Tuesday, August 12, 2008

China, Spectacle, Fakery

Billions were fooled, but was any real harm done?

If the 21st Century, as I think it very well may, becomes known as the era of Things Are Not As They Seem (if the acronym TANATS catches on, you heard it here first), maybe we’ll look at one seemingly harmless moment in 2008 as a watershed.

Perhaps you were one of the billions worldwide who witnessed the Opening Ceremonies of the 2008 Olympics and was fooled by an aerial sequence of 29 giant pyrotechnic footprints leading to Beijing National Stadium, of which only one - the very last - actually occurred as depicted. The preceding 28, representing the Olympic events preceding this one, relied on our old friends the particle simulation, motion control and compositing (not to mention a glance at the Farmer’s Almanac for the likeliest weather conditions on the night of the event).

This of course is one more sense in which they would have been really screwed if it had rained that night (as it did all weekend) - and maybe you weren’t aware that Chinese officials are even trying to control that.

Not that there aren’t other precedents of misrepresentation in the name of controlled spectacle: these organizers evidently wouldn’t let the girl who sang the patriotic “Ode to the Motherland” appear as the singer, apparently because among 1.3 billion Chinese there are no sufficiently cute seven year olds with a set of pipes. It’s encourage to note the complaints among the Chinese about the message this sends to gifted singers with ordinary looks.

That substitution may lead to some serious need for therapy later in life - by comparison, the fireworks stunt seems harmless enough on the face of it. Sure, one could criticize that:

• even the nation that invented fireworks couldn’t pull this off (and it may be significant to note that they really did create firework footprints that night, they just didn’t photograph them, evidently due to the hazards of combining aerial photography and pyrotechnics)
• vfx work is reported to have taken a year, which seems to me bad P.R. for the nascent Chinese visual effects industry (yes I’m joking, but if you land a year’s budget for a sequence like that, call me)
• even though we’re used to computer graphics on our screens all the time, everywhere, this show was just one more big spectacle, so what’s a little alleged live TV fakery (hello David Copperfield!)

However, is there any doubt that in this Era of TANATS, something like this will cross the line? It’s easy to dismiss claims that the moon landing or Zapruder film were composited - we humans simply weren’t very good at that sort of thing in the 1960’s. That’s a pretty thin argument nowadays, when images continue to shape our lives despite how used we are to their fabrication. My kids routinely ask if fantastic images - including the real ones - are real or fake, and have done so since preschool.

So maybe the question is when will be the first time billions of people are fooled by a fake live transmission and it actually matters to what we think about justice, right and wrong, good or evil?

That sounds grandiose. But this being the Olympics, one need look no further than the athletes themselves, and the question as to whether they have faked their performance with chemistry, to glimpse what a mess is created when we hope the rules of the past will get us through the reality of today, and tomorrow.

NOTE: No less a filmmaker than Errol Morris has posted a thorough and thoughtful blog entry on a related topic.

(4) Comments • Most recent comments by: billS, Dylan Pank, Mark Christiansen, careyd, • Permalink

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Why QuickTime is the US Dollar of Digital Video

As the standard is devalued, the world undertakes a slow-motion search for an alternative. What can be done for QuickTime?

How bad are things for the US Dollar these days? So bad that, as reported by the BBC and mentioned recently on This Week in Tech, Gisele Bundchen no longer accepts modeling pay in dollars, nor apparently do many high-end boutiques in the capital of U.S. commerce, New York City. European travel is effectively twice as expensive as it was just a few years ago simply because of the exchange rate. So it may come as a surprise how familiar the situation of the world economy in regards to the dollar is if you’re a video professional using QuickTime.

I’m not actually joking.

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Tuesday, May 06, 2008

10 (+1) Reasons Scarlet Changes the Game in 2009

Don’t overlook the impact of RED’s entry-level camera, even for pros like you.

RED will not debut Scarlet, its entry-level camera, until early next year, which means that those who are already hype-weary with all things RED are already moving on to a different part of the site. Nontheless, there are solid reasons that Scarlet will change the entire landscape of low-budget digital video, assuming RED can get enough of them into the hands of the public (more about that at the end). Scarlet’s impact will be somewhere between that of the Canon 10D when it debuted and that of the iPhone. Here’s why.

1) 3K native sensor. It’s easy to lose sight of how major a step forward 3,000 pixels of horizontal resolution is for a digital video camera when that camera is debuted alongside an existing 4K camera and a 5K camera due at the same time. So let’s try this with the hype language used by the digital still camera manufacturers: 8.5 megapixels. Per frame. And this is not cheating by calling a 1280 native sensor HD (yes I’m talking to you, HVX-200). 3k means you could cut this image down 35% to HD. You could sneak it onto an IMAX screen without anyone seeing pixilation. It will be years before Sony or Panasonic have anything like this at the price. Speaking of which…

(12) Comments • Most recent comments by: chucksav, Tim Sassoon, J. Matthew, J. Matthew, Rob, J. Matthew, Mike Curtis, Mark Christiansen, Scott Gentry, glennser, • Permalink

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

3D Display at NAB

Great strides are being made in 3D technology, which is great news for the few projects that need it.

