One of the best iPad TV apps, period. Some really cool features, like being able to do a live stream on the iPad, watch videos On Demand, research basic financials that are being mentioned in the video, and being able to create a playlist. All TV channels should have an app like this.
The experience feels natural, a must use app. Their ‘Game Changers‘ series gives amazing insight into some of the most influential technology and business leaders’ careers, highly recommended. Watched the Rupert Murdoch ‘Game Changers’ on the app yesterday, I didn’t realize it was Murdoch who started Fox Broadcasting Company.
Also the app has a nice mixture of long form and short form content, as you can watch news clips, or full episodic programing.
Researchers on Sunday reported initial signs of success from the first release into the environment of mosquitoes engineered to pass a lethal gene to their offspring, killing them before they reach adulthood.
The results, and other work elsewhere, could herald an age in which genetically modified insects will be used to help control agricultural pests and insect-borne diseases like dengue fever and malaria.
But the research is arousing concern about possible unintended effects on public health and the environment, because once genetically modified insects are released, they cannot be recalled.
Authorities in the Florida Keys, which in 2009 experienced its first cases of dengue fever in decades, hope to conduct an open-air test of the modified mosquitoes as early as December, pending approval from the Agriculture Department.
‘Gattaca Now’ is a new series of blog posts that I will be doing that cover current events in regards to genetically modifying life and food. First Gattaca Now post can be read here.
Awesome 60 Minutes interview with the author of Steve Jobs’ biography, Walter Isaacson. I downloaded a copy of the book via iBooks, although I have to say it was a bit too pricey for my taste, and especially for not being DRM free. Why would a digital copy of the book, that has no resell value, cost nearly or as much as a hard back copy. Either way I’m excited to read the book, and these videos give great insight into the author’s working and creative environment.
I read the unofficial biography of Jobs from 2005, called iCon, and look forward to comparing that with this one.
@GSU_News is a new web show that I am producing. The goal is to help unite campus news and events. I’m trying to help promote all of GSU, and the idea is that there will always be something for every student, whether it be academics, sports, or general student life news. Let me know what you think. I think it’s really fun to help maintain and build a brand through video.
It’s intended to be a weekly show, so keeping it simple is important, as I still always have many other videos and edits I’m working on and producing. In terms of aesthetics I’m keeping it as simple and clean as possible for now, focusing on the content. But I also want to maintain the highest production quality possible. It took me some time to brainstorm what I wanted the opening moving graphic to be for @GSU_News, I also wanted keep it clean and simple. So I think the typing adds to the idea that it’s intended for new media distribution. The show will continue to grow with time, and only get better. I will possibly add certain elements and take out certain elements with time, experimenting with what format works perfect for social/new media platforms. The format of this show was inspired by other universities, but I’m making sure that this show is uniquely branded for GSU.
I’m fortunate to have such wonderful talent! They are both fantastic!
Here is a lip dub that I executive produced, filmed completely in downtown ATL, GSU’s campus. Since starting my current position, I have wanted to produce a Flash Mob and Lip Dub. Ten months in, I have done both. The Lip Dub has been received great, and already has the most engagement out of any GSU video. An awesome student came to me wanting me to help promote homecoming, and he agreed that a lip dub would be a great way to raise homecoming awareness, while also bringing various campus organizations together. With already thousands of views in a couple days, I think we accomplished our goal. And I’m sure people will continue to watch this video for years to come. It’s really interesting to see how new media viral formats emerge organically, and that’s something I’m really interested in experimenting with.
There were a few things that the GSU Lip Dub had to have. 1. A song from the ATL. 2. Single stedicam take. 3. Student engagement, participation, and ownership. I picked a path that would showcase the diverse campus of GSU, from a campus courtyard and plaza, through a large city, to a beautiful park. Shows such as the Walking Dead, and the film The Change-Up, have recently been filming in the same locations.
Entire principle production was under 3 hours. And thanks to Digital Arts Entertainment Lab for the support.
Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. …
If you would like to share your thoughts, memories, and condolences, please email rememberingsteve@apple.com
One of the most stimulating ideas that I have learned from Steve Jobs is that ‘Computers are like a bicycle for our minds.’
The first computer that my family owned was a used 80′s, and even considered old at the time, Macintosh that was given to us in 1992. At about the age of 8, I spent hours discovering how to interact with a GUI. I was able to tell what time it was all over the world with the included world map, I could use it as a calculator, I could paint and draw pictures, I could copy and paste, I could play games, Stunt Copter being my favorite! Basically I knew then that computers would change the way I interacted with content. And from age 8 I was always more computer literate than my parents. And to this day I still help them set up their Apple devices.
Hopefully Apple can keep on inspiring people for many generations to come from continuing to innovate software and hardware harmoniously. We see some corporations turn to quick profits at the expense of long term well being and neglect the original soul of the company, after the corporation loses the visionary, as we saw in Walmart’s loss of Sam. I hope this is not the case with Apple. Apple is in the best position they have ever been, hopefully they continue to create awesome ‘bicycles for the mind’. It would have been great to see what Steve Jobs could have done with another 40 years, or so, but he has already accomplished so much, and inspired so many. RIP Steve Jobs.
