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Saturday, April 29, 2006

Rocketboom, Fireant and Hipcast


Check out this interview, with Nick Barber from Boston University, where I talk about Rocketboom, Fireant and Hipcast.

Podcast Academy at Boston University | Interview with Steve Garfield:
"Steve Garfield, Podcast Academy instructor, is interviewed by Nick Barber. Download the podcast. (Length: 4:24; Size: 26.1MB)"

Videoblogging community


Videoblogging community by stevegarfield, uploaded from flickr.

My favorite Powerpoint slide from my presentation at Podcast Academy, BU, April 29, 2006.

links for 2006-04-29

My Sample

Here we are at BU.

Rocketboom Video Search


Rocketboom Video Search just went live.

Try it out. It uses Podzinger technology to search the audio.

100 MPG BMW


City runabout claims 100 miles to the gallon.

Whoa! There's a video. Watch a cartoon version of the car take turns...

Video Podcasting Links

Here are the links from my presentation at Podcast Academy 4/29/2006.



Steve Garfield's Video Blog
My First Videoblog Post - 1/1/2004
Rocketboom - Daily Videoblog News Show
Carol and Steve Show - 2006
HipCast - Audio and Video Hosting
My Mom's Blog
DriveTime - Video blog from a car
Four Eyed Monsters - Independent Movie Vlog
Josh Leo - Personal Stories
It's JerryTime!
Vlog Soup - Free Tour of the video blogosphere

Finding Videos
Directories
Video Hosts
Trusted Filters
Videoblogging info at Squidoo

FireAnt - Aggregator and Directory

Feedburner - Adding RSS to you blog

Some Hosting Options
blip.tv
vimeo
YouTube
Brightcove
OurMedia
Hipcast
vBlog Central

Community
Yahoo Videoblogging Group
Node 101
Boston Media Makers
Videoblogging Videoconferences

SteveGarfield.com

Podcast Academy Live Stream

You can watch a live stream of Podcast Academy today.

Info here:
http://www.bu.edu/com/podcast/

Link to stream on right side of page:
http://www.bu.edu/com/

Direct Link - Real Media Stream - Audio/video:
http://realserver.bu.edu:8080/ramgen/encoder/podacad.rm

Stream requires RealPalyer, If you need it, go to http://www.real.com/ and click on RealPlayer - Free.

The schedule:
Saturday, April 29 All time EST:

9-9:45 a.m. Podcasting and Public Radio
(Jake Shapiro, PRX -- Public Radio Exchange)

9:45-10:30 a.m. Educational Podcasting
(David J. Malan, Harvard University; Richard Lucic and Zachary Pogue,
Duke University )

11-11:45 a.m. Corporate Podcasting: Inside the Corporation,
communicating with staff
(Michael Geoghegan)

11:45 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Outside the Corporation: Marcom
(John Furrier, Podtech.net)

1:45-2:30 p.m. Music and Licensing
(CC Chapman, Accident Hash, Podshow)

2:30-3:15 p.m. Recording Interviews and Phone Calls
(Doug Kaye, The Conversations Network)

3:45-4:45 p.m. Video Podcasting
(Steve Garfield, Rocketboom)

4:45-5:00 p.m. Final thoughts

Leila is vlogging


Look at Leila.

I love it!

Body painting. Ha Ha.

I'm glad she was just kidding about being from Minnesota.

I like her from Ireland.

I suppose she can be from anywhere at any time.

ZeFrank


On Sunday I posted a link to delicious and my blog about ZeFrank:
And now, let's watch ZeFrank as he gives us his spin on today's news. ZeFrank? This is high quality internet video entertainment.
On Wednesday, Zadi emails the Yahoo Videoblogging list about ZeFrank:
Had to share this in case you guys haven't seen it yet. Super
hilarious. I love Ze! :))
Yesterday, Dave Winer of Scripting News found ZeFrank's The Show:
Today's the day I discovered Ze Frank's videoblog. It's the best news cast anywhere. So good it's revolutionary.
Today Winer asks:
The first Ze Frank news show was on March 17?
Yesterday, Amanda Congdon featured ZeFrank on Rocketboom.

