Here’s a rather interesting concept: an air powered motorbike.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8WkBaiEHc4&feature=player_embedded
Although it makes one wonder, is it safe? Remember the old stories of the Pinto (was it the Pinto?) that exploded upon the unfortunate rear impact? It is a brave and novel concept. Minus the possible explosion, I’d really like one!
I’m at VidExpo in Denver less than one week after being at BlogWorld. The feel and pulse is definitely different here, as the once exclusive world of broadcast video is shifting, as new technologies supplant the old, and the methods of reaching an audience have shifted. Just last month, in September 2009, more money was spent on internet advertising than on broadcast TV (within the UK).
As an independent filmmaker, I’m very interested in the delivery of information to audiences. Last year at this time, I toured the country (17,000 miles in my car) with a film by booking a nationwide tour and taking the film to audiences. I realize the advantages of having a strong web presence in order to help promote a film project, but I think that the documentary format, in and of itself, can be successful - just on the internet. I’ve come upon this realization because I had a lot of time to think as I was driving around the country, and indeed, touring is somewhat inefficient. There are, however, pros and cons with it. It does build audience, and has great audience interaction built into it, but as I drove hours and hours in my car, I realized that the process was somewhat inefficient. (Although perhaps the human interaction is what is more valuable in building and retaining audience. Hmmm. Debatable. Interesting.)
Nonetheless, the world of image distribution has moved quickly, and has shifted. Oddly enough, objects that I once drooled over, like a broadcast quality video camera shooting format, I now think is almost passe - as I take video with my flip camcorder, take out the usb connection, and connect the thing straight to my computer, then have an image online within minutes. (I say almost passe, because I still love crisp, clear, precise video and audio acquisition, but realize that the speed and ease of image acquisition sometimes can be more practical and seductive, while both types of technologies are able to stimulate and reach audiences.) Different formats have different values within different situations.
As an independent, I want to tell a story, and I’m starting to realize that the tools to be able to tell a persuasive, enthralling story, don’t need to have its acquisition on the highest end, most expensive format. There is a short list of things that are needed. (Passion in do what you do, is also a necessary, given ingredient.) Other tools are: software, having a portable digitally based editing station, (I like online tools and probably use picnik for photo editing more than anything else right now) must be able to travel well, acquire sharp footage, and clean audio with minimal cleaning. I’m currently fascinated with video editing software that is able to edit quickly, with fast output. Something has changed or shifted. It’s shifting… maybe I’m changing. Something is changing.
Ahh, yes. I’m in Las Vegas for BlogWorld. The feel here is one that is at the cutting edge of the Wild West of the internet. There is a nice, slightly geeky, yet creative buzz in the air; that people have the ability to create, report on and engage using audio, video and words.
Blog World, Las Vegas 2009
I’m trying get a feel for the pulse of where documentary filmmaking can go. It think that the ability to engage audiences and the traditional form of screening within a theater is changing for the independent. Where is it going? As I stated, I’m trying to get a feel for it. (I’m talking about going beyond youtube and comments, DVDs and screening on various surfaces, moving more toward continual audience interaction – and action within a documentary type – topic format.)
Word Camp was fabulous and was one of my more favorite parts of Blog World. I loved Word Camp because of my continuing relationship and fascination with code. Code development moves quickly, is constantly being built upon and plugged into as new aps are constantly being built. It’s lovely. My other favorite part was seeing and learning about new technology on the exhibit floor. There is something definitely different (and way more fun) about meeting people and talking to them directly about new technologies rather than finding them on the internet. We are still human beings, and the interaction is valuable.
Here are some technologies (that were new to me) that I found to be really, really cool.
Techsmith is a company operating out of Lansing, Michigan that makes a whole suite of different creative manipulation software.
Jing allows the ability to modify pictures by adding font, shapes, and is a great tool in our image laden world. I’m going to get started using it to explain different passive – active solar systems that are tied to the grid. (I’m fascinated by building passive solar buildings and am creating a website to share information at greenpassivesolar.com. It’s currently under construction on MAMP.) They also create camtasia, a screen and audio recording software. I’ve watched all the tutorials and am playing with it to see what it can do. (While I was at VidExpo in Colorado, I did a quick demo with a new mic that Sennheiser was coming out with – that records data within the microphone, which then is transferred or downloaded onto a computer, which we then pulled into camtasia to edit and compare quality. The audio with the Sennheiser was warmer and potentially delivered much cleaner, while the recorder on the mac pulled surprisingly good audio into the timeline as well.)
Another thing that I’m interested in following is redlasso.com although, while I’ve created an account, I haven’t been able to log in yet, so this little section is based on what their people told me. It is a video – what to call it? – snagging place that allows bloggers to embed recently broadcasted news video. Bloggers can create exactly the clip that they want to embed, in relatively good quality, then can embed that specific clip into his or her blog or website. Redlasso.com currently captures only two weeks of recent content across a variety of broadcast media outlets, and if someone has created a clip from the content, redlasso preserves that digital content on their servers. Otherwise, they only archive up to two weeks of content. The interesting thing is that they have already been through the lawsuit process (because the broadcast media outlets weren’t exactly sure what to do with them – do they serve them a cease and desist? Would that instead hurt the broadcasters? Is this internet tie into the blogging world actually better for broadcasters? Etc…..) and thus, redlasso has entered into a symbiotic relationship with the broadcasters and now actually provide an internet service for the broadcasters. Since it has been over three months, and I still have not received any login information, and since after recently checking out their website, it appears that they don’t have that much use. Maybe it is all happening internally in the RedLasso world, but here’s a screen shot off of their front page where you can see that a handful – only one or two views have been logged. What is going on with RedLasso?
I do think woopra.com, a live web analytics company is also something that I want to learn more about. They just came out of beta, stopped their free accounts, then decided to restart it, so you too can check it out. Before embedding, I want to learn more about it. I’ll play, and you can too. Let me know what you find, and I’ll do the same.