YouTube's Demonetization a.k.a. #YouTubeIsOverParty

Recently, many YouTubers have made a stink about YouTube's (already in place) demonetization policy. Critics of the policy have labeled YouTube as "political correct" and "a form of censorship."

As anti-censorship as I am, YouTube has become a cesspool of the worst of the Internet. Many of the videos flagged for demonetization have racist, xenophobic, and sexist slants. If YouTube (or Google) wants to set an advertising standard, then that just makes good business sense.

YouTube is a FREE platform. This isn't about censorship. This is about someone using a free platform to make money. It's a gift to content creators. Demonetization isn't the real problem on YouTube. It's false copyright claims. False copyright claims have the power to shape actual policy and laws and make it harder for creators to create, even for those who don't utilize YouTube.

As far as money goes, ads have taken away from the enjoyment of YouTube anyway. Host your vid somewhere else where you can generate revenue from your fans. Or don't. I don't utilize YouTube enough because of all the ads and rabble a free platform seems to harbor. I prefer Vimeo, even though Vimeo's free service is limited. But lately, I have considered making informational videos. YouTube would be perfect for those, as well as the other blog-like, business-centered videos that live there already.

I'm actually MORE inclined to use YouTube with the policy clarified. Imagine that.

Happy Filmmaking.

My 5 Favorite Field Apps for iPhone

Below are my five favorite apps I like to use when working in the field. I use an iPhone 6, so sorry, Android users. Some of them are on Android, but I’m not sure which ones.

• DSLR Filmmaker Toolkit is a app that includes a slate with shot log, a viewfinder, and a depth of field calculator. I mainly use it for the slate and shot log, as I can email the file to myself as an Excel sheet. It’s a paid app. 
• The Magic Hour app alerts me an hour before and during the magic hour. It also gives me the angle of the sun at my exact location and a countdown to sunset. It is free. Can’t beat that.

Magic Hour

• Dark Sky tells me almost to the minute when rain is coming my way. On the Gulf Coast, this is useful, whether you are shooting or not. You can request a weather report for a particular address and even receive UV and wind reports. I received it for free at Starbucks, but it's a paid app.

Dark Sky

• Google Maps is a no brainer, but it just gets better and better. The app can now calculate your drive time while on route and can let you know if a faster route is available. You can also get public transit routes and bike paths if you lack a car.
• Adobe Hue CC is the newest app in my toolbox. It only came out days ago, but I have already fallen in love with it. It allows you to make LUTs on the go with your phone’s camera. If you are an Adobe Creative Cloud user, you can sync your LUT collection to use back in Premiere Pro or After Effects. App is technically free, but is better with the Adobe CC.

Adobe Hue CC

 Happy Filmmaking!

Release of Google Photos: Good News for Indie Filmmakers!

DISCLAIMER: This blog is hosted on Blogger.com, a Google product.

I love storage clouds! The files are virtually accessible everywhere, and clouds make collaboration easy. Clouds have become cheaper and larger over the years (just like physical storage), which for filmmakers is a godsend.

Online storage is not without its flaws, however. Servers can be hacked and your videos and photos leaked, which may be detrimental to your business if your clients' projects depend on confidentiality or non-disclosure agreements. Your creative work may also be stolen. While unlikely, servers COULD be wiped clean by hackers. So, even if you are backing up to the cloud, it is important to still use physical storage (such as a hard drive or data disk) for your most important files. That way, you have both.

As a Mac user, I also use iCloud and Photos for many of my personal photos and videos. While Google Photos appears to be a direct competitor, I see the advantage of both systems and will plan to use both. Google Photos will be able to store unlimited videos in 1080p, which should make every indie filmmaker rejoice. If your files are bigger than that (such as 4k), then physical storage may still be the answer. However, I would recommend using Google Photos to make an archival copy of your final projects.

Happy Filmmaking.

If you are not subscribed to Adobe Cloud, what is your major malfunction?

Not to be rude with the title, but I wondered this about myself. The Adobe Creative Suite is an invaluable tool for creatives everywhere, but its price point tends to separate the haves from the have-nots. It also tends to turn normally law-abiding citizens into artistic pirates. Come on, Adobe, it's art for art's sake, not art for money's sake.

Well, Adobe listened and came up with an innovative and modern solution: a cloud. Users pay a monthly subscription to access all of Adobe's Creative Suite offerings, usually $50 a month for a year. Let's crunch the numbers for a second.

The average CS offering costs between $1700-$2500. Photoshop alone can cost over $500. Premiere: $700. After Effects: as much as $1000. Factor in upgrades at about $150-$350 a pop and you have a software program that is almost literally worth its weight in gold.

