My mediaworld

Its been a while since my last post, but figured this needed one.

I’ve been creating a timelaps-device for my camera based on an Arduino Duemilanove. Right now it’s pretty basic with just a potentiometer to adjust the interval, and a start/stop-button. I am thinking about adding support for other ways to trigger the camera as well, like a laser, or a sound sensor, but thats for the future.

The TimeDuino is as I said based on an Arduino. Connected to it is two relays, one to connect the cameras ground-cable to the cameras focus-cable and one for the ground and shutter. A 10k potentiometer (that moves 180 degrees) is used to set the interval between pictures, and its set to select an interval from 5 sec to 60 sec. A start/stop button have been added as well, for obvious reasons.

It’s all placed in a pink lunchbox (lol) with a cable to connect to the camera, and one to connect to a 9v battery. Pictures will be added later. Please ask questions in the comments.

This blog was created in the beginning of the 2nd term at University College Falmouth, to help me to keep control over all I did. When we started on the 3rd term, we were told to create personal development profiles (PDP’s), and this blog was perfect for that. I had already written about what I had learned and done, so I have kept the same format and continued that.

The blog is divided into multiple categories to make it easier to sort the work I have been doing and looked at.

Cameraworks and Interaction is the two biggest categories with 9 blog posts each. Even though they got the most posts, I think the posts in the category called Thoughts is just as important, since they go deeper into something that really interested me. The categories can easily be navigated to on the side menu. All the posts are also available on the front page. In addition to dividing the blog into categories, I have created a post summary. The summary can be navigated to with the menu at the top, or by clicking here.

The video above is created by Len Lye. He created it by scratching and coloring film. We were given a task to create something among those lines. I ended up with this:

Len Lye Exercise from Håvard Risebrobakken on Vimeo.

I chose to use a different song, and all the effects are generated in After Effects. After looking at it a few times, there is a lot i want to change, so I might redo it when I find time to do it.

I wrote earlier about MultiView and how I was going to code that. I ended up doing it completely different. An early development version is up and running here: http://risebro.net/stuff/imgbeta/ and shows the basic functions the gallery will have.

The new MultiView is a lightweight image gallery that sorts the pictures after dates. The user can decide which date to upload the images till, since it’s all structured around folders. This makes it easier to run for smaller servers, cause they don’t have to fetch information from a database all the time. In addition, I chose not to store the metadata like EXIF in seperate files. They are read every time the picture opens. This probably means that it will demand more of the server if I get a lot of hits, but as long as the hits are low, it will be faster.

The EXIF data is read with the “Exifer“-library for PHP, which works for most cameras. It is, however not been updated since 2005, but it’s easy to update if I need to add new functions, or support for new cameras.

The thumbnails are also generated every time someone visits the gallery. This is a feature I will change when I get time to do it, cause it generates more load on the server then needed. The plan is to make the gallery check if the thumbnail exists. If it doesn’t exist, the gallery will automaticly generate the thumbnails, making the experience quicker for the next visitor.

Another feature that’s going to be added is automatic image rotation. I am deciding how to do this now, and is standing between two ways:

1. Modern cameras usually save information in the EXIF tags that says if the camera was tilted or not. This makes it possible to add automatic image rotation.
2. A vote-based system where it rotates the picture after 3 or more votes.

I think I might mix them, and make it automatically rotate, enables the images that have been rotated to be rotated back if enough people vote.

I have chosen to leave comments out for this time, because I want the gallery to be as clean and easy to use as possible. I might make an optional module that allows for comments, but it’s not at the top of the list.

Creating a documentary is a fun, but it gives you great responsibility. You are telling a story that other people will “learn” from, even if what you present in the documentary is wrong.

Reading “Introduction to Documentary” by Bill Nichols has thought me a lot about the responsibilities a documentary filmmaker has. When creating a documentary, you are often representing the views of individuals, groups or institutions.  This is why there are many ethical issues around creating (more in certain types of documentaries then others) a documentary. The way a documentary is edited and formed can easily change the meaning of an interview. When editing and constructing the documentary, we have to remember that we are representing others.

I tend to see a tendency that documentaries have smaller production values then fiction films. Obviously, there is more money in fiction films, but I wish more documentary filmmakers spent more time on making their documentaries look good. One simple way to do this is a smaller depth of field.

One documentary that has managed to keep a cinematic look, is the 2009 film Home.

Home is an interesting documentary. Almost the whole film is composed of aerial shots, shot with a Cineflex camera mounted on a helicopter. The camera is stabilized by a gyro, which makes all the shots look like they are shot on a crane or dollies. Unfortunately, I think the monotone voice of the narrator ruins the documentary a bit.

Anyhow, this shows that it is possible to create a stunning looking documentary, and not only pale documentaries that are boring to look at. The entire Home film is available on Youtube here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqxENMKaeCU

During the first term, I helped some 2nd year people making Sanjay’s Roadshow – Fire and Spice. I was a gaffer, but ended up doing some camerawork. Here is the result:

Sanjay’s Roadshow – Fire And Spice from Andrew Cook on Vimeo.

