One of my favorite Netflix features is that you can stream movies in your queue. Add this one to your queue so that you can start streaming it to your computer right now: Henry Poole Is Here. The trailer's vibe makes it seem wacky...but it's not. The music is all wrong, NOTHING like the music in the movie. But it might still give you some idea: it's slow, quiet, lyrical, a little sad, and very sweet, about what you might find at the end of your rope. And you can start streaming it now. I gotta tell you. We've really...
As a guy who regularly talks about trends in media consumption and distribution, allow me to make the observation that people who talk about trends in in media consumption and distribution are idiots. Including me. We're hardly ever right about anything. However, money talks. DVD buying peaked between somewhere around 2007, and has been trending downward since then. While Blu-ray buying is on the rise, it doesn't amount to much in the overall video buying world - certainly nowhere near enough to compensate for the decline in overall DVD sales. Says a senior analyst at Screen Digest , "We don't...
I noted in my entry on the Tron sequel that a speedy look at Joseph Kosinski’s IMDb profile reveals virtually nothing -- not even his birthday. I’m amazed that nobody has gotten around to it yet, but he doesn’t even have an entry at Wikipedia. (I wonder if it's related to the absence of an entry on the Tron sequel. Probably. The only power in the universe I can think of that's more powerful than the masses converging on Wikipedia is Disney.) And so we ask, who is this man, and why is he directing the sequel to Tron? I...
More specifically, a review of the rapidly emerging news about the slice of nerd-vana that may or may not be named Tron 2. Those of us who became devoted some classics of science fiction filmmaking between, oh, I don’t know, let’s say 1977 and 1983, have reasons to cast the stink eye in the direction of latter-day sequels, prequels and such. One of those classics is 1982’s “Tron,” and you don’t need me to explain why . Yet even in this post-stink-eye era, the word on its sequel is nothing but good so far – including the news that it’s...
In my Monday-morning breakdown of the numbers after the opening weekend of Monsters vs. Aliens, I noted a disproportionate share of the dough coming from 3D screens: $58.2 million for the weekend, on 4104 screens 28% of those screens were 3D, and accounted for 58% of the gross! .03% --that's three-tenths of 1 percent -- of those 4104 screens were IMAX (143 to be exact)...and they accounted for nearly TEN PERCENT of the gross! Now, IMAX is a name you know. Until very recently, it has been synonymous with big-screen stereoscopic projection. Really, it's the first major brand in this...
WARNING: DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME. THE COW BOG IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR DAMAGES. Well, today was the second official meeting of the Nepalese Apple User Group (NAUG) at the Studio, and while turnout was low, interest was high. I wanted to get my iMac checked out by an expert, and we have an ex-Genius Bar dude living here and he is also the Pres. of the group as well, so lucky me. The problem has been an ever-growing anomaly on the 20" iMac screen (in the top corners) - looking a bit like a film of dirt or...
Jeffry Katzenberg has been a major advocate of stereoscopic 3D for a while. The first place I saw him talk about it was ShoEast in 2007, a gathering of eastern US movie theater owners and operators. The talk was called " The Future of 3D in the Digital Age ," and it was among the places that he said that all of Dreamworks' animated features would be released as stereoscopic. On one count, he underestimated how quickly this would come to pass: he said that there would be "5, 6 or 7 'Super-A' titles" in 2009, 12 to 18 by...
This isn't just huge news for people in the digital cinema business: it's huge for everyone in any aspect of show business, including slobs like us. I saw the news of Sony's new 4K projectors on the front page of Variety.com. Variety is barely peripherally related to the projection side of the business. This message is directly aimed at the people who make the movies: 4K is here...and the ideal use of a 4K projector is NOT the projection of 4K images. Its primary intent is for a full 2K for eacheye!! You can kind of get that from the...
One of the earliest first-person shooter games, and maybe still the coolest , makes its way into the iTunes app store ! The image is from the front door of the game's official site. You can also find a truly wonderful story by John Carnack, its designer, on how Wolf3D made its way to the iPod Touch/iPod platform. More coolness: the developer has released the source code! Tweak away, my pretties! And expect Doom and Quake soon . (I'd forgotten that, in 1995, id Software had also released the source code for the original version of Wolf3D . When Wolfenstein...
