While getting into creative media can be pretty difficult, events are always in abundance and usually pay pretty well considering how easy it can be to streamline a process and just rinse and repeat for each event.

That brings me to this lovely little shopping list below that should explain how to get setup for producing quality professional events for as cheaply as possible but without shooting yourself in the foot if you want to do it as an on-going business. Keep in mind that all of these gear choices are what I see as the best solution for this particular application at this particular time in history. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if in 3 months, these selections were out-dated.

1. Cameras
   Grab two Canon XF100‘s and one Canon 60D. The two XF100′s produce wonderful 1080p images at 50mbps in MPEG-2. That’s broadcast quality in a codec you can actually edit straight away with no headache and no strain on your system. The Canon 60D is a wonderful little Video DSLR that will give you wonderful DOF and low-light performance for the pre-ceremony and reception but will require that you convert before editing.
2. Video Accessories
   With those XF100′s, you’ll need at least two 32GB CF‘s cards for each. And then you’ll also need at least another pair of 32GB SDHC’s for the 60D. You’ll also need a battery grip and two extra batteries for that 60D, plus an LCD viewfinder.
3. Audio
   One Rode Video Mic for your 60D and two Azden WLX-Pro wireless lav’s system will be a perfect combo for the ceremony and the running around. Also, pick up a H4n field recorder just incase your wireless goes out or there is some extra ceremony elements you need to capture from the soundboard.
4. Lenses
   I would get a wide-angle adapter for one of your XF100′s and then a nice 24-70mm f/2.8 Zoom lens for the 60D. This gives a perfect balance of versatility.
5. Support
   Two 717AH Tripods for the ceremony, and a lightweight JAG35 shoulder rig for the run-around 60D. You can’t shoot DSLR’s without some sort of support since they are so light and small.
6. Cables
   Grab two black 50ft extension cables for your ceremony setups with Yellow Gaff tape in case you need to cross a walkway. You’ll also want a couple power strips just in case for battery chargers. Also grab XLR to component, 3.5mm, and 1/4th inch adapters for going out of any sound board.

1. XF100 (x2) = $6,000
   60D + Lens = $800
2. 32GB CF Cards (4x) = $300
   32GB SDHC Cards (2x) = $100
   LCDVF = $50
   Battery Grip + Batteries = $125
3. Rode Video Mic = $125
   Wireless Lav (x2) = $320
   H4n Recorder = $250
4.  60D Lens = $1,400
   Wide Angle Adapter = $250
5. Tripod (x2) = $350
   ShoulderRig = $200
6. Extension cables + tape = $50
   Power strips + xlr adapters = $90

That all comes to a grand total of $10,410 + Computer Editing System and Hard Drive Storage. Not too bad considering that with this kind of quality setup you could easily charge $2,000 plus per wedding. Most established company’s shoot one event per weekend. If you shoot one per month and keep only half your earnings, your capital loan will be paid off in less than one year. Of course, that doesn’t including gas, taxes, advertising, legal fees, hired help, or incidentals. But i’m not going to do everything for you.

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In 2001, HBO released Band of Brothers as a ten-part television World War II miniseries. It was all based on the book written by historian/biographer Stephen Ambrose. The executive producers were Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks. Previously, both of these producers had collaborated on the World War II film Saving Private Ryan (1998). In my opinion, Band of Brothers was much more than just an extended Saving Private Ryan. It was continuation of a cinematographic legacy and a rebirth of historical appreciation. So, really to make a long ramble short, it was amazing; best war-drama I’ve ever seen in any medium/format.

Now in 2010, probably due to it’s massively epic success in 2001 and the following years, HBO decided to create a sequel miniseries focusing on the United States Marine Corps’ actions in the Pacific Theater of Operations within the wider Pacific War. The Pacific primarily follows three Marines (Eugene Sledge,Robert Leckie and John Basilone) in separate combat actions. These three characters have a remarkable story, and as displayed throughout this series, have seen things both similar yet completely unique to the originally bigraphical Band of Brothers. So the real question is: Why was it so bad?

Ok, so actually I do admit it wasn’t bad at all. In fact, I believe that is the very problem–It was good, not great. And therefore it was terrible. Am I making any sense? Ok let’s back up.

