What we don’t know about FCP X – http://tinyurl.com/l2ltp What my last year’s obsession can tell us about the unreleased FCP X. (A lot)
If you’re not in LA, don’t want to wait, or are busy Wednesday night, you can get a longer version, with a whole lot of bonus material from Filmmaking Webinars.
The Business side of the Biz. http://tinyurl.com/5rh4zqt Episode 29 of The Terence and Philip show.
In this episode Terence and Philip tackle the business side of the Biz: where we’re at, what being in business means and how to price yourself appropriately.
In the show notes, Terry provides a bunch of useful links for calculating your appropriate hourly rate.
Why a JavaScript hater thinks everyone needs to learn JavaScript in the next year http://tinyurl.com/3kblbtf
Since HTML5 is the combination of a few new html tags (predominantly the audio, video and canvas tags) with JavaScript for the interaction, JavaScript is very important to the future of the web, web applications and a browser-based world.
What makes a language useful is some combination of the language’s expressiveness and the libraries and tools available. JavaScript clearly passed the expressiveness barrier a long time ago, even if the ceremony required for creating objects is distasteful. But recently, we’ve seen some extremely important game-changers: jQuery, JSON, Node.js, and HTML5. JavaScript may have been a perfectly adequate language in the past, but these changes (and a few others that I’ll point out) have made JavaScript a language that is essential for every developer to know. If there’s one language you need to learn in the next year, it’s JavaScript.
If this is your beat, the article is well worth reading. Â If you’re not that technical, keep in mind that HTML5 is largely about JavaScript, which is getting faster and more flexible all the time!
Lighting bill plumets using EPIC. http://tinyurl.com/3rqz73q. Post on Reduser parallels my thinking from March http://tinyurl.com/6kfogsy
From the forum post:
We are working on a few quotations out of the US, Europe and Asia at the moment and we often go back to older jobs for reference.
One thing that dawned on us the other day was how our lighting (gaffa) quotations have plummeted over the last 12 months. We still hire Gaffas but really.. hardly any gear comes out any more. Well only a small percentage of what we did use.Â
The latitude and range of the chips these days are so bloody good in hi contrast situations and low light situations that large lamp fill is almost non existent anymore. In Shots were I’d throw up an 18k without even thinking twice to fill a shot under a tree through a 20×20 trace… gone. Generator gone, best boy gone… time delays waiting to set it all up also gone… Trucks have turned to Vans, Hmi’s turned to small LED panels or bounce boards…
How Do You Measure the Value of a Branded Web Series? http://tinyurl.com/6lcxj6e
As regular readers will know, I’m a big fan of branded media. Like soap operas of days gone by, branded media is a single sponsorship of music, film or web video projects. Of course, one of the problems with any media investment by a brand – be it with branded media or advertising – is measuring the effectiveness.
Wilson Cleveland of CJP Digital who has made a name for himself as a producer of branded content has a formula for assessing monetary value of the media to the brand:
And in working with brands, he’s created a formula by which the actual monetary value of a branded web series can be measured for the brand. “We’re in a position to calculate a different kind of ROI than ad plays and impressions,†Cleveland said via phone. The basic purpose is to evaluate things from an earned media perspective.
Branded media is at least only giving us one brand message, and one presumes it’s done in a way that is at least sympathetic to the media’s content.
Video is just another form of literacy. http://www.theterenceandphilipshow.com/?p=286
In this episode of The Terence and Philip Show, the discussion revolves around the question of whether or not, “video production” is ‘just another form of literacy’. Some will make their living based on their literary abilities; others use it very peripherally to how they earn a living.
The 18 Senators Who Approve Breaking The Internet To Protect Hollywood http://tinyurl.com/3dhoqfk
Last year the pending COICA legislation failed, and the Internet released the captured breath. It would have been a disaster for open speech but now we have an even worse idea: ProtectIP.
Read the article – nothing I can say here will be any clearer. I understand there’s an issue of unauthorized distribution of content, but since no-one has ever presented a peer-reviewed study that actually demonstrates that, and the US Government Accounting Office has debunked Movie and TV Industry “reports” as being without merit or value (or accuracy) and went as far as saying that unauthorized distribution promoted the material and created net value, but that’s not a reason to break the underlying infrastructure and put responsibility on unrelated 3rd parties for the actions of people they don’t control.
Lunacy? No just Government as it’s become.
Hype – HTML 5 Authoring tool. http://tumultco.com/hype/
New offering in the HTML 5 Authoring space – Hype. Â Odd name but let’s get over that and hope it’s really “Substance”!
Using Hype, you can create beautiful HTML5 web content. Animations and interactive content made with Hype work on desktops, smartphones and iPads. No coding required.
I have no experience with this, but point to it as a stepping stone to wider adoption of HTML 5.
Jonathan Coulton Making Half A Million A Year – No Record Label http://tinyurl.com/3kms62l
Jonathan has been at the forefront of those connecting with fans, and it’s working out pretty well for him. He sells his music with a Creative Commons (Some rights reserved, i.e. licensing and making money from it) so it’s impossible to pirate what’s freely exchangable.
And yet, he’s making really good money selling music, merchandise and concert tickets.
More to the point, he’s doing better than the vast majority of music acts that get picked up by the major record labels. If Coulton had signed with them, he’d be hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt!
Of course, defenders of the old system will insist that he’s an “exception,” but, really, just how many exceptions do we need until people realize that the market is changing rapidly, and those who embrace new models and new methods of distribution are finding that they can make a lot more money than they did in the past.
The comments are as interesting as the article.
Interns, Internships and Getting Started http://tinyurl.com/452ta3h Episode 27 of The Terence and Philip Show.
In this episode Terence and Philip are joined by Alpha Dogs’ employee Isai Espinoza in a discussion about the value of Internships to both the employer and the intern, how to get the best out of an internship, and what’s in it for the employer. In typical fashion, this quickly leads to a discussion about breaking into the business, and what it takes to make it.