The Future of Media

This past week apple released a new app where you can watch all of the latest trailers. It is called Itunes Movie Trailers. You can watch all of the latest trailers on your Iphone, Ipod, or Ipad. Companies are starting to bring more and more entertainment to the palms of your hands. A few months ago HBO unveiled HBO Go. Using their app you could watch all of your HBO programming from your mobile device. This allows you to keep up with your favorite shows while waiting for the bus or even at work. Just recently Showtime debuted an app that is very similar to HBO’s app; allowing you to keep up on your favorite Showtime shows anywhere you want.

This is an obvious sign of the future. Consumers want to be burdened with having to be in their house watching TV at an exact time every week just to keep up with their shows. People are on the go constantly, they want to consume their media on the go as well. Ever since I got an Iphone I have been using that to check the news much more than my computer. Just look at Netflix for instance. Ever since they incorporated streaming video to their service Netflix has increased revenue substantially. It is obvious that people like to watch their media when and where they want. They are tired of cable television; on demand was the original game changer. It gave the ability to be able to watch certain movies and television shows. Other companies have begun to realize all of this. Boxee is a great example, they stream movies and television shows right to your television through an external box on your shelf. Even Apple has a stake in streaming media with the Apple TV. I cannot wait to see what the future has in store for streaming media.

http://www.firstshowing.net/2011/apple-debuts-a-must-download-new-movie-trailer-app-on-ios-devices/
http://wallstcheatsheet.com/stocks/the-future-of-streaming-video.html/
http://gigaom.com/video/netflix-the-future-is-streaming/

The Decline and Rise of Hollywood

It seems that Hollywood is in a major decline these days. Looking at the numbers, it says the exact opposite but, originality wise Hollywood hasn’t just jumped the shark; they jumped the shark then used an old refrigerator to escape a nuclear blast. (It kind of makes sense; all of the nuclear fallout has affected their brains. Just look at the major blockbusters for this summer alone. Scream 4, Thor, Pirates of The Caribbean, The Hangover 2, Kung Fu Panda, Fast Five, Green Lantern, Cars 2, Transformers 3, Harry Potter, Captain America, Cowboys and Aliens, X-Men, Super 8, Rise of The Planet of The Apes, Conan The Barbarian, Final Destination 5, the list goes on and on. That is nine sequels, one prequel, five comic book adaptations, a reboot, and Super 8. (Thank you J.J. Abrams for giving us some kind of original content in the summer.) Hollywood is failing us right now. It is mostly because no one wants to take the risk of coming up with something new and losing money. Just looks at last summer with Inception. No one wanted to put money into it because they thought no one would be interested in watching it, it is obvious that the higher ups in Hollywood have no concern if a movie is original and good at all, they only care if a movie is profitable or not. That is why everything is a reboot, sequel, or adaptation. They figure people are already comfortable with the things they know.

I am very happy to see comic con this year the reason is that there is plenty of original content to go around this year. Let’s start off with a new alien invasion movie called The Darkest Hour starring Emile Hirsch. Apparently they are going to be using a type of alien invasion that has never been seen before. Up next is the Adventures of TinTin, all that is known about it is that it is directed by Spielberg and animated. Finally that brings us to Prometheus. No footage has been seen apart from a few screenshots, but nerds are already wetting their pants. It is supposed to be Alien mixed with 2001: A Space Odyssey. It is directed by the man who brought us Blade Runner and my personal favorite movie True Romance so you know it is going to be good.

Everything is completely ridiculous when it come to comic books and super heroes. From the storylines to the court cases that ensue the entire industry is bonkers. It gets even more bizarre now and within the upcoming few years. This storyline starts in 1938 when Superman first appeared in Action Comics issue number 1. Sometime after Superman was put under the DC entertainment label. Due to that in 2013 parts of Superman will be going to their respected parties. The original creators of Superman Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster will get parts of Superman such as his blue leotard, red cape and boots, and the ability to leap tall building in a single bound. DC will retain the rights to things such as villains like Lex Luthor and Superman’s ability to fly.

