Putting Smart Women in New Media

December 18, 2009

I feel so popular

I feel all popular and urban because last night I had two parties/meetups to go to. First I went to the DC MediaMakers talk about the Browncoats movie. Then I could’ve either gone to Bus Boys and Poets – a really cool hangout/restaurant or to the Social Media Club’s holiday cookoff. I chose the cookoff.

When I arrived, the doorman was gone and the elevators require an access card to get to the floor where the cookoff was going on. A glamorous woman arrived at the same time I did. Some people were getting off the elevators, but didn’t have access cards for the right floor. Then the janitor got off another elevator. I asked him if he could get us to the fourth floor. He didn’t seem to understand me. So the glamorous woman spoke to him in beautiful Spanish. He took us to the fourth floor as Ms. Glamorous continued to speak to him in very pleasant Spanish.

I got her business card – I was feeling liberal with the business cards yesterday, since I was going to a Social Media event. I gave a card to someone on the metro who was having a conversation about sending a message around Facebook about a small concert she wanted to put on with her friends.

Ms. Glamorous writes citygirlblogs, which is a Sex In The City-esque story. The business card says it’s all true, but the story says she’s moving in with a guy she’s known for eight days. She seemed a little too smart to do that, so I’m not buying it.

Several other people from MediaMakers also horned in on the end of the cookoff. I missed pretty much the entire cookoff, but there was plenty of very good pizza left. And I made a few new Facebook friends; people I’ve seen several times at these events.

December 17, 2009

Firefly Serenity Browncoats at NPR Headquarters #dcmm

I went to the DC MediaMaker meetup at NPR headquarters tonight. Mike Dougherty talked about how he and a bunch of friends created a fan movie about Firefly called Browncoats. I’ve never heard of Firefly, so all I know about it is what was said tonight. Apparently it’s related to something called Serenity – I think it’s the sequel.

Although I wasn’t interested in Firefly, I was very interested in hearing about how they put their movie together. Since Browncoats takes place in the future, they had to build an elaborate set. In general, Mike and friends created a much bigger production than Budget Justified, (http://budgetjustified.com) which was originally intended to be a bunch of web videos, until I realized I had enough footage/story for a full length feature, even after I edited out the redundant and slow-moving scenes.

Another difference between Browncoats and Budget Justified is that since Browncoats is stolen from a Fox production, Mike couldn’t make it a for-profit venture. So he created a non-profit entity for the sake of all the finances. He was able to get a lot of stuff donated. And since it was a spin-off of something that already had a fan base, Mike was able to leverage existing fan groups for publicity, extensively using twitter, facebook, and youtube to engage people. I can leverage other groups for Budget Justified publicity also, however it won’t be as clear of a connection to some groups.

The most exciting part of the talk for me was seeing Ted Taylor, who plays Barry in Budget Justified, in Mike’s movie trailer!

Mike was an excellent speaker. He was excited about his topic, and exuded a genuine and honest personality. I had to leave to attend a Social Media Club event, but I hope I have the opportunity to talk to him at future MediaMakers events.

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