“Avatar” attendance actually lies somewhere between this very conservative estimate and Box Office Mojo’s estimate, meaning it is clearly a top-100 movie of all-time domestically. It is difficult to estimate where “Avatar” places in terms of attendance world-wide because that marketplace has changed significantly over the decades. However, “Avatar” has accomplished something few movies do anymore: it is a runaway success in a variety of different cultures and it is well-ranked globally among the biggest movies of all time. No movie will likely surpass the nearly half billion people who have seen “Gone with the Wind” in the theater over the decades (“Star Wars” is the only movie that has ever come close), yet in a world of more entertainment options than in any other time in history, any movie that brings so many millions of people out to the theater during a first run has accomplished an increasingly rare feat.

Only two movies now sit around the $2.0 billion grossing mark: “Avatar” and “Titanic”, both written and directed by James Cameron. It took 12 years for another movie to pass “Titanic” and the question now is whether or not this will happen again any time soon? That the bar has been set so high, and twice, suggests that many filmmakers will be pulling out all the stops now.  ”Avatar” is currently unrivaled in special effects and photorealistic CGI. Cameron has also succeeded in demonstrating a particular approach to filmmaking that is expected to become wildly popular with filmmakers in coming years. The placement of actors, virtual characters, props, and virtual props within sets and virtual sets was available to Cameron from the very beginning of filming. While directing, he looked through a customized camera that served as a “window” into a blended reality. This allowed him to film as if he was really standing – or flying – there on Pandora. The actors benefited from this technology by being able to see what they were acting against prior to each take. This is a vast improvement over previous green-screen technology where it was difficult for actors to get a sense of their setting and interactions with virtual characters. In post-production (which actually coincided with production) all of this came together into a seamless whole, with an unprecedented level of gloss and realism driven by the experience of Weta Digital and other special effects companies along with  access to computing power that continues to grow exponentially over time.

“Avatar” has not just set a new bar for photorealistic blended reality in movies; it has set a new base. Upcoming genre films will be compared to “Avatar” as audiences begin to expect movies at least as seamless and full of wonder. “John Carter of Mars”, “Spider-Man 4“, and the new “Flash Gordon” movie are all rumored to use the same technology that Cameron and his team developed.  TV and web productions will likely follow as the price of this technology comes down further.

“Avatar” has also succeeded in making 3-D a viable marketing strategy. Movie studios are racing to update existing genre productions to 3-D while announcing new movies to be produced in 3-D from the start. They are also in the process of reformatting older movies to 3-D for rerelease. Manufacturers of 3-D televisions hope “Avatar” will increase consumer demand for these sets later this year. This coming holiday will likely indicate whether or not consumers are going to take the bait in order to own “Avatar” in 3-D and view it in this format at home.

Beyond these filmmaking and marketing accomplishements, the success of “Avatar” and other recent genre entertainment may have also widened the discourse for ideas like transhumanism, space travel, astrobiology, exoplanetary science, advanced consumer electronics, mind uploading, and other emerging technologies. Transhumanist commentators in particular may benefit from genre fiction that opens audience minds to new ideas that were until recently dismissed as fringe. When asked about whether or not genre fiction has had an impact on his “Sentient Developments“ blog, transhumanist commentator, futurist, and author George Dvorsky responded:

“Absolutely. Other than life extension topics, genre entertainment (especially science fiction) is like porn for blogs. I make an effort to review popular films as much as possible, but they have to be contextually consistent with my blog. And lately that’s not been too difficult; as you noted, films like Avatar and Caprica have made it easy. Even superhero stories (like Watchmen and X-Men) offer food for thought.”

Dvorsky highlighted the virtual reality and uploading depicted in “Avatar” and how the movie helps to introduce these ideas to the public. However, he notes that the introduction of new ideas does not necessarily lead to public acceptance.  While Frontier Channel has benefited from increased traffic to articles related to genre fiction, there is little evidence to suggest that readers are sticking around to learn more about transhumanism and emerging technologies.

Michael Anissimov writes the “Accelerating Future” blog,  is a transhumanist commentator, and actively participates in the effort of Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence to describe and develop so-called “Friendly AI”. He suggests that movies like “Avatar” might open people’s mind a little bit more to unfamiliar concepts, but ultimately:

“[...] the best way to bring people into transhumanism is using news of real scientific advancements and analysis of sci-tech progress. [...] it ["Avatar"] is more symptomatic of pro-transhumanist sentiment rather than causative of it.”

Roko Mijic, who writes the “Transhuman Goodness” blog and is also a proponent of “Friendly AI” research, seems to agree and points out how science fiction might actually be less interesting now:

“Personally, I find that the scenarios I consider in my “Day-to-Day” activities volunteering for the Singularity Institute are a lot more extreme than science fiction. Somehow having to consider ultra-extreme future scenarios as “work” has made me both less excited by and less interested in science fiction[...]“

The problem with “Avatar” is that while the technical details of the filmmaking and the astonishing photorealistic CGI are indeed evidence for the rapid progress of technology in the industry, many of the ideas explored in the movie are done so in a way that seems quaint when compared to real scientific breakthroughs and technological progress today. While “Avatar” may in a limited way help introduce people to new ideas that are already popular in transhumanist circles, it is by no means a “transhumanist” film. Mijic suggests that:

“[...] there is a fairly strong cultural trend for entertainment to pick up, amplify and distort good futurism, and it has both good and bad effects. Good in the sense that even a distorted message can be better than no message at all. Bad in the sense that people tend to enter a “fairytale” mode of thinking activated by the future-flavored entertainment when you try to present serious futurism to them.”

What “Avatar” has accomplished is to provide entertainment that seems to cut across cultures, while also promoting 3-D in general and a new approach to filmmaking that could very well be quite popular going forward. While the movie does not explore transhumanism and emerging technologies in any deep way, it may just have accomplished a kind of “priming” of the minds of its audience members to be a little bit more aware of them. With new audiences eager for the out-of-this-world vistas on display in movies like “Avatar”, there is no better time to introduce them to current accomplishments in science and technology that are leading to a future far more fantastic than fiction.

