The Madlab Post Turns 5: Out with the Old and In with the New! #AmWriting #Blogoversary #Blogathon #NaBloPoMo

Do you know what today is? It’s the 5th year Anniversary of this blog, The Madlab Post.

It feels like I started blogging a long time ago but five years isn’t really a long time. It is in filmmaking years, in my opinion but not in blogging years. The Internet isn’t even that old. In honor of The Madlab Post’s 5th year anniversary, here is a list of five of popular posts on this blog and another list of five plans and goals that I will set out to implement from this day forward. Also, enjoy a tune from Tony Toni Tone to end the day on a smooth note as we start a 7-day celebration filled with plans, parties and pretty pictures.

Popular Posts by The Madlab Post
Based on traffic, comments or a combination of the two.

1. Custom Movie Themed Cake Designs to Love - According to my blog statistics, this is one of the most visited posts of all time.

2. Successfully Cinematic and the Bigger Picture - My interpretation of the topic of “success” in Week 2 of the Group Blogging Experience placed this post in the top three posts that received the most comments from readers, excluding my own response comments.

3. 5 Ways Bootleg DVDs Make You Poor - While being among the top five to ten most visited posts on this blog ever, it is also among the posts that have received the most comments. It appears, everyone has their two-cents regarding bootlegs and movie piracy. Unfortunately, those two-cents seem to usually weigh in favor of the criminals, stealing, illegal downloads, etc.

4. My Blogging from A to Z Challenge Reflections Mega Post - At a whopping 27 comments which include some of my own, this leads the pack of posts with the highest amount of reader responses.

5. I Am a Sex Addict - Getting Dirty with Caveh Zahedi - Not only is this post one of several that has received the most visits within the last five years, it also has one of the longest comments ever received on a post on this blog.

Current and Future Plans

1. A Blog Renovation - This has already begun, starting with the new blog header that I requested readers to vote on or leave feedback on. The renovation will continue over the course of the next six months to include a new design, layout, home and branding.

2. TV Show Component - I’ve had a local, independently produced television program in development and then in the works for about 3 years now and it’s about time to get this thing rolling. The first few episodes are likely to air before late fall, depending on how my fundraising efforts turn out. Since it is local, only residents in the northern part of the east coast will be able to view it on television but each episode will also be available online on the station’s website and on my YouTube channel, which I plan to update as well because it’s been neglected for too long.

3. Blog Supporters Fundraiser - A simple dollar fundraiser is set to be conducted locally between this month and next month to raise funds for the blog renovation, TV show and local events that I would like to host for movie fanatics in town. Any remaining funds will be allocated toward two short film projects that I want to complete before year’s end as well as production funds for the feature film that I’ve postponed, yet again, until next year. I plan on partnering with a few local eateries to get the fundraiser rolling or at the very least, introduce the blog to more local readers.

4. Prizes, Interviews and Multimedia - Contests and sweepstakes on this blog will be increased to build momentum for new readers and veteran readers while I also conduct more interviews with fellow filmmakers and figures of interest in other fields such as publishing, music and law. I would also like for multimedia elements to play a role in some of the future posts on this blog such as videos, photos or photo journals and audio podcasts.

5. Helping Charities - After learning about Leonardo DiCaprio’s work with the World Wildlife Fund on a campaign to save tigers, I will use this blog to support more of the charitable contributions and activism interests of male celebrities chosen as King Dong on this blog.

What was your favorite post from this blog so far?

Do you agree or disagree with the current and future plans for this blog?

How should anniversaries for The Madlab Post be celebrated in the future?

and now, our feature presentation......

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When Suicide Notes and Moviemaking Collide

“Suicide Note” is the 28th creative writing prompt in one of Heck Yeah’s 30-day Tumblr challenges, so I decided to use it since it’s a little late for me to be working on the next and last Johnny Depp King Dong post for this month.....I’ll try to do that tomorrow.

Today’s writing prompt is a little tough for me to use for blogging because I have no interest in writing a fake suicide note just for the sake of writing one. I mean if one is going to be written, shouldn’t a suicide go along with it? I’m just sayin’.....! The topic is such a downer that I was a little hesitant to use this prompt and considered checking out one of the other writing prompts until I realized that there is a way to turn this thing around for something good and useful.

