Thursday, November 29, 2007
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Thursday, November 08, 2007
Where is Mark the Seattle Version
Delta Air Lines # 7687
LAX to SEA
Departure 1:57 PM PST
Arrival 4:39 PM PST
Friday, November 9-12, 2007
Best Western Pioneer Square Hotel
77 Yesler Way
Seattle, WA 98104
(206) 340-1234
Monday, November 12, 2007
Delta Air Lines # 7687
SEA to LAX
Departure 5:05 PM PST
Arrival 7:40 PM
Monday, October 29, 2007
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
Friday, September 28, 2007
Where is Mark @?
United #128
LAX -> Chi Ohare
11:00 pm - 4:48 am
9/29/07 - 10/2/07
Hotel 71
71 E Wacker Drive 60601
10/3/07
United #672
Chi Ohare ->
8:00 am - 11:05 am
10/3/07
Crowne Plaza Time Sq Manhattan
1605 Broadway 10019
10/4/07
United #839
NY La Guardia -> LAX
6:10 pm - 9:36 pm
Sunday, September 23, 2007
FAC51-Y3: The Hacienda
Sunday, July 01, 2007
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Anthropomedia: SAG and Internet Video
After negotiating the voice menu system and a pleasant operator, I reached another assistant type, who pleasantly took down my information and promised to relay my request for info to Mark Friedlander, who works in Contracts as a Signatory Rep for Internet/Interactive Productions. I was told Mark is one of two people working in this area at SAG. I guess the union is on the case.
Stay tuned to see what SAG has to say about Internet, or as they call it 'Interactive' video!"
The 463: Inside Tech Policy: Starving Actors to be Fed by YouTube?
It's about the talent. Yes, the actors who make those shows that still aren't reality-based possible are going to want a piece of the Internet video revenue pie, too. There has been noise from the Screen Actor Guild that they are well aware of where video is headed and when their next contract round is up, they plan to make their case well known. So much so that the Screen Actors Guild just created a new-media department. From the Hollywood Reporter:
SAG and other guilds have been ramping up operations dedicated to tracking and researching new-media issues. In the next round of film and TV contract talks, the guilds are expected to demand significant improvements in residuals paid for the re-use of member-created entertainment content distributed over the Internet and other new-media platforms.
"This is the dawn of a new era in entertainment," Friedlander (the SAG new media lead) said. "The developments in new-media formats give actors new opportunities, but it's important to make sure they are compensated fairly for their work, no matter what the format..."
Perhaps this will be raised by tomorrow's hearing witness Phil Rosenthal who is the Executive Producer of "Everybody Loves Raymond" and is also representing the Screen Actors Guild."
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
Friedlander set to guide SAG's new-media unit
As director of new media, Friedlander and his department's staff will work closely with SAG's new technologies, interactive contract and organizing committees. He will report to deputy national executive director Pamm Fair.
"Mark's expertise in new-media and interactive contracts, combined with his knowledge of emerging technologies and his legal background, make him the perfect choice for this new position," Fair said. "Our elected leaders and staff have made new media a top priority, and this new department, along with our research and economics department, will provide essential research, analysis and strategy to guide our long-term decisions and policies."
SAG and other guilds have been ramping up operations dedicated to tracking and researching new-media issues. In the next round of film and TV contract talks, the guilds are expected to demand significant improvements in residuals paid for the re-use of member-created entertainment content distributed over the Internet and other new-media platforms.
"This is the dawn of a new era in entertainment," Friedlander said. "The developments in new-media formats give actors new opportunities, but it's important to make sure they are compensated fairly for their work, no matter what the format. The department will help accomplish that, and I'm excited to lead this critical area for the Screen Actors Guild."
Friedlander joined SAG in 2005 as a business representative in the contracts department, specializing in theatrical, new-media and interactive projects. He previously worked as an entertainment attorney."
Its a bit weird when I threw parties I wanted in URB or Project X. Now I get in the Reporter! COOL!
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
MoTV: Mobile TV and Video Summit, April 17, Morning Sessions
April 17 Morning Sessions
*Welcome and Introduction*
Michael Stroud - iHollywood Forum
Stroud - Sprint and Treo 700p is a very capable mobile video platform.
However purchasing video is not compelling because the same content can
be seen for free on TV.
