Yes. We know. Web searching on TV has been around for a while. But not exactly in a way users have wanted it. Some call it “the last 10 feet”, bridging the internet from the computer to your TV in the living room.

The question has always been, how to get the internet to your TV in an easy, friendly and unobtrusive way. There have been huge boxes made just for that purpose, along with long download times, and some computers have the connectivity already in place, if you have to proper cables and your TV has the proper connection. However… these all proved too cumbersome for the average TV watcher and were received by the viewing audience in a less than enthusiastic manner.

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I was searching the “net” today and I ran across several blogs commenting on why television is either bad, or a waste of time and how watching television only serves the purpose of warping ones mind…. Well, it got me thinking about it and the truth is, I really like television and if you edit video, you should to.

Number one, if you complain about commercials and you edit video I am sorry but you are an idiot. A commercial is the number one video type that video editors should study to understand how the process works. Commercials tell stories in a very short amount of time and almost always  conveys some sort of message. This is a task that is difficult for major motion pictures to accomplish, yet with 30 seconds commercial producers can and they do it consistently. If you want to understand how to edit, how to shoot, and how to tell a story watch commercials. Don’t complain!

Number two, CNN, Fox News and MSNBC are not the end all be all of real TV and everyone should know this by now…. However, instead people still find the time to rip all of them because of their lack of integrity and journalistic objectivity. By spending hours of the day and your own free time complaining online on a blog that you claim is the “legit” news about how the “other” news source only represents biased and opinionated political views… you yourself are only doing the same.

Number three, to everyone who says that TV warps the mind and results in one becoming a “couch potato.” I have this to say, television inspires me to create better, faster developing, stories that grasp any audience and make them want to pay attention. When I see a show the grabs me, and actually gives me a reason to focus through my almost uncontrollable A.D.D. I get inspired to work and work til I know I have done a better job than I what I saw on TV.

If you edit video you should NEVER limit yourself. Watch commercials, don’t gripe about the news and pay attention. In your mind you will learn how to critic, learn and move forward with your video production knowledge and skill level. Don’t believe me? Well try it and see for yourself.

Over the last year alone, posting on this very blog has been quite eye opening. One of my favorite experiences has been all of the various new types of technologies that have come out recently. Some of them made me scratch my head, some of them made me think, some of them solved my problems and some of them created new ones. One of the most intriguing of all of these posts, was the story of the “eyeborg.” This was basically a tiny camcorder, that was inserted into somebody’s eye! The long term hope being that it would become attached to a blind person’s brain to see. While the short term plan? Yup, to create a reality tv show.

Another interesting blog came with an editing system called “Tamper” being created by Oblong Industries, a software company that’s is trying to create an entirely new editing work flow and interface…. That is just well, remarkable to say the least. It involves users editing in a fashion more representative of something out of the movie Minority Report rather than a standard NLE. The company is the creator of what they have deemed “g-speak” which is a spatial operating environment, used for a computer program.

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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 »

Just wanted to direct everybody’s attention to Microsoft’s latest computer interface design.

Imagine if you will, a coffee table that works as a computer interface, with out the use of a mouse and keyboard… Now imagine if this was real. How would it effect how you will end up editing video? And for that matter, would it just be limited to a coffee table or would it be installed along the wall? Don’t just take my word for it, by all means take a look for yourselves.