Stare Into The Sun

The Darkness Of Creativity

When it comes to creating, I have an ethos which is unorthodox regarding the process. Some people say that it’s a god-given talent and others say it’s about learning a skill. The power of creativity has infinite possibilities. As human beings we have a need to create, whether it’s through writing, music, drawing, painting, film-making, sculpture etc. Some of us have this need so dearly that we burst and become on edge when we aren’t doing something creative.

In the words of Greek philosopher Epictetus, “No great thing is created suddenly.”

But how does one start the process?

December Portraits

Through the end of December, I’ve been doing a few portraits in a few differing styles to keep the flow of creativity going during the holiday period. The aim being to go beyond the comfort zone of doing photo-realism beauty portraits into other styles in colour, texture and style.

See the little dots under the picture? Click on them to see more.

The New Initiative

Working in the film and video world you start becoming conflicted with priorities. The market is over saturated with individuals and groups, all with easy access to the technology that came bring their projects to life.

We’re not saying it’s a bad thing, at Stare Into The Sun, we’ve thrived on being able to master the technology available to create, inspire and entertain and any new technology that makes it easier, more cost-effective and overall better to do what we do or for anyone else, we welcome it.

However, the problems lie in the artists. To be able to maintain a lifestyle, career and/or hobby comes at costs. Choices have to be made whether one should focus more on doing the things that they love or working tirelessly on projects dictated by clients in order to fund bigger and better creative projects.

In all honesty, the team and myself have spent way too long on working on the projects of clients with a vision too shallow. So we’ve started a new initiative. As part of our social media projects we’ll be producing and releasing short films. All aiming to be better than the last and we aim to get one done a week. A fortnight at the latest.

The above video is just a simple test of maximising the surrounding environment featuring Marlonn. Enjoy it, we’ll be making a lot more all bigger and better than the last.

Be sure to subscribe to the In Sid We Trust channel to get all the films right to you!

Season Finale

Here it is. The Season Finale

New Shirts on sale!

So, if you didn’t already know, we have some new designs on the shirts in our store. The “Stay Sexy Standard”, “Keep Calm & Stay Sexy” and “Everybody Matters” are all available now from the Spreadshirt store.

All the shirts are printed on high quality American Apparel shirts and they are incredibly comfortable! Remember to take a picture and submit it to the S Sid Le Douche Tumblr with any tee you buy from the store

Gonna Be That Remix

Following hot off the original, RKZ’s Gonna Be That Burban Remix (yeah, I’m still trying to work out what that word means too) has been on our screens for just over a week now.

Directed by RKZ, himself, it features an all-star cast of the scene. The likes of AC (formerly of AC & Terra), Swami Baracus, Menis, Lost Souljah, long-time Stare Into The Sun collaborater, Raxstar and New York based rapper, Kaly have been enlisted on this remix to represent everything that is Burban.

Support it, hit that like button and share it with everyone you know.

-Stay Sexy

Season Finale Submissions

Send in your submissions for the S Sid Was Here Season Finale! Every submission will be put into the final episode, so make sure you’re a part of it.

What can you do for your entry?

Dance
Sing
Rap
Do something S Sid related. i.e “In Sid We Trust” or “S Sid Was Here” somewhere in the video
Say something nice (or something mean if that’s your flavour)
Wear one of the T-shirts from the Stare Into The Sun store (we’ll be adding more shirts this week!)

Remember, don’t edit your videos, we’ll be doing that for you and don’t put any copyrighted music in the background. YouTube will take the episode down for that.

Why should I send you a photo or video of myself?

The other thing you must remember is that if everyone doesn’t send in any submissions, there won’t be a Season 2. So, if you want to see how the second year pans out, make sure you get your entry in and remind everyone else you know who watches to send in their submissions.

You’re all a part of this big family and this entire year was only made possible by you guys for watching everyday, and it’s my sincere belief that you should all seal your place in the biggest and most important episode of the show.

I only have a crap camera, can I still submit?

We don’t care how good or bad your camera is. If you have a nice camera, use it. You can use your webcam, stills camera, phone whatever. Just make sure it’s available for us to download on some kind of a computer.

Where do I send my submission?

Send all of your submissions to insidwetrust@stareintothesun.com. If you want to upload the video to YouTube and make it unlisted and send me the link to that, then that’ll be fine. Otherwise, you can use WeTransfer, YouSendIt, SendSpace or just downright send the files as an attachment in the email if your e-mail client lets you.

A Boy & A Girl

When making films or music videos, it’s sometimes customary to change the music or to mute it altogether to see if the story being told still translates. If there’s confusion when watching with no or different sound, you’re probably going to need to re-edit your production to make it work visually.

In regards to Raxstar’s The Other Man, we replaced the audio with an orchestral piece to tell the story again without the initial song, to see if the story still worked. Luckily, the music instantly synced into place and worked flawlessly with the video. Some even think this version plays better than the original.

Feel free to share, like, comment and subscribe to the InSidWeTrust channel on YouTube where we’ll be uploading more short films and visual tests.

Social Loyalty

When it comes to independent work, especially in the creative fields, working on audio and video projects requires that you amass an audience to listen and/or view your work. If you’re a musician, you need someone to listen to your work and possibly have them share it to their friends, family and colleagues for your success to grow/continue. Same goes for film and video projects.

Loyalty is an essential part of this process. In the mass market industry, the power and influence of already established names and brands don’t require the same level of commitment and loyalty as an independent player does. They already have the financial backing from investors/labels/distributors who provide the influence they need.

Personally, though my projects may be small and the audience minute in comparison to many others, the brand loyalty to any project by Stare Into The Sun including the S Sid Was Here project, can only be described as amazing.

At the time of writing, there are well over 2000 subscribers to the YouTube channel which provides daily consistent content. The content is both open and specialised. Open in the sense that anyone can relate to the subject matter of a person living their life, humour and personal opinions. Specialised in the sense that it requires a lot of time from the audience to participate. To watch every episode, to catch up is a lengthy process. Real determination, almost as much required to make the content. To top it off, the content is continuous and requires that the audience member must then return watch it on the day of release, or catch up again later.

How is it possible to build an audience that will continuously keep coming back, day after day to watch such obscure content?

The answer is brand loyalty.

No Genuine Heart

Earlier today I was left a comment on my YouTube Channel regarding my performance with the daily vlogs that I produce. I was surprised because the usual messages that I receive are generally hate messages telling me to quit or that I’m going to be hunted down and killed. This message, however, was a lot more constructive and I’d like to share with you the message and my reply.

BeyonceSlays says:

Dude, your videos aren’t funny any more, it seems as if you’re forced to put up a video everyday and there’s no genuine heart put into them

Here is my reply:

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