It has been almost a year since I last posted here. In that time I have grown the Cinematic Syndicate into a working production brand, produced more music (with a couple albums about to hit shelves) and made the decision to move to the San Francisco Bay!

I have changed my musical name from CODA to CODA IN BLUE in order to differentiate myself from the sea of other Codas on the internet, ranging from speaker companies to music software developers. All my new sounds can be found in the above link. In addition to that, my acoustic group CAPE SOUND is about to go into mixing after recording our first full-length album. There’s also an electronic music label in the works, CHRONOLOGIC RECORDS, that I’m founding with my good friend Mad Zach. You can sign up for the mailing list on the homepage to get hooked in to all we’re doing to launch this thing, including new music releases, free downloads, and an event calendar. Whew.

Now based in Oakland, I am excited to put out the feelers again and network with more artists, brands, and musicians to help them make their media wishes come true. I’ll be holding some video production workshops/events and playing out more music in the near future. Anybody located in the Bay, reach out! There is strength in numbers, especially in the digital media community.

Until next time…

I got word today that I’ll be helping teach a workshop on documentary filmmaking at the Esalen Institute. It’ll be happening the weekend of July 1-3rd.

From the site:

Join photographer Patrice Ward and documentary filmmaker Bella Shing for an intensive documentary filmmaking and photography workshop. Bella and Patrice will guide participants in a hands-on weekend immersion documenting the extraordinary Esalen Arts Festival. Whether you are an emerging filmmaker or photographer, seasoned professional, or amateur, you can experience the full spectrum of filmmaking or photography. Using Esalen and the Arts Festival performers as a canvas, participants will delve into their choice of the art of low- and no-budget digital filmmaking or photography while focusing on conceptualism and the aesthetics of what we see through the lens.

It will be taking place during Esalen’s annual arts festival, so there will be plenty of things to film & photograph. You can contact me for more info, or sign up at the website listed above. Pricing breakdown is on this page.

Extra thanks to fellow media blogger Blake Allen for the workspace, tools, and photo!

Next Up: live looping with this thing…

With all prosumer electronic devices, we always tend to run across those limitations that makes us wonder “why not just unlock that feature for your loyal users?” In the case of my Canon 550D (T2i), there is a nasty setting that causes the audio recording levels to fluctuate automatically based on how loud the camera’s surroundings are. It’s called ACG, or Auto-Gain Control. Up until a bit ago, Canon users could be found raging across forums and blogs, complaining that their choice to make this feature non-removable is both unprofessional and rather corporate of them-

Until now. A group of DSLR filmmakers from the 5D Forums have dedicated some serious time to crafting a new bit of software that loads on top of the existing camera firmware of these new DSLRs, and adds numerous features that only $2000+ cameras can boast. Some of the features include, but are not limited to:

• ACG REMOVED and replaced with manual audio level controls, both analog & digital
• Audio level meters (thank you)
• On-screen lens information about focal distance and zoom
• Zebra stripes for both over and under-exposed areas
• Automated focus pulling (yes, it works)
• Bitrate control – down to YouTube quality, or higher for even crisper HD footage
• HDR exposure bracketing up to 13 shots!

You can find more on the Magic Lantern User’s Group on Vimeo. I think I’m going to donate to their project, as it’s released FREE and has unlocked about $1500 worth of features on my humble camera.

As for now, I’ve installed it on my Canon 550D and it’s working! Anybody else have success with this? Comment below!

-Jesse

Chris Anderson speaks at TED

This TED talk has had me intrigued ever since it was shown to me weeks ago, so I felt it more than worthy of sharing – if nothing else just to entertain a cool model for how to produce progress in the social metaweb. Video is a powerful tool, no? This also reminds me that the Santa Cruz TEDx (local chapter of TED) is occurring at Cabrillo this next June. Check it out (or nominate a speaker!) at www.tedxsantacruz.com. Who wants to come up with an awesome presentation with me?

AT&T has finally decided to support the Android operating system (Google phone). Being newly immersed in the mobile world of constantly-updated reminders, messages, comments, posts, videos, tweets, and shout-outs calls gives me this previously unknown insight into the importance of platform in people’s decision-making process- for many buyers software makes or breaks the deal, quite frankly. The corporate marriage (and divorce) party has caused this divide, and the ‘big two’ (Apple & Google) seem to stack up on opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of their app development procedures.
The big white fruit has chosen total software & hardware integration, which has essentially caused a vertical monopoly whereby Apple controls all of the soft and hardware development across the board. What does this mean? It means total compatibility for users, at the high cost of total monopoly. What’s the alternative? The mobile community would tend to see the Android platform as the opposite, embodying the open-development model- the underdog of the three major platforms out there (the third, and still most widely used in the states being Blackberry). UPDATE: Someone on facebook has said this far better recently:

“It depends on what sort of user you are. iPhones are great for business users and people who want a smartphone for its “cool factor”. What they are designed to do, they do well (except for make regular phone calls, if you’re on an iPhone 4 – Apple screwed up the antenna and it’s possible to lose signal by putting your finger in the wrong place while holding the phone). However, try to do anything Apple hasn’t signed off on, and you’re out of luck. Apple’s company philosophy seems to be that it is best to maintain control of every aspect of what a user can do with his or her device for its entire lifespan.

