Well…Shane O is out of reach in wild Madagascar!  What a great example of someone who has made an idea a reality.  He dreamed of creating a show that explores every corner of the globe in an unusual way, and he’s living that dream because he decided to take action!

Before he went off the grid he asked that I send a brief note out. He is having a blast shooting episode 2 and, I’ll quote, “Here is a demo for a second entry I made in the NexTV  Series & Short Film Competition.  I will release it one by one in ten parts over the next ten weeks…tune in!

Traverse Color Earth: Galapagos Demo from Color Earth on Vimeo.

SHANE O:  I’m definitely feeling the effects of the one-man-band syndrome…I could use a few more bandmembers! I was expecting this, though. I knew coming home from Alaska, prepping all the footage for edit, writing an edit script, and cutting a rough VO track would be a tight squeeze…especially considering I leave for shoot #2 in Madagascar this Saturday (July 24). So juggling shoot #1 edit prep and shoot#2 production prep simultaneously has been, well, a challenge. But it’s amazing how much can get done in a day under that kind of pressure. My last big shoot was an independent Color Earth Production, so it didn’t have any severe deadlines attached to it. Without deadlines I move at a MUCH slower pace…technically and creatively. So moving from that project to this monster, well, I had that worry of “can I still produce things that fast!???” But I guess it’s like riding a bike. Or in this case, a steel horse.  Don’t know how much opportunity we’ll have in Madagascar to update the blog, but I’ll do my best.  Planning on climbing the Tsingy razor spires and hiking into the forbidden forests of Kirindy Sud.  Cross your fingers that we we can find a pygmy hippo!  Yeehaw!

The closest thing I have to Madagascar on film is the honeymoon special I did in Tanzania in 2008.  It’s broken into 5 parts.  Here’s part 1,

Honeymoon in Africa SAFARI (part1of5) from Color Earth on Vimeo.

if you like that, the footage gets better and better.  Find the rest at my vimeo channel:

www.vimeo.com/channels/colorearth

Shane O

http://www.pbs.org/itvs/globalvoices/point-of-entry.html

On the other side of the camera, things are working as well as we could hope for.  Normally I am out alone or with an assistant (typically my wife).   Since the show is more expedition focused and less destination driven, we hired a dedicated DP for the first time.  I can’t tell you what a relief it is to hire a shooter I know and trust.  Makes things much easier…but we all still wear multiple hats.  I’m still shooting, lugging equipment, directing, producing…so is my shooter (Francisco Aliwalas), and my wife (Romona Robbins) is handling almost everything else.  So we keep our footprint about as light as we can to maximize our ability to capture a TRUE expedition and minimize the need to stage the story.  So far so good!

On the back end,  I have less than two weeks to prep the Alaska episode edit, handle the initial deliverable to the channel, and prepare to leave for shoot #2 in Madagascar on July 24.  When beautiful footage is captured, it really takes the stress off the table and makes it an exciting challenge.  I’ll keep you posted!

**I showed you a bit about me last blog, this time, let me show you the latest Color Earth shooting/editing demo on the home page:

Color Earth shoot/edit demo 2010 from Color Earth on Vimeo.

www.colorearth.tv

THE COLOR EARTH was a submission to the 2009 Web Series and Short Film Competition and is now being made into a series for Nat Geo Wild!

SHANE O IN ALASKA:

Episode ONE is officially under way. I don’t want to give everything away (even if I could at this point), but I can tell you this…we have HORRIBLE karma with flights. What should’ve taken 17 hours and three stops to Kodiak, Alaska, took 27 hours and 5 stops. Hurricane Alex did a number on us in Houston and it caused us an unanticipated evening in Anchorage.

But what horrible luck we have with transit, we totally make up for with weather. Kodiak is pretty well known as having crap climate in the summer, and we landed right in the middle of it. Drizzly, cloudy, miserable. Despite the lack of sleep we didn’t want to lose any more of our shoot schedule than we already had, so we geared up the kayaks and launched in the rain. By the time we hit the open bay, let’s just say the heavens opened to some of the most beautifully dramatic lighting set to the backdrop of the second largest whales on earth popping up just 20-30 yards from our kayaks. We’ll call it a successful recovery. Today we tagged along with the only people who have the authority to chase down the whales for research purposes…and we scored again! Kodiak is proving to be more fruitful than we ever imagined so far…7 more days to go!

