HD For Indies

Wrote a long, ranty screed over on my NATO (National Association of Theater Owners) blog -

Little Mammals Amongst the Dinosaurs’ Feet, talking about the changing ecology/economy of the post industry, and the inevitable changes I see coming there.

It runs a little long, but I like it, a lot. It sums up a lot of the vibe I've been thinking and writing about on here for the last few years.

-mike

Labels: blogs

Hey all -

I've started blogging for NATO - not the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, this is for the National Association of Theater Owners. They've asked me and several other folks to blog about what we think is going on in the industry, so here goes. I've got two entries up so far, one as an intro, one about where I think the industry is headed.

Greetings and Salutations from the Frontier > Boxoffice�

Where have I heard this (swan) song before? > Boxoffice�

Labels: blogs

Hey all -

the summer intern program went so well, I want to keep it going.

I need some interns for the fall semester. If you're a student at the University of Texas at Austin, ACC, St. Ed's, or someone who has time to spend a few hours a day learning but not earning, this is a great opportunity for you.

I specifically am looking for technically savvy, fast learning folks who know or want to know more about production and post production, I need at least one web intern who will get to work with me on site content and revisions and Special Projects.

Mac centric pretty much required - you need to know what you're doing on a Mac, and quite a bit about Final Cut Pro.

Bonus features - this semester will be the one where I get my Very Own Personal Red Camera and Redcine, and there will be opportunities to work with it and footage from it.

I have all the toys, I get to review all the new toys, you'll get to see/touch/play with it all. I'm happy to make certain resources readily available to you as my work permits.

In return, I need help on testing, profiling, and reviewing gear, Special Projects, and ideally I'm looking for a 5 day a week, 3-4 hour/day commitment if at all possible from each intern, or enough interns to fill up the time slots.

Candidates with stronger technical and/or writing skills will be favored.

Drop me an email at mike [at] hdforindies [dot] com with "Fall Intern" in the subject line if you're interested.

-mike

Labels: blogs, Red

I'm taking my own advice - I'm getting back to my roots, spending more time on research and less on keeping track of the daily news for the community benefit.

What am I doing?

A hint: since last week I've been busy doing a lot of testing with a Mac Pro on loan from Apple, we did a LOT of work with it before it had to go back. Learned lots, collected and are tabulating many thousands of data points of interest for the kind of stuff I'm, uh, interested in.

Yeah, that.

Late, wordsmithing low priority after final sprint of 3 looooong days of intense mouse & keyboarding. While I don't want to live there, Production Land is fun to visit every once in a while - it has been a Caffeine and Loud Music Day, MUCH was accomplished.

-mike

Labels: blogs

Hey all - those interstitial Amazon Ads are gone - they were crashing Mac Firefox, they weren't generating much anyway, and Amazon's tech support to address the issue, was, hmm...I'm reluctant to use the full phrase that popped to mind, but "sucked" was in there.

In the meantime, all the content is still there if you would like to support HD for Indies by purchasing the goodies you otherwise would at Amazon through my Amazon Store.

Categories include:
Movies - DVDs, HD DVDs, and Blu-ray - includes a revolving list of bestsellers and is also organized by category.
Books
Cameras
Macs of all types
Software (including upgrades)
Training Materials
AppleTV & iPod
HD Players- HD-DVD & Blu-ray
HDTVs

....and is further subdivided by category once you get to the pages in question.

-mike

Labels: blogs, online store

I very often update articles after posting them - so if something is of interest, check back. I've updated the Final Cut Studio 2.0.1 update article twice, both in significant ways, pointing out new features and discoveries from personal usage.

I updated that Top Ten audio workflow article with a long piece on single vs dual system sound, I updated the ProLost article on Redrock's new camera gadget with user submitted photos, etc.

So if something catches your eye, be sure to go back and look again. Or if you read regularly, every once in a while skim back over the week to see what you missed. I try to always note at the top in bold when it is updated (but I realize I did that 1 time out of 3 here, so I need to get better at it.)

-mike

Labels: blogs, OT

Announcing HD for Indies Premium Content

Today HD for Indies is announcing a new service - HD for Indies Premium.

The existing HD for Indies site isn't changing at all, this will be new, deeper coverage.

HD for Indies Premium will encompass a variety of services - specific websites, downloadable PDFs, online tutorials, downloadable videos, purchasable DVDs, etc.

