Screw the “Do Not Disturb” sign with the disappearing doorknob. “Doorknob Condition” designed by designer Arnaud Lapierre hopes to eliminate the possibility that room service will accidentally “surprise” you when you are on a trip. You simply pull the doorknob on the inside of the room, recessing it so it can’t be grabbed or turned.
Ideal camcorder for traveling filmmaker
By: Renat Zarbailov
More than ever people nowadays travel around the world and more and more they use camcorders to capture life on video.
Imagine a camcorder which allows editing of video right on the camcorder. Presumably while filming, it would on-the-fly convert the footage into two video files right in the camcorder. In other words, when you film a minute of video you end up with two files of the same length, one in AVCHD 17- 24Mbps and another in Youtube-ready 1080P H.264 mp4 6Mbps format. The user will be able to create titles and rolling end credits in an easy to edit template approach right on the camcorder’s LCD screen. After the shoot the filmmaker will be able to choose from the previously created titles/end credits template. Oftentimes I find myself returning back from the shoot using public transportation and the time in transit allows me to sift through the footage filmed and deleting unwanted clips right in the camcorder. Say if the filmmaker has an ongoing project like The Truth Is…, he will put together all the video clips in any order or length and choose the precreated titles while editing the end credits very easily without the need for a PC. The final Youtube-ready video file he then can upload via USB cable connected to any computer or by pulling out the SD card to save camcorder battery . This camcorder will be certified for YouTube for its ease of use. Ideally this camcorder will have a WiFi capability so videos can be uploaded right from the camcorder. Also, like the Samsung SC-X210WL pocket camcorder (which is now discontinued), ideally this camcorder will have the wireless lens capability in a form of glasses as an add-on. The lens placed on the bridge of the glasses’ frame. This way the possibility to capture films with innovative points of view will be not a dream of the distant future but a reality.
Spontaneous Hitchhiking in Europe
By: Renat Zarbailov
The most spontaneous thing I ever done was in Amsterdam when I was filming The Truth Is… project in 2005. I was couchsurfing there and my hosts mentioned about hitchhiking. The next day a girl participating in my project liked it and suggested to visit Brussels. When I told her that I am a starving artist, she said that I could hitchhike there, about 3 hours away from Amsterdam by car. She starts drawing the map showing how to get on the outskirt of Amsterdam to get on the highway. She even told me how to sneak in at the rear of the tram to avoid paying 2 euros. I really felt the sign… two mentions about hitchhiking within last day or so, that’s definitely a sign.
So, it’s noon, October sunshine, I have all the ammo (batteries, recharger, 12 video tapes). I follow the girl’s map, see a huge hotel next to the highway, waltz into the restaurant of it, ask for a piece of carton and get offered a marker as well. Make a sign that say on one side BRUSSELS, and the other side – UTRECHT (that’s about half way to Brussels suggested by the guy who gave me the marker). Standing at the last traffic light towards the ramp heading towards Brussels. One hour passes, no one stops, make a phone call to my couchsurfing hosts to let them know about my rendezvous that could stretch out to maybe even couple of weeks, get a blessing, leaving my whole editing equipment, about $10k worth at their. Fifteen minutes later a small car picks me up with two guys in it, they drive me to Utrecht – half way to Brussels, drop me off at a gas station which doesn’t receive too many cars. I wait a bit and head out to the side of the highway while still looking over to the gas station to flash the sign at exiting cars when with a tip of my right eye I see a car slowing down pass me, I turn around, the car stopped waiting for me… 🙂
I run up to it, the guy tells me he’s going home to Gent (already in Belgium) located an hour away from Brussels. I’m in his car and I ask him if I can use his internet to hopefully find a place to stay on couchsurfing.com in Brussels, he says even if you don’t find you can stay with us for the night. Yay!! 🙂 One the way to his place his friends call him and invite him to a romantic dinner party, he asks me if I want to join… I felt like I was dreaming this.. Gent is amazing city with some of the kindest people humanity has to offer. I ended up staying there for five days.
One foggy cold morning I finally hitch a ride out to Brussels, mind you still not being able to find a place to stay there. I get to Brussels and it turns out to be the worst place ever for filming The Truth Is… project. People are very snobby and don’t want you to approaching them speaking English, like in Paris. So after a few hours of disappointment and seeing the Moniken piss (the little pissing boy, who saved Brussels from Nazi’s bombs) I get to film a Russian couple around 60 year old who told me that they are from Brooklyn as well on vacation in Europe, and in three hours taking their rental Mercedes back to Dusseldorf Germany, about 5 hours driving, they came to see Brussels for a day or two. The guy says, well if you come by our hotel at the time we leave you can join us to Dusseldorf. Couldn’t be better, screw Brussels!!! (this was the destination mind you.. :). I am all exuberant like I am on LSD, head down into Brussels subway to kill time, film the “Subway people” project of mine (I have footage from most major cities around the world I’ve been to). At their hotel I see an internet terminal, free for the guests, I get on it and start sending out requests to couchsurfers in Dusseldorf, asking if they say yes to include their address and cell # so I can just call them and head out to them upon arrival.
