waiting for readers to respond to my WWII novel, or when I'm at the stage to look for an agent for it.  That way I can still do a little creative writing while undertaking the gargantuan task of looking for an agent that won't be as time consuming as a screenplay or novel.

Education Completed

Or at least I finished the Anatomy of Story book, by John Truby.  It was a great read and had a lot of useful information.  At times it seemed almost overwhelming and went into too much detail, but as he said none of the information that he presented is set in stone.  You can choose what steps to use or not and where they need to go.  I feel like I have a much better handle on the story process and I think my writing has improved because of it, which is what I was going for in the first place.  Mission accomplished.

I won't say I'm a master storyteller now, but I have the tools, and with a lot more practice (i.e. much more writing to do), hopefully I'll get there someday.

Cowboy Novel

With the outline done for my Dragon Screenplay, it's back to work on my Cowboy Novel outline.

Dragon Animated Feature Screenplay Outline Complete

The outline for my Dragon Screenplay is done!  It's definitely a lot better than it was before.  I think I have some really great scenes in there and a lot more emotional depth to it.  I can't wait to start writing this one, it's going to be a lot of fun.

Dragon Animated Feature Screenplay Update

Not much variety going on this month.  When I'm working on a feature length screenplay and not a lot of smaller projects, there isn't as much to post about.  The Anatomy of Story book is coming in very handy and the screenplay is becoming better than it was before.

I changed some character names, and added a lot more scenes to it.  The book is definitely worth a read, there are a lot of quality ideas for the way scenes should play out and a lot of information on how to add a lot more depth and layers to the characters and story.

Oh yes, and Happy Halloween!

Comedic Cowboy Novel Outline

I've caught up to where I needed to be on my Anatomy of Story book, so I finished up some work today on my Cowboy Novel and will start back on the Dragon Animated Screenplay tomorrow.

More Monkey Kids Book

My son asked me if I wanted to work on the book today and I was pleasantly surprised.  I'm hoping that he's getting renewed interest in it and might want to keep it going for the rest of the month.

What I Learned About Viral Videos

(From someone who’s video didn't go viral)

THE IDEA

I became laid off after doing telephone tech support after almost 13 years.  I decided to take this as an opportunity to try something different, something that I could use my writing passion with.  It was a difficult and fruitless search and then I read an article about a guy who turned his resume into a mock Amazon product page listing.  It was a clever idea that went viral and lead to some job interviews.  I decided I could do something similar “outside-the-box” and came up with the idea of a movie trailer resume.  Thus, “Unemployed ManMakes His Resume Into A Movie Trailer,” was born.

I’ve been working on writing and video productions on the side for many years and I knew I could pull it off.  It’s also something I hadn't heard of before, so I thought this unique idea could gain some traction.  I ran it by a friend who used to work as an HR manager and now runs a resume creation service (called 5280 Resumes).  She thought it was a great idea too.

I got to work on the script, trying to balance out the resume details that needed to go in it with some interesting scenes that I could actually shoot.

MARKETING

But having the video was only half the battle; I needed it to go viral so I could be noticed by as many potential employers as possible.  I came across this article, “How To Approach The Creation of Viral Marketing Content,” by Hartley Brody from the HubSpot website.  He explained that marketing was key and 75-80% of views are in the first 3-5 days.  It needed to be pushed out to a large audience all at once.

I began to research different social media sites to see what I could set up to help get the word out.  I had the blog, YouTube channel, and a personal Facebook account, but that wasn’t enough.  I set up Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr, Google+, Pinterest, and Vimeo accounts.  (By the way, that is a lot of social media channels to keep track of.)

RESEARCH

Then I researched how to make videos go viral and found this great article, “10 ways to make your video go viral,” by Karen Cheng.  She made a time laps video learning how to dance over the course of a year.  She has over 3 million views.  This was an excellent article on the different tactics she took.  I highly recommend it.

She suggested finding social news sites and blogs with a bigger audience than you, so their viewers would see it.  So I got accounts and set up a presence on Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Digg.  I also found many marketing blogs that I’d send it to.  With Reddit, the biggest question was what subreddit I would put it on.  I looked at an article Karen linked to about, “How to get a link on the front page of Reddit.”  I spent a few weeks looking at different ones, and what the requirements were for each, and decided I would start with what she used, the “getmotivated” one.  As a backup, I would repost to the “filmmakers” one.

