HD to 35

Moved Blog

2011-07-14T12:27:00.001+00:00

I have moved my blog.
It can now be found at
www.paulschleicher.com/post-blog/
and my main site is paulschleicher.com

Broadcast Shows Hot on the Heals of Summer Tent Poles

2007-07-11T08:32:00.000+00:00

So, what cinematic feasts will we be gorgeing on for Orange Wednesdays this summer? Having read much of the hype, the only real thing that had me excited about this summer's movie season was Transformers', until I read the reviews.
Nerve delicately phrased:

About forty of its 145 minutes contain both robots and explosions, and those forty minutes comprise some of the most impressive special effects that have ever graced a screen. The Transformers really do look like tangible objects, and they're exciting to watch. But the other hundred-plus minutes aren't really about anything at all.

Even so, poor reviews that describe fluff, effects and no story, may not be enough to keep me away. Most time yes, but for some reason I am intrigued by Transformers. Maybe its nostalgia. I was never into comics as a kid, but cartoons like G.I. Joe and Thundercats and Transformers had me engrossed.

Combined with the praise for the visual effects work might get my £8 from my pocket and into the box office.

I didn't see Spidy 3 and to be honest, am not won over by the current onslaught of franchises (Pirates, Die Hard, Rocky). I image some are credible, but the ideas aren't new. I wont feel like i am discovering something. I will feel like the companies that own the studios are wringing out all the cash they can from a single concept. Maybe that's cynical

Spidy had similar hype to Transformers as to the originality of the effects work, but why combine this with a tired story. This story from a few months ago on Wired, praised the work done to develop the character of the Sandman.

Perhaps directors are getting too consumed with the effects over the story.

But making the villain wasn't easy (nor was it cheap). It all started with director Sam Raimi peering through a microscope to study the molecular structure of sand, and led to two-and-a-half years of visual-effects R&D and a crew of 30 special-effects technicians.

"I had people bring in 12 different kinds of sand -- this is where people think the movie industry is insane -- so I could look at it," says Raimi. "I saw California beach sand, Mojave desert sand. We ended up picking Arizona sand because it looks exactly like ground corncobs. The reason that's important is that when you bury people alive in hundreds and hundreds of pounds of sand, they'll be squished. You need something lightweight like corncobs, so air can get through and the actors and stuntmen won't be crushed."

Raimi conducted "screen tests" on a Culver City soundstage to observe the sands' "behavior." Visual-effects supervisor Scott Stokdyk elaborated: "We shot footage of sand every way we would need it -- thrown up, thrown against blue screen, over black screen. John Frazier, the special-effects supervisor, shot it out of an aero can at a stuntman. Anything we could imagine sand doing in the film, we shot."

Same on Transformers: (viaPopular Mechanics)

Michael Bay's $150 million adaptation of the legendary 1980s cartoon and toy series will include nearly 50 so-called transformations. Hand-rendered metallic uncorkings of real-life cars, trucks and helicopters represented uncharted territory for the gooey-alien experts at ILM, each transformation taking six months to imagine and each re-engineering the way digital Hollywood does computer graphics imagery (CGI).

Perhaps that is whats important for films now. Studio's only need the trailer to be good, the effects to seem unmissable on the big screen to get the cash. The same can't be said for Television which has seen a rise in high production value programming which uses quality visual effects until now exclusive to the big screen. Yet given the necessity for series to establish a following that continues throughout and sustain interesst week in week out which I think supports the fact that high budget TV shows like Lost and 24 have stronger character development and story lines than the majority of the tent pole films produced since the turn of the century. The most clear example of this is Heroes. One of the few breakout shows of last year. The soon to air on BBC2 show is brilliant. Top effects and good solid story telling. Perhaps a recent Wired article about show creator Tim Kring can shed some light on the winning formula. It starts...

Tim Kring doesn't know Magneto from Wolverine. You'd never know it from watching Heroes, his hit show about everyday people with extraordinary powers.

Kring creates balance in the show as the top tier in Production he fulfills the need to bring the supernatural back down to earth.

Kring's approach was counterintuitive to someone from a comics background, says Greg Beeman, another Smallville vet who came to Heroes as an executive producer. "I'd think, 'We need an ice guy! We need a fire guy! We need a guy who shoots rays out of his eyes!'" Beeman says. "Tim thought in terms of distinct characters." He started with a character's personal struggles and predicaments and assigned special abilities to suit. A harried single mom gets superstrength. A clock-watching Dilbert type learns to control time. A prison escapee is suddenly able to walk through walls. And when Kring's protagonists develop their powers, they don't strap on spandex and capes - they grapple with these strange developments like believable human beings.

I had thought a good exclusion to this argument of TV taking over film in terms of quality, might be Harry Potter, but as Heroes likens to cinema in quality and effects, Harry Potter has 7 features to ensure they get bums on seats for. 14 hours of "programming" of which the studio needs to inspire people to pay for. This must be inspiring Universal to look after story quality and character development. Anne Thompson's new Blog has an early review of the latest installment and concurs.

I suspect that this Harry Potter installment may experience a slight boxoffice dip. But the one I'd be worried about, if I were Warners, is the next one. Yates will be back; he did just fine with Order of the Phoenix. I have no problem with the darker, scarier Potter. That's where it has to go. But in movie terms, it does feel like we're stretching this out over a very long haul.

Finally, I have been meaning to mention a Past Deadine article from back in Feburary titled; Television -- Better Than the Movies? Deal With It? In it, Ray Richmond cites a Newsweek article tracking the evolution of TV, the HBO effect and growth in film stars eager to get seen on the small screen, an action which used to signify the steep slope of a career in decline.

Short summary; I am more excited about season premiers than summer films and I think that trend is not likely to change. What keeps me going to the cinema are the gems that TV has yet to produce, for me, the most recent example was Volver as close to a perfect film as I have every seen.

Diesel Do Hologram Cat Walk

2007-07-04T08:39:00.000+00:00

I found this lovely tidbit on the Creative Review Blog. This is pushing the envelop of how video can interact with live action events. The designers have created 3D cgi elements that were projected in HD from the ceiling onto "plastic foils placed at 45 degree angles so that the projected light from the ceiling goes onto a foil, is reflected on to another and then into the air".

