Anyone in the motion graphics or visual effects industry knows this is the truth, and with social networks popping up left and right on the internet, the methods of promoting yourself are no exception; but what does this mean for the more traditional methods of promotion such as the business card?

These days we are not all sitting around the conference table ogling each others business card like in the movie American Psycho. With the way the internet and technology in general has grown by leaps and bounds in the past few decades, we are jumping on our laptops, tablet computers and smart phones connecting to wi-fi hubs in every corner coffee shop and 3G and 4G networks virtually everywhere else for business and for pleasure. We are consuming more online data than ever before, and with this new technology comes new ways to promote ourselves.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise to many. Newspapers and magazines felt the crunch as traditional paper subscriptions were dwindling, but they found a new resurgence online and through apps for various devices such as smart phones and the Apple iPad. Burning your reel onto a DVD and mailing it out to companies is a thing of the past as online video sharing sites and personal websites become the method of distributing your reel, as I mentioned in my previous article, Get Your Video to the Masses; and, with more people using online search to find what they are looking for versus more traditional methods, websites such as Reel Roulette (Spin the Wheel on Reel Roulette) allow anybody to quickly search through many reels in a very short period of time allowing more content consumption with less work.

So, what does all this mean for the more traditional methods of promotion such as the business card? Are business cards obsolete, being taken over by online promotional methods, or is there still a  place for them in this digital world? To find the answer, I asked some movers and shakers in the motion graphics and visual effects industry this same question.

Nick Campbell / GreyScaleGorilla.com and CreamyOrange.com (among many others)

“I think that biz cards are DEAD for people in creative and technology driven industries. They are a hold over from another age. If people REALLY want to get your info and you made a personal connection, they can put your info directly on their phone or ask their friend about you later. They could even follow you on twitter directly from their iPhone. THIS is the way I connect. Not in a heap of cards on my dresser when I get home from an event.” He goes on to add, “If your in a creative business and under 40, lose the cards.”

Eric Alba / 24LiesPerSecond.com

“I would say that Google-ing my name is good. But if someone with a more common name it might be difficult to find them. As far as social network/services, I wouldn’t rely on that to promote my self/business. But I have found LinkedIn to be a good way to find people in terms of searching for a skillset/business.” He adds, “My business cards have helped if only in face to face situations and I’m networking or don’t want to write down a number… [They're] part of a bigger machine of promotion which includes my work web site and word of mouth.”

Brad Chmielewski / DigitalHitchhiker.com

“I feel like the business card is most useful in social or networking event. You don’t want to have take a break from the conversation to pull out your phone, follow that person on twitter and get them to follow you. I take their business card, put in my pocket and then re-visit it tomorrow or later in the week when I’m in front of the computer. It’s also a great leave behind, if that person follows me on twitter when I first meet them in two weeks they may have forgotten who I was. But with the business card at least they think of me again when we are not together.”

Oscar Dante Beckman / OscarDante.com

“I think that business cards are a really important way to promote myself. Also I feel that business cards shows the person you are giving it to that you are more serious, not only saying your Twitter or Vimeo name.” He goes on to say about using Google search, “It’s a great source to find information and people. However it’s easy to get lost in the woods of information.”

Zack Lovatt / ZackLovatt.com

“Handing somebody a business card carries a certain weight with it, even to the point of giving an appearance of professionalism. Does it hearken back to the older days where cards were king? To be sure, but from what I’ve seen in the design industry (and, to a lesser extent, the visual effects field) is that as so few are doing the business card thing simply having one is enough to make an impression, and from a networking angle, that’s the whole point.” He also adds, “Cards aren’t a one-stop solution; you need to follow them up with adequate branding, self-promotion (and these days) an online identity and so on; they’re a piece of the larger puzzle, a stepping stone, as it were. My cards boast no skills, no software and no industry; they’ve got a logo on the one side and contact information on the back. By my reckoning I’ll have given all this information to a person prior to handing them my card.”

Mars Sanford / MarsSanford.com

“Personally I like having the business card on hand for events.  I always prefer to add/follow right there in the moment, but if the conversation isn’t heading that way, its a good thing to leave someone with. I don’t think they need to be as jam packed with info as they once were, as Nick pointed out over a year ago!”

John Kostrzewski / JohnKostrzewski.com

“I personally don’t think business cards are dead at the moment, but they are on the way out fast. Apps such as Bump on the iPhone have shown sharing information is as easy as bumping two phones together, and everybody has an email address, Facebook account, Twitter name or some other social media account to connect through. As time goes on, the simplicity of handing someone a card with your information on it will be replaced with a simple bump of our phones, a friend request online or a drag and drop of our contact information on our potential clients name. A Google search isn’t always accurate, especially if the search is for someone with a name as crazy as mine, and even a business card doesn’t help in that respect as they will have to type out what’s printed on the card. Why not make it easier for them by giving them a link they can click on or one “Accept Friend” button to push. The idea of a business card is to make it easier for the client to find you, after all.”

