I’ve just come back from a four month sojourn in Japan and China, and a pleasant side effect of this trip was a break from North American media. I say that, but I had pretty much unbroken contact with any media I decided was worth watching, I simply didn’t access it through traditional means.

Japanese television, despite its charming commercials and genuine enthusiasm for the absurd, was nothing I could watch consistently. Instead I relied on downloads and streaming media, sometimes through a VPN connection. The VPN allowed me to access American sites like hulu.com along with the UK iPlayer app, all by telling these services that I’m actually in their country of origin.

In China this solution was less effective for streaming media, because China’s internet is slooooow. But since a VPN was an absolute necessity to access Facebook, Twitter, anything hosted by WordPress and practically anything else China’s Internet censors whimsically decided wasn’t harmonious, I didn’t feel cheated.

Now that I’m back home the VPN is the cornerstone in my plan to cut cable television out of my life. Since I can watch BBC shows live or on demand, and since I’ve just discovered a pile of great documentaries and indie films on Netflix.ca, I don’t really feel any need to watch the paltry offerings available through Canadian broadcasters.

In effect, this move to on demand media is no different than my shift away from radio a few years ago. The only radio I listen to anymore is courtesy of the CBC Radio app on my iPhone. Local radio is completely irrelevant to me, supplanted by podcasts about topics ranging from the Mac to the media to video games to philosophy.

I’m an outlier. But it’s only a matter of time before more people take the same step. More and more people are perfectly comfortable with watching films on their laptop and short videos on their phones. Being in Canada may actually accelerate this process for many people, because Canadians are online more than anyone else in the world, and because our old media dinosaurs are hell-bent on keeping the public from watching anything they actually want to see and would rather fight tooth and nail for their obsolete business models. Canadians are savvy enough to work around these arbitrary restrictions, and one way or the other I’m sure we’ll see a dramatic decrease in cable subscriptions in the next few years.

In the meantime, I’ll continue to save money and enjoy great content. I don’t think I’ll miss cable in the least, and I’m betting soon others will join me in cutting the cord.

I’ve been working through various ways to create compelling internet content, and I’ve explored various options including scripted material and making elements for FInal Cut Pro so I can film, drag and drop. All off this comes from the idea of minimizing the inputs while maximizing outputs…but it would still involve a lot of work. Putting together the two Fruitygamer pilot episodes required about half a day of work for each segment, in addition to being down at E3 in the first place and filming the interviews.

That’s all well and good, and there’s no reason I can’t use that same methodology for special episodes. But if I want to create a lot of content quickly the way to do it is live and streamed. So I looked at BoinxTV as a viable option. I got Boinx when I bought one of the MacHeist offers for $40 a while back, and as the program is normally $299 I got a pretty decent bargain. But since I had no use for it at the time, Boinx sat on my computer unused, until now.

After studying the best way to create content efficiently, it seems the “Leo Laporte” model (for lack of a better term) works best. Leo records video of his podcasts, adding value by using the usual elements of live television such as lower thirds, graphics and other elements. He also streams live, allowing interaction with an audience. But while Leo spent upwards of $50,000 for his studio (which is really, really cheap, and also way more than I have at hand), I can do a small scale version of the same thing for next to nothing. I already have an older Macbook Pro, BoinxTV and an old HDV camera hooked up via Firewire. Add Skype videochat and stream to Ustream and I have a broadcast studio wherever I want to be. And I can ?strip out the audio and export it, creating both audio and video podcasts, all for next to no cost.

So in the next few weeks and months I’ll try to roll out some new shows for your enjoyment and edification. It’ll be a work in progress, but I’m confident I can pull this off pretty easily with practice and maybe even (given enough time and content) make a buck or two.

I originally wrote this article about the new Doctor Who video game for Eurogamer, but then E3 happened and by the time the annual gaming conference was finished the game had already been out for a while. So as a result, Eurogamer nicely said I could publish the article anywhere I like.

