Report Price Gouging

In response to yesterday’s story about gas stations lying about being out of the cheaper flavors to get you to buy the primo varieties here in South Florida. I located the hotline you need to call to report this and other price gouging incidents. It is to the Florida Attorney General’s office and the number is 866-966-7226.

Be sure and ask that the death penalty be enacted in any price gouging conviction.

Not Wide Enough

I’ve been watching a lot of HD television shows lately (though on a standard definition TV) and seeing television faves like Law & Order and sports in glorious 16x9 widescreen. However, I have to fault the networks for the widescreen vision not being as good as it could be.

In order to simplify the process of re-purposing the widescreen frame to 4:3 the networks chop off the left and the right of the picture. Therefore, when the show it shot every camera setup must protect the important elements by keeping them in the center of the shot. You will also see this with overlays and lower thirds; they are in the center then either too far from the top of frame or bottom to protect the “safe area” when put into the 4:3 frame. What you get is a shot that is not effective at all with the widescreen frame.

Effective widescreen use means using the entire frame. Watch a movie; nothing is in the center. It is always off to one side or the other. It can be very dramatic and effective. Watching Rome last night was awesome because it was shot like a film, making full use of the 16x9 frame.

While I think this will change when everyone has 16x9 TVs (somewhere around the year 10,191), I think the networks need to make the 16x9 experience better. They need to shoot for widescreen and then pan and scan if they want to make a 4:3 presentation. Better yet, just letterbox it on the standard def channel. DVD’s has made almost everyone comfortable with black bars and there should be no problem with this.

Anyway, that’s my thought. As always YMMV!

Rome- Episode 1 Quick Thoughts

Saw episode 1 of Rome last night. Damn good show. I love the look of the show, the beauty and color of Roman cities themselves, but gritty as well. You can almost smell the stink from the livestock on the streets right through the TV screen. Michael Apted (Nell) directed episode one and did an excellent job keeping the acting real.

What I really like was the writing. So often in historical dramas you get dialog that is full of pompous talk, where each word is supposed to have meaning that will change history. So, inevitably, the characters sound like Greek tragedy instead of people. Here we see them as people, each distinct, with good and bad in them. They joke with each other the way we might to break the monotony of the day. You can see camaraderie between them.

The only thing I wonder, and if a historian can please tell me, were the Romans really that penis obsessed (if you saw the episode you know what I mean)?

Ripping Off the Good Folks

Just got a call from a friend of mine. We live in South Florida and we just had this hurricane fly through. There were reports that filling stations were telling the customers, all of whom were scared they wouldn’t have fuel after the storm, that they were out of everything except the most expensive gasoline. You know, gas with titles like Supreme.

Word got around that this was a lie. A TV station actually showed people taking the bags or ties off the regular unleaded and pumping tanks full of the cheap stuff (though it isn’t that cheap, but let’s not go there today).

Anyway, my friend calls. Lo’ and behold they were out of regular and mid-grade unleaded as the tanker has not got there yet. He rips off the bag around the regular nozzle and proceeds to pump out fifteen gallons of gas.

Last I heard he was calling the cops. That is a form of gouging, and that is a hefty felony in this state. I hope they prosecute to the fullest extent of the law… AND THEN SOME!

Rome: Coming to a Small Screen Near You

I am really looking forward to HBO's new series Rome. I missed it Sunday due to continuing hurricane aftermath problems, but am ready to see it tonight. I've always been fascinated with Rome, its origins as a monachy, the turn to democrachy and the fall under dictatorship. We think the USA is old, it is a mere child to the age of Rome when it fell.

What I like is the care they have taken to present Rome as it was, not the fantasy that the movies have created. Gone are the white marble, in is the splendor of colors they decorated their cities with. Gone are groups of men and women in togas, in are the myriad of styles worn in the period the series happens, mid-first century C.E.

As always I will be viewing it in 16x9 and 5.1 Dolby Digital on HBO-HD. As always it will be downconverted to standard definition because I am not buying an HDTV anytime soon.

MNF in 5.1 DD IMHO: RULEZ!

Caught some pre-season Monday Night Football tonight from ABC’s HD feed. Very sweet. As you know from my earlier post Why I am Not Buying an HDTV Anytime Soon, I don’t own an HDTV. I do like viewing the content downconverted in sweet 16x9 and MNF looked good. But the audio: KICKED BUTTOCKS!!! 5.1 Dolby Digital with a top notch mix job. Madden in the center sounding awesome, the game in front spread across the three speakers, and the crowd coming from left, center, right and split surrounds (some moron was yelling his head off to the rear right of me… it was just like being there, there is one idiot in every crowd). The music was the sweetest: zooming all around the surround field. Front to back to front. Very dynamic mix.

Blogger for Word? Amen!

I’ve used MS Word to compose these blog entries and paste them to Blogger to get them to you (without spell and grammar check I would be completely incomprehensible. Because of these tools I am only partially incomprehensible). Well, Blogger has made it a little easier with a Blogger Plug-In for Word 2000 or later. You can get it right here.

