With one producing job down, I’ve already picked up a few tricks to make things go easier for time two. Below are a few free web apps that help keep things organized (a lot were also used during documentary making). Most have a mobile option, which makes them very powerful for some on-set action.

Google Calendar

I set up a separate calendar for the production and invited all ATL members to it, though it’s most useful for the Director and Producer. Important dates go here, such as meetings, director’s prep, production dates, etc. But I would also coordinate auditions and add them to the calendar, to keep the director and I in sync.

GOOG-411

I gave this a try when I wanted to do a search for Olive Garden on my phone and the Google search page suggested their free 411 service. Since my phone was being slow, I gave it a shot, and it is amazing.

Simply call 1-800-GOOG-411. They’ll ask for the city and state, and then the business name. It will make a few HAL clicks and beeps and return a list of results. You can then have them connect you to the business, get more details, or get the details sent to your phone. Way faster and more fun than mobile internet.

National Weather Service

If you’re shooting outside, and the weather looks kind of nasty, you need to know if a storm is coming and how long it should last. Just search on the National Weather Service’s site for your area and get all the forecasts you need. But it gets better.

Add the local phone number to your phone. Then when you’re on set, just give them a call and they’ll gladly give you their best guess on what type of weather you can expect and for how long with their real-time screens. The site also has a mobile link, but I haven’t given that a try yet.

Jott

Jott turns your phone into a hands-free command center. Once it’s set up, just dial the number and speak. You can send yourself notes, send out a text message, create a Google Calendar event, create a task with RTM, and much more with many other services. I have a habit of mumbling, but Jott does a pretty good job at transcribing what I say.

Google Docs

Another useful tool. This is a good place for the ATL to keep notes on different parts of the film - casting, production design, locations, etc.

Remember the Milk

Still my favorite task manager. I know you can share tasks, but I didn’t try to get the crew using GTD.

Online professional independent publishers rejoyce! 2008 promises to be a year of great innovation for everyone publishing online as opportunities to expand or start your own micro publishing company will only increase. New powerful publishing and content distribution tools will make their debut in 2008 while some of the existing technologies and services will greatly refine, consolidate and expand their present offerings. Change is the name of the game, meaning that in as much as you can't follow, participate and understand fully the logic of today's web, the changes search engines are going through, the rise of social media, it is going to be increasingly hard for new publishers to successfully enter and survive in this extended marketplace. As opportunities and tools to do better as an online publisher will dramatically increase, also the number of independent web publishers failing will skyrocket due to many having come late to the game and not having really understood fully how things are changing. This is why as we progress it becomes increasingly critical to leverage pivotal business opportunities situated not exclusively in the creation and re-distribution of fresh news and information but rather more in the direction of aggregating, contextualizing, explaining and "making-sense" of all this information effectively. For however this may appear simple and obvious to the non-expert mind, these are truly the crucial innovation areas in which I expect to see major innovations and changes coming next: Making sense of things in new highly effective, interactive, just-in-time, informal and entertaining formats. Isn't that promise of the Semantic web anyhow? So, what has 2008 in store for you? Here's in a two-part summary report, check out at a glance, what I see ahead:

2008 Media Predictions - Part 1

Here below the areas that I believe you should pay most attention to in the upcoming 12 months. I expect these areas to be very live with announcements and useful innovation. Since there are over twenty personal publishing-related areas I personally follow I am structuring these predictions in two parts. Eleven areas today and the rest tomorrow, January 1st inside my Part 2 of these New Media Predictions 2008.

• Social Networks

  The number of social networks will keep increasing though only few will consolidate as key social hubs worth investing serious time into. MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, you know the names, though new ones will keep showing up. For many of you, joining these networks will mean maintaining one profile on a major social network among those above along with a presence in one specialized niche social/business network in the specific areas / industries you are most interested into. Especially for those just starting up or wanting to gain an extra visibility edge in a reduced time, social networks may indeed offer a viable short-term solution. One of the key revolutionary advances in social networking tools of 2008 will be the ability for you to update all of your multiple social profiles across different networks from one interface (lifestreaming).This is something many have been waiting for as the implications, efficiencies and opportunities this creates are rather impressive. See the next point for more detail.




