One thing that people are fascinated by are reading articles about different places and nature. They also like to watch the travel channel and discovery channel for these reasons. Perhaps you can create a separate brand and film really cool places.

My idea came from the fact that I enjoy reading about different travel locations on Wikipedia and other sources. And I love to learn about different destinations. And the Travel channel was very successful at this whole thing on cable TV a few years back. Regarding how it would work for you would require some marketing research to see how popular the idea would be with people.

Personally having the affinity for travel and going to new places, the idea really appealed to me. However, I haven’t seen nature videos being used as anything except for encouraging people to visit a city, testing camera equipment out simply practicing in the craft of motion photography.

When I saw the email the following videos came to mind.

This first video is by Paul Frederick Productions located out in the Adirondacks in upstate New York. He doesn’t have that many videos up, but some of the ones he posts up are visually stunning. This video here was produced I think with a Canon 7D.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This second video here is by Preston Kanak of Canada. Preston has an interesting project going on where he shoots and uploads a 3 minute short film every day and is doing it every day for 365 days. His goal is to perfect his abilities as a filmmaker. This is one of the nature videos he shot with a DSLR HD camera that really caught my eye.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I’ve always had this thought of profiling the mosques of America as a project either in documentary form or simple motion photography as shown above. That’s was just my thought.

For me, when I produce something, there has to be some sort of motivation behind it. It’s either for practice, communicating a message or at least telling some sort of story. Art without purpose is of no benefit to people. But that’s just me.

I’m curious as to know what you think? What would you like to see that would have a lot of “replay value?”

This past Thursday I had the pleasure of meeting Hamza Perez (right) at Rutgers New Brunswick where they were screening the New Muslim Cool Documentary produced by filmmaker Jennifer Maytorena Taylor. This post isn’t a review about the documentary. Rather it’s overview of the film, Hamza’s commentary after the screening and the question-answer that followed that night.

You might hear some people describe the New Muslim Cool film as a story about Jason Perez, a Puerto Rican Muslim rapper who left the gang life and became Muslim but only to have law enforcement harass him because of his involvement with the mosque and Muslim community.

Hamza Perez however describes the film quite differently. He mentioned New Muslim Cool isn’t about Him. Rather, its s reflection of the women around him and how they are strong and empowered individuals. He gave the analogy of the Arabic word for “sun” (shams) which is feminine  and the Arabic word for “moon” (qamr) which is masculine. The moon shines brights at night only because it reflects the light of the sun. Similarly whatever light comes through him is simply a reflection of the women in his life.

In the documentary, you see his mother being a huge supporter and always looking out for his well being. His wife, a fourth generation African American Muslim and the director/producer of the documentary Jennifer Taylor. All of the people that made Hamza shine were women.

Hamza also mentioned that this film is about someone going from ignorance to being someone who has become aware of the flaws in his character and is making an effort to improve it.

The filming for this documentary took place periodically over four years in which Jennifer Taylor had gathered hundreds of hours of footage. It was originally going to be about Muslims in hip hop but later decided to turn the focus away from that and towards Jason Hamza Perez and his struggles as a Muslim convert in America.

During the question-answer session after the screening of the film, Hamza mentioned that FBI had been following his activities before the filming for New Muslim Cool took place. His original community which was in Massachusetts, there many gang members becoming Muslim and this raised some red flags. So when he later moved to Pittsburgh, PA they followed him.

I asked a question as to what was his biggest challenge after having become Muslim. His answer what that he converted to Islam in an immigrant Muslim community. Although they welcomed him and his friends with open arms, they didn’t know how to effectively guide him on how to balance Islam with his cultural background. This was one of his biggest reasons for moving to Pittsburg, so that he can be in a close community of indigenous American Muslims that would be able to effectively guide him.

I had asked Hamza what impact did New Muslim Cool documentary film have. He said that the film has been great for outreach. However, he’s always had to remind himself that anything good that comes from this film is from Allah and any faults or mistakes that are apparent are because of his own short comings.

