Video Studentguy

Driving up to New Hampshire for Podcamp NH  09. Lovely cold fall day.

Spontaneity, serendipity and simplicity.Today I'm beginning an experiment simply because I was challenged by a podcast. Listening to Description: Valerie in Toronto, a podcaster I met at Podcaster's Across Borders, held in Kingston this past June. I learned about a challenge to podcasters called National Podcaster's Post Month, where people are encouraged to post their podcast every day through November and keep it under 10 minutes.I don't know what the other restrictions for posting are, but it doesn't matter because it's November 6 and I'm posting on my host not theirs, so I can do what I want.But it's not simply because of Valerie's post that I'm choosing this challenge. I picked up a book recently by Chris Orwig, a photographer and teacher, which I mistakenly referred to as Visual Photography, a bit redundant that, right? It's called Visual Poetry and his premise is seeking ways to reinvigorate, inspire and step outside your creative routine. Take some risks.So talking without the intention of editing, wi

I'm using the last show as a starting point for this show, about an idea I want to put out there for helping students learn how to better produce content and how to produce better content. I believe school is the place where this learning can and should take place, but it's success depends on how well it's presented and maintained. You'll have to listen to learn more. At the end I give a brief review of two books, Here Comes Everybody, by Clay Shirky and The Rise of the Creative Class, by Richard Florida. They're not light reading but I think each one has something important to say about how the internet is changing the way we produce media.

This show is about two experiences that were bouncing around in my head and collided. First, a podcast about technology and second,, conversations with educators lead me to consider the necessity of providing some kind of multimedia literacy as part of the higher education experience. Sort of like directed play in the schoolyard to avoid bullying. My thought is not only how to produce content that hits the intended mark, but also present the impact and responsibilities, both personally and to others that being a broadcasting entails. There was a time when it was rare and seemingly ridiculous to require students to attend schools with a computer. Not so ridiculous now. I think the time is coming to accept the responsibilities that private broadcaster carries. I don't have any solutions to offer, but I think we should be thinking about this. Here are some links to people and places mentioned in the show. Adam WeissOn The Log # 73 & 74Adam Engst    TidbitsPodcamp Boston 4Podcamp.org

Listening to this show and trying to reach from what I know to what the least informed person knows is very difficult. It's hard to record a session of me talking off the cuff, just using notes, because I end up using a lot of shorthand without explain things. I need a glossary.I don't have one, but I have included some brief explanations of some of the video codewords I've mentioned in passing, in this show. If you follow the links you'll find more thorough descriptions. It can get pretty thick, but it really helps to know these things.This episode begins with a recent revelation about my goals and future direction as a filmmaking professional. I've also included details I've gleaned from blogs, podcasts and presentations at a recent meeting of the Boston FCP User's Group.This has been a busy summer of media events. I've attended Podcamp Boston 4, Podcaster's Across Borders in Kingston Ontario, the Boston Media Makers get together which meets in Jamaica Plains the first Sunday of every month and the annual A

This week's show is the second part of my thoughts about craft and art, this show focusing more art.Right off the bat let me confess that not once did I get the title of the book by John Carrey that I keep refering to, which is What Good are the Arts. Terrible oversight on my part and while there is no defense let me repeat that the book and it's correct name is less important to my remarks than the thoughts and ideas that were spurred by it. With that in mind, here's a link to The Craftsman by Richard Sennett. I think it has a lot to say about methods of producing quality work for anyone, including filmmakers.The great thing about having all these diverse sources of information and opinion is not so much the opportunity to learn as it is the ideas and where they take me, and the things I think and believe.I generally find that I come to understand what I think and believe by saying it out loud, either to myself, to others or to you in this time shifted fashion. There's a monitor in my head as the words come

What's in this show: I'm going to talk mostly about some of the events at PAB 09 in Kingston. It's been a month and I'm just now getting my thoughts down. My apologies to Bob and Mark, the show's promoters, and thanks guys, for once again producing a first class happening. First I have some updates about my computer. Then, after I give you a quick reminder of what PAB is all about, I talk about Jowie Taylor and the Six String Nation Guitar. Check out the site, it's full of really interesting stories that I can talk about only in passing. Better yet, if you can attend an event where Jowi Taylor speaks(his schedule is right on the homepage) about this remarkable artifact, you should attend and get your picture taken holding it. As a counterpoint to Jowi's story I discuss some sobering and pragmatic information presented by Chris Penn of the Financial Aid Podcast and Marketing over Coffee. This guy's good! All this leads me to talking about identity, personal and national, and the power of the stories that p

