Sony is coming out with the HVR-Z5U camcorder this December. It has native 24P recording and other professional features—all for less than $5,000—as well as tapeless recording capability through an optional CompactFlash adapter. There are few details yet but a few words from Sony are available:

“Professionals need features like balanced audio, XLR inputs, timecode and more,” said Bob Ott, vice president of professional audio and video products at Sony Electronics. “They also need access to technical resources to help them with issues like integrating with non-linear editing systems. This is where a professional solution like the HVR-Z5U is an appropriate choice.” The HVR-Z5U camcorder offers the addition of several features specifically designed for professional video production, such as progressive scan shooting at 1080/24P and 30P, DVCAM recording, timecode support and two XLR balanced audio inputs. Professionals can record the native 24P/30P signal on to the videotape used in the camcorder or to CompactFlash cards – simultaneously or separately – with the optional HVR-MRC1K recording unit. This unit attaches directly to the back of the camcorder, eliminates the need for cables and automatically synchronizes with the recording action of the camcorder. The recording unit can be directly attached to the new HVR-Z5U camera, as well as to Sony’s HVR-Z7U and HVR-S270U models. It will also work with other HDV camcorders using a supplied iLINK (IEEE-1394) cable and shoe adapter. The camcorder, and the HVR-MRC1K adapter will be compatible with Sony’s Professional 306x CompactFlash card. The recording times on an 8 and 16 GB CompactFlash card in HDV, DVCAM and DV format are approximately 36 and 72 minutes, respectively. The HVR-Z5U professional camera suggested list price is $4950. The HVR-MRC1K recording unit should be out in October for a suggested list price of $940.

I’ve been reading all the flurry of activity over the new Canon EOS 5D MII that will be available near the end of November. Vincent Laforet, a New York based commercial and editorial photographer, was given a prototype to use for 72 hours. His report and the stills he has been able to show are nothing short of amazing. The video is forthcoming, but from the promise is better than the Red One cinema camera and could change how we are approaching some assignments. The cost is even better, around $2,700 retail. For sound the camera has a mono mic input, but I’m sure BeachTek will have a solution with XLR inputs for the camera at some point. Check out Rob Galbraith’s evaluation with more images of the sensor and inputs. Check out these sample images from Canon Global as well as their specifications and other data on the camera. Here are some sample videos from Canon Global.

The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, the Norwegian government-owned radio and public broadcasting company, has also tested the 5D and has put up its’ analysis of the video on their NRKbeta technology site. Here is an excerpt:

The clips are standard MOV-files that will open directly in QuickTime. We also tried with the latest version of VLC. That worked fine on Mac and not in Windows. In iMovie the clip was imported fine, but converted like any other MPEG4-clip will be in that program. In Final Cut Pro the clips could be dropped right into the program with no conversion. And it was possible to start editing right away. Visually they look better than HDV. Something that shouldn’t come as a surprise considering the specifications. HDV is 25 mbit/s MPEG2. The clips from the 5D is 40 mbit/s MPEG4. The H.264 codec used in the 5D is in some conditions regarded roughly 50% better than MPEG2. When you add the bandwidth in the 5D that is nearly twice the bandwidth of HDV you get video footage with less compression artifacts. Hard panning in the clips looks good and it seems like Canon have managed the timing of the shutter very well. It looks like the GOP-structure of the clips are one I-frame for each 15 P-frame. No B-frames. Read more

Here is an excerpt from Canon’s press release:

Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging, today introduced the EOS 5D Mark II Digital SLR camera, the long-awaited successor to Canon’s highly popular EOS 5D, introduced in 2005. Building upon the qualities that made the EOS 5D camera so successful, Canon has coupled the creative power of a full-frame CMOS sensor in a relatively compact and affordable camera body, together with groundbreaking HD video capture that opens the door to a much wider range of imaging possibilities for photographers. Along with the ability to capture full HD video clips at 1920 x 1080 resolution, Canon’s EOS 5D Mark II Digital SLR camera features a 21.1-megapixel full frame 24 x 36mm CMOS sensor, DIGIC 4 imaging processor and significantly lower noise, with an expanded sensitivity range from ISO 50 to ISO 25,600. Read more

The New York Times has a New, Integrated Newsroom

The New York Times has moved into a Renzo Piano-designed building on Eighth Avenue. Begun in April, the move is now complete. Beyond the new design and functionality of the place, which is reviewed today in the paper, the new building has an integrated newsroom. It combines the “print” editorial operations, previously in the paper’s headquarters on West 43rd Street, and the digital news operations, which were some 7 blocks away. A video about the integrated newsroom has been posted to The New York Times Company corporate Web Site. – more

From the Barefoot Workshops website:

CONTENT
This 2-week delta workshop is designed for new documentary filmmakers who want to launch their careers in film and television documentaries or for those with experience in some aspects of filmmaking that are looking to expand their skill, understanding and mastery of the whole process. producers, cinematographers, editors and writers with narrative experience who are considering working in non-fiction filmmaking are also encouraged to enroll. This workshop is ideal for working professionals who want to develop important skills, which will allow them to work with other filmmakers.