For years online fan films, most notably those based on Star Trek, have been tolerated by rights holders but prohibited from making money. Whether by amateurs or professionals within the filmmaking and television, these efforts have resulted in content of variable quality. Star Trek: Hidden Frontier was a fan series set after the canon events of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager, making extensive use of green screens to place amateur and professional actors within computer-generated scenery. Two sequel series were produced and crossovers between these and other Star Trek fan series occurred. The even more ambitious Star Trek: New Voyages – later renamed Phase 2 after Gene Roddenberry’s proposed 1970′s continuation of the original Star Trek series – brought amateurs together with professionals who had actually worked behind the scenes on some of the official Star Trek series. Sets were built and used, scripts were written by writers known for their canon work, and even some of the original series actors including Walter Koenig and George Takei guest-starred.

No matter how successful these fan series have become, they can only ever be labors-of-love; their production values are limited to the time, labor, and capital donated to them. They proceed as dictated by the schedule of participants who otherwise work day jobs. As a result, episodes are infrequent, merchandising is non-existent, and marketing depends on word-of-mouth and limited press coverage.

Web series based on original content do not face the same limitations, but until recently there have been few of them. Notable web series like Red vs. Blue offered high quality subscription downloads and DVDs for sale, while Xombie followed up its online debut with DVD releases, comics, and even a potential movie deal. Other web series like Ninjai: The Little Ninja and KarmaKula boasted outstanding production values but to date have been unable to transition to a business model that would ensure their continuation. This is not to say that every independent online filmmaker is seeking monetary returns from their efforts. Web series provide an opportunity to practice filmmaking, get exposure, and express creativity. Such web series tend to come and go quickly, often leaving behind only a tantalizing glimpse of what they could have been.

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog may have changed all of this. Written by Joss Whedon, Zack Whedon, Jed Whedon, and Maurissa Tancharoen during the Writers Guild of America strike of 2007 and 2008, this independent production found unprecedented success on the web. The series was released online for free for a limited time followed by paid digital downloads on iTunes and advertising-supported streaming on Hulu.com. While the people involved were all more or less Hollywood insiders, the incredible success of “Dr. Horrible” irrevocably turned mainstream attention to the web as a media distribution platform.

Another success has been Sanctuary. This show began as a pay-per-download web series only to be picked up by Syfy as a regular cable television series. Meanwhile, The Guild web series, featuring Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, Dollhouse, and Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog alumnus Felicia Day, is now in its third season. The series enjoyed increased attention after a music video featuring its characters went viral:

Click here to view the embedded video.

The song single and video topped the charts on iTunes and Amazon. The series is also available for purchase on DVD.

A number of factors indicate that we are entering a golden age of independent content increasingly based on original or fully licensed material and distributed online:

• the advent of the affordable Red One camera and the falling cost of filmmaking
• YouTube and video distribution web services supporting 1080p high definition video
• maturing web distribution options for video
• diversifying business models
• the number of recent web series successes

Will this content compete with mainstream television and movies? This will become more clear during 2010 as the latest web series arrive and seek out new audiences. Below are some of the projects that have been announced or entered production. The success of any one of them could lead to even more activity using the web as a central distribution and marketing tool.

Frontier Guard production still - Polaris hull plating, more detailed model

In January the makers of Star Trek: Hidden Frontier plan to release the pilot episode of their first series based on original material: Frontier Guard. The series follows a human abducted in 1957 and discovered “frozen on a space Ark hundreds of years later” as he comes to grips with life in the 25th century. It is unclear if or how the filmmakers plan to monetize the series. Vignettes about the characters are available on the Frontier Guard YouTube channel. Below is a preview of the series:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Hermit of the Mountain, LLC - Venus Rises promotional wallpaper - Mars Warship

Venus Rises makes use of sets, on-location filming, and computer graphics to tell the story of class struggles between humans living on Venus and Mars after the Earth becomes inhospitable. A promising prequel episode was followed by the pilot episode in October 2009. More streaming episodes supported by ads are expected in 2010.

Riese production still

Riese began airing on YouTube on November 1, 2009. The web series follows the adventures of a warrior and her wolf in a steampunk fantasy realm. Riese is available in high definition and is notable for its exceptional production value and being filmed using the Red One camera system. Four episodes were released in 2009 and more are planned for 2010. The teaser trailer is below:

Click here to view the embedded video.

January 03, 2010 screenshot of Buck Rogers Begins website

James Cawley is the principal behind the Star Trek: Phase 2 fan series. His production companies Cawley Entertainment Company and Retro Film Studios, LLC announced on January 12, 2009 that they had secured the rights to the Buck Rogers franchise. The web series will be based on the original Buck Rogers comic strip and will be unlike any of the series or movies previously based on the character. Bobby Quinn Rice will star as Buck Rogers and Gil Gerard and Erin Gray from the 1979-1981 Buck Rogers in the 25th Century television series will play Buck’s parents. A teaser trailer was released on November 30, 2009 on YouTube:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Principal photography began in September 2009. Production is expected to take about a year, with the series expected to launch in September 2010. With secured rights, the production companies behind the new Buck Rogers web series can consider a variety of business models, such as paid video downloads, ad-supported video streaming, and DVD releases.

Image credit: Twentieth Century Fox - promotional wallpaper from Avatar

[REVIEW] [SPOILERS] – 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.

Astonishing

For movie audiences, “Avatar” offers nothing less than a revolution in audiovisual entertainment. Cameron draws the viewer into the new world of Pandora with a seamless blending of CGI, live action, and 3-D, creating an immersive experience unlike any film to date. Viewers are going to be going back again and again to experience Pandora and its flora and fauna; yes, Pandora is that rich. For all the promise of CGI, it was unclear just when the technology would be able to capture our most vivid dreamscapes. With “Avatar” that time is now.

Viewing making-of video for segments like Jake’s first glorious Banshee ride and Zoe Saldana amazing motion-capture performance indicate just how much filmmaking itself has being revolutionized by Cameron. Filmmakers are going to be turning to this approach in droves. Cameron also deserves accolades for his achievements in directing this epic. He is a master of moving through scenes, real or virtual. His skills are always on display, whether in long shots featuring vistas of Pandora with Polyphemus and its other moons in the sky, dynamic camera movements in action scenes, or closeups of Jake during his video logs and other personal moments.

