Mediascend's Weblog – Musings, ramblings and observations regarding video on the web
Future of Web Apps Miami 2010 Highlights
We volunteered to shoot and produce footage for 2010 Future of Web Apps (FOWA) in Miami. Carsonified did a great job putting on the event. There were some serious heavy hitters – Alex Payne, Fred Wilson, Gary Vaynerchuk, John Resig, Molly Holzschlag, Steve Huffman, Tara Hunt, and plenty others. We put together this highlight piece that pretty much sums up the event. We had a blast and we’re looking forward to the next one.
Win an Apple iPad with Mediascend!
On April 4th, one lucky newsletter subscriber will be randomly chosen to win an Apple iPad, a $499 value, or a $1000 credit towards a 1-minute commercial video for your business, produced by us – Mediascend.
This is the easiest contest you’ll ever enter. In fact, tweet this to your tweeps and maybe they’ll be the lucky prize winner.
DSLRs Winning Video Professional Trust
Photographers and video pros are starting to get real friendly with each other these days. The same fundamental principles have always been shared in creating stunning eye candy. Lighting, subject, frame, color, and depth of field are ingrained in both creative brains. Of course the disciplines have a distinct line separating them beyond those themes, but with the introduction of HD video in photographic tools, a monkey wrench has been thrown into that mix. Photographers are starting to ask more about NLE programs and audio, as video pro’s are asking more about DSLR bodies and lenses.
As a video professional I have always been jealous of the professional still image and the tools used to generate it, particularly the lenses. To achieve that shallow depth of field look in pro video, we paid a lot of money and spent a lot of heart ache. You either had to have a very expensive camera body and even more expensive lens, or a bulky and cumbersome still lens adapter designed to fit on a fixed body. Either way you needed a deep pocket and a lot of patience to get that big budget look.
With the release of HD video DSLR cameras, everyday photographers are stepping on our turf. To make it worse they’re doing it with style, ease, and a low budget! Video pro’s can’t fight it anymore. That full 1080p, shallow depth of field image is too rich to and brilliant to ignore. Yes there are many things to give up such as pro audio, easy focus, shoulder mounts, and big viewfinders, but to be able capture with such good glass is a valuable trade off.
More and more video gurus are starting to add new weaponry to their arsenal. Goodbye expensive, bulky bodies and bayonette mounts. Hello DSLR’s and prime lenses!
Who is Your Computer Sleeping With?
Recently, CTO Steve Potter received a forwarded email from his mother-in-law that warned everyone of a virus going out by email that will basically eradicate your existence in the universe. It contained lots of exclamation points and all-capital writing, two of Steve’s biggest pet peeves (his biggest pet peeve is people who discuss their pet peeves). So he felt compelled to give his advice.
First, Steve doesn’t really use anti-virus software. For him, it’s kinda like using protection with the ladies…if you don’t sleep with strangers you don’t need to worry about catching anything. Anyway, below is what he wrote. Disclaimer: in no way should you take his advice as gospel – in fact, we recommend using every single anti-virus/spyware package on the market, and also recommend wiping your computer down with sanitary wipes every 45 seconds and give it a glass of red wine every night.
To prevent viruses and other problems in general:
- Never agree to install anything that you aren’t 100% sure about.
- When installing software, be sure to opt out of “other” software they ask you to install. Lots of programs want you to install Google Toolbar for instance. You don’t need it.
- For programs you already installed, accept any updates they offer, as these updates guarantee the latest in security meaures. Sometimes their update program asks you to install additional software (Apple is notorious for that)…don’t.
- Back up your data. If you do nothing else, back up your data. Right now.
- If you sign up for service (such as a web site for sharing recipes), do not use the same password as the email address you enter. Think about it – if that service was malicious they could sign into your email account and wreak havoc. If you have done this in the past, change your email password before reading on.
