Through the LCD clearly

A few links as placeholders for now, I do want to go into depth on each of these so consider this a preview.

Digg yielded a link on manually unlocking the Iphone 3G in Vietnam. There were also recent articles about the EFF taking issue of Apple’s lack of open source support for managing their products.  I’m not a fan of DRM and properity controllers, I understand the logic behind it but in large part find it hurts consumers, and does nothing to level the playing field. I had the fortune of having a Thanksgiving get together with fellow Missouri State students in Orange County, and was the only person not using an Iphone. So I don’t think Apple and its telecom partners are losing too much money on this. I was excited to hear about a slate program but apparently it doesn’t sync timecode and just generates it randomly which is of little use.

A bit of an insight into the politics surrounding Crossing over. Actors are an integral part of the movie promotion process and the reason that headliners command such obscene salaries. Someone in the comments asked about hoow many of them actually read a script before committing to it?  I constantly hear stories about Edward Norton, Will Smith, Sean Penn, and yes even random kids from a certain C.S Lewis series making editorial decisions. I’m not going to comment too much on the power balance but it’s worth a read.

Juard Van Dijkhorst

Citizen Journalism has really come into its own.  As I’ve said before one almost feels sorry for despots trying to clamp down on their citizen’s access to information. During the Myanmar/Burma clampdown the Government severed internet access, expelled all but the most hidden foreign corespondents, and even posted signs promising severe punishments for those caught with cell phones. But still the flow of information was relatively unhindered. Cell phone cameras and networks outside of state control allowed for an accurate picture of developments. I think I wrote a paper on this, but of course can’t find it.

Forbes has an article on the Mumbai Attacks and Twitter’s emergence as a part of Citizen Journalism.

To a lesser extent the 2008 Presidential Election’s result was influenced by Citizen connectivity and the web scape. Though it proved unequaled in organization, and conducting fund raising the very channels that helped President Elect Obama could prove to be a bit of a nuisance. The Genie is very much out of the bottle. Both the Clinton and the second Bush Administrations had major embarrassments come to light because of the internet. Woe be the White House Press Secretary who has to deal with a mobilized internet faction. The ability of the average citizen to capture, relay, and propagate information is at a level only dreamed about a generation or two ago.

In a way this is wonderful, it delivers on the promise of the printing press; information for all. Governments, Corporations, and any institution must now be wary of the Citizenry. On the other hand there is a potential for grave misuse. Stemming from my own experiences, be it at the hand of a University “reporter”, the ethics around attribution, editing, disclosure, and integrity, are very much in danger of losing what little hold they have left. I would go as far to state that people are naturally drawn to the groups and therefore news outlets that conform to their worldviews and reinforce whatever notions they may have.There is a danger that they will fragment into niches and as network news seems to indicate pay greater heed to sensationalist matter.

The major networks reporting stories about Sarah Palin not knowing where Africa was did not catch on to the fact that the reporter they quoted was a creation and a parody of pundits. The lack of regulation is as dangerous as unwarranted intervention.

Juard Van Dijkhorst

It’s been a hectic few weeks. DGA 2nd Assistant Director Application is in. Now for my MIT Graduate submission packet, etc.

I’ve designed some basic accessories (dimensions still dependent) for the Scarlet, not anything too fancy mainly aesthetic changes. Being able to use some of my 16mm lenses (10.26mmx7.49mm aperture) on the 2/3″ Scarlet is very appealing. Some of the lenses need some cleaning and end caps (not a bad idea to cast lens caps for them out of silicone or abs) I have a strange desire to modify the camera body, and make it conform to the older Cine bodies; Ostrich Skin Leather/Silicone shock absorbent sleeve. (This might have the added bonus of keeping actors from toying with your camera as leather products aren’t vegan.) The ability to do this:

may dig into the pocket book even more, but the idea of configuring for 3D and then shooting; Aerial footage in South Africa,  Scottish Highlands, or dozens of other documentary subjects is tempting.  Some super low cost/low tech aerial mounts and control systems would be the next step. That will be a few months yet. I will stop gushing about it until NAB and new information, in the meanwhile appreciate the modular nature of the system.

Juard Van Dijkhorst

Make magazine has had a few articles and links about Tilt-shifting. To boil it down tilt shifting a lens allows one to distort the image and get miniature like images.

An Australian photographer Kieth Loutit has combined tilt shifting with time lapsed photos of Sydney with inspiring results. This combined with some stop motion and basic composting could make for some wonderful music videos.

The North Wind Blew South from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

I’m off to do some work but have some exciting news about 16mm lenses,  and am pleased to say radical design changes for Radial Sprite are on the way, expect a glut of content and tutorials when time permits.

