Film and Media / Perez-Karam

How to Make a Web Series Website

2011-08-29T15:27:00.000-04:00

In the blog Makingwebshows.com Today was published a very cool "how to" post on making a website for your web series.
It's basically a guide to set up a wordpress site on a self hosting service, and place a trailer as your first post.
Check it out here:
How to Make a Website for your Web Series in 4 Easy Steps.

There is also a cool video about this that Pat from the Smart Passive Income blog did a while ago. It's about the same, but not oriented to web series producers only.

My New Blog - Making Web Shows

2011-03-08T15:34:00.001-05:00

I just Started a new blog, dedicated exclusively to making web shows, any kind of web show, a series, a news show, documentary series.
I know some of you actually take a second and want to read about the creation of web series, and other. The blog is just starting so have just a few post, but it will be growing. Please come and visit, give me your opinion on how to make it better and what kind of content would you like to read.

Come visit MakingWebShows.com

Shooting with the Indie Dolly System (includes video test)

2010-07-22T09:46:00.000-04:00

This is the set up we made up!

Last Saturday we had a great day shooting the Public Service Advertising "Oil Splash", where we used an Indie Dolly System and a Canon EOS 7D we rented from Adorama.

It sounded like a great idea. Except that none of us had ever used an Indie Dolly before. Alex, the director of photography, was very confident about it. I was too. How hard can it be to put together an Indie Dolly after you have worked with plenty "not-indie" dollies before?

Well it turns out it is harder than we thought! This thing is modular, the tracks fold in a way that makes look as if the pieces were put together wrong.

We ended up creating our own "stable" set up, on three wheels, not for, but three wheels. Two on one track and one on the other. It was stable to get a shot, but it couldn't take anyone on the board, so the focus puller had to walk by the camera. (there is a video that for some reason non of us found when we where trying to put this together).

Even with our weird set up, the dolly worked wonders. I would probably not use it with anything heavier than an HVX-200 or a Sony Z1. Here is some of the footage we shot.

Now, I still think the Indie Dolly System is a great tool. I would probably rent it again. But next time I will do ten times my research before hand.

Sins of My Father in New York City - Friday July 30th

2010-07-19T15:37:00.002-04:00

Sins of My Father, a documentary directed by my good friend Nicolas Entel, is an incredible piece that gives the audience the inside look into the life of the son of Pablo Escobar, the most powerful drug lord in Colombia's history.

You can by your tickets here

When Nicola's Directors of Photography, Mariano Monti and Patricio Suarez, were not available for one of the trips to Colombia, Nicolas asked me to join them to DP that little segment. Not only was I honored to work with Entel, I was really excited to have the kind of exposure to this incredible people through Nico's work. Although, most of my footage didn't make it to the final cut (I shot only 10 hours of footage, from 100s they shot total), this movie is very close to me, emotionally, for the subject matter and the fact that was made by a friend, and I was of good help!

The documentary has quickly gain the respects from critics and audiences all over the world, and it's playing this Friday July 30th in New York City in the New York Latino Film Festival at the Clearview Cinema Chelsea (260 west 23rd st) at 7:30 pm

Let me know what you think!

BP PSA Video now in post production

2010-07-19T13:17:00.000-04:00

It has been three long months for the people down in the gulf coast. Observing with frustration and feeling impotent about the whole situation, me and my production team decided to create our own protest video, and to set it up as a PSA to deploy on the internet.

Thanks to the generous donations from great people, and using the croud-funding structure form Indiegogo.com, the video is now closer to becoming a reality.

This last Saturday July 17th we shot the video, with the financial donations and all the talented crew and cast, also working for nothing more than knowing they are doing the right thing. Check out the pictures of the production here!

Today we start post production! I love post production! now I get to spend hours and hours, without the rush of production, breathing this footage and getting the strong message across: We are not happy with the oil spill, and we are not happy with BP's handling of the disaster.