Updated w/FAQ at bottom of this article, scroll down

WHAT IT IS

HD for Indies Premium is a new way to get the best thoughts and commentary from HD for Indies' chief analyst & writer, Mike Curtis, on a wide range of subjects.

HD for Indies Premium will be launching with a new topic specific blog that will include all Mike's NAB 2007 coverage, reporting, and analysis, including EXTENSIVE, as-yet-unpublished material.

HDforIndies.com covered several companies and topics before and at the show, that content will be included to make the Premium site comprehensive. In addition, however, what will only be posted on the new premium micro-site will be exclusive analysis & commentary of everything else Mike Curtis saw at the show, in addition to extensive unpublished notes, pictures, and videos from interviews at NAB. I decided to make this a living document, via a website, rather than a static PDF or similar structure - I'll be adding to it, augmenting it, folding in new links and info, etc.

WHAT'S COVERED

Companies covered so far:

Abel Cine, Adobe, AJA, Apple, ARRI, Automatic Duck, Avid, Band Pro, Blackmagic Design, Canon, Cineform, Color Space, Dalsa, Glue Tools, GS Vitec (noX camera), JVC, Matrox, Noise Industries, Panasonic, Promax, Red (& lots of it!), Red Giant software, Redrock Micro, ReelStream (Hydra), Silicon Imaging, Sony, Synthetic Aperture, and Wafian.

Concluding thoughts and analysis are still being added, so everything is still being expounded upon and growing. But there's already about 25,000 words worth of details, commentary, analysis, links, etc. so far, so that should be plenty to sink your teeth into to get started.

Remember all that in depth Red coverage before/during/after NAB? Consider that an especially detailed sampler - there's even some newer, more recent info that isn't on hdforindies.com.

HOW THIS WILL WORK:

I'm accepting payments via PayPal's system, but Paypal will also allow you to make a credit card payment, even without a Paypal account.

I've decided to make this as ridiculously affordable as I could stand as an introductory offer (considering the amount of time that went into it) - at the oh-so-very-indie friendly price of only $9.95. I'm curious to see how popular this might be at this time.

STEPS TO SIGN UP:

1.) Read full instructions below, then click here:

....to make a payment - when paying, use an email account that also has an associated Google Account (or make one, takes about a minute) - so ideally your PayPal account has a matching Google account.

2.) You'll receive an email from Mike Curtis inviting you to join the blog - click on the provided link. (It may take a bit for the wheels to churn, don't worry if you don't get an email right away - if PayPal says it processed properly, It Will Happen).

3.) You'll have to sign in using a Google Account - it should be the same email address as your PayPal account (or create a Google Account).

4.) Now you can access the blog, and slice the data in a variety of ways - by Indie vs. High End, by category (Post Hardware, Post Software, Cameras, Acquisition Hardware, etc.), by company, or just use the handy Search function.

This is being sold as a one-to-one consulting report to individuals with a single user license.

Ready to start? Great! Click below to begin!

(Yes, this one works exactly the same as the above one. Just here for convenience.)

-mike

UPDATE /FAQ- to answer some questions already being asked - if you don't have Google and PayPal accounts under the same email, you can either:

1.) In PayPal, pay with a credit card and then enter an email address that has a Google account already set up, or

2.) Pay via PayPal, then set up a new Google Account - it is easy, just takes a minute or so.

Also, somebody asked in the comments:

Will there be a sample or teaser page so that people know what they're going to get before they buy?

See the screen grab at top, gives an idea how everything is organized. If you want some sample content, see all the Red coverage I've done since NAB and consider that the free sample - analysis, photos, news, etc. Actually, you can see everything I've tagged/labelled as Red related here, that's a pretty good overkill sampler. Pictures from NAB 2007 Red booth here and here.

Not everybody gets that much detailed coverage - Red is obviously one of my favorite forthcoming gadgets - but you get the idea. There's actually even more Red coverage of some extra goodies and details that came up in the last few days, and interview details I've never published since NAB that are Red specific. But the premium blog is better organized - see the screen grab at top of this article.

Each company/category entry is organized into linked sections:

Mike's prior notes on this subject
Mike's new notes from NAB
Bottom Line
Mike's comments/recommendations
Mike's Pics
Other coverage
Other pics/video
Product links


...and yes, for once, those section links jump to the location in the article, and links to other web pages actually spawn new windows. Kwality. : )

There's a bit more details in the Comments (link at end of article) if you want more detail than that.

