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How To: Win Film Festival Gold on a Shoestring

Rebecca McQuigg Rigal — Thu, 5 Aug 2010 05:30:00 PDT

Affordable technology, low-to-no cost distribution channels like YouTube, and a proliferation of film festivals have all lead to the democratization of filmmaking. You don't need a blockbuster budget to make a good movie, but you'll still need skill and know-how. We recently turned to Jackson Adamsand Jenna Lyng, two award-winning young filmmakers and recent graduates of Emerson College, for some tips to make a quality movie on a shoestring budget.

1) Simple storytelling. The key to avoiding a costly production starts with the script. Focus your story around elements that you know you have access to. Unless you've got a friend with plenty of pull at Grand Central Station, avoid writing scenes at the helm of a runaway train.

2) It takes a village. Don't be afraid to get help from family and friends. Filmmaking is a collaborative process, and your production will require a lot of support. Do you know a carpenter who might be willing to lend a hand to the production? Maybe hire some students on your crew. They'll be some of the hardest workers. They may even hook you up with student discounts on anything from a lighting kit to any number of postproduction services.

3) Engage your fans. Whether it's your hometown or a special interest group, find the people who are enthusiastic about this project. Use Facebook and Twitter to spread word about your film. Get your community interested from the get-go and you'll not only have an easier time finding support during production, but you'll have built an audience for the finished film.

4) Choose your format. Film used to be the only way to go, but in the age of HD video, the possibilities for shooting gorgeous footage on the cheap are endless. Film will almost always be the more costly choice after the price of the stock, the processing, and the video transfer. If you shoot video, make sure you have the proper editing system to handle your files.

5) Strategic scouting. Choose locations where you can easily get permission to film your movie. Consider looking beyond urban areas, as smaller towns are more likely to help you out at no extra charge. Keep your locations clustered to save money on transportation costs and time.

6) MacGyver it. Substitute some of your equipment with tools from your garage. Use Chinese lanterns for soft lighting. Borrow a wheelchair or a shopping cart instead of renting a dolly. Buy some white and metallic cardboard at the corner store for lighting bounce. Nobody will judge your rag-tag equipment if you save thousands of dollars.

7) Use the sun. Shoot as much as you can outside and during the day. Natural lighting saves you money on expensive lights and generators, and it looks great. If you shoot during the summer, you'll have longer hours to work with.

8) Splurge on sound. Invest in good sound equipment and an experienced sound recordist and designer. Sound is one of the common weaknesses in student and low-budget independent film. Get it right the first time. Your actors will appreciate it and so will your audience.

9) Take your time. Don't rush if you don't have to. Storyboard every scene and make accurate lighting overheads for each set-up. Visit every location with your key crew and make sure they know the plan. On-set, make sure to get a satisfying take, even if it takes a while to get there—you'll have to cut bad footage anyways. Get plenty of coverage (i.e. footage), and never say "we'll fix it in post production." No matter how much you plan, you'll always wish you had more angles to work with. Do whatever you can to avoid costly reshoots.

10) Bask in indie film glory. Remember to invite all of your supporters to the premiere.

Jackson Adams has been making short films since he was twelve years old. He was recently selected from a pool of young filmmakers at the National Film Festival for Talented Youth—where his short film Warren Bud and His Propeller Plane won an Audience Award—to film and produce a short film profiling Pepsi Refresh Grantee Operation Gratitude.

Jackson and Jenna were recently selected from a pool of young filmmakers at the National Film Festival for Talented Youth—where their short film

Warren Bud and His Propeller Plane won an Audience Award—to film and produce a short film profiling Pepsi Refresh Grantee Operation Gratitude.

This post originally appeared on www.refresheverything.com, as part of GOOD's collaboration with the Pepsi Refresh Project, a catalyst for world-changing ideas. Find out more about the Refresh campaign, or submit your own idea today.

How To: Be a Real Life Superhero (With or Without the Cape)

Rebecca McQuigg Rigal — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 05:30:00 PDT

So you want to make the world a better place? Maybe start with your block, or your neighborhood. Maybe start with an awesome costume. You don’t need superhuman powers or otherworldly resources to be a Real Life Superhero, just plenty of passion and a taste for the theatrical. We recently spoke with DC’s Guardian, about what it takes to be a costumed crusader for good. He had these six tips for making the world a better place, one neighborhood at a time.

1) Know what you stand for. It’s not a prerequisite to don tights or a mask, but every superhero builds an identity around good morals and values. Likewise, you’ll need a cause (or several) for which to crusade. Look around your community for action groups that need help.

2) Identify your weapons. And we’re talking personal skills here, not nunchucks. After identifying a cause, ask yourself what you can bring to the table to help fulfill that need. Take stock of your interests and find a way to donate your time and talents in ways that will be compatible with your lifestyle.

