Below is the link for the first two episodes in my weird little new web series, Footastic Theatre. This is a study in producing for web as opposed to producing for video and encoding down to share.
The premise is really short amusing engaging scenerios. Video crack. Watch one and you need more and you want to see them over and over. That's what I'm working toward. We are showing only the feet of the talent. Why? Web video is best with close-ups and all headshots are not that exciting to me.
It was rediculously easy to get people excited about this project. I have more writers than I can use. No one is paid but I believe my high ranking on Funny or Die with the Southern Jewish Princess teaser clip got some attention and people wanted to hop on board. And there is also some buzz about funnynnotslutty.com and that never hurts.
No doubt the Obama campaign had aspirations of reaching a huge audience both at Mile High Stadium and on broadcast tv networks.
First, a critique of the staging.
Was this a U2 show or a political rally? It was difficult to tell the difference. That magically appearing hydraulic podium was like something out of a 1977 era KISS concert. Was Peter Criss waiting in the wings? For a candidate trying to be one of the common people, he sure looked like a rock star. That is not a political opinion, that is based upon the staging and fireworks.
Now on to the deplorable MSNBC tv broadcast. I should have set my TiVo to record the unfiltered C-SPAN feed, but in a last minute on the way out the door that morning decision, I hit the MSNBC broadcast. Having first watched a few Doctor Who episodes with my wife, I started watching the broadcast around 10pm Eastern Time. Thankfully I could easily fast forward through the commercials and most of the hateful political commentary from Olberman, Matthews, Brokaw and the rest of the biased NBC gang.
To paraphrase a famous quote from a political convention of the past:
So many of you have read of our failings with Adobe Encore trying to create BluRay discs. Today we start a new chapter in BluRay authoring by transferring all our needs to NetBlender's "DoStudio."
NetBlender has instituted a really neat month to month licensing option that's approx. $250 per month to use the software. This is truly a month to month deal. So I can activate it for September for $250 and then sign up again in December. There's no extra fees, nothing. They have several plans for 6 months, 12 months or you can outright purchase the software if you want. But in my case, we plan to produce maybe 10 BluRays all of 2009. Probably in batches of 3 or 4, so I might spend $1,000 total next year in the licensing fees, which is significantly less than $8,000 for the permanent license. So to start out, I can just go $250 per month which is easily charged back to the client per job.
Hello,
Does anybody know of any study, report, research that explains or outlines the benefits of using videos for training, marketing, outreaching and/or promotional purposes?
It's 1am. There is a thin film of dried coffee on the bottom of your mug. If you tilt the mug way back you might get a drop or two, but there is no need. You have just uploaded your edit to the client review website (if you don't have one, it would be a good investment - simple ftp access if all you need).
You took the client's directions (make us a video, not exactly sure what we want, you're the experts) and put your heart into it. You shot the interviews and b-roll with the people and locations provided to you. You were told what locations you did not have access to.
A script draft was not returned to you by your direct contact, and the shoot had to happen to hit the deadlines.
You owned the project. You feel it is some of your best work, working with what you had available, that is. You view the video one more time before bed and you smile.
As you drift off to sleep, either in bed, on the production office sofa or in your car on the side of the road, you smile.
Ok, maybe that headline was a bit sarcastic, but I have just returned from a 20 mile bike ride (inspired by watching the Olympic bike event) so I am a bit oxygen deprived. Bear with me.
What I am getting at is a review of the NBC Olympic coverage.
Let's start with the opening ceremonies - China's so called coming out party. Whatever.
It was certainly spectacular with very nice tv coverage. But seriously, I could live without Matt Lauer's incessant political commentary. We know, Iraq, Iran, North Korea etc all have problems. We get enough of that from the regular news. Same goes for you Brokaw! Let Bob Costas talk about sports and shut your traps for once.
I recently (within minutes of this post) rediscovered Creative Cow thanks to a useful Sony Vegas thread started by Jan-Arden (see http://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/24/874713). It was so well done and so informative I decided on the spot to sign up for an account.
