Thursday, August 28, 2008

Yayo/NVCCF Flyer & "Spot That Never Was" :)



The NVCCF/Yayo charity event is on for tonight. Above is the final format of the flyer that Pattie designed. We ran off several color versions and some B/W ones as well, to be distributed by various helpful organizations in anticipation of the event.

Here's a lighthearted promo for the event tonight. We were considering putting together a real spot, but the local Vegas stations didn't sign off on it. But I had some dead time this morning, and creative impulse, if that is the term under the circumstances, conquered all. :) Not up to the standards of our other video work (I hasten to point out), but those of you nostalgic for the days of 1970's "independent" broadcast television stations may find yourself making favorable comparisons with the spots they used to air advertising, e.g., grocery chains disproportionately intent on letting you know that the one-pound bag of their house brand flour was eleven cents off during the week in question.

NVCCF/Yayo Promo Spot

Friday, August 15, 2008

SINdustry CITY at the New Media Expo

This week's entertainment for our staff is the New Media Expo at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The Expo consists of several presentations by various technical people and several dozen exhibitors' booths, all related to podcasting, vodcasting, and similar efforts.

The attendees seem to be initiates in the world of personal branding, if the "company affiliations" on their name tags are any indication. The exhibitors have anticipated this by offering small-scale audio and video production equipment, all suitable to getting one's personal content off the ground and on the Web. Audio and video are both substantially represented.

A small convention, taking up only a corner of the Convention Center's North Hall, but it is informative nonetheless. Apparently there are people enthusiastic enough about what we used to call "Internet radio" and "Internet video," back when we began our first audio broadcast on the Live365 site in 2001, to travel to Las Vegas to hear more in person about the matter. (Or are they just using it as an excuse to visit? >:) )

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

SINdustry CITY does Wrap Party June 2008

The Wrap Party for June was on the 26th. It was held at Torino's, at 5570 West Flamingo, as usual, masterminded by Rusty Meyers, as usual. The Wrap Party consists of an hour or two of cocktails and informal chat in Torino's bar area and an hour or two in Torino's "screening room" viewing videos by and featuring attendees followed by more structured introductions and sharing of news tidbits by attendees. I call the first half of the soiree the "booze and shmooze" portion of the evening and the latter half the "screen and shout-out" portion.

I announced to a surprising amont of interest that Sindustry City is pursuing a contract linking a children's charity and a local restaurant (names withheld until more specific details are known). We will likely need at least some help from videographers, on-camera talent, and writers. The assembled throng was in general pleased by the news and was very diligent in supplying me with leads.

I collected some nice business cards at this month's event. My policy is that if you have a business card, it's okay to mention you and your URL (but not your telephone number or email) in the blog, whereas if you send me your contact information only afterwards, you prefer unless you state otherwise I be discreet about sharing your information in such a manner (i.e. you want it to be known only with your approval on a case basis and not placed on a blog visible to the whole business world and with a saucy URL to boot). Cards of the month were as follows:

Jeremy A. Settles, Producer, Gotfilms ("A Motion Picture Production Company"). Jeremy spent some time with me talking about the future of the film industry in Vegas and how to achieve economies of scale by allowing creative and technical partners involved in various aspects of production to work together more efficiently.

Rosemary Rock (no URL; if you want her telephone number, let me know and I'll see if she'll sign off on it), an actress who introduced herself by asking if I was hiring older on-camera people and seemed mildly annoyed when I asked her if she knew of any older people. Flattery may get you everywhere, but it gets me labelled as an idiot. Rosemary lives in Las Vegas.

Quanyin Colton. Quanyin is a member of the Screen Actors' Guild (unless the SAG on her card stands for something more decrepit). She is also, she says, a dealer in a casino in town and has a photo on her card of herself in uniform by a roulette table, either to show how convincing she is in the role or in an attempt to document the claim.

Jack Daniel Jenkins. Jack is with Jack It Up FX in Vegas. He does compositing and other visual effects. I saw his demo reel at the meeting, and he has clearly been at it for a while and has access to some very nice equipment.

Joshua A. Cohen. Joshua is with Cohencidence Productions. Some of Joshua's work was shown during the screening. He does screenwriting and some other things; I spoke with him about his rates after the screening was over.

A word about the charity event: the most I can tell you at this without feeling uncomfortable is that it will be tied into the resumption of classes at UNLV this fall. The staff of SINdustry CITY will be contributing its time and effort without compensation for the project. The manner and extent of compensation for whomever we retain on this project is up in the air, largely subject to the specific needs of the charitable organization and the restaurant in question. We will keep you posted. Look for updates right here on SINdustry CITY's blog!

