Interview Blog Assignment

For this interview assignment I decided to interview Sydney Garlich who is not only active in the entertainment show business but negotiates deals daily whether it is for an upcoming show or her new contract with an entertainment company such as DubFactory Entertainment or Anti Gravity Incorporated.

Her two most recent deals that I will be focusing on are her most recent contract with Anti Gravity Atlanta and Dub Factory Entertainment. Some of her objective criteria that she used in those negotiations are: past performances, continuous progression within the industry and being a well-known aerialist.

Within separating the people from the problem, she told me she had to remember her emotions about the companies and their past acquaintances. Sydney said she liked working for those agencies in the past and that made her more comfortable to go into the negotiations.  Her ability to communicate in a professional manner was also important; she had to remember what key terms to use about the industry while pushing towards what she wanted out of the agreement. Her BATNA included being an independent contractor. That allows her to get hired just through her, without the need of an agency. Knowing that she didn’t have to worry about what would have happened if the agency tried using any dirty tricks or tricky tactics. Her status as a well, international and nationally known aerial performer helped her keep the leverage she needed to get what she wanted.

Mutual benefit was also very important for both parties. The agencies and Sydney both knew that together they will be able to advertise the name while keeping her employed. Dirty tricks and tricky tactics weren’t present in her past 2 negotiations and when they were before she dealt with them accordingly. Since both Dub Factory Entertainment and Anti Gravity Incorporated Atlanta hired Sydney before, they had a good relationship.

From talking to her I was able to reflect on what I learned over the past few weeks while hearing her story about how she made it as an aerial performer and entrepreneur. 

Boat VS. Cable

A few weeks earlier I talked about shooting wakeboarding and how it`s different to shoot someone riding behind a boat vs. a cable park. In this blog post I will be going into detail about how it can all affect your wallet. People would think that going out on a boat all you need is a few gallons of gas and you`re set. Well that`s not the whole story, we can`t forget about the boat prices and how a brand new wakeboarding boat can run up to $85,000. Also it`s way better for the environment as well if you just go to a cable park and enjoy the electricity driven pull as it tows you around the lake. When you know someone with a boat and they want to ride you might be able to get a few sets in a day but not nearly as close to much riding as you could on a cable park. There are 2 major waterski and wakeboard manufacturing companies: Sesitec, and Ski-Rixen. While I think Ski-Rixen`s been around for a longer period of time Sesitec is definitely been making some great achievements and always been one of the more innovative companies in the field. Just in the last 3 years alone there has been over 6 new cables built from coast to coast. That tells me that more people are starting to realize the potential in wakeboarding behind a cable. It’s also a way better investment than just buying a brand new boat and always having to fix it. If someone builds a cable park there is a huge potential of making some serious money. It’s a great business but, there are some other expenses as well that we can`t forget about such as putting up a concession stand, possibly a pro shop/rental etc. A perfect local example of an investment like such is the Orlando Watersports Complex right next to 528 and the airport. It`s a great place with a boat, 2 cable parks and even a system 2.0. all in one lake. It gets choppy quite often.  

Defy, The Danny Harf Project

For this weeks blog post I`m going to discuss and try to go into as much detail as possible about producing, funding and actually how much money did Defy: The Danny Harf Project make. Being a wakeboarder pretty much my whole life and shooting/editing it for over 8 years I can safely say I have a huge interest in the market. Not to mention bigger productions and just wakeboarding in general.

Defy might just be the next big step for the wakeboard filmmaking world.

It’s downloadable online or you can order a double disc (Blu-ray/DVD combo pack) It also did great at the 2012 X-Dance where it won an award for the Best Soundtrack. The BFY crew made the movie. They always do a solid job whether is shooting,editing or producing. You can check out more info on them over here. When a huge production like this takes place (took over 2.5 years to shoot) you can expect other huge brands to try and merge/sponsor the event. Im talking about huge industry names like Monster Energy, Fox Riders Co., Ronix, Transworld Wakeboarding and Nautique boats, who were actually the very first company to make a wakeboarding tower for a boat.

Needless to say they still are the number one wake/ski boat manufacturers in the world. As far the actual budgeting goes for the movie it was really hard to find all the information but heres a pretty good interview I found where they kind of go into detail, One of the answeres states that “between C/Chopper Dave at radar with Ronix and the Fox blue lake stunts. My guess is around $25k just on stunts.”

Not to mention building the rails, the material, rental equipment, travelling and the camera gear/editing cost later.  As far as how much money the flicks going to make my sights are unclear since its one of the newer productions out there and we won`t be able to see the total profit until were down the line a little more. 

One things for certain though, Defy is a milestone in not just the wakeboarding community but the whole watersport world. I love it and I can only recommend it.

Motion Picture Association Of America

For this blog post I decided to analyze the Motion Picture Association Of America. I know that my interest is more in the area of extreme sports but after doing some research this was my best option.

            The website itself looks super well done and I like the slideshow feature with all the famous artist/movies they were in. It automatically reminds me about that emotional connection I`ve built with them over the years.

            Within their “blog” section there are multiple little blog posts about recently occurring topics like: the super bowl sweep, Open act falls short, Senator Dodd on Pro Jobs and Anti-Piracy Legislation.

I liked the Anti-Piracy post because it`s definitely something that’s happening right now. It’s a huge problem for not just the film world but also the entertainment business in general. People are able to just go online, seed, leech and download illegal content from the palm of their hands. The website even goes as far as calling these people criminals and I`m honestly not surprised. It does take away jobs and it does cause major harm. They keep on going with stating that it’s becoming a “sincere discussion about how best to protect the millions of American jobs affected by the theft of American intellectual property.” But for us to be able to protect what’s ours we must learn to work together and maybe one day we can stop the online piracy.

