Alpha Quest

Practice how your eyes see every object beyond imagination

noreply@blogger.com (alphaquest) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:49:00 +0700

When we first use a camera we take pictures of all the obvious things around us, landmarks, people we know, family pets, our relatives etc. This is all a very necessary part of learning photography and after repeatedly taking these pictures, boredom starts to creep in.

If we get bored enough, we tend to look further than the obvious for our photographic subjects, hopefully encouraging us to interpret these subjects in a different manner - but, as we so often see, some people continuously take boring pictures, until they become experts at doing so.

The problem is that we all have pre-conceived ideas about how something should look, and that is what we photograph, so if we want to be creative we must drop these pre-conceptions, and start looking at things from a small child's "innocence".

1. What would a worm see if it looked up?

2. Spend a day taking photos of everyday things from a height of 600mm to 800mm, how a small child would view them.

3. Isolate part of an overall scene, using the camera's viewfinder.

4. Show things how they are not normally viewed.

5. Use light creatively, to show texture.

6. Give mood to, or produce silhouetted shapes.

7. Use telephoto lenses for landscapes, wide angle lenses for portraits.

8. Take photos into the sun.

9. Take pictures while jumping in the air.

10. Place horizons where you want them to be.

After a while creative vision becomes as natural as breathing, and when this occurs, you can concentrate on capturing the moment:

1. The peak of action.

2. A fleeting glance.

3. Certain lighting conditions.

Learn all the "Rules" of composition and then see how many you can break while still communicating powerful images. Try not focusing on the point of interest, instead focus on shape, or form. Decide what you want to emphasize, what message you want to convey to the viewer.

A part of learning to see creatively is to look for pictures within pictures. Try looking at a scene through a 11-18 mm wide-angle lens, then change to a 135mm telephoto lens and see how many different pictures you can isolate within that scene.

When you possess the ability to creatively "see", you will never again have to worry about the problems encountered in photography or anything that may have to do with your camera equipment. But how will you know when you have reached the level of being an "A-1" Lens-person, with the ability to see things from a photographic perspective?"

Practice, practice, practice and apply everything you have learnt from photography to your shooting sessions. As they say, practice makes perfect, and as I say:

"Perfect Practice makes Perfect".

And you must learn how to utilize all the techniques required until they have become second nature to you. You need to know how and when to utilize the required techniques of photography and camera, and lenses to create the images you want, finally providing the answers to those questions which you have kept asking yourself .

To know whether you are doing things right when learning to "see" creatively: Are you asking yourself the three basic questions before you embark on a shooting session or assignment?

Remember. They are:

1. What is the main subject of the photograph?

2. How do I highlight the main subject of the photograph?

3. What do I leave out?

Can't Access Facebook at Workingplace?

noreply@blogger.com (alphaquest) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:18:00 +0700

Having trouble by accessing Facebook or Twitter at your working place? Suspicious that only your company that make such prohibition? Well, if you’re thinking just that straight away, you’re wrong. I’ve been read a general report of Robert Half Technology (an IT staffing company), and the result is really shocking. Here it is: 54% of American Company block access of their computers at workingplace to social network website such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedln, and Myspace during working hour. This percentage is very enormous, more than half of American Company do this blocking action.

Robert half Technology also reveals that only 10% of 1400 company chairmans confess that they allow their employers to fully access Facebook and Twitter, 19% of the employers are allowed to access and use Facebook only because the company needs those sites in purpose of supporting their business/industry, and the rest 16% of employers are allowed to access Facebook with certain limitation.

This prohibition of accessing social network website is not a surprising policy. According to the research conducted by Nucleus (a company works on Information Technology field), companies that allow their employers to access social network website loosing their productivity up to 1.5%. Other fact says that the employers spend their time up to 2 hours when they’re accessing social network website.

As the conclusion, don’t blame your company if they do such of this prohibition because most of American Companies do the same thing.

Photoshop mobile???

noreply@blogger.com (alphaquest) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 21:54:00 +0700

Adobe, at 12th October 2009 announces the new Photoshop application that is intended to the iPhone user. As we’re all know, to get a qualified software products, iPhone users must pay for them, but as a contrary, Adobe spreads this product for free. You can download this product from iPhone Store. We must admit that this is a courage act from Adobe because as we know Photoshop applied for desktop or notebook is quite expensive, approx. $599.

But, you don’t have to expect too much for this product. You cannot have the whole facility and feature of the origin product intended to deskop or notebook. There’s no complicated effect, no unique features as Liquify in this iPhone application. This product only comes for a basic need, as cropping, exposure adjustment, contrast correction, converting a colour image into a black & white one, and rotate an image.

This application is intended more to tweak and adding simple effects to a photo taken from a mobile phone device. Effects such image border, sketching or blurring is also provided.

This application is also allow its user to save and to see their photo at Photoshop.com.

This act is too late actually. Phanfare, a company that works at online photo services, also released the same application form last year. Adobe’s rival, Smugmug also released the same thing a few time ago before Adobe did, called Blossom. Well, let’s see Adobe’s next step of innovation.

Polaroid Strikes Back?

noreply@blogger.com (alphaquest) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 21:37:00 +0700

Do you remember Polaroid? Yeah I still remember it as photo brand device that produce an instant camera that can produce photo several minutes after take a shoot. After a shoot is taken, a sheet of photo paper will come out and we need to dry it out by flapping it on the air and slowly an image is shown. There’s a thrill when we use this device. A thrill that drawn into a question will our photo look is good, or it’s just become a bad photo and then makes us to grab this device and shoot again. Almost like a digital technology, only the output is real, not a file. The popularity of Polaroid itself comes into its dawn because of the era of digital image. Make our photo shoot result comes into a cheap price. We don’t have to print it to show it out, we just need a mobile media such us our mobile or notebook, or even more advance, a digital photo frame.
From the news in internet, I heard that after stop the production of instant camera for two years, at the end of 2008, Polaroid took a decision to step back from camera industry. And many of its consumers are very sad to hear about that, because of the memory shared.
But a good news then comes, at 13th October 2009 in Hongkong, a new management of Polaroid announces that they’re going back again into camera industry. This new management is formed after Polaroid is bought by Summit Global Company, last April. They announce a new project, called “The Impossible Project”. This project is intended to prepare a new product from Polaroid called New One Step. This limited product will be launched by the middle year of 2010.
Nowadays One Step’s technology is fall far behind. And by this reason, we shall wait for a new one to taste a new innovation that may be very advance by Polaroid. Well, for you Instant Camera lovers, let’s hope this new product can be very close to our memory-life journey.

Graphics Software & Photography

noreply@blogger.com (alphaquest) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 23:28:00 +0700

We're all agree that photo above passed several or many action in a software. Manipulation, many says. But some also says that the result is an art product; where someone is free to make any creation. But, the viewer also has the right to say anything, including judging that this photo is not a product of photography.
Well, in my opinion. That doesn't affect me in doing my photography activity. This is the right of any photographer to choose how they're going to finish their photo. As long as the eye or viewer is pleased, and can be an advantage of any work that related on it, can be published as the right context within, that should not bring any argue of this matter.
At the old days, photographer tends to do almost same thing as we do in software that then called light-room instead of dark-room. They chosen certain film grain before take shoot, and then in the darkroom they chosen the certain photo paper and then here it came the final result.
Today, we don't do that anymore. We use certain graphics software to modify our photos, to correct the exposure, colour, skin-tone, etc. As long as this kind of correction is not for a journalism purpose, I think this is a "legal" activity. Cause in journalism, we have to present the truth, without any of correction. But some correction to make the picture as seen as the truth is tolerated.
Now, in another case:

What about when we add make up to a model before a shoot or re-arrange a wedding dress? None of these images tell the story of a scene as it was when we arrived at it. All the alterations were made manually to make the image more pleasing.So what is the difference between doing it before the shoot at the scene, or after the shoot in Photoshop? What is the difference between pulling an obtrusive branch out of your way for that perfect landscape or simply removing it later on your PC? Why do wedding photographers carry clothes pegs to pin back the dress for some formal shots?My whole point to this discussion is that each person who picks up and uses a camera, digital or film, has their own individual interpretation of what makes a good photograph, "software-touched" or not! In the same regard, each individual "viewer" that sees these images, has their own interpretation of why they like or dislike the finished product.For me, this is what makes photography so unique and exciting, especially in this new digital era. There are so many combinations, techniques and tools we have at our disposal, that the bountiful supply of and possibilities for different and beautiful images is endless. If it weren't for the phrase "beauty is in the eye of the beholder", and if we all saw things in the same way, the world would be a very dull and boring place.

Understanding your boss - problem in work restructuring

noreply@blogger.com (alphaquest) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 14:13:00 +0700

A new boss often to conduct a detail surveillance to his/her team because he/she needs to understand more the process inside department or division related and also to recognize the way his/her workteam member to work. If he/she doesn’t understand this situation, the workteam member that is get used to freedom or full trust of their superior before this new one will consider this thing as a bridling and not as a work recognition and adjustment. In other aspect, a new boss also brings a new working way and solution and he/she often to push his/her new workteam to follow this kind new way because the boss is very confident of its success to handle matter. But, in another hand, workteam member can be very uncomfortable of this process, or more worst, they may get faith that their own way is more effective their their new boss’ way to solve matter.

This kind of working situation will bring argue between the superior and his/her workteam. It will make unconditional work situation and bring bad thing to everyone. The workteam member may can not resist their boss because of superiority. But if workteam member feel uncomfortable continuously, it just only will bring trouble to their self.

According to that situation, let’s get know these suggestions carefully. It may help us to build trust and understanding between boss and the workteam member. And then we can avoid bad things that may happens and reach a good working relationship.

1. Watch carefully and understand the character and the way your boss working

At this point, seek positive sides of your boss and focus on his/her thinking and working way that is in parallel with your way of thinking. Discuss the way or model of communication which is comfortable to both of you in utterance of critic or credit. This understanding will help you to know the right time or the best way to communicate effectively with your boss and reach his/her trust.

2. Help your boss to understand working process at your workingplace

Show to your new boss about working process at your workingplace and discuss its pros and cons. Plan improvement or change based on discussion result so it will bring a better working process for everyone.

