The obligatory iPhone post

Life, London, Music, Review No Comments
A café on a street corner in London

I’m sitting in Spitalfields drinking coffee and getting used to writing on the iPhone’s touch interface. I’m keeping it short as there’s no copy and paste, and there’s little that’s not been written already about this particular toy, sorry, piece of high consumer technology.

Suffice to say I’m loving the cocktail of connectivity and syncronisation, ease of use and rich media experience. I like the way it has got software developers excited and brought a unity to the mobile platform which has been sadly lacking in all my previous smart phones.

It is not without its flaws - again, well documented elsewhere, but perhaps most significantly the charge that it is a closed and tethered device that could threaten creativity and/ or go towards creating a new Market monopoly. But I sincerely hope that it acts as a catalyst to other makers of mobile devices creating truly usable interface. The iPhone has moved the goalposts, now it just needs worthy opponents on the field.

On a more personal note, this is actually my first iPod and I haven’t enjoyed listening to music so much since I stopped buying vinyl. I think this is because it brings a sense of intimacy with the record back into the experience, where other players have made a music collection feel like a set of data files - still possible to enjoy as music, but despite the interface rather than because of it.

Our film on Jay-Z

Life, Multimedia, Music, TV No Comments

Last year one of the first films I worked on from start to finish at Isis was our Classic Albums film on Jay-Z’s 1996 debut, Reasonable Doubt.

I’m pleased to say that the long awaited UK Premiere is tomorrow, on BBC Two, Friday 4th July at 23.35hrs.

As far as I’m aware I’m credited as Production Assistant, which entailed helping to get all the parties together. This year my work has started to develop - I’ve been developing my own ideas for shows, starting to pitch them to broadcasters and developing partnerships with other organisations.

And of course one of the exciting areas I’m working in is where collaboration and the culture of the web can meet and cross-fertilise with some of the qualities that long-form film and broadcast bring to the table. Qualities which I hope are evident in our film on Jay-Z.. Let me know in the comments box!

I’ll update this post when I know its URL Sorry to say, this won’t be on BBC’s iPlayer but is available on DVD if you would like to see it.

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