Having started my own creative services company in January, and its first major project being a documentary, I decided it would be a good time to join up and enjoy this great community of creative minds.
This video is a little sample of what might be seen in the documentary to be released in spring of 2009.
I'd like to say I have been so busy catching up on work that I have not had a chance to write new posts. This is partially true.
Partially, I took a week to visit my folks in insanely sunny Florida, helped my wife through some medical troubles (no, for the last time, I did not film it) and have in fact been pretty busy at work.
Oh, and I discovered I know a lot of people on Facebook.
But back to the important topic of workflow.
As described in excrutiating detail in previous posts, I make the most of to do lists, post-it notes, scraps of paper, e-mails to myself, Excel spreadsheets and various other attempts at self-organization.
I recently completed a project which was an excellent exercise in organization. I will describe it in generic terms, but give some specific example of learning points.
The Documentary/Promo/Movie Trailer to Promote OB/GYN Careers
Traveling anytime soon into or out of the United States? Homeland Security is now authorized to detain your laptop for a "reasonable amount of time" with absolutely no warrant and no suspicion whatsoever. From MSNBC.com today:
WASHINGTON - Federal agents may take a traveler's laptop or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed.
Wow, can't wait to travel out of the country again sometime soon. This is just getting ridiculous.
Here I am again, only my second day and I'm bitching about something. Many online casinos have tournaments in which the casino gives you a set amount of money to play with. I, am admitting that I play these tournaments. But, guess what? I could never get a high enough score to even place. So, I did some research on Google, of course. And guess what I found out to my consternation - there are ways to cheat at internet casinos. Duh, am I stupid or what? How in the hell can you cheat at an online casino?
When watching television, I rarely pay too much attention to the commercials, unless they catch my attention.I have seen the "Finally Fast.com" commercial. At first I was excited, finally a program to speed up my DSL speed. And the download was free. I could not believe my luck. Well, to my consternation, and after downloading the program, I find out, it just scans and shows you just how much junk and garbage you have on your computer. When you go to fix that junk --WHAM!!! you get - in order to continue, you must register. What a misleading commercial it was. Boy, was I pi____ed off. I hate commercials that blatently lie. This is just the first of my minions of blog listings I will be writing about that aggrevate the hell out of me. And probably many others, It it only the beginning.
I have found that when using Discribe 6.0.8 by Charismac (this is the software that runs the Primera Bravo Pro for Mac) on my MacPro running 10.4.11 the following error can occur.
When setting up the project, the first folder in the list (usually AUDIO_TS) will be renamed by the software to AUDI_001. This isn't a real problem if you're not using that folder, but it can be a real problem if you don't have an AUDIO_TS and the VIDEO_TS folders gets renamed. When this occurs, the renaming can result in the VIDEO_TS folder being renamed to VIDE_002. This will cause the DVD player to error.
In the clip you will see that if you name the project AFTER adding the TS folders the problem will occur, however, naming the project BEFORE adding the TS folders will avoid the problem.
LATEST UPDATE (29/8/08) - Charismac just sent me Discribe 6.0.9 which has now fixed this problem...that's great news! If you're experiencing the same problem email erice@charmismac.com and ask about Discribe 6.0.9.
I discovered after much trial, error and pain that the following can occur.
If you have a Primera Bravo Pro installed on a Mac running 10.4 AND you have an Epson printer driver installed on the same machine which is SET TO DEFAULT, the Primera machine will not print to the edge of the disc.
Set the Primera Printer Driver to default and the problem is fixed.
I have been using a Primera Bravo Pro on my MacPro for 2 years now. Most of that time i have experienced many problems, however, with perseverance comes the answers if you look long enough.
One of the most frustrating issues was a faded start to discs when printing successive discs. This has been reported to be a known Mac/Bravo Pro issue and so far the fix appears to be in the following information.
[start article]
If you have recently changed the image sharpening value to "12" as described in this article
I'm really happy to report publicly for the first time that we'll be providing all post production for 3 feature length documentaries that are currently destined for major film festivals and network HD broadcast in 2009 and 2010. We can trace at least part of this announcement to our investment in BluRay and in-house self-publishing of the high definition discs.