• Lifestreaming

  Lifestreaming offers you a single solution for gathering and publishing to all of your various online identities from a single social media space. Let's say you use Twitter for short messages to friends, Flickr for photo-sharing, YouTube for uploading video, Google Reader for your RSS feeds, del.icio.us for social bookmarking, and on and on. Sooner or later you might start suffering from social networking fatigue, dreading the prospect of signing into these various accounts to check up on or produce content. Add to this the ability to create various profiles for friends, work, and even lovers, depending on what you want to share with each of them, and you have not only a powerful aggregation and authoring tool but also an excellent way to control what you share with your different online social media contacts.




• Search

  Search will continue to be one of the critical pivot points around which we find, discover and access specific information online. But search engines are changing and deeply so. Starting with Google all of the major search engines will continue to adopt new algorithms and technical solutions that take into larger account user views and preferences especially when these come from a trusted group of selected friends. Greater availability of simple to use solutions that will allow you to create and customize your own public search engine(s) will further grow while becoming more integrated with advertising and sponsorship tools. Widget-based search will also gain more traction as online publishers will start to create mini-custom-search boxes focused to specific issues as an integrated content inside their most valuable articles. PageRank: if you haven't yet realized does not have any more significant value and your level of visibility inside Google search engine result pages is not connected to it anymore.




• Live Blogging

  Live blogging is a fast-growing trend as more and more web reporters cover live events and demand specialized tools to support them in this challenging task. In 2008 I expect to see more tools and services appearing in this space and a stronger adoption of dedicated live reporting tools versus "adapted" live blogging solutions like chat rooms, blogs and social conversation tools like twitter and jaiku.




• Web video - Net TV

  Web television channels, net tv and other independent web-based television offerings will keep growing in number and quality also during 2008 with interesting innovations and changes to be expected. On the front of content production you should expect to see lots of failures and super-hyped shows that will last only a limited time before folding. Watch out for the unique traits that pioneer web tv producers will use in creating some of the first successful net tv shows. On the front of web-casting platforms some of the few existing players will consolidate their position or get bought up while some others will fold. There will also be some unexpected big new entries in this space that will solidly redefine the profile of an independent web television channel. The best of Mogulus and Ustream will come together in a package that offers greater ease of use, better quality, and much greater reliability.




• Newsmastering

  What's this Robin? I know most of you haven't heard this word before but this is definitely something you have seen the results of in front of your eyes without realizing it. Newsmastering, at least in my own definition, is the art of aggregating and splicing together a large number of source news feeds, persistent searches and other information sources from which one manually selects, edits and publishes a curated digest with a specific editorial style or focus. With the continuous increase in the amount of news sources and content being published daily there is no escape from having to rely on some intermediary and trusted news filterers or to succumb in an ocean of feeds that take hours to skim through. This is where newsmastering plays a key vital role among the online news publishers of all kinds as well as among those that are always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to provide a greater service to the readers while creating a new effective opportunity for sponsorship/ monetization. Since there are still very few tools covering this area I do expect new entries in this arena and a positive growth for the few players that will innovate and market themselves intelligently in the coming months.




• Online Advertising

  As in most of the areas I analyze here, while I am not an insider in any, my position of online publisher and external observer allows me at times to notice things that may not be so obvious and evident to those working in my same direction. As a web publisher I see an increase in advertising and monetization opportunities becoming available. New solutions will offer more controls and features to test and optimize, sometimes in real-time, your ad selections. Services acting as intermediaries for major advertising networks will increase in number and quality of service and are going to be ready for adoption by many small and medium-sized online publishers.