In 1995, a TV-channel in New Zealand sendt out an application for a 60 minute contemporary drama play. Peter Jackson and Costa Botes applied to this with their “documentary” about Colin McKenzie.

The documentary is about a team that finds old films from the film-maker Colin McKenzie. Peter Jackson is the presenter of the documentary, which gives it credibility. In addition, they had other big names in it as Leonard Maltin, Sam Neill and Harvey Weinstein. Using the authority of these people, it makes it hard for people not believing in it.

While watching the documentary, it is easy to forget that it is fake.

The documentary opens with Peter Jackson talks about Hannah McKenzie, which is a neighbor of Peter Jackson’s parents. She finds a box of old movies that she shows to Peter Jackson. They describe the finding like this: “Imagine if a film like Citizen Kane should come out of nowhere. It’s really that big”.

Colin McKenzy was born in 1888, as a farmers son. He loved to experiment with mecanicahl inventions. In the spring 1900, the traveling picture show came to his town, and he got interested in film making. While the other kids watched the films, Colin was inspecting the machinery that projected these images.

12 years old, he created his first camera. Instead of turning the film by hand, he mechanized it by building it on a bike. He created the cinemas first tracking shot. He even created his own film. He used egg white for using the film photosensitive. He used 12 eggs for one minute of film, and when he got the idea of creating the worlds first feature length film, he stole 2 000 dozens of eggs.

The documentary is the story about this man. The documentary is structured like a normal documentary, where, as i wrote earlier, Peter Jackson is the presenter. There is another narrator in it, used for voice over.

This quote from Wikipedia can tell us alot about the big powers a documentary have:

The film was first aired on Television New Zealand’s channel TV ONE in a time slot usually dedicated to plays and mini-series, but was billed and introduced as a serious documentary. A large proportion of the TV audience were fooled until the directors shortly afterwards revealed that it was a hoax. The airing proved extremely controversial.

People believe what documentaries tell them. Making a documentary gives you great responsibility to the people that watch them.

I think, that when you  get to create a documentary, you are lucky. You get to tell a real story, and really give something to the people that watches it.

I want to end this entry with a trailer for a documentary i’m looking forward to. I’m not only looking forward to it because of the content, but because of how it’s made. The whole documentary is shot on a Canon 5D Digital Single Lens Reflex camera.

( http://battleforheartsandminds.com/ )

Eurovision Song Contest is the biggest TV-event in Europe. Even though the music isn’t that great, the production is amazing. The amount of money spent to arrange this is huge, and it looks amazing.

I’m going to start off by talking about what you see on the embedded video. This is something I think is really exiting. According to the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (This years producers), the interval act was inspired by some of the biggest youtube-stars, like Matt Harding, which you can see under here:

They managed to get the entire Europe to dance, something thats (at least I think) never been done before.

So, to the rest of the production. I’m as I said earlier not a big fan of most of the music, but the production values are really high, so it’s quite good to watch anyway. Here is an example: http://www1.nrk.no/nett-tv/indeks/215688

How they use the cameras to create an a good experience is really good. Wish I worked on ESC…

Today’s computer is starting to get old fashion. The QEWRTY keyboard, which is the standard keyboard layout today, was invented as early as 1714. The mouse has not existed that long, but it’s been used since we got graphical user interfaces (GUI).

We have unlimited possibilities through our computers. From my laptop here in England, I can access my data in Norway, or every other piece of information that’s made available on the internet. Wikipedia is a good example on how information is available. Even though Wikipedia is open for editing by everybody, I think it’s a good example on how easy it is to access information. Unfortunately, accessing it requires me to have a computer with me. It doesn’t matter if the computer is a mobile phone, tablet, a laptop or a desktop computer. It requires an input through a keyboard.

When you have accessed the information, it will be displayed on your screen. The screen is actually an annoying way of accessing information. There is done a lot of research in this area. I watched a lecture by Simon McCallum during the Easter (it is available here: ftp://ftp.gathering.org/TG/2010/Productions/TG2010-Simon_McCallum-Augmented_Reality.mp4 ). He talked about augmented reality, and the places we can use this. Augmented Reality is, as he says, almost the opposite of virtual reality. The idea of virtual reality is to put you as a user into a completely digital world. The idea behind augmented reality is to connect the digital world with the real world. A quick video that describes some of the basics of augmented reality can be seen here:

In the video, we saw that it’s possible to replace pictures with 3D-images. This is not the only way to do this. I think the method of using markers is a small portion of the possibilities with this technology. New mobile phones are being equipped with a GPS locator and a camera. Together, they can be used to navigate through the world. There are already several applications built for the Apple iPhone and the Google Android system that allows you to use the GPS and Camera to augment information about the real world on your mobile screen. Imagine if you were on holiday, and wanted to find a place to visit. Have a look here:

The augmented reality application allows us to access digital information in the real world. This is only one of several uses for this technology. Imagine if you are interested in flowers. To get information about a flower, all you need to do is point your phone with a camera at the flower, and let the phone identify it. Of course, all this is still happens on a flat screen. I think we have to move away from the flat screen. I think the next generation of computing will be without screens, or at least utilizes screens in a different way than we do now.

