Turn Back the clock 2009

It feels as if 2009 flew right by me as if nothing has happened. In a few hours, 2010 is born and a new resolution will be created. But looking back, 2009 has been an up and down roller coaster. My father having to go through Emotional heart surgery, a few of my friends had past away, friends losing jobs, self healthy problems from flu, Pneumonia, Bronchitis, stress, and struggles with my love life. But through these obstacles, I proved to myself that I was able to get through them and fight long and hard to make things work from a mental and physical level.

The story of my life is that I have to work hard in everything I do to make something work for myself. I did not come from a rich family and people did not give me things willingly. I had to work hard to prove myself for things I want. If my life in 2009 was drawn with a graph to see my progress level, there would be a lot of swiggly lines going on the upwards trend. With what had been going on, I managed to get a lot of things done from Writing/Directing/Producing my first short film, obtaining a management contract from Credible Players in the music industry, and picking up a new skill that was needed which was Photography and Cinematography.

People look at my accomplishments for 2009 and call it a lucky year for me. But I don’t consider any of that luck. I consider that hard work that required diligence, patience, motivation, and passion. I believe with the drawbacks I’ve had, it actually stopped me from doing more on what I wanted to do. But I will hope for great things to happen in 2010.

So with that, I’d like to toast to those who read my blogs! “To inspiration, motivation, determination, and passion! Let success not be just about money, but about happiness and being content to what you love”. That’s my new year’s resolution!

Happy new year !

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Major Labels landed on their own sword?

It’s probably been said over and over. But you know, there’s still not enough discussion about it. So I’ll write my opinion about what I think of the Major Labels and why I see them failing if they are not going to change their tactics right now.

First of all, Major’s shot themselves in the foot for producing great singles and terrible albums in the past. They forced people to buy albums for 1 or 2 songs that they liked on the album. Now the tides changed where people have more control on what they want to buy and not buy. They don’t need to buy albums, but can download singles. Well, if Majors got it right in the beginning or stopped taking advantage of what they knew was happening, then maybe people would be buying albums and not be pissed off for making them buy terrible albums just for 1 great single. Fully albums should be expected to have quality songs.

Anyways, they set no “real” standards for the industry. There were no standard pay rates, no unions to help fight for those who are trying to break into the industry, and so much conflict of interest. They had “Uneducated” A&R’s working for Majors that couldn’t even type a damn professional e-mail. For someone that is professional, I expect someone would be able to write in complete sentences. So already, major labels have uneducated staff members to help run their business. Their ethics are poor, at least most that I’ve encountered, and were probably taking advantage of their network and contacts for their own self-interest and purposes.

In the corporate world, there are rules and regulations with regards to conflict of interest. And trust me, those rules and regulations were enforced and those who got caught, regretted it! Well in the music industry, it’s the wild wild west. Anything goes. They set their own pay rates. If you were unknown in anything, you are expected to do it for free until you get lucky with one great opportunity. Almost like a little rat looking for a crack in the dark to escape.

The industry is designed in a certain way for people to fail miserably. What if a music producer had to have a masters degree in music in order to “present” music to the major labels? What if an Artist had to go through a certain certification to get access to certain things and certain people that can help boost their career? Maybe it’s dumb, maybe it’s not. But if we had certain standards like what we have in any other damn industry like Medical, Law, Finance, and etc, maybe just maybe there would be consistency and people who have a passion for something can get into an industry that is reliable where any talented person with skills can make a living off their work, instead of having to work another job that’s consistent and reliable to support their passion. Right now, we have any JO that makes a beat think he is a “producer”. LoL….well that’s another blog

Now is the time to change. With the declines in revenue, quality, and so forth, why not go for it? Thoughts and opinions?

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Perception in entertainment

Today, I like to talk about perception in music, film, and photography. Lets start simple:

If we see a photography with an assistant that holds a softbox/umbrella and  a flash, we assume it’s somewhat professional. If we see a photography with 4 assistants, 2 holding a flash and 2 hold reflectors giving this high profile photoshoot look outdoors, we automatically assume it’s professional and it’s going to turn out great.

In music, whenever anyone wants into a high end studio that’s loaded with gear, nice setup, clean, and just looks really professional, people will assume great “quality” sounding music will come from there vs. someone with a home studio setup, sorta messy, and no vocal booth. That’s a terrible perception these days.

In film, whenever we see a 35mm format, a crew of people working with the director, and high end lights, we assume it’s a decent budget film and it’s going to look great. But when we see a person with a tiny camera, tiny crew, minimal lights, we assume it’s amateur.

I guess we as human beings have this perception of what big production and professionalism is suppose to look like and be like. Well, just a news flash if you guys have not caught up to technology, equipment are becoming much cheaper, more compact, and “much” better and advanced. Think of the first IBM computer where you had to load a floppy into the drive to boot it up. Windows didn’t even exist yet and memory was 512kb. And color monitors wasn’t available. Yet, the damn computer was bulky, weighed a ton, keyboard was extremely loud, loading took like 10 minutes.

