Oscars 2013

Since the Oscars were this past Sunday, it is only reasonable that I write something about them as most buzz has started to calm down since the event. 

Overall I thought it was a well-produced show with some minor hiccups here and there. Seth McFarlane was well tamed, as we all know it brought everyone on edge waiting to see what he was going to say. I think he did a great job as he did have big shoes to fill with it being mostly Billy Crystal's show so to speak.

Having an overall theme this year worked well with it being Musicals. Having the talents of Seth helped bring in a completely different audience which also is a tech savvy market that used the social media tactics the Oscars threw at them. There was the app to control which cameras you were saying, the Facebook page had an event leading up to the Oscars and during the red carpet there were Twitter hash tags to play along with.

The best highlights, as featured on the Oscars page, were Jennifer Lawrence and the sheer honesty and gratefulness she brought to the stage (and her fall). She is the reason the Oscars exists today, to remind those that watch it that the young and spirited are the future of tomorrow and can do great things.

Another great highlight was the ever-beautiful Adele singing and winning for Skyfall. The song captures the essence of a beautiful and well laid out movie that tells a true action film.

And who can forget the cast of Les Miserables performing live and bringing tears to those watching. Seeing the cast act with each other on the stage showed how close they really got being together on the movie set. Being one of the last times they would perform the act together brought even more drama and sadness to the stage.

Overall the Oscars went well. Everyone worked very hard to produce something that not one person could do on his or her own. Can't wait for the next one!

Business Plans

Bob Dorf, a 'serial entrepreneur', has been speaking to many about the concepts of business plans and how they work, or don't work. A quote he stated while at the NYU Entrepreneurs Challenge was "It's all fiction. How can you look me in the eye, and tell me how many customers you're going to have." Not being the classiest of word choice but I do agree with Mr. Dorf. While writing my business plan the past few months, I have come to realize that the stressing over fictional numbers is a waste of time. The focus needs to be put on the creation of the company you are building the plan around.

The biggest thing that caught my eye however from Mr. Dorf was his statement of what every startup should have which included people that fall into three sections: the hacker, the hustler and the artist.

Another great motivator is Adrian Ysan who joins start up companies in early phases just to help them through the rough times. One of the biggest things I have come to learn through his blog is that no matter what kind of company it is, all it takes to keep it going is constant action from the owners.

An article from Forbes magazine stated "Rarely do I meet a startup founder who has a great idea, has done the basic analysis, created a business plan, and also called 10 potential customers..." When reading that, I was shocked and frankly, still am. While in the middle of still writing a business plan, I have to know that everything cannot be planned out for or be expected. It is wise to make one and have the start up costs accounted for and measured and really push for the big idea but things can only go so far.

For those of you writing a business plan now, don't stress. Know that no matter how many hours you put in writing numbers and equations, nothing will beat a great idea. So go out and make that great idea happen. 

Music Video

With so many film graduates in the world, I wish there would be better music videos for those upcoming artists. A lot of the time there is no story, just behind the scenes footage showing the artist. There are plenty of options when there is little money being presented and an artist manager should want the best for his artist and push for this.

A great example of just behind the scenes footage is by the upcoming artist Allen Stone. In this video, it is 99 percent backstage. The song lyrics tell a great story and that should have been featured within the video.

This music video however has gone just a step above, the band Metric with the song 'Breathing Underwater'. Even though most of it is on stage of a concert, the quality of the lead singer is high quality and there are some insert shots of her life. Those insert shots create a story in its own that help guide emotion.

Money is usually a key ingredient to why an upcoming artist doesn't have great music videos. Usually since the artist is new, people don't want to risk their own money to help make a video.

Some options are settling on one location during the shoot and not spreading out to different ones. Also, limit how many extras are present; the more that are present for a long period of time, the more mouths you have to feed. The last tip, art direction doesn't need to be as big. Here is a great video from well-known artist Kid Rock with little art direction in 90 percent of the video. 

*Warning, this is Kid Rock, so there are inappropriate moments.*

This last video by Taylor Swift relies more on the existing location to tell the story. This is a great example of having a limited amount of extras on set. This song is from the movie Hunger Games.

Overall I feel that if there is going to be a music video, there should be some kind of story within it. It will help make the artist more memorable and the production quality will be better.

So next time you are thinking about making a music video, please sit down and make a story out of the lyrics.