This created dramatic effect.

Props to Danish video design agency Visoo who used their patented Free Format technology.

"As a medium, Free Format™ has been created to astound and astonish and make things happen right in front of people. A free-floating hologram which looks absolutely true to life - reminding many people of the Star Wars series. Created by projecting a specially produced film onto a see-through screen, the results are incredibly realistic, despite being an illusion. The film merges with the foreground and background to create an illusion in a real-life setting."

The most prominent example of this kind of thing is the Gorillaz Concerts, seen here with with Madonna:

There has been a lot of this going on. It was two years ago that I briefly worked on some tests for Motorola where they wanted to have triggered shop windows that had holograms walk up to passers by and introduce products. I remember the crowds outside a Nike store on Broadway in NYC where 3D holograms of product floated in the window.

I wonder why hologram is so intriguing for people. Perhaps it is more down to Star Wars than we may give credit. Is it that we feel it is the Future coming ever closer to our grasp. Regardless of our nostalgia for this image of the future, the truth is that technology and creativity are paving the way for some amazing visual productions.

Where i've been

2007-07-04T08:16:00.000+00:00

Again, it has been ages. so I don't expect too many people to be picking this up. Firstly, I have been changing jobs, left the BBC and now back in Soho. Doing more agency stuff. The new facility uses Smokes, Flames, DS and 3D (Maya). Fun toys to be honest. In the machine room, we've got an SR deck and StreamZ Digital Rapids encoder as well as FCP, which is a bit under-utilized for my liking, but when you have a Flame in the next room, you probably aren't going to push the FCP too hard.

So, new home and perhaps a new twist on these ramblings. Will try to keep this Blog going as i find it rather therapeutic and keeps me abreast of the things I find interesting.

Here we go again.

Apple Makes Moves Under Pressure from Greenpeace

2007-05-09T16:47:00.000+00:00

In an announcement last week, Apple came clean about their green policies and addressed concerns of Greenpeace lobbying as follows:

Apple completely eliminated the use of CRTs in mid-2006.

Apple products met both the spirit and letter of the RoHS restrictions on cadmium, hexavalent chromium and brominated flame retardants years before RoHS went into effect.

Apple plans to completely eliminate the use of arsenic in all of its displays by the end of 2008.

Apple plans to reduce and eventually eliminate the use of mercury by transitioning to LED backlighting for all displays when technically and economically feasible.

Apple plans to completely eliminate the use of PVC and BFRs in its products by the end of 2008.

By 2010, Apple may be recycling significantly more than either Dell or HP as a percentage of past sales weight.

All the e-waste we collect in North America is processed in the U.S., and nothing is shipped overseas for disposal.

Apple products are designed using high quality materials that are in high demand from recyclers.

Steve concluded with the following statement:

Today is the first time we have openly discussed our plans to become a greener Apple. It will not be the last. We will be providing updates of our efforts and accomplishments at least annually, most likely around this time of the year. And we plan to bring other environmental issues to the table as well, such as the energy efficiency of the products in our industry. We are also beginning to explore the overall carbon “footprint” of our products, and may have some interesting data and issues to share later this year.

I hope you are as delighted as I was when I first learned how far along Apple actually is in removing toxic chemicals from its products and recycling its older products. We apologize for leaving you in the dark for this long. Apple is already a leader in innovation and engineering, and we are applying these same talents to become an environmental leader. Based on our tangible actions and results over time, hopefully our customers, employees, shareholders and professional colleagues will all feel proud of our ongoing efforts to become a greener Apple.

Greepeace were quick to respond with plaudits, but tempered them with a call to further action in respect to their US focused recycling programme.

Those of us working with Apple products for some time will know that it usually takes them a while to think beyond the Cupertino shores. PAL anyone?

High Definition Magazine Revamps Site With Lots of Goodies

2007-05-04T09:23:00.000+00:00

High Definition Magazine has had a web-makeover.

You may remember me mentioning their blog with is a pretty good resource of the haps in the HD world: http://www.definitionmagazine.com/blogger.html.

Now, on their main site, they have added video content with Veoh www.veoh.com/channels/hdtv.

The video content should support the articles from the mag and case studies.

Final cut Studio 2 Date for Your Calendar

2007-05-04T09:18:00.000+00:00

No, I am not going to cover old ground. Lots of good new toys from Apple have been fully talked about and it will be fun to see how they all work. If you didn't get out to NAB in Vegas and are in London you can register for a free demo day on the 22nd of May at the Riverbank Park Plaza.

Register Here!

Final Cut Pro 6 in Depth. See the power of the open format timeline and the new ProRes 422 format.

Motion 3 in Depth. Discover how to quickly add depth and realism to your motion graphics for video and film. Watch us build a broadcast promo piece from scratch — all in 3D, all in real time.

Soundtrack Pro in Depth. Experience Soundtrack Pro 2 as we move through audio post-production, sound design and surround mixing.

Introducing Color. Learn how colour, like sound and music, is a critical “character” in your video productions. See how the all-new Color application can be used to dramatically improve the quality of your footage — from DV to 2K.

Compressor 3 in Depth. Find out how to deliver your content in the multitude of formats available today.

Distribution in the UK

2007-02-27T11:58:00.000+00:00

In reading recent interviews with David Lynch in the run-up to the UK release of his latest film Inland Empire, a lot has been made of the difficulty Lynch faces getting distribution deals. I hope this really means he struggles to get wide release and lucrative deals, because if the director of such great works as Twin Peaks, Dune, Blue Velvet and Eraserhead struggles, than we have no hope.

If you need a bit of insight into how things work, Launching films has this 20 page introduction to how distribution works in the UK.

Highlights include this summary of the distribution cycle:

Connecting every film with its audience immerses distributors in a great deal of activity before and during a cinema release. For any given title, some of the phases listed below may overlap or be combined.

