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Technology Stocks : C-Cube -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: C. Niebucc who wrote (36490)	10/4/1998 9:57:00 AM
From: J Fieb	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50808

FAST's Editing Solution picked as one of the 5 most innovative products on IBC Native Digital Editor blue. Leads Editing Into The Future fastmultimedia.com

To: C. Niebucc who wrote (36490)	10/4/1998 12:25:00 PM
From: BillyG	Respond to of 50808

Low-Cost Technology Changes Film Industry (10/03/98 9:16 a.m. ET) By Malcolm Maclachlan, TechWeb SAN FRANCISCO -- Computer technology promises to change the way films are created and distributed, according to filmmakers at the ResFest Digital Film Festival last week. New software is letting filmmakers do more with less, and blurring the line between media. "If you want to start a studio, you basically need a laptop and a video camera, and that's about it," said Simon Dixon, creative director of The Attik, a British design firm that has done work for MTV. Many new software programs let filmmakers take video footage and make it look like film, Dixon said. This lets low-budget outfits shoot on video -- at a fraction of the cost. "We have this saying, 'garbage in, candy out,' " said Patrick Seimer of the interactive-design company HGun, which has done extensive work for MTV and Comedy Central. "We know that with $5 we can do something that looks like a million." Dixon and Seimer are examples of a new breed of filmmakers who combine film with graphic-arts backgrounds. Their work combines many different types of media -- from video to standard animation to computer animation -- into clips that are often abstract by the standards of traditional film and television. Another example is director and producer Michael Tucker. His film The Last Cowboy combines moving images and still words in a way that is more reminiscent of CD-ROMs or even silent movies than of a normal Hollywood film. Such a filmmaking style, he said, lets him pursue a story line that is far more abstract than a normal film. "The technology for digital filmmakers is ripe," said Tucker. "Before, we always felt like beta-testers." But technology has much to offer traditional filmmakers as well, according to director Rob Nilsson. An independent filmmaker who has won awards at both the Cannes and Sundance film festivals, Nilsson is known for his gritty work. His Tenderloin Action Group provides acting workshops for homeless people in San Francisco's harsh Tenderloin district. Nilsson's latest film, Chalk, features many of these people as actors. Nilsson said he has always used video because his subjects -- the homeless -- are intimidated by large film cameras. Video, he said, provides a level of intimacy between filmmaker and subject that was not possible on 35-millimeter film. However, he said, new small, low-cost digital-video cameras provide the same intimacy while delivering much higher quality. One issue that did divide panelists was the future of distribution. Nilsson called on people to fight the current film-distribution system, which has always been bad at giving exposure to foreign and independent films. However, Tucker said he envisions a system where independent filmmakers behave more like musicians, offering their work for distribution online, then touring to promote a new film. DVD, he said, should soon let independent filmmakers offer high-quality copies of films over the Internet at a reasonable price to fans who will join online communities of film lovers. "I don't think the future lies in having films sit on the rack in Virgin Megastore," Tucker said. techweb.com