On my last trip to Bangkok I was in the equivalent of a Dollar Store at the IT Mall in Pran Tip Plaza, but I guess it was called the Forty Baht Store although I can't read those signs so I'm not real sure, and I stumbled across a little gizmo that I love - and only cost a dollar! It's the Asaki 9000 SD/MMr/RS-MMC USB 2.0 card reader. Short form: usb flash drive, with removable storage. It was only a buck, or 40 baht, depending on the state of the Thai economy, and came in cute colors, so I...
A few years back my heart went out to my brethren New Yorkers, who in the midst of a blackout, panicked to the point of suicide and falling down stairs in the dark. I could not help thinking, why not light some candles? In Nepal, there is hardly any electricity during the dry season. For 8 months of the year, when there is no rainfall or snow melt from the mighty Himals, there is nothing to power the water turbines that supply the country with 240V, plus or minus. So all electricity must be bought from our neighbors in India,...
Greetings from Kathmandu Nepal! As most of you already know, Nepal is home to the great Himals (think Mt. Everest), dried-Yak Jerky, and Heli-Skiing - and Nepal is also home to some of the most creative "Creatives" I have ever met, with many of them still using powdered rock as paint and rolls of film instead of chips in cameras. But what many folks don't know is that within the bustling capital of Kathmandu, you can buy an unlocked iPhone or even a new unibody Macbook Pro at the local Apple Shop. (We don't call them Apple Stores 'cause to...
I came across this, and thought it was kind of cool. I'm not sure exactly what it's going to do, but take a gander. DIRECTV is excited to extend an opportunity to the CE participants to participate in our next field trial. This field trial is for a native iPhone/iPod-Touch application. DIRECTV will be selecting a limited number of users that submit their information to the following site: http://www.iamanedgecutter.com/Projects/iPhone/default.aspx If you have an iPhone or an iPod-Touch and are interested, submit your information ASAP. Criteria to be selected will be based on previous trial history, your activity in the CE...
I like award season, year-end lists and all that. There's so much that goes on in the year, much of it frankly much more important than entertainment, that it's easy to forget some of the great stuff we've seen, heard, and read. And in the scheme of things, there's not that much that's THAT much more important than entertainment, is there? :-) I hope to get around to other categories, but I've been thinking about movies. Oscar nominations get announced this week, and as I've mentioned before, the Oscars are as close to a holiday as my wife and I...
A note on a chilly Saturday morning.... Saturday night has become a dumping ground for television. Many networks are airing re-runs of shows that ran earlier in the week. HBO used to make a big deal out of Saturday as premiere night, with a different movie every week. Nope, not anymore. Their focus is on series programming on Sunday night. Same with Showtime (who, by the way, is up 10% in 2008, compared to POINT ONE percent for HBO) - it's all about Sunday night. I could go on with a bunch of other examples, but you already know what...
Editorial has been completed on the new business television pilot developed by Biscardi Creative Media, ideaWercs and Arriving with BB Webb. BCM Principal Walter Biscardi, Jr. served as Director, Editor and Post Production Supervisor on this project. Additional credits include Brian Mead for logo design, Aaron R. Stewart for graphics design and Brian Little for opening title design. The episode was produced in 720p HD. More details will be provided as the series moves towards full production of Season One....
When Steve Jobs called Blu-ray a big bag of hurt, he was being asked why the new MacBooks have no Blu-ray drives. His answer spoke to the cost of licensing the hardware. When his lieutenant Phil Schiller chimed in, HE was speaking about Blu-ray content when he said that the iTunes Store and Apple TV was the right way to deliver HD. Steve knows how much a Blu-ray drive costs to license, so I'll take his word for it. I won't bust Phil too badly as an individual, because lordy knows he's not the only one to think that Blu-ray's...
Biscardi Creative Media principal, Walter Biscardi, Jr., will be Directing the Pilot episode of a new business television series. Being developed jointly by BCM, ideaWercs and Arriving with BB Webb, the series will feature success stories and inspiration from women in the business world. I m honored to be launching this new series as the Director and have always believed that editors make great directors, notes Biscardi. As an editor you know what you want to see and what you wish you had when cutting the show together. Knowing what will make the show better in Post helps me in...
