The Overwhelming Magical Card Trick
March 10, 2010
This self working card trick has long been a favorite of magicians of all ages. Since it’s self working, you don’t need to learn any special sleight of hand or use any special gimmicks. Another plus is that you can quickly show kids, even young ones, how to do this trick, and it will still work perfectly.
Here’s how the deception appears to your amazed observers. You have all the cards of the same suit taken out of the deck. So you’ve got all the hearts, or clubs, or whatever. Have them prearranged in order, starting from the ace, and ending with the king. If you are doing this with kids, you can even have them set the deck up for them.
After you’ve got it set up, then you go through the deck once, showing them all that they are definitely in order, beginning from the ace, and ending at the king. If you like you can offer them the short stack and have them confirm for themselves to make sure there is nothing odd going on.
Then clarify the secret to them. You have the stack face down. If they say “deal,” then you take one card off the top, and place it face down on the desk, in a new stack. If they say “double deal” then you take two cards off the top, reverse the order and then place them face down in the same stack. Do this until you’ve gone through all the cards. Tell them that they have to memorize the new order that the cards are in. While they are industriously trying to re calculate the order, you pick up the new stack, and begin to turn each card over one by one. They will be astounded to see that the cards are still in the same order, starting from the ace, up to the king.
Most often, they will ask you to do it again, and again. And the cool part is, since this is a self working trick, they can do it themselves and it will still work. The reason it works should be obvious once you do this a few times. If you take only one card off the top, and place it in the new stack, (deal), or take two cards, and reverse the order, placing them in the new stack (double deal) they still end up in the same order, no matter if you deal or double deal them. To observe how this works, do the trick with all the cards facing up, and you’ll see how it works out.
This is incredible for kids of all ages, and several of them will never estimate how it works even after they do the trick themselves. Of course, you’ll occasionally run into a young academic or natural mathematician who’ll see right through this trick and comprehend how it’s down. Nonetheless, this trick is magnificent for everlasting amounts of amusement, even with adults. Have fun with this easy trick.
To learn the shockingly easy secret of Magic Tricks Revealed, head on over to Miles Sunkest’s Magic Tricks Revealed page now.
-
My personal collection of book trade ephemera Benjamin Clark is the Curator of Education for the Oklahoma Museum of History. Benjamin wrote this exclusive and very interesting article for us. He retains copyright of the first image and the text, of course. The second image is in the public domain. My personal collection of book trade ephemera...... -
For game design Andrea Angiolino was born the 27th of April, 1966 in Rome, the city where he still lives. He published many boardgames and books about games, besides developing games for every media. His works appeared in more than a dozen of languages including Korean, Czech and Maltese. He is a game...... -
The Elegance of the Art Doug Stahnke is a sculptor. And this is a wonderful exclusive article he wrote for us. The Elegance of the Art Let me begin by first defining some terms as I apply them: talent – I think there is a simple truth here. You were either born with it or you...... -
Surveying the Land of Scape Taegen Carter is a movie director. He is also the owner of Mythmaker Entertainment, a company that produces shorts and features in the genres of adventure, sci-fi, thriller and drama. Taegen tells us about the production of Scape, that should be completed around June of ’09. Let's read his words,...... -
Comic Art Mike Dominic wrote this article for us. He is a freelance illustrator and comic artist living in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He has produced work for both print and online comics, including his own webcomic, The Journals of Simon Pariah. He has written articles about comics for Sketch magazine and 24......
-
Obama At House Republican Retreat In Baltimore: FULL VIDEO, TEXT [/caption] Video of President Obama's remarks to the House Republican retreat in Baltimore on Friday, Jan. 29, 2010 and Q&A With GOP Lawmakers: Complete transcript of Obama's remarks as recorded by the White House: 12:10 P.M. EST THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Please, everybody be...... -
The Weakonomist's Identity Revealed!!!! Yes it's true. After almost a year of writing in anonymity I've decided to show my face to the world. Here's a little bit about who The Weakonomist truly is: First of all, my name is not Philip. My name is Eric Stinson and I am 25. As I've said...... -
Creating a Sports Card Collection Since the 1800s, it has been a normal part of our culture to want to create a sports card collection. At first, boxing cards were especially popular, and then during the early 1900s it became popular to collect baseball cards as part of a sports card collection. The thrill behind...... - Archos 5 Internet Media Tablet w/ Android Review Pt 2 (App Overview & Adding/Deleting Icons) www.techreviewonline.co.uk video review. Please join our forums. $299 16gb version, I purchased a 8gb Micro sdhc card to increase the storage capability. Please ask me if you want me to Review a particular android app/game that you want to see on the Archos 5 internet media tablet especially to......
- Why most anti-spam systems dont work and how to get an effective anti-spam solution The problem of spam has been getting worse. In recent years spam has been an annoying nuisance such as advertising. During 2006 there has been a considerable worsening of the problem with an enormous increase in the number and sophistication of fraud, being perpetrated through spam.I first became aware......
Top Ten Sitcoms of All Time
March 10, 2010
10. Three’s Company. Premiered in the 1970s when the show’s content was considered shocking. A guy who lived with two girls was taboo. Very much taboo.
The Dick Van Dyke Show. Who hasn’t heard of this show? And for those fortunate enough to watch it in it’s prime. It is well deserving of it’s position in this list.
Arrested Development. This show, which revolved around the lives of the Bluth family, was created by none other than Ron Howard. Very funny with absolutely hilarious characters. However, this show only enjoyed a short run on the air.
7. It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia. A very funny show which gives off the same vibe as Seinfeld but with a more adult theme added to it. You will love the characters.
6. I Love Lucy. This show first aired in 1951 and you can still catch the re-runs on the tube. Shows how popular this sitcom was and still is. In fact, you can catch Lucy lovers as there are conventions across America.
5. Curb Your Enthusiasm comes from the creator of Seinfeld. A very funny television show which tends to use some profanity during the episodes. Very funny and packed with sexual innuendos.
Four. The Simpsons. Yes, it’s a cartoon. But a cartoon that has been making us all laugh for 20 odd years.
Three. All In The Family. Not slap stick, laughing and rolling out of your chair funny, but funny just the same and incredibly ground breaking.
Seinfeld. Ensured to become a classic, this television show was hot right out of the gates all the way until the final episode where the final line of the show just happened to be the very first line on the very first episode; these details are what made this show so funny.
The Honeymooners. How funny can 4 characters in a kitchen be? Apparently, very funny. Insanely funny in fact and this show is still being aired on television for that very fact.
This article was written and provided by Wayne Torres; if you got a kick out of it or found in interesting, you can visit Wayne at Watch the Inbetweeners Online and Watch the Sopranos Online.
- Cereal, a blend of old and new Today we interview Jaques Smit, an incredible man. Just read all his current positions: Managing Director at MindNova Advertising Pty (Ltd), Marketing Director at Inland Kitesurfing Pty (Ltd), CEO at Avonstorm Entertainment, Producer at Avonstorm Pictures Pty (Ltd), Technical Director at Blo-Tant Pty (Ltd). Here is the interview and I......