Yesterday, ZeFrank featured Amanda on The Show.

Yesterday, Leron wrote in the Rocketboom comments:
I have exactly two v-logs bookmarked, RB and theshow. Seeing them cross-pollinate is just a little bit freaky. Small world.
Yesterday, Kiso wrote this in ZeFrank's comments:
if there were to be a crossover episode of the show and rocketboom, would the entire universe collapse from hilarity and WASP-ish phenotypes??
When and where did you first hear about ZeFrank?

Phillip Torrone with Glasses


Phillip Torrone demonstrates the Logitech Quickcam Orbit MP.

I like when he turns himself into a gingerbread man.

Friday, April 28, 2006

Podcast Academy Podcasts

Here's the Podcast Academy at Boston University | Podcast Archive from today's sessions.

Links for 2006-04-28

Purple Fun


Purple Fun by CC Chapman, uploaded from flickr.

Jobs: MacBook Pro is bitchin

Macworld: News: Jobs touts product pipeline to Apple shareholders:
"Jobs was particularly effusive about the MacBook Pro, a laptop powered by an Intel Core Duo chip that just this week added a 17-inch configuration.

“Everyone wants a MacBook Pro because they are so bitchin’,” he said."
Dude!

An R-1 Appears


At Podcast Academy, Dan Bricklin says he uses a Roland R-1 to record his podcasts.

As I am looking up and R-1 on the web, I get handed an R-1 from Sam Levin, who's sitting behind me!

Podcasters at Podcast Academy


Podcasters at Podcast Academy by stevegarfield, uploaded from flickr.

Sitting with CC Chapman and Michael Goehagan at Podcast Academy at BU in Boston.

Podcast Academy: Live Online Now


I'm at Podcast Academy at Boston University today:
"The Podcast Academy at Boston University is an opportunity to learn about this new mode of communication, with growth so explosive, that Podcast was selected as the word of the year!"
A link to the webcast is over on the BU College of Communication website.


Here's a direct link to the video stream. [ Real ]

It’s Jerry’s Blog!


Jerry from It's JerryTime! now has a blog: It’s Jerry’s Blog!

A Knitting Blog


Network Weaving:
"This blog is about creating smart economic networks... from the bottom up, using network weaving and social network analysis. This is the blog of June Holley, Valdis Krebs & Jack Ricchiuto."
This requires more reading.
via [ David ]

Podcasters: Keep it Legal

Over at Creative Commons they just posted a Podcasting Legal Guide:
"The purpose of this Guide is to provide you with a general roadmap of some of the legal issues specific to podcasting. EFF has produced a very practical and helpful guide for issues related to blogging generally (http://www.eff.org/bloggers/). This Guide is not intended to duplicate efforts by EFF, and in many cases refers you to that guide for where crossover issues are addressed. Our goal is to complement EFF's Bloggers FAQ and address some of the standalone issues that are of primary relevance to podcasters, as opposed to bloggers."
Thansk [ JD ]

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Earphones that don't hurt


Moving on to goodie bag item #2 from the Podcast Academy speakers bag, I've got EarThumps by Griffin Technology in my ears:
"EarThumps are earbuds that are designed to isolate your listening experience from outside sound by fitting comfortably inside the ears, to deliver rich, crystal clear audio."
My ears don't hurt. Those iPod earbuds are not hte most comfortable thing ever designed. These EarThumps are. They are pretty comforatble and are pretty much isolating me from all the surrounding sounds in my office.

I'll make sure to take these along on an airplane the next time I take a flight. At a list price of $19.99, they're a sweet deal.

Rockin Portable Speakers


I just hooked up the JBL - On Tour speakers to my PowerBook. They rock!
"The JBL On Tour is a compact, lightweight, high performance portable sound system."
Normally I've got a Cambridge Soundworks speaker system hooked up to my Powerbook with two speakers and a woofer.

When I go to a meeting and need speakers, I've got to box up the speakers and woofer. Kind of a drag but not that big a deal.