Hurricane Update

Quick shout out to everyone wondering how we held up here in Hollywood Florida, RE: the hurricane.

We did okay. First off, loss of life was minimal. Not having power or anything is okay if you and your loved ones are safe, and it seems like everyone I have contacted is.

However, I am without power, TV and air-conditioning at home. Everything in the refrigerator is ruined. I have no power at work so forget video editing. I did find a nice cool coffee shop with WiFi access, which is how I am blogging this. Everyone is here trying to get an AC outlet for their cell phones, iPods, laptops, anything they discharged last night during their loss of power.

Some places are getting it back. I hope we do tonight before I miss a new Battlestar Galactica.

HDFEST 2005

I have been asked to judge some film for HDFEST 2005. This is a film festival spread across five cities (South Florida, New York, London, Helsinki and Los Angeles). HD FEST bills itself at “the world’s only high-definition film festival.” They are the only festival to screen all entries in full high-def, and they have been doing it since 2000.

Being asked to do this is an honor to me. I have been aware of the festival and think that they have done much to help usher in a new era of digital cinema. Please, check out their website and if you are in one of the host cities I urge you to attend. The screenings I’ll be at are on September 9th at the Gateway Theater on Sunrise Boulevard. You’ll see me in my fashionable Pivot ringer tee I got from the Pivot Shop.

If you missed it I have mentioned misgivings about the new Digital Cinema Initiative, and I will be sure to bring them up at September 10th’s discussions. Also, I might be inclined to talk about why I won’t be buying an HDTV anytime soon.

Good blog: Dvorak.org

john Dvorak has been a writer for PC Magazine and other publications for years. He also hosted Silicon Spin on TechTV back before it merged with G4TV and became a sucky network.

His blog at www.Dvorak.org/blog is funny, informative, and sometimes just plain weird. Check it out.

Sneak Peek of Red Eye

I saw a preview screening of Dreamworks' Red Eye last night, the thriller starring Rachel McAdams (The Notebook) and Cillian Murphy (Batman Begins). Here’s a quick take on it:

Unlike the way the TV spot looks and the fact it is directed by Wes Craven (A Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream) it is not a supernatural horror flick. It is a thriller but built around human interaction. Rare these days for something aimed at the summer movie crowd.

Overall I liked it. You are going to hear from a lot of people that there were plot holes: I say “so what.” Casablanca had plot holes. This film worked for me because the two leads were so good. They carried the movie, and for a couple of hours I didn’t think about work or calls I need to make or anything except the movie.

Red Eye is a thriller in the way Stangers on a Train is a thriller, two people meet on a flight and have a psychological battle. The end is kind of far fetched but it got a good round of applause. This is not to say it is a great film, but it is enjoyable.

Best Division in Baseball

I usually like to avoid the sports talk here, but with my team, the two-time world champion Florida Marlins being in the best division in baseball, I had to take a moment and point it out.

Look at the standings: it is almost September, the stretch, and every team in the National League East with winning records, and everyone in striking distance of number one! It is anybody’s game. Of course, the team to beat is the Atlanta Braves, and September will only pit the Marlins against teams with winning records and make-up games will deprive them of needed days off, but as the saying goes:

YOU GOTTA BELIEVE!!!!

Pivot Gear Cafeshop

Added a link on the blog here to my company's Cafepress shop. Not much to buy yet, so keep checking back. Expect to see items for Pivot's recording artist Dominique Vouk as her first album is released, plus other items from our projects.

You can also see a mousepad with a design I used to promote The Perfect Wedding when I was first beginning pre-production as gifts to those involved.

Why I am Not Buying an HDTV Anytime Soon

I got asked about Saturdays’s blog why don’t I have an HDTV if I am watching all these HD channels? I’ll be glad to address that. Just a couple of years ago I would say lack of content would be the biggest problem for me to get a set: spend several thousands to watch almost nothing. Now there are plenty of programs on the major networks, big cable networks and subscription channels. The hurdle for me is mainly technical.

Resolution
Most sets I can afford, and many I cannot, are not full resolution. Most have more pixels than a 1280x720 HD broadcast, but since most shows are in 1920x1080 everything must be downconverted. Weirder than that most monitors that have significantly less than enough pixels for 1080 but enough for 720p performance do not work natively at 720p either, up converting to 1080i then down converting for the actual pixel count.

Color
Everyone loves the LCD and plasma sets you can hang on a wall. I am no exception but I am not buying yet because no technology comes close to the color and black level reproduction of a good tube set. Digital Micro-mirror devices (DMD) are close, but they still have to be housed in a big rear projection cabinet. Call me when I can get tube like performance to hang on the wall like a Picasso.

