State certified

Yesterday I completed the Home Health Care training class. So now I’m a state certified home care giver & could go and get a 20 per hr job in the healthcare industry. But am going to have to fight to get any state compensation so I can stay home and take care of my own. How ironic

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Toilet seat dilemma

Here’s an issue I never though of and believe it not a problem easily fixed at my local big box store. Turns out a big issue for the elderly (especially those with macular degeneration) is bathrooms tend to be brightly lit and most of the time, white (Mom’s bathroom falls into this simple over sight in my case in order to help with cleaning/habit; she always had white bathrooms – thinking it’s a Marine thing) there fore blurring the lines between floor, toilet & seat. Which in elderly men can add to the frustrations of normal everyday activities (or at least a good excuse;)) leading to peeing in the sink. In women helps with unneeded stress and accidents as well. Easy right… nope

Watch “Walking with Mom” Vlog post on YouTube

Hi all, been awhile but wanted to share Walking with Mom: https://youtu.be/JxI9ct2SDGY

Hydro heat test

Had to paint the clear tub to stop algae of coarse but this time thought I’d go silver instead of black.  To help reflect the heat instead of absorbing it to hopefully help reduce the water’s heat factor

Had a bright idea and added Mylar to the lid to both reflect heat & bounce some light up. Wish me luck
More to come…

Hydro experimentation redux

Ok so the melon experiment turned negative & the attempt to clone the torn of plenty failed so trying again with a cpl pepper plants and a Blackcherry tomato. Shot still so will do a more in-depth posting and maybe a video.  More to come…

Imagine that another setback

Hi all and sorry to have seemingly disappeared just after vowing to ramp up production. Well tried to stop Mom’s cat from shooting out the front door ( since moving her down I’ve done all I could to make him an in door cat) and to keep it short, broke or significantly sprained or torn something

since it’s taken to now to use my hand enough to even care about posting even this update. Since thou wanting to curl up & get better still had to help Mom and even managed to put up railings in her room to help her get around. But that’s a different post. Will have New content on the YouTube ch as well as more posting very soon. 
Anyway that’s my update for now. Please stay tuned

Micro Movie Model explained

If you have seen any of my short pieces on YouTube or read some of my twitter posts you might have noticed I often mention or refer to Micro Movies and or Digital Bytes. Simply said it’s a recategorizing, redefining or a rebranding (to use the business buzz word) of the term short  for the new delivery system available (new meaning enough people with fast enough internet connections to allow uninterrupted viewing of video media) and of coarse shortening attention spans. The old definition of “the short” in our world was as a student film or an example of a movie concept, scene or taste of a directors/writers idea. Digital Bytes and Micro Movies are capsulized pieces in the form of a scene or couple scenes to form a full idea or moment in time. Resulting in break time movies, waiting room movies, stuck in line movies I.E the Micro Movie or as described by the Orlando Green Room as a filmmakers version of a one liner (in the case of the Digital Byte).
This is not just a re-branding for personal interest but and important shift as I see it #imho scents just from a festive stand point a 1:30 piece has little chance again a 30 minute or in most case up to an hour long piece before moved from the short category to the feature. Other than festivals designed for shorter form content (and then there still is little time break down in most cases) most festivals short categories goes from 0 to 60 minutes. But as more shift to the net for their viewing pleasure there will be more shorter form content whether entertainment, information or ad and the categories will have to reorganize, redefine and re-describe the content offering.  If these are recognized in their new form/format they can be taken as serious entertainment & advertisement vehicles making them equally monetizable giving true independence to the Indy media creator
The breakdown as I see it;
* Digital Byte = 0 to 3 minutes
* Micro Movie = 3 minutes to 12 to 15 minutes
* Short Form Feature = 15 minutes to 1 hour
* Feature = 1 hour up
Example of a byte “Hellraiser Lost Budget
Example of a Micro “The 9”

Solar State Plan proposal

2007 there was a call out by then new Governor Charlie Crist to all with any alternative energy ideas to submit. Though this is not my area an idea came to mind and flowed onto paper unusually easy. So after asking a few respected friends to critique it I was told overwhelmingly to submit. To my surprise I received several calls from Mr. Crist’s office of how interesting the idea was and that it was being sent to their new committee and I would soon hear back. That’s where it ended no word after or taken or returned calls. So I put it aside as a nice idea that would work but without the resources it is no more than that “a good idea” and an idea with no action is worth nothing. Then while listening to WKFI out of LA I heard a cpl commercials for compaies doing dam near what I had proposed so even though I can do nothing but watch I though I would share my idea of the Solar State Plan:
Solar State Plan
Project proposal outline
D.Thomas Laskowski 11/22/07

We must act now! Florida is the Sunshine State. We should be known as the Solar State. We are known for our tourism and lately for issues like immigration, hurricanes and voting problems. Wouldn’t it be nice to be known for innovation by finding alternative ways to help with the rising cost of electricity? Without removing from the grid we can help the power companies better serve their customers. As power costs drop consumers can better handle gas prices rising. Alternative energy sources can help power companies can handle increasing peak load times. As we all know when things get cheaper American’s spend more and use more. The power companies will not only accept these changes, but help when they understand our plans will relieve ever increasing power demands. We can also use their help with regulation, adding alternative streams revenue to their services.

To our state (or any other states we help with this plan) we gain, by bringing good quality jobs to our area which may help overcome some of the fears of depression the media is starting to speak of. Our power grid is strained, antiquated and in need of help to keep up with demand. As stated before American’s will feel less strained paying more for gas if they are only paying a small amount for electricity. Also as with the early gas dip (right before it shot up) as soon as gas seemed abundant we used more, the same effect will happen with electricity.

