Video Studentguy

I've been busy over the holidays producing a new podcast. It's called the Post-Movie Podcast and it's a conversation between two film reviewers on recent films. Radical right? I've also have a lot of irons in the fire production-wise and I hope to tell you more about it in upcoming shows. I'm going to be busy for a while.

Black Friday is the mega shopping day in the United States, the day after Thanksgiving day. Stores open at 4am, even earlier and there are lines and crowds of people hours before the stores open.The sound is a little poor, but hopefully this explains why I missed posting for a couple days.

On my way home in the rain on Thanksgiving eve I stopped in at the local turnpike service center and spoke my mind. You get what you pay for and tnstaafl (there's no such thing as a free lunch)

Excerpts from a podcast recording session.

Journal entry about my current frame of mind about what to do next.

If you want to put your video on the web and you don't know a lick about website creation, look into Wordpress. Producing media and distributing it online requires a platform that provides a base from you can attract interest and develop a community. I think its fair to say that self promotion on the internet is not a common skill set of most production oriented media producers. One of the best ways to step into this critical space and feel as though you have some control over the process is to produce a blog using Wordpress. Wordpress is one of many different blogging software platforms, such as Typepad, Blogger and Drupal, however I think it is the best combination of flexibility, power and accessibility for non web developers. There's a tremendous amount of learning resources for the uninitiated, with tutorials for the beginner at Wordpress.org and online in general. Even easier, you can go to Wordpress.com, create an account and start blogging in 10 minutes. There is even a video channel, Wordpress.TV

I have a few thoughts I want to share, somewhat motivated by an article I read on TalentZoo, a hub for people who work in the Advertising field. Knowledge of who you are and how to promote your value to clients are important factors in creating and sustaining a successful business. Handmade in America

Producing a podcast includes creating a destination. There are lots of things to consider if you want to create a community around your content and demonstrate to potential sponsors you can keep them around. Hosting sites: Camtasia' s Screencast.comLibsyn.comBlip.tvVimeo.comBlueHost

 A loose review of an event I attended this evening focusing on the launch of Avid Media Composer 4.0, Avid's mainstream digital video editing tool. At two thousand plus dollars it's not for everyone. But for anyone interested in a career in video and especially feature motion picture editing, it's the gorilla in the living-room.A lot of technical stuff was presented but I've chosen to talk about a few features that I thought were particularly interesting and useful, including an open plug-in format that allows Avid to ingest media directly from AVC, P2, SxS and other solid state camera media cards without converting it to the Avid MXF file format - saving time and space on your drive.Media Composer now allows you to store files it's using anywhere on your computer, but there are risks involved. The tracking feature allows you to stabilize the picture on the frame and it automatically resizes the image so it completely fills the width of the frame. The remarkable thing about this stabilization tracking featur

I have overcome and more than happy to tell you about it. The DVD portion of this project I'm working on has come to a close and you can reap the fruit of my head-banging efforts in this post about DVD Studio Pro.Not definitive by any means, but there are a few problems you could learn to sidestep if you're interested in learning.

I'm busy, I only noticed I hadn't taken care of feeding this podcast when I looked at the time and it reminded me I haven't done a thing for the show. That's how busy is. Maybe when I'm done tomorrow I can put things in perspective. Right now I'll make another cup of tea and keep my frustration to myself.

In case you didn't know, you should get a library card. It's free, you can get just about any book, magazine, movie and lots of other stuff. If you're a student you could probably get books from outside your school delivered right to your room. Okay, right to your dorm room is stretching it a little, but still, almost.

Controlling this wild magicFile compression. It's the last thing you do at the end of the project, but it should be among the top things to consider and settle with your client before you begin. Otherwise, things could be very dark indeed.

I visited a job fair in western Massachusetts this week.

Reflections on the cost of war from newspapers, podcasts, twitter and magazines. Check out the link to the November 11th post No Mood Swing and listen to Valerie read the Toronto Star article about the Boys of Major Street. No Mood Swing Remembrance Day PostNewsweek - Could have won Newsweek - Beware Revisionism - John KerryJohn Kerry Swift boat controversy

Review of the Sony XDCAM EX-1 Ergonomics, slow motion and mediaI recorded the review of this camera before I began the One a Day series and I'm not going to hold on to it until December. Since making this recording I've been able to use this camera several times and it's been a real pleasure.It's well designed and I believe that's why it hasn't been difficult to learn how to use it. The media is easy to use, really not that much different from the P2, but it feels more comfortable to work with. I mentioned the Hoodman in this episode as a low cost replacement for the SxS from Sony. Kensington also has a low cost alternative you should look into.CDIAOver/Under crank (slow motion)Keystone CopsCreative Cow Pros and Cons between P2 and SxSWikipedia article on HDV and different screen resolutionsThorough review of the EX-1

One Thought leads to another.Clear Blue Skies - CSNGeorge Carlin - Ecology: The Planet is FinePatty Duke in the Miracle WorkerHelen Keller - Social Activist turned lap dog   

I attended an Boston Avid User Group meeting which was held at WGBH in Boston. The speaker, Steve Audette is a veteran producer and editor on programs such as Nova and Frontline. He is an excellent entertaining and informative presenter with a lot of valuable insights into editing

   Conversations That MatterHandmade in AmericaSession:WordpressBoston Wordpress Meetup GroupBoston Wordcamp January 2010 Session: Social Media Levels the Media Distribution FieldPresenters:Amy GreenlawLeslie PostonFilmPop Example of artist who has successfully promoted herself through social media:Imogene Heap Social Media resources for independent filmmakers:KickStarter Chip inIndie GoGoopenIndie.com Podcamp NH 2010 June or July

Podcamp NH 09 Location: New Hampton School Distributed video production podcast:Spidcast Session:    BrandcastingDan FreundPodcamp NH 09    http://podcamp.uptownuncorked.com/blog/Spidcast    http://spidcast.com/Dan Freund    http://kinneyhill.com/v4/