Category: Item of Interest

Something I found interesting written by someone else.

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Interesting Technology Item of Interest

Technorati picks up on our Solar Odyssey Challenge

News site Technorati covered our challenge today with the article Will the Solar Odyssey Sail into a World Record?

In order to qualify for the world’s record, the boat will travel during the day only on electricity that is exclusively generated by solar power. No plugging-in allowed on this adventure! If all goes well, it will be the first time this has ever been done and the crew hopes to make it into the Guinness Book of World Records as the first solar-powered vessel to complete the Great Loop.

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Item of Interest The Business of Production

Jimmy Wales to Hollywood: You’re Doomed

Jimmy Wales to Hollywood: You’re Doomed (And Not Because of Piracy) http://t.co/HjtRsVrW

Now anyone who predicts the imminent doom of “Hollywood” is probably going to be wrong, but that doesn’t mean the long term trend isn’t in that direction.

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Item of Interest Monetizing

Paramount Thinks That Louis CK Isn’t Monetizing.

Paramount Thinks That Louis CK Making $1 Million In 12 Days Means He’s Not Monetizing http://t.co/XdKRKnam

It must be the day for delusional old media executives but this one is completely nutso.

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Distribution Item of Interest Monetizing

Former NBC Entertainment Chief Discovers Watching TV With Commercials Really Sucks!

Former NBC Entertainment Chief Discovers Watching TV With Commercials Really Sucks! http://t.co/UeXidppc So out of touch it’s unbelievable.

I’ve long hated commercials and want a reasonably priced alternative. By reasonably priced I mean that the price I pay is about the same as the revenue from advertising (25-65c per person per program) not the usurious prices through available outlets.

After watching earlier seasons of The Walking Dead on Netflix, iTunes and recorded on his DVR he caught up and watched an episode live and had this reaction:

“We watched that live,” he said. “It was not nearly as good. The commercials broke the tension. We had watched the other episodes with blankets over our heads. I hate to say this to the AMC executives and everybody else in the business, but I will never watch ‘Walking Dead’ live again.”

So, when you’re running the entertainment business for an ad supported broadcast network, ads are just fine! But when you’re a viewer, they’re not?

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Item of Interest

NAB 2012: Where I’ll be.

If we’re in the same place at the same time, come say hello.

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Copyright Item of Interest

Why Do Copyright Industry Profits Get to be the Yardstick for Civil Liberties?

Why Do Copyright Industry Profits Get To Be The Yardstick For Civil Liberties? http://t.co/dBadshbe That’s a damned good question!

Cutting to the core (after an excellent intro and postal analogy):

If the copyright industry can’t sell their products in the face of sustained civil liberties, they get to go out of business or sell something else instead. Mustard, perhaps.

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Item of Interest

Final Cut Pro X in action

Final Cut Pro X in action. A new series of three large post houses or shows that have moved to Final Cut Pro X.

The one that I like is the story of Electric Entertainment use of Sync-N-Link X on Season 5 of Leverage! We accelerated development so that the important step of batch processing dual system dailies was available for Electric Entertainment and the Leverage Season 5 workflow.

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Apple Pro Apps Assisted Editing Item of Interest

Final Cut Pro X 10.0.4 hits the Mac App Store

Final Cut Pro X 10.0.4 hits the app store. Now Xto7 can support flattened multicam in the current release due to the new XML capabilities in this release – specifically, the presence of multicam data in the Project XML.

The current release of Xto7 (version 1.1.7) already supports this feature when sent 10.0.4 Project XML. Unfortunately, due to the way the two apps support Multicam, Xto7 can only do a “flattened” version. We translate the active angle as an independent clip, losing the Multicam information.

The reason is that FCP X multicam is much more powerful and forgiving than FCP 7’s version so it proved impossible to have any sort of reliable translation as Multiclips back. For example: FCP X supports MP4 media in multiclips; mixed formats in multiclips; mixed frame rates in multiclips; more than one clip in a multiclip angle, etc.  Any one of those items would prevent translation to FCP 7 Multiclips.

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Distribution Item of Interest The Business of Production

Netflix bullish on original content

Netflix bullish on original content http://t.co/H4CNtw1i Interesting take on Netflix’ original programming – four series so far.

Sorry about the Variety Paywall if you run into it.

What’s particularly telling is that these original series are not some “alternate” programming: they’re coming from the same producers as would otherwise supply networks or cable channels. It makes my point that the networks/cablers don’t have a lock on the future and the new distribution channels (Netflix, Google, Amazon, Apple) can easily take over the role of the middle man as we currently know it.

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Interesting Technology Item of Interest Video Technology

Impossible Software Is About To Do Impossible Things With Your Video.

Impossible Software Is About To Do Impossible Things With Your Video http://t.co/jpkhy2PQ

The technology Impossible Software are using to insert products into existing video is incredibly clever, particularly as a web service, but if it were my production – one I’d carefully composed and cared about – I think I’d be appalled at what was being done to the “finished” product.

There’s not much more to say beyond that: you’ll hate it or it will solve “everything” for marketers.  I don’t think I like it, other than for the pure tech.