Video on Flickr: A year later.

A little over a year ago, my all time favorite web service, Flickr, began allowing users to share video. Immediately afterwards, photography and Flickr purists started protesting the photo sharing site's new feature, and many lengthy flame wars raged in the user forums.  I, personally, was intrigued by the idea. There were some things that made video on Flickr a little different than most other media sharing sites. Over the past year I've been keeping my eye Flickr, and have made some observations on the pros and cons of each.

Long photos

Pros: While it's impossible to call it "a new medium," Flickr calling video a "long photo" rather than a "movie" really does change the way you look at it, and in its own way, it's kind of enlightening. Cons: A lot of people still don't get it, and it's impossible to enforce. Stay tuned for a future blog post about long photos, and how they're different from other videos.

Video quality

Pros: Flickr features some of the best looking video on the web. Not much else I can say about this. Cons: It only looks good if you have a computer with the horsepower to play it. My 1.5 GHz PowerBook plays these videos back at a frustrating 2 frames per second.

Time limit

Pros: One of the only real ways to enforce videos being "long photos" rather than "movies." Capping the time limit at 90 seconds keeps the majority of YouTube-esque TV clips, short films, and kids-dancing-in-their-bedroom videos off of Flickr. Cons: Ninety seconds is still too long. I say the shorter the better. I've never seen a quality video on Flickr that had to be any longer than 20 or 30 seconds.

Membership limitations

Pros: Originally, it kept the video content on the site in the capable and dedicated hands of paying Pro members (largely made up of hardcore photographers). In March 09, Flickr began allowing standard account holders to upload two videos per month. Really, this isn't enough to have someone sign up for the sole intent of posting videos when there's scores of other sites that offer more for free. Cons: I think I'd have been happier if Flickr had kept it locked down to Pro members, but I'm not going to complain too much.   To learn more about video on Flickr, you should check out their video FAQ page.

Computer spring cleaning: the plan.

I've decided to do some computer spring cleaning. I broke down the operation into a few main components, and am going to be tackling them over the next couple of weeks. My plan goes a little like this:

Cleanup workspace

While not exactly cleaning the computer, cleaning up my desk always helps me get into the "clean mindset." I think it's important.

Cleanup inbox

Inspired by Merlin Mann's Amazon S3 space that I have, so I'll get back to that.

Being sideways can sometimes help...

Nine times out of ten, the videos I create for The University of Prince Edward Island's website end up living in the main content area of a page, and thus, are usually 400 or 480 pixels wide. Whether I'm shooting in 4:3 or 16:9 (usually 16:9), the videos themselves end up being a fairly good size. However, every now and then the best place for a video is in the sidebar of a webpage. Cramming a 16:9 video into a 200px wide sidebar often leaves the video pretty squished, if not unwatchable. I was presented with this challenge recently when I was charged with shooting several testimonial videos of a few of our international students. We need to fit these videos into the sidebars of a several pages, and I knew squishing a 16:9 video in there was going to be pointless.  So that's when I thought: who says a web video has to be landscape? Instead of shooting the videos the old fashioned way, I flipped the camera on its side and shot them at a 90° angle. I'll rotate the clips in post, and then the videos will fit in the sidebar as neat little portrait testimonials.
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Now, the videos can be large enough to be watchable, and the shape of the frame is perfect for framing an interview. Sure, I could have shot the videos the with the camera straight on and then just cropped the frame to a more reasonable size, but I liked looking in the viewfinder and knowing how it was going to look when it was done. Plus, shooting at 90° means that you're getting the highest possible resolution (which isn't that necessary when shooting in HDV for the web, but certainly can't hurt). The videos aren't live yet, but I'll be sure to update this post when they are.

Engagement pictures.

Four months from yesterday, I am getting married. My fiance (Rachel) and I got engaged last February after dating for four and a half years. We decided we would tie the knot in May 2009, giving us a (relatively long) 15 month engagement. Last fall, our good friend Jason MacLean agreed to take our engagement pictures. Jason is a photographer based in Charlottetown, PEI, and has been doing some wedding photography (as well as family, engagement, and general portraits) for several years.
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Me and my lovely fiance. Photo by Jason MacLean.
I think the pictures came out pretty darn good. We wanted to leave them until the fall so that we could take advantage of the changing leaves, and while it was getting late in the season (meaning a lot of trees were already leafless) we managed to find one nice little spot in the woods that offered the colours we were looking for. The whole process was quite different for me. I'm so used to being on the other side of the camera, and it made me realize why people sometimes feel awkward when I am directing them around (not that Jason was doing a bad job... I'm just not used to it). You can check out more of Jason's work on his website (jasonmacleanphotography.ca), blog, or Facebook page.

My most anticipated movies of 2009.

