Check out these summer opportunities from past NMD grads, media organizations–deadlines soon!
It’s a bit like The Pool, for movie studios.
http://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/10/11/18/0010208/Amazon-Launches-Online-Movie-Studio“Amazon.com is getting into the movie business by opening Amazon Studios, with the goal of using the Internet to put fresh movies on the big screen. The new Internet movie studio will allow writers to upload screenplays to its website where the global Internet audience can read them and offer feedback, or producers/directors can use them to make test movies. The test movies, which must be at least 70 minutes in length, can also be uploaded.”
As pointed out by a Slashdot commenter, Max Keiser has another model where script writers could share profits: Pirate My Film.
Keiser, a film-maker, broadcaster and former broker and options trader offers a vision of what this could really be like.http://www.piratemyfilm.com/pages/how_it_works
“The system automatically creates enough shares to match the funds request and then makes those shares available for PMF members to reserve.” Why just read and offer feedback when you could support a work from day one and perhaps share in some value.
Who knew Processing could be a gateway drug to these hallucinatory animations? The distributor of this open-source library, that’s who.
toxiclibs is an independent, open source library collection for computational design tasks with Java & Processing (and soon other languages). After over 3.5 years of continuous development & refactoring, the collection consists of >25k lines of code, 270+ classes bundled into 8 libraries. The classes are purposefully kept fairly generic in order to maximize re-use in different contexts ranging from generative visuals, data visualization to architecture digital fabrication, use as teaching tool in these fields and more…
toxiclibs showreel 2010 from postspectacular on Vimeo.
- Graphic artist wanted for high-profile comic novel
- Logo needed for environmental research course
- French Web site looking for student artists
NewsCorp is in a dispute with CableVision right now over broadcast rights on their cable network, and so they made Hulu block all CableVision Internet customers from accessing their shows on Hulu.
This is ridiculous…going at net neutrality from a different angle, but it’s still a gross violation.
Sometimes less is more, even in Augmented Reality. These two examples of “diminished reality” are like Photoshop’s Content Aware Fill acting on real-time video. Imagine if Harry Houdini had gotten ahold of this, or Pravda.
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/10/13/0525245/Erasing-Objects-From-Video-In-Real-Time?from=rss
Smoothly interpolating away objects in still pictures is impressive enough, but reader geoffbrecker writes with a stunning demonstration from Germany’s Technical University of Ilmenau of on-the-fly erasure of selected objects in video. Quoting: “The effect is achieved by an image synthesizer that reduces the image quality, removes the object, and then increases the image quality back up. This all happens within 40 milliseconds, fast enough that the viewer doesn’t notice any delay.”
Here’s the “ordinary” AR version:
Animators using open-source 3D software have begun sharing the code, data, and even tutorials on how to make technically accomplished shorts. But meanwhile, musicians wanting to share their work suffered a setback in Canada when it was revealed that industry lobbyists pressured the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (a public utility) into agreeing not to play Creative Commons-licensed music over their podcasts. Will Hollywood someday pressure theaters not to show movies made with Blender?
A short film entitled Sintel was released by the Blender Foundation under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license (YouTube link). It was created by an international team of artists working collaboratively using a free, open source piece of 3D rendering software called Blender. No Hollywood studio was involved in its making….
“Next on our todo is wrapping up the 4-dvd box release, NTSC/PAL discs with extras and documentary, and 2 DVD-ROMs with tutorials,and all the data to reproduce the film entirely.”
Here’s a link to the CBC story:
Microsoft has patented the process of shutting down your computer, which as a former Windows user I find surprising as everyone knows Microsoft’s real innovation was the Blue Screen of Death. Microsoft may have shown admirable restraint in not patenting the computer crash, but the film industry has shown no such restraint–in fact it is hiring the cybermafia to crash Web sites with offending material.
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/09/01/1456235/Microsoft-Patents-OS-Shutdown?from=rss via Byline An anonymous reader writes “You would think that shutting down software could be fairly simple from an end user’s view. If I ask you to shut it down, would you mind shutting it actually down, please? Well, it’s a bit more complicated than that, because you need to ask the user if they really want to shut down and if unsaved documents should be saved. And that warrants a patent that also covers Mac OS X. Next time you shut down Windows, remember how complicated it is for Windows to shut down. Perhaps that is the reason why this procedure can take minutes in some cases.”
Meanwhile the film industry has come up with it’s own unique method for “shutting you down”: hiring cyber hitmen to take down services that happen to have copyrighted material on their Web sites.
