October 2007

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I just updated my blog to the newest WordPress, and somehow the database got corrupted in the process. Worse, both my backups turned out to be outdated (even though they were freshly made.)

Result? All posts between July and now are magically gone.

Well, I am working on it, so keep your fingers crossed.

Update: Nope, all posts/comments/edits of the last 3 months are gone. I do have copies of all posts, but then I have to copy/paste each one by one. So there will be some time before this blog is fully functional again.

What do we learn from this? Nothing I didn’t already know: backup, backup, backup. And then: check the freshness of your backup - just because it was created today, does not automatically mean that the data within is fresher than 3 months old…

Anyway, for now I am back on WordPress 2.1 After some additional struggling, this Blog is now 2.3. Still some quirks; Tag Warrior replacement is giving some headaches – how does one display the tags in the loop? And why did the searchbar disappear? We shall find out at a later time…

I am just watching a presentation about the Red camera, and here are some observations:

1. The sensor is Super35mm size.
2. The camera body is bigger than it looked like on the photographs. Definitely more than a PD170.
3. Camera is natively progressive. Interlacing can be achieved in post.
4. The digital shutter is programmable. Range up to 360 degrees.
5. ISO rating is between 320 and 500.
6. Camera takes standard V-mount batteries. 90-120 minutes operating time per battery (Red Brick).
7. PL mount, takes any professional lens with a PL mount. Red also makes their own lenses, very aggressively priced. When using S16 lenses, you are limited to 2k resolution.
8. The camera takes 52 seconds to boot. I would imagine this to come down on future firmware upgrades.
9. Camera design is modular. Not only externally, but also within. Which means that when Red comes up with a better sensor, you don’t have to buy a new camera, you just swap out the chip.
10. Join the queue. If you order a camera today, you will get it in about 9 month’s time.
11. Not all feature are yet activated. No sound yet. Wait for a future firmware update. Will have 4 channels.
12. 100 fps @ 2k resolution. Mouth-watering!
13. 2gb per 1 minute of 4k resolution. Which is only 10 times that of DV. Again: impressive.
14. Soon you can edit (in 1k resolution) your 4k material on FCP. In reality this means you can edit straight from the Red media on your laptop.
15. The ProRes codec is so good, no reason ever to use 8- or 10-bit uncompressed.
16. Upcoming feature: Histogram in the viewfinder. This will be great for location shooting.
17. Shooting with the Red camera is closer to shooting film than to shooting HD/video. You don’t expose for a pretty picture, but to get as much detail out of the picture as possible - to keep the option open in post production. This is comparable to shooting in RAW mode on a digital SLR camera.
18. Camera has also a “False Colo(u)r mode�?, which shows you clipping that would occur at the current T-stop setting.
19. The software to transfer the video data to your editing system is - at this point - Intel Mac only. But soon they will have a more elegant version out, which will run both on Mac and PC.
20. Scratch, a high-end programme for Color Correction is directly supporting RedCode Raw. Color Grading in real time, with 1k or 2k preview.
21. The Mill (Oscar winning post production company) compared side-by-side 35mm and Red 4K, and were blown away.
22. Red is a disruptive technology. Many people do not want this camera to work.
23. Red reminds one of the early Apple. People working there seem to actually have fun creating something new.
24. At least 5 major feature films are currently shooting with Red cameras.
25. The Red camera in hand-held mode weighs about 18 pounds (9 kilos).
26. The EVF is not yet ready.
27. The Red Camera is a passion product.
28. Why is the camera so cheap? They aim for quality and volume.

It is amazing to see how display technology is evolving. Not too long ago, tubes were the standard way of showing moving pictures. Then came the LCD/Plasma revolution. Screens are getting both bigger (42″ seems the new standard for TVs, while it was 22″ not so long before) and smaller (just see the new 2″ iPod nano or pinable video). Now you can have a film on any wall — or in any pocket.

Electronic paper seems to be coming closer to production. One day I guess we will have animated cereal boxes…

Holographic storytelling

A new, holographic technology allows to display images in thin air. While the quality is still not quite there yet, this is certainly a very exciting technology:

It will be very interesting to see if this technology requires a different format for telling stories.

Interactive

Now imagine if you could combine these two technologies - holographic movies and interactivity, and a whole new world of storytelling evolves. I imagine some sort of combination between a film storyline and computer games.

The future is certainly looking interesting.

Before the launch of the iPod, there were many critical voices. They soon went silent.Then when Apple announced the iPhone, new critical voices came. And went. For a while Apple was about the coolest company on the planet.

They locked their phones to an inferior service and charged a premium for it. But people were happy with their phones.

Then they lowered their prices, and people got upset. Shortly after that PR debacle, Apple announced that hacked or otherwise altered iPhones would not only lose their warranty, but might stop functioning. The phrase iBlock/iBrick was created. Now people really (and this time rightfully) got upset.

Parallel to this, the situation outside of US/UK/Germany is totally unclear as to when an iPhone will become available. Not good.

Then new iPods are released, but crippled in their software. Supposedly to not hurt iPhone sales. But most people cannot even buy one (legally). It feels like Apple is holding the golden carrots in front of our noses, just to perpetually remind us that we cannot get it.

Definitely not cool.

Goodwill is a fragile commodity, and Apple has indeed been a bit bullish of late.

(Still, my next phone will be an iPhone, my next laptop a MacBook and the next music/video player an iPod.)