AOL Commissions Jamie and GE invests in Brightcove

The front of this week’s Broadcast boasts the AOL is going into content commissioning following a deal with Fresh One productions to produce a high budget OB of Jamie Oliver Cooking. AOL found success following last years Live 8, with downloadable/streaming clips from the event.  This is one of a series of recent moves connecting the internet with original video content. I seam to remember worries that the likelihood of Broadcasters becoming Web Giants through acquisition, was much less likely than the likes of AOL, Yahoo or Google becoming Broadcasters.    Regardless nothing like that is going to happen this year…

Additionally in the news, it was reported earlier this week that Brightcove has received financial backing from GE Commercial Finance Group. There is a lot of cash in this industry, it is set to be huge!

ITV2's viewing relies heavily on XFactor and Films, but is This Really Challanging the Main 5?

Entourage has yet to break into ITV 2’s Top Ten. The Top Ten marker sits about 500,000. I am waiting for the day! At the moment the only thing keeping the Ailing channel afloat is bloody XFactor!


ITV2 Individuals 4+ Viewing (Including Timeshift) - w/e 17/09/2006
Programme 000's
1 THE X FACTOR (Sun 2000) 1590
2 XTRA FACTOR (Sun 2104) 906
3 XTRA FACTOR (Sat 2114) 892
4 FILM: THE MUMMY RETURNS (Sat 2310) 804
5 FILM: THE MUMMY RETURNS (Sat 2219) 658
6 ENTERTAINMENT NEWS UPDATE (Sat 2309) 626
7 FILM: DOUBLE JEOPARDY (1999) (Wed 2153) 590
8 FILM: UNBREAKABLE (Fri 2105) 575
9 FILM: THE MUMMY RETURNS (Sun 1452) 549
10 FILM: UNBREAKABLE (Fri 2157) 515

Now when you look at the Terrestrial Top 30 Shows all but Channel 5 have all 30 shows in excess of 1 Million viewers, the highest # 30 show for the week was on the Beeb with nearly 4 Million. These sorts of numbers lead me to think although the viewers are spreading thinner across the multi channels, the real numbers in terms of reach still lie with the main networks.

Apple FCP Update Clarified

So, I am quoting Panasonic here on workflow.
FCP can mix 1080p25 from P2 cards and 1080i/50 from DVCPro tapes on the same timeline.  Maybe this is a bit duh. But with FCP’s new updates, p2 ingest of 25p (pn) is now supported.

Pacino Inside the Actors Studio

Bravo will be interviewing Al Pacino on ‘Inside the Actors Studio’ to be aired Oct 2, in the US. I don’t think Actors Studio Airs on Bravo over here, which is a shame because the interviews are quite candid and insightful. The last one I watched was with Dave Chapelle. During the show he bemoaned the outcome of ‘Half Baked’ describing his frustrations at not being able to make the film he wanted. He also discussed the cataclysmic success of the Chapelle show, which never lived up to the hype, and the tribulations of ‘Block Party’, all the while chain smoking like you don’t see famous people these days.

Back on to Pacino, in the interview he discusses;
How close he felt to being sacked on the set of ‘The Godfather’
“I was sure I was going to be replaced…and I finally just wanted to be replaced. I thought, 'What am I doing here? This is not working. I don't feel wanted (by Paramount).' An actor needs comforting and a certain amount of feeling that people want you there."
His Adoration for Robin Williams
I always try to be like Robin Williams, and be funny. He's my idol! And the one film I do with him is not funny ('Insomnia')."
His post Oscar winning experiences
"I won the Oscar. I was in shock and overwhelmed by the whole thing. I get in the elevator and I'm going down with a lot of people, we're packed like sardines. And I had my Oscar. A very well known actress is standing in front of me and she starts to squirm a little bit. And I realize the head of my Oscar is touching her behind. And I thought, "oh man, this is so weird." I pick the Oscar up and I leaned over in her ear and said, 'Oh pardon me, that wasn't me, it was my Oscar.'"
HA!

New Apple FCP update. My key points.

