April 19, 2008
The talk of NAB was Tim Robbin's expletive spiced keynote address, not the absence of Apple and Avid. Thus proving Robbin's point that TV people have no idea what is important and what is not. Personally, I had a couple of very exciting meetings, but the show itself has become a reflection of television at it's worst; nothing new, all reruns.
The equipment sellers had a few improvements, a new HD codec to be changed again next year. Chips instead of video tape, which use a codec that must be converted to be used, and though some time is saved avoiding the capture process, what of raw footage? Tape is cheap storage, flash memory, not so much.
After much fanfare that this year "Content is King"; it turned out to be the king of Liechtenstein, as in small and not many subjects. Content suppliers are facing the upheaval that record companies have faced for the last few years. The oligopoly is broken into thousands of pieces. The new suppliers and distributors of interesting content are not to be found at the broadcasters convention; they are at the web 2.0 convention.
NAB organizers need to break out their knee pads and beg that Apple and Avid return and with them comes Google, Yahoo and the other web upload places where eyeballs under 30 are all going to get their brand of entertainment. The paradigm has shifted and while NAB concentrates on only the high-end buyers, the entire entertainment business has migrated elsewhere.
May 4, 2008
The old joke is... A guy is trying to sell another guy a rhinoceros for, let’s say 2.4 billion dollars. “What the hell am I going to do with a rhinoceros?” asks the bewildered would-be buyer. The seller thinks fast and says, “How about two rhinoceroses for the same money”. The buyer says, “Now you are talking!”. Substitute Getty Images for rhinoceros and that’s how I see the story of the acquisition of their licensing and istockphoto.com businesses.
The hedge fund which bought the twin rhinoceroses may be able to remain mostly anonamous, but when you are the CEO of Google and you pay 1.6 billion for YouTube and admit in a CNBC interview you are not sure how it is going to make money, it gives stockholders pause for concern. The fact is, there could be several models which would make advertisers more interested in YouTube, but Google has not come up with them, ergo, they must not exist. Here’s an idea for companies which have never had to struggle back from a mistake or face strong competition. Invite OUTSIDE suggestions from INDIVIDUALS! Invention is not a group activity.
May 15, 2008
Being on location is the best part of this job. We are currently shooting in San Diego which is definitely picking low hanging fruit...so much so easy. We are plugging in at a five star resort at night. Not at all like the Brazil shoot; monsoon rains in Rio and the food poisoning in Manaus and beyond. This is the best job in the world.
Elsewhere, Yahoo has jilted a suitor of the same species for god knows what with a Carl Ichan. CNET has been offered acquisition for billions by CBS; I hope for both they know what they are buying. It could work.
I am an M.B.A. from a sometimes top 5 school, but I guess I have lost the religion. All I seem to care about is being at the next amazing place on the planet when the light is just right...and the people I meet in the process. Dumb luck really.
June 30, 2008
Interesting couple months of shooting. We acquired San Diego and the surround area
including the wild animal reserve which is owned by the San Diego Zoo.
Amazing animal footage is coming. We are also just back from Victoria,
British Columbia. In addition to the sight and sounds of this
spectacular city, we acquired beautiful flora footage from the world
famous Buchard Gardens and we acquired extremely rare footage of a
pod of 25 killer whales feeding off Vancouver Island.
We are still
working on ways to upload all this new content and we wish it could all
happen as a fast as we can think it. A note to all who search our site
at www.WorldClips.TV and cannot find what you need, call 888-440-2547.
We now have more footage which is not up on the site than is there. We
probably have what you need and can direct download it to your computer
manually. Thanks for your continued support. -Gary