Disappointing

“Avatar” enhances filmmaking with cutting-edge technologies to create a new kind of movie-going experience. As a story, however, the film’s plot is a disappointing failure. Not only is the story derivative, but it is ultimately too simplistic and naive. There is no subtlety in the conflict between the noble people of Pandora – the Na’Vi – and their human antagonists. Nature will beat technology because Cameron has chosen hypocrisy: all that money, time, and labor to build and use incredible new technology for telling stories through film and “Avatar” still ends up being an attack on technology and progress. The Na’Vi have eschewed most technology and like the Ewoks before them rise up to defeat a more technologically-advanced adversary. It is sad that a director who has parlayed his interest in science, art, and technology into a career that has continuously pushed filmmaking beyond the cutting-edge would write a story that so vilifies technology and progress. Not once in this movie do the protagonists appreciate or acknowledge the very technology that allowed them to be where they are. Jake seems to take for granted the technologies that brought him to Pandora and allowed him to leave his crippled body behind for the vital human/alien hybrid body cloned for him.

Image credit: Twentieth Century Fox - promotional wallpaper from Avatar

Also appalling is how the plot refuses to acknowledge current trends in emerging technologies. Set in the 22nd century, “Avatar” cannot rise above the early 21st century in most of the technologies, social norms, and speech patterns depicted. We are told that in a time of interstellar travel, cloning, human/alien hybrids, and Amplified Mobility Platform suits, medicine in the 22nd century cannot treat Jake’s paraplegia economically and evolving language cannot provide Colonel Quaritch with better quotes than “You’re not in Kansas anymore.” In “Avatar”, for every artifact like transparent monitors and mind transfer pods there are artifacts like mugs and wheelchairs that seem to be little changed from today. These conspire to pull the audience out of the movie, even as Pandora itself draws them in.

Rapid technological progress is turning science fiction into reality. Science fiction in movies and television today must acknowledge this fact or risk the same backlash that has nearly decimated written science fiction. Those who are emerging technology aware can only suspend their disbelief so much; as these ideas become more mainstream, audiences are going to expect storytelling that acknowledges the real wonders already emerging around us.

“Avatar” required a script to honor and explore the same progress that led Cameron to complete a movie he once shelved because technology was not far enough along to realize his vision. Unfortunately, the script fails to do this. Instead, the movie now stands as a stunning vision of the future and uncomfortable reminder of the past. Someone will soon marry a brilliant script with this filmmaking technology, resulting in an immersive experience that not only engages the eyes, ears, and heart, but also the brain. As it stands, “Avatar” indicates not only a revolution in filmmaking that will transform entertainment, but one that will bring about the end of movies, television, and gaming as we know them today.

The End

In “Avatar” as in all other movies, passive audiences depend on the director to take them through the film’s world. We are guided by the director’s expert hands through visuals as they apply to the plot and the director’s particular vision. Despite Cameron’s expertise, during “Avatar” I found myself wishing over and over again to explore something in more detail that he did not. I wanted to linger on new vistas that brought with them a gasp of astonishment, only to be thwarted by a director that had other concerns. This became increasingly frustrating until I could only sigh in reluctance as we moved on for a poor story that had to be told in a set amount of time.

More movies are going to be made in this way while resolution improves and the 3-D becomes more and more immersive. The same technology will migrate to television and eventually even amateurs will have access. As movie theaters adapt and 3-D televisions start flooding the consumer electronics market, there will be few if any vistas, real or imagined, that cannot be captured on film. Studios and independent efforts will mine the richest fantasy and science fiction in comics and books. They will remake genre films that could benefit from these new tools and they will adapt these tools for romances, dramas, and documentaries. However, all of this media will still be limited by linear storytelling and the expectation that directors draw audiences through their film along predestined paths. As rich as these films will become, audiences will become frustrated with their passive role. Audiences will begin to demand participation.

The first filmmakers to merge this immersive filmmaking technology with the interactivity and immediacy of video games will bring about the end of television, movies, and gaming as we know them today. Audiences will walk through and experience entertainment with all of their senses. The Metaverse will serve as the medium for this new entertainment, relegating older forms of entertainment to nostalgic, in-world depictions on virtual walls. This immersive digital future is already writ large in bright neon letters across the end of the 2010s. With “Avatar”, Cameron has given us our first real look at what the future of entertainment will be like, while demonstrating the limitations of current forms of entertainment.

That agreement was reached and on Tuesday at their final Macworld appearance Apple announced that the music offered on iTunes will soon be DRM-free. However, some commentators are criticizing the fees to consumers to unlock the DRM for music they already purchased (30 cents for individual songs and 30% for albums.) Despite the arrival of legal and unlocked music, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) points out that other digital media is still wrapped in DRM.

Convincing consumers to pay for these dubious upgrades as well as the continued presence of DRM elsewhere are signs that the transition from traditional to purely digital media, albeit rapid, will not be easy. Another sign of these growing pains is the sudden disappearance from Apple iTunes App Store of ebooks using ScrollMotion‘s Iceberg platform. Launched in December with bestselling books like “Twilight” and “The Golden Compass”, the response among consumers and bloggers varied from excitement to disappointment at the price and the “one app equals one ebook” lack of management that can leave your iPhone desktop cluttered. It is unclear why these ebooks no longer appear on the App Store; I emailed the company with a request for comment. With music, a variety of platforms came and went, sometimes taking the purchased music with them and forcing consumers to buy the same content again and again. In these early days of widening support for ebooks by the major book publishers similar trends may prevail.

More digital media content across multiplying platforms combined with the ongoing formation of consumer preferences will continue to result in both exciting developments and disappointing frictions. As yet another example, online video viewing grew 34 percent between November 2007 and November 2008 according to comScore, but the movie and television digital download industry has yet to settle on a standard format that would work across devices from various vendors.

Consumers are flocking to the net for their media consumption. Eventually the standardization of formats, the dropping of DRM, and the ascent of online digital media retailers to become the top sellers of content will follow from music to video, games, books, and all other media. Until then, or until all media and all devices are tied into some future iteration of the Cloud that abstracts formats away from consumer awareness, these growing pains will continue.