I’m lucky enough to know Phil Ford, the writer of the game and of various Doctor Who episodes (along with being the head writer of the Sarah Jane Adventures) and he was cool with being interviewed for the article, presented in full below. And if you’re arriving from Radio Free Skaro…hello! Thanks for listening ot the podcast and I hope you enjoy my site.

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One of the UK’s oldest heroes is entering a whole new world.

Doctor Who returned to the small screen in 2005, hypnotizing a whole new generation of viewers with the adventures of the Doctor and his companions as he once again hurtled through space and time vanquishing his enemies with only a keen wit and his trusty sonic screwdriver.

Though the new show soon spread to other media such as novels, toys and comics, video games were unexplored territory until the BBC announced earlier this year that they would release four “adventure games” featuring Matt Smith, the newest incarnation of the Doctor, and Karen Gillan, who plays Amy Pond, his new companion.

Both the BBC and Who show runner Steven Moffat were adamant that these games are part of the current season, not stand alone amusements. To that end, writer Phil Ford (along with fellow Who scribe James Moran) was recruited to write the Doctor’s first foray into interactive adventure.

Ford is already a Who veteran, with writing credits for the Waters of Mars special, several Torchwood scripts and and his ongoing role as head writer for the Sarah Jane Adventures. He also penned Dreamland, an animated adventure featuring David Tennant as the Doctor.

“I got involved in the video game because they asked me. Simple as that. I’d just finished working on the Dreamland animation and – I think – Waters of Mars and the question was asked if I’d be interested in taking on the games. Whether that was partly to do with my experience in writing animation – both for Doctor Who and, back in the day, Captain Scarlet – I don’t know,” Ford said.

The biggest challenge in writing the games, Ford said, was that they had to be seen as Doctor Who adventures first and foremost. Moffat and Peirs Wenger, the show’s producer, were “always determined that the stories should feel like they’re part of the TV series. That’s in fact how they are described – as a part of the TV series; it’s just that they’re being enjoyed on computers instead of TVs.”

But unlike television, where an entire 45 minutes can be devoted to drama, the game format only allows for a limited amount of time to get gamers into the story before they rightfully demand control of the main characters.

“You have around 15 – 20 minutes to do all that storytelling and set up things so that the player knows what they need to be doing in the next game. And you need to do that without it being too on-the-nose,” Ford said.

While the games hinge on interactivity and allow the player to step into the shoes of the world’s most famous time traveller, the adventure games are by no means an open-world rendition of the Whoniverse.

“The player won’t be able to take the game off into some crazy new direction, but there’s plenty of material designed to cater for most eventualities. I don’t think the player will ever find themselves sucked into a game-less, drama-less black hole,” Ford said.

The games are very much a part of the new series, but also had to exist as stand-alone episodes, due not only to scheduling of the TV series but the games themselves.

“They don’t have their own arc because it’s quite possible that someone could come along sometime after they’ve all been launched and play them in a different order – as they might watch stand-alone eps of the show on some form of download,” Ford said.

While the new medium comes with some restrictions compared to traditional narrative storytelling, it also offers a huge advantage by creating environments on a scale that simply isn’t possible on television. In the first adventure game, “City of the Daleks,” viewers will finally see Kaalann, the capital city of the Dalek Empire, instead of a dank and wobbly corridor or a disused quarry.

“We’ve been to Skaro before. But we’ve never seen it in the kind of brutal, visceral detail we do in City of the Daleks. It is just breathtaking,” Ford said.

One of the biggest quandaries facing developers of a Doctor Who game is how to deal with a main character who never uses guns or other weapons. While clever and witty solutions have pulled the Doctor out of scrapes on television for more than 40 years, gamers are used to solving problems with their trigger fingers. Ford regarded the Doctor’s avoidance of weapons as a unique and compelling aspect of the games.

“Gamers are used to blowing stuff up and blazing gunfire. The thing about the Doctor is that he’s all about negotiation, thinking things through. It was never a big issue for us, because there was no way we were going to turn the Doctor into an Uzi-toting Time Lord.”