3. Open to a new thing

Just do the work as your new boss’ instruction. Discuss the pros and cons of this new way as input to your boss. It will give a new knowledge to you and show your respect to the new boss

4. Build and reach trust of your boss, starting from a simple matter

Ask a small task or working target that is not too significant to your new boss and ask his/her approvement so you can working on it with your way or your idea to reach the target approved. If at this task your boss know that you reach the target so, it will be a new step to your boss to trust you working independently. This succeed shall continue with asking a new task or target bigger then the last one to upraise your independent.

This process is a transition which its success is dependent to your willingness and openness both of workteam member and the boss in self adjusting and understand each other. Hope this small article help us at your workingplace.

5 Reasons Why You Don’t get Promoted

noreply@blogger.com (alphaquest) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 12:56:00 +0700

Perhaps, at this moment you have already been working long enough in a company; let’s say five or ten of working years. During such of working year, it’s certainly there is a big opportunity to get a promotion. But if you have not got it, there must be something wrong. But don’t get fast into a conclusion that it may be that’s your fault and then blame yourself. In this world, there are many companies that only have a short carrier level, so it will be so hard to get a promotion and reach higher level.

Somehow, there is a chance that we think a short carrier condition is not a major reason why we don’t get a promotion. So, it must be something wrong in us. If there is any clue that you got a feeling that your superior give a pressure on you and then you got frustrated, it might be a moment to start thinking that there’s something wrong in you.

Now, from several read of some sources, I may can present five reasons why you don’t get promoted:

1. Communication error

Matters in communication divided into two categories: the first is lack of communication. To handle this matter just give your best effort to get close to your superior/boss and communicate what have you done and its result to him/her. If you don’t make an intense communication with a member of your team-work, just get back and re-play again communication process and make it as simple as you can make it. The second category is incompatible communication style, for the example: there are some bosses or superiors that really fit on e-mail as a communication channel and give certain bullet to mark some important notes and make the note itself a bit of attractive, but in contrary, there are also some bosses or superior that don’t get use to send and receive email without any kind of that format, just straight as ordinary letter. To handle such of this, you have to ask directly to your boss or superior the communication way that he/she likes.

2. A wrong perception in a wrong time.

Someday, you’re in the middle of your work, and have been analyzing a report for 3 hours. Your brain just wants to explode, and come a decision in you to get rest of it. And here you go, typing Youtube in web address of your internet explorer and then watching a favorite artist video clip. Suddenly your boss just walks outside your room and sees what are you doing. That’s gives a bad perception on your boss. To get deal of such matter, just stop seeing your favorite clip for a while, and leave your computer ride away. Discuss this matter with your co-work or partner or even your boss. Make apologize, and explain the situation, make some more intense discussion with your boss so he/she will get know you better.

3. Making same mistake continuously

None of us is perfect, mistake happens. And we must make it once, at least. To deal with a mistake is to learn the matter and give the best effort to avoid it so we will not make same mistake in future. But the situation is complicated when you make a same mistake, again and again. Your boss will dislike this and this will bring a bad judgment to you. A mistake is actually important if we can put a red line of it and learn from it to handle it in future and to get solution from it.

4. What the heck are you thinking about?

To get a business’ decision we need logic, experience, and process. If you get rid away these aspects, just get ready to get further from your boss. Just remember these aspects carefully and use it often.

5. OPM-other people’s money.

When you do a business with your vendor, entertain client, or making a purchasing decision, do you consider the money that is involved as your money? Well, you’re wrong. You must understand your position and the rules in your company. You have to consider those money is not your money, you just represent the owner’s interest so you will not manage that money as you like without any consideration.

A beautiful Sunday morning

noreply@blogger.com (alphaquest) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 21:30:00 +0700

Usually, I sleep at Sunday morning. Well, work-stress during the whole week drive me crazy. So, Sunday is the real holiday for me. Well, it can't just say like that cause many people just like I do.

Secondly, I'm living a bit far from city crowd. Surrounding by rice field and other kind of farm.
It's really really good when I step in to my house,left behind all work-stress. It's cozy living place so mostly after return home, I'm very rare to go out again, except there is an important thing.
Well, just enough to tell about this. The point is, at that Sunday I just wake up. Felt strange cause never really recognize my house in Sunday... I got up, walked to the refrigerator, took some drink and sat on my sofa. Turned on the TV and got nothing special. Then I grabbed my bag and took out my Sony Alpha DSLR. Checked some file in it. But then I've got an idea, why didn't I just took a walk around in rice field and farm... Took some photo in walk, refresh myself with a new thing.

So, I got up, dressed properly and yield to my wife that I would go out took some walk.
I spent a day to hunt photos at that day. So here they are... enjoy and give some critic and comment, will you?
To set several photos like those, I use Photoscape. The article about it just visit :
http://alpha-quest.blogspot.com/2009/10/photoscape-photo-editor-software.html

Free Reliable Antivirus Softwares

noreply@blogger.com (alphaquest) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:50:00 +0700

It’s only matter of time when we’re facing problem in our PC, such as booting failure, windows error, restarting and restarting, and the worst is loosing important data or file. How about if you loose your paper, work program file, or strategy file, or even a database file in the middle you’re working on it ora just about a day before your presentation in front of your client or colleague? It feels like the world just turn upside down hein? Our world’s just collapse.

Data or file can be lost because of several reason, such as harddrive media broken (bad sector, scratch, etc) or there are errors in the windows system. But mostly, loosing data is caused by virus, malware, and trojan attack into PC. Those attacks itself are rarely make your hardware broke. But they’re attack seriously into your data system and cause loosing data. Virus usually created to destroy system PC, data and the software inside. Yes, it’s true there are several kind of viruses that don’t break your PC system but still, they’re disturbing because sometime they’re displaying annoying message at the wrong time, mostly, and still disturbing PC performance.

Viruses’ activities nowadays is very disturbing and make many lost of PC users. There are several cases of spreading viruses that very fast through mobile media such as memory card or USB flash disk, worst, also can spread through e-mail. They can double theirself and attack your system massively, your system is just waiting its going down. The fastest solution to this matter is destroy any virus using the antivirus software. We can say, our PC system needs a vaccine to kill the virus within. We need antivirus that works real-time to screen the data and process traffic in our PC system. Well, sometime we can not afford to pay a full version antivirus software. But, still there is another way, we can use free version which is sometime provided by antivirus’ developper as introductory product to the client. Here are some link to the website that provide free antivirus software:

1. Avast Home download from:
http://avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html
2. AVG free edition download from:
http://free.avg.com
3. Avira Antivir Personal Free
download from: http://www.free-av.com
4. BitDefender Free download from:
http://www.bitdefender.com/site/Downloads/browseEvaluationVersion/1/42
5. PC Tools AntiVirus Free Edition
download from:
http://www.pctools.com/free-antivirus/download

After implement one of those, be sure to check the update routinely. Everyday, there are hundreds of viruses created. Be ware of it.

PhotoScape photo editor software

noreply@blogger.com (alphaquest) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:57:00 +0700

Hello, mates, to you who like the photoshoot and having trouble with photo organizing and editing, especially at raw format organizing, you can try this software, called PhotoScape.

Here are several of its advantages than other competitors:

1. Batch converting raw file format into JPEG

Sometime we have to record our photoshoot into raw format, and at the time we want to convert it into other format, we have to do it one by one file. Can you imagine how much time wasted just to convert several files? But hey, I find that this software have facility batch converting file so we can convert many photo file in a time. Just select the photos desired and then press the covert icon, easy, mates! The process of converting itself doesn’t take much time.

2. Batch rename file

At an occasion, even may be rare, we need to rename hundreds or even thousand photo files. And we need it quick, simple and reliable. Well, this software also give us that facility. Just select photos desired, set the naming, and then, here you go, you’ve got the result.

3. Paging

This feature enable us to organize several photos into a new composition, each of photo can be attached with an unique photo frame. Many variation supplied here. Here as an example:

There are many features that took many place to be discuss, but I will mention them several below:

- Splitter, to split photo or image
- Screen Capture
- Combine
- Batch Editor

Download the software at: http://downloads.ziddu.com/downloadfiles/6918281/PhotoScapeSetup_V3.4.exe

Logo Maker 2.0

noreply@blogger.com (alphaquest) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:23:00 +0700

This software is meant to be your tool to create a logo, whether to create your own private logo or your company logo. This software claimed to be an easy software for everyone. This software provides 500 logo template classified into several categories. You can pick one of them as you like or as it needed and then you can modify through logo editor becoming your desired logo.
If you want a specific and customized logo that faraway from templates provided, you can make a logo directly trough the editor facility. In the editor many tools are provided, starting from object and shape, adding text facility, adding your own image from your harddrive, and many graphic effects.

After your editing finished, you can export your logo into JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIF, or PDF file format. A lot of fun hein?
From its official website here are I’m note the features inside:

Over 500 professionally designed and fully modifiable logo templates categorized by industry and interest.
Over 2500 objects and shapes for making logos.
Easy to use, drag & drop, graphical engine for image and text manipulation: scale, rotate, align, groups, layers etc.
Vector-based Shape editor to create and customize your own shapes.
Over 30 effects for object and text editing such as Shadow, Transparency, Brightness, Blur, Gradient, etc.
Plug-ins for adding special effects such as Jitter, Pixelate, Sharp, Water etc.
Regular, Polygonal, Concave, Wavy, Circular, Outline and Perspective Text
Full screen editing
Export to PDF, JPG, TIF and other file formats
Professional, Creative, Refined & Designer fonts included
The built in Internet browser for accessing new objects, templates, 40,000 free fonts, 100,000 free pictures, etc.

This is not freeware but at this time you can download it freely from : http://www.avanquest.com/UK/free-logomaker.
Visit that website, make a registration, and then you will leaded to the download page.

Tune Up Utilities 2010

noreply@blogger.com (alphaquest) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:06:00 +0700

Tune Up Utilities is a commercial software for Microsoft Windows operating system series (support up to Windows 7) that is give as many function such as fix and solve any problem appear in the PC, increasing the system performance, hard drive management and cleaning system, organize and control at Windows such as control to desktop appearance, booting appearance, and system theme.

I’ve been trying the 2009 and 2008 version and those are give me enough satisfaction. The most advantage of this software is its easy use. The box command manager and its icon give easy explanation to us in order to understand its capability.

If you want to try this software, its developer also give you a free version that works for a month to try on your PC. You can download it at: http://www.tuneup-software.co.uk/download/

But if you’re already use the 2009 or 2008 version, you can update it from your tune up utilities update control. There can be two option, download only for the update or you can update to the 2010 version. Have it try!

