Fortress Of Freedom Board
Bringing The Mass Media To The Masses!
 
 FAQ  Search  Usergroups  Memberlist  Profile  Log in to check your private messages  Register  Log in
A Social Club Of One.....
Goto page Previous  1, 2, 3 ... 302, 303, 304 ... 414, 415, 416  Next
 
Post new topic   Reply to topic    Fortress Of Freedom Board Forum Index -> Social Club
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7654
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Thu Oct 10, 2019 12:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Another quick one as I’m on the go!


I have changed the movie and series promotion image:





This is also now reflected on the website for the experiment. If the graphics are going to be on big screen TVs then I need photos with decent resolution and in .png files that scale up and down well. So that got done.



Really I’m just waiting on the closed captions which are now done by a human. I’m spending money on this so wherever this is played they will get a proper CC. Then we submit and if there are no red flags we use the same workflow for the TV shows. The shows are not 60 minutes but about 48 minutes for commercials - yes - they are real TV shows! They can go on TV! Seriously you have no idea what a relief it is to get all our videos a home and proper distribution. I can now honestly say I gave all who participated what I promised. Of course they now want more but that was always the problem we wanted to have when we started.



Later.....





https://thefortressexperiment.com
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7654
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Fri Oct 11, 2019 10:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The movie has been submitted to Amazon.....



They officially say two to four business days but the banner on the submission pages say expect delays. But don’t even count on that as the legal pages drone on and on about what you can’t have in the video that will get it rejected. You just make changes to abide by their wishes and sooner or later it gets passed. So like I spent a few hundred dollars closed captioning the movie and some woman called Jessica M did it which could be a fake name but in this industry it probably isn’t along with the last name - I expected an Indian name but I guess the nuances need to come from a North American. Anyway, the movie is 24 frames per second and if I went back to to my usual 29.97 the cc would be out of synch and they do check for this. They check for copyright and logos and external links. You can’t have video in a Quicktime wrapper and on and on.



So I submitted it and will wait out the technical decision. Most have to resubmit when they do this the first time so expect that. Then when I know what the real deal is on things I will get the series up there.


In the meantime I now have family over and so maybe, maybe I’ll do some work on the book.




Goodnight.....





https://youtu.be/-DuJd-lTyf8



https://youtu.be/ZgORW-8dCDE
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7654
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Sat Oct 12, 2019 9:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ok, that is the screen shot of a closed captioning editor.....




Closed Captioning editor



You get the original video and the embedded closed captions and the actual file feed with timecode on the right that you can edit and save and then download. I have already submitted but that is what it was like yesterday.



So we continue to wait but I don’t have to wait on everything. So I will start to work on the credits of the series programming that are fully compliant and then wait for the word, of any issues with the in the production house intro. I also need to rename some episodes. Episode one needs to be called something different than The Fortress Experiment. Maybe “Beginning the Fortress Experiment”. Another one is “Celebrating the Life and Times of Donald “Boots” Brasseur”. The rest can stay the same so we have:


The Fortress Experiment: The Series


1. Beginning the Fortress Experiment
2. The Making of AAVRY KNAPP Daze in my Life
3. Twenty6Hundred
4. Real Life
5. Celebrating the Life and Times of Donald “Boots” Brasseur
6. FOFSTOCK
7. The Free Press
8. Epilogue


I can live with that. So we have eight documentaries about the experiment. I’ll put up the two original SD shows that aired on Global TV and CTV which are:

The Fortress TV Show
The Life and Times of Donald “Boots” Brasseur


And of course the feature length documentary movie and the short that premiered at the Royal Cinema nine months ago:


The Fortress Experiment

Real Life: Real Lives




So two movies and ten TV shows. The variety show get nixed even though it is funny for many reasons but mostly because it isn’t a documentary so it is out of place here. And that is the plan and we will subtitle for different languages and expand the reach of the material. Like I said before, it is a relief more than anything else to get this material out there on a commercial platform. So we have taken our material down all the usual stages of production and distribution. Everyone gets their fifteen minutes of fame and probably a bit of legacy too. So getting proper distribution was a big deal to me. More than the stuff at the World Bank and UN. I get to clear out some long standing obligations to my gang. And all that work making the show was not wasted in the end. It all gets out there!





