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…
Did Jobs know he would change the face of the telecom technology industry with his products when he was seemingly overwhelmed by the standard telecom technology at the time? Now it’s hard to find any broadcaster or edit bay without an apple workstation, iPhone, or iPad.
Steve Jobs: “Look at that, I’m on television”
Production man: “Isn’t that amazing?”
Steve Jobs: “Yeah, it is.”
Production man: “You’re going to be in NY to.”
Steve Jobs: “No, no, no, am I really?”
Production man: “Yes, you are”
Steve Jobs: “Are you serious?”
Production man: “Yeah.”
Steve Jobs: “God, I was just in New York last week.”
…
Steve Jobs: “Great, that would be good. You need to tell me where the restroom is to, because I’m deathly ill actually, and ready to throw up at any moment, so…”
And this is the man who so charmed the world, and helped bring the entire globe into the 21st century. And today he steps down as CEO of Apple, on his own terms.
Official Steve Jobs Press Release:
To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:
I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.
I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.
As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.
I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.
I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.
Steve
Steve Jobs came from humble beginnings, and the video above shows it. Someone who created a small company in a garage with a friend, was anxious to be on TV, became CEO of the company he co-founded and lead it to be one of the largest corporations in the world, if not the largest. A story about America. Steve seemingly placed an importance on education, but not for the sake of education itself, but for the search of knowledge. And some of Steve Jobs most interesting years were the ones he was away from Apple, where he developed the beginnings of what Apple would later buy and turn into Mac OSX, which also eventually ran the iPhone and iPad. He also bought and created Pixar while away from Apple, which has only created critical and financial successes to date, not to mention creating new technologies along the way that pioneered digital animation on a feature scale.
It was a very inspiring conference.
