Videocracy Blog

I watched the Scobleshow today, and they spoke with a guy who’s working with advances in photography, and the newest buzz, is developing cameras that won’t need a flash…furthermore they discussed a thing called computational photography…it basically means pictures that cannot be reproduced without the use of a computer.

In some of the examples  he is showing a highly, highly detailed image of crayons, and when blown up close, instead of tightly packed pixels…it consists of very tiny “discs” to me what it looked like a lightbrite…

This uses a micro lens that record each separate light coming into the camera into its own pixel as opposed to several light sources coming in and is then recorded into one pixel.

What really caught my attention is that the camera takes such high quality photos, that one of th examples they showed was a photograph where the autofocus captured something in the background, as opposed to the object in the  foreground, and because of the high amounts of detail captured by this camera, in post…you are able to shift the focus back to the foreground, and still maintain this striking detail….

It’s becoming increasingly possible to never leave your house…I remember as a kid watching AOL commercials, showing how you can order a pizza or your groceries from your home computer…I remember thinking, “Wow, you don’t have to go anywhere…”

Today, that is becoming increasingly obvious, especially when it comes to movies.  The price of a movie ticket is increasing…and things like Netflix are becoming more and more popular.  Not to mention the increase in pirated movies, will inevitably be driving movie tickets down…maybe.

I just read about a new device called the Vudu…it’s a set top box (to add to your other set top boxes already…DVD, VCR, Tivo….et al).  This device plugs into your ethernet connection and has the ability to rent or purchase from over 5,000 movie selections…in some of the new releases and past titles.  This device gives you the ability to either buy or rent movies.

This seems like an interesting concept, but again…you lose that experience of going to a movie theatre, or even owning a DVD or Video.  This is something that I’ve questioned for some time now, with the days of iPod, and now Vudu…which is like the iPod for your home theatre.  Don’t people want to own a tangible object?  Yes, I have more MP3s then I do CDs, but I also collect Vinyl Records, because I love that tangible, physical presence that it has.  I also own over 200 DVDs for the same reason.  I never download movies…I buy or rent them.

Yes it is nice that you will have the ability to get any movie you can think of, delivered right to your television in a matter of seconds.  And this type of thing is great for renting, but I would never get it to buy movies…I fear that we are seeing the end of the movie theatre experience…just as people stopped going to drive ins, I forsee people will stop going to the movies as well….and then furthermore they will stop going to concerts.  We are going to become a reclusive society, who’s only means of social interaction is by playing “Second Life.”

I just read about an interesting camera that works with GPS technology, it’s made by Ricoh.  I had no idea something like this exists, but when you take a photograph, it imprints the Longitude and Latitude of where the image was taken right into the picture.

This is interesting for people who would have  a use for something like that…but it’s cool to know it exists.

Whats the most interesting is, if I am taking a picture of the Chopin monument in Poland, it will give me the longitude and latitude of the monument, and on a map I can pinpoint exactly where it is located…

I had a really great conversation about Apple yesterday…of course this conversation comes up quite often, it usually starts with whether you are an Apple user or a PC user…? Well, personally I’m on the fence, at work here I use a Mac (love it!) and at home I use a PC, but what I use at home is more important, because that computer is mine, I chose it.  That computer now is 5 years old, and it’s coming to the end of it’s life, and it is going to get to a point where it will be time to decide what I want to buy next…and it might be a Mac.

On a smaller level, we have the discussion of MP3 players…these devices have gained popularity in the last 5 years..and just like Band-Aids and Kleenex, the generic branded term for an MP3 player is an iPod…people looking into getting one for the first time, will use the term iPod, although upon further research they might require something else….or find a better deal.

I have done my research, and I have played with other devices, and I still think the best bet is the original iPod…it’s sturdy, stylish and dependable…mine is going on 2 years now, I have never even had a cell phone that has lasted that long.

Apple is still the leading seller of portable music players, and they are taking great strides and advances towards making them better and better.  A few months back they released the iPod Touch, their newest and most innovative iPod to date…of course it has it’s drawbacks…first of all being price.  In my opinion if I am going to replace my 30 gig iPod, I’m not going to upgrade to the iPod Touch, I’m going to upgrade to the new 160 gig iPod….because it is still more affordable then the iPod Touch. And on top of that, most people I talk to who are avid Apple lovers…say that they would never get a 1st generation iPod anything…too many kinks to work out.

