Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Structural Changes

We'll, it's official - I've got a BA in Film from UWO. I suppose this marks the end of the 'student' blog I've been running (into the ground) here, but I'm certainly not shutting this blog down. For all intensive purposes, LEGP is alive and [fairly] well - I've picked up some contract editing, been working on a new short film (it's still in it's baby stage, sorry chaps and chapettes!), and just in general enjoying the horrible, debt-ridden freedom that has struck me from the realization I won't be in school come September.

One Way Out only needs one piece of sound added to it for it to be completed and released - I got the hardest stuff done (woo?). It's leaps and bounds better than the first film I posted here, as the pictures clearly show.

And while school frankly beat the living shit out of me in March and April, as I did 5 courses worth of work in 3 weeks to finish it off, one thing never changed - I continued to write, and dream about being in a better situation. I've been told I'm a good writer, and the Marathon, Ontario project is somewhat a testament to that. I haven't ever really taken it seriously, though - apart from when writing the scripts for my short films.

So, I come back to the question of 'what to do with this blog?' First, I'm not sure that I'm going to continue with the name "Like Eating Glass Productions" - not that I think it's a bad name, it's just long - and also, it's a Bloc Party song. I have no idea about the copyright issues on that one, but for the foreseeable future, I'm continuing on with the name. If I have to register the name as a company, then it might change.

Second, the "Productions" part of it has gave me some freedom in the format of this blog. I was wondering what to focus on in the blog, and after a conversation with a good friend of mine I got some feedback, which has ultimately made me decide what I'm going to do.

I've decided to open this blog up to more than just my filming endeavours. While it is my passion and goal to work in that industry, this blog gets very little updates because in the stage of my career, I'm not capable of achieving much that's worth writing about. So, with that in mind, I've got to offer more content.

So, I'm going to conglomerate all of my crafts into this blog. For my graduation I received an absolutely pimp Song a300K DSLR camera, which I have yet to dive into using, but will be very, very soon. Undoubtedly those pictures will be ending up on my Flickr account, and I'll subsequently post them here. I did that a little earlier with that (idiotic) update wall, although that was just stupid fun. This will be a whole lot more serious photography.

As well as the photo posting, I'm also going to start posting chapters of the various stories I'll be writing. This will include (but not be limited to) the short stories I write from time to time, the longer novels, and anything else that's based in writing.

Of course, this blog will also still serve as a rant-post for my day-to-day activities that I go through, but that will be limited almost exclusively to the entertainment industry, and my relationship with it. The film/television industry is very, very interesting to myself, particularly considering the kind of insane and interesting people one meets, the hardships and setbacks, and the general life that industry people have. At the same time, people on the outside don't really have a clue what goes on behind the scenes, and I'll try my best to offer (my personal) insight on how it is. This will undoubtedly be the most difficult part of the blog to update, as the film industry is virtually non-existent in London, Ontario, and that's where I'll be for the next 10-12 months.

All in all, I'll try and update this blog once or twice a week, or failing that, 3 times a month. I've had a decent amount of hits since starting this blog, and there's been little content - so I wonder what will grow out of it if I actually update it on a regular basis. So, if you've read this far, I thank you - and I hope you'll like the content changes I've set up. Let's be honest, it can't be any worse than the pile of nothing I've had thus far, right?

However, there's one other thing that I've decided to include in this structural change. I'm basically trying to go out into the world and make it as an independent artist, which means I'll be poor for the next while. On the flip side, the strongest publicity I have is my own credibility (see: this blog), which is currently minimal, but has extreme potential. Thus, I've decided to make this blog an open-donation blog.

By 'open-donation' blog, I mean I'm going to put up a paypal donation button on the sidebar - the idea in mind that if you like my work enough, please donate some money. You will be allowed to donate as much or as little as you want - I don't care if you donate 25 cents - but all the donations will help me live, help support my craft, and help me spend more time doing something I actually want to do. The biggest barrier to this blog is that fact that I'm broke, so I've got to work outside of it. That takes time away for me to put up content. The more donations I receive, the more time I'll spend on providing content. In time, I hope to offer kickbacks for donating, like content mailed to the people (if wanted), but that's off in the future. Right now, I'd really like to just get started, and make a little money for the craft I'm trying to spend my life in. So, it's up to you, the viewers.








Of course, I don't expect a ton of donations at first - there's nothing to donate for. But I plan on making an effort on getting content out there, so I hope that if there's any appreciation for it, you, the faithful internet viewer, will support a lowly, independent, starving artist. I promise you I won't regret it.

Cheers, and I hope you look forward to the changes as much as I do.

Mark - Owner, Operator, and Extremely Hungry Person of Like Eating Glass Productions.

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