After spending the last few days, on and off, installing Windows 7 on a couple of laptops, and after seeing some press releases over the last couple of days for Win7-ready versions of several utilities, I thought I would compile a quick list of utilities that I have found helpful for either optimizing systems or just saving my bacon… Read the rest of this entry »

Toshiba has announced a new, tiny SSD that will almost certainly find its way into next year’s flash-based camcorders, making them even smaller than this year’s already-small flash-based camcorders. They are also one of the first devices to use the new mini-SATA (mSATA) device connector. Sizes are 30GB and 62GB, and volume production will begin in October.

Why so small? An advantage to having such a small device is less weight and less power consumption (typical read power consumption is 1.3W, write is 1.8W.) This will probably lead to longer battery life for the end-user.

The advantages to using SSDs for video are many: they’re pretty fast, they’re more resistant to impact than a hard drive, the capacities are nearly as big (but their physical size is a fraction of that of a hard drive), and the cost difference is becoming less and less by the day. Makes me wonder when there’ll be a camcorder with an eSATA port, to get your video off to a computer that much faster? It’s probably inevitable, really.

MTV is dead. It was a long horrible drawn out process, but MTV the legendary music video format originators have passed away. In it’s place, stands some awfully unoriginal programming. Unless you have been living in a cave for the last 20 years, you might have noticed that MTV really doesn’t air music videos anymore. The truth is, since about 1993 the channel began to stray from the music video format and hasn’t stoped since. Music videos used to be forced down our throats growing up. Which in turn ended up inspiring a generation of indy filmmakers to perfect their craft. Using the music video format to tell their stories. Read the rest of this entry »

Videomaker seeks Editor in Chief to lead our Editorial Department. The Editor in Chief is a member of the Videomaker management team and reports to the CEO/Publisher. Main duties include the management of the editorial staff and coordination and creation of print, web, and video content. Candidates should have excellent small team management skills and a firm grounding in video production technology. Primary responsibilities include project management, budgeting, and creation of concepts for articles, short videos, and web 2.0 applications. The ideal candidate should have one foot in the print world, and one foot online.

Founded in 1985, Videomaker’s 23 team members produce the #1 national magazine in the field of consumer/semi-professional video production. In addition to the monthly magazine, we also offer a premiere website, workshops, DVDs, books, and merchandise for our readers.

Benefits:

The company provides full benefits: Medical, Dental, Cafeteria Plan and matching 401K plan. We offer an entrepreneurial corporate culture with a professional casual environment. Come join a high tech, creative company in a cutting edge field!

Qualified candidates must send verifiable resume’, references, and salary history/requirements, please contact: jobs@videomaker.com

Imagine if you made a video that was 42 seconds long, and it was part of project that included 41 other directors, who have made 41 other videos. All of which are 42 seconds long. With the likes of Mike Figgis, David Lynch, Gaspar Noe and Abel Ferrara. Well then, you’d probably end up with this video:

Which is a trailer for ONEDREAMRUSH. Check it out here

The good folks over at isara.org, an organization dedicated to helping kids in Thailand, is holding something I hope to see more of: a video-equipment raffle fundraiser. The organizers of the raffle certainly know our demographic, there’s not much we wouldn’t do for a chance at a cool new piece of kit, and being able to help others in need at the same time is a fantastic bonus.

The fundraiser is to purchase a used van for the Isara center, their goal is $7,000, and they’re already half way there. The tickets range from $5-15 each. The list of donated prizes is impressive, and are from top tier companies like: Abel Cine, Letus, Redrock Micro, Cinevate, Cool Lights, Vidled, Spec-Comm, Wrightsville, and DV Rebel’s Guide.

I’ve given to raffles for charity before of course, but most of the time the prizes are shall we say, a little lackluster. But in this case it’s a win-win. I want to help these kids, AND I want to win this gear!

Take a look at the Isara website for the list of prizes, and more about the organization. Hopefully Videomaker readers can help put them over the top.