Read more about the article MediaStorm Field Guide Now Available in 18 New Countries

MediaStorm Field Guide Now Available in 18 New Countries

The MediaStorm Field Guide is now available in 18 new countries, including New Zealand and several countries in Latin America. The change comes as part of Apple's expansion of the iBookstore to these new countries in tandem with their announcement last week of several new products, including the iPad Mini. The newly-supported countries include Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela. The MediaStorm Field Guide The MediaStorm Field Guide outlines fundamental concepts for gathering multimedia content in the field for documentary films. The guide is based on MediaStorm’s years of experience shooting and producing award-winning projects. Serving as a quick reference for multimedia teams in the field, the guide covers important concepts from picking appropriate gear, to setting up audio correctly, to shooting b-roll and backing up media. Additionally, each chapter’s most important points are conveniently…

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Telling Their Story

Ethical Reporting on Children by Discover the Journey

Our work often involves reporting on children and at times in conflict zones or areas when a child's safety or integrity may be compromised. In a recent review of our parental release we came across a helpful resource from Discover the Journey (DTJ) for storytellers working with children. The Child Protection Manifesto from DTJ explores policies and best practices that inform how and why to tell stories about children at risk, based on thousands of hours spent listening to children around the world. In addition to adhering to UNICEF’s “Principles for Ethical Reporting on Children,” the Child Protection Manifesto explains DTJ’s philosophy and outlines specific guidelines for media usage and media gathering. The following guidelines are taken from the Child Protection Manifesto, Edition 001:Media Usage We do not use any images/video that are exploitative of the child. More specifically we will not use photos of inflated suffering. So often these are misrepresentations…

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Film Festival Strategy with Mark Stolaroff

Mark Stolaroff recently posted a useful guide to festival strategy, Film Festival Strategy: Withoutaclue to Withoutabox in 16 Steps. The guide is based on Stolaroff's 20 years of festival going experience and is offered as a teaser for his upcoming class in Los Angeles, The Art & Science of No-Budget Filmmaking. His 16-step guide focuses on using strategy and persistence to navigate the festival circuit. He gives insight on how to decide which festivals to apply to and how to handle (almost inevitable) rejection. Importantly, he gives some helpful pointers on festival etiquette, including a reminder about how much you stand to gain by just being nice. The two-part guide was featured as a guest post on The Stage 32 Blog. Read the full article. And if you're in LA this August, consider checking out Mark Stolaroff's upcoming course: NO BUDGET FILM SCHOOL PRESENTS: "The Art & Science of No-Budget Filmmaking" Saturday…

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Final Cut Pro X, it was good while it lasted.

This is the last in our series of MediaStorm producers responding to the new FCP X. If you missed them, you can check out Eric Maierson's thoughts here, and Tim McLaughlin's here. FCP X, it was good while it lasted. After working in FCP X for a week, I left on a Friday buoyed by the speed and efficiency at which the program runs. I had blazed through a weeks worth of work in just three days. But on Monday morning, my work was gone. I spent an hour on the phone with Apple. They asked me to run some tests. Several times I opened the project, made some changes, and closed it. Each time I reopened the file, it behaved differently. Think Memento. Sometimes the program “remembered” the changes correctly. Other times it reverted to a previously saved version. Other times it combined two previously saved versions to create a third!…

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FCP X – Initial Reactions

This is the second in our series of MediaStorm producers responding to the new FCP X. If you missed the first response, from Eric Maierson, you can check that out here. Well it's amazing how much difference a day makes.  Yesterday I had prepared a blog post about my qualified, yet upbeat first impression of FCP X.  Of that blog post, here's what I'll include; "I've been working in FCP X since it launched, and I've tried to approach it for what it is. A new piece of software that will have significant limitations, like all version 1 software.  In doing this, I've come to see the potential of the program. It's a young buck, but as it matures, I think we're going to be surprised at how robust it is.  Using metadata to organize and find assets is amazing. It's fast and efficient. I've been able to organize content quicker than…

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