Enhanced e-books are digital downloads of books featuring extras similar to the extras on a DVD.  Some e-books include video trailers, author’s bios, links to author’s sites, links to locations mentioned in the book, etc.

I’m not a big fan of video trailers in fiction e-books because  I’ve already purchased the book and I’m not interested in a visual interpretation of what I’m about to read.  I want to create my own images from the author’s words.  However, the use of video in non-fiction works not only enhances the purchase it’s a bargain you won’t get in the hardcover version. The digital extras now being included in many children’s books, cookbooks, fitness books and how to books make you want to jump right out of…

Last July I wrote a post about the book “Liar” by Justine Larbalestier.  Her young adult novel was the story of a young African American teenager named Micah, yet the book cover featured a white girl.  If you read my previous post you’ll understand more fully why the marketing ‘geniuses’ at Bloomsbury felt it was necessary to put a white girl on the cover.

The point of my previous post was to question whether we were cultivating racism in young readers by not accurately representing a multi-cultural book and instead white washing covers so they sell.  After multiple outcries across the blogosphere Bloomsbury was shamed into changing the cover to more accurately represent  the protagonist Micah. The dust settled, the…

If you’ve ever worked on a clip show, or any show that requires lots and lots of clips from movies or television you know the search can be painfully slow and expensive.

When producing a clip based show, you have ideas of what clips would work but unless you actually see the footage in the rough cut, it’s a gamble as to whether or not they will work in your story.  Typically, you’ll have your researcher, associate producer, or production assistant contact the studios to inquire if the footage is available for licensing, send a letter of intent and then pay for a screener.  The screener will usually arrive within a day or a week depending on how many other orders the one studio person…

I’m big on time travel stories and when I imagine myself travelling to an earlier time, I can’t quite wrap my wits around how I would survive without my iPhone.  It makes you wonder how people in the early 20th century survived without instant access.  In fact, they didn’t have to, they had newsreels.

Ten minute newsreels aired before the ‘double feature’ and began with world events, followed by stories of national interest.  Typically a segment on fashion, entertainment, or the latest pop culture craze like the hulu hoop or ping pong would round out the reel before ending with a sports segment.  Sound familiar?  It’s the news format of today, or if you separate each segment you’ve got YouTube.

Considering there were no PDA’s,…

To start off with, I want to say how honored I am that Maria let me take over her blog for the day.  This is a blog that I pay close attention to, and when Maria asked if I would write something about the EgoFest Short Film Festival here in Minnesota, I just about fell off my chair.  Of all the topics I could blather on about, EgoFest is the easiest.

What’s EgoFest?

EgoFest is a one day film festival for shorts.  It takes place in Brainerd, MN on February 20th, 2010.  EgoFest was originally a one time festival four years ago.  Since EgoFest was never planned as an ongoing event, everyone had a great time and then went their separate ways.  But in the…

When it comes to pioneers in cable television MTV sits at the head of the wagon train.  They launched a network in an era when many of my dear friends were just beginning their TV careers; and like my friends who helped MTV blaze the trail, the network was young, ambitious, and created something brand new  – a niche network devoted entirely to music videos.  They put the uber in cool.  Many said they were crazy, “A channel just for music videos? It will never last.” And they were right, it didn’t.  While they had a good long run featuring only music videos eventually they had to change their programming to stay relevant. So the uber cool network changed with the times and created one…

If you’re registered on any social networking site you can and will be found by someone who wants to find you.  In this case that someone could be a ‘journalist’ trying  to corroborate or enhance their story.

For example, when Tiger Woods’ infidelity scandal was front page news, everyone weighed in on it including The Huffington Post.  The headline of their article, Susie Ogren: Tiger Woods Took Ecstasy, Hoped To ‘Get Me Into Bed‘  was enough to make anyone click and read – I did.  Once reading I discovered there wasn’t much fact to this supposed fiction.  In fact, the article was written by The National Enquirer.  In fact, Susie Ogren and Tiger Woods didn’t have sex.  In fact, the reporter searched Facebook to find…

Surviving in the digital age as a filmmaker requires knowing the latest in lenses, cameras, shooting formats and ways to tell a story.  At 83 film director Roger Corman of Little Shop of Horrors and Pit and the Pendulum fame is most definitely changing with the times.  His latest venture Splatter staring Corey Feldman has been picked up by Fireworks International for global distribution.  His three part webisode was originally featured on Netflix in October 2009 and offers viewers the opportunity to select the direction of the series by presenting a number of alternative story lines as the episodes progress.

In an interview with SciFiPulse, Corman was quoted as saying, “We’ve come a long way from trucking 35mm film prints to the drive-in. Now,…

L.A.’s New Film Commission

Film production in California has declined in 10 of the last 12 years. In 2003, 66% of American films were produced in California, most of them in Los Angeles; last year, it was 31%. Six years ago, 81% of the country’s television pilots were made here; in 2009, the figure was 57%. With the decline in production it makes sense to create a commission whose purpose is to bring back production, and in turn will bring back the production jobs.

Shooting in some NYC locations will cost you

Gone are the days of sending a production assistant down to the Mayor’s office the day before a shoot to obtain a free permit.  Not if you want to shoot in certain municipal…

Why do we love Superheroes?  Because they have the power to get things done.  We’re thrilled when they fly, we’re excited when they transform, and we cheer when they destroy evil.

Producers with superhero qualities create great shows and they work again, and again and again.  So what’s the trick to unleashing the superhero in you?

Never leave home without your cape
You can either scale a wall one brick at a time like a mere mortal, or you can strap on your cape and leap tall buildings with a single bound.

Let the world know you’re the type of producer that understands that nothing is impossible; in fact you eat challenges for breakfast.  You know what the goal is and nothing will…