Sarv Taghavian's blog

Philip Bloom blogs about the good, the bad and the ugly of working with 4K and raw files. He writes, "Raw is brilliant. 4K is sexy as hell…BUT they both come with a number of quite severe headaches for the vast majority of people (including myself) who are clamouring for it. If those headaches were not there, then I would tell everyone to go for it, but as I am in somewhat of a position where people listen to me (still an utterly bewildering thing to me) and take what I do or advice I give as verbatim (which you should never do, mine is just one opinion so please feel free to ignore this or take my advice on board and listen to others too as you should never take one person’s opinion as gospel) then I must explain the issues we face. I am not being devil’s advocate either as I genuinely believe these issues are real and would be quite a problem for many. Not everyone though.

Creative Bloq writes: What's your all-time favourite scene from a movie? When Jack Nicholson's head appears through a hole in the smashed up bathroom door and shouts 'Here's Jonny!' in The Shining? Or when Uma Thurman and John Travolta tear up the dancefloor in Pulp Fiction?

Whatever yours may be, now you can enjoy your favourite movie moments on repeat with a cinemagraph - GIFs that isolate specific moments. Check out this selection of awesome movie cinemagraphs already created by film lovers around the world. Is your favourite included?

READ THE FULL STORY HERE.

Anita Hamilton of Businessweek writes: Despite success stories about YouTube (GOOG) sensations such as Jenna Marbles, the vast majority of the site’s users probably don’t think of it as a place to earn money. The video giant wants to change that. It’s trying to build a bench of talent that can support its ambition of competing with traditional TV.

Danny Rubin of Shelly Palmer writes: Twitter. New feature: Vine. 6-second videos. Can also share on FB and blogs.

I’m guessing that line took you about six seconds to read, which is perfect because six seconds is all I had.

Mark down January 24, 2013 as the day our attention span shrank once again — as if we hadn’t already hit rock bottom.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE.

Jennifer Rooney of Forbes writes: Brendan Gahan recently joined Fullscreen, an independent YouTube multichannel network, as VP of brand strategy. He’s the former director of social media at creative agency Mekanism and was one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in Marketing & Advertising.

I caught up with him recently and asked him to share his views on what makes for great viral marketing and how to best leverage video for brand success–in an era when Kmart can stop everyone in their tracks with “Ship My Pants.”

READ THE FULL STORY HERE.

Jasmine Teran from Film Independent writes: So you’re an indie filmmaker. You’ve barely scraped enough money from your day job, your crowd-funding campaign, your parents—we won’t judge—to shoot your movie, and now you’re expected to take on yet another job title to get people to watch it? Well… yes. Welcome to the world of being a 21st century independent filmmaker(/producer/editor/publicist).

A.D. Calvo of Filmmaker Magazine writes: Before becoming a filmmaker I spent 15 years designing software. Started out as a Mac OS programmer and then moved to Microsoft Windows. My endeavors included all things visual—from icon design and screen layout, to the more abstract design patterns found in system architecture and coding. What I discovered along the way was that the most elegant solutions—the products that worked best, most reliably, and resonated strongly with their user base—were always the most simple and minimalist in design. And there was always room for improvement via testing, focus groups, and refactoring (a techie word for the iterative process of simplification).

Jon Fougner of Indiewire writes: Vine lets you record multi-shot videos up to six seconds (144 frames) long on your iPhone and post them to Twitter and Facebook. The app is dead-simple; there are no editing tools. Having witnessed Facebook acquire Instagram, Twitter bought Vine three months before Vine's January product launch. Its closest competitor is Cinemagram, which displays short, looping videos and allows for limited post-production effects.

David Edelstein of Vulture writes:   Documentary  . A starchy word, isn’t it? It comes from the Latin documentum, meaning lesson or proof, and carries an implicit threat: “Time for class, children.” That’s better than a quiz, for sure, but nothing you’d want to pay thirteen bucks to see on a big screen. A popular website for doc practitioners is called “the D-Word,” as in (creator Doug Block explains), “We love your film but don’t know how to sell it. It’s a D-word.”

Reid Rosefelt writes on his blog: As recently as last summer I thought that a filmmaker could do a good job with social media only using Facebook.

I’m not saying that anymore.

Back then, the crux of my argument came from my supposition that most independent filmmakers’ time was very limited. If they had time to do Twitter, Instagram , Tumblr, etc., that would be great, but I knew what was involved in making a film and I knew that a lot of people were doing DIY distribution. Facebook was bigger than all other social networks combined. Facebook offered unique advantages like cheap advertising. Facebook took very little time compared to the others.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE.

Philip Bloom wonders if Blackmagic have made their original Cinema Camera obsolete by announcing two new versions before the old one has even fully shipped.

He writes, "I am a big fan of announcing your new product on the same day as you can order it...BUT lets not forget how truly great what Blackmagic are doing and how they are pushing so hard and so aggressively at that price point. They have to be careful though. They need to deliver on their promises and get these cameras to customers soon. I also think they should not announce any more cameras at next year’s NAB….let’s catch a breath can we please? In fact this is a thought…after this, can we not have any new cameras come out for three years please?"

NewBay Media and the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) announced today their partnership on NYC Television Week. The 2013 NYC Television Week is the inaugural event in what is to be an annual celebration of the television industry in the media capital of the world.

This year’s event runs from October 28-31 at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel and the Metropolitan Pavilion.