-
Artwork Displayed in Unusual Places Joyce Boncal wrote this exclusive article for us. Artwork Displayed in Unusual Places If you’re young, budding artist, hoping to be discovered, where can you display your artwork? There is always your own web page but I wouldn't recommend it unless you can afford to advertise that web page. This...... -
Growing Independent Film Industry in the Southeast Heidi Yost wrote this exclusive article. Heidi (photo) is a talented actress. In this article, she explains Film Industry situation in the southeast, talks about her experience as artist and gives also important hints for the new actors. Growing Independent Film Industry in the Southeast When I returned home to...... -
Punk music in the late seventies Wade Crawley said me "I propose to write an article about the influence of punk and indie music and culture on a young person (myself) coming of age in England in the late seventies and early eighties". I accepted, and Wade wrote this article! I must add also these more...... -
E-commerce, a cultural fact? E-commerce, online marketing, shopping, globalization, innovation are all linked together. It is becoming a real huge cultural fact, to be studied, to be understood to comprehend our world and where this world is going to in the near future. E-commerce, a cultural fact? Global E-Commerce and Online Marketing: Watching the......
-
Utah's Attorney General, Mark Shurtleff - Hospitalized - Show Postponed print_options We here at OSA wish Attorney General Mark Shurtleff a speedy recovery, Mark Shurtleff underwent emergency surgery last Friday, and we postponed his interview on the CyberHood Watch live radio show that was scheduled for Tuesday July 1st at 1pm mst... hopefully when he is feeling better, he will...... -
Looney Tunes Cartoons Memorabilia -> Entertainment-Memorabilia -> Movie-Memorabilia While many of us recognize Looney Tunes cartoons from their run on television, they actually ran in movie theaters for 39 years, from 1930 to 1969. They were Warner Bros.'s first theatrical animated series. The term Looney Tunes also refers to the animated cast of...... -
Buying and Selling Collectible Antiques If you have ever watched a television show like Antiques Road show, where people find out that their family heirlooms or garage sale finds are really worth a fortune, then you probably have a secret hope that you may have some valuable collectible antiques in your possession as well. It...... -
NBC Replaces Leno at 10 With Seinfeld Show and Dramas [/caption] NEW YORK - Jerry Seinfeld's new marriage comedy, crime series "Law & Order" and new family drama "Parenthood" will replace "The Jay Leno Show," at 10 p.m., bringing an end to a failed experiment, NBC said on Thursday. NBC said the new 10 p.m. line-up would start after the...... -
Get the DVR Ready [/caption] Morphed is a National Geographic show bradcast next Sunday. It tells the story of extreme evolution like whales going from land animals with four legs to seagoing mammals with fin-like flippers. This is one of the reasons we upgraded to an HD DVR on our DirecTV service. I can......
A Beautiful Interview
February 10, 2010
Ceri Shaw suggested me an interview from our friends at Americymru. So here’s this beautiful interview with Dr. Karl Jenkins (I include also the link to their ticket giveaway competition for his performance at Carnegie Hall NY on March 6th 2010).
A Beautiful Interview
Dr. Karl Jenkins is Britain’s greatest and most versatile living composer, the author of an ocean of amazing and exalting music unlimited by genre, style or instrument. He holds a doctorate of musicology from the University of Wales and the Royal Academy of Music London. His many awards include several fellowships at various universities and an OBE (Order of the British Empire) for “services to music.” He has composed for jazz bands, orchestra and voice, for advertising, film, and live performance.
Dr. Jenkins is a native of the village of Penclawdd in the Gower peninsula, where his father was a school teacher and the choirmaster and organist of the Methodist church the family attended.
Two of his most recent works are Stabat Mater (2008), an adaptation of a 13th century Roman Catholic prayer and Stella Notalis (2009), adaptations and compositions of Christmas carols from around the world.
Americymru: You’ll be appearing as guest conductor at Carnegie Hall on March 6th . What are the circumstances and what will you be conducting?
Karl: As part of Welsh Week I’ve been asked to conduct some of my music as the first half of the concert. I have a strong relationship with Jonathan Griffith of DCINY who has arranged the event and who has been fantastic in that he has conducted and supported much of my work in the USA. On Martin Luther King Day 2010 he performed my The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace and my Requiem. On this occasion I shall be conducting Palladio [famous for its use on a TV ad for diamonds], two choral extracts, Benedictus & Ave verum [from the Armed Man & Stabat Mater respectively] and the USA premier of my Concerto for Euphonium & Orchestra played by David Childs for whom it was written Karl Jenkins Conducts “Palladio”
Americymru: You’re a musician, your wife is a musician, your son is a musician, your daughter-in-law is a musician, your father was a musician, has music always been part of your family’s life?
Karl: Well obviously that is the case. My father started the ball rolling really since he was hugely influential with regard to my musical education. He taught me piano from an early age and music was always in the house, both live & recorded. My wife Carol Barrat is a celebrated music educationalist while our son, a percussionist and film composer has just scored a Bollywood movie! His wife Rosie, whom he met in the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain is currently playing oboe with the London Symphony Orchetra.
Americymru: You’ve said in other interviews and your biography that your father was the organist and choirmaster at your village’s Methodist chapel, was he the greatest musical influence in your life? Do you think you’ve been the same influence in your son’s life?
Karl: What we’ve done as parents is introduce Jody to music and by default, the musicians life so he’s quite worldly for a young man [he's 28]. We did not force him in any way and having played piano & flute as a child, he asked to play percussion when he was ten. This was his instrument and became principal in the aforementioned NYOGB, won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music [where I had studied 30 years before] and graduated with first class honours. So, he’s been his own man really but I suppose it helps in that we work in different areas. What we do all share as a family is a love of all good music, regardless of categorisation, and in any genre.
Americymru: How would you describe Welsh congregational singing to someone who’s never seen it? Would you say that growing up with that musical experience effected or enriched you as a composer?
Karl: It’s obviously hard to describe music in words but what makes it unique is the rawness of the vocal sound. On the printed page it looks like any other four part hymn but the sound, to me anyway, is hugely atmospheric especially when sung in Welsh. The sound influenced my Adiemus project which had a degree of global success. This was a mix of the ‘classical’ but with voices that were not from the European classical tradition but more “tribal”. The text was my own invented language.
Americymru: You’ve performed and composed a very wide variety of instruments and styles of music and incorporate a great variety in your work, from the 13th century Roman Catholic Stabat Mater to Japanese haiku and African folk – what inspires or directs fitting these styles together in a piece? Where do you start writing music or creating music?
Karl: My musical journey, following academic classical training at Cardiff University & the RAM, has taken in a wide variety of genres and I’ve arrived at what I do now by way of being a musical tourist. Essentially I am a composer who always looks outside the European tradition for influences, texts & instrumentation, particularly percussion. With regard starting a piece, if I’m setting words then I immediately have a peg on which to hang the piece. If it’s instrumental or Adiemus then I’m on my own! The principle is searching around for ideas [usually using a piano] and developing what takes my fancy. A huge amount of intuition is involved, but intuition based on an armoury of acquired musical craft; harmony, counterpoint, orchestration, form et.
Americymru: “Stabat” Mater (2008) is your adaptation of a 13th century Catholic liturgical hymn, in which you included an amazing variety of instruments and material from sources as wide as 13th century Persian poetry and the Epic of Gilgamesh, how did you come to create this, what was your process in expressing this?
Karl: Well the established text is there already. Then much of what I have expressed above came in to play, looking outside Europe to the Middle East/Holy Land for relevant [i.e. concerning grief] ancient text, employing languages that were lingua franca at the time and including indigenous instruments in the orchestration. The eminent Welsh poet [and academic] Grahame Davies [who wrote the words for my recently composed anthem for the National Assembly of Wales] did quite a bit of research for me with regard to the literature.