Tonight I went to the speakers reception for Podcast Academy. It was fun to meet a few people that I hadn't met in person including Michael Geoghegan.

We each got a goodie bag which included the On Tour speakers. They are great. I'm listening to them now and am going to be using them when I travel.

One thing that could be improved, the accompanying bag should be able to carry both the speakers and the power supply.

Links for 2006-04-27

Tonight on FOX25: Podcasting


FOX25 News at 10:00 will be featuring a report on podcasting tonight.

"Bands, flimmalers, dancers... how amateur artists are podcasting their way to the top."

Watch for my friends Arin and Susan of FourEyedMonsters.

Quoted in Business 2.0 on vlogs

Business 2.0 has an article about making money with vlogging and it features Rocketbooom, Prime Time for Vlogs? - May 1, 2006:
"Says Steve Garfield, a veteran video producer who's organizing the second Vloggercon conference this summer in San Francisco, 'People do this for artistic reasons, and for fun.' Perhaps, but with sites like Rocketboom proving out the business model, you can bet that a lot of vloggers will soon be doing it for profit too."
I've got to start recording interviews. I was interviewed on the phone twice for this article, and then had two or three follow up conversations with a fact checker.

I understand that magazines have only so many words they can fit into and article, and am happy that I have this blog to add what they left out.

Obviously I'm not the only organizer of vloggercon, we are all organizing vloggercon. It's June 10 -11 in San Francisco and you should come.

During the interview I probably said something about people doing videogblogging for many different reasons including marketing, politics, business, art, family, and fun. It seems to me that they took a part of what I said to craft the ending of the story.

"Start videoblogging today, make lots of money!" ;-)

The essence of blogginess

Over at Economist.com there's a number of articles on blogging, from the current hard copy issue, including It's the links, stupid:
"Blogging is just another word for having conversations"
In this article Dave Winer talks about the essence of blogging:
Blogging is also about style. Dave Winer, a software engineer who pioneered several blogging technologies, and who keeps what by his own estimate is the longest-running blog of all (dating back to 1997), has argued that the essence of blogginess is “the unedited voice of a single person”, preferably an amateur.
I'd like to find a blogger like that who works over at Comcast. I've got a conversation I'd like to have with them.

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Make Movie Festival: Lighting Tips


My video Steve Garfield's Lighting Tips was featured in the recent Make Movie Festival.

Yay!

Chris Anderson's Long Tail

Lost Remote: Chris Anderson on 'The Long Tail'.

Must.. Understand.. Long.. Tail..

To Do:
Find the video, "Day of the longtail.. the audience is up to something."

Star Wars Fan Film: Return of Pink Five


Return of Pink Five: This Is The Post You're Looking For.
Get the story behind the release of Star Wars fan film Return of Pink Five and then watch it over on Atom Films.

This is a good post for all videobloggers to read becuase it shows you that those video hosting companies user agreements that you probably just click through without reading mean something.

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Special Sneak Peak Network TV Show

I got this call from a research company representing a MAJOR TELEVISION NETWORK.

They want me to watch a SNEAK PREVIEW of a new show on Comcast Cable channel 51 on Saturday April 29th from 4-5 PM.

They said I had to watch it live, and that I couldn't tape it, so that they can call me right after to ask me questions about it.

Ha ha.

How do I watch live tv? I forget.

Just kidding. I watched CSI Miami last night because it was broadcast in HD. I never watch CSI Miami, but now that I have HD, I watched. Miami is pretty.
links for 2006-04-25

Free tunes by Brad


Brad Sucks | a one man band with no fans.
Brad's music does not suck despite the band's name being Brad Sucks. Funny huh?

He gives all his music away for free.

I might just make a music video for him... for free.

Falling up the stairs

Jenny writes... What Goes Up Must Come Down. Twice.

Go read her sadly funny story.

I left her a comment and am reposting it here:
Must be something in the water.

