Mitch Allen 3.0

iMazePro Demo

2008-08-15T10:09:00.006-04:00

I've been playing around with the iPhone SDK. I was thinking of creating a maze program. But I figured someone may have beat me to it. Googling around I found this video for iMazePro. It costs 99 cents on the App Store. The free version apparently had issues that this version cleans up (more fluid movement, etc.).

The great thing about this video and app is that it shows the whole new paradigm for user interaction through the iPhone. You don't use arrow keys - you tilt the iPhone to move.

Director's Series Vol. 4 - Work of Director Mark Romanek (2005)

2008-07-30T07:31:00.005-04:00

Linkin Park - Faint
Directed by Mark Romanek

Since I liked the first set of the Director's Label series so much, I ordered the second set from Amazon. But I'm just mentioning the Mark Romanek DVD because it blows every other DVD in the set away: Director's Series Vol. 4 - Work of Director Mark Romanek (2005).

The video above featuring Link Park's Faint is just one example of the power and energy you will find in a Romanek video. This is the director who brought us stunning videos of Madonna (Rain), Nine Inch Nails (Perfect Drug, Closer), Mick Jagger (God Gave Me Everything), Lenny Kravits (Are You Gonna Go My Way), Jay-Z (99 Problems), Johnny Cash (Hurt), Michael & Janet Jackson (Scream), Keith Richards (Wicked as it Seems), En Vogue (Free Your Mind), KD Lang (Constant Craving), No Doubt (Hella Good) - to name a few - all videos on the DVD.

Be sure to check out the documentary and comment sections of the DVD. Once again we hear the story of another wannabe feature director who found making music videos a great way to break into the business. So maybe I need to produce a few more music videos before trying to put an indie film together.

If you want to really rock, pipe your DVD player through your stereo and crank up the Perfect Drug, Linkin Park, Kravits and Jagger videos.

NEW - Star Trek XI (2008) - Movie Trailer - High Quality

2008-06-06T13:55:00.003-04:00

Just saw this on the Cloverfield DVD.

Okay, so YouTube doesn't do the clip justice because of the dark lighting. You can see a better version on Apple / Trailers:

http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/startrek/hd/

Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good

2008-05-28T08:17:00.005-04:00

If you are thinking of starting a Web 2.0 company, you should probably read Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good: The Rebirth of Silicon Valley and the Rise of Web 2.0 by Sarah Lacy.

The book shows how the rules have changed since the crash a few years ago. Thanks to open source technology, broadband and more net users, companies like Facebook didn't need a ton of VC money to get started. The book covers how people like Mark Zuckerberg (founder of Facebook) and others had the advantage of mentors who made many mistakes back in the 90's and were determined not to let them suffer the same fate.

Besides Zuckerberg, the book covers several other entrepreneurs of past and present. It seems that you can't keep a good entrepreneur down. Marc Andreessen of Netscape fame is back with Ning, as well as Max Levchin of PayPal who is now running Slide.

The Nontrepreneur

"Evan simply didn't know if he was up for it. He was part of this new breed of creative Web nontrepreneur. He wasn't the world's best coder. He didn't like being the CEO. He just liked coming up with the idea ..."

Besides the enterpreneurs, I found the chapter titled The Nontrepreneur fascinating. It covers people like Evan Williams (Blogger - the software I'm using to post this) who is the total opposite of Zuckerberg. It sounds like he'd like to live comfortably like the rest of us, living off his creations. But he doesn't have the need to build a multi-billion dollar platform. Kevin Rose of Digg fame is somewhere in between. This contrast of personalities helps round out the book.

Director's Label Series Boxed Set - The Works of Spike Jonze, Chris Cunningham, and Michel Gondry

2008-05-21T08:24:00.005-04:00

Björk - All is Full of Love
Directed by Chris Cunningham

Since several well known directors got their start doing music videos, I decided to do a little research. While surfing Amazon I found a great resource: Director's Label Series Boxed Set - The Works of Spike Jonze, Chris Cunningham, and Michel Gondry.

The video above is by Chris Cunningham. He is best known for Madonna's Frozen video, as well as the "orgiastic" Aphex Twin video Come To Daddy (not for the timid!) - both on his DVD. The DVD also contains a behind-the-scenes look at the Björk video as well as some other "video installations."

Spike Jonze is best known for directing Being John Malkovich. He also directed a couple of infamous Fat Boy Slim videos. One video features Christopher Walken dancing to "Weapon of Choice". Another features a dance troupe from Torrance dancing outside a theater to "Praise You." The DVD also contains a behind the scenes look at the Torrance group getting ready to perform at the MTV Awards.

Chemical Brothers - Let Forever Be
Directed by Michel Gondry

Michel Gondry is best know for directing Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. His videos will leave you scratching your head wondering "How did he do that???"

With a large collection of music videos, commentary, behind the scenes and extras - I found the DVD's a great resource.

Wyclef's freestyle performance at the Hilfiger Sessions

2008-04-18T09:44:00.005-04:00

After reading Fashion and music combine for Hilfiger's TommyTV on reuters.com yesterday, I finally got around to checking out TommyTV. I like it. I like it alot. The sites a little buggy because it's still in Beta - but the content is great.

