Future of Internet TV Is Coming Into View

Monday, September 3, 2007

Future of Internet TV Is Coming Into View

I can relate to Leslie Walker's article "Future of Internet TV Is Coming Into View." In her opening paragraph, the technology columnist noted that she "was trying to sleep on a flight home from Las Vegas Sunday when the craving hit: I want my Internet TV." Talk about timing. I thought the exact same thing a week ago with I was sitting on a plane returning from Scotland.

I was in Scotland for The Edinburgh Festival Fringe the week of August 17th through the 24th. During my 20-plus hour journey, I, like Ms. Walker, really wanted alternative entertainment. I didn't have too many options on those Air Canada flights: it was either watch Shrek 3 (which I saw once on my way from San Francisco to Toronto and then again on my way from Toronto to London) or listen to the Hannah Montana soundtrack (I bet a lot of you don't know who Hannah Montana is. I just happen to have a 12 year old niece, so I know this Disney channel TV character very well). I went bonkers, so I turned to my MacBook Pro for video entertainment.

As part of my packing ritual, I always make sure that I have enough entertainment on the plane, so I bought some TV shows off if iTunes. Detectives Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson of the Manhattan SVU squad kept me company until I fell asleep. I woke up about an hour later and realized that the plane was somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean and that we wouldn't be arriving in London for another four hours, so again I scrambled to find some entertainment. Luckily, I found clips of The Indianapolis Colts post-season games that I had stashed in my iTunes library. I never get sick of watching Peyton Manning and The Colts come from behind and beating the New England Patriots in the last year's AFC Championships Game, so I watched that over and over again for the next two hours. At that point, my battery died.

It was good that I came prepared for this flight with these videos. Walker noted that "Instead of watching the dorky movie US Airways was showing, say I flip open my six-inch Verizon Internet viewer, switch to my Google Video channel, select "CSI: Baltimore; Jan. 5," and watch my favorite TV show, which I missed while in Vegas (hey, there's bound to be a "CSI: Baltimore" by then)." I thought the exact same thing. What I really wanted was to watch other 48 Hour Film Projects, YouTube clips, and music videos. No More Shrek, puh-leeze!!! Technology has come a long way, so I'm on board with Walker's prediction for the future. I'm looking forward to it. Ah, wouldn't it be nice to just be able to choose anything to watch at any time the next time I'm on a transatlantic flight?

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It Donned On Me?

For the past few years Evan Donn has been teaching classes in After Effects and Final Cut Pro in the Multimedia department at College Of San Mateo. Every semester there were a couple of students who just wouldn't go home when the class was over, staying after with a seemingly endless stream of questions about every imaginable aspect of video production. Many of them returned semester after semester for whichever class Evan was teaching at the time.

In the spring of 2006 Evan taught a new class called DV Workflow which consisted almost entirely of these "irregulars". DV Workflow became essentially an 'everything but the kitchen sink' type of class covering the entire process of video production with an emphasis on producing video for the web.

As part of DV Workflow every member of the class had to produce an episodic video series for the web. This led to various members teaming up to work on each others' videos as well as providing valuable input on the finished videos during class screenings. When the class ended everyone felt that the working dynamic of the group was worth continuing.

Led by Chief Instigator Tony Nguyen they dubbed themselves 'The Evan Donn School of Film' and began holding quarterly screenings of everyone's current work. In 2006 several members of the group attended one of the 48 Hour Film screenings, and they all walked out with the same thought - we can do that.

From that point on the quarterly screenings took on a new direction as 'challenges' were thrown out with criteria similar to the 48 Hour Film Project. This helped prepare the team members for the challenge of building a short film around a character, prop and line of dialogue.

As the 2007 competition drew closer Mr. Nguyen once again took the lead and signed up the team for the San Francisco 48 Hour Film Project. Put on the spot to come up with a team name he considered and rejected many possibilities before the ideal name 'donned' on him...

Despite their history the San Francisco competition was the first time all members of the team had worked together on a single project. Everyone jumped right in and the result was our first short film - 'Urgent Care'.

Despite incredible audience reaction to the film, 'Urgent Care' failed to win either the audience or juried competition for San Francisco. However, the team was selected by competition sponsor Visa as one of ten teams from San Francisco to compete in their national "Life Takes" Invitational against teams from New York and Los Angeles.

With only one film in the can, Evan decided the team needed a little more practice before the Visa competition. Unbeknownst to the team, he signed them up for the nearby San Jose 48 Hour Film Project and announced it at the cast & crew party for 'Urgent Care'. Fortunately everyone jumped at the chance to hone their skills and prove that the success of the first film wasn't just luck. The result of that effort is 'Doggie Style', the second official film from It Donned On Me.

In September the team came together once again to complete another 48 hour film for the Visa "Life Takes" Invitational. In collaboration with members of the a capella group "Flying Without Instruments" they completed the fantasy film "EXIT".

In October, 2007 the team completed their fourth 48 hour project, the National Film Challenge, producing "Retreat", an existential tale of a horse seeking enlightenment. After this they took a break from high-speed filmmaking for the holidays in order to prepare for the 2008 season.

In March 2008 IDOM kicked off the 2008 filmmaking season with the International Documentary Challenge, producing our first non-fiction film, "Stick & Pound". Selected as a finalist in the competition, 'Stick & Pound' screened in Toronto at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Film Festival where the team brought home Documentary Challenge awards for Best Cinematography and Best Directing!

After an amazing first year of competition IDOM came full circle, returning for the second time to the 2008 San Francisco 48 Hour Film Challenge and successfully completing our 6th film, "Tail". 'Tail' brought home the award for 'Best Sound Design' as well as being nominated for Best use of Dialoge and Best Cinematography

Just a few weeks later it was once again time for the San Jose 48 Hour Film project. Despite a rough start IDOM pulled together and created 'TwirlyBoy', possibly our strangest film so far.

With seven very different films completed in a years time some would say it's time to take a break, but not IDOM - this is just the beginning as IDOM tackles new projects and goes in new directions in the quest to become the greatest competitive filmmaking team of all time!

Stay Tuned!

Who Is Quang Khoi?

When Quang Khoi and his family immigrated to the United States from Vietnam back in the mid seventies, his mother decided to give all the kids American names. Nobody could pronounce Quang Khoi, so his mother renamed her youngest son Tony. Quang Khoi's mom is a huge movie buff, and her passion for cinema is evident in the fact that she named her children after movie stars. Though it has never been confirmed or denied, word on the street is that her all time favorite movie is Alfred Hitchcock's PSYCHO, and that she named her youngest son after that film's leading man, Anthony Perkins. "Tony" is not so bad, considering that Quang Khoi could have ended up being "Norman Bates Nguyen."

These days, Quang Khoi uses his real name when he is acting in film. When he's behind the camera, he goes by his American name, Tony. Quang Khoi/Tony Nguyen inherited his mother's passion for the movies. He enjoys every aspect of film, from playing character roles on the screen to editing time lines in Final Cut Pro behind the scenes. Mr. Nguyen is very proud to be a part of this year's 48 Hour Film Project. Working with the It Donned On Me team has been such a rewarding experience, and he hopes to continue to work this awesome group of people in future projects.

Blogged Arteries - The Unrendered Files

Monday, September 3, 2007