BCM has completed a new historical animation for Good Eats with Alton Brown on the Food Network. Artists Walter Biscardi, Jr., Aaron Stewart and Brian Mead worked closely with Alton Brown and producer Dana Popoff to create the latest in a series of historical animation that have been created for the Good Eats. This time it's a look at crackers, which have a surprisingly interesting story to tell! Animated by Biscardi in 720p HD, the one minute animation will appear in an upcoming episode in Winter 2008. Tools used: Photoshop, After Effects, Canon 30D camera, Crackers....
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/43a40d1427 Above is the link for the first two episodes in my weird little new web series, Footastic Theatre. This is a study in producing for web as opposed to producing for video and encoding down to share. The premise is really short amusing engaging scenerios. Video crack. Watch one and you need more and you want to see them over and over. That s what I m working toward. We are showing only the feet of the talent. Why? Web video is best with close-ups and all headshots are not that exciting to me. It was rediculously easy to...
Sony and Samsung announce a wireless HD signal that would send HD signals to multiple TV's in your home from a single box. But Sony is also involved in another effort to achieve the same goal. Wonder if the signals will ever been good enough for smaller Post houses like mine to send signals wirelessly to our production monitors. that would be pretty cool actually! http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25805359/...
Ok so first you have to win some festival awards or at least be an official selection. Then you have to be on Windows. That said here's a very cool application that will make the creation of festival laurels for your movie's poster, DVD box, etc very simple. EZLeaves is a FREE application that allows to quickly and easily generate custom festival laurel leave images. Features include: Choose from four different laurel leave styles Use any system-defined font Export to JPG or BMP Define up to 10 lines of custom text Full control over the height and font settings of...
Well, I've been posting about it. My first comedy production, How to Live and Eat like a Southern Jewish Princess ...We have a teaser clip. Check it out and we'd love your funny vote! The embed would not work, please follow the link. www.southernjewishprincess.com...
Press release for my new site. It s going quite well. Be warned, the comedy on this site has some adult content. If you are offended by Southpark, you won t want to go there... FunnyNotSlutty.com Gives New Home for Funny on the Internet Southern Jewish Princess Media Launches Alternative Comedy Site for the Fairer Sex Atlanta, GA, May 19, 2008 - Finding increased exposure for her comedy web series, The Retributioners , is a mountainous battle for Stephanie Scott. The producer is always hunting for sites beyond the youth-drenched YouTube and male-dominated comedy sites for an outlet...
And guys can check it out too... www.funnynotslutty.com I thought it would be good to have funny content geared toward women in one spot. It looks like a lot of web humor is more guy oriented. Does not hurt to support female comedians, writers, humorists and producers either. There s a social network too if you want to check it out. Click Network! in the nav bar. Please take a look, let me know what you think, join the network and pass it on! Published this sucker this weekend and I still have a lot of work to do, but hopefully you...
Folks I m a big dog lover and the happy new father of a 4 month old Labrador mix named Molly. We found her through a local Lab Rescue society called the Labrador Friends of the South. These folks rescue labs from local shelters where death is their next option. Now today I found this incredible website that seeks to save animals of all breeds from local shelters across the nation. http://www.dogsindanger.com/ The site s only purpose is to expose dogs who are about to be euthanized to see if anyone out there can adopt them before they are put...
If you're having any problems with Sony XDCAM EX footage the latest version of the XDCAM transfer software might be a big help. It has some new error correction built in that can recover corrupted material. The PDZ-KP1 XDCAM Transfer Software is an import plug in for Final Cut Pro. XDCAM Transfer Version 2.5 supports the current XDCAM HD and SD optical products, the new PDW-U1 optical XDCAM drive, and the PMW-EX1 XDCAM EX camcorder which records on SxS flash cards. Check it out: https://serviceplus.us.sony.biz/sony-software.aspx?model=pdzkp1 Technorati Tags: 24p , apple , final cut pro , indie filmmaking , video ,...
Once we have the actual shot, we can then control the downloading of footage from the camera using Vision Research’s software. Thus far they’ve only released a version that runs on Windows. In order to preserve the Mac-loving image of Simplemente, we decided to run it on a MacBook Pro with Boot Camp. We can then select the ins and outs of any particular shot. Typically the exact moment you want to save is a tiny fraction of that 6 minute take and the rest is a lot of frames with no activity you can delete. The selected portions are...
