Untitled from Semper Media on Vimeo.

Semper Media Group’s 30 years of footage in 2 minutes from Semper Media on Vimeo.

Questions you may want to ask before planning a site redesign/build:

1. Do you really need to re-do your site?
2. Does your company have a site that has been up for a few years
3. because everyone said it was the thing to do?
4. Has it really done anything for you or has it just been dormant?
5. What have you expected from your site?
6. Has it lived up to your expectations?
7. What do you wish it would do?
8. Does your web presence encourage any interactive response from the visitor or is it a one-way street?
9. Would it make any sense to see if your web presence could really become a positive contributor to your bottom line?
10. Can you afford to ignore any possible source of positive results to your bottom line?
11. Have you thought about what range of budget would make sense for you?
12. Would placing audio or video clips make the experience any richer for your visitor?
13. Is your site sticky?

Website strategy for planning for new site design/build:

Some things you may want to think about:

1. Who are you aiming to reach?
2. What do you want your visitors to feel and think and do when they get to your home page?
3. What keywords/metatags best represent what you do?
4. Ease of navigation. Does your site invite people to dig deeper?
5. E-commerce. Do you need it? Do you sell many different products?
6. Content. How much? What structure?
7. Search. Do you “get found” on the web? Do you wonder about the people that tell you you can be the top listing in 3 months?
8. Tracking. Do you have a process in place to track where and when your visitors come from, where they land, and what they looked at?
9. Security. Why worry? What is https, SSL?
10. Terms of use & Privacy Policy. Why have it?

If you are asking these questions, you are on the right path. Maybe we can ask a few more and help you to make sense of the answers you get.

If this approach feels like a good fit, call us. You must be here for a reason.
(248) 593-6037

Perhaps we should be talking. There are ways we can help you by helping you to prioritize just the items you really need. You probably don’t need all the people listed below. But some are critical. Pick who you think you need from the list below and call us. Choosing the right team that works well together is a great stress-reducer.

1st AD
1st AD & Script Supervisor
1st Assistant Director
2D Compositor
3D Animation
3D Animation Design
3D Animator
3D Artist
3D designer/animator/modeler
Administrative Assistant
After Effects Artist
Agent Assistant
Journalist/Anchor
Animation Instructor
Animator
Art Director
Set Dressers
Artificial Intelligence Programmer
Artist
Assistant
Assistant Art Director
Assistant Editor
Assistant to Director of Photography
Assistant to Executive Producer
Assistant to Producer
Associate Producer
Video Editors
VideoTech
Camera Operator
Camera Operator / DP
Camera Operator/Editor
Sound & Lighting Crew
Casting Director/Producer
Choreographer
Cinematographer
Client Relations
Commercial Producer
Composer
Computer Graphic Artist
Construction Crew
Coordinating Producer
Wardrobe Designer
Hair Designer
Craft Service
Creative Animator
Crew Call
Design Artist
Design Director
Designer/Developer
Development Assistant
Development Director
Digital Artist/Producer
Digital Assistant Coordinator
Digital Linear Editor
Digital Production Artist
Director
Director & Choreographer
Director of Photography
Director/Editor
Documentary Filmmaker
Documentary Producer
Driver
DVD Editor
Editor
Editor (Non-Linear)
Editor/Producer
Editors & Post Production Supervisor
Engineering Support
Executive Assistant
Motion Graphics Designer
Film Composer
First Assistant Camera
Flash Animator
Gaffer
Key Grip
Graphic Artist
Graphic Designer
Graphic Designer/Art Director
Grip
Hair and Makeup
Illustrator/panel designer
Image Designer
Information Manager
Internal/External Client Relations
Junior Designer / Animators
Junior Designer/Animator
Lead Engineer
Lead Systems Administrator
Lighting Director
Line Producer
Linear / Online Editor
Location Sound
Location Sound Mixer
Location Sound Recordist
Maya Technical Director
Musical Groups for Songs
Musicians/Composer
News Producer
News Writer / Producer
Colorist
Office Assistant
Online Avid Editor
P.A./broadcasting operator
Panasonic 24p Operator
Panasonic 24p Owner-Operator
PAs & Sound Recorder
Photographer-Production Stills
Photography Crew
Post Production Associate Producer
Post Production Coordinator
Post Production Manager
Post Production Supervisor
Post Production Technician
Producer
Associate Producer & PA
Producer/Assistant
Producer/Camera/Editor
Producer/Editor
Producer/Line Producer
Producer/Studio Manager
Production Assistant
Production Assistant/Runner
Production Coordinator
Production Designer/Art Director
Production Intern
Production Manager
Production Coordinator
Production Sound Mixer
Program Coordinator
Project Coordinator
Project Supervisor
Prop Master, Assistant Props, On Set Dresser
Props & Set Dresser
Publicist / Public Relations
Receptionist
Recording Studio and Audio Engineer
Researcher/ Writer
Screen Writer
Screenwriter
Script Supervisor
Continuity Coordinator
Script Writer
Senior Video Engineer
Set Designer
Sketch Comedy Writer
Smoke Editor
Sound Designer
Stage Manager
Sound Editor
Sound Recordist
Boom Operator
Special Effects Animation
Stage Manager
Storyboard Artist
Studio Assistant
Stunt Coordinator
Subtitle Editors (Foreigns)
Talent/Models for Infomercials
Technical Director
Television Studio Manager
Theater Manager
TV Host & Crew
Voiceover Talent
VFX Production/Post Production
Video Journalist
Visual Effects Supervisor
Wardrobe Stylist

