Riggs 2.0

Textuality

If the three of you reading this blog are wondering what I've been up to lately, here's an update:

Several months ago a friend of mine wrote a terrific script called "Textuality". 

It's a story about two people trying to pursue a relationship, while trying to exit the multiple relationships they were both managing through their PDA's before they met.  (Think "Califnorication" meets "You've Got Mail" - for the text messaging age.)  

For a slightly more artsy explanation, the story is really about modern day relationships; the ambiguity that defines them, the frustration that arises from them - and most recently - the technology that enables them.  It's about an entire generation that is finding it easier and easier to feel connected TO everyone, yet harder and harder to feel truly connected WITH anyone.  (And it's laugh out loud funny, as well.)

Early on my friend asked if I wanted to get involved and help him raise some money for the project, and I agreed - thinking this would make a fun side project that would let me scratch my creative itch while not completely diving in with both feet.  After a year that's seen us shop the project at Sundance, LA, Venice, and the Toronto film festival, I can safely say that I've caught the bug, and am going to be focusing on producing this full time until it's "in the can" as they say.

The film stars Jason Lewis from Sex and the City (and no, ladies - we don't need any more volunteers on set, thanks); and Carly Pope (from Young People F'ing, Califnornication and 24).  It's directed by Warren Sonoda, and we're expecting to shoot very soon, despite that whole "global financial crisis" thing you may have been hearing about...:)

Shortly, you'll be able to follow along here, but for now, check back here and at Strident Films (yes, that's my company) for updates.

The NASCAR Debate

Best quote of the night from a pundit on Fox News:  "This VP debate was like a NASCAR race...you held your breath every time they went into a turn."

Replacing the Mean With Meaning

Really great back to basics post from Umair Haque on bringing meaning back into business.  Definitely worth a read. 

My favorite quote:

"When your market cap, for example, can be utterly vaporized in a matter of days, it's a stark reminder that shareholder value is a video game - and it is human outcomes that make work meaningful."

Off to go find some meaning in that...:)

How Do You Beat John McCain in November? Hire Him.

Warning:  Loud Mouth Canadian About to Weigh in on the US Election.  Proceed at risk.

As usual, there has been a lot made about the 1st Presedential Debate last Friday. 

The spin doctors from the left and right are doing the predictable dance of each declaring victory for their side, while the pundits are all doing theirs - filling up 24 hour news cycles with analysis of every word, breath, eye movement, and hand gesture, trying to declare a winner. 

Look I don't know about you, but I can't tell if we're watching the most important election in modern history, or if we're watching the race for the mayor of Snoresville.  Debates these days are just a recital of talking points that everyone already knows a candidate is going to say, and all we do is tune in to watch the delivery and hope the other guy trips up.  So since I am insanely bored of this, AND there's a bit more riding on this one than others, I'm just going to tell the Obama campaign how they can beat McCain in six sentences at the next debate, and end this thing before anyone else gets hurt. 

At the next debate, Obama should let John McCain paint him into a corner on foreign policy, and then reply with this:

"John, I don't agree with everything you say, but there is no denying you have a ton of experience and a number of important points to consider.  The American people can't afford another President who surrounds himself with "yes men" like our current President, George Bush, so I'm going to propose something not done since Lincoln, right here and right now.  When I am President, I am going to ask you to be in the room with me for every decision my administration makes on foreign policy.  I will ultimately decide our nation's course of action, but your input will be heard at the highest levels of my administration.  You will be doing your country a tremendous patriotic duty by accepting the position of Chief Foreign Policy Advisor when I am elected President of the United States in November, and I am certain the American people will sleep better knowing that their concerns are well represented in the Oval Office.  Will you accept this position when I win?"

Done.

Game, set, match, Obama.

Why do I say this?

1)  Well, it's a dead heat right now because the Democrat and Republican base just cancel each other out, and this election is going to be won by the independents.

2)  Independent voters are made up of the 5 D's:  The Disengaged (24%), The Disguised Partisans (24%), The Disillusioned (18%), The Deliberators (18%), and The Dislocated (16%).  A statement like the one above would absolutely invigorate people who are sick of politicians who think and act according to whether there is a "D" or an "R" in front of their name.  With one fail swoop, a large percentage of the disengaged become engaged, the disillusioned illusioned, and the rest might just wake up and notice a President who actually WANTS someone in his inner circle to disagree with him while deliberating on major decisions.

3)  Obama would make McCain look like a sore loser and unpatriotic if he said no.

4)  Obama would be putting his actions behind his words when he says he wants to "reach across the aisle" to unite Washington.

