Hannah M. Frank Resume

Hannah Frank, Graphic Designer, Photography, Full Sail University, Saginaw Valley University, Kirtland Community College
 

Southgate MI, 48195 
734.250.2397 
hannahmdesigns@hotmail.com
www.Coroflot.com/HannahM 

Education:
Full Sail University, Winter Park, FL
Master of Business Entertainment 2012-2013
 
Saginaw Valley State University, University Center, MI
Bachelor of Fine Arts: Emphasis in Graphic Design and Marketing Recognized on Dean’s List; Christmas Trim Shop 2001 to 2005 

Kirtland Community College, Roscommon, MI  
Art and General Education 1997 to 2001 

Experience:
Freelance Graphic Designer, 2005 to Present
Design concepts and execution of corporate identity, posters, advertisements, promotional materials and print services for local and regional businesses and organizations completed within budget and on time; Provide custom photography services, including on site wedding photos 

Save My Home USA, Madison Heights, MI
Loan Modification Processor 04/2009 - 09/2009
Worked with customers to determine the best path to either resolve foreclosure, or mitigate the effects of foreclosure; Helped clients determine the appropriate strategies to help them keep their property and to get back on track. Assisted in dealing with many different lenders, provided information on avoiding scams that may cause clients to lose their home and explain how to avoid predatory lending 

Office Central Office Supply Store, West Branch, MI
Graphic Designer and Sales 2005 to 2008
Design concepts and execution of advertisements, identity, brochures, posters, promotional materials and invitations; Assisted with design of business website and maintained website; Customized logo and letterhead for local transportation authority; Assisted in marketing company and events to the public; Operated high speed copy machines, large format printer, Risograph and binding machines; Provided stellar customer service; Managed inventory, purchasing and trained newly hired 

Kirtland Community College, Roscommon, MI
Student Worker 1999 to 2001
Print Shop, Educational Technology Department and Library
Operated copy machines, printing press and binding machines; Designed fliers for Educational Technology Department;Website design 

Volunteer Work:
West Branch Creative Arts Association, West Branch, MI  
Designer May 2008 to October 2008 

Design and Technical Skills:
Adobe PhotoShop, Illustrator, InDesign, Flash, CorelDraw, QuarkXpress, Microsoft Word, Excel and Power- Point, JavaScript, HTML and XHTML; Proficient with MAC and PC platforms; Thorough and meticulous; Able to work under pressure and stick to a deadline; Capable of doing a wide range of styles; Photo retouching and manipulation; Excellent knowledge of design and typography; copy and binding machines, large format printer; screen printing; multi-line telephone 

Distrbution for the Independent Filmmarker

I enjoy making films, but one aspect that has pleged me for some time is, how do I distribute the film after it is made?  As Jerome Courshon of The Wrap says, "film distribution isn't a sexy subject."  He's right, it isn't.  It is the one issue that directors and prducers avoid untill the last possible moment. Distrbution only becomes "sexy" when you get the "big fat check."

 

So the question is, "how can you achieve succesful distrbution when you don’t get offered that multi-million-dollar deal?”  According to Courshon there are three aspects to distrbution.  Number 1 is take the film to all major markets.  You want to explte each market, theatrical, Blu-ray/DVD, VOD, internet, foreign, and television.  You want to start with the thearters and work your way down.  Something independent filmmakers are doing is skipping markets and going right to the internet and that is a mistake.

Number 2 split the rights up among more then one company.  When making deals split up the right to your film among more then one company.  This is a stagtagy they have been using since that late 90’s.  What you do is make a deal with one company for Blu-ray/DVD and so on.  What ever you do don’t make an “all rights” deal.  It could kill you, unless you are getting a big check in advance.  Number 3 be aware of what has happened with other online platforms in the past two years, “and leverage this maturing market correctly.”  You need to undestand the history of digital distrbution.

If when you go to distribuate your film and hold these three principals to heart and take the correct actions, there is no reason you will not see a return on your film.  When excuting these steps don’t be lazy or avoid learning and understand your target market.  You can see real results using this approch. 