Never mind that music seems to help our egos quite early in life to figure out who we will be. Forget that our favorite music will, in later years, magically transport us back to those particular times, events and people that we associate with it.

Remember your parents telling you to “Turn that down!”? Well, your music just didn’t sound like theirs did. Now, of course, It is my turn to wonder what is the music that our kids will find sentimental as they rock on the veranda of the assisted living place 50 years from now. Will the whoomp of the subwoofer paralyze the caregivers as high volume rap favorites waft through the halls?

Why do people create music in the first place? In my case, improvisation, albeit usually over some kind of structural form, was always more interesting, rather than reproducing music that had already been written.

In the liner notes for the Miles Davis record “Kind of Blue” pianist Bill Evans wrote about the art of improvisation.

Bill said about those who would improvise that they “… must practice a particular discipline, that of allowing the idea to express itself in communication with their hands in such a direct way that deliberation cannot interfere.” The full quote may be found here www.billevanswebpages.com/kindblue.html

In my own life, music has been much like breathing, it is just something that came in and out of me from a very early age. I cannot take any special credit for it, it is just a gift that was given. But why did it seem like such a good fit and change the shape of my life so drastically?

Let me share a favorite verse of mine, crafted by the great jazz lyricist, Gene Lees. Here he describes what he thinks is real about the madness that causes some of us to live and breathe the alchemy of music. This is a man who reportedly took a year or more to write the exquisite lyric to the jazz chestnut “Waltz for Debby”

For years I had lost two lines in the middle of this wonderful verse. I emailed Gene and, after searching, he couldn’t find them either. Finally I came upon my original note, written with my music calligraphy pen from decades ago, and here it is. A tiny fragment of exquisite verse encased in a poetic form from another age.

This may not explain why people create music, but it is certainly a most eloquent expression of appreciation for the phenomenon.

Sonnet

Music is a strange and useless thing.
It doesn’t offer cover from the storm.
It doesn’t (really) ease the sting
of living; nor nourish us, nor keep us warm.
And men expend their lives in search of sound,
learning how to juggle bits of noise,
and by their swift illusions to confound
the heart with fleeting and evasive joys.
Yet I am full of quaking gratitude
that this exalted folly still exists,
that in an age of cold computer mood,
a piper still can whistle in the mists.
His notes are pebbles falling into time.
How sweetly mad it is, and how sublime.

Gene Lees

Not used with permission.
Gene, I hope that’s OK. If not, please call.

Randy

There seems to be a chasm of infinite depth between the true spirituality of the seeker and the organized politics of what has come to be known as religion.

In any event, two exceptional men of my acquaintance have developed a really fine project called Song and Spirit.

It is a humble jaunt into the ether of the interfaith.

A Franciscan monk and a Jewish Maggid (storyteller), hanging out, singing songs and telling stories. Pretty darned peaceful. Some Tibetan bowls set the mood nicely.

Their site is SongandSpirit.org You may find it quite interesting.

Sign up for their email list or invite them to open some hearts at a place near you.

If you’ve never heard The Lord’s Prayer sung in Hebrew or a Muslim prayer sung by a Catholic and Jewish duet, this is your chance. I think it’s such a fine idea. That’s why I play keyboards with them.

I found tears on my face through much of their first performance a few weeks ago and I really can’t say why. Good tears, though.

