I was honored to create promotional postcard for Actress, Comedian & Singer Miss Brely Evans announcing her role in the popular film, Just Wright , starring Queen Latifa and Common.

Her reaction to the design I created for her:

“Love Love Love Your Work!!!!”

You can find about more about Miss Brely Evans on IMDB,  Facebook, or Twitter.

“Cecily designed these cards for me 5 years ago, and I still get compliments. There are times I’ve tried to give people my card and they say, “Hey, I know you. I think I have this card already!” Makes me feel good to know I have left a lasting impressing and established my personal brand.”

– Shawn Atkins, Musician, Vocalist & Entrepreneur

Note from the designer: If your like most people in Los Angeles, acting isn’t your only job. Our buddy Shawn Atkins, a musician and talent manager needed one card to tastefully showcase his skills and a his thriving new business, Hoo Noo Productions. We opted to divide both the cards to showcase both Atkins’ musical side and added his management/production company on back. We designed these cards in 2005 and Atkins tells us he still receives compliments on the design.

I am the co-founder of the popular networking group Launch Mondays, dedicating to creating quality networking opportunities for people that work in entertainment. Having worked in the entertainment industry field for over ten years, you tend to amass a great list of contacts! While its rare that I am hired to help people network, I have developed some tried and true ways for people make meaningful connections. Check out an appearance I made on VH1′s Beverly Hills Fabulous.

Beverly Hills Fabulous – Elgin Charles – Full Episodes – Shows

I had the pleasure of playing matchmaker for Sean of Vh1′s Beverly Hills Fabulous. Check it out and watch me get ELGINIZED!

Asad Films is a full service production company specializing in producing content that entertains, teaches and inspires while maintaining artistic and commercial credibility.

Our team is comprised of  talented executive producers, movie directors, movie producers and production managers. We work with A-list talent and tediously hand pick our scripts to produce original, groundbreaking movies. When viewers leave the theater we want them to be moved and inspired to tell others about the fascinating project they just saw.

Asad Films naturally maintains an international focus on documenting the living conditions outside of the U.S. Therefore, our films highlight the global disparities among us. Our goal is to create 3-to-5 small-budget films for the demographics of people who form the largest domestic and international movie-going audience. We know that a “small-budget film” appeals to this market is the shortest road to minimizing financial risk and realizing profits for our investors. Hence, our property acquisition, production schedule and selection of industry skill and talent are all geared toward this.

In addition, we provide full film and video services utilizing our team of talented, highly trained directors, cinematographers, photographers and editors working in film, television and the music video fields. We can create high quality productions for our client’s projects at substantially lower cost than what other productions houses are charging. We also stay on the cutting edge of modern technology, using the acclaimed RED One camera which amazingly captures a resolution of up to 4096 x 2304 pixels, directly to a flash drive or your computer.

Film Production Services:
Our goal is to provide clients with the best source of talented directors, cinematographers, photographers, editors and production staff for their project. We can provide all the services required from location permits to post- production. At Asad Films we are dedicated to providing the highest quality service, ensuring that our finished products are successful.

Video Production Services:
Video productions are used by both large and small businesses for many different purposes including marketing, sales presentations, and music videos using top of the line lighting, and Film equipment along with the newest state of the art technology in production.

Other full services we provide:

Feature Films
Red Carpet Interviews
Short Films
Television Pilots
Music Videos
Visit Asad Films on the web: www.asadfilm.com

If you haven’t noticed (or live under a rock), the latest trend to sweep Facebook is the cartoon profile picture  in support child abuse. While it seems everyone is jumping on the virtual train,  the exact origin of this campaign is not known and many reports now allege that a pedophile  started the trend to gain access to children’s Facebook accounts. With over 250 million people on Facebook I can’t even see how that is possible to track that so-called fact. Personally, I see this popular trend as a way for people to get involved and create awareness for child abuse in America & beyond. Surely, I can’t speak for you, but I  changed my profile picture  because I thought it was a noble cause and wanted to support a resurgence in political activism among Gen X & Y. Regardless of what the real story is, I don’t believe changing my profile picture to the CAREBEARS means I support pedophilia. LOL! This simple gesture creates some awareness on a social issue that desperately needs all of our attention because there are SO MANY KIDS that suffer in silence. As a person who grew up in a community with several abused children and spending my college years as child advocate in foster homes’ this issue is very very close to my heart. I truly believe that all of us can all make a difference in at least one child’s life. Maybe it starts with a simple profile picture change, but perhaps it ends with volunteering for your local Girls & Boys Club,  starting a mentoring program, adopting a child and/or more.

