CCW Part 1

So the other week I was invited to CCW conference.  That's Content & Communication World.  Since they provided me with free admission to the conference and seminars I felt I was obligated to go.  I went last year, and enjoyed it, and learned a lot.  This year was just as informative, yet I would have liked more vendors dealing with the production side of things, but all in all it was still very thought provoking.  I figured that since I couldn't write one BIG blog entry about the conference I figured I try and spread it out.  I went to ten seminars, and a couple of workshops in-between. 

The conference was held in the Jacob Javits center in New York.  Both days I did a lot of walking around to seminars and through the exhibit floor which had over 200 companies. 

I was most interested in DSLR Production, and they had several workshops and one seminar that covered that.  I'll get more into that on later entries here, but needless to say I liked what I heard.  The only thing is that dealing with footage shot through these cameras can be a pain in the butt.    As one cinematographer said he loves the look of it, but hates the work flow. 

I still think that DSLR production is in its infancy, and there is still a lot of problems that they need to overcome, but I have to say the "look" of DSLR footage is well just "pretty cool".

I was also taken aback by NewTek's Tricaster.  No longer do you need to be on a set.  The new Tricaster can put your talent into a virtual set that looks awesome, and better still the virtual set can be modified by the user.  The man who was demonstrating it was in front of a small green screen.  He was very amusing, but what he did with the NewTek Tricaster was simply amazing.  No more BIG studio.  You yourself can do nightly or daily newscasts with ease.  In fact the gentlemen doing the demonstration was being his own technical director.  You can program camera moves without ever touching the camera.  It's easy and pretty awesome.  I've worked with NewTek's tricaster and thought it was a pretty good portable studio.  The only problem was that it didn't come student proof, and hence the abuse it took rendered it useless.  I think NewTek has made their product a bit more sturdier and durable, but I'd be  interested in hearing from producers who have worked with it in the field.  I believe NewTek's new Tricasters are much better, and you can do a whole lot more with them then I was able to do with their older versions.

Other seminars covered 4K acquisition and work flow, Lighting technologies for Production, and Social media.  I'll try and do some justice of the info I've gathered, and try not to be a total geek. 

There were several camera manufacturers on the exhibit floor also, and it was fun to play with all the various models.  A lot of productions are shooting digitally now, and that's more and more happening throughout the production field, but to say tape is dead would be a bit misleading.  I'll get into that also, and try to decipher my notes on that.

I have to say I came away from the conference invigorated and stimulated.  There's a lot of possibility out there, and there is so much one can do now that wasn't possible in the past.

Stick around and let's talk shall we.