Americymru: You’ve said in interviews before that you “don’t see any point in being a composer if you don’t communicate with people,” what does that mean to you? Do you feel that response in the audience is important, that response is the “product” or goal of a piece of art or music? What response do you want to create in your audiences?
Karl: I believe music should emotionally connect with an audience; make them cry, laugh, administer ‘goose bumps! I’ve heard far too much music with ‘one man and his dog’ in the audience, the piece never heard again and the event receiving “critical acclaim”.
Americymru: Wales seems to produce a lot of musical artists who would be (or are) described as “crossover”, yourself included – do you think Wales has a musical character or tradition that inspires or tends toward experimentation or something like hybridization, a lack of adherence to artificial limitations of genre?
Karl: I don’t like to use the term cross-over. I’m not sure what it means and I’ve explained what I do above. I don’t think the Welsh like music particularly. What they do like are singers which is not necessarily the same thing. I like to think that what I do is at least individual and at least it’s new. Most albums and repertoire [not just by Welsh artists] are a series of singers singing the same songs, songs that everyone knows. Many such artists are described as opera singers when they have never sang in an opera in their lives. At least good modern ‘pop’ has more integrity since it is newly composed.
Americymru: Did you have particular creative goals as an artist and if you did, have you achieved them? What would you like to look back on at the end of your life and see that you did or created?
Karl: Following my journey, I have come relatively late in life to what I do now, but the corollary is that I would not have arrived at this point without this musical tourism and the influence and skills that have come with it. There is still much to do. I’m setting the Gloria text for a Royal Albert Hall premier in July and there is much more to do.
Americymru: Is there any particular instrument you especially like to compose for? If so, what instrument and why?
Karl: Sounds pompous [which I'm not] but my instrument is the orchestra [& choir] and the rich palette of colours it provides.
Americymru: Is there any one work or piece that you created that you’re particularly proud of or happy to have done? If so, what is it and why?
Karl: The worrying thing is that some of my most popular pieces were kind of written quickly and which I didn’t set great store by. However, I suppose the Armed Man because of it’s impact but I think there is better music in the Requiem.
Americymru: What music do you listen to for pleasure?
Karl: I listen far less than I did, most certainly because I’m always writing and I need a break! Favourites would be Mahler, Strauss, Wagner, Bach, Stravinsky, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Weather Report, Steely Dan…
-
The Emperor's New Clothes Ananda Sukarlan is an Indonesian composer and pianist living in Spain. This is an article he wrote for a magazine which has been published a few years ago in Spanish. We are very proud to have the original in English which has never been published anywhere, so this is...... -
Music, Movies and Independent Films In this exclusive interview, Todd Cericola, owner of Clocktower Pictures, talks about his movie studio, about music in movies and about the independent productions world. Manuel Marino: When did you start your movie studio and how did you have the idea? Todd Cericola: Clocktower Pictures was started in February of...... - Game Engine Dr. Roberto Dillon has written this article about his Music-Emotion Driven Game Engine. I think this idea to really have potential. Game Engine In the fast developing world of videogames, sound has traditionally played a less important role than other features, such as graphics. Nonetheless, recently, due to the latest......
-
Knights and Film Music Today I publish a new music track, inspired by knights, chivalry, code of honour, battles and dangerous wilderness exploration. This is a demonstration of my talent with orchestral arrangements. Knights and Film Music The Knight is an elite warrior sworn to uphold the values of courage and honour. Knighthood was...... -
American Music and Vintage Guitars Mark Weakley is an impressive artist; sculptor, painter, musician. He plays guitar, banjo and harmonica, and has recently recorded a CD of his original compositions. In this exclusive article he talks about himself, about his passions, about his father, about traditional american music, about vintage guitars and banjoes, and much......
-
Should a believer really contribute to IRA's, 401K's or other retirement accounts? My wife and I are between churches right now. We have been visiting different local assemblies throughout the fall we are close to making a final decision about the congregation that we will join. Last week we had one of the pastors over for dinner. In the course of...... - How To Get My Girlfriend Back - Be Her Knight In Shining Armor! Need to learn , "How To Get My Girlfriend Back?" Here's a suggestion: Try being her knight in shining armor. Secretly, nearly every woman would like a white knight in shining armor , although some might never admit to having their hearts melt to the idea of a white......
-
Even More Tips for Getting More Fruits and Vegetables Most people are not getting enough fruits and vegetables, despite the fact that there is such a large variety to choose from. Here are some great tips for how you can get pack more healthy fruits and vegetables into your life for a number of added health benefits that will...... -
Molly Mormon Messages: Gary J. Coleman, Are We Christians? God is your Father in Heaven. He knows you personally. Jesus Christ is the Son of God and your Savior. His life and teachings are the way to peace and happiness. As promised, Heavenly Father sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to earth. Jesus Christ lived a perfect, sinless life. He...... - Dog Training Tips Your Dog Would Want You To Know by Geraldine Dimarco Contrary to popular opinion, anyone can train their dogs. Whoever told you it can't be done have used incorrect methods or have failed because they gave up too soon. Nothing tests your patience like dog training; but staying on course until you see the fruits of your......
To the audience of music
February 22, 2009
Gunnar Colding is a former professional cellist who for 25 years has been employed by chamber orchestras as well as symphony orchestras of Sweden. This is an exceptional article he wrote for us.
To the audience of music
There was recently given a concert in New York mainly consisting of works by Mozart. When a soprano afterwards would perform some songs by Webern (music soon a hundred years old but Atonal) the audience BOOED her out! OPUS, the leading musical magazine of Sweden, therefore put the question, why Swedes don’t boo at concerts.
The short answer is simple. They are brought up not to, and whoever violates the pattern therefore risks “making a fool of himself”. The longer answer is somewhat more complicated, but still logic to those who have the energy to look a little deeper into the crystal ball.
All avant-gardists who have advanced to some level live in some kind of symbiosis with the culture knowledgeables of the media. Together they form a hype and a trademark. This trademark is in most cases equivalent to the personal name of “the artist”. After a number of times in the limelight they are suddenly celebrities.
Then it’s especially important to remember, that this celebrity status has only been reached by “State sponsorship” and clever (culture) lobbyists who all pull in the same direction tonally. All this, however, has been done over the heads of the audience, which, at a first night, has no choice but to join in the collective ritual of applauses.
The only alternative would be to boo or to refuse to applaud, that is civil disobedience, which most people lack the civil courage to carry through in for instance a direct transmission. If the audience would be disinterested, it wouldn’t come to a first night at the town concert hall? Oh yes, it certainly would.
The programme committees always place the new work together with great acknowledged music on the same concert. So the audience gets force-fed in the same way as by water chlorination. The audience has no possibility to drop the newwritten piece by going home in advance, although they would want to. For then they would miss also the rest of the repertoire for which they bought an expensive subscription!
Certainly there are many who are curious about “novelties”, but how many would return, if the work is given a second or a third time, to a separate concert, without tickets paid for in advance? If in spite of all the audience would hear this novelty one more time, it would for sure be allocated by quotas by some State financed institution or commission, for instance the music radio channel, only acclaimed by the Modern Music Ghetto people themselves.
Just look at for instance the statistics of the radio Concerts by Request for the last 30 years. In this sole instance, where the audience decides the programme, yours truly can not recall one single Atonal work, although it must have occurred in later years, as a particular exception…
European and especially Swedish musical audiences have thus become reduced to a kind of “cattle voice”, the acclaim of which seldom marks the quality of a piece. The applauses have become more concerned about the celebrated soloist, conductor or symphony orchestra and their performances!