Goodnight.....





https://youtu.be/XE2051n3O-I
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7654
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Sun Oct 13, 2019 8:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Real Life: Real Lives short has been submitted to Amazon.....




Real Life: Real Lives Poster!



So why Amazon? That entire streaming industry is in flux. Amazon started out making its own movies. Then like a year or two ago it would attempt to buy all featuring movies it could at the Toronto International Film Festival from a 5.8 million dollar budget which works out to about 58,000 per film. That has ended and now changed and they want all the films they can get but with full rights retained by the filmmakers. This works for me and a lot of other indie folk.



If it were just about the money TVO was interested in Don Brasseur’s material and I would have made a quick 70,000 and still held all the rest for the movie and shows; but I’m not that kind of guy and the show is the show! For me after spending 140,000 (200,000 before taxes), 58,000 would not cut it to give up rights to material that spans 16 years. I need control and I only have so many active years left, but the current Amazon arrangement works for me. If the positive mandate idea takes off, the video becomes public property - public domain - at my discretion whenever that happens. I don’t want any strings or restrictions attached anywhere! Only 30 days notice, that is all - and there you go.



Say I took the 58,000; now I can brag to a handful of folk that I got some money and got on Amazon. But when that funding model ended you now have guys like me on Amazon anyway, and with all rights to do with the film as we wished. I know how I’d feel now..... and that 58,000 gets taxed at FOF at 25% so it is now 44,000 and to pocket the cash personally it gets taxed again at one third to one half, so at best 29,333 and at worst 22,000 in my pocket. 22,000 - no way!



So no middleman distributors and no restrictive proprietary contracts with some of the largest businesses on earth. That is my advice to all of you. Exclusive brands are so cool one day and then lame the next, everything is fluid. The movie is yours and it’s best to keep it that way - especially in my situation..... Just ask Paul McCartney of The Beatles or find out how much he had to pay to get back his songs and the fifty years it took to do so.




Goodnight.....
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7654
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Mon Oct 14, 2019 12:57 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well we did Thanksgiving and now it is back to work.


I have all the shows lined up in the editor and will change the credits to slates from rolling credits and such and then take one quick look at the shows. I may take the humor out of the Epilogue show and play it all straight since we have some traction on the ideas internationally. But that is a minor matter that is only used to transition things, sort of like out-takes between segments. That is easily taken care of and can be done in a day. So if we get into the States and Britain we will have close to 400 million. Now Amazon has the same video set up in India and Pakistan, and if I can subtitle to Hindi and Punjabi I get one billion 400 million in India and two hundred and fifteen million In Pakistan which gives me two billion and double of my original goal for distribution.


In those markets the brown guy doing all kinds of things in North America against all odds is sure to be popular. Now the pushback is that revenues will be a quarter of what I can make in the western world. So one billion six hundred million is the same revenue from the 400 million I have going into this at this moment. That is the reality of revenue and adverting today.


So we can get some serious distribution and double revenues going to the east of all unlikely places. This really is fascinating for me as we go along, but first I have to get on the first platform with all my stuff. Then we start knocking on the doors of India and Pakistan. Hum, so like wow..... This is so funny – how things change on a dime with regard to our video productions. Nothing is certain, but we are on an adventure for sure! And if everything fails at Amazon, Netflix is also in those countries but that is a more complicated route, but the brown guy in North America and distributed in India and Pakistan “will” get me in the doors of Netflix if only for curiosity if nothing else, but I sort of know how that would go down and I have an advantage there – trust me on this.....




Donald "Boots" Brasseur with the CRTC Certification for the show needed for airing in Canada!




Certification letter for the Don Brasseur show!



Man this brings back memories - like getting the CTV contract minutes before closing on Friday and airing on Sunday..... Now that is what I call keeping your cool!




That is me with the CTV contract for More Vision Inc. which was the distributor for FOF back in 2009!



No lie on how tight that was, as seen on my Blackberry minutes from it all going bad!!


Goodnight…..
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7654
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Tue Oct 15, 2019 7:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The bulk of the work on the TV series is now done.







