Lots of update since my last, ancient (in blogosphere time) post. Perhaps the biggest is that I am a producer on Stuart Davis’s new live TV show, Sex, God, & Rock ‘n Roll. We are shooting 6 episodes, every Saturday starting November 1. Afterward it will be pitched to cable networks and prior to the season finishing we will hopefully have a real website up. Here’s a description:
(more…)

(Consider this post NSFW). I thought a look back at my twenties was in order given that I turned 30 today. Below is a highlight reel of this decade in my life, quite a busy and transformational one. Oh, and no, I don’t care that I switch indiscriminately between present and past tense throughout. WhatEVAR! I do what I WANT!

Spring 1998 Finished second year in college, my first at Missouri Western. My first formal training in music, prior to that being solely a self-taught rocker. Start off majoring in music performance and sound engineering. No, I did not see any flutes being placed in any orifices during band camp. Disappointing, I know.

(more…)

I am pleased to share with you the first video to our short film/month challenge. This video is for Klondike’s contest. I would love it if you checked it out and voted for it (and at the same time you have a chance at winning 25K - not too shabby).

Here’s the link to vote.

If you have time, we submitted it to another category (link to vote for that).

We had a blast shooting this and, all in all, it was a great experience. I am really happy with the quality, especially given it’s my first time out of the gates:) Everyone I worked was/is amazing. It looks like we have the beginnings of a wonderful crew.

I learned a ton writing and directing this, but most of all working with a time limit - tough stuff! Thank goodness for post in this case.

Credits for the video:

Director, Writer, Music: Ryan Oelke
DP and Editor: Jason Lange
Actors: Scott Cooper Ryan, Tony Vo, Ryan Oelke, Charles Gammill
Production Assistant: Bonnie Arnold
Boom Operator: Charles Gammill
Sound Engineer: Ryan Oelke
Dolly Sound: Richard Frohlich
Special Thanks: Troy Omafray, Niwot Market

Did I say I wanted to be a producer? I meant a director and screenwriter:)

Recently I wrote a post about the new design of this site and its reflection of my new career focus. Well, turns out I was part mixing up terminology and part needing more time to get completely clear about things. So, now you can see that I have changed the tagline on the site and rewritten the about page.

Ryan Oelke is an aspiring film director and screenwriter.

Currently he is collaborating with a film crew to shoot and complete a short film each month for one year. They will also be participating in Shootout Boulder, a 24 hour film competition in October 2008. During this time Ryan is directing and writing many of the short films. You can view them on this site.

I realized how deeply I am moved to create art and I am drawn into film through directing and screenwriting. Producers do get to be involved in some of the creative process, but they are most logistical coordinators. While I have learned over the years how to handle that side of things, it is completely life draining for me. Creating art gives me life. Film in particular pulls on so many of my passions, talents, and abilities. It’s the first path, aside from meditation, that I feel comfortable giving long days and hours to. I could write a book on how much insight I’ve developed over the last two months, but that’ll just have to come in small posts over time:)

I’m excited to both share my process in developing as a director and a screenwriter, as well as all the projects I work on. Last weekend I completed my first shoot that I directed and wrote for a contest. We should have the final cut before the week is over.

This week I finished (enough) the redesign of the new ryanoelke.com, which reflects my passion and focus as a producer of creative media, as well as the fact that I just wanted to get a cleaner, slicker design. The most challenging and rewarding part of this process was certainly not the technical - coding, tweaking the them (not easy for me, though) - but the personal exploration and discovery.

The past year of founding and leading Falling Fruit gave me invaluable experience in so many ways, and its closing has provided me a renewed fresh outlook on life and what is I ultimately want to do and be. I, of course, will sharing my experience and development as a producer here on this blog, but for starters, check out my about page. The first paragraph succinctly describes how I see me myself and the work I am doing and will be pursuing as my primary career focus:

Ryan Oelke is a Producer who designs and orchestrates ideas, passion, and talent into creative media - from music to podcasting to video. Envisioning and identifying passionate ideas, Ryan has a keen eye for bringing the right mix of talented people together, and cultivating and designing the ideas through his creative and practical direction to bring them to life.

I’m still fine-tuning my focus as a producer and doing a good deal of experimenting, so if you’re interested, you can share in my process on this blog.

I’d like to mention a few folks who have been invaluable and wonderful in helping me through this: Gwen Bell, a good friend and brilliant woman, has and continues to be phenomenal on all accounts. She has catalyzed my internal process, given me insight, and has also been my go-to person for all-things design. Eric Wolterstorff, a business consultant, of Shifting Culture has also rocked my world with his ability to dig in deep, cut the BS, and also to the get at the big picture and then ground that into something real. In fact, “business consultant” seems woefully inadequate to describe my relationship with him and what he gives me. I had a meeting with Eric yesterday that is further propelling me to clarity and direction. Last, but not least, Lion Albaugh, my good friend and the crazy guy who started Falling Fruit with me, continues to be a person that shares so many of the same passions as I and I love talking producing with him, and hope we continue to find projects to work together on.

A few things about the site and some things to come: The theme used here is Omnitheme and the creators have been overly helpful in assisting me in working on bugs and any difficulty I have, especially due to my lack of knowledge. Currently, I have done away with the traditional blog page - blog posts listed on the front page with the current on top. The tabbed section on the home page pull posts from a handful of categories that the tabs indicate. The default tab on the left shows the most current post. You can see older posts through the categories and archives in the side. If you subscribe via rss, this probably won’t even matter.

I will be creating separate portfolio(s) site that will be linked from the About page and in the sidebar.

If you really want get friendly, check out my Tumblr blog and follow me on Twitter. The Tubmlelog will have more frequent, but shorter posts around a lot of the topics I write about here, including personal stuff. And you should know what Twitter is by now:)

Hey Everyone, just wanted to let you know that this site is in the process of a makeover. I switched to a new design theme, Omnitheme. I need to tweak several things, and the pages and info on this site badly need an update. The makeover should be done within a week or so. Thanks!

Big things happening in my world. In short, Lion and I will be able to move full steam ahead with our project. It’s wonderful:)

Too many things we’re happening last night for me to post about the second day: conference ran late with a live taping of Macbreak Weekly; hangin’ with ebuddha; almost getting beat up or mugged, or just really intimated (but ebuddha had my back - thanks, dawg!); then big news and long chat with Lion

Leo Laporte and Merlin Mann
Originally uploaded by integralawakening.

Yesterday was all about video gear, technique, and production. It was lead by amazing artists and techies, such as Alex Lindsay, who worked on Star Wars. Yeah. They’re not just good at what they do, but I see them as visionaries and innovators in the field of online media. If you’re into video, you MUST check out Pixel Corps and Gear Media Tech.