Monthly Scoop: December 2011

It snowed the night before last, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to melt this time.  It’s also December.  I would say that makes it officially winter.  I would also say that makes it time for the Monthly Scoop!

Really, the only thing that has been on the radar all last month, and has become my focus going into this month is Stranger Things Studios.

If you haven’t gotten a chance to watch it yet, the Extra Life 2011 video is up on YouTube.  It’s not technically a Stranger Things production, but seeing how STS is me, and I did it, it kind of landed in that gray area.  Anyways, it’s a documentary of a 24-hour video game marathon that my charity team, the Fat Chance Heroes, did.

When A Little Bit of Muscle made it onto YouTube, it was banned in Germany due to copyright material - namely, because I used part of “American Woman” by the Guess Who. 

So, when I first uploaded Extra Life 2011, I fully expected a banned list because I used a Daft Punk song.  I was actually kind of excited to see what countries were going to pop up this time.  I don’t know, there’s something about being banned that feels a little prestigious… well, that’s what I thought before I looked at the list:

Your video is blocked in these locations:

Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, American Samoa, Andorra, Angola, Anguilla, Antarctica, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bermuda, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Bouvet Island, Brazil, British Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin Islands, Brunei, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Colombia, Comoros, Congo, Congo - Democratic Republic of, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), Faroe Islands, Fiji, Finland, France, French Guiana, French Polynesia, French Southern Territories, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guam, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, Holy See (Vatican City State), Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macao, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Martinique, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mexico, Micronesia - Federated States of, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Montserrat, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, Netherlands Antilles, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Niue, Norfolk Island, North Korea, Northern Mariana Islands, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Pitcairn, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Reunion, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Saint Helena, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tokelau, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, United States Minor Outlying Islands, United States Virgin Islands, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Vietnam, Wallis and Futuna, Western Sahara, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe

I don’t know why YouTube couldn't just say “EVERYWHERE”

At any rate, I had to go back through and pull the Daft Punk track, hunt down some copyright free music, and re-snyc the entire video to it.  It sucked, but in the end it’s rewarding to know I have something 100% owned by me.

Now everyone wants to know what’s the next movie, and how they can help.  I have four movie ideas I’ve been sitting on, and I fully intend to do all four.  Right now though, between 60+ hours at work, the onset of winter, and the holidays on the way, I do not plan to start any solid production.  However, being holed up inside with hot cocoa seems to me the perfect way to start writing out scripts and storyboards.

I’m also hoping with all the overtime I can upgrade either my camera, my software, or both.  Someone asked me awhile ago what technology I was working with.

Let’s start with the camera.  It is a handheld Panasconic, no more than 4 inches across.  It would fit in your pocket.  My wife picked it up from a lost-and-found bin that was going to get dumped.  Its only meant to take pictures.  The video setting is practically an afterthought.  A camera phone would almost be an upgrade.  I’m amazed that the movies have turned out as well as they have.  But hey, a camera’s a camera, and better than none at all.

As for software, I’m stuck using the default program on my computer, Windows Movie Maker.  It’s not that bad, especially for free, but it doesn’t like the MOV format my camera records in.  So everything I record has to go through a converter program first.  Of course, the program cuts the last two seconds out of each clip.  I had to reshoot all of A Little Bit of Muscle because of that.  Fun stuff.  Fun Stuff.

I’m hoping come the new year, I will be working with something better.  Until then, its time to pump out some material.  Come January, it’s showtime!