2011 balance

I thought it was time to recap on what went on over the year 2011 in terms of films and other -video or otherwise- exciting projects. Yes, there's a few days left to the end of the year, but I intend not to do much until Christmas, to be honest.

In January and February, I pretty much worked on Brothers day, my first feature film as a director, 24 7. Getting the cast, securing the locations, re-working the script, preparing the shots. Constantly buzzing production office. I slept once too. Great times.

In March, while I was still filming Brothers day, I did the first and last videoblog of the project, for the only reason that I was waiting for the actors and had nothing better to do. I did some VFX work for an American promo with a great pitch. And a time traveller.

In May, I went to the Cannes film festival. Walked around a lot, went to a few parties, watched a few films and saw Hugh Jackman in sunglasses. Got a new phone unsuitable for dirty fingers.

In June, I did a few more shots of Brothers day and I saw myself in the trailer for Captain America, featuring my first ever blockbuster extra role.

In July, I finally and officially wrapped Brothers day, to the surprise of everyone, especially me. Captain america was released. Enjoyed it and I THINK I MAY HAVE SEEN myself. My mother claimed to have seen me more times than I was ever there. Google released Google+ and I got absurdly excited about it. I'm feeling better now.

In August, I watched Rise of the planet of the apes. Got excited again. Longest title and best film I have seen this year in the cinema to date.

In September, I loved my new phone. And immediately started to hate it after that. Filmed some incredible bluescreen.

In October, I filmed in a warehouse and nearly got run over by a forklift, which was mildly entertaining. Filmed some stuff in the woods too.

In November, I forgot I had shown my short film Reaction to practically no one and shared it with the world. Calachurras reached its most exciting issue so far and we tried to explain a few things with a cute annex. As a reward, we finally got a fan we don't know personally. Win.

In December, decorated dozens of Christmas trees in a fake NYC and was involved in a attempt to burn down a hotel. Never toast bread if you are not completely awake.

More stuff this year ends with:  

Newfound Planet, our very own production company, is now born and the next feature film project is on the making, a very exciting Sci-fi. Which is like a Science fiction film, but with less letters. Possible the most amazing news this year.

Calachurras has reached the middle of its story, and still most people haven't got a clue what we mean.

After months of on and off work. The Brothers day trailer is nearly ready to go out. This obviously mean it will be the greatest trailer of all times. Either that or simply the most slowly done one.

Look forward to 2012.

Google+: First impressions

So after a few days, here's my perception of Google+.

Great stuff that's already here:

- Circles!: G+'s way of classifying your contacts. Makes a lot of sense, it's a pleasure to use. Means that you only share updates, easily, with the people you want. And it's pretty! :)

- "Hangouts": Basically, a videoconference service for up to 10 people! I like that the image changes automatically to show whoever person is talking at a particular time too. Can't wait to use it for face-to-face, yet remote filmaking meetings, or just family ones.

- Instant upload: The pictures of your phone get uploaded to a private album onto your Google+ that is instantly viewable and shareable. How many of us never download the pics to our computer? Never again!

Other stuff I still want! :)

- Circles within circles: A hierarchical structure would be very good to effectively organise your folks (you can vote for the inclusion of this feature here in Google moderator, I just did myself :)

- Integration with other Google services: Like scheduling an event that will go straight into your Gcalendar or being able to use your Gmail groups of contacts as Circles. Not even need to vote for this, it's obvious that it will be rolled out as soon as it's ready. But it can't happen overnight!

- Permission to be tagged: Always! Either giving permission over pics/albums, or to a list of people/circles. This type of thing is where Google can easily be ahead of Facebook.
- Way of limiting the amount of posts per person on a particular feed: Some people share too much, and /or too often, and they tend to take over the feed for the circles they are in (unless they have their own circle, but this defies the concept of circles itself). I rather see older posts of several people than today's 450 posts from the same person! 

And the experience continues :)

Google+: The opportunity

Google+, for those who haven't had the chance to give it a try yet, is Google's alternative to Facebook.

Yes, it does look like Facebook, which on the internet seems to have become ammunition to criticize G+.

Personally, doesn't bother me. People are familiar with that visual way of receiving and creating information. Also, the changes that social media needs are fundamentally conceptual, not visual. And most importantly, it's Google, so as with everything else they create, there will soon be a way of personalize it to your liking.

And that's the key to what Google+ means. Its power is not in what it is now, but in what it can become.

Part of the privacy issue on social networks, only us ourselves can solve it. Whether we like it or not, communications happen increasingly online, and we are still trying to keep up with the system! To build a new platform to do that on, I for one think there's no one better than Google.

Unlike Facebook creators, Google listens to users. They actually have an ongoing list of pending changes on their official feedback platform Google moderator. Where, incidentally, you too can go and draw attention to something that you think is not working particularly well on any Google product. Here is the one for Google+.

Also unlike Facebook, Google cares about privacy. And already has in place some basic tools towards this end that I'm sure won't be the only ones.

So live it, contribute to the moderator. Let's create the social experience as WE want it. As it should have always been, with control over what we do.