I admit it, I’m a hack writer. I don’t have anything published, and I the last narrative I’ve actually wrote was (sadly) a year ago. Even then it wasn’t very good. But maybe things would have been different if I’d found this website first.

I’ve read a lot of writing books, from “Save the Cat” to “Genre Screenwriting” and I’ve even got a copy of Stephen King’s “On Writing”, and they all bring a new perspective. No book can really turn you into a writer, nor can any website. Instead, you become a writer by writing. Constantly.

All of these resources simply give you the tips that you should know, or maybe need to be reminded of sometimes. Just keep writing, reading, and dreaming.

He never went to college. He goes to the library. He walks there, because he never learned how to drive.

And he’s one of my favorite authors. He might even be my favorite author.

So when I came across this half-hour documentary on Mr. Bradbury, filmed when he was in full force as a writer, I realized it was necessary to share the experience. As a sign of respect, yes, but more importantly because it’s a story about story. Hearing Ray Bradbury, in his own words, talk about storytelling is like the force of gravity itself showing you the dark mystery of black holes!

(I had some problems imbedding the video in this post. So just click the link above to view it. And don’t put it off either! You’ve got nothing better to do, so watch it!)

When working on various variosities, I like turning on some music to be inspired to. Typically I’ll reach for (in a digital sense) classical compositions and film scores.

Especially film scores.

And of those especial film scores, three names invariably pop up: John Williams, James Horner, and Jerry Goldsmith. Or the 3J’s as I like to refer to them as. (I think I might have mentioned this in an earlier post. Oh well, nothing like leftovers!) But since I named this post Jerry Goldsmith, I’m forced to only talk about him on this occasion.
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If you’re capturing HDV footage using something like HDVSplit, or Cineform’s NEOScene, and your HDV camera no longer appears to those programs as a capture device, or even showing up at all; then try changing the Firewire (IEEE 1394) driver to a “legacy” driver. This tends to work in the 32 and 64 bit versions of Windows Vista and the release candidate of Windows 7.

You know, just F.Y.I.

 I came across this Chinese phrase at this website here. I really like it, so I thought I’d share it with everyone. The English spelling is Yuan Ying Hui.

 It means – We meet together for film.

 Hey gang! Er, uh well, maybe not so much a gang as a few stragglers. But the best stragglers booze can buy, I might add!

 Anyway, I’m sure it’s well known we here at the Omega are into alternative forms of media distribution. Mostly this is because we have a snowballs chance in a supernova to distribute our work through traditional channels (i.e. your local cineplex).

 We’re also into it because it’s the way of…  Tha Futcha!

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 Mag as in print magazine, not ammo clip. At least in this instance.

 Lately, I’ve been coming across some really good articles in magazines like, Filmmaker, MovieMaker, and Indie Slate to name a few. It’s true print is “evolving” per se, but fortunately these magazines are either entirely free online or they publish a good portion of their articles for free on their website.

 Below are some of those articles I thought everyone might find informative/inspirational/FMIL. Hope you enjoy!

Welcome to the New World of Distribution

DIY Distribution: Indie Films and the Internet

My Adventure in Theatrical Self-Distribution, PART 1

My Adventure in Home Video, PART 2

To those who liked/disliked/ambivalent but non-the-less intrigued by Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, you may be curious to know what the business specifics (i.e. money) were on Whedon’s online experiment. Fortunately, Whedon decided to do an interview about the project with the Wharton School business journal at the University of Pennsylvania.

 Good read, so check it out.