Rosenblumtv

Newly minted grads from our most recent VJ Bootcamp in San Diego

The KGTV bootcamp is proceeding extremely well. So well in fact that I am already posting two of the ‘training’ pieces, done on the fourth day of training. Looks like everyone has done a great job, but as I can’t post them all,  here is a initial look:

Exotic Cars by Bob Lawrence

Shopping Carts by Joe Little

Both of these were shot on P2s, cut on FCP on laptops and done in one day turns.

Congrats! I think we can expect great things in the future…

Zoe Randall, alumnus from the Miami Travel Channel Academy bootcamp last month drops by KGTV professional bootcamp to take a look at her possible next step.

Robert Capa brought home the truth of the Spanish Civil War…

We live in a world of images.

The intense power of images to convey both emotion and truth have been all around us since Matthew Brady captured both the reality of the Civil War and Lincoln some 150 years ago. The world of painting is filled with the romantic iconography of ‘war’; Napoleon on the battlefield. (more…)

Mark Antonitis, GM at KRON4 in San Francisco sends us the following:
CLASSIFIEDS

VIDEO JOURNALISTS/Associated Press, Washington, DC
Jun. 27, 2007-Jul. 13, 2007
The Associated Press seeks video journalists and producers for our online and video services. Video journalists will be one-man bands, requiring shooting, writing, producing and editing experience. You will voice packages and radio spots. In-house video and web producers should have strong writing, producing and editing skills. Join our team! Apply at https://careers.ap.org/index.html for APTN Newsperson positions.

is this the future of tv news? (more…)

….from pilot to reality…..

In the TV business, one first does a pilot.

If it rates it goes to series.

In March of this year, we ran a pilot of our Travel Channel Academy in partnership with The Travel Channel. 20 prospective “travel journalists” came to the Discovery offices in Miami four a 4-day bootcamp where they learned to shoot, script, edit and upload travel video and stories.

They also had an opportunity to meet with Discovery Channel producers, as well as writers, commissioning editors and executives from the network. Although it looked like a pitch session sometimes, it was really more of an incredibly intenstive skills bootcam.

The pilot was a massive success. And as with most successful pilots, now we’re going to series.

Starting July 19-22nd, and following up the very next week, July 26-29th, we’re going to start rolling out Travel Channel Academy bootcamps on a regular basis.

The two July sessions will be held in Discovery Communications Headquarters in Silver Spring, Md. Subsequent bootcamps (probably about two a month) will be held at other locations across the country, and around the world.

For the aspiring television producer, VJ or independent filmmaker, this is the opportunity of a lifetime. Same goes for anyone with the notion of appearing on TV or developing a show or series for Discovery or The Travel Channel.

The complete website on the Academy is here.

Be sure to check out Tiffany Burnett’s video of the first pilot session in Miami. It will give you a good idea of how this all works.

…now we’ve reached critical mass….

This week, we returned to KGTV for the fourth VJ (or as they call it here), DC (for Digital Correspondent) bootcamp.

There are 10 journalists, camerapeople, editors, producers as well as one assignment editor joining us for the intensive training session to become VJs. Like the rest of KGTV, they will be shooting on Panasonic P2 cameras and cutting it on Final Cut Pro.

When they are finished, they will bring to more than 35 the number of people who have been trained, equipped and fieled at KGTV.

The project at KGTV has so far been an unqualified success.

Ratings are up and the quality of the pieces and the reporting has improved enormously. And we are still just at the beginning. NDs and GMs from across the country, and the heads of station groups have been to see the station and have spoken with ND Gary Brown and GM Derek Dalton and have come away impressed.

Within parent company McGraw Hill as well, the station has received kudos.

Each year, the McGraw-Hill Companies honors a group of employees with their Corporate Achievement Award. McGraw Hill is a big media company. Besides its 9 TV stations, it also has large publishing holdings (Business Week, Aviation Week and others), financial reporting (Standard and Poors), and educational publications; among others.

This year, McGraw Hill awarded its Corporate Achievement Award to KGTV News10, for its “Digital Correspondent Initiative” - read that as the VJ project.

Needless to say, we are delighted.

Congratulations to everyone at KGTV and McGraw Hill who made this possible.

..today it’s oil….then it was bananas….

We live in a world in which our perception of events is informed almost exclusively by television. (more…)

Is this the face of the future?

The New York Times ran a fascinating piece today in the Entertainment section about Rosie O’Donnell’s webcasts. Having left The View, and network television, lately she has taken to webcasting her own show … online. You can see them here. I have to admit that I am no Rosie fan. (more…)