I wrote two articles for the Final Cut Pro User's Group Supermeet at NAB. They appeared in the SuperMag magazine. Here's part one of the second article looking at Simplemente's work with the Phantom HD camera: Rune Hansen and Monica Reina at Simplemente in Mexico City recently acquired a Phantom HD Digital Cinema camera from Vision Research . We got to shoot a bunch of slow-motion footage and then worked with it in Final Cut Pro to create demo reels for theatrical projection. We needed to accomplish all of this in the space of about 48 hours. The Phantom HD’s...
The New York Times reports that Warner Brothers has now lined up in Blu-Ray DVD corner effectively giving the Sony format about 70% of the high definition DVD market. They'll continue to release movies on both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray until May and then switch exclusively over to Blu-Ray. This leaves Universal and Paramount along with Dreamworks as the only major studios backing HD-DVD. As a production company that had to jump into Blu-Ray production in support of one of our clients, this is welcome news for us. I have to say, if you have not seen Pixar's "Cars" and "Rattatoule"...
True confession: I hated The Matrix and its sequels. Absolutely despised them as dreck, a colossal waste of time, talent, and money. I really hate those movies so much that I can t find the words to describe it. Really, really, really hate them. A lot. I didn t hate Speed Racer, but I didn t love it as much as my friends did either. When it showed up in 1967 , it was the first major Japanimation to hit these shores, nothing like the early Warner Brothers cartoons that I loved, and still do. I eventually got into it...
I ve written before about my enormous respect for Trent Reznor and his impact on popular music. Now, he s raising the stakes for everyone distributing any kind of music on the web. There was a lot of talk recently about how the release of Radiohead s latest album, In Rainbows, on the web before it was released in stores as a traditional disk, and how this was going to shake the music industry to its very foundations. Here s the exact headline of one such story, one of a gajillion you can find on the topic: Radiohead s Album Threatens...
The move Once was one of my favorites from 2007, and against all odds, a song from this lo-budget indie WON the best song award. It led to the most magical moment I ve seen in over 35 years of avid Oscar watching. Too bad you re never going to see it. It only aired ONCE, and Oscar is trying to make sure that you never see it again. Once is the story of two musicians who accidentally develop an intimacy that ultimately, very gently, pushes them back to their previous loves. It s sweet and beautiful, and has GREAT...
As I write this, it's Oscar eve. Just like Christmas eve, only more exciting. At least to my wife Nora and me. In fact, our primary celebration of Christmas is going to the movies, preferably a movie where things blow up. A festival of bright lights if you will. It's not really the contest aspect of the thing. Most years we see a significant number of the nominated films. This year, we haven't seen a single one of the movies nominated for a major award. A lot of the movies look wonderful, especially Juno, but we just haven't gotten around...
(Howdy to everyone who came here from any links after April 2007. Rather than edit this to reflect how things have gone since then, I created a new blog entry that you can find here. Other than this note, I've left the original entry unchanged when I wrote it. Interesting to see what I was right about, and what I was wrong about. One thing we were ALL wrong about, that the war would go on for another couple of years. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I've not seen one single prediction before January 2008 that Blu-ray, which...
I had a lot of fun writing the "The Big Dog Gets Off the Porch" article for the newsletter. (Check out my blog post on the topic too.) It took a TON of research, though, and I found a lot of things I just didn't have room to use. It also made me think about some things -- new stuff as well as stuff that's been kicking around forever. So here we go... This was never about image quality. Sort of. There were many comparitive issues that factored into the victory, and they never had anything to do with which...
Well, I am still awaiting my MacPro. Everything else has arrived: Kona 3 with K-BOX, HD10AVA, RAM, X1900XT Graphics card...heck, I even bought the pieces to the desk I intend to build today. I am discussing the arrival of my machine on this thread on the Apple forums. Trying to build tension, and have fun discussions that aren t meant to solve issues. I ll post desk pics when I get the thing together. I bought various pieces at Ikea, but the design will be unique....
Going out on a limb here, but figured I d take a stab at predicting today s game. I m a Big Blue fan all my life so it s hard to go against my beloved Giants. They played a very tough game that last week of the seaon and while the Patriots are going to score a lot of points, I think it s the Giants by a field goal. enjoy the game everybody!...
