Hip to be Square?

Hip to be Square?

By Jim Hleba, MDI

Hip to be square?  It is now with the new easy to use credit card scanner! MDI now has the ability to take credit cards for all sales.  Square is a system designed for iPhone, iTouch, iPad, and some Android phones to take credit card payments.  MDI is now able to utilize this amazing payment system to help simplify and also make payment more convenient for our customers. Created by the co-founder of twitter, Jack Dorsey, in response to the lack of stable dependable credit card transactions for small businesses. The service has been tested and has passed security standards set by PCI. PCI sets the national standards of saftey for transactions of credit cards and other digital forms of payment.  Representatives at Square say that they monitor every transaction to ensure no fraud is happening by either party. It is an excellent new payment method available to anyone who would like to make a purchase with MDI, for no extra charge. Square is reliable, stable, and safe for all parties involved in the transaction. The use of square presents opportunities to all parties, making payment more convenient, and in some cases more affordable.  With the flexibility of credit card payment, customers no longer have to worry about having a little wiggle room if they go over budget. With square it is possible to have business transactions away from the office.  Even on shoots and services deep in the field credit card payment is available. Also, the customer no longer has to worry about their information being shared or recorded. Although an email address or phone number is required for each transaction, it is neither stored nor visible by the merchant. It goes straight to square.  Square doesn’t store any of your information, except a picture of you for merchant verification, if you choose.  It is audited every six months and has a former member of PayPal security on the security board. Square has made it a point to be secure as possible and has a couple of fraud prevention programs and measures in place. When you make a purchase using square, you can be 100% confident that your payment, and information is safe. The under writing of the software encrypts your card information to the same strict standards used by bank transactions.

Check out their site: https://squareup.com/

Adding a Table for your filmmaking Tool Kit?

By Jim Hleba, MDI

Adding a tablet to your filmmaking tool kit? Trying to decide whether to go with an iPad, or an Android pad? How do the two compare to each other? In this article we will take a look at two tablets, and discuss the benefits of adding one to your kit. The first slate reviewed was the Zenithink ZT 180 running the Android  2.1 operating system. It has a slightly larger screen than the iPad, but other than that, the two look more or less identical. It runs well, and because the Android market is not closed coding like the App store, there are a lot more open source apps, but not that many really have anything to do with filmmaking.  I did find one open source free app for the Android that I see being very useful on any shoot. It is called Acacia, and it does many wonderful things. It is a shot logger, optics calculator, scene organizer, slate clapboard, and even includes a flash light feature! The program is still in development, but so far from what I have tested, all the calculators are accurate, and the way it organizes your shot data is phenomenal.  You would have to try very hard to be unorganized while using this bit of software. The only gripe of the app is the slate which is quite lame, while still functional. This is a known problem and the developer is still working on it. All in all, this app alone should make you want to add a tablet to your kit. Along with that, the tablet can also be used for reviewing scripts via pdf reader. There is even an app that for $0.99 you can use the tablet as a teleprompter and control all the functions! If you get a model with a camera, the tablet can even be used as a light meter! The Android tablet is a very powerful tool, but it has some downfalls. The major one is battery life.  The model we tested only has a battery life of 5 hours. Some models claim to have better battery life. Again, this is a model specific issue but the touch screen is not multi touch. The other thing we noticed is sometimes it is a little laggy if you try and run multiple actions simultaneously. All in all, here at MDI we see the Android as very functional and a great tool, aside from a few hardware and spec short comings.

The iPad is beautiful and interesting piece of technology.  Overall in basic operations, the iPad is far superior to the Zenithink ZT 180. The operating system runs smoother, the battery life is around ten hours of use, the screen has slightly better picture quality, and the multi touch screen is so good it can be typed on. The shortcomings of the iPad come in the form of what is available in the app store. There are multiple clapboard slate apps, but they are all rudimentary and cost at least $5. There is one sort of okay logger but it cost $19, and is very inferior to the free open source loggers on the Android market. The teleprompter apps are quite expensive, around $19 and not nearly as good as the $0.99 app for the Android. Also there are no apps for optic calculator, along with many other tools. The iPad shines in the script writing and reviewing department. The app store offers a very good app called Celtx for around $19 that lets you write and story board your script. Overall all computing the iPad wins hands down, but for the specific use of filmmaking the Android pad wins surprisingly.