Producer/studio acquires rights to film a story or treatment
Screenplay is developed
Production finance and cast and crew are confirmed
Principal photography takes place, in studios and/or on agreed locations,followed by some months of post-production, editing and scoring
Master print of finished film is delivered to local distributor
Distributor determines release strategy and release date
Distributor presents the film to exhibitors and negotiates bilateral agreements to have the film shown in cinemas
Distributor’s marketing campaign creates a ‘want to see’ buzz among the target audience and launches the film
Prints are delivered to cinemas a few days before opening
Film’s run extends any number of weeks subject to demand, which may be augmented by additional marketing activity

After its final playdate, the film print is returned or transported securely to another cinema. Ultimately, most prints are destroyed under supervised conditions, with a small number retained in archives, and the distributor’s rights in respect of the theatrical release expire.

Run-up To NAB

2007-02-27T09:59:00.000+00:00

Here we go again. It's nearing March and with it comes all the speculation about April. Here are a couple of the key rumors and announcements circulating.

Final Cut Pro 6 - Think Secret leading the charge with claims of a "real time video editing engine". Does this mean mixed resolution timelines without rendering? Or stacking HD and effects with real time playback. Or will we finally be able to edit HDV? C'mon, you all know HDV is shit to edit with.
Along with this rumor comes the hope of a beast of an app in Final Cut Extreme. This is a rehash from last year, but my assumption would be that FCP 6 could be powerful enough to muster the industry's praise.

Brightcove - Added features allows users to create their own channels hosted by Brightcove comprised of free/submitted content. Kind of like a favorites list that they can then promote to other users.

Sony - has lots of product announcements for NAB, including HD Studio Cameras and HD Xchange

Colonel Blimp Gives Props To New Lily Allen Video

2007-02-22T09:02:00.000+00:00

She may not have won a Brit. But she has a fun new video. Colonel Blip gives us a nice little sneak preview of her new video featuring a very rude little muppet.

Have a look at the video HERE.

Scratch - A Robust DI Solution On An Indie Budget

2007-02-20T08:39:00.000+00:00

Last night I went to the very swanky Groucho Club in Soho. I would normally not be cool enough to get in, but last night I had an invitation. After clearing the barricades at reception, I sauntered past the smattering of celebs and headed upstairs to the Mary Lou Room.

I had been very invited to checkout Assismilate's DI conform and grading solution, Scratch. I had heard a fair bit about Scratch on various sites including HDforIndies and there is a good case study at Studio Daly as well . But I had yet to see it for myself in action.

Like many, I have been more and more involved with FCP as an NLE over the past few years, so I naturally focused my attention on what looked to be the wholly grail of affordable DI and NLG (non-linear grading) solutions. Running on a mac, Final Touch, provided a XML based, tapeless workflow with a UI that wowed many experienced colourists. Having assumed the price you pay for Final Touch is a direct reflection of an intention to work with a company as they develop a product that has tremendous potential, I have regarded the acquisition of Silicon Color (the product's manufacturer) by Apple with trepidation. Will there be further development of the product that many companies have invested time and money in, or will Apple use the R&D to further their product line to match their wider pro-sumer strategy? Ultimately, if no further development is done on Final Touch, the customer's who purchased the product will have been royally shafted. The product has great features, but lets the user down greatly in the workflow it promised.

It is from this skeptic place, that I ventured out to look at a similar offering in Scratch. What I learnt though, pleasantly surprised me. Assimilate have not tried to promise more than what is feasible and realistic. Scratch is a cost effective, data centric, grading solution much like Final Touch, however, the product is focused and asks the user to work its way to achieve the best results. It also goes beyond grading and offers a balanced solution to meet the needs of Data Conforming for film based productions.

Scratch really is a film tool. It works predominantly with DPX files and has been optimized to use them well. It now offers Quicktime support. Here, Mike at HDforIndies breaks that down, along with issues involved like the need for comprehensive file support and workarounds for unsupported codecs. During my demo, there was a QT rendered out from the offline with BITC that was used to frame match the conform. The system seemed quite happy with both the QT and the DPX.

Scratch as a product is modular and sold as a multi tiered license. The facets include:
1) Project
Data management
2) Process
Image processing and rendering including plugins
3) Edit
Conform and simple editing tools
4)Extensions
Additional Tools
5) Media Layer
Quicktime export etc.
6) Color
Grading
7) Scaffolds
Secondaries

For me, seven modules is overkill for this product, but I am sure there is reasoning behind it. One nice thing is that because it is modular you buy separate licenses and do conforms in a back room, while saving your plush client suite for grades.

Scratch is file based, optimized for DPX (handles 2k DPX in real time) and resolution independent (HD, 2k, 4K).
Includes a DPX player as a stand alone app which lets you preview scans.

Project
With DPX files, scans are individual frames or images, like a tiff sequence. In Scratch, groups of frames are called 'shots'. Demo loaded a good size group of shots into project from directory very fast and allowed navigation, playback and work on shots seemlessly as you would expect from an NLE. But these are 2K. As Scratch can handle various sources, to avoid processing issues you can, for example, 'soft load' jpegs and converts it to DPX. The way is manages the robustness of power needed is by offloading much of the processing work onto the graphics card. I think a lot of products are doing more and more of this because the power is there to be taken advantage of. As a result, a better gfx card equals better performance.

I believe scans are done in a way resulting in metadata associating takes of shots, which are grouped by staking them in the project viewer.

In order to conform, the op would create a "Construct" and an "EDL Load". There is some XML functionality in the product, but my demo didn't cover this at all. I think customers are building there own XML based workflows by writing their own code, much like with Shake. The workflow utilises the tried and tested route of applying EDLs to the shots and woop, your done! 55 shots were conformed in less than one second. You can then import your BITC (burnt in time code) quicktime and frame match the newly conformed 2k material to your offline quicktime. These two nicely stack in the timeline and we can generate timecode and clip details on screen against our conform sequence as well. We can also view in split screen and slip shots as needed to fix discrepancies in the EDL. The media is loaded rather than imported which apparently makes a difference in how fast it runs, but to me this seems like semantics and just take it as read that it works fast. And finally, there is sound!!! unlike Final Touch, Scratch supports sound sync. Not as you might hope however, they're working on it. At the moment you can render out an AIFF or WAV and slip it into position on the timeline. Soon to come, BWAV with metadata and quicktime Audio Support. In my demo, the sound didn't actually work, but I will take their word for it.

