It seems that every content distribution company has decided that original content is the way forward. Amazon’s recent announcement that they would spend $100 million on original production adds to Apple’s UK music festival, Netflix and Google’s original programming. Google are spending on YouTube production as well.
In context though… $100 million would buy you two seasons of Mad Men.
One of my non-metadata interests is in food, so I read a lot of food related articles, including this one where Anthony Bourdain talks about the foodie revolution. What stood out was this comment after discussing the traditional way a talented young chef might make their way through the kitchen hierarchy over decades, vs the modern “democratized” approach where a talented young chef just ups  – maybe via a food truck – and gets their career started.
“A lot of old-school guys complain about this—you’re not paying your dues. That’s the downside. The upside is interesting people with something to say and a unique worldview can actually get their name out there and open a place with relative ease compared to the way it used to be.â€
This reminds me of modern production: it’s been democratized to the point where, if you have an idea, you can make it happen.
In this episode Terence and Philip discuss NAB 2014: Avid’s direction, AJA’s new camera, drones and cars that drive themselves, the new Dolby monitor, NAB excitement levels, and Lumberjack System.
The final post in my series rising out of a recent Digital Production BuZZ segment with Larry Jordan and Michael Horton. Larry asked one final, very important question.
Larry Jordan:Â Â Because we are charged with delivering our projects on time and on budget, at what point should we resist change, like not being too close to the bleeding edge, and at what point should we embrace change?
Terence and Philip discussion innovation, starting with a recent article questioning Avid’s continued ability to innovate. The discussion covers who might be innovating, what it innovation and a whole lot of other subjects as well.
Many people “worry” that Apple will abandon their professional applications (Final Cut Pro X, Aperture and Logic Pro X) because they don’t make much money for the company. Ironically, the same argument can be made about Media Composer: it is not core to the company’s primary business . In reality it’s more likely that Avid would abandon (or sell) Media Composer than Apple is to get out of the professional creative tools market.
The Forbes article, Cable TV Model Not Just Unpopular But Unsustainable starts with a putative outline of a cable business: essentially “keep hiking the rates, have terrible service”! Finishing with this “goal”:
 If all goes as described, we should be able to consistently deliver customer satisfaction levels that rank among the lowest of any industry.Â
Now that’s not a business model I’d want to emulate!
There’s been a lot of discussion about what sort of professional videos work being done, that isn’t directly involved with Movies or network/cable Television. Well, SCRI has released an overview of their Digital Media Production Trends report. What’s important when reviewing these types of survey results, is to examine who was surveyed, and what they were asked.
A recent article in the Atlantic confirms my long standing suspicion that the best writing and most interesting characters with the most interesting stories are on TV, not in the movies.
I totally support every company’s right to go after those distributing their content by unauthorized means, but they must do it within the law. Unfortunately Lynda.com has hired a shell company “IP Arrow” to handle their takedowns, and that company is doing Lynda a great disservice by issuing bogus DMCA takedowns. (This is illegal but never prosecuted.)