As long as I can remember I have loved movies and film. Really, all aspects of cinema from making it, to experiencing it. Recently I’ve found myself leaning heavily on the later. I’ve become purely a consumer of this media, and wondering how I’ve lost my way. I’ve alluded to this problem before, that I can easily excuse myself from these types of projects because of my lack of pro-grade video equipment. Boo.

The dream: is to have a couple prosumer HD cameras, portable audio recorders, MacPro with 8 gigs for ram, and a crew of at least 3 other people. The reality: is I have a Flip Mino HD, an audio recorder , an almost 4 year-old MacBook Pro, and the occasional help from my wife. Clearly, not the same thing, but I see hope out there. I’ve discovered as-of-late just how many people are doing amazing things using a pretty minimal equipment set-up. (I know, I know, “it’s not the equipment that makes the film maker but the talent”), but it’s easy to forget sometimes.

I seem to have fallen in to an all-to-common trap of giving up or making excuses because it’s the path of least resistance. “But my Flip Mino only shoots 720 x 480!” (I say, while adjusting my imaginary glasses that have just slipped down my nose). I think it was me that once said, “I want to live my life as a reality show.” Maybe it’s not quite on mark with all this, but there’s something to that. I mean I turned my marriage proposal to my wife into a film, and I think that may have been the last really film project that I did. This whole post feels a bit like a Catholic confession.

“It’s been almost a year since my last production.”

Okay, well here’s to belated New Year’s resolutions. This year, I’m going to become a producer of media not just a consumer. Someone want to hold me accountable on this one?

I’ve heard both sides of the debate about whether a “web designer” should be able to code his own designs. I know the reasons for and against, and frankly it worries me. I’ll be the first to admit that nothing puts my mind at ease more than knowing that the design that I’ve put together in Fireworks will be marked-up with highest level of accuracy and care the the developer (me). But, I know this is unrealistic. I don’t have time to do it all my own, nor do I know everything, I need help. Try as I may, I am a designer first, developer, a distant second, and I’m okay with it. What worries me is the disturbing trend that I keep seeing on places like craigslist and job boards everywhere; ads that read more like a entrepreneur’s Christmas wish list than a job description:

“Looking for a web designer to finish an online shopping site that is under construction now. MUST have at least 3 years experience building online shopping sites. MUST have deep knowledge of methods and ways of search engine optimization, customers database, shopping carts….etc. After finish building site position might be available to maintain and upgrade site all the time.

Compsensation: $14-15/hr”

The line between web developer an and web designer have become a bit blurred as of late. I can’t tell you how many times I see people call themselves web designers that are really only developers who how know just enough photoshop to themselves into trouble. The result is well developed site with sub-par design, for less money than if a true designer had been involved. Side-effect being that the potential client pool on both sides now has an overall diminished perception of quality and lower acceptable price-point . This in-turn devalues every designer and developer’s work.

Let me be clear designers are just as guilty of this, I’m just as guilty of this at times. I can, at times write pretty some ugly css, I know it I admit it, and I’m working on it. What I don’t do is tell a client that I am a be-all, end-all, without-a-doubt, full-fledged developer. I can do a lot of things, but not all, and I’m okay with that. I don’t use Terminal to write my code, I use Code and have to use Firebug to make sure my page matches as close as possible to what I did in my design comp. I code like a designer, and I advertise myself as such.

But the damage has already been done. Perhaps it’s a result of the 1990’s mentality of the internet, specifically web design and development being overly technical and unaccessible to a lot of people especially those of the “50 and better” persuasion i.e. potential clients with money to spend. The shrewd business man (and now AARP member) does more with less and the idea of a utility man- web designer is very appealing. This has lead the way for companies like elance.com to further lower competitive prices for design and dev. work by promoting low-priced, foreign vendors. Also, the door has been opened for services that offer bargin-basement prices on bottom-of-the-barrel web site design and development.

Welcome to my nightmare:

None the less its still healthy to dream big, push yourself and expand your skill set, its the only way things get better. Good, true hybrids do exist, but are not as common as you may think. I want to be one when I grow up.