Amazon has put together a nice links page to update your HD-DVD and BluRay players. If you don't already know, many machines require firmware updates to be able to play the latest discs, particularly the recordable discs, such as BluRay BD-R discs. If your machine won't play that latest HD disc, check to see if there's an update for your machine. http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=amb_link_6251772_2?ie=UTF8&docId=1000192641&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=special-node-offers-2&pf_rd_r=1Z4X3ZCR0NACN0A0T70Q&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_p=360005701&pf_rd_i=B000Y5JFNY...
www.southernjewishprincess.com For the animation we have title and character treatments, first script, voice is recorded, and away we go! WOW that must be sooo FUN! is what peeps are saying when I tell them I m producing an animated short series about a Southern Jewish Princess TV producer. And I hear/read this as I m coming off of 24 hours of mass hysteria over production and communication issues going on. Also wondering who will be our composer as one is not solidified... The main production issue resolved (for now) and it has quieted. Tony Ross, Director of Animation for the...
Hi everyone - I ve been pretty silent for the last few months because I ve been hard at work on a new Creative Cow Master Series DVD - Internet Killed the Video Star: A guide to Creating Video for the Web. The 4.5 hour DVD will be available very shortly. Feel free to spread the word. Here s the basic description of the DVD: Whether you’re posting video for a client, putting your demo reel on-line, creating a video podcast, or building video training for the web, the Internet is conspiring to keep your work from looking its best....
I ve been fascinated by the photorealistic quality of images posted in the Luxology Modo Gallery. I ve been trying to learn from their workflow to see if I can do the same in Cinema 4D, especially from some of the free tutorials. I was struck by the level of detail in the shoe model posted there. Inspired by those images, I rolled up my socks and got to work! Trying to emulate the same in cinema4d. So folks here is my attempt. I think it kind of worked out ok. What do you think? let me know. As always...
For those last minute holiday shoppers, GameStop in introducing an idea that is long overdue. On Dec. 20 and 21 they will issue rain checks for the Nintendo Wii at the standard console price of $250 . This will guarantee the holder a console no later than January 29th. With the difficulty in finding these units at normal times, let alone the holidays, I m not sure why they didn t come up with this idea sooner. We have one and I have to say it s the most fun gaming console on the market today. So if you re...
For in case you are ever in Hollywood and need to know the industry lingo, here is the Hollywood Dictionary. VERBS: to schmooze = befriend scum to pitch = grovel shamelessly to brainstorm = feign preparedness to research = procrastinate indefinitely to network = spread disinformation to collaborate = argue incessantly to freelance = collect unemployment NOUNS: agent = frustrated lawyer lawyer = frustrated producer producer = frustrated writer writer = frustrated director director = frustrated actor actor = frustrated human COMPOUND WORDS: high-concept = low brow production value = gore entry-level = pays nothing highly qualified = knows the...
I saved posting the airdate until the time was close. Well, it is close. And it will air THREE times very close to one another...so you will be sure to catch it. a href=http://www.history.com/shows.do?episodeId=251189 action=detail target=_blank Andrew Jackson. /a Sunday, November 18 08:00 PM Monday, November 19 12:00 AM (that s right...MIDNIGHT) Saturday, November 24 05:00 PM Not sure if these are Eastern or Pacific times...there have been times when it was set to air at 8PM and I find that it is on a 5PM...so 8PM eastern, 5PM Pacific. But then it re-aired later that night. Anyway, this is...
To be specific, my cable system just added the HD feed of the Food Network. Walter handles the HD editing, color grading for Good Eats, among the most popular shows there. Walter also handles both HD and SD animations for Good Eats, among the most distinctive parts of the show. Wally and I have the Red Sox postseason to thank. Okay, and to a much, much, much lesser extent, the Yankees, Cubs and Phillies. The Red Sox were pioneers of local sports programming - among the very first to own their own cable network (New England Sports Network, NESN), the...
OK...I am posting a link to another funny video. Back in May I posted a link to the VERY funny http://lfhd.blogspot.com/2007/05/professionals.html Today, I d like to share with you... http://www.designerslashmodel.com/ Be sure to watch the BEHINDS THE SCENES videos too......
http://www.wired.com/entertainment/hollywood/magazine/15-10/ff_bladerunner_full?currentPage=all At 69 Ridley Scott is finally satisfied with his most challenging film...he even calls it his crowning achievement. And I have to agree. This is one of my favorite films...yes, I even liked the noir voiceover of the original...the only thing I didn t like was the green valley ending...and I do consider this the best of the films he has made in his long career. Great interview....