*since I introduced myself with my NexTV entry from last year, I’ll go ahead and show you a video that show’s a little bit more of who I am and what I do…this is a demo from a series I did with Travel Channel a couple of years ago.

Not Your Average Travel Guide DEMO from Color Earth on Vimeo.

Tune in next week for Shane O’s next installment.  A big Thank you to him for taking us along on his adventures.

Remember, this show is coming to Nat Geo Wild soon!  For more about Shane O and his incredible work, visit www.colorearth.tv and www.facebook.com/colorearth

This is BANISKO, winner of last year’s Best Scripted Drama in the NexTv Web Series & Short Film Competition.

MONEY IS NO LONGER AN EXCUSE FOR NOT TAKING ACTION!!!

Untitled from Omer Zigdon on Vimeo.

Email me at rbecker@nextventertainment.com to find out the latest with Omer Zigdon, the filmmaker.

Come on the road with Shane O, every week, right here, on the NexTv Blog & experience what it’s like to bring last year’s Web Series & Short Film Competition submission, THE COLOR EARTH, to NAT GEO WILD!

(New installment announced each week on twitter and FB).

VIDEO BELOW…but first Shane O kicks it off for us…

I think “work for National Geographic” may be up in the same category as “be a fireman” or “become a veterinarian” when it comes to those childhood dreams of what we really wanted to be when we grew up, at least for my generation. Of course, the latter have a much more defined path to success. On top of that, my life in video began in the final days of analog, and my CAREER in production began just after the digital revolution, which was a new technology to old school thought. Before digital we could only do so much, and that’s what was expected of us. If you were an editor, then you were an editor…if you were a shooter, then you were a shooter…you couldn’t be both! At least that’s what I was told a NUMEROUS job interviews. But I realized from the beginning that the multitasking possibilities of a digital world weren’t just possible, it just made more sense. Obviously whoever shot something would have more sense to edit it, and technology suddenly made it possible to handle such a workload.

That was back in late 90s. Today, one-man-band producers are a dime a dozen. And while they may have brought down the monetary value of each separate job title, I think they have raised the creative bar as a whole…which is more important to me than money any day of the week. Trust me, I produced a local travel show by myself on my own dime, and I didn’t have may dimes. The only motivation at the time was to have a fun and creative outlet. Well, that one-man-band production model led to a shot at a Travel Channel series, which led to four years of producing on and off camera for the Travel Channel and Discovery…and now it’s the big leagues…National Geographic!

I’m happy to announce that just signed a four-episode deal with National Geographic Wild. My production company , Color Earth, which consists of my wife and I, will travel the globe shooting my experiences in some of the wildest places on earth. As excited as I am, I know this is a huge experiment for us AND them…Nat Geo has never really taken the one-man-band production model seriously until now. But to their defense, it has it’s limitations, but we’re here to do our best to prove that it works. So wish us luck! Hopefully it breaks down the door to give other undiscovered talent a shot.

I’m also happy to announce that…I will be using my company website (www.colorearth.tv/wordpress) and NexTV as the home of a weekly blog to update you on where we are in the world and how production is going. Should be interesting. I thought an appropriate way to introduce you to my work would be to post the video I entered in the NexTV web series competition last year.  New videos will come with most blogs, so keep up with us!

Shane O’s Adventure: INTO THE SAHARA from Color Earth on Vimeo.

www.natgeowild.com
Shane O…Color Earth

A fun series about two people who just keep missing each other that won us over during 2009’s Web Series & Short Film Competition. This is truly a testament to wonderful story-telling done on a micro-budget.  This is why we do our competitions…to provide a platform for great, self-motivated artists to connect to relevant players in the industry.

See all episodes on thebedheads.com . Words from the creators below…ENJOY, then go to their site to see all of their great webisodes (ep. 5 has Hugo Nicolson from Radiohead…all are fun).

Bedheads – The Trailer from Laura Beckner & Pete Monro on Vimeo.

Here are the creators telling me a thing or two about the series.

Pete:  As is the case with many films, TV shows, and now webisodes, mobisodes, and whathaveyou… Bedheads was born out of Laura and I wanting to work on something together and not having a whole lot of funding and/or resources that come with studio backing.  Obviously this is nothing new.  But we were dealing with a fairly new horizon.  The Internet and the Web Series.  The market seemed to already be over saturated by something that had hardly been around for more than a couple years.  So much of what we had been seeing was sketch comedy.  We wanted to do something that wasn’t sketch, something with a narrative so that viewers can check in every couple weeks and see how the show has progressed.