In this unique workshop, students will explore every aspect of documentary filmmaking. Cinematographer, Chandler Griffin, will help you develop an understanding for the visual structure, style, and production requirements of a wide variety of documentaries along with storytelling and the art of writing and directing. This will include laying a visual foundation by spending many hours exploring how light, composition, and emotion make up the image. Many different lighting techniques and styles will be covered. Chandler will also be covering all editing demos using Final Cut Pro. Using case studies along with student’s ideas, the goal of the course is to provide an intense overview of the art of documentary productions. Every student will learn how to evaluate non-fiction ideas, create their own ideas and develop an understanding of documentary film aesthetics and the storytelling process.<

THE PROGRAM
The workshop meets formally 6 days each week. There will be lectures, screenings, presentations, technical demos, a review and critique of all dailies, supervised editing sessions, discussion of documentaries, and individual meetings with the Chandler. The workshop combines lectures and presentations with supervised and formal instruction in production laboratories (camera, lighting, sound, editing), shooting on location, transcribing, screening and discussion of current and classic documentaries, meetings with visiting filmmakers and written assignments. Students will write and develop proposals for future projects.

PRODUCTION
The workshop will break into groups with each group producing a completed 7 to 10 minute piece shot on digital video and edited with Final Cut Pro. Students will meet and scout their subjects and write treatments and outlines to guide their production. from there they will conduct interviews, tape B-roll and coverage for a sequence, record sound and take their material into post-production. There they will be instructed in creating first an edit on paper, then on the computer, where after assembly into a final edit, they will color correct, mix sound and add titles to their finished work. The projects will encompass the diversity of documentary styles and allow the individual the chance to problem-solve by learning to work as a team.

PRESENTATION
On the last night of the workshops the documentaries will be screened for the community to enjoy. The filmmakers are encouraged to invite family and friends. Because of the full support of The Mississippi Film Commission, documentaries produced with Barefoot Images are automatically accepted for a special screening at the Crossroads International Film & Video Festival in Jackson, Mississippi, and students are encouraged to submit to other festivals around the world.

Chandler Griffin/Barefoot Workshops
917-385-9343
chandler@barefootworkshops.com
Brooke Bassin/Barefoot Workshops
Brooke.bassin@barefootworkshops.org

Executive Summary
The news industry faces seismic changes as the Internet transforms the market and the competitive climate for news and information. Traditional news media organizations must aggressively adapt their business models to stay relevant in this evolving marketplace. And they must become effective and nimble innovators – able to rapidly and continually develop new products, services, distribution mechanisms, business models, strategies and revenue streams in response to or in anticipation of changes in the competitive landscape, consumer preference and technologies. And non-traditional or “emerging” news companies — those that have entered the world of gathering, producing and distributing news and information since the dawn of the World Wide Web — need to be on guard so they don’t lose their natural innovative abilities as they grow. So this report is designed to help both new and old media companies identify and aggressively redefine business models, create dynamic processes, develop flexible organizations and inspire vital leadership to navigate industry changes ahead.

10 Future Web Trends
by Richard MacManus

We’re well into the current era of the Web, commonly referred to as Web 2.0. Features of this phase of the Web include search, social networks, online media (music, video, etc), content aggregation and syndication (RSS), mashups (APIs), and much more. Currently the Web is still mostly accessed via a PC, but we’re starting to see more Web excitement from mobile devices (e.g. iPhone) and television sets (e.g. XBox Live 360). What then can we expect from the next 10 or so years on the Web?

1. Semantic Web: In a nutshell, the Semantic Web is about machines talking to machines. It’s about making the Web more ‘intelligent’, or as Berners-Lee himself described it: computers “analyzing all the data on the Web – the content, links, and transactions between people and computers.”

2. Artificial Intelligence: In the context of the Web, AI means making intelligent machines. In that sense, it has some things in common with the Semantic Web vision.

3. Virtual Worlds: Second Life gets a lot of mainstream media attention as a future Web system. But at a recent Supernova panel that Sean Ammirati attended, the discussion touched on many other virtual world opportunities.