Day One of NAB was 3D day in the Content Theater, and at the end of that day, I participated in a podcast discussion with Ron Brinkmann and Mike Seymour all about stereo imaging, which seems to have been a major official trend at NAB this year. At the end of the on-air discussion we did an informal poll and found that half the folks in the room felt that 3D display would be a bona fide new artistic medium within the next few years, and the other half - with whom I’m aligned - felt that stereoscopy remains the fringe curiosity it has always been, at least in regards to narrative filmmaking. U23D as an experience is hard to top - I even overheard other moviegoers express how preferable seeing that movie in IMAX was to actually attending a U2 show - but the legitimacy of 3D display for a mainstream Hollywood film is only being debated, it seems to me, because James Cameron has put the issue on the table.

My thought is that even if Avatar does revolutionize the use of 3D in tentpole Hollywood blockbusters, few (if any) other filmmakers will be able (or willing) to match, let alone top it. Also, as long as headgear is required to view images in 3D - and the polarized specs I received for U23D take the cake - we humans are really no further along technologically than when we started down this road (although the imaging technology itself for the price point is improving by leaps and bounds thanks to IMAX and high-frame-rate digital displays).

Until it’s a hologram, no goofy glasses required, any move toward 3D is going to look like what it’s always been - something cinemas grab onto when sales are under downward pressure. 3D can be fun - 10 year olds love the 3D films I worked on for Robert Rodriguez - and James Cameron will no doubt provide an amazing experience, with or without the extra dimension - but 3D on the projected screen is is a boon to immediacy and sensation, not emotion and story. U23D in IMAX is a fantastic spectacle - better in many ways than actually attending a U2 show - but if we see more of these in cinemas, it can only mean that substantial stories have headed for the more intimate home theater.

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Saturday, April 19, 2008

Apple: Does Denying a Rumor Only Validate It?

According to a highly reliable source, Apple emphatically denied in an NAB press meeting earlier this week any truth to the rumor that the Pro Apps are for sale.

Now, even if Apple sold Final Cut Studio and its brethren, I hardly imagine the buyer (and who might that be? Avid?) would do much to mess with its success, at least in the short term - but here is a company with a firm policy of not responding to rumors that is apparently issuing an emphatic denial and, well, one can’t help but think of analogous situations that have occurred in the recent past.

One thing that is certain, from speaking with a former Apple employee, is that the development team, once housed inside 1 Infinite Loop and very much on the radar, is now located far from the action. If you don’t think that matters, keep in mind that this is a company whose important decisions are all made by one guy. In that building. It may simply be that Pro Apps were important to Apple back when they needed to show that the Mac was not an inferior platform for high-performance, high-profile entertainment work, but that job has now been done, the app is mature and in no danger of leaving the platform, and the company has found other areas to, ahem, shake up. Like the multi-billion dollar mobile telecommunications industry, or the multi-billion dollar entertainment industry.

Anyhow that’s all just speculation. Beyond the denial, all I know for sure is that a) Final Cut Server looks great and b) attending NAB after losing my iPhone in the powder at Sugar Bowl was like living in L.A. without a car.

(14) Comments • Most recent comments by: Scott Gentry, Mark Christiansen, dd, Vincent Rice, Mark Christiansen, Bubba-Mac, Kevin Thomas, garret linn, Alex Shaykevich, Jerry Hofmann, • Permalink

Saturday, April 19, 2008

NAB 2008 Super Session: A Million Dollar Look on a Thousand Dollar Budget

At the show ruled by suits and dilberts, the rebels get their turn

With big exhibitions like The NAB Show falling out of favor, and some disappearing altogether in the 21st century, NAB struck back this year by offering more educational fare than in years past, featuring keynotes and panels of experts from the industry, as well as day-long classes. On Wednesday was “A Million Dollar Look on a Thousand Dollar Budget,” a keynote and panel on getting cinematic production values out of equipment you may already have sitting around your studio.

The session was kicked off with the Legend of Zelda fan trailer “linked” here (nerdy pun for gamers paying attention) which appeared on April Fool’s Day, followed by a keynote by Stu Maschwitz of The Orphanage (and author of a fantastic blog) and then a panel featuring Dave Basulto of Clarity Pictures, Alex Lindsay from Pixel Corps, D.P. Taylor Wigton (447 Productions) and moderated by Brian Valente from Redrock Micro.

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Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Here Comes Hulu

Network Television Finally Reaches the Web Legally

As I type this, Hulu is temporarily closed as it is prepared for public roll-out on Wednesday.

What, you might ask if you’re too busy creating images to watch them on a beta website, is Hulu? As best I can tell, it is an attempt by network television - specifically NBC, although other networks are apparently invited to join (and ABC and CBS have not as of yet) - to take control of how its content - its shows - can be viewed online. Not offline - this is not IPTV, where you can order up a show to watch on your 50 inch plasma - instead, it’s a direct response to YouTube as the online home of every type of video. Instead of continuing only to demand the removal of network shows from other services, Hulu attempts to be the place to go to get them, and it makes its money back via advertising. In some ways it’s a brand-new model, and inevitably in other ways it looks an awful lot like the old model.

(1) Comments • Most recent comments by: Ben, • Permalink

Thursday, March 06, 2008

Creative License Renewed!

adobecards.com: sign of things to come or a splashy tease?

Now if only you could create something like this entirely with Adobe software.

Or does the joker indeed get the last laugh? 

(1) Comments • Most recent comments by: Scott Gentry, • Permalink

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