To complete the hypocrisy, all reviewers then write about “standing ovations” and “the critically acclaimed work” etc. etc. Do you think they ever disclose, that the “voluntary” demand in the record shops by the audience is completely absent? All contemporary known composers have lobbyists and pushers everywhere in every single musical institution. Together with the media they constitute today a formidably heavy group.
They have succeeded in the trick of forcing commissioners to also view the matter as an issue of equality between Atonal and Tonal music! At the same time the audience is indirectly accused of being rigid and to have prejudices that have to be broken. So, all natural processes of selection have been eliminated, just like they are in the world of the wars between the sexes by quota allocation.
By this system and evolutionary science, nothing will then be created fit for life. Men and women do have most in common in their constitution and are therefore of equal value as human beings. This is so to say scientifically proved. But it is equally scientifically proved, that the language of the Atonal music has nothing in common with its Tonal counterpart!
Atonal music lacks a grammar understandable to the ear. Therefore everything sounds like undefinable dissonances with no possibility of memorization. Tonal music (pop and classical) on the other hand has a very well defined grammar consisting of major and minor keys, which can be perceived by anyone except the deaf.
In that kind of music both consonance and dissonance are intermixed according to an accepted grammar. In a study from ”Brain – A Journal of Neurology” the researchers even arrived at the conclusion that only brain-damaged people could have preferences for music mainly consisting of dissonances.
Contrary to what avant-gardists with interpretation monopolies advocate, the Tonal music language is neither culturally nor socially determined. Preferences to Tonal music have, hark well, a purely biological explanation in the brain.
This has been easily proved by studies in babies and animals, after which a highly merited fundamental researcher in psychology (Diana Deutsch, USA) proved already in 1983, that not even normal, grown-up musicians’ brains could ”process” Atonal music.
Therefore I hereby nominate the modern “Atonal sect” to one of the most arrogant groups ever within culture.
All necessary research, analysis and background to these claims are presented in the book “Reverse Polka, or, Cheated of the Music”. (Yet only published in Sweden: “Baklängespolkan går eller Blåst på musiken”)
The painful thing is, that even without pressure groups, the works of the dead Tonal composers remain a hundredfold more alive than the works of their modern “colleagues”.
Classical music has only diverse “Societies” that run a sort of internal activity of meeting and sharing mutual interests.
That music has no other “pushers” than Unorganized private consumers without “votes”, commonly called the audience. My question to the modern State quota people: For whose benefit are you working? For the benefit of the audience or for the benefit of all potentially unemployed “composers”? I already know the answer. You only work by instructions “from above” as they vaguely call it…
- Music, Movies and Independent Films In this exclusive interview, Todd Cericola, owner of Clocktower Pictures, talks about his movie studio, about music in movies and about the independent productions world. Manuel Marino: When did you start your movie studio and how did you have the idea? Todd Cericola: Clocktower Pictures was started in February of......
- The Emperor's New Clothes Ananda Sukarlan is an Indonesian composer and pianist living in Spain. This is an article he wrote for a magazine which has been published a few years ago in Spanish. We are very proud to have the original in English which has never been published anywhere, so this is......
-
History of Music and Current Recording Industry Crisis Roger L. Bagula wrote this exclusive article for ManuelMarino.com. History of Music and Current Recording Industry Crisis In a time when the whole future of how music is distributed is in question, maybe we should look at the history of music for a guide. Many of us find music...... -
Social Networking and the Left Coast Eisteddfod 2009 Ceri Shaw is a Web Designer and freelance writer. If you remember, he wrote What is Anglo-Welsh Literature and why Should Anyone Care?. Ceri is a former college lecturer from Cardiff, South Wales. He wrote this article for us. Social Networking and the Left Coast Eisteddfod 2009 There is an...... -
Sounds like music and networking Wizzit Magazine interviewed me about Blogging and Social Networking. I have to thank Matti Mattila, the reviewer and open networker. If you remember, Matti wrote A musician story. Here is a short excerpt from the magazine article that you can download here in pdf format. Sounds like music and......
-
Motivating Children to Practice Music (Part 4) Divide and Conquer There is a skill called sight-reading. Sight-reading is the act of playing a piece of music through without having practiced it beforehand. We usually sight-read a piece when considering whether to learn it or when it is first assigned to us by an instructor. Some people continue...... -
A History of Drums and Tribal Music Different styles of drums all have their own unique histories. African tribal music and the drums associated with it are completely unique to the other drum types that have been developed throughout the world. One example of an African tribal drum is the Djembe, a drum that has an extraordinary...... - Music & Emotions: Can Music Really Make You a Happier Person? How many times have you turned to music to uplift you even further in happy times, or sought the comfort of music when melancholy strikes? Music affects us all. But only in recent times have scientists sought to explain and quantify the way music impacts us at an emotional level.......
- Robert Trujillo: Bassist for Metallica Metallica was up to the task of performing at Ozzfest this year, for they commanded the attention of the massive stadium. Robert Trujillo was rocking for over two hours with drummer Lars Ulrich, singer/guitarist James Hetfield and lead guitarist Kirk Hammett, all of whom brought forth a power that made......
- Music & Emotions: Can Music Really Make You a Happier Person? How many times have you turned to music to uplift you even further in happy times, or sought the comfort of music when melancholy strikes? Music affects us all. But only in recent times have scientists sought to explain and quantify the way music impacts us at an emotional level.......
Surveying the Land of Scape
February 18, 2009
Taegen Carter is a movie director. He is also the owner of Mythmaker Entertainment, a company that produces shorts and features in the genres of adventure, sci-fi, thriller and drama. Taegen tells us about the production of Scape, that should be completed around June of ’09. Let’s read his words, in this exclusive article that could be a page of a well written diary or a best selling novel.
Surveying the Land of Scape
Making a film sucks. It’s hard. Really hard. When it’s finished, and people sit in darkness, silently watching in a matter of minutes what may have cumulatively taken years of work, it’s worth it. But really, the process couldn’t be harder. Start with the fact that an alarmingly high number of people will look at you in utter pity when you mention you’re making a feature film. Mix in some healthy doses of family doubt, maybe a pinch or two of high school friends making ten times more money than you in a real job, and that’s just the beginning. But don’t get me wrong, I’m an optimist.
Maybe it’s my optimism that continues to lead me, often blindly, toward my goal of becoming a professional (see definition of professional: paid) director. Having directed a ninety-five minute feature film already, you might be wondering if the guy writing this article enjoys pain. Sure, maybe a little. But with experience at my fingertips, my second feature had to be easier, right? No. Not a chance. The following is a chronicle of my pain experience, and some of the many problems that arose.
I spent six months writing the script and raised a budget mainly by begging investors (see definition of investors: family) for money. The sum of which was not very much. Just enough to pay a skeleton crew of ex-students, get a deal with the acting union SAG and rent some camera equipment. The law of filmmaking says this: the closer one gets to filming, the more will go wrong. One week before filming and things were really getting dicey. I was still converting my script to a series of shots that I wanted to film, rehearsing with actors, coordinating logistics and dealing with problems. That’s what filmmaking really is, by the way, problem solving.
Problem A: the actor in your opening scene, the scene that is the most important save for the ending scene, tells you a week before filming that he doesn’t own a car and the filming location is 300 miles away. Problem B: the costume rental house will not accept insurance, so you must charge 4 times the value of the clothes on your credit card as insurance. And it’s a period piece movie, so there’s a lot of expensive clothes. And the total charge is so much you don’t have enough credit cards to put the charges on. Scratch that, there’s a credit card you never use in your chest of drawers at home. So you max out your credit cards, hope to hell no one damages or loses or steals the clothes, buy your actor an Amtrak ticket and make a note to pick up a very large bottle of antacids at Costco to help stave off ulcers that you know are on their way. Yes, this is all true.
