NBC O&O OMB's?

[couryhouse]

Whew is the link to this I would like to see the winner.


Congrats on a good trip and contest Michael!

Originally Posted by Michaelrosenblum

Best regards from Belgium. Conference a big success. The winner of course was from The Washington Post, and I think quite a good piece. Meanwhile networks and locals move inexorably toward this, as I told you they would a long time ago. The handwriting is on the wall. Prepare yourselves....protect yourselves. Get the skill set if you don't already have them. Get ahead of the curve.

[Michaelrosenblum]

Originally Posted by couryhouse

Whew is the link to this I would like to see the winner.


Congrats on a good trip and contest Michael!

Hi John
Sorry. You can see the winner here:
http://www.rosenblumtv.com/?p=2893

[couryhouse]

fHi Mike, ound it on the other topic board here... aslo likd the CIA secret army one.
what a neat contest. maybe next year..... sony vegas will alow me to put subtitles I just have to learn to use it !

[Michaelrosenblum]

Originally Posted by couryhouse

fHi Mike, ound it on the other topic board here... aslo likd the CIA secret army one.
what a neat contest. maybe next year..... sony vegas will alow me to put subtitles I just have to learn to use it !

The secret army, The Laos Story was by Tony Birtley. He's a Senior Correspondent with Al Jaz and has been in the biz for a million years and won just about every award there is. Last year he won first place in breaking news for his report from Myanmar.

[couryhouse]

What a twist during the project to hear you are now being taken hostage by the people you came to document!

I remember hearing about this group of people but did not realize the government persecution was still going on.

It is good we have people out there that continue to bring injustice to the surface so we see it.

Originally Posted by Michaelrosenblum

The secret army, The Laos Story was by Tony Birtley. He's a Senior Correspondent with Al Jaz and has been in the biz for a million years and won just about every award there is. Last year he won first place in breaking news for his report from Myanmar.

[Nino]

Originally Posted by Michaelrosenblum

Prepare yourselves....protect yourselves. Get the skill set if you don't already have them. Get ahead of the curve.

A few days ago at a MLB Spring Training Camp I met a VJ/photojournalist from a large metropolitan area’s newspaper, this poor girl was carrying two still cameras with long lenses (one on a monopod) and at the same time struggling and trying to take some video with a small video camera. Actually I’ve been seeing many newspaper photographers carrying small video cameras, what they think they’ll get on a baseball field with a small camera is a mystery to me, to them too. Anyway, we started talking and she was interested on what I was doing and who I was working for, she then asked me how much I was getting paid and she almost fell to the floor when I told her, and I just finished a 30 days stretch with no days off; she would have to work two years for what I was making in one month. She told me that her newspaper hired a bunch of new VJs, mostly new graduates from photography or journalism schools and gave early retirement packages to most veteran photographers. She was there a year and if her salary would be $1000 less per year she would qualify for food stamps, actually the newspaper intentionally set the salaries just high enough so these new VJ could not qualify for food stamps as this would embarrass the organization. I ask why she stays there and what her future would be, she was told that as soon as the newspaper web site starts making money she’ll be getting raises. I gave her a fatherly advise and told her to go back to school and find another career because it will never happen.

[couryhouse]

ok..... I will disagree with you on one point Nino "many newspaper photographers carrying small video cameras, what they think they’ll get on a baseball field with a small camera is a mystery to me"

I used a panny gs35 palmcorder on tripod I was in the camera pit on the first base line next to dugout. to shoot some batter and runners and sliders to make a little reel to go with a story on the opening of our new fab spring training facility here in Glendale AZ.... we have.... the Dodgers! ( so sorry Florida) Yea! We have... the White Sox Yea!

In addition an Nikon d300 with long lens.... I was happy with what I got. Did I want to bring my larger camera ? and.. gaint tripod? maybe but it was just me and I'm old.... and... I got what was needed!

