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.
Haven’t given you an update on my professional work in a while, so here’s a sampler of what Freyburg Media has been up to:
The always-excellent Mashable has posted a list of eight companies who are leading the charge to online television. They profile everything from Hulu (not available in Canada, and despite Rogers lame attempts, we have no equivalent) to online networks like Revision3 and Next New Networks.
Personally, I think we’ll see an accelerated move towards online video and longer-form content in the next year. Of course I have a dog in this fight, but the writing is on the wall for broadcast, just like it was for print and radio.
Vancouver music legend Chris Peterson sat down for a chinwag with EVP host Jonny Vancouver to talk about his music, the internet’s effect on the music industry, and how he manages to work on multiple projects while keeping a day job. Shot with the JVC GY-HM100U, cut in Final Cut Studio, and graded with Magic Bullet Suite.
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.
In a word, self-employment. I’ve been really busy and haven’t had a lot of time to post anything. I’m also trying to refocus the site towards video and video production, rather than the catch-all approach I’ve taken before. That’s mostly due to the fact that I’ve started Freyburg Media (www.freyburgmedia.com), my own video production company. So there may be a little less posting for the next couple of weeks, but rest assured I’ll not only try to find cool stuff to write about but also post videos I’ve produced that are more fun and less business-related.