Indie film marketing specialist Sheri Candler explains what she believes is the biggest mistake filmmakers can make when marketing their films: "Not having a plan," she says firmly.

Watch her tips for avoiding that issue in the video below.

In this video from PSFK Conference NYC 2012, filmmaker Jason Silva discusses how technology can foster creativity and vice versa. Silva will again be speaking at PSFK Conference 2013, taking place on April 12th.

Momentum Blog gathers 12 TED Talks by and for filmmakers, including inspiring speeches from the likes of James Cameron, J.J. Abrams, Andrew Stanton and more. See their full list here.

Indiegogo is providing a very helpful, free crowdfunding field guide filled with tips and checklists for how to get a project off the ground. The 22-page guide is divided into four parts encompassing the time periods before your campaign starts, the first half of your campaign, the second half of your campaign and when your campaign ends. It features details on everything from pitch videos and incentives to best practices for social media.

Download it for free here.

James Kaelen and Timothy Rhys write up a bold, 13-point manifesto they call "The MovieMaker Manifesto: A Document for an Oppressed Majority."

The first rule: "Unless the social stakes in your film are high, avoid meandering, plotless narratives at all costs. Reserve neorealism for the inherently dramatic. Middle class white kids eating cereal in bed is not inherently dramatic."

Read it in full here on MovieMaker.

Filmmaker Thaddeus Setla writes up a post on AbelCine offering a different perspective on shopping for cameras: thinking about the manufacturer behind it.

He writes, "Filmmaking camera purchasing is a daunting task for many of us, but in the end there are a lot more to things to consider before pulling out your credit card. I have seen bad cameras turn out amazing films and I have seen great cameras turn out bad films. So instead of focusing on the technical aspects of the camera, I now find myself asking this question: 'what is my connection with the camera manufacturer?' Only after asking this question have I realized that if I’m investing thousands of dollars on a camera, I want to know how the manufacturer is going to support me. I want to know about the people who made this camera, the people who market it, the people who support it and where I fit in the picture."

Multichannel News writes up why Ultra HD may be here to stay, saying, "By now, you’ve probably heard the long list of reasons why UltraHD television is hobbled, even as it dazzles its way to the starting line. Some already liken it to 3DTV, in terms of nonstarters. This week’s translation examines why it’s a bad idea to dismiss UltraHDTV so soon. Why? Because we’ve seen this movie before. Think back to when HDTV began — very similar obstacles."

Read more here.

Creative agency 360i has created a Twitter sing-along for band Rumors. The website rumorstweetalong.com plays the band's single, "Slow Down" along with live curated tweets that use hashtags that coincide with the song's lyrics. Users can roll over the individual hashtags to stop the video and read the tweets they came from.

The song ends with a list of credits, i.e. the users whose tweets comprised the tweetalong. See it here. (via PSFK)

Documentary Channel lists five of their favorite opening scenes from documentaries, writing, "Documentaries don’t often have exceptional or memorable beginnings. A lot of the classics just jump right in, which isn’t bad but they might not easily hook in a lot of today’s generation of Netflix browsers. And a lot of newer films start stiffly with an expository set up...[so] I tried to come up with some noteworthy opening scenes from documentaries."

See the list here.

Jose Gomez is the director and founder of Shilo.TV, a multi-disciplinary production company responsible for branded viral motorcross video AIR.CRAFT for DC Shoes (found below).

He says of their work, "We’d like all of our work to be entertaining and have a storytelling component to it. We want the work to be more than just advertising, it’s entertainment and about storytelling, giving something back to the audience rather than just consuming their time. The AIR.CRAFT film for DC is a longer format of that and we really think it’s the future of advertising when you can entertain people and also tell a story for the brand seamlessly. It’s really great when you can produce something that people come to watch on their own for the entertainment value of it. In my mind that’s a huge advantage and something advertisers should do more of. Great work has value and stands on its own as entertainment."

ComScore's online video rankings for February 2013 show an alarming 32% decrease for YouTube online views versus last year. But Videonuze explains the shift, "Lest you think viewers are fleeing YouTube, the perennial 800-pound gorilla of the online video market, what really appears to be happening is that a sizable chunk of viewers are shifting their viewing to mobile devices, which as I understand it, is not counted in comScore's data."

Read more here.

Streaming video on demand is currently a good source of income for networks, but will they eventually end up shooting themselves in the foot? Writes the Wall Street Journal, "Companies' growing reliance on SVOD makes them more susceptible to the future performance of online video services. And even if subscriber growth continues, analysts say media companies could end up cannibalizing their own TV ratings. As a new generation of viewers grows accustomed to online streaming, it may resist watching ads and begin to place greater value on the quality of content than on the newness of content, according to Janney Capital Markets. This could shift viewing away from traditional TV and threaten crucial advertising revenue. Demanding high prices from Netflix and others could theoretically offset any lost ad dollars. But Netflix has already shown it can afford to walk away from deals it deems too expensive."

The Documentary Channel has some suggestions as to what films the public should nominate to be inducted into the National Film Registry this year, most prevalently Paradise Lost. They write, "The 1996 documentary has led to the release of three wrongfully convicted men through its influence and its continuation into two sequels (the third of which was nominated for an Oscar last year). It’s also been a huge inspiration to other filmmakers and legal causes over the years. So, when the 2013 NFR titles are announced this December, I think it should be among the 25."

Read more and find out how to email your nominations (you can nominate up to 50 titles) here.