My Impromptu Video Interview on Sketchnoting at SXSWi '09

My Norwegian pal, Ove Klykken is a spur of the moment guy. He was inspired by Brian Artka's documentary film-making at SXSW Interactive, so he pulled out his little Canon SD1100 and had a little impromptu interview with me about sketchnoting:

Impromptu interview with Mike Rohde at SXSWi '09 from Ove Klykken on Vimeo.

I'd completely forgot about this interview until last night when Ove contacted me with a preview. In the interview I talk about why I sketchnote, challenges in sketchnoting and if I think someone needs to be an artist to do sketchnoting.

Enjoy!

SXSW Interactive '09 Documentary: Teaser

Before my friend Brian Artka and I left for SXSW Interactive 2009 this March, we had a discussion about ways we could capture the event and share the experience with attendees and those interested in the event.

Being interested in documentaries, especially Gary Hustwit's recent Helvetica and upcoming Objectified films, we kicked around the idea of capturing the SXSW Interactive experience as a documentary, so we did. Here's a teaser:

A SXSW interactive 2009 experience (teaser) from Brian Artka on Vimeo.

I have to come clean — Brian did the real work. I was his personal "assistant-to-the-regional-manager" holding the camera while he went to the bathroom, rounding up potential interviewees for filming and I think I fetched him some coffee once.

The teaser above features Jeffrey Zeldman, Ove Klykken, Garrett Dimon, Veerle Pieters, Jason Santa Maria, Tracy Apps, and Kevin Ciesielski with some great story nuggets. I can't wait to see the full documentary.

The Canon 5D Mark II

Brian had just sold his video gear and bought a Canon 5D Mark II, testing out the video quality of this camera at a Spreenkler meeting in February.

I was amazed at the quality of the video, particularly since Brian was able to use digital photo lenses to capture video — wide angle and low-light capable lenses. You can already see it in this rough teaser.

Brian is hard at work, organizing his 6 hours of video into a unified, coherent documentary that he'll be releasing on Vimeo very soon. I'm recommending he sell the video on DVD as well, because I know I'd buy a copy in a heartbeat.

If you have comments on the documentary, please leave them on Brian's Vimeo page for the teaser and if you would buy a DVD of this documentary, please let him know that as well (for planning purposes).

28 Bucks?

This past weekend, my wife and son went to see a matinee of the new film Curious George at a local theatre. It was a fun film which Nathan especially enjoyed seeing on the big screen. We bought 3 tickets, 1 large bin of popcorn and 1 large drink, which the three of us shared.

How much was the final cost? $28 for the three of us — for a matinee!

Had we chosen an evening showing, the price would have been $32! Come on movie industry, do you sincerely expect a family of 3 to spend around $10 each to see one of your films? Obviously, the answer is yes, but I think it's nuts.

We could have saved $10 by eating and drinking nothing, still, $18 for the three of us to see a matinee? Gimme a break. I could rent 4 or 5 movies for that price, pop my own popcorn and pour my own root beer.

In an related article, which I can't seem to locate right now, a movie industry exec suggested that movie price increases were right in line with other entertainment, such as sports and live plays.

I disagree.

With sports and live drama, I'm paying to see a real person, in the flesh, entertaining me in person. As much as film can be compelling, it's a recording of real people entertaining me — a huge difference!

No wonder attendance at theaters was down 9% in 2005, while DVD sales, Netflix subscriptions, video on demand, movies on the web and home theatre systems are gaining such popularity. People just like my family and me are getting fed up with high prices, and are being driven away from seeing films in theaters.

I love seeing film in person, but unless a film is spectacularly great, we just won't be visiting theaters to see first-run films.

It's just too expensive.

Humorous TV Spots

Last week I read a post at Matt Henderson's weblog about a funny TV spot for Nutrigrain he'd seen at Turnpike films. I had a look at the site, and then happened to check around the site and saw several more funny TV spots hosted there (particularly Budweiser) at the suggestion of my friend Andy.

Hee hee! what are great TV spots! I think they're probably too funny for their respective advertisers to actually use. If you need a good laugh after a hard day, or just a good chuckle, check out Turnpike Films and the TV spots by Justin Reardon.

Lord of the Rings: Return of the King Week!

Hey, this is a great week if you're a Lord of the Rings fan -- the final installment in the Lord of the Rings stories/movie trilogy, Return of the King (ROTK), will be released on Wednesday! I'm looking forward to this third film in the series and unlike the Matrix final episode, I'm very certain I won't be disappointed. Here's the trailer.

In case you wonder what the deal is about The Lord of the Rings, here's a brief overview:

Lord of the Rings is a story by J.R.R. Tolkein that takes place in the world he created, called Middle Earth, which existed before our time. The "Lord of the Rings" is actually Sauron, who created an evil ring which he forged and then lost during a battle thousands of years before the story takes place. The ring is wholly evil and though some think it can be used to destroy Sauron, in reality it would only setup a new evil master. Sauron is now rising again and seeks his ring of power in order to take control of Middle-Earth.

So, the ring must be destroyed rather than used before it corrupts someone powerful or falls into the hands of Sauron himself. For several reasons, Frodo, a Hobbit (a race of small people from a quiet backwater in Middle-Earth) has been charged with carrying the ring to Sauron's kingdom to toss the ring into the fires of Mount Doom, where it was originally forged.

It's an amazing book to read, with quite a bit of interesting character development. Its one of those books which suck you in and make you feel as if you were along for the journey (my favorite aspect of good writing). Peter Jackson's movie renditions do the story justice, though as a longtime LOTR fan with multiple reads under my belt, a few of Peter Jackson's film modifications to the story were a little disappointing, but they were fortunately mostly minor. I am by no means an LOTR purist, so overall I feel that the films have done a great job of capturing the story and presenting them in 3-3.5 hour sections.

As I've said to friends -- a film cannot completely capture a book because the detail just isn't there (unless you want a 30 hour movie). That's why there's a book! :-)

I am excited, but I may wait until the weekend to see this last film in the series. I'm doing this because our youth group going to be doing something special on Friday evening and Saturday. As a group we'll be watching the extended DVD versions of Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers via projector in our Church's office garage on Friday. On Saturday we'll all have brunch, then head to the local theatre to see Return of the King. Should be a great way to see the entire story connect together.

Now I just have to finish reading ROTK... I'm nearly there now, but I must complete the story before this weekend. If you've not yet read Lord of the Rings, I highly recommend it. The book is available all over and is of course free to check out of the library.