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17WEST.CA Redesign!

June 29th, 2010 | Posted by jasonmckinnon in 17 West | Design | Web - (0 Comments)

17 West Productions Toronto

Today, we are unveiling a new look for 17west.ca!

Those who have visited the site before will no doubt notice a ton of major changes to our home page.

When we first started the site, it was also home to the blog that would eventually become The Athletic Nerd.

Since then, I’ve been gradually moving those articles over and this is the last major step in the process.

With those features and articles moving to this site, 17W is now completely focused on our films and upcoming projects.

It now highlights our social media and portfolio sites a lot more with new advertisements on the front page.  I’ve also integrated this blog a lot more as you will now find ALL of 17 West’s Updates here. It’s a lot easier to stay up to date.

Basically, I’m pretty happy with the new look.

Click here to check it out.

PS: I did some nerdy house cleaning and it should be running a lot faster too.

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The Athletic Nerd Movies Television Technology

The Athletic Nerd has definitely evolved over the last 9 months.

I set out to build a blog that would allow me to write about the movies that inspire me.  It was also going to be a place to keep people up to date on my own film projects and screenwriting adventures. 

A personal look at my professional passions.

Well, it’s been 9 months and The Athletic Nerd is exactly what I had hoped it would be.  I’m still posting daily original content while constantly increasing my knowledge of the blogosphere and how to survive it.  Slowly, the traffic is coming and I’m more passionate than ever about my blog, my websites, my company and my career. 

But I’m not done yet…

I dont’ think a website should ever become stale and hopefully that hasn’t happened yet.  So I wanted to kick off my 9 month celebration by going over what’s coming for the rest of 2010.

The Climb

17 West’s latest short film

As I continue to edit the film, I’ll be updating my Editing Short Films series regularly with articles about the entire post production process.

Strings

17 West’s Co-Production

A new short film being produced in Sudbury, Ontario that I wrote and will be co-producing.  The film is currently in pre-production and I’ll be updating often as the production progresses.  Visit UnoPark for more.

Screenwriting

Shorts & Features

I’m still writing as much as I possibly can.  If everything goes according to plan, I’ll have my new feature done by summer’s end.  I’m also planning a series of new and ambitious short scripts for both competitions and 17 West Productions.

Screenwriting is my number 1 passion and I write about it here often.  That will continue.

Product Launch

New eBook in the works!

I’m going to be keeping this project a secret for a little while longer as it is still in the planning stages.  I’m pretty excited to tackle a project like this.  I’ve never attempted to package a product before and I’m loving the challenge so far.

The Athletic Nerd

New Features…

Over the last 9 months, I’ve launched several regular features that have gained me a lot of traffic. 

These include:

Recently, I added 2 NEW features:

These are still in the early stages of evolution but I’ll be continually adding new and useful content in the coming months.

Anything new coming?

I spent some time tinkering with my design this morning and I’m in the planning stages of some new graphics and an updated look.  I tend to revise my websites often.  I enjoy Photoshop.

I’ve learned that the best way to attract people to my site is to continue to write new and fresh content about the movies I love.  10 Flicks and Rainy Sundays are among the highest ranked pages I’ve written and I’m planning 2 new features on this site to hopefully increase momentum and really boost my traffic numbers.

The first will not surprise those who visit my blog often.  I started the All Time Best feature to write about the little moments we remember in films.  So it makes perfect sense to start a brand new feature to examine the opposite. 

Today, I’m proud to announce: All Time Worst

This new feature will launch in the next few weeks.  I’m pretty excited about it. 

I’ll be keeping the second new feature under wraps for now but it’ll be launched before the end of the summer as well.

Lessons Learned

I love writing.  Until September, most of my writing took place inside of Final Draft.  While screenwriting will always be my favorite writing discipline, I’ve learned that having a blog and writing every day is just as satisfying.

As I get closer and closer to the all important 1 year mark, I’m thankful that I haven’t let The Athletic Nerd fall into a blogging black hole.  It’s still very much alive and gaining momentum.

I still have a lot of work to do and it’s not going to be easy.  However, the more challenging it gets, the more fun I have.

Stay tuned…

PS: This is a giant post…

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Producing Short Films

A while back, I wrote a post about producing a short film for little money.

Click here to read: No Budget Filmmaking.

I wanted to follow that up by discussing the final cost of The Climb.

Essentially, we were saved by borrowing equipment.  It also helped that our cast and crew were willing to give up a weekend to work for free.

In total, The Climb ended up costing us a little less than $350.