[Nino]

Originally Posted by couryhouse

ok..... I will disagree with you on one point Nino "many newspaper photographers carrying small video cameras, what they think they’ll get on a baseball field with a small camera is a mystery to me"

I used a panny gs35 palmcorder on tripod I was in the camera pit on the first base line next to dugout. to shoot some batter and runners and sliders to make a little reel to go with a story on the opening of our new fab spring training facility here in Glendale AZ.... we have.... the Dodgers! ( so sorry Florida) Yea! We have... the White Sox Yea!

In addition an Nikon d300 with long lens.... I was happy with what I got. Did I want to bring my larger camera ? and.. gaint tripod? maybe but it was just me and I'm old.... and... I got what was needed!

Right, now swing the camera around and try to get an outfielder on the warning track, I can fill the frame with a 20x zoom with a 2x, that's a 40x tele. what can you get with a 10x? Ant size players. And BTW, I'm old too and I'm looking to get an Angenieux26x7.8 HD lens with a 2x converter, that would make a 52x tele, I want to give my client the facial expression when the ball goes over the wall. And BTW, we have the Yankees, Red Sox, world champions Phillies and defending world champions Rays, (so sorry AZ), and grapefruits (league) are good for you but can you eat cactus?

[couryhouse]

Originally Posted by Nino

Right, now swing the camera around and try to get an outfielder on the warning track, I can fill the frame with a 20x zoom with a 2x, that's a 40x tele. what can you get with a 10x? Ant size players. And BTW, I'm old too and I'm looking to get an Angenieux26x7.8 HD lens with a 2x converter, that would make a 52x tele, I want to give my client the facial expression when the ball goes over the wall. And BTW, we have the Yankees, Red Sox, world champions Phillies and defending world champions Rays, (so sorry AZ), and grapefruits (league) are good for you but can you eat cactus?

Sounds like you have some great teams too!
Nino! acutally some cactus is tasty and cacuts candy is TO DIE FOR!

Nino GS-35 panny has 30x optical and it is nice! never assune I would settle for a 10x zoon! ( althogh I hate to admit the hd1000sony has one) and if I need a little more I can zoom in in the editor as this is going to an internet screen.


When the guy runs towards 1st I can rack focus it and swing it around on it's light little tripod...

Physically I am pretty shot. About the only was I would have been able to get big gear to where I was is if I had a golf cart from the parking lot to the camera hole.. Really....

I sure have a good time but I have to really watch it and adjust how I travel what I carry etc....


If I was going to a large screen I would not zoom in the edit bay....

And.... yea.... I wouild love Angenieux26x7.8 HD lens with a 2x converter, that would make a 52x tele too! Very nice indeed. could I carry it, the monster pod and the largecam>? not any more or any distance.

I love good hardware... I have wonderful tripod with conner 1030 head.. alas my body just does not like carrying it.


One this I will add is small camera if you are careful will do some amazing things.

another thing..... I do not kow why all the small HD cameras have 10 and 12 x zooms when some of the SD ones have some nice 20 and 30x ones.

[John M.]

Originally Posted by Nino

I gave her a fatherly advise and told her to go back to school and find another career.

Maybe that's what MR meant by "prepare yourself."

[Nino]

Originally Posted by John M.

Maybe that's what MR meant by "prepare yourself."

It is very difficult to take this entire VJ concept seriously when the most avid promoter, Rosenblum himself, has failed repeatedly to address the most important factor, the human issue, how will somebody survive being a VJ. You can’t go to the grocery check-out counter and tell the clerk that Rosenblum told you that one day it will happen and you’ll be making money, you need cash NOW. Having a job for me it doesn’t mean wealth, it means raising a family, owning a home, putting kids thru college, having a safe nest egg for retirement and having a little leftover at the end of the month; nothing extravagant, just a basic decent living. Personally I could care less about doing stories on the war or anything else while having difficulties making ends meet, screw the fame, this is a profession and there’s a fine line between professionals and amateurs and that line is the ability to make a living with your skills. Please notice how fame and famine are such close words. Intelligent people will never be stuck on a career that doesn’t provide the most basic of decent living, they will move on to other things so what will be left doing the VJ thing will be people who can not make it anywhere else and the consequence will be a substandard work force, no industry can prosper or even survive without quality people. I know many will get offended by this, but this is reality folks.

