Try My Product

Steve Weiss from Zacuto said it plainly and simply: "You need to make something great" and "It needs to be tied to products". Yes. Put your best artistic visions towards exposing the benefits of a product, you can actually make a living and we'll actually watch the commercials. As long as there are only 4 of them per hour.

A Series of Significant Events - PART I

I mistakenly made a comment to someone that there should be a running chronology of events that account for how creative content - its creation, its creators, and its delivery to the masses - is rapidly changing. That person called me out and said, "What events do you mean?"

Assuming we start just 8 months ago...

I think I meant:

1. Stu Maschwitz' blog Prolost- Not really an event but as a resource it is significant. Stu brings a concise view on filmmaking, tools used in production, and insights that are being taken seriously by manufacturers and content producers alike. Like no other single Blogsite, Prolost is the definitive champion of do-it-yourself filmmaking... Stu is setting trends.

2. Sept, 2008 - Vincent Laforet shoots a "test" with a new Canon 5D MarkII - Marking the beginning of a shift in target markets that continues to ripple thru the major players product lines, and truly begins to redefine what is "filming/photography".

3. Nov. 2008 - RED Camera changes the game with announcements of an entirely new, modular cinema camera system AND open aknowledgement that they need to rethink their "entry level" camera systems - DSLR video catching on. RED Cameras being used more and more in digital productions.

4. NAB 2009 - Nothing shocking announced. But what was very interesting was the turn of events shortly afterward as freelance Director of Photography Philip Bloom takes Panasonic's new GH1 DLSR/24P Video camera on the road. He travels to a ghost town in Nevada, Austin TX, Kauai, and more shooting beautiful footage and reporting back to an anxious mass huddled around their computer screens. It seems he was one of only two professional DP's holding a GH1 in North America (Hunter Richards being the other), providing some of the best info and most anticipation for a new product since the 5dMKII - possibly more.

5. Spring 2009 - Neil BlomKamp's sci-fi epic District 9 is the culmination of years of tinkering around with consumer video cameras, picked up by Peter Jackson for a theatrical release. Alongside that, the most ambitious and well produced fan film, "The Hunt for Gollum", is released for FREE viewing. Both films show how good "no-budget" productions can be, using inexpensive cameras and a lot of effort. Avant Garde Director Steven Soderbergh releases his film, "The Girlfriend Experience" for online viewing 3 weeks before theatre release. Filmmaking - Its appreciation and its creation have never been so accessible.

Something Cool

Is it me or does the world seem to be spinning faster? I find my self casually hiring a Visual Effects TD in Rome like he was my next door neighbor (More on that later). I can be sitting around one minute... and shooting some misc event that becomes part of an effects shot for TV the next. You start your day with an agenda which quickly collapses into a frantic eavesdropping/scavenger hunt on Twitter to understand what new cool shoot or project someone else is doing from their desktop computer at home. Information and especially , collaboration, is getting to be a very fluid exercise- A death trap for for someone who may or may not have Adult ADD and a compulsion to create something cool.
Something Cool? What is that? I think what I mean is something to watch that is very short in length, available to anyone, VERY compelling, and sparks further collaboration. And guess what? Something cool is being created every day. Accidents and morbid, anonymous curiosities found on the _____tubes' of the world these are NOT. There are at least 57 VERY creative people turning nothing into something nearly every day and posting it on the web for tens of thousands to admire.
Being creative and productive are not epiphanies. But as technology quietly doubled over a few times in the last 3 years or so, and the world's economy sunk into the shadows, I believe we started to become more connected. In the creative world, we share more similarities than differences, and everyone seemed to be in the same boat... waiting to see what would happen next. Billionaires can talk candidly with a teenager about a common interest in cameras. The little guy has been empowered by people that have been there and done that and who now want them to try and do the same. Software tools have grown up and been beta tested by millions. If you need to ask someone a question, only now does it feel incredibly easy to ask - and there are many qualified people available to answer.
In my morning online stumblings (now a ritual), I came across some cool samples of visual effects work, just the sort of effects work we needed to be handled at the time. We knew that all that was needed was a fast internet connection and a workstation, the location of the individual doing the work did not matter whatsoever. It was only a few weeks later that I realized how cool it was to hire someone I never met (and yet to even speak to) half way around the world. You see, I Google Earthed his house.... and walked down his street (photobubble Streetview) while IM'ing him. I looked thru the window of a cafe across the street from his house, asked him if the pastries were good there. He said, " Oh yes! They are good... you should visit sometime?" I said "I am".
That's cool.

Barriers are falling

When you look back at what sparked major changes in an industry, more often than not the actual shift was barely perceived as it was happening. But this time around, as I write this, events are unfolding so quickly that it is hard to miss that a major shift in the way we receive and create media is happening right now. Slightly buried in all the NAB 2009 impromptu video blogs was an on camera realization/confirmation by a Da Vinci rep that RED Camera is the new standard for filmmaking. Savvy DSLR camera manufacturer reps are getting prototypes into the hands of talented DP's and letting them blog their cameras into fame (or failure). Millions of viewers now prefer watching their favorite content via an internet connected device in the now standard (4) 15 sec commercial per hour format. Barriers to entry are getting low enough that a very large amount of new content providers may enter the market very soon.

There are a few key reasons this is happening:

1. Innovation (RED camera) has sparked competition, which has added filmmaking features to their competitors low cost cameras.

2. Web based video and delivery mechanisms have started to mature and flourish.

3. The once young kids that cut their teeth using and creating all of the software tools needed to make a digital film are now older, wiser, and ready to do something different - Mark my words, these people may well be the most creatively talented workforce for the next 30 years.

4. We are probably near or at the bottom of a global economic downturn, which, as history has proven, leads to an explosion of innovation and creativity.

Get ready. Here we come.