Grading
Within the primary grading room there is a side bar for stackable versions. For example, there could be multiple versions of the grade, multiple takes from the the shot that need to be looked at, the rendered QT, or variations of VFX. This is very handy.
Along the bottom of the grading screen lives a tray for the shots which quickly allows you to apply grades across a selection or indeed all of the shots.
There are lots of other groovy features, but I think they are pretty much in line with the rest of the markets' offerings.

Scaffolds
Secondaries can be stacked so they apply on top of other vignettes or can be set to cut through other grades to the source image. This seemed like a sort of compositing feature in the grading. Tracking is similar to Final Touch, but the track button was missing from the demo system. Key point: know what you want to do and buy a license that allows you to do it.
As for performance we had 3 secondaries and a primary on 2k and had real time playback. What Scratch does cleverly is use the GPU to process on the fly as grades are applied, they are in effect rendered. When finished all that needs to happen is write the final files as the processing has been done. Simple test I saw laid a single primary across 2268 frames and was processed in under a min. 2268 frames = 1.5 min. So, basic processing will happen faster than real time. This is impressive, but I wouldn't be sold until I saw a real life project put the system through its paces.

Extensions
Can use full range of Foundry plug-ins, Ultimatte, etc. I didn't see this in action, but I gather most of this stuff is better left to other applications like Shake or similar.

Hardware
Hardware wasn’t really covered in the session, so I have copied this from the Assimilate site.

The performance requirements listed below are based on a file-size of approximately 12MB per frame, which equals a 10bit log DPX file at 2048x1556 pixels resolution (referred to from now on in as 2k):

a) For 25fps playback of 2k 10bit DPX files the technical minimums are:

25 guaranteed I/O transactions per second for a total request size of 12MB per transaction

Minimum latency per I/O better than 40ms

Sustained read bandwidth across array, minimum of 301MB/s

This is the absolute minimum that MUST BE sustained at all times.

b) For dual stream 24fps playback of 2k 10bit DPX files:

48 guaranteed I/O transactions per second for a total request size of 8.4 to 12MB per transaction

Minimum latency per I/O better than 20ms

Sustained bandwidth across array for dual stream operation at 24fps per stream, minimum of 577MB/s

The performance of suitable direct-attached arrays for SCRATCH will usually lie somewhere in between these two boundaries [of a) and b)], whereas SANs may often exceed this performance envelope. The smaller request size of 8.4MB is roughly the size of a Super2k DPX frame (2048x1080 at 10 bit log). While Super2k will be easier on the bandwidth requirements; it will still require full I/O transaction performance. Sustaining these I/O transactions tends to be more of a problem for SATA arrays at this point.

Globalstor ExtemeStor DI Station

HP xw8200 Workstation* (dual Xeon)
HP xw9300 Workstation* (dual Opteron)

IBM IntelliStation A Pro* (dual Opteron)

* Requires external storage

Color Management
Assimilate Scratch currently supports 3D look up tables (3D LUTS) for a range of color management solutions, ensuring a calibrated and truthful color manipulation throughout the DI chain.

Arri CMS Color Management System
Imagica GALETTE Color Management System
Kodak Display Manager System
Pandora Pogle Color Correction Systems (Supported LUT formats a3d, m3d)
Rising Sun Research cineSpace Colour Management

Bottom Line
Software packages run from £10 - £20 K. I should have more details emailed through to me and will update soon.

They have 5 systems working in London and 'loads' in the States.

Final Thoughts
Good stuff in all. I really liked the interface, it straight away reminded me of a Discreet product (Flame or Smoke). Really slick, but usable. I felt that with a bit of poking around, I could get to grips with the functionality of it. This is important as it would need to be used by Technical Assistants in order to conform, but also needs to meet the demands of highly skilled Colorists. Most functions ran smoothly on the demo system and in all I could see it fitting nicely in a number of setups.

The proof is in the pudding. Mike Curtis recently said about new tech solutions "the sales pitch sounds the same whether it works great or is a clusterf*cked, non-functional cripple of an app." I think there are those of us who are a bit more skeptical having suffered with technology that hasn't met expectation. Final Touch was/is a great app, I work with Pogle Colorists who are really eager to jump on the Final Touch. But it's detractions were not apparent at any demo I attended. The problems are all in the workflow.

I get the feeling those who have moved from Final Touch to Scratch have been happy with the decision. I also think Scratch is not built on a promise. It does what several other products do (Nucoda, Baselight, Final Touch, Lustre) . Like those other products, Scratch has it's strengths and weaknesses. I was told Baselight is a better grading tool, not surprising when you look at the Blackboard it comes with. Scratch has tried to be more evenhanded devoting much effort to the strength of its conforming tools similar to the way the Nucoda system does.

Baselight Blackboard

Ultimately, this is a film product. The broadcast market and HD markets are getting largely ignored by products at the moment. Perhaps it is down to confusion about the fact that in video work there is no need for a digital intermediate. There is no intermediate stage in video post. There is however a real desire for the types of tools and potential workflows that non-linear grading can offer. Scratch I don't think is really answering this call. They are staying true to form, rather than repackaging to meet extended market share. So, if you are shooting a good bit on film, or mixing film and video, then this could really be a useful addition. If you are a facility looking to develop the DI side of things this may be a cost effective solution. But traditional HD conforms are probably better done in a FCP, Smoke or Avid. That still leaves the colour side of the system, within which there are really strong tools that most Colorists would be happy to work with. The system is fast and robust and with further video file integration it could be a strong offering for video post houses as well as those moving into film /DI post.

Finally, thanks to everyone at Assimilate for taking the time to show me the product.

Boobies

2007-02-14T17:16:00.000+00:00

Ok, I have been off the radar for a bit and thought i would come back with a interest peaking title. Sorry, but have been searching for meaning in my life. There are a few interesting things to write about. First, Boobies.

My wife(this is all coming out wrong!) My wife works for a Breast Cancer charity. During my tumbling around online this week, i noticed a couple of stories. The first is from Shots. For those who don't know, Shots is a mag, focused primarily on the commercials industry. I think its great, but far too expensive. Priced for ad execs. (£655 per year includes mag and dvd)

Anyways, they throw us normal folks a bone on the website with some bits and pieces, including Hot Shots. The Hot Shot of the moment is a spot for Breast Cancer Charity ABC. Have a look HERE.

