At Last... 4/25/12

  I'm sad that our time is over. I've learned a lot this semester. I'm excited to go forth into the world and use my Jedi skills for good. Our last lesson summed up business goals. Cost Plus is your best friend. You have to stick to your guns. Why buy the milk when you can have the cow for free? Never do anything for free unless you enjoy it. (giggles) In order to succeed you must diversify. Befriend and accountant and a lawyer. Copyright your shit and join the WGA. People will know you're classy. The two most important things to remember are:

ENJOY YOURSELF & Give to others.

My Gift to You

Cheesy but hey, it's Greenday before they sucked.

How much does it cost to wake up? Calculating my worth. 4/23/12

    You should make $1,000 for every year you've been alive. Congrats to me I've just earned another $1,000. I should set my goal to make $23,000/year. I've got 1000 billable hours per year. How much do I charge? Let's do some math.

$23,000 base salary + $10,000 loading = $33,000
$33,000 + $6,600 business expenses + $5,940 FICA = $45,540
$45,540 - $2277 (5-7% deductions) = $43,263/1000 = $43.26/hr

  The concept of $1,000/year of life is dated. I think I'll just stick with Professor Jenkins' advice and charge no less than $60/hour. More advice from Jenkins:
believe in you
"don't get mad, raise your rate"
contracts for unknown entities
never do business with your $

The ABCs of LLCs 4/20/12

    "The future belongs to those who invent it."-Joel Jenkins. So you want to know how to be safe during a future financial crisis? Create your own business. You'll hopefully have a steady stream of money or access to one in case of job loss, illness, etc.

Steps to take
1. create a business plan and review it every year
2. create a primary business and a few secondary businesses in case your primary business take a hit
3. find a service like CreateSpace to upload videos, books, etc that you've published
4. you must create a savings plan

LLC = Limited Liability Corporation

For the low cost of $225 you can hire a lawyer to make you a legit business in the state of MO

The benefits of becoming an LLC? Your company and not your person becomes liable in case of a lawsuit. You must pay 18% social security taxes but you can deduct anything pertaining to your business. It'll minimize your losses, you'll be legit and you can bid on government contracts and non profits.

So go ahead and gather some business cards. Fill 'em up with your contact info. Get ready to go!

Time to get serious 4/18/12

    The last four classes of the semester are focused on what we can do in the future to be more successful. The first of Professor Jenkins' life lessons is how to create a successful cover letter. Your cover letter is essentially your sales pitch. It's your shot to make a first impression and you'll either be remembered or tossed in the trash with hundreds or even thousands of others.

Structure
*make sure you have the correct address and name of the hiring manager before you begin
*research the company
*use standard business letter format
1. The first paragraph of your letter should be a hook or a story (2-3 sentences)
2. You want? explain the bennies of choosing you
3. I got! You can do this job correctly let them know. Be confident!
4. Buy it now! I will contact you/I look forward to getting the job done for you.
*don't forget to thank them
*include any possible form of contact you have: name, address, phone #, e-mail, website, etc.

FEAR 4/16/12

    Nothing sells quit like fear. In order to use this tactic correctly you must emphasize the negative, strengthen the fear appeal and personalize the message.

4-Part Fear Appeal
1. Introduce the threat. This is essentially upping the stakes with your "Hey, you!"
2. Demonstrate that the audience is at risk. Let them know that there is a decision to be made.
3. Introduce the solution. Give your audience a solution that is doable but not ridiculously simple.
4. Show they audience that they can in fact perform the solution.

    I goggled Willie Horton. I didn't watch any of the ads but I think George H.W. Bush did a great job of demonstrating fear appeal.

McDonald's 4/13/12

     One multi-billion dollar corporation to rule them all. As Professor Jenkins said "McDonald's changes culture." They made it cool to hang out after school in a fast food place. They made it cool to drive thru after you've been partying all night. They even made it cool for retirees to reenter the work force.
     Throughout it's history McDonald's commercials have avoided a few things. You will never see a frown. After all, how can you sell happiness without a frown. From 2000-2003 there was actually an advertising slogan that simply told us to "put a smile on." The restaurants are always illustrated as bright & clean. The one person you will rarely see in a McDonald's ad is mom.
      Now back to that culture thing. McDonald's is considered to be consistent everywhere in the world but depending on where you go you can find different things on the menu. My favorite example comes from India where they do not eat beef. The Maharaja Mac is made with chicken.

sick day 4/11

   Today I was extremely ill. I went to the doctor and discovered I had an inner ear infection and strep throat. I'm really glad that no one else got it. It was excruciating.

visual narrative 4/9/12

   When writing a script for film or television you must keep the visual narrative in mind. Three of the most common shots are WS (wide shot), MS (medium shot), and CU (close-up). The wide shot establishes the scene. It acts as a paintbrush. The medium shot is exposition. In your toolbox of visual narrative it would be compared to a screwdriver. Last but certainly not least is the close-up. This stands as an exclamation in your scene. It is your hammer.

