I haven't posted a blog entry in a while, so I figured I would write one on my current big project. In addition to working two jobs and maintaining this site, I'm also a member of a new company, Exit Reality Entertainment. Our core project is a film series, The Red String Theory, but we also are building a YouTube channel and pursuing contract work. Our first movie, Remote, is reaching the end of pre-production. I think it has a very promising storyline, but before you say anything, no, I'm not the writer. My role is President/CEO and my primary responsibilities on this project are planning, finance/funding, contracts, website design, marketing, and distribution. You think that's a long list? You have no idea. Anyway, I want to share what I can about the project and the story. Our primary writer and founder is pretty damn secretive about the whole thing. Our movie, Remote, is a psychological thriller in the greater "universe" of the The Red String Theory. The movie follows the character Daniel Grey as he discovers a series of unsolved cases and unsettling events in his search for his missing brother and friends. The movie chronicles the events leading up to their disappearance, which ultimately lead Daniel to believe the disappearance all involve a mysterious - even malevolent - organization. Here's a little better summary of the project: What really gets me excited, though, is the rest of the universe of The Red String Theory. Everything you’ve done - everything you believe - is a result of the choices you’ve made in the past. This is the undeniable truth. But is everything you believe a result of actions within your control? Is it possible that the choices you have made - the choices that have brought you down this path to where you are today - were designed and intentionally placed in front of you by an unseen person, one with a hidden agenda? What if every choice you’ve made has been designed and orchestrated. Not predestined, but predetermined, calculated, implemented. The Red String Theory follows three families through stories of hidden political agendas, power struggles, military conspiracy, global affairs, and the manipulation and control of human experience. These interconnected storylines revolve around the concept of predetermined circumstances. After three generations of these families, three young individuals discover that their very existence is due to events that took place framed within this illusion of choice, and that they should not be there at all. As this discovery is made, a dark plot unfolds to transform the entire world that they know into something different. Pretty cool, eh? We're pretty far along on Remote, but like any project this big, we're hitting roadblocks. We have a full cast and crew (upwards of 30 people), which of course leads to scheduling conflicts. We have a number of locations nearly secured, but getting the paperwork finalized is difficult. Funding has also been a huge issue. We had to seriously reexamine what we could do with a limited budget after missing our Kickstarter campaign's goal. We ended up massively reducing the shooting schedule to cut costs and relaunched in Indiegogo. I'll be glad when the campaign's over. Over the next two weeks we're going to drill down on the funds we've secured on Indiegogo, and rip apart each department's budget, reducing it to the true essentials. Everything else will need to be compromised or come out of pocket. With luck, the latest version of our shooting schedule will work. We are dividing filming for Remote into at least two segments, with principle filming starting in about three weeks. Holy hell that's coming up fast. So that's what I've been working on for the past year. If interested, you can follow the project on our Facebook, or get a better overview on our campaign page. I'll probably make another post about the project after filming's complete. Pardon my ramblings.
Holy hell!! Last time I blogged here was November 2007. Wow, brings me back - I was still in high school! Figured I'd wrote a post to clear my head. So I've been enrolled in college since my last post here. I went to Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois on 2008. I eventually transferred to ISU for a year, changed my major from Marketing to Political Science, then transferred back to Bradley University last fall and finally changed my major to Entrepreneurship. The year at ISU cost me an extra year. Writing-wise, I've stopped writing poetry and fiction and have moved mostly to non-fiction essays and song lyrics. I hope to further develop these areas of my writing to something that'll get published, but I also miss fiction and hope to get back to it in the near future. Money's tight, but I can't complain. I've got big plans for the future, I just need to finish school and get some start-up capital. I've been into web development and internet marketing on and off. My problem is I take on too many projects, leaving even the ones I love to suffer (http://www.livefreeordie.com). This made me focus solely on WF, and I plan to continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Upgrading WritingForums.org to Xenforo was well overdue, and I'm glad I finally made the transition. When we moved from vBulletin 3.8 to vBulletin 4.0 it was unhealthy for the site - we saw a drop in traffic, participation, posts, drops all around. I know that Xenforo will restore us back to where we were, and then some. I have big plans for the future of WF. I just need to learn to prioritize and stop focusing so much on the details. So glad it's almost the weekend. Ugh. it's 5:55 a.m.
