Phoenix Fan Fusion Panel May 25 & 26

Phoenix Fan Fusion 2024

May 25-26, 2024 In case you happen to attend the Phoenix Fan Fusion Comic Con on May 25th & 26th, I will be hosting two panels. See details below: Strategies for Beginning Artists, Writers, and Content Creators - Saturday - 3:00 PM Saturday Creating Great Ideas for Your Comics Stories, and Films - Sunday 1:30 PM  I will be showcasing my new book, Idea Genesis, as well as the Cartoon Production Resource Guide and the Audio Production Resource Guide (and some special surprises). (click on links or images for book details) Hope to see you there.

Adobe Products - TOP FREE RESOURCES 2024

If you need tutorials on the latest Adobe Software
check out these links:

ADOBE CREATIVE CLOUD

Go to the source, Adobe has excellent free tutorials here.
Check out the site and dropdown menus and free stock items here.

Adobe also has royalty-free assets here for a monthly subscription.

My second go-to would be Envato Tuts. 

Use the search window or the dropdowns at
the top or of the page to find what you need.

Create an Envato free account and get 12 free assets every month.

Their "Envato Elements" monthly subscription seems to be the cheapest out there and offers unlimited downloads.

YouTube is the third option.
Take a look here and check views and feedback

If you are really strapped for cash but need assets/templates for your projects, try these sites:

Vecteezy                      Mazwai                        Mixkit                        

Pixabay                       PikWizard                    Motion Elements        

Pexels                         Freepik                         Pexels Videos 

            

Unsplash                     Premium Beat

                       

Want more info like this?

Please subscribe in upper right box on this page.

Enjoy!

Beating the Entertainment Business at Its Own Game Part II

 Survival Tactics for Creators and Performers

When starting the first article, I thought this would be a one-off. I discovered very quickly there was so much more to cover. Deep breath everybody and welcome to part II.

What Do We Now Know?

Now that the writer/actors strike is over, what have we learned about the entertainment business? Writers and actors want fair compensation including a piece of streaming revenue and assurances that they will not be replaced with AI.

Gatekeepers want to own it all and not have to pay much for it. The adage buy low, sell high would apply here, or rather, spend less sell more. Ticket sales and streaming subscribers make this business tick.

Producers/movie companies want to spend as little as possible so they can reap the benefits when the movie is released. Not a bad thing when production costs are up. But, why should the artists and writers bear the brunt of the impact?

What are the survival tactics for creators and performers?

Know Your worth.

Taraji P. Henson mentioned in an interview how she had to fight to get a decent salary for the movie, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”. She acted opposite Brad Pitt who was paid $10 million for his performance.

Taraji had asked for $500,000. They offered her $100,000 and eventually agreed to $150,000.

She said they weren’t paying her anywhere near her net worth. Her performance in that movie earned her a supporting actress nomination. After taxes and paying managers/agents, her take-home was only $40,000.

Terence Howard was paid a reported salary of approximately $3.5 million for his role as James “Rhodey” Rhodes in the film “Iron Man”. He was a first hire after his academy-nominated performance in “Hustle and Flow”. He was promised a larger salary for future sequels before Robert Downey Jr. was hired.

Downey’s performance and the film’s success led to Robert getting a $10 million pay bump for Iron Man II, more creative control, and a slice of the film’s back end. Howard’s salary was shrunk to $1 million. Don Cheadle was eventually brought in for the sequels. It’s not clear if Howard walked away from negotiations or if he was let go.

There seems to be a disparity in Hollywood as in most businesses if you are a female or a person of color when it comes to salary. Academy Award winner Jennifer Lawrence most notably spoke about this in her “Lenny Letter”, upon discovering what some of her co-stars were making in the film “American Hustle” due to a Sony hack.

What is the fix?

Unless you take a producer role and have the power to hire/fire, you have to fight hard and negotiate for a better salary. More on this later. The good news is that if you are a truly gifted performer, people will want to hire and collaborate with you because of your talent.

You Can't Keep a Good Performer Down.

Taraji P. Henson went on to appear in the Karate Kid reboot with Jayden Smith, had recurring roles in Eli Stone and Person of Interest (created by Jonathan Nolan and J.J. Abrams), and appeared in several Tyler Perry movies. She was in the very popular, “Think Like a Man” franchise, produced by Will Packer, performed in “Hidden Figures” opposite Kevin Costner, which won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. She also was featured in the reboot of “The Color Purple”.

