Archives For industry talk

Happy New Year Goes VOD or DTF!

December 22, 2014 — Leave a comment

Farah Khan’s and Shahrukh Khan’s latest Happy New Year [Español] just hit the market officially with VOD… or as they’re calling it DTF (Direct to Fans), which is less technical and much more personal. It’s also way cheaper than regular VOD too, which usually charges $5USD per one-time stream or 4-5-day rental. You basically get to download the movie for that price. I’m just supposing it’s subtitled (being aimed at all markets except India and China), but I could be supposing erroneously [1].

happy-new-year-vod-dtf

No cons, just pros really. It would have been much cooler and much more trailblazing if this had happened on opening week (or the week later), but it’s something. I’m just hoping UTV (EROSNOW had its one moment with the pretty horrible Lekar Hum Deewana Dil) gets their shit together with the distribution of films like Haider and PK, really because those two are my bias at the moment. Imagine if more European and other big Asian movies did the same. Isn’t THAT what they want? Piece of the Hollywood pie? You need to indoctrinate people first, get them on the habit of watching you. Hollywood’s been doing this to us for the past 70 years.

Here’s the link.

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Movie Streams, VOD, and Worldwide Online Distribution

I’m still not sold on Netflix- never to this date I’ve ran into a film that I wanted to watch on it. At least in terms of this region, which doesn’t count with as much content as the US or Canada one. Similar issues with iTunes… and Amazon is out of the question.

I used to subscribe to MUBI for a long while (at least for a bit over a year), but eventually turned off my subscription because I wasn’t watching anything, while things I had added to my watchlist stopped being available, and the selection of their films eventually was reduced to their now curated content. I’m only subscribed to EROSNOW now, and have seen a few couple of films there, but had to turn to other mediums when found links that were region-restricted or surprisingly without subtitles.

My experience with streaming has been decent- and for as cheap as $5-9 bucks you can watch a lot in a month, and it just makes your life quite easy. Similar flawless experience with my first Vimeo On Demand watch. Thanks Joss Whedon for the heads up, and actually putting the film up there right after its premiere. To top it all off, subtitles in Spanish, German, French, Portuguese and Japanese (plus English CC) were available making it the smoothest watch if you decided to watch it with any bunch of people.

Paying $5 to stream a new movie can seem like the best way possible to make it look as if you’re going to the cinema. It takes me back to those days where I would watch 2 or 3 new movies a weekend. If studios ever decided to really go off their way to online distribute their new movies almost simultaneously, I’d be willing.

Here’s In Your Eyes.

Apparently Vimeo streaming is not as smooth (or at all) if you don’t have a Vimeo account, though. Take it as a good chance to get one, or don’t complain. I really don’t know any other streaming (paying) website that would let you use their content without an account. You need one in iTunes, in Amazon, in Netflix, HBO, et all. So please, people, stop complaining about THAT.

Spanish (more serious) related note.

Posted on April 22, 2014 In English, Films, French, Fun, Japanese, Jobs, Sharing, Spanish, Torrents & Digital Streams, Trailers , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Ghost: New Blogging Platform

June 18, 2013 — Leave a comment

ghost-blog-platform-dashboard

The latest blogging revolution is coming?

Though it seems, somehow, that the people at WordPress want to turn itself into “an operating system,” — I can’t really see how, coz I don’t use WordPress for anything else other than blog — some very smart and all tech-wiz group of people have put together a blogging platform they’ve named Ghost. The biggest change is the way they handle your data dashboard.

They recently completed a successful Kickstarter campaign, and for 10 pounds you could get a digital download of Ghost (I suppose for install?), though the video to promote the project and some of the benefits of the campaign make it seem like you can also sign up for usernames (like WordPress.com?). Some of the stats displayed on the dashboard seems to suggest some time of system connectivity.

The other exciting aspect is its Markdown feature. The video makes it really really appealing to see how you can do almost magic to format and make your post pretty.

ghost-blog-platform-markdown

Of course, there’s also theme customization and the way it handles data, it seems that Ghost will work out across platforms and layouts. Flip it, turn it — just basic fluid design. Front-end and back-end. It seems that Ghost will let you work on post through your tiny mobile devices quite flawlessly, which isn’t one of WordPress strongest features. Then again, I hate having to whip something out on a smartphone or tablet.

You can check the Ghost features on their site, though it’s not yet available.

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Paper Documents to Go Interactive

For a few couple of years already, people have been calling on the death of printed paper. And in all honesty, I rarely print stuff for myself — a vast majority of printed documents refer to letterhead letters, which I usually just send on PDF by email. But if I’m printing something, it’s got something to do with branded documentation.

We’ve talked about e-paper [1], digital newspapers, and Samsung’s flexible screens [1] are coming. People are supposedly using smartphones and are all over iPads, as sales for PCs are down dramatically as times flies by. Yet, people apparently still print stuff. At least that’s the premise for this project:

For a long time, people have been playing around with interactive tables [1][2][3][4][5], though I don’t know anyone who can afford one. The guys from Fujitsu Laboratories seem to be aiming at consumer-range products. And though it may sound and look cool that you can turn all your printed documents into something digital and interact with it, wouldn’t it mean that your page with video included has already been digitally design?

