Recently I came across a very interesting article concerning a new, and very interesting take on aerial-robotics. The company called Aeryon Labs has developed what looks to be a flying camera called an Aeryon Scout. The camera is just the centerpiece of what looks like four round pieces of foam used to float in a swimming pool. The four foam rings are interconnected and each is 30cm in diameter. There is a rotor inside and a camera is hidden inside. A remote control operates a “quad-rotor” and navigates the camera. This allows for the Aeryon Scout to reach high angles that shooters can not. The idea behind the project is to help police, military and engineers. May be one day, we will all be able to purchase an Aeryon Scout at a local retailer? Only time will tell…

No matter what your opinion of a good movie is, the truth is that we all have favorites. One of mine is known as the b-movie. Not so much a genre, but a level of class that only certain movies get the chance to reach. I have always used two levels of criteria for these movies: -1- How big is the budget and how the filmmaker utilized it and -2- How entertaining does it actually end up being, due to it’s either serious attempt at movie construction or it’s lack thereof.

Being exposed to mainstream movies on a daily basis, I find it interesting to enter into another world of movie making that does not follow the typical format of the Hollywood 50 million dollar budget. It is always interesting to see what a b-movie director can do, with only a fraction of a major blockbuster budget. That being said, Hollywood also puts out it’s own fair share of b-movies. I thought that I would bring this topic to everyone’s attention and find out what your opinion is on the typical b-movie. I have enlisted the help of my favorite b-movie review site: badmovies.org

The site provides clips and summaries of some of the best and worst b-movies ever made. Includes a Timeline counter that examines the movie’s high points. Badmovies.org even has interviews with many b-movie actors and directors. The movies have a unique rating system, based upon drops of slime: 4 if it’s a winner, all the way down to 1 if it is just plain bad. If a movie was considered so unbearable and slightly painful, it gets a skull, the bottom of the barrel for b-movie ratings.

So I challenge all of you, find yourself something new in the b-movie world. I promise you will leave with motivation for your next project, one way or another.

Oh, and happy holidays!

And don’t forget to exercise!

And be sure to dance the night away!

And be sure to celebrate!

And above all, be sure to eat a lot of food!

For most of us, the documentary genre is a very real and raw form of story telling that is based on true-life emotion. We watch as our main character struggles with issues, narrates the frustration and we patiently wait for the resolution. As a matter of fact, for most documentary movie buffs out there you may notice that the honest non-subjective documentary you love took just as much planning as the latest big summer blockbuster.

This is because documentary films tell the same character-driven stories that contain a beginning, middle and end, with an issue at hand to keep viewers interested just like any other Hollywood film. The idea that a documentary is “real” and a mainstream release isn’t is wrong.
All documentary films are subjective, no matter how they are put together. There is a storyteller, who may be using real events to tell the story, but they are still telling the story that they want the viewer to see. It does not matter how neutral a stance on the subject they take, or how objective the documentary may seem. In the end there is always the filmmaker, who chooses what story should be told and how they are going to tell it. It is up to the filmmaker to edit out information that may show another side to the story. If three documentary purists were put in a room and asked to film the same story, each story would end up different. Because every filmmaker tells the story that they find the most interesting. If the art of making a documentary film was indeed “real” every documentary would be a lot less entertaining and probably only contain one static shot. Therefore, in my opinion documentary film is not objective, and is not as “real” as people tend to think it is.

I want to present this issue and see what some of our readers think. Are documentary films “real”? Are they subjective? Are they just as phony as the last Indiana Jones movie? Let us know what you think.

As video makers, the use of stock footage can be seen as a more cost effective way to get a scene, rather than actually going out and having to shoot the needed scene yourself. Not all of us can go film some gritty scenes in Time Square, but we can buy some to use online at various stock images and stock video sites. One of which I thought that you should all check for yourselves, is Shutterstock.com

Not only can you download clips in a variety of formats; (including everything from DVCam to BetacamSP to HDCam) you can also make money on the site by selling stock footage. Shutterstock offers 3 different ways to make money on the site, the first is to sell your stock footage, the second way is to refer stock buyers and the third is to refer other submitters. But don’t take my word for it go check it out for yourself.

Hey, is that guy wearing a TV? Believe it or not, Sony has been mastering the technology of razor thin, paper like bendable plastic that has the ability to display full-color video. Sony originally presented the 2.5-inch video screen that was only 0.01 inch thick, in 2007. The idea being to create thinner cell phones and MP3 players.

Using a small film transistor and a electroluminescent display to create the TV made for a much more flexible display. Sony went on record to say that, “it could be used to wrap around a lamppost, or a person’s wrist, or put up in someone’s house like wallpaper.” This could lead to video labels on cereal boxes, or tuna fish cans and even T-shirts with personal video displays scrolling up and down. The electroluminescent display technology is a new entry into the current playing field of TV technologies, LCD and Plasma.

Now Sony is releasing the new technology in the U.S. next year, in the form of a XEL-1 OLED TV. Which unlike a Plasma doesn’t use a backlight to illuminate the picture from behind. A OLED panel illuminates itself. Which gives the XEL-1 OLED TV the option of being much thinner. Who knows what the future will hold, but I feel like I’m ready to dress up in a suit & tie… and TV!  

For more information, Sony has provided a press release

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