Daughter of Godcast, Crowd Creation Episode 079 Rabbit and Dog. 2018 is the Chinese year of the DOG, has been for about 2 weeks now, and this episode’s scene is a little homage to the Chinese New Year and also the year of our DOG, Daughter of God, hurray! We’re changing things up this episode, a new wild ride, high winds, glare ice, hang on!

Last week I experimented with Facebook live. I ran in the forest and launched the Sprinter ice boat for the first and likely the last time this winter season. Two days of adventure, first to my feed of 700 friends and then to Daughter of God’s feed of 80 or so followers.

The Facebook live videos got more likes and comments than everything I’ve done on social media to date. I’m sure the novelty of ice boating was compelling, all that speed and danger. Also, according to Jil, my improv performances were also a delight, way better than my reading of scripted podcasts.

I like improvisation and would love to shift the Crowd Creation from a scripted to spontaneous format. The process of scripting is valuable tho,  writing helps me to reflect on the feedback for the scenes and sketch a plan for what happens next. Also, writing helps me control the length of the episodes which keeps the editorial manageable.

Perhaps after my usual writing stint, I could outline the main ideas and then instead of reading the transcript, just riff away on the outline. I’d could even set a timer for 10 minutes and let the orgone energy flow, hitting as many ideas as possible within that time and then calling that good, no editing. I’d get the benefit of writing and you’d have a more zesty podcast experience.

For the first time ever, I boosted a Facebook post. I paid 10 bucks to put Best Scenario Yet in front of 1000s of strangers. The results are pretty confusing, but certainly some folks saw the scene that otherwise wouldn’t have.

Hello from a freshly refrozen winter wonderland, gorgeous Benzie County in Northern Michigan, USA. The epicenter of transmogrifying cinema for the middle of Turtle Island and perhaps everywhere because, yep, this is where the Daughter of God will incarnate, she is coming and you, YOU are helping, you’re in on the blessed event by listening to this podcast and even more so when you offer feedback.

Just back from Chicago and Dan Savage’s Hump! Film Festival, Where Everyone is Sexy. Just doing research, I didn’t have anything entered. The short films had more humor than arousal going on, at least for me. Variations on intimacy that expanded my horizons, tho I’m still mostly straight. Humans are amazing.

Yet even with all those writhing bodies, I was itching to get home and back to Daughter of God. Nothing is sexier right now!

Before Hump! I visted Chicagoland Toys and Hobbies, and bought three boxes of 1/48th scale Hasagawa Aircraft ordnance and a tiny Predator drone. That sort of made up for missing the Great Lakes Scale Modeler meeting in Traverse City. Model shop? Miniatures?

For the unabridged social media analysis, check out the transcription for this episode, and btw this is Episode 078 Best Scenario Yet, Season Two of Daughter of Godcast, Crowd Creation. The unabridged social media analysis, read the full transcription at www.dog.movie, Episode 078. Here’s the overview. Generally, Crowd Creation is becoming more accessible, especially on Facebook. Each scene seems to perform better than the previous scene. Canyon Princess is the second most watched scene after Open Season, which was also true last week with Do It Again.

The stats for social media as of Sunday February 18, 2018.

Vimeo.com Canyon Princess had 12 plays on vimeo and 1 play on dog.movie for a total of 13 plays total, with 23 impressions and a 57% play rate. Because I posted a 12 second version and then a 36 second version, the engagement graph was whacked, dropping to 45%.

Do it Again leads on Vimeo with 24 plays followed by Smart Money with 16 plays and 12 Mediatronic Ads with 15 plays. Canyon Princess is 4th with 13 plays. The Vimeo audience is tiny compared to Facebook. On Facebook, Open Season leads with 214 views, followed by Canyon Princess with 132 views, then Smart Money with 112 and Do It Again with 89.

Views of dog.movie declined over the last week or so, but looking back over a 6 month history, there’s a steady increase. I haven’t checked the Google stats in months. Maybe we’ll got there in Episode 079.

The stats for the podcast show that listens were down by 50% starting in November of 2017, before the Crowd Creation started, and then perked up a bit in February of 2018.