For over five years I have been asking Rosenblum and all the VJ supporters to show me any VJ that is capable to make a decent living and support a family. I even have an open invitation to contact me privately so to avoid the embarrassments. The only ones that contacted me were a few that worked directly for Rosenblum in Washington and what they had to say would make anyone with half brain change career in a heartbeat.

Read what one of Rosenblum follower had to say on MR's blog

Colin Mulvany says:
February 27, 2009 at 1:27 pm

Michael,
My ship is sinking. I need a pep talk. After reading this: http://npac.ca/?p=2060 I’m not sure what to do. I know newspapers are in a transition to an all-digital delivery method. What advice would you give all of us newspaper videographers who have these new video storytelling skills, but will soon, because of layoffs, have no place of apply them. I have a family to feed, so do I leave the visual journalism profession (before it leaves me) or stand and fight from the bow of a sinking ship?

Now read Rosenblum answer

Michael Rosenblum says:
February 28, 2009 at 2:28 am

Colin,
The whole newspaper picture, I don’t have to tell you, is deeply distressing. But there are rays of light, and I think in the long run the future is pretty good. But the long run does not feed your family or pay your mortgage. Newspapers that are making the radical jump to online and multimedia seem to be the best bets. Those that are sitting tight with their eyes closed would seem to be the worst. A triage is coming for sure. On the bright side, The Star Ledger, which you will recall was on death’s door not so long ago, trimmed 40 percent from their staff and has now embraced video in a big way. Seth Siditsky, who runs their online video service tells me that they are training 10 more to go into video now. The output from the Ledger is great, and as newspapers go, local news and cable are going to need a feeder that is cost effective. You can’t go to air with nothing, and (by the way) with newspapers gone, so is their source of information. So local news, either on your own, or better with the paper behind you, is a real and viable source of revenue for what you do so well. I noticed Bernard Weil in the npac link, and he is a finalist for this week’s $15k VJ prize here in Brussels. Broadcasters like the CBC and even CTV have also moved rapidly to the VJ model and would always welcome someone who can bring in a quality story without cameraman, producer, editor and so on. Its a competitive world, but you are in a competitive position. If you can move your paper’s ownership to the video model and demonstrate revenue, and fast revenue, I think your paper can survive and even thrive - just not as it used to be. I am more than happy to present your management with a very successful working model if they are so inclined - lemme know. If they are not going that way, head for the people who desperately need cost effective great quality video (and there are still lots of them) and offer them a solution to their biggest problem.

But there are rays of light, and I think in the long run the future is pretty good
Take this to the grocery store and see how much food you can get for it.

[Michaelrosenblum]

The past is over. There is no going back to it. The trend you see all around you is only going to continue and deepen. This does not mean you don't have valuable and employable skills - you do. You can deliver content, video content. And as the web goes rapidly to video there is an ever growing demand for video content. But it is content that can and must be delivered at a price point that is commensurate with the economics of the web. If you are smart, you will prepare for what you already know is inevitable. If you are not so wise, you will bury your head in the sand and continue to parrot platitudes and wait for things to get better. They are not going to get better. But that does not mean you cannot take control of your own destiny. Knowledge is power. You know what is coming. If you choose to act is entirely up to youm

[Nino]

Originally Posted by Michaelrosenblum

The past is over. There is no going back to it. The trend you see all around you is only going to continue and deepen. This does not mean you don't have valuable and employable skills - you do. You can deliver content, video content. And as the web goes rapidly to video there is an ever growing demand for video content. But it is content that can and must be delivered at a price point that is commensurate with the economics of the web. If you are smart, you will prepare for what you already know is inevitable. If you are not so wise, you will bury your head in the sand and continue to parrot platitudes and wait for things to get better. They are not going to get better. But that does not mean you cannot take control of your own destiny. Knowledge is power. You know what is coming. If you choose to act is entirely up to youm

What past is over Michael? It’s a past that you never even know existed. I don’t know why I keep fighting with you, I should kiss you. Since your predictions six years ago that we “the dinosaurs of production” were finished and heading toward extinction my business and the same goes for many of my colleagues has been going up and up. Last year I had two slow months, typical here in the summer and my year ended as one of the best ever. I just finished 30 straight day of work with no days off and 80% were HD gigs, so you do the math, plus many days I had as many as 3 other crews working. In the first two month of 2009 I’ve already matched my sales of the first 6 months of 2008. So you better start specifying what “past is over and for whom”.

