The Panic of 1907

Shot in the Studio at Darden, we went for the "Movie Junket" look - a decision arrived at as soon as the poster arrived ;-)It was a real treat to read a book over the weekend and then have the opportunity to sit and pick the author's brain on-camera.

(by the way, the book is a great read - check it out here)

Look3: A Huge Success

Charlottesville's Downtown Mall was transformed this summer by the amazing photography of Nick Nichols, and for three days (June 7-9) we had the pleasure of welcoming thousands of photogs and three very special guests to the Paramount Theater. Walking on the mall over that weekend you felt like you were suddenly in a different country - kind strangers from around the world descended on our hometown, and it seemed like every other person had beautiful new M8 slung around their neck.

We also had the good fortune to welcome NPR's Alex Chadwick who performed live interviews with this year's guests of honor: William Allard, Sally Mann, and Eugene Richards. When I got a call to "run the video" for this event, I had no idea I'd be directing a shoot with such legends. You've gotta love a little town like Cville where a "community event" like this can take on such a life of it's own. All in all, it was a great way to make some new friends and reconnect with some folks I hadn't seen or worked with in ages.

Sound Men: Alex Chadwick and Gary Green

We shot HDV (1080i) on four rented Sony HVR-Z1U's; my first work with that format. The few bits we've looked at (out of 32+ hours of interview footage and 16+ hours of on-the-street tapes!) seem to befit the subject - the color is great in the theater, the images sharp and detailed but very kind to the subjects. Even with nearly no prep time, the camera menus were easy to navigate and the displays were clear, providing a great deal of confidence without clutter. Even in low-light audience shots the noise was quite acceptable and I'm looking forward to seeing how far we can push some of that in post. We just picked up the Canon (XH-A1) flavor of this camera at work and I'm looking forward to shooting our first project with it next month, a series of video podcasts for the Batten Institute.

Of course, I'm just realizing it's taken me a month to post this, and I think that's because I'm still recovering from 8+ hours of crouching under the curtain of the stage to get our talent's "beauty" shot, above. I am way out of practice on the yoga, but this has me encouraged to get back in to it.

Many thanks to our sponsors at National Geographic, Apple, and Canon (and I'm sure there are many more) as well as the numerous wonderful volunteers that helped make this event happen. The end product? The festival returns for Round Two next summer. In terms of the video, I'll definitely post when there's an answer on that, but right now there is a whole lotta footage to sift through. Definitely look for DVD's in time for next year's festival. Likely too, some broadcast versions of the wonderful interviews. I'm crossing my fingers on that one. Stay Tuned!

Some other cool festival pix, done by what looks like real photographers:

(fotonorth)














(cmak)

Bart Cleveland: How Small Agencies can Think Big

Bart Cleveland is Partner and Creative Director at Albuquerque’s McKee Wallwork Cleveland. Over the last two decades, Bart has specialized in working with brands that are dedicated to their own unique voice. His work includes branding campaigns for Coca-Cola, CNN, The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, Cartoon Network, and Dow and has appeared in markets across the globe. Bart strikes a chord with his work by appealing to human commonalities.

Bart’s unique approach to creative solutions has made him a sought-after speaker and creative show judge across the country. His work has received hundreds of awards for creativity both nationally and internationally including The One Show, CA, D&AD, and Clios.

Bart is frequently published in the advertising industry’s most highly regarded publications, including Communication Arts, Creativity, and One, a magazine. His industry perspective is often cited in business publications such as Fortune and Advertising Age. He is a writer for Advertising Age’s Small Agency Diary blog. Bart is a frequent guest lecturer at many of the country’s leading advertising creative schools and sits on the advisory board for the Creative Circus Advertising School in Atlanta. He is a frequent guest speaker at advertising clubs across the country.

Bart is a “Southern” guy with a gritty wit and edgy perspective. He is a popular interviewee because he says what he thinks (for better or worse) and loves to play devil’s advocate.

Listen to the Interview
(Length: 32:13, Size: 14.7 MB)

The Day You Became A Better Writer

Amen, Scott Adams.

You wish you worked for this guy

Bobbin has a fascinating discussion with Dr. Robert Sutton, author of the New York Times bestseller "The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't". Bobbin and Robert discuss the genesis of the book, how to deal with, erm, difficult people and clients, why audacious book titles need to also be accompanied with great content, the most asshole-ish thing he's ever done—and more.

