Budgeting and Production Style: How Big Can We Scale it As For $0?

My filmmaking production and animation/comics production style is modeled after 2 things: Sagittarius, and Japanese filmmaking.

Meaning: Create illusions of grandeur utilizing a nonexistent budget. In other words, how pretty can we make the vision and product look, for free. 

As for Sagittarius. Sagittarius wants to do everything on a large scale, including production values. Filmmakers such as Spielberg and Walt Disney belong to this sign. 

MORE Prophetic Visions of the Future of Online Video

While 2006 was a watershed and breakout year for Online Video. There's still a lot more people, companies, and entrepreneurs can do with it. From Los Angeles to Tokyo, Canada, France, and Atlanta.

Probably one element that could generate a LOT of profits for the online video market is live video. Not so much as live events, but animation and studio made online and traditional films and TV shows. I'm currently running a live online TV network, but it's not going to be up until sometime next year. 

However, we're definitely seeing two markets emerging: The market for time and place shifting streaming video. And the market for time and place shifting Live Video. Cartoon Network, Disney XD, DirecTV, and Adult Swim (four major players) already have options for the latter medium set up so you can watch live TV broadcasts from the mainstream, on your cellphone or PC or wherever you maybe. And I'm sure Google will be playing catchup with the live online broadcasting industry (the livestreams of the world) in time.

You Know, I Don't LIKE People Who Simply ASSUME They're "Bigger" Than Me.....

You know why? Cuz they're NOT.

Yeah, get on it, THUGS!!!

Fantasy Stories That Have a Positive Portrayal of Adoption

Steve Jobs' LIFE story (first and foremost, because it is a fantasy tale of an adoptee living the American Dream.

The Greatest Stories About Adoption:

Little Orphan Annie
Tarzan
Harry Potter
Meet the Robinsons

I like to take a Horatio Alger view of adoption.

"Two World's. One Family."

Heartwarming, I know...

Why do I endorse adoption so much, as a theme and way of life?

Shouldn't you all be able to figure that out?

Because I AM adopted, in Ann Arbor Michigan at the University of Michigan Hospital, home of the Wolverines and Nobel Prize Winners. And yes, it was a closed adoption, because supposedly open adoptions weren't a feasible option in the early 80's like kids have the luxury of them being now. Not that I'm complaining. If the situation was different, it  very well could have changed my life for better OR worse, but still altered the timetable and course of history as we know it. ESPECIALLY the internet. 

I live in Central Florida now. It was an adjustment, to say the least,  but I've definitely made the best of my life. Like I said. I have a Horatio Alger Creative American Dream Philosophy. Just like my hero, Stephen King.

Here's the deal with self-published and indie comics, color, black and white, or otherwise....

"geek culture" used to NEVER BE geek culture. I HATE SELF LABELING! And I hate that comics have sort of become that. This uncool self-labeling thing that attracts social miscreants, FREAKS, and WEIRDOS. Part of the problem has been the recent popularity and mainstream "Hollywood" appeal of Cartoon Network, Batman, and comic book and anime conventions.

All that fame, success, power, and money lurking in back behind the curtain has attracted some genuinely mean-spirited, know-it-all, gossipy, and/or weird/freakish people, both male or female, who are essentially there for the power, money, fame, and nothing else. It's driving the very poeple that made it cool in the first place away. I'm surprised I've stayed with comics this long, considering how downhill a lot of it's gone. 

Twitter and YouTube only kind of helped things. But in a way it was a pandora's box. 

It's not the same industry we people in our late twenties and early 30s grew up on.

We've all seen the horrific online trashtalk, people. Fans, professional, Fan-fessionals. Whatever you are.

Be nice people. This isn't a Conan movie. It's not the Crusades of the Dark Ages. It's show business. Well, to me it is anyway.

Being rude and mean to others is a contagious disease. A parasitic virus people, who might otherwise hire and employ you, with their millions of Hollywood, Silicon Valley, and Tokyo dollars, don't like. It's important not to be disheartened or discouraged by the negative and insult-based elements of the internet. Too many people buy into it. Too many people assume that's what's going on in person. It's not! People still have the potential to  be Good People and do Good things. Not Bad.

