Drone Is No Longer an Ugly Word!

Kathmandu, Nepal—Drone video of the tragic earthquake that struck the very top of the world is beyond epic.  

As soon as the quake hit television networks and camera drone operators were boarding all available means of transportation.  The drone pilots understood full well the absolute importance of rushing to the scene. 

They know that drone images and video helps rescuers and engineers determine the safest ways to extract victims.   At the same time shows the rest of the world just how this desperate the situation is being handled.

Drone pilots and first responders everywhere are beginning to understand that in natural disasters, search and rescue along with other emergencies analyzing the material is a genuine lifesaver. 

It’s much easier for ground crews to locate survivors, evaluate hazards and determine the need for specialized equipment with the help of the new small drone technology.

Helicopters are too large and their prop wash can actually bring more danger to these delicate extractions.  Once victims are clear then helicopters can drop stretchers and cables to swiftly extract victims to medical care.

CNN broadcast the heartbreaking video below to their viewers of devastation of this ancient and mystical city.  The incredible newsgathering capability of the drones is just beginning to get the attention of the nations news directors and editors.

Again I must herald that with nearly two million multi-rotor drones on the hands of the public, there has never been a fatality or serious injury.  Property damage is limited to drones getting caught in trees or insignificant collisions with the ground.  The 7000 helicopters in service worldwide can never boast of that kind of a safety record.

Aside from capturing stunning images drones are unquestionable lifesavers.

Father of Five is Missing--Foul Play Suspected in Rancho Cucamonga CA

Special Alert!

Anyone with information is requested to call the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department at  909-477-2800 or Paul Huebl Investigations at 310-420-9450.  Missing person report #111504081.

Known facts:

On Saturday April 4th 2015, Oliver “Pareece” Jones, 37 (DOB 01/04/1978) currently of the Denver, CO suburb of Ault vanished.  Mr. Jones was last seen in Rancho Cucamonga, California at or near the Wal-Mart on foothill Blvd. next to I-15.

Mr. Jones was visiting with various relatives exploring the possibility of relocating to Southern California.

Apparently Mr. Jones was assaulted earlier by person or persons unknown in the area of The Plaza Club located at 735 N La Brea Ave. in Los Angeles.

The injuries Jones suffered were serious enough that he sought treatment at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.   However, apparently Jones left the hospital before treatment was completed.

Surveillance video images are currently being sought that may show Jones and any companions in the hours before his disappearance.

We know that Jones had lost his iPhone during the altercation.  We also have been monitoring his ATM and credit cards and since the disappearance there has been no activity whatsoever.

The Great Assault Rifle Propaganda Scam!

The more powerful .30 caliber round above the little M-16/AR-15 (.223 caliber) round

Common (.30 caliber) hunting rifle

M-1 Rifle semi-automatic (.30 caliber) used in WW-2 and the Korean War

AR-15 civilian rifle (.223 caliber)

Los Angeles, CA—Nearly three decades ago the Gun Control zealots pulled a fast one on the public and media.  This was right out of Nazi propaganda minister, Josef Goebbels’ playbook.

Goebbels said that,  “If you tell a lie often enough it becomes the truth.” We all know now that he was spot on in that observation!

Certain military rifles were called assault rifles.  Perhaps it was a marketing gimmick to make them sound all-powerful and magical.  They were also all fully automatic as in, machine guns.

Soon gun makers exploited the designs of some of these assault rifles for the legal civilian market.  They made lookalike rifles that were only semi-automatic. 

Any similarity of the AR-15 rifle to the M-16 was purely cosmetic.  But these civilian copies became popular with military veterans that were all trained with the M-16.  That was simply because they were somewhat similar.

From the distance the M-16 and the AR-15 are identical.  Looks here are deceiving.  The Gun Control propagandists renamed the military lookalike rifles as, Assault Rifles!  This was a huge semantics scam.

The little lightweight M-16 (.223 caliber) rifles made their combat debut in Viet Nam.  It was a fast firing light rifle suited for jungle combat. 

The Viet Cong enemy in Viet Nam had no body armor and they lived in grass huts.  The more powerful rifle rounds of earlier wars just weren’t needed there. 

Soldiers could also carry much more of the smaller M-16 rounds into combat.