Interconnectivity
I am waiting for the standards for HD-interconnectivity to be worked out and it is taking far too long. New connectors are being shown on a daily basis (hyperbole, but barely) meaning a set from one company may not work with a decoder from another. That is a nightmare. Plus there are no standards for content protection. While I like as much control over my ability to watch, I think we need to come up with a plan for content protection that everyone agrees to or else HBO may not work with your set but will with your neighbors. Who wants to invest in a set that may not work with new devices and content in just a year’s time? HDTV has been on market for 5 years, how long until this is sorted out?

All of this should be resolved in the coming years, hopefully sooner than later (but with arguments over content controls that might take the longest).

Got Comcast

Just got Comcast digital cable, a switch I was forced to make from my trusty Dish Network I was subscribed to for the past couple of years. The reason for switching was a line of sight issue with the dish and satellite at my new apartment.

Comcast has a good line up of stations, but Dish is far superior. I loved having East and West coast feeds of a lot of stations, such as WB affiliates. However, the coolness of the Comcast box outweighs it all. Comcast comes with several high definition channels out of the box! Including: TNT-HD, INHD 1 & 2, ESPN-HD, local channels and a few others.

Even though I do not have an HDTV, I have a five year old 40" 16x9 standard definition rear projector, I find myself watching a lot of HD programming downconverted to standard definition. The picture quality compared to the standard definition feed of the channel is higher: downconverting from a video source that has four times the resolution of an SD channel makes for a near DVD picture, much better than the digital SDTV channels, and way better than SD-analog channels. Plus you get a lot of programming in 5.1 Dolby Digital.

There is one bad thing about Comcast in that they give you the box without a manual. The default settings for the box are to chop the left and right sides of a 16x9 frame off and zoom it to fit a 4:3 TV, including movies that should fit 16x9 wonderfully. I went on the Internet and searched for the manual for my Motorola box, downloaded it and discovered how to set the box to letterbox instead of 4:3. Now all the HD channels come in letterboxed.

Now if only Comcast carried Universal-HD I could see Battlestar Galactica in 5.1!

Why aren't you watching Battlestar Galactica?

If you haven’t checked out the new Battlestar Galactica you are missing out. And if you are one of those people who “aren’t into sci-fi” because you don’t like future tech and funny looking aliens, check it out anyway.

This is a drama series that happens to be in space. Like good sci-fi of the past it also looks at today. It has echoes of September 11^th, torture of prisoners, military versus democratic rule after a tragedy, and the separation of government and religion.

Another cool thing of the show is the openness of the producers to the creative process. Each week producer Ron Moore posts a podcast commentary to play along with the episode, as well as a very good blog for the show. Producer David Eick also has a video blog. They are warts and all, and really show the creative grind a weekly series is.

Its on Sci-fi Friday’s at 10 p.m. and 1 a.m. It is also repeated on Universal HD in high def and Dolby Digital 5.1.

Trust me. Take the candy!

TWiT Rulez!

Simply put: TWiT (This Week in Tech) is the best weekly tech podcast out there. Find out more at This Week in Tech.

Digital Cinema Update

I got a chance to read the standards document for the Digital Cinema Initiative. This is a standards group supported by the major film companies so that, finally, the promise of digital cinema can be fulfilled.

For the most part it does it well. Support for 2k (about the same as HD) resolution and 4k, twice the resolution of HD. Awesome quality. Also, the standard says that in no way can the access to third party applications be denied. This is wonderful for indie filmmakers and theater owners to show film and events that are not part of a major distributor.

There is only one downside, and that is scope… scope as in 2.39:1 Panavision kind of scope. While the proposed standard supports 2.39:1 aspect ratios, it does so by chopping off the tops and bottom of the picture, not using all the pixels to make the picture. For me this is a major negative. I believe the standard should include an anamorphic mode and a matching lens to un-squeeze the picture, using way more pixels than the proposal.

You can download the proposal yourself at their site. Check out the audio standards: 16-channels of sound. They will support 5.1, 6.1, 7.1 and more including the diagram of front-upper and center above speakers. Now that is cool!!!

All hail FSM

Did you know that the universe was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster? Neither did I until I found the religion of the Pastafarians. This is a protest site inspired by the Kansas Board of Education mandating other vews on creation, and many scientists are one board. Check it out, it is a hoot. No matter what you believe in, discourse is good and parody is an honorable form of discourse. Enjoy this one. See the site here.

Welcome to Film-o-Sapian

Welcome my friends… welcome to Film-o-Sapian. I suppose that is what I am, a person who makes film. I am working on my first feature right now called The Perfect Weddding. I have edited a few indie films (so indie you might have missed them), and co-own a really cool boutique audio/video post house in Downtown Hollywood, Florida!

Truth be told, I chose Film-o-Sapian as the blog title because I had spent about twenty minutes in Blogger trying to come up with a name. Everything cool I put in was unavailable. My first choice was vidiot… gone! So here I am, the Film-o-Sapian.

I prefer to consider myself an artist first, a filmmaker being one of the facets of my personality. I am also a musician, a writer and director. I also have hobbies ranging from board and role-play games to poker. I’ll probably post a little about everything here.