Commercials Part Deux

  More commercials. This particular group focused on new ways to catch the audience's attention. For example, in the commercial for the Pontiac Firebird they chose to use the car from Smokey and the Bandit. It was also interesting to see the series of "trunk monkey" commercials from a used car company. We got our first TV commercial assignment and I was actually pretty excited to complete this assignment. It was fun to imagine what the future will bring.

Commercials Day 1 4/4/12

    We watched several car commercials in class. They ranged from comical to sexy, and utterly ridiculous. My favorite had to be the Goodyear "tire within a tire" commercial. It was directed toward a male audience to illustrate how helpless women are. The aim was to sell a product that would keep them safe after their carelessness.
    Also emphasized in class today were three things that always assist in selling: sex, lifestyles, and good old America!

The Value Zero Line 4/2/12

   Today we discussed the transference of buying power throughout the 20th century and into the 21st century. In the beginning the man had all the power. He told the wife when, where and what to buy. Then came WWII. Since men were overseas fighting women were now in charge and they even went to work in factories. Once the men came back there were jobs in factories and G.I. Bills to help with education. Lot's of babies started coming as well and by the 1950's they were teenager. Not wanting to displease their children or deny them opportunity parents spent their money on anything to make their children happy.As time continued teens and young adults began making their own purchasing decisions and relying on their own disposable income. This has continued into today's society as well.
  The value zero line is the line that divides liberal and conservative tendencies throughout life. We generally defy our parents beliefs and tend to be on track with our grandparents. This may be true but I never have an intentions of becoming conservative.

Determining the Audience 3/23/12

    Now that we know how to effectively implement AIDA it's time to write our first ad. Our first ad is geared toward college students. What are we selling? Surprise, surprise it's.... CORN! Didn't quite see that one coming. The task at hand is to determine how to connect to this age group. If you're going to use real people it should be someone around the same age of this particular audience because under 18 like someone 5-10 years older and over 55 desire 10-20 years younger. I think this ad is challenging because it is print and not television or radio.

Ah, AIDA 3/21/12

   AIDA is a strategy used in advertising. "A" stands for attention this serves as the "Hey, you!" Some
examples of the "Hey, you!" are flashing a bright light, shouting, unexpected noises or throwing a water balloon on a potential client/customer. "I" is Interest or, "you want?!" this is the point when the consumer is drawn in to the product. "D" is desire or, "I've got!" You have power because you have the item the person wants and they want it badly at this point. "A" is for action or, "Buy it now!!!!!!!!!!" Because we'll be all sold out of sleeved blankets tomorrow and we'll have moved on to sell you a stuffed animal that doubles as a pillow.

Digging a Bit Deeper 3/19/12

   Today we delved a bit deeper into advertising. We were given the taks to examine three different audiences for corn. The groups were college students, families and retirees. In order to create a better picture we had to use FAB.

Features
starch
vegetable
food
nutrition
water
small

Attributes
on the cob
yellow
white
frozen/bag
popped
sauce
price
size

Benefits
convenient: do what you want
nutrition: live forever
price: power

Now it's time to take a look at the different groups:

College                                                Families                                        Retirees
lazy, poor                                            25-40                                            55-75
lack culinary skills                              central purchasing authority        $$$, life
18-28                                                   budget but....                                normal-life-long
young, partiers                                    more people                                 small appetite
booze                                                  dinner                                           health
busy                                                    come together                               I will make it/security
energy                                                 nutrition
curious                                                happiness
rebelious                                             clip coupons
impulsive                                            staple
need quick, easy food


Now it's time for us to come up with a strategy to sell the corn to these groups

Ugh! 3/16/12

Today class was cancelled. Great except I drove 40 minutes to get there first. At least My attendance counted.