Fortunately, all of my clients are fabulous.

No A**holes here.

Rewarding

It's nice to get an award, especially when you didn't know the work had been submitted. The Darden BusinessCast has received a Gold Hermes in the Podcast category!

Congrats to Ken and the rest of the crew I've worked with on this show over the last year. If you want some behind the scenes info on the show, don't miss the Case Study we did on it a few months ago.

Experienced (have you ever been?)

It's a must-hear. Here.

I've seen Jim's presentation, and it's fantastic. There's something for everyone in this show.

Does your voice need more than... a voice?

My morning RSS reads took me to the (relatively) new Odiogo Voice App (thanks to The Official Lair of Daniela). Odigo claims:

Turn readers into listeners, and transform your blog into a high quality, ad-supporting broadcast that can vastly expand your audience reach!

• Automatic podcast generation
• “Near-human” quality text-to-speech
• Drag-and-drop integration on your blog
• Detailed download statistics
• Make money from embedded ads
• Leverages RSS feeds of all blogging platforms such as Typepad and Blogger

In truth, I can't really take exception with any of this, and I was pleasantly suprised at the quality of the robot-reader. We've come a long, long way since Ray Kurzwiel first brought us in to this territory, nearly half a century ago.

Love the "Near-human" voice. Love the automagic nature of converting text to voice. Love that I can listen to your blog while I'm cruising the highway. Well, at least I love the idea.

What strikes me almost immediately is the subtle, yet severe difference in writing for voice vs. print. The Odiogo reader sounds good - don't get me wrong - it just doesn't sound quite right. I can tell in the first sentence or two that, while this is being read well, it was written to be read - but not read to the reader or audience.

Take the example of how even the best book requires the intermediate step of going to a screenplay before it can be produced for film. It's not because it has to be trimmed down to 100 pages - it's because people just don't talk that way (notice I didn't say speak that way - Odiogo speaks fairly well). The auteur is generally a master of her medium, and understands that when you have a book (or a blog) in hand, the audience will bend their mind to that way of "listening". When you're really listening (with your earholes), you expect it to be natural, to be involving, perhaps to be conversational - all things one can pull off in print just as well, but have to be pulled off... differently.

Some of the best print writers I've known have had trouble making the jump to broadcast (and now, podcasting) for this very reason. It's not for lack of great ideas and strong creativity, but working under the assumption that the delivery (one's voice) isn't nearly as important as the package being delivered.

The good news for writers is that the fix is easy: practice, practice, practice. Unfortunately, a robot can't get you there (yet), but if you're trying and it's not working, you'll be able to hear it.

There's a lot more to be said about Voice, but in the voice of a blog, my gut tells me that I should keep it short.

Scott Donaton: AdAge Stripped Naked

Follow the amazing career and insight of industry reporter-turned-editor-turned-publisher Scott Donaton of Advertising Age, Creativity, and AdCritic.com - all part of The Ad Age Group, the world’s leading source of news, information and data on advertising, marketing and media. In this phenomenal interview Scott and Sally discuss everything from the inner workings and strategy of the group's publications to what it takes to get your story in Ad Age, along with interesting reflections from the intersection of Madison and Vine.

Topics include how AdAge faces the same obstacles as the companies it reports on, the insider scoop on how to pitch stories, and what it takes to become the next Crispin Porter + Bogusky. (Scott even submits to a pop quiz on agency mission statements.) Working on this show was a blast, and guaranteed, you'll learn a lot about the business of publishing AND advertising from the listen.

Listen Here.

Wiffiti: file under I wish I'd thought of it

Thanks Jayne for turning me on to this.



From the Wiffiti website:
A new technology called Wiffiti is spreading across the country, enabling people to send text messages to large flat panel displays in social venues such as cafes, bars and clubs. Wiffiti is grounded upon the premise that sending messages to a public screen rather than a private phone will resonate with both the location and its community.

Messages sent to Wiffiti screens are also visible... more

We Are Virginia Tech

Thanks, Nikki.

"We are better than we think, and not quite what we want to be... we will prevail... we are Virginia Tech."

