PLEASE NOOOOOO

Okay so this may be the worst thing. Production value no! He is reading off a prompter and I really wonder if he knows what is going on with the digital transition. Did he "partner" with them or did they pay him. Talk about a bad choice for a spokesperson. I shouldn't post, but it just is so bad to not.

iTunes losing DRM?

So I was reading my news feed tonight and came across this post in regards to iTunes and DRM. It looks like the record labels may be finally allowing Apple to sell their songs without the blasted DRM that causes so much frustration when moving the files. I have gone in and checked my songs and was greeted with the the following screen.

So maybe we can cross DRM off for good on iTunes? I certainly hope so.

BendFilm Press Release

I realized I never did post this so for your enjoyment... or maybe shameless self promotion.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For more information, contact: JoAnn Hand, Pinnacle Media (541) 633-7476

BENDFILM WORKS WITH PINNACLE MEDIA ON NEW DIGITAL SCREENING
Pinnacle Media Enhances Viewing Experience for Bendfilm Attendees

(Bend, Oregon) BendFilm recently announced a unique partnership with local film production company Pinnacle Media to offer the for all films shown during the upcoming festival. This technology will significantly enhance the viewing experience for all moviegoers.

Putting BendFilm ahead of the curve, this partnership is also particularly timely as digital theaters are a growing national trend supported by an October 1, 2008, announcement by five major studios – Fox, Disney, Paramount, Universal and Lionsgate – to transition to digital theaters across the U.S.

Specifically for the 2008 BendFilm Festival, Pinnacle created a digital system that allows high definition playback as well as digital playback of standard definition films to vastly improve the overall viewing experience.

“We’ve spent the last few months testing and re-testing the system to ensure it will withstand the rigors of a four-day festival,” says Matt Hand, Pinnacle’s Media Head. “We worked locally with Regal Cinemas – one of the national partners in the digital cinema transition – to ensure the playback will be seamless.”

In addition to testing work with Regal, Pinnacle designed the playback system to work with the editing systems that are in use by the majority of independent film editors. To save time and money, filmmakers can also send their films directly to Pinnacle in their native digital format. Approximately a quarter of the filmmakers have already taken advantage of this service and Hand expects more to do so in the days ahead.

“Why not bring the newest, in-demand technology to Bend right now?” says Hand. “Video and film production is the heart and soul of what we do at Pinnacle, and I am so excited that we will have the best quality possible at our own festival.”

With over 15 years experience in Central Oregon, Pinnacle specializes in work that gets results. From one-camera documentaries to multi-camera, complex productions, Pinnacle provides guidance, creativity and solutions in partnership with small and large businesses.

For more information, call (541) 633-7476 or check out www.pinnaclemediainc.com

# # #

Link to the pdf is here

Better presentations... PLEASE!

Seth Godin has a great rant the other day about presentations. He is really very correct. As a person who hates bad presentation it is important that you take the time and energy to make your impressions remarkable. Rehearse and then do it again. Always make sure you know what the venue is like or hopefully they have someone that can help you when you get there. Just make it worthwhile.

MBSEF Schlorship Video

Here is a piece we just did for MBSEF to raise awareness on the benefits of donating to their scholarship program.

The state of YouTube

Watch and enjoy.... This isn't real.

YouTube Contest Challenges Users To Make A 'Good' Video

Production in the video world is changing

I am really excited because I think that the new crop of DSLR "Video Cameras" is changing the way we look at video. While RED did it a couple of years ago we are seeing Canon and Nikon adopt this thinking.

Here is a new clip from AkiHabra News

Tokyo Reality ( Canon EOS 5D Mark II )
by lejapon

While the video could definitely benefit from the use of a tripod for some shots the imagery is absolutely stunning. The list of lenses used is at the link above.

Also this post from the RedUser.net Recon-
"We are so excited that we can hardly stand it. The whole RED team has been working more than I could have ever imagined on this. Probably because we are so motivated by the program.

We listened. We have found ways to do what many dared to dream. I am sure that some of the requests will not be met. We just cannot deliver things that are not possible. But we are going to announce things that some wished for but were afraid to ask.

Thursday cannot come soon enough. Tell all your friends. I will be very surprised if this is not the single most defining day of RED. The one day in our history that will mark the changing point. Days like this will never be duplicated.

If you are disappointed, we will never satisfy you. If you are blown away, the future just begins.

Know this. The RED team is on fire. I have never been a part of something as exciting as what we will present in a few short days." Jim Janard

I am looking forward to tomorrow.

