Stories of ThinkTech

IT'S NOT EASY EVALUATING A TALK SHOW ThinkTech is always looking to improve production values for its talk shows.  We want to make our hosts look and sound great, and we and our editors work hard at that.  We review our shows in Content Committee meetings every two weeks.  We rate the shows numerically and subjectively to get a handle on whether they meet production standards, and we often write or call hosts to let them know how they are doing and how they can improve their shows. But there's something else, too.  It's the track of the show, beginning with the choice of the subject and the selection of the title and tagline for the show,  and then writing up the descriptions on what they will want to talk about, the takeaway they hope to give their viewers, and the keywords they will post to make it easier for people to find their shows. There is, of course, the track, i.e., the logical progression of the show.  We want them to think about that before and ...

  Want to be a host - please let us know. Do you like talk shows.  Do you like to engage with people and learn what they know in productive conversations.  Why don't you consider talking to us about being a ThinkTech talk show host? So what does being a host would entail.  Well, most of our shows are biweekly at a set production date and time Monday through Thursday.  You would have to pick a subject and a name for the show, then recruit guests who know something about that subject, anywhere from one to say three people.  Since we do all our shows on Zoom, they can be anywhere in the world.  Our production manager would send you and your guests a Zoom link for the scheduled time, and our engineer would help you and your guests look and sound good.  Then it would be up to you to talk to them, and ask them questions, and bring out their knowledge and expertise.  Our shows are 30 minutes long and it's actually very easy to do that for 30 minutes...

PLEASE GET READY FOR OUR FALL FUND DRIVE The ramp up for our Fall Fund Drive starts in mid-October and the drive itself will be in and through the month of November.  It's coming soon so we're preparing for it, with our various emails, bulletins and messages to go to our viewers, hosts and guests, including you.  We rely heavily on our fund drives to pay the bills.  Regrettably, our last two fund drives were not as successful as we had hoped, and so this time we're working hard to address what we can do to make this one more successful. Will you join us?  Just as we are working hard to produce all our 30 weekly talk shows (which is an effort all in itself) and to prepare for our fund drive this fall, we hope you are thinking about what you can do to help us, to keep us on the air, to enable our staff and citizen journalists to do what they do. It doesn't happen by itself.  We have expenses every day, for staff, space, equipment, streaming and software subscripti...

How AI is affecting video editing and post production We asked ChatGPT to give us 300 words on how AI was affecting video editing and post production, and here’s what it said: Automated Editing: AI-powered video editing tools can analyze footage and identify the most compelling moments automatically. This significantly speeds up the editing process by eliminating the need to sift through hours of content manually. Editors can then focus on refining the creative aspects of the video, such as storytelling and pacing. Enhanced Visual Effects: AI algorithms can generate stunning visual effects and animations more efficiently than ever before. Whether it's adding realistic CGI elements or creating intricate motion graphics, AI-driven tools can save time and resources while maintaining a high level of quality. Color Correction and Grading: AI can assist in color correction and grading, ensuring consistency and visual coherence throughout the video. It can also analyze the color schemes i...

  Point-Counterpoint Punctuates our Fall Season Our next Point-Counterpoint program is a two-part special on Hawaii's Developing Relationships in Indo-Pacific. Part 1 will be live on  ThinkTechHawaii.com ,  YouTube , and  Facebook  on Saturday, September 16 from 12:00 noon to 1:00 pm HST: https://youtu.be/0fGqgQPPGSw . It will be moderated by former governor John Waihe’e.   The panelists for this part will be Chris Cottrell, Karla Cruz, James Moriarty and Srini Sitaraman, and they will cover Southeast Asia, the Philippines, China / Taiwan and India.  Tune in and send your questions and comments to questions@thinktechhawaii.com .   Part 2 of the program will be on Saturday, October 14 from 12:00 noon to 1:00 pm HST.   Former Governor Waihe’e will moderate again. The panelists for this part will be Kristi Novella, Amanda Ellis, Harrison Kim and Suzy Vares-Lum, and they will cover Japan, Australia / New Zealand, Korea and the Pacific Islands....

Graphics are worth at least a thousand words We have so many stories and links on our various publications, including our Daily Email Advisories and our Flash Messages and all the newsletters we send out covering news, events, features, fund drives, projects and holidays. All these can all be better with graphics, graphics that catch the eye and reinforce the message.  And more and more we're getting into the swing of things by adding graphics to our content.  That can include graphics from one of the stock photo sites we use, or an AI graphic from Discord-MidJourney, or one of the graphics we have in our collection. We found and have moved on to storing our collection of photos and graphics in Google photos, where we have accumulated a huge number of them in that collection, and this helps us find and include them in all our publications.  The good thing about Google photos is that you can upload and tag them quickly, then find and download them quickly.  Furthermor...

Wake up calls are coming more tragically now. Maui didn't see it coming, although maybe it should have.  After all that, and after all the wildfires, heat waves, droughts, rain and floods on the mainland and around the world, and the damage and disruption that inevitably follows, we should appreciate that climate is really out of the bottle and very possibly out of control. Al Gore wasn't kidding, and it's coming home to roost, pretty much everywhere, including right here at home in Hawaii. And we find that it's not just another prime-time news event from a far away place; it's life and death right here on a huge scale including the dead and wounded and missing and the wholesale destruction of our homes and buildings and a considerable piece of our state economy.  Maybe we thought that Hawaii, with its distance, was somehow exempt from these things.  We have to admit that complacency on climate (and on so many other things) has ruled the day, here and elsewhere.  No...