Terrance Howard joined the cast of Law and Order: Los Angeles for one season, played as Nelson Mandela, in the film Winnie Mandela, and was in the Lee Daniels hit, “The Butler”. He appeared in the hit, “The Best Man” and the sequel, “ The Best Man Holiday”, performed in a film about the Tuskegee airmen in the movie “Red Tails” (produced by George Lucas), and had a great run with Taraji P. Henson as a principal actor in the hit show “Empire”.

Jennifer Lawrence’s net worth has improved considerably. She scored well with her portrayal as Katniss Everdeen in “The Hunger Games” franchise. She had a recurring role as Mystique in the prequel “X-Men” movies, won an Academy Award for her performance in  “Silver Linings Playbook” and won a Golden Globe Award for her performance as businesswoman Joy Mangano in the biopic “Joy”. In 2018, she ranked #4 in Forbes as the highest-paid actress and formed a production company that same year called Excellent Cadaver.

Write/Direct/Produce

Sidney Poitier won an Academy Award for Best Actor in “Lilies of the Field” in 1963. Denzel Washington won an Academy Award for Best Actor in the film “Training Day” in 2001. Hattie McDaniel won Best Supporting Actress in 1940 for “Gone with the Wind”. Halle Berry won Best Actress for her performance in “Monsters Ball” in 2001. Do the math for that gap and what does this tell you? Hollywood is not inclusive when it comes to writing roles. No roles, no work.

Lately, Hollywood has come to its senses. The success of films like “Get Out”, “American Fiction”, “Black Panther”, “Creed I/II “and “Selma” has proved that movies with a diverse story and casts can also make money. This required the efforts of directors/producers of diversity to push these stories. Unless you take a director/producer role to have more creative control this will not happen. Avoid that work-for-hire mindset. If you want to work, create the job.

People of all colors want to see themselves reflected in the movies they watch. Note that the success of films like “My Greek Wedding I/II”, “Crazy Rich Asians”, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”, “The Woman King”, “Us”, and “Parasite” have proven this point. Disney has taken full advantage of this fact with hits like “Moana”, Encanto, Mulan, Lilo and Stitch, and Big Hero Six.

Don’t Give Away All Your Rights.

The beauty of being a successful author is that you don’t have to sell all your rights. Authors like Stephen King, Lee Child, George R.R. Martin, Elmore Leonard, James Patterson, JK Rowling, Suzanne Collins, William Gibson, Michael Crichton, and Thomas Harris have benefited by optioning the movie rights to their books. You choose what you want to sell. If you know your worth that can be very lucrative. Write a series of books with your established characters and you still have ownership of these characters for future books.

Motion pictures and TV have even turned to comic books/graphic novel artists/writers for ideas. Have you thought of using this medium to get your idea out to your fans first?

Use your comic/graphic novel sales as a marketing/optioning tool. If you have a hit, you can option the movie rights for production at a nice price, or produce them yourself.

Need money to get your writing/ comic empire going? Authors/artists have used crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter to get the ball rolling.

Here are some free resources for artists right here.

Has all this got your gears turning? Here are the things to think about:

* Know your worth.

* If you are truly gifted, people will want to hire and collaborate with you.

* Want to work? Create the job. Write/Direct/Produce

* Don’t Give Away All Your Rights.

Did we hit all the right notes here? Let me know. More to come in the next installment.

Need help writing ideas for your next film/novel/comic book? Check out this ebook.

You may also like these articles:

How to Beat the Entertainment Business at its Own Game Part I

 So You are Thinking About Filmmaking

Is Film School Really Necessary?

Top Ten Tips When Writing for the Entertainment Medium

Free Stuff for the Holidays 2024

Welcome to the NEW YEAR my friends.

Here is some cool stuff to get you going in 2024.

ART

Habook is an artist based in Thailand who knows his stuff.
Here are his top character design tips when using references.

Check out his full YouTube site here.

Kesh discusses freeing your mind while getting
technically better in 5 Tips for Drawing Cartoons. 

Anime Charles covers 5 Anatomy Tips We
Wish We Knew Earlier here.

Love Life Drawing has a great
tutorial on drawing balanced poses.

Check out the full site here.

