The Digital Dembroski

I love the Flip brand of cameras.  They’re cheap (relatively) and very versatil.  You can put them just about anywhere (so as not to risk a more expensive rig) and the quality you get for your $200ish dollars is comendable.  The only problem?  The field of view is too narrow.  A little super glue and cheap lens kit from Best Buy can fix that though.

Props to Anthony Skelton for his write up here.  I had some vignetting with the 2x lens when doing this to my Flip Ultra HD – I think modifying the Mino HD eliminates this problem because the “lens hump” is less pronounced.  Happy Hacking!

(Anthony Skelton Photography)

Abandoned Cine @ Dembrography

I haven’t been writing anything with these update posts lately, but I just wanted to say that this Abandoned Movie Theatre in Racine, WI is one of the most beautifully tragic things I have ever seen.  I’d love to get inside – I wonder who lives there now.

My good friend Conigs sent me the video you are about to see.  It should be said that those of us in the Film/TV industry pride ourselves in figuring out the magic and trickery behind technically amazing shots such as this one – so I gave it a watch (skip to 2:39 and watch for the long continuous take):

My response?  OMGWTFBBQ!?!?  The best I could come up with (based on the height of the camera) was a really long jib arm on a dolly.  I was wrong.  It’s much simpler and much more impressive:

That’s right!  High Speed Segway (no handlebars!) to running dismount.  For those that are wondering the Steadicam Operator is reportedly Karsten Jacobsten.  Seriously – I can’t stop watching this.  Thanks Paul!

Keith Loutit’s at it again – although this time his video has a loose plot that involves a helicopter.  I’m a sucker for a helicopter so:

Bathtub IV from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

I’m glad that the tilt-shift fad has become more of a graphic tool – it’s really Loutit’s thing now, so I’m excited to see what he does with it next.

There’s a ton of interesting news circulating today about how Boxee, a slick media center front end, and Hulu, a high quality way to consume popular television and other such content legally, have been forced to break up their love affair. That was an amazing run on sentence that I just typed.

Anyway, I first heard to the problem from my good friend Conigs – his take on the story here.  Ars Technica weighed in as well, it would seem that both Hulu and Boxee are torn up about the forced separation:

Boxee’s Avner Ronen was naturally upset to have to announce to Boxee customers that Hulu support is being removed as of February 20. The feature has been widely popular and, along with Netflix Instant Queue integration, it was one of the reasons I joined in the alpha program. Folks already paying for a fat data pipe into their homes have been ditching cable or satellite subscriptions for online content, and Boxee has been one of the tools that has made that choice quite enjoyable, especially on the Apple TV.

Hulu’s CEO, Jason Kilar, was equally displeased to have to explain why Hulu was forced to make the request in the first place. “Our content providers requested that we turn off access to our content via the Boxee product, and we are respecting their wishes,” he wrote in a blog post. “The maddening part of writing this blog entry is that we realize that there is no immediate win here for users. Please know that we take very seriously our role of representing users such that we are able to provide more and more content in more and more ways over time.”

Content providers are stuck in their traditional mode of thought; they’re prioritizing their needs before the needs of their users.  This used to work in the days before the internet.  Television viewers were forced to consume content on the terms of the broadcasters.  Sure, if they didn’t like the way content was being doled out they could change the channel, but there were only a handful of broadcast options.  Cable viewers might have had a few hundred or even a thousand options.

Today users, via the internet, have a millions of ways to interface with millions of “channels” of content.  The old thinking no longer works – the availability of content has been democratized.  You need to make your content easy to access with minimal cost to the user.

Very often the easiest way to consume content is piracy.  For the savvy user, piracy offers the fewest amount of hoops to jump through.  Content is high quality and free. This is where Hulu stands out – it’s an easy way to consume high quality A-list content that’s both free AND legal.  That’s why users have been flocking to it.  Boxee made free and legal consumption even easier.

Chris Foresman writes:

One detail to note is that Hulu content is paid for by advertising, and Boxee did not in any way block or eliminate the ads. And, in practice, there is no difference between watching the content via Boxee and watching via the Hulu website in full-screen mode on a computer attached to a TV—except that it’s more time consuming and annoying to set it up via a browser. Boxee made it easier for viewers to enjoy legal content they way they wanted to, which was exactly the purpose of creating Hulu in the first place.

So basically Hulu’s content providers are, inadvertently, actually turning away ad-revenue because they either have some sort of horrible and decidedly less elegant scheme up their sleeves or they simply just don’t get it.  I’d argue that it’s most likely the latter.  Content providers are struggling to force their square-pegged old business model into the round hole that is the internet.  It will never fit – maybe it’s time for a new business model.

(Conigs and Ars Technica)

I got really excited about Lego popping out some sweet gadgets a while ago.  Well my friends, the plot thickens:

Lego Camcorder @ Engadget

Kids Tech Review, via Engadget, reports that the awesomest Lego Camcorder ever will be priced around $80 and will be due out this summer or fall.    It doesn’t appear that the camera will be assembleable (is that a word?), which is a huge bummer.  Hopefully the rangefinder we saw earlier will require some assembly.  If you don’t build it Lego, what’s the point?

(Kids Tech Review via Engadget)

As a “Professional Filmmaker” Apple’s latest patent application really peaked my interest.  Macblogz reports that the application is for what looks to be screenwriting software with integrated storyboarding capabilities.  A picture really says it all:

Apple Screenwriting/Storyboarding App?

