DV for Teachers

Film & Video Magazine’s Carolyn Giardina talks to Douglas Trumbull about “Technological Innovation in Creative Filmmaking”; he also looks at the potential changes in exhibition, in light of higher-resolution digital production.

Wanda Meloni assesses The Decline and Resurrection of the 3D Industry: “So, even though the high-end 3D tool market has reached maturity, the use of 3D in more mainstream media applications is entering its growth phase.” An apparently clear-eyed look at the 3D industry in the wake of SIGGRAPH 2002.
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We’re still waiting to get Mac OS X Server version 10.2 so we can serve weblogs, but Anne Davis and I started one at Schoolblogs – ITC Insights. We’re learning about News Items, and collaborating with weblogs, with some good folks linked over there. Check that out.

I’ve been converting a cassette into an audio CD for a professor in Applied Linguistics so he can play some conversational lessons for his students. I’m using SPARK ME, a freeware audio editor, and QuickTime Pro. Not bad.

Webcasters are dealt a nonsensical setback in their fight to keep royalty payments to a reasonable level. College webcasters suffer as well. Kurt Hanson’s RAIN: Radio And Internet Newsletter covers it: “the Librarian of Congress filed a motion with the U.S. Court of Appeals yesterday, arguing that webcasters who did not participate in the CARP are not “an aggrieved party who would be bound by the determination” and thus should not be allowed to file an appeal in court against his decision!” Thanks to Doc Searls for keeping this difficult situation so visible.

Charlie White weighs in with Editing With The Right Side of the Brain”: let’s think right-brain-like for this tutorial, and maybe we’ll be able to develop a style of editing that you never knew was in that head of yours. ”

John Robb makes a point on the RIAA’s tactics to fight file sharing: “That a puny $20 billion industry is on a path to potentially cause $100 billion in damage to the US economy based on less than $1 billion in suspected damages defies reason.” John is UserLand’s CEO.

Mac Net Journal links to the St. Paul paper’s “Pioneer Press offers Jaguar Journal.” If you use Macs and are looking to move to OS X, read up. I use the current release, v. 10.1.5 on desktop and laptop, and it works really well. Weeks of uptime, not days or hours, even when multitasking with video, web, Photoshop, and other apps running concurrently. Yep.
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LAFCPUG posts another Book Review – Beginner’s Final Cut Pro: ”’This book could be called “Learning Basic Editing, oh by the way we’ll be using FCP’.” Seems a nice way to get started with editing and with FCP.

Sarah Lohnes’ [alterego] cites a Pew study called The Digital Disconnect: The widening gap between Internet-savvy students and their schools. If you teach at all you should read this.

Here’s a story of woe: this Yahoo! Groups DV-List Message thread explains why I’ve bought so deeply into Macs for my video and multimedia work. I have problems, oh yes indeed, but nothing like this.

killersound has some iMovie 2 tutorials for improving sound editing. Good information on how best to work with sound, and step by step instructions for using Apple’s popular editing application.

The Register has a fascinating piece on how fonts are created and why they can be expensive.

The new semester is here. Hi.

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We’re about to order a digital audio workstation for students to use. I’ll have the chance to learn a lot more about audion signal processing with some excellent gear. I’ll post relevant stories as they come up. Though our fiscal year began July 1 and the money became available then, I wanted to wait for the new Macs that would inevitably come from the usual summer Macworld announcements. But they didn’t come, until today, almost a month after Macworld. So check out the new Macs. DV for Teachers tries (not too hard, I know) not to be too Mac-centric. They’ve made my job very easy though.——-

Digital Media Designer: “Adobe Photoshop 7 Style Layer Effects: Series #3
Even more Photoshop Style Layers to produce effects quickly.” Some nice styles, some of which you can use for nice video titles! Digital Media Designer offers more good Photoshop tutorials. Or not so linky – busy today!——-

Yahoo! News – PluggedIn: Digital Video School Teaches Filmmaking:

“Dan DeFossey, a 23-year-old high school teacher from Texas, took a five-week crash course in digital video filmmaking in New York as a way to give his own students a chance to become filmmakers.

High school teacher DeFossey’s plan is to bring the technology home to his students in Roma, Texas, a town of high jobless rate in the vicinity of the Mexican border.”

It’s the real thing. More and more educators are teaching skills that used to be college level at high schools. Visual literacy, the skills to analyze and create meaningful video, will grow to be an accepted and essential part of any school curriculum. We’ll all still need to read and write, of course.

Lights, Camera, Legislation – Tech News – CNET.com:

“The most controversial proposal is a bill authored by Sen. Ernest “Fritz” Hollings, D-S.C., and heavily endorsed by media companies such as Disney, which would require hardware makers to include technology that blocks the illegal copying of copyrighted works. The legislation puts the onus on all parties, from consumer groups to record labels, to create the solutions.”

I still see nothing about the potential impact on independent producers and educators here. The web offers unprecedented opportunities for distributing our work to new audiences. How will small producers do this if the tools we’re forced to buy prevent it?
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MacInTouch posts news today about MediaCapture, an apparent Swiss Army knife tool for video capture, a free update for DVD Studio Pro from Apple, and an Apple KnowledgeBase article about MPEG export issues with QuickTime.

The new print issue of DV Magazine – which will post online at DV.com within a few weeks – arrived yesterday, with a feature about distance learning at Georgia Tech, one of our neighboring universities here in downtown Atlanta. The article covers the many ways they use video for their distance learning: via satellite; VHS; CD-ROM; web casting, sometimes live, other times on demand; and occasionally via digital cable. Check the DV.com site for it.

Jerry Hofmann reviews Sorenson’s Squeeze for QuickTime At Creative Cow, and he likes it a lot.