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Times are tough.  Many people are out of work.  As owner of a post facility in Los Angeles I have the occasion to read many resumes.  These typically arrive cold and are from every strata of audio experience.  I am also the proud owner of my own resume, and proud owner of my own feelings related to sending that resume out in hopes of gainful employment.  This post is meant as practical insights “from the other side of the desk” and is not meant as a knock to anyone desperately seeking a job.  I qualify this because I know how hard it can be to get a foot in the door, but some of these submissions do make me scratch my head.

This post is for those who are out there looking for work and are not having any luck.  It’s simply my point of view so take from it what you will.  A lot of this advice is, what I consider to be, simple, common sense.  However, seeing the same things over and over again maybe it’s not as common as I may think.  Here’s a rundown of a few things that consistently come up.  You can make your own determination about them to see how you might react if you were at the other side of the desk.

The Approach:

There is a reason that in high school writing classes we are taught to correspond formally.  Typically a letter will have the recipients name and address, a date, the senders name and address and a salutation such as Dear X,  -

Email and texting has completely changed the way many people communicate with one another.  Nothing wrong in and of itself of course, but it has carried over into the workplace. Causal notes or emails will not get much traction.  Here is an example -

“hey – cool studio. looking for some work.  I do it all. resume attached.  later”

Or:

“Qualified engineer.  Loads of experience.  The real deal.  Call today.”

Or:

“Just graduated with a degree in sound.  Foley, ADR, sound design specialist.  Give me a shout.”

Or:

“See attached resume.”

Something that any potential employee must understand is that every communication from phone calls to query letters to resumes must inspire confidence that you are going to be a great asset to the team.  What a potential employer sees in your dealings with them is what they will project as to your dealings with their clients.

The Interview:

Read the rest @ Woody’s SOUND ADVICE

Watchful readers of this blog will know that I described some of the challenges in mastering separate DVD and VOD versions of my seminar for distribution through Amazon CreateSpace. Here’s what it looks like at the end of the tunnel.

News Release

(Santa Monica, CA – July 26, 2010) LaPuerta Books and Media today launched a new series of DVD training videos aimed at business students and professionals. The first title is How to Lie with Charts, a live interactive seminar based on the popular book by Gerald Everett Jones. According to LaPuerta marketing director David Drum, “Gerald’s been doing seminars for corporate clients based on this book, which over the years has become a kind of chartmaking bible for b-school students…(read the full release)

View the DVD Product Page

Here’s the result of cropping the 4:3 project described below and then rendering to the (new) YouTube 1280×720 standard frame. Since the graphics were edited in as high-rez bitmaps, the up-rez is a noticeable improvement for them.

I’m preparing a DVD of my seminar How to Lie with Charts for distribution on Amazon/CreateSpace. I thought I’d share some of my challenges and results of tests with you fellow wizards.

Nice footage but letterboxed in-camera (no-no)

OK after a lot of futzing, this is what I *think* I know:
 
To recap, for reasons I won’t bore you with, I have the less-than-optimal situation of a 16:9 image inside an NTSC 4:3 frame of my seminar. I cut in my PowerPoint slides, which I also made 16:9 to match. Result is horiz black bars top and bottom in a 4:3 frame.
 
So… render the DVD MPEG-2 in 4:3 at NTSC DV, which is 720×480, stretch to screen and mark “do not letterbox.”
 
Compose and prepare the DVD VIDEO_TS files as NTSC *Widescreen*, which is also 720×480, but makes the DVD menus in the 4:3 frame match the appearance and aspect ratio of the DV letterbox footage. Since the DVD is just plugging the MPEG-2 in, the prepare process doesn’t seem to mess with its aspect ratio. It stays 4:3 with the horiz bars top and bottom, with no pillars added at the sides by the DVD prepare.
 
On regular NTSC playback in a 4:3 frame, you see the black horiz bars top and bottom, no pillars on the sides, consistently – without having to adjust the screen width on the set. It also seems to do nicely in computer playback, same result, although it can depend on the player. Apple doesn’t show it right unless you do Full Screen, but then looks as just described. I haven’t been able to test what happens on an NTSC player with an HDTV set. I suspect I may get the pillars but I doubt I can do anything about that, and this is the smaller percentage of the audience (for now). I suspect that, depending on the set, the user can pick a widescreen setting manually that will work.
 
As to YouTube, it’s a completely different game. Everything gets converted to 16:9 now. So if I uploaded the MPEG-2 as I described above, I’d get those nasty black pillars on the sides, with a smaller image.
 
So here’s the solution from my test, although I have yet to upload (won’t upload the teaser videos until the DVD is actually in release): In the editor, crop all scenes to actual 16:9 by unlocking the 4:3 aspect ratio and bringing the top and bottom borders in. Black bars disappear on preview. Then render the clip as HDV 1280×720 29.9p. Save as WMV 9, which YouTube says they accept. Playback of the WMV9 looks surprisingly pretty, and graphics are noticeably crisper.
 