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/09/09/0047234/Film-Industry-Hires-Cyber-Hitmen-To-Take-Down-Pirates?from=rss via Byline thelostagency writes “Girish Kumar, managing director of Aiplex Software says his company is being hired by the film industry to attack online pirates. He says if a provider did not do anything to remove the link or content hosted on its site, his company would launch what is known as a denial-of-service (DoS) attack on the offending computer server. From the article: ‘Kumar said that at the moment most of the payment for his company’s services came from the film industry in India. “We are tied up with more than 30 companies in Bollywood. They are the major production houses.” As for Hollywood films, he said they, too, used his services.’”
http://www.wired.com/beyond_the_beyond/2010/09/augmented-reality-twinkle/
The Apertus is an open-source high-definition movie camera. New media programs (not to mention governments like Brazil and the state of California) have been looking to save cash by using open-source software like Open Office or Ubuntu. So why aren’t schools buying up open-source hardware as well?
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/10/08/30/1639248/Apertus-the-Open-Source-HD-Movie-Camera?from=rss via Byline osliving writes “This article takes a tour of the hardware and software behind the innovative Apertus, a real world open source project. Led by Oscar Spierenburg and a team of international developers, the project aims to produce ‘an affordable community driven free software and open hardware cinematic HD camera for a professional production environment’.”
While the Apertus may not have the most professional-quality lenses and sensor yet, its users may benefit from the lack of an implicit video format license, namely the h.264 codec. From a Slashdot commenter:
MPEG-LA [the organization that controls h.264] basically claims certain financial rights over your project in exchange for the right to use the h.264 codec. This means that if you shoot a scene in h.264, but switch to something else to release on the web, they still have rights over you. If a contractor shoots in h.264 but sends you the video in a different format, they still claim rights over you. As far as I know, pretty much all HD cameras shoot in h.264.Some of this is definitely winnable in court, some isn’t. But if you’re an independent filmmaker, you don’t have the money to go against one of the biggest legal groups in filmmaking.
So yes, this particular situation is a bit Orwellian.
Aug 222010
At least if your surgeon is using this new augmented reality viewer.
I’m afraid the soothing music doesn’t make up for the creepy video.
http://www.wired.com/beyond_the_beyond/2010/08/augmented-reality-osirix-surgery/ via Byline“We applied mixed reality (MR) consist of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technology, in which electronically-generated dynamic 3D images are superimposed on the actual space in front of the surgeon, on the patient’s operative field or the surface of the abdomen, and evaluated such a system as a reference for surgical navigation and education.
“First we performed MDCT and generated anatomical VR imaging using DICOM viewer OsiriX and previewed on the patient body surface of the operative field from the projector as MR navigation. (((”Previewed on the patient body surface” A-OK remark for 2010)))
“Our image overlay surgical navigation system OsiriX provided accurate image guided navigation for minimally invasive surgery.”
via @kurakura
Aug 102010
Today at 10am I went to shoot a Haiku at a local CVS with a nice young girl name Strawberry (yes that is really her name). Strawberry is a friend of another young man with who I recorded a poem with, I met him at while he was working at Bullmoose and I was getting some hot tracks. He was telling some friends of his about his Haiku and how while filming we had both realized that we were both former Blackbears, when Strawberry heard about the project she was intrigued, when she heard my name she was even more intrigued! Apparently she had recognized my name from a former job I once had at a movie theatre when I was about 17, (apparently I make quite an impression on people). A few days later Strawberry contacted me and we set up a time go meet and film her poem.
After I left Strawberry I headed over to the local Humane Society. I usually like to go there once ever-other week or so and walk one of the sheltered dogs, so they kind of know me there. I talked to the head directer and explained to him about my project, I talk with him about community, and creativity, about having a special message that’s important to him or his staff.
I left the Humane Society and walked just a few yards down the street to a small church that on the outside looked like an oversized ice fishing house, but on the inside was magnificent. It was the sanctuary of latino christian parish; I was totally unaware that Lewiston ever had a strong latino community let along their own parish. Joey, an expert in marketing thought that this would be a wonderful opportunity to send a message of love and christianity and wanted to offer the opportunity to his whole parish. Meetings need to be made.
(Well, the first movie to get a lot of attention, anyway.) The iPhone 4 has video editing capabilities, hence this film from the viewpoint of a moving toy train.
Jun 212010
“Augmented Reality without programming in 5 minutes.” Nuff said!
Virion Exhibition dates are from 19 July – 1 of August
Virion is a screen based digital art exhibition that links to public sites across Brisbane, focused in the Kelvin Grove Urban Screen Network.
Virion provides artists the opportunity to display their work across a network of public screens and access a diverse audience. The exhibition is open to all users from professional and emerging artists to people experimenting with cameras and scanners. There is no juried selection process and each work is given equal showing time. Submissions may be in the form of digital stills or video files up to 100MB each.
Each screen will play a compilation of diverse images and video that represent a wide & integrated range of local and international art practices and styles. Screens are located across a range of public, gallery and institutional sites to offer unique viewing experiences and to maximize & diversify Brisbane audiences’ exposure to new media practices.
All submissions also play on the Virion website: www.virion2010.com.au
Throughout the exhibition the audience is invited to respond and participate by contributing further content to the show. Sites will be updated progressively to include all work.