Today Hamza Perez has left music and hip hop completely. He mentioned that he made that decision consciously so that he can focus more on spending time with his family, helping establishing the mosque and professionally doing social work.

Someone in the audience asked if music and hip hop was an effective means of religious outreach. Hamza responded saying that he doesn’t have enough information on whether or not it is – looking at it on a national scale. However, from his personal experience the best form of religious outreach has been improving his personal character and being conscious of how one behaves with other people.

Below is the trailer for the New Muslim Cool documentary film.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The documentary starts off showing the whole music and Muslim hip hop aspect. However, that is a small part of the film. Most of the film’s focus is on Hamza Perez and his spiritual growth.

Firstly I want to give Rami Santrisi a shout out and congratulations on completing this project. I’m sure it had its fair share of challenges and lessons. I pray that he continues to practice keep putting forth work.

As the motto goes: It doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to get going.

This is the trailer for the film:

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you’re interested, you can also check out the article about the short film on the Muslim Link newspaper: DC Area Film Makers Join Forces On 3D Movie

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A well constructed film tells a good comprehensible story visually and audibly. To give the film a proper critique, I watched the full Leap of Faith short film four times.

• First, I watched it without sound
• Second, I just listened to it with no visuals
• Third, watched it normally in 2D
• Finally in 3D on YouTube

Below are my thoughts, feedback and a rubric for the review. All feedback I’ve given below is a means for all of us to improve our craft of story telling.

You can watch the film first by clicking the image below:

My Review (spoiler alert!):

Fun Factor — How entertaining was the film? — 2/10

It was cool seeing the film in 3D and it was fun seeing guys jumping off cliffs, but that’s as far as the fun factor went.

The film seems to drag during many parts making it seem much longer than it really was.

Performance – How was the acting? — 3/10

A sign of good acting and character directing is when you watch the film without any sound and you know what emotions the character is feeling. In the scenes of dialog, the characters didn’t have much dynamic range in either their body language or their facial expressions.

The best acting in the film was the professor. However, I felt his scene wasn’t needed for the story.

Eye-Candy — Quality of cinematography, production value, special-fx — 6/10

Visually the short looked great. The composed shots weren’t poster quality but the use of the Canon 7D HD-DSLR cameras certainly brought out the color saturation and lens usage certainly brought forth focus appropriately.

It think it would have been really cool if a water proof underwater rig was used to capture the splash of the actors as they fell in.

3D was cool and certainly different from most short film projects out there. There aren’t that many interesting 3D videos out there on YouTube either. I was certainly curious how this was going to look.

My only complaint about 3D on YouTube is that you can only watch the classic stereoscopic 3D (red/blue, red/green, etc) and not the polarized projection light technology they used in the movie theaters and special (expensive) monitors today. However, this isn’t something the producers budget or control.

Story — How well the plot and characters play out? — 1/10

When it came to story, there was much left to be desired.

I felt as though:

• There was no conclusive plot
• There were no believable character motivations
• Most dialog didn’t add to character or further story
• Most of the scenes were completely unnecessary.

I understand that there were two completely different plot lines.

• Plot Line #1: Man overcoming his fear of heights so he can jump with is friends off a cliff.
• Plot Line #2: Man overcoming his fear of financial insecurity to sponsor an orphan even, although he makes $200/week

The two stories didn’t really seem to connect. If two stories don’t connect and tie into each other, why tell them at all together?

Why was the cliff jumping scene necessary at all? He swallowed his fear and jumped off the roof of his house to save the girl. That should have been the end of the film. All other scenes that didn’t build up to that should have been cut out.

Something that I didn’t understand is how sponsoring an orphan is a life changing decision that the main character has to go about telling everyone about it. In the real world, someone making two hundred dollars a week has other financial priorities than figuring out whether or not they can sponsor an orphan.

After watching this film, I felt as though it would have been more appropriate to make this into two separate films.

Even if the two plot lines were separated into two films, what did him applying to the job have to do with his fear of heights or wanting to sponsor an orphan. Was he going to make more money in the new job? If thats the case, it wasnt clear. This scene didnt fit into the story at all.

