I’m not even going to promise this is my last piece on the Royal Wedding and no mention of Richard Armitage, but this is actually a geek post and not so much about the wedding. In keeping with all things tech that fascinate me, I had to bring this for your edification. The picture may not seem all that fascinating on first glance, but just click on it and see what comes, and be sure to let yourself play with it. :D
It’s easy if you try. And with the advent of torrents and some other tools for consumers to get their hands on video clips quickly, it’s certainly a possibility. So the media industry is feeling the pinch and trying to get out ahead of the demand. But I’m wondering if moving up the ability to access VOD (Video on Demand) in home is the answer, and some well known names in the business are certainly taking exception to it.
Peter Jackson, James Cameron, Michael Bay and More Write Letter Opposing Premium VOD Service
Peter Jackson and James Cameron write letter opposing Premium VOD Service
This Thursday, DirecTv will launch its new Premium VOD service, which allows viewers to watch new movies from Warner Bros., Sony, Universal, and 20th Century Fox in their homes just 60 days after a title’s initial theatrical release for a fee of $30. Today, 23 of Hollywood’s top directors have published a letter in opposition against this VOD platform.
This letter, which was put together by James Cameron and his producing partner Jon Landau in conjunction with NATO (the National Assn. of Theater Owners ), is set to coincide with Thursday’s launch of the Adam Sandler comedy Just Go with It, which will be the first Home Premiere title available to HD customers for $29.99.
Along with James Cameron and Jon Landau, other letter signers include Michael Bay, Kathryn Bigelow, Guillermo del Toro, Roland Emmerich, Peter Jackson, Shawn Levy, Michael Mann, Todd Phillips, Brett Ratner, Adam Shankman, Gore Verbinski, Robert Zemeckis, Karyn Kusama, Antoine Fuqua, Todd Garner, Lawrence Gordon, Stephen Gyllenhaal, Gale Anne Hurd, Bill Mechanic, Jamie Patricof, and Robert Rodriguez.
Here is the letter in full:
AN OPEN LETTER FROM THE CREATIVE COMMUNITY ON PROTECTING THE MOVIE-GOING EXPERIENCE
We are the artists and business professionals who help make the movie business great. We produce and direct movies. We work on the business deals that help get movies made. At the end of the day, we are also simply big movie fans.
Lately, there’s been a lot of talk by leaders at some major studios and cable companies about early-to-the-home “premium video-on-demand.” In this proposed distribution model, new movies can be shown in homes while these same films are still in their theatrical run.
In this scenario, those who own televisions with an HDMI input would be able to order a film through their cable system or an Internet provider as a digital rental. Terms and timing have yet to be made concrete, but there has been talk of windows of 60 days after theatrical release at a price of $30.
Currently, the average theatrical release window is over four months (132 days). The theatrical release window model has worked for years for everyone in the movie business. Current theatrical windows protect the exclusivity of new films showing in state-of-the-art theaters bolstered by the latest in digital projection, digital sound, and stadium seating.
Read the rest here.
I’ve waxed on elsewhere about artificial scarcities being created where none normally exists, and how that irritates me, and keeping people from VOD is strictly creating a scarcity — or trying. Yet I’m wondering what would be sacrificed (even short term) if we inch open the floodgates some more for access to movies. Oh, you say they’re already open? Well, not quite, but it’s not long before they are, so is there a good reason to keep people from quicker in home access? I don’t know. Will there come a day when we look back at movie watching in a theater as a quaint old custom? Oh, I have lots of thoughts about this, but I’m interested in yours.
Sorry to inflict my geek moment on you, but I can’t help myself, and if you’re into screencapping Richard Armitage, this might be of interest.
Last spring I was reading about an HD cinematic camera which could shoot frame rates at 100 times the usual. So what does all of this mean and why should you care? There are things that can now be seen which before could only be consistently captured with scopes (decidedly less detail than a camera) or speculated with mathematics, and usually that is so abstract for most as to be inconceivable and therefore blown off. But enter the Phantom Flex, and thankfully, as of a few weeks ago, there is now some fantastic video to show exactly how precise this camera can be.
I realize some may not be that impressed with this, but that’s because you have probably not watched much slow motion video. Most of it is a lot more blurry than this video above, so the detail in this is amazing. For any of you who have made screencaps, you know how frustrating it can be to fight the blur. Can you imagine the screen capture ability with this kind of video?! Mind boggling. It captures such detail that it’s like seeing the forbidden. Should be interesting to see what is unearthed from coming films.
And Richard Armitage just thought we had him under a magnifying glass. LOL!
If you haven’t already done it, watch that video in full screen mode.
And if you’re not a geek, I’ll throw in a picture to make reading this worth your time.
The guy who started it all:
Screencap courtesy of RichardArmitageNet.Com
[Note: No, there will be nothing about Richard Armitage in this piece, but sometimes I just can’t help but talk about other things]
AOL (America Online) is that company which almost everyone in America has used as an ISP (Internet Service Provider) — thanks to those CDs that were littered across America’s mailboxes and practically pressed on us when we went to Wal-Mart or Target or even the grocery store. If it weren’t for AOL, America would not have become accustomed so quickly to the joys of surfing the web. But as other ISPs, who did not sink their hooks into our systems quite so much, came into existence and had the means to provide high speed services such as DSL or Cable at a cheaper price, AOL went on the wane.
However, they should never be counted out. They have managed to stay afloat, and now they are once again on an acquisition frenzy. I’m fascinated with what they’re doing. Unless they know something the rest of us don’t, I’m thinking they’re nuts. And now Mashable.com might be one of their pickings? Tomorrow Mashable is announcing something major, and I’m wondering if they will make this list. And if you don’t know about Mashable, well, then I haven’t done a very good job of public service while you’ve been reading this blog. :D
To know about Mashable, you have to know about Pete Cashmore, its founder and CEO. Other than being one of the hottest geeks around,
Pete has built an information empire majoring on the power of social media, and all beginning when he was 19 and blogging from his bedroom in Scotland. If Pete says something or Mashable says something, it often sends a wave through the media community. If AOL gets hold of that? Oh man, I don’t know what I think at this point. My gut is screaming, “No, no, no and no!” But maybe I’m wrong. I’m always willing to be wrong. It’s just that AOL is so pedestrian, and I have a hard time thinking they’re going to go places that Pete has taken the rest of us. I don’t see it.
But hey, if Pete does sell, I don’t blame him. He is young enough at 25 to do many more things. I just hate to see the establishment get hold of Mashable. Bummer.
Heather’s download link — HD video.
Richard Armitage at 22 seconds, and I mean only at 22 seconds. So all of this for a one second shot. LOL! But I’m having a blast. I may breakdown and buy some fancy software yet. :D No, no, someone needs to slap me. I DO NOT need another diversion. LOL!
I snaffled a copy of the 1080i size, so the caps would be good quality, but bccmee has a great one without watermark:
I even stumbled across this kid while I was surfing YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GunJ275Nr4A
He gives a pretty good run down on the history of Captain America movies.
Check out his channel. He is a hoot, but I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at his bio. Check out “books”.
I throw him in because this is Richard’s audience for this movie, or at least the majority of the audience.
I’m not quite sure this is a tangent, since the point is ultimately about Richard Armitage watching, but it feels like a tangent. Hell, this whole blog feels like a tangent. Ahem.
Twitter is a great tool once you get used to it. Yeah, there’s a bunch of bs that goes on there, but it’s one of the quickest ways to find out information; however, you’re at a disadvantage if you’re only using Twitter to well, access your Twitter account. With the advent of Twitter, Facebook, et al, there had to be something on the scene to manage them easily. I use Hootsuite. The best thing about it for me is the ability to see several things at once. I can watch tweets on my account stream and also show streams for searches of which I can make a permanent stream or do one on the fly, like oh let’s say The Rover. Yes, I’ll explain a stream.
Here’s what my Hootsuite Dashboard looks like, and please don’t let it overwhelm you. It’s really a lifesaver, or maybe just a headache saver because you can get lost just navigating your Twitter pages without it.
Click on image to enlarge.
The first stream is my account stream or what I would see on the home page of my Twitter account. The tweets showing on that page are the ones I make and the ones made by people I follow. Since I can see all of their tweets, I know if they say something to me. But not everyone who tweets to me am I following, so for those I have the second stream which shows any tweets that contain @RAFrenzy. The third stream I created to show any ‘Richard Armitage’ or #RichardArmitage comments in someone’s tweet. That pulls in anything anyone says on Twitter that has either of those phrases in it. The second phrase with # sign is referred to as a hashtag. You can create any search you want, and I have several on my ‘Twitter 2nd’ Hootsuite page. It makes things really easy to find. The fourth stream is one of my lists, which are groups of users you can make in lieu of following those users. I made one of media outlets that might have something of interest concerning RA but not necessarily use his name. If I followed all of these, it would clutter up my home stream, and frankly, from time to time I quit following some users and put them on a list. What’s great is that you don’t even have to make your own list. You can follow someone else’s.
Hopefully, you’ll consider doing Twitter and even Hootsuite. Frankly, if you’re going to make the most out of being a ripple in the RA pond, you should. LOL! You just have to ponder it a bit, and there are plenty of us to help if your eyes get glazed over.:D
Just more of my public service to you. ;-)
Screencap courtesy of RichardArmitageNet.Com
P.S. I know there are other tools for managing Twitter. Feel free to share them, and perhaps about accessing from a phone. I just didn’t want to get into that in this post.
The days of the masses being in the dark about what is available for television viewing are almost gone in developed countries and maybe in some developing countries also. Well, only if you have a computer or know someone who does. But in the recent past, it was very frustrating to watch shows from other countries on a timely basis. There’s no question if I had relied solely on the television networks in the U.S., I still would not have seen North and South, would have been very difficult to watch Robin Hood or Vicar of Dibley, and certainly difficult to get caught up on Spooks before RA was involved.
It will be interesting to see just how long it does take for some of these shows to reach the U.S. Yeah, I know some of them have, but if you blink, you’ll miss them, and no thanks to BBCA, which is a dog of a station and pretty much considered a joke in the U.S. Why should I pay for almost 24/7 viewing of Cash in the Attic?
I wish the networks would get on the stick or they’re just going to lose more viewers, and oh, they have! However I have a niggling feeling that some of them won’t get on the stick but will instead try to limit the market by seeking government regulation in order to thwart access to such things as BitTorent. Aren’t the cable companies already trying to thwart it? Oh, you’re not sure? Some of you cannot get easy access to BitTorrent because your cable companies make the downloading process excruciatingly slow, and you just thought it was your system. Don’t worry. If they keep that up, they’re just asking for someone to come up with a workaround. LOL!
None of this is to say I’m for ‘Net Neutrality,’ which would be the government owning the backbone of the Net. Please God don’t let that happen! No, there does not need to be one entity in control or the cries really will fall on almost deaf ears.
At least with the current system in the U.S. one network might try to get the jump on the others and offer something the others don’t. YEA! for competition. And as much as I’m ranting here, some of the networks are trying to make progress. It’s just not quickly enough to suit me.
Hope to see many more blog pieces in the future like this one from Australia:
How fast is fast-tracked?
aturner | September 23, 2010
The networks continue to “rush” our favourite US shows to air in Australia.
With the rise of the internet, it’s become harder for local TV networks to treat us like idiots and pretend that old shows are new shows. It’s also become easier for people to download their favourite US and UK shows within hours of them going to air, rather than waiting for local networks to get around to screening them.As more and more viewers turn to the BitTorrent channel, Australian networks have come up with terms such as “fast-tracked” to convince us that we’re seeing foreign shows as soon as possible. Rather than waiting months or even years for new shows, now it’s more like days or weeks. Unfortunately the networks struggle to deliver on such promises.
Read the rest here.
Don’t those people from “Big Bang Theory” look like they’re having fun? I guess you wouldn’t know if they really are if you’ve never seen it. Heh.
If you are a frequent viewer of any of the triumviRAte sites (RichardArmitageNet.Com, RichardArmitageOnline, or RichardArmitageCentral), then you probably know about Richard’s reading of Wordsworth today on BBC 3. If you haven’t been reading as much lately, then know that it will be done here at 10:45pm London time.
If some of you are like me, you won’t be around to listen to this live. Don’t fear. You can listen to it on the BBC iPlayer at a later time, but usually only for a limited number of days. If you would like to do this, you can search the archives for this show. I’ve done the search on ‘Words and Music,’ which is the name of the program, and you can run this link to do your own search later. update: To listen on the iPlayer, go here. second update: but if you don’t want to listen to the whole thing, bccmee has provided only RA’s parts. I recommend listening to the entire broadcast the first time around.
But if you’re also like me, listening to it on the iPlayer will not be enough. You must also have a copy for your stash. Good news for those of you who have a PC and have not already read A Little Sweetner. There is a way. It’s called Radio Downloader, and if you read that post, it explains what it does. Just so you know it’s very easy to download the program, and it doesn’t take up much space. You can then browse the BBC for “programmes” and subscribe if you like. But beware of subscribing as this software will download dynamically to your system, i.e., you can start to fill up your storage if you’re not careful about your subscriptions. Other than that caution, this software has been wonderful to manage not to mention facilitating the enjoyment of several more performances of RA using that voice that is God’s gift to women.
And it’s been so much more than that. I’ve become a major fan of British radio, and ‘Words and Music’ is one of my favorites. I’m SO SORRY I didn’t listen to British radio sooner. I missed out on the Chekhov celebration earlier in the year. Blast! If anyone has any of those recordings, please let me know.
Now we just need to get a program this easy to manipulate that runs on a Mac!!
Not into radio? Well, next up is something you might find interesting.
I am changing courses in mid-stream. Maybe that language is too strong. I’m not changing courses, I’m changing how I’m going about the course. I am spending a little more time on the diary entries I wrote awhile back. Couple that with school starting and all the madness that goes along with that, and well, I’m being challenged to find time to get my blog pieces the way I want them.
Because I’ve been remiss in not publishing as often, I offer something to those of you who may not know some of the little goodies that us rabid fans have at our disposal. It’s a neat little program I acquired to listen to BBC Radio. When Clarissa came out earlier this year, I was looking for a way to listen to the broadcasts live or very shortly after the broadcast, and I found it in this program. (Yes, I’m going to tell you what it is — eventually. LOL!)
But since Clarissa aired, I’ve gone way beyond trying to listen to just broadcasts with or about RA or anything in which he’s involved. I have quite an array of subscriptions that are such a delight to me. One of them is the Afternoon Play on Radio 4, and Radio 4 has been such a treat that for months now I’ve been a member of a Facebook advocacy group called Speak up for Radio Drama Now! If you have read this blog for any length of time, you know I have no love for FB, so it’s quite something for me to even stay involved. But I support what they are trying to do with that Group. Not quite sure it’s going to accomplish the purpose, but someone, somewhere needs to know how much BBC Radio 4 is loved!!! Definitely worthy of three exclamations points at once.
I did chuckle to myself when I first heard RA’s crack about BBC Radio 4 listeners being part of his Army. Before Clarissa I could have said indignantly, “Oh, not me!” But I am so in the bag for Radio 4. Yes, I fit his demographic too well except that I’m not sure about the “quite well-educated” part. I still think of myself as a mutt and always will, and I’m fine with that. Mutts can usually go anywhere without much detection. Yeah, I’ll stick with being a mutt. :D
So without further ado here’s the sweetner:
I give this to you now because there are probably going to be broadcasts of interviews about Spooks 9, which if Ali at RichardArmitageNet.Com is correct, will more than likely air in September. Then again, there may be nothing broadcast. But I wanted you to be prepared if there were. Just more of my public service to you. ;-)
Oh, and I have never had a problem with this program, but I think it’s only available for PC users. If anyone knows of a good MAC program, then tell us about it.
So Rupert Murdoch finally has the paywalls up completely on the Times. I’ve been reading about this coming event for quite a while now. It’s my understanding that Murdoch based part of his decision on another paper he owns that requires paid subscriptions for online reading — The Wall Street Journal. The only problem with his thinking is that the Wall Street Journal targets a much smaller audience, provides information more difficult to obtain and the readers have more means to pay. It can’t be said enough that the Times stuff is easily available elsewhere unless the Times has one helluva editorial team, which is doubtful. So I’m not sure what Murdoch is thinking to compare the two papers.
Perhaps he’s not thinking, since it’s also my understanding that he personally does not use the internet. ROFLOL!!! Wait. I think he’s almost 80. Okay, that explains it. Wait, my 70 something year old mother has an iPhone and accesses the internet with it, and yes, to get her news. As if that’s not enough, so do my almost 80 year old mother-in-law and father-in-law, so no, age doesn’t explain it. He must be on another planet ’cause the color of the sky in his world is not the same as the rest of us, and apparently he’s as unrealistic as Prince, who I already thought was crazy. Oh wait, I meant the artist formerly known as Prince. No, I’m wrong, he’s back to Prince. Whatever, I’m not talking about the royals:
…”The internet’s completely over. I don’t see why I should give my new music to iTunes or anyone else. They won’t pay me an advance for it and then they get angry when they can’t get it.
“The internet’s like MTV. At one time MTV was hip and suddenly it became outdated. Anyway, all these computers and digital gadgets are no good.
“They just fill your head with numbers and that can’t be good for you.”
Alrighty then. Those devices in our hands are really just a figment of our imaginations and will soon disappear. I don’t think ol’ Rupe thinks those devices are going away, but just like Prince, he thinks he can create a scarcity where none exists. But of course the devil’s advocate rears his head and has me remembering that Rupert and Prince are friggin’ geniuses, and sometimes we think geniuses are crazy — especially when they see something the rest of us can’t. This is going to drive me crazy until I know these paywalls fail. Then again, I understand they might be necessary. If so, it’s going to be sad to see the golden era of information coming to an end.
In the meantime, I love how one of the frequent commenters at Tech Dirt put it:
Hephaestus said:
He will fail. Will it get me laid? will it make me money? is it required for work? his paper doesnt match any of those so its a fail, and few if any will pay for it.
I hope you’re right, Heph.
RAFrenzy 
