My name is Matthew Hornbostel, I'm the sole creator of "Hornbostel Media". I am 20 years old and I really love making art and movies. The point of this website really is my media - the videos, and so on, so if you're new to the site, you should probably click the back button and check those movies out first - especially the recent ones!
Who I am - Article explaining my life, mental illness, beliefs, art
Because I am maturing in my worldview, Hornbostel Media is shifting some, from being only mindless fun, to becoming, at times, an expression of something more, the deep emotions of life, the great themes - good vs. evil, truth, destiny, hope, freedom, love. It is becoming a collaboration between myself, God, and other talented people, not my own small endeavor. I'll try to stand by my ideals, be creative, and make solid content for all you peeps out there.
I have a number of goals and ideals that will govern my future work here:
IDEALS OF HORNBOSTEL MEDIA
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-Keep stuff short. Most of my projects are "short" videos, small software apps, etc. I'd usually rather have a 10-minute movie that's well-paced than a bloated 50-minute bore. Short but good - and that also means a wider variety of content, posted more often.
-Touch deeper, more relatable concepts. I want the work to be ABOUT something, with better-developed characters, when possible. My past movies have suffered for lack of theme, lack of depth and they shouldn't! The trick will be adding meaning and truth in a way that enhances, not damages, the experience of viewing "Hornbostel Media". I won't attempt to define everything in absolutes, either. Sometimes it's better to raise questions for discussion than to "preach" preformulated answers.
- Treat actors and collaborators with respect. This means treating them well, making sure everything we do (even pyrotechnics) is as safe as is reasonably possible, supplying decent food on shooting days, and offering tangible benefits to participants.
-Refuse to whitewash anything. My work will not be "Village of the Happy People" just because I'm a Christian. The Bible addresses the darkest evils of life. Why can't I? There'll be some controversial, "mature" stuff mixed in here.
-Go heavy on visual design. It MUST be flashy. It must look interesting. I love doing VFX work, animation, etc, and I want the work to have really eye-popping imagery. I like cool graphics and they draw attention!
-Advertise mainstream. I am not going to make "Christian movies" for a Christian audience, or niche movies for Troop 4 or some local group. I want accessible movies aimed at everyone; I want all kinds of people to see this stuff. I will advertise this business aggressively, all over the place.
-Aim for user-friendly design. The website has to be logical in its navigation, and can't be so loaded with graphics that it takes forever to load. Text must be clearly readable, and links must be convenient. And frames and distracting background audio are definitely no-nos.
-Run with intense efficiency. I know how to do stuff dirt cheap. I am a DV rebel in the truest sense of the term. I know how to get a really big "blockbuster" movie done for, say, $2500. (Or less).
-Give extravagantly. 40-50%, as a minimum. I want to feed, heal, and save human life wherever I can, in both mortal body and immortal soul. I want to improve the world by rescuing suffering people, and to glorify God by loving Him and loving others.
-Price everything low. I want to offer value. I believe lower prices = happier customers, more sales, more word-of-mouth. If by some miracle I turn a profit, I will give all the excess away, or plunge it efficiently back into my production pipeline. I don't have any desire to be a "financial success", and I want to live very simply so I can give more. I am intentionally planning to be a very ineffective businessman.
-Provide a hub for other indie artists. I want Hornbostel Media to offer a future to other independent artists beyond value-priced products - free hosting, free promotion, cheap VFX services, and production help, a sales and distribution system - I want to include other peoples' work here too, and give them a chance to collaborate with my enterprise in a way that is mutually beneficial.
-Offer teaching to local believers interested in learning media techniques - this is something I've considered one day doing - I may offer a free, informal course/club to teach VFX/movie production techniques to participants, someday. It would go something like this: Free course, small group of people recieving individual attention and tutoring on a weekly basis, collaborating on group projects and learning in a hands-on way. Members would benefit from practical experience, access to advanced tools and personal teaching, their projects would be posted on the website. Any areas they are already skilled in, they can help teach in.
- Participate in the movement that is threatening Hollywood. Seriously, they don't know what's hitting them right now. The digital age is in effect, and yet the movie industry doesn't really understand how to cope with the democratization of entertainment. The new generation of filmmakers will take over, with a wide diversity of techniques and agendas that the Hollywood system can't possibly understand. It's already happening and it is exciting that the old six megacorporations do not have a monopoly on future entertainment.
- Change the brand name. When this extends beyond my own personal work, and becomes a group effort, it will no longer be "Hornbostel Media". Which will be good, since my name is impossible for people to remember well anyway.
