Videocracy Blog

I am listening to NPR, and they are talking with a guy who utilizes Twitter, and other social media sites to get the latest and up to the minute news on events and disasters…

For instance, he monitors Twitter, searching for key terms that raises his awareness level of an event.  His example was that when the bridge collapsed in Minneapolis, he saw a lot of people updating their Twitter feed with things like OMG, and he saw that phrase OMG a lot of times coming out of that area… and he was able to put 2 and 2 together and figure out that there was a bridge collapse in that area…

He’s utilizing this technology to improve fire and disaster services…

Pretty interesting.

I saw the most interesting and amusing thing while I was wandering the mall this weekend…

I noticed from a distance a kiosk set up, with a remarkably green “screen” set up…. surrounded by very high powered bright lights, and there were pieces of the same cloth strewn about this kiosk area.

I didn’t want to stop and chat with the guy (Didn’t want to be roped into what he was selling) but from a distance I could see that people stand in front of this screen, put on these pieces of cloth over their neck and shoulders and then they become a “Floating Head” – then their head is put on a “crazy” animated body… you chould be an elf or whatever options they had, and then you “dance” along with the music.

It caught my eye because how often do you see a green screen set up, with professional lighting and an editing bay right there in the mall…

Must be something new if you are too old to have your picture taken with Santa…

Here’s a great little article about the top 10 things After Effects users love, and hate about Motion…

I have experience with both programs and I like a lot of what Motion has to offer… it’s also somewhat easier to use, and less cluttered then After Effects is…  Of course I prefer Final Cut Pro to Premiere as well.

http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/motiongraphicsvizfx/story/the_top_ten_things_after_effects_users_love_and_hate_about_motion/

Thought this was interesting… Former member of the band Wilco has released a solo album under a Creative Commons license… maybe this will be a growing trend.

http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/11289

Well the economy is effecting the film market too…

I’m listening to a podcast where they are talking about the current state of the independant movie market… and how films are being picked up by distributors for a fraction of the cost due to the economy… and filmmakers aren’t able to take the deal because they aren’t going to make their money back…

So a majority of them are waiting until 2009 to try again…

And on top of that filmmakers are waiting to pitch their ideas because they know either the economy means they won’t get picked up, or they won’t get as much money…

So it’s official the economy is effecting the film market as well…

I caught this article from Rolling Stone about wha the Music Industry will look like in 5 years.

I’ve had this discussion with friends of mine, both into the music industry and not, and I thought this article is worth sharing.

My own believe is that we will clearly see a rise in digital music sales in the next few years… My friend feels that CDs will be obsolete by then, but I disagree… I think there is going to be a lot of people out there who will still enjoy the tangible qualities of the CD.  Or there are people who don’t believe in Digital Music and MP3s…

I personally am a collector of Vinyl, and I spend a majority of my money on Vinyl records… I think that as far as physical music media goes, Vinyl will stand the test of time… when the industry has completely gone digital, and CDs have gone the way of cassette tapes… I think Vinyl will be around.  For two reasons, 1) the music quality is excellent, and 2) Packaging… I think bands will spend money on creating a work of art and sell it to collectors for $50 a piece… I know I’d pay that if it’s a band I like, and the art is great.

Either way, I know I don’t write about the music industry, but I do read about it from time to time, and I thought this was an interesting article to share.

http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2008/12/03/what-will-the-music-industry-look-like-in-five-years/