I will keep you posted on the advances of the project, and probably will posting a few stills in the next following days.

Remember, once the well is shut, the work is far from over. We have to make sure BP cleans up the mess! not just this year, but in decades to come!

YouTube Vuvuzelas --> In every video?

2010-07-06T16:49:00.002-04:00

I just came across a very funny thing they did in YouTube... They have added the possibility to add world cup vuvuzelas to all their videos (at least I think so cause I have not seen non without it today)

To hear the buzz that has become a hallmark of the South African World Cup 2010, you just need to click on the little soccer ball icon in your video player!

It works best when you are watching a sport video and want to make it feel like a soccer World Cup game.

Now, outside of the whole joke thing, I find it very nice from YouTube to actually add a little detail, almost minimal, but that feels so present. Good job.

5 Key Points to Develop a Multi platform Story

2010-07-01T12:28:00.000-04:00

Stories are usually encapsulated into one medium: be it a book, a movie, an episode, or a friends anecdote. But the tools available today give us an opportunity we have never had as storytellers: multiple channels to reach our audience in several fronts, each with its own characteristics, to immerse them into our stories.

It's not just about the cinema, the TV or the twitter feed any longer. Nor is it about one being a marketing effort to help sell the other one. It's about the story existing, breathing and being alive in all mediums.

As a storyteller, I have identified 5 key points that have helped me and might help you design a multi platform story.

There should be one overall story world, that will hold together all the "medium specific" stories. This will be the story world and all the rules in it. Inside this world all your specific stories will take place: the movie about the most important element of this world, the mobile application with some kind of interaction with the story or a specific character, the web series from the point of view of a secondary character, the TV mini series on something else, the video game.
The story should have multiple main characters. Sure, you will have the one main character that will be your biggest driving force, and that will probably have most of the attention. But there are many interesting characters that have many more things to say and to add to the big picture, from their own point of view, not tinted by the perspective and themes surrounding the main character. Those aspects of the story need be told using a different platform than the main story is been unveiled in.
It should be an EVENT. The distribution needs to happen all at the same time, as a big event. Different to what we are use to seeing in linear story distribution: the series comes along, it's a success, they make the movie, then the toys, then the video game. Today this needs to happen all at once, in a systematic way: as the movie opens in the theater, we launch a web series, a mobile application, social media content, creating a community that engages with the story. It's a bug event for a specific time period, with all the content being deployed with a sense of urgency.
It most lend itself to social interaction. This doesn't mean the audience will interact with the story or the characters. It means the audience will have something to say about it. They will interact with each other and create a public opinion, that translates into word-of-mouth free marketing.
Each different platform most show a different emotional level and/or point of view. So, don't tell me the same in the mobile phone, in the website, and in the movie. They are all different mediums, they have a different effect in our emotions and have their own language. Use that to your story's advantage!

There are probably thousands of other elements that I am yet to identify. What have you identified? What is important to you when designing story for multiple platforms?

Lego World Cup!! This is so good!

2010-06-14T18:11:00.000-04:00

So my friend @aleisis showed me this video. It's a Lego re-enactment of the Mexico-South Africa opening game of the World Cup. Made by the people at legofussball.eu (I believe the are Dutch, but I am really not sure)

Now, they have a whole youtube channel with 12 more videos, they are so funny and good! Probably better if you can understand what they are saying.

The World Cup Streaming - and how ESPN sucks at it!

2010-06-14T09:21:00.000-04:00

Newteevee.com conducted a weekend poll (see it here Poll: How are you watching the World Cup?)

The results of the poll are very interesting. Basically, most people who answered it are seeing the world cup with some kind of streaming services. Whether it is ESPN3.com (13.8%) , Univision.com (15.5%) or with another kind of streaming services (20.7%) are all together (50%) more that the poll taker watching it on TV (48.3%). The remaining 1.7% claim to check the results on twitter.

