You’re all shills!

Posted on December 30, 2007

Over on Seesmic, a few people have been jokingly talking about advertising on the free video service. My Twitter/Seesmic friend Jim Long (NewMediaJim, seen above) started the whole thing by doing a little tongue-in-cheek video talking about advertising on Seesmic with a can of Diet Coke. In fact, this discussion has come up before on Seesmic, and it’s not likely to go away anytime soon. There are two ways that I see to talk about what’s happening there, and one major question we’d need to ask ourselves - as media creators - as a result.First, we can see this as another attempt by new media to capitalize on a good or potentially good product by using the tried and true income method of our old media brethren: Advertisements. Specifically, banner ads on a website, commercials in shows, and now popup ads in videos. The problem with this, as you well know, is that we all hate these methods. They’re annoying, quite frankly, and while somewhat effective, they do tend to take us out of what we’re watching. Hence the success of Tivo, where you can skip ads (or you used to - not sure if that’s true anymore).

The second way to see this is a new attempt at product placement. I kind of like the idea of product placement, as long as it’s not glaringly obvious that you’re trying to place it in the content. We use and see these products in real life each and every day, so why is it such a problem when we see normal everyday products in television programs and films? Filmmakers and television producers strive for “realism” in many of their programs, yet for some unknown reason, the characters are relegated to drinking generic “Cola” or “Beer.” Strange.

Of course, done incorrectly, product placement becomes just as ineffective and annoying as old forms of advertising. You can see this in hyperbole on the Seesmic thread started by Jim in the video above. Suddenly, it’s not about the content we’re trying to put out there, but the product that’s sponsoring our video. This becomes a particular problem on services like Seesmic, where it’s not really about people putting out created shows, but about people communicating with each other on a more personal level than simple text could ever facilitate. So if Seesmic does adopt a “product placement” model of advertising, it could change the way people use the service, and we go back to looking for another place that didn’t “sell out.”

This second point does, however, elicit an important question: Are we all willing to become shills, not only for the product we’re placing in our videos, but also for Seesmic? As the service develops, it’s becoming obvious that it’s going to be used as a more personal-connection oriented version of the traditional online bulletin board forum. And, in order to keep running, Seesmic does need to take in money. Sure, we can joke about it now, but looking at those videos, even though they are done in good humor, makes me think that we are headed into a potentially bad situation. When and where does the shilling stop? How much is too much? If we do agree to sell ads for them, don’t we end up exactly the same as the advertisers whom we all claim to despise in the first place?

125th Street 4

Posted on December 27, 2007

125th Street 4

Originally uploaded by Daniella Zalcman.

Sometimes, I see a photograph that just needs to be shared with the world. It’s magical luck like this that keeps me inspired in photography and film all the time.

Consumerism…

Posted on December 26, 2007

No, not the kind of consumerism you’re thinking of.

Though, ’tis the season.

I’ve noticed that I’ve been consuming much more media than I’ve been creating lately. It didn’t hit me until just now that this is wrong and unhealthy for me. For someone who considers himself a “content creator,” I think I may be disappointing the world. Ok, maybe not so much the world as myself and a few others. You get the point.

I like to think of myself as a creative person. I enjoy the process of creating visual content, artisitc or otherwise. And so, when I find that the ratio of creation to consumption gets this far out of whack, an alarm goes off in my head telling me something’s wrong. The immediate follow up question, of course, is how to solve this particular dilemma.

I have many creative endeavors in which I partake on a regular basis, few of which bring me any monetary recompense. For the most part, money is not my motivation for creating media, so using that as inspiration is a lost cause. So let’s take a look at them one by one to see where the problem lies.

Photography
I’ve had a camera of some kind or another for as long as I can remember (I believe 2 years old is the exact age), and for just as long I’ve had this insane interest in watching. I could sit for hours on end just watching: people, cars, birds, clouds, whatever. I used to get in trouble in school for daydreaming. So, the camera’s lens has always felt like a natural extension of me, and I figured out at a very young age how to take good, well composed, well exposed images. Because of the nature of film, I was also fairly conservative with the number of images I made, as well as very careful as to how I framed and exposed the image. As a result, I ended up with more photographs and fewer snapshots. Many people have thousands upon thousands of photos sitting in boxes in their attics. I have one small box. The really good ones are matted and/or framed. The rest - well, they remain in my mind’s eye. So now the question is, why have I essentially shunned still photography?