Last night I pulled an all-night; I don't know why, perhaps because I'm foolish. I left with my brother to go to circuit city around 4:30 and got there at 5:00, when they opened. I originally planned to show up at 4:00, but that didn't work out. The line wrapped all the way around the building, spanning two sides of the structure. It took over an hour to get in; this in itself wasn't horrible. What was horrible was that it was freezing. I couldn't feel my fingers or toes, and in my ignorance I didn't dress for the occasion. I ended up getting into the store around 6:15 and got out before seven. I was very impressed with the Circuit City staff - while the lines were long, I couldn't have waited in one for more than ten minutes (to checkout). What I was seeking was a 1 Terabyte Western Digital harddrive. After rebates I would save $100 or so. I was nearly disappointed - there were only three left in stock and they were misshelved, probably from customers. I'm glad I managed to get this, as I will use it for my movie, music, and photo library. Hopefully I'll never run out of storage space. I also ended up getting some DVDs, including House (seasons 1 & 2). I also intended to get a few additional things, including addtional TV series, a webcam, DVD+Rs, an All-In-One Printer, and more - unfortunatley all these items were sold out. This was quite an experience. I'm just glad I didn't wait outside Best Buy since 8:00 PM on Thansgiving to be the first one in the store, like a friend I know. That baffles me.
In addition to posting about the things I look for in an entry, I'm also going to post about what I actually do to select the story. Firstly, I'll wait until the contest is closed to new entries. I don't read any of the stories until the contest is closed. After that, I'll print off all the entries and read them that way. I've found this to be more convenient and easier to read than on a computer screen. As I'm reading, I'll take notes on negatives of the story, relevance to the contest theme, and positives of the story, as well as anything else that stands out. After finishing each individual entry, I'll rank it on a five point scale. After I've read, commented, and ranked all the stories, I'll go back through them and remove the lowest ones and set aside the highest ones. Typically there are only a few with low "scores" and a few with high "scores." If those with the high score is below the number necessary, I'll go back through the middle "ranked" entries and make selection that way; this is done usually be reviewing my notes and re-reading segments of the story. This method isn't used 100% of the time, but it's generally how I plan to go about things. After selection I'll make sure the finalists I've selected fit the contest theme and are appropriate. Then I'll open the voting. I hope that gives a little more insight as to how the selection process actually works.
We run contests periodically. After the contest closes we'll have a voting booth with the top ten contestants. I decided to write this brief blog post to let you know - for future reference - what might increase your chances of making it to the top ten. 1. Plot and Characterization The #1 thing I look for when reading through the contest entries is a good story. I want something that will capture me; I want to read something unique that is simply well written. Be creative and innovative. Write something that hasn't been written before. Make the characters real. 2. Technicalities The second thing I look for is good spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Nothing will hurt your chances in one of our contests more than a (grammatically) poorly written story. To be more correct, I don't look for grammar errors - they seem to find me. Proof read, please. This will increase your chances exponentially. Look for misspellings and missed punctuation. Make sure the formatting is also well structured. 3. Paint me a Picture Among other things I look for, one thing is imagery and description. In this "stage" I'm not only looking for a good idea or good grammar, but simply good writing. Writing style and flow are important. Use colorful description. Change up your wording a bit. "He said she said," said I, gets tiring. There are obviously other things I look for when reviewing, but these are the big three. Remember - I don't want you to write "just another story." I want you to write something I will remember.
So I'm a senior in high school - I'll be graduating this coming May. This past month I've been working on applying to scholarships and such, and in the process I've decided I want to go to New York University. The only problem is that I fall below average on most of their standards. They're a highly selective school, but I know it's where I want to go. They accept less than 30% of the applicants. Their average ACT and GPA are 30 and 3.6. My ACT is 27 and my GPA is 3.3. It's not impossible for me to get it, but chances are against me. This is quite a stressful time. Does anyone have any tips or advice for me that pertains to getting accepting into NYU? Thanks! Daniel
Well, it seems like I just keep getting busier and busier. As a result I've had less and less time to work on this site -for that I apologize. The past two weeks I've gone to Chicago, visited colleges, taken the SAT, and had our bands first show. One top of that, we've been practicing 2-4 times a week. Our first show wasn't anything spectacular, but it wasn't bad either. It was at an event in which there was our music, refreshments, prizes, etc - as a result, we weren't the main event (which was probably good, considering it was our first show.) It was in a small room in the back, but we had about forty people in the room at a time. We have our second show this Saturday in Mason City, Illinois. So if by some chance you'll be in the area, you should stop by. We also have a myspace, which can be found at www.myspace.com/fightingtheodds . We have one of our songs up now. It doesn't have the greatest recording (we did it ourselves), but it isn't bad, I suppose. So yeah, check it out.