BUMP TOP desktop management software

noreply@blogger.com (alphaquest) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:59:00 +0700

Get bored with your desktop appearance? If you want to change desktop appearance to get a new fresh look, try Bump Tool Software. This is a software with its advantage to change Windows desktop appearance into 3D room looks like, complete with its walls, rooms, and floor. On its floor and walls, you’re allowed to place icons and shortcuts from the older desktop appearance, sticky note, and photo slideshow.
If a Bump Top’s wall double clicked, that wall will be a wall that face to you and this change is given rolling transition effect, make it more attractive. To back at the default position, double click at the empty area on the floor.

For those icons placed at Bump Top, can be classified into a heap of icons so it will give us wider view of desktop. If this heap double clicked, it will bloom and then you can select any icon desired to activate the program/software/file needed. To get a fast classification, Bump Tool provide classification based on file type, which is activated by using right click at desktop and select: Pile by Type. Icons and shortcuts could be moved into area desired and you can also enlarge or reduce the icon/shortcut’s appearance size.
To add photo slide show or image can be arranged by take photo or image from your harddrive directory or you can add from online services like Flickr or Picasa Web by adding its RSS feed.
Sticky note also given as a reminder of certain events or just to remind a simple note which can be located at the place desired at your desktop. Other default icons included in this software are New Email, Facebook, and Twitter. Drag a photo or image into the icon Facebook will take the photo or image to the Facebook. By double clicking Twitter icon, you will make an update to that social network service.
Even, this software has 3 themes default, you also can visit http://customize.org/bumptop to see and pick any theme provided. To use the theme, first download any to your harddrive. Then extract the file into: C:\Documents and Settings\\Application Data\Bump Technologies, Inc\BumpTop\Themes. After it done, theme desired will filled in theme list of Bump Tool’s setting.
This software comes into two variants, freeware and paid-ware (full version). Before decide to take the full version, better try the free edition first. The free edition can be downloaded at: http://bumptop.com/

After buy a DSLR, then what?

noreply@blogger.com (alphaquest) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 04:35:00 +0700

For people who have previously owned film cameras or simple point and shoot digital cameras, and now as prices start to fall, the opportunity to join the rest of us in the exciting world of the DSLR (Digital SLR) is more affordable than ever when beginning digital photography.

This new breed of cameras is quite simply amazing and I sometimes despair when I read reviews and forum comments that air their disappointment when a new camera just released hasn't addressed the issue of "having to go to the menu" to make an alteration, for example.

When you are reading reviews about a certain digital SLR camera that you wish to buy, please take them with a pinch of salt. The reviewers are there to delve full on into every possible avenue open for discussion and any of their personal gripes should not put you off.

If all cameras were released with everyone's whims being catered for, the camera would simply have no room for a viewfinder or a lens because of the hundreds of buttons scattered everywhere. What you need to do, even if you may never use them, is to learn what action each individual button, gadget and gizmo actually does, just in case you happen to need it one day.

Taking a photograph with one of these new cameras can be much more involved than with any other camera in the past, but it is also so much more fun and enlightening! The amount of control that a DSLR can give you when taking your photos means that you can now let your creativity run wild and try new things that just weren't possible with other cameras.

Some things for you to learn or consider when beginning digital photography are;

How to hold the camera
Using both eyes when shooting
How to capture your subject
Lighting
Lenses
Filters
ISO or ASA settings
Depth of Field
Shutter Speeds
Black and White photography
Using a Tripod
Keep your eyes peeled
Camera viewpoint
Break the rules

Shoot Processing-The Environment

noreply@blogger.com (alphaquest) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:33:00 +0700

The day of the shoot, you walk onto the sound stage (or location) prepared to begin filming. The set has been constructed prior to your arrival by the "swing gang." You'll be working with a diverse crew of people to get your scene done, each of whom has an important role in the making of the movie.

* The cinematographer (or director of photography) is responsible for the lighting, choice of film, correct exposure, correct use of lenses, and supervision of the camera crew.
* The mixer is responsible recording the sound. Other sounds are added during post-production by foley artists.
* The gaffer is responsible for making sure all the lighting equipment is where it should be and operating correctly. The gaffer sets the lights so that the finished picture will have the desired effect.
* The key grip is responsible for the rigging (carpentry) and for moving and readying the sets and camera dollies.
* The set dresser decorates the set.
* The property master ensures the sets and actors have all the necessary dressing and props.
* The wardrobe master is responsible for all wardrobe needs.
* The make up person is responsible for all makeup.
* The assistant director keeps order on the set and makes sure the production moves according to schedule. Normally hired by the producer, the assistant director aids the director but also watches over the production company's investment. Sometimes this involves prodding the director to finish the shots planned for a particular day, or hunting down actors if they are not where they should be on the set. The assistant director also functions as a record keeper and handles time cards and minor union disputes.

You are told exactly where to stand and where to move. Every time you stop someone places a piece of tape on the floor. The camera follows you slowly. You rehearse the scene on the director's command. Once. Twice. Then the director says, "Let's go for a take." You are about to be filmed for the very first time in your life.

The assistant director yells, "Quiet on the set!" The actor who appears in this scene with you (playing the role of Grubowski) moves to his position. He stares into the fire as the cinematographer instructs the cameraman to take a medium shot.

"Roll it," says the assistant director. Someone says, "Rolling." "Speed," says someone else. "Thirty-five, take one."

An assistant holds a slate in front of the actor's face and snaps it shut. This "clacker" will later aid the film editor in synchronizing the picture to the sound. "Action!" commands the director.

Seconds later, the director calls out, "Cut. Do it again." The process is repeated until the director yells, "Cut. Print it." The makeup person moves into the scene and adjusts the actor's makeup. The director now wants a close-up shot and the cameraman films several takes until the director is satisfied with each one.

Finally, it's your turn for a close-up. You know that the camera and microphone will be within a few feet of you, so you'll need to communicate ideas and emotions at a very close range.

"Action!" You enter the room clutching a tea mug, your hand trembling as you imagine Emily's might. You're careful to "hit your mark" and stop exactly where the tape was placed on the floor earlier in the day. "Cut," the director says, and tells you to do it again. Finally, he calls out, "That's a wrap."

You take a deep breath of relief. You've made it through your first day on a movie set. The assistant director gives you your callsheet, or your schedule, for the next day's shooting. The crew begins to pack away the equipment for the night. The film shot that day is sent to a lab where it is processed and made into "dailies." Dailies are film clips that are viewed after each day's work in order to evaluate performances and spot any technical problems. They are shown to only a few people—normally, only the director, producer, and director of photography.

Dealing Kido & Conficker viruses

noreply@blogger.com (alphaquest) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:31:00 +0700

Ever heard about Conflicker and Kido? These viruses grouped into malware and attacking PC with Microsoft Windows operating system. Those malwares, generally attack to PCs that is very frequent get connected to the internet, however there is a chance that those also infect to the offline one.

The effect of being infected are:

* Can not access www.microsoft.com
* Antivirus can not be updated online nor offline
* Internet network/connection gets slow
* PCs will download several sites without any of our permission

Those are sometime can not be detected by common anti-viruses softwares, and hence many of us think that our PCs are fine.

If you get some symptoms just mentioned above, there is useful if you just try to scan your PC's system thoroughly using anti-virus software. But if you can not find any virus, there are other ways.

Do these steps carefully:

1. Cut off your PC from any kind of network (wireless nor wired)
2. Turn off restore system in this order: click start -> all program -> accessories -> system tool -> system restore. turn off all restoration of partitions.
3. Download Malware Removal Tools of Microsoft , just click here
4. But once again, please download that tool from a clean PC cause your infected one will not able to access the Microsoft website. However I can get you other link than Microsoft, jut click \download from : http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=AD724AE0-E72D-4F54-9AB3-75B8EB148356&displaylang=en
5. After download is completed, restart your PC
6. Enter the Safemode by pressing F8 just before loading windows logo comes out on to the screen
7. Run Malware Removal Tools (KB890830.exe)
8. Choose perform full scan
9. Wait until the process finish its job, and restart your PC
10. Get in to Normal Mode, and then try to access www.microsoft.com, if it is succeed, your PC is free from Kido nor Conflicker.
11. To maintain this state, download security updates from Microsoft in order to avoid re-infection. Just download from: http://www.filecluster.com/downloads/Microsoft-Malicious-Software-Removal-Tool.html

Have it try guys !!!

Making Mini DV seen like Film

noreply@blogger.com (alphaquest) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:30:00 +0700

There are a lot of plug-ins and software options which will help your video look more like film (and help you get closer to your limit on your credit card), but we'll stick with the tools you already have: a video camera and the editing software on your computer.

The Saint on Film
My good friend Juliana Marchand wanted to shoot her graduate thesis project, La Santa, on Super 16 film (the widescreen version of 16mm), but, like most graduate students, she didn't have the money. She came to me and asked if I could shoot her vision on Mini DV and give it the look of film. Here is what we did.

Aspect Ratio
First, we decided on the aspect ratio of our "film." Juliana and I agreed to shoot in a 1.85:1 ratio, which is a standard film aspect ratio. It's the ratio of the width of a frame to its height. When people see letterboxed footage (black bars across the top and bottom of the screen on a 1.33:1 television), they automatically think of film. I also like the wide canvas this lets me work with as well.

Letterboxing bars are easy to create in a painting program and easy to add as overlays in your video editing software. Some editing software comes with built-in letterbox effect that masks your video with the click of a button.

You'll certainly want to be able to frame your shots for 16:9 during your shooting. One way to do this is to create some 16:9-framed video with your software and bring it back into your camcorder. Then you can use a dry-erase marker or gaffers tape to mask the LCD screen. Do not try to tape cardboard to the front of your lens, however, since it makes a soft letterbox that doesn't work very well at all.

I wouldn't necessarily recommend creating a letterbox with the 16:9 setting in a consumer camera, unless it shoots a true anamorphic widescreen image. If you simply crop to 16:9 in your camera, you can never recover the top and bottom footage. Instead, shoot the entire 4:3 frame, and then letterbox in post. This is much safer and gives you more options later if you change your mind or want to distribute your movie in a different format.

Sharpness and Filter
We also employed two techniques to soften the harsh look of video. First, I lowered the sharpness of our Canon GL1 by decreasing the C.Sharpness value in the menu by two units. Many consumer cameras allow you to alter the sharpness: consult your manual. Second, I bought a Tiffen Black Pro-Mist 1 Effect Glass Filter. This $45 investment helped tone down the sharpness, soften the image and add some highlight flare. If the budget is tight, use a pair of sheer panty hose and stretch them over the lens. You should definitely test all of these methods before you go on the actual shoot. You can also consider performing a very light sharpness adjustment using a filter in your editing environment, but this will add significantly to the rendering time of your project. I actually prefer the in-camera adjustments to any of the filters I have used.