What this really is showing is a shift in thinking. For years we have been locked into either two schools, one being film with great depth of field or video with decent depth, but a struggle to achieve that depth. Now with the new generation the two schools are combining. This is really a revolution in the way things are being done. My choices for my next camera keep getting a bit harder.

Thoughts Of The Day

I have been going over my status messages from Twitter and find it pretty interesting the highs and lows that I have gone through in the last week when it comes to technology. While all of the computers and to an extent our phones are backed up bad things happen when the phone and computer fail at the same time. I mentally struggle as I try to deal with no information. In a way it is like withdrawls and I really don't like it.

The good news is that thanks to Don at Apple I should be getting my Mac back tomorrow. What started out as a bad experience is starting to get a lot better. We just want to know as customers or clients what is going on.

Posted with LifeCast

I like this picture!

Thanks Buck!!!!!! BendFilm late night at McMenamins.

I Am CORIL

This is a piece for CORIL that we premiered at an event this afternoon.

BendFilm '08 Tech - Volume 1

Monumental undertaking or just plain fun!

This year has been an interesting year in many different ways from the tech standpoint. First we will be playing all films digitally with the exception of 35mm. No tape. No DVD. Second filmmakers are given the option of ftping their films. This is actually a big deal and in many ways represents the future of distribution. We are probably jumping ahead a couple of years, but we have seen a fairly steep adoption curve. If anything this has shown that independent cinema is adopting HD quickly. The requests have all been from filmmakers that have done there film in HD and most have been using Final Cut. The ability to deliver digitally saves money, time, and energy.

Pictures and examples to follow shortly as I want this documented.

Game changer...

Fist watch this video- HD is changing. (I have it opening in a new window or tab)

Now here is the game changer. This was shot with a DSLR. I know there are a lot of people that have known about this for a bit, but I feel this is the first video that shows the capabilities. The capabilities of craft and not technology for a price.

I have posted a few times on how GUI is the barrier between the next generation of media deployment, and for the film/video world it has been the sheer cost and tech driving this HD revolution that we are going through. Canon and also Nikon have a new line of camera in the form of a digital SLR that have broken this technology barrier and in my opinion will enable really great still photographers to be really great cinematographers.

The good still photographers in the world understand light. They understand composition. They understand how to make really good pictures. Combine these people with great story tellers and hopefully you will get really great videos. Film in its current incarnation is a dying breed.

I am excited...

More information can be found at Vincent Laforet's blog.

Battery Frustration...

Being a heavy user of my laptop I figure it should go for a while. Well that while is probably about 4 months ago. I just got off a frustrating call with Apple and was told that my battery is "consumed" their words. I just confirmed it in looking at a couple of boards. I just wish they would say it to begin with or let me know how many charge cycles I should get.

Here is something to live by according to Apple's website when operating 10.4:

Calibrate the battery in your MacBook or MacBook Pro every month or two to keep your battery functioning at its fullest capacity.

To calibrate the battery:

1. Plug in the MagSafe power adapter and fully charge the MacBook or MacBook Pro battery until the light on the MagSafe connector changes to green and the Battery icon in the menu bar indicates that the battery is fully charged.
2. Allow the battery to rest in the fully charged state for two hours or longer. You may use your computer during this time as long as the power adapter is plugged in.
3. Disconnect the power adapter with the computer on and start using it with battery power. When the battery's charge gets low, you’ll see the low battery warning dialog on the screen.
4. Continue to keep your computer turned on until it goes to sleep. Save your work and close all applications when the battery's charge gets low and before the computer goes to sleep.
5. Turn off the computer or allow it to sleep for five hours or longer.
6. Reconnect the power adapter and leave it connected until the battery is fully charged. You may use your computer during this time.

Repeat the calibration process every two months or so to keep the battery fully functioning. If you use your MacBook or MacBook Pro infrequently, it’s best to recalibrate the battery at least once a month.

If you purchased additional batteries, repeat the calibration process with those batteries as wel

A great new mac ap...

I am not sure how many web based services you use, but I have a bunch. I recently came across Fluid and have been using it ever since. Take a look at the included screen cast of the creation of my google reader account. There is also a Flickr group that has been started to create application icons. I highly recommend it as they load quicker and reduce the tab shuffle.

This Morning on Frank Deford

So I have mentioned Frank Deford before. I enjoy his commentary on sports. This mornings cometary was on the costs of sporting events. Interesting thoughts, but what I really enjoyed is his rant about black outs in sports. The theory is black out your local coverage and you force people to come to the game. I actually believe as Frank says in today's rant that you show how much fun it is and people will flock to it.

This is the same with products. Show how much fun it can be and let people talk about it.

