Finally Figuring It Out

By Beau

I’ve been spending a lot of time lately diving into getting my wife Stefanie’s film “Where Did the Horny Toad Go?” setup for all the various forms of social networking, marketing and film making sites, and an “official website,” and I think I may finally be starting to grasp the wonder of social networking. It may be a tiny grasp, but it’s been interesting nonetheless. With “Rainbow Around the Sun” my partner in crime, Kevin Ely, handled all of that stuff, and still continues to do so. If you visit Rainbow’s website today, it will take you to our page at Virb, another social networking site geared toward the visual arts. While Kevin has been working on getting the official site for Rainbow up, the Virb page has certainly held its own. Kevin has done just about everything to customize it to meet our needs.

Then there is P2Rents. P2Rents is another venture I’m a partner with that makes costly P2 cards available to cash-strapped productions by renting them at pretty low prices. It’s entirely based online, but we’ve always had difficulty in figuring out how best to get the word out there. We’ve recently hired someone to do for P2Rents what Kevin has been doing for Rainbow, and what I’m now beginning to do for Stefanie’s film. Before you know it every man, woman and child will be renting p2 cards.

Then there’s my friend Chris Sharpe whose first language actually may be social networking. His attention to detail and continuity when promoting his film “Sex Machine” was impeccable, and the strategy he had in place for his second film was like a finely crafted Swiss time piece. Chris now applies a lot of the knowledge he acquired (and crafted) in the world of publishing, and he usually guides me along here and there.

So, the horny toad movie, Rainbow Around the Sun, P2Rents.com, Chris Sharpe. What are they telling me. They’re telling me I need to get the ball rolling for my own damn site. If I don’t do it, nobody is going to come along and do it for me. So hopefully over the coming weeks, my site will undergo a makeover (though probably a baby baby one). I hope to continue promoting my work, the work of my colleagues, more on the craft of editing creative processes, and finally more about what’s going on in the Okie filmmaking scene. If I don’t, I’ll quickly erase this entry thereby erasing evidence of a failed reality.

Please stay tuned.

Where Did the Horny Toad Go?
Rainbow Around the Sun
P2Rents.com
Christopher Sharpe

Virtua-Eyes

By Beau

Innovative. Informative. Necessary.

Art 365

By Beau

I’ve had art on the mind lately, and the creative process. A year or so ago I had the privilege of being hired to shoot and edit for the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition on Oklahoma artists and the creative process. Under the direction of brilliant minds Melissa Scaramucci and Cacky Poarch, we created two pieces entitled “Art 365.” We first created a short version of the film following six Oklahoma artists who each received a large grant, and were given one year to create a body of work. Three weeks after the short film was completed, we had to have a feature version edited. This in itself was an intensive creative endeavor. We worked day after day finding the story within the hours and hours of footage of each artist creating their works. This is when I realized how much I enjoyed editing documentary film; literally searching for the story as we combed through footage. There was no script. There was no real plot…at first. We built it from the ground up into what I believe are two very insightful looks into the creative process and its challenges.

This project was Okie all the way. Funded by an Oklahoma organization which also funded these six Oklahoma Artists, a small Okie film crew directed by two Okie directors, and music composed by two Okie musicians. It’s almost sickening how much Oklahoma is in these films. For more information on Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition, visit OVAC