Talking about hardware problems with my car, my own mental wiring and my laptop, leading up to attending Podcaster's across Borders in Kingston Ontario. I made it there an back, but I'll have to give you the high points in the next show.Check out these shows,On the Log - Episode 68: The Sound Between the NotesDicksnJanes #202: postPABblabBeing Buff # 36, Jowi Taylor PAB2009 Keynote: How a guitar brought a nation togetherCanadian Podcast Buffet will be uploading recordings of the sessions throughout the summer Also, google PAB09. Every attendee who writes a blog or posts a podcast/vidcast will put this tag in their RSS fee.In the process of troubleshooting problems with my laptop, using tools such as Techtool Pro, Carbon Copy Cloner and and Apple Disk Utility, the drive and the motherboard failed and an emergency trip to the Apple Store Genius Bar resulted in it being pronounced DOA.All that I can do at this point is offer some cautionary advice on how to prepare, and deal with the inevitable computer meltdo

In this show you can hear a recent screening of the film, Handmade in America at the Community School of the Arts in Mansfield CT. Heather Bunnell, the Arts Coordinator of the school and Susan Gerr, one of the potters featured in my film, start off the show with introductions, as do I, to a crowd of of over 100 people. I don't include the recording of people watching the film, but you can view the complete 20 minute film at Vimeo using the password: lorezfile. The remainder of the show is a Q&A with the audience.

This show is a summing up of my recent experience interning at a documentary film production house as a production assistant. It was a good sized business, about 20 to 30 people, depending on the business climate. I didn't really comment about this in the show, but now, during this economic pit we're in, now has been a very good time to observe how a business like this functions. Filmmaking may or may not be recession proof, but there's no question this time around a lot of money has dried up. I saw a lot of resourcefulness at work. If you listen to this show I hope you'll get an idea of what an internship can offer you beyond your formal education. I also talk about some valuable lessons I learned and generalized how to go about getting what you want from this learning experience. I have no doubts that internships aren't about the money, the time you spend or the sacrifices you make. In a nutshell about temporarily living the life you think you want. You can't see more than a small part of it, but it's a

I've just finished a book by David Lynch, writer and directory of many movies, including Eraserhead, Dune and Twin Peaks.  Catching the Big Fish is a the author's reflections on how he has and others can find ideas, big ideas through TM, Transcendental Meditation. But the book isn't about the workings of TM, it's about his experiences as a filmmaker trying to solve puzzles as he worked on his films. It's a quick read and has a lot of interesting reflections in it. You won't find a lot of practical information, but you will get a glimpse of the man and the way he thinks, and what he thinks about storytelling. I hadn't finished reading the book before I recorded this episode so I didn't get to mention that he spends a few pages talking about digital video and it's impact on him and the Hollywood film industry. I'm always interested to learn how established filmmakers view this new technology and his response is blunt and pragmatic. Here are a few links to comments I made about another filmmaker who writes

Towards the end of last year I had so many things to do I switched from a weekly to a bi-weekly show. I thought I could switch back, but I still don't have enough time, so for the foreseeable future I'll work hard to get one out every two weeks. This week is kind of short, but a lot has been happening. Following a screening of my film a couple weeks ago I got an invite to a local radio to talk about the film and pottery. I was joined by Linda Gerr of Birch Mountain Pottery, who is one of the subjects in my documentary. By the way, send me an email and ask me for a link to the full film and I'll be glad to send it to you.There's a link in the show a one or two episodes back if you thinking looking for it is easier.' The radio call letters are WILI, you can find the link to the audio online here (posted April 23) or you can link directly to the audio file. Watch out, it's a Windows Media file. Bill Meems left a comment on show #86, which was about the National Association of Broadcaster's show in Las Vega t

I wanted to spend time this show talking about why I want to be a filmmaker, really, why I feel compelled to make things. I know I've covered this ground before, but I'm talking specifically about my experience as a film maker producing Handmade in America, and what it's taught me. Unfortunately I got lost talking about the ideas behind the movie and had to stop in the middle. And I didn't intend to give a review of a The Craftsman, by Richard Sennett, but that's what I ended up doing. It's a great book for anyone who struggles with the reasons why we like to making things with our hands and served as a rudder for my vision while I worked on the film. Most of the show is leading to a showdown between the concepts of Craft and Art.. There's a recorded conversation online with Richard Sennett and Eva Hoffman discussing how the romanticization of Art, and Craft blunts the impact of these things in our lives. It's a great discussion, but I bring it up  because it refers to John Carey's book, What Good are the A

