Day 408

I went to the seminar today about using mobile devices as broadcast production tools and was totally blown away by the array of products that are already available and being used by filmmakers. I started making documentary films using a 16mm camera and a Nagra sound recorder. I'm used to dealing with changing technology in the film industry, but it's still hard to get used to the total transformation that has taken place in the past few years. Today's seminar was mostly about how to turn your iPhone or iPad into a professional teleprompter or electronic slate. These two pieces of equipment used to be so expensive that you almost had to rent them for a production instead of buying them for yourself. There are still lots of companies that make a business of supplying teleprompter services for production crews because it's less expensive to outsource these services.

That's about to change. Now, anyone can download a few inexpensive apps from the Apple iTunes store and instantly turn their iPad into a professional teleprompter or time code slate that has the same features as dedicated equipment costing up to four thousand dollars. Equipment costs and even the cost of raw film stock used to prevent a lot of low budget film projects from getting off the ground. Not anymore. Slowly but surely, equipment costs are becoming negligable. These days, if you've got a great idea, you can make a great film. Understandably, all this is getting me excited about making films again.

I made good, steady progress on my website projects today. By this time next week I may actually be done with one of them. The dogs made even greater progress however. They learned how to go to a cocktail party today. Our friend Vhea was having a happy hour for her business after work and invited people to bring their pets. We thought bringing Dot and Dash to this event would either be a good way to socialize them or an even better way to get us kicked out of the place. There were quite a few dogs at the "Yappy Hour" open house and after some initial barking and counter surfing, our dogs became quite the party animals. I was proud of both of them. We let them off leash and they mixed well with the other dogs. Dash did try to steal some cake balls off a food tray, but that was understandable. The cake balls were quite good and I had a few myself. I think it is important to socialize your dogs. They actually adapt very quickly to new situations and are more flexible than most people I know. I need to remember how well the dogs did tonight. We all need to get out more.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day