Even now, I dread looking at a FICO score. Four days before we were to leave from Los Angeles for Santa Cruz, disaster struck. A quarter mile from the sixty-acre horse ranch we were going to film on, a fire started. I had no backup locations. Half the budget for the film had already been paid out. I couldn’t get it back. We had to film. I checked the fire report hourly, popped antacid tablets and realized that we’d film in some random forest even if it meant getting arrested for trespassing or filming without a permit.
All ten of us drove up to a summer rental house and crammed ourselves into our tiny, modest hovel. Later that day the fire dissipated, the police barricades came down, and we found out our location had been saved. Now came the fun stuff. Filming. I had a total of 12 days to film 76 pages. A Hollywood film typically shoots about 3 pages per day. Do the math on my movie. Yeah, we had a lot to film in a really short amount of time. The first shot of the first day took place in a colony for the diseased. We had ten extras to help make the colony feel real. Five actually showed up on a very cold morning. Three actually got back into their cars thirty minutes before filming and left. And these were people who were going to get paid! We had two extras to make a colony feel like a colony. Equipment wasn’t working right. Light was changing fast. And as always, there were lots of things to think about. Those antacids became like Pez to me. I put myself and most of the crew in early nineteenth century clothes and we started filming. Problem solved. Kind of.
Every second on set sends a problem the director’s way. People have questions. People want to know what you think about fill-in-the-blank. It is a director’s medium, for his better or worse. Throughout the twelve days, we had more problems than grains of sand on every beach in the world. I had arguments with the crew. A production assistant got bored four days in and left. Not good when your production assistant is also your makeup artist, wardrobe and caterer. The main prop for the film, a mask the villain wears, showed up very very late into filming via mail.
And on top of all of that, our opening scene became a disaster. If you can’t hook people in the first five minutes of your film, what’s to keep them from continuing to watch? No pressure. The opening included two horses. Not a problem when shooting on a horse ranch, right? The ranch would only give us one horse, and told us this fact an hour before filming. Next problem, it was an Appalachian horse. And it kicked my actor off several times. I was near tears. The scene was definitely not working. The actor who came up via Amtrak for the day had come in vain. And he was going to leave for Los Angeles the next morning. And I had four days of filming left. I was not going to cover the number of pages I needed to finish the film. And on top of that, I now needed to write a new opening scene after a very difficult and very long 12-hour day.
Every morning, after 6 hours of sleep, I would get up, figure out what scenes we were shooting and prepare for each scene. We’d spend the entire day and sometimes nights filming. We’d usually get back to the house around 8pm, eat dinner, watch the footage we shot during the day, transfer the footage and sound to hard drives, go to sleep and start the process over. Now, with only 4 days left, I also had to come up with a new opening. I wrote something and we filmed it on our last day. Having already cut 8 pages from the script while we were filming, I wasn’t too happy about filming a scene twice.
But the new opening scene has cut together incredibly well. In fact, the film is my finest work to date. If a filmmaker’s problem solving skills are his tools to building the film, then problems are the essence of filmmaking. Without these problems, creativity stagnates and the product is awful. I’m convinced that Scape wouldn’t be as good as it is without the stomach-churning dilemmas that appeared throughout the process. Now, as I finish writing this, I’m preparing to write my next screenplay. You’re probably wondering if I read what I just wrote. I know, I don’t make sense. Oh well, you have to do what you love. I wonder if the person who coined that phrase did?
- Game Dev Famous Game Dev Vince Desi writes for our Weblog! He will write a series of articles, and this is the Part One of an article about being successful in Independent VideoGame Developer Art! Become a famous Game Dev now! Game Dev (Part One) Part 1. The 3 Essential Elements: I......
- Independent Filmmaking We're back with a new interview, to Actress and Producer Glorinda Marie. We talk about independent filmmaking, filmmakers, actors and movies industry. Here are some interesting links to check, after reading the interview: - Actress Website - imdb - SF Indieclub - Get Bizzzy Acting Coach Manuel Marino: "Glorinda, what......
- An Artist Portrait (Part Two) This is the Part Two (and final part) of the true life story as artist written by Frank V. Cahoj for our Weblog. (Part One) An Artist Portrait (Part Two) I give an unbelievable amount of credence to these two early periods in my life: one of everlasting creation, one......
-
Reading for fun This is a nice article from Isaac Marion. Isaac has been running the online textual variety show, BurningBuilding.com, since 2003. He lives in Seattle, Washington, where he works various mundane jobs while trying to make his writing/music/art career take off. Reading for fun Recent studies have shown that across the...... -
Film transfer, a graphical Art Today we talk about film transfer. Indeed, it's a technical process, so where can we find Art in this procedure? Often it is just a conversion of a Super 8 film to DVD or also 8mm to DVD, but sometimes it involves creative skills in restoring fragile 8mm, Super 8,......
- The Green Festival, 2009 The second annual Green Festival will happen this summer in Leazes Park, in the city of Newcastle, during the second week end of June. This has been termed the event to watch for spring by the BBC and with its short history has become well known for family fun and......
-
Get into Bed with Sharon Lathan (Author Interview) Sharon Lathan Q&A Mr. & Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy ~ Two Shall Become One LRP: Would you say your versions of Darcy and Elizabeth match closer to the actors' portrayal of the characters in the 2005 movie of Pride and Prejudice or to their personalities in Austen's original writing? Sharon:...... -
Marlon Brando Films Collectibles If you ask many people to name the greatest films of all time, many will name Marlon Brando films. He’s considered the greatest actor of all time by many movie fans and critics alike. Though he lived to be 80 years old and barely resembled his sex-symbol persona for...... -
Collecting Film Memorabilia There are many actors, actresses, movie scenes and other film moments that are memorable and popular years after they initially came into the limelight. As a result, many people collect film memorabilia as a way to relive their favorite movie moments, or to commemorate their favorite movie heroes. Although the...... - Divination Method Does handwriting analysis fit as a divination method? It can. It is a form of geomancy like feng shui. The seemingly poor handwriting arose from energies that are playing out in that persons life, making them make loops bigger, or lines choppy, distorting specific words when others aren’t. Often times......
Sounds like music and networking
January 4, 2009
Wizzit Magazine interviewed me about Blogging and Social Networking. I have to thank Matti Mattila, the reviewer and open networker. If you remember, Matti wrote A musician story. Here is a short excerpt from the magazine article that you can download here in pdf format.
Sounds like music and networking
Matti Mattila: About blogging, you have an active blog, when did you start writing it?
Manuel Marino: I started ManuelMarino.com in October 2007.
What inspired you to first start blogging?
First of all the idea to freely surf and read everything about anything always fascinated me. I think this is why people love to have many blog feeds to read daily.
Next to this idea is the one to freely write interesting articles for the Internet community. Both gives a kind of freedom that I never felt before.
What is your blog about?
ManuelMarino.com is about music, arts, philosophy, poetry, independent artists, humanities and freedom. I invite experts and sincere professionals and artists to write articles.
I believe very much in freedom, honesty, sincerity and I’m able to feel these when I meet people. There are many good persons in the world, but sometimes we are too much obsessed by everyday life to understand this and find this.
How much time do you spend blogging every week?
Probably I spend too much. I love blogging, read other people’s blogs, surf and find interesting news.