I will take a critical look at all the shows and then just go and send them to Amazon and see what they say. Just because you send it to them does not mean they will accept it, but if you make the corrections to the stuff they talked about you should get in. But again there are no guarantees. You get this stuff as I live it. Sure I could wait silently and if the stuff goes live make a big deal of it while playing it safe, but where is the sport in that? With me you live it along with me and if I end up with egg on my face that is the gamble you take with a blog like this.



So we look at the shows and fine tune anything that looks questionable and then make the master JEPG 2000 file and then the compressed file. If it all goes up I will be happy and one more thing done that I questioned if it would ever get done…..



I’ll add more and say that Amazon gives me the easiest and largest distribution around the world. This isn’t about money and this isn’t about bragging rights or anything superficial like that. This isn’t even about career advancement as I’m an old guy, no - this is all about getting the idea disseminated. So logically this should be a slam dunk with Amazon, but life always likes to throw you a few curve balls. Anyway we just wait and see. In the mean time I will review a show a day and get back to finishing the book and getting it out there.



Basically what I’m saying is that I’m approaching movie and TV distribution from an angle the business never really thought about - and because of that I have a chance - you can beat the devil!



Goodnight…..





https://youtu.be/cBYv2wr9co0
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7654
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Wed Oct 16, 2019 11:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I decided to employ a delay tactic and make changes to the videos to help make the movies more compliant with Amazon guidelines.....



Real Life Real Lives should be good to go but The Fortress Experiment needs another day and we resubmit. Hopefully that goes smoothly this time. I will also differentiate the series from the movie by calling it “A Positive Mandate for Humanity”. The movie is already in IMDB and through the festival circuit so it “is” The Fortress Experiment. The series is unknown so we rename that and make it easier for people interested in the concept to check out the whole story behind it - on video.



I’m mildly stressed out but got a good night’s sleep. But I have no time for myself. I’m all in on the Positive Mandate for Humanity.....



Later.....





https://youtu.be/Z3OykLz55q4
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7654
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Thu Oct 17, 2019 2:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Or the run post today.....



I was up to 4:30 in the morning editing the movie and now it’s two days for the JPEG 2000 file and two days for the rendered file. I tried quick and dirty methods but only the proper ones work, so four days of delaying tactics and excuses. The short is good to go though, so I may get a clearer idea of how anal they are about some things then but this may or may not happen before I resubmit the movie for their scrutiny.



But I can relax a bit now and get some sleep - I need it!




Later.....
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7654
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Fri Oct 18, 2019 9:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Another quickie.....



I’ll try to get an ISBN for the Positive Mandate book today. I tried early in the morning and can get into my publisher’s account but little more and no access. So I’ll try after nine and see if I can get this started.



Actually with six websites for the Positive Mandate for Humanity and the TV series by the same name and now the book and the rest of the advocacy at the United Nations – I am wondering if any one individual has every tried to do what I am trying to do on this scale that I am doing it and all on their own. Maybe I am one of the few as the access created by technology has made this happen in only the last few years, so I may be in really exclusive territory. It’s kind of cool that the guy constantly denied access to his expression is making this big play to give humanity their marching orders – try to get your head around that idea. But whatever, I am certainly giving it a go!



Closed Captioning editor


The video is still rendering that JEPG 2000 file and then we go for that large Mp4. I have to update the closed caption file for Friday and that sends the movie to the bottom of the job stack at Amazon which should give me the weekend to replace the movie file for Monday. So that is the plan for the next three days. Well you have to give the kid respect for trying this and actually getting places with the idea, I have surpassed all my previous realistic expectations. The future is still open in this way for me even though I am getting up there in age. It takes time to do things and as much as I wished I was 28 and doing this it just could not happen at the time; and then you have to add the extra 16 years to get here. That makes you 44 – But remember – I just could not do it at that age so 44 is impossible and if I did get help, then it isn’t me doing it anymore. It is what it is and it took this long because it took this long. For you girls I am probably the youngest and fittest guy you could get to make this play. The years just keep adding up. You may want that fantasy of some young guy without a wrinkle (not saying I don’t have any but surprisingly few…..) doing what I am doing (and then having the time to spend on you doing things you want to do – fantasize on). No, what you get is what you see here. That is the best you will ever get. Even I wish I was younger doing this and I constantly work the numbers in my mind. Maybe 55 as the absolutely youngest age to get where I am now. But without at least testing the marriage and family thing, that urge may have scuttled things along the way, so maybe this is the youngest purpose built person to do this. Even my childhood and education all worked for this end game. So this may be the most efficient use of a human to get a concept out there ever.....