The Verdict

It would seem business cards aren’t completely dead and still have a place in promotion of yourself and your business, but don’t be surprised when the time comes when they are completely obsolete. As technology continues to advance so will the method of promotion; and just like newspapers, magazines and other forms of traditional media the push is going online. It’s important to remember, as was mentioned repeatedly throughout this article, that business cards are just a small part of the bigger promotional machine. It’s only a device that shows people where to go. It’s up to you to give them a place to go, and have what they are looking for.

If you choose to promote yourself using a business card and are looking for ideas on designs for your cards to set them off from the rest, here are a few more cards from people in the industry that might spark your creative juices. However, it’s good to note that ideas don’t have to come from people in the industry at all. Flickr has a great set of photos called The Business Card Pool that features many great designs from people in many different industries, and websites such as Designrfix.com has a series of posts that will inspire as well.

Justin Younger / JustinYounger.com

Michael Blank / BlankSight.net

Seth Hay / OrangesDesigns.com

What do you think? Are business cards completely gone from your promotional efforts? Are they a waste of time and money? Please, share what you think and tell us what methods you prefer over handing out business cards.

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The brain child of Nick Campbell (GreyScaleGorilla.com, CreamyOrange.com, MakeCoolShit.com) and Trevor Turk (TrevorTurk.com, AlmostEffortless.com) and coded by Joshua Schaible (JoshuaSchaible.com), Reel Roulette follows the idea of Chat Roulette and even some earlier websites such as Hot or Not with simplicity and ease of use. What it has over those other sites is beautiful design and, moreover, great content for the motion graphics designer and an easy way for them to promote themselves and their work.

The idea behind Reel Roulette is a simple one because it was designed with simplicity in mind. In fact, this idea of simplicity was what pushed the entire design of the site from the beginning. Trevor Turk writes on his blog about the design process, “After pondering this over a couple of beers at the Ginger Man and spending some time on Chat Roulette looking for Piano Improve Guy, we decided that we should put something together. Something small. Something quick.” Thirty-two hours later, the three entrepreneurs were looking at Reel Roulette, the culmination of all their hard work which started with a simple idea on the plane ride to SXSW.

Welcome to Reel Roulette

If simplicity is what they went for, simplicity is what they came up with in the end. Right when you enter Reel Roulette you are greeted by a simple welcome page and given two options: upload your own reel and show off your work or spin the reel wheel to discover new great talent. You choose what to do and you are off on your journey of motion graphics discovery.

Spin the Wheel

When you choose to spin the wheel you are shown a random reel, a short creator bio with website and the options to vote for the reel or move on to the next one. No more wondering how to rate it on a five star scale or leaving a detailed comment on what to improve for next time–leave that for the other websites. Here, it’s just love it or leave it. It can’t get any more simple than that.

Simple Sign Up

When you choose to sign up you simply fill out a short form including your name, website and short description; add your Vimeo reel and you are done. Again, it’s as easy as that.

It’s a great, simple and fun idea that allows motion graphics designers another way to get their reel out there and allows them a way to easily see what others in the industry are up to.

All of it, of course, is for free so you don’t have a reason to at least check out ReelRoulette.net if you are a motion graphics designer, want to see some great MoGraph reels or some clean and simple web design.

Update!

Just yesterday (April, 14th), Nick Campbell and the Reel Roulette crew released an update for the website that allows a search of all the reels by location, software or specialty which is a great feature to narrow down what you are looking for; and they also added a top 20 allowing you to see the highest rated videos at that time! You can hear more about it on Nick Campbell’s blog, GreyScaleGorilla.com, or just visit the site and play around with it. These are two more great features adding to an already great website.

The Top 20 Reels

The Simple Search Window

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As human beings, we are intrigued and somewhat obsessed with technology and the future; robots in science fiction is a reoccuring theme often used in films to depict the future, and perhaps soon enough, may become an everyday reality.

When we see humanlike robots in films or even in real life, we may naturally try to empathize with them. There is, however, a thin line and if the robot becomes too humanlike for our liking, our emotions make a strong u-turn into repulsion. This measurement of repulsive response is called the Uncanny Valley, a hypothesis introduced by Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori in 1970. On a graph, the valley is a dip in positivity of human reaction.

Realistic character rendering from Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

Wikipedia sums up The Uncanny Valley in these words:

…as a robot is made more humanlike in its appearance and motion, the emotional response from a human being to the robot will become increasingly positive and empathic until a point is reached beyond which the response quickly becomes that of strong repulsion. However, as the appearance and motion continue to become less distinguishable from a human being, the emotional response becomes positive once more and approaches human-to-human empathy levels.

Hypothesized emotional response of human subjects is plotted against anthropomorphism of a robot, following Mori's statements. The uncanny valley is the region of negative emotional response towards robots that seem "almost human". Movement amplifies the emotional response. -MacDorman, 2005.

The Uncanny Valley in Films

The uncanny valley effect is very evident in films, particularly in CGI animated fare. Examples that best represent this are Beowulf, The Polar Express, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within and hinted at in the trailer, the forthcoming Avatar. The film industry takes this concept very seriously as negative reactions from moviegoers could hurt their bottom line. This is an interesting topic as a double-edged sword; audiences may feel let down if they think the CGI animation in a film is subpar or not detailed enough, however, if the filmmakers create too much realism, that could teeter into an uncanny valley effect.