Apple has released downloads of its newest FCP 5.1.2 along with other Pro Apps, available here. I was just chatting with the Panasonic guys and among other features, the update allows you to ingest off p2 cards at 25p and 25pn (Panasonics native). In the update notes on Apples site, they had the following to say:

• DVCPRO HD 720p25:

This Easy Setup is used for native editing of DVCPRO HD 720p25 footage imported from Panasonic P2 cards. Final Cut Pro does not support DVCPRO HD 720p25 capture from or output to tape.

• DVCPRO HD 1080pA24:

This Easy Setup is used to capture and output DVCPRO HD
1080p24 footage with advanced pulldown (2:3:3:2) to and from tape. This format uses the same advanced pulldown technique as NTSC 24p. The footage on tape is actually recorded at 29.97 interlaced frames per second (fps), but Final Cut Pro removes redundant fields, resulting in a 23.98 fps progressive scan QuickTime movie on your scratch disk.

So, when looking at a production/post workflows in 25 fps on DVCPro, be advised, you can shoot 25p and ingest over firewire 1080i 50, or if shooting on P2, you can import 25p from P2 cards. My reservations are whether you can mix p2 and DVCPro tape footage on the same timeline. I will have a look at this and report back. But I remember when we at Pogo were doing our first FCP HD project on Varicam. Mostly at 25 + variable frame rates and at that time we were bemoaning the fact there was no 25fps support. This is nearly 2 ½ years on and we’re still not there.



Also, following on from an HD4Indies discussion on colour calibration, the new FCP has addressed the following issues:

• Not every line of video was analyzed.


• Video scopes did not update in real time during playback.


• Video scopes updated slowly while the playhead was scrubbing.

Ever-growing Internet TV Production.

They guys that kicked off Digg, the tech site gone world news is branching out into video producing. Their new company Revision3 is focused on using a blend of UGC ala youtube and purpose made professional video content and series for the web.  The Times is reporting that the San Fran duo have secured $1m in financing from Silicon Valley and the city. I feel this is just the beginning. 2007 will prove to be a year of successes and failures and in this game you can’t bet on big outlays to bring returns. Small distribution channels are just as likely to hit it big in this emerging market. I was reading Broadcast last week where the UK players are hedging their bets as to how consumers are going to behave. A popular theory is people like choice, but they also like to be given a stream of well selected content when they can’t be bothered to pick and choose. So at the moment I think people will have their main streaming channels supported by major networks for vegging on the sofa (BBC, CNN, ABC, HBO), and more niche interactive options for when they are feeling more choosy. These niche channels will succeed by balancing the ease of interactivity with targeting untapped niches with broad appeal.

Espionage at Red.

So, could Sony, Cannon or Panasonic stoop to Sopranos style roughing up of the competition? Mike is back at work from the Dam and is reporting that the Red office has been broken into. What was taken was entirely related to the camera Red 1. Red are not lying down, offering a $100K reward, raised from $50K.  I have nothing bad to interject about any of the big camera companies or their dubious business ethics.

On a completely unrelated note I will say that Thompson was reported in last weeks Broadcast to have lost nearly $100 Million in the first half of 2006 and are now scaling back their UK operations. Buggers offered me a job last summer. Had I taken it, would be out on my ear 3 months later.  

Sluggish start for Entourage

Well, it started with a bit of a disappointment. Entourage pulled in a mere 168,000 viewers (off memory, so give or take) on opening night. Wonder how these figures stack up against the States percentage-wise before people cottoned on. Now a full TV ad campaign is in swing I imagine the figures to increase, but 10pm is maybe a bit late on a Sunday to reach the half million target I would set as peak for season 1. We shall see.

Avid Release Interplay

Now we’re getting into seriously cool shite. Avid, as you may know have been working on a showstopper. In post, we can do such cool stuff now with networked storage multi-seat edit & effects stations, but what lacks is integrated workflow systems. This is what I have been so excited about when I talk about how Electronic Farm extends their scheduling software into the machine room with Barn. Now, after previewing at NAB, Avid have released interplay. In the press release, the stats break down like this:

Avid Interplay Engine
The Avid Interplay Engine forms the backbone of the Interplay solution, working hand in hand with Avid Unity media networks and Avid archive solutions to provide access to active and archived media assets. It offers centralized, standards-based user administration, flexible storage allocation, and a rich, customizable database—all within an infrastructure built to deliver unmatched scalability, performance, and security.

