   The Story of the Lense and the Wallet (Free Government Money?)
  Before I divulge into my question, a quick update on my progress as to date and why I disappeared for a few weeks:I received permission to use the card game that I wanted to use in my game design and I’ve been juggling between putting together a good design treatment and finishing up the quarter here at college. I’ve mostly been saturated with the latter and some days find myself only having energy enough to add a sentence or two, or in some cases removing a sentence or two. In any case, I’m hoping to have the treatment ready for editing and review on the Design forums within the next few weeks. Now on to the matter at hand…I’m very much into video production and post-production and have done a number of videos of friends, family, and school events like concerts and the like. Up to this point I have been reliant upon the school’s computer laboratories, using such things as iMovie and Windows Movie Maker, both decent for what they’re worth, but I itch for something more that will allow me to further my interest as well as my technical prowess.I’ve spent the last few months doing copious amounts of research and have reached the conclusion that Apple is the company to invest my money in. My decision is threefold: 1) PowerMac G5 with a 64-bit architecture will get heavy rendering and import-/exporting done fast and efficiently with a solid and stable system, 2) OS X (Apple’s operating system) provides a great hardware-to-software interface and the OS’s scalability to work with a multitude of media options gives me great confidence in cross-platform communication, and 3) Two software applications, Final Cut Pro 4 and DVD Studio Pro, are industry-standard software applications that are very affordable, especially for myself being a college student, and provide professional tools to help foster my growing interest.Now you’re wondering where the title of this post comes into play, I was about to wonder myself then I came back to my senses. After adding together the hardware and software, the price for my configured system reaches into the $5k+ range, quite a hefty load. Add on top of that a need for a professional DV camcorder (~$5k with accessories) and a LaCie 1TB external storage drive for uncompressed video and audio storage ($1,200), I am faced with a nearly $12k price tag. I am currently able to put down about $3k, coming up a "slight" $9k short.My job salary goes towards school, so I have no incoming source of funding, I need to move to an external source, but where? I’ve seen these midday and midnight advertisements boasting about free federal money for starting up businesses, attending school (Pell Grant recipient myself) and a multitude of other things. I am just curious if anyone here has had any experience writing grants to help fund ideas, businesses, or otherwise personal endeavors and what those experiences were like. I would love some feedback and/or advice in how I should go about acquiring that other $9k, especially if there is some secret government funding house for budding digital filmmakers.    Tyler "Gott der Maschine" Roehmholdt | Seven Seas Studios[edited by - Gott der Maschine on March 23, 2004 4:13:28 AM]
  Well, if you''re prepared to do a few commissioned pieces (adverts and the like) then you could try setting up as a business; as such, your local Chamber of Commerce might be able to help you out, both with setting up and with getting hold of cash.It seems like you''ll need the DV camcorder at the very least (the rest of the stuff won''t be very useful without it), so in any situation you''re $2k short.Unless you look into renting equipment, perhaps. Maybe you could hire a $5k DV camera for a more affordable monthly rate?I doubt you''ll need the terabyte drive for a while - just how quickly do you think you can obtain that much video, anyway? - so if you''re renting the camera, the next thing you need to sort out is the hardware/software.Have you looked into the Apple Education store? If you''re at college, you probably qualify for discounted hardware and software, which may help (to the tune of maybe $1k discount). (If you''re setting up a business, though, then using Education-purchased stuff with it would technically be a breach of license terms). ;  You should try www.sba.gov and www.score.org.The SBA does have guaranteed loan programs, but they are funded through banks and they generally don''t touch new business (less than 5 years old).  ;quote:Original post by superpig  Well, if you''re prepared to do a few commissioned pieces (adverts and the like) then you could try setting up as a business; as such, your local Chamber of Commerce might be able to help you out, both with setting up and with getting hold of cash.It seems like you''ll need the DV camcorder at the very least (the rest of the stuff won''t be very useful without it), so in any situation you''re $2k short.Unless you look into renting equipment, perhaps. Maybe you could hire a $5k DV camera for a more affordable monthly rate?I doubt you''ll need the terabyte drive for a while - just how quickly do you think you can obtain that much video, anyway? - so if you''re renting the camera, the next thing you need to sort out is the hardware/software.Have you looked into the Apple Education store? If you''re at college, you probably qualify for discounted hardware and software, which may help (to the tune of maybe $1k discount). (If you''re setting up a business, though, then using Education-purchased stuff with it would technically be a breach of license terms).   Our school has a number of cameras that I can check out for week-long durations but most of them are the smaller ones that you find at Radioshack, they "are" usable, but if I want to start doing more professional work I would be in the market for something more. In regards to renting, that might be a viable option if I could divert some of my job''s salary towards the rental, maybe even a rent-to-own might be an option.I''ve very familiar with the Apple Student Store as I purchased my last iBook through them, that projected $5k setup is through that store.  They do have the Apple Student Loan program where I can borrow up to $20k from them, but I don''t want to be making payments for the rest of my life, especially when the APR is placed "between 9.99% and 26.99% based upon your creditworthiness," that''s a whole lot of interest I''d be paying off.In regards to the LaCie drive, perhaps I''m looking a bit too far into the future, as an hour of uncompressed DV video only uses 13GB and 1GB for an hour of MPEG-2 compressed video. Apple does have an option to outfit their G5 system with two 250GB drives in a RAID 0 format, which would let me store quite a bit of well, anything. I need people like you help give a tug on that chain that keeps me in reality yet lets me take a look around the clouds every once in a while.   Tyler "Gott der Maschine" Roehmholdt | Seven Seas Studios ;quote:Original post by yspotua  You should try www.sba.gov and www.score.org.The SBA does have guaranteed loan programs, but they are funded through banks and they generally don''t touch new business (less than 5 years old).   I''ll give those a go, thanks Yspotua.  Tyler "Gott der Maschine" Roehmholdt | Seven Seas Studios 