Eight competing video formats?

Jack Schofield presents a lists of eight competing formats for the attention of video consumers. Eight? Isn't that just nuts, even for video?

But is it less or more confusing than that? He gets 8 by adding up all the storage mediums - miniDV tape, small format DVD disks, built in hard drives or flash memory - then doubles it (HD vvs standard definition) to get eight.

Which is grandstanding just a little, if you ask me. And why stop there? Why not look at the types of High Definition, or windows versus Quicktime formats, or the different codecs... Suddenly the 8 is looking a little slim. Perhaps like chaos theory, the answer comes down to the level of detail you choose to look at - like the classic problem of measuring a coastline. Do you measure around every peddle, at low tide or high tide? How much detail do you include?

Anyway, Jack's 8 does point to a basic truth - turbulent times are upon us. For the consumer and for the video professional both.

However, his article contains the basic fallacy number one of people brought up in the analogue era. The existence of competing formats, he says, "raises the question of whether you will still be able to view your movies in 10 or 20 years' time."

Er, nope. That's one question that it doesn't raise. However you capture to the device you hold in your hand the destination is always the same - onto a computer hard drive. Edit. Back out to - well, whatever format is available at the time.

Once in the digital domain we are far freer from formats and devices than we ever were in the analogue era. Maybe Jack will join us at some point?

Meconopsis make-over

Justin Morgan followed the discussion about the idents, and added some thoughtful comments (see this SimplyDV thread). One thing led to another, and Justin has ended up doing an entire makeover for Meconopsis! Good news indeed.

When the first draft design came through, we just knew this was perfect. He'd taken the Meconopsis idea, thought about the purpose and image of the firm, and produced a simplified, clean design that summed up the kind of image we want to present to the world. So, instead of just a new ident, we've got a whole corporate feel and design - letterheads, business cards, library box and on-disk designs... the whole shebang.


For those who don't know Justin's day job is for a large corporate graphic design company (which I'll mention if he wants me to!) and he's interested in writing scripts and producing his own short films, hence his input into Simply DV. Hopefully he'll go independent some time - in which case the space for his website will go here:

... with a strong recommendation from us. He handled the whole process with consumate professionalism, listened closely to our feedback, incorporated ideas, and above all was able to produce clear clean visual design. As you can tell, we're happy bunnies.



Some feedback:

"That's a lovely piece of graphic design, folks. It gives the business a "million dollar" impression. Excellent! (I'm jealous - looking for more business Justin?).

Colin Barratt, video journalist and boss at Simply DV

"Strong, bold, stylish, clean lines, beautiful font, high impact whilst retaining all the classic subtleties you originally aspired to. Shall I go on? (I could (easily) - simple, blue, deep, elegant ...) "

Fiona, video-stills artist