I have to remember this

Sometimes all we want to know is that it sucks. I only say that because when it comes to customer service we hear well we have to follow the process.

So here is how the conversation goes.

"Well what is the process?"
"Really aren't sure."
"Okay isn't it your job to know."
"Well they change the process so much that I really have stopped following."
"So I am in this crappy situation and there is really nothing you can do for me?"
"Well sir the process is beyond our control and I really think that you should just call the 800 number."

Just imagine a difference if you could make a difference.
"I am sorry sir that it really sucks. Here is what I know about the process and let me call the 800 number with you and see if I can find out more information."

May build a different feeling about your business.

Clever Marketing???

The Star Wars Geek in Me

One of the things I think I have never talked about is why I got into video. It has to do with 30 years ago. Something clicked 30 years ago with the release of Star Wars. It took a few more years, but I was fortunate enough to have a Super 8 camera that my dad had bought a few years before so my good friend John and I did "Star Wars" films while we were in middle school and started doing short silly films into high school. This evolved into me starting to do videos for promotional purposes. After spending 10 years at the local cable company producing everything from live programming to those same promotional videos. For the last four years I have been blessed to have worked with some great clients and am looking forward to the future.

So what prompted this? Go check out how others have interpreted Star Wars through art.

Joss Whedon's newest

Just go check it out. It is just fun. I admire Joss' writing. Firefly is hands down one of the best series. It should have gone for many years, but unfortunately people discovered it to late. Go have some fun and watch the videos.

2008 Cascade Cycling Classic Day 5 Highlights

Here are some video highlights from day 5 of the Cascade Cycling Classic.

2008 Cascade Cycling Classic Day 4 Highlights

Highlights from Day 4 of the 2008 Cascade Cycling Classic.

2008 Cascade Cycling Classic Day 3 Highlights

We are helping document and capture the action of this years event. This really has been fun!

Quick Update...

Working on Stage 3-4 video of the Cascade Cycling Classic right now. Should be up in about 1 hour.

Cascade Cycling Classic video update

No update tonight as it's late and criterion has just finished, look for the update of day three after tomorrows stage.

2008 Cascade Cycling Classic Day 2 Highlights

Day 2 highlights. Tomorrow will be focused a bit on the time trial, but more on the criterium in downtown Bend. Thanks to my extremely great moto driver Brad.

2008 Cascade Cycling Classic Day 1 Highlights

We are proud to be covering the 2008 Cascade Cycling Classic. This is highlights of today's stage.

Kent Couch after Landing...

So I thought I would go ahead and post this great picture of me taping Kent probably about 15 minutes after landing. Photo credit www.couchballoons.com.

Oh yeah and something else...

There might be one more event to cover this week....

My head made international news...

See the bottom right hand corner... Yep that is my head. Kent made it today all the way to Idaho. Stay tuned for more! (photo was on the AP)

The Chase Begins...

In Prineville! Check out the website!

Kent Couch and His Chair

Here Kent Couch discusses the details of his lawn chair



Video courtesy of Smart Solutions and Pinnacle Media Inc.

Kent Couch Final Preperations

Here is Kent talking about final preparations for tomorrows flight.



Video courtesy of Smart Solutions and Pinnacle Media Inc.

Two more videos coming tomorrow!

We are in the final run up to the launch of Kent Couch and his cluster balloon flight. Tomorrow we are going to sit down and talk to Kent about preparations and more about the chair. Stay tuned as we have made preparations for the possibility of at least 2 if not 3 videos from the road during the chase thanks to Wireless Source here in Bend. If we are not able to get them up during I will post as soon as we have wi-fi coverage.

Proud to be a part!

We are proud to be documenting this historic flight. Kent couch will be attempting to fly to Idaho with his cluster balloons. Head on over to here to find out more.

What a meeting should be

I really enjoy Seth Godin. His post today is very much relevant to how I feel about meetings. Make them different and watch the results. Click on the link to find out some more specifics.

The new television show we have been working on!

I present you with episode 8. Enjoy!

Business Travel Today vs Days of Yesterday

When I began this venture a while ago I set out to create a nice little niche for myself in Bend. I have slowly began to travel more and more for work with a culmination of a recent trip to Atascadero for some consulting work. What I was struck with was the difference of travel today vs what even a generation ago would have done.