5)  Obama would neutralize the one area where McCain holds a discernable lead over him - foreign policy.

6)  Lincoln did it.

7)  It worked on The West Wing.

8)  It would be the only thing talked about after the debate.

(Now of course I hope that Obama also gets guys like Fareed Zakaria in the room with him as well, but that's for another post.)

So that's it. 

Can someone get me Barrack's email address?    

The Ice Box Business Model

I once had a business partner who was very fond of the saying "companies need to know the difference between what it is they MAKE vs. what it is they DO."  His example was that if your company just MADE iceboxes at the turn of the century, then it would be completely natural for you to resist the demand for you to start MAKING a refrigerator. 

"But what if your company was in the business of FOOD PRESERVATION", he would ask?

(The answer of course, is that not only would you welcome the fridge into the industry with open arms....you likely would have already been working on it....:)

I've used that analogy often when thinking about some of the industries that are in flux these days - specifically the music and film industries.  

Music's issues have been well publicized - the monumental decline in record company revenues, album sales, digital copyright lawsuits, and on and on and on.  But I found an article in Harvard Business that I think offers a healthy dose of perspective.  Here are one of the more interesting quotes:

"In the several thousand years of human history before Mr. Edison invented record music, if a harpsichord player wanted to make money, he either performed, sold sheet music, or found a prince to support him. Royalties came from royalty, and that was that.  All that has come since -- the wax cylinder, the LP, the 45, the reel-to-reel, the 8-Track, the cassette tape, CD, the MP1, 2 and 3, the iPod, the Zune, the ringtone, the DMCA, entertainment lawyers, David Geffen and Menudo -- have happened in the last 141 years. And most of that in the past 40. But it's the last decade that's seen the erosion of all. The lawyers were able to knock out digital copying's first appearance in Napster, but BitTorrent and the simple fact that a digital file is impossible to stop from being copied (without preventing its use) has meant that songs are turning into a commodity -- at best. At worst, it may be the end of selling recorded music as a standalone product."

See to me, the music industry has been focused too much on what they've been MAKING (ie: CD's, LP's, cassettes, iTunes) - and too little on what it is that music DOES.  (ie: creates emotional experiences to share with others.)  That same article goes on to talk about a return to live music, and making money off the kinds of experiences you can't commoditize.

I would argue the same thing is happening with the film industry.  As more and more people want to watch films on their iPod and their headrests instead of going to a theatre, I think filmmakers have to embrace what it is they DO (ie: create emotional experiences to share with others), and focus less on what they MAKE (ie: 90 minute films to be packaged and shipped to distributors). 

That's pretty difficult when business models haven't been established yet for the new way of doing things, but it's also pretty unavoidable.

So what about you and your industry?

What is it that you MAKE, and what is it that you really DO?

 
 



 

The Great Use for Life...

....is to spend it on something that will outlast it.

- William James

(Couldn't resist...love that one.)

Gmail Down - Alert the Media

So the Olympics are in full swing, there is a war in Iraq, one of the most important elections in the history of the Western Hemisphere is about to take place, Russia just invaded it's neighbor, there is a global financial crisis, they just found water on Mars, and my Gmail went down today for a couple hours. 

Which of these stories should make the front page?

Yep - you guessed it. 

My Gmail went down for a couple of hours today, and it was front page news.

It sounded a little strange and out of place to me, until I really thought about how unbelievably critical sites like Gmail, Facebook, and the Internet as a whole are to our lives.  The sheer volume of attachments, pictures, correspondence, and contacts that are in the sky, completely out of our control just boggles my mind sometimes.

 

Greatest Website Intro of All Time

I'm not sure there's even a close second.

Check out Toronto company One Method's intro to their company.

I'll be back to blogging when I pick my jaw off the floor.

The S.S. Mike Tyson

Gotta love government contractors.

Specifically Naval ones.

Even more specifically, Naval ones that push their projects through US Congress under false, misleading, or just plain dumb pretenses.

Case in point: at what point in the building of a $5 billion dollar aircraft carrier should it occur to you that you may want to give the defense systems a whirl, and see if they actually work?

I don't think we've seen anything so strong, yet so unable to take a punch since Tyson.

Put This Where the Sun Don't Shine

Actually, that's WHEN the sun don't shine. 

Looks like MIT researchers have made a major breakthrough in the field of solar energy, and are saying it has the potential to make massive impacts on the way we live.   

The breakthrough?

Being able to store energy when the sun isn't shining.

(Now why didn't I think of that?)