Observations

Fitting I would choose this subject as my 100th blog posting. Forgive me for playing loose with logic and prose.

Just as the west was won with barbwire, the internet has been tamed by the large corporations like Google and Facebook. But unlike the old west which was divided up into homesteads, the maturity of the Internet has been marked by the tearing down of walls and obstructions.

When I started my media business over 6 years ago, the Internet was still very much the domain of the nerd. Around 2000, Bill Gates proclaimed that there were two types of businesses: Businesses with websites and Businesses that were going out of business. That was true then, but as we draw this decade to a close it’s become true for the individual.

Now there are two types of people: People that are involved with Social Networking and the hold outs.

Less then 10 years ago, it was not uncommon to meet people that didn’t have a regular email address. Only the most technically inclined would dare build their own website and building a web gallery was something that required a patience and a bunch of html table tags. The word “blog” was yet to be invented.

Lest you think this posting is just a reminiscence into what has changed in the last 10 years, let me assure you, there is a point.

As the web becomes easier to use, it also becomes ever more prevalent. At first I was very much anti-Facebook (as I was anti-MySpace and started an MS profile as a lark), but now I think more than 50% of the people I know and communicate with in real life are Facebook Friends. That milestone is striking to me.

No longer can I compartmentalize the web from my “real life”. No longer can I be one person online and another person offline. The barriers between these worlds are crumbling fast.

I don’t know that I’m sad to see the blur between the two. On one hand it has improved my own offline personality – it’s made me more sociable (strangely enough). On the other hand, the deception of “privacy on the internet” has never been more… deceptive. You can’t just blog about a bad experience with someone lest that someone actually tracks you down and reads that bad post. Sure that’s always been the case, but since you can link up your blog with your Facebook and automatically tweet about your latest anger filled tear down – tracking down the bad blood has never been easier.

But then, maybe you should just throw caution to the wind sometimes. Then again, as a freelancer who lives and dies by my reputation, maybe not.

And no, I don’t have the need to rant about someone right now.

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Alright, I’m going to be pretty frank here. I just got back from the Temecula Valley Chamber of Commerce 42nd Annual Awards Gala. I’ve been working on the buffer videos that they use during the event (ie. “And the nominees are” and the nominees roll).

 A couple minor points to get out of the way. The live event company which knows how to light a stage and wire sound really good, doesn’t know jack about video. I’ve been doing this for 5 years, attending the event for 4 and every time they’ve managed to screw something up. This year, I made sure my DVD was totally fool-proof (they always screw up on aspect ratio).

They didn’t really screw up anything tonight… but just to show how ignorant they are… they used a PMW-EX1 as their live feed camera. Excellent camera if I say so myself… but they hook it up the their switcher via the RCA jack – using an RCA to BNC connector (the switcher takes a BNC connection).

 Um… There’s a BNC jack on the camera… And it can output Standard Def… why are you using the RCA connection only to convert it to BNC when you could shoot out straight from BNC??

Okay, there could be a large number of reasons… I just never forgave them for that time I told them to put a tape in the live camera and record the first lifetime achievement award and guess what… they didn’t.

Anyhow, back to the success of tonight. The video graphics went well and people seemed to enjoy them… but what really went over well was the Lifetime Achievement Video which was rewarded to Ron Parks.

For this video I videotaped 11 civic, charity, and business leaders in the area all giving their congratulatory responses to Ron Parks. The speeches varied from serious to plain out silly (One of the council members sang “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” becuase Mr. Parks always plays Santa in our annual Christmas Parade).

Now, 11 civic, charity and business leaders speaking can be extremely boring… and when I showed my first cut to the ladies at the Chamber, we were all concerned about the length (about 12:30 in length). I trimmed about 30 seconds off of it for the final showing tonight.

It played to a crowd of 600 or so business owners in the Temecula Chamber of Commerce tonight. I wasn’t really nervous… I was anticipating the showing but not nervous.

 Well, it played PERFECTLY. The audience reacted exactly the way that I wanted them to. They laughed at all the right places, they payed attention when they needed to (and that’s tough for a slightly rowdy and slighty drunk crowd). They cheered where I pushed the emotional factor over the limit… I mean everything I expected to happen happened.

What an electric feeling it was. The 12 minutes floated by quickly and the vidoe felt anything but long. The only thing that concerned me was I needed to hold even longer for a laugh with an audience that size… maybe a half a second longer… but not enough to loose the momentum.

It was terrific and I felt like I really accomplished something. As I wrote Rich who invited me to Fox to visit, I learned a lot about how to approach these talking head documentaries from him and the team we works with. Just the few hours I spent there was enough for me to get a sense of direction… I have the cutting skills – I just needed the attitude and motivation.

 And that’s where I am now. Pretty happy at my accomplishement – a little blue that I didn’t have a knock-out date to go with me (the ladies were all dolled up)… but you know what, I think I’m involved in a far bigger plan than I suspect!

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