A little under two years ago I started this blog with a post titled “The Cloud is Falling.” I then went to cover the Olympics for Newsweek which helped to increase readership - and then I posted a little video called “Reverie” on this blog. And everything changed from that point on - for a lot of us.
Since then - nearly 5,000,000 visitors have graced us with their presence. And at times this blog has utterly overwhelmed me. In the months following Reverie or Nocturne - it was not uncommon for me to wake up each morning to more than 500 e-mails in my inbox from fantastic people from around the globe. (This number would not include junk mail.)
The problem was: My staff and I simply could not keep up. We were missing jobs left and right as they were becoming buried amidst the hundreds of e-mails. This blog’s readership is now north of 150,000 people per month.
At one point - I considered ending the blog. And then I realized that I couldn’t. This community is far too special to turn one’s back on. I’ve simply met far too many interesting people in the past few years - and any single one of them alone would justify continuing the blog. This HDDSLR movement is a bona fide thing - not just a flash in the pan.
So now I’ve come to the following conclusion: I need a little help from some friends to keep this blog healthy. I’m not able to focus on my career to the degree that I’d like to AND simultaneously focus on producing regular content for you all on this blog - let alone to be a husband and father to two young wonderful children. In this case, those friends are the “supporters” illustrated above. I’ve formed great relationships and friendships with the people at these companies and use their products on a regular basis.
Therefore, a little over a month ago I went to them and asked if they’d help support this blog in a non-traditional manner (more on that below). In effect these companies are contributing to help me hire someone to manage this blog. Every post you will see on this blog will continue to be written by me - that’s something that is essential to me. That new person (a young buck by the name of Justin Hamilton) will simply be there to help me grab the relevant graphics, links, check my spelling, and to shoot and edit the videos you will see as a new feature of this blog. For those of you who run your own blogs - you know that it’s not uncommon to spend 5+ hours to shoot, edit, grade, EQ and post a video - that runs all of a whopping 2 minutes on the blog…
My goal is to keep this blog as close to what is has been over the past few years - but to add more content to it with Justin’s and the above “supporters’” help.
So that’s the short version - below is the longer version for those who have been regular readers all along. It will cover a lot of the pertinent questions you might have btw.
I received a text at 6:53 a.m. this morning from GREY EVP Nick Childs (who helped spearhead this contest and is also one of the judges.)
It read: “Call me asap this morning!” (That’s rarely a good thing folks…)
I was worried that I had announced the award too early and caused ire for my fellow Frenchmen… he laughed and shared the amazing news:
We won a second Lion from Cannes this morning - this time we won a “Gold Lion” from the 57th International Advertising Festival - in another category (more details to be announced tomorrow on the separate categories we’ve won in.)
That’s of course great for “us” - the people who launched this campaign - BUT - Here’s why YOU SHOULD CARE:
Second - this likely solidifies this campaigns as Grey Advertising’s campaign of the year… that’s a pretty big deal folks. That means one thing: the “Final Chapter” where the 6 winners come together and shoot together this fall - will be an EVEN BIGGER DEAL. Truth be told - this was an experiment from the start and we never made solid plans on how we would end this campaign (everyone wanted to see how it went.) Now that it’s this big of a success - I can comfortably go out on a limb and state that the final chapter will be a BIG DEAL.
Third - this is where YOU COME IN… there are TWO FINAL CHAPTERS LEFT TO ENTER. The Fifth chapter’s winner is just about to be announced. Here’s what you have to understand - when this all comes together - and we shoot the final chapter - THAT AS A WHOLE will likely be re-entered into the Cannes Lions and many other advertising competitions. In other words - you have a GOLDEN (or silver) CHANCE of potentially being part of a major award winning campaign. Not too shabby to put on your resume. If I were you - I’d be getting ready to submit the single best entry ever for the final Chapter 7 and/or Chapter 8. The next entry deadline for Chapter 7 is July 18, 11:59.59 p.m. E.S.T.
To those not in the advertising world - these awards are loosely the equivalent of a Grammy/Oscar/Pulitzer in other industries. In other words this a really big deal - not just some other award.
I find it particularly relevant in that it shows how the world of advertising is changing very quickly. Producing slick campaigns will always be relevant - but finding ways to DIRECTLY connect with an audience is key. When the advertiser (Canon) Agency (Grey NYC) AND the audience (those who entered the contest) all benefit - hey - that’s the definition of a ” Win/Win.” Well it’s in fact a “Win/Win/Win” - isn’t it?
