Jazz Mutant

Jazz Mutant creates amazing Multi-touch tools for musicians. Their inventions allow for immense flexibility and control. Any performer can build their ideal setup of knobs sliders and customize it to fit their needs.

As a video editor I would absolutely love to see this built for video editing. Some of the most fun I’ve ever had editing was on a Steenbeck. Sure it was time consuming, but you just can’t beat the tactile feel of actually touching the film, making marks and cuts in the real world. I would love to have a tool that made the process of editing more tactile once again. It seems doable if there’s a will.

It would be amazing to have the Steenbeck experience duplicated in an enhanced multi-touch setup. To be able to flick through clips, make marks and organize clips by manipulating them on the screen in front of you. It would require an immense amount of refinement to get it right, but I hope someone decides to push editing tools in new directions. It seems like we are sort of stuck in a rut with J-K-L.

The Exorcist

Often people talk about films just in terms of profit and loss. It’s funny to see fancy business terms applied to films as if they are stocks.

On American Masters this evening there was a little documentary about the history of Warner Brothers. During the 70s Warner Brothers made a slew of movies that would probably sound like horrible ideas if people tried to get investors to sink millions into them today. 

Ok hear me out. There’s this kid who’s possessed by the devil. As in she acts a little strangely, some projectile vomiting, convulsing, etc. Trust me this is going to be one of the highest grossing films of all time. There’s no love story, no sexy leading man. But we do have Max Von Sydow (who rocks btw, my Swedish homey)

The Exorcist was a risk that worked out kind of well for them. (number 9 all time box office, snuggled between Doctor Zhivago and Snow White and the Seven Dwarves) Not to mention a few other risky pictures that will be around as long as people stare at glowing screens, Dog Day Afternoon, Deliverance, Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon, etc. 

They pretty much just decided that Stanley Kubrick was a genius and let him do whatever he wanted to. Love it.

by David Giral

The past few weeks have been an interesting ride for Jim Jannard and his new venture RED. Canon and Nikon both released DSLRs that shoot HD video. Granted the Nikon has major CMOS rolling shutter issues. But the Canon shoots beautiful video. Which leaves RED to reconsider the future of Scarlet.

I just hope that future includes HDR. HDR is all about capturing huge dynamic range. I would be happy with 2k resolution if it had the dynamic range of HDR. As far as I know there is no camera that can shoot full motion 24 frame per second HDR. HDR would allow immense latitude in creating some amazing visuals. I’m sure they could pull it off. In the meantime I’ll have my fingers crossed. Or maybe the mad scientists at Ikonoshop will beat them to it!

I love technology, perhaps even a bit too much. It’s easy for filmmakers to get obsessed with technology over all else. It can become all about the specs of your camera, is it just 4k or is it 8k? Is it made of carbon fiber or just boring metal. Meanwhile the stuff that matters, scripts, ideas, and content are all forgotten. I’m as guilty as anyone. I made a small little promise to myself that I would try to steer clear of technology in this little space and focus on ideas. I’m going to continue to “try” to steer clear. But at times I just have to indulge. Hello, my name is Ben and I have a camera addiction.

Gypsy Cab involves Steve (a “dude” from Colorado) who’s never driven in NYC, driving a gypsy cab which is actually the new VW Rabbit. Every fare is recorded Taxi Cab confessional style. My “favorite fare” is #2, a west virginian family exploring the city with Steve (who also hosts his own public access show from his car back in Colorado). The situation has really been perfectly crafted for comedy. Steve has no clue where he’s going and isn’t any sort of polished host, which allows for the unexpected at every turn.

This concept is a way to build a conversation that VW consumers can be a part of. It is very well designed as way to engage people and get them talking, more about the experience than the car. They have really succeeded in creating interesting content that happens to also meet their goals. Where it slips is that there’s no way for visitors to share their favorite fares. For example I can’t post my favorite fare here as I could a YouTube video, nor can I even link to it. That seems to create quite a dead end in the conversation. This would also be perfect for a video podcast or a myspace page, it’s surprising that they haven’t followed through.

Gypsy Cab Project

Deborah Voigt and Plácido Domingo in Act I of Die Walküre.

There’s nothing like seeing the opera in person and just being knocked over with the sonic power emitting from these apparently supernatural people. Here’s an experience that can definitely make use of a movie theatre. Amazing to see them spreading their content to other venues.

Could this be just the beginning? My sense is that this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the variety of content that will eventually be available at movie theatres. It would be interesting if there were eventually theatres that specialized in just carrying premiere live events like this from around the world.

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Innovation is a buzz word. Everyone lusts after it. It has replaced “branding” as the mysterious key to growth and success. But, what does it really boil down too? It’s about playing. When we play we give importance to what we’re passionate about. We spend our time messing around with stuff that we’re interested in rather than what we’re supposed to be doing or what we already know how to do. Innovation as a word is intimidating and complex. But, if we look at two companies (Google and 3M) that are reknowned for their innovation what do we find? Choice. Each company allows their people the chance to play. They can spend some of their time each week messing around with something crazy.

Choice based art education uses the same approach. It is a way of building creativity into our education system through allowing the students to play with what interests them. Innovation isn’t about getting everyone in a room to brainstorm as IBM is attempting with their worldwide innovation jam. It’s about giving them the opportunity every day to play with new ideas that interest them rather than requiring them to play at a scheduled time, according to carefully written rules.