March 24, 2010
Anti-terrorism brief from 2005
How the Howard Government in Australia liased with Muslim communities in 2005 over the new Anti-terrorism provisions.
January 31, 2007
Decoding brain signals
More brain signals research in the real world.
March 28, 2006
Goldsmiths MFA in Computational Studio Arts
MOD Films has been invited to partner with Goldsmiths College, London on R&D and support their MFA in Computational Studio Arts.
August 26, 2004
MULTIVISION 235, 2 Perf CAMERA SYSTEM
Ross has been telling me about MULTIVISION 235, a 2 perf camera system that uses half of the linear footage of the conventional 4 perforation system for 35mm film.
May 11, 2004
Film licensing companies
http://www.mplc.com/
http://www.swank.com/http://www.movlic.com/
http://www.filmbank.co.uk/
http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/intellectualproperty/permissn.htm
May 10, 2004
Subtitling as machine-readable labelling?
Mark Robinson at subtitling company Independent Media Support (http://www.ims-media.com) gave the following useful information:
*Captioning/subtitling software is normally provided bespoke by companies such as SysMedia (http://www.sysmedia.com) and SofTel (http://www.softel.co.uk).
*Subtitling is normally farmed out to specialist companies. Only a few of the major broadcasters (BBC, etc.) keep it in house.
*It should be theoretically possible for the text normally sent to the monitor/screen to be diverted to another application for further processing (and so the text becomes the machine-readable label for each element), although he has never heard of it being done before.
Also spoke to John Boulton at Sysmedia, who explained the following:
*Subtitles are generated from the data not as text within a template, but as bitmaps. The larger part of the application is processing that conversion.
March 16, 2004
Shakespeare in XML
Jon Bosak has marked up the complete works of Shakespeare in XML.
http://www.cs.wisc.edu/niagara/data/shakes/shaksper.htm
Files available from:
http://www.ibiblio.org/bosak/
January 30, 2004
Discussion with David Parfitt
I had a long discussion with David Parfitt about the What's the Story event and my interest in making contact with feature film productions on behalf of this project. David (the producer of Shakespeare in Love, Henry V) made a number of interesting comments about the viability of re-mixable films.
- He didn't understand the concept at first but thought it was interesting.
- Film producers are often in no position to re-use material after the event, once the film is sold for distribution. Offcuts and other material is sold, lost or thrown away without any thought of re-usability.
- If the idea is to work, producers need to be thinking about the issues at the start of production.
- He suggested contacting The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy production and provided a contact through Disney who are distributing it.
Follow-up with David this week.
Aim to have re-mixable service a budget line of Film Council funded projects. Hard to sell this idea in budget without it being a requirement.
distributors -> producers -> budget
Producers do not control extras (I Capture The Castle)
Talk to midscale producers - direct links into sales (e.g. DNA, Working Title)
December 01, 2003
October 31, 2003
Legal Questions
What are the most immediate legal issues faced leading up to pre-production (securing commitment/ pro bono work, establishing the legal framework within which to create the film, interactive and online elements)?
What should we anticipate in legal costs and involvement for the creation of the film element? And for the other elements?
Once the elements have been created and a prototype package put together, how do we patent/register the product in the first instance?
What should our approach be to relevant parties (MicroSoft, Sony, etc.) regarding collaboration on console DVD development? How much should we set aside fo legal dealings with these (ballpark figure)?
Could the above corporate giants tacitly veto the project? How do we go about protecting ourselves/ preventing that from happening?
How can we legally secure our ownership of the project as a whole once distribution has been established , without compromising the fundamental ethos of sharing and altering assets? How does this relate to royalties and licensing?
The license I envisage is http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/ to enable automatic re-use without having to deal with MOD Films. Will there be any problems in licensing commercial use subsequently if we release under this license? As the rights holder for commercial use, does this Creative Commons licensing approach impede us in any way?