3) Dress for the fight. While it doesn’t take spandex to be a Superhero, always come prepared for the task. Whether the job entails managing logistics for a fundraiser, educating local youth, or just showing up to the right place at the right time with the right supplies, you’ll want to be known as a responsible and accountable crusader.

4) Don’t get mistaken for the bad guy. Real Life Superheroes can be activists, volunteers, educators, or neighborhood safety patrollers, but in order to establish an identity as a community crusader for long-term success, you’ll have to work closely with local citizens, civic leaders, and law enforcement. Collaboration and communication are key.

5) Don’t break the law. Never go above the law, and always stand firm behind your actions. As DC’s Guardian says, “If you can’t stand up and say ‘I did this!’ you shouldn’t be doing it.”

6) Be humble. There’s no such thing as a self-serving superhero, in real life or otherwise.

DC’s Guardian is prominent figure in the RLSH community and President of Skiffytown League of Heroes—a national network of original superhero characters dedicated to performing acts of community service.

Walter Mosley on Writing Tips and the Promise of the iPad

Rebecca McQuigg Rigal — Tue, 8 Jun 2010 06:00:00 PDT

Fiction, non-fiction, science fiction, historical fiction—Walter Mosley (of Easy Rawlins fame) has spanned just about every genre. The master storyteller produces an extraordinary quantity of work, and he didn’t even start writing seriously until his mid-30s. Mosley, whose most recent novel Known to Evil hit bookstores in March, was recently honored by the Liberty Hill Foundation for his unwavering vision at their annual Upton Sinclair gala. We caught up with Mosley about his latest projects, race in America and, of course, the iPad.

GOOD: What do you hope to achieve with your stories? Is there a call to action? Should there be?

WALTER MOSLEY: I don’t think of writers as teachers or leaders for that matter. I think we tell stories and we come into contact with readers whose reading of the work is just as important as our writing of the work. It’s not my place to educate or to guide. I write stories in which characters appear and people read them, and every person reading is going to come from a different point of view and they’re going to have a different kind of response or reaction. To make a book a political diatribe would defeat the purpose.

G: How important is it for you to include references to the social and political landscape of the time period in which your stories unravel?

WM: The landscape—period—has to be included. Every issue that’s real has to be included. For instance, if you’re writing a novel about a female protagonist in America in 1910, you have to include things like (the fact that) she can’t own property or vote … at best she’s a second- or third-class citizen in America. If you didn’t show those parts of her life, then the fiction would actually become a fantasy. Whenever you’re writing about anybody in a certain time, you have to write what it was really like for them.

G: How has being bi-racial influenced how you see the world and translate what you see to the page?

WM: There are very few people in America who are not bi-racial. To find somebody who’s pure anything in America is a really unusual thing. The idea that in order to be bi-racial you have to have parents of two different races … it’s one of the interesting notions of racism in America. (But) I don’t really know the answer to that question for myself—my father (was) black, my mother (was) Jewish—but there wasn’t a whole bunch of attention paid by me to that. I had relatives … and I loved them. And how that influenced me? I’m sure that it allowed me access to places that I might have felt excluded from otherwise.

G: What’s it like seeing your own work translated into film?

WM: I like making movies. It’s fun. I’m working right now with Jonathan Demme, trying to turn The Long Fall into a television series for HBO and it’s really been all kinds of fun talking about it [and] trying to figure out. Although it never feels like the book I wrote. Even when I’m intimately involved, it always seems like something else, but I like that.

G: You were a computer programmer for 16 years prior to becoming a writer. Did you ever imagine, back then, the effect that computer technology would have on entertainment consumption habits?

WM: There’s kind of a unity that comes with technology that I’m really interested in. One thing is that technology makes a socialist argument that young people are using and they don’t even know it. They’re saying “why isn’t all of this stuff free? Why don’t I have access to everything?” And you want to say, “Don’t you understand? We’re living in capitalism. We own things.” It’s a wild notion, and it’s a very radical notion.

G: Do you own an e-reader?

WM: I love reading things electronically. For some reason it comforts me. I just got my iPad and I love it to death. There are so many things that it can do. We’re going to save the lives of many trees. The written wisdom of Ronald Reagan doesn’t need to be on paper. Most cookbooks, self-help books, and how to books [would be] better in electronic form. Some things, like the Bible, you need both.

G: What do you think of self publishing?

WM: It works for a lot of people and it’s a very good thing. I remember when I met E. Lynn Harris. I was at some kind of book fair and E. Lynn had self published his first book and he came up to me and said, “Mr. Mosley? I’m writing my own books and publishing them and one day I’m going to be like you.” He ended up being a lot bigger than me—as far of sales of any individual book is concerned. All of the young Black people who are publishing quasi-erotic literature that they sell on the street corners here in New York, you know? It really works. I have friends who do very well with it and have big audiences and have done everything without publishers.

G: Who are some of your favorite writers of all time?