Juard Van Dijkhorst

Big news,
The Scarlet redesign has been announced, red has gone modular and has finally relented offering a interchangeable lens option. Time to go out and find some old glass before they get too in demand.  As soon as I’ve digested all the options I’m going to do a write up on optimal packages for different situations. My personal needs will need to take account of miniature effects, shooting for chromakey, and be adaptable for aerial and indie shoots.

Juard Van Dijkhorst

I’m busy at the moment but in the interest of playing Fallout 3 on my PC through my roommate’s Xbox 360 I ended up playing around and getting a DV signal output from my DVX into my pc, and then through the right program get live input. Not revolutionary but if I get a chance to try it with a more powerful pc I think I can use it to do variable frame rates… Slightly moot in the age of HD, and the precursor to 5k but still exciting.  The prospect of using that signal (though not the raw output of say the Andromeda) almost compensates for the system red-ringing all the time.

Juard Van Dijkhorst

So it seems for all intents and purposes the election is over. I’m still waiting to see how Missouri voted out of curiosity. At some point I’d like to go into an analysis how technology/convergence changed the way this election played out. I think it’s a fair assessment to say that blogs, camera phone footage, and ready access to a buffet of information played a large role in this election. I’ll go over that and the implications in a few weeks when we’ve all had a brief but much needed respite from election topics. I will say it’s a little harder to get away with election day shenanigans now then it would have been thirty years ago, but by the same token it’s harder to keep policies and internal rifts under wrap as well.

One of my most satisfying papers I wrote while in University was on the history and mechanics of Propaganda. I will adapt portions of it to posts here, as it is a topic I find to be of much interest.

The BBC reports that one of Bin Laden’s video producers was sentenced to life. From a purely analytical stand point the War on terror has been revolutionary in the way ideological messages are propagated. This has largely been because of new technologies and how the flow of information is controlled.

Prior to the American Civil War conflicts had been chronicled in much the same way. Be it Jospehus’s account of the Roman reconquest of Judea and Israel or Jean de Joinville’s Chronicles of  Crusade are similar in nature. It can be argued that literacy gradually increased to the point where more and more participants were able to document their experiences and if one is to look at the volumes written about the Second World War the inclination would be to agree. But it is with still photography during the American Civil War that the aftermaths of battles became more than temporary.

World War I saw the mobilization of Governments and incredibly draconian and unconstitutional (but perhaps necessary?) impositions on the press by the Wilson administration. Governments were still effectively able to control the flow of information by virtue of control over printing presses.

The Second World War is where the shift started. Digressing again a bit I thought I’d share this.

“The quality of the Arri design is clearly demonstrated by the World War II footage filmed by the German forces with their Arris, which far surpasses the footage shot by the Americans with their unwieldy Mitchell or Bell & Howell cameras. You can view this footage twenty four hours a day on cable TV on the History Channel: “All Nazis – All the Time!” D. Knox in Strike the Baby and Kill the Blonde.

Though Mr. Knox besmirches by Bell and Howell Filmo he’s correct The Major powers quickly realized the value of footage for newsreels, training, and good old fashioned propaganda. You can see some of that footage here.

There are countless thousands hours of footage and innumerable photographs but the flow of information was still rigidly controlled. If one were to look at the frightening casulties during the landings on Peleliu or the oft shifting balance of power on the Eastern front the lack of accurate dissemenation of information to the public is startling.

Vietnam let the proverbial cat out of the bag. TV crews beamed uncensored and often unintended images into millions of sets and as predicted by Ho Chi Min influenced public opinion/the outcome of the war.

Now though almost everyone has access to a video camera, be it soldier or insurgent, government minders or citizen watchdogs. The Internet has made distribution of any content instant, wide reaching, and in most places impossible to fully prohibit. Some nations (who I shall not name) have realized this and have made every effort to control access to said networks but others do not have the infrastructure to do so. Looking at the troubles in Burma last year and despite all regulations, penalties, and other sanctions information leaked to the world. Cell phone cameras are more common than tanks, and the BBC was still able to get field reports (and covered the situation weeks before the press here did).

When I go further into depth on the subject (I assure you the above was merely a brief hint) I may venture into the territory of online propaganda.

IO9 has a few brief quotes on the technology that made the Curious Case of Benjamin Button possible.  A friend of a friend (and a good chap to boot) worked on the film in that regard. So I thought it deserved a posting.