What inspires you to write an entry to your blog?
Usually my ideas about news, culture and art, sometimes my intuition. We need more intuition, people tend to forget the importance of it and uses too much their left brain.
- Documentary Filmmaking This is a special article written for us by James N. Weber. He has worked on Socially Aware Media, especially documentaries, in South Africa, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, and Mexico, and is currently working on a project on food security in Guatemala. His work and more info can be found......
-
Art, Communication, Connectivity Michael Marcus (also known as "Jacques Treatment") is a published author, poet, artist, and game designer; with George McVey, he has been publishing comics as "The Hamtramck Idea Men" on the very sensible grounds that they live in Hamtramck, have many ideas, and they are men. Joint work can be...... - Surveying the Land of Scape Taegen Carter is a movie director. He is also the owner of Mythmaker Entertainment, a company that produces shorts and features in the genres of adventure, sci-fi, thriller and drama. Taegen tells us about the production of Scape, that should be completed around June of ’09. Let's read his words,......
- An Artist Portrait (Part Two) This is the Part Two (and final part) of the true life story as artist written by Frank V. Cahoj for our Weblog. (Part One) An Artist Portrait (Part Two) I give an unbelievable amount of credence to these two early periods in my life: one of everlasting creation, one......
- Music, Movies and Independent Films In this exclusive interview, Todd Cericola, owner of Clocktower Pictures, talks about his movie studio, about music in movies and about the independent productions world. Manuel Marino: When did you start your movie studio and how did you have the idea? Todd Cericola: Clocktower Pictures was started in February of......
-
Should Casual Bloggers Use WordPress or Google Blogger? One of the most popular hobbies and past times on the internet today has to do with setting up and maintaining your own blog. Blogging is all about creating an online journal or diary that people can read and comment on, so there is a huge community aspect to it....... -
Get Free Blog Traffic by Writing Smart Why should you have to pay for obtaining traffic to your blog? There is no reason why you should spend a lot of money making your blog friendly for readers, considering that some of the best ways to get blog traffic are free. Attracting free blog traffic can easily net...... - Adventures with Chase Credit Cards Early last month, Blueprint for Financial Prosperity linked to a Consumerist article about Chase representative spilling the secrets. I enjoyed Jim's article as well as the original Consumerist one. Only two things mentioned in either article seemed scary to me as a credit card holder. Before I get to those,......
- Writing Roundup, February 12 Whew. This has been a week of technology troubles for me, but my laptop is on the mend. So, I'm back with some of the great writing posts from around the blogosphere. (It pains me to use such a cliched word, but I don't know of any word to describe......
-
Creating a Blog Video Online About two years ago, blogging hit a surge that allowed its way into the mainstream, and now everybody is blogging for a wide variety of different reasons. Blogs resemble web-based public diaries of sorts, where the creator can record their thoughts, their opinions, questions and answers and essentially anything else......
A new year ahead, and Arts win
January 1, 2009
First day of the New Year… what can we say about the old one? Many problems we faced, worldwide. The crisis is still ahead, but all the Countries are working to solve it soon. I feel a new atmosphere today. People are more relaxed, the New Year brings fresh air of positive energy.
A new year ahead, and Arts win
When economy, pragmatism, materialism and left brain methods fail, Arts help and right brain can give you what you need: love, hope, creation, imagination, a change.
Museums record higher than expected attendance in all the world.
But it is not only a kind of healing salve. Arts help you understand better the world, yourself, the others and the society.
Many of you will say: but we just need to be Rational, Analytical, Objective. Wrong! you are not a machine!
Arts will teach you that problems can have more than one solution, that in complex forms of problem solving purposes are seldom fixed, but change with circumstance and opportunity.
Small differences can have large effects.
You don’t live to work, you work to live, and you live to be happy and to love.
We just need to grab the intuition we lost with all the materialism in the world. I know it’s not an easy task :) but 2009 will be an year of change for everyone, and for the best. I wish you all the best, my friends, and Happy New Year!
- Freelance journalism Christian Toto is a Denver-based freelance reporter specializing in arts reporting. He can be heard on three US radio stations, as well as occasionally on "The Dennis Miller Show," which airs across the country. He got his first byline as a young boy with his hometown newspaper. He reviewed "Close......
- Creative Ideas (Part Two) This is the Part Two of the powerful article by Deremiah. (Part One) Creative Ideas (Part Two) RELATIONSHIPS INFLUENCE THE POWER OF YOUR IDEAS... Brian Tracy who has done a lot of research to compile the information in his wonderful book "CREATE YOUR OWN FUTURE" expresses in Chapter 7, page......
-
Living as Independent Developer Today we interview Andres Martinez, owner of baKno, a game development studio located in Key Biscayne, Florida. They are a group of video game enthusiasts committed to developing new ways to deliver fun, interactive and challenging software. Living as Independent Developer Manuel Marino: You declare yourself and your team as...... - The Elegance of the Art Doug Stahnke is a sculptor. And this is a wonderful exclusive article he wrote for us. The Elegance of the Art Let me begin by first defining some terms as I apply them: talent – I think there is a simple truth here. You were either born with it or you......
- The Emperor's New Clothes Ananda Sukarlan is an Indonesian composer and pianist living in Spain. This is an article he wrote for a magazine which has been published a few years ago in Spanish. We are very proud to have the original in English which has never been published anywhere, so this is......
-
5 Money Books That Changed My Life Up until a few years ago, I was a financial idiot. I had heard the term 401k, of course, but I had no idea what it meant. As I began to learn about investing and finance, I read probably 50 or 60 books. Some of them proved to be more...... -
something has changed Back in the 50s and 60s a large portion of the New York City population escaped the city for the Catskills during the summer. The families would relocated to cabins, and the mothers and children would set up camp for months while the husbands commuted back and forth to...... - Become your own change Larry Winget, in his new book People Are Idiots And I Can Prove It! said that the easiest action plan of all is to do this: Do anything that's different from the way you have been doing it. If things are not going the way you want, heading in a......
-
Popular Beginner Woodworking Tips There are a number of woodworking tips, that when they are followed correctly, can really and truly enhance the quality of all of the finished woodwork that you create. These woodworking tips are designed to benefit not only novices but also expert woodworkers as well. Here are some of the...... - Hong Kong's Danny Yung There are plenty of fantastic things that draw people to Hong Kong. Hotel accommodations are some of the finest in the world, situated as they are in one of the most stylish places. We have carefully selected these hotels for their high standards of excellence in design and comfort. Service......
E-commerce, a cultural fact?
November 1, 2008
E-commerce, online marketing, shopping, globalization, innovation are all linked together. It is becoming a real huge cultural fact, to be studied, to be understood to comprehend our world and where this world is going to in the near future.
E-commerce, a cultural fact?
Global E-Commerce and Online Marketing: Watching the Evolution By Nikhilesh Dholakia is a great book that explains all of this.
Specialists from business and academia present a meticulously researched, compelling examination of the effect that globalization, innovation, and relentless technological competition are having on the development of e-commerce and marketing. The editors offer practical managerial insights, important empirical findings, and new ways to comprehend the intricacies of the fast-morphing world of electronic business.
Another book that really catched me is Cyberpop: Digital Lifestyles and Commodity Culture by Sidney Eve Matrix.