If I had to approach the story using the resources the filmmakers used, this is what it would be:

Opening

Kareem, his brother and friend are hiking until one of them takes a tumble off a cliff and the brother is hanging on for dear life. He tries to save him but the extreme emotional stress anchors him to a fear of heights which makes him unable to pull up his hanging brother, watching him fall to the river below to his death leaving an orphaned son.

Everyday Life of Main Character

Its several months since the incident. Kareem still blames himself for the deaths and the depression keeps him from keeping a steady paying job and passing up lucrative opportunities because he believes he won’t be successful  just as he wasn’t successful in saving his brother, resulting in major financial difficulties which bears to question as to whether or not he can care for his orphaned nephew who’s mother died at childbirth.

Pressure Increases

Kareem being Jameel’s uncle and closest next of kin, risks loosing Jameel to child services if he doesn’t get his act together.

Situation Arises

One day Jameel and the neighborhood kid are playing catch and the ball goes on the roof. Jameel finds a ladder and climbs up the side of the house to get the ball, but the ladder is unstable and collapses, leaving Jameel hanging on the side of the house screaming for help.

Responding to the Situation & Facing of Fear

Kareem hearing the cries sees Jameel hanging on the side, climbs through a window and onto the roof in an attempt to save Jameel. All the while the ball is on the gutter and rolls down due to vibration from Kareem hitting one end of the gutter while reaching for Jameel. Neighbor’s kid goes for the ball but cant see the car speeding down the street. Kareem sees flashbacks of his brother’s death.

Triumph

With tears in his eyes, Kareem swallows his fear, with an burst pulls Jameel onto the roof and then immediately leaps off the roof leaving Jameel sitting on top to witness as Kareem dashes the neighbor’s kid out of the way of the speeding car just as we hear the deafening “POP!” of the ball as the car runs over it.

Aftermath

Kareem having overcome his fear of heights and is able to forgive himself for his brother’s death and is able to move on with his life. He starts a successful business and also spends his time going around giving motivational speeches helping people overcome their fears, using his personal story to inspire people.

Dialog – 2/10

There were many moments during the film where I felt the dialog wasn’t necessary.

The whole dialog between the main character and his friend while hiking talking about creation, the jummah salah scene of the main char falling asleep, the tennis scene and the whole “high class” cloths story arch  didn’t seem to have a place in the story. The dialog in those scenes didn’t further either of the plot lines much or add to character development that was necessary for the story.

I also felt that the pacing of the film between the characters lines was super slow. I’d recommend tightening up the editing to fix that.

Sound — How well is the sound used to enhance the film? — 3/10

There wasn’t much depth to the sound design. There wasn’t much use of Foley or environmental sounds to really bring you in. The slow dialog made the film seem that much slower.

Message/Theme — 5/10

The idea of overcoming your fears and donating or orphans is great. I just felt that the two themes presented together didn’t work well. If there was focus on one theme, it would have made the film that much more enjoyable.

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Overall Score — 3/10

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Final Thoughts

I’m wondering how well the film has been received by others. I haven’t seen too many comments on the particular videos that have been uploaded on Vimeo and YouTube. I noticed on the video trailer itself, most of the views came from it being advertised (paid). However, it seems that most of the views for the trailer came from India which I assume isn’t the target market. I hope Rami reaches his goals for the film.

In the future I’d love for the opportunity to collaborate with Rami in the scriptwriting and story phase. I believe I have a lot to offer and it’s an area that Islamic media as a whole is desperately lacking.

After I finished I mailed him a copy of the DVD. He called me and said,

“Belal, normally I don’t let people record me. But you, you can record me anytime. MashaAllah, you did an excellent job! I’m really grateful.”

Those were among the words of encouragement that motivated me to continue with my future projects.

Doctor Ibrahim Dremali has been great motivator for me I’m sure many other people through his speeches. He knows how to use the power of stories. He can move you to tears and he can make you smile.

Lately Doctor Ibrahim Dremali has gone through many trials in life. As some of you may know he’s been very sick. I was very sad to hear on MuslimMatters.org that he was recently arrested. You can read the full article here: ACTION ALERT! Sh. Ibrahim Dremali and Wife Arrested!