4. Mobile: In 10 years time there will be many more location-aware services available via mobile devices; such as getting personalized shopping offers as you walk through your local mall, or getting map directions while driving your car, or hooking up with your friends on a Friday night.

5. Attention Economy: The Attention Economy is a marketplace where consumers agree to receive services in exchange for their attention. Examples include personalized news, personalized search, alerts and recommendations to buy.

6. Web Sites as Web Services: Major web sites are going to be transformed into web services – and will effectively expose their information to the world.

7. Online Video / Internet TV: This is a trend that has already exploded on the Web – but you still get the sense there’s a lot more to come yet. It’s fair to say that in 10 years time, Internet TV will be totally different to what it is today. Higher quality pictures, more powerful streaming, personalization, sharing, and much more – it’s all coming over the next decade. Perhaps the big question is: how will the current mainstream TV networks (NBC, CNN, etc) adapt?

8. Rich Internet Apps: As the current trend of hybrid web/desktop apps continues, expect to see RIA (rich internet apps) continue to increase in use and functionality.

9. International Web: As of 2007, the US is still the major market in the Web. But in 10 years time, things might be very different.

10. Personalization: Personalization has been a strong theme in 2007, particularly with Google.

-more

He quotes a Pew Research Center for the People and the Press study that found the Web audience is “… younger and better educated than most Americans and far more dissatisfied with their country’s news media.” Many people are pointing their browsers overseas to British online media outlets that give them the content they desire. He also quotes Joseph Epstein who states that Wired magazine now defines a new word, “… ‘egocasting’ as ‘the consumption of on-demand music, movies, television and other media that cater to individual and not mass-market tastes.’ The news, too, is now getting to be on-demand.” Reaching that micro audience as multimedia producers is another aspect of our job that should be explored. How we define a “micro” audience and how we tailor content to reach as many people as possible within that structure will be an interesting exercise.

I like how Rutten finishes, with the hope that some type of “hybrid” publication, “… in which an online edition that’s focused mainly on breaking news and service works in tandem with a print edition whose staples are analysis, context and opinion.” The challenge is to make sure that the multimedia stories we produce are quality in-depth pieces that help showcase and explain the human condition. Here’s an excerpt from Rutten’s article:

“Sooner rather than later, the newspaper you’re holding in your hands will be very different from what it is today. Different in what way is the fair and obvious question. The honest answer is that nobody knows for certain, but the odds are it will be a hybrid publication in which an online edition that’s focused mainly on breaking news and service works in tandem with a print edition whose staples are analysis, context and opinion. The former almost surely will have a lot more video and interactivity than it does today; the latter will have to be much more thoughtful and far more intensely and carefully edited. It’s a difficult — though not impossible — transition, and the scandal of cable news’ failed transformation provides a cautionary example. As Fox and CNN demonstrate to the rest of the news media, it’s possible to save your financial skin and forfeit any claim on respect.”

1. two-way communication
2. ease of access to and dissemination of information
3. continuous learning
4. alignment and integration
5. community
6. portability and time flexibility (time-shifting), which provide users with freedom over space and time
7. convergence of many different media so that they can carry out more than one function at a time and combine — as is the case with the cameraphone
8. interoperability without which convergence would not be possible
9. aggregation of content, which is facilitated by digitization and convergence
10. variety and choice to a much greater extent than the mass media that preceded them and hence The Long Tail phenomenon
11. the closing of the gap between (or the convergence of) producers and consumers of media
12. social collectivity and cooperation
13. remix culture which digitization facilitates
14. the transition from products to services

I like the last point Dirck makes in the article, that the Platypus Workshops he started many years ago are not meant, “… to turn out a new generation of TV photojournalists. TV news is for all intents and purposes dead. What we are there to do is to teach a skill that will provide choices that can be used to continue a career in visual journalism.”

That middle part, “TV news is for all intents and purposes dead,” is very prescient. Dirck has always had a knack for foretelling the future of visual journalism. He’s right. Media is changing –drastically, and those who don’t embrace change are surely going to die. Television, as we know it, is a medium we will not recognize in the very near future.

Newspaper journalism started changing more than 26 years ago as the first digital camera, the Mavica, was introduced. Many thought early on that our profession would never embrace the new digital technologies being introduced. We did. Today we are at a new crossroad in the profession and I’m glad to see today’s photojournalists embracing change. I’m wondering what Dirck’s next prediction will be? I can’t wait!