Cyberpop: Digital Lifestyles and Commodity Culture is an analysis of cyberculture and its popular cultural productions. Each chapter focus on a particular cyberfiguration, including Hollywood films (GATTACA, The Matrix), popular literature (William Gibson’s Neuromancer, Scott Westerfeld’s Polymorph), advertising for digital products and services (AT&T’s “mLife” campaign), video games (Tomb Raider). Each close reading illustrates the ways in which representations of digital lifestyles and identities which typically fetishize computers and celebrate a “high tech” aesthetic encourage participation in digital capitalism and commodity cyberculture.
What I’m seeing on Internet and around me is an impressive and crazy explosion of virtual shops, like StreetWear-And-Red.com (also StreetWearAndRed.com). Goal of the shop is providing cool designs for the urban and street fashion along with elegant ideas for the modern gentlemen.
In the same explosion I can put my ebook and also my new CD with Rock and Metal Guitar Solos for Multimedia.
I’ve got just a fear, that all of this is going to result in a soap bubble in the future. How much will we be fascinated by the virtual world and how much can we stay far from reality? (Or virtuality is going to be our new reality?).
- Social Networking and the Left Coast Eisteddfod 2009 Ceri Shaw is a Web Designer and freelance writer. If you remember, he wrote What is Anglo-Welsh Literature and why Should Anyone Care?. Ceri is a former college lecturer from Cardiff, South Wales. He wrote this article for us. Social Networking and the Left Coast Eisteddfod 2009 There is an......
-
On Canvas Art Charles Veilleux wrote this exclusive article for us. Charles is the owner of Veilleux Fine Art. On May 31, 2009, Veilleux Fine Art transitions into a private artist studio tour business. Charles has owned and operated contemporary art galleries in Santa Fe since 1993. On Canvas Art Art a term...... - Self-realization and meditation (yoga for the mind) Peter Cajander allowed us to publish this part from his book Fragments of Reality. It talks about life from a personal perspective covering areas ranging from self-realization, meditation, stress, happiness, death, and everyday living. Peter is a writer, philosophical thinker, entrepreneur, strategy consultant, business executive, and author to name a......
-
Vinyl Collection Today we interview Robert Benson, who wrote the ebook called "The Fascinating Hobby Of Vinyl Record Collecting". Vinyl Collection MM: Robert, when did you have the idea to write a book about Vinyl Record Collecting? It is an unusual (but also very fascinating) topic. RB: The ebook started out as...... - Creative Ideas (Part One) Like the power of electricity your Ideas have greater impact when they rapidly flow in concentrated streams of thought. You'll find this and more in the article wrote by Deremiah, exclusively for ManuelMarino.com . Deremiah *CPE (Customer Passion Evangelist), is the winner of the 2004 Nightingale-Conant Acres of Diamonds Award......
- Small Business VoIP Phone Systems Today most of the small business owners are on the lookout for a solution to reduce their operating costs. Besides the other expenses involved, a considerable amount has to be kept apart for the telephone systems which are inevitable requirements for any small business. During the past few years, VoIP......
- Introducing The Las Cruces, Green Chamber Of Commerce. Elisa Cundiff works for Energy Concepts, a New Mexico Solar Company. She is also a member of the newly formed, Las Cruces Green Chamber of Commerce. In Las Cruces, New Mexico we have just formed a âGreen Chamber of Commerceâ, representing the business interests of local, sustainably-minded companies. Already, over......
- How to Build a World-Class Business Building a business takes hard work.That's one reason that many small businesses fail:not enough focused effort in doing the things that need to be done in order to succeed.If you have the drive and determination to build a business, use the following steps to help you become successful.Avoid growing......
- The Importance of Business Phone Systems in Global Commerce While the internet is found everywhere the world of modern commerce and business, it is the telephone which remains the foundation of the modern commercial environment. A lot of business phone systems are available that make telephone communications straight forward and efficient.So what are the various business phone systems......
- What do You Believe to be Your Generation’s Greatest Challenge? In an effort to broaden my writing skills, I've looked into typical college application essay questions. This is from a top 50 MBA program. The topics are much more general than normal Weakonomics topics, but no less important. If you don't like the essays, I won't continue with the series. ......
Walk Hard: a Retro-Styled Philosophy?
August 2, 2008
Yesterday I’ve seen Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story with a great John C. Reilly. It is a parody movie, a spoof of every musical biopic where John as music star Dewey Cox covers every musical style from Elvis to the Beach Boys over five decades. Dialogue and sequences are funny and goofy and the jokes never are boring. Since this is not exactly a review, I won’t tell more about the movie. What I would like to focus on is the philosophy behind the movie.
Walk Hard: a Retro-Styled Philosophy?
Dewey Cox kills his brother and begins an impressive quest to become a legendary artist. All is based on the “feeling guilty” system. He feels guilty, so he swear he’ll become big to please his brother soul (that was a talented young pianist). Feelings of guilt occur because deep down in your subconscious you have become emotionally attached to an event that you feel in some way responsible for, either you feel that you did something wrong, feel that you didn’t do enough or feel that you should have done something.
Of course, he killed his brother! Yes, but can we say he is punishing himself trying to become a legend? In the end of the movie there is the answer to this question.
Another philosophy behind the movie is the “Walk Hard” philosophy. It’s also the first song of the movie (and of the soundtrack album, a must!) and I really love it. Dewey say, that even if you’ve been told time and time again that you’re always gonna lose, life’s a race, and he is in it to win it. Some kind of people always try to control us, making us obedient. It’s a kind of psychological war out there! Dewey says no to this system and wants to free himself and walk hard up to the top of the mountain high. He still got a dream and a burning rage to live.
This is everything about being artists, about artists goals and principles. Probably also a retro-styled philosophy of the past, maybe also modern someway. But it is connected also to the “feel guilty” issue.
He has a dream, becoming a legend. Is it a real dream? Or he just wants to please his brother soul? He is not strong enough to resist to temptations. Sex, drugs are part of his everyday’s life. Is he really happy while pursuing his dream? Are we able to really understand what is our personal dream and life’s goal? I think that happiness is all about this, to really understand our goals. This is what Dewey finds at the end of his long and troubled life. I wish us all to discover this before the end of our lifes :)
-
An Explosion Of Blues Music Author of this article is Robert Benson. He writes about rock and pop music, vinyl record collecting and operates CollectingVinylRecords.com, where you can pick up a copy of his ebook called "The Fascinating Hobby Of Vinyl Record Collecting." You can have your vinyl records appraised at VinylRecordAppraisals.com. An Explosion Of...... - Music Reviews: Splendid E-zine Another beautiful music review I had (with my pseudonym Vanethian) is this one at Splendid E-zine. The music review is about my music album Futures Past, with my pseudonym Vanethian. If you want to read more music reviews just search my name on Google and Yahoo. Music Reviews: Splendid E-zine......
-
Reflections on some well loved Poets Ziggy Olivier wrote this article. He met Dylan Thomas and spent some of his youth drinking whisky with him. He said me: "Everything you may have read about him was true." Reflections on some well loved Poets Approaching my own demise, I was delighted this Christmas to receive from...... - Freelance journalism Christian Toto is a Denver-based freelance reporter specializing in arts reporting. He can be heard on three US radio stations, as well as occasionally on "The Dennis Miller Show," which airs across the country. He got his first byline as a young boy with his hometown newspaper. He reviewed "Close......
- Artists Psychology Here's an interesting exclusive article Roland d’Humières, 56 years old psycho-analyst from Aix en Provence (France) has written for our Weblog. I think it to be a very interesting writing about the artists psychology, or maybe "arts psychology", what's behind an artists mind. Artists Psychology Whatever is his/her Art, painting,......