Avid Interplay Access
The Avid Interplay Access user tool brings integrated media management, secure file check-out/check-in, and tight revision control to standard desktops and laptops on the network. A diverse range of team members can easily navigate project files such as clips, scripts, spreadsheets, graphics files, and more, in user- or group-customized views.
Options

Avid Interplay Assist
The optional Avid Interplay Assist user tool lets assistants, producers, managers, and interns review and play video, select shots, and add markers with comments using ordinary desktops and laptops on the network. Annotations and locators are automatically visible to editors, eliminating time-consuming information searches before work begins.
     
Avid Interplay Transcode
The Avid Interplay Transcode network service option automatically, transparently converts source media to whatever production format is needed to match the user’s resolution requirements and system capability—without the need to manually create, find, or link to the required format.

Avid Interplay Low-Res Encode
The optional Avid Interplay Low-Res Encode network service lets facilities capture low-resolution material from any tape or feed, and even dual-capture simultaneously with the high-res version. The result is a production process open to even more users and to innovative Interplay multi-resolution workflows.
     
Avid Interplay Archive
The Avid Interplay Archive network service option extends the Interplay environment to intelligent tracking of archived material, so editors can work with low-resolution proxies of archived media, archiving and restoring only the material needed—all from within the editing interface or automatically, using the Interplay Access tool.
     
Avid Interplay Transfer
The optional Avid Interplay Transfer network service lets you transfer media to and from another workgroup, send finished sequences to a playback device, or ingest media from an ingest device. No redundant files are created, and Interplay tracks where everything is at all times.

A Couple of News Pieces That May Be of Interest

China is launching Terrestrial HDTV in 2008.

Google might be teaming up with Apple to provide IPTV video via the newly released iTV.

Apple got complaints in the first stage with iTunes 7.

Apple’s Movie Store reviewed.

Stephen Colbert: Bringing Back The Good Ol Times!!!

This is quiet funny from a few weeks back now. Chris Anderson (The Long Tail) picked up on how poignant a Stephen Colbert piece lamenting contemporary pop culture with its fractioning consumption. We lack unification, hegemony, top down culture… Have a look!

Cuban Bets on Youtube Downfall

Mark Cuban has a pretty interesting post about the decline of Youtube, where he argues there are 2 main reasons for the site’s success free hosting of video content for third party sites (like this one!) and Copyrighted video content. And just like Napster with music, Youtube will fold under the ever-growing pressure of content rights owners and major media companies.
Cuban claims, “Take away all the copyrighted material and you take away most of Youtube's traffic. Youtube turns into a hosting company with a limited video portal. Like any number of competitors out there that decided to follow copyright law”

Nerve Interviews Larry Clark

Nerve, has quite a good interview with Larry Clark. Never one to pull a punch, I think that Nerve is one of the few forums where such a controversial filmmaker can let fly with his inspiration, take on content and views on society.

Starting with, Destricted a compilation of explicit short films, where Clark’s offering tracks a ‘win a chance to shag a porn star’ contest. In the film, he questions how sex has evolved through the extensive proliferation of pornography, especially on the net. Practices of men shaving down stairs and creating a porn style cum shot (pulling out), baffle Clark who blames porn for teaching kids how to do it.  

Clark defends his content by arguing he is creating a body of work. His theme of teenage sexuality would change if there was someone out there doing it better.

“I'm a visual artist. I'm going to make my work visually exciting. That's what I do. Look at Bully visually. When I started filming those scenes, I said, "You just don't see movies like this." Watch a Hollywood movie and then watch Bully — you're not going to find any movie even close to being as visually exciting as Bully, and that's the truth of that. If you're going to show naked kids fucking, well let's see 'em! I'm a visual fucking artist.”

As for what’s next, Clark has a contemporised Peter Pan set in NYC which has Peter and Wendy involved and all the other characters up to tongue in cheek shenanigans.

Entourage Ep 3 - Start watching now!

I promise not to bang on about Entourage, too much. Ep 3 was on ITV 2 last night and having seen series one and two on HBO, I can honestly say it looses something with the commercials. I love not having commercials when viewing HBO and the same applies to the BBC, especially in the States where they have breaks every two minutes. Perhaps it grates during Entourage because of the truly lame Britney Spears Perfume graphics the lead in and out of each section.