Is it $9.95 to access the site forever or $9.95 per report? Or is it $9.95 per month / year?

Good question - the $9.95 is for this specific NAB 2007 report only, but is indefinite. You get all the NAB 2007 goodness in there, and I'm planning on just leaving the site up. Think of this as a chunk of consulting you're buying, a one time report you're buying. It just so happens to be in the form of a one-trick-pony website. I plan on leaving the site up for quite a while, probably well past its usefulness or timeliness (the hosting fees are paid out for over a year already anyway, so...).

What will happen to the vanilla HD for Indies site in the long run?

I still plan on doing HD4NDs as I have, but the super-indepth stuff that hasn't happened much in the last 6-12 months, things where I need to spend a day or two testing and a half day or more writing up will start migrating to a Premium model - otherwise there just isn't time to justify doing them on the free site. I'm still noodling around on exactly how it will be presented, exactly where the free/premium split will occur, but perhaps some kind of a la carte report option with a "subscribe to all" option as well. All up in the air, these are just the current thoughts in my head. The good news is that I'm getting infrastructure in place so that the daily news still happens, and I only need to touch & edit rather than sift it all on my own - Andy and Geoff are helping out on that stuff.

Q: So why so long after NAB?

A: It is just what it took - hey, DV.com just got their coverage up last week too! : ) But the goal for next year is to be sooner and more comprehensive...and it will definitely cost more. But to have text, audio interviews, video interviews, notes and thoughts being fed back to team in Austin whilst I interview etc. on site.

I'll keep adding to this FAQ as more issues come up.

-mike

Labels: blogs, HD4NDsPrem, online content service

So now I have two interns, Geoff and Andy, helping with my blogging stuff every day. You might have noticed an increase in the volume of coverage over the last few days. I've also caught a few mistakes I've made along the way, power-skimming and summarizing my way through the drafts they've saved for me to go over.

I need to balance breadth and depth of coverage, so hang tight while I fine tune the process.

The good news is the new system should allow for coverage of the daily news, but also allow me time to do some longer, deeper pieces and reviews and thought pieces as well once things settle in.

Oh! And of course, work on other projects as well.

-mike

Labels: blogs, housekeeping

Hey all -

So I've decided I need an intern for the summer.

Qualifications should include:

1.) An interest, nay, a passion for and knowledge of digital moviemaking tech and processes in general. The more you know, the better. You'll know one metric kabundle more by the end of the summer.

2.) Knowledge of the web, HTML, etc. You've seen the page layout here, I'm not asking for much. The more you know the better.

4.) Writing skills and critical thinking abilities to parse a lot of info in not a lot of time. Again, more is better.

5.) Most important of all, a totally can-do, kick butt attitude when it comes to learning and doing new things. Afraid of new tech? Sorry, move along, these aren't the droids you're looking for.

6.) Availability to work preferably 5 days a week 3 or so hours each working day. Schedule somewhat flexible. I'm in Travis Heights in Austin, TX, so you'd need to have your own transpo rain or shine to get here daily. Yes, you're going to need to live in Austin or thereabouts.

In return for your time, you'll get to work hands on on the HD for Indies website, helping me to create content and reshape HD for Indies into a lean, mean, indie fightin' machine. Already at over a quarter million pageviews a month, I need some help with some of the basics & maintenance to free me up to do more interesting things for the blog - like critical writing, analysis, reviews, etc.

You'll also be involved in hands on testing of latest and greatest new products (hardware, software, cameras), testing new workflow methodologies, etc. I have lots of toys and access to more - this will be an incredible learning experience for the right candidate.

If you're a candiate, or you're regular reader and know a well qualified candidate, please get in touch - you know how to reach me, email address is at the top of every page.

-mike

Labels: blogs

Riding off into the sunset... - DV Guru: "You might have heard before, but in case you hadn't, today marks the last day of DV Guru."

Yep - DVguru is going away, no more updates. Drat! It has been one of my consistent go-to's and link-to's for a while, now it is going away. Hopefully content and links will stay active for some time, as I've linked to a bunch of stuff today.

I'm sorry to see them go, and I wish Ajit and the rest all the best in their future endeavors.

-mike

Labels: blogs