I had to stifle a squeal of child-like glee when I returned from lunch, and before getting back to work, I logged onto Facebook and discovered that FINALLY, after about of week of anticipation my account reflected the new UI re-design. Here I am geeking out about new simplified and more usable header and sidebars, but I know full-well that it’s only a matter of time until it starts. What starts? You might ask. Well, it seems that it’s inevitable that in the next few hours someone will log-on and be so taken-a-back by the appearance of the new FB that they will start their revolt; just as it seems to happen every time that FB makes a significant change or improvement. The page for the FB group “Bring Back The Old Facebook!” is already, showing comments from newly discontented users. It’s funny.

In a nut shell, I totally get where they’re coming from but I also know they they just don’t get it. Things like FB start to become familiar comforts for people and just like when something is disrupted in their environment the change is often not welcomed. Obviously some take it worse than others. I’m totally that way too when it comes to other areas of life. I just get settled in and unpacked(sort of) and in a few weeks I’m moving again! I’ve also learned that no matter how much of an adjustment/inconvenience something can be, probably 98.3% of the time there’s a greater side benefit that results. In this example: Moving = Inconvenience/Hate My Life + New Place = More space = Overall Improved Quality of Life. The same applies to Facebook’s annual UI face-lift (no pun intended). It may take some getting used to but like any other product or service FB is constantly examining and re-examining itself. The funny part is that in a few weeks I’d bet the same people complaining about the new UI will become used to it and a year from now grovel over another change, wishing it were the way it is now.

Maybe I just have stars in my eyes for Facebook, I’m a fanboy. I like the new UI. Now if only they could do something about all those annoying Farmville and Mafia Wars notifications.

All of my life I’ve been involved in the eternal struggle between due process and due personal logic. That to mean my way of doing things VS the way prescribed by given “expert”, text, or authority. I’m finding more and more as I get older that the adage about cat skinning wasn’t too far off. As a designer I am charged with the task of coming up with a solution to a given problem in the best manner that exists and when one doesn’t exist, to create one that does, then if after much trial and error no suitable one rears it’s head (ugly or other wise) then resort to the next best compromise. The creative process for me, much like many other things that I get myself into is not an easy or clean one. I used to like to describe it like this:

There are all these chunks of idea floating around and then some of the meet (bang!). Then the zygotal idea begins to grow and grow until it forms a concept. Finally when the concept is fully developed it comes out. Out of the loins of my mind.

It seems like the the biggest misconception of what I do is that I spend forty to sixty percent of my time everyday just goofing of online and the sixty to forty making a few pixel and opacity adjustments on an idea that I took way too long to come up with. I know it may be hard to believe, but the moment when you walk into my office an I’m browsing good.is, I’m not just reading up on how the U.S. lags in environmental performance (which is a bit concerning) but I am studying the way the site’s designers chose to display related articles and recent comments. Just like when I was a kid and my Dad and I would get into arguments over the best practices for mowing the lawn (front of the yard first or the back of the yard first), my idea of what methods make sense are is a good use of time often differs from what those in my senior feel. It would be very easy to declare victory on a given design challenge after thirty minutes of fumbling around on a Fireworks document but what’s the fun in that? I’m quite certain that I’m not alone on this.

I remember a few years ago hearing a What-A-Burger commercial that flaunted the fact that they made all of their burgers by hand and as a result were a “model of inefficiency”, but also totally worth waiting for. I was sold. On the flip side, I could site times when I’ve been known in times of extreme time shortage to produce works of greatness, but there more to that than meets the eye. There were many hours of research and exploration before that made it possible. I have a bag of tricks that I’ve collected on deck should I need them at a moments notice. Despite what it might seem like, nothing good is every created quickly.

Recently I heard an interview on my local NPR station KERA with musician and author Ted Gioa who wrote a book called “The Birth (and death) of Cool“. He talked about trends in culture and the public’s mindset over the past few decades and how there has been a shift recently. A shift from what was generally seen as cool and desirable in the 1980’s and 1990’s to something different today. Something less about trying to live up to some unattainable goal or status and more about exuding a since of uniqueness and personal style. Gioa spoke about the shift in marketing, and how the new generation of adults (Gen Y) will respond better to reality than to fantasy, and it really gave to cause to think about myself.