Military tacticians were also savvy enough to know that every wounded soldier required two healthy soldiers to carry and tend to each man wounded.  The lighter round proved very effective this way.

In an urban setting with concrete barriers and body armor availability the M-16 is woefully inadequate.  Low powered M-16/AR-15 rounds have poor penetration ability and can’t stop vehicles or anyone wearing light armor.

Currently, our soldiers in the Mideast should be carrying heavier weapons such as the M-14 (.30 caliber) developed at the End of the Korean War.  Instead they must rely on the weapons better suited for Viet Nam jungle warfare.

American law enforcement chose M-16 style weapons simply because of ammunition availability and the veterans that were hired were already familiar with them.  

Accordingly police agencies were satisfied with using cheap, light body armor that would stop the little M-16/AR-15 rounds.

The ignorant media and public assumed that these lookalike weapons of war were the deadliest ever! They always ignorantly refer to them as “high powered assault weapons”.

The AR-15 (.223 caliber) round proved too underpowered for hunting larger American game animals like deer and antelope.  The animals would get shot and runaway wounded only to needlessly suffer. 

High-powered rifle rounds barely begin at .308 (.30 caliber) and advance upward until the .50 caliber BMG.  Calling a M-16/AR-15 round, “high powered” is indeed laughable.

Assault weapon bans were designed to take out the most popular AR-15 rifles because of their sheer numbers.  

The fact remains the more benign looking wood stocked rifles are still much more powerful.  The American Sniper, Chris Kyle used a bolt-action .308 (.30 caliber) rifle for his legendary, one-shot, one-kill missions.

Just look at the size difference above.  Pictured above is the tiny M-16/AR-15 round (.223 caliber) is compared to the M-1 rifle round (.30 caliber).

No Lie Was Off Limits to the Late Sarah Brady in Her Quest to Disarm Law-Abiding Americans.

Baltimore, MD—Sarah Brady had been the face of Gun Control in America for more than three decades.  However today at age 73 she has succumbed to a bout of pneumonia.  

Brady became the convenient standard bearer for the forces that hate all guns and gun rights.  This after a armed madman wounded her husband James Brady who was President Ronald Reagan’s Press Secretary during a 1981assassination attempt. 

Brady led a very deceptive campaign that was intended to incrementally outlaw all firearms.  She cleverly began to change firearm adjectives and successfully demonized firearms based on simple cosmetics.

Like Brady most Americans were ignorant about guns.  She renamed all the firearms that looked somewhat scary as assault weapons. 

Assault rifles were actually classic military combat weapons and were by that definition all fully automatic.  That meant one pull of the trigger could cause the weapon to fire until it was empty.   

Assault weapons were really machine guns already banned by federal laws.   Machine guns were already unpopular because they extravagantly consume expensive ammunition.  

What she did was redefine millions of semi-automatic rifles and pistols confusing anyone and everyone that they too were machine guns. 

She succeeded to get the so-called Assault weapons ban passed into law by a single vote. The law lasted ten years and the crime rate soared anyway.

When the law expired millions of the formerly banned guns were suddenly purchased and the crime rate began to drop like a rock.

Brady always pretended she just wanted to go after the scary guns when she really wanted every last law-abiding American defenseless and helpless to criminals or government gone wrong.

Brady redundantly invented her own statistics, overstated claims of gun deaths and injuries.  She used FBI Uniform Crime Reports that lumped justifiable killings by cops and citizens as Homicides suggesting they were all murders.

She cleverly called the ATF gun trace requests as crime gun incidents.  ATF routinely traced any and all found weapons or whenever their ownership was questioned. To suggest those guns were involved with criminal events was another very bold lie.

Brady published a grading list for jurisdictions on the basis of their gun laws.  The paradox there was that the “A” list states with gun bans or draconian restrictions had the highest murder rates.  The “D” list states had few gun laws along with little or no violent crime. 

Finally Brady ran out of lies and all but a few states passed laws allowing the law-abiding the right to carry concealed weapons.  Her landmark Assault Weapons Ban was allowed to expire.  Courts nearly everywhere have reasserted Constitutional Second Amendment rights.

Brady was clearly humiliated into her obvious forced retirement.  she quickly dropped out of sight.  