I was the lead cinematographer for the video content in this app. Worth checking out if you’re interested in Georgia history, or the civil rights movement. It was amazing to be able to meet and film President Carter, and listen to him speak about his rich experiences as Governor in such an important time in human rights history. I also was able to film Senator LeRoy Johnson, the first African American GA State Senator. You can download the app here, the videos are in the virtual tours within the app.
I attended this year’s Open Video Conference, hosted at New York Law School in NYC; learned much and met many. I will attempt to highlight some of the themes from the conference, as well as link to some of the interesting projects that I found while attending as many workshops/meetings/talks as I could while being there. I found this conference to overall be amazing.
It was a very inspiring conference.
Essentially the conference is about video. To be more specific, it’s about video that utilizes open source technologies, usually leveraged on the web and mobile devices, but the talks and workshops often covered much more. The conference brings lawyers, developers, and content producers together to brainstorm on how to create better solutions for the future of video. Most of the talks and workshops started by defining a problem, and then brainstormed on potential solutions, the conference had a theme of being proactive.
So what is open source? Most technology companies, for profit and non profit, use and leverage open source technologies for their advantage. Google’s Chrome browser is based off of open source technologies, as is it’s mobile OS, Android. Apple’s OS X and iOS are based off of an open source kernel, and Apple has created various open source technologies such as Webkit. And then many companies have been created just to service open source technologies, often labeled as SAAS. Open source can be a confusing term that is thrown around in jargon many different ways, and you really need a lawyer to fully explain all the different nuances between the many open source license types. There is a spectrum of licenses ranging from GPL, being about the most restrictive, to MIT License being one of the lease restrictive.
One of the biggest emerging technologies talked about was Popcorn.js:
Popcorn.js allows content producers and developers to create video that lives along side interactive elements, so if your video is referencing a certain location you can put an interactive map right next to the video given a certain time frame, among many other cool possibilities. I see myself using this to post links to what the people in my videos reference, so if a person mentions a website I could link to that website, or if someone references a historical painting, one could show a picture of that painting next to the video. Some really cool possibilities that weave video even more into the web.
Another topic that was interesting was non linear database driven documentaries and narratives. Basically it is experimenting with user interaction to create a unique experience given video assets that the user chooses within a certain space. There were more than a few filmmakers creating nonlinear interactive video projects, but there was also a small team trying to create a platform to enable filmmakers to create a nonlinear film, called Korsakow. Last year I developed a project in flash that had a non linear narrative which took lots of time and coding, but Korsakow is a program streamlined for non linear film, and it’s pretty awesome. I was able to meet the entire 3 person team behind it, and they all seem to be putting a lot of time into making something cool.
Then there was a talk about designing the next television interface. Basically the discussion revolved around how there is very little innovation within the digital cable TV interface, and part of this is because the MSO’s own the cable boxes, leaving little to no competition for innovation. This was compared to when the phone monopolies of the mid 20th century rented out phone equipment until the FCC and congress demanded that they create an open standard and let more companies compete and innovate in the space, benefiting mostly everyone. The non-profit hosting the talk, Public Knowledge, is in the process of proposing to the FCC to demand that MSO’s adopt an open video standard for interfacing their content, so that companies can build and innovate on top of the content that is subscribed to by the user. Why should the cable company own the interface?
There was much more I learned, and people that I met. The weekend was an awesome blur. Big thanks to my good friends Caroline and Adam who each let me stay at their place, it was great to quickly catch up with them when I was not at the conference.
A two-headed film- and art-making team, the Stansells finish each other’s sentences, collaborate on each other’s projects and, generally, seem absurdly well-suited for one another. Both children of Christian missionaries and former college track stars, the coal-haired, nostalgia-steeped, über-crafty Stansells are what you get when you mix D.I.Y., family values, and a Southern version of NYC art power-couple John Currin and Rachel Feinstein. They’re cute, they’re talented. And they can sew.
On Aug. 26, viewers can experience an example of the couple’s creative togetherness when Micah debuts his eight projected films The Water and the Blood at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, for which Whitney sourced costumes and coached actors, among many other things. Micah is one of three artists, including Katherine Mitchell and Alan Caomin Xie, who received this year’s Working Artists Project (WAP) grant. WAP is an annual gift from the Charles Loridans Foundation (with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts) that awards a trio of regional artists with solo exhibitions at MOCA GA, an assistant and a $12,000 stipend for each to create a body of work. The WAP grant was initiated to keep talented artists in Atlanta.
In his usual mix of narrative gravitas and experimental techniques, the video piece suggests a meeting of home movies, Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life, and Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler, thanks to location shooting at a Franklin, Ga., amateur wrestling match. The germ of the film is a family story involving Micah’s cattle farmer father around whom he has created an atmosphere-drenched tale of a handsome man in a cowboy hat and two young children. “It has a circle of characters around that seed,” says Micah. But like almost everything the couple does, the work concerns family, the past and memory.
“It’s about the way you insert yourself into these memories that you weren’t even present for,” says Micah, in a description that could equally describe his wife’s work.
For the wrestling scene I helped with providing some additional filming. That was an experience onto itself, and I’ve never been to Franklin, GA until helping film for this project, but it seemed like it was from another decade…
It was a very inspiring conference.