Of course I will assume that the reader of newteevee.com are mostly internet frecuent users, and obviously more open to watch streamed content than the regular crowed. But this is to me, evidence that if you have the option to stream the game, the show, the movie, at least half of the people will stream it.

On the other hand. I believe that ESPN3.com did a stupid thing by not streaming to all ISP. They have their reasons, but it just seems to me they could have as much or more streams than Univision.com if it wasn't for that. Now again, I am a big supporter of open internet. I don't think content should be limited to certain ISP. That would be a little like saying "If you have your phone line with Verizon, you will not be able to call or text people form another phone services provider."

How far can a Story go?

2010-04-26T10:55:00.001-04:00

Stories have always been fundamental parts of what makes us human; the art of storytelling has been always evolving, growing, morphing. Whether they come to us in the form of 140-characters, a hardcover collectible classic or an IMAX screen, they are all stories, therefore part of our humanity.

We can come a long way form the elder sitting by the fire telling stories to the villagers. Today we have TVs, mobile devices, Movie screens, literature, stages. But each medium has it’s own limitations and freedoms. And many stories have been adapted from one medium to the other. Classic novels turned into movies, or blogs turned into books, TV series turned into Movies. The permutations are endless. Even news articles have been turned into feature film.

When I observe all this, I can't help but think that - regardless of this working enough to sustain a profitable business - the permeability of the story to exist across several mediums at the same time, not only allows us, but demands from us, to use its full potential and let the story breath into a cross-media existence.

What the hell am I talking about?

It's easy. I believe that the events and rules that we create to the specific reality of any story, at least the good ones, can and should be applied across different mediums, at the same time, telling, unveiling and intertwining several elements of such a story. Sure, they should stand alone as their own piece, as much as a single episode of a TV series stands alone and with the full series - including all TV seasons, movies, and merchandise related to that specific "Story".

I’m not really sure myself on the production aspect of it. I would assume that making an episode of, for example, Fringe it’s expensive, and it takes a lot of resources. Holding the cast and the creative team up for creating more content from it, would be difficult, and costly. What would be perfectly doable, is to make a web series that follows a parallel story line about Massive Dynamic (the powerful corporation constantly linked to Fringe Division Cases) and some of their internal issues, crossing many times with the main Fringe plot. Add to that a mobile phone application that has video files on all the main characters of the series, that gets updated as the series unveils, in any of the platforms, something new about each character.

And this is a very specific example on a very specific series that I know. I could go on about many more ideas I have had for this kind of multi-platform systematic story telling approach.

So, what happens with money here? Where is the business? I will develop more on that in future posts. I am working on a proposal for that. Something that makes sense. No one has come up with something that makes sense to me (not even me). Everything seems unsustainable. Let's explore how we can make the stories, the sub stories, and everything around it, work in art, in vision, and in business.

So I ask you, as a content creator, as a content consumer, how much more of any story would you like to have in other mediums?

Carlitos is Pissed is online!

2010-02-04T21:25:00.000-05:00

After a while working and fine tuning some stuff, here it is, the three pilot episodes of "Carlitos is Pissed" a web comedy about a teddy bear that is taking revenge on his owner, after being stored away for more than 12 years.

It has been a trip, and now we need a bunch of people to watch it and like it! That way we can move forward with the full series of 11 episodes of the series, and other extra material of Carlitos.

So what do you think, funny or die?

Watch more funny videos on Funny or Die

3 things I have learned from Low-Budget Filmmaking

2010-01-22T12:42:00.001-05:00

Making movies (or any kind of video) with little money is always difficult. However, there are 3 things that have been constant in all the successful low budget film/video projects I have been involved with.

1. Work with your network of friends.

All the projects that I have seen happen smoothly and with a great final result have been produced and post produced among the creator's (be it producer or director) friends. Of course I'm talking about professional friends (I worked once in a short that the whole cast and all the PAs where family of the director, and had no clue on how to make a film.)

