Kony 2012.... Again

So I know I already did a post about Kony 2012 and about how I dislike it, but that one was based almost entirely on emotion and feeling. Well I finally had time tonight to sit down and do some research about the organization and everything around it.

So before anyone can take what I say here and construe it into a different light, I do think that Josephy Kony is a bad man, there is really no doubting that. So my ranting and raving goes out to the organization Invisible Children. Also as another note, I am going to try really hard not to just re-hash all of the other arguments out there against them. 

Since they are a non-profit organization, their finances are public record. Being the curious type, I looked through them to see what they are spending their money on. Since I am not an accountant, for the most part it escaped me, but there was one thing that did catch my eye. According to them, in a two year period, they spent  $351,412 on "video and camera equipment" (if you want to see it for your self, its on page 12). That's a lot of money. Period. But that's a HELL of a lot of money for equipment... To put it in prospective, Nicolas Winding Refn's semi biographical film "Bronson" was filmed entirely for $230,000. That is all of pre-production (so the script, the meetings, the director and above the line personal, ect...), production (so equipment, cast, crew, directors, producers, sets, etc..) and post, was all done for more than $100,000 less than what Invisible Children spent on EQUIPMENT for two years! So if you then add in the cost of their computers for editing, and their transport costs it totals: $800,840! For equipment and transport of equipment alone, that's not the cost of the actual filming, the editing, or the distribution costs (which I am sure were HUGE). So if we were to extend these figures out for the length of their existence (6 years) you get almost 3 million dollars, and all they have to show for it are 12 short internet videos and one, 55 minuet long documentary.

I guess its really not the Kony 2012 movement, or Invisible Children in general that bother me, its peoples blind faith in it. I don't care what you believe, but I think that everyone needs to know why they believe it. For instance, I don't care for Invisible Children, because based on the research that I have done, it sounds like a group of college aged guys who are in desperate need for attention, and they are willing to use the pain and suffering of a nation, as well as the "White Man's Burden", to get it. But if someone can show me some good solid evidence to support a different claim, then I would be willing to listen. But if all you have done, is watched a 29 minuet long documentary, produced by the organization its self and are now a firm believer in what they have to say. Then either keep your bigoted, one sided opinions to your self... Or better yet go do some god damn research and make your own opinion, not the one they tell you to make.

Kony 2012

Just watched the Kony 2012 video (if you havent seen it search Kony 2012) and i think that the ideas behind this are brilliant. Not because of what it is doing, but because of how it is doing it. They are making it so that we can have a revolution with out doing anything. What are the three things it asks you to do at the end? Sign a petition, wear a bracelet, and donate some money. These are all actions that can be done with out you having to change anything. The whole issue of why nothing has been done already comes down to the question of boredom or apathy. While apathy is the condition of not caring, bordom is just a slumber one can be roused from. This short doc takes the stance that we as a society have become apathetic. How can we stop Kony? Well you don't really have to do anything besides wear a bracelet, or sign a petition, or share the video. And that is exactly why the way that they are doing this is brilliant. They know that if they tried to do anything more extreme or caused people to be more daring than putting up a poster that no one would do it. This allows us to feel as though we are revolutionaries with out making us really do anything. Before people start reading this and interpret what I am  saying in the wrong way: No I am not saying what they are doing is a bad thing. No I am not defending Kony, he is a manipulative, vile, evil man who does indeed need to be stopped. I am simply commenting on the social commentary that this film brings up. Now that you have read my ramblings I want you to ask your self something. Apathy or Bordom? Even if you look at this in a broader prospective, there are so many problems that plague us right here in the U.S, problems that people constantly talk about. But why have we not done anything about it?

Apathy or Bordom?  

Colorado Film Grants

Ok, I am taking a bit of a break from working on my website because I realized I suck at it and they just end up looking really shitty. So I started working on the Pre-production for my first big project at Colorado Film School, so I have decided that I am better than everyone else there so I want my film to reflect that so I am doing everything I can to make it as good as I possibly can.

In order for my film to be the best I am pulling out all the stops and I am going to do everything right, so I am in the processes of getting the rights to use some music by the band Everclear, I am spending hours on doing pre-production, drawing story boards, doing script break downs, scheduling, everything. I also wanted to get an honest to god budget for my film. So instead of being an ass and asking friends and family to donate money I decided to apply for grant money.

So in Colorado there are several art specific grants, which would have been great except for the fact that they don't give grants to students. What the hell? Why don't you give grants to students? Do they think that students can't make good art? Do they think that we have extra cash laying around so they don't have to give us money? I honestly don't get, there is really no reason to not give money to students. If I were to drop out of school I would be able to apply, but as it is I can't. So as you can tell I am annoyed, and pissed off. But this is just making my desire to get funding even stronger, so I am now going to go through every other process that I can think of to get money.

I know that I haven't put up a photo post recently, but hopefully now that I have figured out my schedule I will be able to go out and spend more time taking photos.

Metal Robot Media sound FX

So as I mentioned in my previous post, I am working on making a production company for both my film work as well as my still photo work. Recently in all of my massive amounts of free time I have been working on a website, a design, and a little intro video for my films. As much as I want to get it done, and as excited as I am to work on it, I am not much of a computer geek so working on writing out all the code and everything for a website is dreadfully boring for me. So I have been spending a lot of time working on both the intro video as well as the logo and all the graphic design stuff.

Originally I had wanted to use this wonderful royalty free sound clip I found of a man getting run over by a train. But after using it for a couple different rough cuts I decided I wanted something else, something of my own. So in case you don't know, I am not a sound designer, I'm not a musician, I actually pretty much suck at doing anything related to sound. So this introduced an interesting problem for me to fix. So I started reading and doing some research on how to design sounds. Finally I just broke down and did it. I came up with a general sound that I wanted to make. SoI borrowed a microphone from one of my friends and recorded myself going through the different layers of sounds that I would need to create my final sound.