The rapid pace of progress in digital media on the internet has been well documented and several trends important in this growth may be relevant to technological progress as a whole. For example, Moore’s Law, a powerful indicator of progress for many industries, provided the hardware platform that enable widespread adoption, creation, distribution, and consumption of digital media. Working against this progress was another trend that saw traditional content publishers seeking to slow down the spread of digital media through digital rights management (DRM), lawsuits, and dead-end technologies. Other trends like changing artist and consumer preferences and the rise of digital piracy complicate the picture but by 2008 digital media is all but ubiquitous.  We can now eluciate which trends were important and how they might be relevant to other technologies.

Digital media refers to those texts, papers, reports, flyers, brochures, books, magazines, newspapers, comics, photographs, graphics, webpages, music, radio, television, movies, multimedia, applications, games and other information-rich means by which humans communicate that have been turned into binary code and made accessible via computing devices and the internet.

The transition from physical to digital media has had interesting, even earth-shattering, benefits. Consider the spatial dimensions of a library building compared to an ebook reader and how this relates to accessibility and distribution. Consider how a library grows in size to accommodate more books while computer memory shrinks in size and price despite exponential gains in capacity. Ebook readers that will soon rival physical libraries in number of books they can hold while adding a host of capabilities not available with paper.

Another benefit is the mixing and interaction of various types of digital content into new content.  Note the development of the web page from a static repository of text, graphics, and images into web applications that are beginning to rival the capabilities of desktop software. The use of video and audio online has exploded this year, embedded within webpages and increasingly organized using new visual metaphors in web applications. 

While following digital media trends closely and examining these benefits for the past few years I have found it useful to periodically stop and consider the current state of things, how we got here, and where we are heading. Starting with digital text I will highlight the key digital media developments in 2008, those trends leading into 2009, and where I expect digital media to be by the end of the next decade.

Digital Text

A paper book is limited by the capabilities of the paper on which it is printed.  The text is static, you can write on the paper, the table of contents and index are two of a limited number of indices, and a book takes up some amount of space.  A paper book cannot be updated once printed and it can refer to but not provide immediate access to additional references.

A digital book, on the other hand, is limited by the capabilities of the device for which it is published, which are less limiting all the time.  These devices now generally offer all the capabilities of paper, plus much, much more, like levels of annotation, hyperlinks to other resources that are immediately available, adjustable presentation parameters for improved readability, embedded media like audio and video, and the ability to purchase and download additional books for immediate gratification.  Meanwhile, digital book platforms keep improving at a pace inconceivable for paper.  This evolution can never be matched by paper.

In 2008, digital books took off when ebook readers, devices that have been around for some time but failed to gain much  traction previously, added unique capabilities that finally began to sway consumers.  E Ink‘s improved paper-like resolution display appeared in many more products. Amazon’s Kindle used the free Whispernet wireless service to allow wireless browsing, purchasing, and downloading of books while mobile. Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch turned out to be surprisingly comfortable eBook reading platforms making use of taps and swipes instead of buttons to turn pages.

By the end of 2008 the major book publishers were suddenly and acutely interested in accelerating the digitization of their books. Publishers like Random House and Penguin embraced the iPhone by offering bestselling novels like “Twilight” and “The Golden Compass” through ScrollMotion’s Iceberg app; the Stanza, Classics, and eReader from Fictionwise.com apps surged in popularity in the iTunes App Store; and Stanza added ebook retailer Fictionwise.com to its list of ebook providers, meaning buyers can now purchase, download, and begin reading an ebook within the same app.

Over the next year ebook readers will begin to feature color and flexible, paper-thin screens, which will help speed up the transition to digital magazines and newspapers in addition to ebooks. In 2009 the industry will likely converge on a few digital formats, experiment with removing DRM, and add personal media player (PMP) and web browsing capabilities to better compete with the iPhone.  Should publishers reluctant to digitize textbooks change their minds, watch for an acceleration in acceptance.  The rich set of capabilities over and above those of paper combined with the dire economic situation of the publishing industries will finally bring about the long awaited obsolescence of physical books, magazines, newspapers, and comics.

Digital Audio

2008 did not mark the final death throes of DRM for music but 2009 might. Amazon went DRM-free in their MP3 Downloads store with support from the top four music label while Apple failed to reach an agreement with the top three to offer the same via iTunes. All is not lost; the collapse of CD sales continued to accelerate and this can only help Apple in their negotiations.

When iTunes finally goes DRM-free, the competition between digital music retailers will be less about pricing and more about audio quality; look for a “bitrate” war by the 2009 holiday season. The quality of audio will become a selling point as PMP capacity continues to increase exponentially, allowing bigger libraries of content at higher bitrates.

Almost all new music is routinely made available immediately in digital format and the library of old music that has been digitized is nearly completion. There a still a few superstar holdouts (the Beatles and Garth Brooks come to mind), some protesting the consumer preference for singles rather than full albums. Artists will need to come to term with this change or risk obscurity; this trend will not reverse. Those artists who learn to manage their music across a portfolio of platforms (personal media players, video games, virtual worlds, etc.) will be best positioned in the new digital world order.  After all, the benefits and reach of the 24/7 Digital Jukebox did not come with any guarantees about old paradigms.

Personalized music discovery services like Pandora continue to be a hit with listeners after winning reprieve from unfair and exorbitant licensing fees. Pandora’s iPhone app became an early and immediate success in the App Store, allowing streaming music over wireless AND 3G cellular. Many more streaming radio apps quickly followed.

Unfortunately, digital music remains behind artificial geographic borders created by the music labels.  ”Music in the Cloud” services like Lala accessible in any country and an iTunes no longer separated into stores for various countries is still at least for a few years away. I’m still waiting for those legal “Naruto Official Soundtrack” digital downloads and free rein in the iTunes France store.