-
Review: The Greek's Virgin by Trish Morey I would say for about ninety percent of this book I thought it was excellent. Perfect execution, I liked the characters, I was involved in the revenge trope, and things were good. The other ten percent sent me up in flames with an angry face because of the super...... - Review Percy Jackson movie If you loved Harry Potter, be sure not to miss Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. Book Girl and I went to the midnight showing last night, crazy people that we are. The medium sized theater was about 2/3 full. But you can bet that the second movie,......
-
Upcoming Events: Lynne LaFleur's A Wish Granted - November 30 Lynn LaFleur will be joining us here on November 30 to mark the launch of her new Ellora's Cave book, A Wish Granted, and will be kindly giving away a copy of said book. Here's the blurb (I love the cover!): ___________ Crista Farrell lost her husband in an automobile...... -
My Givenchy Dream Perfume Review This is a review of the My Givenchy Dream perfume, which is a perfume that was designed by the Givenchy design house and is well suited for use by women. The My Givenchy Dream perfume is the newest fragrance from Givenchy, and it is capable of truly enveloping the concepts...... -
Bruce Lee Movies Collectibles -> Memorabilia -> Movie Memorabilia Bruce Lee is a revered name in the martial arts community, and Bruce Lee movies are classics among action and martial arts fans. Lee was more than actor, he actually developed a martial art form called Jeet Kune Do, and popularized the sport in......
Music, Movies and Independent Films
July 30, 2008
In this exclusive interview, Todd Cericola, owner of Clocktower Pictures, talks about his movie studio, about music in movies and about the independent productions world.
Manuel Marino: When did you start your movie studio and how did you have the idea?
Todd Cericola: Clocktower Pictures was started in February of 2008. We are a new company in the Philadelphia area that specializes in independent film. We started it after working on a t.v. sitcom pilot called “Two One Five.” Myself, and my two partners Keelen Monahan and Matt Tomko had all been working individually on producing, directing, and writing and decided to put our efforts into one basket by opening up what would eventually become Clocktower.
How much is difficult to manage a movie studio?
I don’t know that it’s as difficult as it is fun. We are all doing something that we throughly enjoy doing. There is a strong workload, especially since we are a new company, but we wouldn’t have it any other way. We are a very hands on company working directly with our actors on a one on one basis. We try to cater to all of their needs as well as our own.
I’m a music composer, so the question is natural, how much music is important in the production?
As a musician myself, I think that music is one of the most important thing in a film. If you’re trying to paint a picture to set up a scene, background music is key to setting a mood. A good song will always have the scene set perfectly and you may not even notice it in the background, but when you have a bad song you, as the filmgoer, will always notice the mistake of choice.
What is your latest production? Can you tell us something about it?
Right now we are working on a few things. We are working on a feature film called “Describing the Moon,” about a guy in his mid-twenties struggling with trying to please his friends and complete his life’s goal of becoming a script writer. It’s a fantastic script that’s really dialogue driven, and very funny. We will be finishing up auditions for that next weekend, and should begin filming in October. Two One Five is a big priority as well, we are shopping around to try and sell and make an entire season. As well as entering short film and television festivals to get the name out. The entire episode is up on our website for free viewing at Clocktower Pictures. We are also looking into opening up a second branch of the company under the banner Clocktower Music helping to produce local artists and independent musicians. So we have a lot going on.
How we can define an independent movie and why it’s important that indies are supported in their work?
I think independent film is a very important thing because it brings out more creativity in people. When you’re writing without cause and shooting without big budget you’re working harder at making something the way you see it, so you’re getting the original vision of what you’re going for. It’s like an artists painting, you want to express your own ideas in your own way, not someone else. Too many hands in the cookie jar is never a good thing.
Do you think internet can help indies?
I think the internet is a great advantage for people in any area of creative arts. You can reach out to millions of people at the single click of a button for your company, your movie, your art, your music anything you want. I think with the advent of facebook, myspace, mandy, craigslist, and countless others we’re living in an age where getting yourself out to the masses of people is just that much easier, and that much better.
How do you see the future of movie production?
As far as movie production in general goes, I see it bulking up even more. Budget’s for production are getting larger by what seems daily, actors are making more and more money, and the intake is getting outrageous. On a smaller scale, Philadelphia is getting its own studio soon which has already scene production in the city jump up ten fold.
- Surveying the Land of Scape Taegen Carter is a movie director. He is also the owner of Mythmaker Entertainment, a company that produces shorts and features in the genres of adventure, sci-fi, thriller and drama. Taegen tells us about the production of Scape, that should be completed around June of ’09. Let's read his words,......
- A Beautiful Interview Ceri Shaw suggested me an interview from our friends at Americymru. So here's this beautiful interview with Dr. Karl Jenkins (I include also the link to their ticket giveaway competition for his performance at Carnegie Hall NY on March 6th 2010). A Beautiful Interview Dr. Karl Jenkins is Britain's greatest......
-
Music Geek Robin Mookerjee is a songwriter obsessed with music. Is this a good thing? Or a bad thing? I can say he is a real music geek! Read his story and check his website. Music Geek I’m really a fan as much as a songwriter, but a lot of songwriters say...... -
How Has the Internet Affected the Music Industry? This article is written by web designer Josh Gutteridge who runs Skyte Media. Skyte Media is based in the Midlands (England) and is a professional web design company that specialises in web design and development. Josh would like to receive comments about this article on his blog. But of course...... - Game Engine Dr. Roberto Dillon has written this article about his Music-Emotion Driven Game Engine. I think this idea to really have potential. Game Engine In the fast developing world of videogames, sound has traditionally played a less important role than other features, such as graphics. Nonetheless, recently, due to the latest......
-
Tom's Of Maine Has A Natural Deodorant That Works. Over the years I have tried a zillion different natural deodorants from different companies in a vain attempt to get away from the aluminum that is in most name-brand formulas. The best one I could find that "mostly" worked was one from Tom's of Maine, but it still didn't last...... -
Things You Own End Up Owning You. The title of this post is one of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite movies - Fight Club. The quote is from Tyler Durden, (and without telling you too much in case you haven't seen the movie) who is anti-establishment and anti-consumerism...making it one of those movies that...... - Are you just doing easy stuff? Maybe I'm one of a minority that has problems getting down to business when I hit the computer, work, or whatever, but when I sit at the computer I really have to be conscious about what I'm doing there. If I sit down without a plan, I gravitate toward "easy"......
-
how to lead a mysterious life Are you the type of person who likes to know how a movie ends in the first five minutes? Do you keep asking "are we there yet?" If so, jump to the end of this post - it's not for you. I am a person of routine. I really enjoy...... - The Perfect Process - Guaranteed to Work - Every Time! Every week we work with many of you to develop the next most important process in your company.Many of the common ones are:- Lead Management Process- Lead Distribution Process- Sales Process- Customer Service Process- Service Delivery ProcessSo once we get this process designed, the people trained and the necessary......
-
Subscribe
-
Categories
-
Links
- Listen to Music Online - Direct link to mp3s you can download. You can freely Listen to Music Online, this way!
- Shop for Car - Shop for Car means Huge Car Deals! Also Auto Parts and Auto Accessories!
- Shop for Clothes - Find the Lowest Prices on Footwear, Handbags, Shirts and Outdoor Gear!
- Shop for Computer - Best Computer and Consumer Electronics Brands.
- Subscribe by Email - Subscribe to receive daily email with ManuelMarino.com newest content.
- XML Sitemap
-
Meta
-
Editorial Endorsements
