http://www.markbishopmedia.com

I’ve got a full site now….please direct yourself to http://www.markbishopmedia.com

The World is a Big Place. Media Makes it Smaller.

When we are feeling lost or lonely, ofte the media that we gravitate towards will help us through or push us over the edge. As media professional and general consumers of media, we have a responsibility not to misuse the power of the media.

In 1999, we saw the rise of The Blair Witch Project. This small film used the media to its advantage in its marketing campaign.

“In October 1994, three student filmmakers disappeared in the woods near Burkittsville, Maryland, while shooting a documentary…

A year later their footage was found. “

It has been reported that the film cost anywhere between $25,000 to $350,000 to make and in its first week grossed an estimated $28.5 million and as of August 12, 1999 had grossed $92.4 million. Even at the high end of $350,000, Blair Witch is one of the most profitable films of all time.

Social Media is very similar to the marketing campaign of The Blair Witch Project. It is the word of mouth phenomena that propels the message through various web sites that have been linked together by the web site designers AND the consumer with several accounts.

Facebook had 300 million registered users in October 2009 of which, 97 million users are active. Twitter has 85 million registerd and 27 million active users.

If someone wants to spread the word, it will not take long with Social Media, especially if it is a topic that resonates with the viewers.

I dare say that if people do not embrace the web, the mobile revolution, the media, tv or computers, they will be left behind.

They will be left out of events…they will lose fans, they will not know about important events, they will not be involved in the network that we are coming to lean on. They will not be part of the Matrix. They will get left behind.

Interdependance vs Independence. Can you do everything alone? I don’t think so. Groups that connect, are part of a network often flourish.

The world is a big place. Media makes it smaller.

Top 10 Under-Rated Actors

Top 10 Under-rated Actors

1. Michael C. Hall
2. Polly Shannon
3. Courtney Love
4. Vincent D’Onofrio
5. Giovanni Ribisi
6. Ray Liotta
7. Jason Patric
8. Terence Stamp
9. Val Kilmer
10. Sarah Polley

Top 10 TV Shows of 2009

Top 10 TV Shows of 2009
1. Dexter
2. Nip / Tuck
3. Design Inc.
4. True Blood
5. Criminal Minds
6. CSI
7. Heroes
8. Two and a Half Men
9. Law & Order: SVU
10. MMA Connected

Top 10 Movies of 2009

Top 10 Movies of 2009
1. District 9
2. Sherlock Holmes
3. Avatar
4. Inglorious Bastards
5. Transformers 2 – Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
6. The Hangover
7. Julie & Julia
8. Angels & Demons
9. The Animated Movie – 9
10. Terminator Salvation

Honorable Mentions:
Taking of Pelman 123, Bruno, I Love You, Man, Star Trek

Yet to see:
Ninja Assassin, Up, Public Enemies, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, GForce, The Orphan, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, The Final Destination, Halloween 2 (H2), Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Good for teens:
Twilight New Moon

Worst Movie of the Year:
Drag Me To Hell

Organized computer for Designing Web Sites

I spent the entire day creating a new menu for the client’s site. It is very sharp looking and brings some animation and movement, color to the site. This should combat any complaints he had for the site. I also got rid of the gradient background and messed around with the css and header.php files….and colored a bunch of things. It was a tough time getting things to end up in the right spot but I think it worked out.

We went for Mexican food in Steveston. Excellent food.

Oh yeah…I better mention that Sijia designed the graphics for the menu or else I will never hear the end of it. She did a great job. I had to resize them to fit the actual menu, but that was nothing to do in Photoshop. It is really important to have your computer set up to open PHP files, images, logins, passwords, images, plugins, themes, access email….all things that will keep the flow going. You have to work fast or else you will lose the idea and become frustrated.

All this work on other people’s sites mean I should actually get my own domain name for my own site and spruce this blog up a bit. I guess I’ll get to that in the coming days.

I attempted to get into some music but my mind was somewhere else so I submitted. I’ll try again another day. The beautiful thing about computerized music is I can come back to it at any time and even if I forgot how to play, the stuff is still there. Doesn’t make for great performances, but that is entirely different from writing music….my main focus.

Turning a Free WordPress site to a Hosted site.

Today I spent time turning Tess Fitness Blog into a hosted site.

First thing….I exported all the posts from TessFitnessBlog.wordpress.com and saved them to my hard drive in the folder for Tess’s Blog. This is where I have been keeping all her media files, wordpress themes, plugins, etc in anticipation of her getting a paid site.

I copied all the wordpress files into a subdirectory so that I could import her blogs and away we went. But NO….the database thingy did not work. I was on the phone to godaddy.com. They are pretty good….great support.

They pointed me towards a page that uploads all the wordpress files and sets it up for the username and password that I want in in the folder I wanted. It was sooo easy!

I came back later and it was all working. I proceeded to upload the themes for the site…in this case thesis…and then all the plugins that I had been saving for her. I also looked for ones so that she could post from her iphone…but I think an application from the apple store for her phone would be best. Hard for me to test this without having an iphone.

Speaking of which….browsed the Apple store yesterday and their clean designs sure makes me want an iphone and a Mac.