Anyway, enough of this. I got a good night’s sleep and now I have to take a walk, sip on a mocha and get back to work. Goodnight.....




https://youtu.be/PibXC4gAd9w
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7654
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Sat Oct 19, 2019 12:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Another editing session that went almost till dawn.....



Laptop comandeered for compression work!


I ended up making the mp4 compressed file off my laptop which has an i7 processor which allowed me to get back to tweaking the show one last time. I should have just stopped and waited on the response from Amazon with regard to the version being finished as we speak, but I couldn’t resist one last edit. So I will upload the present version probably on Monday and if they don’t look at it till the tweaked version is done, then I’ll upload that and stand on that version. If you think this is anal OCD you may be right but we creative folk are perfectionists and this one got the better of me. But soon both machines will be plodding along with both versions for at least the weekend and that gives me some time to myself - finally.....




The old AVID editor today!



Goodnight.....





https://youtu.be/E_UsrsVLV80
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7654
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Sun Oct 20, 2019 11:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I’m still rendering the files of the movie…..




DVD of The Fortress Experiment!



I have been looking at John Malcovich’s movie “The Dancer Upstairs” and I like it from a purely cinematic perspective, and the best part is the director’s commentary! If you look closely at my last picture of my editor you will see a DVD case with the future DVD of The Fortress Experiment which I want to include a director’s commentary. The closed captioning was money well spent as I can use it in the DVD also. I may even include the left back "Fortress Variety Show" as an extra which gives distribution of all our material in the end. This will also be sold through Amazon as I endorse their business plan as it relates to access of creative material in the media - so they get it all.....



So all those years and hours working on video was not in vain - it all gets out there! For Sunday I finish waxing the car and waterproofing some of the brick work. I may or may not catch the last of the squirrels in the house. The rest of the time is spent on the book. And on Monday I want to start the process for getting the ISBN for the book and take it from there. That cover of the book will be simple with just the name “Positive Mandate for Humanity” and nothing else. It’s an idea after all and just who has dominion over an idea…..




Goodnight…..





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zP5Eq4n-4U0&feature=share
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7654
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Sun Oct 20, 2019 7:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

So I waxed the car and waterproofed the bricks at the front of the house.



The movie versions are still rendering. I caught up on sleep. You get to relax and think again. You see the true revolutionaries and by the time they score they are all old. What you really want to see is young vibrant youth making change and then living their lives in that changed world. The reality is that the world stays the same for revolutionaries and only changes for those who come after. This is the cheat in life. If I am successful, things change for the better but not for me as I spent my life trying to change it.



Who designed this album cover - oh ya.....


Anyway I am no revolutionary, I work within the system as society is good enough for me at the constitutional level. That part is fine, but it is in the implementation of those much lauded constitutions which I want to change. So society so far works for some people that truly get to be all they can be like the constitution states, but there are many others who are discriminated against and don’t get what they believed was their right. That is what the positive mandate aims to change. Free expression for all which ultimately means the end of discrimination. So I don’t need countries to change their constitutions, just to make their constitutions a true reality and not just platitudes. So pragmatically I have a chance.



But I am getting older and running out of time. I am fortunate not to be showing my true age yet, but soon I will hit the wall. But it would be nice to see change in my time and not look too seedy when it happens. The kids today have given up on change within and just give the middle finger to the world at large. I believe I have a better way. But true, even in my gang you see the middle finger to the world. And the ones that hate this are exactly the ones that gain the most from society and that is why they hate it. But there are others that don’t get what society promises and it plays in their mind as fake and that is why they give the middle finger to the world. The middle finger to the world is a sort of barometer of how society is fairing. And in my view, society need fixing but not a clean slate. So we can do this from within all civilized and polite. That is how I roll.....




