M dot Strange made a really weird animated film called “We Are the Strange” which, frankly, I didn’t much care for. But enough people dug the film that he was able to completely bypass Hollywood and sell DVDs of his film online thanks to a substantial presence on YouTube, and at a recent conference in Berlin he explained his experiences and what he’s learned about the Internet and the film industry.
Yes, it’s not all nerdery and Doctor Who round these parts (though mostly, it is). I recently shot and cut a video for the Opus Hotel, one of the tonier establishments in Vancouver, all about their “On the List” party featuring DJ Stonebridge. Check it out at the Opus website.
Electro group Justice created an awesome video that consists of nothing but faux 70’s and 80’s production company logos comprised of the lyrics of the song. Eye-poppingly cool.
Narrowly avoiding the technical snafus of last week, the RFS crew rose to the occasion and produced an hour of witty banter, insults and of course the eagerly awaited pub rumours that were so cruelly stolen from our audience last week by the vagaries of Skype. Besides covering the latest Torchwood (which aired last week on BBC 2 and this week on BBC 3 and two years previous on stone tablets and oh I give up already…) we talked about the latest news, along with the usual digressions and nonsense we’ve become so very famous for.Â
While we did our VideoBlogging 101 presentation at Northern Voice today, Jordan shot some “almost live” video on his hard-drive camcorder to show the audience how easy it is to publish video to the web. Behold!
Besides all the other stuff I’m doing, I’m also going to be co-presenting a “VideoBlogging 101” session at Northern Voice, Vancouver’s annual blogging conference. Roland Tanglao, Jordan Behan and myself will walk attendees though the basics of videoblogging, from shooting stuff on your cell phone and streaming it to the net to basic video making techniques, getting your video onto the net and my section on how to effectively prepare and plan for your shoot, as well as a bit of an overview of higher-end tools. You can also make suggestions on our wiki prior to the event.
Roland has also posted on his blog about the event, and put up a video of our recent meeting that he shot on his Nokia N95.
I don’t often put work related stuff on the blog, but I figured it’s probably a good idea to show what I’ve been up to for the last little while. First, here’s a promo I cut together for Chow Restaurant (through Industryblender.com):
Second, I’m continuing to do video work for Urban Mixer TV:
And third, I just started Monday at a new full-time gig as the Tech Content Producer at “The Lab with Leo“, a technology show that airs on CityTV and Tech TV here in Canada. I’ll be finding guests, creating segments, reviewing gadgets, and appearing alongside Leo Laporte as one of his co-hosts. The shooting schedule is structured in such a way that you won’t see any on-air appearances from me for a couple of months yet, but stay on the lookout for your favorite bald, Doctor Who loving nerd.
update: Here’s an excerpt from the show, also starring Kris Krug, Vancouver tech renaissance man.
The BBC threw us a nice softball by releasing a “cinema-exclusive” season 4 trailer on February 1st, which someone promptly uploaded to Youtube. The RFS crew took much delight in analyzing and dissecting this tasty morsel, speculating wildly on what are likely innocuous shots of no real relevance. We also discussed the newest episode of Torchwood, hashed over Russell T Davies declaration that he keeps fans at arm’s length, and of course went our trademark off-topic ramblings as per usual. (feed, web, direct download)
According to a recent article in Slate, movies appearing at the Sundance film festival by and large don’t get pirated, and instead wallow in obscurity. The author’s contention is that pirates only pay attention to big releases, but I think it may have more to do with the fact that the average Sundance filmmaker probably isn’t tech-savvy enough to get their film onto torrent sites in the first place. After all, 90 percent of the films at Sundance and other film festivals go on to virtually no distribution, so why not at least try to get some eyeballs on all that hard work?
