1st Annual New York DV Show for Digital Video Professionals Debuts

The New York DV Show attracted more than 7,000 attendees from 37U.S. states, 5 countries and every corner of the professional digitalvideo industry. The five-day event brought together DV editing andproduction professionals with established film editors and directors,creating a unique cross-pollination of perspectives.

“The creative community has come to embrace digital video asno longer an emerging technology but rather as a proven medium forcreating art,” says Rick Friedman, president and co-founder ofMindshare Ventures, which co-organized the conference. “FromThelma Schoonmaker’s electrifying keynote through every technicalworkshop and across the energetic Expo floor, there was one commontheme: Digital video is here, it’s prime-time, and it has gainedthe support and respect of an entire industry.”

The New York DV Show featured several highlights, including:

-A “Visionary Keynote” by Randy Balsmeyer,creative director and president of Big Film Design, who spoke about thechanging face of movie making and special effects.

-“The Power of Editing,” by Thelma Schoonmaker,who showed clips from some of her most memorable projects including thebreath-taking fight scenes in Raging Bull, the “day in thelife of a mobster” sequences from GoodFellas and themultiple-screen images of The Who performing at Woodstock. She alsoshared amusing stories about how these scenes were edited and thethought processes that went into their development.

-“The Making of Chelsea Walls,” which broughthome the power of digital video to make a commercially viable movieproject. Shot entirely in DV on a $150,000 budget, thesoon-to-be-released film was directed by Ethan Hawke, who was recentlynominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Training Day.Hawke and several of the film’s key creative heads presented acase study on how Chelsea Walls was made and the benefits provided bydigital video. Jake Abraham of InDigEnt, which produced the movie,served as moderator.

The Expo floor bulged to capacity with thousands of eager shoppersinterested in the displays of 70 leading hardware and softwarecompanies. The New York DV Show’s Expo floor was also the sceneof several exciting developments, as exhibitors used the event toannounce news or new products. Just some of the highlightsincluded:

-The launch of Avid Xpress DV3, the latest version of whathas become the “universal language” of digital video.

-The introduction of “Useful Things,” the firsttotally programmable plug-in for Adobe After Effects, from ProfoundEffects.

The New York DV Show’s conference program boasted 170 sessionsand featured 5 full-length conferences, each devoted to separatetopics: Apple Final Cut Pro Users Conference, Adobe After Effects UsersConference, Avid Xpress DV Users Conference, Digital Video Conferenceand Discreet Fest. Technical sessions at The New York DV Show covered aspectrum of topics including production techniques, editing power tips,special effects, cameras and decks, hardware peripherals, streaming,DVD authoring, 3D animation, audio editing and business issues.Included were sessions on products from: Adobe, Apple, Avid, Discreet,Macromedia, Media100, Microsoft, Pinnacle, Sonic and Sony.

The ultimate success of the event was due to a combined effort byco-organizers Mindshare Ventures and Future Media Concepts, incooperation with B&H. The show also featured Gold Sponsors Avid,Boris FX, and Sharp; Silver Sponsors Discreet, InFocus and LairdTelemedia; and Bronze Sponsor ProMax.