I recently forgot to put the flash card in my camera and then didn't have it when I went to take picture of me and Kevin Karlson at the Boston Marathon. Then I swore never to do THAT again. I made a plan to leave the flash card door open on the camera so I'd know it had to be insterted before taking the camera somewhere. The really annoying thing about this is that I took about 10 pictures at the finish line just prior to this and the camera didn't indicate that the flash card was missing.

Then I had my other camera in the car and was going to do a video of how to get from downtown to Sommerville, which I always have a hard time figuring out despite the directions from my good friend Ravi. Turn left at Manny's. I know now. So I went to use that camera nad no flash card! Oh my. That camera beeped at me to tell me the flash card was missing.

I also recently forgot where I parked my car. Where is my mind?

I'm glad you blgged this and can't believe you replied to the man, "“Yeah I’m ok. But I am sooo blogging this.”"

I LOVE that!
via [ Universal Hub ]

Secrets of Videoblogging


Michael Verdi has posted the the front cover of Secrets of Videoblogging.

Very cool!

Free Ice Cream Today!


Ben & Jerry's Free Cone Day:
"Tuesday, April 25th is Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry's, and you know what that means... free ice cream for you!"
Not all stores are participating in free cone day. Check the site before you head over.

Whoops!

McSweeney's Internet Tendency: Whoops!:
"To: All Staff
9:12 AM
Subject: Whoops, Sorry About That Last E-Mail!

I'd just like to apologize for the last e-mail, which I sent to 'All Staff.' I meant to send it to my friend Alex Stafford. It was a mistake. Sorry."
via [ Danger Blog! ]

Boston Radio-Info Sucks

I just went over to the Boston Radio-Info message board to see what people are saying about the new shows on BCN.

Yikes.

The Boston Radio-Info message board is now dead to me. They've implemented the worst message board I've seen.

An amazing interface used to be the CoSy message board designed at the University of Guelph and used by BYTE magazine for their bix conference system.

The follow on project, NLZ, doesn't look as good as I remember the old bix.

Looking into that cool software Abby had told me about for the Boston Media Makers forum. I used phpBB, and it's now full of spam and not used. Hopefully this death of Boston Radio-Info will end up with a better solution for everyone.

Sell your videos on AOL

Lost Remote: What broadband means for broadcasters:
"Jeremy Allaire of Brightcove... touched on upcoming plans to allow users to sell video using Brightcove tools. And described his deal with AOL. Users upload video, check a box and it would play on AOL with a revenue share. AOL will be marketing the Brightcove service to anyone who wants to sell their own video. "

Monday, April 24, 2006

Jerry goes to New York


JT Emmy1 stills_00003 by It's JerryTime!, uploaded from flickr.

Jerry in Times Square in a tuxedo in the rain.

RollingStone Link for 2006-04-24

Videoblogging Peers?

Remember that iPod Emmy? The winner, AOL, was chosen by "a panel of their peers."

Here are the judges:
David Bohrman, Vice President/Washington Bureau Chief, CNN; Bob Calvano, Interactive Art Director, Oxygen Media; Michael Connor, editor, Business Ethics Magazine; Charles Dages, Executive Vice President Emerging Technology, Warner Bros. Technical Operations; Mary Alice Dwyer-Dobbin, Consultant, Television Programming & Production, and former Executive in Charge of Production, Procter & Gamble Productions, 1996-2005; Terry Ewert, Former Executive Producer, CBS Sports; Roger Goodman, Vice President, Special Projects, ABC News, Jeff Gralnick, Special Consultant, Internet & New Technology, NBC News and Chairman, E-splosion Consulting, llc; John LiBretto, Director, Dateline NBC/Senior Director, NBC News; Bob Roy, News Executive, ABC; Len Schneiderman, Director, Technical Operations, ABC News Productions; and Neal Shapiro, former President of NBC News, currently teaching journalism at Tufts University and Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.
Just throwing this out there as an FYI.

A Lost Metaverse

ABC News: 'Lost' Game Lets Fans Hunt for Clues:
"Fans from different countries will have to reach out to each other and trade information if they want to start sleuthing."
Is a virtual reality-based Internet going to be popularised by a TV show?

