CTV - The threat that made no sense.

I was not surprised to see Bell and Rogers on the front page of the Toronto Star this morning scrapping like school boys right in front of the headmaster. The head master in this case is the chair of the CRTC, Konrad von Finckenstien. His patients obviously under duress as he tried to understand the lame plea of CTV's, Paul Sparkes that the business model of the CTV stations is "broken" in this economy. They need fees for local stations to augment their broken business model. Yeah, right.

Rogers says, "Ya, rite!" They feel that there is no reason that CTV should get anymore than they do from advertising. After all, Rogers provides them the means to reach viewers, what they do to capitalize on them is up to the broadcaster, not the cable carrier. It is not like this is a new model. CTV lined up with every other major player to get coverage on local carriers like Rogers and told the CRTC that it was a fool-proof business model...and guess what? On that basis, they were granted licenses for local broadcast. They were not dragged into it. They saw it as a license to print money. Now, as the world of TV changes, CTV finds themselves in a situation where they have waaaaaaaaaay too much overhead, waaaaaaaaay too little focus on what media means in this day and age, and no signs of shrinking their top-heavy executive to "fix their broken business model". No. They want more money. They do not want to remap their business at all. They want the head master to find in their favor and make Rogers hand over cash for content on their cable systems.

Prepare to see more of this kind of volleying near the net. Last year Jim Shaw sent SHAWkwaves when he, a distributor of cable and satellite broadcast, started to shut down broadcasters on his system stating he wanted a larger slice of the consumer pie. What a cowboy. Why do I like him so much?

It seems that these broadcasters' eyes are shut tight about the realities of TV business in this era of content-everywhere and a million channel universe that they (CTV and others) created out of sheer greed and not the need for more varied content.

When I hear that the CRTC and I are both frustrated about the same thing I have to scratch my head. That rarely happens. As a producer, I am constantly amazed with the CRTC's ability to let these big guys get away with murder. Today I felt like I was sitting on the same page as the commission saying: " Please. You guys fix it yourself. You wanted the local licenses so if you don't use them, we will give them to other parties." I hope they do. Local TV could use a resurrection in the worst way right now and CTV seems blind to any solutions that may work.

RedFish now offers financing on all corporate projects.

Staring this week, RedFish will begin to work with companies who have the mandate to integrate video into their marketing, training or outreach programs. To this point, corporate video was something companies had to add to their fiscal budgets in one large sum all a one time. We feel that having to accommodate a new line in the corporate budget, especially for young or small businesses that are trying to get an edge on their competition, was more than some could take on all at once.

Our solution is a simple one: Now you can finance your corporate video, music video, event coverage and finance the project with us - INTEREST FREE for the first year. After that you pay only 2% financing fees on the remaining amount. There are no penalties for early payment and no personal guarantees are needed if your company qualifies.

Now you can afford to build video into your business plan. Create a commercial for TV or the web, an informercial....whatever you need to put your business in the winning position.

Find out more today: Contact Mike Wixson 416 593 8881, ext 25 or email mike@redfishentertainment.com

Is Technology going to sacrifice the art of video and film?

If you follow the Official Google blog about the future of video you will not get much to read. Essentially, their opinion is that video online in the future will "become more ubiquitous than ever" due to the constantly falling price of the technology required to capture and edit video. "Consumers will become creators". These guys have not seen the video my dad shoots. Good luck keeping your head if he's behind the camera.

While I do agree with this sentiment, I don't think that more people shooting and editing video will replace good judgment of what is good content and what is not. More out there simply means more to pick through to get to what you want. The 500 channel universe is already showing us that. Now multiply that by a half-billion content providers... sure you content choices are limitless at that point, but really who wants to wade through a bunch of targeted, home-made shows about whatever? It seems unlikely.

On the other hand... video will most likely become more "ubiquitous" than you can imagine in places like community information site, educational online offerings, and even within affinity groups as I have mentioned before in this blog. Will it replace compelling, high-quality programming and content? No. It will simply drive it into a pay-per-play business space that filters out the garbage and subscribes you to the programming you want for entertainment.

Yes, technology makes creating video more accessible. Yes, technology is making new ways to make video look cool much easier. Yes, technology is bringing down the cost...until you want to watch something dramatic, something epic, or even just content that required sets you will find yourself yearning for real entertainment-budget content.

Sorry, Joe Video Camera, your name in lights is still far, far in the distance.

I am just wrapping. Tell me your thoughts.

Mike Wixson

RedFish Studios

mike@redfishentertainment.com

(Please remember your local food bank)

"It's Just Business" An excuse to be a jerk?