The other biggest drawback besides the price is that you basically have a simplified iPhone, the iPhone came out before the touch, and it has basically the same capabilities and features as the iPhone, however it doesn’t have a camera or a phone.  I read an article where a guy compared and reviewed both, and he said that the iPhone is the better choice over the touch just because it comes with a camera and the phone capabilities… Now I’m not going to get into my opinions of the iPhone, I think it’s cool…however, I’m on Verizon so I won’t be getting it.

Going beyond the iPhone, iPods and the like…the other reason I would take the iPod over any other portable music device, is it’s a universal player.  Meaning it will work on any computer device (with some exceptions of course)…But as long as a person has iTunes on their computer, the iPod will work.  This is leaps and bounds better then the Dell Jukebox I once owned, in which you had to install their explorer to get it to work…

Getting back to iTunes…I think Apple has a great piece of software, before I had iTunes I never organized my music I played everything through Windows Media Player, but I never set up or organized WMP for my music, it was just clunky and ugly…and I hated it…iTunes is becoming the music player of choice…not to mention its a good portal for downloading music at a low cost.

This entry was not meant to be a way to glorify Apple, it’s not…Apple has it’s good points and bad points…but it was more or less a reaction to the conversation I had yesterday.

Last night we had a special guest in the studio, we invited Blues Guitarist and Harmonica player Steve Cohen to be in Episode #10 of our Wisconsin Business Owner Interview series…it was a lot of fun, We started with the interview portion, it was a pretty interesting interview because he wasn’t a business owner primarily, primarily he is a musician….although I find the business owner interviews to be interesting, I find this one to be particularly interesting, hearing the life of a musician was a pretty interesting thing…and the life of a pretty well known one too…

After we were finished with the interview, Steve did a live set for us…pretty basic set up, just an amp and a mic…and I had the opportunity to practice recording live music…I listened to it this morning, and I have to say the audio quality was pretty good…of course with the sound board it records onto two tracks, so when I work with it, I will be able to mix the audio a little more.

It was a great time, and a great interview…next week some time I will get a chance to begin editing it…it will be interesting.

Oh, and also we used the black backdrop for the first time…and I think it turned out well.

I read an article about a new show where the editors of, I believe Newspapers are put in control of talking about the recent headlines.  The objective was to do a news show each day, and the editors were put in charge of writing, directing, shooting and editing their entire show…the article says they were even given green screens to put in their office so that they can insert images behind them.

The  idea is that with all the editors they have, they would end up with a 30 minute news show.

A pretty neat idea  really…unfortunately, I couldn’t get any of the videos to work…then I looked at it closer, and they haven’t put a video up since August 2006…oh well, I’m sure it was a great show while it was on.

So another year has come and gone, and Sunday marked the last day of the 2007 Milwaukee International Film Festival.  2006 went by so fast, I only had a chance to go to one showing, I went to the Midnight Madness Show, which is a number of different short films.  I remember having a good time, but I regretted not being able to see more movies.  It was worth it mind you, because I got into this show for free, I won the tickets off of my favorite radio station 91.7 WMSE.   Well this was great but I wanted to do more…

2007 comes around and I get a hold of the book and I decide I’m going to take advantage of this years festival.   I purchased a 6 pack of tickets, plus 1 additional tickets…the movies I picked range from everywhere around the world, to locally…here is the list of movies I saw in the order I saw them (or didn’t see them…)

1.DarkBlueAlmostBlack

2.Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams

3.The Pool

4.I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With

5.The Yacubian Building

6.Murch

7.The Super Noble Brothers

Just to pick a few out, I enjoyed film number 4, Jeff Garlin (Curb Your Enthusiasm) directs and acts in a sad sack comedy about a guy who can’t catch a break. film number 3, was directed by a Milwaukee Filmmaker, Chris Smith (American Movie).  This film was by far my favorite, it took place in India about a boy who becomes obsessed with a swimming pool.  Film number 5 was by far the most challenging, it was Egyptian, and it wasn’t until the next day that I realized exactly what this film was about….but it had a great storyline to it, it wasn’t my favorite…but it was worth seeing (all 3 1/2 hours).

I ended the festival seeing the Super Noble Brothers, this film was a documentary done by a guy I know and have worked with.  And I wanted to go support him.

All an in all I had a great time at the festival, and I am looking forward to next year.

Two additional things that I had a chance to see were two lectures concerning filmmaking, and filmmaking in Wisconsin…I’ll save those for another blog entry.

How soon to 2008?