Media Production

Artistic vs. Commercial

What makes good media?

Snow Ball microphone from Blue

When asking this question you can expect the answer to fall along party lines. In media development, the Party System is divided in 2 Major Parties. Creative and Distribution with fringe parties like Product Placement and Trend Watchers confusing the issue just enough to keep things interesting.

If you ask a creative, they will fall to there idealistic mantra du jour, that their skill set plays to. If you ask Distribution a pipsqueak, that gets paid way too much, will materialize and begin flipping through charts of data telling you what elements are essential, statistically, for the presented genre.

Where in lies the truth?

Sadly it is closer to the Distribution, but not necessarily in the way you may think. The distributors are a wealth of knowledge on what has been successful in the past. So, unless you have a first run package like Blair Witch, you might want to pay attention to the bean counters.

On the creative edge, making formula look good is truly an art. Consider: most theatrical writing is based on a fairly strict formula. Theatrical productions that stray too far from this tried and true path have little chance of succeeding. So it is important to “follow the rules” but that doesn’t mean through out creativity.

If you look at the rules as a frame work to drape your art over, it will be easier to work with. This goes for things like product placement and sponsors as well. If you know up front what you need to incorporate into the project, it makes it easier to build/work around those elements.

Conclusion…

If you are a creative, don’t despair. Take what you have and what you are given, look at them both closely and find that creative middle ground that lets your art shine through and be seen by the masses.

Distribution, relax, your risking a heart attack with all of that stress. The Creatives are not out do destroy you. Take the time to present where the money is coming from and what is unnecessary to generate the support to get the project to market. Don’t make creative decisions without involving the Creatives, even if only make them feel better.

Reduce the stress level on both sides and everyone wins.

~FBJ

Non-Profit Orgs

Duty of Office

In the world of Non-Profits Duty of Office is not the driving force behind action as it is in the privet sector. If a board of directors or corporate officer in any active company had an attendance of less than 50%, they would be gone. It’s that simple. In an NP it is not unheard of to find board members with a 20-30% attendance record, that is to say that THEY ARE THERE only 20-30% of the time! That sucks. This is not the norm but it does happen.

It is understandable that things do come up, emergencies occur, and people have forgotten things before. The issue is when regularly scheduled meetings have been established and the attendance is still at such a low level. Confirmation notice of a regular meeting day and time is a courtesy. If it is in writing months in advance, and it has been talked about on several occasions throughout the month, it is common knowledge. The meeting will occur, unless otherwise notified.

I understand that life intervenes now and then necessitating a change of plans. When the general attendance of half a board of directors is below 50% and they are not doing anything the rest of the month for the organization this argument has little sway.

As you may have guessed, a meeting was planned, I prepared, at length, and was notified 2 hours before the meeting, that it was not going to happen because over half the board would not be in attendance.

I titled this entry as I did, because the concept of Duty of Office is big deal. This responsibility is Duty, in the legal sense. When you accept a post in governance you have a Duty to act on the best interest of the organization and its membership. Failure take this Duty seriously is a breach of Duty. This breach may, or may not, also be a breach of Fiduciary Responsibility.

In the private sector business is just that, business. It seems that in the small (under $2.5M annual gross) non-profit sector, the assumption is that “non-profit” is an operationally edict. It is not. NP is a tax status and nothing else. Poor management would not be tolerated in a for profit business, nor should it be in a non-profit one.

You may have noticed that this is an issue that sticks in my craw. I love working with NP organizations. They do a lot of good for the community. The problem arises when they don’t take the job seriously, “it’s just a non-profit”.

~FBJ

Ramblings

Welcome to April

I was going to post this on the 1st, but time got away as usual. So here it is, at 1:40am. Does it count as the previous day if you are still awake?

Any way, this is just a short one to welcome the new month. Funny that this April Fools Day there didn’t seem to be a lot of fooling around. One might think that was due to politics, or maybe the economy, mayhaps even the proximity of the 5th anniversary of the war in Iraq. Whatever the cause, It has not gone by unnoticed.

I bid welcome regardless, and offer well wishes to all that would accept them.

~FBJ

Ramblings

An Opening Post

Hello out there in the blogosphere!

Digital Dilemma

I am creating this blog for several reasons. Some are technical, others are experimental, and still others are to develop ideas for other works. One part of the experimental plan is to post in an “off the radar” environment and see if / how it propagates. I have many projects in the works, from motion picture, to books, to events and a variety of other things.

One of the primary projects for this blog is a book on a subject that has a pet peeve of mine for years, Political Correctness. As you will undoubtedly learn if you read this blog, IMHO, PC is the cause of many of our current social ills as a nation. But more on this later, for now I will sign off and toddle off to bed as the hour is late and my eyes are slowly closing weather I like it or not.

~FBJ

Amateur Radio, Emergency Communications, Traffic Handling and more