Posts tagged “work”

Why It's Great To Be A Student — Mar 18, 2007
One of the best things about being a student is that you can work on projects without having to feel bad about not making any money. In particular, I’m thinking of the dissertation. It’s a point where you’ve got ten thousand words to write about subjects you love. As you’ve got to do so much research you’ve got a reason to buy tens of books and DVDs and watch them, enjoying every minute and taking the occasional note. As you progress and you start writing you’re there, being your own boss. You develop your structure and you see what you’ve achieved. You think about what is already said and what else must be written. You write it down, re-write it. You find there’s some information missing so you’ve got an excuse to get sidetrack to look for some in-depth material about that. You come back to the original text and you’ve just added 200 words. paf. Done, great. My project has progressed ;). Of course, the more time you give yourself the more fun the project will be. If you give yourself ten weeks then you’ve got lots of time so it’ll be lots of fun because you can sidetrack all the time. if you’ve got 6 weeks you’re under pressure but not quite in the same way. If you’ve got four weeks you may have to be very disciplined. If you’ve got two weeks then forget about sleep, about friends, about sunshine and everything else. You’ve got to plod along and distractions will destroy your chances. Anyway, I want to get the writing part done by the beginning of April so that I have four weeks to edit. Editing can be quite amusing when you’ve got time. Enough procrastinating, time to go back for five minutes before the next distraction comes along...
Why I went to Paris — Oct 25, 2007
The digital era of communcation is a great one because research for video material is no longer restricted the archives of the INA, France television, BBC, TSR and other archives to find footage you’re looking for. A producer from steamboat films was working on a documentary about the walkman and found a lot of historic footage to make the subject come alive. She aslo needed some comtemporary representation of how the modern walkman is used and came across silent disco and my footage. The screening took place at the Centre Pompidou in Paris in the basement where there are two cinema rooms. The cinema was filled to more than half it’s capacity as all those who had worked on the three documentaries met to get to know their fellow contributors. The three documentaries are The Bookworm, The Concorde and the Walkman of course. Each one is an individual documentary with it’s own merits. I had the opportunity to see the Concorde documentary almost in it’s entirety twice as I arrived whilst they were testing to make sure everything was in order. Having watched the Walkman documentary three or four times already, once with house mates and two or three times by myself it was fun to see an audience’s reaction. It’s fun to be surrounded by a professional group of people rather than fellow students. You see them laugh at moments that are both typically French and old fashioned. What they didn’t laugh at so much is the silent disco footage, probably because it’s too close to home. People did laugh, but not quite as many as I would have liked. I suspect the reason for that is that they’re thinking of how they dance so laughing would be making a slight joke of their own dancing. There are two reasons why I enjoyed this event. The first was that it was the first time I’m surrounded by professionals as I get my first screen credit on the big screen at a cinema projection. It was also an opportunity to meet with the people that are behind the screen producing these programmes. I look forward to future collaborations in the near future. I look forward to what the future holds....
Two weeks of recreation — Aug 9, 2006
The next two weeks or so shall see me resting but not from media work. There’s a good chance I’ll be working on a project about a Prison in the Lebanon. It was shot a few weeks ago and the person in charge of the project needs help with the editing. It looks as though it’s going to be an interesting project. I’ve already viewed quite a bit of footage, read the voice over text and discussed the idea. I’ve started to form some ideas of how to create the story and tomorrow this should progress further with me going in to work. In around two weeks I’ll have an interesting work shift, from 5am to 1300 hours, in other words my work day will be finished when other people get their work day started. We’ll see how that goes anyway. Ciao for now...
Two mobile content mentalities. — Mar 17, 2008
When’s the last time you visited a wap site? Have you thought of how content displays on mobile phones other than the Iphone? I hadn’t until quite recently. Recently I moved back to Switzerland and have started to work for Allthecontent / Toutlecontenu.com and they provide multiplatform content for devices ranging from televisions to mobile phones and more. As a result of reading too much American press I lost interest in what Nokia were doing until it was mentioned that the iphone is not true mobile web use. At first that statement didn’t make much sense but since then I’ve bought a Nokia N95 8 gig model and I’ve been playing with vodafone live, seeing how content is presented. It’s very simple, quick and to the point. Images are small and sparse but text is heavy. Naviguate from one menu to another and you eventually get to content that’s paying. That’s where it becomes interesting. There are quite a few topics, from sports to entertainment to adult content. Some of this content is in video form, some in MMS form and yet some more comes as text. As a result content is easily accessible from most media handsets. Then there’s the question of data packages. Look at Swisscom. For 18 swiss Francs you receive a hundred megabytes of data transfer. That’s not much when considering the 3 gigs a day of transfers via my laptop. Mobile is different. I read that not more than fifty megabytes a month are downloaded over the air. Take a look at Iphone optimised pages in contrast. They’re graphic intensive, slow to load and designed for one specific screen resolution. As a result of this that content is not accessible on most data plans or mobile devices. Iphones have a good part of the market but they’re excluding many users. You can’t download content on the iphone. You’re losing revenue right there. What I think will be interesting over the coming months is to see how the European Vs. US mentality of mobile delivered content will affect telephone operators in these markets....