Brady's dream was forced registration of all firearms so government agents could locate and confiscate them later with the next laws she’d hope to champion. 

Brady somehow convinced politicians that pre-purchase background investigations would insure criminals and mental defectives would be unable to obtain weapons.  Another expensive failure! 

Phony identification and purchasing fraud efforts routinely overcome the expensive and ineffective Brady check system.  Of course the Brady checks created every kind of obstacle for the law-abiding especially those with similar names to convicted criminals.

Nobody wants to see armed criminal and mental defectives on our streets.  They are and always will be out there.  Well-trained and armed law-abiding people are the only way control cowardly criminals.  There will never be enough cops to do this. 

Sarah Brady ran a successful but deceptive scam on America that gave her a huge financial reward and sainthood among her gun rights hating disciples.

I will not mourn the loss of Sarah Brady.  I do however mourn the loss of those who were murdered because they were enjoined by unconstitutional laws to defensive weapons. 

Government must stop insuring that only violent criminals are armed. 

Traditional TV News is Watching it’s Final Sunset.

Los Angeles, CA—Journalism school may give you building blocks and give you the polish to craft a news story, but the future of traditional reporting is beyond bleak.

In the end journalist show us in print, photos, audio and video what’s going on in our world.  Can someone that never paid tuition to Northwestern or Columbia or sweated those final exams steal your job?  It’s already happening!

There is no special magic to TV news reporting.  At the most, it’s all about monkey see, monkey do!  

The way to get compensation for reporting has changed dramatically.  It’s your audience that determines how well you’re paid.  Balancing sensationalism with truth to gain and maintain an audience is the difficult challenge.

This past January I took a part-time model and turned her into reporter to cover the Shooting, Hunting Outdoor Trade show in Las Vegas.

I could have done this all myself but it’s much easier when there are two people sharing the duties. 

There has been movement by news organizations to force the reporting, photography, producing, writing, audio and video editing on one person.  Juggling and keeping the equipment is no small challenge.  Adding the hairspray and presentation duties makes for an overload.

Ariel Vitale had zero experience but looked pretty good on camera and could follow simple instructions. She looked every bit the part of a reporter and I did the rest.

Ariel had minimal knowledge of firearms but I told her that she can ask a few questions and the company spokespeople would expertly explain their products.  As long as Ariel could look good, speak well and hold the microphone she’d win. 

I gave Arial a few hints and Arial took over like any journeyman reporter. Here is one of her many stories:

Next is Daniel Soulman.  Daniel is somewhat of a unique reporter.  Daniel armed with all manner of video devices has rained serious criticism on several South Bay police agencies.

Daniel’s work has been a bit rough around the edges. His gift is that that he uses his cameras to provoke cops he felt were abusive or acting unlawfully.  Needless to say many cops have targeted him for retaliation.  

Daniel has used a camera drone to report on DUI checkpoints and recently an officer involved shooting.  The paradox here was he praised the officer that killed the offender. 

I’ve talked with Daniel at length about keeping his credibility by letting his camera tell the story.  I explained to him about using voiceover video in post-production, as is the standard of TV news reporters.

Experience is Daniel’s teacher and his YouTube videos are getting better.  His YouTube channel appeals to an audience of both cops and cop haters.   Oddly enough I see him with a financially secure future doing his specialized reporting on YouTube.

Here is Daniel’s video multi-media (including camera drone) story on the police shooting:

TV journalism is dead.  Video journalism is what’s replaced it. The Internet has both unlimited channels and content providers feeding it.

You might think that Ariel or Daniel are a little rough around the edges but they both could present their stories in an understandable way. 

To be fair to Daniel he needed a little coaching in the editing process but he’s well on his way to improvement.

Imagine if everyone with a smartphone put up news stories with a hashtag on Twitter.  No news organization could begin to compete. 

Blogs like mine must be heavy with interesting video or it will die.  Successful monetization of content will determine is you can make a living.  Making good content alone is not enough.

Breaking News! Crimefile News Is Competing for an Oscar Award!

I plan on winning this award on my latest project!

Los Angeles, CA—Let me say I’m excited to announce my lofty but very reachable plans to make some filmmaking history! 

