Ron Lindeboom
2
COW Coins
Forum Replies Created
-
I think I’ll have to lay off this forum for a while. I used to like to come here for intelligent, thought provoking discussion. Sheesh.
Ron Lindeboom
-
[Mike Cohen] “What is the point of all this information? Are we supposed to be scared that the rest of the world is growing bigger than the little old USA? Do not fear the future.”
I didn’t post it to strike fear in people’s minds, I posted it because those that think we are having a “recession” and that things are going to get back to normal anytime soon, are simply uninformed. This is a major redistributing of wealth, power and resources around the world — and the country that once accounted for 15% of the world’s population and that once enjoyed 40% of the world’s resources for about a 100 years or so, is not going to be able do it over the next 100 years. Hard fact: They won’t get to do it another 10 years.
I posted this because some people want to live in these times as if in a few months, things will revert back to the Keynesian cycles of the past. They’re not. When Alan Greenspan (former head of the Federal Reserve) resigned, he told Congress that he was out of touch with the present world of economics and that the “enlightened self interest” of capitalistic laissez faire and the usual capitalistic economic patterns just didn’t work anymore. He coined the term, “The Age of Turbulence.” And he is one of the smartest men in America.
We are in a world of heightened competition and just as areas of the United States grew as economic centers due to their proximity to resources, etc. — such as the steel belt growing near the coal reserves and the midwest breweries growing there because of their proximity to the grain belt, etc. — the future is going to be one wherein certain countries are going to be strong in certain industries due to the human resources and dispositions of the people. It is yet to be determined where many of the players will stand.
Fear is not why I posted it.
Knowledge is power — especially in an information age.
Bob Dylan was right, the times they are a’ changin’ — and faster than ever.
Back in 1979, I read Alvin Toffler’s book, Future Shock. It rocked my thinking and much of what I have done over the last 30 years or so is directly due to reading it. Thank you, Mr. Toffler, I am forever indebted to you. Future Shock gave me some ideas about the world to come that I have used to do many of the things that I have done over the years.
But there are two books I have been reading that are up-to-the-minute reports of what is happening right now, today, in the world. Those that understand what is in them, will have a leg up on the competition — and I mean that seriously. (In case you don’t know the origin of the term, to get a leg up on the competition — it comes from a dog on a fire hydrant.)
The two greatest books I have read in the past decade are: “The World Is Flat” by Thomas Friedman, and “Chaotics: The Business of Managing and Marketing in the Age of Turbulence” by Philip Kotler. They should be required reading for all kids in early to mid high school to get their attention on more than their iPod — at least the smart ones that will seek the panoramic mental tools that will enable their success.
Best regards,
Ron Lindeboom
Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.
Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
– Antoine de Saint Exupéry -
This effect looks like it was done using the über-cheesy Alien Skin Eye Candy plug-ins or something of equally, er, um, full cheddary goodness.
Best regards,
Ron Lindeboom
Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.
Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
– Antoine de Saint Exupéry -
[Lisa Koza] “I want and need my footage to look great for this gig because it’s an important one because the middle guy will prob give me more jobs like this in the future. I guess my question is, should I A) rely on someone else to lend me his stuff. and B) can an XL1 really give me something decent in image??”
Hi Lisa,
Todd is quite right that the XL1 is sufficient.
I had one for a couple of years and loved it. I always like to say that Canon has set their chip technology to mimic the warmer “Kodak film’s reds and golds of autumn” look, rather than the greens and blues of Fuji look.
But that is my preference.
If you are going to be using Photoshop and After Effects, you can do a little cheating and deinterlace in AE, export as numbered sequential files from AE, open the numbered files in Photoshop and batch process the files up-rezzing them using something like onOne Software’s Genuine Fractals plug-in to a larger size image that you want. (Contrary to what some may think, I have had very good results from Genuine Fractals — I hate the plastic look of Alien Skin’s Blow Up plug-in which looks like visual crap most times.)
Another trick I have done in addition to the process just outlined — that I once used for a piece that I did which director Gene Snow of MadTV watched and swore was shot on 35mm film (it was actually some old Hi-8 camera footage that I had laying around of a subject that was very important to me) — is to lay the same footage on top of itself in exactly the same position on the timeline and set the blend mode on the top layer to influence and modify the lower layer’s image. Sometimes, the multiply mode will add some real saturation and intensity when it is set anywhere from about 15% up to around 40%, depending on the footage you are tweaking.
By deinterlacing, exporting as sequential numbered files, up-rezzing, duplicating the video layer and affecting it using blend modes, you can many times get images that are far beyond the starting point.
Would I do this on a long project? No. But if the project is a short enough project and you have some time on your hands and want to learn some tricks that you can add to your creative repertoire, you may wish to play with this idea a bit.