If you haven’t gotten into Entourage yet, spend 10 minutes watching why Jeremy Piven won an Emmy for his character Ari Gold. Beware, very laddish content!

Robin Hood Reinvented

BBC is about to launch a new drama, Robin Hood 2006, is touted as a new reworking of the classic. Loosing the tights and adding contemporary sharp tongued dialogue should see this series live up to the standard BBC 1 should be producing. The cast is strong and not overrun by the typical BBC Drama faces.  I really hope that after the chaos of having the rushes stolen, this production can turn their fortunes around and Jonas Armstrong (Teachers, The Ghost Squad) should prove a wise casting as the new Robin.

On a side note, what does bug me, is that for all the cash the Beeb plows into their multimedia friendly site, why are they still using Real player for the distribution of their online video content?!? If you can suffer through it, the Robin trailers are here.

WOW TV!

Ok, so internet TV is really kicking off. Full steam ahead! The latest offering will be coming from shit hot LA/London prod co World of Wonder. In addition to making TV & Film classics like:
Camp Michael Jackson
Power Lesbians
Tammy Faye: Death Defying
Angelina: Saint or Sinner?

They also produce the infamous WOW Report. And now are turning to IPTV. Here’s the trailer for WOW TV!

Revolutionising the DVR?

I will only briefly discuss Apple’s new offerings as there are plenty of other forums with loads of conjecture. I will say that iTv is the key new hardware product that relates to the topics discussed here. Apple has always focused its consumer products on lifestyle, but has been cautious in moving too far away from what it does best: computers. The idea that a computer is an integral part of lifestyle is being publicly adopted more and more. Similarly, Apple is moving to meet the consumer half way by introducing a greater variety of lifestyle products, including phones, stereos and set top boxes. But how much Mac is too much?
There are die hard apple fans who will thoroughly kit themselves out with anything the great Steve releases, but maybe by diversifying their product line as well, they can meet broader demand.
As for the set top box, the key for the success of this product is usability and cross-platform integration. They said that the box will work with all PC’s (A result of the Intel transition) but I wonder how far Apple will go to support multiple formats and how fast they will push for HD over HDMI. Will we be able to play, DIVX, AVI. How will we rip and store DVD’s, Blu-Ray, HDDVD’s? In terms of HD and how networks can deal with Apple stealing viewers, Mark Cuban raises the point that with the limitations of HD content over IP, Networks can win the temporary battle by raising the bar on image quality. “In fact, the best way to beat Apple in this game is for cable and satellite companies to push as much content as possible to HD. The greater the expectation for HD content from consumers, the less value to consumers for downloading movies.” I would include viewing TV shows at sub broadcast resolution. The most important factor for Apple winning the race to facilitating content delivery en mass, is how soon they can provide better quality images and really take advantage of the HDMI port.
There are a lot of questions raised by this uncustomary pre-release announcement of iTv, but Apple were under pressure to let rip with their home invasion plans. Following the less than happy reception of the iPod HiFi and Nano leather cases (Why did this require a special event?), had Apple simply recovered the Nano in aluminium (necessitated by the plastic ones scratching), launched Disney films on iTunes (expected with Steve on the Board), plus other small additions, I think the reception would be underwhelming. Ultimately everything else is about the iPod. So, the inclusion of iTv marks a new era of Apple’s strategy and indeed a significant step forward in user defined content viewing.

BBC News Team Does Spoof Causes Complaints

As you may know, some of the BBC News folks made a leaving video for their collegue who was leaving to join the ever-expanding Al Jazeera. The video parodies the parodie 'This is the way to Amarillo'.

"Several of the reporters are dressed in Arab-style headdresses, and footage of soldiers in gas masks and missiles being launched can be seen in the background."

I think it is all in good fun as do most i am sure, but it has caused a bit of a fuss/stink. Production value is not bad considering. Go Matt Barbet!

iTunes To Offer Movies

iTunes music store is down, so it looks like all of the fanfare/rumours were right! Movies on iTunes. But, how many studios have inked deals? Only a couple of hours to find out…

UPDATE:
The Apple Store is now down too...
and i can hear a distant drumroll

New Technology Bringing Communities Together

HERE is a heart-warming story of pirate exhibition!!! Somehow I don’t think these guys are going to get locked up for community screenings of children’s films. None the less, given the big music businesses reactions’ to illegal downloads I would be surprised. Regardless of this, with the proliferation of affordable projectors comes the increase of public screenings on a community level. I have often thought after reading Mark Cubans rants on how to get bums in seats at theatres, that what may be missing is a variety of exhibition venues to meet the needs of an ever more discerning viewer. With our TIVO's, PVR's, IPTV we are starting to get what we want, when we want it. This is another step of consuming content where we want it.