It s not even a background, really. It s pretty explicitly the absence of a background. Even lighting, no shadows, almost adrift. Not in a bad way. Stephen Smith did a great job of covering this in the May-June issue of Creative COW Magazine, including why it s best to use chroma keys to acheive the look. The most frequent place you re seeing it these days is the I m a Mac ads. (Check the end of this entry for a great variation.) If you cast your mind back a little further, you might recall the same look in...
As glad as I was to see Mr. Scorcese finally earn a well-deserved Oscar for directing, I was even gladder to see Thelma Schoonmaker earn her third one for Best Achievement in Editing, for her work on The Departed. She also won in 1981 for Raging Bull and 2005 for The Aviator. She was nominated for Gangs of New York, Goodfellas, and in 1971, Woodstock. (I remember that Scorcese was an editor on that as well, credited as Marty Scorcese. It’s been a while since I’ve seen it, but I remember that, in addition to Asst. Director, he was listed...
So MSNBC.com has a story about Comcast pulling the accounts of internet users who hog too much bandwith. Wait a minute. How many of you have seen those ads on TV or in your magazines / newspapers? Cable offers you Unlimited Access. High Speed. Downloads 50% faster than dial-up. And so on. But now if you actually try to use too much of these services, you might get cut off. Comcast says they re trying to make sure everyone can access the internet properly. Well, then either improve your bandwith capabilities or make it VERY CLEAR what you are and...
When I was 17 and it was summer, that generally meant lazy days out by the pool with friends. For George Holz, it was 500 hours to unlock an iPhone so it can run on any carrier, not just AT T. The times they are a changin! Along with a secretive group of online collaborators, the 17-year-old broke the restrictions that make Apple Inc. s iPhone, arguably the hottest gadget of the year, work only on AT T Inc. s cellular network. The feat took him 500 hours, or about 8 hours a day since the iPhone s June 29...
Now here s a guy with a serious love of All Things Apple! Over 100 Apple computers from the classics to today in his basement! http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/ptech/08/08/mac-collector.ap/index.html...
Hi all. We're entering the wonderful world of Blu-Ray authoring and with it, we've discovered that not all Blu-Ray DVD Players are created equal. To author our discs, we have to use BD-R media, as in Blu Ray Disc Recordable. We're using Sony Discs and to my surprise, my $999 Sony Blu Ray player does NOT support BD-R. Worst part about it is we purchased this machine two months ago, it's been used a total of one hour, and Best Buy will not let me exchange it for a machine that does support BD-R. I even said I don't care...
From Fake Steve Jobs , who remains the absolute best resource for Apple information, and by far the funniest blog on the web: The nice folks at Sugarcat Cakes sent along this photo of their latest cake creation. They call it the Jesus Cake. Feeds a whole party of hungry geeks, but alas, you can't remove the battery. You know that you can't remove and replace the iPhone battery yourself, right? Just like the iPod, you have to send it to Apple, and pay $79 plus $6.95 for shipping for them to ship it yourself. On top of...
It's impossible to overstate the impact of Harry Potter on the past ten years of world bookselling. As a bookseller in the mid-80s, I never imagined numbers like this could even be possible: 8.3 million copies of "Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows" in the first 24 hours of US sales, with another 2.7 million in the UK. In the first hour, my former peeps at Barnes & Noble alone sold 156 copies per second! Here in the world of media, we know better than anyone that there's no connection whatsoever between popularity and quality (insert snarky pop-culture reference here)....
I was really looking forward to seeing the new Harry Potter film in IMAX next week and even the fact that they had digitally enhanced it into 3D wasn t all that disappointing. Until I read an article about how once again, as they did in Superman Returns, only approx. 20 minutes of the film is actually in 3D. The finale. So I m going to skip the IMAX presentation because quite honestly, putting on 3D glasses at the end of a film (on cue) will simply break the experience for me. Either make a film in 3D or don...
Can t stand it anymore. Somebody s got to start a food thread. All these creatives, some of you must cook. And I m guessing some of you eat too. I ve taken it upon myself to create a food questionnaire to get the topic going. But please feel free to post a cooking question, tip, or recipe here. I spent an entire 4 minutes carefully putting this poll together, so please take some time to share your answers and input. You will be suprised at how much you learn about someone in a foodie poll. Copy and paste with your...