Both devices are useable and each has their own list of benefits. For the more budget conscious film maker the Android is the obvious choice. The iPad is definitely very usable, but will cost significantly more by the time you purchase all the apps needed. Neither device is a replacement for a conventional laptop. A laptop has superior computing power as well as the ability to edit footage. A tablet is a very useful tool, and is worth the investment to find its way into your kit. 

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S: A Superman Fan Film

S: A Superman Fan Film is currently on pre-production, slated for production in January 2011 is a short fan film produced by Media Design Imaging, directed by Johnny K. Wu with script written by George Tutie and Jim Geier. The fan film is MDI’s team tribute to the great hero of DC comics, and it is planned to be shot entirely at Creative House Studios and their free market permanent green screen studios.

The studio recently has added wire-works for stunt works which S is heavily used, you can see on several pictures attached here on our wire-rig testing on Nov 7^th, 2010 with the different actors.

S: A Superman Fan Film

Written by George Tutie and Jim Geier

Directed by Johnny K. Wu

Produced by Johnny K. Wu, Kyle Znamenak, Peter Sampson and Cynthia Graham

Superman played by George Tutie

Lois Lane played by Donna Williams

Brainiac played by Kyle Znamenak

Lex Luther played by E Ray Goodwin Jr.

Mugger played by Zachary Rowe

Costume designed by Joe Fiorella

VFX Supervisor Nick Fiorella

Stunt Safety/Coordinator: Andrew Sokol

Editing by Johnny K. Wu and Andrew Sokol

Crew: Jim Hleba, Justin Glanville, Andrew Schofiel, and many others.

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vYOU.com

            Vyou.com is a very interesting new social media site that is almost like a combination of twitter and chatroulette. It turns video conferencing into an almost video text message. For the average at home user it does not really seem like a useable platform, but to businesses and celebrities, it appears to be a great tool. A customer or fan could simply type in a question, and then the owner of the profile is notified and they can answer the question by recording a short video. It is pretty simple and clean site that shows a lot of potential. Due to the fact of its recent launch, very few big users have become members to the site.

The creators of the site said that they have a strict monitoring system in place, and vow that they will not let their site become porn. Other than porn, the creators say that their technology is open to be used for whatever purpose people find useful. The concept of the web site is very entertaining, promising what appears to be direct communication between stars and their fans.  The site seems to be particularly promising to users of video enabled smart phones. Also  the site maybe taken advantage by families with a soldier abroad. The

way the communication works, a family member or friend can send their soldier a message, and when the solider has an opportunity to use the web, they can respond to their messages via video recording. Only time will tell if this technology will be useful or just a novelty.

            The sky is the limit for the possibilities of the site. Many predict it will be taken very seriously by people in the marketing realm, and will be yet another medium that advertisers will jump at the chance to broadcast their messages to viewers across. Only time will tell for sure what the fate of this interesting new concept of the site is, but many see it becoming successful and a useful tool for many applications.

vYOU.com

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Vyou.docx (311 KB)

Is Social Media real?

Found this article that I recommend all to check it out. Especially the sidebar listing:

It seems that everywhere I turn, social media comes up. Independent producers as well as top studios look to harness social media to raise awareness for their productions. Customers are using it to talk about products and companies they love -- and hate. People look to re-establish their personal networks during tough economic times. Heck, your mother (or your kids) may be connected to you on Facebook.

• SIDEBAR: WHY BOTHER WITH SOCIAL MEDIA?

Because it's worth it. Here are a few statistics about the size of social media:

96% of Generation Y uses social networks.

If Facebook were a country, it would be the fourth largest.

300,000+ businesses have a Facebook page.

Dell has sold $3 million dollars of computers on Twitter.

Only 18% of TV campaigns generate a return on investment.

Ford Motors spends 25% of its marketing budget on social media -- and didn't need a government bailout.

The average American watches 124 videos per month online

70% of 18-34 year olds watch TV on the web -- but only 35% use a TiVo.

24 out of 25 of the top newspapers are experiencing record declines.

read more here:

http://magazine.creativecow.net/article/social-media-is-it-real

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Sent via iPad

Johnny Wu

Www.mdifilm.com

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