Archive for the ‘video’ Category

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011

Freyburg.tv presents an interview with Standard Action

by Warren

Standard Action is a fantasy web series shot in Vancouver, British Columbia. The show follows the misadventures of a quartet of Dungeons and Dragons-esque characters as they travel through a mythical land fraught with danger…and laughs!

Freyburg.tv was able to interview, Joanna Gaskell and Rob Hunt, two members of the creative team behind Standard Action, at the annual Vcon science fiction convention held in October in Vancouver.

Monday, October 3rd, 2011

VCON web series panel

by Warren

I spent my Sunday talking to web series creators attending VCON, Vancouver’s renowned scifi convention. The convention is 36 years old, but like most sci fi types they’re always excited about new ideas like web series, especially since this new medium gives creators a chance to make science fiction and fantasy stories for a new and quite devoted audience. I recorded the panel, which I’ve included in this post, and I also interviewed a few creators on camera, so expect to see some segments going up over the next couple of weeks.

I’m also using this as a sort of testing ground for a new web show idea I’ve been kicking around. I’d like to experiment and come up with my own show dealing with movies, web series, tech, gadgets and other nerdy stuff, so I’ll probably be putting up lots of different bits and pieces before the show coalesces into its final form.

For now, enjoy the panel, and let me know if you want to hear and see more about web series, local and otherwise.

And if you’re interested in the shows that participated on the panel, check out:

Standard Action
Border Guardians of Akernon
Glitch
Mind My Brains, Darling
Causality

Sunday, September 18th, 2011

Moonsplosion!

by Warren

Just something I whipped up in Maya and Premiere to teach myself how to shatter 3d objects. You’ll not the complete disregard on the part of the moon for the laws of physics.

Wednesday, July 6th, 2011

Final Cut Pro no more

by Warren

I’ve used Final Cut Pro for almost a decade. Last week, I stopped.

Like many people who make their living with Apple’s iconic video editing program, I was first shocked and then disappointed with Final Cut Pro X, Apple’s audacious move to bring more semi-prosumers into it’s fold.

Many pros complained about a number of problems with FCP X, not the least of which is the inability to import old Final Cut Pro 7 files into the new program. You also can’t spit out to tape very easily (not a big deal for me) or export to ProTools (ditto).

But even though a lot of high-end pro concerns don’t affect me, I’m with them on two other topics. The new, single-viewer interface owes a lot to iMovie, and to me that’s a non-starter. I could just be stuck in my ways, as I’ve edited both linear and non-linear video since the mid-90s, but I think the new interface is terrible. It does allow for a few things to get done faster, like putting together a-roll in an interview, but it feels imprecise and amateur.

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Sunday, December 5th, 2010

future video plans for Freyburg.com

by Warren

You may have noticed over the past few weeks that things have taken a turn towards video (specifically FruityGamer) on Freyburg.com. The reason for that is twofold. Most of the links and quick thoughts I used to jot on the site have moved to Twitter, where it’s easier to carry on an online conversation and I can quickly and efficiently fire off thoughts and whimsy. The second reason is that I’m becoming more focused on video generally, and I’d like to showcase that on the site as well as make it a compliment to Freyburg Media.

The end result is that you’ll probably see less updates but richer content on this site once I start ramping up the video production. I’ve wrapped my head around BoinxTV so it’s pretty easy to create “live switched” content fairly regularly. I’m also looking at creating regular segments involving me mocking some aspect of pop culture, media or the internet, though it’ll take me a while to come up with the segment structure and a decent workflow.

Besides that, I’m also trying to ramp up my After Effects knowledge and wrap my head around some other higher-end creation tools, so expect to see some experiments in that regard in the next few months as well. And of course I’ll continue to showcase the work projects I’m tackling on Freyburg Media.

Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010

FruityGamer: Behind the Scenes

by Warren

Precisely none of you may be wondering how we make FruityGamer here at Freyburg Media. Well, I’m here to tell you the thinking, process and methodology I used. My methods and tools may differ from what’s available to you, but you’ll at least get a general idea as to how to pull of your own video podcasts.

When myself and my business partner made “This is Yaletown” we did so thinking the internet would soon push up its production values to the levels of television, and that we’d better be ahead of the curve. But in fact this has not proven to be the case. People watch internet shows for many reasons, but slick production values (to a point) doesn’t seem to be a necessary part of the equation.

I figured that given my experience creating Radio Free Skaro there was no reason I couldn’t create similar podcasts on video and in audio form, and do so in such a way that they’re quick and easy to make.

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Wednesday, August 4th, 2010

The Tiger: Author Video

by Warren

Recently I was contacted by StudioNow to create an author video for Random House about “The Tiger,” a new book by Vancouver author John Vaillant. It’s an interesting story about a poacher, a Russian game warden/badass and a very smart, very deadly tiger, and the violent maelstrom all three find themselves in while pursuing their own goals. Check out the video below.

Tuesday, July 6th, 2010

Announcing Fruitygamer

by Warren


When I started Freyburg Media, I wanted to create videos for clients that brought TV-level quality to web video. I’ve been lucky enough to accomplish that with a couple of different projects including working with The South Granville Business Improvement Association on a number of videos. But while I love doing work for clients, I like creating original programming even more, and I think that’s where the future of online media is headed.

To that end, I spent the last couple of weeks trying to figure out how to create niche websites targeting things I’m interested in and could blog about regularly. But what I found is that while I’m perfectly comfortable zipping around FInal Cut and creating a video, all the attendant WordPress setup, ad network crafting and other bits and pieces of “making money from a website” drives me mental. It also occurred to me that while many people can and have created websites in order to bring in income, significantly less do so with video and audio (Leo Laporte and a few others spring to mind) because of the much higher barrier to entry.

Fruitygamer is my first effort to create a niche program for an online audience. Mac gaming is finally coming into its own, and the iPhone and iPad are becoming portable gaming platforms rivalling Nintendo’s dominant handhelds. It makes sense to target that audience, I think.

In the next few weeks and months I’ll be rolling out more programming, but for now enjoy the two episodes of Fruitygamer from E3. I’m looking forward to putting out more content soon.

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010

TechCrunch TV debuts

by Warren

TechCrunch is a great resource for tech rumours and breaking news on startups and new tech trends. It’s also a continual soap opera run by Michael Arrington, a mercurial provocateur with an eye for scoops and a skill for controversy.

Now Techcrunch has joined TWIT TV, This Week In and others and is moving to live streaming shows over the net with Techcrunch TV. If you have the resources to create professional looking programs from a studio, livestreaming is a great alternative to post-produced programs, because you can archive shows as you go and quickly build a huge library of content. Of course that sort of approach demands a big crew, multiple hosts and a large wallet to pay the bandwidth bills…none of which is accessible to small producers such as myself.

But in a larger sense it’s a very interesting shift towards niche audiences and away from mainstream, lowest common denominator fare. Tech Crunch is aimed at a very specific and very influential audience, and their move towards what amounts to a cable TV station is indicative of how far the medium has come in not only changing the way people watch video to stay informed, but how easy it is to create what amounts to a television station. The barriers to entry keep falling, and what requires a small business (after all Tech Crunch isn’t NBC) today will be doable on your phone tomorrow.

Here’s a sample of TechCrunch TV for your perusal:

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010

new Mac | Life article out now

by Warren

Yep, my new article on Mac and iPhone/iPad security is live at Mac | Life. There’s more stuff in the pipeline, tech and gaming related, for different outlets, and I’ll let all you wonderful people know about it as soon as they’re a) written and b) posted. 🙂

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