billhr's film blog - Archive

True Films eBook

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Under discussion:

The Films of Charles and Ray Eames [Video Series] Production Year

American Movie (1999)

Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey (1993)

The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill (2004)

New York Doll (2004)

Why We Fight (2004)

God Grew Tired of Us (2005)

Helvetica (2007)

True Films eBook

True Films is a list of 200 documentaries compiled by Kevin Kelly and is currently free to download at his site. If you are a fan of documentaries, I highly recommend this list. Docs in the list I am looking forward to seeing?:

Tags: documentaries,, kevin-kelly,, spout,, true, films,, ebook

Originally posted on:appliedthinking

Posted Friday, January 25, 2008 9:09 AM by billhr | with 0 comments

Sundance Film Festival 2008

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Under discussion:

Be Kind Rewind (2008)

Up the Yangtze (2007)

George Romero's Diary of the Dead (2007)

Where in the World is Osama bin Laden? (2007)

Sundance Film Festival

I’ve been in Park City for 6 days now and have only been able to see a handful of films (Up the Yangtze, Diary of the Dead, Be Kind Rewind and Where In The World Is Osama Bin Ladin?). Why? Too busy being the “suit” for Spout. I’ve been purposefully skipping some of the press screenings I’ve had scheduled to make time to talk to people within the industry. And by people in the industry, I’m not talking about celebrities. I’m talking about the people who get the work done at media companies, distributors, other film festivals, etc. Not that I don’t enjoy a celebrity sighting as much as the next guy. In fact, here is the list of people I have seen so far:

Oliver Stone
Maroon 5
Dennis Quaid
John Legend
Colin Firth
Livia Firth
Woody Harrelson
Morgan Spurlock
Colin Ferrel
Giada DeLaurentis
Rachel Dratch
Stanley Tucci
George Romero

And there are probably others, but as cold as it’s been around here, it is hard to recognize people with their hoods up and knit caps pulled low.

Tomorrow, we’re headed home. In the meantime, if you haven’t checked it out already, take a look at our blog and video coverage that has been presented by MySpace Film.

Originally posted on:appliedthinking

Posted Friday, January 25, 2008 9:09 AM by billhr | with 0 comments

2007 Technology Review: The stuff I use

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I hope this is still early enough into the new year that I can call this my 2007 Technology Review. The list of websites, software and hardware below are those that I had repeatedly gone back to or have purchase this past year.

Websites

Spout: Of course I hang out here, it’s the best place to discover movies - new and old, mainstream an obscure. Find me here (member since 2005).
LinkedIn: LinkedIn seemed to get really popular with my friends and business associates. I use this site to maintain my professional persona as well as use it to manage my business network. Find me here (member since 2004).
Facebook: As many of my friends are here, I try to keep up with them on a daily basis. This site is social for being social sake. Find me here (member since 2006).
Google Reader: I’ve gone through a number of feed readers over the past few years (including Bloglines and NewsFire), but Google Reader has been the best.
Twitter: All I can say is, haven’t gotten sick of Twitter yet. Find me here (first post on January 21, 2007)
Various blogs: Yes, I’ve been actively reading blogs since 2002 or so, which means I wasn’t an early adopter. But, I read a ton of them now. Check out my blogroll over here ? (or the right-side of my blog).
Blogging tools: I’ve gone from hosted accounts at Blogger, TypePad and now have finally come to rest, hosting my own account with Wordpress.

Software

Firefox v2.0.0.11: Browser of choice and using these add-ons - del.icio.us v1.2, Digg This! v.5, and Extended Statusbar v.1.2.6.
Aperture v1.5.6: I’ve been using Aperture since March 2007 when I received it as a gift at TED (Thanks Apple!). Previously I had been using the beta version of Adobe’s Lightroom and before that, iPhoto. Now I am 100% with Aperture, coupled with FlickrExport.
iWeb: All of my developer friends will wince at this, but I kinda like using iWeb. For those of us who only know rudimentary HTML, it is an easy to use WYSIWYG.
FileZilla: And since I think the fees for .Mac are exorbitant, I use FileZilla to publish my iWeb site.
Adium: Is there any better solution to having multiple IM accounts?
Quicken: Been a happy user of Quicken since 2002 or so, first with my PC and now with my Mac.
Galleon Server: This application helps me connect my Mac to my Tivo, search what is on the hard-drive, then download it.
TivoDecode Manager: Then, this app let’s me take those downloaded files from my Tivo and load them for my viewing pleasure on my iPod. “No Reservations” at 35,000 feet is a treat.
iTunes: Seriously, what else would I use?
Omnigraffle: Better than Visio.
MindManager: A great little tool for creating mind-maps and then translating them into projects via FastTrack.
FastTrack: Project management software.
Office for Mac: Nothing much to say about this, just that I’m hoping the 2008 upgrade is worth it.
DAplus: Helps me get fit by track my dietary intakes and creates a full nutritional analysis.

Hardware

Blackberry Curve (8300)
iPod Video (30 gig)
MacBook Pro: 2.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 3GB SDRAM and a 160 GB Hard-drive.
Flip Video (2 gig)
TeleNav: Used with their software for BlackBerry, this pack-of-gum sized GPS unit keeps me from getting lost.
Tivo Serie3 HD DVR

Old school habits

Moleskine: I’ve been using these for years, but mostly on and off. Right now, I’m on.
Hipster PDA: I’ve been using these for years too, but only within the past few (after re-reading GTD) have I been recommitted.
Retro 51 Pens

Things I’m exploring

Grand Central: This beta service (which was acquired by Google) provides some really useful features, but I just can’t get myself to commit yet. For something as fundamental as my phone, I want to understand what the costs will be down the road. Maybe I’d pay $15 a month for it?
VoIP: Anyone have any recommendation on what service to use or whether I should go down this path at all?
HDTV: Sure would make my new HD Tivo more fancy.

Originally posted on:appliedthinking

Posted Friday, January 25, 2008 9:09 AM by billhr | with 0 comments

Yeah, West Michigan!

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The Right Place, an economic development organization located in Grand Rapids, MI, developed this great little video in support of the greater West Michigan area (is that Benjamin Gott wearing sunglasses?). And the fact that it has been posted to YouTube means that people around here are finally getting the “embed and spread” philosophy. Check it out. The community around here has some really great potential. We just need to get people (everyone from investors to regular Joe’s) adopting a growth mentality. But more on that later.