Brands = Lifestyle 3/14/12

     For class today we had to track our brand use for an entire day. I chose to do it on Tuesdays because I thought "Hey I'll be at work so I won't use as many brands." I was completely wrong. From the time I woke up to the time I went to bed I used several more brands than expected. My personal hygeine products ranged from Dove to Garnier Fructis. My food was Special K, Pizza Shoppe and Granite City. Drinks were Sonic, Capri Sun and Price Chopper water. The most surprising find for me was the amount of electronics brands I used. I used HTC, Sprint, HP, Apple, Magnavox, Directv, Orion and Memorex. Geez! I mostly stick to the same brands once I've found something successful but I do really enjoy experimenting so in the next month I could perform this exercise again and find completely different choices. Brands are trying to sell us a lifestyle.

George Carlin - Advertising Lullaby 3/12/12

I thought we could all use a little more George. This is one of my favorite clips. It basically sums up the things we discussed during this class period. What are the different words that advertisers use to lure us in? On top of George's excellent list my own list includes:
-Organic
-Natural
-Sheer
-Cleansing
-Soothing
-Odor Blocking
There are certain things to do for the audience:
*translate for them
*create emotion
*simple
*focus
*concise
Don't do these:
#cliches
#soft language
#double-speak
#betray your audience

Be a good boy or girl and use FAB to sell your product
1. talk about the features - common things among like items
2. talk about the attributes - specific to your item
3. sell the benefits!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Selling Your Soul 3/9/12

    You are always writing for your audience and it is all about power. This brings us to the beginning of advertising. Words are extremely potent. With that in mind you can change words to mean what you want them to say even if that is not what they actually mean.
    George Carlin was a word genius. As he used to say "Words are an interest of mine, not a hobby, because hobbies cost money." We watched several clips from his standup routines and they involved "soft language." Soft language is the use of language to protect one from reality. A great example from Carlin was the evolution of the term "shell shock."
     Shell Shock--> Battle Fatigue--> Operational Exhaustion--> Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
   
   This guy is basically my fucking hero! He also mentions in another clip multiple words that advertisers use to sell their products such as "homestyle" and "just like grandma used to make." Which brings us to the question we were supposed to consider.

  Is it possible to advertise without lying? I'll get back to you.

Concrete vs. Abstract/SAFEST 3/7/12

Concrete vs. Abstract = Show vs. Tell

   Today we discovered the unfortunate story of "snowball." It was very effective. Picturing a little boy searching for his dog in the midst of a natural distaster broke my heart and all it took to do that was one word: snowball. Everything is more memorable if we can "see it." This brings me to SAFEST. SAFEST is a list of things that aid in the telling and visualization of a story.
Statistics
Analogies
Facts
Examples
Stories
Testimonials
  Use of these techniques can be very effective. Often times the things on this list are the things that people remember the most.

Hammering it in... 3/5/12

    The first part of class was spent reinforcing the majority of what we've learned so far.
    Story
       Message
        Change
         Why
    Story recipe
    Dialogue
    10 Story Types
    Audience
        Lazy
        They want power and so do you
    Rules of words

    Then we promptly moved forward into the worl of dual-coding, and abstract vs. concrete words. In order for dual-coding to work you must connect two or more of the senses together at the same time. Examples include: fluffy pillow, warm day, loud children etc. The difference between concrete words and abstract words are that concrete words show something i.e. illustrations and abstract words tell something i.e. concepts, -isms, values. Abstract words tend to be very broad.

Creating a Script 3/2/12

    Scripts must be precise. This is why today we went over exactly how to format a script for radio. We reviewed the 3 act structure to get us going. We were given sources to visit for script examples to help us create our radio stories. One of the sources was Radiolovers.com and I found this site very helpful when trying to develop my first act script.
    It was shocking to discover that the average attention span is a mere 400 milliseconds. I would like to think it is more but I realize that sadly this is the truth. "word pictures" are probably the best way to overcome this obstacle but the fact that they have to be short and precise may be a challenge.
    
   

Radio 2/29/12

  Hooray for radio! This isn't exactly a phrase you'd expect to hear in the 21st century. We've come along way from its invention and today we have access to a variety of products and services that have allowed us to replace the radio. Some of the productsa and services replacing the radio are, iPods, itunes, Pandora, audio books and Spotify. The radio used to be everything and has now been reduced to almost nothing. During the early 20th century Orson Welles decided to broadacast H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds." Throughout the broadcast different techniques were used to instill a sense of legitimacy and authenticity. Welles intentionally timed certain pieces to be played while he knew people would be channel surfing.
  We were introduced to our radio assignment which includes an outline and three different three to five minute acts.