October 25, 2003
windows sounds
Pinball noises and other exciting short windows noises. Crisper samples anyone?
Mike,
Can you whack a stack of these in and trigger random ones, remembering the sequence for recording?
Moving in a layer sounds more like the way Flash optimises things, maybe you can match up some of your behaviors with pre-built ones that are faster. You're right that latency isn't that important right now.
See if this helps http://thequality.com/flics/10weeks/blog/archives/diagrams/experience_map.swf
I don't even care about the rhythm right now I just want to work out a fun way of moving between the video, 3d and panorama layers (all playing in parallel) with groover stuff in the foreground. It'd be good if you could work out a panelling movement a la Hulk as well, perhaps all three on-screen at once and some event that selects
Keep Damon in the loop cause I'm sure he'll have some good opinions on how to tart it up as we go.
October 20, 2003
Audio Questions
At the recording stage, how does the game process differ from the film process? How are they similar?
How does game audio post-production differ from film sound post-production? How are they similar?
What level of audio control could/should be incorporated into the game, and how?
If need be, what audio suites/software packages could be adapted with macros and a pared-down interface for the game? What licensing/R&D/delivery costs and timescales might be anticipated?
Can all audio be independent of visual cues? If so, is there a user-friendly way of using markers/cues to automatically sync sound to image, while keeping the option to ignore those markers if so desired?
Is real-time audio re-mixing (DJ-stylee) feasible simul ac real-time visual manipulation, taking into account computer and human processing limitations?
October 05, 2003
Film Sampling thoughts
FILM SAMPLING
Feb. 2003 - Dreamworks announces "film sampling". Past examples of this seemt o fall into two categories dependent on whether the footage is from the same film or not. Sampling other films is still relatively rare but the most interesting.
Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (Carl Riener, 1982)
30s/40s Hollywood greats
What's Up Tiger Lily? (Woody Allen, 1966)
Re-dubbed Japanese film.
Back to the Future Part II(Robert Zemeckis, 1989)
Sampled bits from Back to the Future
Reviews and commentaries below:
Even then, the technological hurdles for now are mighty, and most people who might like to play with sampling are probably deterred over the difficulty of the process. But, if this were to become something film copyright owners were willing to license or share through fair use, an industry might spring up allowing the man on the street to make something like Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid in an easy, simple way. Or maybe just make an email greeting of themselves as the Terminator.
Commentary from American City Biz Journals:
Hollywood could use this technological power for a good cause, like digitally inserting the image of "Thriller"-era Michael Jackson into every known scrap of video footage he's made since 1985. But instead, the industry behind such contributions to society as "Pootie Tang," "Good Burger," "Jackass: The Movie" and 37 "Star Trek" flicks is going back in time to leave its slimy, unholy, money-stained fingerprints on theoretically higher art.
Film Sampling bitches from Button Monkey:
Who's to say that the next big movie won't be starring Mike Myers and Marilyn Monroe? If that were the case, would it not be unethical for someone to profit from the likeness and performance of a deceased person or persons? In this case Hollywood gets to reuse/recycle great star names without having to pay the star. They would no longer have a say over how they were even portrayed in the film.
Is nothing sacred? from Empire Online
Called "film sampling," the studio has defended this blatant plundering of the archive...
Only the presence of Spielberg and Myers in this sorry project has dampened down the raging ire ...
Film and video are both sampling technologies
... film is the first technology to deal with time slices, and
therefore is also a kind of sampling technology. Each frame
is a picture-sample.
September 22, 2003
Rhythm game/film
Q) Can the rhythm game as envisaged be integrated into the film experience via the character of CD?
Q) Will the looping chunks approach create a fun experience?
Q) Can the interface be integrated so that it is fairly unobtrusive?
Web3D/video integration
Q) Do any existing packages provide full screen MPEG2 with web3d overlays?
Q) What is the minimum latency of switching between MPEG2 PAL video?