They have a site on YouTube where bands can upload audition video. The main YouTube site is located at: http://www.youtube.com/tommytv and contains a pointer to the audition site: http://www.youtube.com/group/hilfigerauditions.

Alex Dragulescu, Art Code (digicult.it)

2008-04-14T17:42:00.002-04:00

I found a detailed article on Alex Dragulescu, an artist recently feature in a snippet on wired.com (See: Visualizing Viruses wired.com).

"Alex Dragulescu: In the university I studied Cinema and Photography, Art and Art History. I actually shot only two films on celluloid. My first was a silent film shot on a 16mm camera used in World War II. The second one was a hand-drawn animated film shot with a 16mm animation stand. After that, I taught myself computer animation. I realized I could work much faster by myself with just the computer. Plus I had this nice feeling as if I was still working in my sleep, since I would leave the computers rendering at night. Maya and Flash were the tools that transitioned me towards the procedural side of animation and design. After graduating I worked for two years as an interactive designer/developer in Internet companies. There, I started using web programming and relational databases. In graduate school, the transition towards the procedural was complete"

You can read the full article on digicult.it:

http://www.digicult.it/digimag/article.asp?id=680

RS-0021 - The Final Episode

2008-04-09T12:16:00.003-04:00

Click to Play

In this final episode of Rockosphere.TV we take a look back at the bands we've interviewed over the past 2 years. Then we close it out with a song from our friends in ANTI-HERO. For more info on the bands featured in this episode, see our friends list on http://www.myspace.com/rockosphere

filmgeek.mitchallen.com

2008-04-01T09:14:00.005-04:00

I needed a place online to put my notes on filmmaking. Since my Wikis always seem to implode, I decided to go with a more static blogger approach. Other film geeks can find my notes at:

filmgeek.mitchallen.com

I was going to use Ning to store this stuff. In fact the first entry is a note that I originally put on Ning. But I think I'm going to let the Ning site fade.

IRON MAN Interview! Robert Downey Jr. (YouTube)

2008-03-25T18:21:00.002-04:00

As I kid, I collected Iron Man #1 though 100. I was never that interested in any other series. Superb casting! Robert Downey Jr. is the only actor who could ever play Tony Stark.

Yes, There Will Be a Final Episode

2008-03-24T18:19:00.002-04:00

A couple of people have asked me if I still plan to do a final episode of Rockosphere.TV. Yes, that's the plan - and thanks for asking! ;) As a rule I never discuss my day-job online. Let's just say I've been busy.

Part of the delay has also been because I'm filtering through all the old episodes - including the ones from when we were audio-only - to find just the right snippets to cram into a 10 minute or less video. I want it under 10 minutes so I can upload a copy to YouTube.

And yes, I still plan to do an independent film. But there's a lot of ramping up that I want to do over the next year before I say too much.

Podfade Rockosphere.TV

2008-03-14T09:00:00.005-04:00

Jimmy and I have decided to move on to other projects. Since sadbastardgoespop is taking off Jimmy needs to focus on that. As for myself, I want to focus on an independent film project.

Working on Rockosphere.TV was more fun then I could have imagined. I've met some great people and learned a lot about the music industry. It also helped me fine-tune my video production skills. What I've learned will also help me with the soundtrack for my movie project.

I'll be putting together one final episode over the next month. It will take a look back at both the audio and the video episodes that we've produced over the past few years.

Then it will be time to move on.

digital production studio

2008-03-03T15:22:00.003-05:00

I'm thinking about putting together a digital production studio in 2009 or 2010. The goal will be to produce independent digital movies. Since I like science fiction that will be the focus.

Distribition will be digital only. Direct-to-DVD no longer has a stigma attached to it (which is why people now refer to it as "DVD Premiere"). DVD's are just one option. Services like iTunes are another. Some companies are having success bundling regular DVD's with binaries on a second DVD. There are services out there that make making on-demand DVD's available through sites like Amazon a snap.

Since I've decided to stay in New England, this will be an East Coast studio. Massachusetts is actively giving tax breaks to film studios and there is discussion of turning an old base into a studio. So there is potential here.

http://twitter.com/mitchallen

2008-01-27T16:42:00.000-05:00

You can now follow my non-Rockosphere.TV related stuff here:

http://twitter.com/mitchallen

Stay tuned!

Deleting rockosphere.ning.com

2007-12-12T08:47:00.001-05:00

I decided to delete the ning.com site for Rockosphere. I think it's easier to organize groups in existing social networks. I'm sure there are people having great success with ning.com - but the Rockosphere.TV audience is more comfortable with sites like MySpace and Facebook. In fact it's very difficult to get some band members to ever leave MySpace - even for Facebook.

One thing I've noticed is that people love YouTube. You can embed video from our podcast via blip.tv just as easily as you can with YouTube. But people are so comfortable with YouTube that they won't use anything else. They may watch the video on blip.tv. But they won't embed it unless it's on YouTube. So I will probably be archiving old episodes to YouTube at some point.