So Band of Brothers was an epic masterpiece, and inevitably the gold standard. So what was so different about The Pacific that kept it from measuring up to that gold standard? In theory, The Pacific was suppose to be at the very least, up to par with Band of Brothers. To answer this question, I must first dispute the most popular reasoning: It was not based off a Steven Ambrose book. I admit that this was a contributing factor but I honestly feel that it is only an insignificant factor. Band of Brothers was successful for an entirely different foundational reason: character development. Ah, yes that little term that so many writers struggle with while other thrive on it. Some could argue that this the exact determining factor of good story-telling–I’ll save that can of worms for another day… The point being though is that if you combine top 10 character development with award-winning cinematography, award-winning actors, award-winning producers, you get….Band of Brothers.

So what I am trying to say is that The Pacific failed to produce solid character development. The reason? No idea. This ramble is really more of an observation of failure–not of fault. That being said, it can now easily be seen that this theoretical blockbuster series provided everything it was suppose to: award-winning cinematography, award-winning actors, award-winning producers…But that key foundation was simply not there…

Take a look at this image…

See how you recognize all these characters and probably know all of their names and maybe a famous line? And now compate it to the top image of this post…The poster doesn’t even really show their faces. Perhaps the marketing department actually saw the series themselves before designing it and they knew that the faces didn’t really matter anyway… =/

Never-the-less, it was good. Let me repeat that: it was good! I do not feel that I wasted my time. If it wasn’t for the over-looming shadow of Band of Brothers, I would really consider maybe even calling it one of the best. Unfortunately, that ship sailed long ago…

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A couple of months ago, I learned of a new film being produced by a team near Toronto, CA entitled, “Saving Grace”. This new suspense/thriller is about Grace, a young nurse addicted to heroin. She is kidnapped by a survivalist who tells her that the world has ended and he has saved her. Despite a low budget and limited resources, Director and Producer, Christopher Pickle has brought together some intriguing talent with an even more surprisingly unique script.

Principle photography was mostly held in an old industrial building in Winsor, CA. The set looks briliant and the production quality is top-notch. Of course, shooting on RED with Suede Productions didn’t hurt either. Co-Lead, Jason Barbeck was quoted, “The location is almost like another character in the film[...] you couldn’t really replicate this[…] not without spending a lot more money“. As simple as that concept may be, In my opinion it is exactly what can make or break a low-budget film(granted, there are many things that can make or break a low-budget film). So, after reviewing some of the screen shots and synopsis the Saving Grace film website, I decided to contact Christopher Pickle about doing some simple VFX work. A few weeks prior to my stumbling upon the film, Christopher had posted a reduser.net thread about their need for some visual effect work. A day or two after initial contact, I signed on to the project and saw a rough cut of the theatrical trailer.

Now one of my initial concerns and skeptism with any indie project is acting performance. Since the introduction of digital cinema, the industry has become increasingly over-saturated with student/indie films that truly lack much talent at all. Fortunately, from my initial viewings of the rough-cut trailer, this is not the case with the cast of Saving Grace.

First off, we have the lead victim, Grace played by Mandy Bo. Now Mandy is a full-time model, currently living in London. She has done shoots all over Canada and has absolutely no acting credentials. Big giant red flag, right? Well, I first saw some of her short clipped performances in the trailer before actually looking her up. To be honest, I was extremely surprised when I found out that this was her first acting gig. The girl is a natural and truly conveys an intense character. It seems to me that all those years of modeling as proven to be useful–this newbie seems to have an uncanny ability to convey heart-wrenching emotion with the most subtle body-language. While filming on the set of Saving Grace, Mandy was quoted in an interviewing explaining her character, “[...]the whole enigma of whether or not grace is going to be able to overcome her relationship in the beginning,[...]and then the drugs as well as her fear of whats being told to her[...]and then by the time she gains the strength–is it going to be too late?“.