2/27/12

   Why?
   Every story needs a motivation. You need to get the point across to the audience in order for them to make a change and for you to gain power. We were scolded about our three little pig sequels for numerous reasons including dialogue problems and not having clear purpose. We also got put into our critique groups. For these groups we have three main goals. The first is to say 3 positive things about the other members' work. Next we need to include constructive comments and most importantly set a time limit for returning our critiques in order to continue forward with out rewrites.

Dialogue!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 2/24/12

        Dialogue, dialogue and more dialogue. Dialogue is important so we must continue to discuss it. This class focused on ways to improve dialogue. Read your dialogue aloud this makes it easy to detect anything that sounds unnatural. Avoid long passages they don't do any good and the audience will become bored. Give each of your characters a specific voice you can't have them all sounding alike. Get into the character and speak their language don't use someone else's. Your dialogue must serve a purpose. If it does not you must cut it. Give characters habitual phrases but don't overuse slang and avoid stereotypes. Do your research use lingo that would be used in the characters natural setting. Do not use cop lingo for a school teacher or medical terminology for a mechanic.

Barton Fink 2/22/12

   Dialogue contined to be discussed. We watched clips from Barton Fink. In the film John Turturro plays the title character who happens to be a writer. In the clips we viewed he interacted with Charlie Meadows (John Goodman).  Barton says to Charlie that he wants to write a picture about everyday people and their struggles etc., etc., etc. However, when Charlie informs him that he has stories he could tell Barton steamrolls over him and continues to talk about his struggles. We can tell through the dialogue that Barton looks down upon Charlie and his job as an insurance agent.


    In another scene we see the interaction between Barton and the producer for his upcoming film Ben Geisler. From their interaction we find that Geisler could care less about Barton's creativity and is only concerned with making money.

Dialogue Part 1 2/20/12

          Dialogue is very important to the story. It can give details without the use of a lengthy narrative. However, it can also completely sabotage your story by becoming lengthy or even inappropriate. Common mistakes often associated with dialogue are:
-Too much monologuing
-Dialogue sounding too real
-Saying a name too often
-Repetitive facts
-Everyone sounds the same

            Dialogue must be correct for the character. There are many things to consider when writing dialogue for a certain character. They include:
-education
-culture
-accents
-regionalism
-age: physical and maturity level
-race
-gender

       We watched Stanley Kubrock's Full Metal Jacket. The film did a great job of providing the characters with appropriate dialogue.

Pave the Planet 2/17/12

     Today we reviewed the ten different story types. The story types are:
-Romance
-Success/Failure
-The Return
-Crime & Punishment
-Heroic
-Cinderella
-Sacrifice
-Triangle
-Family
-Conversion
     I'd like to note that my favorite kind of stories fall into the Cinderella category. I love a good underdog, and I generally welcome happy endings with open arms.
     We discussed creativity. More specifically we talked about what is known as first level creativity. First level creativity is the term used to describe what we are exposed to day in and day out. When you sit down to write first level creativity comes first. It's the top level that you skim right off the top of the gravy that is your brain. There is a five step process used to avoid this.
      First you must "Hunt & Gather" gather different information from different sources such as: news, religion and even Google. Next "play with it" have fun and don't be afraid to try new things. "Let it stew" step away from your task for awhile. You could take a few hours or a few days to do this but it allows you the chance to view it from a fresh perspective. "Eureka!" this is the point when you've discovered something new and exciting. "Just do it!" don't ever question the validity of your work. Keep with it someone may think it's genius.

2/15/12

I was absent again.

2/10

       Today we further discussed the three little pigs sequel. We went through different scenarios with different potential characters for the story. The characters we discussed included:
 *brick pig
 *straw pig
 *stick pig
 *wolf
 *monkey
 *girl pig
 *mom pig
 *dad pig

         After running though several scenarios we were given our assignment. We should write a story of no more than 500 words. In our story the monkey would serve as the antagonist and the wolf would be the antagonist. The only other requirement was that the story had to involve the wolf being addicted to pork. Anything else was fair game.