HPA Tech Retreat 2014 – Day 5

Post-Retreat Treat: Is Nothing New? – Mark Schubin, SchubinCafe.com

Program notes: “Photographic stereoscopic 3D movies were patented in 1852. Global transmissions to theaters were described in 1877. Video journalists, home shopping, online courses? 1882. Sportscasts? 1884. Motion-platform simulators? Broadcast schedules? The 24-hour news cycle? Be amazed!”

No fiction, no unachieved proposals:

1895, “The Execution of Mary Stuart”, using camera stop/start to replace an actor with a dummy for a beheading. 1790, a two-frame “motion picture” projector. 1928 video disc. Laser projection: laser in 1960, Laser Video 1972. 2014 Sochi olympics public viewing areas for 4K you can’t see at home; in 1936 Olympics also public viewing areas:

Large flat-panel display? 1910, NYC billboard with a 30 second loop:

Animation: the images to the right are the punched paper tapes that drive the display:

Scophony: large-screen TV… in 1938. And so on…

[Shown with this embedded video clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75CXFwgslsY ]
[The real telephonoscope was an amplified ear trumpet!]
“You think you have problems? How about having whales eating your cables?”

HPA Tech retreat 2014 full coverage: Day 1Day 2Day 3Day 4Day 5wrap-up


 

Disclosure: HPA let me attend the conference on a press pass, but I’m paying for my travel, hotel, and meals out of my my own pocket. No company or individual mentioned in my coverage has offered any compensation or other material consideration for a write-up.

1 2
Share.

About The Author

Adam Wilt is a software developer, engineering consultant, and freelance film & video tech. He’s had small jobs on big productions (PA, “Star Trek: The Motion Picture”, Dir. Robert Wise), big jobs on small productions (DP, “Maelstrom”, Dir. Rob Nilsson), and has worked camera, sound, vfx, and editing gigs on shorts, PSAs, docs, music vids, and indie features. He started his website on the DV format, adamwilt.com/DV.html, about the same time Chris Hurd created the XL1 Watchdog, and participated in DVInfo.net‘s 2006 “Texas Shootout.” He has written for DV Magazine and ProVideoCoalition.com, taught courses at DV Expo, and given presentations at NAB, IBC, and Cine Gear Expo. When he’s not doing contract engineering or working on apps like Cine Meter II, he’s probably exploring new cameras, just because cameras are fun.

Discuss this article in our forum.