Stroud - This year the main hurdle for mobile video will be to drive
higher adoption rates. The technology is here and is now becoming a
standard in handsets. The remaining question is how does the industry
get consumers to pay for mobile video content.
*Obsticles and Oportunities*
Scott Wills - Hiwire
Robin Chan - VCast
Joe Zaller - Snell and Wilcox
Jeffery Brown - MediaFLO
Bob Zitter - HBO
Michael Stroud - iHollywood Forum
Chan - Mobile video is still at an early adopter stage. But phone prices
are coming down and as a result the subscriber rates are going up.
Chan - Adding a "TV button" to handsets is leading to more adoption. The
user only needs to push 2 buttons to access content. First they push the
"TV button" which activates the TV functions on the device then the user
selects a channel.
Zaller - 3G is a unicast technology versus MediaFLO which is a broadcast
technology. There will likely need to be a hybrid inorder for mobile
video to succed. Both methods are monitizable but MediaFLO's broadcast
technology is much more economically efficient.
Chan - V CAST is live in 22 markets now.
Zaller - Mobile video is inclusive of all kinds of devices not just
phones. It includes iPods, TVs, phones, etc.
Brown - The unicast delivery networks have already begun to colapse in
some foriegn markets. This problem has driven the broadcast build out.
Curently there are 3 million broadcast capable handsets in Korea and
there are 5 million in Japan. Early adoption is only at issue in the US
and this will soon be overcome.
Zitter - 70% of viewers watch time shifted (VOD, DVR, etc.) programing
instead of live if they have access to that technology. Consumers seem
to perfer on demand methods rather than DVR so they do not have to plan
ahead. This propensity for time shifting seems to cut against the
broadcast model. Consumers want to control their experience. The only
exception to this seems to be live sports.
Wills - Storage on mobile devices will grow enabeling greater DVR
functionality. This coupled with the broadcast model will empower the
consumer while distributing the work load to the end user rather than
the network.
Zitter - The use of these technology skews to younger users.
Zitter - Consumers expect day and date deployment on mobile platforms of
TV product.
Chan - The content owners are slicing rights to maximize revenue.
Wills - The practice of slicing rights by venue is making it too complex
for consumers as well as distributors and will slow adoption.
Zitter - Sometimes visual content needs to be reworked to release across
all platforms. For example if music is included in a program, and if
that music could not be licenced for broadband, the music will need to
be redone before that visual content can be released across all
markets.
Stroud - Consumers don't care how a program is delivered to them. They
just want to watch the content when and where they choose.
Zaller - There will be a continued rapid proliferation of these new
technologies because the average handset lifespan is only 9-18 months.
Pannel - High adoption of these mobile video technologies in the US will
occur within the next 2-5 years.
Wills - Consumers don't neccessarilly want content specifically created
for mobile.
Zitter - There are different concerns for creating content for mobile.
Dark sceens, long shots, and audio with high dynamic ranges do not
translate well. Quick cuts, and medium shots do work well. Also there is
a high cost to creating content now because there is no standardization
in resolutions, metadata, or aspect ratios for devices.
Wills - Consumers are now willing to watch for about 5-10 minutes. If
they like the content they will stay longer and these periods are
increasing.
Stroud - Consumers will watch increasingly long content as devices begin
to provide better experiences (i.e. iPhone).
New Terms -
- MDTV - Mobile Digital TV Alliance. (See http://www.mdtvalliance.org/)
*Keynote: QUALCOMM*
Paul Jacobs - QUALCOMM
Jacobs - The phone is not just a phone anymore. It will be an extention
of the person, containing a wide variety of personal information, and
having access to even more. Making calls is becoming an afterthought.
Jacobs - Mobile phones are more ubiquitous than all other consumer
electronics devices.
Jacobs - The higher-end data services are more popular in lower economic
strata.
Jacobs - 1/3 of the worlds population have cell phones.
Jacobs - A voice call requires about 4k and video requiers about 400k.
Because there is a per bit cost associated with delivery the economics
of video will need to become more efficient.
Jacobs - Viewing is not based on a "prime-time" model, because the
devices are always with the consumer, viewing is more evenly distributed
throughout the day.
Jacobs - MediaFLO can support local content, including local ad
insertion.
Jacobs - MediaFLO is becoming a standard. The FLOForum includes 70+
members in 12 countries. Non-phone devices are already being built (i.e.
