A year and a half ago, we ran a contest: if you signed up for our non-spamming email newsletter, you'd be entered to win a free DVD or VHS copy of our first film, Skye Falling (http://www.customflix.com/Store/ShowTtl.jsp?id=205137).

We have a new contest: sign up right here for our email newsletter (http://mpsdigital.com), and you'll be entered to win a free 9:04 AM t-shirt (www.904am.com)! What's 9:04 AM? It's our next feature film! And those of you who are already signed up for our newsletter, you're entered to win, too!

Good luck!

Heath

http://www.vanns.com/shop/servlet/item/features/480386568?v_c=PriceGrabber

there's a really good reason why i'm bragging about this product. i just bought one myself for $212 from online as well and this player REALLY rocks. just as good as my DVP 642 in terms of divx playback and the biggest thing going for it is the DVD-Audio and SACD playback on top of divx as well as the usual mp3, dvd-video. this is one player that reads EVERYTHING.

"A French court has ordered DVD vendors to pull copies of the David Lynch film 'Mulholland Drive' off store shelves in France as part of an unprecedented ruling against copy protection techniques."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,154663,00.html

Taken from Slashdot:

"Home theater displays around the resolution of 720p (most DLP, LCD, and LCOS displays) must convert 1080i material to their native resolution for display. No surprise there. But many displays do this by discarding half of the 1080i HD signal, effectively giving 720p viewers an SD signal - not watching HD at all! "


http://www.hdblog.net/index.php/2005/05/02/when-is-720p-not-720p/

No, I'm not refering to my visit with relatives in Texas. This was a 3-hour special from the BBC, that was shown last weekend on the Discovery Channel.
Even though the program selection on this channel has been badly degraded in recent years, "Walking With Prehistoric Beasts" was extraordinary.

It was produced with a blend of live shots, animatronics and computer animation. It showed very refined and lifelike images of animals interacting, dating from over 200 million years back, to just a few thousand years ago.
They depicted a few behavioral details that were in disagreement with some
studies, but mostly, I thought they gave a scientifically sound presentation.
If this 3-part series is repeated, I urge everyone to watch it.

An interesting mishap occured during the live action, that wasn't edited out.
This gave an insight as to the methods used during production. When a tribe of Australopithecus (our relatives of 3 1/2 million years ago) was shown defending a youngster against a Dinofelis (ancient leopard), they were hopping around and throwing rocks. One rock hit the camera lens, cracking it. They showed a few more seconds of the shot with spider web cracks visible. This means that the scene was based on live actors----could have been Humans, chimps or baboons?? Then, they likely imposed model images of Australopithecus over those of the actors in post production, using the live actions as a framework to give realistic motion. I'm pretty sure they used a framework shot of baboons for a scene of them relaxing and grooming on a rocky hilltop. They probably used modern animals for many of the other framework shots, such as elephants for mammoths. The animatronics company was Crawley Creatures and they did an excellent job. I believe many of the closeups of the animals used animatronics. This was obviously not a low-budget project. I saw it on the SD channel and I don't know if it was also presented in HD. I'd want to permanently keep an HD recording of it, if it was available.

I was bored today and decided to goof around with my old knowledge of star wars, photoshop, sarcasm, and irony. Here's a poster I made, enjoy:

www.rch-e.com/temp/saber.jpg

My friend really likes the video game Kill Zone for the PS2. He said there is now a trailer for Kill Zone 2 for the PS3. I looked it up and I was blown away! I'm pretty sure although it begins as a cut scene it is also gameplay. It looks like playing a CG movie. It was unbelievable. Check it out!
http://gametrailers.com/gamepage.php?id=1668

Before anyone jumps down my throat, please consider what I'm saying carefully.

I do not condone breaking the law, I'm talking about changing the law.