MacBook Pro 17" Announced

MacBookPro_120x60
Just in time for the MacBook Pro 17" announcement, my affiliation with the Apple Store arrived.

The MacBook Pro top end model has a 2.16Ghz Intel Core Duo processor in it. That sounds fast.

New features include an 8x SuperDrive and FireWire 800.

Any purchases you make after clicking through this banner gives me a small commission.

Worst President Ever

Rolling Stone : The Worst President in History?:
"George W. Bush's presidency appears headed for colossal historical disgrace. Barring a cataclysmic event on the order of the terrorist attacks of September 11th, after which the public might rally around the White House once again, there seems to be little the administration can do to avoid being ranked on the lowest tier of U.S. presidents. And that may be the best-case scenario. Many historians are now wondering whether Bush, in fact, will be remembered as the very worst president in all of American history."
For readers who visit here and don't like when I link to stories that show President Bush in a bad light, I'm sorry.

This is a well written column that lays out everything that is wrong with President Bush.

I just heard a program on the radio this weekend where the person being interviewed said that even when presented with facts that are true, the human brain sometimes chooses to trust beliefs over facts.

I hope that the Bush believers out there will stop believing and take a look at the facts.

Push pause on your Journey.

Sunday, April 23, 2006

Links for 2006-04-23

And the iPod Emmy goes to...

Daytime Emmys:
"AOL won the first Daytime Emmy presented for content delivered via the Internet, cell phones, PDAs and other small screen devices for the concert special 'Live 8.'"
I heard that they thanked Bono in their acceptance speech. If Orrin won for It's JerryTime! he says he would have thanked me, among others.

That internet delivery of video category needs to be segmented next year so the little guy gets a chance. I'm not sure how to segment it, but the nominees and results portened a future where independent video bloggers are dwarfed by big media.

The future doesn't have to be that way.

Detroit News Hot Blogs


Blog Watch - 04/23/06 - The Detroit News:
"Pop culture and technology hook up at offonatangent.blogspot.com. Creator Steve Garfield is 'no ordinary blogger,' says Time magazine. "
Hello Detroit!

Video Blog Explosion


This afternoon the Museum of the Moving Image, is presenting a panel on video blogging with my friends Andrew Baron, Amanda Congdon, Ravi Jain, and Jakob Lodwick!

You should go if you are in the area.

Webcasting media personalities


Rise of the web video star - Sunday Times - Times Online:
"Whether it’s a gonzo journalist sounding off, a family creating a holiday diary or an arty take on a daily coffee, webcasting is creating cult media personalities. They include Steve Garfield, the “father of vlogging” and master of conversational to-camera walkabouts"
Hello London!

Video: IFF Boston


Video: Independent Film Festival | Boston:
"I went over to the Somerville Theatre this afternoon to catch all the excitement of the Independent Film Festival | Boston."
This is very exciting since I set this video to music from Lene Lovich! Love her.

Saturday, April 22, 2006

Links for 2006-04-22

  • A central place to gather information about you from the web.
  • Interesting Microsoft and web stuff here.
  • Their tag line: You are the media. Wikio is a user managed news search engine. It watches, real time, thousands of news sources, gathers hundreds of thousands of stories every day and classifies them by their topics in a multi millions documents database.

Save The Interent

Joho the Blog: Why Net neutrality matters.

Save The Interent

A New Rider


Visit hestablog.com to see video of a new horse rider:
Now we see how to put the Iceland in the Icelander.

Of course it helps to have a few first-prize stallions hanging around the farm. At the time of the trek to Kolbeinsdalur, Ingolfur's daughter, Ingunn, was about 4 months old. Now, 5 years later and with a lot of exposure to horses...
She's the cutest.

Video blogging is all about sharing stories.

Friday, April 21, 2006

Hipcast, the orange-y, non Web 2.0 kind


Hipcast, the orange-y, non Web 2.0 kind by Eric Rice, uploaded from flickr.

The road ahead is paved with re-branding audioblog.com to hipcast.

Boston


Boston by stevegarfield, uploaded from flickr.