Best regards,
Ron Lindeboom
Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.
Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
– Antoine de Saint Exupéry -
Paul,
You made two posts in the last year and then a spate of posts all at once, this week.
We do not automatically approve accounts based on time or on a specified number of posts. Due to spam tactics that many spammers are using, we have had to institute a policy of actually watching all new accounts to see what they do. When we are satisfied that they are legitimate accounts, we set them on auto-pilot.
We have had to do this as spammers have found out that on many sites — the COW is not one, because of what I outlined to you in the preceding paragraph — they can create an account, make a real post or two by a human, get the account approved and then turn on the auto-bot to spam across an entire site. To avoid this, we are much more aggressive in our moderation than we once were.
But once we see what kinds of things a user posts and that they are legitimate, we approve the account.
We apologize for the inconvenience but if we didn’t do it, this place would be deluged in spam as all day long spam engines try to assail this site and we are quite dedicated and work hard to keep it all off of our boards.
Ron Lindeboom
CEO, Creative COW LLC -
There are scores of posts about broadcast monitors, etc., and a trip to the COW’s search engine is where you should start.
Best regards,
Ron Lindeboom
Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.
Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
– Antoine de Saint Exupéry -
[Mike Cohen] “Maybe here in New England we are a bit more traditional, must be our Puritan ancestry. Although it would be nice if supermarkets sold wine. But that’s another thread altogether!”
No, it’s this thread, Mike. :o)
You could move here, Mike, we sell wine. Good wine, too. Just ask Nick.
Ron Lindeboom
Self Appointed Ambassador and Wine Marketing Specialist for the Paso Robles Wine Industry™
specializing in the best wineries: Carmody-McKnight, Halter Ranch, Adelaida Cellars, Opolo, Vihuela and others as we discover them
currently refusing to represent: Peachy Canyon, Tobin James, Eagle Castle, Martin & Weyrick, York Mountain, and too many others to name here -
[Todd Terry] “I don’t want to watch someone’s postage-stamp-sized work,”
Er, um, excuse this interruption to your regularly scheduled program…
[Man runs over to his superhero costume closet and shuffles through until he finds a Billy Mays PITCHMAN costume and he pulls it on, he pulls on the Billy Mays head — it doesn’t fit, the Billy Mays head is to scale and those that knew him know he had a big head.]
Reels got you down? Too small to see? Do reels leave that nasty stain in your brain because they just aren’t big enough to get the job done? Hi, I’m Billy Mays and I want to introduce you to Creative COW Reels. What?$#@!? You say you’ve never used them? Run to your computer and watch this one… Go ahead, I’ll wait until you get back…
Impressed? Don’t be. This isn’t even one of the biggest reels we have here. In fact they can get a lot bigger. How? We use Billy Mays Wonderstream™ to bring these beautiful reels to you. What is Wonderstream™ you ask? Hah! I’m glad you asked!
But in order to give you the answer, you have to call now and if you upload your reel, we will give you not one, but TWO explanations as to why Wonderstream™ is the greatest thing since, well…me, Billy Mays!
And if you call now, you won’t pay $19.95. No, no, no. You won’t even pay $14.95. Nope. In fact, you won’t even pay $9.95. So what’s it cost you ask? I am glad you did!
It’s FREE!
But you have to call now! Operators are standing by.
And if you call, we will host up to 900 pixel wide files that can weigh up to 100MB, all in glorious AAC-LC audio encoding to digitally blast your sub-woofer and the neighbors next door.
So, call now. Operators are standing by…
but sorry, I can no longer be.
-
[denise quesnel] “…balance out major clients with smaller ones.”
Great advice, Denise. Balance, meaning some on one side and some on the other to give balance.
We work with everyone from very small companies to very large international conglomerates. Yes, some of the biggest ones are the slowest paying but they do eventually pay and often they have budgets that the smaller companies simply cannot match.
While I would never want to be back in the situation that Bob Zelin alluded to wherein all your business is with one major company — a recipe for disaster — a balanced portfolio of clients is a great way to enjoy a solid cashflow of both smaller and major clients.
Best regards,
Ron Lindeboom
Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.
Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
– Antoine de Saint Exupéry -
[Alan Lloyd] “Tell them to start processing the check and you will hand them the DVD in even exchange.”
Today, you can take a check number and process it through your bank without even having the check in hand. You just need their bank routing number (that identifies the bank), their account number (which identifies them as a customer of that bank), the amount, and a check number. Let your bank process it right away. When the funds are in your account, then and only then do you give them your work.
Oh, unless like Bob Zelin would say, you want to go out of business and then you can give them the work without all those extra steps.
Ron Lindeboom