Saturday, April 30, 2011

Did you know...

Here are a few interesting ideas/tips/thoughts I have procured during the research I have been conducting for our Mi1 Project:

1. A new trend in television set design is moving away from physical sets to digital. Shows from entertainment to news and sports are using computer graphic backgrounds...
There are two major drawbacks to virtual sets. The first drawback is that they have a tendency to look artificial. Sets that look real with rich textures and light gradients that can move and zoom push current processing speeds to the limit. However, the loss of realism can be a benefit to some programs looking for an alternative to a realistic set.
- Computer Graphics Quarterly, Vol 42, No. 2, The Future of Television Graphics, Edsall, Sam.

2. The most important element of our television is the work that is produced here, by us, about us, reflecting our values, our foibles, our weaknesses, our history. Australian television drama is fundamental to our culture. And it’s a fragile creature. It doesn’t happen because of free market money, it happens because of government regulation and funding support. Those regulations and that funding support are vital. At its best both film and television is inspirational, it reflects the sort of people we would want to be and the people we would not want to be. It is in itself a moral narrative of the times.
- Margaret Pomeranz, Hector Crawford Lecture, SPAA Conference 2011

3. The Australian Content Standard requires the three commercial networks to ensure 55 per cent of the programs screened between 6am and midnight is locally made, with subquotas for adult drama, children's programs and documentaries. The ABC is expected to screen about 14 hours of Australian drama this year, down from a peak of more than 100 hours in the early 1990s.
-Miller, Kylie. "Warning on Future of Australian Drama." The Age [Melbourne] 15 Aug. 2005: 86. Print.


4. As they reconfigure themselves as cross-platform media content providers, public service broadcasters enter new territory with regards to their audience, their content, their relations with producers and their status in the marketplace, invoking more exacting requirements for governance and accountability, and new commercial enemies. As a result of these complexities difgital innovation by public service media is becoming a growing area of study…As a group, they(the BBC, Channel 4, ABC and SBS) also illustrate the wide-ranging new inititves emerging across the digital and online platforms of public broadcasters; cross platform programming: user-generated content (UGC); audience participation; the delivery of linear programming with opportunies to interact on an on-deman basis; and the generation of social networks and communities, connected to resources and activities of other public institutions. (pg 185-186)
-Reinventing Public Service Television for the Digital Future. Mary Debrett. 2011.


5. With so many channels and technologies of distribution and circulation, it has been increasingly impossible for any hit show, no matter how successful, to register the kinds of ratings achievable in earlier phases of television. In turn, several responses to this situation are now evident. One of these is stagnation, if not a drop, in the system’s demand for more expensive forms of prime-time programming.... In other words, in characterizing the present era of New Television as one of abundance, it has to be borne in mind that this tendency only occurs with certain programming genres, indeed occurs at the expense of other types of content. (pg 281 – 297)
-Wasko, Janet. A Companion to Television. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub., 2005. Print.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Our new direction

Thursday's class this week was exceptionally helpful in determining the final direction we wanted to take with our research project as we all got to discuss the various problems and issues we had come across during our initial research. For some, the pressing issue was to do with research strategies to discover the correct data and information needed to finalize that project's topic. For me, I presented the issues I had come across in finding up to date research on events that hadn't even happened yet and thankfully, someone suggested blogs as a means of determining the ideas that are floating around in regards to the future of TV in Australia.

What happened next however was the most vital part of the lesson. I decided to stay after class to have a chat with Jess about our project and started off by asking her what the point of the assignment was. She said eventually it would lead into MI2 where we get to invite industry professionals to participate in a panel within which they debate and discuss our research topic. I then proposed my dilemma to her about our research project which was that firstly, after the discussion we had had during class about Jill's focus on the history of TV in Australia, this was not really a very pressing matter to focus on and would more than likely be a waste of time. Jess then asked whether we would like to focus on just the present and future climates of the Australian television industry and I said I wasn't sure as these were such big topics in themselves.