On Vimeo the Daughter of Godcast Episode 077 had 5 plays (4 on dog.movie, 2 on vimeo), 18 impressions and a 28% play rate. Less than half the plays of Canyon Princess. That applies to the entire Crowd Creation, there are more plays of the scenes than the podcast episodes, so far.

There’s so much great feedback coming in that from now on I’m only going to provide an overview in the podcast, (black text). That means I can speculate and have epiphanies lik

What a party, what a gift to be once again communing with you… and you and you! Dan Kelly here aka Shri Fugi Split, two names, same guy. Instantiated in your consciousness, teleported into your moment through bouncing speaker diaphragms and maybe even glowing pixels, technology is your excuse to make this imaginary me, actual. You’re an adventurer for letting me in, courageous and very creative. What will you make me say and do this episode I wonder?

Having muddied the water, let’s dive right on in.

By now you should know that we’re looking at scenes from the open source sci fi featurette, Daughter of God and requesting feedback. How to get feedback is also worthy of our attention. In Episode 075 I flippantly fast forwarded through the data because frankly, I prefer to be a little more zoomed out. Plus we don’t have a lot of time in these more concise episodes for tons of detail and meandering. Where’s the beef?!

From now on, I’m only giving an executive summary of the analysis, if you’re fascinated by the nitty gritty details, be like Ann and Pam and check out the transcription.

[Transcription only]

I was so excited about the potential for affinity on Ello.co, but ever since I started taking an interest in other members there, my views have crashed into the double digits. That’s gotta be a coincidence, right? Why should I be downgraded for appreciating the community? If Ello.co has an algorithm, it’s whacky. Since I’m already fucked on Ello, I’m just going to continue checking out the loveliness there. From now Nuts and Bolts is going to exclude double digit performance on platforms like Ello and Twitter.

On Facebook, as of Monday, February 12, 2018 Do It Again reached 103 people with 79 views, performing better than 85% of other posts. Do It Again was 57 seconds, multiplied by 79 views = 75 minutes of watching, but FB reports just 49 minutes of watching, so at most 65% watched to the end.

A table comparing scene performance across all platforms would be a cool resource.

On Facebook, Open Season is the leader so far with 205 views and 71 minutes viewed. 71 minutes divided by 11 seconds is 387 views. Because Open Season is so short, I interpret the difference between reported and calculated views as not that viewers didn’t finish watching as one would expect with longer videos, but rather that the scene cycled over and over in the window, whether the viewer was watching or not. In other words, views are counted either when the scene is scrolled into the window or maybe when the sound is turned on, and minutes viewed is just how long the video loops while visible, regardless of whether a friend is watching the video or checking out an ad or IM.

Open Season has been up for 3 weeks and Do It Again for less than 1, yet Open Season already had more than half as many views. Also Do It Again is 5 times longer than Open Season and longer videos are a more significant commitment for FBers, so Do It Again shows promise.

On Vimeo, there were 17 plays with 98% of the video watched. Again challenging the older Open Season with 22 plays and weirdly only 74% watched. Maybe my assumptions on Facebook are wrong, I’m going to have to contact Vimeo support because the engagement graph indicates 100% of Open Season video was watched.

[Transcription only ends]

Low performance platforms are now excluded from reporting. Facebook and Vimeo rank Do It Again as the second most watched scene, with potential for outpacing the most watched, Open Season in the weeks to come. Further research is needed for Vimeo and Facebook to resolve some contradictory data.

That feels so muc

Well, hello again! This is the Daughter of Godcast, Episode 076, Do It Again. So much beauty and fun to share in 10 minutes. We’re dusting off a scene each week, making a flurry of creative choices, and if we can keep the podcast under 10 minutes, there’s just enough time for smoothies and the occasional hot bath. This season of Daughter of Godcast, the Crowd Creation I’m offering less homespun visionary rambling, but since we’re still making this movie, I’m still making me. There’s constant clarity coming from feedback because we’re learning as we go.

We’ve demonstrated that Feedback makes the movie better. We’re finding out whether a scene is working and if not, how to tweak. New horizons too, where a scene could go, wants to go.

