Saga of the Coin

My upcoming film Search Dog’s Raven is the eerie story about a search dog team named Lost Raven. It takes place seven years in the future. The film’s logo is an embossed memory coin card. This is a near future storage device like a compact flash card, only round and able to hold six hours of wide screen video. The artwork is basically a photo of Ebbey the search dog looking upwards and the words curving around her. In the film, the Lost Raven Search Dog Team uses the logo, which is also the logo for the real life animated adventures called Lost Raven. The same logo is being used for the film, by replacing LOSTRAVEN.COM with Search Dog’s Raven.
As a promotional item, we had these cool 1.5 inch token coins produced with the words LOSTRAVEN.COM. The coin company rep gave permission for the coin to appear in the film, and promised to send the signed permission form with the order. To make a long story short, we paid for the coins, received the coins, but never got signed permission. Every day they promised to send it, and didn’t. After seven weeks, I gave up. It turns out the person we dealt was no longer there and I still have no idea what happened.
So, it took me quite a while to digitally design and produce a metal coin. Perhaps it was destiny. Images don’t always translate the same in real metal, and I really prefer how my design turned out. Of course it also took me a lot longer. But what is new.

eBay Business Cards

Got 10,000 full color business cards from USA Postcards for only 130 dollars on eBay. I also designed a business card that we will cut in half and include with each promotional 1.5 inch token coin card. It’s a risk, for such a low priced business card, but the company’s feedback is pretty good.

Delegating and Permission Forms

I must delegate more, or at least that’s what everyone keeps telling me. Now if there just a few more people to delegate to.

As neither of the wardrobe people can figure out the embroidery software demo, I’ve decided to get the artwork digitized vs me learning yet another software program. Frankly I just don’t have the time. We chose Stitchitize.com, an internet site that came highly recommended and it turned out they did a great job. They also were fine signing a release that states we can show the embroidered logo in the film. Some people think it’s over kill to get them to sign a release, but technically, they digitized the image and possibly could pursue legal action without a release. I’m being extra careful to get permission for every item that appears in the film, just in case. An Alberta company named Mr. Goodbar, makes the security bars in the house where we filmed and the owner was surprised when we asked for permission. After considering every item that might appear in a film, he was astounded at the pile of permissions we must have had to get. It is a rather full binder, but I was also careful to use as many unidentifiable items as possible. No fabric patterns, no wallpaper, no copyrighted artwork. More than half of Search Dog’s Raven takes place out in the mountains, so you would think that significantly reduces the need for permission. Not so. Scenery has restrictions, and though we were lucky to get permission to film in Kananaskis Wilderness, Banff and Jasper National Parks, there were limitations. For example, we couldn’t film any buildings or signs. This includes road signs. We also couldn’t have any helicopters or trained wolves in the National Park areas. But luckily trees don’t have copyright or trademarks. At least not yet.