So let’s see, first there was the cable content, remember that Michael? Who will provide 24/7 programming to the cable industry, your VJs of course will; we all know what happen to that prediction, not to mention those who paid you good money to chase a ghost.

And what about all the content needed for the web, that was your next projection. Six years ago your phrase was “in the next five years”, then after five years you upgraded your projection as of “in the next ten years”. So tell us about the web Michael, as we’ve been asking you for years. Show me any web site who is actually buying videos and/or any VJ out there that is actually making living selling videos to the web. I imagine that after six years you should have a pretty long list of successes.

Remember your VJ poster child, Michael Gentile? He is the one who went to the war zone and brought back some excellent video and you were doing a lot of bragging about him as a working VJ, the only difference between the two Michaels was that he was honest, he told right on your blog that he paid his own way to the war zone and the money he made from those videos were not even enough to recover his expenses, can't put food on the table doing that. I have the most respect for that Michael and his honesty; of course after he made that statement you stopped even mentioning his name. I have no doubt that there’s a great demand for cheap videos, look at Youtube, I’m talking about making a living here, six years that we’ve have been asking and you haven’t shown anyone who is actually able to support a family, six years is a long time for promises and dreams Michael.

So Michael, one more time, can you show us anyone who is making money from all your predictions. When I tell people how to make money I don’t give opinions and predictions, I show real invoices and receivable, big difference don’t you think?

[Chicago Dog]

As always, Nino, you raise excellent points. However, we both know that Michael's not going to address any of your points. He's a coward.

He doesn't care about journalism or its future. He's only concerned on that which will help him make a quick buck at the expense of others' jobs.

I wonder how Mike Sechrist is doing these days?

[McQueen]

Don't the the VJ,OMB,MMJ and all the other acronym folks have a site they can promote themselves on, cause its sure played out on here. How bout your own forum?? Call it the VJOMBMMJ-OPP Forum.The reason the pay is so low is that nobody is watching this stuff....the pie is sliced too thin. Its the equivalent of bad fast food,that you throw away. No taste,no lasting benifits.

[Nino]

Originally Posted by McQueen

Don't the the VJ,OMB,MMJ and all the other acronym folks have a site they can promote themselves on, cause its sure played out on here. How bout your own forum?? Call it the VJOMBMMJ-OPP Forum.The reason the pay is so low is that nobody is watching this stuff....the pie is sliced too thin. Its the equivalent of bad fast food,that you throw away. No taste,no lasting benifits.

You are bringing up two additional issues that were brought up to Rosenblum repeatedly and he never replied. The first was why with allegedly (as of few years ago Rosenblum claimed to have trained over 9000) so many working VJs there's no newsgroup or forum for them to exchange ideas and expand their skills, just like B-roll is doing. With such a large VJ population a forum could be a profitable venture and I would expect Rosenblum himself to initiate one. The only reason that I can think of why there isn't one is because creating a open discussion platform would bring in the open all the negatives of becoming a VJ, mainly the inability to survive financially.

The second issue that Rosenblum never addressed even thou it was repeatedly brought up was the public acceptance of VJ material. Evidently from the lackluster performance of those who got deeply involved with a VJ program this would also be a negative issue and better not to discuss it.

[Michaelrosenblum]

If you think the VJ thing is not coming to your station or your local newspaper, then you have nothing to worry about. If you think all this is merely a figment of my imagination, then no need for concern. Life is going on as always. On the other hand, if you do see something happening around you, you might be wise to pay attention. Like I said, the ball is in your court.