Control
Once we were on the set, we incorporated two conventions borrowed from over one hundred years of filmmaking: controlled lighting and controlled depth of field. I will admit, both of these techniques intimidated me in my early years of shooting, but after experimenting with some simple lights and camera settings, I realized it was not so difficult. I also studied scenes from my favorite films with the sound down and my finger on the rewind button so I could analyze light, shadow and focus.

Lighting
There are many different styles of lighting, but I suggest you start by learning the three-point lighting system, which you can read up on in this magazine's monthly Light Source column. Learn the basics and then experiment. Proper studio lights are ideal, but halogen shop lights or photoflood lights will work. Outside, you can bounce sunlight with car windshield reflectors or white poster board. Just about every single film you spend money to go see manipulates and controls light very carefully. If you want your video to look like them, you need to control your light as well.

Depth of Field
One way cinematographers manipulate what their audience will concentrate on within the frame is by manipulating the depth of field. Depth of field is the range of distance in front of the lens (e.g. from four feet to eight feet) that stays in focus at a given aperture setting and focal length. At its deepest, everything from the closest object to the camera to the farthest from it is in focus. The more you zoom (telephoto) the shallower the depth of field. When I want a shallow depth of field, I place the camera as far as I can from the subject (on a tripod of course), have the subject stand at least ten feet from the background and zoom in to compose my shot. This puts the subject in focus and put objects as close as five feet in front or behind them out of focus. You'll see this technique in almost every film you watch, but rarely in projects shot in video.

Opening the iris (aperture) will also give you a shallower depth of field. An easy way to achieve this is to use neutral density (ND) filters (either an in-camera option or a screw-on filter) to cut down on the intensity of light entering your camera, thus forcing the iris to open. You can also reduce the exposure by increasing the shutter speed, which will allow you to open the iris more.

Contrast Ratio
One serious difference between film and video concerns contrast ratio. Film can handle a greater ratio of bright to dark than video can. With video, a dark shirt on a light-skinned person in a dark room is not going to work. Video cameras cannot show details in extremely bright and extremely dark objects in the same frame well. If you expose to capture the details in the bright part of the image, you will often crush the details in the dark. Though there are some cameras that may mitigate this limitation with film-like gamma curves, there isn't a lot you can do about it except be conscious of the limitation and try not to have a huge range of brightness values in your shot.

Many Other Methods
These are the main methods we used to make our Mini DV short La Santa look like it was shot on film. There are many other aspects we could have played with, including: color correction, adding film-style grain, manipulating the gamma, shooting in PAL (25fps), frame blending, frame mode setting, adjusting shutter speed, edit with cuts and cross dissolves only and de-interlacing, to name a few. Good audio will help sell the effect and you could even use a damaged film filter (such as hair in the gate, scratches or dust), if that's the effect you want.

We entered La Santa in about fifteen festivals. It was accepted in over half and won five awards. Most of the success of this short is due to Juliana's writing, directing and the efforts of our crew. I was most pleased, however, when a critic or fellow filmmaker leaned toward me at a screening and asked if I shot it on 16 or 35.,

Digital Cinema? reveal the question

noreply@blogger.com (alphaquest) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:28:00 +0700

Cinema, the Art of the Index

Thus far, most discussions of cinema in the digital age have focused on the possibilities of interactive narrative. It is not hard to understand why: since the majority of viewers and critics equate cinema with storytelling, digital media is understood as something which will let cinema tell its stories in a new way. Yet as exciting as the ideas of a viewer participating in a story, choosing different paths through the narrative space and interacting with characters may be, they only address one aspect of cinema which is neither unique nor, as many will argue, essential to it: narrative.

The challenge which digital media poses to cinema extends far beyond the issue of narrative. Digital media redefines the very identity of cinema. In a symposium which took place in Hollywood in the Spring of 1996, one of the participants provocatively referred to movies as "flatties" and to human actors as "organics" and "soft fuzzies." As these terms accurately suggest, what used to be cinema's defining characteristics have become just the default options, with many others available. When one can "enter" a virtual three-dimensional space, to view flat images projected on the screen is hardly the only option. When, given enough time and money, almost everything can be simulated in a computer, to film physical reality is just one possibility. This "crisis" of cinema's identity also affects the terms and the categories used to theorize cinema's past. French film theorist Christian Metz wrote in the 1970s that "Most films shot today, good or bad, original or not, 'commercial' or not, have as a common characteristic that they tell a story; in this measure they all belong to one and the same genre, which is, rather, a sort of 'super-genre' ['sur-genre']."

In identifying fictional films as a "super-genre' of twentieth century cinema, Metz did not bother to mention another characteristic of this genre because at that time it was too obvious: fictional films are live action films, i.e. they largely consist of unmodified photographic recordings of real events which took place in real physical space. Today, in the age of computer simulation and digital compositing, invoking this characteristic becomes crucial in defining the specificity of twentieth century cinema. From the perspective of a future historian of visual culture, the differences between classical Hollywood films, European art films and avant-garde films (apart from abstract ones) may appear less significance than this common feature: that they relied on lens-based recordings of reality. This essay is concerned with the effect of the so-called digital revolotution on cinema as defined by its "super genre" as fictional live action film.

During cinema's history, a whole repertoire of techniques (lighting, art direction, the use of different film stocks and lens, etc.) was developed to modify the basic record obtained by a film apparatus. And yet behind even the most stylized cinematic images we can discern the bluntness, the sterility, the banality of early nineteenth century photographs. No matter how complex its stylistic innovations, the cinema has found its base in these deposits of reality, these samples obtained by a methodical and prosaic process. Cinema emerged out of the same impulse which engendered naturalism, court stenography and wax museums. Cinema is the art of the index; it is an attempt to make art out of a footprint.

Even for Andrey Tarkovsky, film-painter par excellence, cinema's identity lay in its ability to record reality. Once, during a public discussion in Moscow sometime in the 1970s he was asked the question as to whether he was interested in making abstract films. He replied that there can be no such thing. Cinema's most basic gesture is to open the shutter and to start the film rolling, recording whatever happens to be in front of the lens. For Tarkovsky, an abstract cinema is thus impossible. But what happens to cinema's indexical identity if it is now possible to generate photorealistic scenes entirely in a computer using 3-D computer animation; to modify individual frames or whole scenes with the help a digital paint program; to cut, bend, stretch and stitch digitized film images into something which has perfect photographic credibility, although it was never actually filmed?

This essay will address the meaning of these changes in the filmmaking process from the point of view of the larger cultural history of the moving image. Seen in this context, the manual construction of images in digital cinema represents a return to nineteenth century pre-cinematic practices, when images were hand-painted and hand-animated. At the turn of the twentieth century, cinema was to delegate these manual techniques to animation and define itself as a recording medium. As cinema enters the digital age, these techniques are again becoming the commonplace in the filmmaking process. Consequently, cinema can no longer be clearly distinguished from animation. It is no longer an indexical media technology but, rather, a sub-genre of painting.

A Brief Archeology of Moving Pictures

As testified by its original names (kinetoscope, cinematograph, moving pictures), cinema was understood, from its birth, as the art of motion, the art which finally succeeded in creating a convincing illusion of dynamic reality. If we approach cinema in this way (rather than the art of audio-visual narrative, or the art of a projected image, or the art of collective spectatorship, etc.), we can see it superseding previous techniques for creating and displaying moving images.

These earlier techniques shared a number of common characteristics. First, they all relied on hand-painted or hand-drawn images. The magic lantern slides were painted at least until the 1850s; so were the images used in the Phenakistiscope, the Thaumatrope, the Zootrope, the Praxinoscope, the Choreutoscope and numerous other nineteenth century pro-cinematic devices. Even Muybridge's celebrated Zoopraxiscope lectures of the 1880s featured not actual photographs but colored drawings painted after the photographs.

Zoopraxiscope

Not only were the images created manually, they were also manually animated. In Robertson's Phantasmagoria, which premiered in 1799, magic lantern operators moved behind the screen in order to make projected images appear to advance and withdraw. More often, an exhibitor used only his hands, rather than his whole body, to put the images into motion. One animation technique involved using mechanical slides consisting of a number of layers. An exhibitor would slide the layers to animate the image. Another technique was to slowly move a long slide containing separate images in front of a magic lantern lens. Nineteenth century optical toys enjoyed in private homes also required manual action to create movement -- twirling the strings of the Thaumatrope, rotating the Zootrope's cylinder, turning the Viviscope's handle.

Kinetoscope 1894

It was not until the last decade of the nineteenth century that the automatic generation of images and their automatic projection were finally combined. A mechanical eye became coupled with a mechanical heart; photography met the motor. As a result, cinema - a very particular regime of the visible - was born. Irregularity, non-uniformity, the accident and other traces of the human body, which previously inevitably accompanied moving image exhibitions, were replaced by the uniformity of machine vision. A machine, which like a conveyer belt, was now spitting out images, all sharing the same appearance, all the same size, all moving at the same speed, like a line of marching soldiers.

Cinema also eliminated the discrete character of both space and movement in moving images. Before cinema, the moving element was visually separated from the static background as with a mechanical slide show or Reynaud's Praxinoscope Theater (1892). The movement itself was limited in range and affected only a clearly defined figure rather than the whole image. Thus, typical actions would include a bouncing ball, a raised hand or eyes, a butterfly moving back and forth over the heads of fascinated children -- simple vectors charted across still fields. Cinema's most immediate predecessors share something else. As the nineteenth-century obsession with movement intensified, devices which could animate more than just a few images became increasingly popular. All of them - the Zootrope, the Phonoscope, the Tachyscope, the Kinetoscope - were based on loops, sequences of images featuring complete actions which can be played repeatedly. The Thaumatrope (1825), in which a disk with two different images painted on each face was rapidly rotated by twirling a strings attached to it, was in its essence a loop in its most minimal form: two elements replacing one another in succession. In the Zootrope (1867) and its numerous variations, approximately a dozen images were arranged around the perimeter of a circle. The Mutoscope, popular in America throughout the 1890s, increased the duration of the loop by placing a larger number of images radially on an axle. Even Edison's Kinetoscope (1892-1896), the first modern cinematic machine to employ film, continued to arrange images in a loop. 50 feet of film translated to an approximately 20 second long presentation - a genre whose potential development was cut short when cinema adopted a much longer narrative form.

