I recently noticed an article in the Oakland Tribune, entitled “New Film Industry Springs up in East Bay.Tthe gist of the piece was that talented artists in the San Francisco metropolitan area, employing the new video tools, have founded warehouse studios in Oakland’s industrial sector. I’ve driven past some of these studios and wondered “wassup.” Now I have at least some sense. Maybe the same is going on where you live?

By the way, if you are doing video and haven’t already seen this announcement, AtomFilms is sponsoring a contest on behalf of Intel. In brief, contestants must “Submit an original film, music video or animation (“Film”) based on the theme of “magic wand” … (before) November 21.” Entrants must use an Intel processor somewhere in the production. Read the rules and check out the prizes. I first noticed this in MediaPost.

Changing thoughts, last week I commented on an article in the Columbia Journalism Review. Written by columnist-turned-teacher Steve Twomey, the piece entitled, “The Vanishing Columnist,” lamented that the great newspaper columnists of yesteryear have not yet been replaced by voices who could speak to and for their regions. In a blog entitled “The Columnist Revolution,” I suggested that maybe the future of this sort of writing may be many, many citizen journalists who will speak to and for the narrower audiences that exist in today’s fragmented world of ideas. Through an editor at CJR, I passed the blog on to Twomey who said I was free to print his response:

“While I appreciate what kind words you did say about my CJR piece, I suggest you read it again. It quite clearly says that being a metro columnist is harder than ever because cities are not at what they were, in part because they have been swept by waves of immigration and in part because they are just so damn big and fragmented. It also quite clearly says that perhaps Metro columnists need to emulate the blogosphere and get more pointed. It’s amazing to me how you, (Dan) Gillmor and all the other missionaries for the web turn every moment and every issue into a proof that what’s really wrong with print is that it’s print.”

Tom Abate
MiniMediaGuy
Cause if you ain’t Mass Media, You’re Mini Media