Our second lead and alleged ”bad guy” is played by Jason Barbeck. Jason has made several appearances in supporting roles on broadcast television and more recently has made appearances in CBS’s Flashpoint and CBC’s Afgahnadnda. In an interview on the set of Saving Grace, Jason was quoted, “You’re not really quite sure if he’s actually a psychopath or is he really telling the truth and trying to save her life“. Now, I don’t really know what to say about this character other than he really creeps me out. Is that a good a thing? Well I suppose this kind of is a horror/thriller, right? Either way, he has a unique look and definately fits the part from what I’ve seen. Honestly, I really want to see more of this guy because I just can’t tell much just yet–but he certainly does show promise.

Overall production design seems to also play a very important role to Director Chris Pickle. On the film’s production blog, Chris wrote, “While all films live in a certain heightened reality, it was important for Saving Grace to have a timeless quality. [...] A world of musty canvas and kerosene. Having a compass in your breast pocket and a knife on your hip. A canteen is a must, and wooden matches are a life-saver. [...] These things populate Saving Grace, and over time, I hope they impart a timeless quality. I want the viewer to almost smell the story world–like when a certain smell takes you back to your childhood.“

So enough of the blabbering, It’s time to watch the trailer! Now, this isn’t the final theatrical trailer and the score is temp–not the real thing. But you’ll get the idea.

The Trailer Lies Beneath…

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Small

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I have a question that is bugging me: How does one properly cite an e-book?

I found this article from Lambuth University Library that discusses APA and MLA suggestions, but I think they are incomplete at best and leave the writer asking more questions than their guidelines answer.

Here’s just some of the problems I can foresee right off the cuff:

1. e-books have been designed to be re-flowable, so page numbers mean nothing.

   This is immediately apparent if you play with an iPad for more than .025 seconds. The number of pages differ between portrait and landscape orientation, so page numbers are useless in this context. Furthermore, the same file (presuming non-DRMed ePub) might display differently on a different device.

   To me, the only thing that makes sense is to cite via relative location, i.e. chapter or paragraph.

2. Web addresses are irrelevant if buying for a specific device.

   If you’ve purchased a book from the Kindle store or the Nook store or the iBook store, it would seem to me that the server address should be irrelevant as there’s no way to go back to that specific copy of the file.

   The “experience” between the stores is designed to hide implementation details. Given that you have to make a purchase and then receive a file as the server sees fit, there’s no way to guarantee that you are getting a copy of the same file as that which is cited in the bibliography.

   Of course, public domain books such as Almost Perfect by W. E. Peterson are the exception to the rule.

3. For similar reasons (and exceptions), the date accessed is irrelevant.
4. The in-text citation rules in my linked article are laughable. See point number 1.

So, does anyone have a better idea for how to cite an e-book in a bibliography?

In a recent interview by Walt Mossberg, Steve Jobs uttered the following (can be found in the video around 2:00):

One of my beliefs very strongly is that any democracy depends on a free, healthy press.

Some of these newspapers are the news gathering and editorial organizations are really important. I don’t want to see us descend into a nation of bloggers myself.

I think we need editorial more than ever right now.

So anything that we can do to help the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and other news gathering organizations find new ways of expression so that they can afford to get paid, so they can afford to keep their news gathering and editorial operations in tact, I’m all for. What we have to do is figure out a way to get people to start paying for this hard-earned content.

Bloggers vs. “media”
The moment I heard Jobs utter those words, I shot through the roof. What a guy!

Here’s a guy that has made his money predominately off of writers, journalists, bloggers and indie arts people. Granted, right now, established press has an enmity against bloggers, but what is a blogger?

This is an argument that we have been fully engaged in for a decade. The general consensus is that the difference between a blogger and a journalist is that a blogger is not one who has been through J-school and typically doesn’t act as “professional” (identifying before interviewing, honoring background/deep background, etc.) as a journalist. However, bloggers have, for the most part, enjoyed the same shield laws that traditional journalists have enjoyed.

Then there’s the question of hybrids: are all online news services blogs? And where do you classify sites like Wired or Engadget? Are the “media” or blogs?

No matter how you slice or dice it, the majority of people in this demographic are Apple users. Why piss them off?

Now, the way I read the stitches on this fastball is Jobs is someone who has time and time again been successful in what he has done. He can point to his previous achievements that have not once, but several times been world changing. Consider:

• Macintosh
• iPod
• iTunes
• iPhone
• iPad
• Pixar

These have all been game changers. I expect Jobs to continue to produce game changers until his career ends. But as @JeepCat pointed out, because Steve’s never been challenged because he’s had such astounding success, he is used to being dictatorial and getting his way.

