iSight + iMovie HD = The Black Lodge
I’ve always been a fan of David Lynch‘s work… and ever since the first time I saw the Man From Another Place I’ve wanted to do something like this. As for what I’m saying… well, it’s just something I believe in.
As for iMovie HD… the only thing it’s good for is providing a decent visual preview when we’re trying to light and focus our HD Camera. When I was trying to make this short video the programme crashed three times and I lost the videos I shot beforehand… sounds pretty shitty if you ask me.
Wish List: This Car…
Above: 1970 Dodge Charger being auctioned on eBay right now…
Rudy and I were just talking about how awesome the soundtrack of Supernatural is and how awesome it would be to own a Dodge Charger (I prefer vintage cars to anything on the market today). The fact that the seller of the above car is based in Montreal makes me feel as if it’s fate… I just wish I had those kind of funds to throw away on such a sexy prop…
How awesome would it be to soup this baby up into a hybrid… *drool*.
WOOHOO!
Usually when an IKEA opens in your area everyone knows about it. I feel the same is true for the Apple Store, but I’ve been proven wrong.
Last year I heard rumours of an Apple Store opening in Laval, a flourishing city just north of Montreal. I didn’t believe the rumours because I figured that an Apple Store would open in Montreal before there… BUT… after messaging back and forth with one of our viewers on MySpace, it turns out it’s true!
Now that we know about it we’re going to have to take advantage of it. In addition to having them check a broken key on my MacBook’s keyboard, here are a couple of other things we’d like to do there:
- Attend a workshop on Final Cut Pro
- See if we can set up an event for video blogging/podcasting to raise awareness on our craft
This is really exciting… my only fear is that everything might be in French… :P We’ll see.
LibSyn Update
I think it’s only fair to post a follow-up to my last post about LibSyn support…
I received this e-mail yesterday and am very pleased with their response. They have done what they could to give us access to a file format that is supported by Excel.
I guess you just have to put pressure on them to read the e-mail before they respond…
On 1/22/07, Libsyn Support
Hi Casey,
Thanks for your patience. We took this issue to heart and have made a few updates:
1) There’s now a link to a CSV containing summary stats for each of your files
2) Instead of the ambiguous blank screen if logging is turned off for an account (it is for yours), there is a message pointing you to the settings option to enable itWe hope you find these updates helpful and would appreciate any feedback you wish to offer.
Regards,
Marty Mulligan
Why LibSyn is “The Suck”
Galacticast was hosted by LibSyn for the first two-three months of it’s run. However, we found that paying $30-50/month for hosting was ridiculous and quickly switched to Blip, a company that actually listened to our ideas on how a host should be organized.
Since we already had so many videos uploaded to LibSyn and such little extra time to transfer them over to Blip we felt it was easier to just keep paying $5/month to keep our LibSyn account running. Now, after paying them hundreds of dollars over the span of 1.5 years for three different accounts (galacticast, kitkast and coderonin), we’ve decided it’s time to cut the cord.
We’ve already uploaded all our Galacticast videos to Blip and the galacticast LibSyn account is ready to be canceled. Our only issue now is to get a copy of our stats for those first few episodes before we nuke the account. The problem, however, is that their stats are offered in an unprintable flash and as you can see from the below conversation their support team doesn’t pay close attention to the e-mails we send… our main reason for switching to Blip.
On 1/19/07, Casey McKinnon wrote:
Every time I try to print my stats or save them as pdf, this is what I get:
I would like to know how to print all of my stats to date.
Thanks,
Casey–
Casey McKinnon
Executive Producer, Galacticasthttp://www.galacticast.com/
On 1/19/07, Libsyn Support wrote:
You cant print the page due to the fact its flash it wont print. You will need to click the apache logs download the desired month and print that.
Ken
On 1/19/07, Casey McKinnon wrote:
Hi Ken,
That doesn’t work for us and we’ve tried it on multiple browsers (on Mac and Windows XP). Is there any way you can get us the information in a decent visual format (perhaps in Excel)? This information is vitally important to us.