Have you ever been in a situation where someone was justifying their actions by saying these simple words: "It's not personal. It's just business."? This is something I am sure any of us can say we have at least overheard. You ever think about this statement? It basically means: "I could not give a crap about you personally and you might as well just hand me your money or I have no need for you".

When someone says something like this to me I almost instantly disregard doing business with them. I do not want the business of someone who disregards that I run a business that affects the lives of many people... PERSONALLY. If you say that it's only business you are likely justifying an underhanded or greed-infused bit of business that you have embarked upon.

Sure, a business needs to run like one, but let me tell you there are a lot of businesses out there and a lot of clients. I choose to find the partners out there who will first focus on the project, the quality of service or the general outcome of our work together before having to justify their actions by believing that it's "only business" in their own minds.

The other truth about this statement is that you will usually hear it immediately after you have discovered that someone has taken advantage of you. It is usually a dishonorable aftershock.

Use your business mind, but remember you are a PERSON. You deal with PEOPLE. They have PERSONS they are responsible for feeding and clothing..etc... If you are justifying your means with the good ol' "It's just business" line, you need to re-evaluate your approach to life, not just business.

Watch out for these people: Their M.O. is take advantage of you and your business. Your only defense will be to not do business with them. They will shut you down without caring.

Have a great day.

Back in Production with ManUp!

The whole gang is here! We are shooting seven more episodes of ManUp! for MenTV this weekend. There are over 25 crazy challenges and almost a hundred guy-based trivia questions all that will lead to our newest batch of ManUp! Champions.

Our winners win a legit wrestling-style belt to boast about forever more.

This might be a good time for me to mention to great people who make this show. I am not trying to name everyone here, so if you got missed, let me know and I will update this blog. Here we go:

The guys who first thought of the idea:

Denzil Wadds and Tim Keenleyside (Fingerprint Communications) They write the show with howard and work with us to develop new concepts for the show.

Nicki Traikos - She is the world's best on-set make-up artist. Also a valued member of our team on many, many other projects.

Angela Schermaul - Angela is the post-production wizard that makes the show sing! She is a very talented editor, but more than that: she has vision for what a show should look like to make it the most compelling it can be.

Andrew Newton - You might have read about him in this blog. Andrew is in charge of all productions at RedFish - Poor guy has to watch over as many as 10 simultaneous projects and ensure they are delivered technically perfect. A challenge set out for only the best.

Tarik Pirbhai - Tarik is a source of calm. He is my counter-part in charge of running the actual business. He is not all numbers...Tarik is a creative soul who looks out for everyone on our team everyday.

Our Camera and Audio guys are the best. Not only are they totally pro at what they do, they are a constant source of laughter and fun. They are the ultimate crew for TV. Many thanks, guys.

Each week we have some of the most intellectual and hard working PAs you will ever find. To all of those folks...many thanks for your efforts.

This is a good time to mention our host, co-director and co-writer: Howard Glassman. Better known as Humble Howard, he is the driving force behind the fun that ManUp! is. He make me mental with his desire to freak out the network, but that is part of what makes ManUp! so much fun to watch.

And I leave this guy for last because without him....no show: Rob Pagetto, our in-house head of production projects like TV shows, and large corporate projects. He gets every detail of Man-Up worked out and ready to go for every shoot. Not to mention he is the floor director for ManUp! as well.

Here we go....seven more and this season is done.

Many thanks to everyone who participated ....OH Don Gaudet..at MenTV. Thanks for buying the show! Without you....well...it's obvious.

Mike

Live photostream from the show:

Andrew's Studio Adventures

Andrew Newton is a man of systems. He envisions how things will work, he plans what has to be done to make it work and then he figures out how to do it when Tarik sees the budget and cuts it in half! This is a very special skill Andrew has.

A bit of background, Mr. Newton is a design grad, so he has an eye for imagery and space. He graduated and got what all respectable graphic design grads get... he was A&R'd by Nettwerk Records digital division, Nettmedia, and got a job at that prominent music label. Nettmedia placed Andrew at their client EMI Music to teach them about this new thing to them called the Internet. As a web savant in the early, early days of internet broadcast he ran the ongoing broadcast at Virtually Canadian (The worlds first 24/7 online radio station). After that for years Andrew sold digital marketing solutions to agency's and publishers; while planning his next big move. During this time Andrew honed in on a trend that was not nearly the buzz-word it is today-SEO. Andrew approached me with a rich SEO idea and I said: "Enough of that...let's make TV shows..." He has been around in the reaching-masses biz as a lead-thinker for a long time.

Now Andrew is our General Manager. This means he is in charge of everything that gets produced from a delivery-perspective. From studio shoot to satellite feed, Andrew is the guy who runs the show.

This interview should be interesting because I drive him crazy and this is the last thing he wants to do today. He is a pretty busy guy.

