TGIF - Thank God Its Freeware

Thank God Freeware is available. Thank you once again to all the authors that contribute to freeware, you guys help us all in the computer community. So, my freeware of the week is Inkscape. An Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, CorelDraw, or Xara XA. Before shelling out some major dollars on Illustrator or CorelDraw and others, give this app a try. At least for training purposes, everyone on your team can offered the software - its free. Dare to Explore the Possibilities!

HUMP Day - Media Design Inspiration

Two more days to go... A little creativity to get us inspired. It's Wednesday and the body is stalling, we need something to help get the juices flowing for the home stretch. I am trying to understand the whole vector graphics thing - creating vector images. When do I use vector format and tools or use raster format and tools or use both. I know a little to much for a hump day... Anyway, that's for another blog, another post. I came across this image on Vecteezy. GEt INspired!

Media 101 - Cinematography

Your probably asking Cinema-who? Cinematography, I will enlist the help of a person more knowledgeable than I. Understanding cinematography is for the more serious "Media Affluent" if you will.

Cinematography - A Brief Historical Overview Cinematography is one of the man's efforts to portray to others, through the use of techniques that combine motion pictures and text, the world and the messages it transfers as these are understood by the artist. With the term cinematography, one today describes the discipline of making lighting and camera choices when recording photographic images for cinema use. Based on two Greek words, cinematography etymologically means "writing in the movement" and was introduced as a new technique to record images of people and objects as they moved and project them on to a type of screen. Combined with sculpture, painting, dance, architecture, music, and literature, cinematography is today considered to be the seventh art.

It is very difficult for a researcher to find and pinpoint the one individual that could be named the "father" of cinematography, accepting that the word symbolizes a technique used for motion pictures' creation. But, it is apparent that man has experimented, very early in human history, with different methods that would allow him to record the movement of images. Very closely related to still photography, which has been a catalyst to the development of cinematography since the mid 19th Century, the technique that would allow images to be recorded while in motion has been extensively studied. One of the first attempts to analyze the element of movement with the help of photographic machinery was made by the British photographer Edward Muybridge in 1878. After successfully developing a new method of producing consecutive photographic images, he recorded the movement of a running horse. Through the motion pictures he produced, he managed to prove that there are instances when a horse is running that none of its feet touch the ground. Around the same period, the French physicist Etienne Mare managed to capture, also by using photographic machinery that could record 12 images per second, the movements of a flying bird.

Based on the developments of the early 1880s in exposing images on light sensitive elements, attributed to pioneers like Thomas Edison and the Lumiere brothers among others, the new art form of motion pictures introduced a new type of aesthetics that captured the attention of people wanting to explore its applications and create art. One of the first cinematographers that decided to examine this dimension of moving images was the French Maries-George-Jean Méliès who became one of the first cinema directors. With his film, Trip to the Moon (Le voyage dans la lune) in 1901, he created a fantastic story of a trip to the moon using motion pictures. He was also the one that introduced the coloring technique in films by painting each one of the frames by hand.

During the infancy stage of motion pictures, the cinematographer had multiple roles, acting as the director and the person holding and moving the camera. As the years passed, this new art form was further developed by the new technological tools introduced. New art-related professions emerged and due to cinema's ability to capture the attention of vast audiences worldwide, by appealing to more than one the five senses, cinematography emerged to what is known today as a multi-billion dollar industry and one of the favorite art forms in the world.

Author:Kadence Buchanan: Kadence Buchanan writes articles for http://loveofthearts.com/ - In addition, Kadence also writes articles for http://familyinformationsource.com/ and http://thegemstonecenter.com/

Recap Sunday Media Day

Although, I have been doing some form of Media at the Church over the past 9 years. On Monday, I find myself recapping all of Sundays' Media Day - the good, the bad and the ugly. I like to list improvements or training that must be done, some more important than others. First, I must understand the answer of what has to be addressed - customer interaction, new software, new hardware, etc... After research and thought - which could last an hour or two days, the next course of action is dictated by how major the change is – Only two categories’, ASAP and ASAP. I am faced with the a couple of questions, how do I find time to train the team? Considering my schedule and theirs. How do I make it understandable for all? How this process is done can make a big difference to how successful we are as a whole!