Thank you,
Casey
On 1/19/07, Libsyn Support wrote:
You can download tools that will process the files for you into a readable format. The only think I can think of would to be to highligh all the text and such in stats area and copy and past it into word. It might take a little editing there but that is as far as we would be able to go.
Ken
On 1/19/07, Casey McKinnon wrote:
Maybe you misunderstood our last e-mail. We do not have access to the apache log or xml files. The link from our stats page leads to an empty page. Our only information is coming from the flash stats application that we cannot copy and paste from.
Could you send us the files, or make them available to us?
Thank you,
Casey
On 1/21/07, Casey McKinnon wrote:
I have not heard back from LibSyn in two days and would appreciate it if someone would go through this email in its entirety to solve the issue as soon as possible.
Thank you,
Casey
Ugh… the worst part of dealing with LibSyn is that everytime you send them an e-mail they delete your previous message so they don’t follow the thread of conversation, but reply as if it’s a whole new question.
Wish us luck on getting those stats.
Old Media Headache
[Touring through an old media studio]
Person x: “I’ve got a headache”
Person y: “Me too… it’s called Old Media”
So here we are re-building the media the way we want it, yet still we depend on old media as a promotional tool. What video producer wouldn’t be flattered to have their content featured in the New York Times or on CNN? I know I would be.
The problem is that old media is set in the old ways… a restrictive copyright, gatekeepers and bureaucracy. Last year, G4 Tech TV wanted to feature Galacticast on Torrent, but after we read the consent form which would hand over all of our rights to the company Rogers, we declined. A few months later we spoke to them in person and we were able to amend the consent form to come to an agreement (they can use and re-use the footage on Torrent only and we retain our original rights). I’m very grateful to the people at Torrent for their understanding and flexibility.
Now we’re signing more consent forms, this time to a HUGE broadcasting corporation that we’re really excited about. Last month I filled out a consent form to allow them to use our videos and yesterday I was asked by the company representative whether the rest of our cast members featured in the videos should fill out consent forms as well. How should I know… you’re the big media company. I replied to the e-mail saying that all actors have given their verbal consent and are very excited to see the finished product. Today I was informed by the representative that I now have to get the rest of our cast to fill out consent forms to allow the company to re-broadcast their “likeness”. Now, I understand that the company wants to cover their ass to make sure they don’t receive any lawsuits, but isn’t it enough to get a consent form from the executive producer of our show? I highly doubt that Battlestar Galactica has their whole cast fill out consent forms every time a broadcast company wants to play a clip of their show…
How did the broadcast world get so darned paranoid?
iTunes Love…
Rudy noticed we were in the iTunes music store featured video podcasts this week and we were pretty excited. I wasn’t going to gloat, but then I realized that Steve Woolf just did that with Jet Set Show, so I feel no shame… :P
N.B. It’s the Canadian iTunes Store
On Quitting My Day Job
I’m a much happier person now that I’ve quit my day job to become a full time new media entrepreneur, but it wasn’t an easy decision. Here is the series of events that led to my final decision to go full time on Galacticast / 8Bit Brownies Inc.:
- Rudy and I were staying up until 3-7am every night and waking up at 8am to go to work. I constantly arrived late and felt ashamed of myself for not being punctual;
- I saw the Clint Eastwood film Bronco Billy on television and realized that I needed to quit my job to pursue my dreams. The film is about a former shoe salesman who became a cowboy in a wild west show to follow his dream. I was so touched by the film that I cried my eyes out;
- My good friend Åsa Westin told me that she quit her day job at 28 to become a full time artist. She said that had she not quit her job, she never would have got into art galleries. I realized then that I have to think of myself as an artist… someone working to do what she loves, regardless of whether she gets paid or not.
If you too have the funds to support yourself for a while, I encourage anyone out there to go out and live the life they want to live… you never know if this day is your last.
Which Super Villain Are You?
Looks like I’m %2 more Catwoman than Zadi is… :P
Your results:
You are Catwoman
| With a troubled past and an upbringing on the streets you have learned how to fend for yourself through crime. |
Click here to take the Super Villain Personality Test
Birthday Karaoke
I personally asked Rudy and our friend Kevin to practice and perform this duet for me on my birthday two years ago…
