Category: General

Categories
Apple Item of Interest

iTunes 10.4 is now AV Foundation based, not QuickTime

iTunes 10.4 is now AV Foundation based, not QT http://tinyurl.com/3b2auaj

As I’ve written before, AV Foundation is the modern media playback framework for OS X. Originally developed for iOS and OS X it came to OS X with Lion, but Final Cut Pro X uses it, even on Snow Leopard (where AV Foundation is installed as a private framework in 10.6.7 and 10.6.8).

I think Apple are sending a strong message that QuickTime – as a framework for applications to use to play media – is not the way of the future.  Particularly if you want a 64 bit application. While many parts of QT have been rewritten with a 64 bit wrapper as QTkit, the future is clearly away from QuickTime on OS X.

In fact, the use of QuickTime has been fading over the last decade as Apple moved to H.264/AAC in an MP4 wrapper for distribution purposes early last decade.

And now another of Apple’s media-rich applications appears to be built on AV Foundation now, instead of QuickTime, only falling back to use old QT codecs not supported under AV Foundation.

Categories
Interesting Technology Item of Interest The Business of Production

Storytelling: digital technology allows us to tell tales in innovative new ways.

Storytelling: digital technology allows us to tell tales in innovative new ways http://tinyurl.com/3pwthvc

Author  starts out with the importance of story.

Stories are memory aids, instruction manuals and moral compasses. When enlisted by charismatic leaders and turned into manifestos, dogmas and social policy, they’ve been the foundations for religions and political systems. When a storyteller has held an audience captive around a campfire, a cinema screen or on the page of a bestseller, they’ve reinforced local and universal norms about where we’ve been and where we’re going. And when they’ve been shared in the corner shop, at the pub or over dinner they’ve helped us define who we are and how we fit in.

Continue reading “Storytelling: digital technology allows us to tell tales in innovative new ways.”

Categories
Item of Interest Monetizing The Business of Production

The Trivialities and Transcendence of Kickstarter

The Trivialities and Transcendence of Kickstarter http://tinyurl.com/3emfl46

The question of how to fund our various independent projects is a constant question in an era of democratized production. I’ve already written (and done a Terence and Philip Show about) branded media, because I believe that will be an important part of the funding future. But at the grassroots level, fan funding has proved successful for many artists, and in the case of Kickstarter, for projects other than music and video based.

So what kind of “creative projects” does Kickstarter enable? Well, a couple of artists raised $2,181 to send funny handwritten letters to every household in Pittsburgh’s Polish Hill neighborhood; someone pulled in $8,441 to help finance the creation of “a searchable ethnographic databasebuilt from the lyrics of over 40,000 hip-hop songs”; a couple of people got $30,030 to publish a version of “Huckleberry Finn” that replaces Mark Twain’s use of a notorious racial epithet with the word “robot.” At times the sums have been a good bit larger: $67,436 to build a statue of Robocopin Detroit; $161,744 to make a computer-animated adaptation of a Neil Gaiman story; and nearly $1 million in pledges to finance a band to wear iPod Nanos as wristwatches.

It’s a long article but if you care about fan funding, it’s well worth the read.

Categories
Interesting Technology Item of Interest Metadata

Can a computer Predict a Hit Movie or Song?

Can a computer Predict a Hit Movie or Song? http://tinyurl.com/3g8ovfk If you mean profitability, yes. Fascinating use of neural networks.

This is a long, and not new, article that rambles through a fascinating story of how a lawyer, “Mr Pink”, “Mr Brown” and “Mr Bootstrap” collectively cracked the code for predicting the profitability of movies, TV shows and (separately) another team shows the likelihood of whether a song is going to be a hit.

The specifics of how they achieved both breakthroughs is interesting: have the computer software (usually some sort of neural net) analyze existing successes – music or movie.  It then analyzes new music or movie proposals to determine whether it is likley be be a hit (music) or how much money it will make at the box office (movie).

Continue reading “Can a computer Predict a Hit Movie or Song?”

Categories
Interesting Technology Item of Interest

Apple’s iOS facial recognition and its potential applications.

Apple’s iOS facial recognition could lead to Kinect-like interaction http://tinyurl.com/448qlac

Back in 2010 Apple purchases Polar Rose and now it seems we’re seeing the first uses in a Framework for iOS users. Frameworks are code building blocks that allow developers to use advanced technology features without needing to understand how the technology works. Frameworks largely abstract the technology for the developer.

Continue reading “Apple’s iOS facial recognition and its potential applications.”