Digital Video

Speaking of Naruto and world-wide availability: TV TOKYO Corporation announced [PDF] they would be making episodes of sequel series “Naruto Shippuden” available online and worldwide an hour after their Japanese premiere beginning January 2009 with a monthly subscription fee.  Crunchyroll will provide this subscription service (which includes other anime and some episodes in 480p and 720p quality) in the United States for US$6.95 a month. The episodes will also be available a week later for free on the official North America Naruto website and on advertisement-based streaming TV services like Hulu and Joost.

This is in response to the popularity of anime fansubs, episodes of anime TV series and movies that have been subtitled by fans and made available, illegally, online for viewers to download. Until an official English-dubbed version of “Naruto” arrived on the Cartoon Network in 2005 and official subtitled and uncut DVDs went on sale later, most North American viewers had been following the series through these fansubs. The  Japanese television networks and studios have apparently tolerated fansubs but are now interested in tapping this robust worldwide audience with officially sanctioned services that can compete with fansubs most important benefit: timeliness. The availability of “Naruto Shippuden” episodes only one hour after broadcast in Japan is unprecedented. The popular fansubbing group Dattebayo announced that in support of this development they will no longer create fansubs of “Naruto Shippuden” and will evaluate their fansubs if this trend in anime distribution catches on.

Thanks to Dattebayo Fansubs, I became a huge fan of “Naruto” in 2004, but stopped downloading “Naruto Shippuden” after re-evaluating my download pirating activities a couple years ago.  I am happy that I can finally, and legally, follow this show again, and at nearly the same time as Japanese television audiences. Thanks to Hulu and Joost’s iPhone app I was able to watch all the “Naruto” (minus the horrible filler) episodes again in preparation for “Naruto Shippuden”.

Joost’s iPhone app? Another exciting digital video development this year was the first app for the iPhone that allows the legal streaming of movies and full television episodes. Although buggy, streaming over wireless only, and offering a relatively small library of content (and even less good content), the Joost app heralds a huge leap forward in portable access to video. I hope we see similar apps from Hulu and Crunchyroll in 2009.

While critics still decry long-form video on computers, laptops and coms (cellphones and smartphones) I have thoroughly enjoyed using just these devices for the majority of my television and movie viewing the past few years.  The iPhone screen is simply gorgeous.  Sure, someday I would like to see all video content in 1080p quality on a large screen, but I would rather follow this trend via computer monitors and com screens rather than televisions.

Television and movie content exploded online this year with the surprise success of Hulu, the arrival of Amazon’s Video On Demand streaming service, YouTube’s new HD viewer and higher quality streams, and HD television downloads in iTunes. Most of this content is of low bitrate 720p quality (much closer to 480p DVD quality) but I remember well the first round of long-form video attempts on the Internet circa 1999: excruciating hours of buffering of postage stamp-sized video at horrendously low resolution. Considering how long it took television to improve picture and audio quality, the arrival of full screen DVD resolution video online in just ten years from these first feeble attempts is remarkable! The coming era of 50 Mbps broadband in the United States and multi-core media acceleration will provide the right platform for true 720p and higher quality HD video. Fourth generation cellular will likewise improve resolution on our coms, promising steady progress toward true 1080p resolution long-form video online on all platforms by the middle of next decade.

Digital Games

Video games for consoles are still generally distributed via physical media like cartridges and discs. However, the latest consoles now offer older games as direct downloads to the system via the internet.  Many computer games can be downloaded directly to your computer via services like Steam.

The iPhone turned out to be an exciting and powerful gaming platform, with games rivaling the quality of existing gaming handhelds. Waiting around somewhere like a doctor’s office or an airport and bored with your current selection of games? If there is wireless available, you can easily download and install a new game app in mere seconds.

Musicians frightened by the collapse in CD sales and angry about the preference for digital singles found comfort in the success of releasing their archive and new music within video games like Guitar Hero. Nine Inch Nails licensed their tracks for use in a special edition of Tap Tap Revenge for the iPhone, as did a variety of artists for the Tap Tap Dance app (one of my favorite games so far.) Gone are the days when releasing music on CD and radio was enough; artists today need to license and release their music on a variety of platforms.

In 2008, Microsoft and Sony continued to position their latest generation gaming consoles as entertainment hubs capable of more than just the latest and greatest games. Both expanded their digital video and audio download offerings, including high definition TV episodes and movies on the XBox 360. Nintendo is rumored to be joining the fray, at least in Japan, beginning in 2009. Showing up late to digital media distribution has not harm Nintendo in the slightest; the Wii remains the top-selling console in this current generation. Their Wii Remote gaming interface turned out to be a huge hit.

The ability to reach out, gesture at, manipulate and touch digital content is perhaps the most fascinating technology development in the past two years and a topic I will return to later.

Digital Applications

Like games, other software is increasingly being purchased and downloaded online. Soon to be gone are the days of paper packaging and CD installations.  Meanwhile, even software downloads are being threatened, by the advent of online web services and applications.

2008 saw the release of Adobe’s AIR platform, intended to bridge the capabilities of a desktop-run application with increasingly powerful web-based applications. Unlike traditional applications, you can keep working if you lose your internet connection, but when connected you have all the communications capabilities, auto-saving, storage in the Cloud, and other benefits that come with connectivity.

Sensing the same and related trends, Google launched Chrome, a speedy web browser that vastly improves JavaScript performance. This is a browser designed for those cutting edge web-based applications that will soon rival the capabilities and performance of desktop applications. Mozilla’s Firefox 3.1 also  received a similar speedup as will Apple’s upcoming Safari 4.0. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer continues to languish, only recently obtaining something of the standards support the other browsers have long included.

The goal with these next generation web browsers is clear: browsers powerful enough to run complex applications. They are better equipped to deal with the explosion of audio and video online and will soon make use of your system’s graphics cards to accelerate 2-D, and then 3-D, graphics. These turbo charges will result in a much richer Web experience full of delicious yet useful eye candy.

These browsers are enabling a new visual language in web pages and applications that marks the end of Web 2.0. Although these dot designations are arbitrary, there are specific visual cues that epitomize a certain era of web design and technologies.  The static text and designs of user-unfriendly Web 1.0 became the user-friendly productivity and social networking tools of  Web 2.0.  The eye-friendly text, icons and graphics, pleasant color choices, AJAX enhanced features, and minimalism that epitomized Web 2.0 design will be set into motion and given depth in Web 3.0 design. The Web 3.0 visual language will work well with the Semantic Web (machine parsing of the semantic relationships within our data)  and our increasing use of touch and gesture-based interfaces.

