There’s something to be said about all of the technology that we have at the touch of our fingers. We txt / tweet the most random and often boring aspects of our everyday lives. We have libraries of RSS feeds with blog posts that could fill many, many books. Our cell phones have become extensions of our very being. We have access to more information than ever before – but does all of this replace a face-to-face experience?

Gary Vaynerchuk – @garyvee (of WinLibrary.tv fame) sent up a tweet the other day that really hit me.
“Was thinking about how many new tools there are to communicate but a hand shake or a hug still DOMINATES!” @garyvee

Months ago, my best friend decided to move back to his homeland of New Zealand and before this we lived miles apart in different cities, but at least in the same timezone.  The difference in time zones has placed a strain on us to be able to connect, and I have to admit that we don’t interact nearly as much as we once were, but technology has enabled us to stay in contact. Although there’s nothing that would be able to replace a hug from my friend!

I have to admit that there’s much that we can do with technology – but it doesn’t replace being face to face, or the power of a hug?  Does touch via technology – replace or deepen the bond that we have with those we are close to?

Post photo by: //amy// – titled: “Two of a kind“

Yesterday morning when faced with the reality of forgetting to replace the SD card in my Nikon DSLR (for all of you tech heads who’ve just woke up – it’s just a D40x go back to sleep) I needed to take some photos around the office – but I had left both my 2 GB cards back at the house (an hour away.)  So my lightning quick mind sprung in to action!  I’ll just go and buy another one as I’ve heard that the prices have come down a bit.  Well I guess that I was in the dark as I was not prepared for the wonderful discovery that I made in the isles of WalMart.  

I picked up an 8 GB SD HC (High Capacity) Card for less than $40.  IN WALLMART!!! Now, I never intended this site to be a place where I’d ponder the future of technology – but none-the-less I feel it necessary to at least think out load the explosion of readily available inexpensive memory cards.

Gone are the days of pulling a tape out of the archive library – but I still have Betacam SP tapes that look as good as the day that I printed them off of my timeline.  A guy that I follow on Twitter spoke up this week that he captured from a past Digibeta Tape, and how it was a foreign exercise as he’s been working on P2 and on Red Ones for quite some time.  As for me – I shoot mostly set down interview style work and have the luxury of always having my nice big laptop with me, so Adobe’s OnLocation comes to my rescue on a regular basis – but I always role tape at the same time as doing a slave record on the laptop.  

Also note – that I’m not sure why I still run tape (it’s a safety blanket – I know) but it does help me sleep at night knowing that not only is it footage already captured on the drive – but it’s on tape for archive as well.  Yes, I still archive to tape!!!  

But why all of the hype of tapeless formats and shooting – will I ever get rid of my tapeless anxiety, perhaps in time, and as these cards keep coming down in price I think that I’ll grow more fond of using them. 

Now on to what I really wanted to talk about – “How this changes things in the world of Video Production” If you are not aware, there has been a sort of revolution going on in HD (and higher) resolution shooting – behold the day of the DSLR or DSMC (Digital Still & Motion Camera as Red has named them) after announcing that RED was going to make a DSLR killer – they then pulled the plug to re-think their 3k camera Scarlet.  There has been much speculation and very little detail as to what this camera will do, but I asure you that it’s going to be an Earth shattering release for this company!  

Some have suggested that they had a break through with their new sensor that’s going to allow them to bring a whole lot more to the table!  But could all of this came about with out these memory cards.  The RED One uses a proprietary eSATA and Power cable to send to the Red RAID Drive (their equivalent of a capture medium).  Originally on the Renders that were made available for the Scarlet – you could see two CF slots on the back presently there are 80 GB CF (with 100 GB on the horizon.)  

All of this is going to forever change the way that we all shot – and the way that we archive this footage. The thing about tapeless media is that you want to be able to re-use that card as often as possible, forever gone are the days of “pass me a fresh tape.” You’re going to need a place to off-load the footage, some where to store it, and once your done a proper way of archiving / backing this data up!  (Also note – as with tapes too, having once lost a very important tape to failure – if you only have one copy on a shelf, it’s not a safe back up!)  

So I ask the question to you the community – how has this changed, if at all – the way that you work?  How are you archiving footage once your done with the project?  How do you see this changing the face of production?  

Please post a comment here, or message me on twitter – @big_b_rad

BTW – Brian Potter recently brings up some very interesting concepts on a resent post regarding the age of DSLR too, check out his blog as it’s a really great source of information and creative inspiration too!

OK – I’ve been reporting on other blogs a bunch lately, but I promise that I’ll have more to report on my Shoebox project really soon – among other really great goals that I’ve set for my self!

But this bears repeating!  PVC: CMG (creating motion graphics) Blog has just posted a link to RedUser.net where it was released that within a week R3D files will work natively in Adobe Premiere and After Effects!

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