Comic artist David Finch shows you the
Basics of Comic Composition here.

Speaking of comics, the Art Instruction Blog has a series
of tutorials on comic design right here.

Check it out.

si jian

Check out the work of this impressive
professional concept artist here.

ANIMATION

Moderndayjames covers essential
Figure Drawing Tips for Animation here.

 You probably thought there were only 12 principles of animation.
Pro animator Dermot covers the 21 Foundations of Animation here.

Toniko Pantjola  has quite the animation resume.
He discusses Drawing Figures fast with Technique
for Animation here.

Marco Bucci has some tips to make your animation better here.

If you enjoy links like these, then check out our Cartoon Production Resource Guide which has even more good stuff.

AUDIO

Prosoundeffects.com is offering the Core Free sampler here.
Core is a free sound effects library with over 100 royalty-free sounds.

 

Bedroomproducersblog.com posted links for the
best Free AI Music generators. Is this the future? 
Use AI to generate unique sounds and melodies. 
Check it out here.

Also, check out their music creation tutorials right here. 

Cakewalk by Bandlab is the free DAW that was
giving ProTools a run for its money.

Get it now before it's too late here.
Cakewalk will be reviving the Sonar DAW as 3 new paid versions.

Vital Basic
Matt Tytel's free wavetable VST has wound
it's way on everybody's best of 2023.
Get it here.

Cheese Machine II
Back by popular demand, the Cheese Machine has gotten an update.
If you like classic synth sounds and string pads, then this synth is for you. Get it here.





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If you enjoy links like these, then check out our Audio Production Resource Guide which has even more good stuff.



Enjoy and share this with friends and family.
Check out our previous Free Stuff 2023 here.

Creation and Business Tips from the World's Top Toy Designer

 Inventor Eddy Goldfarb Shares His Thoughts.

Who is Eddy Goldfarb?

Eddy Goldfarb at age 102, is probably the world's most successful, living toy/game designer alive. He has been designing and building toys and games for over 70  years and has over 800 toys to his credit along with 300 patents.


In fact, he claims his longevity to his constant curiosity and creativity towards building things. “When you start with nothing and create something it stimulates your brain and body.”

Keep your curiosity and creativity flowing.


Wanting to be a physicist in the1920, but lacking money for college he wound up serving in the Navy aboard a submarine. He got the idea of designing toys that were cheap to make and kept a notebook of all his ideas. Doing the math he figured if a toy could sell a million units he could do pretty well, with the bonus of entertaining families.

Play to your strengths.

His first hit was in 1949; the infamous chattering teeth called Yakity Yak. The toy sold millions of sets, but he only made $900 when he sold the rights. He learned the lesson about owning royalty rights for future creations.

Own the idea! Learn from your mistakes.

At Eddy's height of popularity, he owned 3 buildings and employed 39 people. Eddy was creating so prolifically that he was not able to play most of his creations. His family and friends reaped the rewards but was sworn to secrecy to not reveal the ideas until they were released.

Don’t spill the beans until you are ready.

Eddy’s secret for living? “You have to be an optimist but you have to love rejection”
He mentions that your next idea could be that next big thing.



Take the hint from 102-year-old Eddy, the creator of KerPlunk, Battle Tops, Giant Bubble Gun, and Chutes Away. He knows a thing or two. The 6-lesson recap from Eddy Goldfarb is:

• Keep your curiosity and creativity flowing.

• Play to your strengths.

• Own the idea 

• Learn from your mistakes.

• Don’t spill the beans until you are ready.

• Be an optimist and love rejection.

Taiyou Con Panel on January 7 2024

 

If you are in AZ in January check out

my panel at the Taiyou Anime Con

STARTING UP 
Strategies for Beginning Artist, Writers, and Content Creators

Topics covered: Skills required in the industry, higher education vs. 
self-learning, top resources & strategies to jumpstart your career.

It will be awesome.

 

Mesa Convention Center

263 N Center St, Mesa, AZ 85201

Panel Time: Sunday, January 7th, at 3:30 PM
Panel Room: Palo Verde 1

How to Beat the Entertainment Business at Its Own Game

Performers, Writers, and Artists Unite!

Current State of Industry
We have seen how the industry handles creativity/talent. Somewhat as disposable entities. Take a look at the writers and actors strike. “In Content Creation & Ownership”, I wrote about how entertainment companies are scrambling to buy up new or existing content. Ownership is key. If you own it, you make the money.