Unlike laws that protect life, freedom and physical property, copyright (and patent) laws are not expressions of intrinsic human rights that common sense finds in the natural order of things. No, by contrast copyright laws are arbitrary and contrived (what is natural about ownership that lasts for a limited time?). If you and I were the sole inhabitants of a desert island and you made up and whistled a tune as you watch me build a shelter I designed to shield me from wind and rain, you would have no common sense natural right to stop me from whistling that tune myself and I would have no common sense right to stop you from building an identical shelter of your own. As Ayn Rand observed, there is no such thing as the right to initiate the use of force against another. Live and Let live. But you would have the natural right to use force to prevent me from taking over your shelter.

But if we populate the island with many thousands of inhabitants and start to think about writing down the rules for living together, we may want to contrive some rules to add to the natural ones to make it all work better. Rules that allow you to make a living at making up tunes thereby freeing your time to do so would promote the quality of life for everyone in the society, as would rules that allow me to make a living at designing shelters. The criteria for the worth of those rules or laws is the benefit of society.

And that's where we got our copyright laws. But the technological revolution has caused a very real paradigm shift that truly changes what constitutes the optimal benefit to society. I can't install a purchased copy Windows on three family computers in the same house because then Bill will only have $100 billiion? Excessive. I can make a personal audio tape from a purchased album (if I understand this one correctly) but I can't put one of the songs in a family barbeque video? Irrational. A high school director can't preserve his many hours of creative effort and that of his cast and crew on a musical even on a single archival tape or disk because a third or fourth party now owns the the overlaping creative effort someone else expended 30 years ago? Morally wrong. You could be sued for singing a fourty year old Beach Boys tune at the beach if others turned toward you and were entertained? Insane. We could change the rules in such a way that creativity is still amply encouraged and rewarded, but some of the absurdly excessive restrictions on the use of music and such could be relieved.

Just caught the latest Shakira music video, La Tortura tonight.

My girlfriend happens to be a huge fan and has been playing the single for a week and I was literally about to tear my hair out UNTIL I saw the video.

Man, the video is absolutely smoking in the most unexploitative way. Many in the American mainstream media / music / movies have seemed to cross wires between pornographic and sexy... hold on, let me get off my soap box for a moment.

hahahah

Basically most music videos are so damn garish, but this latest Shakira one almost reminds me of the feeling I got watching classic "dish" films.

Great Video I thought, and the song has the catchiest hook... like every pop song, the simple rhythm that sticks in your head forever.

Check it out, or if you've seen it, feel free to discuss.

http://www.shakiramedia.com/
under videos "La Tortura"

Dean

So we're doing our huge bi-annual convention in downtown Atlanta. At the hotel as I clicked through channels I came upon the "Relaxation Channel," with flute tones sounding a lot like our own Mr. Douglas Spotted Eagle. Sure enough there was a dark outline of a long haired man playing the flute, against magestic mountains and waterfalls.

Was that you Douglas? Anyone else catch that channel?

Now I'm ready for an 18 hour day. Ah.

Jeff Patnaude

Anyone else watching this? It's hilarious - very, very dark comedy for those of us who enjoy that kind of humor. The premise gives the impression the show could be kind of 'eh', but it's that same kind of subtle undertone humor that made Curb Your Enthusiasm so d*mn funny (tho CYE has plenty of upfront comedy as well).

Very well written.. very well choreographed and edited.

I wouldn't say it's a gem, but it's worth checking out.

Hello all,

Has anyone seen the doco on BBC-3 called "Paparazzi"?
I'm very keen to watch it but dont have BBC-3 here in Australia & have been trying to contact BBC-3 but there are no contact links on their website for this show.
Anyone in the UK that could help me out with a copy or some info? Would be much appreciated...

Thanks,
James

Hello everyone, I am here to promote Focal Point, a filmmaking workshop, for anyone who wants a chance to bring their dreams to the screen. No previous experience is necessary. Just a passion to learn is required!

Focal Point is an intensive week of “hands-on” video study designed to give adults and mature high school students an opportunity to work with video from concept to finished product in one week. Students of all skill levels are welcome and course work is geared to accommodate specific interests and needs. For over 30 years Focal Point has provided this rich mix of learning and artistic collaboration.