WM: People ask when I’m giving talks: “Who influenced you?” Almost every writer you ask that question lies. You know, a young black woman will tell you Toni Morrison and Zadie Smith—but really it was Nancy Drew. I’m just as influenced by Gabriel Garcia Marquez as I am by Jack Kirby from Marvel Comics. That’s a fact.

G: Any writing tips? You seem to be able to churn out an extraordinary amount of material.

WM: Well yeah, I wrote a whole book about it: This Year You Write Your Novel. It’s such a detailed kind of unraveling, or maybe a detailed raveling. You have to write every day. You don’t have to think about it. You don’t have to be good at it. It doesn’t have to work. None of those things matter. But you have to write every day.

This post originally appeared on www.refresheverything.com, as part of GOOD's collaboration with the Pepsi Refresh Project, a catalyst for world-changing ideas. Find out more about the Refresh campaign, or submit your own idea today.

Towers of Hope Rise on California Beaches

Rebecca McQuigg Rigal — Fri, 28 May 2010 14:30:00 PDT

Folks headed to Los Angeles beaches this Memorial Day weekend will find an unusual burst of color in the sand—158 painted lifeguard towers lining the 31 mile stretch between Malibu and the Palos Verdes peninsula. It’s the latest manifestation of Ed and Bernie Massey’s transient public art program, Portraits of Hope. They’ve previously left their mark on New York City’s taxicabs, airport control towers, even oil rigs.

Dubbed the “Summer of Color,” this behemoth public art project and civic initiative is the culmination of nearly half a year’s hard work, involving thousands of volunteers, hundreds of gallons of paint and, a heck of a lot of good will.

What began as a sole public art project nearly two decades ago, POH has evolved into a full-fledged program for social good encompassing creative art therapy, civic engagement and environmental and humanitarian efforts. As with all other iterations of the POH program, children from pediatric hospitals and their families helped with the painting.

Volunteers like L.A. resident and film editor, Matt Colchamiro, spent several hours a week for nearly six months working on the project—much of his time was spent with children in hospitals, hand painting panels that would eventually be installed on each lifeguard tower.

“The kids in the hospitals, whatever their health issues were, when they started painting they forget about that for a little while, they start smiling and enjoying themselves,” says Colchamiro. “It really empowers these kids. Especially those who might not get out of the hospital for a few months or years but if they have a TV in the room, it’ll be on the news, and they’ll see it.”

Portraits of Hope stands as a beacon for resilience and change in the world. “Hopefully this becomes a call to action,” says Ed Massey. “As with all of our projects, hopefully people will see the enjoyment that it’s given to thousands of kids and the general public.”

The towers may look familiar to those familiar with Massey’s mammoth 2007 Garden In Transit exhibition that covered the fleets of New York Taxi cabs in hand painted flower motifs. A reproduction of the hood from a Ford Crown Victoria taxi cab is currently on view (along with other notable works from Massey’s repertoire) in the lobby of Hotel Casa Del Mar in collaboration with the “Summer of Color” initiative.

The installations will remain on the lifeguard towers through October, when the panels will be removed and transported to Haiti to be used as transitional building materials for homes, shelters and schools.

This post originally appeared on www.refresheverything.com, as part of GOOD's collaboration with the Pepsi Refresh Project, a catalyst for world-changing ideas. Find out more about the Refresh campaign, or submit your own idea today.

Eight Steps to Creating Art Camp on the Cheap

Rebecca McQuigg Rigal — Wed, 12 May 2010 06:00:00 PDT

You don’t have to live in a major metropolitan area—with easy access to cultural institutions, galleries and museums—to expose kids to the creative arts. With the last weeks and days of school in sight, now’s the time to scout out summer arts programs—or better yet, start your own.

It’s not as difficult as you may think says Karen Satzman, who runs nationally recognized art classes and family programs at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Here are her tips to start a low-to-no cost summer arts program for kids in your neighborhood.

1. Identify your audience. What ages are the kids you plan to include? Find out what inspires these kids and make sure the program reflects their interests.

2. Find a space. Where will the kids feel comfortable and creative? Approach a local school, community center or parks and recreation organization about the availability of free space.

3. Build a plan. Create a working schedule and agenda. Line up local artists or art school students to teach.

4. Gather the gear. You’re gonna need supplies. Reach out to local schools, businesses and community members for donations. Brainstorm a list of easy-to-find household items that can be repurposed: milk/egg cartons, cereal boxes, popsicle sticks. Access to materials will determine the size and scale of your program. Consider charging a nominal registration fee to cover the cost of materials if necessary.

5. Spread the word. Reach out to parents in the community via grassroots methods: word-of-mouth, fliers, email. Ask community leaders—pastors, teachers, coaches, librarians, and even local business owners—to tell everybody the know.

6. Plan a fieldtrip. Take the kids to a local historic site, a museum, community theater, even an outdoor sculpture garden. Help kids recognize there’s art everywhere.

