Videos everywhere with Spotzer

Today we interview Dennis Brouwer. Dennis company, Spotzer, offers an online library of creative, ready-to-air commercials produced by industry-leading professionals from around the world. They also help you plan and buy spots across multiple advertising media, including television and the web.

Videos everywhere with Spotzer

Manuel Marino: Ciao Dennis! First of all, what is your role in Spotzer?

Dennis Brouwer: Hi Manuel, my role is VP Video Productions.

MM: What do you think about internet videographers community? seems there is a big community out there!

DB: As you can imagine I believe strongly in the internet videographers community, at the end of the day that’s the future or the biggest part of the production of video for internet and in later instances the television.

Both you and I have been growing up in a world were the television was always superior above the internet for were it came to the quality and the importance.

When I now look at my children what they (5 and 7) do with the internet and how school is moving them into that direction. And look at how the world of the production has changed I think with the constant renewing internet technologies and the production possibilities its inevitable to conclude that the world changed and is changing still.

MM: So what all of this will lead to?

DB: Where we move to eventually is not crystal clear but what even a blind man can see is that the classical production is a dead end street. At least were it comes to mass productions. There will always be an urge for Oscar winning productions but the mass will do with the ones that are not winning the prices. And therefore be happy with the current quality. This off course is arbitrary because what is quality in general, but that’s a total different discussion.

Some 15year old do not even recognize the 4k film images and are not aware if they look at SD, HD or BluRay. And I dare to say that thats because they got used to the “crappy” youtube image quality.

Having this said it opens up the discussion that I raised before; what is quality? Again its arbitrary. But what we as creative professional people can see is that the method of the production is changing rapidly.

MM: What about the short videos industry? Spotzer is really doing well in this area.

DB: We here at Spotzer believe that the market for the short promotional video is only just beginning. There are a lot differentiators that make the short video successful or not. We do acknowledge that there need to be a sales proposition in every video for every customer. We also believe that every video needs to be more or less tailor made for as far as we can achieve that for the incredible low budgets that we work with.

A very good personalisation tool off-course is the music that goes with every video, that is one of the items we make a video personal with. Obviously there is also video and voiceover to show the personal touch in the video. But a consumer could interpret-ate the video also as being stock material, the voiceover in contrary is very much personal because we let the customers name come back a few times always.

MM: When we first met you told me that Spotzer was going to expand to all Europe.

DB: We have started up our productions in Austria, Finland, Sweden and will shortly start in Poland and Czech / Slovakia. And we have found out that the customers are very happy with the end-result. Specially the quality that we deliver is very highly appreciated.

MM: What did you produce, beside the promotional videos?

DB: Beside the promotional videos we have also produced a big library of what we call “Ready to Air” videos. We have been delivering those RTA’s to Hearst and Merchant Circle in the USA and they offer these video ads to their customer base.

This is a very different product because every second of video is already produced and edit in the video, the changeable items in the video are: slogan, call for action and end-card.

And again we sell them at remarkable low prices!

MM: After this very interesting interview I just suggest to check Spotzer website at once! Thank you Dennis!

Posted in Business, People, Technology | 1 Comment »

Growing Independent Film Industry in the Southeast

Heidi Yost wrote this exclusive article. Heidi (photo) is a talented actress. In this article, she explains Film Industry situation in the southeast, talks about her experience as artist and gives also important hints for the new actors.

Growing Independent Film Industry in the Southeast

When I returned home to Louisville, Kentucky from my three year-long stint in Los Angeles as a professional actress I expected more. I anticipated that my recent win as a Marilyn Monroe Look-Alike by Premiere Magazine and my appearances on Beverly Hills 90210 and Matlock would have every talent and casting agent in Louisville falling over themselves to represent and utilize my homegrown talents and experience. It didn’t happen. I felt like Yukon Cornelius after I swung my mining pick into the ground and brought it to my mouth to taste for traces of the delicious silver and gold acting opportunities at home and “Nuthin’. Hello, I won the Marilyn Monroe look-alike contest!

Fifteen years later, to my delight everything is coming up roses in the Southeast independent film industry. Is it because I am no longer a platinum blonde ingénue and now a sultry redhead? Is it due to widely available and affordable video and film equipment? Has the increase of Los Angeles film location shooting in Kentucky infused the film community here: ELIZABETHTOWN, SEABISCUIT, THE INSIDER, STRIPES, etc, etc? The 48 Hour Film Festival, among others may have tempted some independent film makers who otherwise would not have stepped behind a camera with simple, short formats and alluring prizes. How wonderful to have developed an extensive filmography in my own hometown due to the indy boom.

Louisville has had a thriving arts community for the entirety of my life. The city has claimed a local ballet, orchestra and professional theater company: Actors Theater of Louisville (that had everyone I auditioned for in Los Angeles inquiring). The River City also boasts a cultural center, the Kentucky Center for the Arts that is used for a myriad of artistic and mind expanding events—from K.D. Lang concerts to poetry readings by Maya Angelou.

The semi-professional theaters in Louisville are also noteworthy and prolific. I cut my teeth at the KY Contemporary Theater before I got my B.A. and moved west. Pandora Productions produced a compelling version of SOUTHERN BAPTIST SISSIES. Since, then Susan Linville, Founder and actress at the Necessary Theater has offered amazing productions with compelling new scripts as does Looking for Lillith. The recent one-woman show WOMEN SPEAK IRAQ developed and performed by Shannon Woolsey was performed with such virtuosity and passion for the widest range of opinions and postures I could imagine.