She also said to look at your video for what companies might have a stake in it.  I have a Dodge Challenger in the video and mentioned my alma mater, Metro State.  Her release date was on Tuesday.  People watch videos at work and you want the whole week for it to catch on.

After several weeks of marketing set up, the launch date was ready.  I scripted out what I was going to say to each media channel so I would only have to copy and paste it, or make minor adjustments.

READY, SET, GO!

The night before I went to work on downloading it to Vimeo, YouTube, Flickr, and Pinterest.  I woke up early the next morning (so the East Coast would see it when they went to work) and first put it on Reddit.  I spent the whole day getting the word out.

For Facebook, I set up an event, besides posting it on my wall.  A lot of people don’t see a particular wall post which is why I made an event as well.  I figured everyone would see it then.  I also posted it three times on my wall throughout the day.  I e-mailed it to everyone I know, and put it on my social media channels.

On Twitter, I even sent it to some celebrities I’m following.  (A long shot, but they have thousands of followers and I only needed one retweeted, I thought.)

I also sent it out over my LinkedIn site, since I was looking for a job and what better place to post it.  I also put the video on my profile page so it would be one of the first things you would see.

RESULTS

On day one I got 313 YouTube views.  Pretty good from previous videos I posted, but nowhere near the 80,000 the dance video girl got.  I only had 4 upvotes from the getmotivated subreddit.

For the second day I deleted my post from Reddit, and reposted on the filmmakers one.  I expanded my posts to the local media, TV Stations, a couple of radio stations I listen to, and the newspaper.  I sent it to IGN (a film, TV, and video game site) since it was somewhat movie related.

Total for YouTube was 419 views, so only 106 new ones.  It was already beginning to drop off dramatically.  I only had one upvote on Reddit.

END GAME

After two weeks I had meager results.  YouTube had 474 views, Vimeo had 4, Flickr surprisingly had 59 views, 1 repin on Pinterest, and 12 likes on StumbleUpon.  I had 14 friends going to my “Facebook event,” 8 likes, and 7 shares.  The only media response was from one radio DJ, but it wasn’t mentioned on the radio or posted.  I did get a response from Hartley Brody (I sent him an e-mail since his article got the marketing ball rolling for me) which was very cool of him, but I didn’t get any other responses back.

Making it go viral would have been nice, but the main point was to get some job interviews out of it.  I was told about 2 part time jobs, and got a telephone interview for a full time gig.  (I’m still waiting for the results.)

WHAT I LEARNED

There’s no way to determine what will make a video go viral.  I thought I had a good title, “Unemployed Man Makes His Resume Into A Movie Trailer,” and a good emotional story to go with it.  Everyone knows economic times are tough, and I thought I could use that for people to give a helping hand, or helping repost.  I put in a few months worth of time into social media sites, and establishing a better online presence.  But I still got less than 500 views.  You never know what the public is going to latch onto, so you can only give yourself the best shot possible, and hope for the best.  And never stop learning or trying.

Monkey Kid Book Update

It's been few and far between, but we managed to get a couple of days worth of work done on the book.  We get about a page done each time, so we're two pages closer to being done, but still a long ways to go.

Comedic Cowboy Novel

Years ago, I heard a song on the radio that made me think of an idea for a short story about a cowboy in space.  A few opening lines was as far as it got.


Much later, after reading the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," I decided to take that short story idea and make it a novel instead.  I was inspired by a science fiction themed comedy and I started thinking about what I could do with a science fiction comedy.  I wrote down a few ideas that I had for it, but that was as far as I got.  Until now.  I re-read "the Guide" and watched the movie for inspiration.  Then I started working on a lot more details for it today.


I'll start using my new found knowledge and see how well I can apply it to a book.  So begins the outlining for what will be my next novel.

Ben Franklin

I caught up with the Dragon feature idea to where I was at in my Anatomy of Story idea, so I needed something else to work on.  I came across some notes when my wife and I went to a traveling show at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science about Benjamin Franklin.  I started doing some research for it over the last couple of days and started to get really into it.  But I had to stop myself because I'm not ready to delve that much into something historical again.  Besides, that would be a novel in the distant future, so I don't want to spend any time on it yet.  But it is percolating.

