You might have heard before, but in case you hadn't, today marks the last day of DV Guru. We've had a fun time blogging about all things digital video, and while it may be the end of the line for our lil' blog here, don't think it's the end for any of us. Allow me to go on for a minute about everyone, and let you know where some of your favorite bloggers are headed.
Ajit Anthony has been here since day one, and will keep going with his personal project, Squigglebooth. He's been an invaluable asset to the team, and kept the site afloat for a good amount of time with just himself.
Ajit says:
I feel like I have involuntarily graduated the DVguru school of filmmaking. It has been a great ride and a great education. To post here everyday also meant I had to learn on what I was talking about. I feel so much richer from the experience.
I'd like to thank all the people who have blogged for DVguru (and they have been several) and especially all you readers. We certainly are not stopping this because of a lack of readers. If anything, I can safely say we are leaving on a high note. Special thanks to people like Mike Curtis who was a resource in every way. Thanks to Randall who was a constant source of motivation that clearly pushed this site forward.
I am supposed to be blogging for other DV related sites, we'll see. What I do know is that I will be blogging at Ticklebooth and videoblogging on Squigglebooth. Hopefully, you will see one of my films playing at a theater near you. Thank you.
Chris Tew, most notably of PVRWire, is leaving the Weblogs, Inc. fold and partnering with webtvwire.com and webtvhub.com covering the biz of IPTV and internet distribution.
Russell Heimlich, one of our podcast peeps, will continue to contribute to NewTeeVee. In his time here, he did a ton to help our site, including the most trafficked post of DV Guru's lifespan. Yeah, it was the DVD rewinder, but still, pretty awesome.
Erstwhile features writer Ryan Bilsborrow-Koo is in pre-production on the upcoming internet TV drama The West Side. The show won't be premiering until March, however, so for now he can only offer up his solipsistic (his word, not mine...) ramblings at No Film School. We still blame him for the site's demise... but only because he's so awesome, we wish he could have written more, but peeps are busy, and we understand.
Adam Nielson will continue to work at his "real job" in television at KSL-TV in Salt Lake City, but online he'll be working with several projects, including Tech Check Daily, an online show about technology.
Sheila Ward has been a breath of fresh air to DV Guru. In her short time, she brought an awesome amount of content to DV Guru, and I'll always be grateful. She's not heading too far, since she'll be contributing a little to Download Squad with stuff like imaging tips and potentially some video how-to stuff. Besides that she'll be off doing her video business thing.
Brian Liloia, one of the "second generation" of DV Guru-ers, has some of the most interesting post DV Guru plans. This April, he'll be moving to an ecovillage community in rural Missouri, where he hopes to help build homes made out of mud and straw, partake in organic gardening, learn the ins and outs of solar and wind power, and promote a sustainable, low-impact, and self-sufficient lifestyle. While there, he has plans to start up several video/filmmaking projects in the form of some documentary work, and a series of online "TV shows" about the community and the theme of sustainability. Other than that, he'll continue writing a little bit for Download Squad and TUAW.
Randall Bennett, AKA me, has a ton of things going. I'm going to still contribute to some Weblogs, Inc. properties, like Blogging Stocks, but I'm also working on a new project called Tech Check Daily (with Adam Nielson) and continue ruling the world. Still haven't ruled out the possibility of leading another DV blog, but we'll have to see.
I've got to say I've had such an awesome time helping shape this site. All of our writers are great, and expect to see big things out of all of our writers. The other missing link? You. We have the most loyal and interesting readers in the whole world! (*tear*) Honestly, our readers are intelligent and always have an interesting comment to leave. Working at other blogs within Weblogs, Inc., I often dread reading the comments because they're filled with unintelligent drivel, but thanks to readers and comment writers like you, DV Guru has been an awesome place to be. Thanks, and we'll see you in the blogosphere in the sky (or at NAB, whichever comes first.)
Riding off into the sunset...
Reader Comments
(Page 2)22. oh maing... this sucks! What am I going to read with my coffee every morning when I get to the office now?
Thanks for the great content over the last year or so i've been visiting, like other blogs in the Weblogs network I've enjoyed the writing style and most importantly the content provided. DV Guru has been great for me as I work from the prosumer end of the market all the way up to broadcast and digital cinematography and the competitive information I was able to get here was invaluable.
Thanks again, you will be missed!
Posted at 8:57PM on Jan 31st 2007 by hazchem
23. Aw man! DV Guru has given me so many great tips over the past 7 months or so that I've had its RSS feed, from Celtx to that DIY fig rig and much more. Good luck, the site shall be dearly missed!
Posted at 8:58PM on Jan 31st 2007 by Henry
24. Sorry to hear about this! I'm a BIG fan of DVGuru - there's pretty much nothing else like it out there. Best of luck in your individual efforts.
