The world is becoming more and more competitive every day.  It seems that everyone has high hopes of starting their own business, or becoming a celebrity.  My generation, for example, has delusions of grandeur.  We all think that we’re going to be world famous millionaires.  And we just have not gotten used to the concept of having a “normal” job [...]

To Whom This May Concern: If you’re an artist, you know full well that the entertainment industry has a glass ceiling.  If you don”t have the backing of a rich white-collar executive, then you have had to deal with the glass ceiling.  This glass ceiling was set up so that they could make as much money as possible.  This is [...]

“Those who dance are considered insane by those who can’t hear the music” – George Carlin At one point or another, I’m sure you’ve debated with someone or yourself over what an artist really is.  What is the definition of an artist anyway?  Don’t bother picking up the dictionary and trying to look up the definition of artist.  I’ll save [...]

If you’re a musician, I’m sure you’ve considered starting a record label before. So let’s discuss the factors in starting a record label of your own. I’m not going to get into the legal issues though. If you want to read about that, there are plenty of other websites to look at. What I’m more concerned with is the mindset [...]

So Much Writing… It seems that more and more people are choosing to begin writing every day.  For example, as of this writing, there are at least 112.8 million blogs in existence.  With services such as print on demand and self publishing, anyone who wants to be one can be an author and publish a book.  Nowadays, it seems like [...]

Go Get Some Reading Material First of all, I strongly recommend that you read “Making a Good Script Great” by Linda Seger.  This book should be required reading for anyone who is interested in screenwriting.  If I was teaching a screenwriting class, and I was only allowed to have one textbook, it would be this book.  That’s how strongly I feel [...]

Everyone Has Two Careers. Their Career, and the Film Industry Ok seriously, who here hasn’t considered making a movie before?  Unless you come from a country that doesn’t have the luxury of watching motion pictures, I defy anyone to honestly tell me that they’ve never once felt the urge to make their own movie.  If you tell me that you [...]

Welcome to a brand new month.  February marks month two for Swollen Thumb Entertainment, and I couldn’t be more excited.  In this month, we will continue to explore the concepts behind starting a career in the entertainment or artistic field.  However, we will start to branch off, and start discussing various aspects of the Entertainment Industry. The idea here is that [...]

This post is my contribution to a group writing project, Creating Value.  The object of this project is to write about how we intend to create a more value driven society as opposed to a profit driven society.  This happens to be a topic that I feel very strongly about, and is one the bedrock principles of Swollen Thumb Entertainment.  [...]

Get It In Gear, Already! You call yourself an artist, but you don’t actually create anything.  So, what are you waiting for?  Does your nine-to-five job make you feel like less of an artist?  Do you feel like you need permission to do what you want to with your life? Fine, you have my permission to do what you want [...]