I’ve been keeping tabs on Pachyderm for a while now and it looks like September 2007 the NMC (New Media Consortium) will offer hosted accounts for a small subscription fee to individuals. Pachyderm is the equivalent of Joe Weiss’ SoundSlides, but on super steroids, with the ability to allow anyone to upload images, audio, and video into a flash presentation. Go to the Pachyderm showcase to see some examples.

From the Pachyderm site: Pachyderm is an easy-to-use multimedia authoring tool that is designed for people who have little or no multimedia authoring experience. Pachyderm is accessed through a web browser and is as easy to use as filling out a web form. Authors upload their own media (images, audio clips, and short video segments) and place them into pre-designed templates, which include built-in functionality for playing video and audio, linking to other templates, and other features. Descriptive text can be copied and pasted in, or authored directly in Pachyderm. Once screens have been completed and linked together, the presentation is published and can then be downloaded and placed on the author’s website, on a CD, or elsewhere. Authors may also leave their presentations on the Pachyderm server and link directly to them there. The result is an attractive, interactive Flash-based multimedia presentation.

I just reported last month on the success of asap. Things change fast! According to a story on Yahoo! Finance from Seth Sutel, AP business writer, the AP is closing down its 2-year-old multimedia service on October 31. asap emphasized nontraditional methods of storytelling to help newspapers reach the 18-to-34 age group. AP sources stated that asap had failed to gain enough traction with newspaper clients. asap had evolved into a broader product aimed at all readers and had also produced videos, podcasts and multimedia packages. – more

In a recent report from the Magazine Publishers of America (MPA), 62 magazines announced digital initiatives in the second quarter of 2007. That’s a 139% increase over the same time period in 2006, and the highest number ever tracked by MPA. Some of the new initiatives announced by magazine publishers are integrated marketing initiatives, widgets, mobile content, more videos for websites, innovations in user-generated content and social networks, and many website redesigns. The hope is that they will reach a younger more mobile audience. For you freelancers out there, you need to keep in mind these other markets for multimedia content. Magazine publishers have to increase readership rates and multimedia is a key component.

(What the Duck)

Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism will soon unveil their new multimedia curriculum. The move is not without criticism. School Dean, John Lavine, has emphasized marketing as part of the new curriculum, a move that has irked many journalists, faculty, and students. I agree, we have to be very careful that we keep the newsroom separate from advertising and marketing. The new curriculum is a good idea, and many schools, including mine, are starting to emphasize blogging, internet video, podcasting, etc. as viable and necessary parts of today’s media. But we also need make sure the emphasis is on solid journalism, with the technology as just another delivery tool.

Journalism Dean at Northwestern U. Develops Curriculum With Increased Emphasis on Multimedia and Marketing
By KATHERINE MANGAN, Chronicle of Higher Education

At a time when newspaper readership is steadily declining and many readers are bouncing from blogs to Internet video to get their news, the new approach will send student reporters out into the field with video iPods and digital camcorders, as well as spiral notebooks. The most controversial change, though, is the increased emphasis on marketing. This fall, lessons in audience behavior and motivation will be taught alongside drills in crafting leads and meeting deadlines. Students will be encouraged to connect with readers by writing out of storefront newsrooms in diverse Chicago neighborhoods.

Buffalo Rising is a colorful CJ site run by a company called Hyperlocal Media. Their motto is “Local matters”, which tells you a lot about their focus. Buffalo Rising is described as using “hyperlocal content produced by a team of contributors to market the city to itself–to remind people why they live there.” They cover Buffalo, the second largest city in New York – which has a population of 250,000. Buffalo Rising has 7,000 registered users, they get a little over 24,000 visits every weekday and serve 250,000+ pages/weekday. – more

In this report from the Baltimore Sun, the paper is going to start partnering with local television media and working with broadcast reporters to co-produce multimedia content.

Sun to share content with WMAR, MPT
By Nick Madigan Sun reporter July 18, 2007

Expanding its reach into other media platforms, The Sun has struck partnership agreements with WMAR and Maryland Public Television, and is discussing a similar deal with a TV sports programmer. The agreements will enable the organizations to share content and resources for online, print and broadcast stories and commentaries, and should increase the visibility of Sun reporters and columnists. “We’re increasingly living in a multimedia world,” Timothy A. Franklin, editor of The Sun, said yesterday, “and it’s important that we have our journalists and our content on multiple stations so that we can maximize our exposure and get more eyeballs.” Steve Sullivan, The Sun’s assistant managing editor for multimedia, said yesterday that the paper has also been talking with an area sports programmer about an on-air, online collaboration between the two entities. – more