• Google AdSense

  Google AdSense will likely gain further in quality and revenue while losing many online publishers discouraged by its lack of transparency and open policies when it comes to penalizing sites, or establishing ethical rules that Google itself does not respect, or having to deal with a rapidly losing value of the dollar which significantly impacts non-US based AdSense publishers. In fact I expect many small online publishers to move away from AdSense and to invest larger amounts of time and resources in alternative monetization and advertising solutions. This may likely be a win-win evolutionary step for both sides, as Google AdSense may be able to strengthen its weak points while relying on a more selective network of sites and small publishers may find unexpected monetization nirvana in directions they had not even considered until now.




• Entertainment Meets Education

  Sounds like something I have heard before. The news here is that just-in-time, informal learning and connectivism are all getting together and providing smart online independent publishers with a first killer set of tools that will allow many to gain much greater success and revenue than contextual advertising ever did. What do I mean? Awareness and some rare examples are appearing showcasing the huge value and vast demand that there is from professionals wanting to learn and keeping themselves updated in new, enticing ways. No-body wants to read another 220-page book to learn something. On the other hand many enjoy watching short video tutorials, listening to interesting podcasts, reading through link-rich and well-illustrated article-guides or better yet by discussing the matter with other interested individuals, as all these approaches offer multiple and redundant ways to understand something from a number of different perspectives and learning styles. It is in this direction that talented communicators, established online publishers and niche experts will move next to further capitalize their knowledge assets.




• Google and SEO

  Whether you like it or not Google has given a very strong shake to the minimum requirements necessary to independently host a web site without incurring in any of its severe penalizations. This makes it next to impossible for non-expert webmasters to maintain control of their web sites reach and visibility within Google search results as the amount of know-how and technical expertise required is not anymore in anyone's reach as it used to be until mid-2007. This will force online publishers to become more knowledgeable and aware of lots of things ethical, editorial and technical they have been ignoring until now. There will be an evident increase in those seeking to publish their content via "trusted" platforms which are already integrated within a larger system. Content publishing networks such as Mochila or Blogburst, Squidoo, Google Knol and similar solutions may provide to be initial solutions to this trend. The overall result should be a general and sharp increase in the overall quality level of content and information web sites that will leave behind the neophyte phase of hippy blogging to those who are indeed there exclusively for the sheer passion of sharing their personal stories, to extend and broaden the personal publishing panorama with a more varied spectrum of highly focused and well-planned online content publishing solutions.




• Presentation Tools

  After one explosive year of new web-based presentation tools and services you have seen nothing yet of what it is to come in this direction. The metaphor adopted is so far is the one of replicating while simplifying the existing PowerPoint presentation paradigm. Unfortunately the PowerPoint approach loses water from all sides and it is also a bad foundation approach for those needing to develop better visual communication skills. But a small army of new cross-media presentation tools is coming to serve you in 2008. Not only will you be able to easily sync and match your selected slides to music and narration in an online slideshow, but you will start to get better tools to put together truly engaging visual presentations. For those who have seen Animoto or Splashcast and have already gotten very excited, let me tell you you haven't seen anything yet.

end of Part 1 - Part 2 tomorrow
Originally written by Robin Good for Master New Media and first published on December 31st 2007 as "New Media Predictions 2008: What Online Independent Publishers Should Expect From The Future - Part 1"
Photo credits: Kirsty Pargeter Marcin Balcerzak Emsago

If you are on the lookout for some new useful tools that can help you better manage your distributed virtual room or your vacationing class of students, here is Master New Media new weekly set of cool online collaboration tools that you may have recently missed on their launch date and that Nico Canali De Rossi has carefully hand-picked and summary-reviewed for you. Photo credit: Daniel Gilbey - edited by Robin Good This week online collaboration technologies selection includes these eight tools:

