The future value of camera ops

[Michaelrosenblum]

I would guess that the vast majority of video produced in the future will have no financial remuneration tied to it whatsoever. Video will increasingly become the way a great many people communicate all the time, not a job. Video literacy will become a marker of one's ability to participate in many aspects of 'screenworld'. As I said this is not about jobs or work. This is about the lingua franca of a culture.

 

[Baltimore Shooter]

it is about video becoming as ubiquitous (and as free and easy to make) as text is now.

Hmmm...let me test Michael's hypothesis...


w';ekljfbqw;hf['awosnvc]a;lkrjvh;kjnv;eklnv;dlnv;dlknd;flknvl;kndfbv;lknfv;lknvfdfkn;lfdknv;dlfknbklnfbsoifjv r]aewfj][e5onvjg][wegjnio5gmw4=9[gfu]v024urgn]1c38upr


Yep, that text was easy to make and nope, it didn't cost me anything. So free and easy? Yes. Any good? Not so much.

Well whatdaya know? Michael was right about one thing.

Warren

 

[Wheatstone Bridge]

uh oh ! ! ! !

. . . here we go , tread hi jack ahead ! ! ! !

 

[Tv Shooter]

I think Mike made a good point...video is becoming much more ingrained in the average person's life than just watching tv.

My nephews send video to each other instead of letters or emails....my friend Skypes with his relatives overseas and across the country.

Mike's post wasn't about VJ's taking over, or the fact that I am a dinosaur (which I may be, but I'm a well paid and busy one), it was about video communication becoming as common as talking on the phone.

There are thousands of video cameras all over the city of Atlanta...anything happens now, someone with a cell phone shoots it (poorly most of the time) and Skpe and opther internet services allow real time video commumications...and I remember just 25 years ago that a long distance call cost a fortune and ATM's,cell phones, home video cameras and the internet didn't exist.

I had a conversation with my 77 year old Dad a few months ago, about the innovations he has seen since his birth in 1932. As a kid in rural Florida and south Georgia, he remembers growing up in an age where there was no television, little radio and no phones in many places. And hearing his father and grandfather whining about how spoiled all the fancy automobiles and homes with electricity had made everyone.

We're living in an era where communication is not only easier, more affordable and available....yet I get voicemail 90% of the time when trying to contact someone, texting is more common than actually talking, and smartphones gives you the world at your fingertips. All these marvelous devices and human interaction seems to lessen each year.

Tech support, customer No service...all via email. I have freinds that will text me, I call them immediately and they don't answer then text back that they are "to busy to answer"...yet can continue a text conversation?

Video is fast becoming another way to comunicate....and Mikey's observation wasn't really about our field. He's still wrong about the era of the cameraman/soundguy being dead-I have the billables to prove that one. He may be right about news being on life support....the costs of running a local news operation have continued to increase while ad revenue is declining, all because advertisers have many more options to sell their wares and reach more people.

In Atlanta, most people are still in their cars trying to get home at 5 and 6pm...not in front of the tv watching the latest dog lick live shot or the exciting giant sandwich kicker. It's the same across the country, and add to the mix the exciting sweeps piece of blue lighting the sheets in a hotel, or "your lipstick could be dangerous!" stories that have been jammed down the thorats of the viewer...why should they watch the news when they can log on and get the storoies ala carte'...the stuff they want to know about and then move on.

It's a short attention span society...and video communication is cutting the time down even more...why write an email or text when you can just turn the cellphone to you and look and talk right into it, then hit "send"? Record your thoughts and send it out into the world. Over and out, on to the next thing.

These times, they are a changin'....I wonder what the next innovation to come our way is, and what I'll be saying when about the stuff I've seen happen when I am 77 years old.

Happy Thanksgiving! Hope good things come to you all...and that includes you Mike.

 

[cadencefilm]

Video Copilot

Backtracking to the angle of taking the reigns and training yourself, Videocopilot.net has some great free After Effects tutorials.

 

[justFRED.ca]

Okay, this is becoming interesting. Clearly having a pen doesn't make somebody into Shakespeare. But there is something else here. In the writing world you *really* have to stand out to make a living. While there are people who write copy for adverts etc, it isn't so straightforward to make a living in the written world.

I'm not so sure about that. As a Brit freelancer told me and a room full of Canadian writers many moons ago, you need a modicum of writing skills, a complete lack of aversion to speaking about - and demanding more - money, and rat-like cunning.

It's very difficult to earn a living as a freelance writer these days without doing corporate work. With a reasonable amount of corporate work, it's entirely possible.

Journalists, for a large part, actually have pretty rubbish writing skills. The newspapers are full of bad writing. However contained within the writing are strong opinions and access to sources that give them the story. So could this be the case for video? The YouTube crap being the equivalent of the average written journalist, while only the absolute best of the best being able to make a living out of quality visuals?

Most newspapers here pay a pittance. Freelance rates are frozen in 1979. I'm not joking. The rates haven't budged in 30 years. That's partly because most writers don't like talking about money, and signed ludicrous contracts - or else - with rapidly consolidating media conglomerates.

And I suspect the video universe with be populated with a broader spectrum of content - from quality to crap - than just the polar extremes of the worst of YouTube and the best of the best.

Cheers,
George

 

[patssle]

Backtracking to the angle of taking the reigns and training yourself, Videocopilot.net has some great free After Effects tutorials.

Videocopilot is great, but it is sometimes very easy to spot demo reels where people learned from videocopilot. People can replicate a tutorial or take a class in high school to learn After Effects - but that doesn't mean they have the artistic talent or drive to succeed in the industry - graphics, camera op, whatnot.