“Avatar” has accomplished more than most movies in recent memory, including the introduction of ideas long popular with transhumanists to a more mainstream audience. Is it also helping to lead to more public acceptance of transhumanism and emerging technologies?
With a host of promising new productions, independent online filmmakers are leaving fan films behind for projects based on original or licensed content. Hoping to duplicate some of the success of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, these new web series will experiment with a variety of business models on a variety of web-based video platforms. 2010 just might turn out to be the year of the independent web series.
James Cameron’s “Avatar” is an astonishing and must-see movie. It is also a huge disappointment. What follows is a spoiler-rich dissection of an industry in transition, and it is best read after you see “Avatar” for yourself.
2008 ended with a bang for digital media: growing audiences for streaming long-form video, several deals bringing ebooks to the iPhone, and rumors that Apple and the Big Three music labels were hashing out a deal to complete the removal of digital rights management (DRM) from the music on iTunes that begin with EMI.
That agreement [...]
It is that time of the year to highlight the key digital media developments in 2008, those trends leading into 2009, and where digital media is heading by the end of the next decade.
Michael Ashe from popular Channel 101 shows like “Cautionary Tales of Swords” had us laughing. An older actor amidst the typical youth of online video productions, fans, friends, and colleagues are reflecting on his legacy after his recent passing.
Credit: Screenshot of Amazon Video On Demand
[REVIEW] — Late last year Adobe released an upgrade to their ubiquitous Flash software that enabled higher quality video. In response, overall video streaming quality on the web has improved as various video services have upgraded their offerings. Amazon is the latest to make the leap, turning [...]
Credit: Hermit of the Mountain, LLC – Venus Rises promotional wallpaper: “Mars Warship Wallpaper“
[REVIEW] [SPOILERS] — A new surge in independently-produced online content is almost upon us even as existing media giants like NBC Universal begin to dabble in higher production value content intended for the web. Venus Rises, created by writer/director and Executive [...]
Image Credit: Star Trek: Odyssey promotional wallpaper, with Bobby Rice as Lt. Commander Ro Nevin and Michelle Laurent as Romulan Sub Commander T’Lorra.
[Commentary] | [Spoilers]
Before there was Star Trek: New Voyages there was Star Trek: Hidden Frontier, an ambitious online fan series that ran from 2000 through a final episode in the summer of 2007. [...]
Image Caption: Promotional wallpaper for NBC’s upcoming Fall 2007 television series Bionic Woman
[Commentary] | [Spoilers]
Jaime Sommers is now a bartender with an angry kid sister and a professor boyfriend outside her socio-educational demographic. After a horrific car accident, her boyfriend has her rebuilt, because it turns out he is also working for a top [...]