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One of the questions I asked my interview guests at the NAB Show New York, was, in spite of all the stress in media today, what made them optimistic?
The answer is both reassuring and surprising.
Reasons for Optimism About Media
TRT: 8:51 — MPEG-4 HD movie
GUESTS
Randi Altman
Editor-in-Chief, PostPerspective
Tara Montford
Co-founder & EVP Sales, EditShare
Chris Black
Global Head of Brand & Communications, Vizrt
Chris Merrill
Director, Product Management, Panasonic Connect
Jeff Sengpiehl
CTO, Key Code Media
Kari Eythorsson
Product Manager, Clear-com
Bob Caniglia
Director Sales Operations, Blackmagic Design
Sean Lee
CEO, OpenDrives
Matt Morgan
Business Development Manager, Ross Video
Dr. Marc Batschkus
Director, Business Development, Archiware
Mike Cavanagh
Founder/President, Key Code Media
Karen Chupka
EVP, Global Connections & Events, NAB
7 Responses to Reasons for Optimism About Media [v]
Question if you are not asking the questions on camera. I would not have you wear your headset it’s a cleaner look for you. Last shot not so pleasing I would never have my guest in a dirty OTS shot but I would have me host in a dirty OTS shot. One more thing You need a better background for yourself ever you in a crowd as a background it would have been more pleasing to the eye. Those are my opinions. Love to hear your feed back .
Robert:
Headsets were required due to the high noise level on the show floor. Lavaliers pick up too much of the surrounding sound and shotguns require an operator given the amount of movement the guests make – even though they are sitting on a chair.
These clips were extracts from longer interviews where both the guest and I are on camera.
Totally agree with you about framing problems. The issue was that the budget was so small I could afford cameras or operators but not both. I chose cameras. This resulted in a number of framing problems, as you so accurately pointed out.
I also agree that the background behind me was, um, sub-optimal. The background at the show was a thin white curtain that looked into a dead, cement section of the hall. Due to the late notice allowing us to do these interviews on the show floor, we did the best we could with what we we could afford or create.
Larry
I’m primarily a Cinematographer (19 years in) so I’m listening from that standpoint. And although I’m also a Senior Level Editor, for the past 7-8 years I’ve done everything I can to be in front of a computer as little as possible. I only mention this because for those who are still passionate about editing, the technology is great from an out of pocket cost. Costs virtually nothing to be up and running and it sounds like most of venders at the show have software and hardware solutions for independent content creators. In my opinion it’s actually a win for them in these times because while the prices of the products have gone down dramatically in the last 15 years, because anyone can be a content creator now they now have a massive market share vs the relatively niche market share of days of yore. (Yes I realize the venders have waaay more competition in the marketplace so it’s not a 1 to 1 gain, it’s diluted)
I’m not sure these answers give industry insight to a person on a film crew because the folks in the video are coming at it from the product side. In fact the products as mentioned by more than one person in this video allow a person to use technology to do what would’ve been the jobs of 3-4 people. And coming at it from an editor it’s the same thing, yes I can get the gear and software solutions for dirt cheap but so can everyone else so how am I ever going to have a $100-150/hr rate?
Would be cool to hear a mashup like this from editors and crew vs the venders at the trade show to hear how the people actually doing the production work are adapting to the massive changes.
All that to say, Larry you always go out and do a great job gathering the information and I would have to respectively disagree with the comment about the headset and framing…if you have to choose, audio is king in an interview so you definitely made the right decision to make sure your guests could be heard clearly even if it meant they needed to wear a headset.
Christopher:
Lots of great thoughts in your comment. To start, it has always been my philosophy that when you are asking people your opinion, you need great audio. (This may come from 14 years hosting an audio podcast, but even subtitles depend upon good audio to know what they are saying in the first place.)
You are exactly correct. Descending prices for media gear makes it more accessible to a broader market. This increases the sales of vendors, but decreases creators ability to charger higher prices because there are far more people competing for the same size pie. This is one of the big challenges we are confronting now.
I agree that hearing from editors and other creative folks would provide another perspective. However, at shows like NAB – which only last for two days – there are far more people to talk with than we have time for. In those cases, I opt for the vendors because I have them all in one place. In future shows, I’ll try to expand my guest list.
The other goal I had in my interviews was to go beyond “what’s new” into “what trends are you watching,” “what’s the impact of AI,” and the one I collated in this video “what makes you optimistic?” I’ll have more videos on these subjects in the next week or two.
Larry
Thanks for the reply. Just wanted to mention, I totally understand why venders were the ones being interviewed…at a vender show : )
That part of my comment was in no way coming from a bad place. I think you always produce valuable content. Clearly at a show like that it would be tough to gather the folks in production and post-production. I was simply saying that would be a valuable group for someone to interview not necessarily you specifically.
Great stuff as usual!
Christopher:
Your comments were taken in the way you offered them – good ideas to consider. It is easy at a show like NAB to concentrate on vendors because they are so easy to find – smile, though not always easy to interview. But, there are multiple sides to production and post. Expanding my guest list is a good idea and I’ll look for ways to implement it.
Comments like yours are useful. Thanks!
Larry
Your reaction shot to what the BlackMagic guy was saying at 5:00 was priceless. It actually made me laugh. You said so much saying nothing.
I’m suspicious you slipped that in there for comic relief.