I tend to think that Jobs was reacting to Gizmodo and the stolen iPhone fiasco.

Either way, I think that the only way to interpret what Jobs said is thus: “There should only be a few finely controlled news sources. The reason for this is that stupid people need to be told what to think. We can’t have a bunch of bloggers running around out there telling the truth and exposing facts we don’t want exposed. Read what I tell you to read. SHUT UP, SLAVE!

WWDC: Turn Off the Wifi
As if to back up my point, in a truly dumbass move that only a totalitarian could pull off, Steve Jobs barked the following from the stage today during the Apple World Wide Developer’s Conference (WWDC) when the radio in the new iPhone couldn’t get wifi signal:

“You know you could help me out, if you’re on WiFi if you could just get off… well we’re having a little problem here.”

Which Engadget complained about:

11:05AM Oh my god. Jobs is asking everyone to turn off their network cards and MiFis!

11:05AM He’s asking people to set their laptops on the floor.

11:05AM Guess what — we’re not doing that.

To which I Tweeted:

No bitching about Steve telling you to turn off your wifi. You applauded when he said “no nation of bloggers.” SHUT UP, SLAVE! #wwdc

Your Comments Go Here
What constitutes press? Is there a difference between bloggers and “the media”? Is Steve Jobs being dictatorial? Do you think that Jobs is in favor of censorship?

Almost every school across the country has required reading. Hemingway, Carroll, Dickinson, Bradbury–all of these authors are deified by our state employed educators. Now don’t get me wrong, I support this. I think literacy and appreciation for classic and modern literature are essential to any person’s education and development. I also so happen to believe that movies are pretty darn great too. So why not stick that into the system? Now many educators have already began implementing movies into their ciriculum. Whilst I was in ‘regular’ school, our teachers showed movies about once or twice a semester. The Only problem was that half of those teachers just didn’t seem to have any clue as to what movies would be the best for their kid’s learning enhancement. So I thought I would assemble this little list here to you guys and hopefully point you in the right direction. Now, please–by know means is the list complete and I would certainly love for anyone to comment and share other films you think should be added or taken away from here.

Moving forward…Here they are. In no particular order!

History and Sociological

Schindler’s List

Saving Private Ryan

Gods and Generals

Full Metal Jacket

Gladiator

Life is Beautiful

Gangs of NewYork

Survival

Into the Wild

Cast Away

Swiss Family Robinson

Water World

My Side of the Mountain

Political and Ethical Studies

Super Size Me

Thank You For Smoking

Food, Inc.

The Truman Show

Expelled

V For Vendetta

Literary Remakes

Romeo and Juliet

The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy

The Road

The Count of Monte Cristo

Lord of The Rings

Litte Women

Music and Arts

Mr. Holland’s Opas

The Soloist

Walk the Line

That Thing You Do

The Pianist

Science and Technology

Stargate

Titan A.E.

Jurassic Park

K-Pax

2001: A Space Odessey

Gattaca

The Fifth Element

Religion and Philosophy

What Dreams May Come

The Fountain

Meet Joe Black

The Matrix

The Island

Fight Club

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iAds is a direct slap in the face to what used to be one of Apple’s biggest allies–Google. Apple figured out they have an untapped captive audience which means Apple can bombard this audience with ads and make even more money.

Google could never tap the AppStore market no matter how hard it tried. Sure, the AppStore is really just a bunch of webpages, but even so, Apple would have to include the script that would allow Google ads to run which Apple would never do.

During his speech, Jobs quoted the following numbers:

• iPhone users spend an average of 30 minutes a day in Apps
• If ads were displayed every three minutes, that would be 10 ads a day per user
• There are over 100,000,000 iPhone and iTouches that have been sold.
• LOTS of money could be made.