I got that sentence as the title of a story in my Yahoo headlines. That was it. The whole headline. No idea whose song it was, whose song it became, or what the song was. How could I NOT follow that link? It was a link to a story about Johnny Cash's cover of the Nine Inch Nails song, "Hurt." NIN's Trent Reznor was not altogether pleased when he heard about it, saying that it was one of his most personal songs -- really saying something for a guy who rewrote every rule for confessional songwriting. He wasn't happy when...
Thank you for stopping by my blog! This is the first post so I guess an introduction is in order... My name is Tim Rice and I have been involved with video production for almost 20 years now. Hard to believe. I ve worked mostly in television and now am the Senior Producer in Creative Services at WLTX in Columbia, South Carolina. Love my job; great group of people there but more importantly (and reason for this blog), I have started my own media production company, Thrice Creative. I have never started a business or ran a business so I...
Hi all! Here are some links referenced by our All Things Apple - Audio Production episode. Jayne Olderman - www.redwarriorrecords.com Patrick Belden - http://www.beldenmusic.com/Home.html Apple Logic - http://www.apple.com/logicpro/ DigiDesign ProTools - http://www.digidesign.com/index.cfm?navid=2 langid=100 itemid=22700 For collecting royalties: http://www.soundexchange.com/index.html For registering copyrights: http://www.copyright.gov/ And here s a couple of shots of Jayne, Patrick and I at Jayne s Studio during the podcast recording....
Very interesting article posted on CNN.com that iPods can potentially interfere with pacemaker monitoring equipment when placed too close to the chest. In some instances as far away as 18 inches. As the article notes, most people with pacemakers are not the iPod listening audience, but still a very interesting development here. As the study notes, only iPods were tested to date and it will be interesting to see if they get around to testing other audio and small electronic devices. http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/conditions/05/10/heart.ipods.reut/index.html...
Before I begin my foray into the world of blogging I wanted to take a moment to say thank you to Ron & Tim for their efforts in getting me situated with the Cow. I look forward to the many blogs ahead and hope that some of you may find the information at least useful, and at best challenging. Although I have a fairly broad portfolio in the areas I write about, and areas researched, I believe that there are always some common factors or themes that run throughout the electronics, entertainment, tech, legal and economic communities - and the way in which...
I always thought IMDB was nothing more than a huge listing of people and movies, cross-referenced ad infinitum. Imagine my surprise when I stumbled upon +Ask a Filmmaker+ . Very cool feature....
Life is stranger than fiction, or so they say. And even though my day to day existence doesn't contain much fodder for prize winning television, there are many true stories out there that make for riveting viewing. If the term "documentary" makes you yawn, you might need to shed your preconceived notions of picture slideshows. This genre is full of creativity and artistic expression. In fact, I'd say that watching documentaries is one of the best ways to learn the elusive art of storytelling. So before you go to Blockbuster for yet another Hollywood crafted fable, take a few minutes...
It s the George Foreman iGrill , model number GIPOD200 . (Did I miss the 100 model?) Okay, on closer examination, it s a George Foreman grill that you can plug more or less any MP3 player into. But the ad and the model name namecheck iPod by name. Built in speakers and amp, too. Gotta love that. You could go to George s site to see it yourself, but I ve been thoughtful enough to save you the trip by pasting the picture here: My favorite part is Knockout tunes! Knockout the fat! at the bottom. He s such...
A few weeks back, I wrote extensively about the EMI/Steve Jobs press conference, as well as the DRM establishment s response. Check it out if you haven t. It s really good stuff, and not just because I wrote it. Well, here s the rest of the story, or at least as much of it as I accidentally found this morning. Here again is the transcript of the press conference with EMI Group chief executive Eric Nicoli and Jobs. You ll find that Steve does much of the talking (surprised?), but both guys come off as smart, funny and self-deprecating....
[Verified for enough clarity] When does awesome become a nightmare? So, there I was. Just over a year left to graduate with a Bachelor s in Fine Arts from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Most of my friends knew that I was really into the film classes and artist video classes I was/had taken. A friend and his bandmates asked me if I d be willing make a music video for them. Quick background info: at the time, I just turned 29; the youngest guy in the band was in his mid-30s; and, none of them had ever seen my...