Source http://www.thewrap.com/movies/blog-post/road-distributing-your-film-not-hard-you-think-114136

http://eccentricsyndicate.com/independent-film-making-3-quick-tips.html

Crowdfunding

Lately film industry people are using crowdfunding sites to raise money for their film endeavors.  In exchange for money you donate, they will give you an autographed postcard or in the case of Spike Lee he will take you out for dinner and to a Knicks game, depending on how much you donate.  One thing Hollywood people can’t do is give you royalties on the movie if it hits big.  Well that is about to change.  Obama put through a law in April of 2012 to make “equity crowdfunding."  This is an attempt to help the depression like era that we live in. 

There are a lot of crowdfunding sites out there like Kickstarter, probably the more popular or at least one of the first.  Well, Kickstarter has no plans to start equity crowdfunding, but there are some sites like Indiegogo who does have plans to start equity crowdfunding and they will have some competition with other sites.  There are a lot of rules and regulations that go into this new law.  Such as you have to have a $1 million dollar worth and your annual income has to be more then $200,000.  Which make for about 9 million American who qualify.  There are allowances for people who don’t make that much money. 

According to Jason Best, “it opens up access to a lot of capital for filmmakers.”  Think about all the people out there who want to make a film but can’t, well this is one way that they can. So even with all these new limitations that Obama put in to effect there should still be about $4 million going to filmmakers in the next four years.  That is a nice chunk of change.   You may not know this but in the US there is about $30 trillion dollars in savings and investments, so if crowdfunding can get 1%, that translates into $300 billion and that may friends is a lot of money.

Film Distribution

A question that is probably on the minds of a lot of filmmakers, is after I make my film, how do I distribute it?  Good Question.   There are a few options.  You could get an agent, self-publish it, film festivals, try to get a network to distribute it or try to get a distribution company like Lionsgate to distribute it.  But what is your best option? 

The first option is an agent.  You have to convince them that you have a good enough idea and that they should try to sell it for you.  You can then always send your film to a film festival in hopes that it gets picked up and wins some awards.  The nice thing about film festivals is there are a lot of industry people who see it and may want to help you distribute it. 

One popular avenue is self-publishing.  There are many sites out there that offer services for you to self-publish.  One in particular is Createaspace.com, they make it so your public can buy a DVD or download your movie.  However there a lot of questions that you need to ask yourself and the list is long.  For starters, do you keep the copyright?  When do you get the royalty checks?  Can you use more then one self-publishing company?  These are some and I mean some of the question you need to ask yourself. 

One of the more involved avenues is distribution through a company like Lionsgate or a television network.  However there is a lot to consider, such as profit sharing.  How much are you willing to give up.  The question beg another response, can you do better on your own?  A studio such as Lionsgate has the money to promote your film and can distribute to a wider audience.  So there is a lot you need to take into consideration when it comes to what avenue will work best for your film.

How to be a good Product Manager

Jeff Lash says, “if you wan tot be a good product manager, do everything yourself.”  As a product manager you have the final say on pretty much everything.  You are the one answering questions from salespeople, writing press releases, and pouring over details with others.  Being a product manager takes a lot of your time, but that is the name of the game.

One way to be a good product manager is to delegate as many activities as you can to others.  You have a team, and as a team member, more then that an effective team member, you give product knowledge and responsibility and some decision-making responsibilities to other team members.  By doing this you, as the product manager, can focus on the strategic role of product management.

When it comes to being a product manager, it’s hard for you to balance the “strategic and tactical priorities of product manager.”  Just like is any other job the day-to-day tasks can take over.  Consider the metaphor of focusing on the trees instead of the forest.  Well a product manager sometimes focuses on a single “piece of bark.”

Being more strategic and less tactical is sometimes easier said then done for a product manager.  So it comes down to a product manager being a strategic role.  Everybody wants you to do everything.