Screen shot from Beowulf

Perhaps we’d like there to be clearer distinctions between the real and the artificial. Through the ever-advancing technology in moviemaking, the boundaries have been blurred to uncomfortable levels for some audiences. We see something that looks humanlike (such as any of the characters from the aforementioned films) but we know they aren’t human actors and it’s jarring as we try to comprehend this.

This doesn’t apply to computer generated animals, objects, or non-homosapiens for that matter; I mean nobody would be repulsed by Woody from Toy Story right? But make a computer generated human too human and the rules have changed.

Why?

It has been suggested that there are several reasons that underpin this theory, but the most interesting I have come across is the idea that these uncanny robots remind us that we aren’t immortal and death awaits us all. Morbid as it may sound, we begin digging our graves as soon as we’re born, and so we create defense mechanisms to deal with this. Meanwhile, an uncanny robot comes along and somehow raises our subconscious thoughts to the surface, using our own fears against us. We fear that we’re all just predetermined machine-like beings with little control over anything. A subject matter cleverly discussed in The Matrix.

Closely linked to our fear of death is the notion that we’re all replaceable, especially as we bear witness to astounding scientific achievements over the years. Couple this with films such as Artificial Intelligence, I, Robot, The Terminator, and The Matrix and we’d be right to think that robots and technology will be able to outlive and outsmart us in all walks of life. As a highly intelligent and evolved species who have fought hard for our survival, it is natural that we would feel threatened by uncanny robots, so seeing them on-screen might aggravate our fears and insecurities.

How Far Should We Go?

The challenge for designers and filmmakers is, how far should they go? Perhaps the answer lies in context. For example, if a robot lives in genres such as fantasy and science fiction, then we may be able to cognitively accept it as looking lifelike, but due to the environment, we are always aware that it isn’t. On the flipside, imagine the same robot in 2009 walking through an iconic city, and it suddenly becomes intimidating and real, at which point we walk through the valley of revulsion.

Screen shot from Polar Express

Closing

This is a complicated topic with many more theories and discussion points that I urge you to investigate further. This subject isn’t only skin deep and it raises many questions about the human psyche and the world we live in. It also begs us to question our reality. Film is one medium where reality and fiction blend but is this true of our everyday lives?

For all we know we might be walking amongst uncanny robots already, after all, how would we know?

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Martin – 1977

U.S. Dir: George A. Romero (Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead). Netflix, Wikipedia.

Sans fangs and bats, Martin put a unique spin on the traditional vampire film. Instead of the monster living next door, we find an average young man living a lonely and depressing life and sadly addicted to blood. His twisted and often pathetic bursts of violence shock you, but you really end up feeling the worst for poor Martin.

The Hunger – 1983

U.K. Dir: Tony Scott (True Romance, Man on Fire). Netflix, Wikipedia.

This film was not liked much by critics who seemed to have a problem with its semi erotic moments and while it’s true that it’s not the greatest film in the world (Scott’s next movie would be Top Gun), it’s well worth seeing. Sultry Catherine Deneuve plays an ageless vampire. David Bowie plays her aging vampire boyfriend and along comes Susan Sarandon unknowingly to take his place.

The Reflecting Skin – 1990

U.K. Dir: Philip Ridley (The Krays, The Passion of Darkly Noon). Wikipedia.

This wonderfully absurd film never really admits it’s a vampire film. Instead, we meet a cast of characters who may or may not be vampires; except for the lady who says she’s a vampire. Seth is sure she’s a vampire. He’s pretty sure everyone’s a vampire. Favorite line: “Why don’t you go play with your friends?” / “I can’t. They’re all dead.”

Near Dark – 1987

U.S. Dir: Kathryn Bigelow (Point Break, Strange Days). Netflix, Wikipedia.

This movie is so much better than From Dusk Till Dawn I can’t believe they even bothered making it. Fast, harsh and bloody as hell. Oh, and it’s even a love story. Sort of. Look for a particularly great scene of a new vampire drinking blood from another vampire’s wrist while a large oil pump pumps away in the background.

Blood for Dracula – 1974 (AKA Andy Warhol’s Dracula)

Germany/U.S. Dir: Paul Morrissey (Flesh, Trash, Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein). Netflix, Wikipedia.

Classic exploitation. Like most of his films it’s completely disgusting. Originally rated X for it’s gratuitous sex and violence, it’s actually less insane than Morrissey and Warhol’s 1973 Flesh for Frankenstein (AKA Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein) which permanently warped my brain.

The Lost Boys – 1987

U.S. Dir: Joel Schumacher (Falling Down, The Number 23). Netflix, Wikipedia.

Loaded with star power, The Lost Boys was more of a romp than a horror film. After all, nothing with the Two Coreys could be scary. The lost boys worked well in the theater because it had the star power, but it also had a strong story which relied on intrigue rather than shock and avoided sex and gore. Probably a good idea because by 1987, horror movies were so common place, there was hardly anything shocking about them.

