Scott Kirsner: Inventing the Movies

In this video I interview journalist and author Scott Kirsner about his new book, Inventing the Movies: The Epic Battle between Innovation and the Status Quo in Hollywood. The interview covers an example from the book and takeaways for innovators in any field. Scott blogs about the movie industry and technology at Cinematech, which is among my favorite blogs.

 Play Video (7:53, Flash Video)

Note: if a video player does not appear in your browser when you click the play button, visit the blip.tv video page to see the video.

Archival Image Credits: Kinetoscope Parlor, Publicity or news photograph of San Francisco Kinetoscope parlor, ca. 1894–95, British Film Institute; Publicity photograph of man using Edison Kinetophone, ca. 1895; Serpentine Dance (1895), produced by the Edison Co., part of the Open Source Movies collection; Thomas Edison, half-length portrait, facing left and looking down into glass, experimenting in his laboratory, United States Library of Congress; The Edison Home Kinetoscope, 1914, Thomas A. Edison, Inc.; Advertising photo, Net#Work BBDO, South Africa, Graeme Jenner, Julian Watt (Creative Directors), photo by Brian Gibbs, 2007, copyright material used under industry best practices guidelines for fair use; iPod video en la palma de mi mano by Pedro Aznar, 2005, copyright material released under the terms of a creative commons license; Viewing iPod by Michael.M, copyright material released under the terms of a creative commons license; Half Nelson audience at IFFB, courtesy of Adam Roffman, Independent Film Festival of Boston, copyright material used with permission; Pixar Lobby by Elia Diodati, 2007, copyright material released under the terms of a creative commons license; Technicolor Camera, Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History, Photographic History Collection.

New Media Expo 2008 Discussion

To wrap up New Media Expo 2008, I sat down with Steve Woolf (Epic Fu), Zadi Diaz (Epic Fu), Steve Garfield (SteveGarfield.com), and Walt Ribeiro (Ustream.TV), here’s the unedited conversation. Recorded on Saturday, August 16, 2008. We discussed topics such as what was best about the show, issues as the big-players enter the space, and Net Neutrality.

 Play Video (19:01, Flash Video, note: if a video player does not appear in your browser, visit the blip.tv video page to see the video.

Special thanks to Steve Garfield for providing me with the video he shot with his Nokia N95. I had originally planned this to be an audio interview, but when Steve Garfield gave me his video of the discussion, it became a video. When I combined his video and my audio, I was impressed that the audio sync drifted less that a frame from start to end. Many of the little cameras drift a lot (like my Canon TX1). The N95 is an impressive little camera.

Slava Rubin of IndieGoGo at New Media Expo

I met Slava Rubin, co-founder, chief of strategy and marketing of IndieGoGo back at Making Media Now 2008 and was pleased to catch up with him again at New Media Expo in Las Vegas. IndieGoGo is an online social marketplace connecting filmmakers and fans to make independent film happen. Here’s a short video interview with him. Shot with my little TX1 for extra noisy video goodness.

 Play Video

In the video Slava mentions Mark Gill’s statement, “The Sky is Falling,” see the article Gill wrote, Yes, The Sky Really Is Falling, which appeared on June 22, 2008 in for IndieWIRE. At the Los Angeles Film Festival’s Financing Conference, Mark Gill, CEO of The Film Department (and former President of Miramax Films) declared provocatively, “Yes, The Sky Really Is Falling.” He detailed many challenges currently facing independent film. Here’s a quote from the article: “If you want to survive in this brutal climate, you’re going to have to work a lot harder, be a lot smarter, know a lot more, move a lot faster, sell a lot better, pay attention to the data, be a little nicer (ok, a lot nicer), trust your gut, read everything and never, ever give up. If you’re looking for a cool lifestyle, you’re in the wrong business. If you want work-life balance, go get a government job. But if you really want to make movies–even after all the unvarnished bad news I’ve dumped on you today–then by all means do it.”

Theme music by Colin Owens.

Philip Hodgetts of Open Television Network at New Media Expo

I spoke with Philip Hodgetts at the New Media Expo in Las Vegas and asked him about his new venture, the Open Television Network which I blogged about several weeks ago.

 Play Video

Music by Colin Owens.

coBRANDiT at the North American International Auto Show

There’s a change in the wind and I was impressed how GM invited a variety of bloggers to attend the press days of the 2008 North American International Auto Show. I was there shooting video and conducting interviews for coBRANDiT. Owen Mack also shot video. Ryan Eichler of Weber Shandwick did a magnificent job helping me find bloggers and GM execs for the interviews.

coBRANDit put together this widget of the videos they produced. Most of the videos were edited by Jessse Buckley and Owen Mack, I edited the “Intro” and “E85″ stories. The pieces are examples of minimalist run-and-gun production, but more importantly, they are examples how “tiny media” can cover an event from a different perspective.

Comparison of Camera vs. Boom Microphone

Here’s a quick comparison I did of recording dialog with an MKH60 Shotgun Microphone mounted on a camera vs. mounted on a boom.

Click To Play

Kino Flo DIVA and Kobold 400W HMI PAR

Here’s a little video I made with Steve Garfield to demonstrate the use of daylight balanced lighting in an outdoor interview situation, using the lighting to help create a better balance between subject and background. The instruments used in the video are the Kobold 400W HMI PAR and the Kino Flo DIVA 400.
Read more

The Smile Boston Project (Trailer)

The Smile Boston Project is a 20 minute documentary that I recently completed. The film will premiere at the 16th Woods Hole Film Festival on Saturday, August 4th at 5:00 P.M. (screens with Justice Louis D. Brandeis: The People’s Attorney). The film follows artist Bren Bataclan through the first three years of his Smile Boston Project in which he leaves paintings in public places for people to find with a note that says, 'this painting is yours to keep if you promise to smile at random people more often.'

Click to Play

Walk to 32-155 (video)

A walk through the MIT Stata Center to room 32-155 (video).

Click To Play Video

Read more

Do production values matter?

We had an interesting discussion at the last Boston Media Makers meeting on the topic “Do Production Values Matter?” We set aside 30 minutes for the discussion, and a lively discussion ensued that went on for over an hour. Here’s a little video excerpt from the discussion:

Read more

Next Page »