Twittervox, flatlisters and a possible trip to Paris — Oct 3, 2007
In today’s Twittervox episode we had Nik Butler talking about his idea of the flatlister. The concept is based around the idea that when someone is promoting themselves and building their own persona they are a flat lister. In other words they are in charge of their own persona and their own reputation. This carries on from a topic that was discussed by Jeff Pulver when he asked whether we prefer to use our real name or a nickname. There is one school of thought that believes that you should turn yourself into a brand whilst another school of thought believes that you should create a nickname as your brand can be sold off should it become successful enough. That’s just scraping the surface though and here is a short description of how others and I are attempting to use new media and social networking to promote our skills. A few months ago I got a message from a documentary producer asking whether I had more footage of an event they were interested in. They had seen a short edit either on youtube or my site and thought that this would be of value to their project. I said that I had more footage and so over a period of time I sent over the material which they looked through. They decided to use my footage and as a result their documentary will be broadcast sometime in Springtime of 2008 on Arte. That’s great news for me and I’m really happy. There’s going to be a screening of the documentaries and I’m going to do my best to get there to meet these people in person. Any opportunity should be taken to meet new people. In today’s media and cultural landscape any job that’s advertised is seen by thousands of eyes. What that means is that you’ve got a lot of competition and sending your CV is not enough. One job I recently applied to had over a thousand people apply to it. With such great numbers of people applying there’s little chance of finding work through as passive a method as sending an e-mail and electronic cv to find work. One person in Geneva said that you’ve got to stand out, after all those sorting through applications have a pile of several hundred cv on their desks to sort through. I’ve been using Linkedin recently, adding all those people whom I have had contact with to see whether there are any of their contacts that could help me find people whom have a need for my expertise. Jemima Kiss recently made a comment about Linkedin asking why people don’t put their full CV on the website. As a result of that comment I added a few of the more interesting experiences I have had. When you’re at Podcamp every single person has a website. Everyone is their own brand. If you listen to them introduce themselves they will all say who they are and what their website is. Some will even wear the T-shirts that promote either their site or that of the software they use as work tools. They also have twitter accounts. Twitter is one of those tools that’s great for entrepreneur and freelancers because it makes it so much easier to judge the quality of character of those you are working with. You get an idea of their lifestyle, of their work ethic and more. if you’re awake by 7 or 8am then that shows through. If they’re working on one large project or several smallers ones you see it as well. In brief you know when is the best time to contact them for working on current or new projects. We are now living in an era where everyone has access to the same information around the globe and as a result we have a great deal of competition. It is up to us, as individuals, with the tools we have available to demonstrate that we have the required know how. How do you use the tools currently available to us and do other people in your circle of friends also use them? Has it changed your way of working? I’m looking forward to Nik Bulter’s Flatlister article and your feedback....
Three lectures in two days — Sep 25, 2007
Over the past two days I have been to three lectures of sorts. I went to listen to what people had to say about aid workers and journalism, what A crude Awakening was like and finally today to a talk about whether television should be trusted. All of these events were good and will get a proper write up within the next day or two....
The Trouble With Thankless Jobs — Jan 3, 2015
An interesting talk about thankless jobs and how to make them more rewarding....
The future of the media — Jul 27, 2006
Over the next two weeks, I am working in part of what will become part of the new media landscape. I receive footage via satellite and edit short summaries to become video clips on the official site of the organisation. At the moment it’s not visible to the normal public but it is an interesting activity. As part of my dissertation, I have to understand where the documentary has come from and where it’s going. It’s an interesting way to spend time and I’m learning about new things all the time. We’ll see what the landscape will be like once I’m working full time in the media again. Paleo was really good fun. An average day consists of five hours of work, followed by at least two or three concerts, a multitude of conversations before ending with three or four hours of sleep. The conversations have ranged from the passion that certain friends have for Nutella to driving Segway around one particular stand. With one friend we went through to the moshpit of one concert and there was a good ambiance. With another friend everything was far calmer, more relaxed, taking time to unwind and relax. I have learned about long hours in the sun drinking ice tea whilst at work and enjoyed it greatly. It’s good fun because there’s a breeze, people come and go, and as they do your greeting varies. The variation in greeting is part of what makes the work so enjoyable. When people pass they do so without wanting to take time to chat sometimes but as they have a badge you can read their name. In doing so you can greet them more personally. I read so many name badges over a number of hours that it was quite a challenge to remember everyone’s name. In fact, I could probably remember none. Faces… that’s what I remember all the time, not names. On that note, I’ll stop rambling....
The FIBA 2006 is over — Sep 5, 2006
The FIBA 2006 is over and yesterday was the day where I recuperated by sitting in the sun in the morning and editing a short video clip in the afternoon. Both were nice occupations to unwind from the past three weeks. it’s been fun and all that remains from this work is a highlights tape filled with cheerleaders. Next time I hope to be at the event in person rather than on the sidelines....
The drive home - My 400th post — Mar 5, 2008
Last night’s drive was amazing. It’s just the type of drive you want to have. It starts in the middle of the afternoon as a friend helps you load the car and you set off for a 900 kilometer drive. At the beginning you have to deal with London traffic/congestion. After this you’ve got part of the m20 that’s closed so you need to take a slip road. As I got into France I was welcomed by a lot of snow coming straight at me, like the windows screensaver from a decade ago. That meant I couldn’t really drive as fast as I wanted. Still made good time. For most of the journey the road was fine.The part I really loved is when I got off the motorway to go via the Jura. At this point it wasn’t snowing too much but as I progressed up the slopes and let the Garmin Nuvi 250 guide me along the path so I saw a little snow, and it started to stick. As I drove I had to stay awake and battle with the ever present threat of loss of adherence. That was the fun part of the drive. The road was covered in a thin layer of snow and people were driving more slowly. At moments I was chasing a snowplow across the mountains as it was salting the roads.At other moments there was no snow plow and I lost traction two or three times but kept the car in control. I occasionaly thought that I wouldn’t make it up the hills but I did, and I loved the view. The trees were covered in snow and they were lit by the grand phare. It’s memories from childhood. I’m glad I’ve spent so much time playing in car parks covered in snow to learn how the car behaved.At five in the morning the last thing you want to learn is how to drive in snow. Luckily I do.It made a nice transition from the student life I’ve been living over the past three years and the job seeking following that. I wanted the drive to be a transition from one phase in my life to the next. Now I’m an employed graduate who’s working in Switzerland as of next Monday. This next chapter of my life should be fun....
The drive home - My 400th post — Mar 5, 2008
mousewords - Mar 1, 2008...
Social Discovery, the Social Media and how it can be used. — Jul 14, 2008
I think social discovery is one of the most fascinating parts of the new media lifecycle because we are so early in determining the most efficient way of social discovery. Search has now been dominated by Google and while new companies attempt to attack what is increasingly becoming a monopoly, most companies have realized that the space of social discovery has yet to declare a winner....