Fright Night – 1985

U.S. Dir: Tom Holland (Child’s Play, The Stranger Within). Netflix, Wikipedia.

Fright Night was a fun hybrid of horror and 80s comedy — just a little too dark to be funny and too silly to be serious. Full of eccentric characters, it’s fun enough that you don’t even mind the terrible special effects. The plot moves around Charley who is pretty sure his neighbor is a vampire. His parents don’t believe him. The cops don’t believe him. Will a washed up actor who hosts a local late night horror film showcase believe him?

Vampire’s Kiss – 1989

U.S. Dir: Robert Bierman. Written by Joseph Minion (After Hours). Netflix, Wikipedia.

And Finally, one of my all time favorites, Vampire’s Kiss. Nicholas Cage plays power hungry yuppie Peter Loew who is quite possibly going insane. He’s also pretty sure he’s turning into a vampire after a series of meetings with the mysterious Jennifer Beals. And like a character from a Paul Auster novel, we watch on as Loew slowly loses all grasp of reality. Esoteric dialogue, a strong supporting cast and Cages performance all meshed to make Vampire’s Kiss an instant cult classic.

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The ’70s might have been the heyday of the maverick filmmaker, but the ’80s still remains a creative decade in my opinion. Mega hits dominated the theaters, but beneath the surface, there were several lesser known but equally praised films and filmmakers whose techniques and qualities were simply too strange, odd, dreamy, morbid or beautiful to fit in with the mainstream. Call them art cinema, independent, cult or arthouse. I call them required viewing. Here are five noteworthy arthouse films:

1. WINGS OF DESIRE

1987. Germany/U.S.A. Dir: Wim Wenders (Paris Texas, The Million Dollar Hotel). Netflix, Wikipedia.

Why you need to see it: Simply one of the most beautiful films I’ve ever seen. Wenders employs a wide variety of fresh ideas onto the screen, getting outstanding performances from his actors. Peter Falk playing himself and being the only character to sense the angels that roam the city will always impress me. Shot in black & white and color, its euphoric feel is further emphasized by the haunting soundtrack and source music.

2. BLUE VELVET

1986. U.S.A. Dir: David Lynch (Eraserhead, Mulholland Drive). Netflix, Wikipedia.

Why you need to see it: Just about everyone knows about Blue Velvet, but for some reason I keep meeting people who have never actually seen Blue Velvet. It’s quintessential ’80s arthouse and everyone really should see it at least once. Lynch works some of the most twisted ideas, characters and images into a lucid and compelling mystery. Visually stunning, well acted and another prime example of Lynch’s meticulous attention to sound design.

3. A ZED AND TWO NOUGHTS

1985. Britain. Dir: Peter Greenaway (The Cook The Thief His Wife & Her Lover, Drowning by Numbers). Netflix, Wikipedia.

Why you need to see it: Greenaway has this thing for flamboyant sets, heavy themes and even heavier imagery. His films are often as disturbing as they are beautiful; as shocking as they are pretentious. Zed is no exception. Between time-lapse footage of prawns decaying and pacing (sometimes legless) animals, we watch as two zoologists go mad after the death of their wives.

4. TALES FROM THE GIMLI HOSPITAL

1988. Canada. Dir: Guy Maddin (Twilight of the Ice Nymphs, Careful).  Netflix, Wikipedia.

Why you need to see it: Maddin’s use of altered film and sound are quite impressive to say the least. He can take us to just about anywhere in time and achieve any look with his technique. In his first feature length film, Gimli Hospital, he takes us to a rather odd and low budget place. Shot in black & white, the film plays like an 1940s horror movie without the horror.

5. VIDEODROME

1983. Canadian. Dir: David Cronenberg (Naked Lunch, Existenz). Netflix, Wikipedia.

Why you need to see it: Cronengerg’s nightmare visions defy category; dark enough to be horror, futuristic enough to be sci-fi. I think of his films as being smart enough and certainly surreal enough to be considered arthouse fare. Videodrome is one his more twisted films and like his earlier work, relies heavily on themes of mind control, secret organizations and humans with guns growing out of their hands. Disturbing but worth every minute.

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Canon GL1 on the left; Canon VIXIA HF100 on the right.

About a year ago, I finally sold the GL-1 I’d bought in film school and purchased my first-ever High-Definition Camera, the Canon HF100. “Finally”, I thought, “No more worrying about tapes or real-time digitizing – just a few 16GB Memory Cards and I’ll be golden.” Well, I was right about real-time digitizing being a thing of the past. It turns out that the flavor of AVCHD the HF100 uses is pretty useless in its native format. To be able to edit with the .MTS files it creates (or even view them decently), you need to transcode – which takes much longer than realtime, and gave me humongous files that ate up my external 500GB drive in no time. Additionally, you can’t shoot in SD – your only option is to shoot lower-bitrate HD files. Honestly, I mostly wound up playing the videos directly off the camera, through an A/D converter box, bringing it in as classic (downscaled) DV Video so I could work with it.

Additionally, working with the HF100 was a huge step back from my days with the GL-1. It was smaller and lighter, for sure – the HF100 easily slips into a cargo pocket for on-the-go and stealth shooting – but focusing with a four-way rocker switch just doesn’t cut it.