7. Document the process. Encourage the kids to make an “art journal” to record whatever inspires them. This is a great thing to bring along on field trips and use to make sketches or paste in souvenirs.

8. Celebrate. Plan an event or a show to display the kids’ artistic achievements and to encourage them to continue making art.

Do-gooder Gaming

Rebecca McQuigg Rigal — Fri, 7 May 2010 16:00:00 PDT

How can video game developers help move the world forward? Martin de Ronde, founding director of OneBigGame, a nonprofit video game publishing collective that develops games for good, knows a few ways. While forward-thinking civic and academic organizations have been leveraging video game technology for educational and training purposes for some time, OBG is the first video game industry driven initiative doing broad-based charitable fundraising.

By partnering with prominent game developers the company creates dynamic, entertaining, yet casual games that appeal to hardcore gamers, the proceeds of which are dedicated to improving the quality of life of children around the world. We spoke with de Ronde about the industry’s response to OBG and his thoughts on effective edutainment.

GOOD: How did you go from developing violent, first-person-shooter games to launching a company that develops games for good?

MARTIN DE RONDE: Guerrilla Games, the studio I co-founded over a decade—and the developer of those shooter games—used to be part of a larger new media conglomerate through which I worked on a charity project using game technology. I loved the notion of using games and game technology for doing good and the thought stuck. When we sold Guerrilla, I was looking for a new challenge.

G: Were you inspired by other social gaming initiatives?

MDR: I admired, and still admire, the Penny Arcade guys with their Child’s Play initiative. The Nite-to-Unite for Kids annual event hosted by the Entertainment Software Association has inspired me as well.

G: How did you choose the nonprofit beneficiaries?

MDR: Initially we were looking to include an unlimited number of charitable partners, but soon realized that this would be very difficult, so we decided to choose one that best fit our mission. We were already in talks with a number of charities, including Save the Children and Starlight Children’s Foundation, and had a good feeling about the great work both were doing for children globally. So we decided to go with those two, which worked out great.

G: What’s the general response been like within the gaming industry?

MDR: I don’t know anybody in the industry who responded negatively. Some people had doubts about the feasibility, but most people were supportive and truly enthusiastic. There are a lot of good people in this business, so it didn’t surprise me. I’d like to think the consumer response has been good as well. Forum posts are extremely positive. We get mail from people who love our initiative, so yes, overall, great response.

G: Are consumers aware that when they purchase one of your games, the profits go to a good cause? Do they care, or is it irrelevant?

MDR: From reading forum posts and article comments—which can be risky to use as a proxy of the general public—it appears that if the game is good, the charitable component is icing on the cake. It’s a great game, and it’s for charity? Of course I’ll buy it.

G: Do you feel like the industry has a responsibility to produce titles that educate while entertaining?

MDR: I definitely feel the industry has a responsibility to produce titles that do something good. We work in one of the biggest entertainment industries in the world—one that’s supposedly bigger than the movie and music industries in terms of annual revenue—but we do much less in terms of giving back. Hopefully we can motivate change and there will be more initiatives like these in the future.

G: Why don’t we see more collaboration between game developers and educators?

MDR: If we could figure out a way to leverage gaming technology to teach young people about history, literature, or philosophy through simulated experiences, we could really turn things around, education-wise, across the world.

This post originally appeared on www.refresheverything.com, as part of GOOD's collaboration with the Pepsi Refresh Project, a catalyst for world-changing ideas. Find out more about the Refresh campaign, or submit your own idea today.

Six Tips to Become a Craft Show Superstar

Rebecca McQuigg Rigal — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 05:00:00 PDT

In an age where consumers have become as comfortable with e-commerce as they have with e-mail, the prospect of maintaining a presence in the physical marketplace can be lost on many a creative entrepreneur. But being physically present at a local craft show, arts and crafts festival, or business forum can be what sets your craft-brand-business apart from the competition. Even employees at Etsy, the premiere creative e-trepreneurship, are encourage to attend craft shows and conferences. After all, it’s integral to have those face-to-face interactions.

We recently spoke to Danielle Maveal (also known as Daniellexo), Etsy’s education coordinator, who graciously prescribed six tips to help transition purveyors of handmade goods from the comfort and anonymity of the world wide web to the real world of the craft show.

1. Go as a shopper. Don’t do a craft show without attending first as a consumer and researcher. Bring a notebook and jot down which booths and artists attract you as a buyer. Is it weird when you go to a booth and the artist doesn’t stand up? When someone asks you, “Have you heard of my line before?”, does this question start a natural conversation? It should. Is the show well attended? Are people spending money? Scope it out first and you’ll feel much more prepared when you show up next year with your own wares to peddle.

2. Caffeine and a big smile. Honestly, being caffeinated can help you soft-spoken or laid-back types. Before a workshop, I make sure I’m well rested, caffeinated, and mentally prepared to show some enthusiasm. If you aren’t smiling, your audience is going to wonder why on earth they should care about what you’re selling. Smiling is contagious, use this cue to convince those you are meeting that they too are excited about your work.