The conversation then lead into a highly intricate discussion about what facets of this topic I was interested. For me looking down the barrel of a gun which is the future of traditional media formats in Australia, I am concerned with whether there is a career for me anymore in traditional film and television production. I explained that eventually, I want to end up making the shows which inspired me to do this course in the first place but if they are a dying breed, then maybe I should cut my losses and run. This then lead into our exploration into just what it was about this topic that was fascinating to not only me but also to the potential broader audience and we came up with the following approach.

The changes that are occurring in the international television industry are hard to miss. In the past 5 years alone, the introduction of new media practices such as V.O.D (video on demand), webisodes, and social media integrated with television networks is causing significant evolution within the television industry. My group is aiming to pinpoint what it is exactly that is causing these changes by looking at the technology and the way the networks and production companies are using them in order to keep themselves relevant in the near future. From this, we will be making predictions on what television can hope to look like 10 years from now (an exciting idea indeed) There are a lot of elements we need to consider first though which I shall cover in my next post.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Straight from the horse's mouth...

It was so interesting to hear the opinion of a traditional television producer on the future of televisual distribution and it was comforting to hear about his reasons for choosing traditional methods for televisual production and broadcast.

Internet vs. The Tv

Such a great idea! One we will definitely consider for our project. And the reasons the people interviewed provide are so relevant.

How will you watch TV?

Another exciting video piece from the guys at Pulse TV (ironically, an online publication) looking into the technical differences between how we are going to be watching the ol' telebox in the coming years compared to now.

WATCH IT HERE.

The Webby Awards

Again diving into this whole notion of a hidden online video industry, I was surprised yet again to discover that there was an international awards competition purely dedicated to online video production.

The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet. Established in 1996 during the Web's infancy, the Webbys are presented by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, which includes an Executive 750-member body of leading Web experts, business figures, luminaries, visionaries and creative celebrities, and Associate Members who are former Webby Award Winners and Nominees and other Internet professionals.

The Academy is an intellectually diverse organization that includes members such as musicians Beck and David Bowie, Internet inventor Vint Cerf, political columnist Arianna Huffington, Real Networks CEO Rob Glaser, "The Simpsons" creator Matt Groening, R/GA Founder and Chairman Robert Greenberg, Virgin Atlantic Chairman and Founder Richard Branson, and The Weinstein Company Co-Founder Harvey Weinstein. Members also include writers and editors from publications such as The New York Times, Wired, Details, Fast Company, Elle, The Los Angeles Times, Vibe, and WallPaper. The 14th Annual Webby Awards received nearly 10,000 entries from over 60 countries and all 50 states and generated over 750 million media impressions worldwide.

Reflecting the tremendous growth of the Internet as a tool for business and everyday lives, the 15th Annual Webby Awards expands the mission of the Webby by honoring excellence in over 100+ Website, Interactive Advertising, Online Film & Video, and Mobile & App categories.

The Webby Awards presents two honors in every category -- The Webby Award and The People's Voice Award -- in each of its four entry types: Websites, Interactive Advertising, Online Film & Video and Mobile & Apps. Members of The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences select the nominees for both awards in each category, as well as the winners of the Webby Awards. However, you, the online community, determine the winners of The People's Voice by voting for the nominated work that you believe to be the best in each category. Each year, the People's Voice Awards garners hundreds of thousands of votes from the Web community all over the world.

Interactivity and temperature defined media.

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This is a really interesting excerpt from Nicholas Gane and David Beer's publication titled "New Media" which explores the impact new media has on interactivity. In light of the recent lectures we have had about what defines interactivity from participation, I thought it was a relative topic of conversation:
NB: (The "cool" media which is referred to relates to McLuhan's idea that certain mediums, such as television, which he claimed requires more effort on the part of the viewer to determine meaning. "Hot" media is like the movies, because they enhance one single sense, in this case vision, in such a manner that a person does not need to exert much effort in filling in the details of a movie image.)