We are also learning how to get feedback in the first place. Episode 075 we looked at Smart Money and gave a bit more backstory than we usually do. Feedback was plentiful and inspiring. Can we know why?

The answer is probably as simple as, there were gorgeous Trilliums in the thumbnail for the video and the third shot had an intriguing pull focus from Trillium flowers to 20 dollar bills. Several people wrote that they dug the change of focus.

Reading and pondering your experiences is way more fun than analyzing the data across all social media platforms, the play rate and impressions and all that. But this data might give a sense of whether the scene is capturing the cognition of acquaintances and perfect strangers. I’d love to have feedback from other continents, especially where English is not the native tongue, and I’m expecting these new collaborators to show up easily and organically. Is analyzing the data helpful or a geeky distraction. The only way for me to really know is to check in with how I feel.

Right now, I feel like fast forwarding the numbers and skipping the question of whether analysis feels like a party or not.

As of Monday February 5, 2018… Here are the numbers, quickly.

Facebook 123 people reached, 34 minutes, 96 views. I’m making assumptions about what these numbers mean, here goes. 96 views / 123 people reached = 78% of the people reached played video, which could be comparable to VImeo’s playrate. Since Smart Money is 26 seconds long, then 34 minutes / 26 seconds = 78 plays, or about 81% of the 96 viewers watched the scene right to the end. Executive summary – 80% of people of Facebook friends played the video and watched to the end. The opening thumbnail of Trillium flowers probably started the ball rolling, and my guess is the third shot, pull focus from flower to money, was intriguing enough to hold their attention.

Vimeo has an engagement graph that shows how long people watch. Of 16 plays, 100% of the people watched to the end, with 47 impressions. In contrast to Facebook’s play rate of 78%, Vimeo’s play rate was only 34%. There’s still a lot of variables that I don’t understand, and loading the video directly to Facebook cuts off Vimeo’s data. I know you all love numbers and math, maybe someone who actually knows what it all means will get in touch.

I’ve been unsocial on Ello for the last 74 episodes of Daughter of Godcast episodes, just posting, posting, posting. I’ve got 42 followers supposedly, but I can only see 14 or so for some unknown reason. Last week I started doing outreach on Ello, exploring other artists, liking their work and following a few. Afterwards, views on Ello for Smart Money dropped from my usual 100 to 30! Is there a correlation between me getting inspired by other artists and the community getting less interested in my posts? Is there such a thing as coincidence? Not in this vibr

Well met wide world here on our ongoing Crowd Creation, Daughter of Godcast, Episode 075, Smart Money.

I’m loving this chapter of the movie, the making and the feedback. Scenes and components sketched out years ago, (or maybe last week) are tuned up and set loose upon the world, the world wild web, that is. How fun, how essential. I am fascinated and often surprised by your experience. Hints about how to clarify and enhance scenes, new ideas. Thank you.

Episode 074, Twelve Mediatronic Ads received feedback from just three dedicated collaborators – James, Seamus and Judith.

Maybe Twelve Mediatronic Ads just sucked. Is there another explanation?

Test screening on the internet is exciting, because our content has to be ultra compelling. This not in a darkened movie theater, you are not a captive audience. There’s so much else going on, so many other posts, feeds, a smorgasbord of seductions. DOG’s scenes have to be more intriguing and magnetic than everything else, if they’re going to capture any cognition. But the flow of feedback is not just about a scene’s awesomeness.

Sparse feedback could mean the presentation is ineffective – the video might be glitchy, slow to load or my request for feedback could be obtuse and confusing. And/or, the content might be totally inappropriate for the social media platform – too long, too subtle or in conflict with the prevalent aesthetic. There’s a lot of mights to consider.

If we offer a scene and there’s not much response, I can’t immediately assume the content is awful or that no one loves me. This is detective work, observing and tweaking, optimizing for response. The nuts and bolts of getting feedback are as important as the feedback itself.