The DSLR Video Revolution

Reverie - Vincent Laforet

Like many, I was floored by Reverie – Vincent Laforet’s visually stunning short showing off the Canon 5D MKii. After a quick price check on the 5D MKii, I concluded that while the tech was amazing, I just couldn’t justify it as a Motion Graphics artist. I’d often run across beautiful videos shot with the 5D MKii, and simply sigh.

Finally, It’s Affordable

Canon T1i

Enter the Canon T1i. At $800 for Body + Kit Lens, it’s Canon’s first foray into offering DSLR Video at the consumer-level, and there’s a lot they got right. You can record in 720p or 480p (technically, you can do 1080p as well, but only at 20FPS, so I’m not counting it). You get manual focus and zoom rings, since they’re built into the lens, not the camera. On that note, you can use any Canon EF-mount lens, so once you outgrow the 18-55 kit lens, you can invest in a new lens and gain another level of shooting ability with the camera, without having to buy a new body (which is the norm in consumer-level video cameras).

After dealing with the HF100’s .MTS files, the movies that come off the SD Cards in the Canon T1i are a blessing. They are H.264-compressed .MOV files. On my MacBook Pro, that means I can preview and play them directly from the card, or from my drive after a quick drag-and-drop. No longer is it necessary to transcode for hours just to preview the clips on my machine and make my picks. The files load right into After Effects or Motion for quick sketching of ideas. When I edit narrative videos, I do transcode – but it makes such a difference to have the ability for instant playback and manipulation when that’s all I need.

These are stills pulled directly from the original movie file. The image on the left was shot with the kit lens, the one on the right was shot with the Canon 50mm f1.4, about a minute later.

The picture quality is also, I feel, quite a leap beyond the HF100 or your standard consumer camcorder. You’ve got real Depth of Field, and with the right lens you can get an amazing exposure range – shooting footage for my friend’s wedding in a shady grove in the evening was delightful with the help of a 50mm f1.4 lens.

For the full specs, check out DPReview’s in-depth testing of the camera.

The Downsides

The camera is by no means perfect. Some of the areas that could use improvement:

• There is no way to plug in an external Mic, so you’ll need a separate sound recorder if you want decent location sound.
• Autofocus is slow in video mode.
• Low-light prime lenses don’t have built-in Image Stabilization. It’s bad enough that you’ll want to stick to a tripod.
• Exposure controls are automatic in Movie mode. This was fixed on the 5D Mkii with a firmware update, but there’s no word of a similar update to the T1i, probably to keep this as more of a consumer model.
• Shooting time – the camera leaves the shutter open during movie recording, and the manual (and the camera) warns that leaving the camera in this state for too long could cause image degradation.

Conclusion

We’ve come a long, long way with consumer-level video. The T1i offers amazing video quality and latitude for its price. I don’t feel I could recommend it to indie filmmakers – they’d be better off renting a 5D Mkii (or RED or some other beautiful high-end camera), but for Motionographers who want to capture textures, close-ups, portraits and other short visuals, it’s an amazing tool to have in your arsenal.

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I wanted to watch some television, so I turn on the set and begin pressing the buttons on a brown box. The box has about 14 buttons on it, and a long brown wire that connects to the television set. As I make my way through the buttons, I see commercials and newscasts, boring shows for grown ups, etc. I reach the last one which is labeled Z. I press the button and the television screen turns black and white. I’m seeing a room with a formal dinner setting. People are in the room but they seem to want to leave. They can’t seem to leave for some reason. A goat appears and walks out of the room.  The people are confused.  They start trying to break a wall down in an effort to escape the room. People are yelling. I can’t understand what they are saying because they are speaking in a foreign language. There are subtitles, but I don’t know what that means yet. The words go by too fast to read. I’m not sure why I don’t change the channel, but I keep watching, keep looking. It’s 4:35 in the afternoon. Tuesday. The year is 1978. I am 7 years old and I am watching the Z channel—one of the world’s first cable stations.

Z Channel’s Impact on the Film Industry

Introduction

Jerry Harvey and the strangely named Z channel burst onto the emerging California cable scene in 1974. The few existing stations catered mostly to exclusive sports coverage or Hollywood hits. His idea—rather his goal, was to start a station dedicated to “the cinema” featuring the celebrated works from the likes of Fellini, Buñuel, Peckinpah, Bergman, Visconti, Kurosawa, Kubrick or any other noteworthy filmmaker from around the world. And that’s exactly what he did.

To understand the full impact of the Z channel, we must first remove from consideration our current landscape: Internet, DVDs, anything digital and go back to a time before Star Wars; before blockbuster mega hits in general. We must return to a time when print and word of mouth were the only realistic way one could ever hear of such films and directors. You might get a chance to see a current Kurosawa film as the reels tour the U.S., but you could only read about his back catalogue of films. A student of film in the ’70s might have the privileged experience of seeing some of the older imported gems in class but in general, foreign films were, well, foreign.

