Video StudentGuy

Video StudentGuy

By Paul Lyzun
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Video StudentGuy episodes

  • #128 The Craftsman
    I wanted to spend time this show talking about why I want to be a
    filmmaker, really, why I feel compelled to make things. I know I've
    covered this ground before, but I'm talking specifically about my
    experience as a film maker producing Handmade in America, and what it's taught me.

    Unfortunately I got lost talking about the ideas behind the movie and
    had to stop in the middle. And I didn't intend to give a review of a The Craftsman,
    by Richard Sennett, but that's what I ended up doing. It's a great book
    for anyone who struggles with the reasons why we like to making things
    with our hands and served as a rudder for my vision while I worked on
    the film.

    Most of the show is leading to a showdown between the concepts of Craft and Art.. There's a recorded conversation online with Richard Sennett and Eva Hoffman
    discussing how the romanticization of Art, and Craft blunts the impact
    of these things in our lives. It's a great discussion, but I bring it
    up  because it refers to John Carey's book,
    What Good are the Arts. Although I mention it only in passing, I
    promise to elaborate further in the next episode and where I will in
    fact bring the dynamic of Craft and Art into harmony.
    14 min
  • #127 Intern Again
    I have certainly been very busy, and certainly not with preparing podcasts, but that's about to change soon.

    I have finally put up a gallery page on the website with production
    stills. The interface still needs a little neatening up, but it's
    working. I also found IE on PCs don't work well with the copy of the
    trailer that I had linked it to (it wasn't playing, it would load, but
    it wouldn't play.!) Rather than figure it out I loaded a new one and it
    seems to work. Let me know if I'm still wrong.

    This show is a 15 minute ramble about things I'm doing as an intern. As
    you know I'm working as a production assistant at a documentary
    production company for a few months and I'm trying to make sense of the
    experience.

    I think part of the problem is that I've worked in the same company for
    10 years and I'm being throttled by change, down to the elementary
    level. That changes how you look at and think about everything. But I'm
    getting better. That or I'm numb.

    I also have a screening at a local community center Friday April 10th.
    Here's a copy of the announcement (warning, it's a PDF) and if you're
    in the area and would like to come by - do so. And come up and talk to
    me to let  me know you did.

    For everyone else, I am ready to release the film, at least in a limited way. You can find the film here and the password is lorezfile.
    It's twenty minutes long and may take a while to load depending on your
    connection. If I already have your email address I'll be sending you an
    email with the same information.

    If you have any feedback, good or bad, leave a comment here or on the Vimeo site.

    Finally, there's going to be a local screening of the film at the
    Community School for the Arts on April 10. This is on the old UConn
    campus in Storrs Connecticut at 7:30. There is no charge, but if you
    can bring a baked food item that would be great. Download the flyer, which is a pdf file.

    15 min
  • #126 I Am Intern

    I am starting a 3 month internship this week. I'll be a production assistant at a production company in Boston, so there'll be a lot to say about that in the next few months.

    The big news is that I finally have enough of a website of the film to put online. Still rough and incomplete, it felt good to put it out there, sort of draw a line in the sand.

    You can find it at handmadeinamerida.us, there were no more.com's available. Send me any suggestions, really, I'm not looking for congrats here, I think it's very rough and really only in phase one. Still I would like to know if there are things I can do to make it easier to use, or I've overlooked some content I should be displaying.

    It's tricky because it's not just a website, it's a website for a movie, so if it doesn't pique your interest, or satisfy it, it's not working.

    There's a trailer you can watch on the Trailer page. If you're really fast it will load slowly. I'm going to be recompressing the file and uploading it to Vimeo, the hosting site I"m using, then updating the link in the next few days.

    By the way, if you're curious about that process, let me know, I can spend a show talking about that too.

    6 min
  • #125 Stanford Documentary Film Program
    In this week's show I talk with Jamie Meltzer, filmmaking instructor at
    Stanford University. Stanford has a separate film program for
    documentary filmmaking and Jamie was generous with his time to tell all
    about it.

    Stanford University Documentary Film Program
    38 min
  • #124 Film Trailer
    I'm still in a bunker state of mind.

    This show a little catch up on the state of the film.
    • How I approached creating the trailer
    • Vimeo vs YouTube
    • Compression artifacts, Macroblocks, compression noise
    • Building a website for the film and I'm using Blue Host
    I leave you with a  little ramble about being done vs being finished.
    13 min
  • #123 What is New Media?
    Hi there, Happy New Year.

    I've been hunkering down in the
    editing bunker through the holidays and came up long enough to leave
    you this note and the latest show.

    My film is done. It's called
    Handmade in America. I'll be posting it online later this month and
    when I do I'll let you know now you can watch it.

    I was thinking
    about the nature of social media and spoke about that a little bit in
    the show. I also wanted to let you know about a website and a podcast
    you should check out if you're interested learning how to make money
    through online distribution of your media, specifically audio and video
    podcasts.

    Here's the links for things I mentioned in the show.
    • Episode 119 of This Week in Media
    • Susan Bratton - DishyMix
    • Association for Downloadable Media
    • Pairing Sponsors with Podcasts
    • Podcast Standards for Advertisers
    • Keith Burtis Interview on Social Media CPB # 125
    8 min
  • #122 Thoughts while I edit
    Here are a few thoughts that have been distracting me as I hunker down and edit my film.