Twelve Mediatronic Ads was likely too long and didn’t have enough context. I wonder… if the ads had appeared on refugee relief boxes, either in an empty hallway or behind Christina or Gerry, would feedback have been more abundant? This will be fun to revisit.

We’ve requested  feedback on 4 scenes, 2 under 15 seconds and 2 over 2 minutes. On Facebook at least, shorter chunks are more likely to be watched and commented on. The scene with the most feedback so far, Open Season is a free standing miniature story, with a hero, a challenge, and a transformation. That might have helped too.

Social media platforms are diverse. As an artist and designer, I feel Facebook is a horror show, an addictive, sluggish time suck, but many of my family and friends are there. Even so, only a small percentage of my family and friends are also the audience for Daughter of God. She’s wanting more nerds, freaks, iconoclasts, mavericks, tilters at windmills, dreamers, utopians, troublemakers. There are scads of social media platforms specifically for artists and geeks. We’re headed there, stay tuned.

As of Monday January 29, for Twelve Mediatronic Ads Facebook reports 51 views for 36 minutes. Since the video is 2 minutes long, 36 divided by 2 equals only 13 people, which means most of the 51 viewers didn’t watch to the end.

89 people saw the post on Ello with one like by Darren John, a nifty muralist based in London. I can’t tell how many watched the video on Ello, but Darren likely did, so thanks Darren!

Vimeo had 8 plays and 19 impressions for a 42% play rate, best so far, oddly enough. 86% watched to the end, or 6.8 people. Open Season still rules, with 100% of Vimeo watchers staying until the end.

Seamus opined via dog.movie…

07 is my favorite, probably because of the rhyme. 10 is the most disturbing, because it implies that no progr

The Daughter of Godcast is about movie making, one movie mostly – Daughter of God, just another post apocalyptic, romantic comedy. The first season of the podcast, the Gentle Release was a rambling account of how this movie came to be, and how the making of made me. In this our second season, Crowd Creation, your opinions and critique reveal what scenes are fantastic and which might not quite be. With your feedback, Daughter of God is becoming a way better movie. We’re also setting a precedent as the first movie test screened over the entire internet. Please share, share, share!

In episode 073, we looked at Open Season. A doe grazing in the forest is surprised by the thunk of an arrow into a nearby tree. She looks around, locates the threat and emits laser beams out of her eyes. There’s a pitiful scream and the sound of a body collapsing into the bushes.

Crowd Creation is all about feedback, but how do we get feedback? Not only encouraging feedback but feedback that reveals problems or where a scene might be broken. Getting feedback is a learn as we go process, and I want to share these lessons too.

I requested a count of replays. To solicit more critical feedback, I also asked for “anything that stood out” emphasizing that “there are no right or wrong opinions”. We want to know what is working AND what isn’t. This phrasing seems effective, feedback for Open Season was the most diverse and insightful so far.

This was the first time a scene was uploaded to both Vimeo and Facebook, which increased feedback, perhaps because Facebook peeps tend not to follow external links. The Facebook version had an annoying resolution glitch tho, which makes the scene appear to change focus. Future uploads to Facebook will have to be carefully vetted. Also, is there a Facebook setting to loop expanded video?

As of Saturday January 20, 236 people were reached on Facebook with 145 views. FB also reports that the video was played for total of 53 minutes. The video is 11 seconds long, so 53 minutes is 289 plays, which is twice the number of views Facebook reports. Kinda confusing, FB.

Meanwhile on Vimeo, there were 13 plays, 47 impressions and a 28% play rate. Play rate is plays divided by impressions or how many times the video loaded on a page divided by how often the play button on the video was then clicked. James commented Vimeo play count seemed low. Why would Vimeo be undercounting? There’s still plenty to figure out.

Putting the video on Facebook definitely lowered the plays on Vimeo, but likely increased plays overall. I had been relying on organic or spontaneous likes of the Facebook page but last week I started to invite friends to follow http://facebook.com/daughterofgodcast. You can too – hint hint!

There was lots of super helpful feedback. Thanks so much to everyone who offered their two cents.

Pam commented at dog.movie.