In some cases - like with music videos I produce - the goal is to post everything at the same time - where appropriate. For example, when I just completed the sadbastardgoespop video I put it on their channel on YouTube instead of Rockosphere's. Though you can still see it in our podcast too.

I've also posted some videos to Facebook. The one annoything thing is that Facebook doesn't give stats. So I have no idea how many people have watched those videos. The good thing is that it lets me tag the people who are in the video, providing links directly from their profiles.

I'm not sure what I'll do with writerdirector.ning.com - I created a group in Facebook called Writer / Director as a "companion" - but I think I might just make it a "replacement."

The Shut Music Video is Done!

2007-12-05T12:01:00.000-05:00

I posted it to Facebook and http://www.youtube.com/sadbastardgoespop

Tahiti Pictures on FlickR and Facebook

2007-11-26T08:20:00.000-05:00

I finally got around to posting the pictures from our trip to Tahiti in August. We cruised several islands, including Bora Bora, on the Paul Gauguin.

If you have Facebook, you can see the pictures in album format by clicking on my Facebook link in the sidebar and putting in a friend request.

FlickR Sucks

2007-11-24T17:57:00.000-05:00

"Hey Mitch Allen! About your photos...

You've run into one of the limits of a free account. Your free account will only display the most recent 200 photos you've uploaded. All of your photos beyond 200 will remain hidden from view until you either delete newer photos, or upgrade to a Pro account.

None of your photos have been deleted, and if you upgrade, they'll all come back unharmed."

ISS from Space Shuttle Endeavour

2007-11-20T14:50:00.000-05:00

Fugitive Kind at T.T.'s

2007-11-15T09:10:00.001-05:00

Fugitive Kind was kind enough to stop by T.T. the Bear's Place and perform as part of the sadbastardgoespop CD release gig. This was filmed November 7, 2007 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I used a handheld Sanyo Xacti VPC-E1 with the monochrome filter switched on.

This video is also available on Facebook and on the Rockosphere YouTube profile page.

sadbastardgoespop CD release gig

2007-11-08T09:27:00.000-05:00

I was up beyond midnight last night videotaping the sadbastardgoespop CD release gig at T.T. the Bear's Place in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was a great show!

Fugitive Kind opened with a great set, followed by sadbastardgoespop, The Destries and Mercy James Gang closed out the night with a good crowd.

We gave away an ipod shuffle and I have a mountain of video to parse and post to YouTube. This is the first video of many more to follow.

I left the HD camera at home and decided to see what kind of performance I could get out of the handheld Sanyo Xacti VPC-E1 set to monochrome.

RS-0019 - Behind the Shut Video

2007-11-02T20:37:00.001-04:00

Click to Play

Behind the scenes of the sadbastardgoespop Shut music video. Shot on October 20, 2007 in Quincy, Massachusetts. For more info on the band visit http://www.sadbastardgoespop.com

Second Life

2007-11-01T08:54:00.000-04:00

I get asked alot about what's happening with the Rockosphere Second Life presence. Well not much is happening because as you can see, the client keeps crashing when I try to start it up. Since the upgrade crashed, I uninstalled and started from scratch. It still crashes.

It's just as well. Maintaining a Second Life presence is a full-time job. Plus the land I own is completely landlocked in the middle of nowhere. I used to give people a SLURL (Second Life URL) to navigate to the Rockosphere Lab (as I call it). But at one point that stopped working.

Then the graphic I uploaded with the logo started appearing rather fuzzy in the 3D environment. I'd replace it and try again, but they charge me per graphic.

I'll probably just sell my land at some point.

Stupidity in large numbers doesn't equal smart (bynkii.com)

2007-10-29T14:11:00.000-04:00

Stupidity in large numbers doesn't equal smart (bynkii.com)

"It just equals mass stupidity.

One of the things I rant about regularly is the tendency towards "echo chamber" behavior in the "blogosphere". That is, one site publishes something and dozens more all automatically agree with it, even if it's stupid. Sometimes, especially if it's stupid."

Technosnobs

2007-10-29T07:15:00.000-04:00

In case you haven't figured it out from my various postings, my day job is in high tech. Specifically I work for a software company. This is something that I have been doing for many years. During the 90's I was even a manager in a dotcom. I've also written books about programming, and have worked a lot with "New Media" like Flash, etc.

To showcase things like my podcast and the band that I manage I have to research and use a lot of Web based tools like MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, etc. I know a lot of things about computers, podcasting, New Media, the Web etc. But unlike some of my fellow nerds - I don't need to be a #$%$@ snob about it.

What's got me started? Well this weekend I convinced a bunch of people to go to a conference on podcasting. Last year the conference had a fun, open atmosphere where even if you didn't know anything, people would help you learn. This year, what happens? One of my guests asked someone what Twitter was and they got an eye roll. Someone who was there to learn about new media was dissed - by one of the organizers - for working in old.

I'm embarressed to be a nerd. Most of the people that work at my software company don't know what Twitter is. Lose the attitude.