Some of the sounds turned out great, others.... not so great. So I went out and rerecorded the sounds that I screwed up on. I listened to them again and they were a bit better. I did this four or five times depending on the sound and even then I couldn't get some of them right. For a couple of the sounds I ended up going to the internet and got commercially useable royalty free sounds.

Finally I downloaded Audacity, because I cant afford a several thousand dollar program, and I did the best job that I could editing the sounds. But like I said earlier I have never done this before so I am sure that anyone out there who has done it before will listen to it and think its crap. But screw you its my first time.

So after many hours of work, here is the first rough cut of the sound effect!

Metal Robot Media

So as some of you may or may not know, I am in the process of making my own company that will encompass both my still photography and films. Originally this idea started off as kinda a joke, I quickly threw together an intro video for my movies, I slapped together a Facebook page, then promptly forgot about it. Since I am not the greatest artist out there I used a drawing from my girlfriend at the time, it was a really good drawing. At the time we were both happy about me using it, I got a sweet drawing for my intro video and she got her artwork out there and got a little more exposure. So a couple months after we broke up I get a message on Facebook:

"John. You have absolutely no rights to my work. Take it down, or I will take you to court. Take it down now."

Now I don't know about some of you reading this, but I do not particularly want to be take to court by my crazy EX, especially over something as sill and stupid as this. So I pulled the page, and all the videos with the intro. But not all was in vain! Her demand for me to pull it reminded me of this great-untapped potential that I had at one point just begun to set up.

 So I began to get excited, and I decided that I was going to give Metal Robot Productions a face ift. So I renamed it Metal Robot Media, I drew another drawing, I am in the process of making a new and improved intro video, and I am even making a honest to god website. I know some of you guys probably think its kinda stupid for an 18 year old to make a "company" for their photos and films, but I am hoping to actually turn it into a multi media company. One that I will actually use to raise funds for my projects, one that I can use to sell my stuff through. I also know you probably think I am stupid since just about everyone and their cat who goes to film school has a production company. But I am smart enough to know that I am not special, that I am not very different then all of the other ones, but the reason I think I will succeed and they wont is because I immediately have a product to promote, my photography. Because to be honest student films are crap. There is no way around it, they are just crap. But my photos are good enough to be put up in places like coffee houses and the like which will allow me to start building a base around which I can add my films as they get better. So hopefully it will turn out. And I know I haven't put up a photo blog recently, but I have been really busy and haven't been able to go out to any ghost towns recently, but I really really hope that I will start going again since I do it more for my own joy than I do for all of you. But I will be keeping you guys updated about how it is going. 

Notes about my photogrphy

So, I have pretty much written about all of my adventures to ghost towns for the mean time, which is a bummer because I love going to these places I just haven't had time to go to one for a while. But since I don't have new photos to share with you guys I figured I would tell you a but about my process for taking photos. First and foremost I take all of my pictures on 35mm film. I know you could argue from now till the end of time on weather film or digital was better. Personally I prefer the look that is created by shooting on film rather than on digital. But thats not really why I shoot on film, I do it because I do not have the option to shoot the same image over and over and over until I get it right. I give my self one chance to get an image right. One chance. Thats it, no redoes nothing like that, and because of that it makes me plan and think about my image. It forces me to stop and think about what F-stop I am at, how fast my shutter speed is, what my film ISO is. I have found that by stopping and taking time to create an image is not only beneficial because it creates a better image but it is also more fulfilling because you know that you did everything on purpose and it wasn't just blind luck. Secondly, I NEVER use editing software to enhance an image. I have nothing against people who use photoshop, it is a great and wonderful program that to be used properly requires a deep wealth of knowledge about how it works and how to get the best image out of it. But thats not what its about for me, I don't sell my images, Im not doing professional photo shoots, Im not making ads. I do this for me, I do it because I love to and when I use photoshop to enhance an image I feel like I am cheating my self. Since I really only know the basics I pretty much can only fix things like contrast, or cropping or whatever, things that should have been done properly originally when looking through the lens. Finally I am my biggest critic. Out of the hundreds of photos I have shot, there is maybe one or two that I actually like. I always see something that I don't like or something that I think could have been done better. So if I ever complain about how my photos suck, Im really not digging for complements. I am doing what every photographer, or painter, or artist, or computer programer or whatever should do, recognize the fact that your not perfect. Am I proud of my work? Hell yes. My photography is one of the things I am most proud of in my entire life. But I know and realize that I'm not and never will be perfect.

Kutch Part II (aka Matheson)

Ok, so in my last post I lied. I said that was the end to the story of Kutch, but in fact its not... It was just 1 am and I wanted to go to bed to so I stopped writing, this is also why towards the end I started adding more and more photos and had less and less writing. This is going to be a very short post by the way.

So after exploring the area around Kutch for a little while I decided that it was time for me to head on home. Like I do most times I decided that I wanted to take a different rout home than I had take to get there, so instead of going west to I-25 I took a dirt road north in hopes that it would eventually take em somewhere. After a few minuets of driving I came across the town of Matheson. Now Matheson is not a very notable town, in fact if I was doing something besides taking photos I probably would have forgotten about it by now. But as you enter the town from the south, as I did, on your right there is a rather beautiful old church that is sitting abandoned.

Unfortunately I was not able to enter the church but I was able to get several good photos from the out side.

Ok, well I guess thats really all I had to say. I totally could have put that in my post last night...