Via digg: 25 Free Digital Audio Editors. I’ve been rocking Audacity for a little while now, I don’t do too much sound editing but after a Pro Tools class it is a definite positive to have around. If he is allowed/willing to go further in depth (the article is a bit light on detail) I’ll be sure to post on that.

Down in the valley a former Music equipment manufacture is having a sale. I”m going to swing by and try pick up some vacuum tubes for a project I’m making, and maybe a vintage mic or two.. Heavily dependent on prices of course.

Cheers for now I have some prep for an information session tomorrow night.

Juard Van Dijkhorst

Preface:
I adore Franz Ferdinand, I first became a moderate fan of their music while “studying” at the University of Stirling in Scotland. Back stateside I drove up to St. Louis from Springfield to see them play. On an impulse brought along a few bottles of Irn Bru (it’s a drink.. “made in Scotland, with rust from girders”). Long story short I was fortunate enough to meet them prior to the show.  They were nice guys seemed genuinely interested in what I had thought of Scotland, thanked me for the Irn Brus, and bothered to learn to pronounce my name.  One of my issues with people in entertainment or politics is that they have an over inflated sense of their self worth, so it’s nice to interact with a talented group and have them turn out to have personalities. To top it all off they put on a killer show , the last time I danced that long or with that intensity I tore the ligament in my left knee. This was just prior to the release of their second album and I was hooked.

Moving on to today:
Torrent freak had a piece on the band telling fans to “point their browsers towards Limewire, soon kiddies!”
The piece they are referring to is a cover of David Bowie’s Sound and Vision, I went through the official site but couldn’t find the quote. Torrentfreak and Aversion quote them as saying:

“Franz have covered David Bowie’s 1977 single Sound And Vision for a new compilation marking the 40th anniversary of BBC Radio 1. The album features contemporary artistzzzz covering a song from each year since the station’s first broadcast in 1967.

edit….The whole shabang doesn’t appear to be for charity so point your browsers towards Limewire soon, kiddies!”

Seems the producers of the project mislead the band or management as to the nature of the project. It doesn’t seem like something the BBC would do but one never knows anymore. The song they referenced is well worth looking up and giving a listen.

In a previous interview (which I’ve linked to a secondary source because of the original source’s nsfw nature) they stated:

“PLAYBOY: Some musicians aren’t very happy about the iPod.
NICK: I’m not quite sure.  I think if you’re in one place, it’s nice to have an actual album, a record sleeve, the lyrics.  So there will always be that element of wanting to own something and not just have a song on a hard drive.  But I know I travel a lot – and I’ve always liked to travel light – I don’t like to have a lot of posessions.  What I do is buy a CD and stick it in and rip it.  Then I can listen to it and have it with me even if I lose the CD or give it away.
ALEX: I like the idea that, because of downloading, people are going to buy songs only if they are good.  I think that’s a positive thing.  It means lazy bands aren’t going to get away with giving you one hit single and an album full of filler.  We like the idea that every song should stand up in its own right so you don’t have to listen to a song in the context of an album to understand it.  I suppose that’s why I’m sympathetic to the download environment.”

Interesting statement,
One of my friends in Stirling had been writing a paper on the changing nature of the recording industry and had asked us our opinions. I should get him to chime in on this but here are some of the selected bits we talked about.

“Jamie: Due to the digital downloading of tracks (Apple iTunes store is now the third most common way to purchase music in America) are we – once again – a singles, as opposed to albums, society?

Me: Unless a CD truly stands out,
Singles are the safer bet. I do think we’re headed that way.
A concentration on singles may well bolster the industry. If individual songs have to be good, instead of just tacked on the coat tails of better songs, we may start expecting higher caliber songs.

Jamie: Additional comments?
Me: I think downloading is the great equalizer.
Eventually the recording industry will dominate or hold the most beneficial distribution deals. Despite that, garage bands or musicians of alternative genres will have a means to get their music out to the world, and bypass the traditional routes of success.

We will of course have an influx of even more terrible music, but eventually sites and niche reviewers will start to wade through the rubbish and we may well have a musical golden age on our hands.”

I don’t know how the big recording companies feel on the matter. I know I’ve bought an album for one or two songs before (but have long since stopped).  I do like the tactile sensation of having a CD or LP but I’m not exactly able to throw on my Simon and Garfunkel LP’s on for a jog am I? In the end as with other aspects of media production the big companies know what they’re doing, have access to a better network of scouts and have perhaps most importantly hugely talented marketing/promotional machines so they will adapt and come out on top but for us fans it’s still a nice shift.

Indecently there is a new Franz Ferdinand album coming out in January and it would be interesting to analyze their CD vs. online Single sales.

Juard Van Dijkhorst