Kevin Tomlinson videotaped a community of hippies in 1988 and after almost 20 years went back to see what they were up to. The most beautiful and powerful thing to witness was how happy all these people were. They were living off the grid in the truest sense. They had been growing their vegetables and their chickens and had raised their children in the meantime, who seem to have grown up as confident and loving adults.

As you watch the documentary, you become aware of a ceaseless and awestruck smile that has taken over your face. You cannot believe such people exist. There is no youtube, there is no iPhone, only blueberries and pink banana squashes and acres of open space and agro-forestry and permaculture and recently introduced solar panels. People live without paying rent, feel the earth by walking barefeet and raise children using cloth diapers. It’s about a place that beckons the soul. As you watch, you have a strong urge to shut off your computer, to sell your belongings and plan a ride. You want to leave the world you know, so you can become one with the earth.

I may sound a little melodramatic, but it’s only because you still haven’t watched the film. By the end of the documentary, the director himself abandons his life in the suburbs, and decides to live off the grid with his wife.

This truly is an exceptional little documentary about a community of beautiful souls that gives you hope for mankind. The documentary will be airing on PBS stations nationwide in the beginning of April, 2012. Catch it you must.

Back to the Garden

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Let’s be realistic for a moment; for people who want to be filmmakers, this documentary won’t stop them from trying. But I think it will provide them with a healthy dose of reality and inform them about the difficulties of breaking through in an age where we find ourselves inundated by new content, and sometimes find it difficult to sift through the “global masturbation” to the good stuff.

The documentary features artists from all over the world, some of them better known than others, but it drills in the idea that this is the age in which anybody can buy a camera and become a filmmaker, or that anybody with a computer can become a composer. But is the product art? Is the product worth anything at all? On the other hand could Martin Scorsese have been a successful artist, if he were competing with the filmmakers of today? What does it really take to be a successful artist today?

I’m not sure that it answers all the questions of the struggling artist in the digital age. But if you are an artist or aspire to be one, follow the link and watch the film. If nothing at all, it will give you some perspective. Otherwise send it to any aspiring artist you know.

PressPausePlay

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Mark Wahlberg isn’t blessed with a wide range of acting talent, but he’s very good at beating people and looking sincere about it.

“Wow,” I thought to myself. “What makes people so cruel?” This guy must think he’s so funny. He’s like the bully who hits the new kid and everybody laughs and he hits him again and everybody laughs again. I’m not implying that Wahlberg is by any means a new kid. And although I’m of small stature, I’ve never been bullied myself. This is not personal. I’m just making a point. I have always hated bullies. And this guy is sitting behind a pen thinking he’s so clever at having wiped out Wahlberg’s talent in one sentence. It feels like bullying, at some level.

Maybe he’s right, maybe he’s not. I happen to like Wahlberg as a personality. I didn’t know him as a musician and actually first came across him in the movie Three Kings. I thought he was good in it. He was awesome in Boogie Nights, I Heart Huckabees and The Fighter. It’s not like he’s a terrible actor.

This critic goes on to trash Contraband, and maybe he’s right (I haven’t seen the movie yet). But the tone is so bloody smug, I began to wonder if he was writing for my benefit, or to satisfy his own narcissism. His critique itself was so ordinary so banal, searching for that cliched quip at every stop; I learned absolutely nothing from it.

He ends his brilliant piece with:
Contraband isn’t fat, exactly – no special-effects explosions, no expensive car chase – but it’s unremarkable. It’s very good at it, however.

OOOOOOhh!!! Zinger!!

This guy definitely doesn’t get paid for originality. God only knows what he gets paid for.

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As of this writing, this thing costs only about 24 bucks on Amazon.com. Fight the urge to buy this thing. It’s a complete waste, of money and space. I have absolutely no idea why it has 4 stars on Amazon. It should be rated negative 5.

Yeah, it feels cheap, but that’s not why I rate it low. It’s just that any footage you take with it will be useless. Every movement in your body will be translated into the footage. Your footage will be absolutely terrible. Some people may say, that I need practice. I hope they’re happy with their purchase.

Stay the hell away from this piece of junk. Buy your crew some extra pop.

ps. I was thinking of selling it on craigslist for 10 bucks. Then I thought better of myself and decided that I didn’t want to create a new sucker. I’m going to enjoy breaking this damn thing.

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Let me remind you of Pocahontas’ premise in a nutshell: European men come to North America in search of gold. They stop in Virginia (and I’m not exactly sure why Virginia)and encounter natives. Love ensues between native Pocahontas and European John Smith. The Native population and the Europeans don’t get along, so the Europeans conclude TO GO BACK TO EUROPE!?????????? (There are 10 question marks!)

Yes, you read that correctly Europeans returned to Europe and do not settle in North America.

Now back to my review of Disney’s Frog and the Prince.

If you haven’t seen the film, here is the basic plot summary:

Instead of the young girl kissing a frog and turning him into a prince (therefore making her a princess), she is transformed into a frog.

Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0780521/

This film started with an impressive message that good work ethic, strong family values, financial prudence and a little luck will ultimately result in achieving your goals.

But there are a few regressive messages which it seems only Disney can do…

They imply destroying your hard work and lifelong goals are acceptable if you find the right man to marry.

You can skip the below paragraphs if you have seen the film.

The protagonist dreams of making her own restaurant, even as a very young child. Years pass and she has sacrificed and saved every penny to open her dream business. She has put her dream in action, met with the bankers and in just a few short days her dream will come true.

BUT, somehow this practical, hard-working, and goal oriented individual is willing to abandon her lifelong ambition/goal, in an instant, because she has found her man (which also happens to be a prince).

