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Scuba Cam Takes HD Vids for $215
Written by Max Bloom.
A 20-foot great white shark came at you while you were diving, and your friends want evidence. Good thing you had along your Liquid Image underwater digital camera mask. Liquid Image’s latest offering, a diving mask that records HD video in 720p/30fps and can capture 5-megapixel stills, was introduced this week at CES 2009.
The HD Series camera mask allows scuba divers to take underwater HD video and photos hands free, and it’s certified to a depth rating of 115 ft. To use the mask, the diver lines up crosshair marks on the mask with the object then presses the capture button. LED lights inside the viewing area indicate whether the camera is in still or video mode. The mask is powered by four AAA lithium batteries; that amount of power is estimated to be sufficient for 2000 stills or two hours of video.
Liquid Image previously offered a snorkeling version of the mask, certified to 15 ft., that records in 20fps VGA. At the other end of the scale, the company offers the Pro HD350 model certified to 330 ft, with specs identical to those of the HD Series mask. Professional videographers have been capturing the mysteries of the deep for years using expensive waterproof housings. With a projected MSRP of $215, Liquid Image’s HD Series camera mask brings that capability to the vacationing masses.
See the video embedded above for a product tour from the CES floor in Las Vegas.
Max Bloom is a television cameraman and journalist who writes frequently about new trends in digital media.
More of John August’s Remnants, Please!
Ah, irony. When Hollywood’s film and TV writers went “pencils down” in last year’s strike over issues like a fair rate for Internet distribution, who knew that one of the byproducts of their newfound downtime would be great online video? We got the Speechless series, we got StrikeTV, and we got musical phenom Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. But we only almost got The Remnants. And going by the just-released pilot episode, we missed out.
The Remnants from John August on Vimeo.
Screenwriter/director John August (Go, Charlie’s Angels, Big Fish, The Nines) teased a snippet of The Remnants back on his always-fantastic web site in October. The hope was that 60Frames and NBC Universal Digital Studio would pony up to shoot subsequent episodes. Now, with the economy uncertain and August’s post-strike schedule tight, more of The Remnants seems unlikely. So instead this week we get the pilot, and only the pilot, and more’s the pity, ’cause it’s pretty darn good. Read more of this story
Artful Americans Dave & Tom Score Big With Brit Banter
When reviewing the work of the American sketch comedy duo Dave & Tom, there’s an elephant in the room that needs to be addressed. It’s nigh impossible to discuss Dave & Tom without invoking England’s mighty Monty Python.
It’s not simply that David Beeler and Tom Konkle are skilled at literate lampooning, and choose to deliver much of it in British accents. Or that Beeler studied drama for over a decade on the other side of the pond. Or that Konkle recently wrote and co-starred with John Cleese in a two-man sketch show. Beyond the more obvious connections, much of the material from this double act plays like vintage Flying Circus, comedy writ large with an almost swashbuckling sense of wordplay and whimsy. Read more of this story
Nerd In-Fighting Provides Silly Spectacle in Gold
In Gold, we witness an American team striving for top prize in the world championship of a fantasy role-playing game known as Goblins & Gold. The Yanks have one goal: to snatch victory from the jaws of their gold-hogging archrivals, the Brits.
Gold offers up an interesting pastiche of premises, including the scrappy-underdog-within-a-sports-competition theme, and the spectacle of nerd in-fighting within an already marginalized geekdom. Many stock sports movie characters are introduced, including cocky MVP Richard; straight-shooting Jonathan Drake, the former national team leader who has suffering a crushing “injury” and is attempting to rally in time for the big contest; and the requisite villain competitor, Oliver Crane, who can likely be relied upon to wield mad skills and impeccable British enunciation. (For those nerds who are culturally banned from possessing any previous knowledge of sports movie archetypes, it’s your typical Han Solo/Luke/Vader set-up.) It is the apparent incongruity of sports and nerds that provides some decidedly wry and ironic moments — one might say it’s Rocky, but with a game master in lieu of that Burgess Meredith guy. Read more of this story
Lexus Gives GOOD News
Nowadays, everyone who’s anyone in corporate America is throwing their advertising dollars in one of two directions: hip little branded web series or flashy heal-the-Earth projects. Hands-down successes on either front are still in the minority. But with the delightful GOOD News, luxury car company Lexus and GOOD Worldwide, the media company “for people who want to live well and do good,” have it all going on. Not only are they raising each other’s profiles with a seamlessly integrated sponsorship deal, but they’re delivering a thoughtful, informative daily news show that’s — gasp — fun to watch.