I think that mostly it’s because I’ve been busy with my film & video making. That, and I’m lazy after work. Also, for the last three years, I had a girlfriend who, through no fault of her own, took up a lot of my time. And finally, there’s the whole film vs. digital thing. I still have a 35mm SLR, a nice one to be sure, but it’s gotten more and more expensive over the years to have film processed and pictures printed. To get the camera I’d like, a nice digital SLR that I’ll be happy with, will set me back a good $2000-$2500 with lenses & accessories. Yeah, I don’t have that kind of money. Not yet. So for all these reasons (which I think make good excuses), I take snapshots.

Filmmaking
I knew I wanted to be a filmmaker when I was 8 years old. I saw a television show on the Discovery Channel called “Movie Magic” that just blew me away. The show was a behind the scenes look at how Hollywood pros made special effects for movies. The two things that fascinated me most were the squibs (little explosives to make bullet hits) and the cameras. And of course, there were the cameras. I loved the cameras. It was then that I knew I wanted to make films.

Unfortunately, life as I knew it wasn’t very conducive to my dream. I grew up in a blue collar city in Connecticut, went to tiny Catholic schools that didn’t frown upon creativity but didn’t exactly promote it either, and had friends who’ve turned out to be teachers and accountants. My family are writers and lawyers. Not exactly Hollywood material. I had the dream, though, and I’m still working toward it, 20 years later. I’ll get there.

These days it bothers me that I watch more movies than make. I love…LOVE… making movies, but it’s hard work and you need lots of collaborators & equipment to make a film. I’m content to study films and learn technique, but I’m truly happy when I’m on the set. This attitude upsets me. I don’t want to be content. I want to be happy.

Writing
I can write. Or, at least, I like to think I can. I just never seem to get anything in my head down on paper. Well, nothing that makes any sort of sense. Most of it goes unfinished. In fact, I have several posts right here on this very blog awaiting their day to shine. The only reason this one is getting done is because It’s Christmas Day and I’m not doing anything else. And forget about my screenplays. But I do like to write. I just like to read more. Can I call that passive writing?

Drawing & Painting
Admittedly, my drawing skills are mediocre at best, and painting…let’s not talk about that. But occasionally, both of these activities bring me some amount of joy and relaxation. I love the tools of drawing. Pencils, pens, erasers, ink, paper - they’re all so much fun. And painting…well, painting is amazing to me, and how the greats do what they do earns them great respect from me. I’ve tried it before. There was a bunch of orange and some blue…it wasn’t pretty. I think it’s safer for everyone if I just go to the museum.

Music
This has, in a way, been my albatross for years. In fourth grade, I joined the school band. I started out playing the drums. Got the snare drum with it’s big case and the rubber pad that goes on it to keep it quiet while I practiced in the basement. I think I must have gotten tired of lugging that huge case around, so I switched over to the clarinet that same school year. Apparently, I didn’t have either the coordination or the patience to continue with the woodwind, because that didn’t last past the end of the year.

And so, years passed and so did myriad other hobbies. Yet music was already something in the back of my mind. When my younger brother picked up the guitar and started teaching himself to play (with some help from other people), I grew a little jealous. He was always better at picking things up and doing them well. Yet I let the music thing go because I wanted to concentrate on my photography and filmmaking. At least that I knew what I was good at.

Fast forward to 2007, when I suddenly found myself with a lot of time on my hands and a real need for some creative & cranial stimulation. Around the age of 10 or 12, my father bought me a harmonica from some store (Cracker Barrel, maybe?). I would play around with it, trying to get some kind of harmony or note out of it that didn’t sound like a dying cat. But I liked the way it sounded and how I could carry it with me. I loved the way the greats made it sing. I just never really did anything with it, and forgot about it. Sometime later, I got another harp, but again, did nothing with it, not really knowing why I purchased the instrument. Until this year. I’m not really sure what inspired me to pick it up for real this time. Maybe a Youtube video, or a book I saw in the store, or some piece of inspired music. Whatever it was, I ended up buying a how-to book for complete idiots and began my harmonica training. Believe it or not, I’ve come a long way for someone with no formal training, let alone a simple jam session with some tips from a seasoned vet. I’m hoping this desire to play sticks around for a long time to come, because it really is relaxing to let loose on this thing after a long day, and when I’m actually good at it, I look forward to jamming with a band or breaking it out on set after wrap. No more consuming for me. Quick and dirty creation from now on.