Slightly Ahead Of Their Comfort Zone — Jun 16, 2007
Today I went to film some friends playing a gig by the lakeside in Nyon and it was a great occasion. The sun was shining, the air temperature was good and many people that I had not seen in many years were present. The shoot involved two cameras. One was at the back as a safety shot whilst I got the fun camera at the front. There was one electric guitar, one acoustic, and one bass. There was also a drum kit and a synthesizer. The music was good but I forgot my hearing protection so I had a slight ringing by the end of the event… all in a day’s work. I managed to get the whole concert filmed without getting tired which is great. I’ve been using the camera I used for the past 7 years so it’s normal I’m so comfortable with it. I watched the footage and I’m happy with it. It’s good, a nice variety of shots, switches at the right moment from the key instrument to the next. Bart Simpson was sitting on the drum kit and then got to dance with a girl who was meant to sing, the only problem is the sound engineer didn’t make her mic loud enough. It’s normal since they didn’t take enough time to prepare everything before having the gig go live. I’ve captured all the video footage and it’s ready to be compressed and uploaded to Facebook. I’ve actually annoyed them and got a “You recently uploaded a video to Facebook, and it could not be processed because it was too long.” message. hehe, that’s normal for me. I’m uploading those videos to the video section of my website and they’ll be available on the RSS feed within the next few days. I need to count about two hours of processing per video clip unfortunately. With the Macbookpro I’m waiting for it should be faster. Today was in some respects a perfect day and I’d like more of them to be like this....
second day — Aug 20, 2006
The first day was a long one with twelve matches recorded. Four matches at a time three times with an offset of half an hour between starting times in pairs. It’s amazing how many time breaks there are in this sport. Work continued on the Lebanon edit I’m working on. Related links: Photos from the event...
replaced mother boards, the n95, press accreditations and qik — Jun 6, 2008
Because every day is not the same this one has been quite normal. At eleven in the morning I found out that the motherboard for the macbook pro needed replacing and this should be accomplished by Tuesday. In second the day of work was a good one so I was energetic enough to drop by the caribana for a second night, meeting a few friends. It was also an opportunity to do some live streaming of concerts by Alanis Morisette, Stereophonics and last but not least (so far at the festival) Manic Street preachers. Here is a collection of the streams. If you tolerate this your children will be next Something to do with Autumn You all know this one: Your love is not enough. Stereophonics, Dakota Stereophonics, crowd having fun. Alanis Morisette, broke but happy...
replaced mother boards, the n95, press accreditations and qik — Jun 6, 2008
mousewords - Jun 5, 2008...
Rag week is fun — Feb 10, 2007
I was at the Roxy bar a few days ago in central London and people were cheering. They had just seen the proper version of the Rag week trailer and they loved it. I had been asked to shoot some material and edit other material for Thursday evening when the rag review took place. I went to two or three of the events. I went to the school disco night and it was great fun, between people dancing, others being hit by the death squad and others just being really friendly it was a really good night. I met a lot of friendly people and there’s such a contrast to my own university. When media students see a camera they’re going to be so angry at you for filming, being to used to being behind they don’t appreciate it as much. I must admit that I feel the same way. One individual that marked me is a girl that was on crutches who wanted to dance for the camera. there wasn’t quite enough light so we don’t see as much as would make the video great fun but it’s still entertaining. I was on a platform and three girls came to join. Sandstorm was playing so I had to dance, in memoriam of when I was a fresher back in the South West of England. A girl took the camera from me and I danced for her so I’m going to have to include that footage in the edit as a good laugh. Moonragger had a different feel to it, partly because I was tired from the previous night. Some people needed to look futuristic and whilst some took aluminum foil and wrapped it around others took cling film. One person was in a spacesuit but I didn’t manage to get that on tape. Lot’s of people danced, lot’s of people enjoyed the night. One attractive girl told me to “f*** off with the camera” so I moved away and filmed more people. She came back and told me to f*** of again. It’s to be expected but what people haven’t understood is that I film movement, I film when something interesting is in front of the camera. Turn your back to the camera or stop dancing and I’ll understand you’re self-conscious therefore the camera will stop rolling. There’s no point in filming people standing around. I went to sit down and had some nice moments with people I had only briefly seen in the past. As a guest to the university, I really liked the way people were friendly and open. They want to chat, they want to be filmed, they enjoy the camera and appreciate my company. It’s so refreshing. I’m going to add the video within the next few days for people to enjoy....
Practice with the Canon XH A1 — Mar 7, 2008
With a screen resolution of 1920*1080 interlaced this is one of the higher resolution cameras currently on the market at the moment. It’s beautifuly designed for camera men rather than engineers (unlike the red). I already wrote about earlier.The light wasn’t so interesting but here are 11 seconds of footage. (92 megs) Right click to save the footage as this will not behave properly in browser...
One edit finished and several more matches to follow — Aug 22, 2006
It’s the fourth day of the FIBA championship so it’s the fourth day where I wake before 0400 european time. I wouldn’t mind staying in bed a bit longer. I’m starting to understand the game better and I’ve seen that certain teams are far more entertaining to watch than others. On friday it’s a day of rest. My dissertation research is currently stagnating as I’m so exhausted by the time I get home. The Lebanon edit is finished for the moment so I should be less tired, at last. On the sixth there’s a projection of the full program so far. I’ve just thought back to my Tanzania edit and how I used to have a mentality whereby making longer documentaries was better than short ones. It’s a mentality I lost when in England whilst doing my HND. I was brought up to concentrate on using screentime as efficiently as possible, forgetting that occasionaly it’s important to let things breath. In December the same documentary will be around 50 minutes long....
On having a dedicated machine used for nothing but video editing. — Oct 2, 2013
My editing machine has a minimum of things installed on it. Final Cut Pro and related software, nothing else. The point is that when I am editing I am dedicated to that single task. I take breaks when it is rendering or when I need time to digest the edit so far. When I was editing over a decade ago I would mark 10 in and out points and then go and drink some ice tea while the machine assembled the footage. Later when I moved to desktop editing I would let the computer render and take a break. Today with the current system taking breaks is based on scene completion. That’s how a friend and I worked on our fiction film over a period of weeks. Right now the rough cut is ready. We need to add music, improve the sound, colour correct and more but at least a big step was taken. Post inspiration....
