Blog Archives

A tribute to Norman Hollyn. Editor, teacher, and irreplaceable friend.

The Digital Production Buzz announces a partnership with SimonSays.ai to provide transcripts of all NAB podcasts.

Technology is a moving target. New ideas are continually promoted at “the next great thing.” However, the landscape is littered with ideas that, over time, did not prove to be very great at all. Here’s a commentary about over-reliance on hype.

Frame.io announced it was now SOC 2 Type 2 compliant. This is a MAJOR accomplishment in creating and maintaining data security for our media and sets a high-bar for other companies to follow. Larry Jordan reflects on this announcement.

When is USB 3.0, 3.1 Gen 1 and 3.2 Gen 1 the same thing? Uh, now, actually. The USB-IF renames USB – again – creating a perfect storm of end user confusion. It’s gonna be a mess. Read the details here.

Visual communication skills are no longer “nice to know;” they are a business survival skill. Content, creativity and quality are the touch-points to success, not only in filmmaking but in business today.

For many years, I’ve suffered from a deep internal conflict – I want to find all my media but I don’t want to do any work to find it. This has led me on a long, strange journey exploring a …

Along with the 2019 NAB Show, the Digital Production Buzz launches “NAB Insight,” presenting weekly thought leaders on how to succeed in an era of tumultuous change in the media industry.

The biggest news from CES 2019 was not a product or technology, but something no one talked about. Larry Jordan and Mark Harrison provide insight on a trend that could shake the financial underpinnings of the media industry.

Apple announced it is discontinuing support for key legacy codecs in the next version of the macOS. This is a VERY BIG DEAL – here’s what you need to know. This article has been updated MULTIPLE times since its first release with info from Adobe, Apple, Avid, and Blackmagic Design.

Larry Jordan’s suggestions for improving the interface and usability for Apple Final Cut Pro X – along with the ability to add your own suggestions for Apple.

You are filled with boundless creativity, with a toolkit filled with the latest software to create movie magic. Then, the real world intervenes. Clayton Moore and I were chatting via email this week about client problems that can kill a …

Storage Visions 2018 opens soon. Here’s why you should consider attending.

Storage Visions is a two-day conference devoted to the latest in storage technology. As in year’s past, the Digital Production Buzz is a media sponsor for this event.

I’ve discovered, in working in the media industry, that there are a number of relationships that impact the work we do and results we create. Two of these are triangles, the third is a balance-beam. I first wrote this in …

Thoughts on how to define what a “story” is and what makes it compelling to an audience.

One of my teaching assistants hopes to become a filmmaker after he graduates. Here are some of my thoughts on how to get a career started on the right foot. (Includes interview with award-winning director, Mark Toia.)

A guest blog from Andy Marken on the current potential and market for VR. It’s real, it’s big and it doesn’t involve stories!

[ This commentary was written for the Digital Production Buzz podcast for August 9, 2018. ] I’ve been involved with technology all my life. Even when I was working in marketing, I was marketing software and explaining the benefits of …

[ Updated 7/6/2018 to correct some typos and add links to the interview between Mike Horton and Randy Ubillos. ] “A single grain of rice can tip the scale. One man may be the difference between victory and defeat.” This …

Boxcast launched an exciting new product – Boxcaster Pro – with a live video stream that showcased just how hard creating high-quality live video actually is. This was an object lesson in mistakes to avoid.

A guest commentary on the challenges of media piracy, cloud-storage and the independent filmmaker.

A real-world example from Brown University that illustrates how close we are to losing all our digital assets from the past. This needs to be a wake-up call for all of us to find a better solution for long-term archiving of audio and video media and projects.

Changes in technology are at the heart of major issues in filmmaking today. Larry Jordan shares more thoughts on this subject.

A personal look back at how media has evolved over the last 40 years.

You may have heard of the new support for external Graphics Processing Units (eGPUs) in the 10.13.4 update to the High Sierra version of macOS. What these promise to do is provide much faster image processing by transferring calculations from …

Descriptions and links to the best interviews for the Digital Production Buzz at the 2018 NAB Show.

Larry Jordan looks back at the 2018 NAB Show and offers his thoughts on the trends and products that emerged from the event.

A behind-the-scenes look at the setup, hardware and team of the Digital Production Buzz live coverage of the 2018 NAB Show. Cool, cool stuff.

A look back at a hard disk from the late 1970’s compared to a brand new SSD drive. How far we have come…

A montage of press releases covering media hardware and services released two weeks before the start of the 2018 NAB Show. This is an excellent illustration of the breadth and diversity of the media industry.

The hardest thing for anyone creating stories for an audience is to think like your audience, because when we lose our audience, we’ve lost everything. Here’s an example.

I get lots of emails asking for advice buying “the best” computer. But you’ll need to connect it to a high-performance, high-capacity storage system to make the most of your media. Storage, more than any other component, will determine our success in editing the media of the future.

An interview with Stephanie Ciccarelli, co-founder of Voices.com, about how producers can work with voice actors to get the best performance.

A guest blog, written by Andy Marken, CEO of Marken Communications.

A guest blog, written by Andy Marken, CEO of Marken Communications, looking at Internet security from the perspective of media creators.

A discussion on when is the best time to upgrade. The answer is: “It depends…”

Larry Jordan’s thoughts on challenges ahead for technology in 2018.

A look back at key trends and events in the media creation industry during 2017.

A behind-the-scenes look at Adobe “Make It,” including an interview with Creative Director, Erik Espera.

The new Apple File System (APFS) was released as part of macOS 10.13. It does great things if you have an all-Flash drive. But it should be avoided if you have spinning media or Fusion drives. Here’s what you need to know now.

As we move into larger video formats, VR and HDR, our storage becomes even more critical than our computer. This explains what you need to know to edit video successfully.

My thinking on Virtual Reality is evolving as I learn more. Here’s my latest thinking on something that’s new, creative – and there’s money to be made.

At what point do we need to care about whether an image is real or not?

Creativity is all about trade-offs, but that isn’t always bad. There are two “magic” triangles that I find very useful when describing creative work. One has been around for a long time, while the other I invented; I think.

Voices.com provides a world-wide marketplace for producers to meet voice actors. In this interview David Ciccarelli, CEO, explains who they are and how they work.

A commentary on the audio limitations of current webinar software and our search for something better.

Thoughts on IBC 2017 – when is “game-changing” not a good thing?

Advice that I shared with a young filmmaker trying to decide how to pursue a film directing career.

A tribute to a legendary video editing system – Apple Final Cut Pro 7 – as Apple is ending all support for it in High Sierra.