Digital Production Buzz

Join Larry Jordan and Michael Horton as they talk with: Bill Kizorek, CEO, Two Parrot Productions Bill Kizorek, CEO of Two Parrot Productions, has filmed in over 100 countries and authored a dozen books. He and his daughter work together to give back to the community by creating videos for non-profits. It is an exciting and very rewarding life for both! He joins us this week to tell us more. Jessica Sitomer, President, The Greenlight Coach Jessica Sitomer, President of The Greenlight Coach, and a regular contributor to The Buzz follows on Bill’s conversation about the benefits of volunteering for industry committees. Because you are in the right place at the right time, volunteering can be great for your career! When it comes to finding great job hunting tips, Jessica’s website is the first place to go. Jim Roberson, Co-Founder, Mobile Imagination Rich Kwiat, Co-Founder, Mobile Imagination Jim Robertson has been producing film and television projects since 1994. In 2009, out of necessity, Jim founded Mobile Imagination with long time pal Rich Kwiat to solve some fundamental issues facing the film and television industry working “in the field”. Together they have designed some mobile solution tools to make your production life as simple as possible so your creative juices can keep on flowing. Johnny Staub, Instructor, Film & Television, Collins College Johnny Staub is a veteran director of commercials and episodic television, and prior to joining the Collins College faculty taught commercial direction at UCLA. In his classes at Collins, he has migrated away from DSLR’s and is now primarily teaching with the Panasonic AF100. We want to know why, and whether teaching a particular camera is good or bad for students.

Join Larry Jordan and Michael Horton as they talk with: Bill Mills, Director of Photography, Florida Film & Video What’s it like, shooting big cats with small cameras? Bill Mills is the president of Florida Film & Video. He used a Panasonic AG-HPX250 P2 handheld camera for his recent trip to South Africa to shoot big cats. It was a long way from home, if anything went wrong. We invited him on this week to hear the stories. Ned Soltz, Contributing Editor, Digital Video magazine If Ned Soltz, contributing editor for Digital Video magazine is on the show, we must have new gear to talk about.. And we do, we just can’t tell you what it is, yet. But as a regular contributor to The Buzz, we’ve learned that no one know hardware like Ned Soltz. Stop by and hear what he has to say. Susan Johnston, Founder/Director, New Media Film Festival Actress Susan Johnston founded the New Media Film Festival which has its annual run next week in Los Angeles. We pulled her away from her last week of prep before opening at the Landmark Theatre Westside on June 12 & 13th. The screenings are almost sold out, so we want to hear what’s new at this year’s event. Jonathan Handel, Entertainment Attorney, Troy Gould Our legal expert, Jonathan Handel, tells us that the musicians are picketing against Disney/Avengers and that IATSE is trying to organize VFX artists at Imageworks. Elsewhere, the Cinematographer’s Guild met to talk about this subject this last weekend. Lots happening and Jonathan’s got the latest news on labor.

Join Larry Jordan and Michael Horton as they talk with: Alonzo Crawford, Associate Professor, Howard University Alonzo Crawford, MFA, is a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Radio, Television and Film at Howard University’s School of Communications where he has taught film directing, editing, scriptwriting and cinematography to graduate and undergrad students. Prof. Crawford also created and is the director of DC/HU/FILMWORKS, a film workshop, offered free to interested members of the community each summer. We want to talk with him about how he teaches the craft of film-making. Gentille Gohoho, Founder, Stock4less.com Gentille Gohoho founded Stock4less.com in 2007. Stock4less is a California-based online discount store providing high quality brand name products to worldwide consumers In less than 2 years, their line has grown to over 4,000 products. Recently, they began streaming movies as Video-on-Demand (VOD), integrated into his online shopping site. He holds a Bachelors degree in International Business and Finance from the American Business School in Paris, France and an MBA in Information Technology Management from California Lutheran University. We want to talk with him about why he’s using digital distribution for retail. Josh Apter, Founder/President, Manhattan Edit Workshop It’s almost time for another EditFest in New York and Josh Apter, Founder and President of the Manhattan Edit Workshop, has all the info about who is attending, what they will be covering, and why this kind of networking is important for those of us who spend most of our days in front of a computer screen! Terry Curren, Founder/President, Alpha Dogs, Inc. In dog years, Alpha Dogs, a post production house in Burbank, California, is celebrating their seventieth birthday! (For us humans, that works out to ten years.) Terry Curren, President and Founder is a longtime member of our BuZZ audience and we want to get his tips on how to get and keep customers and how to find top-notch staff! If you are looking for work in the industry, listen to what Terry has to say.

