Recently, Philip Hodgetts began writing about “The Death of Advertising” in his blog. His thoughts resonated with me because, like many of us, I’m looking for ways to reach new customers, and to help other companies reach new customers through me.

Clearly, traditional audiences for print and broadcast media are melting away, along with ad budgets forced to contract in this recession. However, the need to find new customers for companies large and small does not go away, even when economic times are bad.

You can read Philip’s original blog here: What Will Replace Advertising?

Last Thursday, Philip was on the Digital Production BuZZ with further thoughts on this subject that I found interesting and want to share with you.

Click here to listen to Philip’s interview on The BuZZ. (TRT: 6:00 – 7.8 MB)

After the interview, Philip sent me a link to a presentation that provides more details, which you can view here.

I don’t doubt that Philip is correct – advertising is and must change. But here’s my problem with his proposed solution: as ads get woven more into the fabric of the communication – TV show, radio program, website – it becomes harder and harder to distinguish what is advertising and what is “programming.”

Let me give two specific examples from my personal experience. I believe that it is important for video production professionals to have access to (as best as can be obtained) unbiased opinions and reviews of products and technology. That what caused me to start my Final Cut Studio newsletter over six years ago, and continues as the driving force behind much of what I do in my writing, training, and broadcasting work today.

However, all of us need to eat, including me, so I’ve been contacting potential sponsors to see if there are ways we can work together. Their replies have been interesting.

Many want to rent my email list to create their own promotional blasts. However, my list is not for rent. Never has been. Never will.

Others want to pay for me to review products in my newsletter. However, any review that I write about is based either on gear that I’ve purchased, or which is loaned to me for the purposes of the review. I don’t accept payments for a review – that becomes a very slippery downhill slope.

I’m currently investigating a radio show focused on video production – but sponsors are unwilling sponsor unless I talk ONLY about their products. Or, include personal testimonials endorsing their products. This creates a VERY fine line between providing information and becoming a shill.

If I were doing entertainment programming – adding a product placement or creating a scene around a product – probably wouldn’t bother me, its only “entertainment” after all. But the situation changes as we move out of entertainment into information and news. Here, the changes Philip suggests don’t work as well.

How do we interest a sponsor in funding news that isn’t always good? How do we fund sources on the web that work hard to deliver meaningful information? If web ads don’t work, and I agree with Philip that their usefulness is very limited, what can we do to attract attention to sites that deserve it, as opposed to sites that are just making noise?

It is a very puzzling situation – one that I am still working to figure out. In fact, we are all trying to find answers to the marketing puzzle. I thought Philip’s thoughts were useful signposts along the way.

I actively encourage your comments and feedback, using the links below. As always, I love hearing from you.

Larry

= = =

UPDATE – Nov. 3, 2009

Philip Hodgetts sent me a new link that furthers the discussion on how we are going to collect, distribute, and pay for news. You can read it here:

http://seekingalpha.com/article/170942-the-future-of-journalism-is-entrepreneurial?source=feed

For me, the key phrase is in the second paragraph: “Advertising won’t be one-stop shopping anymore and that means it may support news less.” And the thought that if news becomes entrepreneurial, it becomes very, very easy for the large to intimidate the small. Imagine what would have happened during the McCarthy era if CBS News was a one-person operation run out of a basement. Or if the Washington Post was two-people, and no lawyers, looking into the Watergate break-in. Or, when Apple took on two rumor sites a couple of years ago for reporting gossip — in this last case, both sites stopped publishing.

What we are potentially losing is the balance of size and power necessary between the media and the companies, and governments, they report on. Big is not better – but it does make intimidation harder.

More things to think about.

This morning Apple announced a plethora of new hardware, some of which looks pretty interesting — as long as you aren’t interested in editing video.

You see, Apple removed the FireWire port from the MacBook – again. A few iterations ago, FireWire was in. Then, they took it out. Hue and cry ensued. They put it back. Now, it’s gone again.

The only interfaces that remain for moving data between the computer and an external drive is USB2, Airport, or Ethernet .

The problem with USB2 is that it is too slow – roughly half the speed of FireWire 400.

The problem with Airport is that it is slower than USB2.

The problem with Ethernet is that there is no way to connect a FireWire device via the Ethernet port. And that’s assuming you are willing to give up a high-speed connection to your server, in order to attach a separate hard drive.

Yes, you can use your Ethernet port to connect an iSCSI device – provided you have a device that supports it. However, you can’t convert between FireWire and iSCSI. Or eSATA. Or PCIe. In other words, your data is trapped on your hard disks and can’t get off. Not on these MacBooks.

If Apple had replaced FireWire with some new high-performance port that we could connect peripherals to, I could understand. But to remove a critical high-performance port and replace it with nothing is just STUPID!

I realize that FireWire is not the fastest interface out there. eSATA, PCIe, iSCSI, and FibreChannel are all faster. However, the MacBook has never had an ExpressCard/34 slot, so that rules out eSATA, PCIe, and FibreChannel. And I know of only one iSCSI storage device currently shipping – the DroboPro. A great unit, but hardly as affordable as a stand-alone hard drive.