BMA - MVB

Our friends at Beyond Madison Avenue have been voted Jaffe's M(ost)V(aluable)B(log). Love the blog, love working on the podcast with Jaynie.K and big ups on the blog bling. All well deserved!

more details from Mr. Jaffe:
http://www.jaffejuice.com/2007/04/congratulations.html

add to your daily feed:
http://www.beyondmadisonavenue.com/

Recording Skype Calls for Podcasts

I'm going to take a moment to rave about a product some of our clients are using to record their Skype calls for podcasts. It's called Call Recorder (http://www.ecamm.com/mac/callrecorder/) and what's wonderful about this product is that it records each side of the call in a separate channel, which makes editing, sweetening and cleanup a breeze. The output of the recording sessions is a MOV file, and the good folks at Ecamm also make a few free utilities for extracting the audio so you can work with it in the app of your choice.

So yes, it's a great product - moderately priced, works as promised and is highly effective. What makes it an amazing product, though, is the support you get from folks like Glen (see above). I usually only have time to send my dumb questions to tech support on the weekends, so I was amazed to get such a quick response to my question on a Saturday afternoon (I had fallen into an old habit converting some files and forgot that, yes, one does need to use the Ecamm "Split Tracks" utility to get the call files split as needed).

So Glen, thanks for the great product and the wonderful support. I promised I'd rave about it, and here you go ;-)

Good Experience, Live!

Our latest edit for the Naked Career.

via Talentzoo.com:

Widely credited for popularizing "customer experience" online, Mark Hurst has worked since the birth of the Web to make Internet technology easier to use. In 2002, Hurst was named "one of the 1,000 most creative individuals in the U.S." in Richard Saul Wurman's book 1000. InfoWorld magazine named Hurst Netrepreneur of the Year in 1999.

Mark Hurst is the founder and host of the Gel conference (Good Experience Live), which was first held on May 2, 2003 in New York City. Gel 2007 will be held on Thursday and Friday, April 19-20, 2007 in New York City.

Hurst is also known for founding Creative Good, the world's first user experience consulting firm, which he runs with Phil Terry in New York City.

Hurst's Good Experience newsletter has tens of thousands of subscribers worldwide. (Sign up for free.) The Good Experience newsletter and Gel conference are owned by Hurst's and Terry's media company, Good Experience, Inc.

Welcome Back! Go Away!

For the life of me, I can't imagine why this would be a problem. While this could have been an opportunity to increase the use of their service, I'm ready to cancel because of this ridiculous detail.

Naked and Sticky

(via RTZ) What is the common ground between the Kentucky Fried Rat urban legend and JFK’s Man on the Moon speech? They both stuck.

Some ideas — a great book, a worthy public health initiative, a history lesson — sometimes have a hard time succeeding in the world. Meanwhile, some shoddy ideas — urban legends, product slogans, rumors — often succeed with no trouble at all. Why? Why do some ideas work while others don’t?

In this interview, Sally explores stickiness with Dan Heath, author of MADE TO STICK: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die. Dan shares why some ideas stick, and how you can make your own ideas stick, too.

Listen here.

Seth: Even Smaller

Great show and even better shows in the cue from Sally - click here to listen.

You’ve read his books. You’ve read his blog. Now hear it straight from the Purple Cow’s mouth. In this exclusive interview, Seth has strong words and big ideas for how advertising needs to change, pronto.

Seth is a bestselling author, entrepreneur and agent of change.

Godin is author of seven books that have been bestsellers around the world and changed the way people think about marketing, change and work. Permission Marketing was an Amazon.com Top 100 bestseller for a year and a Fortune Best Business Book, and it spent 4 months on the BusinessWeek bestseller list. It also appeared on the New York Times business book bestseller list.

Check it out here. Great insider perspective from Sally here as well.

Mad (Money) Jib Shot

Every now and then you need to get out of the studio. Kinda.



Good friend Victoria gaf-taped a mini-DV cam to the jib just prior to a rehearsal. The Director and I (unwittingly, if not handsomely) show off our thinning hair in the foreground of the first audience sweep. Doug, Jib op and owner of Bird's Eye Crane and Victoria are the first voices you hear. Doug did a brilliant job during the show.

Mad Time Lapse

click here for the higher quality WMV video.