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

SINdustry CITY visits the Yummy Low Country

June's Vegas 4 Locals meeting was held Thursday June 19 at Louis's Fish Camp in Town Square on Las Vegas Boulevard. The Fish Camp is one of two restaurants bearing Louis's name; apparently the "Fish Camp" qualifier means to indicate it is the more colloquial of the two. (Southeastern style with a concentration in matters New Orleans, mint juleps a specialty, two bars, and a three-hour happy hour. "Laissez le bon temps &c," it seemed to say.)

A crowd of approximately 1000 was in attendance. (OK, it's approximate. Sue us.) Tom Wilkinson did his usual good job of bringing off the whole networking opportunity nicely, and Ty Ku and Snow Queen provided complimentary liquor at the rear bar that some thoughtful patrons (modesty forbids) liberally supplemented by ordering other spirits in stock, allowing Louis and his stockholders to make a little money on the whole deal.

This round of the monthly informal gathering of businesspeople featured a band called BluesStorm. They were a four-piece that played classic rock covers and had those present dancing openly as soon as they became sufficiently loosened up. Our staff declined invitations to participate, however. Most of the conversation was in the front of the store, but we staked out a table in front of the band and let the party (or at least the dance party) come to us.

Waiters came around with complimentary fishy hors d'oeuvres including deep-fried alligator with authentic Texas Pete hot sauce (product of the TW Garner Food Company of Winston-Salem, NC). Our waitress, Jackie, was another Chicago native who had moved to Las Vegas (we seem to be averaging one per event lately) who expressed righteous indignation at our having been refused the name of the well whiskey on our last visit to the Palms: "It's not like it's vodka!"

Attendees were handed out coupons for prize drawings in between sets by the band. Selecting the (random) winners were the "CB Girls" of Callback Magazine. The "winners" of the prizes were required to be in attendance at the drawing, and several prizes had to be reallocated when holders of the lucky numbers were unluckily absent. (One member of our crack staff had a ticket that was one number off from an absent "winner's" ticket, but the CB Girls were unimpressed by our claims that such ordinal proximity dictated that the prize be awarded to her instead. Well, this is Vegas, and it comes as no surprise when one cannot beat the house.)

The party was still going at the obscene hour of 8:30 P.M. when we left. Some people just don't have to get up in the morning, I guess.

Sunday, June 1, 2008

SINdustry CITY "Wrap" with the Local Talent at Torino's!

Elements of our staff attended the “Wrap Party” meet-and-greet on 29 MAY 2008. The Wrap Party is held the last Thursday of each month. Anyone affiliated with film, TV, video, and related fields may attend, and they don’t seem especially picky about how “related” your work needs to be: they weren’t exactly checking union cards or anything. The function was held at Torino’s, which is at 5570 West Flamingo.

May’s meeting fell on the eve of the 48-hour film challenge (which SINdustry City is avoiding this year due to a morass of other exciting developments that we couldn’t weasel out of). There were a lot of nice people there, some of whom are listed below:

Amanda, who is a statistician who got her M.S. at the University of Houston and is working for a casino in Vegas (author declines to mention which one to avoid complications). Amanda was at the meeting because she is pursuing opportunities for on-camera talent.

Ryan Harrison, who doubles as a videographer and on-camera personality, although he is overly modest about the latter. One of Ryan’s short films was shown to those assembled.

Mike, who is an actor but does not have a business card. Mike did share some tips with me and several others in an informal conversational group about how to cry on cue, possibly the hardest skill an actor has to master (aside, one would guess, from getting out of doing one’s own stunts).

Arvetta Nolan, a manager at Dream Casting in Las Vegas, (dream-casting.com), and Ott Ashton, also with Dream Casting. Our operative met with Arvetta only briefly. Ott mentioned that he had been stationed at Ft. Benning, GA, while in the military and had also appeared in Rush Hour 2; he can tell you about it when you see him.

Athena, who is a receptionist at Dream Casting and who still hits despite being 23 years old.

Guy Chapman, one of whose short films was shown. Guy has several acting credits on the Internet Movie Database and does videography/filmmaking as well, obviously.

Polo Amaro, who is a videographer, and who also sells real estate.

William Fern Shaw, who does on-screen work and writes.

Shannon, who described herself as “talent.” Shannon still has her Chicago area code on her cell phone. Those assembled wondered aloud why she hadn’t switched to (702), but Shannon stayed true to her Midwestern roots and conducted herself admirably in other respects as well.

