Episode 2 of The Starmind Record!

The 8 Sided Ensemble proudly presents you with Episode 2 of the Starmind Record, in which Casey and Eli reveal who Dean Ballard was before the arrival of the Starmind, and document the place where Dean was discovered.

What's so new about new media?

Why is it so much easier to get people watching auditions on American Idol spinoff shows than it is to get them watching a Rolling Stones concert film directed by Martin Scorcese?

In the field of entertainment, that's pretty much the question of the decade. Clearly, the internet has something to do with it. Theories abound regarding the influence of information overload and/or the stupification of the general populace. Meanwhile, Rebecca Black's music video becomes the YouTube sensation of the year. Shows like The Guild are merchandising, while expensive Battlestar Galactica and Heroes webisodes struggle to find an audience.

Cinema and television are forums for presentation. Audience members are given an opportunity to watch something. Even with streaming HD available to performers and creators, that's not what the internet is about at all. At it's core, the internet is a connection tool. Presentation is part of the package, but web projects that put their focus on presentation are missing the boat entirely.

My favorite web series is a show called "...and Boris", which I used this very blog to promote some years back. On the one hand, Boris was telling a story I found personally compelling, about an over-the-hill ex-Russian spy making ends meet in LA. On the other hand, the production value was totally non-existent. That show worked on the core strength of its performers and its concept, but the production itself had gaps more than big enough to see through the illusion... and suddenly it was clear how much fun the whole thing was to produce. I didn't just fall in love with the story, I fell in love with the creators and the process. I saw the challenges the production was having, and I related. I was connected, through and through.

That's precisely what American Idol has going for it.

By way of example, suppose that Steven Spielberg had to choose between one of two web shows. One is a Jurassic Park show, starring Sam Neill and financed with enough money to ensure ample numbers of dinosaurs in every episode. The other is a show he produces with his kids or grandkids in the backyard. His youngest loves making spaceships out of cardboard boxes, and his eldest wants to learn filmmaking - so he picks up a flip cam and puts his considerable experience to work.

Mr. Spielberg, do the second show. Clearly, it's not all that promising as cinema - but watching Steven Spielberg tell a good story playing with his kids would make for AMAZING web programming.

On the internet, idiosyncrasy sells.

Episode 1 of The Starmind Record!

The 8 Sided Forum proudly introduces Episode 1 of "The Starmind Record", in which Eli and Casey introduce the phenomenon that leads them to create the Record itself:

Many, many thanks to all those who have made this web series possible, and a special thank you to our donors on Kickstarter. We'll be taking some time to thank you all personally once production is finished... and in the meantime, we hope you enjoy the show!

Your Social Media Campaign

As a corporate social media consultant, I managed all direct-to-consumer output for Unified Pictures from mid 2009 to mid 2010. My duties there included company blogging, production blogging on behalf of the animated film Noah’s Ark, maintaining numerous Twitter and Facebook accounts, designing Facebook games, building and maintaining a mailing list database and driving foot traffic toward Unified’s arthouse theatrical releases.

My filmmaking ambitions have challenged me to apply an even more aggressive approach to social media as a foundation for my business, building an audience for the independent modern fantasy film Sam Bailey. My supportive online community has enabled me to sign Oscar-Winning talent to our film, negotiate a platform theatrical release with arthouse cinemas, find representation for literally every member of the cast and crew and present investors with the most comprehensive business model for a film I’ve seen in over seven years of indie film finance. In addition, that online community is supporting our ensemble in other ways. We just launched a Kickstarter campaign to finance a web series and beat our fundraising goal by over 50%. That web series, in turn, continues to audience growth for our feature film projects.

As traditional branding methods become less and less effective, community-based marketing efforts are increasingly critical to the success of creators and creative endeavors. Both time-intensive and highly cost-effective, these efforts need to initiate during the first stages of a project's development, and at the beginning of an artist's career.

In exchange for taking that initiative, you gain access to the one thing every single person in Hollywood will pay for: A PERSONAL, DIRECT RELATIONSHIP WITH AN AUDIENCE.

Cultivating and serving that audience is the core value behind every step in your social media campaign, and the work you put into it will be precisely the work you have been training your whole life to do.

Whether you're looking for a consultant to help you strategize your social media approach, or you're looking for someone to personally undertake your marketing efforts, my rates are reasonable and negotiable.

For more information, please contact me at tennyson@8sidedfilms.com.

Without Words

Episode 2 of The Starmind Record is "in the can", and all I can do is back-up the footage and get back to processing the files from Episode 1. The only way I'm going to be able to explain what it is we have here is to show you.

After wrapping our blog session with several one-take prints, Charlotte was asking me some questions about the development of her character. Her concern was about delivering an arc that, on paper, looks extreme and sudden. My assurances weren't helping her any, so I broke one of my core rules and showed an actor some raw footage.

"Oh."

That's not a direct quote, but that's all she had to say. Her performance and the work of the actors around her is as rich and complex, as terrifying and funny, as anything you could hope to see in an Oscar-winning production. The Starmind Record may be the web series that finally shows people what this format is good for, and what it is capable of.

There's a lot more to be done before I can show you what she saw, so I'm getting back to work. More to come.

-T

No Recess

One of my Mom's favorite "Tenny was such a focused young man!" stories took place on one of my very first days of middle scbool. From whence I cannot recall, I'd gotten my hands on a huge hardcover edition of Asimov's Foundation Series. At the time, it was tough reading... but I figured that finishing it was obligatory for that very reason.

During recess, one of the Orleans Middle School administrators caught me sitting on the swing, as far from the other kids as possible, tussling through the heavy tome. As a nerdy kid prone to beatings, I liked the isolation and the wide, open space - but the secretary or whoever it was was worried for my social development and called my Mom.

"I'm concerned that Tennyson isn't playing with the other children."

"Is the swing moving?"

"Uh... yes."

"Then he's playing. Leave him the hell alone."

This crosses my mind now as I sit at Starbucks with my laptop and my Starmind passport, digging into the work of editing our first episode. As my projects become more ambitious and my achievements become that much more far-reaching, I often tell myself how far I've come. At this moment, I'm just marveling at how over the course of a lifetime, we somehow keep using the same damn tools to tackle the same frustrating problems.

No doubt, this little idiosyncracy of mine is a part of what makes my writing engaging... and the Starbucks is certainly more crowded than the swings were!

Being patient with oneself is a big part of success. That's what I've been learning this year so far. This moment is a curious, somehow reassuring test of that patience.

This ends our episode of Personal Disclosure Theater. Tune in next week for the first episode of THE STARMIND RECORD!!!

The Starmind Store is LIVE!

Today, we shot the first episode of The Starmind Record. As production moves forward, we plan to bring every "penetrating insight" our set banter produces to the Starmind CAFEPRESS STORE for the enrichment of your wardrobe and home decor!

Seem cooler and smarter than your friends! Mystify your family with inexplicable Starmind gifts! Check out our full inventory today!

The Starmind Online Store can be found at: http://www.cafepress.com/starmindrecord