Videocracy Blog

I just heard something interesting, which immediately looked up and found to be true…

Basically for years, people were uploading Monty Python clips to YouTube, and finally the powers that be in the Monty Python camp, created an official Monty Python YouTube Channel, with all of their best stuff and more… all for free…

And apparently, since this channel went live… their DVD sales went up by 23,000 % – I know this sounds like a silly arbitrary number… but I found in this article… That it seems to be true…

Sometimes I guess it pays to give away your content for free…

I just heard about this photographer, who does photos with biblical themes… So I just went and looked at these photos, and they are stunning…

Heard about this originally on the Digital Production Buzz, someone responsible with the project talked about the limitations and success on creating images such as these…he talked about one of the photos they took of Angels in flight, and he said those were taken by photographing people jumping on trampolines and the composting them into the main image… really neat stuff.

If you are interested, take a look, there’s some really amazing photography here…

http://www.reflectionsmg.com/

Here’s something that I haven’t thought too much about in the past, but it makes a huge difference when you are talking flat video or film like video…  And that’s Depth of Field…

take a look at this article to learn more, it’s probably one of the best articles I’ve read on the subject, and it breaks things down nicely for you to learn how things work…

http://www.dv.com/articlefeatures/77752

I don’t get a chance to work with DoF too often, because I mainly work with fixed lens cameras… but it’s interesting to see what a difference just a little bit can make…

So here’s something worth checking out for anyone interested…

I have yet to listen to it, and I’ll surely write another post once I have, but it’s part of the Digital Production Buzz with Larry Jordan, he talked yesterday with Bruce Nazarian, who is a regular guest on his show.  Bruce talks all about Blu-ray technology.

I am not too familiar with Blu-ray, so this should be an interesting show to listen to… worth checking out.

http://www.digitalproductionbuzz.com/Archives/ShowNotes.php?date=2009-01-21

Another interesting article/Blog Post form Norman Hollyn talking about 3D, and it’s future…

I’m not the biggest fan of 3D movies, and I’ve written about this in the past… I feel as though the technology dropped out of popularity long ago for a reason, and bringing it back will just cause it to die out eventually anyway.

Part of the reason I dont’ like it is because 1) it gives me a headache and 2) I dont’ like paying extra for my movie to “rent” the 3D glasses… on the other hand, I probably wouldn’t buy my own pair either.

In this regard its a very limiting technology… the fact that I have to watch a movie with glasses (over my own glasses) is kind of obnoxious… and quite frankly, I will probably be a supporter of 3D when they develop a technology that does not require glasses, now that would be effective…

Norman Hollyn talks about the areas in which 3D has it’s place, namely in video games… and I tend to agree with that, but that harkens back to the days of Virtual Reality, where you were suppose to feel as though you were really in the game.  What ever happened to Virtual Reality anyway?

There are two movies coming out this year that I am looking forward too, one is the movie Monsters vs. Aliens… it does seem like it would be a fun movie whether you watch it in 3D or not… but ironically if I’m going to watch a movie that is available in either 2D or 3D.. I’m going to take the 3D and get the full experience.

The other movie is Coraline, which looks interesting because it’s the first 3D movie that is done in Stop Motion animation… which I have a soft spot for, and a love for.

Another thing worth pointing out is the technology side of 3D movies, I thought it was interesting how he describes the two different processes used for 3D… one is putting two projectors side by side, and the glasses trick your brain into thinking that it’s 3D.  The other is a bit more complex, it requires glasses that “blink” every other frame…. so it’s blinking so fast that you wouldn’t notice it.  (read more in Norman’s article to get a better grasp of what I mean).

I will continue to follow the growing trend surrounding 3D movies, hoping that one day it will get better…. but as for right now, I feel as though it’s a passing fad.

So I just read this article by Norman Hollyn who is in charge of the editing department at USC, he talks about some pretty interesting things, mostly about the direction in which portable media devices are going.

One in particular he mentions is the slingbox and how it’s going to allow you to watch your DVR’d content on your portable device like your blackberry.

The point of the article was talking about what people want to watch on these devices, and how it’s difficult to watch a big screen epic on them, but your favorite TV show is okay…

I’ve written in the past about how I think that it’s great that media is becoming more portable… and how I can go on a trip now, and take 5 of my favorite movies with me… all on my iPod… and now that I have an iPod Touch, or people with an iPhone or other such devices, you can get even more content that’s on the web…

It’ll be great to see more and more content on the web, that is specifically created just for the iPhone or other portable device.

It’s a great world we live in, and if you are a fan of toys and gadgets, it makes it even more fun…

So, I recommend reading this article, and also reading Norman Hollyn’s blog… it’s always informative, and worth checking out…

http://normanhollyn.com/2009/01/03/why-kvetching-about-small-screens-makes-you-look-stupid/

I am listening to NPR, and they are talking with a guy who utilizes Twitter, and other social media sites to get the latest and up to the minute news on events and disasters…

For instance, he monitors Twitter, searching for key terms that raises his awareness level of an event.  His example was that when the bridge collapsed in Minneapolis, he saw a lot of people updating their Twitter feed with things like OMG, and he saw that phrase OMG a lot of times coming out of that area… and he was able to put 2 and 2 together and figure out that there was a bridge collapse in that area…

He’s utilizing this technology to improve fire and disaster services…

Pretty interesting.

I saw the most interesting and amusing thing while I was wandering the mall this weekend…

I noticed from a distance a kiosk set up, with a remarkably green “screen” set up…. surrounded by very high powered bright lights, and there were pieces of the same cloth strewn about this kiosk area.

I didn’t want to stop and chat with the guy (Didn’t want to be roped into what he was selling) but from a distance I could see that people stand in front of this screen, put on these pieces of cloth over their neck and shoulders and then they become a “Floating Head” – then their head is put on a “crazy” animated body… you chould be an elf or whatever options they had, and then you “dance” along with the music.

It caught my eye because how often do you see a green screen set up, with professional lighting and an editing bay right there in the mall…

Must be something new if you are too old to have your picture taken with Santa…

Here’s a great little article about the top 10 things After Effects users love, and hate about Motion…

I have experience with both programs and I like a lot of what Motion has to offer… it’s also somewhat easier to use, and less cluttered then After Effects is…  Of course I prefer Final Cut Pro to Premiere as well.

http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/motiongraphicsvizfx/story/the_top_ten_things_after_effects_users_love_and_hate_about_motion/

Thought this was interesting… Former member of the band Wilco has released a solo album under a Creative Commons license… maybe this will be a growing trend.

http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/11289