The Production Room was founded in 1995 as one of the first full time digital commercial recording facilties on the central coast of California. We started with 4 stereo tracks, 16 mb of ram and a 250 mb hard drive. A lot has happened since then. Today we're focusing on ways to serve clients who are creating web based media content. This includes strategic planning to integrate the benefits of traditional media, web design and IT solutions into new programs produced especially for on-line consumers. Join in the conversation. Throw rocks at glass houses. Share your vision of the future. This is the most progressive time in the media arts since Johannes Gutenburg invented movable type!

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Wired Disconnected By Apple

Look at this and then get back to me.

http://www.wired.com/news/ebiz/0,1272,67365,00.html

When I hit this site, one of Apple's very clever PC / Mac spots launched. It was "PC" in a hospital gown explaining the complexities of upgrading to Windows Vista.

Apple demonstrated that it can capture Wired's entire audience with a very clever piece of (scalable) production.

Now, can you name the title of the Wired article?

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

5 Minute Media Manager

This is the beta version (audio only) of the 5 Minute Media Manager podcast from The Production Room. You're invited to preview this program and write your comments before it is available by subscription.

When I began to write this project, the premise was "How To Create a Podcast". But I couldn't seem to communicate my ideas very well and I was frustrated. I'm not a technical engineer or a computer gearhead and the information I downloaded from other podcasters and bloggers seemed to feature technical knowhow, but offered limited insight into practical benefit for those who represent themselves on line. My script broke down. I needed help.

I began listening to my clients and my friends in other media and marketing related businesses. I learned that the more immediate issue for them was, "WHY do I need to know about podcasting, and HOW does it work?"

And thus was born the "5 Minute Media Manager" podcast concept.

Click here for 5 Minute Media Manager

Taymar Pixley of PixleyFlix has posted a very good link to answer the "What Is" and
some of the "How To" questions about podcasting on her blog:

http://www.pixleyflix.com/blogger/2007/01/so-just-what-exactly-is-podcast-anyway.html

Taken together, these programs are a thumbnail explanation of what's happening, how it works and why it affects you.

It's a good place to begin considering how you might use these tools.

Monday, January 22, 2007

You Say it's Your Network...

It was the easiest party I've ever hosted.

A mix of about 40 Film makers, business professionals, musicians, voice talent, visual artists, camera guys, animators, writers, singers, a strolling magician and a handwriting expert/comedienne/massage therapist (who stole the show!) had the air crackling with creative energy.

Steve Gordon and yours truly mixed it up in the congenial atmoshpere of The Production Room, showing projects in progress and answering questions about on-line media creation and programming. We enjoyed sharing some of our favorite parlor tricks and were dazzled by the talent and energy that you brought to us.

Work should always be this much fun!

And so, here is my prescription as you move into 2007. Keep yourself connected to creative talent, technical know-how and brilliant insight. It will make your muse want to get up and DANCE!

First: Everyone who left contact information at our Open House recieved an email
inviting them here. Others have been invited to join the conversation
too. Save this link and you can check back now and then for the latest
posting.

OR: You can subscribe to this blog and you'll be informed whenever there is
something new for you to read. (I use feedreader on my desk top. It's free and
it's reasonably easy to use.) In the long run, you need to get used to
subscribing to content. I know, it's another "learning curve" thing. But
remember when you didn't know how to send a fax?

Second: Add your comments to this blog. Post your blog address. Share your opinions
and ideas. Post links to cool projects or ask for feedback.

Third: Call on us for help. You need an Actor? A Writer? A Producer, A Web Designer,
A Studio, Etc?...we know people! Don't let your concept die just because you
don't know who to call for assistance.

Fourth: Relax! This is supposed to be fun!

We've got a lot of breakthrough stuff coming this year. Please do subscribe to this blog and do stay in touch. We hope to help inspire you to make this a very exciting year! No doubt we'll have a lot to talk about at our next open house.

JQ

Monday, January 8, 2007

The Times They Are a Changing - Again.com

Firesign Theater cagily titled their 1999 release, "Boom Dot Bust" and duly noted the end of the first blush of innocence in the information age.

It happens like that you know. Slapstick silent comedies from Chaplin and Keaton crashed and were run over by smart talkies - like Frank Capra's, "It Happened One Night".

I watched Woody Allen's, "Bananas" last night; a film that ran over Capra's Hollywood and left skid marks as Woody enlisted TV sports announcer Howard Cosell to "broadcast" play by play coverage of the consummation of a marriage on ABC's Wide World of Sports. Film would never be the same...at least until now, when sameness sells.

As so often happens after the heat of the moment, the "dot-bust"was the collapse of a burning ball of gas into a few glowing coals. Without the limitless fuel of venture capitol to keep it expanding, on-line programming relaxed itself into a conservative torpor. The creep of media-ocrity, driven by the fear of failure (despite relentless models for success), left us in a landscape of virtual billboards, predatory data mining and cob-webby brochures.

But that is all so five minutes ago.

There is a new generation of programmers figuring out the tactical use of the medium itself. I don't mean like Philo Farnsworth, unsung engineer of Television, I mean like Milton Burl - in a dress on the Texaco Star Theater. Let's not forget that John Kennedy got elected because he made Nixon look like an ex-con on TV. And it was Kennedy who got us to the moon in 1969 - because he called his shot on TV in front of the whole world.

Go to NASA.gov right now and you'll find video clips and animations that spell out the future of America's manned space flight program. We're going back to the moon. We're going on out to Mars. And NASA is already creating on-line program content to explain how we're going to do it. Do you get that? The next chapter in the biggest adventure in human history is already demanding the creation of on line programming so you can see how it's going to happen. And when it does happen, you'll be watching the next moon landing on a video screen connected to the internet.

The implication in all of this is that the next media revolution is going to lead us back to the future. So let's get started.