Congrats to the amazing team at Grey Advertising NY, Canon and everyone who helped this little dream of ours come true. This is definitely one that will go toward the top of all of our resumes.
As I mentioned in a previous post- I went to meet Grey a little less than a year ago and told them I wanted to find a way to harness the excitement behind this new HDDSLR craze. I had experienced success from “Reverie” and “Nocturne” and wanted to find a way to share it with others out there. I told them that going out and producing yet another film for myself wasn’t going to cut it, as I wanted to find a way to SHARE my experience of the past two years with other filmmakers out there. I threw a few ideas at them that I had at the time - and the creative team at Grey and I worked together on morphing those ideas into something that we could get Canon excited with - and ultimately we created the Beyond The Still contest together…
The best thing is: WE’RE NOT DONE YET! And I can’t wait to see what we can do for the FINAL CHAPTER with the 7 winners… needless to say this contest will now not just wither away… as it’s just gotten much bigger than any of us could have imagined. Expect a lot more attention to be put on this contest - not to mention the final chapter that I and the 7 other winners will collaborate on together in the fall.
Thank you Tor, Ari, Stephen, Elinor, Rick, Chris, Melinda, David, Melanie, James, Luiz, Nick, Madhuri, Rob and Chris for all of your efforts in making this project come together - not to mention the entire cast and crew who helped launch the initial chapter!
Millions across the country are unable to pre-order the iPhone 4G - apparently (once again) AT&T doesn't have it's act together. FAIL
If there’s been one SIGNIFICANT strategic blunder that Apple has made since the launch of the iPod and the incredible (some would say historic) resurgence of their company - it is to have associated themselves with AT&T. For those of us who have been online to get the first iPhone, and the second, and third - and been through all of the incredibly headaches of failed activations, endless lines and horrid customer service from AT&T (to be fair the people on the phone you get when calling customer service at AT&T are actually great - I’m referring to the service at the stores) - I can’t believe that with the iPhone 4, Apple and AT&T have still not been able to get their act together. It’s an embarrassment - and mostly to Apple.
It’s safe to say that no one expects much from AT&T. I never have. But I am a huge backer of Apple. However, by associating themselves with a subpar company, their value - and record of near perfection - has been tarnished - badly. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Steve Jobs has lost many nights of sleep due to his decision to go with AT&T and sign that exclusivity agreement.
And don’t even get me started on the phone service - basically the running jokes these days (and for awhile now) is that the iPhone is the best phone in the world - that can’t actually make any phone calls. I drop 2 out of 3 calls on average. And it’s taken every bit of self control not to throw the phone against a wall/car/you name it - on a number of occasions.
In the end - I’m not debating whether or not to get the iPhone 4 at all. I debated setting my alarm last night for 1 a.m. to get online and order one. I guess part of me is growing up (or becoming fed up with the hype) and I decided not to. I decided I could wait a few extra days/weeks to get the phone if that’s what would result in putting the order in the next morning.
I have to admit that on a technical level (and overall) the Season Finale of House was STUNNING. I had to pinch myself a few times and I have to admit that the question: “Was this REALLY shot w/ the Canon 5D MKII” did run through my mind more than once. The full episode will be available on Fox’s site in 7 days for those who missed it, or of course on iTunes.
Three things stood out:
1. The lens sharpness was phenomenal. Why? The lighting. Sure we all caught some glimpses of people/faces falling out of focus at times - something all 5D MKII and HDDSLR operators are well acquainted with… I’m sure this could be remedied with many of the newer 3rd party lens options out there today. I am told this episode was shot with Canon EF Lenses - including the 24~70mm 2.8 and 70~200mm 2.8 - lenses that are particularly difficult to set focus marks with, as they were never really intended to be used as cinema lenses.
From Gawker - some pretty good points in this article today. Brings up a lot of interesting questions and makes some solid points too. Read on and view the video as well:
Given that everyone’s talking about it and many shared the video - was this a SUCCESSFUL marketing campaign?
Did the line between this video being a bit “too authentic” vs being “over the top / comical” get blurred - and was that the goal?
If you leave your customers feel cheated/duped - will that backfire?
All VERY relevant questions for anyone in advertising/marketing… what do you think???