The thing that makes this crazy is that a brand new Superman movie is coming out. Warner brothers is hoping what Christopher Nolan did for Batman the same will happen to Superman. None of these rulings will affect the upcoming movie. What it will affect is any movie after that. Lets say the upcoming movie does not do too well, they will make a reboot. The thing that no one knows how will turn out is another origin story. If it is made with DC major parts of the story will not be able to make an appearance.

Sources
http://www.slashfilm.com/legal-red-tape-sever-superman-2013/
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118037679?categoryid=13&cs=1&cmpid=RSS|News|FilmNews
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/hollywood-heist-how-a-burglary-192768?page=2

The future of films

Just Recently James Camng eron sat down for some interviews and discussed the future of film making. After creating Avatar in 3D James Cameron explains that the next big breakthrough technology for cinema is fps. Fps stands for frames per second. It is how many frames are advanced In one second. The naked eye captures 24 frames per second that is why it was set as the standard for filming. Though, humans can tell the difference between 24 fps and 48 fps. The normal person would not be able to tell it would just make all movements on the screen look smoother than they did before. It will also make any slow motion shots seem more natural and life like. “When you author and project a movie at 48 or 60, it becomes a different movie,” he said. “The 3D shows you a window into reality; the higher frame rate takes the glass out of the window.” The only problem is that no theatre has the technology to actually play movies that were shot at 48 fps. James Cameron believes that the projectors that are used to project 3D would only need a software upgrade in order to project films at 48 frames per second.

Sex sells, sometimes

Sex sells there is no doubt about that, but sometimes it hurts a project rather than actually helping it. A great case of this is Miley Cyrus. The second those Vanity Fair pictures came out she was told by millions of people including her own advisors that the pictures were too racy for her Disney image. That has happened to countless young stars. Any young celebrity that is trying to get an audience with pre teens is subject to this. To keep their fans they have to have a squeaky clean image even though they are growing up and out of that stage.

The most recent case of this is with the new Wonder Woman. When it was released over a year ago that they would be making a Wonder Woman television show, fans and feminist groups were very excited to hear the news. Most people were happy that they were just finally doing something with the character. When they released the first images it was an entirely different story. People from all walks of life complained about the outfit of the new Wonder Woman. She is a super hero not a stripper seemed like the biggest concern facing the new television show.

The picture to the left is an early version of the costume. The picture came out months before general production even began, and good thing it did. First everyone complained that the costume was way too shiny. I know she could deflect anything with her bracelets, but just looking at her in the sun is enough to subdue any criminal. Many people say that the outfit looked more like a costume you would fins at a Halloween store. Another major concern was that she is supposedly fighting crime in that outfit. In the real world a normal person would have to stop every five seconds and adjust just so that there is not a wardrobe malfunction. If you look at the picture n the right, which is the revised version of the outfit you will see that she isn’t even wearing lipstick anymore.

What are your thoughts on this issue? Is sex hurting the industry or helping it

The Negotiator

Being in the entertainment industry is different than any other industry on the planet. Though it is like other industries in some ways. One of those ways is that negotiation is a vital part of the industry. There are negotiations between actors, directors, and producers. It just doesn’t stop there practically everyone in the entertainment industry is negotiating with someone. That is why learning to be a good negotiator will take you very far in this industry. The best way to learn something is talk to someone that is currently doing it. That is why I interviewed my father, William Weisblat. He invests money into small film projects. He has to negotiate how much money he is going to invest in the project. Most executive producers also have to negotiate parts of the film, though my father said he doesn’t care about any of that whatsoever. He merely cares if he is going to get his money back.

In retrospect interviewing my Father was not the best idea ever. He is a very in your face kind of guy. The only thing he negotiates with is low balling. All he does to negotiate is constantly low ball the person until he gets the price that he wants.