Peace
Randy

Software to Consider
• Video- Adobe Creative Suite (Premiere, After Effects, etc.)
Check out Student Discounts- $350
• Audio- Reaper Audio http://www.cockos.com/reaper/ A great way to do pro level audio inexpensively $50 and a decent audio card gets you going
• Web Design- Dream Weaver – $185 and
• WordPress as a site building app, not just a blog (free)

General
• Be a salesman!
• You are “YOU” Incorporated, sell your product.
• Start your own business. Lots of pitfalls, but jobs are scarce.
• Learn to listen
• Let your vision exceed your grasp
• “Always be the weakest link”
• Be nice to clients
• Develop People Skills

Future
• Do you want to do this for Business or Hobby?
o Business – Start a business
 Get a DBA (Doing Business As) $10

o Hobby – Get a “Day Job” and do Freelancing

Business
• Be Unique
• Read books about marketing!
Think for yourself (Hack around problems to find a solution)
• In an interview:
• Ask questions (then shut up!)
• Networking
o Facebook-for business
o Twitter
o Linkedin.com
o ImDB.com – Put all visual work on this site

Media
(Books, Magazines, Websites)

• The E-Myth Revisited (Book) by Michael Gerber (A must-read about running your own business)
The Cash Flow Quadrant by Robert Kiyosaki. Find out where you want to be. E, S, B or I
• Millimeter (Magazine)

• DigitalContentProducer.com (Website)

• Reel-Exchange.com (Website)

• Check out the Sandler Selling System
Ongoing marketing/business classes
Because you are actually in sales.

And don’t forget the 3 Food Groups of Media Production
1. Caffeine
2. Ibuprofen
3. Maalox

YOUR AREAS OF STUDY
• Your performance: find your own voice
• Write original material
• Acquire new material-attend concerts
• The elements of music: melody / harmony / rhythm / form / soul
• Vocal technique – including pitch, interval study, breath control, vibrato, vary your releases
• Listening is everything- how to listen specifically within a recording, to all styles, all ethnicities, all artists, to your own breath

MUSIC THEORY
• Notation-transposition
• Write your own lead sheets – transcribe others
• Instrumental technique – style, facility, practice, learn guitar tuning
• Improve relative pitch
• Ear training – interval study is the key to all pitch
• Set your individual keys for your songs
• Time – must have sense for absolute time, THE POCKET
• Keyboard technique
• Independence-right/left
• Develop ability to harmonize –sight reading-play/sing
• Mic technique
• Music history
• Musical form – arrangement
• Lyric syntax
• Collect verses, novelty songs-new ways to sing
• Learn other instruments
• Your instrument – diet, vitamins/herbs, regimen, exercise. if you don’t take care of your body, where you going to live?

STUDIO EXPERIENCE
• Understand / operate sound systems – theory & applied
• Recording skills – as an artist, engineer, producer, sideman (or woman)
• Creating bed tracks, beats, any accompanying tracks.
• Record and listen to yourself; listen and play it back. Hear the difference in the real sound and your perceived sound. Re-record the same passage and listen again. Repeat as needed. This is your most useful tool to shape/control your vocal sound. Do the same with video.
• Experiment with different recording styles, record audio samples for your albums – ie: ambience like nature or conversation soundbytes
• Organize your material: Date everything.
• Protect your data. Get a sensible process to back it up or risk losing it. Digital data does not exist until it lives in two completely separate places. Trust me on this.
• Play percussion instruments. Practice with a digital click, drum machine or drum pattern on an inexpensive keyboard.
• Video skills: Practice lip synch,

YOUR BAND
• A lyric writer might get a composer to supply music
• Hiring a band, rehearsing; kicking your brother out of the band. Being in another band
• Cueing and leading a band
• Stage presence-owning an audience – attitude, flow, creating a show. Listen to the great ones. Dealing with hecklers.
• Choreograph yourself; or get help. Use video to learn.
• Study/develop humor
• Accompany another vocalist
• Commitment.