On a technical note: you should notice that the guys fall into the water at EXACTLY the same spot each time…hmmm… and did you notice the RedRock Micro follow focus gearing on the 70~200mm… was this shot (at least in part if not entirely) with an HDDSLR perhaps? hmmm… likely!
I’ve gotten several e-mails and twitter posts over the past week relating to this H.264 End User Agreement “controversy.”
Basically, the issue is with the end user license agreement for H.264 which states that the format cannot be used for “professional” distribution.
This is something we should all worry about as the Canon HDDSLRs all shoot their footage in the H.264 footage. If you’re confused - click here to go to the Gizmodo article that does a good job of spelling this out in detail.
My opinion? All too often, lawyers write contracts that are meant to protect their clients to the “Nth” degree. I deal with a LOT of contracts - and most of them make your blood boil if read at face value.
What I’ll often do is to call the client and/or lawyer and bring up my concerns - and that usually clarifies things and often we can modify the language. This of course often involves me getting my lawyer involved myself of course - and continues to feed the beast.
The cynic has to wonder out loud if these contracts are nothing more than a big industry conspiracy that they teach all law students in some secret ceremony at law schools around the world: ”Make contract overreaching - this will GUARANTEE a counter from the second party - which in turn guarantees more billable hours for both legal teams during the ensuing back and forth…” But I digress.
To be frank - it’s not uncommon for me to find out that the client that is sending out this contracts to me - can’t quite make sense of what said contract says themselves… Or if they can- they don’t often stop to think what the implications of some of the terms are - or how they could potentially be misinterpreted / abused by others.
That being said - one always should consider the fact that if there is something in a contract that you don’t like/agree to - NEVER SIGN IT! In the end - just because you know what the client “meant” or “intended” - all that matters is what is said in that contract.
In this case - you have to use common sense. H.264 is one of the most prevalent codecs out there in the world today - and amateurs and professionals are using it EVERY day and posting content up continually. If this were an issue - one would expect that some action would already have been taken…
So while I’m not wasting much time worrying about how these H.264 terms of services might affect us at this point - I would feel much more comfortable is they were more clearly outlined…
As some of you may remember - I made a comment earlier this year that 2010 would see some incredible products being released in the HDDSLR realm.
NAB 2010 kicks off tomorrow - and you should expect some pretty fantastic announcements from a wide variety of companies. I know of quite a few - but am sworn to secrecy for at least another 12 hours or so.
For those of you who could not make it out to the city of sin for this conference - know that a lot of the buzz here surrounds the HD DSLR and “convergence” worlds. Very exciting times. I can’t wait to share a lot of what I know with you very shortly. Zeiss, RedRock Micro, Lite Panels, Marshall Electronics, Canon and many many more have some very exciting announcements.
And now let me translate them for you in plain english as best I can:
You can enter as of January 15th (now) but there is no rush - you have just under a month to enter your submission for Chapter 2 - the first deadline is February 11, 2010 at 11:59.59 p.m. E.S.T…
Here’s how the competition works:
Canon gave me a still image to interpret into a short film. My short film then ends on the still image below.
This image is your "starting point" for chapter 2 - your interpretation of it need not be exact or literal...
Now it’s YOUR turn to interpret the image above into your own 2-4 minute film- and end on YOUR still image… (more…)
I just wanted to point you to a cool series of posts from some notable photographers on Robert Hanashiro’s SportsShooter site that he’s been sucessfully publishing (and sharing generously) with others out there for a decade.
I’ve always found it interesting to study how a career takes shape. It’s a very interesting mix of things you try to make happen, things that fail to happen, and a convergence of events often completely out of your control that many call luck.
When I was 15, I was naïve enough to send my work over to Cornel Capa at ICP to ask him for his advice on what to do with my career. He sent me a very kind handwritten letter basically telling me to keep at it – and that things would inevitably happen. I cherish the letter to this day.
At the age of 19 I was rejected thirteen consecutive times during my first round of internship applications. I then sent out a half-hearted application to the Reuters News Pictures Photo Desk in Washington DC – to work as an editor – at the behest of my placement counselor late in spring – only to have it turn out to be one of the most important internships of my career.
Many of the other breaks that have happened in my career were more picture-driven. I’ve made maybe a dozen images throughout my 20-year career that I am proud of, of which maybe 3-4 are sports images.
Most of them were a result of a very special secret formula that I have learned by watching many of the very best sports photographers out there…
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