Wandering down Melrose with my camera for my upcoming grand fourth film, and someone shoves this flyer in my hand. Hey Check it out!
LA 24 hour Digital Short Film MARATHON!
Make a movie in 24 hours!!
$2500 prize for the winner
A look at what some people considered 'interactive' in 1998...
Is it just me, or does this just scream "Leonard"??
A Connection in Every Spot
By Mark Baard
02:00 AM Oct. 16, 2003 PT
SEATTLE -- If you spend enough time observing people near schools like MIT and Georgia Tech, you'll probably note a few solitary nerds roaming around campus, sniffing out wireless hotspots with their handheld PCs.
Chances are that many of those loners are not Wi-Fi junkies on warchalking sorties, but students of "ubiquitous computing," a field that aims to free us from our gloomy, workaday PCs by weaving millions of tiny wireless nodes into private and public spaces.
I think VOD applications have a lot of potential... At Movielink they have USC short films. Maybe they could have USC IM projects too....
Cool!
Darmstadt, 13 October 2003 - MGM International Television Distribution, a unit of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. (NYSE: MGM), has agreed to supply T-Online International AG with theatrically released features for T-Online's video-on-demand service.
"We are very proud to have signed up MGM for our video-on-demand service," said T-Online International Chief Media Officer Burkhard Graßmann. "The company is renowned all over the world for its movies and has an excellent range of blockbuster movies on offer, which we can now make available to our customers."
"This landmark agreement speaks to the promising future of video-on-demand worldwide," said Jim Griffiths, president of MGM Worldwide Television Distribution. "We are pleased to partner with T-Online, Germany's largest Internet Service Provider. This groundbreaking delivery platform gives German consumers an entirely new way to watch their favorite MGM movies."
T-Online will provide a range of high-speed Internet and other services on TV to customers, using a set-top box called the ACTIVY Media Center. The ACTIVY, manufactured by Fujitsu Siemens Computers and available through consumer electronics stores, runs the T-Online Vision on TV, which will be launched by year's end.
MURDER AT CAFE NOIR, the award winning, most popular comedy mystery dinner theater play in the US, is becoming an interactive DVD feature film. Produced by Murder To Go, the internationally acclaimed originator of the interactive mystery theater show, the rough cut was an official selection of the AngiliCiti Film Festival in Los Angeles and Los Vegas in 2000. Shot on High Definition video, the feature is now in the fine cut stage. MTG is seeking investors and/or producing partners to finish the project and begin distribution.
“Murder at Cafe Noir” is an off-beat mystery homage to the Bogart movies, but also a genuine mystery which breaks the “fourth wall” that takes full advantage of DVD capabilities and challenges the audience to solve the crime. Disenchanted Private Eye Rick Archer, hired to find a blackmailing femme fatale, finds himself on a forgotten tropical island and the mysterious Cafe Noir, a place where the dishonest can be honest about it and where everyone and everything seems to have fallen out of a 1940s movie, including the color. It is here that he finally finds a place where he truly belongs. Guided by a sarcastic Humphrey Bogart narrator, the viewer helps Rick by deciding where he goes and who to question.
Sharp launches 3D notebook
Last modified: October 12, 2003, 9:00 PM PDT
By Michael Kanellos
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Article
Sharp has released a notebook with a 3D screen that the company hopes will usher in a new way of looking at computers.
The Actius RD3D comes with a specialized 15-inch screen with a so-called parallax barrier that lets people view 3D images or run 3D applications without special glasses. For example, bodies and bullets appear to fly all over the place in a version of popular game "Quake" that has been adjusted to work on Sharp's 3D monitors.
The notebook also comes with a software bundle from Dynamic Digital Depth (DDD) that can give flat applications, videos and pictures a three-dimensional look on the fly.
"You can scan in images of famous artwork, like the Mona Lisa, and suddenly make a 3D version of it," said Chris Yewdall, chief executive of DDD.
Bringing 3D viewing to the computing world has been a longtime goal for the industry. Several companies have come out with Web browser software and other technology that make images appear to pop off the screen, but the Web largely remains a two-dimensional world--albeit populated with images that are drawn in 3D perspective to make them appear more realistic.
To help jump-start the market, Sharp, Sony and others formed a group earlier this year, called the 3D Consortium to hammer out standards for 3D displays and to examine issues, such as eyestrain, that may hamper adoption.
NTT DoCoMo already sells phones containing a small 3D screen from Sharp based on the same technology. Sharp has been showing prototypes of the Actius RD3D since late last year.