From Animation to Cinema

Once the cinema was stabilized as a technology, it cut all references to its origins in artifice. Everything which characterized moving pictures before the twentieth century - the manual construction of images, loop actions, the discrete nature of space and movement - all of this was delegated to cinema's bastard relative, its supplement, its shadow - animation. Twentieth century animation became a depository for nineteenth century moving image techniques left behind by cinema.

The opposition between the styles of animation and cinema defined the culture of the moving image in the twentieth century. Animation foregrounds its artificial character, openly admitting that its images are mere representations. Its visual language is more aligned to the graphic than to the photographic. It is discrete and self-consciously discontinuous: crudely rendered characters moving against a stationary and detailed background; sparsely and irregularly sampled motion (in contrast to the uniform sampling of motion by a film camera -- recall Jean-Luc Godard's definition of cinema as "truth 24 frames per second"), and finally space constructed from separate image layers. In contrast, cinema works hard to erase any traces of its own production process, including any indication that the images which we see could have been constructed rather than recorded. It denies that the reality it shows often does not exist outside of the film image, the image which was arrived at by photographing an already impossible space, itself put together with the use of models, mirrors, and matte paintings, and which was then combined with other images through optical printing. It pretends to be a simple recording of an already existing reality - both to a viewer and to itself. Cinema's public image stressed the aura of reality "captured" on film, thus implying that cinema was about photographing what existed before the camera, rather than "creating the 'never-was' " of special effects. Rear projection and blue screen photography, matte paintings and glass shots, mirrors and miniatures, push development, optical effects and other techniques which allowed filmmakers to construct and alter the moving images, and thus could reveal that cinema was not really different from animation, were pushed to cinema's periphery by its practitioners, historians and critics.

Today, with the shift to digital media, these marginalized techniques move to the center.

What is Digital Cinema?

A visible sign of this shift is the new role which computer generated special effects have come to play in Hollywood industry in the last few years. Many recent blockbusters have been driven by special effects; feeding on their popularity. Hollywood has even created a new-mini genre of "The Making of..." videos and books which reveal how special effects are created.

I will use special effects from few recent Hollywood films for illustrations of some of the possibilities of digital filmmaking. Until recently, Hollywood studios were the only ones who had the money to pay for digital tools and for the labor involved in producing digital effects. However, the sbift to digital media affects not just Hollywood, but filmmaking as a whole. As traditional film technology is universally being replaced by digital technology, the logic of the filmmaking process is being redefined. What I describe below are the new principles of digital filmmaking which are equally valid for individual or collective film productions, regardless of whether they are using the most expensive professional hardware and software or its amateur equivalents.

Consider, then, the following principles of digital filmmaking:
1. Rather than filming physical reality it is now possible to generate film-like scenes directly in a computer with the help of 3-D computer animation. Therefore, live action footage is displaced from its role as the only possible material from which the finished film is constructed.
2. Once live action footage is digitized (or directly recorded in a digital format), it loses its privileged indexical relationship to pro-filmic reality. The computer does not distinguish between an image obtained through the photographic lens, an image created in a paint program or an image synthesized in a 3-D graphics package, since they are made from the same material - pixels. And pixels, regardless of their origin, can be easily altered, substituted one for another, and so on. Live action footage is reduced to be just another graphic, no different than images which were created manually.
3. If live action footage was left intact in traditional filmmaking, now it functions as raw material for further compositing, animating and morphing. As a result, while retaining visual realism unique to the photographic process, film obtains the plasticity which was previously only possible in painting or animation. To use the suggestive title of a popular morphing software, digital filmmakers work with "elastic reality." For example, the opening shot of Forest Gump (Robert Zemeckis, Paramount Pictures, 1994; special effects by Industrial Light and Magic) tracks an unusually long and extremely intricate flight of a feather. To create the shot, the real feather was filmed against a blue background in different positions; this material was then animated and composited against shots of a landscape. The result: a new kind of realism, which can be described as "something which looks is intended to look exactly as if it could have happened, although it really could not."
4. Previously, editing and special effects were strictly separate activities. An editor worked on ordering sequences of images together; any intervention within an image was handled by special effects specialists. The computer collapses this distinction. The manipulation of individual images via a paint program or algorithmic image processing becomes as easy as arranging sequences of images in time. Both simply involve "cut and paste." As this basic computer command exemplifies, modification of digital images (or other digitized data) is not sensitive to distinctions of time and space or of differences of scale. So, re-ordering sequences of images in time, compositing them together in space, modifying parts of an individual image, and changing individual pixels become the same operation, conceptually and practically.
5. Given the preceding principles, we can define digital film in this way:

digital film = live action material + painting + image processing + compositing + 2-D computer animation + 3-D computer animation

Live action material can either be recorded on film or video or directly in a digital format. Painting, image processing and computer animation refer to the processes of modifying already existent images as well as creating new ones. In fact, the very distinction between creation and modification, so clear in film-based media (shooting versus darkroom processes in photography, production versus post-production in cinema) no longer applies to digital cinema, since each image, regardless of its origin, goes through a number of programs before making it to the final film.

Let us summarize the principles discussed thus far. Live action footage is now only raw material to be manipulated by hand: animated, combined with 3-D computer generated scenes and painted over. The final images are constructed manually from different elements; and all the elements are either created entirely from scratch or modified by hand.

We can finally answer the question "what is digital cinema?" Digital cinema is a particular case of animation which uses live action footage as one of its many elements.

This can be re-read in view of the history of the moving image sketched earlier. Manual construction and animation of images gave birth to cinema and slipped into the margins...only to re-appear as the foundation of digital cinema. The history of the moving image thus makes a full circle. Born from animation, cinema pushed animation to its boundary, only to become one particular case of animation in the end.

The relationship between "normal" filmmaking and special effects is similarly reversed. Special effects, which involved human intervention into machine recorded footage and which were therefore delegated to cinema's periphery throughout its history, become the norm of digital filmmaking.

The same applies for the relationship between production and post-production. Cinema traditionally involved arranging physical reality to be filmed though the use of sets, models, art direction, cinematography, etc. Occasional manipulation of recorded film (for instance, through optical printing) was negligible compared to the extensive manipulation of reality in front of a camera. In digital filmmaking, shot footage is no longer the final point but just raw material to be manipulated in a computer where the real construction of a scene will take place. In short, the production becomes just the first stage of post-production.

The following examples illustrate this shift from re-arranging reality to re-arranging its images. From the analog era: for a scene in Zabriskie Point (1970), Michaelangelo Antonioni, trying to achieve a particularly saturated color, ordered a field of grass to be painted. From the digital era: to create the launch sequence in Apollo 13y (Universal Studious, 1995; special effects by Digital Domain), the crew shot footage at the original location of the launch at Cape Canaveral. The artists at Digital Domain scanned the film and altered it on computer workstations, removing recent building construction, adding grass to the launch pad and painting the skies to make them more dramatic. This altered film was then mapped onto 3D planes to create a virtual set which was animated to match a 180-degree dolly movement of a camera following a rising rocket.

The last example brings us to yet another conceptualization of digital cinema - as painting. In his book-length study of digital photography, William J. Mitchell focuses our attention on what he calls the inherent mutability of a digital image: "The essential characteristic of digital information is that it can be manipulated easily and very rapidly by computer. It is simply a matter of substituting new digits for old... Computational tools for transforming, combining, altering, and analyzing images are as essential to the digital artist as brushes and pigments to a painter." As Mitchell points out, this inherent mutability erases the difference between a photograph and a painting. Since a film is a series of photographs, it is appropriate to extend Mitchell's argument to digital film. With an artist being able to easily manipulate digitized footage either as a whole or frame by frame, a film in a general sense becomes a series of paintings.

Hand-painting digitized film frames, made possible by a computer, is probably the most dramatic example of the new status of cinema. No longer strictly locked in the photographic, it opens itself towards the painterly. It is also the most obvious example of the return of cinema to its nineteenth century origins - in this case, to hand-crafted images of magic lantern slides, the Phenakistiscope, the Zootrope. We usually think of computerization as automation, but here the result is the reverse: what was previously automatically recorded by a camera now has to be painted one frame at a time. But not just a dozen images, as in the nineteenth century, but thousands and thousands. We can draw another parallel with the practice, common in the early days of silent cinema, of manually tinting film frames in different colors according to a scene's mood.

Today, some of the most visually sophisticated digital effects are often achieved using the same simple method: painstakingly altering by hand thousands of frames. The frames are painted over either to create mattes ("hand drawn matte extraction") or to directly change the images, as, for instance, in Forest Gump, where President Kennedy was made to speak new sentences by altering the shape of his lips, one frame at a time. In principle, given enough time and money, one can create what will be the ultimate digital film: 90 minutes, i.e., 129600 frames completely painted by hand from scratch, but indistinguishable in appearance from live photography.

Multimedia as "Primitive" Digital Cinema

3-D animation, compositing, mapping, paint retouching: in commercial cinema, these radical new techniques are mostly used to solve technical problems while traditional cinematic language is preserved unchanged. Frames are hand-painted to remove wires which supported an actor during shooting; a flock of birds is added to a landscape; a city street is filled with crowds of simulated extras. Although most Hollywood releases now involve digitally manipulated scenes, the use of computers is always carefully hidden.

Commercial narrative cinema still continues to hold on to the classical realist style where images function as unretouched photographic records of some events which took place in front of the camera. Cinema refuses to give up its unique cinema-effect, an effect which, according to Christian Metz's penetrating analysis made in the 1970s, depends upon narrative form, the reality effect and cinema's architectural arrangement all working together.

Towards the end of his essay, Metz wonders whether in the future non-narrative films may become more numerous; if this happens, he suggests that cinema will no longer need to manufacture its reality effect. Electronic and digital media have already brought about this transformation. Beginning in the 1980s, new cinematic forms have emerged which are not linear narratives, which are exhibited on a television or a computer screen, rather than in a movie theater - and which simultaneously give up cinematic realism.

