Well, people say this all the time: "be careful what you put on social media because it can come back to haunt you." Do we listen? Depends.
For now, let's put some numbers behind this proposition
Friday, August 27, 2010
Monday, August 23, 2010
A Semiotics of the News
Warning: Video contains profanity
If John Stewart and Stephen Colbert viewers actually are politically sophisticated--as a Pew research report indicates, then perhaps we should teach news production using comedy as well. Hmmm. That might be a bad idea considering that I'm not actually funny. However, Charlie Brooker is:
If John Stewart and Stephen Colbert viewers actually are politically sophisticated--as a Pew research report indicates, then perhaps we should teach news production using comedy as well. Hmmm. That might be a bad idea considering that I'm not actually funny. However, Charlie Brooker is:
3D TV
"I want my 3D TV!"
Why isn't this the battle cry for a new era in home entertainment? After all, a similar cry brought M(usic) TV into our homes in the early 80's.
Ogg's article makes a valid point. A gimmick is merely a gimmick: We just bought new plasma and LCD TV's. I still have not invested in BlueRay because I don't want to repurchase my DVD collection (and I know I will, unless the threat of divorce is real...and it may be). While waiting for the whole shebang to be iTunes, Amazon and Netflix (not a bad bet), thus getting rid of the physical thing in favor of code, I do want to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs in 3D--just for the fun of it.
However, Ogg's right: We need more. Just as surround sound is underused for content (I read a dissertation that suggested the multiple personalities in Fight Club were rendered opaque throughout the film if one paid attention to the surround sound (how cool is that?), so too is 3D. I want to see plot points revealed in the depth-layer of the 3D experience. At the same time, polarized 3D is really great, much better than red-blue. It's a good thing when done right (watch Shark Boy and Lava Girl...no really).
If people, like myself, cannot afford to buy new surround systems or televisions with every technological development (imagine, I only have 5.1, DVD, and plamsa..so yesterday), the technology may die a premature death in accordance with the theory of diffusion of new technologies.
I [do] want my 3D TV." I just can't buy a N(ew) TV.
Why isn't this the battle cry for a new era in home entertainment? After all, a similar cry brought M(usic) TV into our homes in the early 80's.
Ogg's article makes a valid point. A gimmick is merely a gimmick: We just bought new plasma and LCD TV's. I still have not invested in BlueRay because I don't want to repurchase my DVD collection (and I know I will, unless the threat of divorce is real...and it may be). While waiting for the whole shebang to be iTunes, Amazon and Netflix (not a bad bet), thus getting rid of the physical thing in favor of code, I do want to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs in 3D--just for the fun of it.
However, Ogg's right: We need more. Just as surround sound is underused for content (I read a dissertation that suggested the multiple personalities in Fight Club were rendered opaque throughout the film if one paid attention to the surround sound (how cool is that?), so too is 3D. I want to see plot points revealed in the depth-layer of the 3D experience. At the same time, polarized 3D is really great, much better than red-blue. It's a good thing when done right (watch Shark Boy and Lava Girl...no really).
If people, like myself, cannot afford to buy new surround systems or televisions with every technological development (imagine, I only have 5.1, DVD, and plamsa..so yesterday), the technology may die a premature death in accordance with the theory of diffusion of new technologies.
I [do] want my 3D TV." I just can't buy a N(ew) TV.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Interlacing vs Deinterlacing
What constitutes a good video image? Of course there are many factors: focus, frame and focal length...composition, rule of thirds, 180 degree rule...content...and, as well, the technological make-up--or drawing-of the screen image itself. While interlacing served a purpose in the early days of TV, it is no longer needed, and is probably better let go all together.
Here's a very well executed test. It's hard to see the difference when you put two images of the same thing side by side. What Mark Empry does is show us the same image focusing on a small moving object. That moving object clearly reveals the difference in the two types of images.
Take a look...
Deinterlacing test from Mark Empey on Vimeo.
Here's a very well executed test. It's hard to see the difference when you put two images of the same thing side by side. What Mark Empry does is show us the same image focusing on a small moving object. That moving object clearly reveals the difference in the two types of images.
Take a look...
Deinterlacing test from Mark Empey on Vimeo.
Friday, July 30, 2010
The March of the Penguin
When I was a kid, the penguin was a character on Batman, or a type of suit one wore to fancy events. That was all before The March of the Penguins, or An Inconvenient Truth--apparently.
I'm reading Andrew Keen's The Cult of the Amateur, and perhaps in great deference to the thesis of the book, want to bring attention to an an example of the cult of the amateur, with its abolition of the gatekeeper and erasure of truth, allows us to perceive a professional work of political communication as an amateur work of expression.
Maybe you've seen the Al Gore's Penguin's Spot on YouTube. If not, here it is:
It's funny. Some said it was poorly made,but it is exactly the kind of movie our free software (moviemaker, iMovie) does pretty well (the compositing might be a giveway). We are clearly meant to believe it was made by somebody on the Right with a legitimate beef against Gore's movie. Not so.
Keen notes that nothing could be further from the truth. The movie was sponsored by DCI Group, a conservative D.C. PR and Lobbying firm whose clients include Exxon Mobile (Keen, 2007, 18; Antonio Regalado and Dionne Searcey, "Where Did That Video Spoofing Al Gore's Film Come From?" Wall Street Journal, August 3, 2006.
Dig it
k
I'm reading Andrew Keen's The Cult of the Amateur, and perhaps in great deference to the thesis of the book, want to bring attention to an an example of the cult of the amateur, with its abolition of the gatekeeper and erasure of truth, allows us to perceive a professional work of political communication as an amateur work of expression.
Maybe you've seen the Al Gore's Penguin's Spot on YouTube. If not, here it is:
It's funny. Some said it was poorly made,but it is exactly the kind of movie our free software (moviemaker, iMovie) does pretty well (the compositing might be a giveway). We are clearly meant to believe it was made by somebody on the Right with a legitimate beef against Gore's movie. Not so.
Keen notes that nothing could be further from the truth. The movie was sponsored by DCI Group, a conservative D.C. PR and Lobbying firm whose clients include Exxon Mobile (Keen, 2007, 18; Antonio Regalado and Dionne Searcey, "Where Did That Video Spoofing Al Gore's Film Come From?" Wall Street Journal, August 3, 2006.
Dig it
k
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Midi in Blender
At the de-Center for CNM we're doing work in music video and animation. While these two topics are covered in separate classes, they have potential to be integrated (as a few students have already done). This animation uses Blender with a MIDI script and music. I think you'll enjoy it.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Cynicism
Patrick Kennedy ripped into the press today. His anger was directed not at the press coverage of congress, but the lack of it. Cynicism, Peter Slotterdijk tells us in his book, Critique of Cynical Reason, is "enlightened false consciousness." He means that we know what is going on (enlightenment) but we laugh at it rather than do anything (false consciousness). What do you think?
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