Freyburg

Andrew Marr, host of the excellent Start the Week and former political editor for the BBC doesn’t like bloggers. While I see his point about abusive, nonsensical and and angry commenters, his outright dismissal of new media as a legitimate medium is laughable at best.

More to the point, it’s the typical elitist broadcasting reaction to a democratized media world. The playing field, while still imperfect, is much more level than ever before, and traditional broadcasters do not like the fact that they now face competition from all corners. Some of that competition is indeed “pimply, aggressive and single” but that’s always been true. The larger point is that the self-appointed position of cultural curator has been snatched from the hands of broadcasters and put into the hands of the people. It might not be pretty, but it’s reality, and no amount of bitching from upper-class talking heads will change that.

Having worked in broadcasting myself, I completely welcome this change. Broadcasting has its role and will continue to provide a valuable service, but it’s long past time we were able to create our own content, express our own opinions, and transmit our own shows. The expansion of mobile into every corner of our lives will only accelerate the process. And if Andrew Marr doesn’t like it, tough.

When I worked at Superchannel in the mid-90’s, I pined for the day when cheap hardware and software would allow anyone to start up their own television station, free from the restrictions of both the CRTC and TV execs who continually aimed straight down the middle at the lowest common denominator. THere weren’t any shows that seemed to address what I was interested in, and no way to use my talents to cover interesting niche topics because there simply wasn’t a venue for that kind of content. Remember, this is before Youtube, when Realplayer was as good as it got for online video (ie. terrible.)

But there was one exception to this rule, a show produced in Vancouver called the Electric Playground, made for gamers by gamers, and at the time the only media in the mainstream that treated gamers with respect instead of derision. At the time I vowed that one day I would work for the show….and against all odds, one day I actually did just that.

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I was contacted out of the blue a little while ago about a show called The Stagers on HGTV. The powers-that-be had read Freyburg.com (yes, I was as surprised as you are), and asked me if I’d be interested in posting something about the show. Being the gearhead that I am, I wanted to know what kind of cameras and editing equipment were used on a reality show, what the workflow is for cutting this sort of program, and how one goes about writing a reality series. You might say “but Freyburg? This isn’t your usual Watchmen/Apple/Obama rant!” and you’d be right. But I figure it doesn’t hurt to find out how a show I normally wouldn’t know anything about gets made, if for no other reason than the fact that it shows how any show can get made, and certain aspects of production can be adapted to more DV Rebel pursuits.

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Here’s the demo reel for my video production company, Freyburg Media. Just a sampler of the stuff I’ve worked on and the skills I can bring to a corporate video, podcast, or broadcast television segment.

Freyburg Media 2008 Demo Reel from Warren Frey on Vimeo.

So I’ve been busy for the past couple of months with my day job, working as a writer and editor for EP Daily, the new, daily version of the long-beloved Electric Playground.Basically, I get to make stories about video games, sci-fi movies and TV, and comics, all of which makes me extremely happy. Here’s a taste of the show, which you can see on G4TechTV…