Saturday, April 19, 2008

NAB 2008 Super Session: A Million Dollar Look on a Thousand Dollar Budget

Mark Christiansen | 04/19- 07:46 AM

At the show ruled by suits and dilberts, the rebels get their turn

With big exhibitions like The NAB Show falling out of favor, and some disappearing altogether in the 21st century, NAB struck back this year by offering more educational fare than in years past, featuring keynotes and panels of experts from the industry, as well as day-long classes. On Wednesday was “A Million Dollar Look on a Thousand Dollar Budget,” a keynote and panel on getting cinematic production values out of equipment you may already have sitting around your studio.

The session was kicked off with the Legend of Zelda fan trailer “linked” here (nerdy pun for gamers paying attention) which appeared on April Fool’s Day, followed by a keynote by Stu Maschwitz of The Orphanage (and author of a fantastic blog) and then a panel featuring Dave Basulto of Clarity Pictures, Alex Lindsay from Pixel Corps, D.P. Taylor Wigton (447 Productions) and moderated by Brian Valente from Redrock Micro.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Two More Cool Tools for Your Business

Scott Gentry | 04/17- 10:47 PM

I find that I am using these two clever tools more and more.  Both are relatively new startups so there’s no telling how long they’ll be around, but word of mouth will hopefully keep them thriving so I can continue taking advantage of them.

First up is ReQall.  In short, I have ReQall as a speed-dial on my phone.  While going about my day, I find myself daydreaming and occasionally might get a great idea, or need to remind myself of an upcoming task.  I hit ReQall speed-dial and I am prompted with a female voice asking me if I’d like to “add” or “ReQall”.  You simply say “add” and wait momentarily for the beep.  Then leave myself a voice message.  Within 5 minutes or less, I get an email of my memo transcribed perfectly.  Then daily I get updates as to my ReQall items.  Think of this as having 24/7 access to a voice recorder and secretary.

The second tool I found myself using during this NAB is Tripit.  Sign up at tripit.com and they’ll ask for your email address or addresses that you frequently use.  Nowadays, upon making any sort of travel reservation such as hotel or airline, you usually receive an itinerary via email.  Simply forward that itinerary you received from, well the hotel, travel agent or whatever, to tripit.  It uses your email address to create an online itinerary of all of your pertinent events.  It goes further to provide directions from the airport to hotel (if necessary), and even supplies you with the local weather forecast for the days location to which you’re traveling. I found it was easier to simply click on my iPhone Tripit icon and get everything quickly and easily.

I’m always on the lookout for more tools such as these as I am inherently lazy, um, creative in finding time-saving tools.  More to come.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

If an HDTV Falls in the Woods…

Frank Capria | 03/25- 12:21 PM

A surprising number of HDTV owners don’t view any HD content on their sets… and other interesting tidbits.

ABI Research released some highlights of its recent research on HDTV adoption and the viewing habits of Americans. While 41% of Americans have HDTV’s, only about half of those HDTV receive any sort of an HD signal. While it might not be too surprising that only one out of Americans can view HDTV in all its glory, it’s shocking that another one out of five think they are watching HD when they are just watching a blown up SD image.

Lay the blame at the feet of the cable companies. I’ve been to several living rooms where what’s sold as HD looks indistinguishable from an up-converted standard definition DVD. This isn’t something I want to be pondering at 2:00 AM as we’re perfecting the look of my next HD production. 

Monday, March 24, 2008

In Defense of “Fanboys”.

Frank Capria | 03/24- 05:58 AM

On zealots, Kool-Aid drinkers, and the like

Any journalist who has ever written anything even slightly critical of Apple has suffered the wrath of the small, but vocal Apple zealotry. The same goes for the Red camera. In days gone by Media 100 users could get quite agitated as well. Among my colleagues it’s a running joke. If you want to boost your numbers, criticize Apple or Red. Today’s Boston Globe featured an interesting blurb on the phenomenon. Farhad Manjoo has released some excerpts of his forthcoming book, True Enough. 

Thursday, March 20, 2008

The Future of Advertising and Non-Fiction Television

Frank Capria | 03/20- 04:54 PM

Broadcast networks charge advertisers more to reach fewer viewers. How long can it last, and what does it mean for independents?

Anyone making a living in video would do well to read this special report on the future of advertising by the Project for Excellence in Journalism. It succinctly explains how television advertising rates continue to rise even as viewership declines dramatically. Even before the writers strike threw an anvil to an industry trying to tread water, the numbers were telling:

For the first 11 weeks of the 2007-08 television season, prior to the effects of the fall 2007 Writers Guild of America strike, Nielsen data show viewer declines for the crucial 18-to-49 age group of 19.4% for NBC, 16.7% for CBS, 10.5% for ABC and 28.6% for CW. Only Fox improved, with a 3.4% gain.

The trend is clear. Broadcast television is fading. Audiences are gathering information and getting entertained elsewhere. With broadband penetration now over 50% in the US, web video may be at a long-awaited inflection point.

Monday, March 10, 2008

Can’t Give It Away; Can’t Throw It Away

Chris Meyer | 03/10- 03:22 PM

Getting rid of old desktop video gear is as hard as disposing of nuclear waste. Any suggestions?

It’s ironic that Giles Baker of Adobe just wrote about going tapeless, as we’re currently in the middle of a major spring cleaning of our studio where we are getting rid of our tape decks, among other things. Some are being sold on eBay (here’s our DVCPRO, BetaSP, and SVHS decks, in case you’re curious; the DLT drive and tapes go up in a few days), some are being donated (and we could use some suggestions on that below), and the rest are being trashed.

It’s the trashing part that’s proving difficult. 

Page 5 of 7 pages « First  <  3 4 5 6 7 >