Toward the Metaverse?

The accelerating digitization of content is directly related to the rapid development of new human-machine interfaces and the continued advancement in hardware that make these new interfaces possible.  These evolving interfaces allow computing technology to reach wider and wider demographics. The keyboard and mouse controlled Graphical User Interface (GUI) is giving way to much more user-friendly interfaces based on touch, gestures, voice, and mind reading.  The elderly, technology novices, younger and younger children and perhaps even our pets will embrace computing devices that do not require steep learning curves and unnatural and unfamiliar movements. Entire populations will leap frog over desktops and laptops to coms.

This is an incredible opportunity for media content providers, who will see their potential audiences swell to billions in number. In response old media and new players will produce more content. Not all of that content will be good content.  In fact, just as there will be more quality content, so to will there be more drivel, something that a quick browse of YouTube will illustrate now.  

Meanwhile, most of us will no doubt consume more and more content on a variety of rapidly advancing platforms. When content is readily available 24/7 in pleasing formats via user friendly interfaces no more difficult to use than it is to scratch our noses or raise our eyebrows, will we enjoy any individual piece as much as we might today?  When movie watching is no longer an event that requires preparation and and the performance of particular rituals (driving to a theater or to rent a DVD, watching at a set time, gathering family members and friends, etc.), how much will we value the experience?

More digital media that is cheaper and easier to produce, distribute, store, and consume will drive down the value of music, TV, and movies until vast libraries of content all but vanish into cheap consumer electronics and whatever computing platforms becomes ubiquitous over the next decade.  To make use of these incredibly powerful platforms there will be a rapid transition from producing music, TV, and movies for the 24/7 Digital Jukebox to more immersive content like virtual and augmented realities.   Even 3DTV and higher resolution video formats than HD cannot hope to engage a civilization heading rapidly toward a “Great Vanishing” of consumer electronics when consumers begin to embrace powerful brain-machine interfaces and implants.

As 2008 comes to an end with the rapid proliferation of digital media across a variety of platforms, the various instantiations of the Metaverse - virtual worlds, mirror worlds, augmented reality, and lifeblogging - loom large and apparent on the horizon.

These short 5-minute series compete against each other each month in local viewing venues to become one of five online “Prime Time Shows.” They are sometimes crude, sometimes rude, and almost always laugh-your-ass-off funny. There are some stinkers that become “Failed Pilots” or don’t last long before being “Cancelled This Month.” There are others that have become classics of the form. “Groove Fighters,” “Yacht Rock,” “Stop It,” and “Cautionary Tales of Swords” are a few of my favorites. That last one featured Michael Ashe, a somewhat older actor than the usual Channel 101 participants. For whatever reason, when an older actor uses explicit language it can be hysterical. When Ashe threw himself into the role of Trip Fisk, it was art.

It is hard for me to explain why learning of the actor’s recent death was so unexpectedly difficult. Vanity Fair has an article that offers some explanation: “Requiem for a Micro-celebrity.” There is a lot that is touching about this story, and contrasting that with the silly vulgarity results in that feeling where you want to cry and laugh at the same time. And then you do. The “Mike Ashe Memorial Video” also invokes that feeling, in spades.

Knowing more about Ashe really deepens my appreciation of him and digital media. I feel the need to thank him, if posthumously, and thank everyone at Channel 101, Channel 101: NY, and those who create content for them (except “2 Girls, 1 Cup: The Show.” I mean, honestly.)

Thank you!

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 their unsuccessful and Windows-only Unbox digital media download service into a streaming digital media service. Amazon Video On Demand finally brings their large digital library of movies and television series to Apple Macs, removes the requirement for a separate software download, and offers compelling competition to Apple’s iTunes.

Downloads have not disappeared. Amazon Video On Demand offers both streaming in your browser and downloads to the Unbox software. However, the streaming service is meant to reduce or even eliminate the need for downloads. Digital media purchases remain in the Amazon cloud, available from anywhere you have access to the site and a sufficient internet connection.

I tested the new service with “Superman Returns”, a movie I purchased on Unbox over a year ago. The movie was only available for purchase for a short time. After I first downloaded the movie, I had subsequently removed all videos from my computer. When I tried to download “Superman Returns” later, I discovered that the draconian movie studio requirements prevented a second download. I was stuck with a purchase I could not watch.

Now that my video purchases are in the cloud, I was surprised and delighted to see I again have access to “Superman Returns.” Previous Unbox purchases show up in “Your Video Library” along with new purchases, ready and waiting to be streamed.

Credit: Screenshot of Amazon Video On Demand “Your Video Library”. Well, My Video Library.

Video starts playing immediately. Video quality depends on the speed of your internet connection and network congestion. Apparently there is no buffering, though this could potentially improve the video quality at the expense of immediate access. Over my 12 mbps cable modem connection from Cox Communications and then over wireless, video quality started out poor, but improved quickly as the connection and streaming seemed to “take.” A “Connection” status button on the video menu bar notes kbit/sec and the video quality, up to mbps speeds and 480p (DVD quality.) The quality can fluctuate, but after minor stuttering early in the movie, the streaming stabilized until I was lost in the movie. If this quality can be maintained during network congestion in my local area and as more people begin to use the service, then Amazon Video On Demand may very well be considered a success.

The video menu bar has your standard video controls including play, pause, skip back, skip forward, and volume control. Video can be popped out of the video library page or launched into full screen. A download button allows you to archive the purchase and play locally from your computer, but, again, I think streaming success may make this unnecessary. While the button is also available on a Mac, the download is sent to your registered PC (you control the destination in your Amazon account settings) and Unbox installation. Unbox software is still unavailable for Mac or Linux computers, and you cannot transfer video to iPods.

Credit: Screenshot of Amazon Video On Demand playing “Superman Returns”. Can you read my mind? Do you know what it is that you do to me, Brandon Routh? I mean, Superman?

