Reading time: < 1 minute

I'll be heading out to the airport in a few hrs to fly over to Cali. For info on the conference, see the poster below.

I'm aiming to record my segment and share it with you all when I get back inshaAllah.

Reading time: 6 – 10 minutes

This post is a spotlight on Rami Santrisi from HIPURductions.com. Recently he completed a promotional video for Islamic Center of Maryland titled ICM: The Road Ahead.

http://www.vimeo.com/3904850

The purpose of this post is to put the spotlight on someone who’s aspired higher and come through on a project. I didn’t work on this project at all. I’m simply providing an encouraging critique for the producer of the video and for those of you who aspire to produce something in the future.

We all measure success in different ways. For me success is having started a project, completed it, celebrated its completion, learned from its mistakes and knowing that I had fun during the journey and can’t wait to begin the next one.

There are many destinations in life, whats important is that we enjoy and cherish every moment of the journey to each of those destinations.

Background For ICM: The Road Ahead

Rami was assigned this project in the beginning of March and had a deadline of March 28th. He completed this project in the midst of balancing a fulltime job and a family, so as you can guess, this must have been a tight 4 weeks.

Rami had laid out that there were a number of technical issues related to this project and has laid out that there aren’t any plans to change them. My feedback in this section is simply on how I personally would address these issues on a future project.

Sound in a few of the “early” interviews was a bit bad, and in the outdoor one, wind was crazy.

There are three ways to deal with wind from my experience.

• One is to get a windscreen for the microphone.

• The other option is to have two people stretch out a large bed sheet next to the microphone to block the wind.

• Third option is to simply stand next to a structure where the wind isn’t approaching

It’s slightly longer than i’d hoped, but there was also a lot of information that we needed to convey, so we kept it long. It was actually much longer, but we cut it to 15 minutes while maintaining fluidity.

I’m not aware of how the development of this video was coordinated. From my experience the best way to crunch a promotional video is to do it with a script or outline. Even if one is shooting interviews, those interviews must be structured around a framework of how the video will be laid out.

A couple years ago I produced a project of a similar nature. I had three weeks to come through with a video who’s purpose was to raise funds from within the local community.

For more info: http://www.leechon.com/almishkat-promo-video-168.htm

I sat down with the commissioner of the project and had him lay out exactly what he wanted in the video, from that I geared my questions so that specific individuals would answer in a particular way for it to fit effectively into the framework of the video I had mind.

In my humble opinion, an informative promotional video shouldn’t go beyond 10 minutes. The way to effectively do that is to lay out the framework before a camera is even lifted and film in accordance to that timely structure.

The tighter the final product, the more effective it will be.

Some B-Roll (overlay photos and videos) were not the best choice, but that was a shortcoming of the Center itself since they do not have a person responsible for media; that takes photos and videos of events that they do, etc. That was addressed at one of the Board of Trustees meetings I went to. We did however try and get/take as many current photos and videos as we could as well.

For me, shooting B-Roll is the most fun part of production. This is where you get to REALLY be creative and have fun with different types of shots. Generally, when you try new things and experiment, you require more time. You either schedule it in, or you work with what you have.

When it comes to shooting interviews, I think the best B-Roll is shots of the individuals themselves. Something that pulls a specific emotion that you’re aiming for. Usually extreme closeup or composed shots make for the best B-Roll in my experience.

An example of simple, yet effective B-Roll is the following video I completed just recently:

Could B-Roll be shot more effectively? Sure, but one needs to start with the intention of capturing B-Roll or you’ll be left to work with what you have.

Two of the interviews were in the same spot and they were the most used interviews and I personally felt that shouldn’t have happened.

Personally, I think the background in the two most used interviews is quite nice. The use of the depth-of-field lens adapter certainly made it seem a bit surreal.

I would recommend applying the following for future works:

• Employ a dolly to add movement to the interview and make it seem more dynamic. Movement generates energy and causes the viewer’s eyes to move thus resulting in more attentiveness.