In an attempt to take a more enjoyable route to highlighting the subject, here are a few short movie ideas that I came up with based on the “Suicide Note” topic. They might be made next month, when I try to tackle Slamdance’s $99 special category as a way to experiment with different genres and story lines all on digital video. I welcome you all to pick one that you would be interested in watching if I were to develop the concept/idea into a script and then make the movie.

Suicide Note Movie #1 (drama)
A man contemplating suicide spends hours trying to figure out how to write the perfect suicide note. His concern for adhering to some form of unspoken suicide note etiquette causes him to explore the impact that words have on others by using different mediums including notepads, social networking websites, cell phones and video.

Suicide Note Movie #2 (comedy/satire)
A quack therapist trying to advertise a self-help program produces an infomercial on how to write a suicide note effectively. He gives audiences members, who are his potential customers, tips on the right words to use and what types of suicide notes to write depending on the circumstances surrounding the person’s decision to commit suicide.

Suicide Note Movie #3 (drama or action, maybe?)
During her first day on the job, a suicide hotline (or 911) operator gets introduced to more than she can handle while trying to prevent a caller from killing herself or himself. Attempts to help the caller sends this employee and a detective on one city-wide search that causes them to question their career choices, purpose in life and their own mental and emotional stability.

After having come up with these three movie ideas in like the last 15 minutes, I just reminded myself that coming up with movies are easy......making them and bringing them to the screen (whether that be the big screen, small screen, cell phone screen, etc.) is the hard part.

Which one of these movies would YOU watch?

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A New Year with New Movie Developments

I finally figured out (or was rather, reminded) another reason why the script is so important when making a movie.....resources.

Yes, I know it's been a few months since my last post. I'll touch on that in a few but first, let's discuss good ol' filmmaking.

After trying to find the motivation and time to write the script for a short movie that I plan on making within the upcoming weeks, I finally got up in the middle of the night and completed a rough outline for it. What started as an idea to create my own personal 48 hour film challenge to help move myself into action and become more productive has resulted in an exciting story that will hopefully be done by the end of January.

While the script may not be hard to complete in enough time to actually start production once I start typing it up, I realized a bit of a challenge during the outlining process. No matter how simple I tried to make the story be (and I mean, it's really simple...you could probably count the entire cast of characters on one hand), I'm still lacking the resources necessary to complete the main scenes in this movie. These resources include tangible items such as a manly styled vehicle, diamond ring and most importantly.......a location! I wanted a free one but it looks like I may have to rent one by just paying someone to leave their home for a few hours.

If anyone has any suggestions on where I can get these items, preferably for free, by all means, leave a comment with these suggestions.

Also, I'm seeking three male actors and two female actors. I'll likely find them through a network of colleagues so maybe the casting thing can be resolved quicker than the props and location. Well, here's to an upcoming week of shooting on the fly!

Now that we've covered the short movie project, let's discuss my posting frequency (or lack thereof), the status of this blog as far as updates go and what's in store for 2011.

Real life has gotten in the way of my film and art aspirations and that includes this blog. Trying to work and pay bills has left me with not much energy to post anything. I requested some guest contributors during the fall of 2010 but there weren't tons of people lined up to keep the Madlab Post active on a weekly basis. With the new year of 2011 here, I'm taking a more proactive approach to getting some guest contributors to balance out my infrequent posting habits as well as posting many of the dozen or more drafts that I've had sitting around and just never finished.

As mentioned previously around the time of my Blog Action Day posts, if any of you have something that you want to know regarding independent films, or even mainstream films for that matter, just leave a comment of what that is and that'll surely get the posts coming on here.

Speaking of movies.....I so want to check out "Blue Valentine"!

I've been waiting since December 31st and then like January 4th and then it appeared that "Blue Valentine" wasn't going to be released in many theaters and then a really cool film festival buddy gave me the goods on it's release today in the Tri-State area, so it's pretty messed up that it took an extra few weeks to be released but it's finally out in more theaters so it's all good!

Technorati Tags: happy, new, year,, filmmaking, in, 2011,, filmmaking,, blue, valentine,, scriptwriting,, short, movies,, short, film,, short, film, script,, scripts,, independent, film, scripts