Des Temps

Category: Our World

  • Video Site Quality Comparison (youtube, motionbox blip, crackle)

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    I made a “utility” movie to compare the quality of a bunch of video sites. It’s a 31 second movie that I have uploaded to a few sites. You can take a look for yourself and judge what’s best for you and your work.

    It’s 31 seconds and focuses on clarity, colors, synch (obviously, only up to 30 secs) and legibility. The original was created at 640 x 480 (sq. pix), 29.97 with no compression, non-interlaced. I uploaded the original uncompressed and let the sites do any and all compression and resizing.

    If you want more details, let me know. (original file, zipped up here) Also, any other sites or suggestions… let me know. So far, most of these sites do a better job than I expected!

    YouTube:
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    blip.tv

    Motionbox Crackle


  • Who Shot Ya?

    the time has come

    Hey! The ACLU made a cousin to the doomsday clock. It’s a countdown to when you have zero privacy.

    You can count most of the videos on youtube and the pix on flickr as contributing to our surveillance society. It also occured to me that a lot of the emails you are currently sending will probably turn up in public sometime in the future. Maybe your grandkids will sue to get the rights to them or maybe an investigation of a corporation or ISP will make them public. Remember when they posted the Enron emails (FERC site)?




    6 minutes to midnight. Don’t be late.

  • Like A Virgin

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    Richard Branson’s Virgin America airline has come out of the gate as THE plane for Generation Y & Z. Not only does it have crucial features like Plugs and USB, it also has fun features like interseat IM. But what struck me most were the drawings in their Safety Instructions. Note the scruffy gent and white belted, midriffing lady. Note the baggy pants. With these images, Virgin welcomes the 18-34 set and their zillions of dollars. And it even reaches future customers, 14 year-olds traveling with Mom and Dad can now see themselves in this heretofore ignored document. belt.jpgpants.jpg

  • Checking In With Bill

    Everybody knows the content game is where it’s at these days. The big guys, the little guys… heck, Desedo Films. So it’s nice to see Bill Murray deadpanning his way through his cameo in a moxie-produced internet-only short film. Of course Funny or Die is no ordinary internet video portal given its founders. (Love the name, hate the website, btw). Still, none of that was a factor in the snuffled laughter heard emanating from locus-Raafman a few minutes ago. Writing still counts, and spot-on performances. Them’s the facts.

    FCU with Bill Murray

     
    The deeper questions: streams, ad revenue, portability across platforms… oh and that significant step up in production value from where these guys started out … it looks like a few poeple are guessing that those things will shake themselves out over time. I think I’ll have a glass of milk now.

    link via arc90.

  • Looking Down

    Having been in NY on 9/11, I gain an irregular perspective when at Ground Zero.

    On Sunday I had the privilege of shooting inside 7 World Trade Center, from which I could look down onto the changing site. I was reminded that the place and the event act as the center for entire points of view, from which much of our culture is remade.

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  • Order and Disorder

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    platform.jpg

    car_underwater.jpgcar_brown.jpg

    One photo is circa 1980, by Bruce Davidson (from “Subway”) the others are by me circa like last month. I dislike both scenarios, and I believe they have a lot in common. I like to think about which world I would rather live in and why… Having lived in both, I might prefer order. You?

  • Elle Mac Stops You in Yer Tracks

    A strong litmus test for streetscape advertising is if it can engage one of the more harried members of our species, Homo Manhattanus. They are a quick moving lot, prone to wearing blinders. It’s not that they’re brusque, but that they must filter out a constant barrage of chaos and stimuli. Breaking through this wall is difficult for advertisers, but Free Set’s new work for Elle MacPherson Intimates is successful. It not only surprises the man on the street, it allows him/her to control the media flow of information, a rare opportunity in the NYC.

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    HT @ Scott Goodson at Strawberry Frog.