Sid's Blog
Donate to Vampire Camp, Get a T-Shirt
Vampire Camp is a new indie flick from Award-Winning Director Ray Robison. Ray has 5 festival awards from a previous feature film, Sixes and the One-Eyed King (2006). He also has 3 festival awards for a short film, Model Rules (2008), and a recent short film, The Bag (2010) has just picked up the Humanitarian Award at the Da Vinci Film Festival, it's 3rd official festival award following Director's Choice and Special Jury prizes as it continues it's current run on the festival circuit.
Want to be a Producer?
You can! (by paying for it!) - Donate $500 or more to get Assistant, Associate, or Executive Producer credit on Vampire Camp. Donations of $50 or more will get an authentic Vampire Camp T-Shirt.
Wordpress eCommerce
Sid hasn't used the Wordpress website component very much in the past, but more and more lately it has helped make rapid deployment of user-friendly websites very easy. If you have a simple website idea that needs regular updates or posts, then Wordpress has a quick learning curve and is quite "widget-friendly."
Recently, Sid launched a website for Black Market Comedy utilizing Wordpress. The first reason was that it was *free. That is, the Wordpress blogging engine is free to download and install on nearly any decent web server; you only need to worry about paying for the server space and the time to develop and update your website. If you are happy with a simple theme (and there are many free themes available, too) and have some webspace available, then you can plug in Wordpress and start adding content in just a few minutes.
And what if you want a really simple website, easy to manage, but you want to start selling merchandise or downloads? Sid initially would pursuade a client to look towards a more focused eCommerce software, like X-Cart, or if the budget was tight, then another Open-Source alternative that ties into Joomla might be the way to go (Sid's faves are VirtueMart and Maian Media). But just recently, a customer who is already familiar with Wordpress, and already has quite a bit of content on a Wordpress blog, was looking to monetize some of their content, already available as downloads.
Website Recovery Status
Some of you know, some may not, but SidFilmz attempted to upgrade our website at the end of April, and hit a snag. Unfortunately, Sid was so backed up with other projects (also know as "paying gigs"), that the team really hasn't had the chance to step up to finish rebuilding the website structure. You will notice, our header and side modules look a little bare, and we are slowly bringing some new content back into the blog.
In the meantime, Sid and the others are making tons of progress on other people's websites. For example, check out http://charlesguymusic.com, a new website launch for musician, Charles Guy. This was a fairly simple website set up for a local artist. Sid added some preview audio tracks for some of Charles Guy's albums, which are available to purchase via PayPal.
Another clean and simple website launch was completed recently for Dorris Construction (http://dorrisconstruction.com). This company focuses on environmentally conscious home and commercial building. The company owner, Gary Dorris, has received a number of awards for his excellence in the field.
The third new website for 2010 is a light-duty brochure website for Wheat Springs Bakery (http://wheatspringsbakery.com). This company belongs to a small, family owned wheat ranch in Gilliam County, Oregon. One of the owners was looking for a new way to market their staple crop, and came up with the great idea for Popped Wheat Berries.
Aside from all the website work, Sid is thrilled to be near the finish line of producing the 8-DVD Series for Tom Kane's 3-Day Film Workshop. This 12hrs+ of instruction on how to break down a film script into shootable days and build a budget that is accurate and in the limits of the studio's pocketbook, is a great resource for the aspiring filmmaker. SidFilmz took on the duties of editing this monstrous project, and has just completed DVD Authoring for all 7 video discs (there will also be 1 CD/DVD Manual). They are now in a studio being color-corrected and mastered for duplication. Look for them to be online and shipping by July 20.
What's New for 2010?
2010 and what's new for SidFilmz? We'll get back to you on that.
Actually, it's business as usual. Our Digital Media Producer, Levi Anderson, has been off working on other peoples films the last few months, and is now catching up on some video editing and website redesigns for SidFilmz again. Stay tuned for some upcoming posts on the upcoming DVD Package for Tom Kane's Film Production Workshop. This is for all you folks who love to make movies, but are too creative or artistic to think about it as a business. Tom helps you focus on how to tear a script down into workable parts, build a real budget and schedule, and produce an actual motion picture out of it.
For those interested, check out his website at http://filmtvworkshops.com. Click on the Production Software link and you'll see some killer sales on Movie Magic Scheduling and Movie Magic Budgeting, 2 of the leading softwares for Assistant Directors and Unit Production Managers.
Upcoming Production: The Bag (2009)
THE BAG is a short film in production in southern Oregon from a festival award-winning team, local to the area. THE BAG is a simple yet disturbing story of an elderly woman who has grown tired of living. The film is scheduled to go in to production in late October 2009. THE BAG will be directed by Ray Nomoto Robison and was written by by Marlyn Mason. The film is set to star Peggy Stewart.
Robison and Mason previously teamed up on a short film, Model Rules, which has won a Grand Prize Best Screenplay Award at the 2008 Rhode Island International Film Festival and Northwest Emerging Artist "Best Short" at the 2009 Salem Film Festival.
Investors are welcome to contribute to the film, here.
Black Market Comedy
Local Stand-Up Comedy is back in Ashland, and soon to spread through Talent & Phoenix, too. The Black Market Comedy Group is a collection of local comics who have begun performing regular shows at the Hong Kong Bar in Ashland. The group last performed together regularly when the Caldera Pub was known as the Jefferson State Pub, in between two stints as the Siskiyou Pub.
Members of the group host a comedy open-mic at the Hong Kong Bar in Ashland on Sunday nights, bi-weekly. They are planning on a monthly showing at the new Caldera Pub in Ashland, as well as a the Little Brown Jug in Talent. Comics include Scott May, Tyler Foley, Dan McLaren, and Levi Anderson.
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