TGIF - Thank God Its Freeware

Thank God freeware is available. Thank you once again to all the authors that contribute to Freeware, you guys help us all in the computer community. So, my freeware of the week is "LogoInstant" . A site that offers free web 2.0 logos, that's 100% free. Well not so fast, a donation is asked and in this case, I would say please do so if you can - at the very least give credit to the website. As with other freeware you are not allowed to resale or repackage. I have not used a logo yet, but this is a website I use for inspiration.

FREE (Friday Eve) Media Design w Web 2.0

I am in the middle of designing a website, trying to incorporate all the design principles and elements. So here I am trying to wrap my head around this whole web 2.0 stuff? Well, my first answer was blogging - ok that's what I do now. So, I dug a little deeper and I found facebook, twitter, flickr, bitorrent, napster, Wikipedia, wiki, seo etc... represents web 2.0. Alright, I know the buzzwords, but do I really have an understanding? No, you have to include tagging, adsense and all the other cost per click services - so what is it? It's using the web as a Platform. Say what? If someone has an easy explanation of web 2.0, please share... And please do it in 20-30 words!

HUMP DAY - Get INSPIRED Media

Two more days to go... A little creativity to get us inspired. It's Wednesday and the body is stalling, we need something to help get the juices flowing. I have two images that I really like, from what’s quickly becoming one of my favorite websites worth1000.com for design inspiration... These guys and gals are really on the ball... They offer something for everyone... I came across these images in the "Slice'n Dice Contest" enough said, the images say it all... GEt INspired!

Media - Buying A Digital Camera

As I embark on buying a new digital camera for the media department. It’s a journey, with so many to choose from and so many websites out there with a top ten of digital cameras you get overwhelmed. So I thought to myself look at 5 or so websites and see what cameras make the list and their average position. Hopefully, I will be able to make an informed decision. At our church we have software that allows us to add pictures in the database next to the visitor or member name. We can generate a letter and have the picture included. I want to conclude this journey as quickly as possible. We need a new video mixer... I guess this is preparing. Oh well - just another day in the life of technology, equipment becomes outdated with the blink of an eye.

Church Media - Saturday Push for Sunday

Well, it’s Saturday and I am going through new graphic images, contacting team members, one great thing I have one cameraman that lives with me - my son... He typically waits the day of Service to look for his shirt, hopefully it’s clean but he's a teenager - enough said. One thing that has gotten me in a pickle is creating an animation on my home pc just to get to Church on Sunday morning and the color is off or the animation does not work as it did on your home computer. I would get to the building early on Sunday excited to try out this new background or whatever only to be disappointed... Yet the thrill out compares the failure... SO keep on your grind it’s worth it... Have a GREAT CHRUCH TECH DAY!

Hump Day - Inspired Creativity

Lately, I have come across some interesting websites, one in particular I find myself going back to, http://www.worth1000.com/ has all kinds of contest going on, one I'm interested in, "Artistic Expression 2009", I can’t wait to see the photos. Another one just ended, “Analogous Palette 2009” – Photos with monochrome or analogous palette. A monochromatic palette in an image enhanced by the qualities of the used color. In an analogous palette, the hues can be a little more varied, using colors next to each other on the color wheel. The website goes into a more detailed explanation of monochrome and analogous palette. With over 57 entries for the contest, take a look around, sign up for a free account and participate in a contest or two, add a photo or image to a Gallery, at the very least vote. At the same time you will be Inspired by some great work.

Media 101

Working in Media is rewarding and frustrating, it seems at times the most reliable piece goes nut - the computer - at the most inconvenient time, not that there is a convenient time. I had an issue last Sunday with our video announcements. Our video announcements are typically 3 minutes or less in time. We were unable to render out the video to DVD, an error occurred, “File too big for DVD” yea right – the file is barely a half gig. Needless to say a lesson should be learned from this. You should be prepared well in advanced for an event – only thing done the day of is pre-production check list. Even when it comes to computers, a routine task the team performs flawlessly several times a week- the day of production the computer goes bananas. An embarrassing and uncomfortable feeling, you would agree?