I am Alive

No. I am not missing. Blogging is tough especially with a 3 year old boy and a newborn girl(born August 26). What a week to have a baby. Hurricane Katrina struck my home state(born and raised in north louisiana). My brother-in-law and his family who live on the Westbank are ok...no major house damage. My In Laws timeshare that they get every year at Mardi Gras made it through, although the annex burned down when a subway shop was set on fire. It breaks my heart to think that a unique American City is lying in ruins. We must repair New Orleans and the Gulf Coast and Mardi Gras must occur this year. The Times-Picayune has an editorial that voices my thoughts about Mardi Gras.

VJ Article

Terry Heaton has an interview with the manager of VJ training for the BBC.

Spacecraft Films

I have always been a fan of spaceflight. With the shuttle landing safely today, I thought would mention a great resource for Space Buffs. Spacecraft Films. The company was founded by Mark Gray in 2001. He had an idea to create these DVD's from as close to the master source as he could get. The Dvd's cover a specific launch, flight, and landing of a mission. They have focused on the early years of spaceflight(Gemini, Apollo), but Mark is also at work on shuttle missions.

NASA gave him access to their archives so the images included from the actual film shot by astronauts will probably suprise you. Spacecraft Films was able to get a dupe of a the original negative for many of the missions.

These DVD's aren't for everyone. It is not a regular documentary with a storyline, but it is raw unedited footage. The DVD's also include the television feeds that were broadcast.That quality of course is not as good but it is worth having also.

They are expensive so it might be worth a rental instead of a buy. I know Blockbuster Online has copies for rent. The distribution is being handled by Fox DVD so the prices might be dropping on the sets.

On a side note, check out beFrank who is working a sat truck at Edwards Air Force Base.

Photog that I admire

I discovered this photographer through Michael Rosenblum. He mentioned Travis Fox as one of the guys who is succeding as a VJ. I would think that Travis is not under a television deadline, but just knowing that his background was stills and he learned to shoot and edit video by trial and error is impressive. He works for The Washington Post and is able to do in depth stories on serious subject matter mainly overseas. Check out his work. He has a dream job that I am sure that all young photogs(without a family) would love. I wish I was 25 again.

Katie Holmes in Vanilla Sky

I just wanted to say that first off I am not a Tom Cruise hater. I do think he has been weird lately and the diatribe on Psychiatry was bizarre. I finally saw "War of the Worlds" and did a search on the movie and found an interesting tidbit. In an act of coincidence, Katie Holmes appears in Vanilla Sky. Check out this blog( a Tom Cruise Hater Blog) to find out the details. Weird.

I love Paris in the Summer.

I have always been a big movie buff. I guess I got that from my dad. He would watch old black and white movies on tv when I was young many, many years ago. I picked up a love of movie soundtracks by watching movies. When I say soundtracks I don't mean the pop songs that are included, but the actual movie score.

Forrest Gump for example has two different soundtracks. One with the pop music and the other with the score. I have been listening to one specific soundtrack on the way into work that makes me want to watch that movie again. Paris, Texas by Ry Cooder. The soundtrack features Ry Cooder playing a Slide Guitar. His sound just oozes through the whole movie. It turns out, according to IMDB, that Ry based his score on a song by Blind Willie Johnson. The song is called "Dark was the Night". I will have to find Blind Willie's Version. The only problem with the soundtrack CD is that dialogue from the movie is on one of the songs. It ruins the listening experience.

Check out the soundtrack. It would be good for a road trip through the Desert or maybe through the Delta on Hwy 61 and watch the movie. It is directed by Wim Wenders and I don't think you will be disappointed. The opening shot alone is worth watching. The main character, Travis, is wandering through a desert and with Ry's atmospheric slide guitar the movie just draws you in. It is loosely based on the themes of the John Ford's movie "The Searchers".

WKRN VJ's

WKRN is one of the first network affiliate stations to make the move to a full VJ Shop(a staff of 30). One of the photogs, Todd Dunn, has been blogging about the experience. Tim French, one of the instructors also has a blog set up.

Todd keeps a positive spin on the new training that has been ongoing. He has progressively gotten better on his stories. You can find video feeds over at WKRN.

This could be the cusp of a whole new trend in newsgathering. It also could be a cost cutting measure to get rid of people. I would like the opportunity to spend a couple of days on a story, but that never happens in the real world. That is one of the things that is being pitched by Michael Rosenblum. More stories, more people and more time to cover the stories.

What is Screen Left?

I chose my name after much thought and deliberation. No I am not making a political statement. Screen Left is just that. Screen Left on your TV. I chose this name in honor of the new VJ movement. Most of the interviewees in a VJ story are facing Screen Left...because they are looking at the VJ. VJ'ing is a new movement in television newsgathering that is being pushed by a guy named Michael Rosenblum. He is become quite the pariah among the grunts of TV News...the photogs. He is a consultant who is an advocate of one person shooting, writing, editing and voicing a story. It gets rid of the 2 person crew that has been the standard in a local television news story. Time will tell if his plan is going to succeed. There are questions that need to be answered. What about live shots? What about time sensitive stories?

VJ's are Here.

An interesting dialogue on the emergence of the Video Journalist. Terry Heaton calls this discussion a hatchet job, but for me it has been the most informative discussion about the emergence of VJ'ing out there.