I’m going to take crowd-funding to its maximum limits for filmmaking.  I have agreed to take on an unusual documentary film challenge.

I’ve taken a crash course in crowd funding and will soon impose on everyone I possibly can to make my film possible. Every penny counts!

I won’t reveal the subject matter beyond that it will be cutting edge and raise lots of eyebrows around the globe.

There are just a few people that know about the project right now but once my video pitch is ready I will quickly post it here first. 

I hope to take a few people with me to the Oscar stage in Hollywood and we have confidence that we can bring home the Gold!

Stay tuned in coming weeks…

News Helicopters, Crashes and Costs Vex Television Executives! Camera Drones are the Answer!

 courtesy of AZ Republic 

Phoenix, AZ--It was in July of 2007 when cops were chasing a fleeing pickup truck through the streets of Phoenix.  Also in pursuit were two TV news choppers that were covering this breaking story.

Soon the story of the day changed dramatically and tragically as the two news helicopters somehow collided in midair.  Two veteran pilots and gifted photojournalists that I knew personnaly were killed. 

The financial and personal damages of that event were beyond catastrophic and heartbreaking.   

Since 1960, there were 91 deaths and scores of serious injuries directly related to News helicopters alone. 

Another TV news pilot/reporter I once knew was Karen Key.  She was a young and very attractive lady that gained quite a following in Phoenix.  One day she was arrested by Phoenix police for DUI.  Quickly her news director unceremoniously sent her packing.  Some of her fans thought she deserved better treatment.

Key quickly was hired by another TV news organization in Denver.  In December of 1982 Key was flying to the scene of a light plane crash in Larkspur when the unthinkable happened.  Key and her mechanic were killed in a crash.  The local medical examiner revealed that Key was impaired by alcohol.

Today technology has delivered to us the camera drone.  You can hardly see a film or commercial anymore that was not partially filmed by a camera drone. They add a whole new depth and view of everything.

There are some 7,000 helicopters operating throughout the world.  Highly trained men and women pilot them however when they crash lives and property are lost.

As for the Multi-rotor camera drones there are nearly two million of them out there.  They are in the hands of unregulated civilians including teenagers. To date there has not been a single fatality or serious injury involving a multi-rotor camera drone. That’s despite all the news stories suggesting they could be dangerous.

News organizations worldwide have been decimated financially as their readers and views have chosen Internet providers for their news content. 

Helicopters cost between $1,500 and $2,000 an hour to operate and are the single largest newsroom cost.   The liability issues are yet another factor.

A professional grade, multi-rotor drone with a sophisticated 4K camera and livestreaming capability will cost between $9,000 and $15,000.  There are no fuel costs because rechargeable batteries power them. 

They can be operated with a single pilot doubling as the photographer or with a second person operating the camera with a second controller. 

There is a learning curve for operating the drones and cameras beyond what those selling these things would suggest however it’s not that difficult to safely master.

When drones collide it’s always just another day but for the cost of repairs.  Nobody dies or is crippled.  That’s not to say something tragic could never happen. That’s already been proven to be unlikely.

The FAA has taken on regulation of drones with unprecedented prior restraint tactics.  They have never done that before as they have always created conventional aircraft regulations in the blood of these killed or injured.

Worldwide news directors and editors have no choice here.  Either they embrace the drone technology or lose.  Drones are safe, effective and inexpensive.  The quality of drone video is no less than stunning. 

At this time the drone is not suited to replace every helicopter use in news.  They are not suitable for all but the end or a few glimpses of car chases. They move slower but they can get so much closer to newsworthy events than helicopters.

As for me, the news directors need to know I want to be a drone journalist.  I’d add this to my many years freelancing as an investigative TV news producer.  Whoever pays me can have my services.

The licensing issue right now is in the form of an FAA waiver certificate and operating under their conditions.  Within two to three years there will be some formal licensing at least for drones weighing more than four and a half pounds.

The first wave of drone journalists will be needed to teach those later joining the ranks.

Here is a link to the News helicopter accidents within the USA. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_news_aircraft_accidents_and_incidents

I shot the story below with zero assistance from anyone.  I used my prosumer video gear on the ground and a $1,500 Phantom 2 drone with a GoPro camera.  I edited this on a small Macbook Pro with Final Cut-X software.