• Creative lighting makes all the difference. I would advise in purchasing a few work lights from Home Depot or Walmart and using them as a means of lighting the subjects on screen.

• When shooting the interview, spend at least five minutes before the interview and five minutes after the interivew getting B-Roll of the individual speaking

• I think it would be a good idea to frame the interviews like a photograph. This requires much more attention to detail, but that is something that is required when one gets into a creative craft such as this.Its a great idea to approach each shot composition as if you composing a poster that would be hung in Time Square. Of course it’s easier said than done, but when shooting, we should always aim for excellence.

The Producer

Some of you may remember Rami some of his past works. The following are some projects he’s produced or worked on in the past:

• Ummah Films: Tomorrow Never Comes
• LinkTV: An Average Moe

Currently he maintains HIPURductions.com

Final Thoughts and Conclusions

Overall, taking into context the time available and everything else, this project was a job well done. I extend my congratulations to Rami and I look forward to what he’s got coming up next inshaAllah.

Reading time: 2 – 2 minutes

A friend of mine forwarded me an email with a pretty cool guide for home-made sound effects:
http://www.epicsound.com/sfx/

Sound designer David Filskov posts an interesting list of tricks he’s collected from other designers for turning common objects into audio trickery. It seems like a stretch, until you realize that movie soundtracks are rarely recorded from the source—often because doing so would be dangerous, impractical, or wouldn’t sound believable.

The sound of people walking on snow? It’s made by recording people in the studio walking on flour or cornstarch. If you live in a cold, snowy climate, you know how rare that perfectly crunchy and squeaky snow is. The sound of a naval depth charge? A toilet flushing at half speed, with a reverberation filter applied. Alien sounds?

Certain kinds of canned dog food make useful sounds as the food comes out of the can. The chunky stuff isn’t so good, but the tightly packed all-one-mass kind makes gushy sucking sounds when the air on the outside of the can is sucked into the can to replace the exiting glob of dog food. This sound can be used as an element in certain kinds of monster vocalizations, alien pod embryo expulsions, etc.

3 x 10 :: Day 06

• Produce a promotional “profile video” of each AlMaghrib instructor.  

• Produce a movie that documents the journey going cross country with Tufaan screening it in every major city in North America. 

• Start an education campaign with some organization meant to educate people on zakah and wealth building.

What’s this “3 x 10? thing? – See my post on focusing ideas:
http://www.leechon.com/focus-ideas-847.htm

Reading time: 2 – 4 minutes

Back in January I made a post about the IMAX film “Journey to Mecca”. I hope you had the opportunity to watch it.

I remember when I went to see the film when it was test screened, it was the first time I actually cried in a movie. The images on the IMAX are extremely moving. Reliving the hajj on the screen was as very strong moment and I’m sure those who have gone to hajj and saw the film can surely relate.

A sad moment during the film was right before the credits, when it said, “In memory of Chems Eddine Zinoun” who was the actor that played Ibn Batuta in this film. According to IMDB, Zinoun died in Casablanca, Morroco due to a tragic car accident in November 2008.

At first the thought was sad, but then on a deeper note I thought to myself,

He died at a great time where his last project was something that will resonate through time as calling people to fulfill their last pillar of Islam. When he stands up on the day of judgement, he can say to Allah-swt that this was a legacy that he left.

May Allah-swt count this project on his scale of good deeds on the day of judgement.

The following video is one the making of “Journey to Mecca”

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3 x 10 :: Day 05

• Incorporate Leechon in Canada so that it can take advantage of the money that the Canadian government has laid out for film projects. The questions that come to mind are: (1) What are Canadian business tax-laws? (2) What are the different ownership structures? (3) What are the different type of banks that are available and what sort of fees and benefits do they offer? (4) What are the different types of government grants that are available and how does one go about getting them? (5) Where can I go to learn more about the business of film in Canada?