Night shift — Aug 27, 2006
The games are starting at 10am Tokyo time but 3am Geneva time and it’s amusing getting to work. Yesterday was really tiring as I’d been woken by workers at 7am. So far we’ve seen about 40 matches and Italy’s defeat was a shame. We only have one match at a time but four of them in total so our day is 14hrs long. The teams today are: germany vs nigeria, US vs australia, France vs. Angola and Greece Vs. China....
Last time I went to the cinema my name was in the credits — Dec 5, 2007
Last time I went to the cinema I was in Paris and my name was in the credits. This time I was at the 20th Century Fox offices on Soho Square in London as a guest, along with Loudmouthman, Suzymiller, Danacea, Rupert Howe, Sizemore and many other social media participants. We were invited to preview the film Juno, which will be out in British cinemas around the 8th of February 2008. It’s nice to be two months ahead of the crowd. It’s also nice to be in a private cinema. I enjoyed the leather seats along with the press package and the fact that when you lean back the seat tilts back at the same time. It was also amusing to see all these faces. It’s a funny thing to be part of the social media mainly because you recognise and feel that people are familiar although you’ve never met them in real life. What makes this particularly appealing is the fact that it’s not someone saying “oh I’ve heard something about you”. They’ve actually looked at, and appreciated your work, or at least we hope so. I enjoyed the film and so did the rest of the crowd. Frequent laughter could be heard from around the room quite frequently. I did enjoy quite a bit of the dialogue and the story is a nice one although the end is typical of American films. Aside from the film and the crowds we did get to interview the organisers of the event as well as Danacea of Forbidden planet, Rupert Howe, vlogger and Robert… whose last name eludes me. It’s 1am and I’m tired. The Twittervox video should be up by tomorrow evening at the latest. More concise information on those interviewed will of course, appear accordingly...
The Kendra Party - Networking Event and Party — Oct 13, 2007
Last night I went to the Kendra event not knowing what to expect from the event. It started at 6pm and ended by 9pm and i had the opportunity to meet with a few people of which Brendon Kenny of VK media and the Jummp project....
The Kendra Party - Networking Event and Party — Oct 13, 2007
Piotr - Oct 6, 2007...
It's been a twelve hour day of editing — Feb 22, 2007
I’ve spent around twelve hours editing today and it’s finally getting to resemble something, as I’d like it to be. It’s involved two days of video capture of a variety of material from a number of events around Europe in particular. It’s starting to be a good edit. Any creative person will tell you that the hardest part of the work is not the work itself but finding the inspiration and finding how to tell the story the most efficiently. If I understood the brief correctly then the edit I’ve done should be well accepted. I should find out by tomorrow morning normally. I love the editing phase because it’s one of the more creative phases. You’ve got all the material and it’s a matter of sifting through it, finding the best and then applying it to the finished product. If I get good feedback then I’m looking forward to tomorrow....
It's A Nice Upgrade — Jun 14, 2007
Today I passed an order through the online apple store and within a number of weeks I should get one of the top of the range machines and I’m really looking forward to it. The Ram isn’t maxed out but that’s because I’m going to upgrade that from an other distributor from whom I can get it cheaper. I’m also getting final cut studio 2 and that should be a great convenience for learning how to use all the software I need for professional purposes. I’m impatient for it now but it’s going to take time to come so I have to be patient… need to find something to distract me for a period. I’ve had an editing system at home which started with Adobe premiere 4.5 and the miro dc30+ and a hi8 camera, upgraded to a PC7 camera for a trip to Tanzania in 2000. That’s when I was editing on the DHR 1000 editing deck where I learned a great deal about tape to tape editing. From there I upgraded to Premiere 5.0, 5.1 and on before giving up on Windows editing. In 2003-4 I upgraded to the Ibook with FCP which worked far better than anticipated. Now I’m waiting for my most recent editing system. Over the years I’ve seen a great change in equipment and the price. As I was at school working on Hi8 it took several years before I was able to edit the footage I had shot. Editing systems could cost thirty thousand swiss francs per BetaSP decks. Now it’s gone down in price and people get a nice home setup. I’m looking forward to it....
It feels really great — Apr 26, 2007
For the past hour or more, I’ve been listening to music and working on my dissertation and I’ve just hit 9500 words on my dissertation (disso as it’s affectionately referred to) and it feels great. I’m so happy that I have two weeks in which to proofread, re-write, and improve what I’ve written. It’s the first time in my life that I finish the writing part of my assignment two weeks earlier than the deadline. I’m not crying victory yet (french expression: mieux vaut ne pas crier victoire), after all, I’d expect myself to do at least another ten to fifteen hours of re-writing. I still have to format the references properly and look for video captures that can help illustrate my points so that the layout earns extra points. Reading this post you’d be led to believe that I take this work seriously, and the truth is I do. I started it last summer when I came back to London looking for work. I applied to at least twenty jobs without luck and as I was growing demoralised I dropped by the library when no one else was there and borrowed as many books as I thought I could carry without a surtax on the plane. Over the summer I worked through over twenty chapters about film theory and created a documentary over 50 pages long and 25,000 words in depth. I also watched hundreds of hours of documentaries. Aside from the website, it’s the biggest project I’ve ever taken on. I hope I do well....
Is twitter changing your blogging habits? — Oct 28, 2008
is twitter changing your blogging habits? (original post) Yes and no. Twitter is replacing instant messaging and chatrooms. It’s an open method by which for people to communicate instantly with others. It’s also about the overheard conversation although that term has dissapeared. What does "overheard" mean? Well simply that whenever two people discuss a topic hundreds of people are following this conversation and when they decide they have an opinion they can cut in. They do have that 140 character limit though, so they need to get to the point is efficiently as possible. When that isn’t possible then they can do the next best thing. Write a comment in a blog post or even write a blog entry of their own where the conversation that took place on twitter is synthesised into a more digestible chunk of information. As a result twitter is changing people’s habits but the question is why people want to chat publicly rather than in an enclosed space. Today people like transparency....