So how do you build this network of friends? You go out and work in other people's projects, some times for free, some times for little money. The bottom line, you cannot expect a professional crew to work with you for little or no money if you have never done it. Why would they? If they have never seen you busting your ass in another set.

2. Put most of the money in the frame (the rest goes to food - a.k.a. keeping the crew happy)

Almost all the independent filmmaker I know skip hiring a Production Designer, or an Art Director or a costume designer, or one person who can do all this at once. Everyone thinks they can get away with just a camera and what is available in location. Even so, this isn't going to make your movie stand out! You need visuals, you need a color palette, you need the right prop for the character. Otherwise your movie will look like a bad student film. Make sure costumes, props, set, are in place if you don't want to see your efforts, and your crew's effort go to shit. Makeup, lights, camera, all are equally important. I ask myself the same question for every dollar I allocate: How is this dollar going to look in the screen?

The rest of the money should go to making your crew happy and comfortable to be working with you for less than they would usually charge. I worked in a project once that they served for lunch peanut butter sandwiches. YES! I'm not kidding. The produced go upset when some of the grips said something about it. Needless to say two people walked from the project, and the rest stayed there because the DP was a close friend. I haven't seen the final product, I don't even are for it. And I know many people who just lost contact with the director and the producer after the project. And I am talking about key people (DP, Production Designer and Actors)

3. No matter who you are, let your team fly creatively.

This is another one many new producers and directors don't understand: if people are working with you for little money, then let them create something they love. So people have told me that this is not safe for their vision. If you have such a solid vision you should be able to transmit it to your key people, and they should be excited about it and work very hard to accomplish it, because they believe in you. However, if you want to impose a vision to your team, then pay them what their work is worth. Chances are they are bringing some great ideas to the table and you are blocked because you think you have a vision.

Always remember that making a movie/film/video is a collaboration process, and the director or the producer can never get anything done without the help of the whole team. One-man-show is impossible in filmmaking.

"Carlitos is Pissed" - our new web series

2010-01-21T12:57:00.003-05:00

So, it has been a while since I post anything! Why? I have been working a lot! and I will keep working a lot in the next few weeks.

We have just finished the post (almost really) for the three pilot episodes for our comedy series "Carlitos is Pissed", a story about John, a young professional, who recovers the boxes he had stored at his parents place. Carlitos, his childhood teddy bear, was stored in one of of this boxes for the last 12 years. Carlitos is not happy about it at all! The teddy bear is back, but this time he will not be a child's companion, but the adult's annoying nightmare!

I bet you are laughing already! I am! And it has been a lot of fun.

It would have never happened without the collaboration of my professional partners: Leonard Zelig and Roberto Alcazar, as well as other close collaborators (Pilar, Tao, Alexander, Alejandro), and that fun morning in Boston talking and joking with my cousin Dan and his friend (and now mine) Tim.

We are looking to producer 13 episodes of smart, fast pace comedy (granted we find financing for all of them) and hopefully create a TV show, a feature film and an iPhone/Android game for it.

So the questions arises: where did you leave your childhood stuffed animal? I really have not found mine (his real name was Carlitos also). My brother tells me he left him in an old house my family used to live. I want to believe him, but I still feel fear every time I open on of those old storage boxes from my mom's basement. :)

Episodes soon to come!

Casting for my next Comedy Series Pilot

2009-06-25T11:44:00.002-04:00

As we are getting ready to shoot our next project in line, Carlitos is Pissed, the story of a teddy bear that is taking revenge on his owner after being trapped in a box for 12 straight years.

We are looking to cast two parts

John, a 30 year old high school teacher that is going through a difficult time with woman, that has trigger a lot of memories of his teenage years. He is a little taller that average, good looking, but not super hot, Caucasian,

Vicky, a 27 year old girl, from the midwest, a small town girl who moved to New York, just to live the New York life for a couple of years before going back to school. Very hot, very sexy, but not the smartest person in the room.

We will be also receiving applications for the voice of our animated main character. A low voice, with a funny accent preferably (thick british or scottish or even spanish think accent can work).

