British drama, global budgets: how co-productions are changing the way TV gets made
Television’s “golden age” has not come cheap. As writers, directors and actors aim to create ever more ambitious drama series, small screen budgets have skyrocketed. According to Time magazine, four of the top seven most expensive shows ever made – Game of Thrones, Sense8, The Get Down and The Crown – are on air right now. The Crown on Netflix last year cost a reported $130 million to film. The last season of Game of Thrones on HBO was priced at $10 million an episode. The rise of co-productions TV bosses call them “co-productions”. A British broadcaster like the BBC will team up with another (usually American) broadcaster and an independent production company. All parties will invest money in the series and have a say in how it’s made. The broadcasters will then have first rights to the show in their country, while the production company will make its money back from DVD sales and other licensing deals. “There’s been a real trend, as I think viewers will have noticed, for British dramas to become much more global,” says Gareth Neame, the producer behind ITV’s global blockbuster Downton Abbey. “The production values in TV drama really are outstanding now, whether it’s The Night Manager or SS-GB or Taboo. “In many ways we were at the beginning of that journey with Downton Abbey, making something that has gone to every territory in the world.” (Downton was a co-production between ITV and US broadcaster PBS). “These shows are more and more expensive to make. A significant part of the funding will come from the BBC, but certainly not the majority,...Mobile World Congress 2017: The biggest announcements from this year’s smartphone mega-show
Barcelona is playing host to one of the mobile industry’s biggest events. Mobile World Congress kicked off Sunday, with companies including BlackBerry, LG, Nokia and Samsung unveiling details on the latest smartphones and tablets. Need to catch up on MWC? Here’s a recap of what you missed: Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son believes computers and artificial intelligence will be really smart. How intelligent? He thinks AI-powered computers will have an IQ of 10,000. For comparison, Son says the average person’s IQ is around 100. He even says chips in our shoes will be so advanced, they’ll be smarter than us, too. This is how the robot apocalypse starts, folks. Once upon a time, BlackBerry and Nokia owned the cell phone business. Then a pair of mobile upstarts called Apple and Google showed up. The mobile companies sought to recapture their former glory with devices unveiled during MWC. BlackBerry unveiled a secure Android device, the KeyOne, launching in the U.S. in. Meanwhile, Nokia went retro, rolling out a revamped version of their 3310 smartphone. And, yes, you can play Snake on it. The electronics giant had a lot to share, specifically two new tablets. But the bigger reveal is when they plan to unveil their next smartphone. Invites that rolled out Sunday confirmed Samsung will host an event in New York on March 29, and it’s likely we’ll see the Galaxy S8 for the first time. It’s their first big release since the Galaxy Note 7, the discontinued device recalled because of overheating batteries....Talking sound design, 360 video and more with Douglas Price
We recently had a chance to speak with Douglas Price, one of the most important experts in sound effects worldwide, about the changing landscape of sound design. Between the rising gig-economy and 360 video rush, sound effects libraries have worked to keep pace with the latest needs of users. What differentiates Pro Sound Effects from other libraries? We focus on developing general sound effects libraries for everyday use. We are the only library that provides hard drive and online access in addition to complimentary annual updates. We want to ensure you have the sounds you need when you need them and that your library is continually improving. We also created a program with affordable access for independents, and we offer customizable annual licensing options for companies. Beyond that, there is no question that our team makes all of this differentiation and innovation both possible and ongoing. How has Pro Sound Effects worked to create new content? I started Pro Sound Effects in 2004 and since then we have established a global network of select Library Partners who we work with to intelligently grow and continually strengthen our overall library. Since general libraries for everyday go-to use are what Pro Sound Effects does best, constant curation for quality, breadth and depth are critical to ensure our library is always as useful as possible. To determine types and quantities of new sound effects, we will survey our library users, look at search data from our Online Library, and rely on insights of our Library Development team, all of whom also do freelance sound design on the side themselves. At times we will just...