My training, my stage and life experiences experience have given me the depth that I claim and utilize now as a film actress. Oftentimes, people will ask me which medium is my favorite. They both have their draws. In the live theater experience, the actress has the opportunity to get immediate feedback from the audience, has a substantial amount of time to build emotional crescendos and has the obligation and luxury to live in the moment and keep going whatever the immediate reality (not fun when scenery or a co-actor is falling on your head).

Film offers the luxury of another take, if the first one or fifteen takes aren’t the cat’s meow, you can do another. Film tends to pay better. (However, anyone who acts for the pay is a little misguided). You can capture the moment forever on film (This can be most upsetting for some who aren’t involved in savory productions). Most films have a larger audience than the theater does.

Advice for the film actress: study. If you wish to be an actress, learn from the best in your community who teach. Do not study under an opera diva and expect that you will be taught the subtleties of a fine camera performance. Do not study at modeling agencies who are primarily interested in increasing their bank accounts. Study under those who have the experience you are seeking. Universities are an excellent place to learn and perform as an actress.

If you are younger than college-age and wish to act, go see as many plays and films as you can. If you enjoy someone in a stage performance, find out his/her name and if you may have a few minutes of their time to see how they gained their polish. Community theater is a great place to start. Hopefully you will get a sane director and be able to squeeze into the cast despite the member of the board of director’s narcissistic casting. If you think that Hollywood is political—spend a summer in a community theater!

Surround yourself with positive people. If you consider someone incredibly talented as an actor or director, but he/she is constantly negative, overbearing or abusive—go elsewhere. Life is too short and no matter how badly you want to act—it’s not worth it.

The directors that have had the distinct pleasure of working with are great collaborators. Chris Courson from Lightspeed Productions first cast me as a lead in his film called EMMA’S CODE for Louisville’s 48 Hour Film Festival. Immediately after that in July 2007 he wrote the most amazing short called CIRCUS NUTS and cast me again as a lead. We were so pleased with the results we will be shooting a feature-length on this premise this summer.

Chase Dudley is a young director who was open to my suggestions when he needed other quality actors for the independent feature film LAST SEEN ALIVE (knowing people always helps good actors who are easy to work with get cast). Tracy Dudley his wife wrote an amazing screenplay with a strong female lead, Detective Malone. Tracy was very open to working together to make the script and character as believable and formidable as possible. The process and final product was such that we are planning on working together on a sequel in 2008. LAST SEEN ALIVE will be available at www.amazon.com in late January 2008.

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Reading: it’s not for fun anymore

This is a nice article from Isaac Marion. Isaac has been running the online textual variety show, BurningBuilding.com, since 2003. He lives in Seattle, Washington, where he works various mundane jobs while trying to make his writing/music/art career take off.

Reading: it’s not for fun anymore

Recent studies have shown that across the board, in all mediums, Americans are reading for pleasure less than ever before. This isn’t just literature, novels, etc, this is all forms of the written word, including magazines, even the mighty Internet. Yes, that includes blogs. Less than one third of adults reported having read any literature in the past year not required for school or some other assignment.

Hmm.
Brlog…?
Brailg…?
Hmm.

Posted in Arts, Culture | 3 Comments »

A passion for Digital Painting

Jeremy White wrote this article exclusively for us. Jeremy is currently in the throngs of several projects and sub projects in digital art (2d here, 3d there), computer programming, and some hobby-level music production. Actually, all of it is hobby level, but… who cares? I consider Jeremy a real artist, read the article and you’ll know why.

A passion for Digital Painting

Hello! I’ve been doing digital painting for a surprisingly short amount of time, but thought that since I’ve got around two years under my belt, I might as well voice some thoughts on the subject. I’m only a hobbyist, but I’ve graduated to CS3 recently and have had a Wacom tablet for some time and it appears that’s the standard layout for most people.

I started art when I was very young in the sense that I enjoyed writing short stories and loved to try to draw Ren & Stimpy characters. Sadly, I let that die away when I reached high school and never really cared again for art until things came to college. I found myself so bored in calculus and other studies that I’d draw in my notebook. At some point, I got very addicted to drawing my dreams and yet I couldn’t get color because I didn’t really want to mess with paint in a dorm room. Anyone who’s been there knows that they don’t take lightly to anyone getting paint all over the furniture and I just knew that’s the kind of person I am. That’s right… my first impulse was that digital art was pretty clean. And I’m no neat-freak in any capacity. My room vacillates from messy to sterile several times a month.

So, going in to digital painting, my inspirations were people who did a lot of concept art and also landscapes. One especially prominent fellow comes to mind whom you can look at over here. An example of his 2d digital painting style is here. Some artists avoid stroke work and try to be purely realistic but I especially think the joy comes out when you can blend things fairly well. I’m trying to get there, but sometimes I veer off like in the art work of paper XI. A good tutorial of his method can be found here (I love this method too… forgive my bias here).Someone once told me “Wow… it’s like painting with pen-pricks of light”. I especially enjoy the feeling of wielding millions of little variable colored flashlights. It’s an entirely different thing when you print your work out, but I prefer to keep it all digital when possible. I guess it feels cool to throw out something you did with no real cost on how many copies you make. I know that people steal digital media left and right, too. I don’t so much care about ‘pirates’, but when I say “steal”, I speak of those who claim they did a piece of work when in fact it was based on someone else’s effort or maybe entirely just a copy. It’s a very tragic side effect.

Still, it’s amazingly fun to look back from digital painting and smile and say to a traditionalist “Hey, does your oil paint have an Undo? My media does.” But sadly, when I go back to drawing on paper, I find myself searching for Ctrl-Z all the time and looking like a goofball.

Posted in Arts, Culture, People | 5 Comments »