Watched it thrice. Bucolic, then startling, suspenseful, surprising, and ultimately satisfying. Loved how the deer’s head, ears, movement, twitch, and overall expression perfectly synched with the offstage shenanigans and sounds!

Susan from Facebook

I watched it twice. Everything was spot on, and the scream was perfection.

Heather from Facebook

Omg, that was unexpected and hilarious

James from dog.movie

Watched it at least

Hello, here we are at another episode of Daughter of Godcast, Crowd Creation, this is Episode 073, Open Season.

What’s this podcast all about? We’re asking the internet to help make a movie, Daughter of God. We want to trade scenes, shots and snippets for your feedback, opinions and critique. Every week we show a new chunk of the movie and report back about the previous week’s chunk.

If you just want to listen, no worries.  The Daughter of Godcast strives to be a stand alone audio experience, you don’t have to look at anything. However, you are always welcome to join us in the next dimensions, the visual dimension, the interactive dimension. After 70 episodes of history and preaching by me me me, I’m itching for you you and more you.

So there’s the premise, super easy. Let’s have a conversation. We could have so much fun, we could make such an amazing movie together. A way better movie than I can make on my own. Hear me, podcast listeners and mayhap watchers. Come with me on this adventure. Be a movie maker. Play with me.

Last week in Episode 072 we showed Christina’s Date Dance.

In preparation for her date with Gerry, Christina dances into and out of various costumes to the pulse of random shortwave radio broadcasts. The question was, based on her clothing choices and style of movement, what 5 adjectives best describe Christina?

Date Dance had 22 plays, 56 impressions and a play rate of 39%, down from the 33 plays, 78 impressions and 42% play rate for Episode 071 Wall Street Under Water. This drop in interest was surprising – the thumbnail image for Date Dance featured an attractive human female in an alluring gown while Wall Street’s thumbnail is just a beach of bricks. Perhaps the deep shadows of the shot made Christina look like she’s frowning.

I introduced the chunk and asked for feedback at the end, but this wasn’t effective. Date Dance inspired less feedback than Wall Street Under Water, which had no introduction or feedback request. Date Dance was probably too long at 3:25.

Scott and James both commented at dog.movie. Scott gave the following 5 adjectives.

At first, I wondered if Scott was describing the overall vibe of the shot rather than Christina herself, but then I looked up the definitions. For Scott, Christina is fast and energetic in a rather wild and uncontrolled way (frenetic). More than just a quality of motion, she is motion incarnate, (kinetic) and at the same time frozen in a flash of light, stroboscopic.  She expresses emotions in an imaginative and beautiful way, lyric and is a document of her own life, autobiographic, an open book. Scott’s adjectives are interesting in that they describe Christina without implying right or wrong, worthy or unworthy. I feel a deepening of insight about Christina because of Scott’s description, her backstory grows.

James had these 5 adjectives to describe Christina.

James describes Christina as having  the attractive or exciting quality that makes certain people seem appealing or special, (glamorous), with an even consistency, (smooth), attractively lively and animated (vivacious), having a pleasing quality involving a subtle effect or contrast rather than sharp definition (soft) and deliberately enigmatic, (mysterious).

I replied to James, “Yo

Welcome and welcome back to the Daughter of Godcast, a podcast about the making of the longest little movie ever, Daughter of God. This is Episode 072 Date Dance, the second episode of the second season, Crowd Creation, where each week the internet offers feedback and I listen. I’ve even tweaked the title of the second season from Crowd Completion to Crowd Creation, because of the feedback from last week, episode 071, Wall Street Under Water.

I had planned to have new infrastructure ready for the start of season two – refreshing dog.movie, a presence on at least 5 new social media platforms, all movies from Season One Gentle Release moved to Vimeo… but on the last day of 2017, my dad decided to return to the non-physical, and as my family showed up for the funeral, one by one they we’re taken out by a funky flu, myself included. Episode 071 arrived late, social media deployment was incomplete  and the email list neglected. In spite of these challenges, excellent feedback was had and so without further eloquence, here’s the summary.

