Here's a wad of links regarding some cool new products announced at NAB 2008:

RED Scarlet - 3K resolution for $3k!
HVX200A First Look
HMC150 (DVX100 replacement?)
HPX170 (a tapeless HVX200?)
FreshDV HPX170 Announcement
Sony PMW-EX3
Sony EX3 Intro Video (watch this video!)
Check out all kinds of Sony EX1 HD clips: Vimeo EX1 Channel
EX1 vs HVX
If you are a JVC fan: GYHD200B
Matrox MXO2
Blackmagic Video Recorder SDI

Our short film about Art Seaman, “Skating The Pacific To Europe,” took home the “Best Collaboration” award last night at the Riverview Theater and we were one of the five award-winning films (out of seventy-three submissions) from the 2007 MNHS MGG Moving Pictures Festival!
I seriously don’t know how the judges made their decisions with such a high caliber of movies submitted this year but we are honored to have been selected. If you weren’t able to attend the screening or awards, you can watch the five winning films online at the Minnesota Historical Society website and read the special edition of “Legacy News” for further details.
Follow our progress or even support our efforts with the longer-form documentary about speed skating history and legends at the official site: http://www.skatingcapitaloftheworld.com/

See the film that City Pages says "makes beautiful use of still shots."
This year we (myself and Rita) submitted two films about local speed skating champs for the Minnesota History Center's Greatest Generation Moving Pictures Festival and the debut of our films (and 50+ others) is on Sunday October 21st at the History Center in Saint Paul. All films will screen from noon until 5:00pm and then there is the awards screening and ceremony from 7:00pm until 9:00pm at the gorgeously mid-century Riverview Theater in Minneapolis. Oh, yes, this is a competition, too, and the winner gets $5,000 but nobody will know who wins until the screening so get your tickets early to ensure a view to the excitement!

Our two films are both on local speed skating champions who competed in the 1948 and 1952 Olympics. "Skating The Pacific To Europe" tells the skating story of Art Seaman and his Hawaiian adventures while "My Name Is McNamara" explores the skating passion of Matthew McNamara and his European achievements. Both films are taken from a longer-form project currently in the works about the period in history when the Twin Cities was known as the Skating Capital of the World. Check back soon for more project details and how you can support the film!

You can subscribe to the Zombie Pub Crawl videos via iTunes now! Hit the link or search for "zombie pub crawl" or "moonpost" in iTunes.

Not only were we selected for the "Best of Minneapolis 2007" show but we won "Best Ensemble Cast" for the second year in a row! Wowzer. How amazingly cool. The final 12 films were of high caliber and while it was a true honor just to be in the finals, it was super cool that our team of talent pulled off a win for "Megastorm." I can't thank the team enough for being so talented and hard-working and just plain fun to hang around. I'm very proud and pleased. And somehow, I want to make another movie right now.

The premiere of "Megastorm" went off well tonight and the crowd seemed rapt with attention. They seemed enthralled. The mix of movies shown was all over the place, but there was a trend of violence and lots of sound that could somehow make people die. Some of the kids in attendance got quite an education on language. But some very funny stuff, some outright weird stuff and some really good looking stuff. Our young first-time actor, Bailley, really seemed to enjoy the whole experience. Now we wait until next week to hear the results of the judges.

The Climaxx team pulled off some amazing feats over this past weekend and created a stunner of a horror film (that was our genre) for the 48 Hour Film Project in Minneapolis. Look for it at the premiere on Thursday night at the Riverview Theater at 7:00pm. Without giving anything away, I will say that the cast and crew were completely mind-blowingly amazing to work with on all levels and I'd be thrilled to work with any of them again. We brought back our three main actors from last year (David, Natalie and Elizabeth) and added several new people to our crew, including a first-time actress all of 10 years old who took direction like a pro and blew us all away. More details about our experience and movie to come. We were ambitious in many areas and still managed to get the film completed and turned in with less than 15 minutes to spare. Look for the prop (portable music player), character (Jill Meyers, veterinarian) and line of dialogue ("they will get them if we let them") in all the movies.

Major documentary filmmaking news: "Yesterday, in LA, in partnership with the insurance company, Media/Professional, and LA lawyer Michael Donaldson, we (the Stanford CIS Fair Use Project) made a major announcement. In my just about 10 years working on these issues, this is the most important announcement yet.

As reported just over a year ago, American University’s Center for Social Media released the Documentary Filmmakers’ Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use. This fantastic report outlines principles to guide filmmakers in the fair use of copyrighted material in their films. It was an important step towards helping to clarify this unruly area of the law.

Working with Media/Professional, and Michael Donaldson, the Fair Use Project has now found a way to insure films that follow the Best Practices guidelines."

(Via Lawrence Lessig.)

I forgot to post the news that the Minnesota Snowbate incentive bill passed! This will allow us to attract more movie productions to our awesome state. I'd like to believe that our video piece was the main reason this happened but it couldn't have happened without a lot of support from you as well.

I've been working on a video project to support MN House Bill #3226 and Senate Bill #2208, aka The Snowbate film production bill, which provides incentives (ie: tax breaks) to film productions in our state. We used to have quite a few major motion pictures produced here but the incentives were slashed and the movies went elsewhere. Until "North Country" and "Prairie Home Companion" it was a dry spell for many years. And "North Country" -- about Minnesota women on the MN Iron Range -- had a large portion shot in New Mexico! What??!
Anyway, the video apparently worked (so far) as the bill passed unanimously in the House committee yesterday and now it goes to tax committee and then, if it passes, it goes for a vote! Please keep up your support of this bill!

I recently shot a couple of hours of planning, performing and wrap-up of the Zombies On Ice event by Live Action Set and this past weekend saw the last live performance. Editing has now commenced...
Chuck from mnstories.com also showed up this past weekend and got some footage and a guy from St. Cloud got some footage from the first performance so keep your eyes open if you love the undead.

Thank you to all who attended this afternoon's screening of my "Zombie Pub Crawl" movie during the City Pages Get Real documentary film festival showing of Minnesota Stories at The Lagoon Theater in uptown Minneapolis! It was really great seeing the zombies on the big screen and it looked pretty darn nice, if I do say so myself. I was so apprehensive about the quality and the sound, but it really did look and sound great. I wanted to meet and chat with all who attended but the projectionist was incognito and left us sitting in the dark (literally) for many minutes afterwards and a lot of people just ended up leaving. Word on the street is that another screening may occur in the near future at another location - and with a more convenient time - so stay tuned!

As part of the City Pages Get Real documentary film festival, my recent short on the Zombie Pub Crawl will be shown during the Minnesota Stories feature on Thursday, November 10th, at 2:30 PM. This is a free screening, so come early to ensure entry! I'll be in attendance at the screening, so don't be shy - come and say hello!
I know, it is right during the work day, so if you can't make it down, just watch it online!
Zombies on the big screen. Wow.

Earlier this week I officially launched my newest site: Soundtrack Lounge. The Soundtrack Lounge is a place for users of Apple's new Soundtrack program, which is like iMovie but for audio composition instead of video. It comes bundled with Final Cut Pro 4, but Apple is releasing it stand-alone in August 2003 for $299. It is easy, powerful and very very fun. Users of the site can upload and download project files, samples, loops, etc, and engage one another in the forums. Membership is currently free, so join in!

I have two ideas rattling around in my head right now and I will probably put them into motion very soon. I'll need a little help from my friends, so be ready Jack, Bill, Eric... and ...??

Zoom! Here we go into new territory with the updated website. Check out the little nuggets of goodness for your downloading pleasure -- fonts, icons, actions, templates -- mostly for Mac.