Free alcohol was not forthcoming. Torino’s offered Pabst Blue Ribbon for $2, and a “well” (as opposed to “call” (really, how long have you lived in Vegas?)) whiskey and soda was obtained by one of our researchers for $4.50. The researcher limited the sample size to two (2), especially since Athena was giving him hell for “slurring.” Sure he was, Athena.

The staff is looking forward to next month’s meeting. Not everyone present is mentioned above, but everyone who provided a business card is (strong hint, strong hint). Also, a bit more information about the organizers might be forthcoming if we get motivated.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Old SINdustry CITY Meets New!

We had a great time at our second Vegas4Locals event. Casa di Amore was total old-school Vegas, classic! The pictures on the wall tell a history of cool. Doug Michaels set the mood with “lounge entertainment” (you know the type, good enough to pay attention and enjoy, background enough that the cocktail party isn’t disturbed). Kathleen D’Esposito was a gracious hostess and fun to talk to as well.

Seth Grabel, local magician extraordinaire, walked around doing magic with film crew in tow. We were impressed: tricks in such close spaces are hard to pull off.

The set-up and atmostphere made networking easy (definitely easier than last month at the Pink Taco). We met Yvette Brown of Vegas VIP Hottie Hosting (a concierge service), Edwina Carabajal of Las Vegas Homes for Rent Magazine, Clint Montgomerty of Montgomery Media Productions, Shirley Mulvihill of Mountain View Mortgage Company, Daniel Braisted of Business Cards & More.

BTW, Daniel was a reminder of how small a world Vegas can be. Along with promoting his business, he was passing out flyers for The Airport Center office building. Our good friend and long-time client, Dion Brosan, manages the Airport Center, so we would be amiss if we didn’t mention them!

All in all, it was a great evening of good food and drink and good company. Tom Wilkinson pulled off another great evening for locals!

Oh yeah, and congrats to Kathleen D’Esposito for correctly identifying all the points of interest on our logo and winning a SINdustry CITY Tee!

Friday, April 25, 2008

SINdustry Freedom

So last night we had a great time at the Pink Taco in the Hard Rock Casino. Tom Wilkinson (no, we are not making his name up out our two last names, but it makes it easy to remember!) hosts these networking events to promote his website, Vegas4Locals.com. That was a wonderful idea because, frankly, we never would have found his website if he hadn't offered us free margaritas! One of the great things about living in Vegas is the free stuff.

We investigated his website this morning (only a little foggy from the margaritas). It is well worth the visit: Two of our favorite things -- freebies and coupons -- along with some valuable info on things to do in Vegas and things about Vegas that rock!

This was our second networking event. Last month we went to a St. Pattie's Day party at the Hard Rock Cafe (the other building at the Hard Rock), hosted by another cool website, The LINK, hosted by Joel Jarvis, which is dedicated to providing the most comprehensive Las Vegas Networking Calendar he can muster.

At the St. Pattie's Day party, we met Andrea Dixon, Executive Meeting Manager at the Platinum Hotel, Lounge and Spa and cat diva extraordinaire. We, of course, love cat people and especially cat people who take in disabled cats like our little Anawim.

We ran into Andrea again last night and had a great discussion about the Las Vegas business culture. We concluded unanimously that the best thing about doing business in Vegas is that it is straightforward. You don't have to pretend to be something you're not in order to achieve your goals. The toleration of all sorts of businesses and the understanding that businesses, like people, are diverse and serve many different markets, creates an atmosphere that accepts making money as a natural goal for one's activities. You don't have to pretend that you don't want to make money in order to make money.

This freedom is why we decided to start a blog about our SINdustry CITY. There is so much more to Las Vegas than casinos. We plan to explore it!

Two more evening events of mention:

1. Congratulations to Brooke Siebel who won our makeshift, on-the-spot contest to see who could name all the buildings represented on the SINdustry CITY logo. We are sending her a SINdustry CITY t-shirt from our SINdustry CITY Gift Shop (modeled here by our own Carl Wilkerson). Now that we figured out how much fun it is to have people stare at our chests and name the strip, we are thinking about playing similar games at each event we attend. More on that as it develops.

2. And finally, the highlight of the evening: Pattie played "Casino War" for money! Okay, with non-negotiable chips offered by the casino as a promotion. But it was fun!

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Welcome to SINdustry City -- Vegas BABY!

We have a simple mission: Have fun doing business.

Want to join in the fun?

Stick around.