Granted, the vast Macintosh public may not need to connect external devices. (I’m sure no one really needs to back up their data to anything but a slow hard drive.) But media professionals do – whether working with audio or video. Media remains a core part of the Macintosh market.

According to Apple’s financial report, earlier this week, for every desktop Apple sells, they sell three laptops. However, what bothers me about today’s announcement is that increasingly, it is becoming very, very difficult to use any of Apple’s laptops to do what Macintosh systems do best – easily work with massive media files.

We had this conversation earlier this year, when the MacBook Pros were updated – and FireWire disappeared. Now, it’s disappeared from the MacBooks. At this rate, it will disappear in the next iteration of iMacs! Not all of us want to wait while our media backs up to a Time Capsule. Nor do we want to attempt to edit HD video while connected to a USB2 drive.

Apple can do better – without jeopardizing form factor or profits.

They just need to care.

Larry

P.S. You can send feedback to Apple on this issue at:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macbook.html

Complaining won’t fix anything in the current releases – but, perhaps, they will give this consideration in the future.

Tonight, on the Digital Production BuZZ, Mike Horton and I interviewed Brandon Miller, producer and filmmaker of a soon-to-be-released film titled “Homeless in Los Angeles.”

In many ways, Brandon is like the other young independent filmmakers we talk with on the program. Passionate, talented, and committed. However, in this case, Brandon is something they are not – he is homeless, too.

“Homeless in Los Angeles” is an autobiographical documentary on what it’s like to be homeless in today’s world. Covering Brandon and several other homeless individuals, the film is a look at a part of society many of us would rather ignore – veterans coming back from the war with mental problems, dispossessed families who ran out of money before they ran out of mortgage, and children living with their parents on the street.

What struck me about Brandon, though, was his courage. By day he works as an editor and special effects artist to earn the money to complete his film. He lost his place to live last December. Yet, he kept working on his film. Whenever he was paid for a free-lance gig, he poured it into his film. And wait till you hear him explain why.

Both Mike and I were captivated listening to Brandon speak. I think you will be, too.

You can hear the entire interview by clicking here. (TRT: 14:18 – QuickTime – 7.3 MB)

www.larryjordan.biz/Brandon_Miller_buzz_091015.mov

You can hear the whole show by clicking here.

www.digitalproductionbuzz.com/Archives/10-15-09

Larry

I’ve been asked to speak at the upcoming Association of Video Professionals (AVP) conference – January 28 – 30th in Los Angeles.

I’ve had the great pleasure of speaking to this group before and have always found them to be an interested and interesting bunch.

I’ll be joined in teaching classes by Bruce Nazarian, Phillip Hodgetts, Frank Rohmer and Mark Spencer. It’s a great looking program … you can find out more here: www.aovpros.com/conference.

AVP has authorized me to offer you an Early Bird discount – if you sign up before October 31st. Just enter the code “FCPGURU” when you sign up.

Even BETTER – use this promo code and save an additional $25 and receive a 1-year FREE Gold Listing on the “FindAVideoProfessional.com” website — a $149 value.

Take a minute and check out AVP – I would enjoy seeing you there!

Apple announced a new video format, dubbed iFrame, specifically to improve the import and editing of HD images.

Apple’s support site states:

The iFrame Video format is designed by Apple to speed up importing and editing by keeping the content in its native recorded format while editing. Based on industry standard technologies such as H.264 and AAC audio, iFrame produces small file sizes and simplifies the process of working with Video recorded with your camera.

Currently, only Sanyo has announced cameras that support the new format:

SANYO North America Corporation (SANYO) today introduces its high-end Dual Cameras, the VPC-HD2000A and the VPC-FH1A, as the world’s first camcorders to offer compatibility with iFrame, a next generation video format designed specifically to allow users to easily import, edit and share high quality videos.

There are several important notes about this announcement:

• At the moment, Final Cut Studio does not support this new format – only iMovie 8.0.5 does.
• The new format is designed for computer editing – fast import, fast editing, and square pixels, which removes sizing confusion when dealing with still digital images.
• The new format shoots a progressive, rather than interlaced, image.
• This is the first new video format in a long while, joining the ranks of AVCHD, HDV, and AVCCAM
• This format does not require transcoding into a different format, such as ProRes, which takes time and storage space.
• This is not a transcoding format, this format requires camera manufacturers to support it in the camera.
• The format records a 1/4 frame 1080 image (960 x 540). While more than adequate for consumer cameras, it does not compete for image quality with a full-raster HD image.

I am very curious to see if other camera manufacturers adopt the format – and whether Apple decides to support it within Final Cut Pro.

For me, the big news is that this is the first of a long series of steps needed to reconcile the differences between video and computer formats to reduce the conversions we need to make when editing video on our Macs.

As part of the interviews we did during Digital Video Expo 2009 last week (click here – www.dvexpobuzz.com – for details), I spoke with Philip Hodgetts, who was presenting a conference session on client management and finding work.

Given all the pressures we are under today to find work, keep clients, and stay sane, I thought you might find his comments helpful.

The audio interview runs 7:09 – click here to listen to this audio QuickTime movie.

Larry