Dragon Animated Feature Screenplay

Many years ago, I wrote up a treatment about dragons for my wife as a gift.  I grew up playing D&D and the idea of certain colored dragons were evil, and she grew up liking all dragons.  So I came up with an idea for her about a dragon that doesn't terrorize the kingdom.  But the treatment was as far as I got.  I wanted to get to a point in my writing that I thought I could do the idea justice.

I've now written two animated features so I have a little experience under my belt now.  I also wanted to work on some of the ideas from the Anatomy of Story book that I'm now reading.  I thought I would work on the screenplay as I finish a new chapter and apply what I've learned.  I'm excited to see how much better this idea will become!

Education to become a master storyteller

In an effort to take my writing to the next level, I purchased the book, "The Anatomy of Story:  22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller," by John Truby.  He is "one of the most respected and sought-after story consultants in the film industry . . ."  I have heard a lot about him, and watched some videos put on by Film Courage about his techniques here.  It had some good information, but a lot of it was generalized, so I bought the book to get all the details.  I'm hoping to take my writing to the next level after this.  We'll see how it goes.

Unemployed Man Makes His Resume Into A Movie Trailer

The mystery video project is here! After being laid off I decided to follow my passion and try for a career change in a more creative field, like advertising. In this economy it’s been difficult (an understatement), so I decided to use my video skills and my passion for writing to create my ultimate outside-the-box idea. Please take a look at "Unemployed Man Makes His Resume Into A Movie Trailer."

Dream chase

Dream chase, a photo by One-Eyed Pictures on Flickr.

One man will risk it all to follow his dream. The mystery video project is coming soon.

Mystery Video Project

Time to get it, a photo by One-Eyed Pictures on Flickr.

Every car chase needs a great car.

OEP on Vimeo

We have set up a video page on Vimeo.  It's similar to YouTube where you can upload videos to watch and share, but the site is more filmmaker friendly and according to their site, more users are apt to share them.  I have a friend who has posted some of his shorts to it and it sounded like a good idea for our ever expanding web presence.  There won't be anything on it yet, I'm waiting to put on our Mystery Video Project for the first one.  It's coming soon.

True or False pictures on flickr

True or False, a set on Flickr.

Some great pictures from our short dramatic film, "True or False," are up on flickr now. These are the behind the scenes look from putting cardboard over the windows so we could control the light, to make-up, and setting up the shots.

Those Who Remember

I had a little break on the longer projects, so I'm working over the next three days on a new short story.  It's an idea I've had for years, but I think I've grown enough as a writer to do the idea justice.  I'll just start with fleshing out the idea and get back to this when I have more time.

Children's Monkey Story

So I was playing with my son a few days ago, and talking about monkeys, and making up a story about them.  He said that would be a good book.  So we decided to make a children's book.  We came up with a good story (with my prompting for a couple different options for him to choose) and fun characters.  I've had him draw the monkeys and I've used my limited artistic drawing skills to make the backgrounds with his input.  This has been a lot of fun and should be a fun story to read to him and his brother at bedtime.  I'm not sure how long this one will take between my schedule and his attention span, but we'll see.

Miscellaneous pictures on flickr

Miscellaneous, a set on Flickr.

There are a wide variety of miscellaneous photos here from some concept art for our logo, screen grabs from our old website, to the demolition of our news desk. We're almost finished posting all that we have so far.

Crazy Family Feature Screenplay

Some things have slowed down a bit so I decided to work more on my Crazy Family feature film idea.  This is one that I came up with for Mr. G, but haven't had the time to flesh out at all.  I'm working on getting all the characters down and really trying to get their weakness and motivation right.

Giant Robot short script done

So I think I have a pretty good draft of my giant robot short.  I'll put it away for a time and go back to it with fresh eyes and see if the comedy is just as funny or what I'll need to improve upon.  It's a silly script and was a lot of fun to work on.

Just Watch It Episode 5 Photos on flickr

Just Watch It Episode 5, a set on Flickr.

We are plugging right along with our photo uploads to flickr. These are from our latest episode of "Just Watch It." From the show that tells you how we make stuff (like whiskey, underwear, and babies) to our You Spoof Discovery contest, Mythbusters: Santa Spoof, to Peanut Sex where Linus can't find his blanket and asks his Mom for help. Whew, this one has it all!