Interesting trademark lawsuit
 

This is OT but somewhat related to the many copyright discussions that take place around here. Johnson and Johnson is suing the American Red Cross over use of their trademark (the red cross which JNJ has been using for over a hundred years).

This might seem outrageous at first until you find out what the real issues are... will be very interesting to see how this plays out.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...d=aRVCYl78iLgQ

What platform to help build a film community site?
 

I am considering launching a Web site to help people network and find crews for their film projects. I want to let users enter the details of their film, such as what crew positions are open, when, and where. This would be useful for people overseas, where craigslist and mandy are not active.

What is the best software to do this with? I just want to do this as a service to the community so I want to make the coding as easy as possible for myself.

FaceGen?
 

I've looking into FrameForge3d, which seems like a great product for storyboarding.

On the frameforge3d site, they mention an application called 'FaceGen', which allows you to scan in a picture of someone, and build a 3d model of their face that you can bring into frameforge3d.

I'm wondering if anyone has used FaceGen? I downloaded a demo version, and tried 2 different photos. One came out very close to the person in the photo, the other picture less. I'm wondering if usually you have to tweak the image further to really match the person in the photo.

If interested, this is the website of FaceGen's maker:
www.singularinversions.com.

Chasing the Light
 

I just saw a show on PBS last night called "Chasing the Light" by Louie Schwartzberg. It includes footage from New England, California, Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Hawaii, Washington (state), Morocco, Tanzania, Tibet and Bhutan.

It is absolutely stunning work. See it if you get a chance.

Superbowl Crew Studio Rental?
 

If I'm in the wrong place, feel free to move this...

The Superbowl and the FBR Phoenix Open (same weekend) are coming to town and my wife and I were talking about how all the crews have to put up with hotel rooms and fly packs, and it struck us that there might be a crew who'd enjoy living and working out of my studio/guest house for the week.

So my question is this. How do I get the word out about it's availability?

It's not just a house - there are plenty of those starting to crop up on Craigs list, etc. This is a fully equipped small video production facility adjacent to a beautiful guest house that can handle a small crew in luxury and privacy.

Back in the day, I probably would have put an ad in TV Technology - but in this web world, I'm not sure where the broadcast types hang out.

So anyone have any ideas where I could post the info to see if any national/international working professionals might be interested?

Thanks in advance.

And if you want a look, some studio/guest house pics and some "one sheets" are at:

http://gallery.mac.com/davisbill/100003

Thanks in adavance.

Need help converting a tape
 

I hope this this is an appropriate place to ask this...

I have a tape recorded on a Sony HDV camera. I do not have a way to capture that tape. I am looking to get it captured and the file put onto a DVD so that I can do some editing on the file.

Is there anyone out there who could do this conversion for me? Anyone in North Florida maybe?

Thanks,

-Perrone

Proof of Purchase
 

Kid in my class is working on this as an art project, pretty interesting.

http://proofpurchase.com/

Radiohead's new album: you decide what to pay
 

http://blog.wired.com/business/2007/...ead-snubs.html

This is incredibly unconventional for a major band (I almost wrote major-label, but their deal with EMI expired after the release of their 6th studio album), and I wonder what will happen with other labels.

You pay what you want for download (www.inrainbows.com), or you can buy the double-CD/vinyl record set (with other goodies) for around $81 USD (40 pounds), also directly from them at www.inrainbows.com.

Prince gave away his latest album in England recently, then announced 21 dates in the country. They all sold out. Maybe he and Radiohead are onto something. Also, the fact that they announced this early Monday (October 1, 2007) and the album is coming out on the 10th is remarkable.

Before we get into too much of a tizzy, they're allegedly negotiating with labels to get it into stores next year.

Color me stunned!

heath

Laptop battery to hold charge for 30 years (wow)!
 

http://blog.scifi.com/tech/archives/...op_batter.html

Very interesting! I know I could use something like that, especially right now on my wife's PC laptop. Thing runs about 45 minutes or so until dead. Just basic apps, no music running or DVDs/CDs.

heath

Panafest
 

Covered the event over at my blog if anyone interested:

http://bscenefilms.blogspot.com

BBC online to go free over wi-fi
 

Improv Everywhere
 

http://www.improveverywhere.com/2007/10/17/no-shirts/

In case you don't know.... this group does a lot of hilarious pranks around NYC. One of the funniest ones was a getting a ton of guys dressed like Best Buy employees going to and hanging out at a Best Buy store.

Check out the videos they shoot.

LA Film School Feedback
 

I have been looking into the LA Film School's 12 month program and wanted to get some feedback from the community. Or other recommendations in the LA area.

I guess just simple ratings or comments on:

- Curriculum/Course Pacing
- Equipment
- Faculty
- Atmosphere
- Career Guidance/Placement Assistance
- Value

Thanks.

Mounting CF cards on a PC as NTFS RAID 0
 

I just came across a website that offers a number of different solutions for replacing IDE and SATA II hard drives with CF cards. Some of their solutions allow RAID 0 matricing of up to 4 CF cards. They've tested 266x CF cards at 39 MB/sec, for single CF card configurations on SATA II. Prices are quite reasonable. Using a SATA port multiplier and 16 GB CF cards, one could conceivably build an 16x5=80 Gb solid state, external hard drive. Mounting a CF card in this manner allows formatting it to NTFS.

For my own uses, I like putting an 8Gb CF card in a 2.5 inch SATA HD enclosure and RAIDing two together for 16Gb. WinXP will detect SATA devices as fixed partitions. Without testing the thruput, I would expect a speed of about 60-70 MBps.
www.addonics.com

Help identify this lens...
 

Fujinon-TVZ 14-70 F2 - H5X14HP-2N Zoom lens for Panasonic TV Camera

Anyone know what kind of a camera the above lens is used with? Below is a picture. I found this lens at a garage sale, and thought it was interesting. However, I have no idea what kind of camera it's used with. Anyone have any clues? Thanks.

http://www.revelationmediastudios.co.../11-5/fuji.jpg