I have certainly been very busy, and certainly not with preparing podcasts, but that's about to change soon. I have finally put up a gallery page on the website with production stills. The interface still needs a little neatening up, but it's working. I also found IE on PCs don't work well with the copy of the trailer that I had linked it to (it wasn't playing, it would load, but it wouldn't play.!) Rather than figure it out I loaded a new one and it seems to work. Let me know if I'm still wrong. This show is a 15 minute ramble about things I'm doing as an intern. As you know I'm working as a production assistant at a documentary production company for a few months and I'm trying to make sense of the experience. I think part of the problem is that I've worked in the same company for 10 years and I'm being throttled by change, down to the elementary level. That changes how you look at and think about everything. But I'm getting better. That or I'm numb. I also have a screening at a local community center F

I am starting a 3 month internship this week. I'll be a production assistant at a production company in Boston, so there'll be a lot to say about that in the next few months. The big news is that I finally have enough of a website of the film to put online. Still rough and incomplete, it felt good to put it out there, sort of draw a line in the sand. You can find it at handmadeinamerida.us, there were no more.com's available. Send me any suggestions, really, I'm not looking for congrats here, I think it's very rough and really only in phase one. Still I would like to know if there are things I can do to make it easier to use, or I've overlooked some content I should be displaying. It's tricky because it's not just a website, it's a website for a movie, so if it doesn't pique your interest, or satisfy it, it's not working. There's a trailer you can watch on the Trailer page. If you're really fast it will load slowly. I'm going to be recompressing the file and uploading it to Vimeo, the hosting site I"m us

In this week's show I talk with Jamie Meltzer, filmmaking instructor at Stanford University. Stanford has a separate film program for documentary filmmaking and Jamie was generous with his time to tell all about it. Stanford University Documentary Film Program

I'm still in a bunker state of mind. This show a little catch up on the state of the film. How I approached creating the trailerVimeo vs YouTubeCompression artifacts, Macroblocks, compression noiseBuilding a website for the film and I'm using Blue Host I leave you with a  little ramble about being done vs being finished.

Hi there, Happy New Year.I've been hunkering down in the editing bunker through the holidays and came up long enough to leave you this note and the latest show.My film is done. It's called Handmade in America. I'll be posting it online later this month and when I do I'll let you know now you can watch it.I was thinking about the nature of social media and spoke about that a little bit in the show. I also wanted to let you know about a website and a podcast you should check out if you're interested learning how to make money through online distribution of your media, specifically audio and video podcasts.Here's the links for things I mentioned in the show.Episode 119 of This Week in MediaSusan Bratton - DishyMixAssociation for Downloadable MediaPairing Sponsors with PodcastsPodcast Standards for AdvertisersKeith Burtis Interview on Social Media CPB # 125

Here are a few thoughts that have been distracting me as I hunker down and edit my film.In case I didn't go into enough detail in the show, or worse, if all that detail confused you, let me explain a couple things.In one segment I'm talking about the "Fishbowl" of podcasting. It's a term that has the same currency among podcasters as kleenex has within the general public. With podcasters, the fishbowl syndrome means we have created a world that is not only unique, but separated from most people. Information gets in, but nothing is getting out. And because it's comfortable there's a risk no one inside the fishbowl will make an effort do something about it. This is the same experience every avid hobbiest has, the difference is that podcasters, participating in a "social" media, where communication means community and community building, there is an evangelical weight on their shoulders. Another term used a lot, ad nauseam really, is "monetization" which I'm not sure is a real word. Apple's dictionary doesn't re

I recently attended a filmmaker's conference that included screenings of independent films. My film was included and while that was gratifying, I found the real value was attending the filmmaker's panels and viewing other people's reactions to my and other people's films. I picked up a lot of valuable information about ways to navigate the independent filmmaking process and I've included highlights in this show. I am preparing a number of changes on this site and an upcoming video podcast, as well as completing my film, so, from now on for an indefinite period of time, I'm going to post shows twice a month instead of every week. Once I get a few new projects running I'll return to a weekly show. Here are the links to people and sites I"ve mentioned in the show. Ruff Cutz Film Conference   Jim Jermanok - Producer, Writer, Director Steven Jermanok - Writer Dale Carnegie - How to make friends and influence people Michael Corrente -  Federal Hill Ed Sanchez - Blair Witch Project Michael Phillips - Academ