In the short shot Wall Street Under Water, gentle waves ripple over a submerged green street sign that reads, Wall Street. The sign is attached to a broken steel post, resting on a bed of red bricks. The question was, what emotions came up while watching?

There was feedback from James at dog.movie and Susan and Allison via Facebook.

James wrote,

Wow! My first thought was, “that looks like Wall St has been over taken by the ocean, totally believable.” It reminds me a little of the book New York 2140. I felt both amused and alarmed when I saw it—kind of like, this is scary stuff. Why aren’t more people concerned about what is happening to our planet? It is amazing how far a little clip can go and what it brings up.

Since “amused and alarmed” was roughly what I was reaching for, James’ feedback was very satisfying. “Scary stuff” was also good. He had a complex emotional experience, which is a confirmation that this shot is well balanced between humor and horror, between subtle and shocking.

From Facebook, Susan commented,

A crumbling facade of “wealth” and “power,” being replaced by a new paradigm.

Now that’s not precisely a description of emotion, but knowing Susan as I do, she’s talking about a good feeling, uplift.

This was new territory. I didn’t expect that Wall Street Under Water might be inspiring.

Allison comment expanded on my surprise!

I immediately felt relief. As in, wouldn’t it be nice if the “Wall Street” concept was gone. It could be a relic under the water, rendering “Wall Street” a myth, the likes of Atlantis. RIP, but forever in our view, so that we can know how much less stressful life is without the “Wall Street” ethos in our society.

For Allison too, the feeling was positive.

The entire shoreline is a jumble of bricks and broken stonework, implying destruction. Not just of buildings tho, but destruction of an oppressive, exploiting force, an abstraction – Wall Street, unbridled American capitalism. So the destruction isn’t mournful or horrifying, but relief bringing, hopeful.

I hadn’t intended that connection.

This is why feedback is so helpful. Confirming a shot works as expected, as in James experience is satisfying. Finding out a shot works in ways I didn’t imagine, as in Susan and Allison’s feedback is mind expanding.

Allison had a dream inspired by Wall Street Under Water that she’s been writing about and expanding on w

Welcome to the first episode of the 2nd season of the Daughter of Godcast, Crowd Completion. Less me and way more you. We’re done talking about the past, from now on we’re deliriously present. Test screening begins! This is episode 071, Wall Street Under Water.

We are test screening before Daughter of God is assembled because I want to invite you to participate in the making. You don’t have to be in the movie biz or even aspire to be, you just have to like movies. Share what makes you feel excited, inspired, or leaves you cold.

I am asking for your help to finish the Daughter of God because I believe we can make a way more amazing movie together than I can by all by myself. I am not asking you to donate money, I’m asking you to share a far more precious resource – your beautiful brain, your cognition, your opinion.

Each week, we’ll post a chunk of the movie on lots of social media sites simultaneously and pose a question or two. You can then check out the chunk on  your favorite sites, ponder the questions and comment.  If your world gets rocked, share the snippet with your friends and followers – the more feedback the better!

Next week, we’ll summarize the feedback and show another chunk.

But wait, there’s more! Even though we’re not asking for money, we are offering premiums. Giving solid feedback gets you cool stuff, from swag like stickers or t-shirts to VIP packages like a summer weekend at our gorgeous studio on Crystal Lake, MI where you can learn to live lightly on the Earth or join the DOG crew and attend international film festivals with us. Just for your opinion! We’ll be posting details in the weeks ahead.

OK ready? We’re starting off simple with a very short shot. I want to see how this works before we get too complicated.

Wall Street Under Water

In this shot, gentle waves ripple over a submerged green street sign that reads, Wall Street. The sign is attached to a broken steel post, resting on a bed of red bricks.

Wall Street is of course a street in lower Manhattan, New York City where international stocks and commodities are traded.

So here’s this episode’s question. What emotions come as you watch this shot? Describe them as clearly as you can.

Now it’s your turn. On www.dog.movie, find links to your favorite social media sites, and comment on what emotions come up when you watch Wall Street Under Water. Remember, there’s no wrong answer. Your feelings are always valid and helpful. Comment as much as you like and feel free to discuss with other commenters and me too.

