Humping The (new) Media Landscape

What She Said!

anything thats possible that makes us change is good

Genesis P-Orridge

DIY is in your future, like it or not

"I was asked to name the most influential filmmakers of our era. The choices were pretty obvious: Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson, John Lasseter, George Lucas. . . . As the names spilled out, I realized they all have something in common. They're filmmaker-entrepreneurs, artists-turned-businessmen who helped start their own companies to further their work, became financially independent and created a world that operates under a radically different set of rules from the vacuous studio assembly lines. It's telling that the current strike is about new media yet both sides seem to be following old-school models."
(Link to Come on Writers Script Your Futures)

Futures of Entertainment 2

Last week I attended the Futures of Entertainment conference presented by MIT's Convergence Culture Consortium. It was a great weekend, inspiring and engaging.

The most exciting part was getting to be around people who are experienced enough to be jaded, yet manage to still be excited about the possibilities for media in the future. The mix of industry professionals who are adept at academic discourse and academics who are interested in the media marketplace was really unique.

The entire conference included only 4 panels, each extending to about 3 hours. When I told Sam Ford,one of the organizers, how much I appreciated this, he said that the time frame is intended to make panelists run out of talking points and actually get into genuine extemporaneous dialog. It certainly allowed for much more in depth conversations that one would typically encounter at a panel of the same title elsewhere.

I finally had some time this weekend to take a look at my notes from the conference and I will be post highlights from them in the next few days, as a way to get this myself used to writing on this blog.
 

I was quoted in NY Times!

I recently came across an article in the New York Times, where I was quoted!
The weirdest part is that the article is 16 years old, that's right 1991.

Children are no longer content to work in front of the camera. They want to direct.

Mica Scalin, 14, recently shot her parents' joint 50th birthday party in Richmond. "I've been taping for two years," she said. "It's good to have a kid behind the camera. You get a whole new view."

Watching family videos, she has learned things about herself. "Little things," she said. "A tone of voice. I might whine when I talk to my mother. When I talk to my brother, I shout."

(link to Camcorder! Action! Lives Become Roles)

I don't remember the circumstances that lead to the interview, but I can tell that the last quote was bullshit. I think I wanted to prove a point and had to give an easy to explain example on the spot. When I asked my parents about the article they only had a vague memory of it themselves.

Anyways, I was quoted alongside Neil Postman in the NY Times when I was fourteen!
It would be another 4 years until I would read any of Mr. Postman's books, yet I was already on the road to becoming the media junkie I am today.