I was hired by a company out of Portland to travel and set-up two Final Cut Pro workstations for Charter Media in Atascadero California. What I realized was the first difference was being able to leave from Redmond and be able to end up in Santa Barbara. Kind of a mistake flying in there as it is about a two hour drive, but hey it was a good drive. While I am completely comfortable in the computer world I struggle with being in cities that I do not know. I had a bit of anxiety over making it and where I was going so the next difference was renting a GPS from Enterprise. I am pleased to say it did not take me into any ocean and took me right to my destination. This was truly a trip down memory lane as growing up my grandmother lived in Nipomo. I decided to stop. Thanks to a quick call to my aunt I was able to find the house that does not look much different than it did when I was growing up. I arrived rather late into Atascadero, but was greeted by a very nice hotel called the Carlton that is just down the road from the job. Now the whole thing was arranged by the company I was working for over the internet with confirmations sent right to me. Very easy and a very different experience than you would have even 8 years ago.

The hotel had wifi and a wired connection for internet which was a pleasant surprise and a very nice feature as a lot of hotels in this price point force you to pay for internet. A welcome change and a definite selling feature. In the morning I woke up and traveled to the job. I was able to get the two stations configured including wiring up an entire one after moving 3 decks from an existing edit bay. This is where the story has another interesting side note because of some improvements to our infrastructure I was able to edit a spot while in the hotel and upload it back to Bend. This is a definite time savings and allows me greater access and flexibility. A special thanks to Darren back in Bend who put it back to tape.

On the final day I was able to spend about 4 hours training the staff who have virtually no experience editing with Final Cut and it was great to see them understand and hopefully catch hold enough to begin doing spots. I then followed my trusty GPS back to Santa Barbara and filled up with gas so I would not be charged the service fee. Finally on my way home, I type this in LA as I await the 9:00 to Redmond. This will be posted in the wee hours of the morning on that series of tubes.

So what has changed within a generation-
-2 states in 3 days
-240 miles being tracked by a gps
-2 non-linear editing stations with 3.6TBs each
-TSA (good experiences this time around)
-1 spot completed and delivered while on the road
-1 crazy picture of the propeller of the plane (taken with my BlackBerry)
-1 very tired consultant- Okay this was probably true back then also

Thanks Jo for picking me up!

I find this interesting...

Courtesy the Economist

We have a long way to go...

Boys And Girls Club of Central Oregon

We finished this yesterday to be used at this mornings breakfast. If you haven't heard they have been in a bit of a financial crunch of late. This is an extremely valuable part of our community and we support their efforts.

The HD/SD Dilema- Can it get more confusing.

Do you produce in HD?

A question I think I have had once. I said yes because if we have to deliver in HD I will and can. We do not have an HD camera, but there are plenty of people I know that do. The dilemma is that as I am walking the floor of NAB there is no clear direction for HD. The manufacturers have their flavors and then you have to figure out which flavor you like.

I was at one of those manufacturers parties last night and got the opportunity to sit next to a DP (Director of Photography) who shoots for Dateline, 60 Minutes, and CNN. His dilemma is that each of his clients, the networks, are asking for different flavors also. One of the clients even said that they would only accept packages shot on one of the most expensive solutions out there. Needless to say he is not liking the option of having to have different cameras for each of the flavors.

In Bend we are greeted with a different dilemma. As I wright this I believe that neither of the HD stations, KTVZ or KOHD, do not offer HD playback of content i.e. commercials other than news. I know that they say they are HD, but that is only during their news and the packages that play back during those.

So what are we to do. We will support HD production because it is the next step, but most of the projects we do will not be delivered in HD because the only way is through brodcast or on blueray. With broadcast it does not exist currently in our market and there are not enough blueray players right now.

What can you get for free?

Chris Anderson has a great comment on his blog this morning regarding free. He talks about the Oprah touch on Suze Orman's "Women & Money". Oprah announced this last week that people should go check out the free download. Well a lot of people did. Did sales suffer? Nope. In fact Chris was able to graph the sales that came out of it on Amazon and it looks like it is now the #1 seller. As Chris says Oprah + Free = Blockbuster. I would agree. So what can I give away for free?

Facebook

So something happened the other day. I actually clicked on an ad inside of Facebook. The ad took me to Jack Myers dot com. Why would I post this. Well this is actually the first time I have clicked on a link and taken action. I have not purchased a product, but instead have added it to my news feeds. Today this story came across. What is interesting about this is how production has changed and also it shows how important product placement is for advertising. Give it a read it is pretty quick.

What we all should strive for!

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Our new promotional page...

So we are now on Facebook. Come check out our new page and become one of our fans.

Fear

Fear is standing in your own way.
Fear is not allowing yourself to be successful.
Fear is not willing to take the next step.
Fear is not willing to hang on for a wild ride.

I am done with fear!

Think I Posted This Before but...

I think it should be repeated. Marketing has changed and this shows how it has.

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