Lucky Linda's Body Art Commercial is Live

So we've wrapped up everything with Lucky Linda's Body Art. It was a great project to be a part of especially since it contained mostly my vision, since I wrote, directed, and edited the piece.

It also happened to be the first project for the local start up Local Biz Productions, which is currently based out of the Eden Prairie, Minnesota and is currently taking on new clients to create low budget commercials.

Below you can find many of the links that are associated with the project. As well as the finished commercial. Let me know what you think and check out some of the other posts as well. Also if you are in the Minneapolis area, head on down to Lucky Linda's in Shakopee and give them some love.

The Importance of a Storyboard: A side by side comparison of the storyboard and the finished piece
And we Shot in Shakopee. Thanks Lucky Linda.: Picture copies of the storyboard used
The Head is Done: Image of what the muppet head looked like finished
Head Update
The Head is Built
A Small Setback
Tattoo Commercial

The Importance of a storyboard

Now, I know that I've talked about how a storyboard is important, and how it can make life easier, but I want to show you how side by side with the storyboard that planning actually does help regardless of if it is with stick figures, better looking hand drawings, Celtx's storyboard add ons, or any other storyboarding program. Making a storyboard helps out so much when it comes to production.

I know this because I've worked on productions that didn't have a storyboard of what the director was looking for. It was all in their head, so everyone was sitting around waiting for the director to give his vision for the shot instead of being able to jump to the next shot or scene, while the director was working with the actors.

To give you some perspective, we shot the commercial below in about an hour and a half and that includes set up and tear down times. Because we went into Lucky Linda's with not only a plan of what we wanted to shoot, but also an actual shot list of what we needed to get proper coverage we were able to get in and get out in a good amount of time.

If you've never done a storyboard before I am encouraging you to do one now and if you have done them before I continue to encourage you to do them in the projects you are working on. I hope you enjoy the video below comparing the storyboard we made to how the commercial ended up.

Meeting New People

A big part about trying to be successful in this field is to be able to network with other people. As you network with people who have particular skills you will probably learn about other people who have a particular set of skills, and you will be able to share your skills too.

This is actually how I have gotten a fair amount of my work, networking is probably the most key thing that any aspiring professional should do, especially in the area of Film and Audio.

An example of how networking is powerful is how I met a man who I worked on the 48 hour film festival with last year, and after working with him as an editor and him seeing my skills; he kept his eyes open for potential work for me. When he found another job for me, he put me in with touch with the production company and said that I could lend a hand and help them out in the area of editing, and they took me on to help out with editing up old footage.

Now this company is not a traditional production company that you would think of, they don't make commercials or promotional videos, but they create an adult puppet show done in the same manner as Jim Henson's The Muppets, but this show is called Transylvania Television. The link to the show is here, show them some love please by watching a couple of episodes if you have time.

The reason that I put this out there for the world to see is because I wanted to show how networking is powerful. Now think if I hadn't worked with this guy on the 48 hour film festival, I'd never been able to work on this web show that has had some success, and met even better people to work with on other projects.

So when you get the chance to network do it, because it's what best for you.