Creative Cloud for an annual commitment will cost $600. In monthly $50 chunks. You can even buy just one program for $20 a month, but why would you wanna do that? A plus: you may even qualify for the $30 a month price. I caught the sale price of $30 a month. There is also a student version for the same price.

So for $30-$50 a month (you know you spend more in gas!), you get:

• Most updated CS, currently CS6 (or maybe CS7 this month, according to rumors).
• Web hosting for up to 5 websites.
• Access to all Adobe's programs***.
• 20GB Server storage.

Thank you, Adobe. Yeah, you can argue that paying a monthly subscription means you might be giving more money to Adobe in the long run, but we live in a capitalistic society and Adobe does make an excellent product. Plus, you know it saves you time you could be working versus looking up cracked versions on Pirate Bay that don't work.

Oh. And this ain't the Google Docs version of CS. As you can see from the screenshot below, these are the full versions of the programs. Thinking cloud and thinking of web-based programs was my original hesitation to try, but I must admit I am happy with the fact I can run any CS program without being connected to the Internet (and if you are creative, you may want to work offline every now and then).
 

 ***Now for the caveat. As you can see, I'm still running Windows XP, like the broke 20-something I am. Although I plan to upgrade to a MacBook Pro this year, I'm not quite ready yet to say goodbye my faithful mocha-colored Vaio. My computer was Vista ready when I bought it, but I don't have to explain why I never upgraded. If you are running an older operating system, be prepared to notice a few programs missing. Maybe ones you were looking forward to, like After Effects. That's because your OS is not compatible. For Windows users, that means you must be running a 64-bit system. I had to Google that, so please, Adobe,  make that more apparent on your website or something. BUT...the cloud gives you 2 licenses, so hey, maybe that's not a big deal for you if you have more than one computer.

A pleasant surprise is Adobe Muse, which is like the Lightroom version of Dreamweaver. It's still a fairly new program, but an easy learning curve if you are already familiar with CS. I'm using it to redo the Lagniappe Cinemas website. Muse seems to be the star program, and for good reason. Web design is everything. 

If you don't commit to a year, you'll pay $75 a month. But, seriously, just do the year contract. Many projects last much longer than that. A year moves fast.

Happy Filmmaking.

Gamechangers: Canon EOS 5D Mark III and the New iPad

Talk about a match made in heaven! The highly anticipated Canon EOS 5D Mark III and the uber-highly anticipated iPad have finally made their debuts. Both seem made for each other. The iPad 3--or iPad HD, whatever they are calling it--has the much predicted retina display previously touted on the iPhone and iPod. Given the new display, the iPad uses as a media display can be pushed into any filmmaking realm.

The Mark III is a step up from the Mark II. It has revolutionary features such as a silent shutter. As a still photographer and a filmmaker, I've never heard of a silent shutter. Since I'm too poor to afford either at this point, I guess I'll stick with renting.



It's nice to dream, though. Happy Filmmaking!

"Chris/tina": Support new series!

New media is fast approaching a golden age. Most of us now know that steady studio jobs have disappeared and the abundant funding for more traditional projects have dried up. More filmmakers see the internet as an unlimited canvas, where real careers are forged.

Jorge Ortiz is taking LGBT filmmaking to new heights with his new web series, Chris/tina. Chris/tina involves a young, transexual Los Angeles-based Latino living in a middle-class, socially conservative world. Jorge has been working on his series tirelessly for the past 2 years, developing and gathering the interest needed to produce and fund his project. I would say his hard work has paid off.



Please help Jorge out by supporting this revolutionary new series! It already made 2010 semi-finalist in the NexTV Writing and Pitch competition. The series will be produced by Anchorbolt Studios.



Happy Filmmaking!


UPDATE: I wanted to make a correction. Chris/tina is not a web series per se, but rather a television series using the means of internet. Also, the main character discovers his sexual identity as the show progresses. He does not identity as transsexual at the start of the series. Jorge has a new fundraising campaign here:

http://www.indiegogo.com/christinaseries

Why 98.9% of all YouTube videos are garbage!

What's the fastest way to make your YouTube upload suck? Well, if I could only limit the list to five:

5. Gimmicky transitions.

4. Unreadable or cheesy fonts.

3. Complete disregard for copyright.

2. Crappy Tribute/Slash videos.

1. Using the prepackaged title cards from Windows Movie Maker as is.

Let's take a short, but detailed look at all of them.