Goodnight.....




(NSFW)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Txn6TtSqXls&feature=share
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7654
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Tue Oct 22, 2019 7:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Laura wrote:
The Book: "Positive Mandate for Humanity" Nears Completion





By Laura Tommasone - FOF Inc.








The Fortress of Freedom Corporation is pleased to announce that our book "Positive Mandate for Humanity" is almost finished. We now have the ISBN number and that number is:


978-1-988407-02-9



Currently the book is about 170 pages. The actual book will be very simple in design with a black cover and white title on the front and the ISBN and publishing company designation on the back.



More news as it becomes available.




FORTRESS OF FREEDOM: BRINGING THE MASS MEDIA TO THE MASSES!



Actually I am I’m the mood, as in the zone, to finish and proof read this book and send it out to the printers. The only thing that stymies this is the renders for the movie that will take at least another day. So to get the final file for Amazon it took from Friday night till probably late Wednesday or early Thursday to upload! This was my doing as the movie is over two and a half hours long - almost as long as the movie “Interstellar” - and while it may stroke my ego that I can actually keep people in their seat watching the movie, the other side is never ending render times for the smallest of changes.


Hopefully that is a thing of the past by the end of this week and then it is all about the book. I am salty for new music also as we are a creative organization. But one thing at a time.....



Goodnight.....





https://youtu.be/ao-Sahfy7Hg
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7654
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Wed Oct 23, 2019 7:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Laura wrote:
Real Life Real Lives Available to Watch on Amazon Prime!





By Laura Tommasone - FOF Inc.






Real Life: Real Lives Poster!





The Fortress of Freedom Corporation is excited to announce that the movie short “Real Life Real Lives” has been accepted by Amazon Prime Video, placed in their catalogue and should show up in the search bar in a few days. The movie will be available for sale, rent and stream.


Please note that this is only for the U.S.A and Great Britain market at present and it is not known if it is in the Canadian market yet. Eventually this short movie should also appear in Germany and Japan when we get the foreign subtitles done.









More news as it becomes available.



https://m.imdb.com/title/tt8942206/




FORTRESS OF FREEDOM: BRINGING THE MASS MEDIA TO THE MASSES!






So Real Life Real Lives got on Amazon first!



Now at least I know what our workflow will be. So next up is The Fortress Experiment and we shall see what they say as they actually check the movies out. Doing this and the book and all the personal stuff wears you out. Sometimes I feel like a chewed up piece of string. Late nights, fast food, stress and all the rest have an effect on you - but stuff is getting done!



I talked with Shane for about thirty minutes on the remaining shows and any possible legal issues that need attention. This is so different than when I met him back in 2005! How did we end up becoming a proper production house?



Anyway the main movie render should be ready today and we’ll see how that fairs with Amazon. I’m also going to port all of the internet streaming stuff into our movie and TV section. Television is no longer over the air and rabbit ears. Television is no longer cable. What is the difference between a satellite and microwave tower. Actually most of it is back to over the air now strangely! So you will soon see these announcements there. Personally that sort of kills the network television snobbery once and for all. I was fortunate as an old fart to get on traditional network TV when it mattered but times have changed and what TV is has moved on. I still think traditional TV and time slots is true broadcast, but viewing habits have changed and I have access to the world now which I never had before. Time to move on.....




Goodnight.....







https://youtu.be/Ubv6ZpRP-KM
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7654
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Wed Oct 23, 2019 10:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I checked and it is not in Canada - but it is in the States:








So Shane gets top billing - he will like that! Click on that and it takes you to Prime Video which shows this:









Amazon owns IMDB so the reviews seem to go to the IMDB site and the photos seem to come from IMDB. But anyway the short is up for streaming and sale. Congratulations to everyone involved in that production!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic    Fortress Of Freedom Board Forum Index -> Social Club All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Goto page Previous  1, 2, 3 ... 302, 303, 304 ... 414, 415, 416  Next
Page 303 of 416

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2002 phpBB Group

affiance theme by sparsely