Las posibles sorpresas del Mobile World Congress 2017
Como cada año, por estas fechas, se para el mercado de los smartphones por un evento muy especial. Es el MWC, el evento que se celebra en Barcelona desde hace unos años, donde la mayoría de las marcas presentan sus terminales de gama alta que siempre comentamos aquí, pero también vamos a comentar las sorpresas del Mobile World Congress que llegaría a ver. Casi todas las marcas deciden presentar su terminal más potente, o uno de ellos, en la primer mitad de año. La fecha específica para esto es el Mobile World Congress. Es el evento más grande del año hablando de móviles, incluso más grande que el IFA de Berlín, se se celebra en el mes de septiembre. Este MWC se celebra, normalmente, entre la última semana de febrero y la primera de marzo. Todas las marca de móviles presenten su terminal de gama alta de este año, y luego en la segunda mitad del año presentan una versión vitaminada de este. Ya sabemos que marcas como Samsung y Xiaomi no presentarán sus gama alta en este evento, pero tenemos algunas sorpresas que podemos esperar. Una de las sorpresas que podemos ver en el MWC de Barcelona son los nuevos MotoMods que traerá Lenovo para su gama alta, y quizá empiecen a llegar para la gama media. El mercado de smarwatch podría resurgir Android Wear 2.0 ya llegó la semana pasada al mercado con dos nuevos relojes de LG, y es que al parecer esta nueva versión del sistema operativo trae bastante mejorar para que las marcas vuelvan a apostar por ello. Hay marcas como Huawei, Lenovo o...Where Digital Media is Heading in 2017 and Beyond
We discovered three fundamental shifts that will drive production and advertising budgets in 2017—the evolving definition of a content creator, the rapid innovation in video-capture technology, and how authenticity and mobility dominate our personal social feeds. Together these three trends gave rise to a new, hyper-realistic aesthetic that is rapidly becoming the new standard for digital video. Rewind even five years and the television industry along with large brands completely dominated demand for digital video. Since that time, YouTube has evolved from the king of UGC, to the heartbeat of influencer marketing – one of the fastest growing forms of digital spend. Tools like Squarespace and Wix have brought more and more small businesses online, creating a new wave of demand for digital video. And digital marketers everywhere now create content as part of their day to day – be it for a Facebook ad or customer education. As much as the evolving profile of content creators has influenced digital video demand, hardware innovation has changed the way we capture video, firmly cementing first-person as the perspective of choice. Searches for GoPro content exploded more than 1250% in 2016, with VR (+814%) and drone footage (+712%) not far behind. All of this new video technology enables us to more easily capture the world as seen through our own eyes, and to define and share our own version of reality with our friends and consumers alike. If you have a single social media account, you won’t be shocked by the assertion that first person content will drive content demand in 2017—we have been seeing that perspective dominate our personal feeds...Dirac Branches Out into Augmented/Virtual Realit
Dirac Research, the Sweden-based developer of the digital sound optimization technology—including the Dirac Live room-correction system used in pro and consumer gear from Arcam, Emotiva, Harman, Pioneer, Oppo, Theta Digital and others—says it will demonstrate a “breakthrough” in 3D audio for augmented and virtual reality. To make the AR/VR audio experience more realistic, the company’s Dynamic 3D Audio AR/VR platform uses patent-pending dynamic HRTFs (head-related transfer functions) that consider isolated movements of the head in relation to the torso, which is contrary to industry-standard HRTFs that assume the body and head always move in tandem. “Simultaneous visual and aural immersion is the linchpin of a true virtual reality experience,” explained Dr. Mathias Johansson, founder and CEO of Dirac. “It’s what separates reality, experienced virtually, from an obvious representation of such. Until today, the limitations of the 3D audio technology used in VR/AR programming have prevented this true immersion from being created, rendering a gaming, entertainment, or educational VR experience that is fundamentally flawed…With Dynamic 3D Audio, these limitations no longer exist… “If a phone rings to my left, its sound waves enter my left ear a fraction of a second before my right, and the sound bounces off my shoulders and head in various ways that allows my brain to localize the sound and instinctively rotate my head alone to face its source,” Johansson said, explaining how the development of dynamic HRTFs is central to achieving simultaneous visual and aural immersion. “The failure to accurately reproduce dynamic head movements in virtual reality is one of the reasons why existing 3D sound solutions don’t sound quite realistic.” But the torso-head...10 Digital Media and Marketing Predictions for 2017
As 2016 comes to a close Strategy Analytics thoughts begin to turn towards the coming year. In a new report “Top Ten Digital Media Predictions for 2017,” Strategy Analytics Digital Media Strategies (DMS) service highlights the trends and events that will shape OTT video, digital advertising and VR in 2017.
Cloud-based broadcasting, the future of TV?
Amagi Media Labs founders Baskar Subramanian, Srinivasan K. A. and Srividhya S.—the three engineer-entrepreneurs—have yet to find time to celebrate the new investment in their media tech firm. On 15 December, Emerald Media—the pan-Asian platform established by global investment firm KKR & Co. for investing in the media and entertainment sector
8 quick tips to make yourself a better photographer
The latest video from photographer Troy Nikolic does just that. Aptly titled “8 Simple Tips for Being a Better Photographer,” the video walks through a handful of helpful tips for stepping up your photo game and keeping your work consistent.