- Figure out all the tax/legal ramifications of the website and the business. Because that will become an issue as it grows.
History, Success and Growth! |
The first website I ever made was a tripod.com free website in 2003. That website no longer exists.
At the end of 2004, I created www.HornbostelFamily.com. I intended it to be a comprehensive family site but nobody but me seemed willing to add anything to it.
So since my family didn't care about the little website, I decided to put stuff onto it that interested me. It began to grow into a huge video and art archive.
In January 2007, I acquired two additional domains, http://www.hornbostelmedia.com and http://www.troop4houston.org. I took the "Troop 4" and "Media" sections of the HornbostelFamily website and made them into distinct, independent sites. And built them up, bigger, and bigger, uploading more and more content - literally gigabytes of stuff.
From 2004-Dec. 2005, a 16-month span, www.hornbostelfamily.com pulled in about 700 unique visitors.
During 2006, there were about 1100 unique visitors.
Over the course of 2007, there were over 2600.
But the biggest growth has been this year - 2008 - March 2008 drew more visitors than the entire year 2007. At present time - August 2008 - the Hornbostel Media network has been visited by over 60,000 people.
It started largely with word-of-mouth (people like free stuff!) and search engine traffic, and more recently it's tended to be advertising as well. If you're curious about Hornbostel Media's stats or how I drew in this many visitors, click here: ADVERTISING TECHNIQUES PAGE
Hornbostel Media is, for lack of a better word, "sticky". A lot of the people who visit once come back again later. All the advertsing in the world is useless if you don't have CONTENT that people want. So I try to provide content as well as possible given that I have to do almost everything by myself and that I've got college courses to tackle.
Personally Significant links: |
This does not include the media links elsewhere on the site that are movie-related, or game-related, or effects-related - the ones on this page are just places that have influenced me, in no particular order:
University of Houston. I've taken so many classes here. Movies like "Tinyville Disaster", "Relativity", and "Super Soda" were actually class projects.
Church of the Redeemer Episcopal, Houston, Texas. Mark Ball (Hurford Blumper in "Super Soda") leads the youth group here, the people there have had a big influence in my life. See "Send in the Clones 4" to find out who the Youth Group people are/were. And boy scout Troop 4 meets at this church, too. Redeemer was BIG during the 1970s Jesus movement, there were a lot of miracles (even one guy raised from the dead!), over 2000 members, the church won Guiding Lights "Best church of 1972". Since then, it has shrunk to a fraction of its former size, and a lot of the members are pretty old and traditionalist and nothing really *exciting* is going on. The current pastor is Rev. Nan Dorr, who was a schoolteacher and police officer prior to entering seminary. There aren't as many people around now, but they're nice people and the building is worth observing for the architecture and the stunning mural in the front of the sanctuary, and the history of it, and the previously mentioned groups that meet there. And there are some worthwhile new things emerging now, like the underground cafe/prayer room. If you live in Houston, Texas, it is worth a visit.
Houston Vineyard My current church. Located in the Heights, has really excellent worship in its services, a lot of enthusiastic young people clapping and dancing, very modern and charismatic with a lot of programs. This church has planted 14 others, it is constantly growing and branching out. The Vineyard denomination grows maybe 12% every year. Pastor is Michael Palandro. David Ello goes here, you can watch the "I sought the Lord" video we collaborated on, in the "Movies" section. Also check out INTERACTIVE THEATER, Westley Edmondson's group.
Boy Scout Troop 4 The boy scout troop that spawned the infamous "Troop 4: Uncensored" comedies. I made Eagle Scout in this troop.
Another Vineyard I'm loosely associated with, Dave Tenney's, has a great media group I'm involved in. "Traveler's Enigma" had its genesis with this group.
International House of Prayer 24/7 house of prayer, in Kansas City. You walk in and somebody will come up to you and talk about things in your heart that the Holy Spirit speaks to them, things they'd never know in the natural. Much of what people like Patricia King and the IHOP staff have said to me really confirms what I know the Spirit has spoken to me directly. The devotion of the people in this group, and their focus on prayer, fasting, and eschatology is so extreme that my cousin Erich describes it as "cultish". But they really, really love God and seek Him intensely. And the experience of visiting their place was great.
MGM, Media Group Ministries, I'm involved in it, sort of. It's at Bartlett Street Studios in Houston. Good place for meeting Christian media artists. One of the group's members, professional writer/actor Gordon C. Williams, has been cast in "Traveler's Enigma".