Amazon Video On Demand is fast, easy, and a much better experience than using the clunky Unbox download and player software. I have long desired to make a complete switch from PC to Mac, but a few remaining services I could not get on a Mac have delayed the change; my Macbook Pro sits side-by-side with my desktop PC. With my videos in the cloud, that final switch is coming soon.

How does the experience stack up against iTunes? ITunes remains the high bar against which all other digital media services will be compared. I have slowly begun to purchase more music from Amazon because everything there is DRM-free, but doing so does require a download of Amazon software that sends your purchases to iTunes. When it comes to video, Amazon potentially has the upper-hand (I would like to play with the service longer before I come to any firm conclusions.) All you need is a browser and an Amazon account. Amazon’s ease of purchase and the instant play capabilities of Video On Demand mean you can get started watching video right away, with little to none of the delay required for Unbox or iTunes downloads. Hard drive space is no longer a barrier to owning as many movies and television shows as you want. I had better watch my wallet…

Unfortunately, NBC Universal and their popular television series may be the deciding factor for some people between Amazon Video On Demand and iTunes, though this might to some extent be offset by Disney/ABC television series available only on iTunes. There is NO question that I will be watching the final episodes of Battlestar Galactica using Amazon’s service. Frankly, I have never understood why NBC Universal decided to settle for no further iTunes sales even while developing Hulu.com and propping up the offerings on Amazon. I still hope they will return to iTunes but this is no longer required for me to continue purchasing and watching my favorite NBC series.

With a movie library much larger than iTunes, similar television offerings, NBC Universal TV series, availability through most any browser with Flash on most any computer, a smooth transition for your previous Unbox purchases, and a beta of a service that will stream video to Sony BRAVIA televisions, Amazon Video On Demand is pretty fantastic so far. High definition video on demand will make or break all competing digital media services, a battleground I suspect all players will enter in a big way in just a few months. Amazon Video On Demand could be particularly successful internationally where many countries have far superior internet speeds to what we suffer through here in the United States. Verizon FiOS Internet customers in the United States might also be big winners, the lucky jerks.

We might see as early as next Tuesday how Apple plans to respond. I predict that I will make use of both services for some time to come. For there to be a clear winner between Amazon, Apple, and the other competitors, they will have to add new features including extras and high definition as quickly as possible, while maintaining and improving the quality of both the video and the experience. So far, I like what I see with Amazon Video On Demand.

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 Producer J. G. Birdsall is especially noteworthy because this is not fan fiction. Based on an original idea, Venus Rises will be an ongoing series available online and on Illusion, a video-on-demand science fiction cable network. In development since the idea was conceived in 2002, a prequel to Venus Rises has finally been released, leading up to the series’ first episode.

The prequel is designed to introduce the universe in which this science fiction tale of two planets will play out. After the ecological collapse of the Earth, humanity fled to Mars and Venus, leading to class divisions across the vacuum. “Ikarus – Part 1″ explores the dynamics of a prospecting crew searching for resources in the Asteroid Belt.

Science fiction movies and television set in space have long been known for their scientific inaccuracies. Meanwhile, current scientific and technological progress underlines how reality can be stranger than fiction. Going into this prequel to a series I have been long anticipating, I admit that these two facts were foremost in my mind. How will independent science fiction producers deal with the same issues facing movie studies and television networks: cutting-edge movie-making technologies often paired with inane retreads of tired ideas?

The results are, in a word, mixed.

The opening credits really draw the viewer into the larger back story. Newspaper clippings and news reports hint at the seriousness of the disasters that befell Earth. As “Part 1″ gets started, the first CGI view of the mining hauler Ikarus is both tantalizing and a bit disappointing, especially after we enter the spacecraft. Inside the spacecraft, the set and onscreen graphics are top notch. Unfortunately, this makes the CGI outside the spacecraft stand out in contrast. For an independent production all the computer graphics, inside or out, are still noteworthy and show an attention to detail that is admirable.

Hard science fiction – that is, the kind of science fiction that gets into the nuts and bolts of science, discovery, and exploration – is underrepresented in movies and television. “Ikarus – Part 1″ is therefore refreshing in its attention to the spacecraft and other technical details. The remote sensing capabilities of the vessel are fun to watch. Asteroids, of course, are not really as close together as they are depicted here (and in most science fiction movies and TV, for that matter.)

Caption: Screenshot from “Ikarus – Part 1″. Asteroids are only this close together in science fiction movies and television.

What follows with the introduction of the crew is confusing, slightly melodramatic, and potentially cliched (depending on how this all turns out…this is “Part 1″ after all.) The men are dicks and Aeriana Onaar, a character played by Julia Hiroko Howe who will also be in the series, is at their apparent mercy. She is a “dumb mute” according to one of the evil crew members but can read lips and land drones with precision on the asteroid. What happens by the end of “Part 1″ has nothing to do with space and everything to do with violence against women and just rewards.

Where is this going? If the series is intended to be as bleak as indicated, then it might be a bit tough going, especially if we do not learn in these space settings anything new about gender politics, disabilities, exploration, and survival. At nine minutes in length and with characters that are either extremely unlikable or not yet fully fleshed out, “Ikarus – Part 1″ makes it difficult to come to any solid conclusions about this prequel or the upcoming series.

I enjoyed the music and the editing was well done, but I think it is too early to make any conclusive statements about the acting, directing, and other filmmaking mechanics. There is much to admire here and I look forward to the next part. There is some difficulty in introducing the back story and the universe for Venus Rises, but this is balanced by the novelty of original science fiction, filmmakers and participants that are obviously passionate about what they are doing, a fascinating and claustrophobic set, and at least one character I want to know more about.

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. Notable for its use of green-screen technology to place actors in interesting Star Trek settings, a diverse cast, and gay and lesbian subplots, STHF was successful enough to warrant a spin-off. The new series, Star Trek: Odyssey, like STHF, is set after the canon events of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager.