Web Design
In 1995, I begged my father to get us America Online so we could play on the World Wide Web. I saw it had really cool graphics and chat, much better than what the text based Prodigy could offer. That’s how long I’ve been playing on the web. When I got to college, I was somehow placed with a Computer Science major as a roommate, which was great because he was a genius (literally) and taught me tons about computers, networking, and the internet. So, with a brand new Compaq computer and oodles of free “educational” time, I started using Netscape Composer to build web pages. Of course, first my roommie and I taught ourselves HTML from books, and then I became the designer and he became the coder. By Junior year, we had our own business - CGM Web Design - and even one client. We were horrible, and I knew jack about real design, but we thought ourselves incredibly ingenious for starting our own business.

Ok, so the web design thing. I like to do it, on occasion, when I need to set up a site or get bored with my own design. Unfortunately, when it comes down to the nitty gritty, I simply don’t have the chops to cut it on a regular basis. When the need arises - I picked up a few lessons on CSS - I’ll teach myself some piece of code, but for the most part, I’m content to sit on the sidelines for this game.

Graphic Design
In the same vein as my web design delusions, I sometimes fancy myself a graphic designer. This, however is more of a reality as I need the skills as a video editor. More often than not I’m called upon to create eye-catching graphics for a video show, and occasionally I’ll create a poster or flyer of some sort for some reason. No formal training here, just looking at things that I like and copying them with enough of my own flair that it’s not exactly infringement. In all seriousness, I think that if I ever gave up on the TV/Filmmaking, graphic design - with a little formal training - could be a good fall back career for me. I think I’ve got the designer’s eye. I mean hell, I taught myself Photoshop with an “educational” version in college. For right now, I just don’t concentrate on it enough to really do anything of any great import. In fact, that’s my point with all this. I’m kind of the jack of all trades, master of none.

Animation
I’m not really sure if this category even falls under the subject of the post, but it seems appropriate. I’ve always been fascinated by animation. It’s not the creation of motion out of still images that enthralls me - I’ve seen that in film and know the principles behind it. No, what gets me is the drawing of thousands of images, photographing them, and organizing them to create a story. It’s one thing to capture images that already exist, quite another to create them from scratch. When I started dating an animator, I constantly questioned her about how it worked and encouraged her to show me what she did. I admired her for her talent, and envied her a bit. When she started animation school, I was lucky enough to see a few of her classes (it was an online school called Animation Mentor ) and learn the tiniest bit of the process from the great pros in the animation world today. I won’t delude myself into thinking I have any chance of being an animator, and quite honestly, I have no desire to do so. It’s just another medium I consume. But I’m content to do so with this one. Let the pros do the dirty work.

What does it mean to be a media maker, and why is it important?
It’s kind of like asking about the meaning of life. It’s open to interpretation. Some wouldn’t consider blogging making media. Some think uploading snapshots to Flickr makes them a media maker. I think they’re both right and both wrong. Which is to say, neither is right or wrong. It doesn’t matter what you call yourself, as long as what you’re doing what makes you happy, and as long as you actually do it. Creating media is not just entertainment, it’s connection.

We as humans use words for basic daily interaction, but more complex feelings, emotions, and much deeper thoughts get expressed through our use of media. On a more existential level (I hate that word, but it applies), we use media to let the world know that we’re here and that we have an affect on others. We use media for entertainment, information, communication, expression, and connection. We use media to let the world know that we matter. No matter which medium we choose, we’re using it to affect the world in some way, whether it’s sharing our joy or sadness, or imparting some magical piece of wisdom unto someone special. Some people are more effective communicators than others, but in the end, we’re all essentially the same. We’re looking for a connection.

It’s important, as a media creator, to occasionally ask yourself why what you’re doing is important. If anything, it should give you perspective into your own motivations and inspirations. More importantly, the introspection should aid you in creating more powerful and meaningful content that will most certainly have an affect on the world. And in the long run, isn’t that what we all really want?

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