PacketVideo).
New Terms -
- Open Mobile Video Coalition - It is an industry alliance including the
9 largest US broadcasters who intend to help accelerate the adoption of
mobile broadcast video.
- Clipcasting - Clipcasting pushes content to the device in the
background that can later be accessed on demand by the user.
*Presentation: Chalenges To Mobile Video Delivery*
Joe Zaller - Snell and Wilcox
Zaller - The 4 main problems for mobile content delivery are: 1) all
screens on mobile devices are progressive but most content is
interlaced, 2) the screen sizes and shapes differ from device to device,
3) the compression needs to get better, and 4) the diversity of
platforms makes the delivery of the content inefficient.
Zaller - As the number of deliverables goes up, the earnings per
deliverable goes down.
Zaller - There are 2 solutions to the above 1) dynamic automatic
reframing and 2) dynamic automatic refocusing.
*Mobile TV: The Battle Is Joined*
Levi Shapiro - Telephia
Michael Ramke - Modeo
Larry Gitlin - Handheld Entertainment
Sam Matheny - New Over Wireless
Jerry Hanley - QUALCOMM
Osama Al-Shaykh - PacketVideo
Shapiro - There are 6.2 million subscribers of mobile video now in the
US. This makes up 2.7% of the US mobile phone market.
Shapiro - Mobile video now is generating more revenue than mobile
games.
Shapiro - 85% of handsets are not video capable in the US. There are 30
million that are video capable.
Shapiro - About 1 in 5 users in the US who can subscribe to video
services do.
Shapiro - The demographics in the US are skewing heavily toward males.
70% of video service subscribers are male and 3/4 of these are under 35.
All other value ad services tend to skew heavilly toward female.
Shapiro - Hispanics in the US are 3 times more likely to subscribe to
video services.
Shapiro - Almost 1/2 of subscribers in the US are in homes with 4 or
more people. The choice for the viewer may be between small screen and
no screen.
Shapiro - 80% of viewers in the US watch more than 5 minutes per session
and the period is getting longer.
Shapiro - 100% of video subscribers in the US use their mobile device to
access the Internet. 2/3s of these users also upload video to the
Internet.
Shapiro - Entertainment is the most highly sought after content form but
it is also the least available.
Al-Shaykh - HSDPA (3G) is working in France and Japan.
*Presentation: User Generated Content*
Larry Gitlin - Handheld Entertainment
Gitlin - Comedy is leading in the space but other areas such as drama
and how-tos are growing.
Gitlin - Handheld Entertainment through its ZVUE network delivers both
user and profesionally generated content side by side.
-- compsed on my hiptop --
Sunday, April 15, 2007
NAB April 15 Afternoon Sessions
April 15
*Making 3D Movies From 2D, Meet The Robinsons *
Robert Neuman - Disney
Nordi Rahhali - Digital Domain
Dan Brimer - Digital Domain
Josh Greer - REAL D
Howard Lukk - Disney
Walt Ordaway - Consultant
Neuman - Depth of field is a problem in 3D because people try to focus
on out of focus objects.
Neuman - Floating windows are created to make sure that objects do not
inadvertantly violate the corners of the screen. But a window violation
can be used as a creative choice to highten emotion in the sceene (i.e.
a wepon comes forward off the screen to create fear in the audience).
Rahhali - Digital Domain can take 2D files, split the layers and
re-render the image at 2 different offsets, one for each eye.
Lukk - The release of Day and Date for 2D and 3D films is happening now.
It will get more frequent as the formats for digital cinema are
standardized.
Lukk - Audiences will watch feature length digitally projected 3D films.
(See: Meet the Robinsons, Nightmare Before Christmass, etc.) However,
they can not watch more than 20-40 minutes of traditional 2 projector
sytstems because audiences members tire trying to resolve the
differences in the Right and Left eye projections (i.e. jitter, etc.).
Greer - 3D allows stories to be told on a percineum stage rather than a
flat screen.
*Shoring Up Digital Pipelines*
Curtis Clark - ASC
David Stump - ASC
Lou Levinson - Post Logic Studios
Glenn Kennel - Laser Pacific
A complete digital pipeline flowchart can be viewed on the ASC website.
