The Making of “Benjamin Button” – Digital Domain TED Video

A recent TED Conference highlighted the special effects used to create Brad Pitt’s character in his Oscar-nominated film, “The Curious Life of Benjamin Button.” Ed Ulbrich spoke at TED2009 representing a team of filmmakers, artists and technologists who’ve been working on a significant breakthrough in visual storytelling — a startling blurring of the line between digital creation and actor.

Ulbrich is the executive VP of production at Digital Domain, for whom he’s executive-produced Academy Award-winning visual effects for Titanic, What Dreams May Come, Fight Club, Zodiac, Adaptation and other features, as well as music videos and more than 500 commercials. In 2007, he was named to the Creativity 50 — top innovators in advertising and design. See www.ted.com.

This video shows the special effects which Digital Domain used and how they did surface mapping , a new modeling technique, different from traditional motion-capture.

Consumers Confused Over DTV Transition

Eighty-eight percent of Americans have heard of the DTV transition, but significant numbers don’t understand what they must do to prepare, nor do they know why the transition is occurring, according to the findings of a poll from consumer electronics retailer Best Buy, as reported in Broadcast Engineering.

Additionally, the survey found that 45 percent say they will wait until after the DTV transition to do anything about it.

The telephone poll of 1000 Americans, conducted in April by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Media Omnibus Services and released in mid June, paints a disturbing picture for broadcasters, government policy makers and others with an interest in minimizing the disruption experienced by the public resulting from the transition.

According to the findings, 60 percent of consumers know the DTV transition will occur Feb. 17, 2009, but 54 percent don’t understand why. Confusion isn’t restricted to why, however. Nearly one-third don’t know whether they own an analog or digital television. Eighteen percent of consumers who own analog TVs say they believe nothing will happen after the DTV transition and that their analog sets will look similar to how they look now.

Particularly troublesome for broadcasters is the finding that 43 percent of consumers who plan to prepare for the DTV transition will do so by subscribing to cable or satellite.

The poll also found that 21 percent say they believe they cannot afford to make any preparations for the transition. Those with analog sets incorrectly said they believe a DTV converter will cost $56, after applying the $40 government-issued coupon.

The margin of error for the total sample is +/- 3 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.

Source: Broadcast Engineering, July 8, 2008

NBC Universal, Bain Capital & Blackstone Close Weather Channel Deal

According to Broadcast Engineering, NBC Universal, Bain Capital and The Blackstone Group have signed a definitive agreement to acquire The Weather Channel properties from Landmark Communications.

The Weather Channel will be operated as a separate entity, based in Atlanta, with management services to be provided by NBC Universal. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The transaction includes The Weather Channel Networks, the third-most-distributed cable network, seen in more than 97 percent of U.S. cable television homes; The Weather Channel Interactive, which includes weather.com; and weather forecaster Weather Services International.

The transaction is expected to be completed by year’s end and is subject to receipt of customary regulatory approvals. NBC Universal, Bain Capital and The Blackstone Group announced June 13 that they had entered into exclusive negotiations to purchase The Weather Channel properties.

PLYmedia Raises $6 Million for Interactive Video Web Ads

PLYmedia has allegedly obtained approximately $6.5 mlllion in new financing. PLYMedia is based in Palo Alto with R&D in Tel Aviv, Israel and is an interactive Web video developer that allows posting of ads, subtitles, pop-up bubbles and other content on existing video clips or feeds, TechCrunch reported. This report is based on an alleged TechCrunch source with deal knowledge. According to the story, reported investors are Greylock and Elron Electrontic Industries. Current users are Metacafe, Internet Archive, JibJab and the Herald-Tribune Media Group.

Welcome to the Digital Entertainment Alliance!

Welcome to the Digital Entertainment Alliance! 

 

The Digital Entertainment Alliance (DEA) is a global networked alliance of leading organizations dedicated to maximizing the business benefits of digital entertainment across the entire spectrum of the globally-morphing converging entertainment industry. 

The DEA’s mandate is to inform executives on the business opportunities for products and services in the $300 billion global marketplace for digital film & television, games, new media, advertising and the Internet. To do this, the DEA is helping organizations identify, prioritize and prepare for digital entertainment industry-based investments where content and context have always been king and distribution alternatives abound but business models have always been either entirely new or questionable in many cases. 

The Digital Entertainment Alliance is dedicated to finding these new high payoff business and service opportunities and making them available to the Alliance -both on a private individual Member basis as well as with general information sharing and networking.

“The Digital Entertainment Revolution: Application & Service Opportunities in a Morphing World” is a multi-partner on-going program initiative that provides actionable research and advice on digital entertainment application and technology opportunities for exploitation in both industry and consumer markets.  This program assists members make smart, low risk, high payoff marketplace decisions, based on their current individual business opportunities and strategies, developments and trends in the quickly-changing digital entertainment marketplace. We invite you to join other leaders in digital entertainment by becoming a Partner in the Digital Entertainment Alliance.

Member Benefits

Each Alliance Partner will receive proprietary access to valuable leading edge insights and advice about the digital entertainment marketplace. You will receive actionable information to be used in business, product and alliance planning, product and service development and marketing and sales functions within organizations playing in the digital entertainment marketplace.

Deliverables and Access to Actionable Insights

Most organizations want strategic insight with practical and actionable recommendations. We have found that you and your people no longer have time for massive reports, long distance conferences for networking and time away from work and deals to obtain market insights from traditional information research organizations.  You need your own think tank with a “big picture” take on where digital entertainment is and where it is going.  Today, there is a bi-polar set of alternatives- vague, conceptual hazy futuristic prognosticators who are often wrong or quantitative research firms offering nothing more than numbers without a strategic context.

As a member of the Digital Entertainment Alliance you will receive digestible “knowledge nuggets” that are short and to the point. Access to the DEA Members-Only Website will give you Current Trends and News Alerts, Reports and Research, Pod and Webcasts, White Papers, Case Studies, Planning Tools and Research Briefs, as well as strategic consulting support via the web, telephone and on-site with your team.  In addition, we will have an annual conference session to coincide with the South-by-Southwest (SxSW) Multimedia Event in Austin, Texas and other yet-to-be-announced industry conference venues as well.

Who Should Join?

This program is for business and technology executives who wish to understand the dynamics and opportunities for new convergence applications and services. That includes digital entertainment producers as well as service and technology players either contemplating entering the space or already are and who are interested in better understanding the new environment.