The late ’70s and early ’80s were truly the heyday of television. The business of cable was an entirely new concept and no one was quite sure what to make of it at first. Beyond the game shows, news, sports coverage and hit T.V. shows, stations aired re-runs like Gilligan’s Island and The Twilight Zone, classic movies, and old cartoons on every channel. We saw the birth of  new cartoons and the subsequent Saturday morning cartoon phenomenon, Godzilla and MGM horror movies on weekends, made for T.V. movies, and even television ‘cuts’ of movies that had R ratings in the theaters—Halloween by John Carpenter and The Godfather by Francis Ford Coppola being two examples. Cable really didn’t have much to offer beyond the three main things T.V. couldn’t offer—R rated movies, live sports broadcasts, and pornography.

A cable station featuring foreign and art house films certainly would have failed had it been launched in Des Moines, Iowa, but in Los Angeles it flourished. In 1974, Martin Scorsese was finishing his first film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. Stephen Spielberg was working on his first, Sugarland Express. It was an incredibly prolific time and creativity was king. The success of Midnight Cowboy released in 1969 by maverick filmmaker John Schlesinger had changed a lot of things. It was a story about a Texas dishwasher who moves to New York to become a hustler, blindly thinking that rich women will pay to have sex with a young Texas stud. His dreams clash with reality and he soon finds himself homeless and running out of money. After a few failed attempts at male prostitution lead him to utter helplessness, he befriends another lost soul. The film won three Academy Awards including best picture. Hollywood was changing indeed and the Z channel was  immediately embraced by it’s community. Jerry Harvey and his cable channel quickly became the talk of the town making the scene, meeting people and setting up premires of new and classic foreign films in America with Theater owners.

Widescreen on Television

Back at the Z channel, Harvey introduced the virtually unheard of process of letterboxing on T.V. to an unsuspecting audience, sometimes going as far as contacting filmmakers or studios asking for original reels in order to make a transfer in the films original aspect ratio. Widescreen feels natural now, but at the time it was revolutionary. Films like Ben-Hur or How the West Was Won with their huge 70mm prints were cropped down for television and hadn’t been seen in their original aspect ratios in tens of years. It would take production companies another ten years to warm up to the idea of releasing widescreen videos, and now with DVDs, it is unheard of to be denied the full aspect ratio of the filmmakers’ vision. But Harvey wasn’t just ahead of his time, he was lightyears ahead of his time.

The Director’s Cut

By the mid ’80s, his devotion to the filmmakers’ vision would introduce us to another now household term: the Director’s Cut. Heaven’s Gate, a box office disaster whose merits are still debated to this day, had cost 42 million dollars and made only 3 million after terrible reviews. It basically sank United Artists and started a huge controversy in Hollywood. The studio had to cut down his five hour long film into something realistic for theaters, and nobody was happy with the 149 minute result. Crimino’s previous film The Deer Hunter released in 1978 was a huge hit, winning the Academy Awards for best picture and best director. At that time, Hollywood was experiencing great success with these young directors. Spielberg would get millions to do a movie, and the movie became a hit, so the studio would make billions. Studios had little reason to interfere with these maverick directors. But Heaven’s Gate ruined all that. Hollywood blockbusters would not be left up to chance anymore. But strangely, when the film aired on the Z channel a few years later in a three and a half hour ‘director’s cut’, it became a hit. The Z channel soon followed with more director’s cuts like the the five-hour cut of Bertolucci’s masterpiece 1900, which was also disastrously cut by the studio. After years of attempts at re-releasing it in everything from a shorter PG version to a longer R-rated and finally an NC-17 sort of longer version, it got a proper release in its uncut, unedited five-hour glory in 2006, something that the Z channel was happy to show way back in the mid 80s.

The End of Z Channel

With the introduction of the consumer VCR in the early ’80s, the landscape of entertainment certainly changed. Star Wars was changing things with its toy and merchandising franchise. Cable networks were popping up. Now a kind of funny thing happens. But again you must forget about how we use technology today to see it. Today we can get instant feedback via the computer. We can track how many people visited our site today. We can make instant graphs and charts. Hollywood then and today has had to take a big chances. Even with star power, you can’t guarantee a movie’s success. But the new craze of VHS and Beta rental tapes soon proved to be a more than useful aide to Hollywood itself.

First Blood is a good example. Rambo is a household name. An icon of the ’80s with a huge franchise. But the interesting thing is that First Blood was a dud in the theaters. Stallone was still coming off of Rocky fame—hence the “this time he’s fighting for his life” tagline for the title. But it basically did nothing money-wise or for Stallone’s career. His next film was even worse; a ridiculous piece of garbage called Rhinestone co-starring Dolly Parton. But then out of nowhere First Blood became a huge hit on VHS. Sales of tapes probably had people guessing for a while but they eventually made Rambo: First Blood Part II which was a huge hit on the screen and started a trend in crappy action movies. Other films like The Breakfast Club would become VHS classics and create a another trend—the modern teen movie that would last well past the ’80s. Low budget horror films become video hits and a sequel with a higher budget is made and a nice and safe system is born. Hollywood had found a formula that didn’t require the maverick filmmaker at all.