3. Be unique. I know, sounds obvious, right? When you’re thrown into an offline situation, you might immediately want to blend in. Standing out feels pretty vulnerable. Your quirks, authenticity, off-beat humor, passion and idiosyncrasies are what make you memorable, even more than your fancy letterpressed business card.

4. Ask questions. You know what people are interested in more than anything else? Themselves. Take a genuine interest in the people you meet, and they’ll like you. This goes for talks and lectures too. Try to facilitate conversations, not only between yourself and members of the audience, but between attendees. If people feel good about this event, and you’re the facilitator, you’ve succeeded.

5. Selling isn’t everything. Meeting people in real life is about connections. If you’re trying to sell your idea or product to someone who doesn’t need it or want it, you’ve wasted a connection. Perhaps that person happens to know a supplier who could really help you out. So tell your story and ask for theirs, you never know how you can help or inspire each other.

6. Brand yourself. Your outfit, your choice of words, the color of your tablecloth—this is your brand. When you make these choices, ask yourself, what is this saying to my audience? You don’t have to become a brand robot. Have fun.

There are tons of resources out there to help you find the right shows to attend, fill out craft show applications, network offline, display your work creatively, and more, so do your homework. And don’t forget to bring a camera so you can prove to the Internet that you exist in real life, too!

Danielle Maveal writes the Etsy Success newsletter and is always working on a new blog post for Etsy’s blog. You can also chat with Danielle live in Etsy’s interactive online workshops, the Virtual Labs.

This post originally appeared on www.refresheverything.com, as part of GOOD's collaboration with the Pepsi Refresh Project, a catalyst for world-changing ideas. Find out more about the Refresh campaign, or submit your own idea today.

Open Sourced Tools for Wired Museums

Rebecca McQuigg Rigal — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 05:00:00 PDT

Think museums are musty repositories of history? Think again. Major metropolitan museums are becoming petri dishes of innovation. Take the Indianapolis Museum of Art which recently launched an internet technology consulting service to help cultural institutions and non-profit organizations leverage technology to solve problems and enhance programs. Building on IMA’s track record for creating effective open-source digital tools, the new division—IMA Lab—is poised to lead a technological revolution in this largely neglected space. We spoke to IMA Lab visionary, Robert Stein, about his commitment to provide much-needed tech support for the arts…

GOOD: How was the museum most technologically challenged when you first arrived?

ROBERT STEIN: IMA has over 50,000 works within its collection but we can only show about 2,000 of those at a time, so it’s only a small percentage of the collection that’s actually ever seen by a member of the public. The other stuff sits in our storage room, so if we don’t do a good job of putting it online, we’re not doing a very good service to our community. Historically, museums don’t have a really deep bent as technology clients. It’s hard to be a good client and express to developers what it is you need and why, so as a result, the tools that the museums had weren’t and still aren’t terribly good. At the same time, our audiences are becoming more sophisticated with the way they use technology; but it continues to be hard for museums to meet those expectations.

G: What initial steps did you take to address these problems?

RS: Since we weren’t getting the kinds of tools that we needed from the marketplace, we began to hire a software team to do our own work and, as a result, started working collaboratively with the community and with other art museums. I’m very much in favor of open source technology and software development where digital tools are shared within a community, so when IMA began developing software, we would give it away to museums with similar needs, in exchange for feedback.

G: What kinds of open-source digital tools and solutions have been developed through this process?

RS: One of the projects is called ArtBabble. We needed a way to show and aggregate our video online but didn’t really see good places for that- lots of museums were putting their videos on YouTube but it was really hard to find them- so we developed ArtBabble as an online portal for museums and cultural organizations to contribute video. We’re the technical lead on the Steve.Museum project, a kind of flickr for museums that allows people to tag photos to make them easier for others to find online and to search for art in a more visceral way. We’ve also developed a platform called TAP, which is mobile tour software that museums can use to develop their own tours of their collections, exhibitions, grounds and campus.

G: Why is it so important for other arts and cultural institutions to adapt to modern technology?

RS: We have a charge to make sure that these collections exist hundreds of years from now. I help run our library and archives here at the museum and something that we’ve been working at for quite some time is figuring out how we can preserve paper. How do we make sure that that information doesn’t just disappear? Not only that but how do we make it easier for people to gain access to the art? I think the challenge- or rather opportunity- that we have is to make our content ever more relevant to contemporary society. I’m continuously blown away by how relevant an artwork created a hundred or even a thousand years ago is to contemporary issues- race, poverty, power, war- all of those are issues today and they were issues a thousand years ago and artists have had a view point about them forever.

G: What advice would you give the director of a museum or cultural institution with no budget but a real need to expand their technological offerings?