Invisible without a website — Oct 8, 2007
Having a website is essential in today’s media landscape for one simple reason. You don’t exist until I can hyperlink to a website containing examples of your work and describing what you do. This is particularly true in today’s new media landscape. For the minimalist among you a facebook or myspace page is the bare minimum. For those of you that take your work seriously though a website is more efficient. There are a number of reasons for which having a website is essential. The first of these is visibility. If you’re going to an event and you take hundreds of pictures then no one will notice them unless you share them publicly. You don’t need to be published to get your big break. That’s the point of viral marketing. Produce some content. Make it public and then mention it in a few places. If it’s good then others will advertise that work to friends from now on. You are now visible. That’s in an ideal situation. Yesterday when I went to the protest (which event? Describe it in a few words and link to it) I met two friends, one is a well established photographer whilst the other, is, as yet a relatively anonymous face in the crowd. With the established friend it was easy for me to link to his work because he has a high quality site. It’s something concrete, easy to see and assess. For the second person there is not much I can do to demonstrate their worth except mention their name but is of limited value, without a link. Why? Because there is no action to follow a “plug”. The plug is a term used to describe how one person promotes their work through another person’s content, whether it be in website form, podcast or other. As you are talked about more frequently, your visibility increases and, with it, people’s interest in what you do. John C Dvorak of Dvorak.org/blog is the best example. Anytime he can, he will mention his website and, although for the first ten times you may not react, you will go to the website, eventually. He’s got another reader. Whilst you’re surrounded by new media people everyone has a blog, a website, possibly a podcast and more. Leave this group, though, and most people are “invisible”, except, for young people, facebook. Most of them are shown in their bikini, at drunken parties or in other situations that would not reflect well within more traditional work environments. That’s why facebook should be kept private and personal, confined to a group of friends. When you apply for a job online, you’ are one of a thousand applicants. It must be a nightmare reading all those applications. I am taking as an example the work I did for blogwise, a human moderated database of websites. Each day several hundred people would apply for their blog to get through. As you look at the first ten your mind is clear and you’re interested. After several dozen you’re tired and by the time you reach several hundred you skim through. The same happens when you’re applying for work - boredom sets in. When you think about how much time people spend looking for content and entertainment on the web you begin to understand why and how important it is to have something to show. When I worked on my dissertation I looked online and found an interview of Jacques Yves Cousteau a matter of minutes after he won his Oscar for Le Monde Du silence. I needed, for a documentary, a soundbyte of Rupert Murdoch speaking about Myspace - and after several months of searching we found the key clip. That’s also how a documentary maker found my content for use in a documentary that will be on ARTE television in Spring 2008. The point is simple. In the past when you created content and you wanted people to notice you the best method for visibility was to be mentioned in physical examples, whether magazines, DVD or on the air. Today we’re all part of the same media landscape. What this means is that there is unlimited time for content to be shown. But how do you stand out, to get noticed? If there’s an event taking place and you have the time to cover it, then do it - and find where people are actively talking about it. That’s a great way to promote your work. If people see your latest video and want to find out more about you, they can go to your website, if you have one, to see further examples of your work. They read your blog to see your thoughts, they follow your twitter stream to see whether you’re a party animal, they check your linkedin profile to see who you know that they may know and, as a result, they get a better idea of what kind of person you are. You’ve just increased your chances of being noticed - and hired....
I got a job and I'm moving back to Geneva next week — Feb 28, 2008
The week is almost over and I’ve got a job. Spent the past week being trained in certain softwares I’ll need to use, as well as hardware. I’m looking forward to that. In the meantime I have a little roadtrip to London and back to get out of the way. More details to come tomorrow night...
How Using a Laptop for Client Led Video Editing Work Helps The Environment (Blog Action Day) — Oct 15, 2007
When I started video editing it required a powerful desktop computer and moving it around was hard. Now I’m working on a laptop. This is great for the environment and here’s why....
How Using a Laptop for Client Led Video Editing Work Helps The Environment (Blog Action Day) — Oct 15, 2007
Documentally - Oct 1, 2007...
Google chrome as a PAF — Jul 1, 2010
PAF is not just the way you discribe something hitting something else. It is also used to define a portable application file. These are self contained executables that you can use for mobile versions of your favourite browser. One of my personal favourites at the moment is Chrome, it’s fast, light, and behaves the way I want it to. Better still it incorporates flash into the code. This means that I can view flash content without it being installed on the computer I’m using. Get it here...
Friends and Those Who Fool Me — Mar 16, 2007
Yesterday afternoon I received a phone call from some post grad students asking whether I could go and film the football game they were covering. It was between westminster uni city FC and another club whose name I don’t think I heard. It’s the first football game I cover so it was an experience. It was in a smallish club an the crowd was quite small. I set up in the home and away section of the stands and filmed people running from one end to the other many times over. It’s a shame I didn’t have one of the better cameras to use because the video footage would have been better. Still it was an experience. This summer had meant that I saw a lot of football matches. It meant I knew what shots to frame up. What actions to look for. The award ceremony was the more interesting bit to film because it saw me on the field with the teams making sure to get the shot of people receiving their awards. Too bad our team was not the victorious one....