For the production breakdown:
Here's the story!

I think charities struggle with the use of shock tactics. But in this case i think it is used to good effect, relying on strong visual style a good use of music and pace. Oh, and it's still very sexy.

Following this is the story in Canada where the “Exotic Dancers for Cancer” event is held in memory of Jocelyn a former dancer who died from the disease and features live shows, entertainment and a silent auction.

The dancers raised $3,000 for the Breast Cancer Society of Canada last year through an annual fundraising event.

But this year the Society has turned down their donation, saying some major donors don't want to be associated with exotic dancing.

On the event's website they quote a letter received from one of the charity's directors:

“Unfortunately we will have to decline your kind offer as we have certain major donors that are not in favour of this connection,” wrote Rany Xanthopoulo, Executive Director of the BCSC. “This decision came as a result of donor disgruntlement and together with the Board of Directors we have decided not to accept any donations from what donors consider controversial sources.”

I some how think with all of this press, the $10 event will be sold out this year!

David Borwell's Blog

2007-01-23T14:29:00.000+00:00

Ok, I may be a bit of a sado film geek, but what a priceless gem to have someone like David Bordwell and indeed Kristen Thompson, blogging. It is a real insight into some of the world's afore most film history and theory professor's daily musings. In a recent post, David Bordwell briefly (for him, detailed for bloggers) tracks the use of "planimetric" or "mug shot" framing through several generations of European, American and Asian filmmakers. The reason I really like reading his blog is that it breaks up the brief reads that we bloggers often post in fleeting moments. Brodwell inspires you to take time and read, think and in this case, be more shot conscious!

Who Wants To See Razor Burn In HD?

2007-01-23T11:06:00.000+00:00

There is an faction in the film industry that has long been tauted as both pioneers in new technology and those lowering the bar for producers. They proliferated the use of video tape recording, multiplied the use of miniDv shooting and now are ushering in the widespread (pardon the pun) use of HD. Of course, it is out beloved cousins in the Valley, the pornographers!

Bringing an element of validation to this, my first post in ages, I am citing a recent New York Times article: In Raw World of Sex Movies, High Definition Could Be a View Too Real

The NYT isnt the first to take up the issue of how the sex film industry is driving this new technology, but I found the article candidly open. Matt Richtel interviewed a cross section of people including women actors and male producer/directors. The obvious benefit is greater image clarity, but is that what people want from their porn. The answer seems to be: Sometimes. If the film is well made and enough attention to detail is paid, especially in post production image retouching, then the benefits for the viewer can be there. But the challenges outweigh the potential for many.

Other female actors say they generally like working with high-definition — except for the cosmetic-surgery part.
Jesse Jane, one of the industry’s biggest stars, plans to go under the knife next month to deal with one side effect of high-definition. The images are so clear that Ms. Jane’s breast implants, from an operation six years ago, can be seen bulging oddly on screen.
“I’m having my breasts redone because of HD,” she said.

Less extreme measures are also being taken, such as extra make-up, spray tanning and laser treatment. Never the less the biggest and most unrelenting problem is 'Razor burn'

Aside from the producing aspect, there are other issues like media production and distribution. Sony has decided to keep firm to its policy to not 'not mass-produce pornographic videos'. This has driven adult film producers to adopt HD DVD more widely and use third party Blu-Ray producers as needed.

Macworld has a more detailed analysis about the potential impact the porn industry could have on the HD DVD vs BluRay battle.

Reflections on Borat; 2006's Biggest Coup

2007-01-08T10:42:00.000+00:00

Reflecting on Borat's invasion of our theatres last year here is a new interview with Sasha Baron Cohen for NPR's Open Air. (Via Zigzigger)

And if that isn't enough, here is a rather interesting take on the impact of the Borat Film within the Balkan Countries.

Given that Borat plays off ricocheting notions of national and cultural identity among Americans and non-Americans, watching the Borat phenomenon from another country provides the opportunity to explore one region's take on Americans and transnational interactions.

Daniel Marcus dissects how the jokes are directed at, perceived by and reacted to both in America and beyond. He argues that in Slovenia, arguably more Integrated in the European culture than most of the Balkan States, cinema-goers were more able to appreciate the racist, sexist and anti-semitic humour, while the anti-Gypsy humour he worried might have been a bit too in line with popular sentiment.

Baron Cohen straddles that tenuous line between exposing racism and sexism through humor and using racist and sexist attitudes to make his jokes work. Slovenian fans stated that they felt confident that Slovenian audiences would laugh at the anti-Semitism displayed in the film, rather than with it, because anti-Semitism is not particularly active in the national culture (and perhaps because some may know Baron Cohen is Jewish). They also asserted that they laughed at the anti-Gypsy attitudes, but could not be so confident that other audience members were laughing at those remarks rather than with them.

Figuring out who should be most offended by Borat is a tough task indeed. Marcus suggests it may be fat people who are the only ones not getting a tongue in cheek lashing. The hotel room wrestle is an eye opening experience into fat people naked from all angles. Although Cohen in the buff is no pretty sight either. Even the hooker, draws sympathy as a tragic clown figure. The main target of the film is of course the isolationism of American societies from the rest of the world. You may be a country of racist, sexist, homophobic, red-necks, but that all could be forgiven. The fact that you would take this person who is blatantly off the wall bigotted as an educated journalist from a foreign country with his backwater manners (not knowing how to wipe his arse) as real, or indeed, that the audience is left doubting the farcical character's reality, is the

In the Slovenian context, however, the true target of the film's ire is the American people in the Age of Bush, while the film is also useful in furthering Slovenian feelings of belonging to the advanced civilization of Western and Central Europe (a civilization that has produced, in Baron Cohen's act, the British dimwit Ali G and Austrian fashion slave Bruno). Do American Blue State viewers (a recently expanded category!) exhibit the same attitude toward the Southerners and Westerners in the film as Slovenians do to representations of Kazakhstan?