RS: There are a number of good conferences for people in our field of museum technology, free online tools, and regional museum groups- all of which can be good resources. I’m a board member for an organization called the Museum Computer Network which maintains resources dedicated to addressing questions about technology and solutions to specific problems. I would encourage as much collaboration as possible because as a not-for-profit business, we gain nothing by not sharing our work- on the contrary, I get a lot from sharing time and opinions and ideas with other museums, so that would probably be the best way to go.

Everything Has Meaning: A Q&A with Mr. Brainwash

Rebecca McQuigg Rigal — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 05:30:00 PDT

I first met Thierry Guetta, otherwise known as Mr. Brainwash, in 2006 at the opening of the elusive British street artist Banksy’s Los Angeles show “Barely Legal.” It was impossible not to notice the eccentric, camera-wielding Frenchman as he buzzed around the crowded warehouse, enthusiastically capturing footage for what he said was his long-time passion project—a documentary about the mysterious world of street art. I didn’t think much of the encounter until several years later, by which time Guetta (fully assuming the Mr. Brainwash moniker) had emerged as a wildly successful (and controversial) street artist in his own right. With a portfolio of work that has quickly gained renown, Guetta routinely sells out solo shows in New York and Los Angeles (where it’s not uncommon for his limited-edition pieces to come with six-figure price tags). And now the camera he once wielded has been turned on himself: He appears as the mischievous main “character” in Banksy’s directorial debut, the docu-spoof Exit Through the Gift Shop, which opened in theaters over the weekend. I recently sat down with Mr. Brainwash in his Los Angeles studio to find out what everyone else apparently wants to know: What makes him click?

GOOD: What first attracted you to the world of street art?

MR. BRAINWASH: I’ve always loved art and have always surrounded myself with it. I began creating [pop] art in 1989 and decided to stop in 1993; a few years later I started filming [artists] because the human element was really appealing to me. I was attracted to all kinds of people who were creating art, but after filming artists for over a decade, I began filming some street artists. I started documenting one person and then another person and then [began focusing on] filming people creating art outside. I liked that it was kind of dangerous and interesting and surprising. Plus, most street art is put up during the night and I’m the kind of person who doesn’t sleep so it was ideal for me to follow people that do things at night. Street art is something that you live with, even if you don’t want to. It’s something that is part of you. It kind of brainwashes you subliminally.

G: What were some of your early inspirations and influences?

MB: I lost my mother when I was really young, when I was 11 years old, and I got attached to memories. I became very sentimental and was obsessed with capturing memories because I knew that life is not forever so you should enjoy it as much as possible and try to see that things are beautiful and incredible and that everything has meaning.

G: What does one need to create art? Is art school necessary?

MB: I never went to [art] school. I learned that the only thing you can do in life is to believe in something and make it happen. You can have a lot of talent but if you don’t work, you’ll never make things happen; and you can have no talent at all but if you want to work hard, you’ll make it happen. It’s all about follow-through and the belief in yourself. Sometimes people try to teach these “rules” but I think in the world of art there are no rules.

G: How did Exit Through the Gift Shop come about?

MB: It’s a movie that I was making about Banksy and he decided to turn the camera on me because he thought that I was more interesting as a character to create a story about. It’s a great movie and there is a lot of truth and life to it.

G: Were you happy with the finished product?

MB: I think it’s a great project and I feel honored to have had one of the greatest street artists make a movie about me. It’s something I [am] humble about it—there are millions of people out there and someone chose me to be this character so I’m really happy about it. There has been a good response. People like feeling like they are on the “inside.”

G: What’s the dynamic among street artists? I’ve heard stories about people who are territorial and extremely competitive and kind of make a game out of it. Is there a competition between those who are better known and those who aren’t?

MB: Like with everything else, there’s competition within the industry but I tend to keep my head down. I don’t look at what other people are doing and I don’t care what they’re saying about me. I just try to do things without hurting anybody—I have my own vision and don’t pay attention to what other artists are going to do. Life is too short to worry about other people. My objective is to make things that will make people happy and try to do things in life to try to help other people. Even if it’s to make money that I can use to help other people.

G: Do you support any causes or donate to any charity organizations?

MB: I donate money to schools and I’ve donated money to the Haiti Relief efforts. I’m donating a piece to Christie’s “Green Auction” [at New York’s Rockefeller Center on Earth Day to raise awareness around environmental issues]. I think it’s very important to give back—I mean, how much can you have? Also kids are very important to me—when I create art, I make sure that it’s acceptable to all ages. There are no graphic or explicit images. If it’s too hard or harsh, I won’t do it. I keep my work very positive—I like to promote the beauty of life.

G: How do you decide where and when you put up your art?

MB: If I see a great blank wall, I might think it looks like a good place to put something up and then I think about what could go there and then I come back and do it. But mostly when you feel like putting stuff up you take some prints and drive around and stop randomly when you feel like it.

G: What’s the most powerful thing about using the street as a canvas?

