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Sent out a newsletter flash yesterday about the ideablob Vote, and we got 129 votes! We still need another 871 votes in a week to reach 1000. We stand to win a $10,000 Grant for The Collaboration Foundation.

I heard from some of you that the newsletter went to your Spam, or that you didn't receive it. There is a copy of it online here: http://www.the1secondfilm.com/newsletter/flash/2

Voting continues for another 7 days here:

http://ideablob.com/ideas/1247-The-Collaboration-Foundation-C

As I donated another small amount today, I had an interesting thought. What is the right amount to donate? I recently donated to the Jimmy V Foundation for Cancer Research. Personally, I believe it is a better group to donate to; however, I fully support the 1 Second Film and other art projects. I also plan on donating more to the 1SF before the project is complete.

So, my question to anyone who may read this is how do YOU decide how much to donate and who to give it to? There are many "worthy" charities working to find cures for countless diseases. There are other causes, such as this, that I also feel are worthy. There are websites I frequent that run exclusively on donations. Unfortunately, I cannot give everything I have to each of them. What do you do? How do you do it? Most importantly, why do you do it?

I have a new blog about film and television. http://filmfun.today.co... Please check it out, and comments are appreciated. Thanks.
~Shaboomer~

Hey everyone,

Our non-profit, The Collaboration Foundation, is one of 8 finalists in this months Ideablob contest!

We received enough votes to make it into the finals, now the votes get reset to zero, and we have one week to get the most votes. If we do, we will receive $10,000 to help build the Collaboration Foundation. This would be absolutely amazing, and make a huge difference in our ability to finish this film faster. Best of all, they give the winning idea the award via a GIANT Check! How great would that be???

Yesterday my friend and I were biking through Silverlake on our way to Santa Monica for the Glow art fest. We pulled up to a red light and Kiefer Sutherland was standing right next to us on the corner, about to cross the street. I said "hi." It took him a moment to remember where we had met, until I mentioned that he had given me $600.23 to help Executive Produce The 1 Second Film. Then he smiled and said he had just been telling someone about our film the other day. I thought that was pretty cool :)

It has been about a year since I randomly ran into Kiefer at a restaurant. We caught up briefly with the project and I gave him one of our new fliers that has his photo on it, which was sort of funny. Kiefer is a really nice guy.

i've been entering/itemizing receipts, etc. for some time, and finally finished! photocopied docs yesterday, organizing a packet and delivering to accountants today. this is one of the last steps toward our 501(c)(3) filing for the Collaboration Foundation. i'm also prepping final docs for our Board of Directors to sign, and will be mailing out in a few days. it will be amazing to finally have all this stuff done!

i've also been reviewing proposals for our web development and am narrowing down to final choices... big decision time.

My Encounters With Ghosts

YouTube recently added the ability to view videos in high res, and I recently learned how to link to and embed to the high res videos directly (thanks mikeb!).

For posting/linking to a YouTube URL, add to the end of the URL:

&fmt=18

For embedding to a high res YouTube video add the following code onto the end of both URLs in the embed code:
&ap=%2526fmt%3D18

The hack links directly to the MP4 version instead of

High Res Embed:

I recently went on a Colorado mini-tour with Cash'd Out, the world's premier Johnny Cash tribute band, in which I count myself blessed to be singing the June Carter parts. It was in Veil, Colorado, our 3rd show on the trip that I realized upon the dance floor that I was completely in love with this job, this band, and this whole adventure/experience in music that I'm having.

Prior to the show, we were all sitting around having dinner and geeking out over an article/interview that had come out in the paper that day about Cash'd Out and our appearance in town. It was the first time my name had appeared in print in association with the band (albeit misspelled) and the whole thing was pretty exciting.

Got some great feedback on the new home page design, and then made some more improvements. 

Here's the latest design for our new home page:

Summary of changes:

• main content area has been broken apart to feel less overwhelming.
• Intro video player is bigger.
• eliminated the "enter credit name" field (too confusing from user POV).
• added member sign in box to right column.
• crisper copy.
• dynamic blocks on bottom to display latest production blogs and featured videos.
• Action Blocks moved down to be consistent site-wide.

If you have any design notes, please let me know!