Well, I've had a very busy week so far - so much so that I've been absent here for a bit. I apologize for that. Between school, work, and other requirements, I've been extremely hard-pressed for time. Tomorrow won't be much better. I'm going to have to get up around 6 a.m. From 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. I'm retaking the ACT (for the third time!). The first time I received a 26 and the second time I got a 27 - I want a 30. I haven't studied a terrible amount, but I've studied some. I'll be studying some more tonight. Hopefully it'll have helped. I'm also taking the writing portion, which I feel confident I'll also improve on. I took a practice test (got a 30) and calculated that, if I miss two less problems in each section, I can get a 32; this would be amazing. After the testing I'm going to a friends house for band practice. Our goal is to record one of our songs by 6 p.m., so we might be there for a while. If we do record the song successfully, it'll be well worth it. Who knows, this time tomorrow you might be checking out our myspace! After recording I'm going to go home, then leave soon thereafter to go to a local festival (yet again). It'll have rides, showcases, food, and so on. I don't really want to go, but I'm sort of committed. After that I'll hopefully be able to relax and perhaps catch up on some things here. Anyway, wish me luck on the ACT. Yo no estoy muy nervioso, pero yo estoy no preparado. Esta correcto? No se. Yo no hablo espanol. Lo siento. I'm in a really weird mood right now.
Hopefully this will help you get a feel for what does what in the new blog feature as far as settings go. Click the "Blog Control Panel" Link. The first page you should see will have several of the default options. Basic Settings "Allow Comments to be Posted" will disable or enable comment posting for all entries you have. It's recommended that you leave this option checked. "Moderate Comments Before Displaying" will make in necessary for you to approve any and all comments before they are allowed to be visible to all users. "Default Subscription Mode: Blog Entries" will allow you to automatically subscribe yourself to comments made on all of your blog entries. "Default Subscription Mode: Blog Comments" will determine if you're automatically subscribed to blogs that you post a comment to. It's suggested that you have this set to "No email Notification." The "Permissions and Privacy" section sets who can read or leave comments on your blog. You have a buddy list and an ignore list, as well as everyone else. It's recommended that everyone can view/comment your blog except for people on your ignore list. Hit the "save changes" button to save changes. Control Panel Links On the left sidebar in the blog control panel section the link "Blog Title and Description" is where you can set a title and description to your blog. This will be displayed at the top of your blog profile. Blog Categories appear on your blog and help you specify the topic of the entry. Blog Categories are perhaps the least used feature so far, but also perhaps one of the most important. Click the "add new category" link to add a new category. Create several categories. Next time you post a blog you'll have the option to specify a category for that blog entry. It's highly suggested that you do this. Blog options are what I detailed near the beginning of this post. The blog subscriptions are the comments and blogs you are subscripted to receive notices from. Posting an Entry You have several options available to you when posting a blog entry. All of the categories show below the entry box are definable by you (I mentioned how to set them above). You can also set settings for this specific entry. So, for example, you want to have comments on all of your blogs but not the one you're currently posting, simply deselect the "Allow comments to be posted" button. Doing so will not disable comments for all your entries, but only for this specific one. In the publish status section, you can publish your blog immediately, set a date for it to automatically publish itself on, or save it as a draft. If you save an entry as a draft, it won't be viewable to the public, but you can publish it later. You can also attach files and subscribe to your own entry. I realize this isn't a brilliant tutorial/explanation, but hopefully it will help at least a little.
Several of my friends and myself were at a local festival this evening, when one of them gets the bright idea to climb onto the roof of a local public building. It was just for fun and didn't seem like that big of a deal. He was supposed to go up there, let us a take a picture, and get down. That happened, but immediately following, the park police swarmed the place. We had at least three vehicles pull up within ten seconds after he jumped from the roof. The first one came at him boldly, and asked what he was doing. He answered honestly by saying he was on the building. The police officer got off his vehicle, unclipped his gun, and told my friend to put his hands behind his back. He was then handcuffed. At that point in time I got a sinking feeling in my gut. I couldn't believe the reaction we were getting. We ended up in the situation for about an hour as the police questioned some of us, examined my friend's bag, and filled out papers. According to the police officer, my friend was "entering," or "breaking and entering" simply by climbing onto the roof for twenty seconds. They said they could charge him or fine him up to $1000. He ended up with a $175 fine and a court date. They also made a huge deal about the pictures. In all honestly, I'm not sure why. They made sure my friend had deleted them. Is this legal? I didn't think it was a crime to take pictures. If it had been a reporter would they have confiscated their pictures? No. It's a public place. They also mentioned that people would do similar things and post videos on youtube - they said that they used youtube for evidence all the time. Can you believe that? The whole scenario was ridiculous, in my opinion. While he shouldn't have been on the roof, I think they acted way to strongly. The most ridiculous thing about the entire incident was that we were in a park, and where we were at the moment had signs that said "no skateboarding, no rollerskating, no biking." There was a skate park nearby and the entire time we were being questioned, skateboarders, roller skaters, and bikers rode by between the cops and their vehicles, right past the sign. Did they get ticketed? Nooo.