- Anti-virus and anti-spyware programs are helpful, but they are not a panacea and often once you have the virus the damage is already done. I personally do not use anti-virus software and by using the techniques described above I have never had a problem.
Here’s the deal with email viruses: you can open any email you want. It’s the attachments that can cause a problem. To avoid getting a virus:
- Delete emails from unknown parties without even reading them
- Never open attachments from someone you don’t know
- Never open attachments that seem suspicious.
- If you get an email from a person you know and it has an attachment, do not open it blindly. If you are not expecting the email or it doesn’t seem genuine, write to that person and ask them if they authored that email.
Also, emails that start with silly uppercased sentences and many exclamation points, such as “READ IMMEDIATELY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” are generally authored by a person whose expertise is limited and therefore have no credibility and can be ignored.
God Bless Roger Ebert
“I believe that if, at the end of it all, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try. I didn’t always know this, and am happy I lived long enough to find it out.”
- Roger Ebert
Future of Web Apps – Miami 2010 (FOWA)
We’re super-excited to announce we’ll be covering the Future of Web Apps – Miami 2010 (FOWA) on the February 22nd-24th.
Like previous years, this year’s line up is incredible with speakers like Alex Payne, Fred Wilson, Gary Vaynerchuk, John Resig, Molly Holzschlag, Steve Huffman and Tara Hunt from companies including Twitter, Reddit, Mint.com, jQuery, Palm Pre, FreshBooks, Opera and PayPal.
If you’re in technology and have the means to make it down you owe it to yourself to attend.
And if you see 2 dorks with HD video cameras and boom mics, feel free to say hi.
More info here: (http://events.carsonified.com/fowa/2010/miami)
Books! Books! Books! – Code Camp Book Swap!
“Here’s a chance to relieve your bookshelves (or desktops) of books you no longer need. We’re having a Book Swap at the South Florida Code Camp (02/27/2010: http://www.fladotnet.com/codecamp/).”
We’re attending/sponsoring so stop by and say hi.
Takeoff – Our First Web App!
We are spending nights and weekends (and stealing some hours during weekdays…don’t tell my boss) building a web app. It’s called Takeoff and will be available in the not too distant future at takeoffvideo.com (don’t bother going there yet). It will be aimed at video producers.
We have a busy video production department that does lots of projects, typically with clients in other states or countries. So collaboration must be done remotely. We relied on email & ftp in the beginning and it was a mess. Imagine getting 20 emails from a client with lines like “Around 56 seconds I can’t see behind the thing”, or “I couldn’t open the video. What’s wrong?” So we looked around for better tools and couldn’t find anything we were jazzed about. So we made our own. And being the nerds we are, we thought that others might like our solution.
With some market research and software development, we think we’re onto something. We still have plenty of stuff to figure out, such as the pricing model we’ll pick. I’m going to elaborate further, but there are many interesting options for pricing: freemium, pay-as-you-go (utility), totally free, etc. Plus we have lots of UI to iron out before we’ll consider it ready.
One thing we all agree on here is that changes and features will be almost entirely customer driven. It’s called “Customer Development“. Basically, you get something out there that focuses on the crucial thing(s) and let your customers determine what comes next. Survey them, stay in touch, don’t predict much, and they’ll tell you what to do. See how it’s done. The result is more loyal users, faster releases, and a more useful product. It’s pretty much a no-brainer if you think about it.
Anyway, we want it to be a game changer. Next week we are having a “Takeoff retreat”, where we’ll sit around for a few days and come up with the final plan. After that it’s a sprint to release. We’re psyched. We’ll keep you posted. For those who have been in this situation, any advice would be appreciated.
The Programmer’s Chili Guide
Steves Chili Guide
We love chili. It’s tasty, healthy, and is hard to mess up. We often battle over whose chili is better. At the request of his sister-in-law, Steve attempted to put together a chili recipe. The problem is he has no set recipe – it always changes. So what came out what a general guide for making tasty chili. Enjoy!
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