1. Beam It Up: Compress your music, pictures or videos, and share them with a text message
2. ScreenStream: Free downloadable software allows you to show your screen to other people
3. Ulteo: Run OpenOffice online, and share your editing sessions in real time with anyone
4. Centericq: Text mode multi-protocol instant messenger connects you to major IM services through a simple interface
5. Easy Message: Smallest downloadable multi-protocol IM client allows you to connect to the major IM networks
6. Mindomo: Online mind-mapping tool lets you create and share mind-maps with your team
7. SmartSheet: Online task manager and spreadsheet editor allows you to collaborate with your colleagues
8. Wippien: Multi-protocol instant messenger with VPN enables you to chat and collaborate with your friends

Here the details:

1. Beam It Up Beam It Up is a free online service that you can use to compress files and send them on any mobile phone. It is really fast and easy to use: just select a file to upload(music, pictures, videos or docs), choose the compression settings, type the mobile number, and a download link will be automatically sent to that number via SMS text message so that your friend can pick the file up. Free to use, no registration needed. http://beam-it-up-scotty.com/


2. ScreenStream ScreenStream is a free downloadable software that lets others 'watch' your screen on their computers. After you have downloaded the small application and started the sharing session, you just have to give people a link that they will have to paste into their browser without installing anything. They can continue to watch your screen until turn off screen sharing. Free to use. http://www.nchsoftware.com/screen/index.html


3. Ulteo Ulteo is a web-based tool that lets you run OpenOffice 2.3 online. You can manage all of your documents online in various formats(OpenDocument, Microsoft, and PDF...), up to 1GB per account, and collaborate with people: all you need is a web-browser with Javascript and Sun Java Runtime 1.4+. OpenOffice sessions can be shared with anyone. Free to use, registration needed. http://www.ulteo.com/


4. Centericq Centericq is a text mode multi-protocol IM client that supports the ICQ, Yahoo!, AIM, IRC, MSN, Gadu-Gadu and Jabber protocols. Despite its old-style light interface, it fully supports all of the other clients' features, such as text-chat, file transfer, contact list groups, group chats, invisible mode, and more. Completely free, it is available for download and runs on Windows, Mac and Linux. http://thekonst.net/en/centericq


5. Easy Message Easy Message is the smallest downloadable instant messenger, just 240 kb, that allows users to chat on multiple instant messaging networks from one place, supporting MSN, AOL, ICQ and Yahoo. Its main features are file transfer, group chat and mail notification. It is completely free and you can download it here. http://www.easymessage.net/


6. Mindomo Mindomo is an online mind-mapping tool that you can use to create and share mind-maps with any PC and browser. Mindomo free version lets you store up to 7 maps and invite as many people as you want to see and edit them. You can also check out other versions. http://www.mindomo.com/


7. SmartSheet SmartSheet is a web-based spreadsheet editor that lets you create and share spreadsheets with your team mates. With the free plan you can create and share up to five spreadsheets, with an unlimited number of people. You can use it for free or check the advanced plans. http://www.smartsheet.com/


8. Wippien Wippien is a full featured instant messaging client that supports the major chat protocols, including AIM, MSN, Yahoo!, GTalk, Jabber, and ICQ. The unique feature of Wippien is that it has a VPN (Virtual Private Network) baked right in and can be used to manipulate your online buddies' network shares, printers, desktop, and more. Free to download http://wippien.com

Originally written and prepared by Nico Canali De Rossi for Master New Media

January is going to be a busy month for me. As I said before, three films are down, four to go. These four are all ATL jobs, and are every Friday-Saturday for the next four weeks when school starts up again on the 7th.

Week 1 - Director of Photography

This is a sci-fi period film, taking place in the 50s about a spaceship that crashes into a barn and a young boy is the only one that believes they’re good. The script has gone through a variety of location changes.

First it was interior, barn, night. Mysterious and dramatic. We have to shoot during the day, so we would have blacked out the outside of the barn to fake night inside.

Production team had some trouble finding a barn, so it switched to night, exterior, in a field - meaning it would be shot day for night, something I hate. And the director knows that.

