Michael Webber

Category: News Clippings

  • Video Production Trade News – Week of July 24, 2017

    Each week I share select trade news articles with students enrolled in my New England Tech video production classes. It’s critical in any field to remain current, follow emerging trends, examine best practices, and learn about various challenges that face the industry.

    Below are some articles from the past week that were discussed during class:

    1. Sony’s Electronic Variable ND Filter

     

    Electronic Variable Neutral Density (ND) Filter is the name Sony is giving a new feature now available on certain Sony Cameras.

    Controlling our environment and camera exposure settings to produce professional level compositions is a topic we’ve discussed in class many times. Developing a solid understanding of exposure is critical to controlling Depth of Field, a technique used is frequently to direct viewers attention and allow our subjects to stand out from the background.

    Sony’s auto ND filter makes controlling DOF even easier, assuming you have enough light.

    2. NFL Making Changes to Commercial Breaks – Testing Split Screen Ads

    The NFL conducted extensive research last Fall, measuring viewer metrics including eye tracking, heart rates, and skin response. All in an effort to address the 8% decrease in TV ratings last fall.

    Among the changes coming, the NFL will look to make the following changes:

    •  30 percent fewer promotional messages (ie. 60minutes coming up next)
    • Split screen Ads, with an ad on one side and what’s happening in the stadium on the other

    The league is also making changes with an eye on cutting down the length of the game. Officials will use tablets while consulting with officials in New York. Overtime will be cut to 10 minutes from 15.

    Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-17/nfl-puts-fans-in-lab-to-see-what-works-as-football-seeks-answers 

    3. Media Composer | First

    The first 30 days (or so) of Media Composer First

  • Analyzing Lighting & Set Design of Election Coverage


    Hat’s off to Alex McCown (@alexm247) for his latest piece over at AVClub.com, looking at the business of set design and lighting, specifically national election coverage.

    Expending such effort to make a bar look like a TV studio would seem to defeat the purpose of leaving the studio in the first place, but MSNBC is loath to diverge from the familiar template.

    High Definition Television has had a huge impact on modern set design and studio spaces in recent years. From the wide, rectangular 16:9 aspect ratio, to the sharp image detail, to the improved color rendition…expectations are high.

    “They all use the same two designers to build the sets, who make all the stuff at the national level,” Dillon says. “The same designers, the same materials, styling.”

    But why do many of the sets look similar across networks and what’s behind the prevalence of the color blue and red in their design. Check out this article!
    Source: Why every cable news set uses the same two colors · For Our Consideration · The A.V. Club

  • Video Production Trade News – Week of 9/14/14

    Each week I like to take a few minutes and share select trade news articles with students in my New England Tech classes. It’s critical in any field to remain current, follow emerging trends, best practices, and the various challenges that face the industry.

    Below are three articles from the past week that were briefly discussed during class:

    1. NewTek Unveils TalkShow video calling production system at IBC 2014 - NewTek

    NewTekâ„¢ today unveiled TalkShowâ„¢ VS-100, a video calling production system designed specifically for television studios and live video producers. With TalkShow, any television or live video producer can easily reach 300 million monthly connected Skype users and incorporate them as guest speakers into live programs with full-frame Skype video calls.

    FROZENCHART_32. Weather Channel Owners Said to Consider a Sale – Ad Age

    The disagreement with DirecTV highlights the potential weaknesses of networks that don’t negotiate carriage contracts in conjunction with other channels. While NBC Universal owns a portion of the Weather Channel, NBC’s sales and distribution team doesn’t work on its deals, giving the network limited leverage over pay-TV operators.

    3. TiVo announces TiVo Mega, a rackmount DVR with six tuners and 24TB - Arstechnica.com

    …TiVo announced that the company is aiming big with its next DVR, the TiVo Mega. With a release date currently scheduled for the first quarter of 2015, the Mega will come in a 10-bay, 19″ rack-mount enclosure that appears to be 4U tall, judging from the PR images. The Mega’s bays will be filled with hard drives in a RAID5 array, yielding 24TB of storage.

  • Video Production Trade News – Week of 9/7/14

    Each week I like to take a few minutes and share select trade news articles with students in my New England Tech classes. It’s critical in any field to remain current, follow emerging trends, best practices, and the various challenges that face the industry.

