One of our largest crowds yet enjoyed this past week’s monthly In Person presentation by television engineer and opera historian extraordinaire Mark Schubin. Held at our usual venue, Showbiz Cafe, Mark’s talk spun us through over 90 entertaining minutes of intertwined opera and media history yielding new insights as to how the media of today came to be.
Why opera? While this might seem a distant and far out-of-the-mainstream art form to many of today’s media savvy generation, it’s anything but. Live and pre-recorded opera continues to be one of the most watched of any of today’s arts. Meanwhile, the love of opera–and the desire to present it live to as many people as possible–surprisingly acts as one of the most important reasons modern media technology was designed in the first place. Don’t think so? Just watch the first 10 minutes of Mark’s presentation and you’ll see just what I mean. You’ll want to watch the whole thing if you have any interest in how today’s media got to be.
Why Mark Schubin? Mark is a unique technologist who not only helped design the “Live from Lincoln Center” broadcasts, but researches and writes widely on the latest high-end video production technology. Mark is also one of the main presenters behind the annual Hollywood Post Alliance gathering, considered the pre-eminent tech retreat for anyone involved in high-end film and video production and post. You can read Mark’s absorbing article on this past 2013 tech retreat here.
We’re editing our video that we shot of Mark’s presentation, but if you would like Mark’s own audio version of that talk–which includes dozens of slides documenting the pre-history of modern media like you’ve never seen it–you can reach it via the Youtube link below.
