Crazy Apple Rumors Site is always good for a laugh. This one on the iPhone freebies is worth a peek and a giggle or two. Just a taste below….
According to sources at the meeting, Jobs said that employees could choose to receive either a free iPhone, coveted by gadget geeks and consumers, or a free pony, universally coveted by little girls. Keeping with his maniacal attention to detail, Jobs said he would be asking each employee in a one-on-one, Mexican rules meeting which one they preferred.
I worked on a project for Burton Snowboards last fall (if I remember correctly) where we filmmed their sponsored athletes for “Free Format” projection through a Turn Key Solution by Vizoo. It’s a really remarkable effect with simple principals. I hadn’t really thought too much about it lately - until I caught this review of a Diesel Fashion Show that utilzes the technology - merging fashion, video, design and cg.
Simply Brilliant.
Diesel Jeans was one of the first examples I was shown of Vizoo’s Free Format Projection before working on the Burton shoot last fall. You have to take a look at this video.
Also here is their Free Format in Use Showreel.
Vizoo has designed several different holographic like exposition styles.
This stuff is great and somewhat simple as I mentioned before.
The Idiot’s guide to how it works:
The subject is shot on a black background and lit with sharp and even edgelights. In post the background is further darkened by increasing contrast and getting the black spots to 0% black. The projection system does not project 0% black, so anything that is not to be projected must be at 0% black. It is in this way that you avoid having a box around your footage as it would be if projected in a similar manner.
The image is rear projected - from ground level - through a mirror at a 45º angle onto a thin almost invisible black fabric. The 45º angle prevents light transmission from making it to the viewer after the projection makes contact with the fabric screen.
Screens are often placed in between real objects to create a further sense of depth and realism. These are often used as in store displays at night. I have dreamt up a ton of alternative uses for them myself.
There’s a little more to this whole thing tech-wise but the basic principals are here.
The cost of a one day exposition and installation of Free Format (according to the pamphlet from Vizoo) - 20,000 euro not including the 10,000 euro for the HD or 35mm production of the video assets. Though the Burton stuff I worked on was 16mm shot on an old Arri S.
Damn - While I didn’t go run out to an Apple store and wait in line like the rest of the nutcases, I did put one in my shopping cart on Apple.com and have been staring at it for a while now. Granted the only reason I wasn’t standing in line is that the closest Apple store is about 2 hours away. The Apple store online claims to be shipping orders in 2 - 4 weeks.
I keep going back to my cart every once in a while, pondering this impending purchase. The geek in me is dying for one, where the logical side of me keeps thinking how stupid it is at this point. If I only knew when generation 2 was coming. If it was less than a year I would just buy later, more than a year - I’d just buy it now. I think I’ll at least wait until my contract runs out with Verizon in September.
Meanwhile, while I can’t wait to get my hands on one, the guys at Think Secret couldn’t wait to take it apart.
Check out this gallery of the iPone Disassembled. Also start checking eBay if you’re looking for an iPhone. Steve Jobs announced that all Apple employees will be getting a free iPhone. Sounds like a cool gift, right? Hey Steve, did you forget to mention to the employees that they have to sign a two-year service agreement to use your gift?
Double Damn - I just did a quick ebay check and it loks like people are actually bidding up to the $800 mark at this point. Many are listed at close to $1000 and one really optomistic guy has his two iPhones listed at a Buy it Now of $3500.
I saw a couple of pics of this crazy little rig posted on HD For Indies at the close of Cine Gear, but today I was directed to this post on prolost.blogspot.com by Redrock’s own Brian Valente. It’s an interesting handheld setup featuring the Canon HV20 at the center of a sexy and ingenious looking rig made by Redrock.
I’ve been told that Redrock will be offering the shoulder mount rig as an accessory at somepoint, but as of right now it’s just a concept.
It’s live. I’m updating my system as I write this. It looks like the main and only feature of this update is High Profile AVC playback support - which is very cool. The PS3 already supported AVC playback and it is the codec used for all the trailers which you download through the PS3 store.
On launch day back in November I did a bunch of testing exporting DVCPROHD to AVC mpeg4 for HD playback on the PS3. The first couple I did were High Profile and obviosuly had issues with playback but with a little finessing I was able to come up with a nice compression scheme that was compatible and resulted in a nice HD playback. At the time it was pretty cool as there really weren’t any other options like this. HD DVD burners weren’t available and are only fledgling now. Bluray discs are finally coming down in price but weren’t really on option on a amc at that point either. There wasn’t and still isn’t any authoring support on a mac. Yes you can make HD DVD in DVD Studio Pro, but only with SD authoring options and currently you have to burn them to a standard DVD-R. These “hybrid” discs used to be only playable in compatible mac systems, but now they can play in Toshiba HD DVD players (and it looks awesome by the way). These things being said - the ability to export an HD version of an HD project to the hardrive of my PS3 and take it to a client for HD playback was pretty cool.
I’m really looking forward to playing with the High Profile AVC support and seeing what i can come up with, but at this point more for my own projects rather than for clients. I smell a tutorial coming on…
Version 4.06-00-0.00 is out and can be found on Panasonic’s site here.
According to the release notes this update provides support for 16gb P2 cards and improvement on creation date of Folders.
16GB P2 support actually came with the 4.05-00-0.00 update, this must tweak that improvement. Not that it really matters as most people can’t get their hands on 16GB cards right now. Shit, I preordered and paid for mine on 4/18 and still haven’t seen one yet.
I will say that Panasonic has been ontop of offering further support with the HVX though. Mine shipped with firmware version 1.06-00-0.00 so it’s had somoe revisions in the 18 months or so its been on the market. Panasonic also just recently revealed its P2 Assest Support System, an extended warranty and tech support service.
This is an oldie but I can’t believe I missed it the first time around. Terascoop in all it’s glory. A kinda silly but interesting storage solution that would be intersting at a low cost, but at $7000 for 4Tb and it’s not even fibre - come on.
at the center of a sexy and ingenious looking rig made by Redrock.
by Mark Spencer and Jem Schofield just arrived at my door as I was writing this. Sweet.
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