Fish(er) Tales

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting! These posts will give you a better idea about what this site is about. Start here, then go here, and here, and then here.I’m concerned about the general direction I see the Web heading. It’s consolidating in ways that I feel are cause for concern. Or if not concern, at least a little careful attention....

It’s amazing that we can spend huge sums of money on a so-called war, but then lay off teachers. It’s frustrating that we can find money to bail out Wall Street, but can’t pay for physical education classes, art classes, and fund after school activities. It’s messed  up. Very. Did you know that 25 hedge fund managers made a billion dollars each. A billion. That’s absurd....

There’s never enough time to chase your artistic dreams, right? If you only had more time, you’d get so much more finished. But “more time” is misleading. We all get the same allotment each day. How you spend those hours is what separates those who accomplish more from those who only wish they could. Grab a piece of paper and write your most important need-to along the top (e.g....

In the “Secrets of a Buccaneer-Scholar” book James Bach discusses how self-education can lead to success. It was enlightening to me to read about his story, and apply it to my own pursuit of knowledge. Here are a few takeaways: “My plan is easy to summarize: get out and try stuff.” And “for knowledge workers, the right idea at the right time will lead to success, wealth,...

Here are various tips, tricks, and more culled from the many chapters of my latest book, SOUNDTRACK SUCCESS : A Digital Storyteller’s Guide to Audio Post-Production (edited a bit for the blog). Production woes There are quite a few post-production fixes available, but your best defense is, as the saying often goes, a strong offense. Get high-quality sound to begin with, and half the battle is over. Picture...

I have this old bookmark. I don’t recall how I acquired it. But it is my favorite. I use it in the latest (generally) non-fiction book I’m reading. Right now it’s in Tom Peters’ “The Little BIG Things – 163 Ways to Pursue Excellence.” You should read this book. Everybody who is in business should. But I digress. My favorite bookmark is in pretty good shape...

So, I’m working on Scott’s Dead — a film written and directed by Matthew Irvine made this summer (2009) in Chicago as part of the DePaul University College of Computing and Digital Media Digital School of Cinema and Interactive Media Project Bluelight.   (Whew, try saying that ten times fast!)   I’ll be doing the audio post and I thought that writing about these experiences...

Dear Editor(s): I am looking forward to handling the post-production sound for your project. I’ll be cleaning up dialogue, adding sound effects, and generally getting the soundtrack to sound as good as the picture edit looks. Could you do me a favor? Dump that room tone that goes with EACH and EVERY scene on an open audio track at the bottom of the editing timeline and mute it. You will save...