*Case Study: Balls Of Fire, Capture To Master*
Leon Silverman - Laser Pacific
Jeff Roth - Focus Features
Tom Ackerman - DP (not present)
Steve Gaub - Associate Producer
Dave Cole - Colorist
Aaron Weintraub - Visual Effects Supervisor
Nolan Murdoch - Panavision
Cole - Using an End to End digital pipeline allows you to see in the
theatre exactly what you intended from post.
Roth - It costs more to shoot digitally now. But this will change as
crews become more familar with the new digital equipment and the cameras
become cheaper.
Roth - Budget line item spends are shifting because new rolls are being
defined (i.e. DITs).
New Terms:
- End to End - This means a film is created and distributed digitally.
- Genesis Camera - It is a digital camera made by Panavision that uses a
35mm CCD and standard Panavision optics. It has similar dynamic range to
film.
- Panalog - Refers to the custom color space and gama curve that is used
on a Genesis Camera. This curve is different than the one usually
created on a CCD and it causes images to visually appear more like
film.
- Luster - It is a color grading (correcton) software for digital video
from Autodesk.
- Lut - Look Up Tables used to keep consistancy in image characteristics
from shot to shot.
- DIT - A Digital Imaging Technition assists the traditional film camera
crew in its use of the digital camera systems like Genesis.
-- compsed on my hiptop --
NAB April 15 Morning Sessions
April 15
*USCs Entertainment Technology Center*
David Wertheimer - ETC
Wertheimer - ETC is focusing on anytime anywhere content. The work on
digital cinema will suport this.
Wertheimer - The ETC has built an Anytime Anywhere Content Labratory.
The students provide feedback.
*Case Study: 300, Digital Theater to Home*
David Wertheimer - ETC
Philippe Erwin - Executive Producer (Game)
Jeffery Silver - Producer
Chris Watts - Visual Effects Supervisor
The 300 had $63 million budget. It was shot in 60 days. It made $70
million on its opening weekend. It is the 3rd most successful R rated
movie ever. The film as of April 15, 2007 made $200 million domestic and
$200 million foreign. Highest scoring preview the studio ever tested.
Silver - The studio invested $150,000 to do a 2 minute test shot to see
if it was possible to get the look the studio wanted.
Watts - The studio demanded lots of Pre-Vis. It was very useful to
determine camera angles and placement of performers.
Erwin - Good games usually take about 2 years to create. Great games
take 3-4 years.
Erwin - An average time line for game development looks like this:
- Pre-Production - 4 months
- Production - 12 months
- Alpha - 2 months
- Beta - 2 months
- QA - 2 months
- Manufacture and Release - 1 month
Erwin - To make a Day and Date release sometimes the platform is
carefully selected. The PSP was chosen because it required less depth
and complexity for a game to be produced.
Watts - Film was used because it was easier to shoot at high frame
rates. Digital cameras are not as easy to use when shooting at multiple
high speed frame rates.
Erwin - Screenings of the film footage shot during game production
helped the game to match the film.
Erwin - The film shared elements with the game to speed production and
to synch look and feel. However the PSP platform dictated recreating
some assets at lower levels of complexity.
Erwin - There will be an increase in Day and Date releases.
Erwin - The game was developed with porting in mind. Very little work
little work had to be done to get the game to 3 additional platforms.
Really all that needed to be done was up-rezing of some of the assets.
This process only took 4 additional weeks.
Erwin - In 2-3 generations (5-15 years) of game consols, realtime play
will resemble the complexity CGI can create in todays cinema.
Erwin - Today games on Next Gen platforms cost $10-20 million in pure
production budget.
*In-Theater Piracy*
Mike Robinson - MPAA
Steve Weinstein - Motion Picture Laboratories
Annlee Ellingson - BoxOffice Magazine
See "The Piracy Problem" a 3 part series by Annlee Ellingson for
BoxOffice Magazine.
Ellingson - MPAA believes $6 billion were lost to piracy in 2005. 90% of
pirated copies have be cam'd.
Robinson - Cam copies can be of extreemely high quality.
Robinson - Topsites are the first servers to host a pirated file.
Facilitators are the next level of servers who spread the files to
Downloaders.
Robinson - Files can spead globaly in a mater of hours. One recent
example: Friday night a cam copy was made in Guam and Saturday a hard
copy was bought in London.