Top of the Hub.

Carol took me on a surprise date tonight to the Top of the Hub. I remember years ago, going here and having a horrible meal.. I swore never again to set foot in there. So tonight, we drive into Boston and Carol makes me take may glasses.

I have no idea where we are going.

We get to the Prudential and there is a 20 minute wait to get to the Top of the Hub. We wait, and when we get up there I see that it's all new. It was really great and I had a Jacob's Creek Shiraz from Australia and we shared a pizza. What a view!

Wired Magazine Vlog Issue


Wired Magazine Vlog Issue by stevegarfield, uploaded from flickr.

Wired.

This is a picture from my camera phone outlining the links between video blogs. It's a graphic from Wired magazine and I'm in there. Cool.

Not the cover


Not the cover by stevegarfield, uploaded from flickr.

Rolling Stone.

So I saw the Rolling Stone magazine where my Vlog Soup is mentioned. Cool again. ;-)
links for 2006-04-21

BarCamp is coming to Boston


BarCamp / Boston June 3-4th, 2006.

I'm going on the 4th!

Eric Skiff of GlitchNYC explains what BarCamp is all about.

Thursday, April 20, 2006

Music with Steve Garfield

You guys are getting a sneak peak at a new music podcast I'm putting together. I'm working on all the backend mechanics to get things going.

Enjoy!

This is the first single on LA based Audacious Records, People are Future. DJ Micro is one of the US's premiere dance music producer/DJ/remixers.


MP3 File

Check out People Are Future music video too.

People Are Future

People Are Future


DJ Micro Audacious Records

Buy at iTunes Music Store
Download "People Are Future (Club Edit)" (MP3, 192kbps)

Delta.com: Start Over

On my continuing online reservation excursion, I just made a reservation for the Delta Shuttle at Delta.com.

START OVER
When the first confirmation screen came up, I saw that my flight was one hour earlier than I wanted. My only choice at that point was to click a button that said 'start over.'

But I didn't want to start over. I just wanted to change my flight from 1:30 to 2:30. But nooo. Delta.com made me START OVER. ALL OVER. From the beginning. Lame.

CHOOSE YOUR SEATS
Then I re-entered all my info and got to the confirmation screen again. There was a new button there that was labeled, "Choose Your Seats." It was very tempting, so I clicked it.



The I was presented with a screen that said that I could not choose my seats because this flight did not have reserved seating. Hmm. So why do they have a button there that says, "Choose Your Seats?"

Why?

More irony. Well I like irony as much as the next guy, but this is getting ridiculous.
links for 2006-04-20

Save $97 at Marriott.com

Next time you have to book a hotel on line at Marriott.com, DO NOT use your AAA discount.

I just looked up a room and without the discount it was $142, with the AAA discount it was $239. So I saved $97 by not using hte AA discount.

Ironic.

I'M IN ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE!

Andrew Baron wrote in to tell me that I'm in the current issue of Rolling Stone Magazine, May 4th, Issue 999, for my VLOG SOUP video blog.

Chuck Olsen is all happy that he's in Wired Magazine. Amanda Congdon lists her favorite vlogs in the current issue. I was going to be in there too, but I ended up on the cutting room floor.

Chuck posts Amanda's orginal list over on Blogumentary: I'M IN WIRED MAGAZINE!:
"Amanda's original list of fave vlogs:

VLOG SOUP
Steve Garfield, also a Rocketboom correspondent, brings you on a weekly tour of the vlogosphere. Watching Steve's show is the most efficient way for me to keep up with new videoblogs. Plus, Steve's unwavering enthusiasm and good-natured playfulness always make him a joy to watch. His 80 year old mom, Millie, is interested in internet culture too. She has a blog-vlog hybrid called Thoroughly Modern Millie… I'd say!
Thanks Amanda!

This just in: I'm in Wired Magazine too!

Orrin writes in to say:
You are in Wired...there's a graphic in the front of the article and it lists you in a box...you have to see the magazine itself-it's not online.
Thanks Orrin.