You can also give feedback here on dog.movie. Scroll down to the comments section at the bottom of this Episode.

That’s it, short and sweet. Thanks for listening and I am so excited for your feedback and critique.

You’ve been listening to the Daughter of Godcast, Episode 071, Wall Street Under Water. DOG could be a sober sneak peek into an adjacent timeline, social commentary, allegory, a big joke, pointless VFX fireworks, none of the above. You decide. Nothing matters unless you say it should. You are the upgraded audience, crafting and honing your deliberate experiences until they are primo, perfecto, sparkling. This might be the first Crowd Completed movie, we could be setting a trend the monolithic sausage factories in Hollywood will desperately try to come up to speed on in the next decade. Way ahead of the pack are we, obviously. OK, there’s the ranting you’ve come to know and love, now it’s your turn. Give DOG your feedback, less me and way more you!

Daughter of Godcast Episode 070, The End. The last episode of the Gentle Release.

Hello and goodbye! We’re here to wrap 2016, in the very last episode of the Daughter of Godcast Gentle Release. This has been approximately 70 episodes about the 12 going on 13 year history of the Daughter of God, a post apocalyptic romantic comedy featurette. We’ve got a smidge of 2016 yet to tell and then we’ll briefly talk about next week’s invitation to the upcoming Crowd Completion. Episode 070, The End.

In Episode 006 and 016, we introduced Toe Socks, the short Lauren Discipio had written and directed back in 2002, inspired by an aesthetic conflict with our pal Shoal Southworth. I was the cinematographer and support for Lauren, her first time directing. We edited together and wrote and performed the theme song, Beans and Rice. Since Lauren and I didn’t really know anything about film festivals back then, Toe Socks never found an audience, we just sent the link to a few friends and moved on.

Telling the story of the Daughter of God implied I might eventually revisit my entire origin myth, every project and experience that informed my perspective as an artist, shaped me as a maker of movies and as a human. On August 31 I wrote to Lauren and asked her permission to post Toe Socks on YouTube. She replied that Toe Socks deserved to be seen. I tossed out the idea of sending it to a few short festivals and she was game. She created an IMDB page and we uploaded a screener. We tried top tier festivals and a few regionals, but our genius went unrecognized. We were and clearly still are, decades ahead of the curve.

Some geekiness. A megabyte is a thousand kilobytes, a gigabyte is a thousand megabytes and a terabyte is 1000 gigabytes. 1 terabyte can store about 2.5 hours of 720p HD video, at 30 frames a second. Since each second of video has 30 frames or pictures, here’s another way to think about 1 TB. 2.5 hours x 60 minutes x 60 seconds x 30 frames = 270,000 pictures. That’s how many pictures you can save on 1 TB.

Over the course of the project I had grown my life’s archive from ~20 TB to over 100 TB, most of which was stored on 1TB bare 5.25″ SATA drives. The SATA drives had been swapped into 2 bays, the trusty Venus T5’s I’d purchased in 2008. By 2016,  the drivers for the Venus T5 were antiquated and my SATAs would no longer mount reliably. In June of 2016 I hungered for way more storage, a vasty virtuality that would give ready access to all DOG’s media.  After some research I went with OWC’s Thunderbay RAID and the super convenient Startech 4 bay SATA toasters. In english, this meant that I could have 18 TBs of super fast RAID storage and an additional 4 TBs of removable SATAs or 22 TB available total at any given time. That’s room enough for almost 6 million pictures.

As the years have rolled by, significant chunks of Daughter of God’s technological infrastructure have obsoleted, Final Cut Pro 7.0 being the most significant. I so appreciate that most of my archival files are still accessible after all this time.

At a random party in late summer of 2016, I met a real life Uncle Joe, a deep state operator, long retired. In his day, a player. Now living in a shack somewhere in Manistee, a random acquaintance of the party’s host. He displayed a casual disregard for his top secret clearance , happy to tell me whatever I wanted to know. I asked him how he could get away with that, and he said no one would ever believe me, and if I outed him as my source he’d just deny everything.

Later, I made inquiries in my network and his story pans out, he could be the