Has Shakycam Finally Run Its Course?

GREAT review of the new movie “Battle: Los Angeles” by Matt Zoller Seitz at Salon.com, taking the filmmakers to task for the evil combination of long zoom, short depth of field, and lack of shot stability that equates to nausea for the viewers.  Huzzah!  Huzzah!  Something that has needed to be said for over a decade!

Will it make a difference?  Doubtful.  You see as many faux-Steadicams as decent tripods at NAB, a travesty I expect to continue next month.  Anybody want to lay odds?

And no, I haven’t yet seen “Battle: Los Angeles,” but once it hits the Roku I promise to pop a few Dramamine and give it a go.

HPA Tech Retreat 2011 Day 3

Day 3 (by my counting; HPA calls this Day 2, because Tuesday’s Super Session doesn’t count) covered LTO-5, LTFS, IMF, HDSLR, OLED, FIMS, SOA, SLA, monitors vs. displays, file-based mastering, Hollywood in the cloud, and Disney restorations.

HPA Tech Retreat 2011 Day 2

Day 2 of the Tech Retreat covered the year in review, CES, cloud storage, broadcasting, pool feed audio, content protection, transcoding, stereo subtitles, and more…

How Would You Build The Entertainment Business From Scratch?

Philip & I originally talked about the concept of starting over in production with a green field – no established starting points – in episode 11.
In this episode we take it a little deeper as there is a lot of ground to cover.
How would a new studio look? What would distribution look like? Would it be a return to the studio system approach of old?
These are just a few of the many areas we tackle in this episode of the Terence & Philip show.

So You Think You Have An Original Idea?

Everything is a Remix from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.

Everything is a Remix Part 2 from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.

Big thanks to Gary Bettan of Videoguys.com for pointing out a really interesting take on modern creativity.  It’s at a site called EverythingisaRemix.info .  A guy named Kirby Ferguson just disassembles two of the most sacred cows of the last forty years - Led Zeppelin and Star Wars - in a funny, deadpan way that makes “This American Life” sound like “Family Guy.”  And they aren’t the only victims here - be sure to hang on through the credits for even more fun!  There are currently two episodes out (of a promised four).  Even though there are embed links in this post, be sure to go to his site and click on the “Donate” button.  This guy deserves a little dough!

“Why 3D Doesn’t Work and Never Will”

While a large portion of both the media creation and consumption industries gear up to produce and support 3D films and video, others are digging in their heels and asking about the fit and fabric of the emperor’s clothes. Much loved sound designer and film editor Walter Murch - as well as film curmudgeon critic Roger Ebert - are two of those questioners. This blog post by Ebert reprints a detailed letter from Murch about the inherent technical issues of stereoscopic films that detract from the esthetic appreciation of them as well. It’s quite meaty - I suggest you go read it all - but the central issue Murch brings up is what he refers to as the ‘convergence/focus’ issue: “3D films require us to focus at one distance and converge at another. And 600 million years of evolution has never presented this problem before.”

What $300 Buys These Days

OK, folks, have a look at “Lazy Teenage Superheroes,” a funny, really watchable (and slightly NSFW for language) 13-minute riff on science fiction:

Film-Office Tax Credits Scandal!

The Los Angeles Times has an interesting article about Iowa’s “alleged abuses of its film tax credit program.”  I don’t know how surprising this is, given that the Iowa film office apparently described their program as “half-priced filmmaking.”

It would be wrong not to note that the LA Times has a horse in this race - there is more than a hint of schadenfreud in this piece - but on the whole, this revisits well-trodden ground.  Jeez, even I wrote about it!

Not to pile on, but there is yet another article on the subject this morning from the New York Times (registration probably required), regarding New Jersey’s film subsidy program, which Republican Governor Chris Christie is looking to gut.  The intense problem of gauging these programs effectiveness is summed up in this one excellent paragraph, written by NYT reporter Michael Cieply:

Studies about the efficacy of film credits, which became widespread in the last eight years, have been maddeningly divergent in their conclusions, depending on methodology, the structure of the credit and, sometimes, who sponsors the report.

I believe we have a BINGO!

When I wrote about Wisconsin’s film subsidy program back in 2009, things were tough for state governments.  By all accounts, things are worse in 2011.  If I were a betting man, I’d wager that film subsidy programs are going to become an even more endangered species in the near future.

What do you think?

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