In order to stay true to the show, both Ford and the game’s designers turned to other gameplay mechanics to convey the Doctor’s character through interaction.

“There is still a lot of action in Doctor Who – a lot of running about and hiding and that’s a common games element. And you get puzzles in games, and that’s ideal for the more cerebral side of the show. What was more of an issue for us was the sonic screwdriver! In the show the Doctor uses it to get of so many situations. That did cause us a couple of headaches,” Ford said.

“City of the Daleks” is the first of four games the BBC will release throughout the summer. Ford also penned the next game in the series, which features the Cybermen menacing an isolated Arctic research station, as well as the as yet unnamed third game in the series.

“In one go I was got to write for the Daleks, Cybermen and one of my favourite nasties of the new era. Wild horses couldn’t have dragged me away from the project,” Ford said.

Canadian broadcasters have recently have been crying wolf over how little money they make and how we have to support (terrible) local TV. But they’re facing an even bigger foe in the internet, which has progressed to the point where much of the programming they used to enjoy on their television they can now enjoy online.

I have to say that’s been my experience for a few years. I no longer listen to the radio, instead opting for a steady diet of podcasts. And I barely watch ant television anymore. I simply download the best stuff the BBC has to offer, and the rest of my video diet consists of shows people have put together on their own and put on the internet.

And for the most part, I don’t miss TV. But I am a little concerned that as viewers shift online, context and production quality will suffer. I once worked with someone who had poured their heart and soul into making the slickest possible tv show, and after years of success they saw their core audience migrating to internet shows that didn’t look anywhere near as good and were, in all fairness, not as well put together as his show. I pride myself on making video content for the web that looks as good as tv. BUt I sometimes worry that my effort is for nothing, that people’s tastes have changed to the point where they’ll watch any old crap and production value will mean nothing to them.

Right now the industry is in flux, with money leaking out of TV but not enough money going online to sustain producers. Eventually the money will shift online, but I hope that in the meantime quality content doesn’t get lost in the shuffle.

The FCC will introduce a national broadband plan tomorrow to Congress that puts the internet front and centre as the most important medium in the United States. While broadcasters will hate it, I say it’s a long-needed move. The internet has usurped so many other industries in a path of creative destruction that should be further encouraged. Power is sapping from big broadcasters to tiny producers, in media and otherwise, and I’m glad the FCC recognizes this fact. If only Canada would do the same.

They don’t make local news openers like this anymore, and I’m torn as to whether that’s a good or bad thing.

Simply put, it’s a lot smarter than American news outlets, and comes close to rivalling the BBC World Service in quality. I’ve personally found that I’m getting more and more of my news from Al Jazeera English, particularly their iPhone app, which lets me watch a live stream of the channel from anywhere I’d like, as well as using Livestation on my PC.

But don’t take my word for it, read Robert D. Kaplan’s article in the Atlantic. Kaplan not only points out that Al Jazeera English has the hustle for scoops that other international news gatherers seem to lack, they’re also a unique window into the attitudes of the developing world’s emerging middle class.

According to a new article in Silicon Valley Insider, cable is starting to feel the pinch from online video, and no wonder. With old technology, no way to get a la carte programming, and a disdain for the customer that borders on the pathological, I’m not surprised cable is hurting.

Anecdotally I’ve talked to many friends who have dropped cable for online, some of them going so far as to get rid of their televisions. I keep my TV around as a video game monitor, but it doesn’t do much past that. And with the advent of iPhone apps like Al Jazeera English, it won’t be long before I pick and choose the channels I want (in my case, mostly news) and carry them around in my pocket.