            On another interesting part of the associations website they go into showcasing their existence in recent news articles. Which I personally like to see because it`s always good to be up to date on what’s happening currently within our industry. The very first post that caught my eye was an article published in The New York Times, Sunday Review. The headline reads: The Perpetual War: Pirates andCreators. It goes into discussion about how online piracy has been growing and taking leaps and bounds into the media world. Which is definitely not good news. Looking at the graphs its scary to imagine how the online safety`s going to look like in the next couple of years. It`s a huge problem for not only the Motion Picture association, but also the extreme sports world. I can`t emphasize how many times I’ve heard of an awesome new video coming out but before I can even go to the store and get one my friend`s have downloaded it offline. It`s our own choice whether to be a part of this or take a stand. Whatever we do, one thing is certain. Piracy`s not going to stop and we must choose which side we take in the battle and stick with it.   

           

                        

TED.com

Speaker: Chris Anderson

I want to start by saying that It hasn`t been too long since I discovered TED but I`m sure that well keep on seeing the positive effects of speeches like this one floating around the web. Through these videos/posts people are not just able to learn about a certain topic but can also reply, send a video back or even create their own TED event. The speaker Chris Anderson is a funny but intelligent fellow from England.

He inspired the audience by telling them that there`s more to the world and TED than we would think and that we must use technology to our advantage. There is a great example from the video, the world and all of us that are living in it. If you just look at a number of people without interaction just doing their own thing, there wont be too much innovation. But If you look at the individual people and their unique taste, hobbies and past experiences. You can see how the Internet allows us to share out thoughts instantly through videos like this one. Like Chris said the little 6-year-old boy was just a fan of breakdancing but through his interaction with the world, putting up his video he reached a level of dancing he could`ve never been able to. Social Networking is becoming huge and we must use it to our advantage.

I definitely agree with the speaker and how we need to share our passion/skills with others through the web. Therefore helping others while getting feedback on our own topic. Adversity is being overcome on many levels. First of all there`s a broad range of different types of people/counties in the video not to mention the multiple languages and how more people in more countries can watch TED now!

I also really liked the whole Kenya TED movement and how we`re able to communicate in even more ways with the way HD video and technology has been evolving. Needless to say the Web is moving at such a high speed therefore allowing us to exchange information and share the passion we have. This speech definitely helped me to develop a deeper understanding of the speakers’ topics through their entertaining speech and all of the visual effects. Personally I liked the drawings/animation/flow of the presentations. I know the Internet and web videos are still evolving but seeing what technology enabled us to do thus far keeps me wondering what could be next?  

Shooting Wakeboarding on the Cable VS. Behind a Boat

When talking about filming wakeboarding there are a few things that first come to my mind. Where, Who, How and When are we shooting. From knowing those things we can kind of get a feel for the style, location and pace of video we will be making. On most of my shoots I do the cinematography as well as the postproduction part of things, which gives me total control of the final product. Different countries have different lakes, rivers, scenery, obstacles and local riders. Knowing how is a huge part because we always need to be aware of what gear we might use, and knowing when just gives us an overall idea of the time set and natural lighting conditions. (If there are any at the time)

I think the biggest difference about filming someone ride behind a boat vs. a cable park is that when you shoot behind a boat unless you have a chase boat/jet ski you’ll be pretty stuck in that one angle, from the boat that pulls the rider. Or you can always try to set up off shore but that wont always be close enough, so sometimes you might have to crop into your footage later just to bring some more details. When filming someone ride cable you can pretty much walk around the lake and stand close to different obstacles for different time periods, constantly changing up the angles/location from which your filming from.

I like mixing up the shots as much as possible when editing, giving an intense experience that gets viewers/riders stoked about wakeboarding. Another huge advantage of the cable is that you can have up to 8 of your friends riding beside you, following you and gaining experience on the water while having a good time watching everyone else do the same thing.  

Epic VS Ewa housings

Since wakeboarding is a watersport you cant forget to have the right protection for your equipment if you`re thinking about shooting from either above, or under the water level, you must have a waterproof housing. In my own experience I`ve had a chance to use some of the Epic underwater housings but there`s also the Pelican cases that are fairly known .

While Epic is more about just manufacturing video housings Pelican also makes smaller, more portable solutions for your IPhone, IPod and even just Flashlights.

First thing that I remember about using the Epic housings is that you cant really get into the brains of your camera and adjust the settings while in the water because it only has a soft back that you can push in and either start or stop recording. On the other hand there`s this other brand EWA that makes soft bag like housing solutions for cameras and with that you can pretty much press any button on your camera. Just maybe the focus ring wont be as easy to roll, as it would be on the ground.

The prices wary but if you have a professional grade camcorder you might as well protect it. If your trying to scuba dive though I would definitely recommend the epic housings because they can withstand way higher pressures than the little plastic bag looking ones. With that said I’ve used both and even though the ewa marine solutions might look real easy to use, I would still trust an epic housing over the ewa. Because of the effective sealing effect and the better weight distribution. After all there must be a reason why surfers use it way more to shoot their movies. And If one day it comes down to shooting a major movie like that recent Kelly slater one, on one of those Imax cameras than I`d just use a custom fitted high scale case. Whatever your level of filming/riding might be I hope this post was helpful to decide which case to go with.