5. Gimmicky transitions:

The Simpsons said it best. NO MORE STAR WIPES! For that matter, let's get rid of page wipes, pixelated wipes, sliding wipes, block wipes, any type of wipe. Unless you are Star Wars or some 1980s sitcom, only two transitions really matter: the clean cut and the dissolve. That's it. Anything else and you risk looking like a 12-year-old with too much time on your hands (please see #2).

4. Unreadable or cheesy fonts:

Titles or captions should not be in Curlz, Tempus Sans, or Comic Sans. They should be in a readable text, like Arial or Verdana. That also means your dark-colored title or text should not have a dark-colored background. And I have no idea why the YouTube developers decided annotations were a good idea.

Comic Sans strikes again.

3. Complete disregard for copyrighted music:

Hey, I'm all for public domain or fair use. But at least cite from where you got the copyrighted material. Biggest offenders: home videos that must have Ying Yang Twins accompanying your dog chasing his tail. They both have nothing to do with each other; which brings me to...

2. Crappy Tribute/Slash videos:

If it's been on television, odds are a tribute video exists, regardless of how obscure. Growing Pains? Yep. Family Matters? Covered. Dawson's Creek? Duh. Wuzzles?(Off topic: every person born after 1988 is scratching his or her head right now.) You bet your sweet tail!

Even worse are those videos that hint at some type of sexual relationship, usually between two characters of the same gender. I'm not a homophobe, but yeah, some of these videos exist because homophobes exist. Well, some--like Spock and Kirk--are quite good. Others, not so much. But come on, you know Olivia Benson and Alex Cabot were meant for each other! Elliot who?

You know you want it, Benson.

1. Using the prepackaged title cards from Windows Movie Maker as is:

Oh. My. God. I really don't have any words for this. Wait. Yes, I do. Stop it. At least change the background color from that VHS blue to black or something. And no more double-superimposed titles or spinning newspapers. But seriously, Windows Movie Maker can only take you so far. Buy Final Cut Pro or Avid. If you want to go all out, create your titles with AfterEffects. Or if you are broke, download one of these Ubuntu Linux editors.

Gotta love clichés that are dated even for Windows.

Bonus: Booty clapping videos.

I'm pretty sure this one borders on child pornography. All 14-year-old girls everywhere: this is not cute!

See you in Trig, Becky.

Happy Filmmaking.

Dumb and Dumber, blame the internet?

Is the internet really making us dumber? Of course there is some argument there: I'm one of the faceless millions who uses Google to spell-check. But is it really making us dumber? Or worse, is it killing professional film criticism?

Clarence Page of the Chicago Tribune seems to think so. With the democratic approach that is the internet, Page concludes that time-honored critics like Roger Ebert, Elvis Mitchell, or Leonard Maltin are losing their shirts to the "amateur" critics of imdb.com or Netflix.

He has a point. There seems to be a lot of people out there that would give Soul Plane a 10 on imdb.com because it was "hella-crazy, fo' sho!". You also have the trolls who believe every popular movie despite its critical and/or commercial successes is "the worst movie, ever." But, I think Mr. Page gives too much credit to these folks, and not enough to the folks between Ebert and norbitlover_92.

There are some great critical analysis on the internet that come from non-professionals who know what constitutes a great film. Some might be Team Goodfellas versus Team The Godfather, but can ultimately conclude both are considered "good films". It's safe to assume choosing between Team Amadeus and Team Santa Claus Conquers the Martians is not purely based of personal preference.

Some viral professionals gladly use the internet to their advantage. Like the super-funny guys at spill.com. I'm a big fan. Their analyses balance everyman rhetoric with a hint of professional criticism.

I would take the internet with a grain a salt. Like television before it, it can be used for good (PBS!) or it can be used for evil (Jersey Shore).

Happy Filmmaking!

A great (and cheap) concept

Recently, I came across this website called 5 Second Films. The site, as well as the videos, are created by two USC film school graduates (shout out to my fellow Trojans!). Not counting the titles, each film is exactly five seconds each.

I believe this would be a great exercise for any filmmaker. So much has to be conveyed in such a short amount of time, that it forces the filmmakers to get to the point. The 5 Second Films (or 5SF) usually consist of some type of joke concept easily conveyed in the time given. Some of the films seem pretty out there, but overall, not a bad idea.

You should make your own five or ten-second film. Come up with a concept and plan accordingly. As long as you have some type of camera, willing friends--I mean--"actors," some type of editing system, and interesting props, sky's the limit!

Kudos to the filmmakers for their editing skills. I had to post one of my favorite here!



Happy Filmmaking