The world can be a dangerous place. But it's not always, and it doesn't "have to" be. Don't let adulthood make you cynical. Wise and experienced maybe, but not mean and cynical.

"Discrimination" in Japanese Anime and Manga. "Is it even real?"

Does it exist on some level, against whites, Americans and anyone who's not Japanese? Yes. But I don't believe it should be seen as as black and white as that. No pun intended.

Sure there's Japanese racism, xenophobia, and discrimination against foreigners getting steady work in Japan. But it's very tied to the cultural and social mentality of the Japanese workforce in general.

I don't think it's so much "Japanese hate foreigners" as it is "We're not used to seeing foreigners in Japanese roles. Why water it down?"

Honestly, I don't know what to do about it. America had the blacklist in the 1940s. And Japan has the anti-foreigner thing.

It can be tough to say how much of it is racism or discrimination, and how much is simply "We don't like seeing people challenge tradition and the status quo.

Barack Obama represents the most recent example of this type of thing.

I'll say this much.

America had no problem with African Americans making fools, stereotypes, and racist versions of murderers and rapists for years, decades even, with them emergence of rap music, where it was okay to be ignorant and a stereotype of yourself, but not literate and booksmart.

People who weren't black weren't THREATENED by that at ALL,  because it wasn't  viewed as a threat to racism and stereotypes in general.

Then, SUDDENLY! ONE Glorious day, we have a black man as a captain of the ship, and the White Wing goes APE SHIT!

Why do you think that IS exactly. I doubt it has much to do with "behavior". Or "policy". Because Obama excels at BOTH of those.

Think about it.

Not gonna lie, that stung...

There was a time when in the media, the personal attacks on me got so personal, that I considered retiring early on a weekly basis.

Fortunately that movement seems to have died...a bit. And with any real luck it and those people will STAY dead.

WE [HEART] JAPAN. I always wanted to find a real audience in Japan with anime and manga related stuff, on a more creative cultural level...

Now thanks to YouTube and Google+ I have a small ARMY of fans in Japan.

But my business and cultural transition to the Japanese market was not a typical one...

Because I was one of the first Americans to reach out to Japan culturally, using next generation technology.

Of course, I'm talking about streaming video and social media on the internet.

I [Heart] Japan.

I always have.

In Carl Voice: It's BAD ENUFF I got relatively new neighbors straight outta the movie Suburbia with Shia Labeouf

Now I gots friggin Disembodied spirits of ancient Floridian Seminole Native Americans wandering around my yard and house who can't rest peacefully in the after life because some grave injustice happened to them in the spot where they built my childhood neighborhood!!?? Like the friggin Sixth Sense.  with GHOST SIGHTINGS like something straight out of the biography channel??

I mean, I knew I was sort of psychic and a visionary, but JESUS CHRIST. Don't you think we're going a tad bit overboard here, spirit world

I mean COME ON!!! What do you want ME to do about it? How do you help disembodied spirits that died, what? THREE CENTURIES AGO???

I did like The Sixth Sense soundtrack and cinematography though....Always have.

"Location, Location, Location"

Truth is, the City, State, Country,or Continent a piece of animation is produced in matters just as much and plays just as much of a major role in it's quality and aesthetics, and content. Location matters just as much as what company is making the animation. These things MATTER to the people who fund animated projects, not just fans. 

Hiding Doesn't Work. You Have to Get Out There if You Want to Be a Writer.....

Here is the truth. It doesn't matter how afraid you are of confrontation or "potential and real" rejection, if you want to succeed and get published by a publisher, you HAVE TO be willing to hear numerous important people tell you the words "No" and "No Thank You"

You have no choice if you want to succeed. You have to be willing to hear "NO" from editors Five HUNDRED times. NOT JUST ONE OR TWO.

Getting rejected by editors and publishers is part of the writing process, not just finishing your document.

REAL authors MUST LEARN TO ACCEPT BEING TOLD "NO" and "NO THANK YOU" as PART OF the writing process. Not just a "contingency" or "devastating tragedy", as more sensitive artists do.

The less you let steady rejection get to you the better off you'll be in the long run.