I encourage you to pray for Doctor Ibrahim Dremali and his wife and support them and their family in any way you can in this hard time. May Allah grant them both ease and remove their troubles.

If you haven’t read Saqib’s post, you can do so by clicking the image below:

I believe a lot of the challenges that Saqib faced in production this video…

Click here to view the embedded video.

…came as a result of pursuing the “film look” which he believed lay in filming at 24 progressive frames per second.

When motion picture was invented in the early twentieth century, silent films were played at 16 frames per second. Later when sound was added, they had to speed up the film reel to play at 24 frames per second so that the audio would sound slow. This is why silent films seem like they’re moving really fast. They’ve sped up 16 fps films to 24 fps. The choice was to adapt to an technological advancement.

Today people equate the technical 24p with the “film look” or “cinematic look” which is an incorrect understanding. Proper film look consists of:

• set design/production value – does the place you’re filming look “expensive?”
• audio and sound score - the higher the fidelity and clarity of the audio, the better people tune in.
  
• composition – how the subject/talent is framed and colored on screen
• proper lighting setup - 3 point light setup with understanding light intensity
• camera movement – panning vs. craning vs. tracking vs. static
• lens choices - deciding between different depths of field, ie: blurry background vs non blurry backgrounds
• screen formatting - anamorphic vs. wide screen vs. full screen
• 24p - least important

24p is at the bottom of that list for a reason. It has the least impact emotionally on the audience.

If Saqib kept all filming at 30 fps, and focused on the top five items on the list, the result would be more impact. The following videos are examples of implementing the film look based on the points mentioned above. First is a shoe string budget example:

Click here to view the embedded video.

This is an example of the film look on a professional budget:

Click here to view the embedded video.

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For those who are new to my work, just know I’m speaking from experience. My lecture video projects of the past have included:

• The Strangers
• The Opener Short Lecture Series
• AlMaghrib Teacher Training Seminar (16 hrs of lecture videos)
• Darkness2Light
• Desert Rose and the birth of IlmCast Videos and Syndication (lost count of number of videos I’ve put up)
• Divine Speech Prologue for Bayyinah – also search “divine speech prologue” on YouTube
• Time Traveler Seminar (16 hrs of lecture videos)
• DiscoverU speeches and DiscoverU Certification (60+ hrs of lecture videos)
• Ilm Summit 2009 wild cards

I’ve actually written out an entire process work flow outline for lecture content development from project development, to production, to post production, to online syndication. This will ultimately end up being a bonus module for all those who have purchased “Secrets of Video Production” over at MessageMastery.com

If you’re truly interested in production video content, either for regular blogging or for marketing an organization you work with – this course is for you.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I’d love to learn how to make videos with that sort of look. Although it doesn’t look realistic, is certainly looks unique.

I would like to do my part in this challenging effort of changing the world.

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Last week I had the opportunity to sit-down and talk with Qasim Basir, the writer and director of Mooz-Lum the movie. Today is the premiere of the film in New York City and I’m planning on being there inshaAllah. I got connected with Qasim through my wife. She booked him for an interview with CNN. Watch the video below:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here’s a little bit about Qasim himself:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Qasim was telling me that his first real project was the “Yes We Can” web video series which ended up getting featured on the Obama campaign website. See the behind the scenes director’s commentary here:

Click here to view the embedded video.

His calling card was when he produced a short film for the LinkTV short film contest where he one best drama for his film “Glimpse”:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Danny Glover happened to be one of the judges for the contest. He encouraged Qasim to turn his short film into a feature script, which he did. Today he’s premiering his feature film, “Mooz-lum”

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you’re coming out to the premiere tonight, send me a tweet so we can meet up.

My thoughts in brief:

Firstly, I commend the director for taking up the task to present a message and I encourage the individuals involved to keep sharpening their saw.

My critique of the film: It seemed the director was trying too hard to be visually creative while the film itself lacked a solid story and structure. This resulted in the film dragging. Personally, I would cut out at least half of the video to make it faster.