All of this meant certain doom for the Z channel. Cable station were popping up everywhere, offering the latest hot Hollywood films and in the end, Rambo beat The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. At its peak, the Z channel only had 100,000 subscribers. In the early days of cable, that was a fine number since there were so few to compare it to. Jerry Harvey’s world was coming to an end, and he would never live to see his ideas and impact on the film community. His ideas became memes embedded in every filmmaker, actor, director who was lucky enough to see the Z channel.

Epilogue

I was much too young to understand what I was seeing and I’m sad to say I didn’t watch more. Even in my early teens, I’m sorry to say I wasn’t instantly  influenced to become a filmmaker after viewing the works of the most important filmmakers in the world. The truth is, I was like every other kid in my initial quest for T.V. entertainment; I was looking for Godzilla, Kung Fu movies, cartoons or a show I liked. But if I couldn’t find anything I would always check the Z channel just to see what might be playing as a last resort.

Years later, I would fall in love with film and revisit many of the images I had observed as a curious child. I would discover Film Noir and start watching everything I could get my hands on. A scene would happen and I’d remember seeing it on the Z channel. Before DVDs, you had to rely on imported videos from Europe or Japan to see a lot of great films in widescreen or uncut versions. I was into Sergio Leone at the time and was happy to see a crappy bootleg with chinese subtitles just to see a widescreen version of one of his films. I remember when Once Upon a Time in the West finally came out on DVD around 2005 or 2006. Perfect image. Widescreen with the correct aspect ratio. Uncut. Restored sound. Just like the version that played on the Z channel more that 20 years earlier.

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With a recent surge in the number of 3D movies being released, it seems that 3D is certainly enjoying the spotlight. The last year alone has seen the release of My Bloody Valentine, Bolt, Coraline, G-Force, Monsters vs Aliens, The Final Destination and Up, and that is by no means a definitive list. This begs the question of why now, and is the rise of 3D movies worth talking about? In order to obtain more insight into this matter, we need to think about the good, the bad, and the future of cinema.

The Good

Perhaps the biggest advantage 3D movies have right now is that they are still a novelty. Yes, this year has seen an influx of them, but they do have a long way to go before they outnumber 2D movies. For now, 3D movies do seem to be high on studio’s agendas, and they are being used to breathe new life into otherwise forgotten or badly reviewed movie franchises. Only time will tell as to how successful this will be.

Another string to the 3D bow is that there is the potential to take audiences into the reality on the screen. I recently watched a 3D horror movie and people were jumping in their seats and grabbing in the air. There was a fun, social energy in the auditorium; one that I have never experienced with a 2D movie. 3D undoubtedly makes what we are seeing more vivid and dare I say it, real. We can almost touch the world the characters exist in, and there have been a few rare moments where I felt like I was at the same table as the characters I was watching. But ‘rare’ is the key word here; it isn’t always that easy to blur the boundary between our worlds and the worlds on the cinema screen, which leads nicely onto the downside of 3D movies.

The Bad

Some movie-goers have experienced motion sickness during a 3D movie. It is yet to be determined if it’s the 3D itself or the glasses. Either way, there has been a strong correlation between 3D movies and headaches and sickness. The glasses are another argument against 3D movies. Some may have no qualms, but for others, they can be uncomfortable and distracting. Thankfully, we have moved away from the days of cardboard glasses, and cinemas now offer plastic specs at an extra cost.

Another negative aspect is style over substance. A 3D movie might well break all box office records but it could be awful in terms of narrative, character development and emotional impact. The Final Destination was a recent example of this. The story was ridiculous, the acting less than impressive, and the characters forgettable, yet it managed to find an audience and was by no means a disaster.

Currently, 3D is an exciting experience on the big screens, but what about when we watch these movies at home? I recently watched Journey to the Center of the Earth in 3D at home and it didn’t quite work; not for me anyhow. My TV is of average size, and the 3D effects simply did not translate well. At this moment in technological time, 3D movies provide little to no dimensional impact on the small screen, and that isn’t the only area where they fail to transcend.

Lastly, modern 3D genres are limiting. The majority of 2009’s 3D releases fall into the category of animation, placed alongside a few horror movies thrown in for cheap thrills. When will we see a stunning 3D movie from another genre?

The Future

In a recent issue of Empire Magazine, Peter Jackson was reported saying that he wants to make 3D versions of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, but the Warner Bros. says there aren’t enough 3D screens to justify this. Jackson also has 3D visions to release a remake of the classic 1954 film, The Dam Busters. With a budget of £24 million, this will certainly be on everyone’s watchlist. There is still a long way to go before 3D can really dominate and as it currently stands, such movies can only be shown in selected cinemas. James Cameron’s action/adventure/sci-fi  movie Avatar is imminent, and if we believe the hype and the articles to date, it may change the face of cinema forever according to CNN. It is also reported that 2010 will see the release of a 3D television, and we are also promised 3D versions of Toy Story and a tie-in 3D computer game. Regardless of all the arguments against it, 3D looks to have a big future ahead of it.