The truth is, the product manager, “can and should be giving the necessary direction, context, and guidance to allow other people to accomplish these tasks themselves.”  Product managers need to teach their team to be self-sufficient in many ways. 

You have to be careful what you say yes to.  Ask yourself, is it forward thinking and strategic.  So it comes down to thinking about your role, as the product manager, as being strategic and focused. 

Artist Managers

Some could say that “artist look to the manager to take the chaos of a perspective career and organize it into the prospect of success.”  ~Paul Allen

Managers are involved in counseling artist on issues connected to their careers.  Traditionally, mangers focus of shopping for record deals for their clients, and then help them circumnavigate through the deals and more.  In todays, time the role of a manger has progressed into a much more hands-on method.  They help clients reach fans directly and assist clients in running their own recording, publishing, merchandising and performing or touring.  Most mangers are in the area of sponsorship, branding, merchandising and/or licensing. 

Like a lot of things in the music industry, the role of an artist management is changing.  Artist managers must understand their role is business development.  It’s more them just getting their artist signed, rather they should be developing and unlocking value for their brands, basically business development.  Due to the fact, that most managers do not have the proper business training. 

There is so much that an artist manger has to do.  The most important role in shaping their career and keeping the artist frantic lives running smoothly.  The more knowledge the artist manager has the better the manger will be.  A manager should know and have contacts at record label’s, publishing companies, booking agencies, promotion services and publicist agencies.  A manger will also need to communicate with people who provide technical services. 

A manger may make suggestions for enhancements inn a recording or help with instrumental characteristics of the music.  In general they supervise the creative process.  That can mean getting the band together for practice and assessing material the band makes.  As said before an artist manger needs to be a businessperson who has organizational skills.  The manger will have to work with publicists to invent the artist image.

What to be Concerned About...

Entertainment Law Update.  Sometimes when going to court you will get clarification of requirements of what is lawful and what is not.  YouTube vs. Viacom; Viacom states that 75% of what is shown of YouTube is copyrighted.  This comes to the point of whether or not YouTube has willful knowledge or blindness.  It comes down to what you can prove and whether there was enough evidence. 

Podcast are something a lot of businesses use to promote themselves.  The question has come up, should podcasters have to pay for licensing and how much do you charge?  Is there a royalty they need to pay?  This is something that I would be concerned with as a business owner because if you make a podcast for your business, what infringements might you incur?

Another issue that might arise is making sure that the people who sign your agreements have the capacity to consent.  Think of the person who does the Girls Gone Wild videos, he filmed a girl that was only 14 year of age.  There are a lot of question that came up in the court case.  This makes me think of when film children do they have the capacity to consent? No.  So what do you do? 

Jon Ipolito: How to Hack Copyright for Fun and Profit.  Sharing, is it good or bad?  That is the question that Ipolito asks.  He states that there are media giants out there that control the Internet.  He also states “cheating is the pedagogy of the internet.”  The Internet is a super charged environment that circulates media.  He then goes on to discuss keeping your eyes on your own paper and that universities spend millions of dollars a year on trying to derail cheating.  He mentioned how they use the website TurnItIn.com to check if there is plagiarism. 

There is also digital arts to consider, and how people have recombined it into new material.  We have access to everything and no one controls it.  This makes me think of my own business of film.  After you create it, who stops people from spreading it all over the Internet.  In this day and age of YouTube, everything is out there.  You make a digital footprint and it is hard to erase.

Siva Vaidhyanathan: Copyright and Copy Wrongs.  Vaidhyanathan talks a lot about open source and no longer being able to do what we wish to do.  Does the creator need to have a license is one of the questions he raises and what should be the policy?  Even though the courts have given Hollywood everything they have asked for in the last 10 years the system is just not great.  People are frustrated.  Even with all the regulations out there, there is nothing we can’t get.  People should be able to build off the abilities of others.

He raises a lot of good questions, but really does not have an answer.  The questions I have to be concerned with is, how does it affect my business?  Even with all the copyright regulations out there in place people still violate the copyright infringements and intellectual properties.