Put a Fork in It Friday

Since Blogger (owned by Google) went bonkers yesterday, preventing tons of bloggers from posting new stuff and commenting on other blog posts, I am taking a page from Two Hands and a Roadmap's book of doing a link post.

Oh, did I mention they removed my post from Wednesday, May 11th and although they restored it.....my comments are still gone. *sigh* SMDH. If they are not up by tomorrow night, then I will try to restore the comments on that post myself. Anyway, here are some additional places where you can read The Madlab Post blog from now on.....especially during times when Blogger is down and you haven't seen an update posted in more than two days. They are officially the sibling blogs of this one.

Madlab Post Lite
www.madlabpostlite.posterous.com

Thanks to Posterous, I managed to get a blog post (read: How to Make a Prom Video) up yesterday and may I say, pretty quickly without having to go through a lengthy process of learning how to use their platform, which is more than I can say about the next one that I will mention but hey, the good news is that there are lots of blogging options available and that is what saves us from many of the frustrations of blogging.

I will be posting similar content to what you normally would read here, on the Madlab Post blog that is hosted at Posterous. So, the "Lite" version does not mean it's like non-fat or low-fat. It's just an extra place to find my blog posts.

MadlabPost.Wordpress
www.madlabpost.wordpress.com

Hmm...should I change the name of this blog to "MPW" or "MP2"? What do you all think about that? Just curious. So, I started a Madlab Post blog on Wordpress to find out if it would be a reliable blogging platform but the dashboard, while very extensive and offers lots of features including cool customization tools, is NOT what I would call user friendly. There is just too much crap to deal with on Wordpress and who said that I wanted "Hello" posts on my blog and an "About" section already filled out with starter material?

If I want something posted, then I'll post it myself. I understand that maybe they do this to help bloggers get started but c'mon. I had to return to the dashboard to make changes to my blog more times than I desired, just to remove sections or change default text so that my Wordpress blog could stop looking like I published it but neglected certain areas such as the About Page where they had some stuff like "This is where your about information goes". Well, Duh!

So, these are my extra blogging places. What should I do with them? I don't plan on posting the same content on all three blogs, so should one be for photos or should there be different blog posts on all three that center on the same subject? I'll figure something out but in the meantime....really...."MPW," "MP2," or Madlab Post 2 or something else or should it remain the same? Let me know!

See you all tomorrow. Hopefully on this blog. If not here, then on the sister blogs!

Technorati Tags: wordcount+blogathon, blogging, wordpress+blog, posterous+blog, madlab+post, the+madlab+post, madlab+post+blog, 2011+wordcount+blogathon, fake+it+friday,

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

Guest Blog Contributors and More Updates

After numerous attempts to maintain a steady flow of current posts on this blog, I have encountered difficulties doing so. This is due to many factors, some of which were technical problems beyond my control and others were.....well, either lack of motivation or just plain procrastination after day jobs and life's other annoyances came into play and crowded my daily schedule. I'm taking this time to welcome guest contributors who would like to get their work published on the Madlab Post blog. The topics covered should be focused on independent films, studio films or entertainment in some way. If you are a Blogger or freelance writer who is interested in making guest contributions to this blog, send a message that includes your name, current occupation and a summary of your previous writing experience, using the contact form in the sidebar.

While planning for specific updates such as the King Dong series and film festival series would be nice, it us unlikely that this planning will be done immediately. I appreciate the support of you all who continue to read the blog and am requesting that you stick it out with me as we get the Madlab Post up to speed with some new posts on random topics that pertain to media, films and the movie going experience altogether. Some of these posts may be drafts that have been sitting around waiting to be published while others are previously published material that I wrote for other websites and the rest will be new posts that are put up on here for your reading pleasure!

Content requests are welcome, or better yet:
What topics should be covered in future posts on this blog?