What are these forms? First of all, there is the music video. Probably not by accident, the genre of music video came into existence exactly at the time when electronic video effects devices were entering editing studios. Importantly, just as music videos often incorporate narratives within them, but are not linear narratives from start to finish, they rely on film (or video) images, but change them beyond the norms of traditional cinematic realism. The manipulation of images through hand-painting and image processing, hidden in Hollywood cinema, is brought into the open on a television screen. Similarly, the construction of an image from heterogeneous sources is not subordinated to the goal of photorealism but functions as a aesthetic strategy. The genre of music video has been a laboratory for exploring numerous new possibilities of manipulating photographic images made possible by computers -- the numerous points which exist in the space between the 2-D and the 3-D, cinematography and painting, photographic realism and collage. In short, it is a living and constantly expanding textbook for digital cinema.

A detailed analysis of the evolution of music video imagery (or, more generally, broadcast graphics in the electronic age) deserves a separate treatment and I will not try to take it up here. Instead, I will discuss another new cinematic non-narrative form, CD-ROM games, which, in contrast to music video, relied on the computer for storage and distribution from the very beginning. And, unlike music video designers who were consciously pushing traditional film or video images into something new, the designers of CD-ROMs arrived at a new visual language unintentionally while attempting to emulate traditional cinema.

In the late 1980s, Apple began to promote the concept of computer multimedia; and in 1991 it released QuickTime software to enable an ordinary personal computer to play movies. However, for the next few years the computer did not perform its new role very well. First, CD-ROMs could not hold anything close to the length of a standard theatrical film. Secondly, the computer would not smoothly play a movie larger than the size of a stamp. Finally, the movies had to be compressed, degrading their visual appearance. Only in the case of still images was the computer able to display photographic-like detail at full screen size.

Because of these particular hardware limitations, the designers of CD-ROMs had to invent a different kind of cinematic language in which a range of strategies, such as discrete motion, loops, and superimposition, previously used in nineteenth century moving image presentations, in twentieth century animation, and in the avant-garde tradition of graphic cinema, were applied to photographic or synthetic images. This language synthesized cinematic illusionism and the aesthetics of graphic collage, with its characteristic heterogeneity and discontinuity. The photographic and the graphic, divorced when cinema and animation went their separate ways, met again on a computer screen.

The graphic also met the cinematic. The designers of CD-ROMs were aware of the techniques of twentieth century cinematography and film editing, but they had to adopt these techniques both to an interactive format and to hardware limitations. As a result, the techniques of modern cinema and of nineteenth century moving image have merged in a new hybrid language.

We can trace the development of this language by analyzing a few well-known CD-ROM titles. The best selling game Myst (Broderbund, 1993) unfolds its narrative strictly through still images, a practice which takes us back to magic lantern shows (and to Chris Marker's La Jetée). But in other ways Myst relies on the techniques of twentieth century cinema. For instance, the CD-ROM uses simulated camera turns to switch from one image to the next. It also employs the basic technique of film editing to subjectively speed up or slow down time. In the course of the game, the user moves around a fictional island by clicking on a mouse. Each click advances a virtual camera forward, revealing a new view of a 3-D environment. When the user begins to descend into the underground chambers, the spatial distance between the points of view of each two consecutive views sharply decreases. If before the user was able to cross a whole island with just a few clicks, now it takes a dozen clicks to get to the bottom of the stairs! In other words, just as in traditional cinema, Myst slows down time to create suspense and tension.

In Myst, miniature animations are sometimes embedded within the still images. In the next best-selling CD-ROM 7th Guest (Virgin Games, 1993), the user is presented with video clips of live actors superimposed over static backgrounds created with 3-D computer graphics. The clips are looped, and the moving human figures clearly stand out against the backgrounds. Both of these features connect the visual language of 7th Guest to nineteenth century pro-cinematic devices and twentieth century cartoons rather than to cinematic verisimilitude. But like Myst, 7th Guest also evokes distinctly modern cinematic codes. The environment where all action takes place (an interior of a house) is rendered using a wide angle lens; to move from one view to the next a camera follows a complex curve, as though mounted on a virtual dolly.

Next, consider the CD-ROM Johnny Mnemonic (Sony Imagesoft, 1995). Produced to complement the fiction film of the same title, marketed not as a "game" but as an "interactive movie," and featuring full screen video throughout, it comes closer to cinematic realism than the previous CD-ROMs - yet it is still quite distinct from it. With all action shot against a green screen and then composited with graphic backgrounds, its visual style exists within a space between cinema and collage.

It would be not entirely inappropriate to read this short history of the digital moving image as a teleological development which replays the emergence of cinema a hundred years earlier. Indeed, as computers' speed keeps increasing, the CD-ROM designers have been able to go from a slide show format to the superimposition of small moving elements over static backgrounds and finally to full-frame moving images. This evolution repeats the nineteenth century progression: from sequences of still images (magic lantern slides presentations) to moving characters over static backgrounds (for instance, in Reynaud's Praxinoscope Theater) to full motion (the Lumieres' cinematograph). Moreover, the introduction of QuickTime in 1991 can be compared to the introduction of the Kinetoscope in 1892: both were used to present short loops, both featured the images approximately two by three inches in size, both called for private viewing rather than collective exhibition. Finally, the Lumieres' first film screenings of 1895 which shocked their audiences with huge moving images found their parallel in 1995 CD-ROM titles where the moving image finally fills the entire computer screen. Thus, exactly a hundred years after cinema was officially "born," it was reinvented on a computer screen.

But this is only one reading. We no longer think of the history of cinema as a linear march towards only one possible language, or as a progression towards more and more accurate verisimilitude. Rather, we have come to see its history as a succession of distinct and equally expressive languages, each with its own aesthetic variables, each new language closing off some of the possibilities of the previous one -- a cultural logic not dissimilar to Kuhn's analysis of scientific paradigms. Similarly, instead of dismissing visual strategies of early multimedia titles as a result of technological limitations, we may want to think of them as an alternative to traditional cinematic illusionism, as a beginning of digital cinema's new language.

For the computer/entertainment industry, these strategies represent only a temporary limitation, an annoying drawback that needs to be overcome. This is one important difference between the situation at the end of the nineteenth and the end of the twentieth centuries: if cinema was developing towards the still open horizon of many possibilities, the development of commercial multimedia, and of corresponding computer hardware (compression boards, storage formats such as Digital Video Disk), is driven by a clearly defined goal: the exact duplication of cinematic realism. So if a computer screen, more and more, emulates cinema's screen, this not an accident but a result of conscious planning.

The Loop

A number of artists, however, have approached these strategies not as limitations but as a source of new cinematic possibilities. As an example, I will discuss the use of the loop in Jean-Louis Boissier's Flora petrinsularis (1993) and Natalie Bookchin's The Databank of the Everyday (1996).

As already mentioned, all nineteenth century pro-cinematic devices, up to Edison's Kinetoscope, were based on short loops. As "the seventh art" began to mature, it banished the loop to the low-art realms of the instructional film, the pornographic peep-show and the animated cartoon. In contrast, narrative cinema has avoided repetitions; as modern Western fictional forms in general, it put forward a notion of human existence as a linear progression through numerous unique events.

Cinema's birth from a loop form was reenacted at least once during its history. In one of the sequences of the revolutionary Soviet montage film, A Man with a Movie Camera (1929), DzigaVertov shows us a cameraman standing in the back of a moving automobile. As he is being carried forward by an automobile, he cranks the handle of his camera. A loop, a repetition, created by the circular movement of the handle, gives birth to a progression of events -- a very basic narrative which is also quintessentially modern: a camera moving through space recording whatever is in its way. In what seems to be a reference to cinema's primal scene, these shots are intercut with the shots of a moving train. Vertov even re-stages the terror which Lumieres's film supposedly provoked in its audience; he positions his camera right along the train track so the train runs over our point of view a number of times, crushing us again and again.

Early digital movies share the same limitations of storage as nineteenth century pro-cinematic devices. This is probably why the loop playback function was built into QuickTime interface, thus giving it the same weight as the VCR-style "play forward" function. So, in contrast to films and videotapes, QuickTime movies are supposed to be played forward, backward or looped. Flora petrinsularis realizes some of the possibilities contained in the loop form, suggesting a new temporal aesthetics for digital cinema.

The CD-ROM, which is based on Rousseau's Confessions, opens with a white screen, containing a numbered list. Clicking on each item leads us to a screen containing two frames, positioned side by side. Both frames show the same video loop but are slightly offset from each other in time. Thus, the images appearing in the left frame reappear in a moment on the right and vice versa, as though an invisible wave is running through the screen. This wave soon becomes materialized: when we click on one of the frames we are taken to a new screen showing a loop of a rhythmically vibrating water surface. As each mouse click reveals another loop, the viewer becomes an editor, but not in a traditional sense. Rather than constructing a singular narrative sequence and discarding material which is not used, here the viewer brings to the forefront, one by one, numerous layers of looped actions which seem to be taking place all at once, a multitude of separate but co-existing temporalities. The viewer is not cutting but re-shuffling. In a reversal of Vertov's sequence where a loop generated a narrative, viewer's attempt to create a story in Flora petrinsularis leads to a loop.

The loop which structures Flora petrinsularis on a number of levels becomes a metaphor for human desire which can never achieve resolution. It can be also read as a comment on cinematic realism. What are the minimal conditions necessary to create the impression of reality? As Boissier demonstrates, in the case of a field of grass, a close-up of a plant or a stream, just a few looped frames become sufficient to produce the illusion of life and of linear time.

Steven Neale describes how early film demonstrated its authenticity by representing moving nature: "What was lacking [in photographs] was the wind, the very index of real, natural movement. Hence the obsessive contemporary fascination, not just with movement, not just with scale, but also with waves and sea spray, with smoke and spray." What for early cinema was its biggest pride and achievement -- a faithful documentation of nature's movement - becomes for Boissier a subject of ironic and melancholic simulation. As the few frames are looped over and over, we see blades of grades shifting slightly back and forth, rhythmically responding to the blow of non-existent wind which is almost approximated by the noise of a computer reading data from a CD-ROM.

Something else is being simulated here as well, perhaps unintentionally. As you watch the CD-ROM, the computer periodically staggers, unable to maintain consistent data rate. As a result, the images on the screen move in uneven bursts, slowing and speeding up with human-like irregularity. It is as though they are brought to life not by a digital machine but by a human operator, cranking the handle of the Zootrope a century and a half ago ...

If Flora petrinsularis uses the loop to comment on cinema's visual realism, The Databank of the Everyday suggests that the loop can be a new narrative form appropriate for the computer age. In her ironic manifesto which parodies the avant-garde manifestos from the earlier part of the century, Bookchin reminds us that the loop gave birth not only to cinema but also to computer programming. Programming involves altering the linear flow of data through control structures, such as "if/then" and "repeat/while"; the loop is the most elementary of these control structures.

