People just don’t want to sleep.
Or so it may seem. I’ve stumbled upon several articles about the use of Provigil by healthy individuals to enhance cognitive functions. All of the articles say that the drug does have very positive effects on cognitive functions, but what is the downside? The possibility of a serious skin reaction.
Men’s Health also has an article on polyphasic sleep patterns (referred to as the uberman sleep pattern) and how it may allow you to spend more time awake rather than sleeping by taking multiple short power naps instead of sleeping for a straight period of time.
What is this obsession with working?
It’s a problem that I also have. My problem is that I feel like it’s a race to achieve all of my dreams. But what kind of quality of life can you expect to have if you don’t take some time for a siesta, to meditate, to reflect, to just spend time with friends and family?
These are questions I struggle with everyday.
(BTW the title of this article refers to a famous research paper dealing with the limits of working cognitive memory.)
This movie poster for “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor” caught my eye over at Quicktime.com. I saw Jet Li’s name attached to it and I instantly knew that the movie probably had something to do with the Qin Dynasty and the Terra Cotta Warriors. What a coincidence since Heather and I just visited the Terra Cotta Warriors exhibit at the Bowers Museum last weekend. The trailer looks pretty cool but of course the movie takes liberties with the historical account of the Qin emperor. If it wasn’t for the Qin storyline and Jet Li I’d probably wait to see it on video, but now I might actually see it in the theater.
I might have to go watch “Hero” again since it’s another Jet Li movie that deals with the Qin Dynasty.
Slashdot reports:
“The New York Times reports today about Michael Hollick, the actor who provided the voice of Niko Bellic in Grand Theft Auto IV. Although the game has made more than $600 million in sales for Rockstar Games, Hollick earns nothing beyond the original $100K he was paid. If this was television, film, or radio, Hollick and the other GTA actors could have made millions by now. Hollick says, ‘I don’t blame Rockstar. I blame our union for not having the agreements in place to protect the creative people who drive the sales of these games. Yes, the technology is important, but it’s the human performances within them that people really connect to, and I hope actors will get more respect for the work they do within those technologies.’ Is it time for video game actors to be treated as well as those in other mediums?”
First let me set the record straight. There should be no distinction between “video game” actors and actors in general - other than the fact that most video game work is non-union voiceover work. There are plenty of actors here in Hollywood that do video game work. But the problem is that SAG and AFTRA have not set up a residual contract for video games. But they should. Right now SAG and AFTRA are negotiating residual contracts for online video and they should do the same for video games.
I was sitting there in Studio DNA perusing through this month’s GQ magazine noticing all the stylish short haircuts and decided it’s time to try a new look. In the past this would have been a big deal and my agents would look at me with disapproval telling me that I would now need to go get new headshots. But now that I no longer have commercial representation and I’m concentrating on producing my own shows it doesn’t matter as much anymore.
Hmmm. It is about time to get some new headshots…
Another sign of the times - a new indie film site called The Auteurs is promoting itself at the Cannes Film Festival with a video competition sponsored by HP, Facebook and Flip. 250 people will get the chance to grab a Flip camera and shoot a 3 minute short film. The winner, as determined by a jury receives $10,000 cash and a HP workstation with a 30 inch display - plus you get to keep the camera. Don’t expect the resulting videos to be Cannes-worthy though since the Flip video camera is a small solid state consumer device that only shoots 640×480 video. It will be interesting to see how many people actually participate in this competition. I think this sort of stunt/promotion would be better suited to another film festival such as Slamdance .
I just received an email directed to all SAG members giving an updated report to contract negotiations with the AMPTP. The top headline is:
The AMPTP Wants to Use Excerpts From TV Shows and Motion Pictures Without Actor’s Consent on the Internet….And Beyond
New Media is one of the biggest issues in contract negotiations. The studios still don’t know how to monetize video on the internet and are still experimenting with ventures such as Hulu at the same time making deals with various online video distribution companies including Apple/iTunes/AppleTV. I know of these issues first hand as a web developer who used to manage FX Networks and helped to establish their online video distribution of their shows using Brightcove. The key question that needs to be answered before royalties can be paid to actors for “internet use” is how do you track and control video views and distribution? This can get pretty tricky. Using Brightcove, there are built in metrics but other distribution services may not have these tools. And who will keep the studios honest? In my experience I’ve seen metric numbers be “adjusted” in order for a studio marketing team to sell more ad space or get bigger budgets for their group, so who’s to watch the studios and keep them honest as to how much royalties to pay back to the artist based on internet “views”?
For the savvy actor, this is actually an exciting time. Forget the bickering between SAG, AFTRA and AMPTP. This is the age of opportunity and empowerment. It has never been easier or cheaper for actors to be seen by larger audiences other than the 99-seat theater. If you’ve paid any attention to the video revolution on the internet you will know of the publicity and opportunities non-actors have received from stupid videos on YouTube. Entrepreneurial actors are already online creating brands - monetizing their creative work and creating bigger opportunities. Just read this article:
Rise of the internet star…
So what are you doing to take charge of your acting career? Why are you sitting around waiting for your agent to call? Go out and create your opportunities.