Android phones are more like computers – and linux-based ones, at that. They are the only choice for people who want limitless options, have a bit of technical know-how, and are willing to put up with the odd system crash (just like a computer) when they push the device to its limits. Unlike the iPhone’s, Android’s app store is not censored, and you can install apps from other sources to boot. The operating system itself can be modified or entirely replaced if you know what you’re doing. And out of the box, I’ve found Android does most things at least as well as the iPhone.

I have an Android phone – an HTC Desire – and absolutely love it. I loathe Apple as a company and find most of its products flashy, overpriced, and ultimately not worth owning. However, I am the sort of user who installs multiple modified operating systems on my phone – not Apple’s target market by any means.”

However – amidst this clouded debate over which is the ‘better’ platform, I propose an alternative model of thinking- that the choice one makes in mobile platform is almost irrelevant to the more pressing necessity of BOTH in the market simultaneously. Blasphemy, you say? Perhaps- but I think that in order for mobile tech platforms to progress, we actually need the attributes brought about by both in order to push each other into higher capacity. Apple offers stability, scalability, and a highly-supported system – at a higher financial cost; Google offers a more economically-friendly, open-ended platform that isn’t as standardized (much in the way Linux isn’t standardized). The Underdog pushes the Big Guy to offer more features (like flash support?) and a more open app market, while the Big Guy pushes back with their monolithic marketing power, forcing more progress on the Android platform. The same goes for blackberry; and this seems one of the only pro’s of this extreme form of capitalism in which we live: any time you’ve got multiple competitors its going to force them to fight for the customer’s dollar, while the market democratically ‘decides’ by ‘voting’ (buying) certain technologies.

All in all, I see the two (or three) models of mobile tech companies as encouraging digital democracy in the fast-paced age of handheld portable devices. May the best men tie.

The band ‘Okay, Go’ created a viral video based on something called a Rube Goldberg Machine, a gient contraption whose simple goal is dwarfed by its complex process of accomplishing that goal. What’s the point? See for yourself.

Also, there’s a great TED Talk on ‘the making of’ for you gearheads interested in how they actually pulled this sucker off. Enjoy!

Here is a short docu-style narrative I produced for local agency Brand Narrative to spread the word about content-based marketing.

We now live in an era saturated with Web 2.0 applications, where it seems nothing simply resides on our lonely little hard drives at home sitting in dusty towers.
If you haven’t checked it out, Soundcloud is an amazing way to solve the music/mix sharing conundrum. Before its launch, people have had few attractive options short of hiring a programmer for the purposes of putting together something that would work in only one form, in one place. Fast-forward to 2010:

Techstep Live by codasound

Enjoy a Coda DJ Mix, courtesy of Soundcloud

We no longer live in a time and place where media is innocent. (wait…have we ever?) When you press record and that red light begins to blink, you objectify the moment- and immediately create friends- and enemies! Where you aim a camera or a microphone is a decision, an opinion- and many a person will take issue with your choice, depending on what you decide to show & how you’re showing it.
About a month ago when I had the opportunity to be on A/V crew for the recent MAPS 2010 Conference. Shooting with three cams in the mainroom of 800+ people, we were responsible for reliably recording all the presenters onstage, from Alex & Allison Grey to Alex ‘Sasha’ Shulgin; both for the projected screens up front & for archival purposes as well. Things were running smoothly as we began filming a packed Friday schedule.
Not long into the conference, however, people began swarming the camera operators & media technicians for access to the footage – not that I blame them (man were there some cooool talks!) After awhile, we got tired of telling all the media inquisitors to go check with our higher-ups for permission! after all, the privacy and security of both the presenters and MAPS as an organization is highly at stake- should any footage be released and used for purposes other than by MAPS-designated productions, opinions start to fly- which can certainly undermine the credibility of a movement dealing with such a (still) volatile set of issues in our stubborn Western culture. The conference certainly showed me the potential positive and negative weight any piece of media can carry- if a clip of video on the news could make or break something, such as a movement or institution or idea, then why isn’t it used that way? Oh, wait a minute….!

So what’s different about the power of media today than 30 years ago? The microchip has collapsed thousands of miles of roads into nanosecond pulses of light over a single strand of glass fiber – in layman’s terms – THE NEWS HAPPENS ALOT QUICKER.
The instantaneous nature of digital audio and video recording (recently dubbed “digital storytelling” by a new client) is now such that a video clip of illegal whaling taken on a boat off the coast of Australia can be beamed to CNN faster than you can say “gigabit wireless,” and an iPhone video taken in downtown Santa Cruz during the riots can make the public news on TV the next morning. Brilliant.

Welcome to digital storytelling in 2010, where you can walk around a party with your iPad while controlling the VJ projections from anywhere in the room…secretly…muahaha.
Is this terrible or great? I think it’s all about application…