GOOD News officially launched Nov. 21, with the announcement of the Lexus sponsorship, but episodes on the web site date back as far as Oct 14, and they’re all worth checking out. Animated host Roger Numbers is the cutest balding brainiac since Dr. Bunsen Honeydew, infusing laid-back, Ira Glass-esque dryness with an impish snark Jon Stewart would envy. (And he rocks a mean polo shirt on Casual Friday.) The unmistakable NPR flavor is probably no coincidence; former Fresh Air with Terry Gross producer Ian Chillag is GOOD News’ managing editor. (I don’t know who’s responsible for the decision to adorably animate stuff like Numbers’ “I Voted” sticker and his horrified reaction to recycling humans, but I would like to buy that person a cookie.) Read more of this story
Guest Column: Tips for Your Web Series Pitch
Written by Jake Zim.
Everyone has a story they’d like to tell. As COO for digital media entertainment company Safran Digital, one of the best parts of my job is being pitched those stories, in the form of new web show ideas. The first step in getting your project off the ground is a successful pitch, so if you’re an artist looking to tell stories online and you need financing, here are a few suggestions on how to best construct — and deliver — one.
BEFORE THE PITCH
You only get one chance to make a first impression, so it’s best to get your meeting set through an agent, manager or a contact who’s done previous business with whomever you’re meeting. Let your reps do their job, warming up the room as much as possible by sending links to your work, writing samples, credits, etc. Once you’re in front of a legitimate financier or distributor, you don’t want to waste time self-promoting. And without representation or a warm lead, it could be difficult to get into the room at all.
Consider your story arc — does it work for digital? Think of your episode or segment trajectory as a slingshot. From the first frame, you’re introducing an inciting incident, pulling back to increase tension until the point at which you deliver your punch line, your button, or your reveal. Music and cinematography can help, but the pacing has to be evident in the script. No audience is more impatient than the one online. They’ll click away at the first yawn.
Guest Column: Mark Day’s Comedy Picks from ‘08
From political parodies that helped shape an electoral narrative to high-pitched tween sensations, comedy continues to be the many-flavored substance that keeps online video sticky. With so much to choose from, at every point on the low-to high-brow spectrum, what follows is simply a few personal comedy highlights from ‘08.
Too Many Mavericks. Obama may have clinched the highest office in the land, but it was Palin for Parody all the way in ‘08. Tina Fey cornered the market in Palin-verbatim comedy, but she shouldn’t be allowed to overshadow Sara Benincasa’s epic efforts to provide the Alaska governor and then-Veep candidate with a rich and often ridiculous interior life (and a closeted lesbian best buddy). While there was a point in late October when it felt like every comedy video on YouTube featured a bespectacled, brown-haired woman with an accent of unknown origin, Benincasa’s vlogs (which migrated from her own YouTube channel to the Huffington Post’s 236.com) did much more than simply xerox the meme.
RED Revolutionizing Cinematography Again, But Not Till Next Fall
In the last year, the RED Digital Cinema Company has redefined cinematography. That may sound like hype-speak, but in this case, it’s true. The RED One 4K digital cinema camera body, released in August 2007, delivers 35-mm film-quality images at the bargain price of $17,500 (with lenses and accessories, base cost is more like $40,000 vs. over $100,000 for a low-end 35mm film camera package). “This is the camera I’ve been waiting for my whole career: jaw-dropping imagery recorded onboard a camera light enough to hold with one hand,” said Steven Soderbergh on the reduser.com blog in 2007. “RED is going to change everything.”
Now, barely a year out of the gate, RED is about to change the paradigm again. The company recently announced the Fall 2009 release of its new DSMC (Digital Stills and Motion Camera) system, a collection of interchangeable, upgradable camera components that include lenses and camera “brains” (camera bodies and the image capture sensors inside them). Because they can be configured as either still or motion picture cameras, RED is billing the DSMC cameras as “DSLR Killers.”
James Cameron: The World Should Be Shot in 3-D
Written by Michael Stroud
3-D movies — from Jaws in 1983 to Spy Kids in 2003 — have long been staples of movie fare. Then as now, audience goers donned special glasses that make double images leap out of the screen. But today’s movies, using advanced cameras, are far sharper; and the prospect of standardized 3-D for all films and TV shows means the technology will likely become a DVD staple, too, over the next 10 years.
Or at least that’s director James Cameron’s message at Hollywood’s first 3-D Entertainment Summit. Cameron is currently producing Avatar, his eagerly awaited $200-million feature film, set on another planet in the far future. Shot entirely in 3-D, the film is set for release in December 2009.
“There’s nothing in the palette of entertainment that can’t be done in 3-D,” he said. “All the hard work has been done.” Read more of this story
Was YouTube Live a Success? That Depends
After much talk about experimenting with live streaming video, YouTube dipped its toe in the water on the weekend, with a much-hyped event (at least in blogosphere terms) called YouTube Live, featuring some of the “cewebrities” that have emerged on YouTube over the past year or two — including Tay “Chocolate Rain” Zonday, LisaNova and Chad Vader, as well as a few big-name entertainment-industry stars like Katy Perry and Will.i.am. The show had the feel of an awards show, although it was one featuring stars most people probably wouldn’t recognize. So was it a success for YouTube? That depends a lot on your perspective. Read more of this story
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