In our office we use Apple programs almost exclusively for post-production.  As a producer, I’m excited at the possibility of them entering the pre-production space:  the patent application also hints at network and “cloud” connectivity/syncing, as well as production centric scheduling and logistic tools.

As for the combined storyboarding/screenwriting, if Apple tightly integrated the program with Final Cut Pro, massive efficiencies in production (shooting) and post production (editing) could be gained, not too mention easier storyboarding for people like me who cannot draw.

Directors and editors could actually work on a rough cut of the film within Final Cut Pro well before production or even heavy pre-production.  This would give them time to experiment with things like pacing and script options before they are shot, as opposed to during or after the shoot.  This already happens on big budget movies – but the storyboards are hand drawn.  The potential Apple app wouldn’t necessarily replace this process, but would streamline it as well.

I know that there are at least a few editors that read this blog, so please chime in with your thoughs below!  Are there any competing products that have the same proposed functionality that also integrate with Final Cut or Avid?

Hit up the link below to check out the full Macblogz post as well as a link to the full patent application.

(Apple Patent via Macblogz)

If you’re like me you probably missed it this morning, but there was a live online feed announcing the Academy Award Nominations this morning (8:30PT).  It’s ok though, if you head over to Oscar.com you can watch the announcement on demand.  If you’re big into the surprise of the whole thing don’t read any further, the complete list of nominations is available after the jump.

By now it might be safe to say that everyone who is anyone knows about or has used Pandora and the music genome project.  If you don’t know, and I’ve subsequently offended you, go check it out.  On a basic level, Pandora is an online radio station that generates a playlist based on your musical tastes.  So, for example, if you’ve just listened to a song with complex melodies and minor vocal harmonies, Pandora will play another song with those same characteristics.  Neat!  (For even more “Neat!” download Pandora’s Iphone app – Pandora in your car? Yes please!)

It seemed then, that applying this same idea to movies would only take a matter of time.  Enter Jinni:

“Jinni isn’t a social network, it’s an internet application designed to fit how people relate to movies and TV. And since conversation is part of that, we’ve created tools to meet people with shared tastes, compare preferences, and review and rank titles.”

Jinni classifies movies based on their traits, things like plot, mood, and tone.  In fact, according to their website, Jinni has a team of film professionals tagging films with around fifty “genes” a piece.  That’s a lot of work, and to be frank, I’ve never understood how people like Pandora and Jinni do it and do it reliably (Who knows maybe it’s the same blokes.).  Music and Movie tagging sweatshops?  Maybe.  Probably not.

As a user, Jinni’s value proposition is to help you find movies that you’re guaranteed to like.  Hopefully this includes movies that you wouldn’t have normally found or known about.  Popular media outlets only really expose us to the “top tier” of content – things that are a sure bet popularity and moneywise.  With luck we’ll find that Jinni, like Pandora before it did for music, broadens our exposure to movies with movies we end up loving.

Jinni is currently in private beta – you can sign up on their webpage to try to get an access key.  It looks like my key has come in just now, so I’ll poke around and report back tomorrow with the real meat and potatoes.  If it works as well as their demo video shows (Sadly, almost nothing ever does.) they just might be up to something.

Update: Full Review coming soon!  Also, a reader from Scotland reports that, apparently due to licensing issues, Pandora is not available outside of the United States.  Therefore, you might actually be “someone”  and not know what it is through no fault of your own.  My apologies for offending basically the entire world – I’m sure it won’t be the last time.  It’s too bad that you can’t check out Pandora – it’s a really great piece of engineering.

(Jinni and Pandora)

In return for taking a few days from blogging for the holidays (and a contentious interaction with an automobile dealer) I’d like to give you, my dear readers, this gift:

Feedflix

I am notorious for not using my Netflix movies.  Seriously.  I’ve had ‘The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford‘ at home for 261 days at counting.  That movie moved from my apartment to my home with me.  That movie has been sitting by my DVD player for almost a year.  Sort of.  Either way it’s a wickedly long time to have a DVD sitting around.

Which is why I was seriously worried when I found out about FeedFlix, which is a service that taps into your Netflix account.  Using the Netflix API, Feedflix can tell you just how much of a value or waste your $15ish a month is.  It does so with a series of pretty graphs, like the one above, but it also pumps out this useful text:

So as you can see – I have a habit of hanging onto DVDs, and am NOT getting my money’s worth when it comes to those (well maybe a little – it depends what’s in the bargin bin).  But thanks to my fiance’s Law and Order SVU addiction via Netflix’s watch instantly (finally available on Mac and Xbox as of a few months ago) we’re doing alright per piece of content consumed.

Feedflix doesn’t consider the total usage of multiple users on one account so my fiance’s DVD usage, which is far more frequent than mine, isn’t considered. Eitherway, thanks to watch instantly, I can say I feel pretty good about our Netflix subscription.

Feedflix does way more than this; it also pulls tons of stats.  So I can tell you that, for instance, ‘Burn After Reading‘ is the “most anticipated” film currently on Netflix.  I can also tell you that ‘The Dark Knight‘ is the most rented movie over the past two weeks (rightly so).  Pretty nifty stuff – check it out and make sure you’re squeezing everything you can from Netflix – maybe I should just send back Jesse James… or maybe I should hold onto it for a whole year – just to say I did.

(Feedflix)