... at least for this project. While tweaking the markers I had set up in Audition of the demo version of the song, Audition crashed. Like a first-time user, I just glanced at the screen and thought that my changes before the crash were still there and saved the file instead of Save As... . I was using the Spectral Display in Audition to see where the kick drum hit in the audio since I want to make my animation sync with the music. When I looked at the Spectral Display of the audio, nothing was there. So, I reinstalled...
Hacking was a term originally coined at MIT to descrive such classic pranks as emptying the deans office and reassembling it -- complete with rug -- in the middle of the frozen Charles River. (That illegal software thing is more properly called cracking. ) Hacking Apple TV is an entirely legal activity that makes it truly useful, starting with a bigger hard drive -- child s play for anyone reading this. A blog by the fine folks at makezine.com offer a fully illustrated tutorial called Violating my Apple TV warranty in 4 easy steps. Legal yes, warranty-voiding, yes, but seriously, dude....
So as many of you know, in addition to being an editor and owner of Biscardi Creative Media, I m also the animator for the Food Network s Good Eats. As such, most of our animations are based on food or food history. Now generally I rely on clip art / artwork books, websites like clipart.com and istockphoto.com along with my own photographs of headshots and hands to pull together the necessary elements for the script. But there are times when you just have to take matters into your own hands. Take our latest animation for example, it referenced a...
CNN reports that Apple has started charging credit cards for the shipment of Apple TVs. They continue, Analysts say it s likely to sell well initially. Wow. You think so? The same analysts believe that Apple has taken pre-orders for more than 100,000 units, and, well, since I read it on the internet, it must be true. Blog pioneer (he was doing it 10 years before blogging had a name) Dave Winer reports that one of his readers says he got a notice from Apple that his has actually been shipped. I got Dave s link from NewTeeVee, who quotes Dina...
They really do. Computers fear me. For example: this weekend, I had a friend whose computer couldn't get online for the last month. I went over there and looked at it. Since it was the only computer that was connecting wirelessly, I decided to bring my own machine over real quick to check and make sure that the wireless network actually worked. I boot up my own machine, and see that it can connect to the network. So, I turn to start debugging the problem on my friend's machine - and I see AIM's welcome page. Another couple of seconds,...
I, Bessie, love the music of the cowbell as I graze. I also love the sounds of The Grassroots, The Animals, The Crickets, and The Beatles. I know that many of you COWs love music while you graze as well. That s why we started the Now Playing podcast : to talk about music with producers, performers, and more. You ll see that the first episode has already been posted, with more on the way. That s also why I wanted to start the Now Playing forum at The Creative COW. It s still new, but you ll see some...
At long last, my Creative Genius will be unleased on national television. I will be appearing as the Negative Guy in a scene to be shot Friday, March 8, 2007 for an uncoming episode of Good Eats on the Food Network. The scene will actually be a family affair as my mother-in-law, father-in-law and brother-in-law are all in the scene with me along with my current edit assistant, Aaron. It should be a lot of fun and hopefully I ll have some photos to post in the next few days. Can t tell you the episode details yet, but as...
One of the favorite games of Mac Kremlinologists is looking under the hood of new releases to find hidden text strings for hints of what s coming. Monday s release of QuickTime 7.1 hints at a whopper : Apple TV could be doubling as a game hub. What Apple has not yet said, but is quite apparent from Monday s iTunes release, is that Apple TV will also sport some rudimentary gaming capabilities. Are you sure you want to sync games? All existing games on the Apple TV, reads a localized string file hidden in the software. Another reads, Some...
We brought a Nintendo Wii to the office a few weeks ago and lunch breaks have never been the same! Bowling high score is a 205, though I seem to be averaging about 170. I'm really enjoying the Wii Sports Golf game too and can't wait for the Tiger Woods '07 to come out in a few weeks. Seems like I never have time to get out for golf since I started my own business, now I can hit the links over lunch. Honestly I laughed at the Wii when I heard about it because I was a hard-core XBox...
Okay, so this is a blog, huh? I suppose that I'm supposed to put all my assorted ramblings on display for all the world, yes? Okay, here goes... The ultimate answer to the ultimate question of Life, the Universe, and Everything is 42. The ultimate question is "What do you get if you multiply six by nine?" This actually works in base 13. Scary, huh? Yes, I am a nerd, despite that picture of me out in the sun. I say I'm "reclusive". Other people say I'm "anti-social". But at least Cowdog sticks up for me. Most of the time...
