Creating Digital Content

TEAMFLY

Team-Fly®

CREATING

DIGITAL CONTENT

JOHN RICE

BRIAN McKERNAN

McGraw-Hill

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DOI: 10.1036/0071420835

iii

CONTENTS

Introduction vii

THROW ANOTHER ANALOG ON THE DIGITAL FIRE:

CONFESSIONS OF A DIGITAL CONTENT CREATOR

Peter Bergman xi

WHAT HAPPENED TO CONVERGENCE?

Nobuyuki Idei, Chairman and Chief,

Executive Officer, Sony Corporation xix

CHAPTER 1: A DIGITAL PRIMER, SCHUBIN-STYLE

Mark Schubin 1

CHAPTER 2: ANY CONTENT, ANYWHERE, ANYTIME

Craig Birkmaier 33

CHAPTER 3: CONVERGENCE PROGRAMMING IN SPORTS

Michael Shapiro 47

CHAPTER 4: THE NEW DIGITAL CONTENT CONSUMER

The Accenture Media & Entertainment

Industry Group 53

CHAPTER 5: TOOLS AND THE TRADE

David Leathers 67

CHAPTER 6: THE NONLINEAR AGE

Bob Turner 79

CHAPTER 7: DIGITAL RECORDING

John Rice 95

CHAPTER 8: CGI AND DIGITAL CONTENT CREATION

Brian McKernan and Randy Cates 115

CHAPTER 9: AUDIO: MORE THAN HALF THE PICTURE

Tim Tully 131

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CHAPTER 10: THE CASE FOR PROFESSIONAL

COMMUNICATORS IN A DIGITAL AGE

Cameron Sanders 141

CHAPTER 11: THE PRACTITIONER’S VIEW

George Avgerakis 155

CHAPTER 12: OPENING ONLINE DOORS

FOR RICH MEDIA

Jon Leland 171

CHAPTER 13: RICH MEDIA AND LIVE

STREAMING MEDIA

Al Kovalick 183

CHAPTER 14: THE IMPORTANCE OF

WEB-SITE DESIGN

Nicola Godwin 203

CHAPTER 15: DATACASTING

Rick Ducey, SpectraRep, Inc. 211

CHAPTER 16: THE VIDEO “PRINTING PRESS”

Larry Jaffee 223

CHAPTER 17: THE DTV TRANSITION

Michael Grotticelli 233

CHAPTER 18: FORGET HDTV; GET HDTV!

Mark Schubin 251

CHAPTER 19: THE PROMISE OF DIGITAL

INTERACTIVE TELEVISION

Jerry C. Whitaker, Editor 259

CHAPTER 20: 2000: INTERACTIVE ENHANCED

TELEVISION—A HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL

PERSPECTIVE

Tracy Swedlow, Interactive TV Today, American Film

Institute–Intel Enhanced Television Workshop 275

iv CONTENTS

CHAPTER 21: DIGITAL CENTRALCASTING

Lowell Moulton, Senior Technology Consultant

Systems Integration, Sony Electronics Inc. 311

CHAPTER 22: PRODUCTION AND POSTPRODUCTION

FOR 4:3 AND 16:9

John Rice 335

CHAPTER 23: TELEVISION: THE “HIGH DEFINITION”

Bob Allen and Duncan Kennedy 347

CHAPTER 24: IN SEARCH OF THE NEW VIEWING

EXPERIENCE

Jerry Whitaker 351

CHAPTER 25: COMING TO A THEATRE NEAR YOU:

DIGITAL CINEMA

Brian McKernan 367

CHAPTER 26: USING 1080/24P OR 1080/60I FOR

DIVERSE PRODUCTION APPLICATIONS

Laurence Thorpe 377

CHAPTER 27: LOW-REZ

Scott Billups 391

CHAPTER 28: INTERVIEW WITH GEORGE LUCAS:

BREAKING THE CELLULOID CEILING

John Rice and Brian McKernan 401

CHAPTER 29: INTERVIEW WITH JAMES CAMERON:

3D DIGITAL HD

Brian McKernan, Editor 417

Glossary 433

Index 475

CONTENTS v

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vii

INTRODUCTION

Humans have been making pictures for millennia. Roughly

a century ago they learned how to make them move. As

the decades progressed, movies, television, and—more recent￾ly—home video and the Internet have enhanced communica￾tion and defined human experience as never before. Color,

sound, and other innovations continually improved the moving

image, and today it is a global lingua franca that transcends

international borders, cultures, and traditional languages by

being visual.