"Whereas for McLuhan media such as books and cinema are not truly interactive, for Manovich quite the reverse is true: they are more interactive (higher in participation) than digital media forms precisely because they demand us to create a mental accompaniment. Manovich, to a greater extent than McLuhan, sees media such as painting, books and cinema as succeeding by depriving our senses of high-level or complete information. They work because they demand us to fill in the gaps in visual or audio narratives, and to construct our own readings, images or even dialogues through interaction with the medium in question. In other words, non-electronic media are far cooler than McLuhan supposed, for they tend to be 'interactive' by definition. Manovich gives the example of classical and modern art:

Ellipses in literary narration, missing details of objects in visual art, and other representational 'shortcuts' require the user to fill in missing information. Theater and painting also rely on techniques of staging and composition to orchestrate the viewers attention over time,requiring her to focus on different parts of the display.

Even sculpture and architecture might be seen as interactive media, for they demand the viewer 'to move her whole body to experience the spatial structure'. The same might be said of those media forms that, for McLuhan, are really 'hot', such as cinema. Cinema is particularly important for Manovich because, he claims, it is 'the key cultural form of the twentieth century', and as such it serves as the 'conceptual lens' through which he analyzes recent changes in media technologies. Again with cinema, we find an argument for the interactivity of older media forms:

Beginning in the 1920s, new narrative techniques such as film montage force audiences to bridge quick the mental gaps between unrelated images. Film cinematography actively guided the viewer to switch from one part of a frame to another. The new representational style of semi-abstraction, which long with photography became the 'international style' of modern visual culture, required the viewer to reconstruct represented objects from a bare minimum - a few patches of color, shadows cast by the objects not represented directly.

In fact, for Manovich, media such as cinema are more interactive than so-called interactive digital media (even those oral based), for they demand us to fill in more, meaning that computerized culture, to use McLuhan's typology, is becoming hotter than cooler."

More News, Less Diversity

This article was an interesting find as it proposed the idea that despite the internet's best efforts to promote diversity of opinion and alternative points of view, the online media world is actually more monopolized than the offline world. Hindman and Cukier's point is that "Users may be able to choose from millions of sites, but most go to only a few. This isn't an accident or the result of savvy-branding. It's because Internet traffic follows a winner-takes-all pattern that is much more ruthless than people realize. Relying on links and search engines, most people are directed to a few very successful sites; the rest remain invisible to the majority of users. The result is that there's an even greater media concentration online than in the offline world." This is definitely true when we think about the main news sites that many of us are acquainted with - Yahoo7, ninemsn, news.com.au... the list goes on. Much in the same way we ingest major publications such as The Australian and The Age, these huge sites which are centres for the daily news work no differently to your average publication from NewsCorp.

The Future of Media - Robert McChesney

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The online universe, in contrast, taking the set-asides and signposts that demarcate the nonprofit sector in the real world, seems scarcely to distinguish between non-profit and noncommercial. The two main entry points for web-based travels, portals such as aol and the Microsoft network, and such search sites as google and yahoo, are completely agnostic on this score (when they aren't favoring affiliated and sponsored programming, that is). Nor has the nonprofit sector itself (with the partial exceptions of scattered community-based networks and the 'branded' empires of PBS, NPR, the smithsonian, etc) succeeded in establishing the online on-ramps that fully honor the high standards, deep resources, and long traditions on nonprofit culture. The 501(c)(3) label has real meaning in the analog world, in short conferring not only tax-exempt status, but a certain 'seal of approval' as well. We have yet to find a way to map these values into the virtual world, where style often triumphs over substance and where marketing and cross-promotion often exert the same tyranny-of-the-majority pressure on new media that Nielsen ratings and box-office receipts exert on the old.