Four Reasons to be Happy — Jul 6, 2007
There are four reasons to be happy today. The first of these is that my MBP is finally in Geneva therefore it is a short matter of days before I get it into my hands and start playing with the computer and the new software. The laptop will be used for all video editing and multimedia work I have whilst the iBook will be used for daily tasks such as surfing the web, mobility, and more. I’m going to have two apple laptops capable of video editing at my disposal which is quite a luxury. The second reason I should be happy is that google Adsense, over the past week has doubled in income, meaning that I should get my next check twice as fast as the last one. I added a few more AdSense adverts on sections where advertising had not been and as a result, many more eyes are seeing and clicking on the advert. I’m still a long way from earning enough money to live off my website but any income is good. The third reason is that my website is being migrated to Drupal, a database-driven CMS solution for web mastering rather than the outdated HTML pages that it has been over the past decade. The advantage of the Content Management System (CMS) is that the layout is the same for every page whilst the content is held within a database. As a result, when you want to change something on multiple pages all you need to do is move blocks around. Blocks, when applied to drupal are how modules are manipulated to space them in specific areas on the website. As a result, whenever a website is re-worked it takes a matter of minutes rather than hours to change. As a side note, I’ve also updated both the PHP and MySQL database to version 5 and it’s working smoothly for the time being. The final reason to be happy is that a friend has received the edited DVD that I worked on a few weeks ago and finalised within the past few days. As a result, I’ve managed to finish what I had to do a matter of days rather than hours before it was due....
Forums Are The Sandbox Of The Web — Aug 15, 2007
The concept of community is an old one, coming from an evolutionary need for more than one pair of eyes to watch out for predators and other threats. over time the sense of community has evolved and become as great as it is today. There are however pockets of social discord. I believe that forums are the sandboxes of the World Wide Web. In chatrooms, there are always three or four people who chat together in the public space, whilst all around people ask A(ge), S(ex), L(ocation) - or at least they did. Today, everyone has a profile and the question is now redundant. When individuals stir up trouble the room will resolve this problem. Just two nights ago whilst on operator11.com, I saw a little skirmish that was quickly resolved and I realised that even when people are in an audiovisual medium online there can be moments of tension. \\nof Apple products or part of the scientific community. They are built as a\\nplace where conversations and debates can take place. They can help you resolve\\ncomputer problems or advertise the work you've done. They are great because\\nwhilst they require participants to spend a lot of time over a period of weeks,\\nthey are relatively\\u003cbr\\>\\neasy to interact with. If you want to write a long post you can, and if you\\njust want to say that you agree or disagree, you can say so in just one line.\\u003cbr\\>\\n\\u003cbr\\>\\nSome of these groups have become tight knit, like villages or year grades\\u003cbr\\>\\nwithin a school. Everyone knows everyone else and so a "gang\\nmentality", for\\u003cbr\\>\\nlack of a better term, arises. They all send each other private messages,\\nthey've met and they've chatted. They've been friends for years. They're\\nisolated hence my use of the word sandbox. As you spend more and more time in a\\ncommunity so it feels like your home and feels like a place where strangers are\\nno longer welcome. I've been a member of many forums and I've been known to\\npost heavily within these\\u003cbr\\>\\ncommunities, but only when I am accepted. For a long time I was a member of two\\ncommunities and I would spend hours in both. \\u003cspan style\\u003d\\"background:yellow none repeat scroll 0%\\"\\>\\nI wrote about them so if you do a little research you can\\neasily find out which ones they were.\\u003c/span\\>\\u003c/span\\>\\u003cspan\\>\\u003cfont size\\u003d\\"1\\"\\>\\u003cspan style\\u003d\\"font-size:8pt\\" lang\\u003d\\"EN-US\\"\\>\\u003ca href\\u003d\\"#11465b58cd9c2969\_\_msocom\_3\\" language\\u003d\\"JavaScript\\" name\\u003d\\"11465b58cd9c2969\_\_msoanchor\_3\\"\\>\\n\[PA3\]\\u003c/a\\>\\u003cspan\\>\\u003cspan\\> \\u003c/span\\>\\u003c/span\\>\\u003c/span\\>\\u003c/font\\>\\u003c/span\\>\\u003cspan lang\\u003d\\"EN-GB\\"\\>\\u003cbr\\>\\n\\u003cbr\\>\\nToday for the first time in months I joined a forum and decided to\\u003cbr\\>\\nintroduce myself, after seeing that someone on Facebook had\\u003cbr\\>\\nrecommended the site. I wrote my post and looked at other websites for\\u003cbr\\>\\nsome time before returning to the site. I read one comment and it was\\u003cbr\\>\\npositive but the second one was offensive. It's common knowledge on\\u003cbr\\>\\nthe world wide web that 80% of communication is non verbal therefore",1\] ); //--> That’s on a medium that’s fleeting. You write your comment, then someone else does and you have a conversation which will disappear whilst the ideas remain. Forums are another social beast. They take a lot of time to create and require a number of elements. First, they need people who spend a lot of time online. They can belong to communities of artists, fans of Apple products, or part of the scientific community. They are built as a place where conversations and debates can take place. They can help you resolve computer problems or advertise the work you’ve done. They are great because whilst they require participants to spend a lot of time over a period of weeks, they are relatively easy to interact with. If you want to write a long post you can, and if you just want to say that you agree or disagree, you can say so in just one line. Some of these groups have become tight-knit, like villages or year grades within a school. Everyone knows everyone else and so a “gang mentality”, for lack of a better term, arises. They all send each other private messages, they’ve met and they’ve chatted. They’ve been friends for years. They’re isolated hence my use of the word sandbox. As