I was able to convince the director to keep searching for a barn, and they finally found one. The only problem is the sides are open, so now it’s day, interior, which I kind of like.

When the director gives his story pitch to people that ask about it, they generally say, “Oh, like ET.” I think that by doing the movie in the day time, it will at least visually make the film different and break from the typical “aliens only crash at night” business.

Week 2 - Producing - The Return

This film is about a hostage situation in a dystopian future. One location, which makes life easy.

My main job with this is to get futuristic looking army vehicles. And the director doesn’t want to pay a lot for food, something I might have to talk to him about in the near future.

Week 3 - Production Design

Plain and simple, this film is about a guy that swallows a seed before his wedding and turns into a tree.

I just had a 20 minute conversation with the director about the science of metamorphosing from a human to a tree. Does he just become a straight-up tree with a suit? Or is he more of a hybrid tree-human, like an Ent?

I’m really looking forward to designing this film, it should be a lot of fun.

Week 4 - Direct

My movie. It’s about a guy that sells his soul for the corner office. I’ll probably, or at least try, to keep detailed updates, since I know the most about what goes into making this movie.

Since I’m last, and have been working on other people’s projects, not a lot is done with mine. I still need actors and locations, and just about everything else.

In looking at past posts, I realized I never laid out what exactly an F3 is, the project that has and will be taking my attention and life for the next few months.

The F stands for Filmmaking. The F1 was our little digital short, the F2 the half day film exercise, and now the F3. Here’s a basic rundown:

• 6 Page Script
• 6:30 Minute Runtime plus 1 for Credits
• 2 Production Days of 12 hours plus 1 for lunch
• 2 Hours Overtime
• 1600 ft of film (about 44 minutes)

We have a full crew composing of first and second years. (1 is a first year position, 2 second year. Bold is what the Film School considers ATL)

• Director (2)
• Producer (2)
  
• Director of Photography (2)
  
• Production Designer (2)
  
• First Assistant Director (2)
  
• Second Assistant Director (1)
• Script Supervisor (1)
• First Assistant Camera (2)
• Second Assistant Camera (1)
• Key Grip (1)
• Gaffer (2)
• Best Boy Grip/Electric (1)
• Sound Mixer (2)
• Boom Operator (1)

For me, it’s three sets down, four to go.

Did you know the latest version of Photoshop CS 3 allows you to import full motion video? 

Photoshop is a must have application for any video editor.  Photoshop CS 3 now includes a video timeline with the ability to do basic video editing.  Don't get me wrong, you'll still need your favorite non linear editing system such as Final Cut Pro or Avid to the majority of your video editing.

However, this means you can use Photoshop's extensive array of tools to perform color correction, and rotoscoping.  You can also use Photoshop's filter gallery to apply filters directly to a video file.

Other features of Photoshop CS3 extended include the ability to import 3D models.

 

 

 

 

 

This may be old news to some of you, but it was news to me: You can burn HD-DVDs (not Blu-Ray) on a Mac using a standard DVD burner, Final Cut Pro, Compressor, and DVD Studio Pro. I tried it last night. It works.

The limitations?

- Standard single-layer DVD media storage limits mean that you’re limited to burning shorter projects (under 60 min).
- The article states you can’t play these on an HD-DVD player. I don’t have an HD-DVD player, so I haven’t verified this. You can, however, play them on a Mac.

Hooking up my MacBook Pro to a television and screening the DVD played flawlessly. And it looked a lot better than a standard definition DVD.

The trade-off? As anyone who’s done it before can tell you, encoding a project to H.264 takes a long, long time.

by Digital Camcorder News

Tapeless camcorders have become a hot ticket item and Sony is never far behind the trends. The HDR-CX7 nearly oozes ease-of-use, with few buttons or input/output jacks in sight. Sony’s first Memory Stick camcorder is definitely a looker, but will it deliver?