BA Use Google Earth In New Campaign

BA and Google have penned a deal which will see Google Earth technology within the BA site and including extra layers with tourist information. Additionally, BA will use Google Earth as an integral part of a TV Campaign. Shots reported that Obi Felton, head of consumer marketing at Google said “It's… interesting to see an online tool being creatively adapted for advertising." Check out the spot here.

IBC Red 1 5k DCinema Screening & Q&A

I suppose it defeats the purpose a bit to have a youtube of the Red Camera's 5k test clips. But there you go. Have a look or check it here on Youtube.



As for the images, Risky Biz says Red

"didn't seem to display test footage that was all that revealing. Camera tests that are more resolution and contrast intensive would be a good next step"

Mike @ HDforindies had the following to say: Excerpts, for the full whammie check Mike's site

Shot 1:
What: an Oakley Time Tank watch, shot macro style

What makes it tough - it is an extremely shallow depth of field, it has some contrast challenges - shiny metal, detailed black surface of watch face, fine details in watch face and watch hands, shiny highlights.

What works: the extremely shallow depth of field shows off what is difficult/impossible for a smaller sensored camera to do - get this extreme depth of field. The dynamic range is broad but not impossible, but I personally watched Graeme Nattress abuse the crap out of it in post before I saw ANY noise AT ALL in the blacks. The watch face was totally blown to white at that point, the blacks were lifted very high, and THEN, FINALLY I started to see some noise in the blacks. Insanely clean as compared to other digital images I've seen.

Shot 2: Joanne blows a bubble, Ted pops it

Joanne (Red employee) is blowing a bubblegum bubble against black, Ted is in background and leans up to pop it.

What makes it interesting: Ted is in background, so get proof of 35mm depth of field - he's out of focus. Good skin tone demo on Joanne. She has dark hair, so the black on black demo of shadow detail is good. Good detail in the bubble - you can see texture and thickness inconsistencies in the bubblegum. Ted leans in to pop it and travels in/out of focal plane. Smooth contone on bubble highlight. I defy anyone to call this a "plastic fantastic" digital image.

Shot 8: Porsche 959

What makes it interesting, other than that it's a 959: It's a white 959 with lights shining on it, but including one practical light in the shot. Smoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooth gradations of white across the car, nice shadow detail while not blowing out the highlights. Subtle shadow details in background - a crewmember noticed an orange extension cable in the dim background that he figured would never show on camera....oops. The dynamic range in the shot is the big story here - the hood of the car has bright lights on it, but the underexposed lower portions of the car have good detail as well. The REAL kicker is that there is a practical light on set. Asking folks what they thought of the footage in general when they left the 4K auditorium, multiple DoPs (who are NOT affiliated with Red) pointed out that shot, and volunteered that it looked like anywhere from 12-15 stops of lattitude (their guessed range of numbers not mine let me stress) represented in that shot. I'm not a shooter so I can't vouch or give opinion on that, but these were qualified guys, and that's an impressive figure coming from their lips.

And again, for those that didn't read it earlier, the footage was NOT noise reduced - just some very, very simple color correcting - as Lucas from Assimilate put it (and he was techincal supervisor on the color correction) -

Something important for everyone to know - from the final 5K RGB images pre-color to the rendered images at IBC - with the exception of one shot (the girl blowing the bubble at the beginning of the sequence) the only color processes we did to the images were Lift (master) down, Gain (master) up, Saturation up, Lift (Blue) down. That's it. No shapes, keys, or secondaries. The RED team has done a very nice job with their debayer/matrix algorithms.

Also, here is the Red Q&A. I need a quiet place to listen to it so, will have my comments soon.