Please email resume and headshot, if you have an online reel, please send like.

For voice talent, please email resume and voice sample (mp3) to the same email address.

To be considered for the auditions, send the subject with the name of the character you would like (for voice, just write on the subject “voice”)

Please send your applications to perezkaram+casting@gmail.com

Review of "Rich Like Them" by Ryan D'Agostino

2009-06-24T13:41:00.005-04:00

How awesome would it be to go around the country and knock on the doors of very wealthy people, and have them tell you the story of how they made their fortune? Lucky for us, Ryan D’Agostino did that exactly, and put it all in a book for us to read!

“Rich Like Them” takes us in a trip with D’Agostino to the wealthiest ZIP codes in the US, and his experience with the people who were willing to let him come into his homes and talk about their fortune (he says that of around 500 people who actually open the door, around 50 people actually talked to him).

The reading is great, easy to read, full of anecdotes, where you almost feel you are with Ryan walking up the driveway to the amazing waterfront house. He even writes about the people who didn’t want to talk to him, and how some of that led him to talk to someone else who taught him (and hopefully us) a great lesson to include in the book.

What I liked most about the book was how most of the people D’Agostino writes about, are as normal as you and I. They are nothing out of the ordinary at first, but they all realized something about building wealth, and we all have one or two things (or tons of thousands of things) to learn from them.

Thank you Ryan D’Agostino for going out and putting all this experiences in one book. It is very inspiring to read.

Today at the Open Video Conference

2009-06-19T18:40:00.000-04:00

The Open Video Conference has had a great start. In the morning I had the chance to listen to the Chris Blizzard — Director of Evangelism at Mozilla Corporation and Mark Surman — Executive Director at Mozilla Foundation. They talked about how they are helping make the technology to take video off the little flash box where it lives right now when in our browsers, and making it work as any other element in the web, thinking web 2.0, where elements are integrated and connected. The technology is being developed openly under an open source free license, so everyone can have access and we can all make and share videos.

Check out the people that are in the same boat with Mozilla, they are called Kaltura and they seem to be big player of the future or open video

We also had a Fair Use Discussion, by Anthony Falzone — Executive Director of the Fair Use Project at Stanford Law School, and Corynne McSherry — Staff Lawyer at Electronic Frontier Foundation. That was very interesting too, and I will blog more about it latter today, when I check back on my notes. They gave the audience tips on how to respect fair use, and how not to push the boundaries of copyrights so we don’t get in trouble, and still be able to remix, re post, redo, or remake what.

There was also a shorter but as good chance, to meet with Lizz Winstead — co-creator of the Daily Show, how made some fun comments about politics, but more important, made the important remarks of what drives real influential viral videos. She said that the videos that talk about current issues, are the ones that actually influence the audience and have an impact in society. And now, we all have the means to do it. A great example she showed on the conference is this Storm Gathering Spoof they did on Gay Marriage.

Let’s see what is the best that we get tomorrow on the Open Video Conference. Come back to check it out.

subHysteria is finished

2009-06-17T12:52:00.001-04:00

In August 2008, Leonard my business partner and friend, came to me with the idea of making and improvised film. We had just come out of our first setback as a production company, and we needed something fun to pick us up.

So we followed the improve concept, created a story, partner up with EO Agency, that is ran by our friend Roberto, and we created subHysteria, the story of 16 people who get trapped underground in a subway car after an accident, without any certainty of ever being rescued.

Not a year has passed and we can proudly say that we have finished our first feature film. It has been an intense ride. With a lot of happy moments, not so happy ones, but with a drive and passion that seem to be part of our working philosophy.

Yesterday we created all the elements to start sending it out to potential distributors, buyers, production reps, and we really have a lot of faith in our movie. It's engaging, it's unique, it's real.

Soon to be screened in NY, LA and Miami.