you spend more and more time in a community so it feels like your home and feels like a place where strangers are no longer welcome. I’ve been a member of many forums and I’ve been known to post heavily within these communities, but only when I am accepted. For a long time, I was a member of two communities and I would spend hours in both. I wrote about them so if you do a little research you may find which ones I am talking about. Today for the first time in months I joined a forum (which I will not identify) and decided to introduce myself, after seeing that someone on Facebook had recommended the site. I wrote my post and looked at other websites for some time before returning to the site. I read one comment and it was positive but the second one was offensive. It’s common knowledge on the world wide web that 80% of communication is nonverbal therefore if you write something be aware that it may be misunderstood. If it’s written and it’s within a forum then beware of the gang mentality because they will attack you. I wrote a response to the message I received and asked what that person thought should be the second line of the introduction, rather than the one I had written. That’s when one member and then another, and then a third began attacking me, dissecting and ripping apart any simple mistake, as if they were piranha on a lamb’s leg. They had a field day, really enjoying the destruction of my persona. I was hurt. I thought that this was going to be a professional website where I could have an intelligent conversation and advice on how to get work but instead they showed a complete disregard for social civility on a web forum. You don’t use caps lock and you don’t use bold characters to make your point. You write in one font and make sure that you’ve understood what was intended by the post. They didn’t. I’m reminded of the reason why I am no longer part of any forums (although I still have my logins.) Why be part of something small when you can part of something bigger, on a global scale. The blogosphere and web 2.0 are based on the idea that you’re part of a global interactive community. Anyone can become part of it and you prove himself by the quality of his writing and logic. There are groups of friends, but these are healthy. They look outwards and have no boundaries. It is for this reason that a new generation of social groups has formed on the World Wide Web. These are based around communities in the physical world. \\nmake sure I know how to be a better member of the community but they\\u003cbr\\>\\nwon't attempt to destroy me. If there is a problem they will help me\\u003cbr\\>\\nand show compassion. They will show each other this.\\u003cbr\\>\\n\\u003cbr\\>\\nWhen I went to the Twitter meet up I met some great people. I met people who\\nshare my in technology - the conversation was easy. They all write and expressthemselves\\nin public forums. They have blogs, audio podcasts and video programs and\\nthey're interacting in an open system, where you know their names. It's\\nwelcoming. It's the mature web. It's web 2.0. It's filled with ideas and\\ndynamism. Goodbye grumpy, rude flamers - stay in your rat hole of a forum.\\u003c/span\\>\\u003c/p\\>\\n\\n\\u003cdiv\\>\\n\\n\\u003chr align\\u003d\\"left\\" size\\u003d\\"1\\" width\\u003d\\"33%\\"\\>\\n\\n\\n\\n\\u003cdiv\\>\\n\\n\\u003cdiv language\\u003d\\"JavaScript\\"\\>\\u003cspan\\>\\u003ca name\\u003d\\"11465b58cd9c2969\_\_msocom\_1\\"\\>\\u003c/a\\>\\u003c/span\\>\\n\\n\\u003cp\\>\\u003cspan\\>\\u003cfont face\\u003d\\"Times New Roman\\" size\\u003d\\"1\\"\\>\\u003cspan style\\u003d\\"font-size:8pt\\" lang\\u003d\\"EN-US\\"\\>\\u003cspan\\> \\u003ca href\\u003d\\"#11465b58cd9c2969\_\_msoanchor\_1\\"\\>\[PA1\]\\u003c/a\\>\\u003c/span\\>\\u003c/span\\>\\n\\u003c/font\\>\\u003c/span\\>\\u003cspan lang\\u003d\\"EN-US\\"\\>What's ASL? Explain\\u003c/span\\>\\u003c/p\\>\\n\\n\\u003c/div\\>\\n\\n\\u003c/div\\>\\n\\n\\u003cdiv\\>\\n\\n\\u003cdiv language\\u003d\\"JavaScript\\"\\>\\u003cspan\\>\\u003ca name\\u003d\\"11465b58cd9c2969\_\_msocom\_2\\"\\>\\u003c/a\\>\\u003c/span\\>\\n\\n\\u003cp\\>\\u003cspan\\>\\u003cfont face\\u003d\\"Times New Roman\\" size\\u003d\\"1\\"\\>\\u003cspan style\\u003d\\"font-size:8pt\\" lang\\u003d\\"EN-US\\"\\>\\u003cspan\\> \\u003ca href\\u003d\\"#11465b58cd9c2969\_\_msoanchor\_2\\"\\>\[PA2\]\\u003c/a\\>\\u003c/span\\>\\u003c/span\\>\\n\\u003c/font\\>\\u003c/span\\>\\u003cspan lang\\u003d\\"EN-US\\"\\>What do you mean? Convoluted\\u003c/span\\>\\u003c/p\\>\\n\\n\\u003c/div\\>\\n\\n\\u003c/div\\>\\n\\n\\u003cdiv\\>\\n\\n\\u003cdiv language\\u003d\\"JavaScript\\"\\>\\u003cspan\\>\\u003ca name\\u003d\\"11465b58cd9c2969\_\_msocom\_3\\"\\>\\u003c/a\\>\\u003c/span\\>\\n\\n\\u003cp\\>\\u003cspan\\>\\u003cfont face\\u003d\\"Times New Roman\\" size\\u003d\\"1\\"\\>\\u003cspan style\\u003d\\"font-size:8pt\\" lang\\u003d\\"EN-US\\"\\>\\u003cspan\\> \\u003ca href\\u003d\\"#11465b58cd9c2969\_\_msoanchor\_3\\"\\>\[PA3\]\\u003c/a\\>\\u003c/span\\>\\u003c/span\\>\\n\\u003c/font\\>\\u003c/span\\>\\u003cspan lang\\u003d\\"EN-US\\"\\>Explain\\u003c/span\\>\\u003c/p\\>\\n\\n\\u003c/div\\>\\n\\n\\u003c/div\\>\\n\\n\\u003c/div\\>\\n\\n",0\] ); //--> That’s where Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter come in. These three social networking websites work on one simple principle. These are friends that you know in real life, people you have shared dinners with, worked with, played with, and grown up with. Everyone knows each other and behaves himself. If I say something out of line five others will make sure I know how to be a better member of the community but they won’t attempt to destroy me. If there is a problem they will help me and show compassion. They will show each other this. When I went to the Twitter meet up I met some great people. I met people who share my interest in technology - the conversation was easy. They all write and express themselves in public. They have blogs, audio podcasts, and video programs and they’re interacting in an open system, where you know their names. It’s welcoming. It’s the mature web. It’s web 2.0. It’s filled with ideas and dynamism. A little later in the day I checked the website URL and found out that this was a free forum that was part of a larger domain. Good forums are all paid for by the community leader. As a result, the conversations and sense of community are far more welcoming and that’s what people look for before joining....