I was going to make a "Favorite Movies of 2008" list, however, after mulling over many of these lists on different blogs, I realized there's a lot of flicks I haven't seen. I didn't make it to any festivals, and Charlottetown is a pretty small market which frequently gets shafted by distributers on indie films (hey Fox Searchlight, we're still waiting on Slumdog Millionaire and The Wrestler). So rather than leave out all the 2008 films I've yet to see (which have been topping other lists), I thought I'd play it safe and list the movies I'm most looking forward to seeing in 2009. In alphabetical order:
  • Inglourious Basterds: Quentin Tarantino's WWII film (that he's been talking about for years) will hopefully be ready for Cannes in May, and has recently been granted an official August 21st release date.
  • The Road: Based on the Cormac McCarthy (No Country for Old Men) novel. If my memory serves me correct, this was originally slated for a 2008 release, but got pushed back to sometime in 2009. Who doesn't love post-apocalyptic dramas?
  • Sherlock Holmes: Guy Ritchie's adaptation of the literary classic starring Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, and hopefully some funny hats. The images from it look pretty cool so far. It comes out on November 20th.
  • Up: Pixar's latest is to be released on May 29th. After turning out what was my favorite movie of 2008, I'm hoping Pixar keeps up the good work with this one.
  • Watchmen: The first and only graphic novel I have ever read. From what I hear, Zack Snyder did a bang up job transferring the much loved book to the screen. Now, if only Fox and Warner Brothers can work out their little spat in time to keep the March 6th release date.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to one and all (and a Happy Hanukkah as well)! Hope everyone gets to spend lots of time with family and friends this season. We in Prince Edward Island were well on our way to having a White Christmas before temperatures shot up and it started to rain. Not exactly the most festive of holiday scenes outside, but a beautiful day none the less.

Thanks, but no thanks.

A few days ago, I got what I assume is my last "Please come back" email from Apple's groveling department encouraging me to renew my MobileMe account...
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Thanks, guys, but no thanks. I signed up for MobileMe (called ".Mac" at the time) in September of 2007 on an impulse. I had just purchased a new aluminum iMac, and wanted to be able to sync data between my PowerBook and it, but over the last year, I slowly started to discover several free or inexpensive web-based apps that did exactly what MobileMe offered (and often did a better job). With Dropbox (replacing iDisk), Delicious (for keeping track of bookmarks), Google Calendar (for syncing iCal), Gmail (now with IMAP), and Yahoo! mail (for syncing my address book), I really don't need to spend another $109. If I had an iPhone, I might have a different opinion, but overall, MobileMe just too dang expensive.

Ryan Gallant's "Canada's Next Great Prime Minister" Community Action Day.

This past weekend, my good buddy Ryan Gallant (and a posse of friends and supporters) hit the streets of Charlottetown to promote public transit in the city. He's a contestant on CBC's Canada's Next Great Prime Minister, and as such, was required to complete a community event for the competition. I helped out by shooting and editing his submission video. For those of you who aren't familiar with Charlottetown and its transit system, an event like this may seem as pointless as a "Don't Forget To Wear Pants Day." However, our transit system is only a few years old, and Islanders are taking their sweet old time getting around to taking full advantage of it. There's a general rule in Charlottetown that comes from being spoiled for decades: "If you can't get a parking spot right in front of the building you want to go to, it ain't worth going in." Ryan's been doing a pretty good job with this competition so far. Sure, I may be a bit biased, but he tackles all the questions really well. You can check out all of his videos and vote for him on the show's website.

Canadian flicks don't suck.

Yesterday, the Toronto International Film Festival Group announced their "Top 10 Canadian Films of 2008" list. Embarrassingly, I can only say that I've heard of one or two of these movies, and haven't seen any (partially because many have only played at festivals, and have yet to be distributed... that’s my excuse). With the release of this list yesterday, I began to ponder my own commitment to our country’s film industry. Upsettingly, I could only think of one Canadian movie I saw this year: Passchendaele. Passchendaele was the most expensive Canadian movie ever made ($20 million). It was also probably the worst movie I saw all year, and I would happily duke it out with anyone who thought otherwise. I know you’re out there. (I heard CBC Charlottetown’s Matt Rannie – who I’m sure is a great guy and who’s movie reviews are often on par with my own – gave it an 8/10... Matt, if you’re reading this, we need to talk). Canadians (minus the Québécois, who love their own movies) seem to have a deep rooted hatred for Canadian movies. I think it stems from when we were forced to watch NFB docs in school, and when the CBC used to run Canadian dramas in prime time. Those docs were boring, and those dramas didn’t have any Hollywood stars in them. So they sucked. And ever since, we’ve thought about “Canadian movies” as being boring, dull, and full of suck. But think about this, my fellow Canucks : would you say that the Canadian Olympic team sucks because they didn’t take home as many medals as the Chinese or Americans? Would you diss our athletes and cheer for the Americans because they were winning more? Didn’t think so. Those Canadian athletes are ours, and while they all aren't as good as the Americans, there's lots that kick serious ass. I think we need to take more responsibility for our own films. The CRTC regulates the amount of foreign content on our own radio and television stations. Should someone regulate the amount of foreign content in our own movie theatres? Sure, it’s going to be difficult for Canadian distributors to get enough 35mm prints to cover coast to coast, but digital projection now allows us to replace these expensive reels with inexpensive hard drives, or even downloads. A film could be streamed to every single theatre in the country for far less than a single 35mm print would cost. No more excuses. I heard a bit about some of the films on this list since it was released, and to be honest, I’m really excited to see some of these movies. Maybe they won’t be full of big-time stars or Michael Bay-esque explosions, but I trust that they’re going to be good films none the less. My challenge, Canadians, is to seek out at least one of these movies in the not too distant future. It may be hard, because a lot of them are still making the festival round, but keep watching for them on DVD, and make an effort to check them out. There’s a good chance your tax dollars financed these pictures to a certain degree, so you’re basically a producer... May as well watch one of the movies you helped make.