A new threat from outside the Milky Way has emerged within Romulan space and an uneasy alliance of Alpha Quadrant powers attempt to repel the invaders. The enemy is an alien race from the Andromeda Galaxy with the technological capability to build wormholes. Returning from STHF is Lt. Commander Ro Nevin (again played by actor Bobby Rice), a happily married and gay Bajoran Starfleet officer. After a successful attempt to destroy the wormhole, Ro and the surviving crew of the U.S.S. Odyssey are stuck on the wrong side and running from their enemies in the Andromeda Galaxy. Ro becomes captain of the starship and embarks on a journey back to the Milky Way and his husband reminiscent of the Greek hero Odysseus in Homer’s Odyssey.

The gay-friendly storyline is perhaps the most promising aspect of STO, and in the pilot episode “Illiad”. Will Ro stay faithful to his husband or will he be tempted by others during the journey home? How will the sexuality of other crew members play out?

Bobby Rice took over the role of Ro from another actor during the run of STHF and effectively captured the character coming to terms with his sexuality. The series ended with his marriage to a fellow officer. On his own again and in command, the new story arc for Ro is also promising.

The episode begins with a confident new score and opening sequence, as well as a strong first scene that introduces Romulan Sub Commander T’Lorra, played very well by Michelle Laurent. Highlights include the interaction between Ro and his husband, Lieutenant Commander Corey Aster, reprised by guest star (and episode director) JT Tepnapa, including a hilarious but too-short scene of the couple trying to find a few minutes alone for sex before they embark on their mission, as well as brief appearances by other STHF characters. Matthew Montgomery is promising in a brief glimpse as Dr. Owen Vaughan.

However, the pilot episode is a surprising disappointment, especially after the vast improvements in acting and production values gained by the end of STHF. Bobby Rice seems to have lost some of his previous confidence in the character of Ro, with only glimpses of the natural and mischievous spark he previously brought to the role. I suspect this is mostly due to the exposition and speech-making the character is forced to make during the episode.

Most disappointing is the new alien race. Even accepting the human-like similarity between races in the Milky Way, I had hoped, and actually expected, the aliens from an entirely different galaxy to be radically different. Per usual in Star Trek depictions of aliens, however, they are human-like, with face paint and archaic speaking patterns offered as the only differentiation from humans. There are hints that the alien culture will be developed in future episodes (Are they bisexual? Newly ruthless?) and the alien vehicle and hardware designs are quite wonderful. Unfortunately, an opportunity for the fan filmmakers to truly strike out on their own with a unique Star Trek vision appears to have been wasted.

Some of the acting is top-notch, while some is surprisingly bad and ineffective. The plot meanders from long moments of exposition and technobabble to rather good but brief moments of character introductions (well, except for the Andromeda Galaxy aliens) and character development. There is no question that I will continue to tune in to STO, with hope that this series will not devolve immediately into the rehashing and lack of confidence and innovation of STV, which had a similar plot.

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 secret bionics program. Sommers becomes the new Bionic Woman and at this point the viewer could care less.

NBC’s Bionic Woman is both a disaster and an insult in a long history of anti-technology storytelling. English actress Michelle Ryan as Jaime Sommers is wasted in a plot that attempts to convey angst, history, and mythology via relentless exposition and hurt looks. The characters speak exposition-ese without the audience getting any opportunity to truly know them or care for them. The accident comes after rapid-fire angst and tears, unexpected, yes, horrific, true, but without any emotional investment.

Superhero origin stories are difficult to tell on film. Audiences who eagerly anticipate heroic actions and special effects must wait while the protagonist is introduced, experiences an accident, evolves into a transhuman entity, and begin to learn about his or her new powers. Origin stories told well allow the audience to feel for the protagonist almost immediately, with nuanced scenes that whisper “See? I’m just like you!” until the character is no longer like you at all.

The worst, like Bionic Woman, paint angst with broad strokes, just annoying filler leading up to the inevitable accident and transhuman capabilities. Even worse, in this telling Jamie Sommers, rapidly cured and enhanced, hates her apparent health and new capabilities. She is so angry and hurt that her boyfriend would successfully attempt to save her life that she throws him across the room, screams, cries, and walks sullen in the pouring rain. When she is reunited with her sister, she immediately lies about her whereabouts as both characters attempt to out angst each other in the limited time they are given.

More pain is ahead. The original bionic woman 1.0 – Katee Sackhoff, so good as Starbuck on Battlestar Galactica and badly acting here – is a violent wreck, presumably because someone also successfully attempted to save her life. Throw in mysterious figures, other actors from Battlestar Galactica, and hints at a larger – and dark! – mythology, and the result is a great depression for the characters AND the viewers.

Show creators apparently hate technology, especially when used to successfully save lives. At what price, they want to explore, do we do so? A character who suffers terrible trauma must continue to suffer long after they have transcended their human weaknesses and been relieved of their pain. The price, we learn, is generally too high, and it would have been better if the character had just died. Because they did not die, they now must spend the seasons performing altruistic acts, to give back to simple unenhanced humans who are owed some unexplained debt. The moment the transhuman start enjoying her powers, she will be taught a terrible lesson.

This bionic woman is a creation of nanotechnology and cybernetics, packaged in a beautiful and indistinguishable-from-human body. A simple bartender enriched by her involvement with a man of education and science must now pay the ultimate price for becoming transhuman. We do not learn in one episode, of course, exactly what price she will pay during her upcoming ordeals, but we can be sure it will be gratuitously gory and tearful.

Modern medicine is marvelous and technologies in labs and on the horizon suggest great things ahead. We know from experience that most people in pain, experiencing great suffering, or nearing death, will, no matter what their prior belief system, embrace relief. Relief is so obviously joyful that relief as horror as depicted in fiction simply rings false, yet writers go back to that same dark well over and over again.

Could there be conflict in a depiction of a transhuman that was joyful and thankful for her transcendence? Absolutely. We have already seen one such character on television, albeit with her own moments of angst and depression and confusion. Her name was Buffy, The Vampire Slayer and she was always at her best when she gave into the morally valid pleasures of her power.

And Buffy Summers, of course, was partly inspired by another woman of incredible power who could, sometimes at least, enjoy her powers. She was the original Jaime Sommers in the original 1970′s Bionic Woman. If her joy was not always apparent, she was a superior role model compared to the current ungrateful incarnation. Until writers embrace the potential joys of transhuman existence, they will continue to “re-image” old material while popular storytelling continues to stagnate.