The market for well-trained animators, even in this global economic downturn, is extremely robust.  There are over 35,000 animation jobs available right now, worldwide, and the tools to realize your vision keep getting more and more accessible.  TOON BOOM ANIMATION, under the leadership of Joan Vogelesang, has become a huge part of this equation.

Along with Karina Bessoudo, VP of Marketing, Joan has been incredibly generous with her time (and resources) as a judge and sponsor of the NexTv Web Series & Short Film Competition.  These are major players, working with nearly every major animation studio (from Disney on down), as well as individual animators young and old.  They have won every major award imaginable from Emmy’s to Parent Awards.  They can list as credits Disney’s very latest animated features to tv classics like The Simpsons…and everything in between.   Toon Boom Animation has become synonymous with innovation, automation and accessibility in the world of animation software, and now they are bringing those same assets to the live action world, beginning with their Storyboard Pro software (donated to our winners, along with the top-of-the-line animation software). SO…The fact that they have so wholly embraced the NexTv Web Series & Short Film Competition speaks volumes to their corporate and personal philosophies.  Their commitment to building communities, educating, and generally supporting emerging animators world-wide. 15 years after their software first began to revolutionize the animation world, you would think that Toon Boom would no longer need to reach out so forcefully to emerging animators.  This is a different kind of company.  With over 300,000 members in their community and thousands being added daily, their work at the grass roots level is as impressive as their mastery of the studio-world.

I recently spoke with Joan, the President and CEO of Toon Boom.  In writing about her and about Toon Boom, I hope to shed light on the worldwide animation landscape and how you can fit into it.

Joan came from the high tech world, not the entertainment industry. Prior to joining Toon Boom and entering the world of animation, Vogelesang held senior level marketing and sales positions at IBM Canada and served as the Vice President of Product Line Management for Philips Electronics and later as the Vice President of Business Operations at Hitachi Data Systems. And in 1998, when she came to Toon Boom, she was the Chief Operating Officer for QSound Labs, Inc, an audio technology firm.

When she came to Toon Boom , the animation landscape was quite different. With a revolutionary new technology in tow, she led the charge to automate the animation process, freeing artists from the incredibly arduous, costly and time-consuming tasks of drawing every single frame of every single movement a character might make.

It was easy to see the effect of Toon Boom’s animation revolution on our industry.  Suddenly, a process that took years could be accomplished in months.  Work could be outsourced to various studios with ease, decentralizing the process and making for a much more efficient ‘assembly line’.  Warner Brothers, Disney and all of the major players in town embraced the company and its software, while individual animators found it incredibly useful and accessible as well (both seasoned and beginning animators.

Over the course of the next few weeks I will explore today’s animation business by sharing more of my conversation with Joan with you. Understanding how to utilize resources provided by companies like Toon Boom can truly change your career.

Check them out for yourself at www.toonboom.com and read their animation blog at: http://betterflashanimation.com/

 Here is a great ANIMATED submission to last year’s NexTv Web Series and Short Film Competition.  Submissions like this convinced us that we needed a category dedicated solely to animation this year.  Awesome judges, sponsors and prizes.  But I digress.  I love this one! 

EMPIRE HOTEL follows the adventures of Bellboy, who, after witnessing a terrible crime by the mafia, is deported by the FBI to Caramba Island, as part of the witness protection program. There, he is placed on staff at The Empire Hotel, a dilapidated relic fighting to stay in business as a tourist destination on the cursed, barren island.

Creator/Director, Oded Turgeman is a graduate of the Sam Spiegel Film & Television School in Jerusalem, where his short films screened at over 130 festivals worldwide. He wrote and directed two short films shown on Israeli television, directed nationally broadcast television commercials, and produced a pilot for prime time Israeli television. In 2005, Oded moved to Los Angeles to attend The American Film Institute Conservatory’s directing program. He won the Hollywood Foreign Press Association International Filmmaker Award for “Pooh’s Prayer,” and his thesis film, “Song of David,” won several awards including the Jury Prize at the USA Film Festival. In 2008, Oded and his partner Roby Freireich co-founded The Operating Room, a company dedicated to developing and producing distinctive and original feature films and television programs.

Click HERE to submit to the 2010 Web Series & Short Film Competition. Short Film & Web Series Competition.

Web Series, Short Films, Documentaries, Animation, Pilots, Trailers, Spec Commercials, and more…