Robinson - 75% of cam'd copies come from the US (50%) and Canada (25%).
Robinson - A technological solution is required. Hunting for cams is
nearly imposible.
Weinstein - The turnaround time to get professionaly pirated copies out
to the world is about 48 hours. Some of these copies have even been
dubbed and subtitled to regional languages.
Weinstein - The industry is using 3 main methods to stop piracy:
- 1) Forensic watermarking will help the industry to track where the
pirated copies are coming from. Digital cinema helps to create a more
complex watermark system that can include time stamps. This way pirate
opporations can be stoped.
- 2) The second method is to Search out the cams. There are two types of
search. They are optical and electomagnetic. Unfortunately cell phones
interfere with the electromagnetic search and optical can be intrusive.
- 3) The third method is Jamming the cams. The industry is trying to use
optical interference methods because there are health and privacy
concerns with certain electromagnetic technologies.
Weinstein - 3D is not a piracy deterent. One half of the stereoscopic
image can be captured for 2D playback. Or alternatively both halfs could
be copied for a suitable playback device once they become more common
place.
Robinson - Screeners are NOT curently the source of most pirated copies.
Cams are.
Weinstein - Serialized cams or movie recognition technically could be
used to deter piracy. However serial numbers would require industry and
consumer cooperation for registration. Movie recognition would likewise
be problematic requiring all cam manufacturers to have recognition
capabilities built in to their products. That is unlikely due to the
proliferation of cams in all kinds of devices.
Weinstein - Most piracy today is coming through hard-goods, not internet
files.
Note: Several members of the audiance during the break were having
conversations about their various personal piracy methodologies. The
individuals seemed to believe that if they were not selling their copies
or had paid to see the original (rented or purchasd the DVD), then there
was nothing wrong with copying it for personal use.
*Delivery Issues / Inter-Society Digital Cinema Forum*
Bill Kinder - Pixar
Michael Karagosian - MKPE Consulting
ISDCF is another organization investigating standards for delivery
methods, KDMs, naming conventions, scaling methods, and silver screens.
(See www.isdcf.com)
*Digital Cinema Rollout*
J. Wayne Anderson - GBG/R/C Theaters
Bill Campbell - Orpheum Theaters (small exhibitor, 10+ screens)
Jeremy Divine - Rave Motion Pictures (early adopter, medium size
exhibitor, 400+ screens)
Travis Reid - Digital Cinema Implimentation Partners (3 largest
exhibitors, 1500+ screens)
Anderson - There are 4000+ digital cinemas today. 100,000+ traditional
cinemas still to be upgraded.
Anderson - 3D is a novelty but it does help the gross revenue of
theaters.
Campbell - Small exhibitors, like the large chains, are concened with
the cost of digital upgrades.
Campbell - Small exhibitors will be able to play movies sooner under a
digital regime because there is no limit on the amount of prints
available. They will also be able to take advantage of national ad
campaings by releasing simultaneously.
Campell - Small exhibitors will also be able to exhibit in higher
quality by forgoing older prints for digital files.
Campbell - Delivery will also be more reliable to remote theaters
because digital files will be easier to transport (over satalite,
Internet, etc.) than 70lbs of reels.
Campbell - In 2000 the cost to upgrade a single screen to digital would
cost about $120,000-150,000. Today it is slightly less.
Campbell - Film projectors can last as long as 50 years. No one knows
how long digital systems will last before they need to be upgraded.
Campbell - Film projectors are interoperable. Digital projection systems
are not yet.
Divine - Digital has worked very well so far for Rave.
Divine - For Chicken Little, Rave installed 10 digital screens. While
expanding, all new screens installed have been digital. Today 70+% of
the screens owned by the chain are digital.
Divine - All the 3D release the chain has played have done extreemley
well.
Divine - To install they take a screen down on a Sunday by the following
Friday it goes back up.
Reid - Digital Cinema Implimentation Partners plans to roll out digital
screens by 2008.
New Terms -
- Ingestion - This is the process of uploading the DCP to the server at
the theater.
- LMS - ???
- TMS - ???
*DCI Update*
Wade Hannibal - Universal Pictures
Version 1.1 of the DCI specification has been adopted as of today and
version 0.9 of the DCI specification for stereoscopic images has been
released for review as of today. (See www.dcimovies.com)
-- compsed on my hiptop --