If so many people were so offended by the film. How come it was such a success? Kristen Thompson is discussing how Borat has made such a splash by capitalizing on the power of the net. She compares the success of Borat with the modest failure of Snakes on a Plane. Where Borat Producers utilized Youtube to the best of its ability, Snakes gained a great deal of press through parodies and homages to its daft name.

Snakes was a deemed a failure. New Line said that its opening gross was typical for a low-budget genre film. Snakes cost a reported $33 million. million in the domestic market and a total of just under $60 million internationally.Ultimately it took $34 I suspect that New Line spent a great deal more on advertising that it ordinarily would have, hoping in vain to expand the enthusiasm. The film’s box office takings would certainly not bring in a profit, but doubtless New Line hopes for better things on DVD.

Where Snakes faltered, Borat soared; from the modest budget of $18 Mil it amassed $126 million domestically and $241 million worldwide.

This brings forward a debate around why people would put so much effort into online interaction and not head out to the cinema. My argument would be that people like to interact with lots of popular culture, but aren't necessarily interested in spending money on consumption. I also think that people still probably use traditional thought processes in deciding whether to see a film. They have trusted review sources, traditional media and friends. Perhaps, new methods of online interaction will take time to influence consumer action at the cinema. If you look at the big examples, Blair Witch and Borat, both films used web buzz to get known but perhaps benefited greatly from traditional promotion through strong reviews. But, perhaps Borat in its nature is better suited as a film for audience's to watch, where Snakes lends itself better to viewer adaptation for enjoyment. Thompson states;

Borat’s full, unwieldy title was also an attention-getter, but no one could possibly predict much about the film from it, let alone parody it. Here the focus was primarily on how funny Cohen was as Borat and how funny the film was going to be. What circulated were samples that seemed to prove exactly that. People would go to this film and have more fun than they could possibly make for themselves by messing around on the internet with its title. The words “snakes on a plane” could inspire just about anybody with a creative bone in their body, but only Cohen could do Borat.

It seems the fervor the internet can produce does not a blockbuster make. A film must have content that can sustain huge amounts of exposure and analysis and remain inspiring for people to purchase tickets. Snake's and others before it have blown their wad before reeling in the punters, while Borat had the substance that demanded people see the antics for themselves.

Gifts for the filmatic

2007-01-04T10:53:00.000+00:00

Via Nerve: Screengrab

Masters of cinema designs! Pick your fav master and go for a T-shirt, Mug or even a thong!
I say bring on Eisenstien, Godard, Rossellini, Renoir!!!

Hollywood is Progressively Greener

2007-01-04T09:28:00.000+00:00

I have had this article in my favorites for ages now (Nov 30th is when it was written). I have been meaning to cover it on the blog ever since. With the New Year, it seems as good a time as any to mention one way the Studios have been trying to clean up there act. Variety's Web Exclusive: Hollywood Goes Carbon Neutral states that the entertainment biz in LA is second only to the petroleum industry in terms of pollution (no that is not a dig at the people that work for the networks). Basically, Office work, Shoots, Travel, Distribution, Post etc. causes mother earth more grief than nearly everything else in LA. Not so hard to believe if you have ever lived there. Everything in LA is Film and TV. You cant walk(sorry, drive) around town without bumping into a shoot of some description. It always makes me smile when i hear London wanting to become a 'Film City'. The implications of such a move are vast. I lived for six months just off Hollywood Blvd. and during that time the city closed the main bit of Hollywood Blvd. 3 times, plus often had numerous traffic diversions for shoots. I can't really imagine this happening on Oxford Street and riots not ensuing... So, it doesn't surprise me that the largest industry in LA with the most money flying around and the most power should cause so much environmental harm. But, what are they doing about it?

Well, Celebs are notorious for being pro this and that and the environment is a hot topic. Star power leads the way with Clooney, DiCaprio, Ford and Blanchett. Funnily enough the ones that follow closest behind are the Talent Agencies who will sacrifice babes for a nod of approval from their clients. If we are too believe they are anything like Ari Gold (Jeremy Piven) in Entourage. Ultimately, studios are about making money and the pros and cons add up on this one. Good PR, keeping favor with stars, save planet vs save a few short term bucks. When I say a few, I really don't know how much it costs to offset the carbon footprint of a studio film. The only example the Variety aritcle gives is the $15,000, "The Nativity Story's" producer Marty Bowen and director Catherine Hardwicke paid out of pocket for that film. But what about "The Day After Tomorrow" or Syriana, or any others that are offsetting their carbon. £15K is the cost of a one pager add in Variety, this way the money can generate multiple articles. Well spent I say. In the end, Hollywood is noticing the benefits of going greener. I think more companies and industries will happily follow if they can spin the move to generate positive PR.

New Year Full Of New Ideas...

2007-01-04T08:22:00.000+00:00

I'm back. both of you that read this blog fear not, I have returned for the new year. So Xmas was nice and relaxed. I saw some good flicks; Bond (finally), Amores Perros (Check spelling?) History of Violence (first time i have seen a 69 that wasn't in a porno. Ranks up there on my all time graphic sex scenes list with the Harvey Keitel wack off when he pulls over the underage girls in Bad Luitenent and the time i was 14 and my mom rented Blue Velvet. Ugh.) Looking forward to this year. Plans for the new year include:
1) Rewriting an old screenplay of mine (procrastinating because and reading a 'how to write book first which has been put to the side because I got a 3in1 book of Ian Flemings From Russia With Love, Dr. No and Gold Finger) So, Not off to a good start. Also, if anyone knows a good book on screenplay dialogue, i would love a recommendation.
2) Apply for MBA Programme. Was gonna do this last year, but am thinking May 08 gives me enough time to prep. But must apply by the end of 2007!
3) Get married again. Same woman, but we eloped in vegas 5 years ago and fancy doing it properly this summer.
4) All the mundine plebian resolutions like Diet, Gym, Go Greener, Pay rise/Promotion (Quite smoking last year, so this year will annoy smoker friends and pester them to quit).
5) Buy a mac. been meaning to for ages, cant be bothered as pc laptop works fine.
6) Develop a more interesting Blog that people really want to read.
Thats my list. It is more for me to look back at next year and sulk about how little i have achieved. Best wished to everyone trying to do new/better/different things this year.