    In case I didn't go into enough detail in the show, or worse, if all that detail confused you, let me explain a couple things.

    In
    one segment I'm talking about the "Fishbowl" of podcasting. It's a term
    that has the same currency among podcasters as kleenex has within the
    general public. With podcasters, the fishbowl syndrome means we have
    created a world that is not only unique, but separated from most
    people. Information gets in, but nothing is getting out. And because
    it's comfortable there's a risk no one inside the fishbowl will make an
    effort do something about it. This is the same experience every avid
    hobbiest has, the difference is that podcasters, participating in a
    "social" media, where communication means community and community
    building, there is an evangelical weight on their shoulders.

    Another
    term used a lot, ad nauseam really, is "monetization" which I'm not
    sure is a real word. Apple's dictionary doesn't recognize it.
    Monetization's intended meaning within the podcasting/social networking
    community is the process of converting you podcast/social media into a
    money making machine. Essentially turning your hobby into a job. That
    sounds like a terrible idea when you put it like that.

    What
    makes some people roll their eyes when they hear it is that the
    constant request for "how to" monetize is becoming a cliche. There are
    a lot of facets to podcasting, and monetization is a valid piece. But
    it's importance is often/sometimes inflated beyond it's real stature in
    this emerging medium. And, I have come to believe that the fact that
    the con people feel this way, and the pro people continually request
    "how to" points to the fact that no one knows how to.

    It's like the get-rich-quick telethons on weekend and early morning TV. Never the same guys, always a different method.


    Links mentioned in this show:
    • Avid
    • Canadian Podcast Buffet
    • Audacity
    • Bob Goyetche
    • Mark Blevis
    • Phillip Pullman
    • Daemons
    • Eh
    • Hollywood Podcast
    • PAB - Tim Coyne
    • VSG Tim Coyne Interview
    19 min
  • #121 Ruff Cutz Film Conference
    I recently attended a filmmaker's conference that included screenings
    of independent films. My film was included and while that was
    gratifying, I found the real value was attending the filmmaker's panels
    and viewing other people's reactions to my and other people's films. I picked up
    a lot of valuable information about ways to navigate the independent
    filmmaking process and I've included highlights in this show.

    I am preparing a number of changes on this site and an upcoming video
    podcast, as well as completing my film, so, from now on for an
    indefinite period of time, I'm going to post shows twice a month
    instead of every week. Once I get a few new projects running I'll
    return to a weekly show.

    Here are the links to people and sites I"ve mentioned in the show.

    Ruff Cutz Film Conference
     
    Jim Jermanok - Producer, Writer, Director

    Steven Jermanok - Writer

    Dale Carnegie - How to make friends and influence people

    Michael Corrente -  Federal Hill

    Ed Sanchez - Blair Witch Project

    Michael Phillips - Academy Award winning Producer

    Patrick Smith - Animator
       
    21 min
  • #120 Twitter is Alive
    The most recent episode of This Week in Media, #115 has some interesting comments about Twitter's
    impact on Brand marketing. TWIM is a great show if you want to
    understand the developing space of new media. Comments starting at
    about 47 minutes made me realize how important it is for marketers to
    stay on top of every kind of marketing, especially social networking
    apps like Twitter.

    Daisy Whitney - New Media Minute

    Motrin Commercial Flak - Forbes
    8 min
  • #119 Rhinebeck Sheep & Wool Festival
    It took a lot of time to complete this show. I changed the format, just
    this once, to the AAC Enhanced format, so that I can include pictures
    and links. I have also made the pictures available online. I'm using Photobucket,
    instead of Flickr, because I was having serious problems loading the
    files. I've never seemed to have much success using Flickr. You can
    search for them under the heading, Sheep and Wool NY08.

    You can view the pictures and listen to the audio through iTunes or on
    an iPod. I don't intend to distribute this show as an MP3 file unless I
    get some requests.

    This is just an experiment at trying to tell a story, in this case about my trip to the Rhinebeck Sheep and Wool Festival
    a few weeks ago in October. It was a combination holiday and location
    scouting trip. I'm planning on extending ideas I presented in my
    student film about crafts and craftspeople  into a regular video cast
    and I wanted to learn more about the fiber arts.

    It was a pleasant event, don't know if I would need to return next
    year, thought there is an additional day decidcated to interantional
    fiber vendors, that would be interesting.

    It's worth commenting on the amount of effort required to create this
    show. I'm not complaining, it's just amazing how much work it takes to
    proof files and use the right ones in the chapter markings. I think it
    would have been better to just put the images on Flickr and left this
    as a simple MP3 file.

    But then, it wouldn't have been the same product.

    All told, it was fun and interesting to make, but I'd have to do a lot
    more preparation to make this fit into my regular workflow so I
    wouldn't miss a weekly deadline.

    Now that I'm not reporting on weekily events such as classes or assignments at my school, CDIA,
    I have to create content on my own. It's liberating, but it also places
    more demands on my resources and time. I can see there has to be more
    planning into the future so I can have three or more shows in the can
    to compensate for times when I don't finish a project on time.

    Learning.

    22 min

About Video StudentGuy

From the publisher's feed

Once a week I report on the lessons learned as a student in the Digital Filmmaking program at the Center for Digital Imaging Arts (CDIA) at Boston University. I review my classes, talk about relevant…