Sony and Samsung announce a wireless HD signal that would send HD signals to multiple TV's in your home from a single box. But Sony is also involved in another effort to achieve the same goal. Wonder if the signals will ever been good enough for smaller Post houses like mine to send signals wirelessly to our production monitors. that would be pretty cool actually!
We're working on a corporate documentary type of project that involves teenagers who lived through Hurricane Katrina. The project is all shot in high definition and of course, the producer was in the market for some news footage of the hurricane and its aftermath to help craft the story.
Looking around the web we found buyoutfootage.com with the most reasonably priced footage, about $450 for 19 minutes of the aftermath rescues and such. The description of the reel describes pretty much exactly what we were looking for with military personnel helping people, flooded streets, the mayor walking around, etc.... It's available on BetaSP so we naturally assumed it would all be clean, good quality footage. Being on a quick turnaround schedule, we simply ordered the master without getting the sample DVD.
That was a bad decision. When we received the tape, a lot of the footage looked like it had been captured at a very low resolution or it had been through about 5 or 6 generations of dubs. Most of it is very soft, again, like bad transfers along the way.
Well Samsung has released the supposed "iPhone killer" and I've wondered how it stacks up to the newly released iPhone 2.0. Fortunately for all of us, MSNBC has done a really nice head to head comparison of the two. In the end, they both work well, but the one thing I was surprised about is that the "live Sprint TV" they advertise in the ads is not entire shows, just snippets of shows. And the comparison of the screen brightness and clarity is pretty impressive.
Anyway, really good reading for anyone thinking about one or the other.
7 months into our BluRay authoring experience with Adobe Encore and button routing still does not work correctly in the BluRay mode. We're trying to create a very simple Chapter Selection menu, but no matter what we do, the last button in the menu is always auto selected when you choose the menu and when you want to return to the Chapter Menu, you can't, you always go back to the Main Menu.
We notified the head of the Encore team of this issue on May 28th and also notified him that we had a July 1st deadline for 5 retail BluRay titles. They were supposed to download the files that day and get to work on it. Then June 20 we were asked to upload the files again so they could get to work on it.
To date we have no solutions and essentially had to scrap the Chapter Menu on the titles. Just a word of warning to anyone who wants to plunk down money for Encore CS3. DVD authoring is fine, but if you intend to do BluRay discs, be prepared to make major concessions to the failings of this software.
Ok, my dumb advertisement of the week. I'm seeing an ad for FinallyFast.com show up again and again on cable channels. They promise to get your computer running fast again by removing spyware and all those nasty little things that can slow down a computer on the internet.
A disclaimer on screen points out this only works on PC Computers. (this is funny too, but more on that in a moment). So why is this ad so dumb? They prominently feature an iMac an an iBook. Yes, an iBook. In fact, the computer shown more than any other is the iMac.
These Macs are not the newer Intel versions so you could make the argument, "Well you can run Windows on those machines." Nope, these are classic PowerPC computers that are relegated to the Mac OS only. Sorry, this is just a dumb, bonehead, lazy move by the production company and the client to show two computers that can't even be used by the product that is being advertised.
Note: I've added an audio interview to this story on the site!
My new site www.funnynotslutty.com was selected as a site of the week recently. I have new July articles up. Note of caution, there is some adult language as many comedic projects have.
And you must see what my featured artist, Kimberly McBride can do with a pinhole camera and an enormous amount of talent! I included one of her videos. She is all the characters below!
Hold on George Lucas, don't get too excited. Let me explain.
Let's say I have a rough cut of a surgery (or any documented event for that matter).
I have cut this to the best of my ability, without any sort of Vulcan mind meld to know exactly what the client wants. Now that would be cool.
Next step is to have a meeting with the client, to review the video together. Let's say that the client has such limited time that the only time available to even review the edit is face to face for 1 hour a few days after the edit was completed.
Step 1
View edit on laptop - point video camera at laptop, lav on client, roll tape.
