Entries from June 2009
Basements and living rooms can only contain creativity for so long. Not only are they dirty, but one needs a professional headquarters.
Like a plant in a flat that gets transplanted, so came the first office: a one window back room that too quickly outlived it’s usefulness. A-ha! A prime downtown location-perfect! It welcomes us, melds to fit our needs. Our clients love it. Then one day the greenscreen went up: just a few guys talking, ‘wouldn’t that be nice?’, and there it was. Done and done. Hey, lets add a sound booth as well. We have the material from previous events. Whew! Looks good, doesn’t it? (see picture)
picture our first sound booth
But a fish will only grow as big as it’s bowl. If we want to move from Blue-gill to Grouper, we’ll need more. Soundbooth, it’s time for you to graduate. Soon we shall have ourselves a full fledged recording room, allowing not one but three people simultaneously. Oh, you brought your guitar? That’s fine. Plenty of room. Go on in.
A few construction details: Move the bathroom door, drywall the hallway leading to bathroom, add QuietRock, some sound dampeners, throw up a ceiling and sound proof it all-as well as outlets, A/C and a window to boot. A few guys talking: ‘wouldn’t that be nice?’ We have to be careful though, lest our project spiral out of control. We see it in projects, where something seems simple from the start, and suddenly demands more. More graphics. More filming days. More meetings about items already decided on. The only ‘less’ we ever seem to come across is when invoices are involved.
An idea that keeps growing. Kinda like this blog. It now has two authors and a few extra paragraphs.
Categories: Production Dept.
Tagged: building a soundbooth, Columbus Ohio, problems, projects, recording studio, sound booth, video
Thursday of last week, mixed within the usual jumble of magazines and intern resume’s that make up everyday mail, was a postcard for the 2009 International Christian Retail Show. Holding it for a moment, I let my mind drift. 
Last year at this time we were blissfully unaware of the sweeping poverty that would soon descend. Our summer interns were learning the fine art of LiveType, our website had a fresh new look and we had just finished wrapping up production on V-translations, a video bible study of sorts which included street interviews, conversations with inmates, and a skit, all showing the destructive nature of lying. “The Truth About Lies”, it was called, and it was a culmination of two years of filming and editing, all out of pocket.
Boy caught in lie
The original idea came to the producer a bit differently: Take scripture and literally translate it into a video demonstration. This proved to be much more difficult than it looked on paper. We sat down to work our grey matter on how to make it happen and happen realistically.
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Categories: Production Dept. · advertising
Tagged: Christian film making, DVD distribution sales, Independent video, International Christian Retail Show, video distribution deal
With a fear of spending firmly instilled, advertising pocket books have gone from being lined to being stitched closed. As a company that rides in the wake of advertising decisions, we here at I’AMedia see trends and patterns that those too close to the problem are blind to.
We’ve recently coined the phrase iTV, a low cost, highly effective method of advertising. In olden times, broadcast television (ABC, NBC, FOX, CBS) were the only home for your infomercial or pilot episode.
Snuggie infomercial image
The costs were (and still are) high, and any immediate results were cloudy at best. With iTV, the numbers are immediate, and knowledge of products can
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Categories: advertising
Tagged: internet television, iTV, social media, TV informercial
Last week our film crew spent an afternoon locked inside a forensic maximum security psychiatric hospital, where we are shooting a series of training films to illustrate techniques that can be used to implement the principles of a genuinely new way of approaching psychiatric care. Trauma Informed Care is a deceptively simple idea that has proven to significantly reduce stress for care-givers and patients alike, especially within a hospital setting. It is an unconventional idea that is wholly supported by a committed staff; men and women who know first-hand of its calm effectiveness, and the value that it provides by restraining screams with empathy. Despite constantly squeezed resources and significantly reduced operating budgets, I’AMedia (more…)
Categories: Personal Opinions · Production Dept.
Tagged: behind the scenes, Columbus Ohio TV producer, film production, new media, television commercial, TV producer, video, video production
In the last month, four people-not businesses- have called our company to produce TV show pilots, digging deep into their own pockets with the hopes of making it big. I sit back and wait for the usual questions: How do you get it on the air? How do I get sponsors? How much does it cost to pay for the program air time? Will someone buy it from me? Before I answer, I must admit that without even owning a camera I produced an outdoor fishing and hunting TV program which ran for three seasons-Quite popular with the locals.
V translations DVD series image
Now for the answers: Your local TV stations do have air time available to air your great idea of a television program. Youwill most likely have to pay (“You mean THEY don’t pay ME??”) $500-$3k for a half-hour slot, probably
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Categories: Personal Opinions
Tagged: Buying TV air time, How to make a TV show, Television show, TV producer, Under writing a TV show