Posted at 1:46AM on Feb 1st 2007 by moni
25. The blogosphere will be sorely lacking with DV Guru gone. Best of luck to every single one of you.
~Matt
http://www.digitalcamcordernews.com
Posted at 2:57AM on Feb 1st 2007 by Digital Camcorder News
26. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Posted at 7:19AM on Feb 1st 2007 by Sad2SeeUGo
27. Quite simply... NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! :'(
Thanks for your work guys, I for one will miss this extremely useful Blog, damn the powers that be!
Posted at 9:29AM on Feb 1st 2007 by Matt Grover
28. Wow, this sucks.
So, will the site itself remain up so we can access the previous posts? If so, how long?
Posted at 12:43PM on Feb 1st 2007 by gecko85
30. You will be very missed.
Posted at 6:43PM on Feb 1st 2007 by dave
31. I'm sorry to see you guys go. Good luck at the next level! And while your there, check out my movie blog that you helped to load with info:
http://filmflap.blogspot.com
Posted at 9:54PM on Feb 1st 2007 by Scott Eggleston
32. So sad to hear you guys are closing up shop.. But it's great to hear everyone's moving on to so many diverse and inspirational new endeavors..
Thanks for one of the best DV blogs that ever existed!
TDV
Posted at 5:43AM on Feb 2nd 2007 by TDV
33. Not cool. I also found this site last year and have been checking it out daily since then. I love the short, but informative news articles. It kept me up to date with the news I wanted to know about. I only got to hear 2 podcast, and I got props in one of them. This is a big bummer. Great news blog. Sad to see you go.
Posted at 9:19AM on Feb 2nd 2007 by Joshua
34. This is one of the best tech/DV blogs around.
I'm really surprised.
In the spirit of candid blogging, it would be great to hear what lead up to this and why there was a decision to close.
Perhaps that will help dispell any rumors and dull the sting of surprise to those who have come to enjoy the content.
Posted at 2:28PM on Feb 2nd 2007 by Kelly
35. Good luck to everyone who worked on this blog. It's definitely too bad that you guys can't continue on with this project. Thanks again for all the great posts and hard work.
Posted at 6:02PM on Feb 2nd 2007 by Jesse
36. It's pretty commonly known that Weblogs, Inc (now gobbled up by AOL) is a for-profit blog conglomerate with a busines model that includes paying their bloggers a nominal fee for posts (it has been hinted on other sites that compensation is in the $4-$5/post range). They were one of the first to pioneer the concept of for-pay-blogging, thanks to the recently-departed Jason Calacanis.
The closing of DVGuru is part of a larger effort by AOL to shed itself of non/less profitable niche blogs. I suspect that DVGuru was profitable to WebLogs Inc, but apparently not at the level that AOL is willing to support. http://valleywag.com/tech/aol/a-warning-to-niche-blogs-230122.php
Matt Jeppsen
www.FresHDV.com
Posted at 6:03PM on Feb 2nd 2007 by Matthew Jeppsen
37. Matt,
It was more than 5$ per post. For almost everyone, it was around double that.
Also, we did not get an official statement on why DVguru was closed. But a good guess would be niche sites need more attention.
Posted at 6:46PM on Feb 2nd 2007 by Ajit
38. I'll definely miss DVguru. Thanks for the mention of HungryFlix.com. I hope someone out there can fill the void for quality DV content.
Posted at 9:16PM on Feb 2nd 2007 by Brian
39. Good job on all the work Team DV Guru. We'll miss ya. Good luck with future projects!
- Sujewa
http://www.diyfilmmaker.blogspot.com/
Posted at 10:08PM on Feb 2nd 2007 by Sujewa
40. hmmm... this is really a loss. i think dv guru did a great job of balancing online video news and more specialised pro content.
interesting what you can read in comment no. 37... sad. i think someone has not understood the potential of a site like dv guru - thinking in the long run. but i guess this is not what big business does on a regular basis...
certainly not a replacement in any kind of way, but maybe interesting as a general resource for all audiovisual related online topics: the a/v section of the peer to peer foundation wiki:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Category:Audiovisual
we try to collect/cover everything that might be of use for the independent audio/video online publisher. you probably can skip the first paragraphs if you are familiar with the basics, but there are some pro/indie film making links further down in the text. and as you will see we recommended dv guru on top of our online video related sites list...
thanks for this great resource.
Posted at 12:36PM on Feb 4th 2007 by indiworks
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21. Checking out DVguru has been part of my daily routine for nine months. Everybody will certainly be missed. I will do my best to keep the DV punditry alive over at http://www.theflux.tv .
Best of luck everybody!
~Ryan
Posted at 7:59PM on Jan 31st 2007 by Ryan Ritchey