It’s Obvious – Isn’t It?
August 29, 2010 by James Morison · 1 Comment
I have often heard the expression “It’s Obvious”, and over the years, I have thought about what it meant. I finally tried to organize those thoughts and wrote a short article about it.
http://scienceray.com/philosophy-of-science/its-obvious-isnt-it/
Can a Conservative Also be a Liberal?
August 24, 2010 by James Morison · Leave a Comment
Most people think of conservatives and liberals as the opposite ends of the political spectrum. Until recently, so did I. While conservatism and liberalism have a history of conflict, they are not opposites.
http://socyberty.com/politics/can-a-conservative-also-be-a-liberal/
Rules for Making Films Cheaply
August 22, 2010 by James Morison · Leave a Comment
I came across a good article about making movies cheaply.
Since I got into making films, I have been very concerned about finding ways to do it without spending much money. I’ve talked about some of my thoughts on this in a couple of articles I’ve posted:
http://www.bukisa.com/articles/284215_making-a-movie-about-the-fear-of-losing-a-job
http://www.bukisa.com/articles/81388_rick-schmidts-feature-filmmaking-at-used-car-prices-a-review
Like J. Blakeson (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2128335/ ), who wrote this article, I don’t expect someone else to give me money to make my movies.
I like his comment that writing a film, then trying to scale it down to save money hurts the quality of the final film. A film that looks bad doesn’t help you advance. I think that most filmmakers are like me, in that they want to make something they can point to with pride.
One rule is to shoot 90 per cent of the film at one location. This is more drastic than anything I have thought of doing. I shot 100 per cent of My Next Film (http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/my_next_film.php ) in one location, but when I’ve thought about doing a feature I felt that I needed to have at least four or five locations.
I worry about the limitations on the story of having only one location. Alfred Hitchcock did Rope on a single set, and it turned out well. I am no Alfred Hitchcock though. On the other hand, I feel that it is the limitations that decisions like this put on you that force you to be creative.
The Tragedy of Ankhesenamun
August 20, 2010 by James Morison · Leave a Comment
Most people have heard of King Tutankhamun, buy fewer people know of his wife Ankhesenamun. When I first learned about her, I thought her life would make a good story for a movie. From Tutankhamun’s birth to his death, Ankhesenamun was by his side. With his death, her life became a tragedy.
http://socyberty.com/history/the-tragedy-of-ankhesenamun/
Some Curious Stories from the Discovery of the Solar System
August 18, 2010 by James Morison · Leave a Comment
It took thousands of years for people to discover the true nature of the Solar System. The road to understanding was not straight and along the way, some curious things happened. The search, after all, was by people, who can be quite curious.
http://www.bukisa.com/articles/337525_some-curious-stories-from-the-discovery-of-the-solar-system
Same Idea – Different Authors – Different Stories
August 15, 2010 by James Morison · Leave a Comment
Whenever people talk about plagiarism and copyright, some one always points out that you can’t copyright and idea. What the author can copyright is how they express that idea in a story. Many years ago, I came across a good example of how two authors took the same idea and did very different things with it.
The first book was one of my favourites 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001:_A_Space_Odyssey_%28film%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke
The second book was Space Visitor by Mack Reynolds.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mack_Reynolds
Both of these stories develop from the discovery of an alien artefact on the moon. Very quickly, the two stories diverge. After I read more about the two authors, I could see the reasons for this in the differences between the two.
Arthur C. Clarke’s main interests were in science, technology, and religion. It may seem strange that religion was an interest of his, given that he was an avowed atheist. These interests show up in the story of 2001. Much of the story is about the technological feat of space travel. Scientific curiosity drives the characters to make the space trip. The story ends with what people have described as a spiritual or religious experience.
Mack Reynolds had quite different interests. When I first read his stories, I thought of him as a “social” science fiction writer. When I checked his Wikipedia entry today, I was surprised to learn that he had been an active member of the American socialist movement throughout his life. The focus of Space Visitor is on how society reacts to the news. It has been a long time since I read the book and my memory of the details has faded. There is little attention paid to the nature of the aliens or the artefact on the moon, until the end, but I don’t want to spoil it for you.