Enhancing displays is at the core of the Japanese giant's strategy. Sharp, which reported a $557 million profit in fiscal 2002, is one of the leaders in the market for thin-film transistor (TFT) displays, glass with embedded electronics used to build liquid-crystal display (LCD) screens. The company has a major presence in the LCD monitor market in Europe and Japan.
Sharp's notebooks, in fact, are primarily a vehicle to show off the company's displays. The Actius MM10--which was shown off at Comdex Fall 2002 under its Japanese name Muramasa--is about half an inch thick and weighs just over 2 pounds, a design made possible in part because of the screen. The company also has released notebooks with wide displays.
Sharp said it is considering bringing out 3D desktop LCD monitors. Toshiba is working on a similar 3D monitor, according to sources close to the company.
Eyeing big business
Although the consumer market seems like a natural fit, the Actius RD3D will initially be aimed at the business market. Engineers, product designers, pharmaceutical companies, and oil and gas researchers, in particular, will be targeted. A molecular modeling application comes with the notebook.
The software bundle from DDD will allow consumers to view materials in 3D, even if the original developers do not tweak their applications. The DDD bundle consists of three parts: TriDef Movie Player for making 3D video, Photo Viewer for digital images, and Visualizer software for simulating 3D on standard applications. The DDD software essentially works by intercepting the original code and re-rendering it.
"You've got a lot of (software) customers out there who are very interested, but you have a lack of 3D displays out there," DDD's Yewdall said.
Screens that can show 3D images will likely be a niche, but the technology will have its adherents. "There are some applications where it will be useful: medical, imaging, gaming," said Alan Promisel, an analyst with IDC. Some have said that there are nearly 1,000 games that have been 3D-optimized, he said.
The notebook can be switched to two-dimensional viewing, according to Sharp, so that it can also run spreadsheets and other applications in which 3D would likely be an annoyance.
The RD3D's monitor can be thought of as a TFT sandwich. The monitor, developed by Sharp and Sharp Laboratories Europe, contains two TFT panels separated by a parallax barrier, which directs pixel images to two separate regions so that each eye receives a slightly different image. Like in commercially available holograms that display 3D images, faint vertical lines appear on the screen.
"The left eye sees only the left-eye image, and the right eye sees only the right-eye image," Ian Matthew, a development manager at Sharp Systems of America, said in a statement. "Since these images have perspective and are offset in the same way that the human eye normally sees the two images, the brain naturally interprets the image disparity and creates a 'sense of depth' effect."
The notebook is not priced for bargain hunters. It costs $3,299 and comes with a 2.8GHz Pentium 4, a Nvidia GeForce 4 440 graphics chip, a recording DVD drive, a 60GB hard drive and 512MB of memory.
Sony's toddler robot makes strides
Last modified: October 13, 2003, 10:28 AM PDT
By Michael Kanellos
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
SANTA CLARA, Calif.--It dances. It can hold a conversation. And in about a year, humanoid robot Qrio will be knocking on doors, if Sony's plans fall into place.
Nobuyuki Idei, CEO of Sony, gave the first North American demonstration of Qrio on Saturday as part of a speech he delivered to the Japan Society of Northern California. He also looked beyond gadgetry to the broader context of Japan's changing economic and cultural status.
Qrio--a toddler-sized machine in an aluminum sleeper and a space helmet--can navigate an obstacle course, right itself after a fall, sense heat and surfaces, recognize people through their voice or face, and respond with gestures or words to questions, according to Sony.
At the end of Idei's speech, the robot executed with fair fluidly what resembled an aerobics routine, and answered some questions.
"I love California. It is the same voltage as in Japan," Qrio said. "I just hope there are no blackouts during my stay."
A Sony representative said the company may release the robot commercially in about a year. But Idei also asserted that the robot will serve as a vehicle for testing new technologies across Sony's product line.
"We will accelerate hardware development through Qrio," he said.
The robot's development comes as Japan's economy is changing. Exports of manufactured goods--a longtime mainstay--have only grown by 10 percent in the past few years. By contrast, the world is gobbling up Japanese comic books, TV shows such as the "Iron Chef" cook-off series, pop music and fashion design. In addition, Hayao Miyazaki's "Spirited Away," a fantasy feature for children, won the Academy Award for the best animated film earlier this year, Idei noted.
"Japan is moving from a corporate manufacturing society to a cultural society," he said. "Japan has far greater cultural influence now than in the '80s."
The island nation is also showing other signs of recovery. Some of its industrial giants, including Nissan, are reporting larger profits.
"The Japanese economy seems to be finally coming out of the big tunnel of recession after 12 years," he said.