Focal Point meets from 9am to 4:30 pm, Monday through Friday, July 11-15, 2005 in metro-Detroit.

Tuition includes all instruction, use of equipment, most materials, lunch, and a compilation tape of all student work. University credit (3 hours) is offered through Central Michigan University for an additional fee paid to CMU.

For more information call Annette Alexander-Frank at 248-547-0847
or email areyoudaft@hotmail.com

Hello Canadians,

Check this link on a CBC Newsworld show on Monday night July 4th 8pm:

http://www.cbc.ca/programguide/program/?program=Paparazzi

Its meant to be an interesting doco on paparazzi photogs. I've been trying to get a copy of this show from the BBC as they were first to broadcast it but they couldn't help me. Is there anyone who could do me a huge favour & record this show for me? Any format is fine, I can cover your costs through paypal or some other method. If anyone can help it'll be muchly appreciated..

Thank You....

Hey guys. I usually spend most of my time posting in the alternative imaging area of the boards. I'm not trying to spam or anything, so i figured this was the best place to post this. I co-run the twisted nightmare weekend convention. It's a horror, sci-fi convention in Cleveland, Ohio. The show is coming up in a few weeks and I figured I'd post real quick and let anyone who might be interested know about it. If you want more info just check out the site at...

www.twistednightmareweekend.com

If anyone is interested in checking it out post back here or PM me and let me know.

http://consumer.usa.canon.com/ir/controller?act=ModelDetailAct&fcategoryid=165&modelid=10350

that one :)

thanks!

I don't know why but Global censored the new Live HD feeds on SNL looking at the Empire State Building from the rooftop of Rockerfeller center! You only got to see the HD signal for half a second and then it breaks off! I don't know if it's intentional so that we poor canadians can't see the new HD signal or there's a timecode error in the commercial tape server. Did anyone in the US see the new HD signal?

There was an interesting segment on "The World" today, a public radio program, about the growing movie-making activity in Kampala, Uganda. The center of focus was the Maisha Film Lab, an institute that teaches and encourages would-be movie producers. It was founded by Mira Nayer, a producer from India, who made "Monsoon Wedding". A main theme of the instruction there is that "Something explicitly
local, can become international in importance". A reference was made to the saying that every waitress and bank-teller in Los Angeles is working on a screenplay and how that could also apply to Kampala. It would be nice if someone from this group would log-on to DV.Info. You can listen to the 4 min. 55 sec. radio feature here, with Windows Media Player:
http://www.theworld.org/latesteditions/07/20050729.shtml

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/050813/flatscreen_prices.html?.v=1

Prices for flat panels have finally begun to tumble -- by as much as 35 percent in the past year

________________________________________________

About 20.8 million flat-panel TVs will be sold this year worldwide, almost double the 10.9 million units sold in 2004. Sales next year should rise 47 percent, iSuppli said.

http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/stocks/troywolverton/10240000.html

Apple has reached a new purchasing agreement with longtime supplier Freescale Semiconductor which produces the PowerPC G4 chip for the computer maker, according to a regulatory document filed Friday by Apple. Under terms of the new deal, Apple has the right to buy -- and Freescale has the obligation to supply -- PowerPC chips through the end of 2008.

An early draft of the Pirates of the Caribbean - Curse of the Black Pearl script is posted on the Wordplay website. To improve my writing, I find it helpful to compare scripts, especially early drafts, to the finished movie.

http://www.wordplayer.com/whatsnew.html

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/77062/intel-and-amd-fight-escalates.html

heath

This is Troll Season...that special time when all the mysterious first time posters come on board writing up lengthy first-time post arguing against this new camera, or for that new camera. I wouldn't even argue with these (marketing) people, but then I guess there are those whom don't want to see misinformation spread, I can understand that.

Was wondering if anyone likes to keep dev. logs on their movies or short, maybe online. Do you reveal any plot information or script excerpts, or what do you say at all?