Entourage Premier on ITV 2

So, last night it happened. The UK launch of the Emmy Award wining and much heralded Entourage. Having watched the first two seasons in the states, it was funny to see the way ep1 struggles to find its feet. There were flashes of greatness, such as Ari Gold shaking his phone as he drives telling Eric that Collin Farrell has gone for Matterhorn, while Vince procrastinated over the $4mil offer, or Ari and Eric’s dinner at Koi. Much more to come from this laddish fantasy land. Keep tuning in. On another note, on the cover, last week’s Broadcast reported ITV2 was beating C4 and 5 while screening X Factor. The UK is finally adopting multi-channel viewing which is challenging the tentpole channels. In fairness, 5’s CSI Miami beat ITV1’s Bourne Identity (but no one even stops on ITV1 long enough to see what’s on) and C4 is up 11% of 16-34’s while ITV is down 5%. Can Entourage sway this tide in the other direction?

Digital Rapids Includes Flash 8 Encoding

When researching encoding solutions for Pogo Films last year, the one I was probably most impressed with was Digital Rapids Stream HD. Apart from not offering a mac based card. Stream seemed the most easy to use and with really pleasing results. Now they offer Flash encoding based on On2 Technologies VP6 Codec.  Flash 8, as I have discussed is key to the development on IPTV and companies such as Brightcove base their encoding around On2 Flash Codec. If I were to set up an encoding suite this is one of the first places I would look. Also, in terms of connecting the logistical and technical. I heard a rumour that Electronic Farm were hoping to incorporate Digital Rapids Encoding in their Barn (Server based output system) which attaches to Farmers Wife scheduling software.

IBC Top Picks

High Def Magazine have listed their top picks for this years IBC.
They include:
Red Camera: www.red.com
Cannon ½ Inch Lens: www.cannon.co.uk     
Avid, Media Composer in a box ala FCP. www.avid.co.uk
Christie 1080 projectors: www.Christiedigital.com
Cannon HV10: Handheld HDV camcorder www.cannon.co.uk

VTR Group Rebrand. How Bad Is Big Business In Soho?

London based VTR Group recently acquired (bailed out before it sank) by Prime Focus Ltd, an Indian Post Company, in a deal last spring worth more than £10 Million, has begun a rebranding process. Digit reports:
“VTR will be renamed Prime Focus UK, with the company’s 37 Dean Street and 58 Old Compton Street premises becoming “centres of excellence” for talent and technology in visual effects, CG animation, telecine and digital intermediate (DI), and broadcast editing.”

They are planning on shaking things up a bit in Soho, and we shall see how much this move will push the industry away from the privately owned ‘home grown’ vibe that exists in the neighbourhood (I know Thompson acquiring MPC is much the same). But there is a big business structure that some would argue, could potentially save the flailing companies. But in saving the industry, will we be destroying the businesses?

New Appointments to the two of the best gigs in TV & What is BBC Vision

Press Release:

Peter Salmon and Jane Tranter will fill new leadership roles in BBC Vision, the BBC's new multimedia content, commissioning and channels group, Jana Bennett, who will be Director of BBC Vision, announced today.

Peter Salmon joins BBC Vision in October 2006 to take on the new role of Chief Creative Officer, BBC Vision Studios.

He will lead BBC Vision's in-house production studios, the biggest integrated multimedia production group in the world.

With nearly 5,000 programme-makers throughout the UK, across drama, entertainment, comedy and factual, learning and children's programmes, he will spearhead the BBC's in-house drive to create the highest quality content.

Jane Tranter assumes the new role of Controller, BBC Fiction, leading the group which covers Drama Commissioning, Comedy Commissioning, Programme Acquisitions and BBC Film.

She will build connections between comedy and drama and draw up a more cohesive strategy between BBC Films and Programme Acquisitions, making the most of the planned increase in British film investment.

BBC Vision was announced in July as part of the BBC's organisational change to meet the challenges and opportunities of its Creative Future content strategy.

Led by Jana Bennett, BBC Vision will be responsible for in-house multimedia production, commissioning and audio-visual services, including the TV channel portfolio and digital developments such as high definition and interactive television.

Three key positions on the BBC Vision Group board are still to be appointed: Controller of Entertainment Commissioning, Controller of Knowledge Commissioning and Controller of Portfolio and Multimedia Services, responsible for developing BBC Vision's portfolio, strategy and scheduling.

Who Are They?