  • $80 ($40 per day) for lunch
  • $20 Tim Hortons
  • $30 for tapes
  • $80 special makeup
  • $40 beer (nice)
  • $60 wardrobe/props
  • $40 supplies

I’m pretty pumped that we managed to pull it off with so little.

An important thing to note is that I handle all the post myself and charge nothing.  This would have definitely added a huge chunk to our budget.

I think it was a fantastic challenge to make this movie on such a minimal budget.

It definitely wasn’t easy but we have unbelievably generous friends to thank for that.

At the end of the day, I’m hoping when people watch the movie, they will believe we spent a lot more!

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The Athletic Nerd by Jason McKinnon

The Athletic Nerd is nearly 8 months old now and I’m still having just as much fun as day 1.

Since the site began, I’ve introduced a variety of regular features including:

Rainy Sundays

10 Flicks

All Time Best

What!?

Today, I’d like to introduce 2 NEW features to the site!

Editing A Short Films

Editing Short Films is going to feature regular posts about the ins and outs of editing.  Forgive the pun…  Actually I don’t feel bad.

I’ve been a professional editor in the television world for 5 years now but editing films requires a much different approach.  I’m definitely not a pro yet which is why I must rely on a number of resources I’ll be discussing here in the near future!

Producing Short Films

Getting a short film ready is challenging work.  Producing is something I admittedly know little about as I focus mainly on screenwriting and post production.  However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t resources out there to write about.  You have to start somewhere.

I’m lucky enough to work with Eric Gamache who is an awesome producer.  Between the two of us, we hope to continue to build 17 West Productions using every resource possible.

Both of these new features will begin appearing within the next few weeks so keep checking back daily!

Tell your friends!

Most importantly, if you have any insight, tips or resources that you’d like to feature on this site send me an email jason@17west.ca

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Life And Filmmaking

May 4th, 2010 | Posted by jasonmckinnon in Filmmaking - (2 Comments)

17 West Productions Independent Film Toronto

We’re making a movie this week!

As you can imagine, there is still a lot left to do and time is beginning to run out.  Luckily, I’m now confident enough to say that I’ll be ready to go when we fire up the camera.  I finished the final, FINAL shooting draft of the script last night and it’s now a matter of shot listing and assorted pondering of what this movie will be.

Everything is ready to go except…

My neighbours upstairs…

“It’s okay, I wasn’t stressed out enough yet”

Floods

This image above is the result of a colossal amount of stupidity.

Picture this…  It’s Friday and you’re going out of town for the weekend.  It’s going to be amazing.  It’s just you and your mom and your going on a road trip. (Or wherever they went)  So you tell your mom you have to brush your teeth.  You’re very proud of yourself for remembering today.  While you brush you notice a strange sound coming from the toilet.  Is it running?

“Nah, I’m just going to leave it because there is no way this will turn out badly.”

So you put your toothbrush away and head out with mom.

A few hours later…

You’re taking turns singing background vocals to the Glee soundtrack when it hits you.

“I didn’t turn the tap off after I brushed my teeth!  I’m sure it’s nothing.  Leaving the tap on full blast helps to ensure the pipes don’t rust doesn’t it?  I wonder if leaving the tap on will drown out the sound of the running toilet.  We better call the landlord just in case because the only thing I’m really sure of in life is my high level of intelligence.  F**k me I’m smart.”

And so they continue down the road towards their destination with the knowledge that the landlord will shut off the water.  Little do they know that the landlord would enter their apartment and immediately get a soaker because the place is flooded…  Want to guess what happened to my apartment?

Flooded…

The water had soaked through the ceiling in my bathroom, into the hallway and finally made it’s way into my office and my bedroom.  Luckily nothing was damaged…

Until the entire ceiling collapsed!

Flood

So I now have to live with a giant whole in my ceiling for the next week because my apartment happens to be home base for the movie and we can’t have workers coming in and out.  It’s nothing I can’t handle but there is one thing that is dominating my imagination…

I’m terrified of spiders!!!

Inside that giant hole there has to be at least 7 mutant spiders waiting for me to go to bed so they can crawl into my room and build up their civilization again.  They will then invade and the entire world could be at risk!

All because of the moron upstairs who couldn’t be bothered to shut the damn tap off!

At the end of the day, it’s inconvenient but there isn’t much I can do about it this week.

Luckily, I have a movie to make and that’s a great way to distract yourself from mutant spiders and idiot neighbours.

Floods

PS: I don’t consider myself ‘handy’ by any means but do coat hangars add support to ceilings?  If they do this one failed because mine collapsed…

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