Saturday, August 28, 2010

Fly on the Wall

The AV Fair! Once a year this spectacle complete with food, rides, art, animals and musicians descends upon the Antelope Valley. But this year was special, why? Because I had special access. Thanks to a good friend of mine Jim Greenleaf (CEO of http://ilivetoday.com) I was able to get a special all "AG-CESS" pass to the AV Fair. In return for this fantastic priveledge I agreed to do some photography and blog about my experience and my experience was awesome.

To start off I arrived at the fair around 6:30pm. I parked in the prefered parking lot for free (score) and passed through the fair side gate like a celebrity. My girlfriend came in as my "photography assistant" and we ran about taking some great pictures of farm animals, tractors and buildings.
As we made our way around the fair we ran into a number of friends and acquaintances. A couple of our friends were big Dierks Bentley fans who had just met him in a special meet and great time. After that we headed off to the big event of the night; The Dierks Bentley Concert! While I'm not a huge fan of country music I actually had a blast at this concert. Dierks definitely leans more towards the rock and roll side of country. Because of my AG-CESS pass I was able to get up close to take some pics at the concert. I had access to the space between the crowd and stage for 30seconds on the first two songs of the night.


Again, at the concert we ran into some more friends and met up with my girlfriend's brother and his girlfriend. After the concert we went on a search for llamas, corn-dogs and kettle corn. Our hunger for corn-dogs and kettle corn was satisfied that night, but we couldn't find any llamas. I ran about again for a few minutes taking pictures and then we headed home with music still ringing in our ears, smiles on our faces and kettle corn in our bellies!




Check out the rest of my photography from the night here: http://www.ilivetoday.com/photo/albums/av-fair-2010

Monday, August 2, 2010

Movie Reviews



I have decided that I will begin reviewing movies on this blog. I won't exactly be reviewing just new movies or movies that I have seen in general. I will be reviewing movies that I own. This will essentially be a retrospective look back at what I decided was worth $5 - $20 to buy. I'll give a full review and a recommendation of whether or not you too should buy the film or let it sit on the shelf at the store. I invite you to subscribe to this blog and join me on this ride.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Refer a Business: Get Cash!

Introducing The Business Referral Promotion!

Refer a business and get $25! How does it work? 

Step 1: Tell a business owner about DragonCow Productions

Step 2: Give the business owner your name and phone number to give to us

Step 3: If that business owner hires us for a commercial we’ll give you $25

You can send them to our site: http://www.dragoncowproductions.com
or have them give us a call (661) 317-7803 or email: ben@dragoncowproductions.com 



Friday, July 2, 2010

July 2010 - Issue #5 DRAGONCOW



DRAGONCOW
Official Newsletter
A semi-monthly update from your favorite Independent Film Production Company



DragonCow By the Numbers:
Website Views: 4288 Fans on Facebook:275 Views on Youtube:59,674 Views on Yahoo:76,976 Views on Myspace: 11,565








DRAGONCOW PRODUCTIONS IS TAKING
OVER THE ANTELOPE VALLEY
Last month you heard that we were commis- sioned to create a 30 second ad for AV Florist, great news right? Well it gets even better. We delivered our commercial and AV Florist owner Chris Spicher was ab- solutely thrilled, but he wasn’t the only one! We showed the video to Rosemary the owner of Camille’s Sidewalk Cafe in Palmdale and Lancaster and she realized that she needed one too! So we made our sec- ond commercial and it turned out abso- lutely fantastic. With two successful commercials under our belt and a third one on the way you can bet that Dragon- Cow is here to stay. In fact it’s our goal to have 20 commercials produced by the end of the year. Help us make that a reality and pass our info on to any businesses you know!
- Ben Andrews (661) 317-7803
ben@dragoncowproductions.com
http://www.dragoncowproductions.com/commercials



SATISFIED CUSTOMERS
 Ben Andrews and Camille’s owner Rosemary.



















Ben Andrews and AV Florist owner Chris Spicher.

Rebel Filmmakers Update:
Jim Greenleaf will now be playing the role of Mayor T. Rex Harris and helping out as a Producer for the show! Jim Greenleaf is the CEO of ilivetoday.com and has some really great experience and connections with the entertainment business. To find out more about what Jim does, check out http://www.ilivetoday.com
To see the new commercials that DragonCow Productions has produced simply visit: http://www.dragoncowproductions.com/commercials

Thank you for reading!

 Happy 4th of July Everyone!

Download the full color PDF of the newsletter here: https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B6PXothDYFWGY2IzOTQ5OGQtNzk1NS00MDJhLTlmNGEtYzVjN2EwZmI4ZmNj&hl=en&authkey=CJ7CpYoD

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Mr. Hungry@Work


Hooray! We have completed our second paid video commercial! The 45 second spot is titled "Mr. Hungry@Work and is promoting the local business Camille's Sidewalk Cafe. I met up with the owner Rosemary about 2 weeks ago and even though she had her doubts she took a leap of faith and decided to commission DragonCow to make an ad for her:

SO HERE IT IS:


Pretty good huh? Rosemary has absolutely thrilled and completely satisfied with the video. We even had a chance to premiere the video live on the internet through a fantastic new site called ilivetoday.com and if you haven't joined ilivetoday.com yet you must! It's a really great way to connect with people and businesses in the Antelope Valley.

