I Like Free (and Almost Free) Stuff
Thursday, February 26th, 2009Okay, okay. I know I promised you a Norm Hollyn bit on this next blog, but I just wanted to slip another entry in here before that one. So stay tuned. How’s that for a “lean forward moment”?
Being active in whatever field you’re interested in will more than likely garner your own fair share of free stuff. But if you seem lacking in accouterments, read on.
Free movie screenings for writers
Some years ago, I joined the mailing list for Creative Screenwriter magazine. With this email list, you get invites to many film screenings throughout the year, usually on Tuesday nights. These are very special screenings because they have a Q & A afterwards, usually featuring the screenwriter(s) of the film.
I’ve been at screenings featuring Rob Zombie, Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, Seth Rogan Evan Goldberg, Michael Davis, Zach Helm, Nancy Oliver, Gustin Nash, Garth Jennings, Nick, Goldsmith, Jason Reitman, Guillermo Arriaga, Scott Frank, Zoe Heller, Patrick Marbel, Phillip Glass, Chris Rock, Louis C.K., Ted Elliot, Terry Rossio, Fredi M. Murer, Don Payne, Drew Goddard, Ari Sandel, Peter Billingsly, John Fusco and Collin Chou. These have been very entertaining and free!
So if you are interested in the craft of screenwriting, I think you’ll like these too. But seriously, if you aren’t going to stay for the Q&A, don’t sign up to go.
Conferences Seminars and Expos
Conferences, seminars and expos are great places to learn more about your desired profession and to learn the upcoming changes that could affect the future of what you’re into. Not only that but also they are great places to network and meet new people. I make it a point to meet at least one new person besides the booth personnel or company reps whenever I attend a conference or expo. And what else is important here? Free stuff!
Filmmaking:
The following film making events were all free via sign up on the web. Usually you have to register by a certain date to get free admission.
Apple Final Cut Server World Tour 2008 – I attended this event in Los Angeles May 13, 2008. This was a great event that covered the new Apple product Final Cut Server. They also went into some great detail on using Motion and Soundtrack Pro too. At the event they had product booths from about ten vendors. So mainly they just had fliers and brochures to hand out, but there was free sodas and coffee.
And then the raffle… my wife wins the iPod nano!
DV Expo – Nov 5th, I went to the DV Expo. It wasn’t as good as the HD Expo I attended earlier and will talk about later but there were a couple of good seminars and cool stuff to look at/drool over. There was also some free magazines to pick up. No free refreshments here though.
At one of the seminars, I won a $210 Viper book. I have no use for a $210 Viper book so anyone that does, let me know.
HD Expo - Oct 29th, I went to the HD Expo in Burbank. (This year it’s at the Universal Hilton, March 5th!) I attended a RED presentation (will again this year too) where we got a great preview of what’s going on at RED as well as a very cool preview of Che, the Steven Soderbergh flick. Their were TONS of free magazines and a really cool exhibit area. Parking was validated.
Post Production:
FCPUG SuperMeet – (10.99 and a drive to SF) — This San Francisco version on Jan 7, 2009, was really a lot of fun and covered in an earlier post, so read that one.
LAFCPUG – ($5 suggested donation) — I have attended all of these meetings since March 2008, but was very late to one because I was at another seminar on lighting given by Birns & Sawyer (where they had free beer and snacks!) They have a great raffle there and if you don’t win, you can most likely get an Automatic Duck keychain!
LAPPG – (Free) — I have recently found the Los Angeles Post Production Group. Last month I attended their meeting and it was very cool. It’s a small group only and you have to RSVP right away or else you won’t get in, as I found out the first time I tried to attend. But last month’s meeting was a presentation by Jay Miracle, award-winning editor, producer and director. Jay worked as editor on the Emmy-award winning documentary Hearts of Darkeness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse, chronicling Francis Ford Coppola making Apocalypse Now. Very insiteful and full of dirt and secret stories… ooo cool…. and hey, I won a Moviola T-shirt!
DMA/LA – (Free) — Also at the Barnsdale Art Park Gallery Theatre (where the LAFCPUG meets), Ko Maruyama heads up this great meeting of Digital Media Artists. They have a raffle too.
Pizza & Post – (Free) — As the name implies, there’s free pizza and a talk on post. This is a new find of mine too and is put on by the Video Symphony TV & Film School in Burbank. This month’s talk was by Philip Hodgetts of Intellegent Assistant. There’s some free mags there too. RSVP is needed for this event.
Miscellanous Stuff
Movie Night w/Mostly Lisa – (http://mostlylisa.com/blog/movie-night/) Won two free iPhone apps while watching Lisa Bettany get drunk watching the Oscars. (And I don’t even have an iPhone!)
Digital Production Buzz – (http://www.digitalproductionbuzz.com/) Every Thursday 6pm – 7pm, Pacific Time. Fantastic Digital Video Production, Post and Distribution online radio podcast.
Leo Laporte – Twit.tv, live and recorded video broadcasts for tech stuff. The ultimate geek-out.
The more I look into events, the more I find and I would swear that if I were jobless, I could survive on the freebies of events such as the above. This combined with the plethera of eseminars/webinars has given me a wealth of knowledge in the digital film making arena and I look forward to more this year. I’ll let you know what I find.
–Eric
