News / Business
CREATIVE PLANET'S DIGITAL PRODUCTION BUZZ COVERS THE BLU-RAY VS. HD-DVD DEBATE, PODCASTING AND A UNIQUE TWIST ON FILMMAKING
Digital Media Podcast Features Richard Townhill, Bruce Nazarian and Jason Van Orden
Apple’s Richard Townhill, Senior Product Manager - Pro Apps, discussed the company’s take on industry changes over the past year and Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD. “Our support of HD-DVD was largely because that was the first specification that got nailed down. It’s more a case of looking at the specifications and when they were solidified,” he said. “I wouldn’t necessarily disagree that the scales look like they’re tipping in terms of what particular disc format is likely to win the 'VHS and Beta-Max' wars. I think the significant difference is time has also marched on in terms of how people consume their media and I think if you take a look at Apple’s strategy as a whole, and you take a look at what we’re doing with iTunes, our view of media being available on disc is probably a little different to the way people who are producing DVDs might view things.”
Following the recent announcement from Warner Bros. they will release their films exclusively on Blu-Ray, Nazarian noted, “If you’re not a feature film studio, I’m not sure how much this impacts you in the immediate near term. I think there are many who are saying ‘war’s over, HD-DVD is dead.’ I’m not sure that’s entirely accurate . . . It’s possible these formats may do a wiz-bang on all of us and prove the naysayers wrong.”
Award winning Canadian director Bruce McDonald also joined the show to talk about his newest film, “The Tracey Fragments,” starring Juno actress Ellen Page. McDonald uploaded the film footage to his website and invited Canadian editors to cut their own versions of the film, trailers, music videos, etc. “We’re encouraging people to download all the rushes and make short films or videos or re-cut the feature if they like, or do whatever they want to do, and then send it back to us,” said McDonald. “We want to put some of the ones we think are really cool on the DVD when that comes out and encourage discussion and trade stories.”
Jason Van Orden, consultant, international speaker and author (“Promoting Your Podcast,” and “Podcast 101”), shared his ideas on how to monetize podcasts. Van Orden explained, “If you’re interested in online web marketing and want to reach your target market online – to break through the noise and attract people to you, you need to create regular quality content they can’t live without. That’s what’s going to bring them towards you.”
To listen to a recording of this show, or others from Creative Planet’s Digital Product BuZZ archive, visit our website at www.digitalproductionbuzz.com.
About our Guests:
Richard Townhill, Apple Inc. www.apple.com
Bruce Nazarian, DVD Association. www.dvda.org.
Bruce McDonald. www.thetraceyfragments.com
Jason Van Orden. www.jasonvanorden.com; www.promotingyourpodcast.com
About Creative Planet’s Digital Production BuZZ
Creative Planet’s Digital Production BuZZ is part of a family of related websites and magazines managed by New Bay Media. Creative Planet’s Digital Production BuZZ was the first podcast on air about digital production and remains the leader of programming related to the subject. New episodes of The BuZZ podcast air live every Thursday at 6:00 pm Pacific.
PR Contact:
Kristi Prost, Director of Marketing and PR
Creative Planet’s Digital Production BuZZ/
Larry Jordan & Associates, Inc.
(818) 879-5105
kristi@larryjordan.biz
Production and Booking Contact:
Cirina Catania, Producer
Creative Planet’s Digital Production BuZZ
(661) 294-0201
cirina@digitalproductionbuZZ.com
