Category Archives: Video
Steven Spielberg vs The Modern Film Biz
I love Steven Spielberg as an artist, but his proposal to change the rules to keep streaming companies out of the Oscars, is way off base. As the Academy Awards attempts to stay relevant, he proposes to constrict, rather than expand, the scope of what constitutes an Oscar worthy film.
Mr. Spielberg prefers to watch a movie in a theater. That’s fine, until he wants to codify his personal preference, as a requirement for Oscar qualification. Netflix follows the arbitrary rules and puts their films in theaters for the required amount of time. This isn’t good enough? Interestingly, action films make most use of the “big screen experience” and they RARELY get a nod from Oscar, outside of the technical awards. Clearly, it’s not the experience that’s being protected.
What it seems to boil down to is protecting the prestige (& profits) of the traditional studios and the ancillary distribution markets that inherently erect insurmountable barriers to entry, for the vast majority of filmmakers. If only the studios have the access and resources to fund a major theatrical release, then only the studios will be able to qualify for the lucrative Oscar. The Academy would be setting themselves up for failure, by leaving innovation behind. They will be leaving great content behind, and in the process, relegating themselves to irrelevancy.
Who will care about the Academy Awards if people know that worthy films aren’t even able to compete?
The saving grace is that the Academy voters have themselves voted for films from these new studios. Will the Academy members agree that they were wrong and can no longer be trusted? Let’s hope they vote contrary to Mr. Spielberg’s flawed plan, and continue to honor filmmaking, not the status-quo, studio club.
Los Angeles Times Entertainment
The Hollywood Reporter
Variety
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Los Angeles Times: Steven Spielberg to propose Oscar rules that could keep streaming films out of contention.
IntimiDATER 2017 Fitness Goals
For the past few years I’ve used the same IntimiDATER Resolutions with just one update added in 2014. Go ahead and check that out. I stand by it as it has stood the test of time.
For 2017, I’ve added a fitness component. Of course, I added video to share these innovative concepts of fitness goal measurement and motivation. You’re welcome.
Stay in touch here, or on the more frequently updated IntimiDATER Facebook Page!
IntimiDATER – Perfect Gift Idea
So you’ve just started dating someone and BOOM, the holiday season starts. What kind of gift should you give to send the right message? Well, IntimiDATER has some thoughts on that.
Apps That I’ve Been Playing With on my Lumia
It’s no secret that I rock Windows Phone. Currently, in the form of a Lumia 1020. The media loves to badmouth the platform as having “no apps”. Even owners of Windows Phone jump in when the app they want isn’t available. While there is some truth to that, there are also lots of really great apps and I’d like to showcase some of them here. Don’t worry if you’re stuck on Android and iOS, some of these are available to you, as well.
So read on to see what apps that I’m using that you might not be using.
Images to Video on my Lumia 1020
I needed to be down in Hollywood for an appointment and I decided to do a little tourist walk. I took 10 minutes and gathered some pictures and a couple of videos. Later, I had some Pho for dinner. You don’t know what Pho is? Not to worry, you’ll see it in the second video.
The Nokia Lumia 1020 is perfect for capturing great images. The Windows Phone ecosystem has a ton of apps to use with imaging, as well. Today, I’ll show you examples of two of these apps I used to quickly put together video content to share on social media.
Just PROSHOWing Off Some Fave Lumia 1020 Pictures
The Nokia Lumia devices are not just all work, although you can see the good work that can be done with these phones in my last post. No, today I discovered the ProShow app for making slideshow videos out of you still pictures. Here’s my first one!
Some notes:
It’s a Wonderland of Goodness
My friend Melanie’s kids go to this great school called Wonderland, here in Los Angeles. Part of what they do is to give the kids an experience with growing ingredients and making healthy recipes. Why am I droning on? Here’s how it was described to me:
‘Wonderland school is dedicated to providing its students with a quality education. From the Ground Up is the school’s Garden program that informs and teaches students about environmental stewardship and allows them to explore the connectivity of nature’s processes in the garden and the kitchen.’
They’ve filmed some of these tastings before, with parent volunteers, but weren’t sure about this one. Melanie had seen the Lumia devices in action before and contacted me about shooting. Let’s see how that went…
I used both a Lumia 1020 and a Lumia 920. I got a little help from a shotgun microphone plugged in with an XLR to phone adaptor. You will hear that when I used the audio from the phone, that you pick up more of the ambient sound, the children playing.
Here’s the segment on how you can make a citrus salad with freshly harvested rosemary. Be sure to watch in HD.
I can tell you from 1st had experience that this citrus salad is really good. Go ahead and try it at home.
