Photoshop Job at Fox News

The job posting below is from http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,27906,00.html

As many of you know, Adobe Photoshop is software the visual effects industry uses for just about every image editing task under the sun. I've been following the news story wherein Fox News used the program to alter and distort the photographs of two New York Times reporters who wrote an article the network didn't like, specifically that Fox's ratings have been in a long slide. Editors at Fox News modified photos of the two journalists by making their teeth yellow, receding the hairline, putting dark cirles under the eyes, and generally attempting to make them appear ugly and untrustworthy to their viewers. We distort. You decide.

Judging from the photos, Fox News could use the help in the Photoshop department. The "impeccable news judgement" seems to be open to interpretation.

Ironman: You down with DLP?

I've made the pilgrimage to see movies projected digitally before, but hadn't seen digital projection making many inroads at the local multiplex. In fact, when a new movie theater opened in Monroe, NY last week, I asked if they would be digital... and was treated to a long list of the usual arguments: Studios will benefit, but won't pay. Theater operators have to shell out big time for new technology while a used projector is so cheap right now. New technology is unstable: you're investment could be obsoleted by better or cheaper technology in a couple of years.

So I took the kids to see Ironman this weekend at a fairly new multiplex in Toms River NJ. The picture was beautiful, bright, and about 35 feet across horizontally. Now TR is not really what you call a media center, but Marquee Cinemas made a decision about a year ago to install Christie 2K DLP projectors in it's theaters, and those theaters are in places like Glasgow KY, and Beckley, WV. These new projectors can provide the same resolution, the same brightness, and a much cleaner and more stable picture as opposed to 35mm film. Instead of a expensive and fragile 35mm print, ferried to theatres around the country, titles are distributed on a hard drive and can be played repeatedly without a scratch. There is also a satellite receiver on the roof of the theater that can grab a just released title off the bird and program it on multiple screens in a couple of hours.

For me, this movie going experience was clearly better in digital than the multiplex down the road. My kids sensed the same thing, "a bigger brighter screen" they said. This won't be lost on the ticket buying public, but for content producers it could be an opportunity.

Once digital projection becomes ubiquitous, as seems to be happening, the theaters, less constrained by the physical distribution models, will be more in control of the material they provide. They could shop around for content outside the studio's distribution networks.
So now someone with an independent film or 90 minute documentary might be able to get programmed in for a midnight show or a run within a specific geographical target by dealing with the chain. My guess is the theaters, if they thought it would draw an audience, would jump at not giving up the customary high percentage of the ticket price to the studio. Anyone with a (marketable) film on a hard drive could lobby the local theater for a spot on the schedule. This will also impact the traditional film marketplaces as well. Marquee's theaters are fed by AccessIT, a digital distribution company. I'm sure they are aware of the possibilities of supplying content they've acquired vs. distributing digital prints for the studios for a fee.

The DLP projector, installed across the country, will be a disruptive technology beyond 3D or anything else the studios are doing. I know I"m not the first to expound on these ideas, but sitting in the dark, in the pinelands of New Jersey, not in a Sony Theater on 42nd street, it seems there are big changes coming in the how we watch, and maybe what we watch.

Working with the Pilobolus Dancers

I've been holding off on posting this until the video was released at the ASCO convention in Chicago.

D2 Creative was hired by Centron, an advertising and branding agency, to create two pieces of content for Easai Pharmaceuticals' use on the floor at the premier gathering of Oncologists in the US. First, a 20 foot LCD video wall evoking the commitment Eisai makes every day in it's human healthcare initiative to patients and the provider community. This would be semi-abstract, have no narration, and speak to both the scientific, and human, consequences. It would have to be simple, written big, and visually captivating across a crowded convention floor.


Centron had brought with them the idea of using the Pilobolus dancers. Pilobolus works in creating shadow plays in which dancers move to form human and non-human characters of a scene. Very simple. Fascinating to watch. We held some group phone consultations with Pilobolus in which the writers associated some key words with scenes and scenarios that could illustrate them. D2 Creative, Centron, Eisai, and Pilobolus all convened in New London CT at Sonalyst Studios' huge sound stages for the filming.

Collaboration with Pilobolus was mind-opening experience. If you know the work they do, you can understand the need for good communication and working together well. A dozen or so dancers physically build the tableaux projected onto the screen seen by the audience or camera. The director would discuss with us the scenes and ideas, then communicate it to the dancers who would work out in groups how best to achieve it. This process spawned new ideas and "what ifs" that we all hashed out. So from the idea... immediately you have the "hive mind' of 15 or more brains working on it.
Creatively, this kept a "buzz' going for the two days of shooting and gave us variety and options in the editing room. There is a lesson in this for all creative endevors I think.

