Media Soup

I had a good ol’ time taping an interview with my grandfather Ben Klein on his 93rd birthday.

I think this one is my fovorite, but here is the whole playlist:

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=8F59B980A7DA9A88

Doing some research for my undergrad class, and I came across Steenbeck’s website.

http://www.steenbeck.com/

They are still making and repairing film editing machines . . .

In the book, we talk about the Sneaker Net concept quite a bit: using a FireWire drive to physically move media from system to system.

We make the point that “we still use this method all the time,” and even as Xsan shared storage becomes more common, the sneaker net still seems as popular as ever.

This week, I started new media archive drive for two clients, and we are preparing protable drives for each of my 48 undergraduates to use for their editing all semester.

At the same time, have been doing some training  with Channel 2 in Baltimore who are switching (get this) from linear editing to an FCP Xsan environment.

So I guess my point is that the new does not eliminate the old in many cases, you just have more people doing their thing in different ways.

SMPA-122: Introduction to Digital Media returns this Fall with a revised syllabus:

http://home.gwu.edu/~josder/112/pdf/SMPA112_Syllabus.pdf

I wanted to officially announce the exciting news that Amigo Media (Jason Osder, Robbie Carman, and Luke Lindhjem) have moved into a new office in the Henninger Arlington facility.

Our new contact info is:

2601-A Wilson Blvd.
Arlington, VA 22201
ph 202-640-1938
fx: 202-640-1945

We’ve had a long relationship with Henninger, and it is exciting to now be sharing space. We look foreword to seeing more friendly faces around the hallways and the kitchen.

In you are interested in more information of what is going on with Amigo, please see our recent press release:

http://www.amigomediallc.com/amigo_media_082007.pdf

Just created a new site to support the book:

www.finalcutproworkflows.com

Still a work in progress to be sure, but I expect to be adding to it soon.

Spent part of the day making a new bio page on the GW site.

Saw a fascinating show at the 9:30 club last week. (Thanks, John for inviting me!)

Turns out that NPR simulcast the whole thing, along with a nice write up.

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about media as power.

I am interested in the HIV/AIDS issue partly because it is addressable almost 100% through education and empowerment - through media.

This issue, as well as others, is being moved substantially - not by governments but by media stars. And I don’t mean they are just raising money - they are interacting directly with a worldwide audience to educate and change perceptions - with many issues such as HIV/AIDS, this change alone goes a long way to solving the problem.

Some of the folks I work with refer to this as “social marketing” which is an interesting concept.

The lever being used most effectively in many political issues today is not money or might, but media itself.

A critical question to me is what are the most powerful forms of media? How are they being used? and what is the effect?