Phase one
Farm/utility:
• Use land that has water problems or center of orchards such as orange. Put in solar farm and generate pure power.
• Use existing land that has no or little residence or commercial value. End of runways (out of crash path), swampy area’s and utility right of ways such as: towers, side of roads and large high voltage power line paths. While utilizing current infrastructure and a little re-engineering this would help bring cost down.

Phase Two
Industrial:
Make deals with manufacturing plants, malls, warehouses and other large structures to place solar and wind on roofs. They can charge their customers for power and collect the extra creating another source of revenue. The Orange County Civic Centers new solar project is a nice model to help understand the feasibility of this.

Phase Three
Residential:
Go to private residents, condo associations and home owner associations, offer the ability to avoid the high cost of solar/wind by installing a system that’s more than the house needs. They pay a small monthly fee (say half their regular power bill) giving them the middle of their average power consumption. If they go over they will get a bill for the overage. Or with equity participation they can also earn for the overage sent back to the power company.

The Horrible Tale of Mom’s Alright

What started as a plan to do a Micro Movie to add to the list while venting a frustration of how my otherwise tough mom was taken advantage of. The twisted little tale/screen revenge I created inspired by our love of mystery, dark humor as well as horror writers like Stephen King and Clive Barker has turned into it’s own little horror story. The end twist a tad of Twilight Zone
1st was the attempt to gather the funds to do it as a 9 to 12 min piece and do it right. Doing my due diligents and other than following the 1st rule (build a team) I thought I was ready, created/ordered a couple nice perks(100 dog tags with mom on one side and the DigitalReel logo on the other + 50 custom 2 sided DigitalReel coins)launched a nice little Indiegogo campaign. Worked my social to the best of my abilities, created some print pieces(check out earlier post titled “Mom’s first press”)sent them to a couple different states and to a couple different people I knew would not let me down (did they, never found out but from the amount of visits I would say there wasn’t an exerted attempt #imho). 40 days later and after only 50 some visits, 12 views of the attached video the campaign ended without even $1 contributed.
Vowing to not give up I could only blame myself. So I dug in, rewrote the script to a tighter 4 1/8’s pages so as to be more affordable on an “out of pocket” project. Mom then suggested we use the money she was to get from a research program we had signed her up for. I found this apropos, kinda like Robert Rodriguez(but at a much smaller scale)we were going to use the medical research money to fund our piece (in case the relaunch of our campaign was yet again unsuccessful)believing people should get paid for their work in hopes of attracting people devoted to similar aspirations, secondarily creating somewhat of a team. Which though feeling guilty as it wasn’t my money to spend I was bound to cast well, get the right crew and form from them (as they should have a good reason to get behind a project they were involved in and paid for) a team to socially promote the project and relaunch the campaign correctly. Then the old demons gathered to test us. First the location fell through, no problem do as a few times before and shoot at my place. Next the first makeup person couldn’t do it, then the second. So I refigured how to get around this set back. All seemed well, then a gift, an old friend I trust explicitly but lost contact with got up with me asking how could he help. All will work out fine now (I convinced myself) I now had someone to help with audio and help me think (as he out of all seems to understand how I think and how it will cut), second person watching the shot as he has the eye of a director, the other thou not worked with much I respect his intelligence/years in the business. The last two would help to make a complete crew and more than I’ve seldom had the luxury of. Night before the long lost friend was to come over pre-set, talk over and stay over to get a fresh start the next day. 1st danger sign,,, didn’t hear from him. That’s ok he’d never let me down so no worries. 2nd danger sign, Next morning still no word, call time comes and the two extra guys who I owe eternal appreciation for showing up, did. 3rd and final sign, no word from any key members of the crew and that cold chill sweep through me, my brain screams “NO NOT AGAIN”. Without someone to cover sound it would suck but I could get by, no one I felt comfortable with, with eyes on the monitor was too dangerous to me and the $ mom had entrusted in me. Hoping I was doing the right thing I called talent and canceled till I could reorganize. So here we are explanations from everyone but the most important and I can only hope it was for some reason other than accident or injury he was a no show/no call. After a bit of reflection the mental wounds are sown up and healing. I blame no one but myself for not having a secondary contingence or at least the fortitude to push through. Yet again re-planning begins since to give up would be the true waste of time…

Happy Holidays all

Thank you all who have checked out my little place on the net! Sorry it’s been a while since I posted but lots good and bad going on. I promise to share/post as well as interact more with you all in the up coming year. Since the blog is called “DigitalReel” I will be sharing more media creation stuff (love to call it filmmaking but in this world we live, as you know it’s more digital media creation with the wide variety of mixed media we run into on a regular basis), my thought’s/dreams and beliefs about the media paradigm shift we are in the midst of. How the ability to reach the world without the constraints of formal distribution has giving hope while cause a level of noise that we must now rise above, which presents both issues as well as solution for the Indy filmmaker in my humble opinion. How losing “Net Neutrality” can end it, putting us back in the back of the line. My struggles & hopefully accomplishments in creating my own pieces. My thoughts as a guerilla filmmaker as well as little tips as a guerilla without a dime that I’ve run a crossed along the way
As well as continuing to share my life taking care of my Mom in the on coming tsunami heading our way, as more of my generation take care of our parents or other loved ones overwhelms us and taxing our social security/health care system.
Sound a little intense, confusing and a bit overwhelming, well that’s me…

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a most excellent New Year!!!

Last thought to take away while opening those new presents;
Are the streaming boxes like Roku, Fire tv and chrome an awesome way to bridge the shift or a way for the big media companies to shift the cable model over to the internet giving us only what they choose to deliver and at an alacart price that will cause media viewing (including what was free broadcast for ad exchange) to sky rocket.

Take care, have a great day and a better tomorrow