MB: The street is the street. It belongs to nobody—it’s for everybody. The street is not mine, so when I put [art] out there, it belongs to the street. The street is alive and street art is not meant to live forever—it [can have] a very short life or a very long life depending on what happens. You can do a beautiful piece one day and the next morning it can be gone because someone didn’t like it. The beauty of it is to accept that the street is the street. The street is an open gallery that people are going to visit even if they don’t want to.

G: Tell me about “Icon,” your current show in New York.

MB: It’s about iconic people. It’s only part one, there will be a part two—and maybe a part three, because I couldn’t do everyone in one show. I wanted to show different faces of people—just normal people—who ended up with extraordinary things because they believed in what they wanted to do. It’s delivering a message that I want to communicate [to the audience] that anything is possible.

G: Who are some of your personal heroes?

MB: I respect all of them—it’s like cooking. I take a little bit from all of these icons and together they totally inspire me. I see good everywhere—even in the bad things. I like Charlie Chaplin because he came from nothing but proved that you can do many different things—he was a director, he was a writer, he was a musician, he was a composer, he was a performer, and he a filmmaker. He was so many different things.

G: What advice would you give to a young artistic person who feels held back, or is afraid of what people might think?

MB: There is nothing holding you back except yourself. Art is freedom. So go for it. Don’t think too much. Follow your heart and you’ll make it happen. I believe that anybody—even the worst artist in the world right now—can create good work. If you want to make it happen, you can do it. Everybody has a diamond inside—just believe [in it] and polish it and you will shine.

Not Your Mama's Concert Tee

Rebecca McQuigg Rigal — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 06:30:00 PDT

The record labels have missed the boat again. If these bloated behemoths had devoted the same amount of time and money to find creative in-house talent—or at least to develop innovative ways to work with, not against, technology—perhaps they would have come up with Music Tee. But they didn't. Someone else is responsible for what could be the most innovative channel for content distribution since iTunes.

Here’s how it works: Each limited edition t-shirt features album art on the front, a corresponding track list on the back, and a special code on the hang-tag, which allows the t-shirt’s owner to digitally download the music. Invisible DJ has collaborated with dozens of artists—including Mos Def, Wale, The Cold War Kids, Robin Thicke, and Devendra Banhart—since last year’s Music Tee launch and the response has been positive.

“All of our tees have definitely exceeded our expectations for the short amount of time that our company has been in business,” says Jeremy Wineberg, co-founder of Invisible DJ Records The Music Tee. “Invisible DJ started four years ago as a new way of distributing music at a time when brick and mortar [music] stores were on the decline (of course, now they’re almost completely obsolete) but at the time, we were trying to figure out how to effectively distribute music [CDs] in a [brick and mortar] fashion/retail environment,” says Wineberg.

Leveraging the symbiotic relationship between the worlds of fashion and music, Wineberg and his partner set up shop at the Los Angeles boutique Fred Siegel, where they built the Invisible DJ name by selling the newest and coolest bands’ music by pairing their CDs with different items of clothing. “So, we’d say ‘if you buy this pair of jeans, you should buy this new Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah record,” explains Wineberg. Eventually Invisible DJ was commissioned by Fred Siegel, Ron Herman, and other boutiques, to create in-store music compilations and the record label (and ultimately the idea to embed graphic tees with downloadable music) was born.

“We saw that it was becoming more difficult to move CDs, even in retail environments that were still relevant and attracting tons of traffic (like Urban Outfitters, Nordstrom’s, and so forth). At the same time, there was still a demand for our compilations, so we thought ‘If we distribute music in a digital format, which we know consumers will respond to, on a t-shirt, which we know these clothing stores can sell, then maybe we’ll have a really great product. And that was the birth of the Music Tee,” says Wineberg.

So, what’s next for Invisible DJ and The Music Tee aside from further collaborations with up-and-coming and established artists? In 2010, Music Tee will embark on a British invasion, with launches planned for Selfridges, Urban Outfitters (in the United Kingdom), and Top Shop. There are also plans in the works for a special collection of limited edition vintage Music Tee box sets (potentially featuring Jimi Hendrix). One day, there may even be a Movie Tee, “we’ve had film studios call us asking how we can do this with films … but we don’t want to over-saturate the concept,” Wineberg says.

And it appears that Invisible DJ has a stringent enough filtration process to ensure that supply doesn’t eclipse demand. In addition to good music, artists are responsible for providing cool artwork for their Music Tee, “we just can’t put out a shirt just because it’s a great band; the artwork needs to be there as well," says Wineberg.

“People [may be] buying the shirt because it’s a cool band but they’re also wearing something on their chest and on their back and it needs to look good.”

Bringing Theater to the Street

Rebecca McQuigg Rigal — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 12:00:00 PST

Accomplice is an unusual theater experience– part game, part mystery theater, part walking tour (through little-known labyrinths specific to each cityscape). In true Clue-like form, the participants and the location are as integral to the outcome of the story as the actors involved. Co-founder Tom Salamon tells us how he turned a great idea into an unusual celebration of place-based art…

How did you come up with the concept for Accomplice?