The footage of the shadows on the screen was all captured in 1080p video onto hard drive. The raw footage went through a short edit, but the real work was done in compositing. The raw images were re-keyed into clean silohuettes and I started to play with color and transfer modes in After Effects. Frederick Rescott, Creative Director at Centron, had type design ideas that were in keeping with the concept: clear, always moving and choreographed to the dancers.
We had a rough comp together in a few days. More to follow.

New Fuji Video

Here's a good example of work that is fun and stretches the imagination. D2Creative, the company I work for, was asked to help tell the story of Fujifilm and how they've migrated from a well known film brand name, to a technology company that influences lives everywhere in ways we never see. It had to be 3 minutes or less. We had a lot of freedom to imagine, create, and even trash ideas and start over, so long as the main idea was communicated. Much of it was created and composited in After Effects, with design and 3D by Pat Sodano, Art Director.
I posted this on Youtube and would like to hear comments.

Fujifilm. From What You Know, to What You Can't Imagine.

Comcast obstructs public hearing

So to prevent the government from doing their job and holding open pubic hearings on the subject of net neutrality, Comcast packed the hearing with employees and paid space-takers thus preventing the public from gaining access and taking part. Story here and here.
Comcast is under a subpoena from New York's attorney general claiming it interfered with the Internet traffic of video competitors. Federal public hearings were held yesterday to explore what Comcast did, and what effect those actions could have on the users and businesses that are it’s customers.
Comcast apparently does not want to have those users and business owners able to make their concerns known to regulators.

This is of interest to anyone creating content for eventual distribution on the Internet (pretty much everyone in my business now.)

Saw Facebook founder on 60 Minutes tonight

Leslie Stahl and Mark Zuckerberg. Talk about 2 people talking across a gulf of experience. My favorite moment was...

Stahl: People are saying you're the next Larry and Sergey. (proud to be referring offhandedly to Google's founders)
Zuckerberg: (long blank look) Is that a question?

The real grilling was reseved for "Beacon", 'course, and up to then he seemed to be your basic unaffected 23 year old, t-shirt wearing multibillionaire. However, MZ seemed not to understand why people might care if Facebook broadcasts to all their "friends" that they just bought a vibrator or a carburetor pipe from Amazon.
That's really a little hard to believe. So smart, worth 3 billion, looks innocent, but doesn't get it?
Oh, and that nice candle holder Brenda bought for your birthday... she got it Tuesday at RemainersForLess.com.

It's a East Coast, West Coast Thing

Another dozen, this time at the Lebanon Hotel near Clinton. Six nice tasty flat east coast oysters, and six more mineraly, fresh tasting west coasters from Oregon. The Oregon oysters look more like "welk" shells with a spiky points and a much deeper profile. They're in the back of the plate above, east coast in front. Great taste. A couple of martinis might have dulled my palette, but then I don't have to worry as much about bacteria in a bad oyster, do I?

Oyster on

Up at 4am to get plane to Florida, but not tired enough last night to go to Southport Raw bar in Ft. Lauderdale where they feature Florida Apalachicola oysters. This area is on the gulf, tucked below the panhandle. 4 dozen later (between 3 people) I have this to report: My book was right in that southern oysters are milder and less salty than the ones grown in the north. They grow faster seem to acquire less of that "ocean" flavor i like. In turn, Southerners think northern oysters are "gamey" tasting and unsurprisingly prefer the local varieties. Looking forward to a comparitive tasting in NYC.

Waterwheel... Next stop, Oyster Bar

The other night at the Waterwheel restaurant we had a little post-Christmas dinner. I got a great book as a present from my mate Johnny, The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell, about Oysters and the close relationship they have to New York City's history. New York harbor, it' s tributaries and bays was the largest and most renown collection of oyster beds in the world. New York oysters were clean and plentiful, and thought to be the best tasting. They were shipped all round the world. I'm about halfway through the book and I want to go to NYC and walk around some of the haunts and geography mentioned. Naturally, I'll have to sample some specimens profiled, although hopefully they're imported from cleaner waters in this day and age. I'm researching the "where" and will consult with others about the "when".

More From the Mighty Mighty Ipod

I upgraded the software to 1.1.2, mostly to put an end to the annoying prompts to upgrade every time I synced (syunc?) Jailbroke it. Then I see the leak about 1.1.3. Jeez, one step ahead of the law again.
I grabbed a couple of new apps to facilitate file transfer. Anyone set up an ad hoc network over 2 wireless ipods?