[Nino]

Originally Posted by Michaelrosenblum

If you think the VJ thing is not coming to your station or your local newspaper, then you have nothing to worry about. If you think all this is merely a figment of my imagination, then no need for concern. Life is going on as always. On the other hand, if you do see something happening around you, you might be wise to pay attention. Like I said, the ball is in your court.

The worst deaf is the one who doesn’t want to hear. I know that you are smarter than that Michael, and know exactly what I’m talking about it, so stop dancing around the real issue. Nobody is arguing that VJ is coming, what you are sidestepping is that those who choose to be a VJs are poverty bound and if you would tell this people the truth they would have the chance to look for another career or at least make an educated choice. You are depriving these people the option for their future by disseminating false and incomplete information.

VJs are the band aids to businesses that are bleeding, businesses who incompetent management have failed to foresee the downward directions that the organization entrusted to them was heading. The downslide is not over, is not that these businesses have settled and now it’s the time to make it a go with what they have left, the slide is continuing and these companies will soon not even be able to afford a low paid VJ. The engagement of the lowest quality of work ever produced will only accelerate the inevitable, total failure. Newspaper are converting to the web and to video, they however have not figured how to make it pay yet. We are talking about incompetent management who should be the first to go. Tell me of any business in history that have made such a drastic change without knowing how much and where will the money be coming from. Sorry but the phrase “if you build it they will come” doesn’t work for businesses.

Again let me repeat the same question, not for me but for those who are planning to become a VJ, those who evidently are not smart enough to ask these very important questions that will seriously affect their lives. Questions based solely on your statements projections of the success of becoming a VJ, projections that are now over six years old and still unanswered.

So Michael, one more time, can you show earning statistics from all your predictions and projections?

Now let's talk about your alleged successes of VJ implementation in Europe.

Submitted by Michael Rosenblum on March 7, 2009 – 7:43 amNo Comment

It looked touch and go until the very last minutes.

Many other media conferences have simply thrown in the towel and cancelled.

We decided not to, and our blind faith (and deep anxiety) paid off as more than 250 delegates attended the DNA2009 conference in Brussels, Belgium

According to all your bragging we were all under the impression that Europe was the mecca for VJ, For those who keep track the 250 attendance at DNA 2009 was 50 less than DNA 2008, not exactly a very progressive organization. The B-Roll gathering in Vegas has better attendance, of course that's not a fair comparison because there's free food and beer at B-Roll. You should try that next year at the DNA, maybe some of the starving VJs might attend and give you some better numbers.

[Michaelrosenblum]

DNA2009 was not a conference for VJs. We will be having one in NY next year. DNA2009 was a conference for European media executives from tv stations, newspapers and websites. Why don't you take a look at the site itself www.dna2009.com for a better sense of what DNA is all about.

[Nino]

I find it very disturbing and undemocratic that VJs who are the soul of your digital revolution process are intentionally excluded from attending the DNA. Then why did you invited me to attend last year, you know that I'm part of the working class.

I guess this confirms what I said earlier.

Originally Posted by Nino

You are bringing up two additional issues that were brought up to Rosenblum repeatedly and he never replied. The first was why with allegedly (as of few years ago Rosenblum claimed to have trained over 9000) so many working VJs there's no newsgroup or forum for them to exchange ideas and expand their skills, just like B-roll is doing. With such a large VJ population a forum could be a profitable venture and I would expect Rosenblum himself to initiate one. The only reason that I can think of why there isn't one is because creating a open discussion platform would bring in the open all the negatives of becoming a VJ, mainly the inability to survive financially.

Now that you addressed the second portion of my post, would you care to try for the first part?

Again let me repeat the same question, not for me but for those who are planning to become a VJ, those who evidently are not smart enough to ask these very important questions that will seriously affect their lives. Questions based solely on your statements projections of the success of becoming a VJ, projections that are now over six years old and still unanswered.

So Michael, one more time, can you show earning statistics from all your predictions and projections?

As I said, when I want to prove real sales and earning I show real invoices and receivable, and you....?