MARKETING ISSUES
• Your art, once completed, is a product. Develop your demo package (writer or artist) a killer e-commerce website and ongoing video content to create the buzz.
• Preparing a resume; presenting yourself
• Database for list of your songs
• Great 8×10 B&W photo. http://www.abcpictures.com/
• A great recording. You want a demo? The only “demo” should be an unsigned master. Make all your recordings master quality for shopping and a saleable product at shows
• Merchandise, merchandise, merchandise

BUSINESS ISSUES
• Copyright issues. File unpublished collections. The process. File online. Ask us for our step by step helper form. http://www.copyright.gov/forms/
• There is no such thing as “poor man’s copyright” (mailing content to yourself)
• Licensing your songs
• The business of music: copyright, contracts, a business plan, understand how record labels work. Why you can retail your own music and what it takes.
• Gigging must-dos – being prepared, gear, checklist, your ride.
• Online distribution and promotion.
• A distribution deal. What is a good one?
• The duplication process: costs, areas of expense. Graphics: a basic understanding of the whole process.
• Cost/time management and effective job
• You as the CEO of your own business
• Cash flow, networking, client relations, business plan
• Take business courses if you plan to make this your profession. Talent is not enough.

REFERENCE BOOKS
Buy (and read) books about music business online:
• All You Need to Know About the Music Business
Donald S. Passman (good start)
• Music Publishing: A Songwriter’s Guide
Randy Poe (very practical)
• This Business of Music
Shemel & Krasilovsky (a huge reference text)
• Hitmen
Fredric Dannen (The story of the power brokers & payola in the music business)
• Interval Study Method
Joe Messina (The definitive ear-training workout)
• The E-Myth Revisited
Michael Gerber (How to start a small business and not lose your perspective or your mental health. Easy to read and a serious reality check on making your passion into your business)

Set goals.
Plan strategy.
Apply resources.

You may find some of these folks on YouTube. They have been some wonderful inspiration.
Other inspirations follow the Listening List below

World Music
King Sunny Ade –juju music
Salif Keita
Ladysmith Black Mambazo –other-worldly acappella

Jazz
Bill Evans
Miles Davis-trumpet
Kind of Blue- Miles Davis’ seminal offering
Miles Davis with Gil Evans—Gil was an amazing arranger
John Coltrane- tenor- see “A Love Supreme”,
Keith Jarrett –pianist – solo or with bands
Chick Corea-pianist

American folk music
Joni Mitchell
John Prine- lyricist extraordinaire
Utah Phillips-likewise
Utah’s son, Brendan
Dr. John- funk, New Orleans style
Tom Waits -a great poet

Blues
W.C. Handy
Son House
Bessie Smith
Robert Johnson
B.B. King
T-Bone Walker
Muddy Waters
Little Walter
Lonnie Johnson
John Lee Hooker
Blind Lemon Jefferson
Elmore James
Willie Dixon
Freddie King
Billie Holiday
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Charlie Patton
Ma Rainey
Leadbelly
Howlin’ Wolf
Louis Jordan
and many more continue.
Keb Mo is a good example of a modern incarnation of this huge tradition.

Funk
James Brown
George Clinton-Parliament Funkadelic
Earth,Wind & Fire

Classical
Aarvo Paart – An Estonian national treasure
Shostakovich- Symphony # 5- “A Soviet Artist’s Reply to Just Criticism” (banned for years for not being patriotic)
Here is one movement with Mr. Bernstein at the wheel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogJFXqYEYd8

Mstislav Rostropovich playing Bach cello sonatas

Debussy

Reading List

Philosophy
By Osho:`
The Spiritual Path – oddly hard to find- 300pp, try online. I first found this in Costco, the center of all spirituality.
Meditation: the First and Last Freedom –Borders, Amazon
The Book of Secrets- a large and lifelong read: it consists of112 methods to meditate- one or more will work for every person on the earth-all based on the 112 tiny stories in the little book: “Zen Flesh, Zen Bones”

Food
By Nina Planck – Real Food The industrialization of food in our society & why we should eat clean food.

Business
Michael Gerber The E-Myth Revisited an intro for those considering entrepreneurial adventure

Other:
For you folks that are considering a life in film:
Find some re-runs of Project Greenlight with Ben Affleck or catch excerpts on YouTube. This is the reality of movie-making. Pressure and budgets.

Treat everyone as you would be treated. Love is the answer.

The End Use
This last question is really the first question. Where is this footage to be used in its final edited form? Will it be for broadcast? Is it for DVD or web use only? The answers to these questions will help you to determine many of the choices that are to be made concerning production.

Timeline
What is it? Is this an emergency or does it allow reasonable time for us to help you set up a smooth and flawless shoot that will get you everything you need? If this is an emergency (one week or less) please click here and we will do our utmost to expedite a solution for you. If you cannot reach us by phone, please send an email with the words ‘production emergency’ in the subject line

Camera Format
The end use as well as any existing client infrastructure will help to make this choice. You may have a particular format for which you are already set up. We have shot in almost every format that exists today and can usually accommodate whatever you and your editor are set up for.

