Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous New Year to you all!
The week (2013) started perfectly on a roof terrace in Miami Beach with 100 other people from all around the world thanks to a close friend and his neighbor who put together the amazing event. The warmth & ocean of south Florida, plenty of Champagne, and many stunning women made for a memorable 3 days, a perfect escape from the cold and crowded New York City.
Now back to work and the start of a new year in fashion film and model promotion, social media, digital marketing and the photo and video production world, all areas amongst others I want Models WebTV to succeed in greatly in 2013.
- We have just finished 2 of the 5 videos for the Fashion Institute of Technology Chairpersons, Deborah Beard of Technical Design and Jeffrey Silberman of Textile Development and Marketing. My goal with taping these conversations with the professors was to utilize them as a catalyst for current and future FIT students who contribute as writers (PAID OF COURSE) for the Models WebTV platform. I bold the, PAID OF COURSE because I just ran into a high level photographer's website who listed a need for interns to file stuff at his studio with big UNPAID next to the offer. F%^@ him! That drives me up the wall how firms or influential people do that. Please all interns, get at least $7.25 per hour. It's the law in New York City!
Back to the videos, there is a blog just posted by Keely-Shea Smith who is currently a senior at FIT and editor of their newspaper W27, referencing Professor Silberman's video and the capstone project his TDM students participate in, The FIT Denim Project. I invite you to read and comment on Keely- Shea's BLOG, it's better than this one!
Last but not least, I watched a great interview with Twitter founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams by Charlie Rose. I'm not sure if the show on thirteen was a repeat or not but it was fantastic. One of the things mentioned about Twitter, Branch and The Obvious Collection, two new projects, was that Stone and Williams goal was "to help people build systems to make the world a better place". These guys have done a great job in doing so, and I think Film Annex is on a similar path building systems with it's Afghan Development Project and the financing platform providing filmmakers and writers funds to continue on their creative paths.
Also part of their conversation and what I must improve upon in the future was the discussion Rose elaborated on, the art of interviews. Simply he stated a good interviewer must PREPARE, LISTEN, ENGAGE and after a bit mentioned the need for CURIOSITY in the subject matter, regardless of what it is and how far it may be from your comfort zone. Wise words from Master Charlie! I will work on this with future guests to the studio.
