Tag: idea

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Print vs Electronic – What Is The Future?

Just yesterday I was talking about the good and bad of social media and the potential pitfalls with time management. My routine each morning is to check for any news items on Twitter or Facebook or bookmarked blogs after catching up on my email. This morning there was one post on Facebook that caught my eye and was definitely worth the click through.

Via Mashable.com was Time Inc. Show Us Their Idea of The Future of Magazines [Video]. It was about how publishers are preparing digital versions of their magazines for the Apple Tablet. Apple hasn’t even officially confirmed they are working on this device. Embedded in the post was a pretty sophisticated demo of Sports Illustrated.

Amazing as the demo was – it had its critics. Check out Gizmodo’s post Time’s Manhattan Project Will Explode Like the Atomic Bomb It Is. The article questions how it’s any different from a web page and at ten times the cost. They state it’s pretty packaging but still stale and dead.

The future of publishing is an interesting debate. I suppose it really all comes down to how we the consumers want our information. What do you think?

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If the Idea Just Won’t Quit Ya – Take Notice

If anyone’s been paying attention to my last few posts you would have noticed that I’ve been very introspective of late.  That’s usually what happens to me when I’m about to make a change or embark on a personal project. '60's psychedelic VW vanI have found that when unexpected and random events happen in my life and I take notice and then question why – I’m ready for my next chapter.

I have a friend who is a freelance writer and lives nearby. We frequently take long walks through the miles of preserved natural open land that lie within our community.  We are both creatives and we’ve discovered that it’s a wonderful environment for conversation and bouncing ideas off of one another.  On a recent walk I was talking about an idea that just won’t leave my head and another thought that’s just starting to morph into a more concrete plan.

At one point she questioned that perhaps I should segway the ideas into assignments from magazines or online publishers – like that would somehow legitimize my effort.  I told her that if I have an idea that I feel so strongly about that I’m ready to proceed on my own  – then I didn’t feel the need to get validation from someone else. That my passion for the subject matter usually carried me through and was all the validation I needed.

I’ve worked on a quite few personal projects over the years, both still photography and video as well as combinations of both.  There hasn’t been one project that hasn’t been rewarding on many levels. Of course there’s the personal satisfaction and growth that I initially receive.  And there’s the incredible feeling I get from knowing my work has touched someone or had an impact on them.  And there are always the residual rewards that lead to new connections and future projects or jobs.

Someone once told me “pay attention to those thoughts in your head that just won’t quit ya”. So I think I will.

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Convergence – Defining Yourself By Your Vision – Not Your Tool

It’s 4AM as I write this entry.  I can’t sleep.  That often happens when my mind is in overdrive as it has been all week – over stimulated by the process of editing video. I’ve also spent a lot of time this past week speaking with quite a few photographers who are working in both the still photography and video mediums.  Some shooters I spoke with got into video because the entry level became cheaper when hybrid cameras that shoot both stills and video came on the market.  Other people I talked to weren’t “camera operators” at all – they were DP’s or Directors of Photography on high-end commercial broadcast productions.

One question I asked these shooters was “What do you call yourself these days?” Personally I’m struggling with that question myself.  Am I a  photographer?, a videographer? (I hate that term), a DP?, a media producer?  Who am I ?  What do I call myself? I have yet to answer that question for myself, but the answers that I got from everyone I spoke with, ran the gamut, encompassing all the titles above.  As I replayed these conversations in my head, I realized that for me the problem was I was trying to define myself by my tool.  And that just doesn’t work.

The problem is if we define ours by our tools – then we are diminishing the value of our creativity or our visionboy_viewer in the process.  We aren’t placing the value on what is unique in all of us – our vision. At the same time we’re placing too much value on the tool – in this case the camera.  As technology accelerates the production of more sophisticated cameras that are cheaper and easier to use – and we’ve placed our value on being the technician – we’re in big trouble.  Because ultimately anyone with a vision who has the “ability” to realize that vision, can put together a crew of technicians to facilitate their vision or idea – and do it cheaper these days because of technology.  And there’s nothing wrong with that.

Professional photographers get defensive when a potential client places no value on what is unique about them (their vision) and approaches them with the attitude that if you won’t work for the prices they dictate – they will just find another photographer.  But what they are really saying is that they feel that they can “just” find another camera operator. The problem is that these photographers haven’t presented their vision and because of that they are perceived as being interchangeable. That’s not a good place to be and never will be.  And for that reason when a professional still photographer comes to me and says that they are interested in getting into video and asks the question “What video camera should I buy?” I gently tell them – well sometimes not so gently tell them – it’s not about the camera.

How does one define what they are?  Great question that has a lot of answers, as it should.  Technology is amazing – but it’s the human part of the process that excites me because we’re all so different in how we see.

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It’s The Idea

I’m often asked by people “What kind of video camera should I buy?”. I must confess that question drives me crazy. It’s kind of like someone asking me what kind of car they should buy. But at least with cars – the end result is pretty much the same – you need something to get you from here to there.

I think in this time of fast moving technology with even 10 year olds uploading videos to You Tube that they’ve created that we’ve all started to believe that if we just buy a camera – we too can be videographers. It’s “just” that easy.

But what we seem to be forgetting is – what are we trying to visually communicate? That message or idea is EVERYTHING. I think we’ve all seen enough big budget films that are flops because they’ve lacked a story.

I’ve always been a means to an end type person. I first think about what I’m interested in and what I want to communicate and share with others. Then I concentrate on what “tools” will get me there.

No matter how technologically advanced we are – we all need to remember – why did we shoot this video to begin with? What is it we are trying to say? Seems sublimely simple? It is – but without something to say – you may end up with a lot of “packaging and fizz” if you’re lucky or worse yet a really poorly executed video that no one cares to watch.