I leave you with a crappy youtube of what are some of the most amazing fireworks i have ever seen. This NYE in London. Keep an eye on BBC HD Trial channel to them in High Def Glory!!!

Branding The Web: How Advertisers Are Coming To Terms With Their New Platform and How This Is Liberating Creative Agencies

2006-12-21T11:23:00.000+00:00

The internet has quickly entrenched itself in the debates of future of media delivery and audience segmentation. Advertising is no different. I have seen a rash of companies specializing in viral production popping up in London and as I am an old fogey often dismissed them as under achieving ad agencies. Scott Kirsner, whose Cinema Tech blog I often read, has given Variety an exclusive except from his recently release book: The Future of Web Video: New Opportunities for Producers, Entrepreneurs, Media Companies and Advertisers. In it, Scott discusses the implications and cultural shift in media agencies resulting from the rise and rise of vial advertising with Jamie Tedford of Arnold Worldwide.

Arnold argues that advertisers are begrudgingly awakening to the reality that they can't just slap their existing TV ads on the net and expect them to spread. Because there is no audience guarantee or even inclination based around 'real' programming, the ad needs to stand alone as 'surprising, funny, new, comical, sexy or provocative'. More often, for security of investment, advertisers are producing a viral version of a TV campaign. This reversioning aims to hook the discerning web viewers and inspire them to forward it on.

Moving on from the demands of this emerging market, are the benefits of working with virals, for example, working on the web provides 'much greater leeway' to be more 'outlandish and controversial'. He provides the example of Smirnoff's hit "Tea Partay" Agency: Bartle Bogle Hegarty URL: http://www.teapartay.com

The internet also provides opportunity to create and control buzz. Expamples that spring to my mind are Apple and The Blair Witch Project. Apple use rumor sites to create 'groundswell' around nearly all of their products. They can leak information when they want to create a buzz or in the lead-up to an event like Macworld or NAB. When the mills get too powerful or don't play the way Apple likes they can curtail the use of acquired NDA info through lawsuits like that with Think Secret. Blair Witch was the phenomenon that spurred movie buzz on the web that inevitably has lead us here. The realism of the film, the amateurism the scariness all conspired as web rumors to catapult the film into the charts and put millions into New Line's pockets. Kirshner and Tedford use the examples of King Kong and VW, but I like mine better.

The final topic of discussion surrounds whether there is an effective way to advertise around short web films including pre and post roll. They argue no. Media buyers are starved for content to place ads on the the 'rates are going through the roof'. Note to self: Make online films and sell advertising space around them. BUT people hate them. they compare the modest rise of iFilm compared to the shear dominance of th market by YouTube. What the don't address is banners , or more cleverly, product placement. If you can establish a relationship with advertisers as a producer of online content, you could generate revenue through product placement not just branded viral film making. Perhaps a good business would be to work within the web film community generating rev for content through facilitating the placement of products in the films themselves. who cares if it is a coke or pepsi or red bull the character drinks on redbull if you leave the film makers to it as much as poss. and the cost to place a product in a web film is way less than a proper film/commercial/tv show, or indeed producing your own viral. My mate Nick was after a business model for us to make millions the other day in the pub. Well, there you go.

They suggest a different approach by trying to figure out how a brand can give you content free of advertising. For example: Pepsi let you have a free song on iTunes when you bought a bottle. I have also seen Cobra beer sponsoring a lot of web based indie film.

As for the future, i concur that it is a bright one, with limitless possibility where one can blur the lines between content and revenue stream, where aggregators abound and the tail seems very long....

I leave you with the idea that branded films can come with the message to do some good as well.

Scrub Up Charlie Brown

2006-12-18T17:01:00.000+00:00

I must say, Zach Braff is just cool.
I give Scrubs way more props than Grey's Anatomy.
From Zach's Blog, here the cast of scrubs adr Charlie Brown Christmas, a yule tide classic:

Red Giant Release Colorista

2006-12-18T16:19:00.000+00:00

Can't afford Final Touch or similar to grade your masterpiece? Fear not, Stu Maschwitz and Red Giant to the rescue.

The folks you brought you Magic Bullet, have now released Colorista:

What makes Colorista different?

Precise Color Balance
Colorista make your whites look white and your talent look their best with controls for modifying shadows, mid-tones and highlights. The familiar Lift, Gamma, Gain color wheels allow for easy adjustment of color balance and luminance with ultrasensitive control for precise results. Additional, Saturation and Exposure options let you makes flesh tones look natural, plus set the highlight and shadow levels exactly.

Real time DeepColor RT
Maximize your performance with the power of the DeepColor RT engine inside Colorista. Playback SD and HD (720p) projects in real-time by efficiently using your system’s graphics processing power. The next-generation DeepColor RT engine preserves quality in every application host so that 10-bit projects remain 10-bit.

Mask with Ease
Apply the correction just where you need it. With Colorista you can create a simple circular or rectangular shape to isolate a specific zone. No longer is it necessary to pre-mask a shot to deepen the color of a sky or redefine the actionable area of the shot. The animatable controls for area and feather let you work right in the canvas or composer window.

Benefits to using Colorista over the built-in host application tools

The easiest and fastest 3-way color corrector for After Effects with full support for 8, 16, and 32-bit per channel projects
Colorista performs like Premiere Pro's standard three way color corrector, but delivers results up to 5x faster with a fast graphics card, now that's productivity
With Colorista you can finally do full 32-bit color correction at all times, with no shift in shadow colors and area masking directly in the Canvas window in Final Cut Pro. Plus, the exposure settings make it easy to work with common f-stop settings like plus or minus one-half stop
If you like Motion but yearn for more powerful color correction tools then Colorista delivers with full support for fast GPU rendering and support for 8, 16, and 32-bit float projects
You can get all the platforms in one package which means no matter what tool you use, you will have a familiar color correction plug-in at hand

Storytelling: Bambi vs Godzilla and BBC's Born Equal

2006-12-18T15:30:00.000+00:00

Last night I was really looking forward to the all-star 90 min premier of Born Equal on BBC 1. Dominic Savage's new offering featured the likes of Colin Firth, Robert Carlyle, David Oyelowo and Anne-Marie Duff. Dominic Savage offers the follow about the film:

Born Equal started life as a film about homelessness but, as the director Dominic Savage embarked upon his research, a markedly different film began to take shape.

