New website.

Lately, I’ve focused my attention to building a new website. Somewhere I could host all of my interests on one page. The blog will stay here, because I like all the exposure I get with other WordPressians, but it will also be on my homepage.

Years ago, I found the perfect website Neon Sky. It has a clean look, easy to navigate, quick loading times and looks great on the iPad. But it’s too expensive for my budget. It runs around $600 a year and that’s just too much for me. I don’t get the amount of clients I need to afford the website.

Another site that I love, but is out of my price range is APhotoFolio. Again, it has all the great features of Neon Sky, including an app for the iPad, but it’s too expensive at a $1000 setup fee and $17 a month.

So a couple of weeks ago, I decided to just do WordPress and I built two different sites; one for my photography and one for my film-making. And I linked them all on my homepage (which is now defunct). And wouldn’t you know it, just a couple of days later I found the perfect site: Virb.

With a little tweaking, you can get Virb to look every bit as good as Neon Sky and APhotoFolio, but it only costs $10 a month. The only thing that isn’t as good with Virb is that your photos aren’t protected from downloading like they are with Neon Sky and APhotoFolio (the reality is if your work is out there, then it’s available to be stolen. I’ve watched Stephen van Vuuren create IMAX sized images from four mega-pixel NASA photos for his film in a basement movie Outside In, so anyone that knows how to screen grab can print their own artwork at any size they want). The best thing about Virb is the ease in which you can build pages. It’s far superior to WordPress, which is super easy itself, so that says a lot.

Anyways, this post is supposed to be more about me and not so much about Virb, but I love the site so I recommend checking it out. And check out mine as well. And if you could, buy something! It’s cheap, great art. Thanks.

www.ioannisbatsios.com

Filmmaking kansas satanta screenplay screenwriting scripts writing

Getting back into the flow.

I’ve been away and unproductive due to a death in the family and my own father battling kidney failure. My mother was kind enough to move back into dad’s house to take care of him. I had to drive from my home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina to pick her up in Satanta, Kansas then drive her to Flint, Michigan. It’s been an exhausting month. I can’t wait to get my life back to normal.

While I was there, I took some pictures and posted it to my new photography website. I’ll be posting more photos there in a couple of days.

I sat down to start working on the script today and was surprised that I had no idea where I was with it and what was going on. I’m going to have to go back over my notes and re-read it from the beginning.

Meanwhile, I’m going to start doing Go Into The Story’s 1, 2, 7, 14 formula for increasing one’s skills at screenwriting.

My plans for this week are:

1: I’m going to read a script, that was written by a friend of a friend, that has won a couple of screenwriting awards.

2: The movies I’m going to watch are Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and The Avengers. Both look pretty good to me.

14: And while driving through dust-bowl town after dust-bowl town, I came up with a great idea for a comedy drama script that I can’t wait to write. That will be what my fourteen hours of prep work will be towards.

The Big Apple

I recently returned from a vacation to New York City and while I had an awesome time, I didn’t get to do as much film making / photography as I wanted to. I’ve been dying to do time lapse of the Brooklyn Bridge, but circumstances and miserable heat defeated my ambition. It’s tough to do photography excursions when you’re with other people that don’t want to wait around while you try to compose the perfect shot. If you’re going to shoot NYC, then you just have to plan on having several days for yourself and going at it.

Although the heat was unbearable for most of the trip, I did have a great time. And my most memorable moment came when I met my favorite young actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt at The National concert. He was extremely nice and cordial. Most people know him as the kid from 3rd Rock from the Sun, but he’s made many great movies. His most recent is this summer’s blockbuster of Inception, which he shines in along with Tom Hardy. If you really want to see some great movies with him then go rent Manic, Brick, Mysterious Skin and The Lookout to name a few. He shines in every one of them. There’s also a rumor that he’s been tagged to play The Riddler in the upcoming Batman movie. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

The photo below was created by taking three different shots and stitching them together with Photoshop. Probably the only good photo I took while in NY, but not portfolio worthy. I’ve seen many just like it. I guess I’ll just have to make another trip to NY and shoot it proper. Hopefully, from a helicopter.

This one is just messing around with color and light:

Please click on images to enlarge.

The dotMatrix scene in Greensboro, North Carolina

Last night, I got the pleasure to film another dotMatrix show, the fourth one I’ve done so far. It’s amazing the talent DMP creator Sean Coon has found in such a small area. With all kinds of musical acts ranging from rock (Sorry about Dresden), rockabilly (The Tremors), alternative (Citified), hip hop (Mr. Rozzi), spoken word (Universal Mathematics), bluegrass (Old Stone Revue), folk (Bruce Piephoff), local legends (Jim Avett), and just plain weird, but awesome, (Janik) you never know what kind of great music you’re bound to hear at a dotMatrix concert. It kind of reminds me of the music scene I left in Detroit, renowned for its music with featured acts that would become national ones like Eminem, the White Stripes, Obie Trice, Kid Rock, Taproot, etc., etc., and is twice the size of the Greensboro area. I wouldn’t be surprised to see several dmp acts go national.

Not only is Sean able to get great musicians to play for free, he’s able to get great sound engineers, photographers and filmmakers to document the event. Every show Sean has produced comes with a live album, tons of press photos and a video for the musicians to use however they’d like. It’s a win-win situation for everyone involved, especially the fans that don’t even have to pay to see them. Did I forget to mention it’s free? So if you haven’t taken the opportunity to get involved by either performing, capturing or just being there, make sure you do. Otherwise, you’ll be missing the scene going on right beneath your feet.

Here are some photos from last nights “Get the Folk Out!” show: