With Local Opener - Episode 3 - Igomaniac
April 15th, 2008
With Local Opener - Ep3 - Igomaniac (HD/AppleTV)
With Local Opener - Ep3 - Igomaniac (SD/iPod)
Final Project
April 8th, 2008For the final project, Igor and I will be doing a commentary video for our three videos (which reminds me, Episode 3 is should be up soon, it’s having a little trouble getting out of post-prod). It will be a Diggnation style video with Igor and I going through our three episodes and discussing what we learned from producing each of them (although I’m sure some memories from shooting will come up as well). The video will be around twenty five minutes since that is the approximate runtime of our three episodes. If there is any thing in particular you would like to hear about, leave a post in the comments and we’ll be sure to try and include it.
A Little Compression Can Go a Long Way
March 28th, 2008With the internet quickly becoming the common utility for the world to gather, exchange, and distribute information and entertainment in many different forms, it is about time that video became a big part of that exchange. One technology that is making that happen is the video compressor/decompressor (codec) standard known as H.264. Also known as MPEG-4 AVC, this little compression scheme is slowly but surely changing the way video is watched, used and distributed both on and off the internet.
The H.264 video codec standard was developed by two video standards bodies, the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG) and the ISO/IEC Motion Pictures Experts Group (MPEG). It began as the ITU-T H.26L standard and when the ISO/MPEG began developing a similar standard they both decided to develop it through a partnership known as the Joint Video Team (JVT). The goal of the new standard was to deliver good quality video at bitrates that were half or less than those of previous standards including MPEG-2, which is used on DVDs and digital television broadcast in the United States. They also wanted the new standard to be applicable across all uses of video from low bitrate, low resolution video on the web to high bitrate, high resolution video on video discs and everything in between. More technical details can be found on the H.264 Wikipedia page.
Since the initial draft standard was was accepted by both the ISO/IEC and the ITU-T in May 2003, the adoption of it has been slow but steady. The first big adoption of it was by Apple Inc. They quickly integrated the new standard into their quicktime format and highly encouraged its use by expanding the movie trailers video gallery on their website to include high-definition trailers, all encoded using quicktime and H.264. Later in October of 2005, Apple began selling TV shows, short films and music videos, all encoded in H.264, on the iTunes Store as well as added video playback to their popular iPod player. And less than a year later in September 2006, they began selling feature-length movies on iTunes at near-DVD quality. But more recently, Apple has utilized H.264 to deliver downloadable HD movie rentals on it’s Apple TV device.
With the addition of H.264 into Apple’s Quicktime 7, podcasters began expanding from doing audio-only shows to doing video shows as well. With H.264 delivering good quality video at significantly lower bitrates than MPEG-2 and even MPEG-4, downloadable video began being a reasonable distribution method for these independent producers. And with video podcasting being integrated into podcasting clients like iTunes and Miro, delivering video over the internet is becoming more widely accepted.
But Apple is not the only one adopting H.264. It was recently adopted by the user submitted video site YouTube. Since June 2007, YouTube has been encoding all newly uploaded videos in both Flash video and H.264, as well as encoding their back catalog, to provide YouTube to both iPhone and Apple TV users. And soon after, Adobe announced that they would be adding H.264 support to their Flash Player which will allow them to deliver high-definition video through their Flash video format.
On the other side of the coin, H.264 is not only being adopted for small format and internet video. When the latest high-definition video disc formats, HD DVD and Blu-ray, were being developed, they both adopted H.264 as a required codec. This means that all HD DVD and Blu-ray players can playback H.264 encoded video. H.264 is also finding its way into consumer camcorders. Many of the high-definition camcorders that are produced today are using the AVCHD format developed by Sony and Panasonic. AVCHD uses H.264 to compress the video from the camcorder to fit it on to various media, including flash cards, hard disk drives and mini-DVDs, which usually have smaller capacities than traditional miniDV and VHS-C tapes.
Broadcast television around the world is also turning its attention to H.264. In late 2004, the Digital Video Broadcast (DVB) standards committee in Europe approved the use of H.264 for television broadcasts. Brazil and Norway are both using H.264 for their terrestrial broadcasts while France has made it a requirement for all HDTV receivers. Many other countries, including New Zealand, South Korea, Russia, Ukraine, and Poland, have plans to use it in the near future for their terrestrial broadcast while Japan and Hong Kong are currently using it for their newer digital video services. As well, the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) standards body for the United States is looking into the future use of H.264 in optional enhanced terrestrial television broadcasts. [1]
But what does this mean for the everyday person? How might this impact you or me? One big potential impact that H.264 has on us as viewers is our viewing habits. With H.264 making the internet a viable distribution method for video, we may no longer be slaves to the TV schedule or movie theater show times. With video being delivered over then internet, we are now more easily able to view content on-demand and work it into our own schedules. This is a trend that has been growing in recent years with the advent of Tivo and other Digital Video Recorders (DVR) that allow us to automatically record television shows and watch them at our convenience. But I believe that DVRs are merely a stepping stone to true on-demand content viewing. With H.264, video content can be retrieved and begin being viewed in a matter of seconds or, for higher quality content, automatically downloaded for viewing later.
With the internet as a method of distribution, both commercial and independently produced content have equal footing and opportunity to reach the mass audience. We have already seen this with the music industry where both big record labels and smaller independents exist as equals on the iTunes store and Amazon’s MP3 store. H.264 has the ability to do the same for the movie and television industry. With both big commercial entities and small independent producers having access to similar tools for video production, real competition can begin.
In my opinion, the most exciting transformation can occur in the living room. With H.264 and internet distribution, the possibility of having a centralized viewing experience, whether it be commercial content, independent content or user-submitted content, becomes possible. Imagine that when you turn on your TV, instead of seeing the last channel you were watching, you are greeted with a menu. On this menu is a number of new videos for you to watch, including movies, television shows, podcasts, and videos your friends have made, as well as options to go find other videos. Now instead of flipping through the channels to find something to watch, you can just go through the content that you have either already downloaded or subscribed to or go find other new content. No longer would you mindlessly flip through the channels, instead you would either browse around for something that interests you that you may then subscribe to, or catch up on the videos that you have missed since you last turned on your TV. With H.264 quickly becoming the standard for internet video and devices like Tivo, Apple TV, and Xbox 360, this scenario is quickly becoming a reality.
With Local Opener - Episode 2 - How To Become A Rockstar
February 26th, 2008
With Local Opener - Ep2 - How to Become a Rockstar (HD/AppleTV)
With Local Opener - Ep2 - How to Become a Rockstar (SD/iPod)
With Local Opener - Episode 1 - Murphy’s Law
February 6th, 2008
With Local Opener - Ep1 - Murphy’s Law (HD/AppleTV)
With Local Opener - Ep1 - Murphy’s Law (SD/iPod)
With Local Opener - HD - (RSS)
With Local Opener - SD - (RSS)
The thr33 parter
February 1st, 2008Igor and I are collaborating on this 3 part project. The concept for our piece is what it takes to get a new band off the ground. The subject for our piece is going to be Igor’s band which he is currently starting. We chose to chronicle the bands first three gigs in a Zefrank style video. Igor is doing the creative writing part of the episodes while I will be filming and editing it together. We are planning to focus more on the lighter, funnier side of the bands first gigs and all the things that go awry when a band first starts out. Other than using a Zefrank style, we don’t think there is much if anything like this out there. And while there is an aspect of comedy and entertainment to this, we hope it will allow a candid look into the struggle of starting a band.
del.icio.us RSS Slideshow
January 25th, 2008Check out my RSS Slideshow. It is a collection of the numerous podcasts that I watch and listen to on a weekly and sometimes daily basis.
Taking the “Class” out of Class Project
January 23rd, 2008During class earlier tonight, I kept wondering how this class project was going to integrate into this class. As I sat there, I couldn’t help but think that this “web portal” was a great idea, but had nothing to do with the class. It seemed like a place for these residents, and those participating in their projects, to post and syndicate what they are doing here. As I listened to the discussion that was taking place, most of the work that was being discussed for our class’ part in this project was more suited for a web developer than an art student.
Most of the talk was centered on creating a dynamic content site that the residents and others participating in their projects could post different things to, whether they be audio, video, text, graphics, or any other digital media. And as the discussion continued I couldn’t help but think that it was essentially a blog with multiple authors. Of course the idea of using drupal to create this was brought up. It seems like a very logical thing to use. And then there was talk of creating graphic templates for the site. This seemed logical, I mean if you have a site, you need a layout for it.
But then I thought about what managing a drupal site and creating graphic layouts had to do with Participatory Culture. We weren’t creating any real new media content to add to that ever ongoing conversation that is the internet, we were mearly helping these residents do it. Now I’m not sure about everyone else but I didn’t sign up for this class to be the Arts Dept. web master or their graphic designer. I signed up to learn more about this revolution that is occurring in media and how it is produced, distributed, and consumed. As well as what it means for normal consumers and how it is going to change the way people interact with their media. And looking at this “class project,” I’m not sure how it facilitates our learning about Participatory Culture other than looking at what some other artist are doing.
Am I alone here or does anyone else think that this is pretty much irrelevant to this class. Leave comments and make your own personal posts.
Edit: Comments should work.
Henry Jenkins watches too much Star Wars
January 23rd, 2008In Henry Jenkin’s article Quentin Tarantino’s Star Wars?: Digital Cinema, Media Convergence, and Participatory Culture, it is very clear that he has watch and read too many Star Wars parodies and fanfics. But once you get past that, he makes some very good points about the media and the future of digital cinema. Since around the Industrial Revolution, a lot of importance has been placed on intellectual property by big businesses and corporations. Their wish to control every aspect of what they create (or the things they buy) are somewhat ridiculous.
As Henry pointed out, prior to the Industrial Revolution, most entertainment was more open and participatory. Stories were told and passed down through a culture, and altered along the way to gather new and relevant meanings. Today stories are told and controlled so that they cannot be adapted until the current rights owner feels it is appropriate. This is only hindering progress in cultural entertainment.
The other point that Henry touches upon is the notion of media convergence. It seems that every story gets retold in every variation of media possible. Books turn into movies, which then produce video games, and possibly a spin-off television series if there is enough money to be made. All the while there is no new content being produced, it’s all just a rehash of the original. It annoys me that whenever I look at new movies that are coming out, they are always based on some other media, like a book or a comic series, or it’s a sequel to another movie. It seems the only way I can be satisfied with a movie is if it is loosely based on a book that I don’t know about.
While this article was clearly written a number of years ago, his views on digital media and the internet are still very relevant to what is going on today.