About six years ago, my sister and I were on a walking tour of Lower Manhattan with our parents. We’d been living in New York for years and just decided to go and do this. And while [what we saw] was really interesting, the tour itself was not particularly dynamic or engaging. After discussing the experience a few days later, we thought there could be a more interesting way to visit all of these little nooks and crannies—where actors could be planted throughout [the tour] and a story could play out in these really interesting, quirky locations throughout the city.

Did either of you have a specific interest in theater?

No, it was just one of those stories where it was seemingly a good idea that came up and that we followed through on. The process itself took about six months but we weren’t looking at it with long-term goals in mind. We would meet occasionally to discuss new ideas and talk about what was inspiring in terms of stories. So, it took while but it wasn’t our main focus; we both had other careers. After we put on that first show, in late 2004, people reacted so strongly that we continued to develop it. And then we slowly rolled out our first season in 2005, but we got noticed very quickly. Six months later, I left my job. Two years later, we launched another show in the West Village.

Does the story come first, or the locations?

Good question. It’s a little bit of both. It really happens for us organically where we have an idea for a story we’d like to tell and have a location, or city, we want to use. At that point, we try to find interesting locations that people from the city are not necessarily going to be familiar with. We strive to showcase iconic spots, from a different perspective, in addition to out-of-the-way spots that you never would have known existed.

It’s such a brilliant way to explore a city. You’ve just opened a show in L.A. Which city are you going to take on next?

We’re in the process of developing a third show in New York, with the Museum of Natural History– a show that takes place entirely inside the museum. And we‘ve been talking with a producer in London who has produced a lot of really successful out-of-the-box theater in London and thought it was a good fit. So I think that’s what we’re going to pursue for now. And then maybe Las Vegas.

This post originally appeared on www.refresheverything.com, as part of GOOD's collaboration with the Pepsi Refresh Project, a catalyst for world-changing ideas. Find out more about the Refresh campaign, or submit your own idea today.

The Tastemaker: A Q&A with Garth Trinidad

Rebecca McQuigg Rigal — Wed, 3 Feb 2010 08:30:00 PST

The award-winning Los Angeles radio DJ Garth Trinidad—the long-time KCRW host, known for his smooth, genre-mixing music—took a few minutes recently to catch up with GOOD’s Rebecca McQuigg Rigal.

GOOD: So how’s an independent, up-and-coming artist to break through the commercial clutter?

Garth Trinidad: Internet radio and platforms like MySpace have democratized music distribution, but if you can get your music on a movie soundtrack, TV show, or national commercial, it will certainly help move your career forward because people will hear it. As the music supervisor for Season Four of “Entourage,” the independent artists I chose to play were exposed to a broad new audience.

G: Consumers are clearly more open-minded than ever when it comes to their music choices, so why do commercial stations keep playing the same old predictable songs?

GT: Ever since the Telecommunications Act was passed in the nineties and even before then, commercial radio has become fodder for advertisers. There remains a large gap between the post- and pre-Internet generations, and commercial radio still caters largely to people who don’t have access to peer-to-peer music sharing, Internet or satellite radio, music recommendation applications [like Pandora] or iTunes.

G: What are you looking forward to in 2010?

GT: Personally, I’m most excited to see the MojaMoja brand [Trinidad’s international music and culture platform] establish itself this year. The so-called mainstream is in a state of emergency. Most of the images, sounds, and attitudes expressed measure up to fast food for the brain. My crew and I are looking to help balance out the menu; we’ve been leveraging live events, like our second annual pre-Grammy Brunch, to introduce people to what I’m calling the “international alternative” movement [a fusion of world music and culture]. In 2010, we’re launching the MojaMoja web channel, a hub for artists and labels of my choosing to showcase new videos, and allow fans to discover new music and events.

G : Tell me about some new artists you’ve been digging.

GT: I like Blk Jks, from Johannesburg. They’ve been dubbed the most important act to come out of Africa since Miriam Makeba and Fela Kuti (and I just heard they'll be performing at the opening concert for The World Cup this summer in South Africa). Little Dragon, named for Swedish-Japanese frontwoman Yukimi Nagano, is traveling stateside more often and has a growing, devout cult following. Janelle Monae, considered one of the leaders in the afro-punk movement, was nominated for a Grammy last year and has garnered well-deserved critical acclaim. And Big Moves is an LA-based indie rock band made up of young, classically trained jazz musicians with a broad scope of influences who bring great depth to their sound.

Rebecca McQuigg Rigal is the Pepsi Refresh Project Ambassador for Arts and Culture. Learn more about the Pepsi Refresh Project here, and submit your own idea for how to move the world forward here. Photo courtesy of LovinLife Multimedia.