Idei pointed to other trends as well. For instance, broadband in homes and on mobile phones has also become fairly widespread. In March 2000, broadband was almost nonexistent in Japan, he said. Now, about 12 million homes have high-speed connections. More than 30 percent of Japanese cell phones have a camera, and several sources in the chip industry have said nearly every cell phone shipped to Japan in 2004 will have a camera.
Politically, the country continues to make changes as well. Although Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has not been able to push through many of his reforms, upcoming national elections will likely help solidify the notion of a two-party system. For the past 50 years, Japanese politics have been dominated by the Liberal Democratic Party, a situation some say has contributed to economic stagnation.
"The outcome will be close, especially in cities," Idei said. "Japan will come to be represented by two dominant parties with real competition between them. This will help Japan become a more open country."
Danger, Will Robinson
Qrio, which stands for quest plus curiosity--and also calls to mind the word "curio"--extends the capability of Aibo, the pet robot Sony released a few years ago. The demonstration also drew hearty applause from the audience at the Santa Clara Marriott, which included, among others, filmmaker George Lucas, PalmSource CEO David Nagel, several politicians and bankers, and Sun Microsystems founder Scott McNealy. ("I don't think I have been this dressed up on a Saturday since I got married," noted a necktie-wearing McNealy, who introduced Idei.)
Still, personal robots so far have been a tough sell. Sony has sold approximately 130,000 Aibos, according to the company.
Pricing for Qrio was not revealed, and Sony has yet to commit to a firm commercial release. Nonetheless, the company provided a number of technical details. Qrio is powered by a processor from MIPS, has 64MB of memory and runs on the Aperios operating system--a homegrown Sony operating system that has yet to gain widespread acceptance. It also comes equipped with microphones and cameras.
Here's an easy game to play.
Here's an easy thing to say.
If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port,
And the bus is interrupted as a very last resort.
If Dr. Seuss were a Technical Writer
Here's an easy game to play.
Here's an easy thing to say.
If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port,
And the bus is interrupted as a very last resort.
And the address of the memory makes your floppy disk abort,
Then the socket packet pocket has an error to report!
If your cursor finds a menu item followed by a dash,
And the double-clicking icon puts your window in the trash,
And your data is corrupted 'cause the index doesn't hash.
Then your situation's hopeless and your system's gonna crash!
You can't say this?
What a shame, sir!
We'll find you
another game, sir!
If the label on the cable on the table at your house
Says the network is connected to the button on the mouse,
But your packets want to tunnel on another protocol,
That's repeatedly rejected by the printer down the hall,
And your screen is all distorted by the side affects of Gauss,
So your icons in the windows are so wavy as a souse,
Then you may as well reboot and go out with a bang,
'Cause as sure as I'm a poet, the sucker's gonna hang!
When the copy of your floppy's getting sloppy on the disk,
And the microcode instructions cause unnecessary RISC.
Then you have to flash your memory and you'll want to RAM your ROM.
Quickly turn off the computer and be sure to tell your mom!
I'm starting to write my screenplay for CTWR 528. I can't afford to get a screen writing software package, but I found this Word template and it works really well. If someone else needs it...
I've been having some real trouble in Animation lately so I went looking for things to study. I found this page, and the drawings were very interesting.
Probably because I'm so used to Disney...
So much for the integrity of a filmmaker's vision:
What is ClearPlay?
ClearPlay is the technology of Choice! There are lots of great movies out there, and its nice to have the choice to watch them without needing to worry about the occasional R or PG-13 scene or language.
How does ClearPlay work?
Want to join the latest movie craze? It's really quite simple. Use DVDs that you already rent or purchase from your local stores, sign-up for ClearPlay, and then enjoy great movies -- without needing to worry about the occasional R or PG-13 scene or language.
Read more: www.clearplay.com
I just love a good cup of crap in the morning:
YOU, THE VIEWER
When WXXI-TV goes digital in May 2003, television viewing is going to change dramatically…if you want it to. Sure, you can still sit back and watch television for the reasons you do now–to learn something new, to catch up on the latest events of the world, or simply to be entertained. Or you can take advantage of the wonderful features that DTV has to offer!
Imagine watching TV and actually feeling like you are on an African safari, instead of just watching it from your couch. Now, imagine yourself in the front row of a magnificent concert hall, being swept away by the beautiful sounds of the orchestra. High Definition Television (HDTV) will change the way you experience TV. The dramatically improved image and CD-quality sound that DTV offers will turn watching an experience into living it!
