The present and future of post production business and technology

Computer algorithm understands sarcasm http://bit.ly/cjwbRp Better understanding than most people!

About half of Adobe’s Flash Showcase has iPod/iPad/iPhone ready content http://bit.ly/9cR2aN

In preparation for Google I/O and the partnership between Google and Adobe, both companies are planning to show off just how well flash runs on mobile devices. This is of course a rebuttal of Steve Jobs’ Thoughts on Flash. Adobe has now released a site that will display a list of these sites, much like Apple did with the iPad. But here’s the kicker: A large majority of the sites on their list already display HTML5 content in place of Flash, and some of them even have custom apps available for iPhone/iPad. Let’s look at the breakdown:

It’s mostly the Flash gaming sites that, not surprising, won’t work on the iDevices.

Oprah Winfrey Network “Documentary Club” http://bit.ly/dt5WQi Will Oprah do for docs what she did with Book Club and how do I get doc in?

Inspired by Oprah’s celebrated Book Club, OWN’s documentary film club will include a primetime airing on the channel, an online community experience on OWN.tv, and potentially, a nationwide theatrical screening event.

The application of the Book Club model to a dedicated documentary slot could be a game-changer for the niche:

• Time magazine reported that book publishers credit an Oprah endorsement with increasing print runs by up to 500%.

• According to a 2005 Business Week report on the book-buying ‘frenzies’ that Ms Winfrey inspired: “Publishers estimate that her power to sell a book is anywhere from 20 to 100 times that of any other media personality.”

Pro Apps Interface update? Job ads might suggest http://bit.ly/9rOuhX Not surprising considering what is to be done. http://bit.ly/dv9zpu

It makes sense that they’re hiring interface designers. Final Cut Pro (next) needs to transfer from using the current interface to the Pro Apps Kit interface framework that is used by Motion, Soundtrack Pro, Compressor and Cinema Tools. (And for the late LiveType.) Even when remaking similar interfaces (as most of FCP (next) will be) there’s still a lot of work to be done, and presumably they’ll add in one or two new features!

I’m personally hoping that the Bin/Browser structure gets updated so we can see all the Source Metadata from cameras without having to use miniME. Plus I’d expect it’ll be 64 bit (as most Apple software already is) and take advantage of Grand Central Dispatch and OpenCL to give Mercury-Engine-like performance.

Iron Sky Releases First Footage to Get Donations http://bit.ly/btqncj Followup movie from Star Wrek producers http://bit.ly/kNbeW

Iron Sky is the next production from the producers of the amazing Star Wrek, which was created in a small 11×12′ room despite being set in the vast reaches of space. 3D CG and smart use of green screen and compositing created a big screen feel for Star Wrek.

Production of Iron Sky, the storyline for which involves Nazis that escaped to the moon at the end of World War II ready to come back to Earth, involves more than 1,500 volunteers and a big donor base, which Energia is tapping into to cover half of the movie’s production costs. The movie’s total budget is €6.5 million (about $8.2 million), the biggest budget ever for a Finish movie, according to Iron Sky director Timo Vuorensola. Iron Sky will be professionally distributed in theaters, and the soundtrack is from the Slovenian Industrial group Laibach.

YouTube double the daily viewers of Broadcast/Cable http://yhoo.it/aGzlyb Of course, programming is shorter.

Serving up 2 Billion videos a day on its 5th birthday YouTube now has nearly double the number of viewers than the combined broadcast and cable television market. Of course,YouTube videos are much shorter so the total viewing time is still very much with traditional TV.

At least Television is still mostly profitable. YouTube still hasn’t reached that milestone, although is expected to this year:

In January, Google CEO Eric Schmidt was quoted in the Financial Times saying he expects YouTube to make it into the black at some point in 2010.

Time Warner cable not going along with US Copyright Group (trolling) for IP addresses. http://bit.ly/d9G4ZZ

US Copyright Group are an organization that files massive John Doe subpoenas for IP addresses of alleged file sharers. Even given that an IP address does not identify any given user and this approach has led to massive embarrassment when done by the RIAA, the reason Time Warner Cable are not going along is because of the massive burden being placed upon the cable company, along with dubious legality of the subpoenas.

The ISP has now asked the court to quash the subpoena for three reasons.

First, because US Copyright Group lawyer Tom Dunlap “has now simply reneged” on an agreement that he worked out with TWC to manage the flow of subpoenas.

Second, the entire approach to these lawsuits may be invalid. Filing lawsuits can be expensive; Most federal courts charge a $350 filing fee per case, along with a new set of paperwork. Each case also creates another docket to keep track of, making thousands of cases an administrative nightmare.

Instead of going this route, plaintiffs have gone the RIAA route, simply filing mass lawsuits against groups of “John Does,” in some cases by the thousands. But, says TWC, channeling its inner Ray Beckerman, “It is not evident from the complaint in this case that there is anything common to the 2,094 defendants that would justify joining them in a single litigation… Courts facing these identical circumstances have repeatedly held that a plaintiff may not join in a single action multiple defendants who have allegedly downloaded or facilitated the download of copyrighted material at different times and locations.

Adobe’s Big Peer-to-Peer Plans http://bit.ly/b5FXwZ P2P Offload distribution costs to users’ bandwidth.

Another opportunity for Adobe to profit from those using Flash for distribution, reducing costs for many content owners.

Cable TV was created to sell more TVs. http://bit.ly/cAhDSx Talk about unintendec consequences. Guest blogger Craig Engle Senior VP from SyFy on Boing Boing has written a really interesting series all week on why shows get produced and others don’t; why shows get cancelled and other insights into the mind of a network executive.

Walson connected the mountain antennae to his appliance store via a cable and modified signal boosters. In June of 1948, John Walson connected the mountain antennae to both his store and several of his customers’ homes that were located along the cable path, starting the nation’s first CATV system.