• Contract a professional graphic designer to produce a course focused on graphic design and its principles for Message Mastery.

• Produce a short film titled “License on Empty” about a young kid who gets a drivers license and goes partying everywhere. He runs out of gas and ends up having to by for gas, maintainance as well as insruance – learning about responsibilty.

What’s this “3 x 10? thing? – See my post on focusing ideas:
http://www.leechon.com/focus-ideas-847.htm

Reading time: 4 – 6 minutes

This post is a means of looking back to finding answers, correcting mistakes, celebrating achievements and laying the foundation of whats to come in the future.

Before I begin, I want to lay out the fact: Rizq is truly from Allah-swt and the outcome of our efforts really isn’t totally a product of our doing, but the magnificence of Allah-swt allowing for the right circumstances at the right time for opportunities to make themselves available to us.

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With that said:
Top 3 ACHIEVEMENTS I’m most grateful for that happened in 2008 are:

• Getting AlMaghrib Institute as a client contract for Leechon, which has resulted in many fruits such as: IlmCast.com, GemReel.com and Superstar seminar trailers

• Setting up MessageMastery.com – an online learning system to teach people aspects of media, marketing, and communication (although its been a real bumpy and overwhelming ride – still is for me)

• Going from 700 RSS subscribers to 13,000+ RSS subscribers on Leechon.com – How this happened, I’m not entirely sure.

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Top 5 LESSONS I’ve found most valuable in the process of work in 2008 are:

• Contract or hire a bookkeeper! – As you grow in your business, the frequency and size of financial transactions will increase. If you’re not a number cruncher at heart,  you’ll find the process of recording all those transactions into QuickBooks a grueling and painful process. Save yourself the agony and delegate this process to someone who’s more qualified than yourself.

• A slice of a watermelon is bigger than an entire grape. – When involving yourself in a project, think beyond yourself. Look for ways in which you or your business can benefit the client (whether that be your customers or target audience) and share in the fruits and rewards. — Instead of getting a bigger piece of the pie, make the pie bigger to involve more people so all can share.

• Know your worth and have an understanding of the market before diving in – Business is about exchanging value. Business can be conducted fairly and professionally only if you know what that value is. If you don’t know your own self worth then you cannot expect others to know either. If the value of your work is $10,000 in the market, then don’t do injustice to yourself by receiving only $1,000. You’re limiting yourself and in the end it is YOU who will suffer.

• Fail Forward - I’ve made many mistakes this year. Mistakes in areas of financial decisions, what projects or clients to take up, biting off more than one can chew, and the process developing content for Message Mastery. These mistakes have led to delays on delivery and overall performance. – Being a human being, mistakes are inevitable. Welcome and admit the mistakes. Don’t fear them. The important thing is we fail FORWARD and learn from our mistakes as they happen.

• Never let schooling get in the way of your education - It’s a quote my Mark Twain, and its so true. We all to go school to get an education. If you find a means of education superior to traditional schooling, then jump on that bandwagon. You obviously have to factor in stuff like being able to pay for life’s essentials. For me, running Leechon is my education, so much so that the principles and hands on experience of business education has been far greater than business school itself.

A bonus lesson:

• Clarity = Power : Whether you want to progress in business, home, religion, etc – having absolute clarity is essential. Gaining clarity is a process of having perspective and getting in control of what’s around you. You need to organize what’s around you and focus on what’s important (or vice versa)  and throw out the rest. Having absolute clarity will lead you to what you want on the different levels of your life.

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Any and all good that has taken place in this past year is because Allah-swt allowed it to happen. The mistakes are because of my own shortcomings and for that I ask you to forgive me.

This company exists for the sake Allah and for the benefit of Ummat Muhammad-salAllahu alayhi wasallam. I pray that as we progress we keep our intentions pure and our actions clean.

My next post is going to lay out what’s to come in this new year inshaAllah.