    Below are three articles from the past week that were briefly discussed during class:

    1. Calculating the Impact of LTE Networks – TV Technology

    Drilling down into the data, social networking (such as Facebook activity) generates only 10.3 percent of all cellular data. However, of that 10.3 percent, 87 percent is attributed to video and images. In other words, approximately nine percent of all cellular data is the result of video and image activity on Facebook and other social networking sites.

    FROZENCHART_32. How Disney Has Managed to Keep ‘Frozen’ Red Hot – Ad Age

    “Frozen” just won’t let go. The Disney movie phenomenon is just nine months old, yet it’s the highest-grossing animated film of all time with more than $1.2 billion in ticket sales, a best-selling album and a hot-selling DVD — and it’s still going strong. “Frozen” is expected to sell $1 billion in licensed merchandise this year.

    3. Watch John Oliver’s Hilarious Attack on Native Advertising – AdAge

    …Afforded that freedom, he pulls no punches, taking on media execs like Jonah Peretti, founder-CEO of BuzzFeed, which gets 100% of its revenue from native advertising; Joe Ripp, the Time Inc. CEO who has been pulling down the wall between church and state as his company builds a new native-advertising unit; and Meredith Kopit Levien, exec-VP of advertising at The New York Times, which has also been enthusiastically embracing native advertising.

  • Mansfield hiker dies after fall on Mount Washington – The Sun Chronicle Online – News Update

    MANSFIELD – A Mansfield man died from injuries he sustained after falling while descending New Hampshire’s Mount Washington on Monday.

    Patrick Scott Powers, 46, fell about 800 feet while descending the mountain after dark on Monday.

    via Mansfield hiker dies after fall on Mount Washington – The Sun Chronicle Online – News Update.

  • The sudden death of film – Roger Ebert’s Journal

    Who would have dreamed film would die so quickly? The victory of video was quick and merciless. Was it only a few years ago that I was patiently explaining how video would never win over the ancient and familiar method of light projected through celluloid? And now Eastman Kodak has announced it will no longer manufacture motion picture film.

    The nation’s last remaining mail-order company that processes film from still cameras has closed. New 35mm movie projectors are no longer manufactured, for the simple reason that used projectors, some not very old, are flooding the market.

    via The sudden death of film – Roger Ebert’s Journal.

  • Sunday Evening Earthquake

    2.1 Earthquake Sunday Night 14 miles to the South-South-East of New Bedford
    2.1 Earthquake Sunday Night 14 miles to the South-South-East of New Bedford

  • ESPN Says New Subscribers Offset Cord-Cutting

    Cable Television - Cutting the CordInteresting article on CATV cord-cutting trends…

    NEW YORK: ESPN discounts cord-cutting as a trend across the cable TV industry. The network said it did a study of Nielsen data and found just 0.18 percent of U.S. households cut the cord “between fourth quarter 2010 and first quarter 2011.” ESPN defined cord-cutters as multichannel homes that dropped their cable or satellite TV subscriptions but retained broadband.

    Read Full Article on TV Technology

  • Murch Says 3D Will Never Work

    Walter Murch editing in Buenos Aires, Argentina, December 11, 2008
    Walter Murch editing in Buenos Aires, Argentina, December 11, 2008Creative Commons Photo Credit: Beatrice Murch

    The future of 3D is blurry at best, as more and more industry leaders express their concerns with the technology and its long-term viability.  Hollywood editor and sound designer, Walter Murch is the latest skeptic to come out, explaining his viewpoint in a letter to Roger Ebert:

    …dark, small, stroby, headache inducing, alienating. And expensive. The question is: how long will it take people to realize and get fed up?

    You can read Walter’s full letter here: http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2011/01/post_4.html

    I must say, I tend to agree with Murch, but enjoy watching the industry try to figure this out.  In the end, it’s all part of the creative process.  Some love it, some hate it…and the technology is evolving.    For me, I think 3D has it’s place, maybe not to the extent some TV manufacturers are hoping, but suspect it will stick around for years to come.  Do I plan on purchasing a 3D TV anytime soon, NO!

  • TV, Internet and The Merger: What’s best for consumers? | Investigative Reporting Workshop

    TV, Internet and The Merger: What’s best for consumers? | Investigative Reporting Workshop.