I’ve always had a special place in my heart for Jazz (with a capital ‘J’), in so many ways Jazz especially certain figures in the Jazz world exemplify what I think we all would say is cool. Miles Davis, I think is the most obvious example of this; having coined the term himself “Birth of Cool” in his 1949 Capitol Records release by the same title. There is no question that the man is cool, he set trends in music, fashion and verbage, and on numerous occasions caused me to wish I was him. Cool. I was a child of 1980’s and I remember the Nike ads featuring a “cool” shirtless Bo Jackson and the ones with Spike Lee and Michael Jordan dressed in garish Nike active wear. Their coolness sold shoes and I was sold on them just as millions of other Americans were. Even further back the fantasy and mystery of super heros created an idea or a person for people to look up to. Back them, celebrities were all beyond attractive and all had a perfect image that they portrayed to their fans. People at least wanted to believe that they were that way; something to be admired.

It seems that now, we live in the the age of the the cynical and ironic. Are you a hipster? Nerdy chic? Metrosexual? Do you wear “cool” eighties fashions and listen to Justice, or do you wear horned-rim glasses and think that Greenday are posers, or do you wear skinny ties and wish you were Donald Draper? Clothes are being dug out of the closest, musical tracks out of the archive and trends out of textbooks. Outwardly the influences of the past are everywhere, I would argue that we are in the midst of a Renaissance.

Is cool dead? I don’t know. It seems to me though, that it may be taking on a whole new meaning. I’ve read that some think the hipster sub-culture and for that matter, popular culture in general is the be-all-end-all “movement”. In that, after it reaches it’s climax (in approximately 2012 by my estimation) the world will literally implode due to the amount irony, apathy and pollution from fossil fuel burned by all the cargo ships from China bring merchandise to every Urban Outfitters in America. Okay, may be a bit of an exaggeration, but needless to say, it is fascinating how culture is changing. I’m still not completely sure where I stand on the issue but until I do I’ll sit here in my Terminator shades, drinking a martini, and listening to music from a band that you’ve probably never heard of.

Thinking about it; in this economy and really any other economy the constant problem of most creatives is finding enough money to do what it is that we really love to do. I have for a long time now had a passion for making films, and do so when ever I can mooch one off of a friend for a day or two. For quite some time now I’ve been meaning to get to a point where I could drop a few thousand on a new HD camera , putting off creative hopes and dreams until the day I have one. But in this economy…

Anyway, I stumbled on this video by director and film maker Matt Wolf, who’s work I really love and respect. It’s called ‘Boca’ and features a great song by Mr. Owen Pallet Final Fantasy and The Arcade Fire. He shot the entire thing on a camera phone! The Nokia N95 (insert Flight of the Concords joke here). I found it quite amazing, inspiring and as a really kick in the ass. Something that I used to to do a lot but have gotten away from that I’m a bona fide “creative professional” is to find new and creative ways to find solutions for the projects that I want to do. I rember gurry-rigging a small, live PA mixer with a couple of cheap pre-amps and recording the first Streets of Simon Lee EP, and being really proud of ourselves for figuring it out. Or the time that in the early days of Kite Flying Society (Now El Salvador Pictures/ Benberry Media) Shooting our first production “The Run“(circa 2001) on my dad’s old VHS camcorder and somehow figuring out how to get it into the computer to edit it.

Well, the point is, that “In This Economy” I’ve decided that I’m going to come up with more new ways to do the projects that I want to do. “Creativity is born out nothing” or something like that I think I just misquoted someone important.

So, it’s Saturday and I’ve decided that today I will be working really hard to come up with another concept for a project that I am knee-deep in the middle of. I’ve found that often lately, the times that I most want to be left alone to work are the times that certain people see it fit to call me. And by certain people I mean DeShandra, Predip, LaRon, and most recently Clenisha calling from the the Atlanta Prize Center. Who promptly congratulated me on being one of the finalist in some obscure sweepstakes, and that if I only give them my credit card number (for security purposes of course) will receive information in the mail on how I can find out if I indeed AM a winner.

Really I have nothing else to say on the subject other than, to Clenisha, DeShandra, Predip, LaRon, and the “I hev yur peckege Guy” thank you for the much need interruption from whatever I was doing before, I own my unproductiveness (not a word) all to you.

A short film by Hillman Curtis (” Sagmeister 08″) a short film about designer Stefan Sagmeister. In so many ways I found this piece to be inspirational and worth sharing.

Enjoy.