Further Reading

• 3-D Film at Wikipedia
• The Illustrated 3D Movie List
• AMC’s Top Ten 3D Movies

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NATHAN LAUD

Various works by Squash and Stretch

Squash and Stretch is in it’s 2nd year of trading focusing on 3d animation, taking on freelancers as and when needed. I spoke with Animation Director Nathan Laud on how his company has performed during the recession.

Have you noticed a significant downturn in the last 12 months?

No not really. I have quiet periods and extremely busy periods. If anything the quantity of work has increased. This is probably due to the fact I’m only in my second year of trading and the first year took a little while to get going.

Have you noticed a change in clients expectations, attitudes and budgets?

If I compare them to budgets for work when I was at a larger company then yes, but then that is why I set up on my own. Even before the economic downturn I could see that people wanted more for their money and using big post production companies was becoming too expensive. By setting up on my own without any of the overheads it has allowed me to produce the same level of work but for about half the rate. They don’t get to come and sit in a nice office but they are happy to sacrifice this.

Are you optimistic that the next 12 months will see an upturn in business?

Yes. I feel I’m ideally positioned to take advantage of the fact that budgets have been falling. More and more clients are realising that they can still get the high quality from a skilled individual.

DEBBIE DARBY

Debbie Darby has been a Producer for over 20 years working for companies such as Lambie-Nairn and Smoke and Mirrors. She is now a Freelance Producer at COI.

Have you noticed a significant downturn in the last 12 months?

Yes, Work slowed down for me in March 2009

What cost saving measures have you introduced, if any?

Business life – to cut down on travel costs I only come into London when there’s more than one meeting/production to be done. Personal life – Shopping at Asda rather than Sainsburys (!)

Have you noticed a change in clients expectations, attitudes and budgets?

Clients want it all with a much shorter schedule and for much less money than before.

Have you noticed an increase in competition? Are your competitors reducing rates to win business?

I guess all producer’s fees are dropping, there are lots of people out there ready to work for a lower daily rate.

JOHN PENNEY

John Penney is Creative Director at Writemedia employing 10 people working in web design, flash animation and motion graphics.

Has the type of work you’ve taken on changed in any way, if so how?

We take on less large scale projects with several smaller, quick turnaround jobs replacing them.

Have you noticed a change in clients expectations, attitudes and budgets?

Budgets have definitely been trimmed so it’s a case of what you can do in that time. As we don’t want the quality of work to suffer, we ultimately end up spending more time than quoted to get the job done to keep clients happy and the standard of work high.

Have you noticed an increase in competition? Are your competitors reducing rates to win business and are you, in turn, expected to follow suit?

Competitors are increasing their efforts but by keeping our working relationships on a good basis we hope this (combined with a high standard of work and competitive prices) will sway them to stay.

Are you optimistic that the next 12 months will see an upturn in business?

Definitely optimistic. You have to be in this industry!

STUART SIMPSON

Various works by Stuart Simpson

Stuart Simpson is a freelance designer / animator based in London, UK.

Have you noticed a significant downturn in the last 12 months? Within that period have you noticed a particular time when business was slow or picking up?

The last 6 months of 2008 were non-stop, and in comparison I had always expected a quiet period at the start of this year. It extended slightly longer than I’d thought and work didn’t really start picking up again until the end of February and beginning of March.

Has the type of work you’ve taken on changed in any way, if so how?

It’s become more varied. A large part of last year was spent on DVD menu work. Which is surprising given the lower budgets compared to a few years ago. The quieter periods for in house work have given me the time to focus on operating as an independent studio. I can take on multiple projects and really devote quality time to them. The Hotel Trubble title sequence for the BBC and advertising shorts for an American insurance firm were two of the highlights.

Have you noticed a change in clients expectations, attitudes and budgets?

Expectations are always high! I think there is a tendancy to negotiate fees more. It depends on the nature of the client, B2B and corporate work seems more financially stable at the moment.

Have you noticed an increase in competition? Are your competitors reducing rates to win business and are you, in turn, expected to follow suit?

It is very competative at the moment. I’ve seen a lot of new showreels out there. The problem is motion graphics covers a large area of technical knowledge and design creativity. The first hurdle is – do you meet the clients needs? The most important question for the client is can you do the job? and are you available? Once on that shortlist it might become a rates race but I think it usually gets decided before it reaches that stage.

Are you optimistic that the next 12 months will see an upturn in business?

I’m a glass half full kind of guy! I have goals in mind and so far things are on track. It’s well known the industry is evolving. I think it might be tough times for large companies, but I think it can only give people like myself exciting opportunities.

CLOSING

After talking with Nathan, Debbie, John and Stuart, it’s clear that they have all embraced this downturn and are trying to do something positive about it. We’ve probably all been affected by the recession in one way or another, and know someone who has been laid off. We can either sit back and hope it will ride out, or positively try to make a change and look for new opportunities.

When asked what he thought about the recession, fashion designer John Galliano simply said, “There is a credit crunch, not a creative crunch. It’s our job to make people dream, and to provide the value in quality, cut, and imagination.” Words wisely spoken.

We’d love to hear about how your creative business has coped with the recession.

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