Quick Tour
The back of the camcorder is simple, with the power/mode switch and the record button being the only two buttons available. I really liked the recessed battery compartment, which, even with a high-capacity battery, keeps the camcorder looking slim and trim. Pull back the flaps next to the battery and you have your Mini HDMI, A/V output, and charging jack.

It should be noted that, because the battery is not fully enclosed, Sony gives you the option of using a high-capacity battery. Some manufacturers are manufacturing camcorders with enclosed battery compartments, which makes them look cleaner, but also makes it impossible for a larger battery to fit.

The LCD screen dominates the left side of the HDR-CX7, but when open (which it will be all the time since the HDR-CX7 doesn’t have a viewfinder) you have access to the main array of buttons on the camcorder. These include the back light, display button, index button, play button, easy mode, and the Nightshot switch. Also hidden underneath the LCD screen is the Memory Stick PRO Duo slot, just barely accessible when the camcorder is on a tripod.


Video Quality
Video quality on the Sony HDR-CX7 looks really, really good. The 1/2.9? CMOS sensor, which all of Sony’s top HD camcorders use, really does the trick. Colors are saturated just a little, but not overly so. Sony definitely hit a nice color balance.

The image is sharp, and the average camcorder user will be very happy with its performance. The prosumer may be able to nitpick and find something to complain about if they compare it to, say, the Sony HDR-HC7 HDV camcorder, but, overall, in the tapeless, memory-card camcorder market, this is the best I have seen.

Sony also seems to have solved much of the problem of motion artifacting. This occurs when there is a lot of movement in a scene, and AVCHD camcorders have been notorious to this point for creating a sort of motion trail look, which seriously degrades the image. Though there was just a little bit of artifacting apparent on the HDR-CX7, I had to specifically look for it to find it.

Low-light performance was decent, and should not disappoint the point-and-shoot market for which Sony has manufactured the CX7. In situations withlow light levels, the HDR-CX7 produced a fair amount of grain.


Touch and Feel
Sony’s touch-screen menu system is not loved by all, but over the past few generations of camcorders they have evolved it into a menu system that is much better than it was previously. Point-and-shoot users will appreciate the fact that there are not that many options that you have to stress over. More advanced users will wonder where some of the manual settings have disappeared to.

The target market for the Sony HDR-CX7 is definitely point-and-shoot, but it would have been nice to see a few more manual controls. However, you do get a few things like spot focus, spot meter, white balance, and a very basic exposure setting to play around with and satisfy your controlling side.

If you still feel overwhelmed by the sparse menu options you can also elect to press the "Easy" button. This puts the CX7 into an idiot-proof mode that completely automates everything. Grandma will thank you for this.

Recorded footage can be played back right away on the camcorder by hitting the play button (who would have thought?) on the side of the camcorder or on the lower left of the LCD screen. Up comes a screen with thumbnails of the scenes you have recorded. Tap a thumbnail and your selected scene begins playing immediately.

Sony does not include a Mini HDMI cable with the Sony HDR-CX7, which is a bit of a letdown for those who want to utilize their snazzy new home theater systems. They do include the component cable, but there is no component output on the camcorder itself.


Conclusion
The Sony HDR-CX7 was really fun to use, and produces great quality images. I would highly recommend it for the point-and-shoot user who wants a small, compact camcorder that records to flash memory. If you are a more advanced user, make sure you are OK with only a sparse offering of manual controls.

Whether you are shooting a birthday party, family events, vacations, or just horsing around, the Sony HDR-CX7’s small size and great quality will serve you well if you can front the cash.


Finally
Pros: Small and lightweight. Easy to use. Great image quality.
Cons: No viewfinder. OIS not effective enough. Spartan manual controls.

Gels are useful, but pricey. Any budget-minded filmmaker should take good care of them. Here’s a helpful post from David Tames at Kino-Eye that details some simple ways to organize your gels so that they last longer.