An audience will forgive a visually lacking film if its got a solid story. However, the reverse is not true. If there’s no story, then the film better have an artistically pleasing visual presentation to keep the audience’s attention.

Overall, I think it’s a great attempt without any real reply value except amongst the intimidate community that this was filmed. I encourage the director to keep working, but focus their efforts more towards the development of a solid story in future projects.

First the video:

And the email that followed:

Uluisoc started as a one man band back in 2001. The first charity week ever held was in 2005, raising £30,000 – I owe a lot of my training, experiance and contacts with the people I met there. Since you guys in the states were discussing the effect of joining the MSA student card, I think this might be a different way you could reach out to your student communities.

The hallmark of this organization was drive, incredible vision – even when the chips were really down. Against all the odds, they have continued to grow – a genuine grass roots student movement that has totally changed the way MSA’s operate in London especially, but now throughout the country.

The brother who founded it is a massive fan of AlMaghrib, though he has never been to any seminar or DiscoverU Life training due to work commitments. However, the elements are simple – unity through action by competition in khayr (there are over 20 university campus’s in London alone – so each one acts as a tribe)

There are 2 reasons why I am sharing this with you:

• I think something like this would work well amongst the student population of your tribes, so if you want your impact team to get in touch with them, you can let me know or go to them direct (but it might take a while for them to respond as it is about to get started on this years CW)

• The opening of the video pays homage to the skills of brother Belal – and it is in sharing the khayr in the passing on of innovating marketing and communications that is one of our hallmarks. But on the flip side, the shi’a tv station, ahlul bayt has also taken some of the material and made edits to reflect their ideals. I know the graphics etc can be bought, but the copying of whole videos directly (like the Torch Bearers one) is something that is something that I find very distasteful. So I am begining to wonder if we should start to copyright our videos and be serious about prosecution just like eman rush products?

My Thoughts RE Point #1 –

I think competition between MSAs competing in good is a great idea. The idea of tribal competition is something that the righteous successors of the Prophet Muhammad-sal Allahu alayhi wasallam implemented and it worked brilliantly in progressing Islam beyond what anyone ever expected at that time.

The only thing is that competition need to be consistent with an overall strategic objective in mind.

My Thoughts RE Point #2 -

It’s a great feeling that some of the work I’ve done has pushed others towards positive action and it truly gives me that much more energy to continue to raise the standard.

When it comes to copyrights, it would work if the videos produced were completely original. Most of the videos are made from either modified templates or tutorials. Both of which anyone with enough technical knowledge can duplicate on their own.

The good thing is that since AlMaghrib’s brand and identity was the first on the market with those specific templates and tutorials, anyone else that uses those very templates and designs will look like they’re copycatting which is great for AlMaghrib because that is what’s in the minds of people first.

Only lately have the videos been completely original. I must admit that the recent videos that have come out aren’t up to par with the standards that have been set, they do fulfill the objective of letting people know about the brand and what it has to offer.

Even if the videos were completely original, what would be the solution? Law suites or differentiation?

Both cost money, energy and time. Personally I think differentiation is presentation is the better spending of resources. Staying ahead of the game is what counts.

My two cents

Amir has been running a blog for quite a while now titled “Mujahideen Ryder” – on it you’ll find some quirky posts, as well as some profound content from himself.

Recently Amir released a video that he himself put together to promot an event taking place in September sponsored by Islamic Relif and United for Change against Malaria.

Amir requested that I give his video a critique, so here goes:

What I liked:

• Its HD -
  Makes the image quality of the video look real nice mashaAllah.

• Made use of Prominence -
  Featuring many prominent Muslims on screen from different organizations.

What can be improved:

• Eye candy -
  Use B-Roll footage instead of simply talking head. Add more pictures.

• Tell a story -
  I think Imam Zaid’s part should have been in front. It seems the most visually and audibly impact-ful. He’s telling his story as opposed to saying “come to the event” – a call to action which should be in the end.

That’s it for now. Amir, for your next video try applying these two factors with excellence and watch the quality of your video improve massively inshaAllah.