The Problem
 “Work for Hire” and the “Intellectual Property Clause”. What does this mean? These terms basically state that if you work for a business, any ideas or content you create becomes the property of the company you work for. If this language is buried in the contract you signed, you are screwed.

In the case of the show Squid Game, Netflix made over $900 million. The creator, Hwang Dong-hyuk got the standard paycheck as the writer, forfeiting all intellectual property rights, and received no residuals.

The Marvel movies, Infinity War and Endgame generated a combined whopping gross of 4.7 billion dollars. The true creator of these properties (Captain America. Thor, Hulk, Iron Man, and the Avengers), Jack Kirby, was considered a work-for-hire employee back in the 1960's. After his death in 1994, his family had to take legal action to get a slice of the pie.

Granted, in order to maximize profit you need full control of the property, but why not spread the wealth a bit more with the actual creators?

The Deeper Problem
It seems that the industry is set on a select few to reap the rewards, and they are not creators but are recipients/acquirers of the content.

One of the concerns of writers is that they will be replaced by AI. With a large enough database of stories, that could be possible. Do you recall when Netflix was looking for AI specialists with an average salary of 900,000?

Actors are afraid that their likeness can be mapped to a motion-captured stand-in. These deep fakes are becoming more and more convincing.
 
 
A Solution
So if you are dealing with entities that don’t value or diminish your contribution, what do you do? Band together and form your own production company. Actors do this all the time to get promising projects made. Michael B. Jordan, Brad Pritt, Adam Sandler, Reese Witherspoon, Viola Davis, and Ice Cube are a small list to name a few.

Ice Cube said wisely in an interview, “We got the idea that you don’t have to spend $100 million to make $100 million,” he said. “If you got a good story, good actors, people willing to work, if you can keep the budget down, at the end of the day everybody’s happy and you get a chance to do another one.”

If you can figure out your own marketing/advertising strategy and distribution you are set.

Social Media & Crowdfunding
So you are not a name actor with deep pockets. What do you do?
Crowdfunding is a possibility to get funding for your film. Who would have thought that Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and GoFundMe could be viable platforms for film funding?

The use of social media is a way to market and advertise your movie. TikTok videos and YouTube have been used to advertise just about anything to great effect when done properly. The use of the Facebook Groups community is another way to generate interest. Building up anticipation with your fanbase is the way to get the ball rolling.

The Budget
The budget is the thing that will make or break your filmmaking odyssey.
Going indie means you have to keep your costs down. A low budget does not mean low quality. Roberto Rodriguez filmed “El Mariachi” on a budget of $7225. His little film got him a three-picture deal with Sony Pictures, set off his career as a professional filmmaker and allowed him to create his own production company, Troublemaker Studios.

Robert Town was a frustrated black actor who maxed out his credit cards to co-write, produce, and direct “Hollywood Shuffle”. The movie was not only a smash hit but paved the way for future stars like Keenen Ivory Wayans, Anne Marie Johnson, Damon Wayans and John Witherspoon.

So-called Micro-Budget movies when executed properly can give a big payoff to the producers/writers/directors involved. The Blair Witch Project, Clerks, Eraserhead, Night of the Living Dead, Pi, She’s Gotta Have It, Following, Roger and Me, and Paranormal Activity are all prime examples that started the careers of Kevin Smith, David Lynch, George Romero, Spike Lee, Chris Nolan, Daron Aronofsky, and Micheal Moore.

Tyler Perry is a breakout producer and studio owner who didn’t let a lack of funds keep him down. Perry had nothing but a dream back in the 90’s sleeping in his car wanting to be in entertainment. He started writing stage plays and built that success into movie production and studio ownership.

“Don’t wait for someone to green light your project, build your own intersection.” — Tyler Perry

What are your thoughts on this subject? Do you think Hollywood can be beat at its own game? Let me know for a follow-up on this.


Want to generate ideas quickly for film, novels, and comics? 
Get the Idea Genesis ebook here.

Check out Part II of this article here.


You may also like these articles:

Top Ten Tips When Writing for the Entertainment Medium

Secrets to Overcoming Writers Block

Is Film School Really Necessary?

Creativity: Your Purpose Promotes the Process