Andrew!!! Andrew....got a sec?

Andrew: "No."

Mike: "Catch you later?"

Andrew: "No."

I have a plan to get this interview...Chocolate. Off to Mac's for a treat....

Mike: Hey Andrew... What made you decide to get into broadcast production?

Andrew (eating chocolate like a bat eats a grape) : "You did. Remember?"

Mike: Oh, yeah.. What do you remember the early days of RedFish being like.

Andrew (laughing): I don't remember them.

Mike: All a blur, huh?

Andrew: Crunching numbers in Tarik's office about a project we are still working on called Broadcast SEO. Do you have any idea how relevant that search string will become?

Mike: What have we done since then? That you can recall in less than 15 seconds. Go!

Andrew: (laughing). We went from making commercials you would see on WUTV in 1988 to a company that just won an international award for a commercial we produced about Gonnorrhea...and somehow we have produced 54 half-hour TV shows that are pretty compelling; and 26 that are dry, yet informative. We have come a long way.

Mike: What made you first believe we were going to pull this off?

Andrew: That's not a fair question. You didn't even know this was going to happen. You just needed something to sell (laughing).

Mike: How did we build a sound stage in 14 days to get ready to shoot Man-up!?

Andrew: You grinding us. You drove us. Although people love me at first, it soon becomes apparent that I expect results.

Mike: But you had a plan.

Andrew: Sure I spent three fucking months planning every nut, every bolt, every squirt of green glue. Then, of course, Tarik said, "No. Do it for half". ...and it still kicks ass!

Mike: Brag a bit about it.

Andrew: Well....it is built for sound. For such high and open working space, there is almost no reverberation. We are in a reasonably size space, we can handle over 24,000k of lights, we shoot live to drive with as many as 5 cameras. We hit ground running 14 days after we started building the studio because we had to. Now we have an excellent studio space for rent, did I mention its air-conditioned? End of story.

Mike: What are your pride points in the company?

Andrew: I like the executive. I like the creative nature of the company. All the problems I will ever have at work revolve around how many tools I want us to have and the scope of our projects will dictate that I get the tools I need when I need them.

Mike: What does the future hold?

Andrew: More entertainment. The only thing the future wants is more entertainment.

And you will find it starting November 22 at 6:30 on SunTV. Good plug?

Mike: Brilliant. How was my interview?

Andrew: Not bad. I'm not a real fan of "what the future holds" kind of questions. Can I go back to work now?

Well that's Andrew for you, folks. Gotta love him. He is a good and honorable man. I hope you have the privilege of working with him soon.

Renaissance Man for a New Age

You may know Humble Howard as the consummate morning radio host. He redefined what a morning man does when he arrived in Toronto so many years ago to be teamed up with Fred Patterson to become the dynamic duo....HUMBLE & FRED. You may also know Howard from his many years on television in Toronto - Ed The Sock comes to mind right away. He is still pulling big numbers along with his morning show team including Colleen Rusholme, Kim Stockwood and Rick Hodge at EZ Rock in Toronto. All of this is quite well known about Howard.

But there is more. Much more. For the last two years Humble Howard (Howard Glassman) has been working with RedFish Studios as a lead hand in creating and devloping a number of TV shows that are picking up steam in Canada and other markets around the world.

We first contacted Howard to be the host of ManUP! It seemed like a long shot because the show was so...um.... ridiculous. It required a host with Lettermanesque people skills and the ability to keep the show moving. " If only we could get Humble Howard...", I recall saying. One email later to Howard and he was in. Not just to be the host, but to write it, and co-direct it. He has incredible vision for this show and three seasons later, it seems to be going strong. The show is a riot. You can see video and pics at manuptv.blogpot.com whenever you get a minute.

It did not stop with ManUP! Howard quickly began to dig in as one of the creative forces at RedFish behind shows like The Spirited Chef with Christopher Woods (who still appears on Howard's morning radio regularly), and now The Last Bride Standing.

You may think of Howard as a funny guy. He is. You may think of him as a performer. He certainly is. You may not, right away, realize that he is also a savvy broadcast businessman, a creative director and a dedicated producer behind the scenes.

He is driven like very few individuals I have met in this industry. He is an incredibly hard worker putting in as many as 15 hours a day between EZ Rock and RedFish Studios. Why? He has vision that is motivated by his desire to entertain the masses...even if he is not in front of the camera.

Howard is the Executive Producer who watches over the development of all of our new projects as well as delivering the shows we are in production with.

Humble Howard reminds me what we should tell every person entering the broadcast business: "You are going make enormous efforts or fail." He makes enormous efforts and the results are amazing. Sure is he a great radio personality, but that is just a glimpse of who Howard is. He is truly a renaissance man for our era of broadcast.