What is Free?

OK.  This is the last product post for awhile.  The reason why I am including it is simple.  We, as media producers, are always yammering about how to actually make money off of our creations. Recent theory seemed to be: give it away now and then someday you'll be able to charge for it or get ad revenue...... now everyone is talking about social and using social to make money.  I still think that sometimes it's just better to make a good product and for people to PAY FOR IT.

Red Giant (and Stu Maschwitz) created a neat product awhile ago, Plastic Bullet, the first (that I know of) iPhone app for easily applying looks to your iPhone photos.  Totally worth paying for, yes?  Hmmm, then some other company came along and made a "free" product along the same lines, supported by annoying adds in the interface, promoted the heck out of it and got some VC money.  It's a fine product, and if you want to get tied into that company's social media experience (which they are no doubt working very hard at monetizing) go for it.  But do I really need a log in to play with some images I've taken with my phone and then wonder how yet another area of my life is being harvested electronically?

Personally, I just want to take pictures and use a clean interface to have fun with them.  And maybe send a couple to friends....and not have every aspect of my personal creativity/relationships commoditized.

Anyway, Plastic Bullet is on sale for a few days at the iTunes store for $.99.  I own it and, despite the recent spate of Red Giant posts, have no relationship with them.  Their products just keep crossing my path recently and I still like to root for the little guy because, well, I'm a little guy.

Also, I recently completed a substantive project using Colorista II.  A post will be coming soon about the good, the not so good and the just plain different of using it versus other color grading products.  I have sent a couple of emails to Stu asking about some technical questions I have about the product. My biggest concern is how it clamps video to make it what appears to broadcast safe.  Hopefully, I will hear back from him before I do the post.