The only blog you’ll ever need.
Occasionally, an unused idea for a location or shot will be called into service for another production — a tracking shot of the New York skyline, say — but the ones that are temporally dependent like construction sites fritter away slowly on the vine. We hope that somewhere, in that great location graveyard in the sky, all the shot ideas that never quite made it onto film or tape loop endlessly to their heart’s content.
I made a “utility” movie to compare the quality of a bunch of video sites. It’s a 31 second movie that I have uploaded to a few sites. You can take a look for yourself and judge what’s best for you and your work.
It’s 31 seconds and focuses on clarity, colors, synch (obviously, only up to 30 secs) and legibility. The original was created at 640 x 480 (sq. pix), 29.97 with no compression, non-interlaced. I uploaded the original uncompressed and let the sites do any and all compression and resizing.
If you want more details, let me know. (original file, zipped up here) Also, any other sites or suggestions… let me know. So far, most of these sites do a better job than I expected!
YouTube:
blip.tv
Motionbox Crackle
Hey! The ACLU made a cousin to the doomsday clock. It’s a countdown to when you have zero privacy.
You can count most of the videos on youtube and the pix on flickr as contributing to our surveillance society. It also occured to me that a lot of the emails you are currently sending will probably turn up in public sometime in the future. Maybe your grandkids will sue to get the rights to them or maybe an investigation of a corporation or ISP will make them public. Remember when they posted the Enron emails (FERC site)?
6 minutes to midnight. Don’t be late.
Raafi’s Hummer Hydrogen spot has piqued industry interest, including some from the Agency Spy.
Richard Branson’s Virgin America airline has come out of the gate as THE plane for Generation Y & Z. Not only does it have crucial features like Plugs and USB, it also has fun features like interseat IM. But what struck me most were the drawings in their Safety Instructions. Note the scruffy gent and white belted, midriffing lady. Note the baggy pants. With these images, Virgin welcomes the 18-34 set and their zillions of dollars. And it even reaches future customers, 14 year-olds traveling with Mom and Dad can now see themselves in this heretofore ignored document. 
Everybody knows the content game is where it’s at these days. The big guys, the little guys… heck, Desedo Films. So it’s nice to see Bill Murray deadpanning his way through his cameo in a moxie-produced internet-only short film. Of course Funny or Die is no ordinary internet video portal given its founders. (Love the name, hate the website, btw). Still, none of that was a factor in the snuffled laughter heard emanating from locus-Raafman a few minutes ago. Writing still counts, and spot-on performances. Them’s the facts.
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The deeper questions: streams, ad revenue, portability across platforms… oh and that significant step up in production value from where these guys started out … it looks like a few poeple are guessing that those things will shake themselves out over time. I think I’ll have a glass of milk now.
link via arc90.
Having been in NY on 9/11, I gain an irregular perspective when at Ground Zero.
On Sunday I had the privilege of shooting inside 7 World Trade Center, from which I could look down onto the changing site. I was reminded that the place and the event act as the center for entire points of view, from which much of our culture is remade.