I'm thinking of documenting all the stuff I'm researching and learning, with thoughts and ideas I may be working on at the time - but of course, I don't want to spoil anything for anyone, or have an idea ripped off.

I'd be interested in reading other's if they're out there, though.

http://www.fazed.org/video/view/?id=100
Buy one of these!

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/09/23/MTFH01570_2005-09-23_11-00-19_SCH325697.html

heath

Hello all,
Just curious if anyone knew the song used in the trailer of the film "The Clearing". The same song is also being used in a trailer for the TV show "Cold Case" on TNT, which is currently being run. If anyone knows that would help me out a lot, so thank you for taking the time to read this. Hopefully someone can help me out.

Alex B.

http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6263973.html

Who here has been listening to Pendulum's debut album 'hold you colour' for the last few months?

Best breaks I've heard in years and years. These guys are taking things to new levels - in my opinion anyway.
If you're into break beats, drum & bass, or any sort of electronic music, check it out.
Favourite track at the moment is "Tarantula" followed closely by "Slam".

Sorry, I know this isn't about DV but, I know alot of you appreciate great music, plus, it's extremely rare these days that I find a whole CD that makes me jump out of my seat.
Besides, it would make an awesome film soundtrack ;)

I just saw this on a Daily Planet special about the Discovery mission and the footage was so shaky!!! if you watched the DVCPRO HD footage on a big screen TV, you would get motionsick within 5 seconds of starting the file. but the tech details is that it is attached to the nose of a high-altitude jet and can resist a fair amount of shake though the controls are very difficult to learn. Speaking of controls, it must use heavy-duty high voltage motors to drive the thing and it would definitly be hard to keep frame of the shuttle! Doug. E, what do you have to say about this?

Watch out, Bill Gates! ('http://planetvids.com/templates/view.php?go=item&n=856')

I started watching a show this year on TV called "Invasion", which comes on right after lost. I love Sci-fi and check them all out. Most are duds like Surface, and Threshold. But this one is good!

In addition to good writing and plots, which I hope it can maintain, it has one other very appealing point. Its director of Photography is Jeffrey Jur, A.S.C. and he is fantastic! I looked him up and he has many shows and movies to his credit. Just check IMDB. Watch and learn!

I sometimes have to watch the shows a couple of times or more just to look at the photography. This is a man most all of us can learn much from. If you have never scene the show, even if you don't like the genre or TV in general, tape a few episodes and turn the volume down and just watch the camera work. It is shot in Hi-def, but I don't know what camera and have not even attempted to find out yet.

If you have not seen it yet, check it out on Wednesdays at 10 EST. You will learn a lot and I will guarantee it! Like the show or not, you will learn!

Mike

http://www.thestreet.com/tech/ronnaabramson/10253957.html

"They think this Xbox will get them in the living room," says Jane Snorek, a senior analyst who covers technology for U.S. Bancorp Asset Management. "I just don't see that. Why be in the hardware business? If you're going to be in the home entertainment business, why don't you just write software for a TV company or a cable company?"

eight years after buying WebTV and investing $1 billion in Comcast, Microsoft is finally reporting a small following of cable operators testing and trying out its latest set-top software, called Internet Protocol Television. Only a company like Microsoft, with a massive $40 billion in cash and short-term investments, could get away with hedging its bets by investing so much in two different Trojan horses simultaneously.

http://www.fool.com/News/mft/2005/mft05113023.htm?source=eptyholnk303100&logvisit=y&npu=y

In order to stay competitive with copycat producers in all areas of its business, Sony has offered products at every price point. Although this strategy initially proved successful, it ultimately cannibalized Sony's premium products. As consumers continued to purchase Sony products at cheaper prices, they became less willing to pay a premium for the higher-quality ones.

Hey guys and gals
How well do you know your christmas music?

There is a popular version of Little Drummer Boy that is sung by a woman with an angelic higher pitched voice, the version has been around as long as I can remember, and is slow and pensive.