I got over my fear of being told No recently, and I'm in a better position because of it. I have no doubt about that. You can't expect editors to know who you are just because you're well known online...

Mono: An "Origin Story"

People always ask me, "Where did Mono come from?" "Where did you get the idea from him?" "How in the world did you design something like that??"

And in truth. I don't make EVERYTHING up. Mono's look, his general face is based on my older adoptive brother. The fighter element kind of comes from him. The lower limb strength is based on myself and my interest in the martial arts that sort of got passed down to me from my older brother. I based much of Mono's temperament and personality as a deeply religious silent warrior" from myself. Well, that and Conan The Barbarian, and Elric of Melnibone.

My brother is not a clone of me. He is not my twin....AT ALL. Definitely not a twin. He's not even genetically related to me, but he was a badass growing up. And I liked that about him. 

As for his co-star, Jen, she was based on my old art school girlfriend I was profoundly infatuated with at one point, but we were kind of star-crossed lovers, so, y'know, it didn't work out...

But no. Society is NOT prepared to live in a world where Harry Potter is step brothers with David Duchovny, and Harry Potter is married to Tank Girl, and David Duchovny marries Serena Williams. NOT PREPARED I TELL YOU!! UNNNNACCEPTABBLLLLLEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BUT IT'S THE TRUTH. UNLIKE THOSE LIES YOU OTHER GUYS SHIT OUT ON THE MEDIA THROUGH YOUR ASSHOLES.

Well, you know me. Same as always

You know me.

Been keepin' a low profile.

Dodgin' haters and their haterade.

Introductory Course: Graphic Literature 101, What is Graphic Literature

Graphic Literature

An Introduction

"What Is Graphic Literature?"

Is Graphic Literature merely a term that can be used for describing pictures and words bound in the same document or printed or written-&-drawn on the same page?

What graphic literature is: Storybooks, Children's Storybooks, Illustrated-Picture Novels, Scripts, Series Bibles, Storyboards, Art Books, Magazines, Much of The Internet, Software, Games, Script-based Sequential Art, Comic Books, Comics, Graphic Novels.

What graphic literature is NOT: It is not exclusively words, and not exclusively pictures, images, and/or art.

Graphic Literature represents the Meeting & Integration of Pictures and Words. As well as the Right and Left Hemispheres of the Human Brain, scientifically and neurologically speaking. It is a New Art Form Historically and Has Not become as blatant as it is until just recently. 

New Article, Indie Broadcasting, Tech Review: A User's Guide

Okay, so some of you may have become aware I've stepped up my broadcasting efforts on certain free URLS and have been broadcasting uploads and episodes that would normally (formerly) go onto YouTube, which is instead being posted onto these sites, which offer less of a tight grip in terms of restrictions and copyright. If you like broadcasting anime ON places LIKE youtube, if you can get past the technology wizard level barrier to entry which is knowledge of broadcasting online outside of YouTube which relates to computer and internet science and technology, then maybe, JUST MAYBE you have what it takes to do what I do (i.e. become a broadcaster somewhere other than YouTube, which is still the easiest place to do it by yourself and on your lonesome, even if YouTube does restrict and censor a lot nowadays, I had some good times with them.

What software do I use in my broadcasts. I switch back and forth between them.

Software like Telestream Wirecast and XSplit are OKAY (I guess), but they can be the most innaccessible in terms of the complexity of their U.I. (user interface).

I prefer easier to use, more convenient, and less expensive (but still kind of expensive in some instances regardless) software, the three most notable being Showcaster, UStream, and Livestream, as well as UStream Producer, which makes uploading-live broadcasts incredibly easy.

YouTube doesn't necessarily broadcast videos live, or begin broadcasts as soon as the site or webpage is opened as some of these software and websites are able to do (especially Livestream).

Each one has it's pros and cons. One of the bigger cons being that Telestream hasn't made a version of Wirecast that's compatible with Windows 8, which is the Operating System my PC currently uses.

Essentially if you've got video files (anime, short films, rips saved on your computer of ANY kind (assuming it's NOT pron of course), then you've got something to work with. Just calibrate the settings of the websites and software, click on import, select the folder and import the video files you select to your dashboard, set up Broadcast Mode (set up different ways on different sites and software, but relatively easy to figure out on an intuitive level, assuming you're the analytical, intuitive type, Embed the player on your site's page(s) and you're good to go!