"When I began to look into the problem of homelessness, my sense was that there was a really big issue around people living in temporary accommodation for long periods of time."

They're known as the 'hidden homeless' because, although they've got a roof over their heads, it's far from being a home."

Savage visited a number of these hostels and met many different people who generously shared their stories with him - stories he says he'll never forget.

"The film shows huge contrasts between people and how they live, their ideas, what they've got and what they haven't got," says Savage, who points out that although the film is set in London, the same contrasts can be seen all over Britain.

"In the end, what the film aspires to achieve is to encourage people to think more about others, care about the less fortunate and be more aware of what's going on around them."

The strength of the cast and the quality of the trailers looked really enticing. Indeed the film was really good. I was however a bit put of by the comment in the Guide(guardian) that said something to the effect that the film is such a downer, it makes you wonder what's the point. A little off put and a little intrigued because at the moment I am gearing up to write a tragedy, I sat on the couch and was also struck by the continued, unrelenting bad luck suffered by all of the characters. Plot-spoiler: no one wins. Not only that, no one ever looks like they are going to win, with the exception of the day at the beach Carlyle and Duff spend together which only acts to foreshadow the inevitable.

At the moment, I am reading a book on plot(Elements of Fiction Writing, by Ansen Dibell) and early on it forewarns of what I feel this film suffers from. Dibell describes the short satire film in which Bambi hops along and then is promptly squashed by Godzilla's foot. End of film. funny as a one liner short, but a feature would be dreadful.

Anytime you're tempted to write a pure-victim story, in which the protagonist(s) doesn't have a chance, think about Bambi Meets Godzilla and try something else.

An Even Battle is More Fun to Watch

Whether the ending is happy or unhappy in the traditional sense, any story needs to be founded on an effective and strongly-felt conflict, in which opposing forces - whether people, ideas, additudes, or a mix - are at least fairly evenly matched, enough so that the final outcome is in doubt... not an utter mismatch.

Oedipus was doomed from the beginning; but he didn't know it, and he was fighting all the way. The emphasis was on the fighting, not the doom. That's what makes the fighting, the wrestling, become engrossing narrative.

Maybe it is here where Savage loses the way. Because the message is in the doom rather than the fight. All of the characters suffer from their their position in life the lot they were given through fate. Be they rich or poor, the suffering through societies structures of inequality effects everyone and everyone will suffer because of it. This message is the point of the film, but is inextricably linked to the doom more than the fight. The fight by every character moves the action, but the film is ultimately about the doom.

In all a superbly acted and crafted film, but I, like the Guardian critic was left wondering why I watched 90 minutes just to see Bambi, squashed.

Spike Lee's Doc Air's on BBC4

2006-12-18T12:12:00.000+00:00

A few months back, I covered the chat about the Spike Lee - Katrina Doc 'When the Leeves Broke'. Since then the Films have aired on HBO in the States and gone on to win the Horizons Documentary Prize at Venice and now it is due to make its UK premier with parts 1 and 2 tonight on BBC 4 at 9PM as part of the Storyville series. Sometimes I wish I had the Sky+ or a PVR, as it doesn't finish until 1130 and that is so past my bedtime! I would have thought the film would have found its way on to BBC2, but never mind, I am always pleased to see the multichannels land good acquisitions.

So for those who do have a PVR, Sky+ or even a good old VHS, pop it on record tonight.

Chris Anderson Laments Additudes About The Niche Consumer Products

2006-12-13T13:04:00.000+00:00

In a brief post, Chris Anderson defends the Long Tail theory arguing the NYT critic John Pareles is wrong with the following statement pulled from the NYT here:

"The open question is whether those new, quirky, homemade filters will find better art than the old, crassly commercial ones. The most-played songs from unsigned bands on MySpace — some played two million or three million times — tend to be as sappy as anything on the radio; the most-viewed videos on YouTube are novelty bits, and proudly dorky. Mouse-clicking individuals can be as tasteless, in the aggregate, as entertainment professionals."

Anderson argues, quite poignantly, that people's individual interests are refined and have great quality but differ widely. When a majority of people find a similar interest, it is usually a tame one and equates to the 'lowest common denominator that is mass culture'. He argues there is inherently more value in niche interest and therefore the rise of internet proliferated (long Tail) consumption will lead to a better quality of media, art, music etc.

It end's with a rather scathing quote directed at the common likes and dislikes of TV audiences from David Foster Wallace:

"TV is not vulgar and prurient and dumb because the people who compose the audience are vulgar and dumb. Television is the way it is simply because people tend to be extremely similar in their vulgar and prurient and dumb interests and wildly different in their refined and aesthetic and noble interests."

Brightcove's Jeremy Allaire Keynote At The Video On The Net Conference

2006-12-13T10:07:00.000+00:00

I found this via DV Guru and it makes for a very interesting watch. I have said several times that Brightcove has the right idea to help indies, producers and niche topic video makers reach broad audiences. In a Keynote speech at the 2006 Video on the Net Conference, Brightcove's CEO, Jeremy Allaire prostrates on the future of rich media communications, internet television distribution and content revenue management.

Some of the key things I picked up on were:

50% of all revenue from video comes from direct consumer purchase rather than commercial sponsorship. I thought this was surprising as just this morning I was wonder whether TV is just a vehicle of advertising messages with content sprinkled throughout to keep the viewer watching the ads.

This shows consumers have a strong interest in high quality ad free content. They also have a desire for niche content as well as a desire to own media and experience different forms of media entertainment eg. cinema, HD TV.

The internet in general is used for video distribution in three main fashions:
1) Retail Bucket - iTunes, Amazon.
2) Niche Subscription - Wrestling, MLB.
3) Branded download stores - CBS, Fox eg Survivor.
This is a focused brand - not aggregated.

He would like to see more "mixed mode" where consumer can pay for no commercials or view with commercials for free.

He also sees a need for an open seller platform for consumers and content creators to mingle, share and sell media.

This all is a precursor to mass adoption of consumer video communication.

He then goes into the details of Brightcove's offerings. Have a look. and checkout Brightcove Here