Join Larry Jordan and Michael Horton as they talk with: Nick Dager, Editor and Publisher, IndieFilm3D Nick Dager is a 30-year veteran tech reporter who is currently Editor & Publisher at IndieFilm3D and the Digital Cinema Report. We had a great conversations with him at NAB about the changing face of our industry and wanted to invite him back to talk about the good old days when print was king and reporters ruled — and figure out the future of film in the digital age. Aharon Rabinowitz, Director of Communities, Red Giant Seth Worley, Director, “Plot Device” The Webbies are increasingly visible to geeks and web aficionados worldwide. When the folks at Red Giant announced that “Plot Device” had been nominated for a Webby, we were really pleased. Now that the short film actually won for “best editing,” we want to chat with director Seth Worley and executive producer Aharon Rabinowitz about their winning experience. Dan May, President, Blackmagic Design, Inc. When Blackmagic Design announce they acquired Teranex and lowered the price 90%, that was stunning. When they announced the Blackmagic Cinema camera at NAB, all the air left the room. This week, we talk with Dan May, president of Blackmagic Design, Inc., about their two latest announcements, what they are, and what they mean for our industry. Snehal Shinde, Co-Founder, CEO Dhingana.com Music. Always free, always legal. The millions of songs on Dhingana are heard by over 10 million visitors each month. It is the largest online collection of indian music and is streamed from sites that are simple, clean and uncluttered. No pop up windows here! And…it is free. Snehal Shinde, Co-Founder and CEO of Dhingana.com and his team from Sunnyvale, California, and Pune, India, looks to us as though they are living in geek heaven.

Join Larry Jordan and Michael Horton as they talk with: Stephen Arnold, President/Founder, Stephen Arnold Music, Dallas Chad Cook, VP of Creative Services, Stephen Arnold Music, Dallas As a multiple Emmy, Addy and Promax Gold award-winning music production company, Stephen Arnold Music has over 15 years of success in delivering the sounds that make a difference to networks and producers the world over. Recently, they created an entire musical branding package for mainland China’s predominant television outlet – China Central Television America (CCTVA). We want to find out how a Dallas company creates memorable music for China? Stephen Arnold, President/Founder, and Chad Cook, VP of Creative Services, join us to explain. Randon Morford, Director, Product Management, Sorenson Media Last week, Sorenson Media upgraded Squeeze to version 8.5. This free upgrade provides significantly faster performance and supports yet more codecs. So, we invited Randon Morford, Director of Product Management for Sorenson Media, to explain the details. We want to find out just how much faster the update is and whether the world really needs yet more compression codecs. Randy Hudson, Director of Digital Media Post Production, DuArt Blu-ray Disc is NOT dead — at least, that’s according to DuArt. Randy Hudson, their Director of Digital Media and Post Production, joins us to explain what they are doing with Blu-ray. Along the way, we want to find out if Blu-ray is just for the high-end of the industry and how DuArt and its clients are competing against digital downloads. Should be a good discussion. Tony Lee, Publisher, CareerCast.com In a recent study by CareerCast.com, lumberjacks were rated as the worst job in the nation. Not particularly germane to The Buzz audience, until you consider the other two jobs at the bottom: newspaper reporter and broadcaster! Sheesh!! What’s going on here? Tony Lee, publisher of CareerCast.com stops by to explain the findings of their study – and also suggest where to look for the highest rated jobs.