Five hours later we are in Dusseldorf, they drop me off in a small town on the outskirt of the city. I quickly find internet cafe, log on, one guy says I can host you but tomorrow evening, luckily he includes his cell, and it’s around 6pm. I call him and tell him the situation, he says no problem, tell me directions to take a 2 euro rail and he will meet me up at the station. I didn’t see him so I headed out straight to his address. Ten fifteen minutes later he shows up at his door step and another five days of my life get spontaneous rendezvous in Dusseldorf. I hitch a ride to the capital of Germany – Berlin. Took about 6-7 hours, switching at least 7 cars/trucks and then a cheap 5 euro ride on the rail. I arrive in Berlin and my host picks me up from the train station, despite having a cold, shows me Berlin in his white Mercedes for 45 minutes as if I am the president of the world :). I have another five days of exuberance in Berlin, eating Turkish doner on the cheap, visiting art scenes and making friends right and left. Hitch a day’s worth trip back to Amsterdam switching so many cars/trucks I lost count… By the time I am back with my couchsurfing hosts in Amsterdam I realized that within these two weeks I only spent around 20-30 euros…
The basis of the US economy
By Bruce Levine.
Today an estimated 20 to 25 percent of Americans use psychiatric drugs; 10 to 15 percent are abusing alcohol and illegal psychotropic drugs; and 7 to 12 percent compulsively gamble. Millions more compulsively view television, video games and pornography; play the stock market; overeat; shop for things they don’t need and flee their helplessness and hopelessness in countless other ways. Increasingly, the US economy is based on diversions and anesthetization.
Nahida Hadeesh on Family and Parenting
Interview with Nahida Hadeesh, who is a social worker helping families going through hard times.
Family Matters
By: Renat Zarbailov
As I am traveling through the States on a road trip to film two film projects I am realizing something about the reason why kids in school become bullies and what makes them popular among their peers. One of the films is a documentary about foster care and children at risk that the creator wants to portray from a positive light. His name is Bill Schramm and he’s former foster youth who has done enough self-detriment in his younger years to get him into prison and being homeless for several years. Today he owns his own business and has been appointed by the Governor of Michigan to be part of the panel that works to improve foster care. Bill is also the guy I am traveling the US with for the next three months and I am learning a lot about family matters. The second film/social experiment is The Truth Is… (USA edition).
I used to be bullied in school during my teen years by one of my class peers and I always wondered why. He was both more popular and stronger than me since he had judo skills. I later found out that he was being raised without a father but I never paid attention to that. Only now I realize why he was so popular and why he always was angry in my eyes. The more popular the kid in school the better liar he is. He was always best at hiding his true feelings. The feelings he’d accumulate at home, he was hiding in school. However the built up feelings must go somewhere, so he found me as an outlet for it. I never told my parents about him picking on me, but I never felt completely myself when he was in sight. I wonder how I would feel if I ever see him again. This makes me realize how important it is for families to raise their children together no matter what hardships the family goes through. When the kid is already born, and one of the parents leaves the family, it is detriment to that kid and the kids around him. My being bullied by him had obvious lack of confidence effects on me even through college years. The kid that is raised without one parent, let alone both, will always ask himself, “Where’s justice?”, “How come I don’t have a family like everyone else?” This brings me to the conclusion that people who want to bring new life into this world should really ask themselves if they truly love each other before making that decision. Any new beginning must be initiated from love in my eyes. On the other hand, if the world would have been filled with perfect families, would it be interesting to live it? What do you think?
I welcome your comments…
Ideal Large-File Backup Solution
How to backup large files onto multiple optical discs.
As of November 2008 Blu-Ray disc still hasn’t reached affordability and speeds enough to consider it for backing up mission-critical large files such as video. Currently the cheapest 4X 25GB Blu-Ray disc hovers around $9/each , and that is only if bought five or more of them, otherwise it’s $15/each, and the 2X speed Blu-Ray discs, at $8/ea, are excruciatingly slow to write and read from. On the DVD+R DL scene there has, however, been pricing updates and write speed increases. Enter Verbatim DVD+R DL 2.4X-6X 8.5GB . At only $1.25, when bought in a spindle of 100, this is a reliable ad affordable. Verbatim has strong reputation for its quality, and now it is affordable as well.
So how does one burn a, say, 30GB AVI video onto an 8.5GB DVD+R DL?
Here is a simple and reliable tested approach; (You’d need a copy of the latest WinRar to do this as well as Nero 8 or later)
1. Right click over that 30GB AVI file and select “Add To Archive…” (provided you’ve already installed Winrar). Choose “Best” in the “Compression Method” pull down menu. In the “Split to volumes, bytes” pull-down menu type in 8250 mb. Hit OK. What WinRar will do is compress this video file into chunks of 8250 mb.
2. Place Verbatim DVD+R DL in your DVD burner, open Nero Burning ROM and choose DVD from the pull-down menu in the upper left corner, then scroll down to DVD-ROM (UDF/ISO) and select that option. Hit the “New” button, and once it opens up a new window drop the resulting 1st file that WinRar created from that AVI video.
3. Burn the disc. Label it disc 1. Repeat the procedure to burn the rest of the 8250 mb chunks. Store in a dark dust-free cool place, I prefer storing discs in a spindle.
Ira Glass on Storytelling
Here is Ira Glass of “This American Life”; talking about the building blocks of a great story.