Peter Salmon

Peter Salmon has a long and distinguished track record as a programme-maker and executive.

As Controller of BBC ONE from 1997 to 2000, he commissioned projects as diverse as Clocking Off, Waking The Dead, Holby City, Dinnerladies, My Family, Wives and Daughters, MacIntyre Undercover and Walking With Beasts.

Then, as Director of Sport and a member of the BBC's Executive Board, he oversaw BBC coverage of the 2002 Athens Olympics, plus successive World Cup and European football campaigns.

He pioneered sport interactive television at Wimbledon and The Manchester Commonwealth Games as well as the development of BBC Sport online.

He also regained a number of key contracts for the BBC, notably The Derby and Premiership highlights for Match Of The Day.

He left the BBC in 2005 to become Chief Executive at The Television Corporation, but quit following a takeover earlier this year.

Jane Tranter

Since being appointed Controller, Drama Commissioning in 2000, Jane Tranter has revived the BBC's reputation for delivering modern, unique and distinctive programmes.

She oversees an ambitious drama slate - from the bold innovations of Bleak House, Life on Mars, State of Play and some strikingly contemporary takes on Chaucer and Shakespeare - to successful returning series Waking the Dead, Spooks and Silent Witness, and popular continuing dramas series EastEnders, Casualty and Holby City.

In 2005 she led the regeneration of Doctor Who, perhaps her most outstanding achievement to date.

With Jane's support and encouragement, leading writing talents - Andrew Davies, Stephen Poliakoff, Russell T Davies, Paul Abbot, Jimmy McGovern and Tony Marchant – have delivered some of their best work for BBC audiences.

What is BBC Vision?

The Restructuring of the BBC focuses on content delivery through new media channels. Additionally, all BBC content will be organised in three divisions: Journalism, BBC Vision, and Audio and Music.

Mark Thompson told us “360 degree content creation, delivering for our linear television channels but also for all the new on-demand and web-based platforms needs to become practical reality rather than just rhetoric and this new grouping will enable us to do that. We want a group of commissioners who really do think 360, commissioning the website, say, or the mobisode at the same time as the TV programme — or vice versa because we think more and more ideas will start in the digital space.”

To read the whole of MT’s speech about Vision, Check Here.

Delivery Req's for the Beeb

Here are the guides for delivery requirements for the BBC, including World Wide and HD. Most of the information here is fairly common, but it is imperative to check specifics with your broadcaster. BBC Broadcast Delivery

Following on from that here is a page dedicated to Editorial Decisions For Producers.

Lustre 2007 adds functionality to do it all, if you can afford it.

I was very rightly called out for missing Lustre 2007 (Cheers Roger) off my list of Autodesk updates. The reason being is that I often feel with Final Touch you have a good solution at a fraction of the price. Granted FT doesn’t quite match up to Lustre or Baselight. But for a FCP workflow or working with Indies, corporate films and/or broadcast FT is perfect when compared to Pogle or similar. Baselight and Lustre find their niche in commercials, high-end VXF driven Broadcast and Features. I think that market will drive the investment in these systems.  But when you’ve bought a Baselight or Lustre and are doing a fair bit of high-end DI, what do you do when lower budget work (video work) is still the bread and butter. Nats here in London, have a Baselight that is a few years old and I seem to remember they had to do a fair bit of giggery pokery to get it set up to handle what is a predominantly low end TV client base. Enter Lustre 2007.

One of the biggest developments with Lustre is its flexibility. With Lustre you can work in a variety of ways, depending on your acquisition and delivery. Of course it can do shit hot 4K grading, but you would expect it to at the price. But according to a press release that has been circling the tech sites, it now offers the possibility to ‘to start from a 2K resolution master and generate re-formatted primary grade HD and standard-definition deliverables without the need for successive, time-consuming render passes’. In Studio Daily’s coverage of the update, they follow the much touted trails at Digital Pictures who worked on the upcoming Macbeth Pamela Hammond, head of Post at Digital Pictures described their pleasure at this new functionality as it provided them with ‘a key advantage for versioning, since multiple aspect ratios can be created with the same color-corrected images and the same dirt fix can be applied in one pass with its onboard tools’.