There’s digital pop-up books!

creative-sandbox

Of course, there ARE elements in our everyday life that aren’t digital — doodled post-it notes (I can’t think of anything else other than notes). The rest, they wouldn’t have been embedded elements on your digital source document. The question is, why print it?

Posted on April 16, 2013 In Clips, English, Screencaps, Sharing , , , , ,
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The Wonders of 3D Printing

It’s crazy how technology has developed in the past 20 years. The latest consumer craze? 3D printing, of course! It hasn’t only been featured on shows (with a special mention on The Big Bang Theory), but it’s been used in a broad variety of ways [1]. Miniatures of yourself [1], your face in chocolate [1], miniature of yourself in gummy [1], or candy [1].

Its most striking use, because of its practicality, was how they used 3D Printing in the making of ParaNorman. Technically speaking, it was that usual “wow, why didn’t anyone else think of this before?” Printing the many faces needed to be able to animate your stop-motion movie. It gets the consistency so your animation doesn’t get blotches, and you get incredible detail (I LOVE THE LIGHT GOING THROUGH NORMAN’S EARS).

The question that arises is- if they print the faces needed to animate, once they’ve done the movements in a CG environment. Is it stop-motion? Mixed media is more common than ever. There was a lot of special effects in ParaNorman, especially in its incredibly visual last arc, but the film is still considered stop-motion. So how much use of the computer do you need to have for it to not be stop-motion?

Posted on March 8, 2013 In Clips, DVD/BR, English, Films, Sharing , , , ,
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I know so many people who would download loads of music for free, but still buy the stuff they liked (usually discovered from their own or other people’s free downloads). Now those same people listen to Spotify and feel that they have paid the artists, so no longer feel the need to buy the songs they like.

Comment on Artists, Please! Don’t Put Spotify Play Buttons On Your Site…

Additional info: How Much Do Music Artists Earn Online?

Downloads, Streamings, and Buys- Oh, My!

Posted on February 18, 2013 In English, Music, Sharing , , , , , , ,
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Why the IOC Ruined Social Olympics

August 15, 2012 — Leave a comment

It’s all about money, of course. The International Olympic Committee wants to retain all the control of its brand — who can blame them? — and to retain its control online, it took the social media control from the London Olympic committee, unlike what happened back at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics.

To Olympics lovers’ surprise, the Vancouver Olympic Committee was allowed free social media range, which they put to good use with online apps, tweeting athletes interacting with fans, the whole shebang [1]. I don’t actually care about online apps (nor Vancouver’s nor London’s), and I don’t care if athletes tweet. My only interest in the Olympics is watching the games and finding photographs xD

Cool photo, huh?

Continue Reading…

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Music Production Schools’ School of Pop

June 6, 2012 — Leave a comment

We’re always bombarded with news at how the music (and movies, and everything else) industry is losing money to piracy, even though we keep hearing all these facts about how Glee has had more songs charted than The Beatles.

When Sarah, from the Music Production Schools’ design team, emailed me this infographic depicting all these facts onto one place… is hard not to share, right?

I won’t lie to you, the numbers are good — though I really don’t know how that works with adjusted inflation — but the numbers also make me sad. To imagine Katy Perry standing on similar ground as MJ or Flo Rida standing on similar ground to The Beatles… or Ke$ha selling MORE than The Beatles. It’s depressing.

Mainly because there are MUCH better artists out there, and half the world haven’t even heard about them. I think it’s a crime that everyone knows Katy Perry, but it’d be rare if someone knows who Shiina Ringo is.

In any case, this is an infographic about sales~ so there you have it.

Full infographic after the break~

Continue Reading…

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Samsung Flexible AMOLED Concept

This would be pretty crazy, but how does this work? xD

Posted on December 7, 2011 In Clips, English, Korean, Sharing , , , , ,
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Distribution: Chinese Films to Open on Same Day in North America as in China

October 15, 2010 — Leave a comment

Film Business Asia is reporting that China Lion Film Distribution has made a deal with AMC to release Chinese films in the cities with most Chinese demographics in the United States and Canada the same day as the films open in China.

Now, that’s how you do distribution.

Sure, Hollywood’s kinda getting good in World Premiere business, but only the big-studio stuff. We actually have to wait a ton for a theater release, or the release of the DVD to catch a film that’s not mainstream. The Chinese film industry lacks distribution — only films that get distributed in the US, get distributed in Latin America. The last Chinese film I saw at the cinema was Curse of the Golden Flower~~~

So with this deal, China expands that ever-expanding Chinese film market with hopefully more than just Martial Arts Films and/or Arthouse Films. And HOPEFULLY, this will mean more Chinese films down here as well.

So guys! Get ready for Aftershocks (aka. After Shock) kicking off this new deal on October 29th in the cities of  New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Washington D.C., Houston, Boston, Seattle, Toronto and Ottawa.

In Chinese, English, Films, Sharing, Spanish , , , ,
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