Through DTV technology, WXXI will be able to multicast, which means that while we broadcast one program at a time now, soon we will be broadcasting four or more different programs simultaneously. That means you will have more choices of high quality, public broadcasting programming to choose from at any time of day. This will allow WXXI to serve the unique and diverse programming needs of our community more efficiently and at times that offer flexibility for busy lives.
DTV will also allow you to interact with your television. Interactivity means that television and computer technology will merge. You will have the enjoyment of watching television combined with the capabilities of computer advancements. So if you are watching a program and you want to learn more about a specific topic, you'll be able to download information with just a push of a button. The interactivity of DTV will greatly expand the way we watch TV and learn from it-at home and in the classroom.
Arts enthusiasts will appreciate the larger screen, better resolution, clearer colors and CD quality sound. Evening arts programs, like Great Performances, Masterpiece Theater, and Boston Pops, will look and sound better, leading to an enhanced viewing experience. Interactive content will allow viewers to engage the programs more personally, whether they read facts about members of the orchestra, follow the musical score along with a pops conductor, or decide to watch the actor of his or her own choice at any given moment in a play by William Shakespeare. A person unable to frequent the RPO and local theater, might enjoy the ability to choose his preferred camera angle at any time during the performance. During a Boston Pops concert the viewer would be able to watch the lead violinist's furrowed brow, the powerful trumpets, and share the viewpoint of the conductor and his interpretation of a piece in an outtake. The viewer is transported right to center stage.
http://www.wxxi.org/dtv/youTheViewer.html
Wired.com Article
Lots of Programs in Can for 'ETV'
By Xeni Jardin
Jul. 25, 2003
LOS ANGELES -- Click on Jennifer Aniston's dress to buy it, or watch a Friends episode with seven different endings.
Interactive television -- or enhanced TV, as many developers now prefer to call it -- may seem too young an industry for clichés. But these hypothetical chestnuts of next-generation broadcasting are as overused as they are outdated, said TV producers at the American Film Institute's sixth annual eTV workshop Wednesday in Los Angeles.
"Look, we don't want people clicking all over our shirts or sofas, and we don't want seven endings -- we just want the right one," said Todd Stevens, co-executive producer of NBC's Friends.
When AFI launched its enhanced TV workshop in 1998, most U.S. consumers had neither broadband nor cell phones, and TiVo had yet to become a common synonym for "ad zapper." This year, the annual program again unites television producers with mentor groups of technologists, production execs and interactive designers, who will collaborate through early December to prototype new technological possibilities for broadcast storytelling.
Through a hands-on production process, eight jury-selected enhanced TV projects from networks including Bloomberg, ABC, Disney, PBS, and FUSE Networks will be transformed into working prototypes -- some of which, according to organizers, may end up in near-term public release.
In contrast with previous years, this year's workshop seemed marked by participation of higher-profile teams. It also had more prominent backing from networks, cable operators and hardware companies. Most of the eight projects involve current "conventional TV" shows with existing fans and advertisers, instead of the riskier, all-new, high-concept projects common in previous years.
And this time around, enhanced TV isn't limited to television screens. Microsoft is teaming up with developers to create new forms of interactive content for the Xbox platform, and they're targeting wider audiences than gamers alone.
"Soon, you'll be seeing new kinds of narrative entertainment experiences, which are neither games nor conventional film and television," said J.D. Alley, Creative Director for Microsoft's Xbox Project LEO group.
Alley belongs to a team of mentors and producers joining forces on a Battlestar Galactica interactive TV project for Vivendi Universal. The resulting prototype will be presented to a group of industry peers in early December, around the time of the 25th anniversary of the original 1978 Battlestar Galactica TV Series. Universal is also releasing a new Battlestar-themed game for Xbox and PlayStation 2 in September and a six-disc DVD set of the original series in October. It also will introduce an all-new TV series, Battlestar Galactica: The Second Coming on the Sci Fi Channel Dec. 7.
Team members say their eTV prototype could be designed for Xbox, PlayStation or both platforms, with synchronized experiences timed to occur while the show airs, or offline content intended for viewing at other times.
Other entries in this year's workshop include eTV projects for the Disney show Kim Possible and ABC's Celebrity Mole II, and an interactive pledge drive project intended to make seasonal public television fundraising drives "less intrusive" for viewers, said KQED-TV senior producer Bernard Gundy.
Funding is also a top priority for AFI workshop organizers.
"TV is a hits-driven business, and it's all about money," said AFI New Media Ventures Director Nick DeMartino. "Reality TV isn't special because people love the form, it's special because it doesn't cost a lot and makes a fortune. When someone comes up with an interactive application that's small investment and high payoff, we'll see a major industry breakthrough."