One must admit, this is a very clever entrepreneurial move. Of course, the question becomes, “If Apple has done very well during the current recession, why is it that Apple wants to make tons more money by selling ads? Are they just being greedy?” Perhaps this is one of those situations where you just don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.

iAds WILL Drive the Market – HTML5
iAds is really going to drive the online market in more ways than one. All of the mock-ups used during the demo were delivered via HTML5. Though Google has been pushing HTML5 via Chrome (and Mozilla via Firefox) the question has been, what video formats should HTML5 support. Now, that question is going to be solved through market place competition, not some standards setting body.

There are pros and cons to this.

The pro is that whatever people use the most–also known as the path of least resistance–should float to the top unless some interested party with plenty of money and advertising suave comes along and convinces the market to shift to their proprietary format. Mozilla has been fighting to keep Ogg Theora in HTML5–nay, for HTML to only support open standards like Ogg Theora–yet, Youtube and Vimeo have went the way of H.264. Jobs did not comment on what video encoding the demoed iAds were using, but the one technology it wasn’t using was Flash.

The con is that truly open codecs may not be included in HTML5 at worst or will be included but abandoned and ignored. As has been pointed out on various places on the web, accepting closed, licensed, proprietary codecs will lead to the .gif fiasco all over. Open Source advocates are begging netizens to learn from history and not repeat this costly mistake.

Of course, Adobe has been banking on Flash being around on the internet for a long time. In fact, Adobe recently complained to the SEC that the exclusion of Flash from the iPhone was going to hurt their bottom line. Boo hoo!

iAds Incentives App Development
Ostensibly (the program wasn’t discussed in depth) developers can choose whether or not to include ads in their apps. Of course, since developers can generate more revenue if they include ads than if they don’t, ads will be included wherever possible. And why not, when developers are getting a 60/40 split in their favor?

Due to Jobs’ cryptic word choice, it’s difficult to tell just who exactly will be allowed to include ads in apps. Jobs talked about “keeping free apps free” but went on to say that “our developers need more revenue” citing the low prices of apps. So will iAds be for free apps only? What are the rules?

In either case, Jobs does have a point: there is a captive global audience which can drive a lot revenue for both Apple and developers. Why would these developers choose to develop for a platform such as Android for free when they can instead get paid to develop for the iPhone OS? Sure, there will always be that healthy Open Source community that want to share their code and believe that code shouldn’t be proprietary, but those developers have to eat too. How will they pay the grocery bill developing for Android?

Bonus: Does Palm have a large enough market with WebOS to attract any developers?

iAds iAnnoying?
The most troublesome things about iAds was how they would be displayed. Would they pop-up, annoy the user and not be able to be gotten rid of until an animation played much like the ads that run on IMDB.

All three demos of iAds started with a banner ad on the bottom of the app. Once the user clicked that banner, the ad took over the screen, but there was a close button in the top left-hand corner that allowed the user to dispose of the ad with one tap. If all iAds follow this paradigm, there should be a perfect harmony: ads will display but not be intrusive and when the user wants the ad content turned off, it’s turned off.

Print ads vs. IAds
One issue that wasn’t brought up at the developer’s preview was the various periodical apps being developed and how iAds will or will not effect that market. Consider: because ePub was designed for reflowable content, it’s unsuitable for artwork-heavy publications such as comic books (graphic novels if you will) magazines and to a lesser extent newspapers. What does this have to do with advertising? Outside of classifieds–and even then, there are exceptions to the rule–ads in print media are all images. Add to this fact that magazines often do spreads, and you’ve got a e-publishing mess on your hands. The only solution is to create a .pdf file and hope and pray that whatever device is being used to consume the content is large enough or has an app that eliminates the need to constantly zoom in and out and move around the publication.

Because of this problem, proprietary apps are being built to display periodical content. Presumably, the content in these apps will be electronic versions of their dead-tree counterparts. If advertising is sold in the dead-tree publication, will Apple allow that same advertising to also be included in the electronic app? If apps come with such paid advertising (for the “app developer” in this case, the publication) will they also be allowed to run iAds at the bottom of their app to further boost their revenue?

Wrap-up
iAds will be a game changer, pushing HTML5 forward faster than present solidification and adoption. iPhone OS 4 does not for Flash and hence Flash-based ads on the platform. Via iAds, Apple is upping the ante between Apple and Google, beating Google at its own game in a market where Google can’t compete, making periodicals the item to watch in conjunction with iAds for real game changing occurrences.

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