Night Fire Productions

Yup, a web host that claims to be “green”. ThinkHost claims to be totally solar and wind powered, what a great concept! Check them out…

Daily Motion, a video site I recently found, has a cool tool you can use to show yours or your friends or just your favorite channels, videos. My friend Vinny from Brooklyn has a cool channel of videos around NYC. Check them out:

This week’s featured art is Fountains at Columbus Circle by Vincent O’Hare

Amazing picture that captures the fountains at flowing at full speed. You can feel the water as it flows cooling off the hot concrete below.

Fountains at Columbus Circle by Vincent O’Hare — View Larger

New art featured weekly, courtesy of the artists at Loxly Gallery.

Tags: Vincent O’Hare, Fountains at Columbus Circle, Loxly Gallery,

The Penguin was kidnapped and held hostage for the past couple of weeks, but thanks to the Loxly Gallery’s new mascot, the Butterfly, he has been rescued and flown to NYC for a brief stay before he continues on his travels around the world. She flew into NYC via the Bronx Zoo, and flew back out today, grabbed the penguin and brought him to safety.

Now he can resume his travels unfettered and he and the butterfly will be doing a little traveling together as well

I woke up today with a plan of action. And then I logged into Adsense to check stats and clicked on Adsense Setup to grab code for a page. Then I stopped. And my day changed. There at the bottom of the page was a new type of ad. Under the Referrals was a new category, Video Ads. I clicked it and I was taken to a sign up page that linked to my YouTube page. I filled out the required info and was instantly approved for creating Adsense YouTube “Players”.

There is a video player on this page under this post, that is keyword targeted and doesn’t appear to be working very well yet. But look at the potential! There is a banner ad at the top of the player (CPM maybe?) and text ads that overlay the video, but don’t really take away from the video. It moves up and down, so it isn’t there all the time. Well, it is there, but it isn’t always taking up a lot of space. Also notice that you can move from video to video in the player if you hover over the middle sides, that brings up next and previous arrows.

To create the player you have 3 choices, the first, let them find videos automatically, and you can add keyword “hints”. I tried to add some channel names in this section to bring up the videos I want. Not really working yet. Second, you can choose a Category of videos. At least that gets the videos in the ballpark of what you want to show. Maybe Third, there is a limited list of channels you can choose from. This would be the best choice in most cases. I haven’t attempted to highlight multiple channels to see if you can have more than one in the player.

At the moment I have mostly Categories in my players. I am hoping to see them allow you to use playlists and/or channels so that you can create players that show just the videos you want. The ads seem to be pretty well targetted within the players.

Now, here is something else I find interesting and discovered as I was playing around. Click on a video in the player on your site. Not the ad, that would be a big no-no of course. When you click the video itself, it opens up in a new window. I wasn’t sure I liked that, but of course, Google is in charge so there is no complaining. Then as I was surfing around the video and the channel page and off to another video, I noticed that there were Adsense ads. And they were targeted to the site that I went from. Hum… does the adsense ID carry over into that new window? I copied a link to a video to send a friend and I noticed that the url of the referring site was appended to it. I did a view source and the google ad unit is NOT visible in the page source, so I can’t check if the ads are carrying the id forward or not.

And there are no help files yet. So all of the above questions are not answered, and there is no where to look. Updated to add: found this FAQ, still not as many answers as I would like to see.

There is a lot of potential here for adding great relevant content to sites via videos, that would benefit the video creators and the site owners in the long run. I hope the narrowing by channels happens soon, or that targeting keywords to pull up videos happens fast.

I’ll be watching how this plays out!

One of Dan’s wishes was to work as a writer on General Hospital. He didn’t achieve that goal, but he did get to meet them one special day.

Here’s the end of semester summary, written by Daniel on May 9, 2002. He died May 13, 2002.

“By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third, by experience, which is the bitterest.” Confucius. Philosopher and teacher.

Conflict. The desires of characters. Visual storytelling. Focusing on the story. Letting go of what isn’t needed. Being open to change.

I learned this semester much the same as last. Throw in rising complications, the Passover question, and letting the characters talk for themselves. Three act structure. Reversals, midpoints, events. Terms. Lots of terms.

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” George Bernard Shaw. Nobel laureate.

We’re done now, and my brain hurts, and I’m feeling like being blunt. I knew most of this stuff coming in. It happens automatically when you’re writing from the heart. You know what’s wrong, you fix it, and the script moves closer and closer to form. Because form is the structure of a well-written script.

I could have gone my whole life without ever knowing the terms. It’s probably better not to know them. Frankly, I’m worried about what knowing them may do to my integrity. I’m terrified of getting caught up in them and writing boring, clichéd, formulaic scripts. Page after page, scene after scene, story after story about two people arguing. Conflict.

“You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.” Eric Hoffer. Philosopher and author.

What have we learned? What are you teaching? Characters should want things. It’s more interesting if they want different things. Other things should happen to keep them from getting things. Tension should rise, intensity should build, and at some point it should come to a head. And then the thing’s over.

It seems obvious to me. It seems like it should be obvious to everyone. But I saw, I read and I critiqued and I saw people grow, some more than others and some not really at all. I saw people who didn’t know the obvious things you were teaching, and I saw them learn and become better writers because of it. I worry about how bad they were before.

“Everywhere I go, I’m asked if the universities stifle writers. My opinion is that they don’t stifle enough of them.” Flannery O’Connor. Journalist, I think.

But I learned too. I learned the terms. And I catch myself asking if my scenes have events. And I catch myself checking where my inciting incident falls. And I catch myself making my scripts move better by shaping them to form.