Anyone know what it is or who she is?
I'm asking because I've been listening to royalty free versions of the song all day for my DVC4 entry, and I need to listen to the original that is in my head one more time.

Thanks!

http://www.unotron.com/US/Products.html

and

http://www.scratchlessdisc.com/

Wow...

heath

http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/new_oxford_american_dictionary_announces_word_of_the_year_podcast/

the editors of the New Oxford American Dictionary have selected "podcast" as the Word of the Year for 2005. Podcast, defined as "a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the Internet for downloading to a personal audio player," will be added to the next online update of the New Oxford American Dictionary, due in early 2006

http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/supermanreturns/hd/

It's the time of year when "best of" lists start appearing.
We've had a great thread on movie quotes, so it's time for some memorable ones from TV broadcasts.

My contribution is one that was on Wed., Dec. 7th, on ABC's Nightline. An old friend, Mary Gardner, whose mother grew up across the street from me, was interviewed on the show.
She was on the airplane where Air Marshals shot and killed a berserk passenger. As she described the FBI investigation, she said, "I was questioned up the wazoo!". The whole family talks like that, all the time. Try and top that one, from a real person or any scripted actor.

http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/pressrel/video_marketplace.html

CBS's current primetime hits will include CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, NCIS, Survivor and The Amazing Race. Library classics will include I Love Lucy, The Brady Bunch, The Twilight Zone, MacGyver, Have Gun Will Travel, Mannix, My Three Sons, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager

http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/pom/pomrmy/10262059.html?cm_ven=YAHOO&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA

So what happens when Apple's video iPod hits critical mass? Say, when 10 million people have a video iPod? And what happens when Apple offers enough video content on iTunes that it hits critical mass? Say, 5,000 different shows and movies? And what happens when Apple's hardware fully integrates into your living room home theater system?

Do you see where all this is headed? The three won't work together incrementally. We're looking at exponential growth. And strategically for Apple, we're looking at de facto standardization around its video platform.

Gang,

I'm looking at possibly doing some shooting in Tahoe in the snow in the coming weeks. I pulled out the petrol cover I bought last year (and believe it or not, have never needed. I LOVE northern California)

Bottom line, I've put it on my XL2, and I THINK I've got all the zippers and straps adjusted right... but is there an instruction sheet on the web somewhere? I looked at the site, and got some nice pix, but I'd like to know what some of these zippers and pouches are meant for.

Thanks in advance to the "Vast and unpaid research department".

good for a laugh....

http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/top-10-strangest-ipod-accessories

http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/tech/internet/10272986.html

Amazon's strategy is attractive to the studios which are eager to encourage DVD sales. The Journal says that the studios are considering letting Amazon have the movies in its digital service at the same time that they are released on DVD. Online movie purchases would be more profitable to the studios than online rentals, the paper says.

There's another interesting factoid in this article that I never realized: Amazon owns imdb.com.

Any more info? What equiptment did they use to convert in real-time?

Edit: It was the "Vincent Price's St. Patrick's Day Special" on the most recent episode with Matt Dillon(spelling?)

http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/tech/software/10277132.html

Just a few months ago, the bigwigs at Samsung Electronics boasted that flash memory would wipe out the hard-drive industry in the next few years. Now there are persistent rumors that the Korean giant may buy Western Digital, the world's No. 2 maker of hard drives

Fellow DVInfoers, I haven't stopped filmmaking, I've just decided to become more of a screenwriter.

Toward that I've agreed to become one of the moderators of a local screenwriting group in Vancouver with the appropriate URL: http://www.vancouverscreenwriters.com. If there are any screenwriters here based in Vancouver or in B.C. (or anyone really), please log on and check it out. We have a running blog for local and general film/screenwriting news and a forum that needs a kick start. The three of us who run it work everywhere but in film so it would be great to have industry people log in for the splash of reality. I'm not completely privy to what the plans are but I believe the idea is to reach out and provide an online space/forums for other similar screenwriting groups.

The group also meets for networking once or twice a month.

I need to have a second or even more of this achromatic dioptre for AGUS35 projects.


