WWDC and E3 on the same day means a ton of news about Lion, iOS5, the mysterious iCloud and plenty of semi-related but mostly just cool console news. LIsten as Warren, Todd and Chip wax eloquent about clouds, Kinect and a whole lot more!
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.
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.
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.
E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, is the biggest industry celebration of video games on the planet, and I’m currently in the thick of it. I’ve never been to E3 before, and the sheer amount of games and gaming related content is a little overwhelming.
I was able to attend both the EA and the Sony press conferences, and seeing them on streaming video (as I’ve done in previous years) is nothing compared to being there on the broadcast riser watching thousands of game fans go nuts as new titles are announced. Though I don’t own a PS3 and I’m not much of a Sony cheerleader, even I got a little excited when Gabe Newell of Valve walked out onto the stage and announced Portal 2 for the PS3. 3D gaming seems to be the big thing this year, with showcase games like Killzone and Crysis 2 both being shown in 3D. I personally think it’s a bit of a gimmick and I’m not willing to part with $2,500 for a new 3D TV, but time will tell. Nintendo probably has the right idea with a small, relatively cheap 3D system that doesn’t require glasses.
The show floor is pretty crazy, with a million nerds million around gawk-eyed at the spectacle while booth babes saunter past and actors drenched in sweat labor under costumes based on whatever new game is being touted.
One thing I’ve noticed is that there are a lot of video cameras at this conference, and not just the usual media suspects. Many, many websites have quite decent rigs (equal to or better than my own fairly expensive beast) which says to me that either a lot of rich kids have a very cool hobby or there’s actual money to be made in the business of covering gaming, even for the little guy. I certainly hope that’s the case, at any rate.