Cambrian explosion

Among the audience | Economist.com:
"“The old media model was: there is one source of truth. The new media model is: there are multiple sources of truth, and we will sort it out,” says Joe Kraus, the founder of JotSpot, which makes software for wikis.

The obvious benefit of this media revolution will be what Mr Saffo of the Institute for the Future calls a “Cambrian explosion” of creativity: a flowering of expressive diversity on the scale of the eponymous proliferation of biological species 530m years ago. “We are entering an age of cultural richness and abundant choice that we've never seen before in history. Peer production is the most powerful industrial force of our time,” says Chris Anderson, editor of Wired magazine and author of a forthcoming book called “The Long Tail”"

Re-Wired : Vodcast Simple

Jim Feeley suggests ways to make your own viral hit in his Wired article, Wired 14.05: Lights! Camera! Vodcast!. In his section on shooting, he suggests some of the following:
Choose your weapon: For Internet video, use a miniDV cam that captures 720 x 480-pixel footage.

Record clear audio: The built-in mike on your videocam is too far from the action.

Keep it steady: If you have to shoot handheld, lean against a wall or tree to stabilize yourself.

Film multiple takes: Rehearse, rewrite, and redo. Shoot each scene several times and from different angles.

Edit edit edit: Use free programs like iMovie or Windows Movie Maker to splice the best takes into a final video."
Well, you could do it that way, or you could do it this way. (My Suggestions):
Choose your weapon: Use a regular still camera that also shoots video at 320x240.

Record clear audio: Hold the camera close to your subject so that the inbuilt camera catches the audio cleanly.

Keep it steady: When shooting handheld, just keep your hand steady.

Film one take: Shoot one take of a moment that you want to capture.

Don't Edit: Post what you've just shot as it is. Capturing fleeting moments that would have otherwise been lost is a treasure.
Get out there and have fun and don't worry about being the next Steven Speilberg.

Good email from Rjyan


good email from Rjyan by Jakob Lodwick, uploaded from flickr.

Cheap-looking but thought-out can be powerful.

Dan Gillmor is Engaging the News


dan_1.jpg by Colin Rhinesmith, uploaded from flickr.

Dan Gillmor at Berkman's Citizen Media Series event part III, "Engaging with the News."

Colin Rhinesmith took some really, really great notes.

Here's my camera


steve.jpg by Colin Rhinesmith, uploaded from flickr.

Colin Rhinesmith took this photo of me at last night's Berkman center meeting.

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

links for 2006-04-19

Why is HD in a square box?

This morning I wrote an email to the local network affiliates, Comcast and to SharpUSA to find out why some of the programming on the Comcast HD channel doesn't fill the screen and shows up in a square box.

My letter:
Hi,
I was wondering why some HD programs on Comcast are full screen HD, while others are in a square box.

Do only shows that are shot in HD fill the screen?

I've got a Comcast HD DVR which is the Motorola DVR: Dual-Tuner DVR High-Definition Set-Top DCT6412 and a new Sharp LC37D40U connected via an HDMI cable with the stretch option turned on.

Thanks,
--Steve
Responses have started to come in.

Jack Barry from CBS4 writes:

Dear Steve,

You are correct. Only those shows that are true HD will fill a 16x9
screen. Non-HD shows will appear as a square box.

Jack Barry
Director of Broadcast Operations & Engineering
CBS4; UPN28; UPN38
1170 Soldiers Field Road
Boston, MA 02134
(617) 787-7100
www.cbs4Boston.com
www.UPN28.com
www.UPN38.com
Jim Shultis from WHDH writes:
Steve,

I received your question about Aspect Ratio on our HD feed. Your guess was correct; only material originated in the HD format fills the entire screen. So, any time the screen is filled, that is true HD (usually from NBC). When we up convert our standard definition material to HD (1080i) we have chosen to leave it in 4 X 3, and let the viewer expand it in their set if they would like.

best regards,
Jim Shultis
Director of Engineering

The Lonely Island's News


This is really interesting how Andy Samberg's TheLonelyIsland.com uses an iframe to display a stripped down blogspot blog for news.