Efforts so far over four months.


One Australian vendor. - No success despite several enquiries.

Another Australian vendor. - No ringback on a Friday as promised. Enquiry made the previous Monday. Follow up call. Ringback assured by front office. Did not happen. Follow up call came by accident. My number had been incorrectly dialled. front office undertook to get the rep to call back. Item not stocked in Sydney, or Brisbane despite computer stocklist saying it was.

The item has to be imported, so after all this obfuscation, I have said no thanks, I shall try elsewhere, namely Singapore.

But, to keep the faith, an international phone call was attempted to a primary US vendor's posted number after no email address could be found on the website that did not require an order number to be added first. International orders page locks on South American countries only.

The posted number cannot be connected. The alternative number was called. This number yielded a follow-me menu of four generations of number entries, then I got the waitawhile machine complete with musak, all with international call meter ticking away. Needless to say after a minute I bailed.

Commerce is failing because there are too many suits in big top floor offices and too few hands on the shop floor.

To Century Optics. I don't think this is a way to successfully do business. You will be better off by-passing all the middlemen and selling direct.

My next enquiries will be to two Singapore vendors. If these are not successful, my next move is to have the lens I already have copied, also in Singapore at a considerable discount over the price of the genuine item and yet of comparable quality.

Keeping the faith is so damn difficult these days.

This is an open call to Century Optics, offer me the product and I will buy it.

Thought this was interesting,

In Spanish:
Cortometraje = Short film (CORE TOE MAY TRA HEY)
Largometraje = Feature film (LARGO MAY TRA HEY)

The May 29 issue of Fortune magazine has a very interesting collection of articles about Hollywood and movie-making. Some of it is available online, but I don't think the whole thing is there: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/futureof_hollywood/

Am just starting to read through the articles and they're filled with facts and figures related to topics we often debate here. A few things I've learned so far:

• William Fox built 1,100 theatres and was a pioneer in putting sound on film. But his investments were poorly timed and he lost everything in the great depression, then went to jail for bribing a judge and died in obscurity.

• Warner made $943 million operating profit last year, way ahead of Sony at $243M, Disney at $207M and Paramount at $62M. But the significant thing is that despite the speculative nature of movie-making, all these companies turn a profit.

• Box office sales typically account for 25% of a movie's revenues with another 25% coming from cable and broadcast. But nearly 50% now comes from DVD sales, rentals and on-demand viewing.

• TV networks used to think that nobody would pay to watch programs which were broadcast over the air for free, but they were wrong. In 1999 there was nearly zero income from DVD sales of TV shows, but in 2005 they resulted in nearly $4 billion.

• In the old days the networks followed the "LOP Theory" - Least Offensive Program - which assumed there was only one TV set which all the viewers in the household would compromise and watch. That sort of programming doesn't do well today.

• In 1946 the population of the US was 141 million and movie theatres sold 4 billion tickets - an average of 28 movies per year for every American. By 1973 ticket sales fell to 864 million due to the influence of TV. By 2005 ticket sales were up to 1.4 billion, but with a US population of about 300 million that's less than 5 movies per American.

• The first megaplex theatre - The Grand 24 - opened in Dallas in 1995. It was very successful, but spawned the overbuilding of theatres in the years which followed, leading to bankruptcies and consolidation. In the past four years some 12,000 theatres have changed hands.

• Ronald Perelman, who owns Panavision, is betting that the transition to digital will go slowly and bought film service company Deluxe last January. He says, "Deluxe can transition to digital services along with the rest of the business. When that happens, I don't have a clue. Right now it's not even clear what the savings would be if you really drill down."

• In 1999 FORTUNE ran an article about movies converting to digital. Studios and distributors they interviewed said the transition would begin in 3 to 5 years and be widespread by 2009. At that time there were 10 digital screens in the US. But today there are still only 192 digital screens vs. a total of 38,000 analog screens....

Lots more good stuff in there... I've only read two of the 7 articles so far! :-)