Ali Showkati's Blog

After weeks of (likely over-) planning. It’s finally Here. I took a break this week from my film’s production to prep for Emerald City Comicon, where I’ll be exhibiting TNPPress.com along with my graphic novel Spaghetti Strap Western. I’ll be joined by long-time friend Denis Caron. He’ll be there exhibiting his 2 comics Anhedonia Blue and LAWLS.

It’s been almost 4 years since Denis and I first started TNP Press (formerly The Noir Project), and I can’t believe how far we’ve come lately. I remember attending San Diego Comic-Con in 2008 as mere attendees and fantasizing about exhibiting at a convention. And it great to finally be there.

Even as I’m writing this, sitting in an Irish Pub in DFW airport, on layover, on my way to Seattle, it still hasn’t really hit me. I think the feeling will come as I fly into the Emerald City, or perhaps when I walk into the convention floor later today to setup our booth. Either way it us sure to be an exciting weekend.

So if you are in Seattle, be sure to stop into the Washington State Convention Center Saturday and Sunday. For more info and links go to our official blog over at TNP http://tnppress.com/eccc_10/

Today marks day 1 of principle photography for my new film Deranged. This is a feature length film, (with a 70-90 minute running time,) that I am producing in one semester. Deranged is a psychological thriller that is staged around a murder on a university campus. We follow two main characters. The first main character, Jesse, is a student suffering from insomnia, and is a close friend of the victim’s. The second character, Jack, is a detective investigating the case.

With a supporting cast of 12 characters, and about 29 different locations, this is quite the undertaking. However I am determined to get it done, and done in time. I’ll be leaving Omaha after I graduate on May 7th, so I’d like to have a screening here at the University before then. Our shooting schedule starts today, and is planned to be complete March 19. March 19 through April 28 will be dedicated to post-prodiction. For Deranged, this involves editing and the musical score.

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Last month I began a blog to try to work out our transition, as a society, to a unified and complete digital lifestyle. Read part 1 here.

The Apple iPad

In our efforts to complete the digital lifestyle, we also need to look at where, and in what situations we consume media. This is perhaps the most important factor in it all. Digital devices are beginning to focus on the where, as opposed to the what. There are many devices on the market that rely on key features. What we, as an industry are beginning to realize, is that soon every feature will be available on every device. Barnes & Noble seems to have this mindset down pretty well with their eBook service. You can purchase an eBook, and read it on any device they have a client for. For B&N, the devices are smartphones, laptops, and desktops, not to mention the Nook. They are aware of what many other companies, including Apple are becoming aware of. That the unification and completion of the true digital lifestyle, doesn’t depend on the functions of any particular device, rather than the context that they are being used in. Basically, it boils down to a simple question. They question isn’t what do you want to do, but where and how do you want to do it?

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Out of a sorta desparate need for a case for my new Nook eBook reader, I decided to make my own case. The only place to get a nook case now is bn.com but I need something for my flight back to Nebraska, to keep it safe and clean. My brother, mother, and I went to the local fabric store, got some supplies and started on it. She gave me a crash course in sewing and I was off. This is what we made yesterday. While the nook case was a join effort, the iPhone case is all me.

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It seems like these days, every new gadget that surfaces the world of tech, is instantly compared to products like the iPhone. It seems the iPhone has revolutionized the world of tech even more than we have realized. And it is all because it was able to offer three very distinct, unique, and perfectly implemented assets to it’s industry, which may attest to its immense success. Those would be its Multi-touch technology, its apps, and it’s portability. And now days, it seems, when one of those assets is mentioned, the other two are expected to follow. to the point, that a product is actually frowned upon for not possessing all three of these assets. I’m here to say that the Nook doesn’t need all three to survive or be successful. ↓ Read the rest of this entry…