Online Artist submissions will open in early May. To be included in the opening of the exhibition submissions must be received by July 14.
For Exhibition questions please e-mail virion.submissions@gmail.com
Virion Exhibition dates are from 19 July – 1 of August
Virion is a screen based digital art exhibition that links to public sites across Brisbane, focused in the Kelvin Grove Urban Screen Network.
Virion provides artists the opportunity to display their work across a network of public screens and access a diverse audience. The exhibition is open to all users from professional and emerging artists to people experimenting with cameras and scanners. There is no juried selection process and each work is given equal showing time. Submissions may be in the form of digital stills or video files up to 100MB each.
Each screen will play a compilation of diverse images and video that represent a wide & integrated range of local and international art practices and styles. Screens are located across a range of public, gallery and institutional sites to offer unique viewing experiences and to maximize & diversify Brisbane audiences’ exposure to new media practices.
All submissions also play on the Virion website: www.virion2010.com.au
Throughout the exhibition the audience is invited to respond and participate by contributing further content to the show. Sites will be updated progressively to include all work.
Online Artist submissions will open in early May. To be included in the opening of the exhibition submissions must be received by July 14.
For Exhibition questions please e-mail virion.submissions@gmail.com
EditShare will release its video editor as open source this summer. Lightworks handles high-definition media, DPX, and RED, shares projects with Final Cut Pro and Avid, and was recently used by Academy- award-winning editor Thelma Schoonmaker on Shutter Island. Introduced in 1989 and bought by EditShare last year, it ‘has come from over one million hours of software development,’ says EditShare’s James Richings. But he says releasing the source will ‘generate concepts and capabilities never seen before. I expect that the Lightworks Open Source initiative will transform not only the technology, but also the opinions on what a professional editing tool can achieve.’” From the press release’s description, it sounds like the “open source” phase will follow a period of free-as-in-beer downloading.
EditShare will release its video editor as open source this summer. Lightworks handles high-definition media, DPX, and RED, shares projects with Final Cut Pro and Avid, and was recently used by Academy- award-winning editor Thelma Schoonmaker on Shutter Island. Introduced in 1989 and bought by EditShare last year, it ‘has come from over one million hours of software development,’ says EditShare’s James Richings. But he says releasing the source will ‘generate concepts and capabilities never seen before. I expect that the Lightworks Open Source initiative will transform not only the technology, but also the opinions on what a professional editing tool can achieve.’” From the press release’s description, it sounds like the “open source” phase will follow a period of free-as-in-beer downloading.
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education
“TorrentFreak reports that Warner Brothers UK is hiring college students with an IT background to participate in an internship that will pit them against pirates on the world wide web in an effort to crack down on illegal digital distribution. The intern will literally be on the front-lines of the epic battle against pirated content, ensnaring users in incriminating transactions, issuing takedown requests, and causing general frustration amongst the file-sharing population on the Internet.”
education
“TorrentFreak reports that Warner Brothers UK is hiring college students with an IT background to participate in an internship that will pit them against pirates on the world wide web in an effort to crack down on illegal digital distribution. The intern will literally be on the front-lines of the epic battle against pirated content, ensnaring users in incriminating transactions, issuing takedown requests, and causing general frustration amongst the file-sharing population on the Internet.”
Mar 102010
Migrating Forms Festival May 14-23, 2010 Anthology Film Archives, New York
CALL FOR ENTRIES LAST CHANCE
Final Deadline: March 15, 2010
Go to http://migratingforms.org for full guidelines and instructions on how to submit
ACCREDITATION NOW OPEN
Curators, distributors, programmers and writers
Email your name, contact information and affiliation to guests [AT] migratinforms [DOT] org
The 2010 program will be announced in April
Migrating Forms is an annual festival of new experimental film from around the worldfeatures, shorts, documentaries, essays, film and video art and live performances. The festival focuses on work that often slips through the cracks at festivals that draw a stark distinction between the regular competition and the avant-garde. Formerly known as the New York Underground Film Festival (19932008), Migrating Forms presents work culled from other festivals, biennials, students, established avant-garde filmmakers, microcinemas, and galleries. The diverse body of work is situated in the common context of the cinema.
Last year’s inaugural festival featured new work by Stephanie Barber, Phil Collins, Barry Doupé, Bradley Eros, Kevin Jerome Everson, Jim Finn, Nikolaus Geyrhalter, Michael Gitlin, Barbara Hammer, Susan Hiller, Owen Land, Oliver Laric, Jeanne Liotta, Josephine Meckseper, Pavel Medvedev, Shana Moulton, Pat O’Neil, Lucy Raven, Ben Rivers, Michael Robinson, Amie Siegel, John Smith, Naomi Uman, Erika Vogt, and many more.
mailing address:
Migrating Forms
PO Box 1072 – Cooper Station
New York, NY 10276
info [AT] migratingforms [DOT] org
Migrating Forms – PO Box 1072 Cooper Station, New York, 10276, United States