Rocket's Tail » Uncategorized

What about the Writer’s Guild of America?

rocketstail — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 00:11:40 +0000

Webseries creators have long had questions about unions. As a group, many of us write, direct, produce, some of us star in our works, run camera, and do all the editing. So the question many creators have is regarding whether to join a union (SAG, AFTRA, Writer’s Guild of America East/West, Producer’s Guild, etc.). In trying to answer this question for myself, I tracked down Ursula Lawrence (ulawrence@wgaeast.org) of Writer’s Guild East and asked her a few questions on camera at their headquarters in downtown Manhattan.

Beyond the Whips and Barbed Wire – Interview with Todd Norwood (Meet the Mayfarers)

rocketstail — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 18:45:44 +0000

Upon first meeting the creator of Meet the Mayfarers, Todd Norwood, I was stuck by this incredibly affable guy with a quirky sense of humor. It was at the LA Tubefilter Meet-up, Tim Street introduced us, and we talked plenty of shop. Then, a month later, deep in conversation with Brian What at Slap House Radio we decided to take a look at the front page of Blip.tv. There was Todd, lying on a bed in a penguin costume next to a very dominant woman. I remember being struck at the juxtapositioning of penguin suit, whips, barbed wire, and mom walking into the room asking, “what is this?” in the episode entitled: Family Revelations. Todd has spent years crafting the many episodes of the series, Meet the Mayfarers, and has promised to keep shooting episodes as long as they keep having fun.

Todd assured Rocket’s Tail that the syndication of his show on Blip.tv has been a real boon to the work they are doing. Shooting along the short coastline of New Hampshire, Todd proves that interesting online video is coming from locations far from those A-list markets of New York and Los Angeles.

Meet Todd in this interview that was conducted in Cambridge, MA:

SpeakerText Hyperlinks to Exact Moment in Video!

rocketstail — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:44:17 +0000

Matt Mireles tells a great story about how he and his co-founders started SpeakerText. He’s a regular guy who had an interesting idea. What if the text of what was being said in a video ran along side the video in question? But, he didn’t stop there. He envisioned a set up where you could copy and paste the text and it would port over with the text a hyperlink to that exact moment in the video.

Here’s a sample that was copy&pasted from the demo video on the SpeakerText website: Highlight the quote in the SpeakerText, then either right click your mouse button and select “Copy QuoteLink” or hit the “Quote” button.

Rocket’s Tail caught up with Matt and had a chance to talk with him about SpeakerText:

Live Replay (Panel: Blip.tv, Tubefilter.tv, & Pond5.com)

rocketstail — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 19:36:49 +0000

Last night we hosted a panel discussion with Dana Tower (Pond5), Jamison Tilsner (Tubefilter), and Aaron Sonnenberg (Blip.tv). The night included a moderated panel discussion as well as Q&A from the audience. Some eighty or so people from Connecticut’s various industries interested in online video turned out and helped spark a lively discussion.

Many thanks to Dana, Jamison, and Aaron for trekking out from New York City to help foster greater understand and dialog around online video.

Here is a replay of last night’s panel discussion:

The 3D Year at CES!

rocketstail — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 18:28:27 +0000

Today Broadcast & Cable summarized this year’s CES as the 3D Year at the largest consumer electronic show. What they deem as most interesting is not the technology, which is-of course-very interesting, but the business deals that were put together to launch this new and exciting development.

Listen to the Senior Editor of Tech Talk discuss it here:

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/podcast/TechTalk/3198-TechTalk_3D_CES.php?mode=player

First Open-Source Video Platform (Kaltura) – Interview with Ron Yekutiel, CEO

rocketstail — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 20:54:16 +0000

Earlier this year I had the opportunity to interview Ron Yekutiel about Kaltura, the company where he is CEO. The company offers the first-ever Open-Source Video Platform… and if you know what you’re doing, you can have it for free!

Hayden Black Interview – Part One

rocketstail — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:38:36 +0000

This is part one of my interview with Hayden Black of Goodnight Burbank, Abigail’s Teen Diary, and the upcoming Cabonauts. In this interview he talks a bit about what it means to “go viral” and the journey his work has taken since launching Goodnight Burbank in March 2006. He is both a gentleman and hilariously funny. It was a pleasure to interview him.

Interview with Steve Pick from CELTX

rocketstail — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:09:33 +0000

I had the pleasure of meeting Steve Pick from Celtx at the CT Film Festival and learned more about their product, which Saxon Mills used for the pre-production of The Oligarch Duplicity (due in Sept 2009). It’s a great tool and it’s free; definitely worth trying out. For a small fee there are a number of enhanced collaboration tools, etc. Take a look and get to meet one of the really excellent people from this company in Newfoundland.

What is Viral Video?

rocketstail — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 21:33:15 +0000

Interviewed for a presentation on Viral Video at the CT Film Festival, Sib Law talks with industry innovators and asked them: “What is Viral Video?”

Interviewees include: Andrew Baron, Tim Street, Dan Rayburn, Joe Swanberg, Kory Klem, Hayden Black.