Salon: Can bells and whistles save the book?
“What matters is not the story on the page — or the screen — but the story in your head. Interactive baubles pull a reader’s attention back to the screen, serving as a reminder of the thing you want to go on forgetting: the fact that all of this is just made up, words on a page. Some enhanced e-book publishers have cottoned onto this problem and as a result they’ve moved away from inserting video or clickable illustrations into their books, and in new directions.” And yet ... the newer generations absorb information and ‘story’ in fundamentally different ways, don’t they? They live with multitasking and distraction and construct coherent narratives. I like this article, but can’t completely buy into it.
LA Review of Books: True Story.
The mythology of film school. “With each passing year, a new and ever-growing horde of students arrives, checkbooks at the ready, poised to live out the Steve Boman dream. But film school is not a dream or a myth; it is a school, a place to learn the nuts and bolts of shooting a movie. If you are looking for anything more than that, buyers beware.” All the best folks I worked with, learned by doing ... working in the industry. Starting at the bottom and pushing upwards.
Macworld: Final Cut Pro X 10.0.3 restores professional features; adds notable new ones.
Sounds like FCP is back ... but will editors stay faithful, when Apple broke faith? I’ll have to put feelers out among my video pro friends to find out.
Another Something & Company: The Inaugural Sartorialist Lunch.
The video’s very nicely done. Thanks to a tag at the end, I find these folks did it. They’ve got good shooters and good people in post, IMHO. They’re a breath of fresh air in fashion vids, I have to tell you. Great to see some proper vid-chops.
NY Times: Debt-Ridden Greece Turns to Sacred Sites for Help.
“The Acropolis is not a film set, it’s the soul of Greece; this is sacrilege.” I don’t see a problem, except for one detail - film crews are notoriously bad about taking care of the venues they’re working in. I’d dedicate an officer (or two) to watching everyone on-location - or empowering tourists to report indiscretions. Otherwise you’ll have clamp-marks on the columns, gaffer tape all over the ruins.
Rob Galbraith DPI: Rode announces VideoMic HD with built-in recorder, audio monitoring.
Very welcome. DSLR audio, in a word, stinks. This will help immensely.
Youtube: Airplane Tail Grab with the Werth Brothers.
Look how close to the ground that tail gets at around 0.16 seconds. Pant-wetting time in the cockpit, I’d expect.
Guardian.UK: Should theatre leave more to the imagination?
My benchmark for stage sets came early. At the University of Houston, when I was 16. My sister took me to “Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “The Tempest”, done in an outdoor theatre composed of a semicircular platform with steps on each end. Costumes were worn. The dialogue and the acting, the evening’s dark carried the whole thing.
Video and digital are nice, but they split audience attention from the actors. One must be subtle and tasteful.
Bartholomäus Traubeck: Years.
A record player that translates year-rings into piano notes and chords. Dischordantly and dramatically hypnotizing.
The Luminous Landscape: NEX-7 Video.
End of the rolling review, chock full of good tips.
ars technica: Why the video pros are moving away from Apple.
I’m putting my apples into Premiere’s basket (and After Effects’ basket) at the moment.
The Luminous Landscape: 4K Future.
“The most successful photographers these days are ones who can deliver whatever media the client asks for, and increasingly motion as well as stills are demanded. The cost of production is so high these days that a separate shoot (sets, crew, lighting) for stills and motion is simply impractical and unnecessarily expensive.” And if you’ve seen the videos most pro still photographers are churning out ... my God, they’re awful. Huge market for those (like myself) who have a video background. Lynda.com, here I come.
NY Daily News: Paris museum enraged after lingerie models prance through gallery.
If I’d been the museum director, I’d have yawned and said, “The young ladies are not quite up to our usual standards, so we’ll overlook in the incident.”
Vimeo: A Year of Sun with Mr. Persol.
Dang. I want to be Mr Persol. For reals.
Vimeo: The Future Belongs to the Curious.
Indeed. And well-done.
Vimeo: Fotoshop by Adobé.
I’m at least a day behind on this one. I love to tell photo subjects (particularly male ones, which gets a laugh) “I can make you look like Angelina Jolie, if you’d like.” This video pretty much shows why that statement is true.
Vimeo: WHY - Nikon D4 Release Video.
Everyone’s oohing-and-aaaahing over the D4’s video. Looks like typical DSLR video to my eyeballs. Read through the comments to see why it’s choppy in places. Post-production, kids. Get it right in the camera, but also make sure your post is bulletproof.
Around the world in 5 minutes.
Tasteologie: Videos, making Christmas Ginger Jam Sponge Cake.
VML: What’s Worth Sharing.
Vimeo: ink+paper.
Wither letterpress printing and fine papers?
Youtube: Singing Christmas Hedgehogs.
Delightful use of branching Youtube videos. Enjoy!
Vimeo: ORANGE - Noël.
Cute. And, *ouch*.
Vimeo: Impossible Present.
Vimeo: The Year Without Summer.
Emblematic of what’s going on in fashion photography. Photographers who have cameras with video capabilities are feeling the pressure to move into video, not appreciating that it is an entirely different medium than stills ... and models (who are *not* actresses) are being forced to act. Makes for long hours in post. Bit and pieces show promise, however. Keep plugging, kid.