Categories
Item of Interest The Business of Production

Defining quality

Defining quality http://tinyurl.com/3qutvb3

While Seth Godin is always worth a read, this article struck me as being very relevant in a discussion of what is a “pro” (as a proxy for quality in this context). The central point is that there is not one type of “quality” that is universally valued equally.

We see this in the wide range of entertainment and production qualities that are acceptable quality, depending on the context. A video on YouTube isn’t expected to have the same production ‘quality’ as network-disrtibuted episodic Television, and that’s how it should be.

It turns out that there are at least two useful ways to describe quality, and the conflict between them leads to the confusion…

Quality of design: Thoughtfulness and processes that lead to user delight, that make it likely that someone will seek out a product, pay extra for it or tell a friend.

Quality of manufacture: Removing any variation in tolerances that a user will notice or care about.

Categories
Distribution HTML5 Item of Interest Media Consumption

The HTML5 boom is coming. Fast!

The HTML5 boom is coming. Fast. http://tinyurl.com/3w8xz3p Aided by Adobe Edge http://tinyurl.com/3djpdyn

After a slow start – and still controversy over exactly what format video will be supported in “HTML5” – is the Flash era finally over?

writing for GigOm discusses recent data on HTML5 and how Apple’s position on HTML5 and Flash has – as I predicted several years back – pushed the adoption of HTML5.

As is often the case in business, where there’s a winner, there’s usually a loser. HTML5 could largely replace Abobe’s proprietary Flash technology. And HTML5′s swift ascent could render Flash irrelevant in short order. “I think the disappearance of Flash is closer than people think,” ABI senior analyst Mark Beccue said in a press release accompanying the data.

HTML5′s projected growth is all the more impressive considering that the actual standard is not officially expected to be completed until 2020 2014, according to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standards body. But that won’t stop companies and independent engineers from developing and deploying HTML5 features now, ABI said.

Full HTML5 interoperability isn’t expected until 2014 but we’re already a long way in, and will get further thanks to, somewhat ironically, Adobe.  I’ve long advocated that Adobe were in the best position to create an HTML5 authoring tool, and indeed they have now shown one in Adobe Labs – Edge. AppleInsider has a first look at Edge.

[Update] One day later Flixmaster launched another HTML5 authoring tool

Categories
Apple Pro Apps Item of Interest The Business of Production

The responses to Final Cut Pro X a month later

The responses to Final Cut Pro X a month Later. http://tinyurl.com/3wa8ahl

In this episode Terence and Philip discuss how the postproduction landscape has changed a month after Final Cut Pro X was revealed. How has the competition responded and how has the Final Cut Pro community has reacted. Lots of discussion on the launch and subsequent response to Final Cut Pro X, touching on every aspect of the release.

Why is there an emotional connection with creatives and their tools. Where do Final Cut Pro 7 users go? Who is really focused on NLEs in professional postproduction? Oh, and yes, Philip has new software for Final Cut Pro X (inspired by Terry in part).

Categories
HTML5 Item of Interest

World’s First Full Screen HTML Player

World’s First Full Screen HTML Player (that’s customizable) http://tinyurl.com/3ofqlqz Any unique Flash feature done in “HTML5”

I’ve long had a preference for open standards over those from a single vendor, and so I like seeing formerly “Flash Only” features being replicated in ever-smarter ‘HTML5’ players.

Until now, the lack of true fullscreen playback has been the biggest limitation of HTML5 over Flash video. Safari already offered a basic fullscreen option for HTML5 video players, but this was via a non-customizable QuickTime view that didn’t allow the player to be branded or to feature custom controls.

For the first time since we demoed our player last year, we can finally enjoy SublimeVideo’s HTML5 controls in glorious fullscreen.

Categories
Item of Interest The Business of Production

Technicolor acquires Laser Pacific

Technicolor acquires Laser Pacific http://tinyurl.com/3v8vxfd

From Variety:

While shoring up its d-cinema distribution business with its pact with Cinedigm, Technicolor was also busy rejiggering its post-production offerings, acquiring LaserPacific and selling its post assets in New York to PostWorks.

Under the Technicolor-PostWorks deal, PostWorks acquires the Technicolor post facility on Leroy St. in Manhattan and enters an exclusive franchise agreement with Technicolor. The facility will be branded PostWorks Technicolor and will get access to Technicolor’s proprietary color science and post workflows.

The Laser Pacific facilities will be rebranded as Technicolor and their employees will become Technicolor employees.

Further consolidation of the high end of postproduction in the LA and NY markets.