Robocop The Ambassador

Recently there has been some crazy news coming out of Detroit. It is not the decaying state of the state but actually it is about Robocop. A Robocop statue might be built in the state with the worst economy in America. It all started on the Internet where suggestions were asked on how to clean up the city. Twitter user MT came up with the suggestion to erect a Robocop statue. If you don’t know anything about the movie Robocop, I can sum it up for you. Detroit, the future, crime is rampant in the city. The police force builds a robot that has three main objectives; serve the public trust, protect the innocent, and uphold the law. Well soon after the suggestion was put on the Internet it was taken down. They thought that was the end of it but, apparently it was seen by enough people and they thought it was a good idea so they brought the suggestion to the mayor of Detroit. I completely agree with the Internet users, I feel there should be a Robocop statue in Detroit. It is a major part of their pop culture. In Philadelphia there is a statue of Rocky Balboa in front of the Museum of Art. Mayor Bing foolishly answered back “NO”. Well if the city of Detroit will not make a Robocop statue then the people of Detroit will. The website DetroitNeedsRobocop is currently working with artists and other companies to make this a reality. They estimate that the total cost of the statue will be $50,000. As of right now they have recently just passed the $50,000 mark but are still taking donations.

Head over to detroitneedsrobocop.com to help them out with some donations.

The recent increase in 3D films has upset me over the past few years. As a kid 3D, was always used the same exact way in every movie. There would always be something popping out at you. The best genre 3D was being used for was horror movies. Even still today those types of scares are still widely used are a lot of the things that stand out in 3D cinema. Many people do not seem to care about the obvious fact that 3D takes the audience away from the movie. Walter Murch who is the editor for Apocalypse Now and The English Patient is neither a fan of 3D also.He says the 3D movies are one stop lower than it's 2D counterparts.That means that every part of the movie is darker, sometimes making it nearly impossible to pick out certain details He wrote a letter to Roger Ebert stating his opinion on 3D. He said that the biggest issue with the 3D scene is the focus and convergence issue. The way that 3D movies work is that it only shows you half of the screen at one time. They switch the focus from both sides of the screen one after the other. Your eyes converge in the middle of where you are focusing. When you are watching 3D your eyes have to converge on different points of the screen split seconds after each other. This is the reason why many people get headaches after just watching the movies for a mere twenty minutes. It is something that 60 million years of evolution is unwinding. This is a deep issue that is wrong with 3D. No matter how much the technology improves you can never make full 3D until you make a hologram.

One of the emerging factions in the film making industry are HD DSLR's. The biggest barrier to most emerging film makers is the price of all your gear. The prices could quickly escalate to tens of thousands of dollars. With a DSLR the top of the line camera costs around two thousand dollars, making the choice to switch to DSLR that much better. An interesting part of the DSLR scene is that these cameras are not made to shoot professional video but, if you take a stroll around youtube or vimeo the results will tell you otherwise.

The best part of the community is the community itself. Between the information sharing online and the power of innovation the DSLR scene is one of the best things to happen to filmmaking. One of the major companies that are really pushing their products to the next level of filmmaking is Canon. On vimeo they have a channel that would have film contests embracing filming with a DSLR. All this helps the film makers collaborate on bigger productions. There are also many user created groups on vimeo that are finally being looked at seriously by film makers.

The Game Has Changed

CES, the Consumer Electronics Show is always the place to be if you want to see the newest technologies coming out in the next few years. Who thought that the crown jewel of the convention would be film distribution. Sony is coming out with a new type of media called ultraviolet. In essence it is a cloud based system. They are saying that when you buy a DVD it will be able to watch it on almost any TV, computer, or game console from many manufacturer's regardless of where you bought it. Once this comes out you will not have to buy Abbey Road seventeen times anymore. Included in ultraviolet, besides just buying the DVD you will also receive the digital rights to the movie you bought and will be stored in a cloud type account. That means that once you buy the DVD (physical or digital copy) you never need them again as long as you have a running internet connection. As of right now Apple and Walt Disney are the only two major companies that have came out and said they will not be a part of ultraviolet. Practically every other company is siding with ultraviolet including Microsoft, Hewlett- Packard, and Panasonic to name a few. How this will work can possibly change the entire way that we watch TV and movies. Starting this summer companies will let you buy a movie with the ultraviolet logo on it. You take that DVD and you register it with ultraviolet. Once that is done you can stream that movie directly to your Xbox or your Blu ray player. This will even work when you go on vacation and you want to watch the first season of Glee in your hotel room.