"Network television production is a vast and complex ecosystem, and enhanced TV is a small but growing part of that world," DeMartino said.
"An outsider might say, 'I don't see anything -- eTV hasn't happened yet,' because it's not on every channel everywhere all the time. But eventually it will be, and we won't call it enhanced or interactive -- just TV."
Some U.S. developers point to News Corp. boss Rupert Murdoch's recent purchase of DirectTV as a bright spot for the medium's future: When one company owns both content and distribution platform, the logic goes, new forms of interactive programming may more likely be produced.
Other indicators of life on the eTV landscape include AT&T's recent interactive successes with live SMS and toll-free wireless phone voting during American Idol, and a growing number of viewers claimed by producers of enhanced pay-per-view sporting events like NASCAR or NFL.
Developers may also benefit from growing interest among network execs for TiVo-proof programming such as NBC's new reality show The Restaurant, which features densely embedded product placements for American Express, Coors and Mitsubishi.
"We're starting to see a lot of major consumer brands get involved in eTV now, and they don't consider this speculative R&D," said Ben Mendelson, president of the Interactive Television Alliance, which counts Proctor & Gamble and Kraft among its board member companies. "Automotive companies probably get the most out of enhanced TV right now, because they can afford it and because they need targeted relationships. Corporations like Ford and Chrysler need to push customers to test-drive cars, and the kinds of integrated ad formats that eTV makes possible can help them accomplish that."
But as interactive developers debated the pros and cons of "The Rashômon Factor" -- a term coined by AFI New Media Ventures Associate Director Anna Marie Piersimoni for programs that tell one story through multiple points of view -- some television producers called for a reality check.
"Audiences are lazy and TV still caters to the lowest common denominator," quipped Fifth Wheel and Blind Date Co-Executive Producer Harley Tat. "We're operating from a heady place where we're thinking about the future, but plenty of viewers don't have PCs and haven't upgraded their cell phones in years. If the information isn't right in front of them while they're microwaving mac and cheese, it's not going to happen. ETV has to be so simple that they can do it half-baked and horizontal on the couch."
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,59765,00.html
My interests lie in the future of interactive, or enhanced television. So to start out here is a history drawn from ITV: Interactive Television Alliance. www.itvalliance.org
Interactive Television: a short history
1953: Winky Dink-- first "interactive " TV show. Kids put a plastic sheet over the picture tube and draw on top of a running program.
1957: Zenith "Space Command" Remote Control-- with 13 VHF channels, the viewer could sit back in a Lazy Boy Lounger and switch stations without getting up from the TV Dinner.
1972: Cable TV-- cable expands as HBO is launched, satellite distribution becomes viable, and regulations loosen. Cable allows the potential of over 75 channels, giving us the Set Top Box (STB) and making the remote control man's (and woman's) best friend.
1977: Qube-- Warner Cable debuts iTV service in Columbus, Ohio. A limited amount of customers can now get additional information while watching a program and can participate in live polls. The system is dropped as additional benefits can not justify the cost of the equipment.
1984: 1984 Cable Act-- deregulation accelerates cable penetration. Cable homes increase to over 50M homes by the end of the decade.
1994: Full Service Network-- Time Warner launches iTV services in Orlando FL. It works fine, but nobody wanted to pay for the $5,000 digital STB's. The newly rediscovered Internet looks more promising.
1996: Digital Satellite-- TV expands to 500 channels. Almost 12M 18" dishes are sold by the end of the 1990's. The enhanced program guide becomes a necessity.
1997: WebTV-- the Internet converges on the TV screen. WorldGate and AOLTV get into the act as well. Their combined base soon exceeds 1.5M.
1998: Digital Cable-- MSOs start expanding the digital infrastructure to over 1.5M homes, giving customers potential access to iTV services. By end of 1990's, that number will expand past 5M.
1999: Personal Video Recorders-- TiVo and ReplayTV change how we watch and interact with the TV. Including Dish Network and UltimateTV, over 1M PVRs have been sold.
2001: iTV Deployment-- iTV programs started by every MSO and DBS system. Wink is available in over 6M homes. OpenTV, Liberate, Canal+, and WorldGate make important strategic alliances. Over 20M homes have boxes capable of some form of interactivity.
TODAY--Video On Demand (VOD) deployments are expanding in the cable world, laying the digital infrastructure necessary for new interactive applications. Satellite providers are pushing new iTV enabled projects and PVR's. Two-screen synchronous programming is becoming a necessary option to sports and event programming. Over 30M homes have boxes capable of some form of interactivity.