Greater versioning stems from one of the key scalability features of Lustre 2007 as Independent Film reports ‘colorists can capture, render and play out interlaced or progressive video material… making it the ideal solution for many types of grading projects. With support for true field-based rendering, interlaced video can be graded using animated roto shapes, animated repositioning or resizing and displayed in 10-bit video on a broadcast monitor, without flickering’. Working with interlaced footage gives added advantages for the broadcast market as well as being able to reversion your feature for TV distribution at the same time as the master grade.

Finally, if you have Flame or Smoke Suites you can ‘round trip’ with lustre over Wiretap. This means you can start grading once you begin to online as you can access the shots over the Stone Network. This creates a bit of a conundrum when looking at workflow. I think the whole, FCP, Smoke, Final Touch XML interchange is quite good, giving options to online in FCP or Smoke depending on budget and level of effects and easily moving into the Final Touch Grade from either place. Lustre it would seem could offer the same options. Both are good workflows, I don’t think anyone in London is using them to their full potential however. I suppose the answer for which to implement in your facility comes down to type of output, budgets, client expectations and most importantly the human operating the machine!

Below is the features at a glance found on the Autodesk site

• Real-time primary color grading of 10-bit and 16-bit 2K scans


• GPU-acceleration offering:


• Real-time preview of numerous key selective color correction operations


• Real-time formatting or video deliverables from 2K resolution film frame to HD/SD 10-bit video via the NVIDIA® SDI output at mastering quality


• Dual-head grading mode to grade interactively using the reference monitor


• Resolution independence (including 4K)*


• Uncompromised quality: 32-bit/component processing


• Printer light color timing mode (calibratable to lab process)


• Unlimited vector shapes, keying, and multi-point tracking in secondaries


• Advanced GMask vector shape tools for non-uniform light and color fall-off


• Integrated motion tracking and stabilization


• Visual timeline—conform and editing capabilities


• Integrated support for the Kodak Display Manager


• Open 3D-mesh calibration engine with support for ARRI®, Imagica®, Rising Sun Cinespace as well as custom color management systems


• Fast, automated motion-compensated dust busting tools


• Nonlinear, collaborative workflow


• Support for interlaced or progressive media


• Powerful collaborative workflow between Lustre and Autodesk® Smoke® or Autodesk® Flame®


• DDR slave control via rs422 connection


• New XML Delivery Grade File for primary grading interchange


• Real time primary grading output for preview dailies application


• Support for a broad range of video formats as well as drop-frame timecode support

*Lustre HD is limited to 2K resolution images on input and 1920x1080 resolutions on output

Firefox v Explorer

I have been optimising this site with Firefox. If you are using explorer, you may not see some of the embedded video. I also had some issues with my template, which I think are now sorted. I recommend using Firefox for a variety of reasons, not least the company structure.

“Mozilla Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation. Established in July, 2003, the Mozilla Foundation is a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote choice and innovation on the Internet. The Foundation provides organizational, legal, and financial support for the Mozilla open source software project, and governs the actions of Mozilla Corporation.”

But there is a new explorer is also available here. If you fancy a go at Firefox, there is a link on the bottom right of this page which helps support this fledgling site, or you can go to http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/.

iTunes Movie Downloads on The Horizon... Still.

Itunes Movie downloads seems near! According to Engadget reporting on a Business week article, that Wal-Mart are pissed Apple can sell new releases of DVD Features for $15, when Wal-Mart have to pay $17 for hard Copies. Engadget interpolate this to mean Apple will sell new release feature downloads for $14.99. I say, Wal-Mart have been doing this for years to smaller businesses, the same way Tesco’s does here in the UK. It is about time they got a taste of their own medicine!. I have very little sympathy for Wal-Mart on this one. That said, I was in NYC for Six months and returned to find both my local DVD rental shops closed. I now rent DVD’s from the local library (They’re cheap and have a great foreign section). Apple Insider also cover the story and in true rumour site style say it’ll be up this month!

The Black Dahlia - Viral Marketing News Reel

Universal’s cleaver viral promotion for Brian De Palma’s adaptation of the James Ellroy novel The Black Dalia. Here they use a fake newsreel from the era depicting the crime the threatens those living in the City of Angels. For me, this represents a return for De Palma to his underbelly best. It has been over a decade since Carlito’s Way and if this doesn’t strike gold, I hope the Untouchables prequel does!