So if you're a business in need of some fresh ideas in creative advertising give me a call (661) 317-7803 or email me ben@dragoncowproductions.com

Everyone else sit back and enjoy the ride! Wish me luck : )

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Gotta Get Back


Well, I am here again, on the blog sending out my thoughts into the void! I've been quite busy so I think it is important for me to reflect on what I have been doing. During the last school semester I wrote blogs on a weekly basis as part of my Critical Thinking and Research English Class. This assignment fueled my creative writing greatly and jumpstarted my problem solving mindset. (Reflecting upon that sentence, I'm not quite sure how effective my car-oriented metaphors are.)

At one point or another we need to face down our failures. If we have the bravery to face down our failures we can turn them into opportunities. I recently received the third of three disappointing letters, first a letter denying me admission to USC, then a painful reminder in the form of a letter rejecting me from the Film-Production program and a third from the Animation and Digital Arts Program. I had my moment of pain, disappointment and bitterness and now I am moving on.

I am taking control of this moment and steering myself into a bold new future. Tired of working odd jobs and commuting to Pasadena (yes, I said Pasadena) I have started building up the business of DragonCow Productions.

The DragonCow team has:

Made its first commercial for a local business!
Check out the video for AV Florist in Lancaster:




I met with Av Florist owner Chris Spicher for lunch at Jackie's cafe in Lancaster and convinced him to take a chance and he commissioned us to make a 30 second stop-animated ad for his flower shop. In less than two weeks, thanks to some late nights and hard work from seasoned DragonCow animators Thomas Thomas and Dean Terrell, the video was completed.

This lead to the development of our next project another video ad! This time the ad is for Camille's Sidewalk Cafe. The future looks bright for DragonCow Productions as we have 2 more paid videos in the immediate future and several creative opportunities too...

Stay tuned to the tales of Ben Andrews and DragonCow, and our continuing saga.
As always, Wish me luck!

http://www.dragoncowproductions.com

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Wise Owls

A lone warrior approaches the dark mouth of a mountain. The mountain breathes it foul odor and the warrior’s bones tremble in fear. His metal boots clink against the hard rocky floor of the cave. The smell of rotting corpses pillage his nostrils. Death is all about him, and terror begins to grip his mind. What horrible beast lies ahead? What fanged, clawed, scaled monstrosity waits to ambush him in the dark?
This is the feeling of fear and uncertainty when beginning new things. We build up monsters in our mind, great enemies too big to be defeated. But we continue on through this cave because we are brave and crave adventure. We crave knowledge and understanding. Like Plato we must not remain prisoner in the cave, but find our way out to the sun.
FInding my way out of the cave.
This class was a great experience for me. I learned a lot. More than I thought I could learn really. Not only did I learn, but I had fun doing so. Even if I complained about the grueling research paper, or cramming at 11:58 to finish the assignments for the week, I really did enjoy myself. I enjoyed the struggle. The constant uphill battle. Never feeling safe, fat, happy or lazy. This course was dynamic and built up upon itself and the other courses I took this semester.
Parting is such sweet sorrow.
While I feel great relief in having completed the work aspect of this class, I will miss the learning and friendship of this class. Through all of these blogs I have really been able to connect with all of you. It’s been basically like reading each other’s diaries or journals. I’ve gotten to know you all on a deep level, and I will miss that community and interaction.
Some final thoughts.
You are never to old to learn. One of the most inspiring things about taking classes at a community college is coming coming across people 2 or even 3 times your age, going back to school to get a better education. Keep up the great work, you can do it! Owls may be old, but they are always the wisest!
Even a blog can be beautiful. Every opportunity to write or to be creative is an opportunity that we must seize. I think we all unlocked the inner philosopher and poet in these blogs. I greatly enjoyed reading all of your blogs because of all the fascinating metaphor and ideas that I came across.
About Me
I mentioned at the begging of the semester that I was trying to get into the USC School of Cinematic arts. I received a letter from USC yesterday, I did not get in. After taking the moment to wallow in wretched self-pity, I changed my thinking to a positive mindset and realized that it as simply not meant to be, at least not at this moment. That means for now I will remain in the Antelope Valley, so perhaps I may bump into one of you next semester? Also my video-production business is gaining some ground locally! I  am producing a video ad for AV Florist and connect with a lot of businesses locally through http://www.ilivetodayav.com (great site, highly recommend you check it out). So everyone please stay in touch! I will probably be premiering my first feature film, for more info email me at ben@dragoncowproductions.com 
So long and thanks for all the fish!