Online Production Companies

Getting into this project, I really could not think off the top of my head, any major online video companies that were having a major impact on the TV industry. So I decided to do a bit of scooting around and surprisingly, came up with these which apparently are major players in the online video industry.
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Cornerstone Media – http://www.cornerstonemedia.com.au/

Cornerstone Media is a Sydney based video production company specialising in creative and effective corporate & marketing video programs delivered on DVD or for online web use. With more than 17 years experience serving some of Australia's leading companies and government bodies, our productions engage, educate, introduce, and promote your company in a professional yet innovative manner. Whatever platform you choose, website or video on DVD, we guarantee delivery on time, on budget and with creative excellence. - Call us now on (02)9955 2133 whether you are in Sydney, Brisbane or Melbourne. No matter where you are in Australia we will assist you in engaging your audience!
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Digicast - http://www.digicast.com.au/

Digicast Productions helps companies communicate their marketing and training messages. And make them stick.

Training Videos Our expertise lies in ensuring our clients have high quality training materials that instantly improve staff knowledge and safety. We make sure that training messages actually stick inside people's heads. You can find out how we do this by taking a look at our client stories or our training video approach. We’re interested in staff (and even customer) training and how streamlining repetitive learning can make such a big difference to companies. You’ll find lots of resources on this site devoted to improving workplace learning, safety, communication and productivity. The Workplace Improver blog is a great place to start. Feel free to share this information and to start thinking of ways to improve your business. Other video production companies will offer to make you a training video. We do this, but so much more. Our focus is on instructional designed training videos that save training dollars and improve staff knowledge. It’s all about results and helping you meet your business objectives. It’s not about filming and editing together a pretty training video. Digicast training videos provide business leaders with cost-effective, fully-managed training which frees up the time of both safety and training personnel to focus on more important business tasks.

Promotional or Marketing Videos And with our video communication expertise, we’re also able to promote your products and services in a way that ensures that your messages are quickly understood by your audience. We are passionate about clearly communicating key marketing messages that grab your audience attention. Founded in 1991, (formerly called Tourist Channel) we work with publicly listed companies to ambitious and fast growing small to medium-sized enterprises who are eager to improve staff productivity, safety and product/service awareness.
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Sontek Productions - http://www.sontekproductions.com/


Sontek Productions is a professional freelance video production company situated in Melbourne. We provide a service that incorporates all aspects of video production from planning and script writing to distributing your final online video, Our video products & online marketing strategies for your business are standard.

Today image is everything. Sontek Productions sells and brings your products to life. Having a high quality online website video on your website has been proven to rank you higher in today’s search engines because of video content. This creates more leads generating more traffic to your website. You also get to showcase your business without leaving the office. Your tailor made online website video would be broadcast to a world wide audience via your website. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oyjJbXqUx0Online video will raise your company’s profile, reduce your marketing costs and increase your sales and be working for you long after staff have left the office.

Sontek Productions goes that extra mile to provide informative video content for clients big & small. Our video production and recording studio services are both professional & affordable. We use the latest state of the art hardware and software gathered from todays technology. Whether it's a TV commercial or your next major production, voiceover, or EP, with Sontek Productions you are in excellent hands. If you have any questions or would like to book your production email: dave@sontekproductions.com or feel free to call Dave on: 0415 041 878
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Inspire Works - http://www.inspireworks.com.au/

Inspireworks helps companies meet their video communication goals everyday.

Whatever the need, we have the ideas, the drive and the vision to help you.

Founded by Jonathan Zoch in Melbourne, Australia in 1999 and joined by Tracey Kramer shortly after, Inspireworks continues to grow and is strongly supported by its passionate and highly skilled in-house team.

Our extensive and trusted network of creative professionals means we can fulfil short-term turnaround and a range of varying business needs - from anywhere in the world.

WHAT WE'RE ABOUT

We have customised our very own CRM program that is specifically designed to help you feel comfortable and understand every stage of production. We're big believers in demystifying the whole process which is why you'll have full access to our unique online editing room. This gives you the ability to simply and easily make notes and review your work with minimal fuss - privately and securely online (quite useful for time poor clients that just want great results).

Where also about:

* Working hard to get you the results you're after
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A big thanks to all our clients who have been part of the journey so far. We look forward to continuing this exciting journey.

Chat to one of our accredited video specialists today on 1300 885 968.