As digital media replaces film and photography, it is only logical that the computer program's loop should replace photography's frozen moment and cinema's linear narrative. The Databank champions the loop as a new form of digital storytelling; there is no true beginning or end, only a series of the loops with their endless repetitions, halted by a users's selection or a power shortage.
Natalie Bookchin

The computer program's loop makes its first "screen debut" in one particularly effective image from The Databank of the Everyday. The screen is divided into two frames, one showing a video loop of a woman shaving her leg, another - a loop of a computer program in execution. Program statements repeating over and over mirror the woman's arm methodically moving back and forth. This image represents one of the first attempts in computer art to apply a Brechtian strategy; that is, to show the mechanisms by which the computer produces its illusions as a part of the artwork. Stripped of its usual interface, the computer turns out to be another version of Ford's factory, with a loop as its conveyer belt.

As Boissier, Bookchin also also explores alternatives to cinematic montage, in her case replacing its traditional sequential mode with a spatial one. Ford's assembly line relied on the separation of the production process into a set of repetitive, sequential, and simple activities. The same principle made computer programming possible: a computer program breaks a tasks into a series of elemental operations to be executed one at a time. Cinema followed this principle as well: it replaced all other modes of narration with a sequential narrative, an assembly line of shots which appear on the screen one at a time. A sequantial narrative turned out to be particularly incompatible with a spatialized narrative which played a prominent role in European visual culture for centuries. From Giotto's fresco cycle at Capella degli Scrovegni in Padua to Courbet's A Burial at Ornans, artists presented a multitude of separate events (which sometimes were even separated by time) within a single composition. In contrast to cinema's narrative, here all the "shots" were accessible to a viewer at one.

Cinema has elaborated complex techniques of montage between different images replacing each other in time; but the possibility of what can be called "spatial montage" between simultaneously co-exiting images were not explored. The Databank of the Everyday begins to explore this direction, thus opening up again the tradition of spatialized narrative suppressed by cinema. In one section we are presented with a sequence of pairs of short clips of everyday actions which function as antonyms, for instance, opening and closing a door, or pressing up and down buttons in an elevator. In another section the user can choreograph a number of miniature actions appearing in small windows positioned throughout the screen.

From Kino-Eye to Kino-Brush

In the twentieth century, cinema has played two roles at once. As a media technology, cinema's role was to capture and to store visible reality. The difficulty of modifying images once they were recorded was exactly what gave cinema its value as a document, assuring its authenticity. The same rigidity of the film image has defined the limits of cinema as I defined it earlier, i.e. the super-genre of live action narrative. Although it includes within itself a variety of styles - the result of the efforts of many directors, designers and cinematographers -- these styles share a strong family resemblance. They are all children of the recording process which uses lens, regular sampling of time and photographic media. They are all children of a machine vision.

The mutability of digital data impairs the value of cinema recordings as a documents of reality. In retrospect, we can see that twentieth century cinema's regime of visual realism, the result of automatically recording visual reality, was only an exception, an isolated accident in the history of visual representation which has always involved, and now again involves the manual construction of images. Cinema becomes a particular branch of painting - painting in time. No longer a kino-eye, but a kino-brush.

The privileged role played by the manual construction of images in digital cinema is one example of a larger trend: the return of pre-cinematic moving images techniques. Marginalized by the twentieth century institution of live action narrative cinema which relegated them to the realms of animation and special effects, these techniques reemerge as the foundation of digital filmmaking. What was supplemental to cinema becomes its norm; what was at its boundaries comes into the center. Digital media returns to us the repressed of the cinema.

As the examples discussed in this essay suggest, the directions which were closed off at the turn of the century when cinema came to dominate the modern moving image culture are now again beginning to be explored. Moving image culture is being redefined once again; the cinematic realism is being displaced from being its dominant mode to become only one option among many.

Use of monitor in Digital Cinema

noreply@blogger.com (alphaquest) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:26:00 +0700

In “Digital Cinema Solutions”, my recently released documentary surveying the entire field of digital production and post, a number of high profile filmmakers weighed in on the effects of the ever present HD monitor on our new working environment.

"The monitor is probably the most important thing about the shooting on High Def process right now." stated noted cinematographer Allan Daviau, ASC.

“You look at the monitor and what you see is what you're getting." That’s one of the major advantages of shooting digital according to James Cameron; but how do we really know that the image we sign off on during production is the same image that will ultimately be perceived by our audience? And what about the changing paradigm of cinematography, where once the Director of Photography was thought to be the only one trusted to predict how the image from the set would translate to the screen? Now anyone who knows how to watch TV may feel qualified to judge the image on the monitor; but are they? Don’t get me wrong; it’s great to have these superb new tools to help us judge the images we capture, and it’s a great boon to the collaborative process for a director to consult a monitor and ask for specific adjustments. But, it’s still my job as a DP to be the guardian of the image and to try and make sure that what we see on set will be the same image ultimately translated all the way through post to the final exhibition, whether it be to a theatrical screen, a home TV set, or both.

I don’t like to think I’m all that old, but I have to admit that when I started shooting movies we didn’t have video assist monitors, and when they did start to appear on the scene they were barely watchable in grainy black and white, flickering, sometimes just enough to see the framing. And even this was at the steep price of robbing brightness from the camera operators optical viewfinder by splitting the beam to the video tap. In those days we were forced not to rely on these images too much, but instead to develop the ability to foresee how the image in front of us would look once it got screened in dailies and beyond. Sure, there were sometimes a few surprises, but experienced DPs developed their eye by simply running a lot of film through their cameras and then seeing the results projected or telecined. Nowadays, we are able to take advantage of the superb images we can see on our display devises, (perhaps better than anyone will ever see them again). It’s instant gratification, instantaneous feedback; quicker than polaroids or one-hour photos.

“We're gonna need less ESP...It's not going to be sub-vocal, subconscious communication,” says James Cameron, speaking of the effect of the monitor on the collaborative process. “It's going to be very conscious; there's the image, what do we want to do? What do we want to change? There’s the immediacy of actually analyzing the image that you're creating at the time; you experiment with filters, with lighting, you see it in a very immediate sense, and you don't have to wait until the next day to see how it came out, which I like a lot because I like the ability, the freedom to experiment without having to be too conservative....more creative in the sense of giving oneself permission to try things without having to worry that you've lost a day's shooting."

It is still the DPs job, however, to interpret how these images will be translated so that they can be seen by the final audience. Today’s monitors are great, but the only way I know how to feel confident of my results and of what I’m ultimately going to get is through testing. I shoot extensive tests before any digital production and I try to see them all the way out to film, or whatever is the intended distribution. If you’ve got a show in preproduction, labs and rental houses will generally offer you gear and services for testing so that you can see your work on the big screen and get everyone’s input early in the process, which can be really helpful later on.

“It makes our life so much easier to be involved from the outset.” explains Ron Burdett, CEO of Los Angeles based post house, Sunset Digital, and a founding member of The Hollywood Post Alliance. “We'd like to work with the digital filmmaker early on to help them capture a good, healthy image on digital. From there they can go anywhere, be it transfer to film, broadcast, or digital projection. Unfortunately, there are sometimes some hard lessons to be learned when filmmakers are disappointed that the images they see here in post are not what they perceived on set. It’s not just a matter of how they may have had their display devices tweaked, but also what type they were using, CRT, LCD, or Plasma. The type of display technology used can make a huge difference since they all represent black and color in different ways. We sometimes spend a lot of time trying to get back to what they thought they already had.”

Monitors are precision instruments, and really no less important than your production camera. This is especially true in HD, where there is even less room for error. The higher the resolution, the more any image capture problem is going to be magnified, and as compared to film, we are confined to a much narrower exposure latitude. “You have to be careful when you shoot with a digital camera that you have the image in terms of the setting of the iris fairly accurate to what you want to achieve," according to Allan Daviau, ASC. "Because if you overexpose an image or burn something out, that's all there is."

So we know we need to be precise in our settings and the only way to do this is to have accurate equipment with which to monitor. “An uncalibrated monitor can be merely an illusion that can cause more damage than not having a monitor at all,” says David Riddle, for many years in the business of calibrating video monitors and related test equipment. “A certified color video monitor is the only means to precisely determine that what you are seeing, in terms of exposure, latitude, color saturation, color hue, depth of focus, and framing, is correct.” He also stresses how important it is to provide a consistent ambient illumination level in which to view your monitor. With this in mind, he has created a unique, hard-shell transport and utility shock-proof case that houses several types of Sony 8” and 9” standard and high definition monitors. His custom engineered case not only helps protect the fragile monitor from getting damaged and knocked out of calibration as it travels to location, but also creates a consistent viewing environment. With a built in hood that eliminates ambient light from contaminating the display, you can evaluate your image consistently no matter the lighting environment, whether interior or exterior location.

With the attendant personnel including Director, Script Supervisor, Digital Image Tech, Producers, and other department heads, it seems the video village has sometimes grown to become a small city, and it takes a pretty good size monitor to service this crowd. A general rule of thumb is that the ideal distance to view a monitor is at about six times the vertical of the screen. So at a distance of 6 feet, you should be looking at approximately a 24” 16x9 monitor, even a little closer if you want to see all the detail HD has to offer. If a control monitor gets much bigger than that, you should probably be looking at smaller, multiple monitors.

There are many great manufacturers including Sony, Panasonic, and Ikegami, among others, turning out great full size HiDef production monitors that are at home in video village, but one that I also try to get on every shoot is the Astro model WM-3001. With it’s convenient size, (6” LCD weighing less than a half pound), it’s small and light enough to be mounted right on the camera. I like this because it keeps me on set, right where the action is, instead of being stuck back at video village. It also has a built in wave form and vector scope which can be superimposed over your picture to truly analyze what you’re looking at. This also makes it especially easy to calibrate, by first outputting the Color Bars signal from the camera to the monitor, then selecting the Vector Scope mode and superimposing it over the Color Bars to dial it in. This is a fast, easy way to get a proper color representation of the camera.

It used to be that if you got just a little off the perfect viewing angle, an LCD would appear to fade out, but with their new models, they seem to have remedied that problem. Other features include dual inputs so you can A/B switch between two sources like another camera or playback for matching. It also accepts either HD or Standard Definition.

