DEAD BLOG : blog.jasonzada.com

Showtime tries something a bit new. You can watch the season premiere of both Dexter and Californication, right now on your computer, way before they air on TV. Very cool. Imagine what this will be like when viewers will actually money to be VIPs? To see shows earlier than they air will be more steps towards the premiumization of content.

No, not the Dustin Hoffman movie, but a cool interactive film. Nicely done. If only it loaded for me. Hmm.

When I heard that a digital SLR that could have interchangeable lenses was going to shoot HD video, I shrugged. “You don’t shoot video with a SLR”, I thought. Then, the more I thought about it and the more I read about it, the idea of shooting video that is 24 high rez frames a second, I started to get excited. I researched the Nikon D90 and read more and more, realizing that this was just the beginning. Sony was coming out with one, Panasonic was coming out with a line and most importantly, everyone was waiting for Canon’s response. 

Yesterday Canon announced their new 5D Mark II, which will in fact record full resolution HD video and it has a line in for audio (much missing from the D90). The only thing Canon screwed up royally was that they made the camera record in 30 fps. To most filmmakers, 24 fps is film/film like, 30 is video. All that aside, and since there enough blogs you can read with people bitching about it, what all of this is going to do and what I had hoped, is that it will change how people capture video. It will change the level of quality the average consumer can capture as well. Just like the digital SLR killed the film market, I have a strange feeling that this will be a shift in how people will make films. Additionally, with Flickr allowing video and the pure notion of shooting a still photo that now moves a bit and has audio, the way we will experience “moments” will most likely change. I am always excited in life by big changes in mostly anything. With change comes new challenges, innovation and a new way of brilliance. 

Had an incredible time down in Santa Monica and Venice. While the rest of the LA and the valley cooked at 90+ temperatures, the beach towns were nice and perfect. I met with a lot of incredible people who gave me a ton of their valuable time. Lots of great food, good conversation and a whole lot to think about.

Amazing new mix tape from the brilliant Diplo. A month ago I started getting into Santogold as well. Great combination. You will not take this off your stereo. Promise. Track 20 that features M.I.A. has been on repeat in my car the last week. Download it here while you can.

Recently I directed the video for a project called Dork Dodge for JCPenny. It’s a fun, simple game that features a variety of people you will typically meet in college. It was targeted at college freshman girls. The video are random, so you will see a bunch of different videos each time you play.

Back in 1994, I bought a domain name for a record label I was starting. Manipulation.com. At the time, I could have registered anything on the face of the earth. There were thousands of one word domains available, but I chose this one.  In 1998, a dude named Greg Hipwell and I launched a site called Spiff. It made it into the Communication Arts Interactive Design Annual and onto the front page of the NY Times Technology section. Manipulation has become many things over the years but over the last 8 years has more or less died off. The domain has actually been down for 2 years, so last night I decided to resurrect it. We shall see that it becomes.