For the next few days I'm going to be living according to Japanese time in Central europe — Aug 18, 2006
For the next few weeks I’m going to be living according to the FIBA schedule of games and it may be hard. there are going to be a few early mornings which end around 1300 CET so that’s not going to be too bad.If I had a passion for basketball this would be perfect. It’s going to be a new experience for me....
First time directing a multicam — Nov 17, 2006
Directing a Multicam is easy, after being a cameraman at many conferences. it’s a matter of knowing which shots you would like to have had with just one camera but couldn’t get. It’s easy, switching from one source to another and making sure the pacing is right and that there are not too many screw-ups. Overall it went well and I enjoyed it. It was different today as I was a simple camera operator. I had to concentrate on getting the right shot and fight away the desire to sit down or do something else. On both days the last speaker was the more entertaining of the day....
Estimated Delivery Date 03 Jul 2007 — Jul 3, 2007
If that’s true then my MBP is waiting for me in Switzerland but I’m stuck in London for another week before i can go back and get it. Tonight I’ll find out whether a note was left by the delivery company and soon I’ll start up the computer for the first time. I’m looking forward to that. Once it’s home it’s home and the suspense is no longer there....
Did I mention I'm up to twenty thousand tweets — Mar 10, 2008
Did I mention that I got all the way up to twenty thousand tweets last night? I’m officially a very heavy user of twitter and many people celebrated the event with me in true twitter style. They @ed me. It’s not everyday you get to that number. I also seesmiced a few thoughts about twitter which someone can find and link to in the near future. I’m feeling a little lazy in that regard. Also today was my first proper full day of work and it went well. I’m tired as a result and tomorrow should be more fun. See you then....
Did I mention I'm up to twenty thousand tweets — Mar 10, 2008
mousewords - Mar 1, 2008...
Dependability — Oct 2, 2007
"...
Delegation and working to deadlines — Feb 24, 2007
I love working on my own projects, where I rely on no one but myself but occasionally I’m lucky enough to have no choice but to work with other people. It’s at these moments that I learn more. I learn about team scheduling and teamwork. I also learn about delegation. I’m not that good at it yet but I’m learning. Anyone working as a producer or director needs to learn that job and some are better than others. The recent myspace and Magician audition projects I worked on saw some good producers in charge. As a result, the project was good. Recently I’ve had to be a co-producer with someone else and I was asked what jobs still had to be done and I had to think about it before I could delegate the responsibility. I finally found some methods of delegating responsibility, therefore, I’ll have more material to choose from when it comes to editing. The project has to be finished by Monday because Tuesday I’ll be back in London with a three thousand word essay on technological determinism to hand in. On the Monday following that I have a presentation on digital content. I’ve been thinking about that concept and I think I’ll be able to produce a good product....
Chindrieux Dives — Feb 10, 2013
Earlier today I was at Chindrieux, a lake side village looking out over the Lac du Bourget lake in France. It is a nice lake with good visibility. The dive site where my friends and I usually dive is a wall. You swim out for 300 meters before heading down the bank to a little gap in the cliff. At 9 meters depth you start going west along the wall. On this wall you can find lots of shells and the occasional fish hiding in one crack or other. There are overhangs and scree fields. The bottom of the wall is at 65m. From there it slopes gently off to 110m. So far my dives have only taken me to 40 meters on this wall. Diving in this part of the world takes a certain character type. The water at depth is at a stable 5°-6°c but the water column varies from 21°c at the surface in Summer zo 6°c at the surface in winter. In summer you go from warm water to cold, and then you get back to warm. You’re sweating in your dry suit and to cool down is welcome. In winter the opposite is true. You’re cold. You’re happy to put your dry suit on, and gloves, and hood. The drawback is that you go from cold air to cold water and back. Friends of mine and I have come out of the water shivering in winter, unable to use our fingers anymore. This is all part of the fun. Today for a change I went with my video camera. I am currently working on a diving documentary and I want to get footage of the surface as well as down below. The vista are nice. You can see parapentistes, the occasional boat, trains passing by and in the distance snow covered mountains. They serve as a backdrop to Aix Les Bains. I will keep you informed about how this project progresses....
Andrew Keen, Cynthia Mckinney and Jeff Blankfort — Sep 11, 2007
I recently dropped by the Frontline club to listen to what Andrew Keen had to say and his talk was really interesting. There are a few ideas that I found were interesting and I’m still planning on getting something written up about the event. Last night I met up with Documentally to record an interview before going to Cynthia Mckinney’s talk about confronting the empire. She talked for twenty minutes or so before giving the floor for a Q&A session at which man questions were asked. She got a standing ovation at the end of her presentation. I will find a few interesting elements and post them to this website and others shortly. Jeff Blankfort was also present at the event highlighting certain moments in his career....
An impressive personality — Feb 21, 2007
How many people have the ability to walk out in front of a crowd of hundreds and a televisual audience of several thousand? I don’t think that many, especially not with the confidence of this young girl. If I understood her correctly her name is Johanna and she is from Romania. I was watching the footage of the Youth Eurovision song contest and when she came on stage I was surprised by the strength of character she displayed at such a young age. Of course, other people were on stage afterward to help with the show. I’ve only watched small fragments of the show but it’s amusing to see young people perform. They have such ease and freedom....
Airport security can be fun — Feb 27, 2007
When you fly a lot you get used to the antics of airport security. Sometimes you see people get angry and flustered by their stuff being searched. Sometimes I’ve felt that way as well. Today was amusing. My bag went through the x ray machine and since it was so full of books dvd and more they wanted to look inside. No one else was passing through at the time so I joked about how they had to keep busy. One of them joked about having to find something to confiscate to keep himself entertained. Shame I had nothing of interest. I chatted about the DVD in my bag and about a series related to the first one and it was generaly quite friendly. Hey, when you’ve flown five times in two months you’re bound to be more relaxed about certain aspects, especially when you’re in no rush because you gave yourself enough time....
The Nocturnal Run — Oct 17, 2025
Last night, as I finished dinner I noticed that others were out so I joined them within twenty minutes or so. That wasn’t fast enough. They had decided to call it a night. As this impacted my mental health I decided to go for a run....