Visually Mapping the World?

I know it's popular to bag on Microsoft but this is pretty amazing stuff.  Are they going to leapfrog Google in photographically reproducing the world online?  And with crowdsourcing rather than actually investing in a physical infrastructure to do it? This is already being integrated into Bing Maps and it is also a nice showcase for Silverlight.

Click on me

Mapping Information (and life)

It is time to start sharing the groundwork of what I am learning about an affirmative future for media, media consumption and generally, understanding information.  I think this post will be best served by letting the really smart people speak for themselves.  The first video is long and somewhat abstract.  However, I suggest that information, like life, is promiscuous and the parallels are obvious between what he is speaking about here and how we may build our knowledge of using and understanding media/information.




This video is a lot more accessible.  It is a kludgy and preliminary step in the direction that Enriquez lays out in his lecture.  This is not the only group of people mining this territory, but from what I know the efforts seem to be similar.




In ten years, I suspect that this will be as dated as Pong, which was the future when I was a kid.

Finally, I think this does a better job of explaining the theoretical thinking behind the "Sixth Sense" technology.



And, if you want to see the reality of where we are today in the marketplace, here is digital intuition, on your cellphone in 2010.  Don't get too excited.  I've used it quite a bit and sadly, I'd rather sort through all my information manually (actually the more accurate term would be intuitively) still.  But look out John Henry, the machine is gaining on you.

Here are Enriquez' "new rules" for life:

1. It is imperfectly transmitted code.
2.  It happens.
3.  It is promiscuous.
4.  It adapts.
5.  Likely it is common.
6.  Humans increasingly design/control life code.

Life and information are moving ever closer together and at a quickening pace.

The Burden of Dreams

I have been a little silent lately.  There is a lot going on, in mid-November I am going to Brazil to help shoot a film in the Amazon about a non-profit that is doing a sustainable development project.  I have also been thinking a lot about what I am doing, professionally.  That, is a dangerous thing in the film business.   It is an industrial workplace, geared towards grinding out film after film, with everyone hoping that each one will advance them a tiny step towards their ultimate goal or at least help them pay their rent.

I have a somewhat unpopular view.  There are too many films being made.  What?  Ok, more precisely, there are too many films being made that are not adding anything to the conversation about film or life, or even the conversation about the potential of technology in media production.  Does the world need 10,000 short films that are basically variations on the same thing, over and over and over again even if they are shot on the newest camera?  Hard question, particularly when the industry of film schools is churning out thousands and thousands of bright eyed graduates who are sold a dream (and very high tuitions) every year and the industry of film festivals is selling the same dream (news flash, most film festivals are about tourism and economic development).  It is a big machine that sucks you up, regardless of your intentions.  I have been disappointed to recently see a few really interesting projects, innovative in structure or process, gradually become "regular" projects because that is where the positive feedback comes from the system.

Anyway, I hope to share some of my thoughts in the not-too-distant future about, well,  possible futures in media creation.  There are a lot of really interesting possibilities out there, even if the current tendency is to milk the present model to death.  I am a firm believer that, for the most part, it is human nature to only change when we must.  In the meantime, I will satisfy my current need to do something that will hopefully be of use on the ground for people doing important, difficult (and unglamorous) work.  I will be working hard to let them tell their own stories, a far harder job than many people realize.  We all like to overlay what we know, or think, instead.  In this age of media over-simplification, vilification of those who think differently and "instant experts," I think we can all use a lot more small dollops of little truths from those who do not have the time to have a media presence.  I don't pretend to have answers, but hopefully I can at least learn to start asking some good questions.

Destroy what we do not understand or,  just try to make money off of it?

Is it me, or does Werner look kind of buff in this?

River City

I had an iPad/Alexa/DSLR/DaVinci dream in 4K/3D last night.

Am I the only person out there who gets weary of all the shuck and jive going on in the creation of culture?  Blogs that are promoting technology, selling dreams to sell themselves by association?  Tweets that are just personal brand building?  I have to admit that, at times, I find it extremely discouraging that the new normal for making ground-level culture seems to often be so cynically capitalistic, particularly when we have so recently seen on a large scale just how likely this mindset is to fail and leave us all to flail on our own.  I'd like to think that we are all more than personal brands.  Don't get me wrong, I love technology and know that there are extremely liberating aspects to what is happening right now.  But just how real are these "relationships" that we claim to be building in the ether?  Are we all just salesmen?

Every time I log into my Blogger account, there it is, the monetize button.  Is that all we can aspire to now, to be little Mad Men?  Is that all culture makers can aspire to, being productive sub-units in Adam Smith's dream?  It seems to be an unquestioned assumption now, internalized by even the most ground-level culture makers.  My hope is that people will realize at some point, you are doing it all on your own anyway, create your own path and do what feels right for you.  You don't necessarily have to follow the "new" rules any more than you need to follow the old.

And for heaven's sake, please stop buying technology and throwing it away, replacing devices every few months.  Somewhere, there is an extremely poor person disassembling your "recycled" piece of technology and most likely getting poisoned (and poisoning their local environment) doing it.  Really, it's not ok.  The questions I ask myself are:  Can I do what I want without the new upgrade?  Will I make any money off of it?  Not perfect, I know, but at least it keeps in check the mindless upgrade beast that lurks in all of our hearts.  OK, no more cranky posts for a long, long time.

On a positive note, I'd like to mention a blog that I've found that I like quite a bit by Brad Bell.  It's really quite nice, beautiful and an interesting mix of technology, film, social concerns and their intersection.

Working with a Colorist, Preparing a Sequence for Color

I guess this post should really be titled, "Working with Me as Colorist," as I can only speak for my own preferences. I am briefly going to touch upon prepping a Final Cut Pro sequence for grading in Color 1.5.

Color has come a long way from version 1.0 as far as stability and its ability to work with various types of clips.  However, there are certain best practices that I like for people to follow before they provide the Final Cut sequence to me for grading.  I have created written guidelines which can be downloaded here.  Some of these best practices are absolutely necessary, others are optional but if not done will limit options for working with a clip in Color,  affecting things like to ability to do things like key framing.  It may seem like a hassle, however, remember that Color is a powerful professional tool and it is absolutely worth the effort.  Your editor, if they have sent any projects to be graded in Color, will probably be aware of most of these.  I just want to make it as straightforward as possible and save everyone time.

If anyone has any questions or corrections regarding these guidelines, please feel free to drop me a line.   The main point of this is that it's better for you to have your editor prepare the sequence for me than it is to pay me to do it.  I will do it, but personally I'd rather spend all of the money you pay me to make your project look awesome.

Out-Innovated Again

Everyone Here for Free iPhone Bumpers Please Line Up to the Right

Sorry for the video only post, I am in the middle of a grading a project and several other deadlines. But, trust me this is hysterical.  Leave it to the Chinese to come up with the funniest, over the top, anti-Apple animation ever.  Their view of Steve Jobs' solution to the iPhone 4 antenna issue is worthy of Peckinpah.

Why Can't Vimeo Get It's Act Together?

Who is behind that curtain?

Oh, just try doing a mobile site with Vimeo.  Cute, cute, underdog Vimeo.  That's why they're always behind the curve and doing everything patchwork, right?  But they have such a cute site!

Um, sorry but they're owned by IAC, a  super gynormous company that has bought and trashed sites like bloglines.com, ask.com.....and own properties from Collegehumor.com to match.com.  The Gannett of the Internets?  But wait, Gannett at least innovated the idea of a national newspaper, USA Today.

Fortunately, you, my 5 loyal readers, do not have to fear me selling out.