As well, Although this film does an excellent job of portraying black males as wonderful father figures, the role of the mother is completely absent. The father is referred or alluded to multiple times through out the film as a psychological crutch for the protagonist and to support her ambitions. Yet the mother, who is still alive and active in her life is never mentioned except when it comes to cleaning her new restaurant!

In conclusion I leave you with these questions and comments:

Should we be more critical of children’s films than we are of adult films? Do children analyze the larger, aggregate messages found in film? Can they extrapolate this to the plight and dimension of the African-American experience?

Let me assert that children’s films should be more accurate than your average film. There is an enormous difference between having a fairy defy physics by flying and telling a social justice inaccuracy. Children simply can’t question the material presented, jump on the Internet and research the validity of the arguments.

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Music: By Kevin MacLeod

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Tent Sign

I spent the most of the last three days at Occupy Wall Street at Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan. It was awesome. I loved being there. Even when I wasn’t talking to anybody, doing nothing more than standing around, with my arm resting on top of my camera on the tripod, I liked just being there. There was something in the ether there that refused to judge me. And I liked how it made me feel.

I did shoot some video, but I can’t put it up yet as I don’t have any editing software on my laptop. Also, the audio is going to be pretty bad as I used on camera audio.

But I just wanted to write about being in Zuccotti Park. The people there are from everywhere and of every color, and I don’t mean by race. These people are just of a different individual, independent color. And when you’re with them, it feels like it’s possible to discover your personal color as well. It was crazy and liberating at the same time. I’ll post some videos on it soon.

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I have to say that I was quite impressed with their software. Within 20 minutes of playing around on their site, I created this piece. This means it will take even less time to create future pieces. I was ecstatic with it. (To learn how to actually make the music go here.)

But now comes the problem with this site. After you make your music, you have to come to terms with the following:
1. This music does not belong to you
2. If you wish to use it for personal purposes, you need to pay $0.99
3. If you wish to use it for commercial purposes, you need to pay $19.99
4. If somebody else purchases your music for personal purposes you get to keep 10% of $0.99
5. If somebody else purchases you music for commercial purposes, you get to keep 30% of $19.99.

All I know is that after I made my music and wanted to download it and found out all of the above stuff, I felt quite cheated. I wonder if these people think filmmakers are stupid. There is so much free stuff around. I wonder who is paying them anything. If you are paying MusicShake for these services, let me know why. I really would like to know.

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I thought about it some and agreed. The real reason I actually liked the idea of the movie was that I had personally just arrived at the same conclusion, and was kicking around in my head the idea of a movie about pot smokers, zombies and terrorists. Since Newman had come to this conclusion 5 years before me (it took him 5 years to complete this project), I naturally thought he was a genius. I kept tabs on him and showed people here in Toronto his trailer whenever I got the chance.

Recently I wrote to Newman asking him about how things were going. As I suspected, things are tough. Not only has the man finished his film, now he has to make sure that he is promoting it with all his bloody might, as well as making a living and paying bills. I was wondering if I should ask him about his deal with his distributor, but I refrained from asking him and he didn’t bring it up. But here’s what he did say:

It was hard enough to make my movie with no money, now having to promote it and keep it alive is even harder! I think the reason I’ve been able to keep the hype alive for almost 4 years is because I never give up. I promote myself and my movie daily!
…
I’ve been promoting my film since 2008 and I have easily sent out over 10000 emails to anyone and everyone who could make a difference. That’s how my film went global and is now featured in 4 major film magazines! There are no real secrets, just good old hard work and dedication. I’ve now managed to have contacted every horror film website in the world! All by spending everyday emailing hundreds and promoting myself.

 
I sincerely hope that things become even better for Newman. I hope to follow what’s going on with Bong of the Dead. I just found out while reading his blog as I was writing this, that his film has now been pirated and been released over torrent sites. In fact I just checked, and it seems like it is absolutely red hot and being downloaded and seeded by everybody.

Newman was lamenting in his blog post that such a situation is unfortunate as it does not allow him to profit from his movie and forces him to labor at his day job. I completely agree. I only hope that in the event that this movie doesn’t make him money, it at least makes him famous. Maybe that will lead to the coveted phone call we all dream of: “Mr Newman?… Yeah hi… This is Hollywood. We got a script and a budget, and your name came up…”

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Since I work with HD video, I need a lot of hard drive space. I’ve been accumulating terabytes of external hard drives, but they make the floors look a mess and they require USB and power chord and power outlet management by a skilled electrician.

So I bought a couple of cheap Seagate 2TB internal hard drives recently and screwed them into the removable drive bays on my desktop. I’m using windows 7 and expected them to be picked up the moment I put the drive bays back in and restarted my computer. But they weren’t recognized by my computer. I looked all over the internet and everything told me to go into the BIOS and set to “auto detect.” I followed all the instructions and still nothing.

Finally I found the solution and thought I would just post it below:

Solution:

This is for adding secondary non boot-able drives only
- First, turn off your computer and physically install hard drive
- Then go to Control Panel, click on System and Security, click on Administrative Tools, and then double click on Computer Management.

On the left, under Storage, click Disk Management.

You will now be able to see the installed disk. It will say “Disk 1″ or something similar, and I think it will say “unallocated” Right-click on the unallocated region, and then click New Simple Volume.

In the New Simple Volume Wizard, click Next.

Type the size of the volume you want to create in megabytes (MB) or accept the maximum default size, and then click Next.

It’s best to accept the default options, including suggested drive letters, and then finish up.

That’s it. It’s that simple. Caused me two days of google headache.

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