Now, within days I will get my DVD proof copy back from Amazon CreateSpace. I don’t know how picky they are. I suspect that they only care if the mastering has a fatal error. GIGO, you know. But we shall see.

I’ve already learned that a comparable Video on Demand (VOD) product can’t be the DVD because it has a menu and the VOD must simply stream. So you set the VOD (if you want to offer one) up as a separate product.
 
I think it’s going to be a nice product no matter what, but best foot forward!

Gerald Everett Jones
gerald@lapuerta.tv
 
Author of the Rollo Hemphill novels
- in paperback and ebook -
www.boychiklit.com

Well, he would, wouldn’t he.

London Daily Mail article

IMO, for production, 3D is going to require rethinking of the “shot vocabulary” of 2D. More handheld shooting and “walk around” shots. The viewer will be “in the scene” more, and it will be less and less acceptable to cut between shallow focus and deep focus points of view, as is done all the time in 2D but is jarring in 3D.

PBS just aired a fascinating (and somewhat scary) hour-long episode of its Independent Lens series, which highlights copyright infringement issues in hip-hop remix. But video mixtapes got in there, as well. Watch this space carefully, because the music industry has been on the bleeding edge of impacts from digital authoring and Internet distribution.

Copyright Criminals on PBS

The following news article describes how Amazon is jockeying to counter an Apple tablet introduction (see also yesterday’s post and Financial Times article).

Apple vs. Amazon

Potentially a color-display tablet should have a bigger impact on indie video distribution.

However, especially if price pressure brings ebook readers down around $100, I don’t see why a person might not have both, for different uses. Certainly there are people with laptops and Kindles and iPhones now. And for that matter, Windows tablets have been available for years and have not replaced laptops. And tablets don’t seem to be any more favored as ebook readers than laptops are.

You can bet the Apple price point won’t be all that low. It’s just not the way they do business.

The article says Kindle is the defacto ebook format, and I wonder about that. As schools and libraries get on board with the public standard EPUB, Amazon will have to support that format or risk losing the academic market. But expect textbooks to be sold via Kindle or PDF, with digital rights management (DRM) to discourage piracy.

The following recent articles follow through on themes already posted here:

• NY Times on emerging models of indie distribution
• Apple hints at tablet computer, possible full-color ebook reader (Financial Times)
• Latest installment of Winnie Wong’s blog: Workman’s comp issues for indie filmmakers

As a followup to the article below, here’s the scoop on the confusion in the marketplace:

http://gawker.com/5443102/there-are-officially-too-damn-many-ebook-readers

I wonder about the idea that the current devices are stopgap products awaiting a market that will bloom when the next generation of color tablets is introduced. Tablets have been available for some time as laptop alternatives, and they haven’t caught on except in vertical-market applications (form-filling, etc.).

While cineastes are puzzling over the import of the early box-office receipts for Avatar, those of us who also labor in print media are wondering whether this is the year ebooks will finally catch on.

A friend asked me today whether my Rollo Hemphill comic novels are available in ebook versions. Decidedly yes, for both titles. Just make sure you get the right digital format:

Amazon Kindle My Inflatable Friend Rubber Babes

Adobe PDF (read it on your laptop, even) both titles available from Diesel E-Books

Smashwords (EPUB for Nook, also Sony Reader format, others): My Inflatable Friend (free) Rubber Babes (1.99) Also see “Rollo Will Do You for Free” post on the Boychik Lit blog.

Audio MP3 podcasts (excerpts) on SpinXpress (all free downloads) for iPod and such.

So upload the devilish little device with laughter, why doncha. These are mercifully short, amusing books, just the right length for an airplane read, with bite-sized chapters easy to ingest while you’re waiting for some cute elf to bring your holiday lunch.

Remember, too, there are at least three books in Rollo’s unfortunate saga. The third comes out in 2010–Farnworth’s Revenge: Rollo’s End. (Spoiler alert: It’s not necessarily the demise of Rollo, more like the target of the old man’s ire?)

Of course, Amazon or Barnes & Noble will be happy to ship you paperbacks in case, like me, you’re so bewildered by the profusion of ebook formats you don’t know which to buy.

Why am I confused? Here’s why…

Although the media hype about ebook readers has increased in the ramp-up to the holiday, the marketplace is not quite ready. Through whatever miscalcuation–we dare not call it a deliberate marketing ploy–the B&N Nook, an apparently worthy product, is now backordered for at least a month or two. The Sony Reader is selling at Best Buy, but it’s unclear whether it will support the popular EPUB format (besides the proprietary Reader format). And Amazon Kindle sales seem to be brisk. Not much is being said about the iRex from Philips.

The e-world should get even more complicated in just a couple of weeks, after announcements at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), January 7 – 10 in Las Vegas. However, the rumored Apple tablet will probably not be among them (to be released in June?). Of course, a color tablet from Apple will be more like a giant iPhone and should have an enormous impact on video markets, as well.

Gerald Everett Jones (aka daboychik, your obedient webmaster)
Author of the Rollo Hemphill novels
- in paperback and ebook -
www.boychiklit.com