Of course, Canada is even more of a monopoly than the United States, and to date we haven’t had anything as disruptive as Hulu arrive on the scene (though it’s likely on the way.) And our cable and TV execs are if anything in more denial than their US counterparts; when I was at the Banff TV Festival a few months ago one exec said with a straight face that “We’ll be just fine, we have HD!” Yes, never mind that all it takes is a clever bit of math and the web will soon have as good or better quality video than HDTV, you just wallow in your comfortable lies, TV exec.

Long term, I think the television industry as it stands is doomed. Eventually everything will come to our televisions, computers and other devices through the internet, and those who can adapt to that new reality will survive. Those that can’t…won’t.

Battlestar Galactica and Caprica creator Ron Moore took time out of his busy schedule to talk with me (in my capacity as a reporter at the Banff TV Festival for Techvibes) about technology, AI, webisodes, and the incoming awesomeness that is Caprica. Additional questions from Kris Krug, who also took some great pictures.

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.

Cal Shumiatcher, the executive producer of the show, was good enough to answer my questions. He first explained how the idea for the show came about, and how they take the idea of a stager, who is essentially an interior designer who rapidly takes an average home and spruces it up so that its not only presentable but desirable to a buying public, and make it into dramatic, compelling television.

“Staging is the perfect confluence of design and drama.  Who knew?  But when you want to make a design show, and you want it to be dramatic, there’s no subject as compelling as staging.  These folks have to completely rework the look and feel of a home in about five days with virtually no budget and no staff.  The stagers we follow work on pure adrenalin under intense creative pressure and it makes for great TV,” he said.

Part of the process, he said, is casting homes as you would actors. The staff looks for homes that have serious design challenges and a ridiculous schedule, and then go from there to find strong character moments, such as home owners with unique needs, or realtors with a specific agenda. Though the show is a reality program, a lot more writing goes into it than you’d think.

“The ‘writing’ of our shows is really about blocking out scenes, or ‘beats’ in a dramatic fashion.  For example, let’s say we know we need a scene that sets the stakes for the home owner who has just been transferred to Calgary and needs to sell.  So we’ll write down, in note form, the points that we want to hit in this scene, and this becomes a ‘beat’.  We then ‘beat out’ our entire episode prior to shooting any tape.  Of course things change during production and you need to be able to react when the really great material starts to unfold before your eyes.  This unforeseen drama is almost always better than your original ‘script’ so you go with it. “

But Shumiatcher also pointed out that he considers Stagers less of a reality series and more of a lifestyle/docusoap hybrid, though he conceded that could be viewed as mere semantics.

But what about the gear, you ask? Well, it turns out they shoot the show on Panasonic HDX 900s, a shoulder mounted workhorse that pumps out 1080p. The production also uses Nikon stills cameras, one with a D300 body and a 12-24 DX lens and another with a D700 body and 14-24 2.8 lens. The cameras are tripod mounted to get “before” and “after” shots that match up and in order to create time-lapse dissolves. On bigger homes, the crew brings in a jib arm for “before and after” crane shots.

Editing revolves around Final Cut Server (a system I’m familiar with from my days on EP Daily.) Assistants log and load each shot and describe the location and action in a database that the story editors, directors and editors can access. I know that when I cut together a show Final Cut Server was very useful, as you could just type search terms into it and, provided everything was tagged correctly, the footage you needed would just appear. It also made for easier editing, as you were essentially cutting over a network, and all the footage sat in an array of drives in some other room, making it easier for everyone to access everything. And Shumiatcher agrees.

“This process includes lots of screening and arguing and usually takes about 3 weeks.  This cut is ‘sent’ to the broadcasters.  It’s actually just an email inviting them to log on to our approval website and view the cut – this saves time and $$ as our broadcasters are in Toronto and New York.  When we’ve all locked the show, our on line editor can simply open the sequence in high def and start the graphics and colour correction.  Having our entire system in house is really the key to a great post process – I can hardly imagine how we ever worked any other way!”

The Stagers: Season 2 airs Wednesdays on HGTV Canada at 8:30 pm ET / 10:30 pm PT, but if you’re as netcentric as I am, you’ll probably end up checking it out online.