Here is am in the grasp of Darth Vader (not the economy!) at ILM - Photo by Stacey Leong/ILM

I just wanted to post a quick update here to clarify a few things - and to tell you what I’m working on for this blog.

First - these past few weeks have been pretty mind blowing.   I’ve finally had a chance to relax with family for 48 hours in the sun, after an uninterrupted 8-week-whirlwind tour.

The first thing that I wanted to clear up is:  things are going well for me and my business -in fact they’ve probably never been better.  That being said, it’s important to be aware that we are indeed going through an unusually tough spot in our global economy.  This is not just one of those “normal” cycles - as some who are posting in the comments pages, seem to believe.  That’s my opinion anyway - and that was the reason behind my post “The Perfect Storm Has Arrived.” I wrote that article in response to a lot of the things that I’ve been reading in the press, as well as witnessing first hand - a lot of my talented colleagues are facing difficult times - and it’s tough to witness.  I’ve also had a chance to speak to some influential (and well informed) people in both Hollywood and Silicon Valley - and everyone is “feeling it.”  So I’m quite positive - but cautious as well.

On another front - I’ve had a chance to meet a lot of interesting people over the past few weeks - many of them visionaries in their respective industries.  I’ve been invited to speak and visit the campus at Industrial Light & Magic, as well meet some trend-setting people at Dreamworks Animation, Apple, SmugMug, and Disney.   Heck I’ve even met the guy who invented Dolby 5.1, as well as  filmmaker Stu Maschwitz who is also the author of the indy filmmaker’s “bible” “The DV Rebel’s Guide.”  Stu incidentally has a blog for filmmakers that all photographers should take a gander at: ProLost.

(more…)

Check out this great use of multimedia by photographer Robbie Cooper.  This demonstrates where I think one of the directions that I think journalism should be headed - a true mix of different media (or multiple uses of the same media as we see here - pulling stills from the RED camera.)   The fact that this is very well shot (great light etc) and fun to watch doesn’t hurt either - not to mentions that it’s a fantastic concept.

I’m on the road and don’t have my NYTimes Magazine here - but I can’t wait to see what the stills look like in the mag (they’re off of the RED video camera.)  I haven’t heard good things about the quality of stills off of the RED to date - but I’m looking forward to being pleasantly surprised.  They sure look more than good enough for the web (I’d say fantastic.)  

(VIA PDNPulse)