Mark Forman, of New York’s Forman HiDefinition
Screening Room recommends that if a project is ultimately meant for large screen projection or theatrical release, that it only makes sense to periodically project your digital dailies on a large screen. “In the production stage certain visual parameters can only be seen on a large screen. On a small screen, focus will sometimes appear to be there, but when projected it will be soft. Another aspect seen in projection that may not be readily apparent on the set monitor is production items in the background. When seen, these things are usually a rude awakening.” In other words, it’s better to be safe than sorry, and a few dollars spent on a professional screening room is a heck of a lot cheaper than trying to fix it after production has wrapped.

Even more today than in the past, the Director of Photography needs to be vigilant at every stage of production and post as the image is manipulated and transformed throughout all it’s various electronic incarnations. But without good quality, well maintained monitoring equipment and a bit of practical experience gained by testing, we are only flying blind. I prefer to use every tool at my disposal to assure that what we see is ultimately what we get.

Harvard Business Review

noreply@blogger.com (alphaquest) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:13:00 +0700

Hello, again….! For you studying economics, might these free e-book help improve your knowledge. Click these links below and the download process shall start seconds after.
1. http://www.ziddu.com/downloadlink/5533834/HarvardBusinessReview-WhyGoodCompaniesGoBad.pdf
2. http://www.ziddu.com/downloadlink/5533832/HarvardBusinessSchool-HiringandKeepingtheBest.pdf
3. http://www.ziddu.com/downloadlink/5533831/HarvardBusinessSchool-ManagingChangeandTransition.pdf
4. http://www.ziddu.com/downloadlink/5533827/HarvardBusinessReview-YourNextITStrategy.pdf
5. http://www.ziddu.com/downloadlink/5533825/HarvardBusinessSchool-ProjectManagementManual.pdf
6. http://www.ziddu.com/downloadlink/5533820/HarvardBusinessSchool-MarketingEssentials.pdf
7. http://www.ziddu.com/downloadlink/5533818/HarvardBusinessSchool-LeadingQuietly.pdf
8. http://www.ziddu.com/downloadlink/5533792/HarvardBusinessSchool-WhyBusinessmodelsmatter.pdf
9. http://www.ziddu.com/downloadlink/5533346/vardBusinessReview-UnderstandingWhatCustomersValue.pdf
10. http://www.ziddu.com/downloadlink/5533345/arvardBusinessReview-Whatsyourprojectrealpricetag.pdf
11. http://www.ziddu.com/downloadlink/5533344/HarvardBusinessReview-WhatistheRightSupplyChain.pdf
12. http://www.ziddu.com/downloadlink/5533343/HarvardBusinessReview-WhatMakesaLeader.pdf
13. http://www.ziddu.com/downloadlink/5533342/rvardBusinessReview-TurnYourIndustrialDistributors.pdf
14. http://www.ziddu.com/downloadlink/5533341/arvardBusinessReview-TheBalancedScorecard-Measures.pdf
15. http://www.ziddu.com/downloadlink/5533340/HarvardBusinessReview-Thenumberoneyouneedtogrow.pdf
16. http://www.ziddu.com/downloadlink/5533337/HarvardBusinessReview-Versioning-TheSmartWaytoSell.pdf
17. http://www.ziddu.com/downloadlink/5533336/HarvardBusinessReview-WhatIsStrategy.pdf
18. http://www.ziddu.com/downloadlink/5533123/HarvardBusinessReview-SwarmIntelligence.pdf
19. http://www.ziddu.com/downloadlink/5533122/HarvardBusinessReview-OptimalMarketing.pdf
20. http://www.ziddu.com/downloadlink/5533119/HarvardBusinessReview-SimpleTruthsAboutInnovations.pdf
21. http://www.ziddu.com/downloadlink/5533117/arvardBusinessReview-SocialCostofFraudandBankruptc.pdf
22. http://www.ziddu.com/downloadlink/5533115/HarvardBusinessReview-ManagingInTheMarketspace.pdf
23. http://www.ziddu.com/downloadlink/5533114/HarvardBusinessReview-Strategyandtheinternet.pdf

Harvard Business Review – Optimal Marketing

noreply@blogger.com (alphaquest) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:11:00 +0700

When Eric Kim, executive vice president of global marketing operations for Samsung Electronics, joined the company in 1999, he accepted a daunting challenge: build the Korean manufacturer’s brand into a force that would rival industry leader Sony in revenue, profit, and prestige—within five years.
t wasn’t going to be easy. At that point, Samsung was arguably the biggest consumer electronics maker that consumers had never heard about. The company had competed for three decades mainly as a behind-the-scenes supplier of computer monitors and semiconductors to more powerful multinationals. Even as it increasingly went to market with its own branded PDAs, mobile phones, and DVD players, Samsung was considered a low-cost provider, with low visibility to match. Kim needed to make Samsung a household word, and one synonymous with innovation and quality.
download from link below to know further:

http://marketronia.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/harvard-business-review-optimal-marketing1.pdf

The Post Production in Cinema Work

noreply@blogger.com (alphaquest) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:10:00 +0700

The film editor must know how to tell a story, be politically savvy when working with directors and studio executives, and have a calm and confident demeanor. Millions of dollars of film and the responsibility of guiding the picture through post-production and into theaters rest in the editor's hands. Scenes may have been photographed poorly and performances might have been less than inspired, but a skilled and creative editor can assemble the film so that the audience will never see these imperfections.
To better understand the editing process, imagine you are seated in a movie theater. The lights are dim and credits appear over an establishing shot of a seacoast town in Maine. The title appears on the screen: Blueberry Hill. After the last credits evaporate, you see a long shot of a vacant summer cottage, then a medium shot of a mysterious-looking man pouring lighter fluid on the grass near the house and striking a match. The grass catches fire; the man flees. The vivid crackling of the fire dissolves into the sound of a young girl's laughter as she packs clothing into a cardboard box and sings along with her CD player.
Who created this scene? The screenwriter, director, cinematographer, actors, lighting designer, sound designer, and, finally, the film editor. Working with the director, the film editor shaped the scene into its final form. After hours and hours of reviewing the unedited film, he created this one-minute scene. The scene appears to take place in a seacoast town in Maine during an autumn afternoon. In truth, little of what the audience sees on screen occurred in Maine, and it certainly was not all filmed in one afternoon.
The actor who played the mysterious man was most likely filmed on a Hollywood set in late summer. The young girl was filmed on a different set in early fall. The establishing shot of the seaside town was filmed months earlier in California, not Maine. The song on the girl's CD and the sounds of the crackling fire were recorded in a studio. But when you see the finished scene, all of the sounds and images work together. They appear to have taken place at one time and in one place. That is the magic of film editing.
Cuts and Transitions: Assembling the Scene
Editors select sounds and images from all the film that has been shot and arrange them to make the movie. They also plan how one shot will best transition to the next. Assembling the opening scene of Blueberry Hill, the editor might choose to begin with a wide shot of the bay, focusing on the white caps and buoys that dot the water. From the shot of the grass catching fire, the editor might decide to dissolve to the girl packing clothes into a box. There are dozens of possible transitions the editor can choose, each of which will create a different feeling.
Editing often begins as soon as film has been shot. Early scenes are assembled for the producer and director to view. Occasionally, the actors will also view these early scenes. Many directors choose not to show actors these edited scenes for fear that they will affect the actors' performance.The first cut of a film, called a "rough cut," takes up to three months to complete. The final cut may take another month to finish. Sometimes the editor works alone, sometimes with the director. The sound designer and music composer join them for the final cut, adding sound effects and the musical score. When the editing is complete and the director and producer have approved the final version of the film, this final cut is sent to a negative matcher. The negative matcher makes a negative of the film that exactly matches the final cut, and the negative is then sent to a film lab where prints are created. These prints eventually end up in theaters.
In the past, editors worked with copies of negatives called "work prints" to plan a film's scenes and transitions. When an editor was satisfied with the final film, he or she would create an edit decision list, a list of each shot in the film and its length. The list would correspond to numbers, called "edge numbers," printed on the edge of the work prints. These numbers helped a negative matcher accurately copy the work print and cut the negatives.
Today most editors use computers or nonlinear digital editing systems to compile a film. This is more efficient, but for the most part, the process is the same. The work prints, complete with edge numbers, are stored in the computer. The editor arranges the work print, and then creates an edit decision list that will be passed on to the negative matcher

My photoshoot with children

noreply@blogger.com (alphaquest) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:07:00 +0700

In the world of photography, children photography is left behind. Even we never hear about it. Truly, this field is a matter of essential of our daily life. I'm lucky that I ever shoot several child, and I will continue to photograph them. Please enjoy, give comment and critic to an improvement in the next project.

SMADAV Antivirus rev 7.0

noreply@blogger.com (alphaquest) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:04:00 +0700

Are you in Indonesia and use computer very frequent? Surprised by troubled of computer viruses' numerous attack ? Your "standard" anti-virus software can't solve this matter? Annoyed by changing anti-virus many times?

If so, I believe you need to try this anti-virus software called SMADAV. SMADAV itself passed several revision, the newer is rev.7. It is claimed that SMADAV is the best anti-virus for local viruses in Indonesia because it can detect up to 90% of virus population.

This software comes in two versions. The free version and pro version. The pro version offers these advantages:

1. Automatic update online
2. 10 time faster scanning
3. Exception list feature
4. Changing its appearance in different color
5. Indonesian/English language capability
6. Profit license
7. Networking administrator password

You could get this software at their website: http://www.smadav.net

Human Interest Photo

noreply@blogger.com (alphaquest) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:01:00 +0700

The definition of "human interest" from is

"feature or story that discusses a person or persons in an interactive and/or emotional way. It presents people and their problems, concerns, or achievements in a way that brings about interest or sympathy in the reader or viewer.

Human interest stories may be the story behind the story about an event, organization or otherwise faceless historical happening, such as about the life of an individual soldier during war-time, an interview with a survivor of a natural disaster, or profile of someone known for a career achievement.

Human interest stories are sometimes criticized as "soft" news, or manipulative, sensationalistic programming."

Thus, human interest photo means that sense of story or feature above changed into photo.

I have been exploring this field since the first touched with camera. At that time, I thought how was that interesting to record any expression of human or their specific activities. From the photo taken we can see, a life flame of the object, is it very passionate, flat, almost or, really vanished. The photo it self as it tells a complex story that attract our imagination.

Here are some of my photos, sit back and give me your critic and comment for a better photo shoot in the future.