When I read Space Visitor back in 1977, I recognized the similarity with 2001. I was not all that perceptive at the time, but it did open my eyes to how the same idea can be expressed in different ways. When I look at the stories I have written, I can see how my personal attitudes come through, even though I did not always consciously put them there.
Rationality Versus Irrationality in The Movie “Agora”
August 13, 2010 by James Morison · Leave a Comment
I published a short comentary on the movie Agora
http://cinemaroll.com/cinemarolling/rationality-versus-irrationality-in-the-movie-agora/
After I saw the movie “Agora” I felt that, while I enjoyed the movie, it would a movie that I would quickly forget. Since then however, I have started to see more to it. I think this movie needs a second look.
“My Next Film” on Moviola in August 2010
August 8, 2010 by James Morison · Leave a Comment
Moviola will show my film “My Next Film” during August 2010.
These are the remaining show time and dates:
August 15 12:23 pm Eastern Standard Time (11:23 am Mountain Daylight Time)
August 18 6:08 pm Eastern Standard Time (5:08 pm Mountain Daylight Time)
August 31 8:54 pm Eastern Standard Time (7:54 pm Mountain Daylight Time)
You can find out more at:
http://www.movieola.ca/search.php?searchBy=0&keyword=My+Next+Film
If you do not get Moviola, they stream some programs on their website. http://www.movieola.ca/
I would like to make this short story into a movie, what do you think?
August 6, 2010 by James Morison · Leave a Comment
I just published a new short story:
Hello, My Name is Bob http://authspot.com/short-stories/hello-my-name-is-bob/
A young man, alone in a new city, tries an unusual tactic to meet someone new, but it doesn’t work out quite the way he thought it would.
As I wrote it, I thought that it might be a good story to turn into a short movie. It would help me if you could read it and let me know if you think it would make a good move.
My Experiment with Advertisements
July 31, 2010 by James Morison · 1 Comment
Recently I tried out Google AdWords to see if I could get more people to view my movies. I ran an advertisement for Line of Taxis http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/line_of_taxis.php for 30 days. Before I started, I signed up for Google Analytics to track how many people visited my site. It also gave me some interesting stats on who they were.
The ad ran from June 13 to July 12. During that time, the ad showed up 1,634,721 on web pages. Out of those, the ad was “clicked” 789 times. The cost to me was a little over $28 (Canadian). AdWords allows you to choose key words that help determine where you wanted your ad posted. The indication was that the key words I chose were ineffective.
Google Analytics reported that people visited the Line of Taxis page 762 times during the trial period. I thought that should be the same as the number of “clicks”. The average time spent on the page was a little over two minutes, which is shorter than the film. However, I think that is an underestimate of the length of time someone is on the site, since if the viewer closes the window rather than visiting another page, I can’t see how you can tell how long they were on the page.
Almost 1 in 10 people who visited the Line of Taxis page then went on to visit some of my other movie pages. The undonate page was also a popular choice. There were actually fewer visits to my blog during the advertizing period.
Overall, the average number of daily visits to my site were 566 per cent higher during the campaign that after the campaign.
My site was most popular in Vietnam and China with both accounting for over 10 per cent of visits each. Canada ranked third at 8 per cent, but I suspect that most of those were my visits to the site. Iran, Indonesia, Pakistan, India, Egypt, and Thailand each accounted for more than 5 per cent of visits. The United States ranked 21st with one per cent of visits.
Calgary ranked first in cities, although I think that was mostly my visits. Ho Chi Minh City, Bangkok, Hanoi, and Cairo also ranked high. The second ranked Canadian Cities were Winnipeg, Vancouver, and Toronto, with one visit each.
I think what I learned from this experiment is that advertising is an effective way to get people to my site. I do need to improve my ads, since the one I used wasn’t very effective. Only one of every 2,000 people who saw the ad clicked on it. No one donated money or bought any of my films. That could be for any of a number of reasons. The web page may need changes, or I need to drop the prices of my movies. It could also be that nobody wants to buy them. All of my films, except for Who Shot the President http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/who_shot_the_president.php are free to view on-line, so that could undercut any sales.
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You can support my work by making a donation.
If you do not want to support my work,
you can undonate.
