The-Electric-Daily

Simply put, Spotify RULES!!!  Watch the video and see why.  Spotify is an online web service where you can listen to a seemingly infinite amount of songs from their servers (with 10,000 more added each day), listen to your songs locally (similar to iTunes), star your favorite music, share on FB & Twitter, connect with your friends by dragging and dropping songs into their inbox & even collaborating on virtual mix tapes and these are just off the top of my head.  I love it but I have heard mixed reviews from different people, saying

“why do I need this service? I’ve got this and that etc…”

I would answer that with this

“Spotify is a ton of music all in one place, available anywhere, all while being socially integrated, making listening to music from just about any artist virtually effortless and sharing all of that with your friends even more so, basically it’s the best of all services rolled up into one.”

I would also say,

“stop resisting change and embrace new technology/web services and enjoy the music.  While your at it, connect with me and share what you are listening to & while you are at that drop your archaic Yahoo or Hotmail account, and get with Gmail already.”

With every new online web service or application, there is always a resistance from the public (with criticism surely to follow) and I understand that not everyone is an early adopter or excited by new technology and developments on the web.  If that were the case, everyone would have that Gmail account, but I digress.  The creativity and technology out there on the web is amazing, with new apps and services popping up daily and it is a shame to not take advantage.

Spotify is in Beta and you have to request an invite here,  but it only took them a few hours to respond to my request and I was up and running in a matter of minutes.  Another option is to give a shout out to your friends asking if they have invites to spare.  Premiums services offer no advertising and mobile features, allowing you to take it anywhere.

Spotify creds:

Seth Hall

@middle8media

Applist.me is best described from their website.

Applist.me allows you to share a list of all your iPhone and iPad applications with your friends, your colleagues and your family. Nothing more, nothing less

You simply download the app, sync it with your current apps in iTunes, check the apps you want to share and then sync to their servers.  They provide a short link and you share away.  Pretty simple but awesome.

Here is what I am rockin’ these days.

M8M App List

The results are in!!!  The 15th Annual Webby Awards took place on June 13th, 2011 and as usual the nominees were cutting edge and represented the current culture of all things World Wide Web.  Every year I review the nominees and always find a hidden gem or two.  In hopes of all my readers doing the same, here are the winners.

Enjoy,

Team Electric

SAVE THE CAT by Blake Snyder

“Save the Cat” seems to be the everyman’s screenplay book, but at the same time it’s a book for beginners and seasoned pros alike.  It teaches you to define WHO your screenplay is about and walks you through the process of writing a log line that will capture everyone from a stranger in line to a studio executive.  It also helps define the genre of your screenplay, therefore establishing parameters for you to write in.

The meat of the book is the Beat Sheet, a 15 beat outline that Blake Snyder claims every movie functions within.  He references a handful of movies that fit into this formula and upon closer look your realize that he has a point.  A high number of successful films and well written screenplays fall into a “formula” and while this “formula” can seem, well… “formulaic”, he puts a heavy emphasis on the importance of your characters and dialogue, summing it up by saying “give me the same thing, but different”.  In other words, writing a screenplay with unique characters and original dialogue that follows a traditional, tried and true story format, will increase your chances of success.  After all Snyder’s intent with this book is to write a “successful” “sellable” screenplay.

Save the Cat claims to be “the last book on screenwriting that you’ll ever need”.  While that may not be 100% true for everyone, as a beginning screenwriter having read several screenwriting books and STC twice already, I have found it to be a noble and worthy claim.

You can buy the book here.  Happy writing.

HOW I MADE A HUNDRED MOVIES IN HOLLYWOOD AND NEVER LOST A DIME  by Roger Corman (with Jim Jerome)

I know this title sounds a bit sensational, but the funny thing is, when it comes to Roger Corman, it’s true!!  For those of you who don’t know who Roger Corman is, he was and arguably is the most successful independent film producer in Hollywood.  He started his career in the mid 1950′s and either directed, produced and/or distributed hundreds of films, all turning a profit, all allowing him to stay continually in production, doing what he loved…making films, one after another, some even being shot in only a few days (Little Shop of Horrors – 1960 – 21/2 days).  He also acted as mentor to an astounding number of future filmmakers, writers & actors, who lovingly referred to their right of passage as the “Roger Corman Film School”

For more info check out his wikipedia page and this recently produced documentary.

His movies are often referred to as exploitation, which is true for some and he definitely had a niche in genre films, tackling westerns, sci-fi, biker movies, car movies, horror, etc…but several of his films dealt with pertinent issues of the times and pushed the boundaries and expectations of society, such as “The Trip”, “The Intruder” & “Wild Angles”, not to mention he directed and produced a series of 8 films based on the writings of Edgar Allen Poe, all but one starring Vincent Price.  Regardless of what film he was making that week, (yeah, that week), they proved entertaining, some bordered on genius, and without a doubt all essential for an independent filmmaker.  His ability to complete a film on a micro-budget, making it look way more expensive that it actually was, is a great lesson for any filmmaker.

This book was written by Roger himself, with a “with” credit going to Jim Jerome.  This captivating tale, rooted in Corman’s anti-establishment filmmaking philosophy, focuses on his film productions and travels, his instantly successful distribution company and is sprinkled with dialogue from his friends and colleagues, all from the “Roger Corman Film School”. His insight on how to get a film made by handling setbacks that are inevitable in filmmaking proves invaluable.  This book comes highly recommended and will prove to be an excellent and educational read.  I burned through it in 3 days.

You can find the book on Amazon here.

Enjoy and let’s make some movies.