Responsibility: What's That? I Guess This is Growing Up

I've got to learn to stop being so selfish. My parents are getting old. I've got to learn to take care of them, and the pets. Become my parents' keeper. The parent of my parents. That's what I'm going to have to become. When dad gets dementia, he's not going to be able to take care of himself. He might not even be able to do basic functions by himself. I'm going to have to hire a caretaker for the elderly (my parents), in time.

No one but my mother knows how tired I am. I've been taking care of my mom a lot. She can't really walk. Not very well anyway, due to her hip pain. She needs a cane and a walker to get around, like a friggin geezer granny. It's incredibly sad to watch. I need to help her. I need to help keep her safe. She's getting older.

I want to be more giving, more humble, less selfish, less self-absorbed, more responsible, more capable, more nurturing, more parental. I want to take care of my parents, in time, as though they were my children. Taking care of parents is like taking care of whiney children. But what choice do I have. They have no money to afford caregivers. And if they do have money, it isn't much, despite the fact Dad's slowly working himself to death and doesn't treat me as well as his customers. Still, how they view me doesn't matter. In one sense I am responsible for them. Having independence, autonomy, and responsibility means you're responsible and smart enough not to only look out for and care about YOURself and YOUR BACK. As you get older, you'll have other people to take care of, whether you have your own kids or not.

Yeah, not having the responsibility and altruism of adulthood would have been nice. IF I GOT RICH.

That never happened. 

So I'm on my own. 

Meanwhile Every Other Motherfucker in this Sick Ass World Wants to Kill Me and Watch Me Die!

FUCK YOU WORLD!

But I can't help but feel as though living only for myself and relying on the Power of Selfishness and Self-Absorption in the past has sent the wrong message. I've NEVER truly believed I should be the only person I should look out for. Generosity and Altruism are Important. What is there in this "business deal" for me? Nothing really. It's just I need to clear my conscience. I don't desire to live selfishly. I'm a healer of sorts. And a Shaman. Real Shaman and Healers give to others. But sometimes it just takes you're entire youth and boyhood to eventually realize it. That the world does not revolve around you. God wants to help us all. And he wants us to help others. God loves you. Yes, he does. 

Awww yeah....I made it to the Big Time!!

Well. I did. Hate on Hater.

AVGO Free Ripper

AVGO Free DVD Ripper.

Google it. Seriously. This software is AWESOME! I used Magic DVD ripper for a long time, and even Wondershare Video Converter Ultimate for a while.

But AVGO batch ripper (that's the NORMAL Version) is by far one of the best, if not THE best inexpensive and/or especially FREE rippers I've ever used. Saves you a lotta time and labor. The waiting time of the rip with AVGO is cut in half...Amazing.

Testing, Testing

Commissions? For my ART? Re-he-heeeeeally??

I'm sorry, it's just I'm not used to people asking me to draw things for them, let alone offering cash. Feels good.

Well, I suppose you could say I'm always listening to what people out there have to say.

Well, I do love MONEY.

spindack@gmail.com

My inbox is ALWAYS listening to subliminally whispered suggestions after all.

Technically my door is no more open to input now than its ever been....

I've ALWAYS PRIDED myself on LISTENING to what just about everyone has to say....

They call that an "open door policy" in the business world.

On the plus side of sending me an email, assuming your not spam of course, anyone who bothers to send me an email is guaranteed a response. A lot of people don't have the opportunity or patience to respond to every email. I make it a priority to respond to not one, not a few, but EVERY email anyone sends to me from any part of North America, or anywhere else in the world.

The emails I do get from real people (and not bots or spam marketing), I will ALWAYS respond to if I have something to say. Responding to email inquiries is not THAT difficult to do, people!

I'm not one of those artists trying to seem mysterious and "unattainable". I like appearing approachable and available, even when I'm not!

Honest Day's Work

Even if you don't HAVE a lot of money, I believe it is important to be honest. To put in all your effort and do an Honest Day's Work.

It will help you get to sleep at night.