Be well & stay positive

Cec

How to Spot a Fake Social Media Profile

If you’ve been on the Internet for over a decades like myself, than you’ve ran into a fake social media page or two. My first bout with a fake profile was pre-Y2K. I was going through a messy divorce and much of my time was spent on the Internet with the launch of my new Web design business. Sadly, my first Internet stalker was my ex. He created a snoop account pretending to be a gay man looking for someone to chat with. I should have figured it out, because my ex became confrontational and somehow always knew what was going on in my personal life! He kept up the charade for nearly a year before his anger and jealousy got the better of him and he revealed that he’d been stalking me.

Here are a few things to look out for when adding new friends…

Newly Created Accounts

Beware of the friend requests from new accounts. Most stalkers are motivated out of some emotional distress (i.e. a breakup or a falling out), while others are just plain nosy (an estranged friend or love interest) and want to virtually peek into your life with anonymity. Their strong desire to spy drives them to create an account and to add as many friends in a hurry.

Beware of New Profiles

Questionable Account Activity

Consistency is always key and a flurry of activity or lack thereof is a dead give-away to a fake. Stalkers are impatient and task themselves to quickly earn your trust. These brazen fools may even send you a note with their friend request! After they gain access to your account there’s a serious priority shift — the new objective is to lay and wait for the content to flow. There’s no real need to keep up photo additions, status updates or fake conversations with people they don’t want to talk to anymore. If you notice an account is not being updated — delete it.

Here are a few other things to look out for on the most popular social media accounts:

• FACEBOOK
  New Facebook accounts  show an account progress activity bar when you first sign up. A new account will also has very few wall posts. If their Recent Activity shows they’ve just updated their personal information or uploaded a bunch of photos, then they probably just started using their account. Check to see who else they are interacting with. What’s the use of signing up for FB if you don’t connect with your real friends? If you don’t see a “Hey girl, so you finally got on Facebook” message on their wall…they probably don’t exist.
• TWITTER
  New twitter accounts are easy to spot. Check out the activity on their timeline and see who they are tweeting. If an account had 17 posts from yesterday, and nothing prior to that, than its probably a snoop account. You can also use Twitter’s search utility to see who has been tweeting that person prior to them adding you. There are several Twitter add-ons that will tell you when someone created their twitter profile as well. It’s also customary for people to acknowledge that your own twitter. If you don’t see, “Hey so your finally on twitter?” from their friends, or the typical, “Hello out there? or the frustration tweets, ” I don’t know how to use this thing”, then beware of a fake account. If someone has a private account, request to add them before you approve them. You can always unfollow them at anytime. Always read bios and check out Website links. Please note that stalkers are getting more savy, I’ve seen stalkers actually make multiple accounts to communicate with themselves so they look like real people interacting. If you see someone talk to only 4 people, or have general conversations with people they don’t know keep an eye on their account.

Jesus found me on Facebook?

Profile Pictures

Most stalkers are headed off at the pass with horrible profile photos choices. Let’s be honest, I am more likely to add my the sample guy at Trader Joes than Tom Cruise, Buddha or the Easter Bunny. Why the sample guy? Because he’s normal and seemingly harmless, yet stalkers tend to choose celebrities,  extremely beautiful women or men, political figures or random artistic graphics as avatars.

The first thing I do before I approve a friend request is ask, “Why would they want me as a friend?” Do we have friends in common? Do they work in my industry? Do we live in the same city? Is he/she interested in me romantically? I think everyone should approach virtual friendships in this way.  I also delete accounts right if I don’t see  both personal and professional photographs, especially when dealing with the model/actor types.  If you are in a swimsuit or on a red carpet in every photo, chances the account is made by a stalker, fake OR your celebrity management team.

Friend Counts & Mutual Friends

Beware of No Mutual Friends & Celebrity Avatars

• FACEBOOK
  While its possible to hide your friends on Facebook, you cannot hide your mutual friends. I always look to see what mutual friends I have in common in to determine where they may have come from and deny requests that originate without anything people or interests in common. With over 8K friends on Facebook and four accounts, if someone wants to be friends with me and no one else I know in the Los Angeles area, something is up.
• TWITTER
  My personal rule of thumb is that Followers vs Follower ratios should not vary by 50%. True a lot of people don’t know how to Twitter works, but I have spotted way too many fake accounts that make the mistake of following 400 people and have only14 followers. In April of this year, I had over 20+ fake accounts attempt to follow me and hundreds of others while they all amassed only a handful of followers.

Thank you for reading, I welcome your feedback. Sign up for my RSS feed to check out our next article: Tips on Managing Your Virtual Social Life.

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