THE QUICKTIMING DUO
by Michelle Bienias
Kevin Quinn and Clifford VanMeter are the founders behind the recently launched QuickTiming.org, an apt moniker for this site devoted to what they call the holy grail of interactive multimedia. Both are self-confessed QuickTime geeks who plan to enlighten the broader developer population on the scope and power of this underutilized killer app.
They plan to promote QuickTime technology as a whole, recruiting both new and experienced users by luring them with tutorials and hardware reviews, but the main aim is provide a community for QuickTime users. Currently, the site features several tutorials (DVD Ripping in OSX, Creating DVD-like Menus, How to Make a Movie) with more planned and on the way – contributors are welcome. The team expects that as the greater QuickTime community’s awareness of their site grows, contributions and lively discussions will follow.
Just three months old, the site’s clean structure belies the wealth of information it contains. With feature articles, news, video interviews, tutorials, reviews of books and hardware and software, job listings and a forum, the site is sure to be frequented regularly by anyone involved with Quicktime.
The men expected that the QuickTime community, known for being very open and helpful, would support them in their venture; a belief that was reinforced when they asked for sponsors so they could attend MacWorld in early January. They credit companies like Sorenson, eZedia, iView and Movieworks for stepping up to the plate, not only for the MacWorld tour but also with site contributions and advisory services. Of course, Kevin and Cliff only received such a hearty response because of their prior work in the industry.
Cliff worked in New York as a comic artist and illustrator for several years before moving to Hollywood doing visual effects and animation, where he discovered the wonders of QuickTime while working on a webcast fantasy serial for a QuickTime TV channel. He joined Playbox Media, an interactive media developer in the Midwest, in 2001, where he met and collaborated with Kevin to create advanced interactive QuickTime movies using Livestage Pro.
Kevin got involved in commercial photography in 1991 and began experimenting with QTVR in 1998, doing his first automotive interior panorama for GM later that year. He joined Playbox in 2000, producing all the QTVR interiors and exteriors for Ford’s website for model years 2001 and 2002, also creating the first cubic VRs used for an auto maker’s website.
The guys consider MacWorld and the resulting videos a rousing success, with more than 18,000 unique visitors to the website in the past three weeks. Completing 23 videos in less than 5 days was no mean feat; however, the guys wanted to prove the ease of the technology. “The idea was to prove that 2 guys with a video camera and imovie could pull something like this off, and if we could, almost anyone else can”, Kevin says. Although he grants that the mission was arduous work, they would, and plan to, do it again.
And what product or service from MacWorld made an impact on the duo? Cliff went “absolutely nuts” over Custom Flix, a service that provides low-cost, low-risk self-publishing for independent content owners and producers. “It’s the final piece of the puzzle when it comes to the digital hub. It’s always been Capture, Produce and Deliver – but deliver how,” he asks. People won’t pay for delivery on the web and distributing CDs or DVDs can be prohibitively expensive for independent filmmakers. “That’s the beauty of the Custom Flix thing. If you’ve got the content, they’ll make it available at an affordable price.”
Kevin’s personal highlight was getting to meet so many people that are like minded Mac and QuickTime geeks. “A lot of the conversations centered around Apple’s software releases and the implied movement away from Microsoft products, a la Safari and Keynote,” he says.
When they pair weren’t shooting interviews, they were editing and compressing. One night while out for dinner, they ran into noted VR guru Dennis Biela. Did they get an interview? You bet. “Sleep is for the weak,” Cliff laughs.
These busy guys have taken on more work by kindly agreeing to write a monthly column for VRMag. I have a feeling it will have something to do with Quicktime.
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