Green Screen
If you are shooting in green screen, the camera format must be of suitable resolution. Mini DV or most consumer cameras, even those labeled as “High Definition” are not appropriate. Though inexpensive, they do not provide the resolution to allow a clean compositing of the subject. So you will need a format with enough resolution and lens quality to allow good quality keying.

Script
Do you really, really have the final edit of the script or is there anything you can do before the shoot to ensure that no last-minute script changes are needed?

Popular sources of problems include:
a. Grammatical or typographical errors that are discovered on set resulting in wasted time, increasing pressure to finish on schedule, increased fatigue for the subject and potential cost overruns if it all takes longer because of lack of preparation in this area.
b. Acquiring authority to make final script changes prior to the shoot. This will eliminate delays making phone calls to get permission.
c. Legal permission for the subject to read the final version of your script. We have seen occasions where entire shoots were cut short with frustrating results because no one had discovered that the subject had a conflict of interest until most of the way through the shoot.

Prompter
Is your script long enough to require a teleprompter? If so, you probably know that a great operator can save many headaches and expedite the entire flow of the shoot. Not to mention, make your subject very happy with intuitive cuing of re-takes. In order to ensure a smooth start, it is also helpful to email the script ahead of time, in order to be placed into the prompter software so it is ready to go when you are. Check with the production company to ensure that the format you are sending is acceptable.

Audio
Not many great video shoots work well without good quality audio. Be specific about your needs and whether you will be using a voiceover or the talent’s voice will be recorded. How many people will be speaking at once? A good audio tech can make the most of any recording environment. Using only the microphone on the camera or going home with distorted audio can be disastrous. A professional with professional gear is definitely required here.

Workflow
A solid workflow for raw video files must be in place. If you are shooting to tape, this is not an immediate issue, but will be addressed in post-production. However, at the time of this writing, card-based systems or systems that record directly to hard drives are rapidly becoming mainstream. These systems eliminate the considerable time required to load a tape of raw footage into an editing system in real time. (On a retrospective note, “back in the day”, the real-time load-in process was often useful to editors unfamiliar with the footage who would watch it as it loaded into their editing system. They would take this time to make notes and become familiar with the content, eyeballing preliminary edit points, identifying lighting or audio issues etc. Things move a little faster these days, though the editor now just scrubs the data to identify such issues in a much more cursory fashion.) No pun intended.

With card-based systems, files must be off-loaded as you shoot and ingested into a compatible system (properly tested and configured to take the files in their digital wrappers) in such a way as not to interfere with the flow of the shoot. For example, without sufficient cards for a camera such as Panasonic HVX200 (P2 cards) or Sony PMW-EX3, you may find yourself stopping the subject in the middle of a nice productive flow in order to dump raw footage into an ingest device.

So it may be best to allow for ample cards to permit swapping them on the fly for the shoot. This process also requires a laptop with the correct software loaded and operating correctly, an external drive for portability. A crew member who is familiar with the process and perhaps able to double-check color and lighting issues is also required.

Secure Document Transfer
An intuitive system should be in place to allow secure file transfer of sensitive documents, such as last minute script changes or contract revisions directly into the email of the client while on location. The client must be able to retrieve these documents from their own email system to avoid sending them through third-party email accounts where the security of such information could be at risk. Thus, a fast wireless connection is a very good idea.

Expedited Delivery via FTP
For your finished files, you may require expedited file delivery globally via a backbone web service. This is the fastest file transfer available and serves to get time-sensitive material including very large amounts of data, such as raw footage, delivered to an ftp site immediately following your shoot. From there, the files can be downloaded for editing anywhere in the world. Your production company should be able to take care of this.

Rentals
Upon occasion, your project may require specific pieces of gear that are less than common. Find a company with a large inventory of their own gear for studio and location production, but with long-standing relationships with the best rental houses in the area.

Crew
Depending on the scope of your shoot, you may be able to cover several of these tasks with one person, if the workload makes sense.
Some of the crew you may need includes:

Producer
Director
Camera Operator
Lighting Director
Video Assist
Audio Tech
Production Assistant
Teleprompter Operator
Makeup Artist
Wardrobe Supervisor
Set Design
Script Supervisor
Jib Operator
A host of other crew may be called for. Your production company should be able to supply them for you.