News from Here & There

Getting Busy
Today, some articles about creativity and how to get your project off the ground:

Chase Jarvis: 7 Habits for Creativity + The Missing Link
1. Get into adventures. Instead of saying no, say yes. Whether it’s agreeing going to the South China Sea or to Sundance festival or the grocery store. 

2. Devour popular culture. Examine the work of other artists, movies, books, magazines, the interwebs.
[...]
And once you have the inspiration, you want to think about how you go about it. Sheri offers an interesting set of suggestions that applies to anyone embarking on a project, whether they are using crowdfunding or not.


Sheri Candler: Top 5 Ways to Fail at Crowdfunding
I do get frustrated by the ones who contact me because they have embarked without thinking through the strategy or they are very close to the time limit and very far from their goal. I thought it might be helpful to list out some ways to fail in this endeavor so you can be sure to avoid these mistakes.
This post prompted a followup at DocumentaryTech which adds another four things NOT to do:
Don’t find a subject that hasn’t already been done to death. Documentary filmmaking seems deeply trend-driven, always with a topic of the moment that seems to be wallpapering film festivals and other outlets. A filmmaker can certainly bring a unique and superior look to an all-too-familiar topic, but at the beginning, it’s just the topic.
DocumentaryTech: Failing at crowdfunding, documentary edition




Reviews
atFirstSight takes a look at the Philip Bloom PocketDolly, and finds it to be a well made, though expensive option: Philip Bloom PocketDolly | In-depth Review
Thomas Baurain takes a look at the Magic Bullet Denoiser, a digital filter that reduces video noise. He likes it.




What to do with your old AppleTV
Following on from the success of the new AppleTV, what are owners of the original AppleTV to do? MacWorld comes up with some suggestions. [Since I have one, I'm particularly interested in this, and I'm debating the idea of upgrading the hard drive. The original AppleTV's internal drive can be a useful feature.]
MacWorld: Five things to do with your old Apple TV

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