I came in September feeling validated as a writer. I saw the first scripts and hoped I was a better writer than that. I knew coming in that what I’d get from this program is the ability, through forced labor, to rewrite and revise my scripts. I’m doing that now. I’m seeing room for improvement. So really, I learned what I expected.

“I am no more humble than my talents require.” Oscar Levant. Composer.

And the terms. I learned the terms. I can label the elements in all of my scripts. If they’re missing, I can put them in. If something’s wrong, I can ask myself what instead of waiting until it comes to me. I just hope against hope it doesn’t hold me back. Because worrying about how can make you forget why. I’d hate to forget why. I’m all about why.

Maybe I’m pompous. Maybe I’m confident. Maybe I’m just in a kiss my ass mood. I worked this year. I worked hard. I’m still working hard, I’m still doing rewrites. And I’ve changed, I’ve learned, whether I wanted to or not. I’ve seen bad writing, I’ve seen good writing, I’ve seen them both from others and from me. I’m glad I came and I’m glad I’m here, and I’m sure I’ll learn more in the next two years. I’m sure I’ll continue to change and grow. And I’m sure I’ll continue to be a pompous ass.

“We are all born originals - why is it so many of us die copies?” Edward Young. Poet.

I am a good writer. I know that. That’s why I’m here. And while I’m here I’ll show other people just what it is I can write. I’m writing two and a half features this summer, that’s my goal for the break. I’m writing specs, I’m writing plays, I’m writing pilots and shorts. And at the same time I’m running a production company, and at the same time I’m in pre-prod on an independent feature. A feature that will make people know me, make people hate me, or not get me noticed at all.

I’m working. That’s the biggest thing I’ve learned. I’ve been working all year, and it’s been work. I’ve learned what it means to write what you want. This summer I can write what I want. This summer it won’t just be work.

“We are a species that needs and wants to understand who we are. Sheep lice do not seem to share this longing, which is one reason why they write so little.” Anne Lamott. Writer.

Slay the Demons - When a random act of violence forces Brent Fischer to relive the traumas of his past, he’s forced to finally face down his demons or let them destroy him forever.

Age of Experience - An exploration of the difference between age and maturity seen through the eyes of two male prostitutes and a disabled college student. It’ll suck the funny right out of the room. And then you’ll get to the climax.

kiuljuk - An online plea from an old college friend fills Greg Mitchell with confusion. Because what happens online isn’t real life. That is, until it is.

kilran - Death in a funny suit

These are Daniel’s short plays. He has one or two full legnth that I may post another time.

Ask Why
Erin
Nobody Dies Originally titled “Gotta Pee” this one won a writing competition at a junior college, and he wasn’t *in* the writing program there, and all the teachers and writers wondered W(who)TF this was.
Rational Irrational Produced by NYU, part of a short play competition.
Vator

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world;
the unreasonable one persists to adapt the world to
himself. Therefore all progress depends on the
unreasonable man.”
-George Bernard Shaw
writer, Nobel laureate (1856-1950)

Author’s Autobiography - In his own words. He is obviously no longer a student anywhere…

Daniel Fogg is currently a junior in New York University’s dramatic writing program, a program that accepts only fifty students a year. He started writing at a very young age with a mystery novel that was incredibly bad. Then he moved to the fantasy genre and created worlds and civilizations from nothing, and tasted the power a pen can wield.

For years he worked on a fantasy novel, occasionally writing a short story or two. At sixteen he dropped out of high school, plagued by unexplained attacks of anxiety. Two years later he enrolled in college, and there he discovered the screenplay.

An idea for a character for ABC’s General Hospital forced him to delve into scriptwriting format. And in doing so he found a medium that has since held him in its grasp. In the two years since he’s written three screenplays, two television pilots, several spec scripts, and one full-length stageplay. His fourth screenplay is nearing completion, with many more projects vying for his attention. And in between those and school he’s starting a company called Agony Productions with five other screenwriters in New York, and serves on the Board as Artistic Director.

Credits

Produced, Irrational Rational, NYU Dept of Dramatic Writing’s 10-minute play festival 2001.

Finalist, WriteSafe Present-a-Thon, first quarter 2001, Malcolm in the Middle: Reese’s Hot Girlfriend.

Finalist, Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Summer Internship program 2000, 2002. (edited to add: Chosen in 2002.)

Third Place, Broadcast Education Association (BEA) National Student Scriptwriting Competition 2000, Slay the Demons.

Honorable Mention, Writer’s Digest Annual Writing Competition 1999, Feature Article category.

Projects

Screenplays:

Slay the Demons - When a random act of violence forces Brent Fischer to relive the traumas of his past, he’s forced to finally face down his demons or let them destroy him forever.

Age of Experience - An exploration of the difference between age and maturity seen through the eyes of two male prostitutes and a disabled college student. It’ll suck the funny right out of the room. And then you’ll get to the climax.

kiuljuk - An online plea from an old college friend fills Greg Mitchell with confusion. Because what happens online isn’t real life. That is, until it is.

kilran - Death in a funny suit

Teleplays:

God’s Toilet - A fresh new sitcom starring five drinking buddies and one menace to society.

Star Trek: Apparite Wars - Space without the Federation.

Displaced - What do you do if your power goes out, and when it comes back on you’re trapped in the 40s? Fight the Nazis, what else?

Also have spec scripts for Malcolm in the Middle, The Practice, General Hospital, All My Children, Friends, and Ed.