I found a commercial from BMW. Even though the video is animated, it shows how I think we will utilize this technology in the future.

The future lies in “screenless” applications. I think we will wake up, take on our Augmented Reality glasses and go out. There is a company called Vuzix that have started to create the kind of glasses needed for that. The technology is still very new, so it’s not perfect, but you can get glasses like these: http://www.vuzix.com/iwear/products_wrap920ar.html

You can bring information up on the glasses. You can look around and get information set from your presets. Maybe you can tell the software that you want to find a restaurant. It will immediately tell you where the closest restaurants are, and what kind of food you can buy.

Another way of displaying this information is through the real world. MIT-students have developed a project called “The Sixth sense”. They are talking about the sixth sense as the sense to access information about anything, anywhere at any time. A demo of this can be seen here:

The idea behind the project it that information should be available anywhere, at any time. Being able to use any surface as a way to interact with the information will make it more natural to access what we need at each given time.

I think the biggest problem in the future is not the technology, but in what information that’s going to be available. Privacy is getting a bigger and bigger issue, and I am not sure that everybody is going to be happy that every aspect of their life is going to be available through the device that hangs around everybody’s neck. Another problem is country borders. Making information available cross multiple countries is also a problem. We have problems like China, which censure the content on the internet for their users. As long as countries do that, the available information will be limited. That means that the idea behind the device is lost.

I think we are looking at a very interesting future in computing. The way we access information is going to change drastically the next ten years. What the changes is going to be is difficult, but I think I have brought some light on what I think they will be.

I’ve been waiting for the release of the Avatar-DVD for a while now, and as I walked in to ASDA today to buy some bread and cheese, I found it. I didn’t even know it had the release today, but there it was, standing there like it was descended from heaven. Got it for £8, which I thought was a bargain…

The first thing I did when I came home (after putting the bread and cheese in the fridge, of course) was putting the DVD in my DVD-drive. I have never been this disappointed over a DVD before. I mean, how can you really fail to produce a proper DVD? All you need to do is having a nice background (preferably related to the movie), and four buttons: Play, setup, scene select and special features. The menu should be nice, but creating a nice menu isn’t that hard. Just hire a DVD-author.

I have to admit, I like DVDs with special features. I was really looking forward to see some interviews, or a “behind the scenes”-film from Avatar, because the film has been so big. It’s one of the most seen cinema-movie of all times.

So where is all this leading? Well. I will take a totally random DVD out of my shelf: The Invasion. Not an amazing movie; it scores 6.0/10 on IMDB, while Avatar scores 8.4/10. The Invasion had a budget on $65 million, while Avatar had a budget on $235 million. You would at least expect the same quality from Avatar as you got from The Invasion. Where did they fail?

Look at these sceengrabs:

I don’t know about you, but I think I could have made the Avatar-menu… In addition, The Invasion contains some special features; a few interviews, and a behind the scenes.

But over to the real point: What are they thinking?! On one side, they are fighting a war. They are complaining about piracy and suing everybody. On the other side, the products they are selling are getting worse and worse.  Why would I even buy their products when I can download a better product cheaper?

I can see why piracy is a problem, and I really feel sorry for the film, and music industry, but not because they are losing so much money because of it, but because they can’t seem to see that the internet is a totally new place for them to market and sell their products. If they don’t want to do it, fine. But at least, give me a reason for buying your DVD’s! Content! Content! Content!

Let’s take a CD as an example. If you download a CD, what do you get? You get the songs (in as high quality as you want, e.g. a flac-rip). If I buy a CD, what do I get? Exactly the same! There is no point in buying, because the pirated version is just as good as the original. If the original were better than the pirated, people would have a reason to buy it.

Luckily, there are some few people that seem to get the point; most of them are for some reason Swedish. Spotify is one of the few services that have stepped the right way. You can choose to pay £9,99 a month for a subscription which gives you unlimited access to music 24/7, as long as you have an internet-connection. If I want to listen to some music from The Who, all I need to do is search for them, and select the right band. On the band-page, I can put on any song I want. In addition, I can read their biography, and look at related artists (which by the way is a great way to discover new artists). It is worth mention that Spotify is still in a testing-phase, and not available worldwide.

The second service I want to talk about is Voddler. Again, some smart Swedish people decided that it should be possible to pay a monthly fee (or alternatively pay as you watch) and watch movies and TV-series. Again, this service is still in the Beta-phase, and is only available in Sweden (might be released in Norway soon).

The problem with both these services (and many more like them) is that the music and film-produces don’t trust them. They don’t want to share their content just yet.