And what now, well, now Roberto, Leonard and I have teamed up to create the platform from where we are going to produce our movies and series, soon to hit the Internet and theaters, and probably one or two TV networks. As for the future plans, we can only tell you that a Teddy Bear will fill up the cyberspace with crazy quotes, a lawyer will do everything in his power to get a little kid his Christmas gift, a friend will have to debate on whether to stick with his hot girlfriend or move on to a not-so-hot but smarter girl that he just met, and a mother of two will have an affair with a sex addict in recovery that is half her age.

All this and a little more, in development now, by EO7.

Check out subHysteria imdb.com page to see who is involved.

2 months - subHysteria Locked Image

2009-02-27T15:27:00.000-05:00

First time I edit a feature. It was a two months process. Gustavo and I where cutting and cutting, and for the last three weeks, I couldn't take my eyes away from the screen. Even where I did, the story and characters would follow me where ever I went.

It was so nice to have a locked film. That moment, when Leonard told me "We are locked" my mind went straight to the first frame I saw of subHysteria, the first time I sat down to visualize the footage. It was a daunting task infront of me. 27 hours of footage, that Gustavo (my co-editor) and I had to some how turn into 90 minutes, and make it interesting, and we had no script.

My approach was a little like I would have edited a documentary. A little bit like sculpting out a of big piece of stone. Taking bits out, trying to make it look and feel like something with sense.

Well, I'd have to say we accomplished, and after long hours, not a lot of sleep, and several nightmares and Friday nights working, subHysteria has finally moved on to it's next stage: sound design and color correction.

Now, my next step is to finish writing my next three projects, and keep pushing to get the resources to get Secrets produced!

subHysteria in Quiet Earth

2009-01-20T18:28:00.000-05:00

The great blog Quiet Earth, just published an interview they did to us last week.

It's a great piece, read it here.

As for how the movie is going! we are editing! it's going great! it's moving forward and we are preparing a great viral video campaign! so stay tuned!

Vote for this Superbowl Ad, you might win tickets!

2009-01-08T13:06:00.000-05:00

My very good friend Nic made the final 5 (out of over 1900 entries) for the Doritos Superbowl contest! Please vote and spread the word. Every vote is an entry for Superbowl tickets (valued at $10k) and you can vote once per day till the 25th. The video is called "Power of the Crunch" and the link is:

http://www.crashthesuperbowl.com/#/gallery/

Thanks!

subHysteria Teaser Internet Release

2008-12-18T15:58:00.000-05:00

Today we have released our first promotional teaser of our first feature film subHyteria.

Check the link below to see it exclusively in YouTube, and share it, rate it, comment on it. Let us know what you think!

Thank you so much, and hope you enjoy it.

Watch it here.

subHysteria - DAY 1 is done!!!

2008-11-07T20:55:00.000-05:00

SO we got some beautiful footage, and after the messy day one, everything really went very smooth. Great performance, great photography, and so much good energy!!!

Tomorrow a lot of rehearsal and on Sunday, back to shoot.

Isabella at Real TV Films

2008-11-07T15:13:00.000-05:00

Here is a video that Isabella Cascarano, one of our very talented actors, had osted this morning from RealTVFilms. Check it out.

subHysteria - DAY 1 - Update!

2008-11-07T14:19:00.000-05:00

The first scene was shot with out problems. Getting ready for the next two scenes… guess what? We are running behind schedule… surprised anyone? Don’t be! It’s looking great and we are already catching up. Actually I think we are getting hungry. Thank you Gayle!

subHysteria - DAY 1 - first update

2008-11-07T11:38:00.000-05:00

It is my experience that every first day of production is a mess; props missing, cars breaking, crew getting used to working together. subHysteria’s first day was no exception! But we are on our way already and everything seams to be in place. At least for now. All the gear is hear, we are already changing the van that almost breaks down on us, the props are in place, and as for the crew, we have worked together before... at least most of us.

We already have our first shot in the can (or should I say in the hard drive?)

Blog you later...