Finally got to see Avatar! Pretty cool show. Watch for my Top 10 Movies.

Got an email from the client that I had. I had so many problems with someone else’s designs that I decided to back the site up, start from scratch and try a new theme. This meant that I didn’t have much time into the actual site, but that is alright. At least I know where things are supposed to go now and I can build it without it starting to look all crazy on me. The client wasn’t very happy but I knew that I had more things in mind for the site and told him that. He backed off a bit and decided to find out what I had up my sleeve. Really, though, he is getting way more than he bargained for because he really had no layout of what he wanted the site to look like. He had no idea of the framework that he wanted for his site. He went on to tell me that he himself had designed 5 sites since we met last week. I’d bet those sites are not even close to looking great or working 100%. I’d also bet he was the guy that messed up this site in the first place. I’m holding my ground. What I’ve designed looks great.

A good design is a simple design.

We acquired TessFitness.com today for Tess after she got her wisdom teeth taken out. I finally got all my sites pointing the right way….a few calls to the domain company before this worked. At least I know what to do now.

I’m not afraid to say that I had trouble with the domains. It was not the best, easiest to understand setup. I can teach people in layman’s terms….and people who have never put a web site up appreciate that.

A good design is a simple design.

The simpler…the better. That is why Apple works….why most companies with great design are as great as they are.

I also acquired the latest client that I spoke of. It will be a complete makeover of a high school student’s work. Looking at his work, I can tell you there were some navigation problems. Decent stuff, but not a very appealing site….and he complicated the navigation and created way too many pages for the viewer to go through.

Enough about me…what do you think of my blog? – Top 10 Reasons why Canada should have got the Gold Medal.

Yes, yes….enough about me.  I’ve done this and I’ve done that….  No one has criticized me just yet, but my blog has been a bit self-indulgent lately and even I’m bored with it.  Well, I’ve found some ways to spice it up.  I’ve found ways to write better.

I’m still designing for the client.  It is taking forever!  Looks like Sijia picked up 4 more web sites and I might have picked up 1-2.  I got a few minutes to add some technologies to my own web sites and get them up.  No clients will hire me if my own site sucks.  It is coming along but the entire design will be awhile longer.  The new technologies slow down my site considerably so I will have to pick and choose which ones will really work for my site and which ones won’t.

I will now attempt to do a Top 10 Reasons why Canada should have won the World Junior Hockey Gold medal and not the Americans:

10.  The Americans barely knew how to say thank you to the people giving out the awards.  Our Canadian boys would have been so polite.

9. The Canadians were born with hockey sticks in their hands.  When the medals were handed out, they all kept their gear on….but not the Americans.  Their gear was all over the place.

8. The Americans got lucky.  I mean, really….how many ice rinks in Las Vegas?

7. The Canadians would have had that Gold Medal in their mouth, biting it to show it was real.  Not one American did that.

6.  No one in the States cares about hockey like Canadians do.  Those American kids will only ever be disliked in Canada and forgotten in the States.

5. It makes for better classic hockey history when Canada comes back to win the Gold.

4. All of the American goals were lucky and not very skill oriented.

3. Home ice advantage…home crowd…..

2. Anyone that went to Saskatchewan to watch hockey deserves to see Canada win the Gold.

1. Jordan Eberle.   Jordan Eberle.  Jordan Eberle.  Somebody sign this kid to the NHL!

Well there you have it….Top 10 post.  One way to spice up my postings.  Hope you like it.

TV Shows – Nip/Tuck, Dexter, My Shows

We got around to watching a new episode of Nip/Tuck.  Great series, but I’m really hoping that something new happens with the lead characters.  Sean and Christian are constantly back and forth with one another and it is getting boring.  It seems Christian has gotten the decorator preggers and his current wife is no longer able to conceive because of his appetite for sex. 

I really want to know about their son Matt (long story).  What a mess he is.  And Matt’s sister…..and Julia….Matt’s mother & Sean’s ex-wife.  They all have stories there…..that haven’t been touched in awhile.

God would that ever be a great show to act on!  I’m writing my own show, of course…..and I’m really liking the whole drama aspect of shows….not just the facts. 

Of course, I did have to watch Dexter’s entire 4 seasons.  It has been great so far and I hear there will be more in September.  Originally, my tv series had the same concept as Dexter.  I heard that Dexter had the idea and so I thought of new ideas, then watched it to be sure that my ideas were different enough from Dexter.  I think they are….but of course I can’t tell anyone yet what the concept is. 

I’ve told people my ideas in the past and have watched while those concepts were used in other shows.  The idea of a celebrity judge was pitched by me to a Hollywood TV producer before American Idol came along in another show that has never been made.  I pitched to MTV in LA. 

I pitched to Life Network the following year with another series.  This series idea wasn’t strong enough to have legs….and maybe I’ll re-invent it and relaunch it.  I’m certainly in a stronger position now to launch this now that I’ve got some contacts.  I’ve also since taken a great Producing Course at Vancouver Film School.

It is years later and I’m wiser, more prepared and going to take a good run at it to get my media projects off of the ground this year.  I’m 2 weeks in and things are already coming along nicely.  It isn’t without work, but it is a joy to work on things that I have passion about.