That’s the same thing that’s happening in music and film. So when you walk into a homestudio, don’t underestimate the sound quality like most do. Or if you walk into a film set and see a director holding a photography camera (VDSLR 7d, 5d, 1d) shooting his next feature. It’s the new age and it’s about the people behind the tools that make it work.

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Music Industry is a dying business why? Read my conversation with another industry professional

I had forwarded the link to a few buddies of mine which I won’t reveal, but I had an email conversation with someone about the post I had put up yesterday (read yesterday’s post). I think he hit the nail on the head when he replied to me that the Article tells him that it is a dying industry and it sucks to be a producer and songwriter. Here is the conversation:

Anonymous: What it tells you is that producing is a lousy business – especially for hip hop.

Me: You make a great a point. I think I want to blog this topic. I think its realized, but I think many are in denial still thus not fully expressing their opinions and complaints. Not sure what that would do but I don’t read too many talking about it.

Thoughts and feedback are always welcome. Please add me to facebook and follow me on twitter.

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Signed management deal with “Hitclub Entertainment”

I like to let everyone know that I’ve officially signed with Hitclub Entertainment (www.hitclubentertainment.com). They are a management / production company and they will help bring my career to the next level in entertainment from a wide range in music and film. To brief everyone on their recent activities, one of the writers on the team “Lonny Bereal” received 4 grammy nominations as well as 4 song placements on the latest “Chris Brown” album.

I’m also please to announce that my short film “Denial” has been accepted to the New York International Indie Film Festival and BCB Productions International Film Festival in Las Vegas. Still waiting for a few more notices on other festivals.

Please check out their discography at www.hitclubentertainment.com. Also please be sure to add me to facebook and send me a comment or message.

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Khoa Le Journey to Success Update

Back in end of may when I invested into my Canon 5d Mark II, I never would have thought I would get a film done. But with persistence, adrenaline, excitement, and motivation, I was able to complete my first short film titled “DENIAL”. I directed, produced, scored, edited, DP’ed, and wrote along with 2 others named Joe Nunez and Zebretta Johnson.

It was a great learning experience. I learned that you really can knock 10 birds with 1 stone. It was not easy as I must have put massive hours to educate myself of all the technicalities and approach to the business. But it was sure worth it.

Now that I can do photography, be a film maker, a songwriter, a record producer, an engineer, and I guess an Actor, I can finally feel confident about my company Kvibe Productions being a 1 stop and shop Media company. I understand that some may view it as a jack of all trades, but my work speaks for itself. If you enjoy looking at my Film or looking at my photography work or listening to my music, then I did the job on getting quality content to the audience.

Now, how do I take all that content and make a profit out of it? Well, I’m still crawling but I’m reaching to the point where I can finally walk as new ideas and marketing strategies I developed has come into the light. While I work on my next short film and featured film, my music projects, and my photography projects, the marketing strategy I have will change how an Independent Artist in the entertainment industry can market themselves with a low budget to create new opportunities for their career. That’s my goal and I’m sticking to that goal.

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Progress Update

Hey Everyone,

Thanks for taking the time to read my blogs. I’ve been a bit behind on this as I’ve been working hard in furthering my knowledge in this exciting entertainment industry. My photography knowledge has drastically improved as well as my film knowledge. With that, I finished 2 scenes for my short film and in the process of editing and preparing for the final scenes.

So what did I do in a short amount of time to gain massive to do all of this? I joined a film meetup group in westchester (very educational) thanks for the host Holly and I asked tons of questions and I spent a lot of my nights reading forums, articles, youtubes, and blogs for best practice techniques and understanding of the process. But 75% is trial and error as you really got to get out and just “DO IT”. I shot a practice scene and seeing how long it took me to do the post production gave me a better insight on what to do the next time around. Without having any film education, it was common sense to me to have a shot log, shot list, distributed crew for certain roles that I can’t do by myself, and etc.

So the moral of this blog is to show my progress as well as tell everyone that if you are reading this and if something inspires you, stop thinking about it and do something about it. Life is too short to be lazy in life (unless that’s what really makes you happy). If you want to know, yes, I do have a day job that I like doing as it supports my passion.

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Issues with Canon’s business

Though I do love Canon’s products and their customer service thus far, I find it disappointing to read their release of the new Canon 7d. Though I know about the 7d specs not being full-frame, but the fact that the basic functions such as having 24p/25p on the 5d is not present, but rather in the 7d instead. There are no news if the 5d will come out with a 24p update. Instead, they may even come out with VDSLR via 1d Mark iv. Who knows….but I’d like to vent out that Canon should at least give customers the update regarding if 5d will be coming out with another firmware update to satisfy their loyal customers. If not, maybe when the Nikon comes out with a Full Frame VDSLR, the loyal canon customers will go the Nikon route.

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