As the twenty-first century begins, humankind’s other major

information technology—the computer—is revolutionizing the

moving image. The technologies of computers and television

have been on a collision course for some time, sharing a pur￾pose that includes the precise capture, storage, manipulation,

transmission, and presentation of information. Both even use

cathode-ray tubes (CRTs) for display. Computers, however,

process information digitally—as a series of 0s and 1s—an effi￾ciency that provides many advantages when applied to moving￾image technology. And as computer microprocessors and related

components become ubiquitous in everything from cars to

toasters to toys, they grow in power and decrease in price.

The digitization of moving-image technology is by no means

complete; broadcast television’s transition to digital is moving

slowly, but it is already having a major impact. Video and film

production are going digital, and in the process gaining

improved tools for creative expression and affordability. New

computer-based storage, playback, and display devices are

expanding uses for moving-image content. And the Internet is

providing an instant, global means of content distribution.

In such a digital environment, distinctions between specific

forms of moving-image media begin to blur or disappear alto￾gether. A stream of digital data comprising moving images and

their accompanying audio can be scaled for multiple uses,

depending on how much picture and sound information is nec￾essary. Movies, TV shows, videos, and even simple computer

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presentations become, in truth, a quantity of data existing as

binary digits, or bits. The moving images that have traditionally

been defined according to the technologies used to create and

display them are now liberated for multipurposing; they have

become, in reality, “digital content.” This new world that mov￾ing-image creatives find themselves in at the dawn of the twen￾ty-first century is what this collection, Creating Digital Content,

is all about. The impact of the digital content creation age is

only just starting to be felt. This book is intended to introduce

the reader to a broad range of existing areas that are being

affected, and, in so doing, enhance understanding of this fun￾damental industrial transition, business opportunity, and com￾munications revolution.

Although we do not anticipate that the many areas encom￾passed by digital content creation will see overnight change

(e.g., feature filmmakers won’t suddenly become indistinguish￾able from corporate video professionals), we do feel it’s imper￾ative that those in the video, motion-picture, broadcast, news,

entertainment, Internet, and education sectors understand the

nature of the changes wrought by digital content creation rev￾olution. First and foremost is that program production is being

democratized, with increasingly more affordable—and yet

powerful—technologies. And whether for entertainment, edu￾cation, business, or other purposes, digital content can be con￾sumed via a growing array of devices. This situation opens up

potentially rich new possibilities for content creators, but it

also increases competitive pressures. Ultimately, it will be cre￾ative talent and innovative thinking that will determine suc￾cess. Digital is a great equalizer that reduces the cost of entry,

but we should remember that Shakespeare did quite well with￾out a laptop.

Digital content creation technology has many intriguing

possibilities. Assuming there is sufficient data, content can be

repurposed for multiple displays: theatrical movie screens, con￾sumer televisions, small computer windows, or even hand-held

devices and cell phones. As data, moving and still images are

assets that can be managed—stored, cataloged, indexed, and

repurposed with minimal or no loss in quality. Archived news

footage can be retrieved instantly for broadcast. Images or por￾viii INTRODUCTION

tions of images can be digitally “cut and pasted” for economi￾cal repurposing in alternate versions or to customize advertis￾ing for different demographics. A high-resolution

three-dimensional computer graphic can be used to mold a

solid object; a two-dimensional image from a digital movie or

TV show can be output in printed form as a billboard, a book,

or even a t-shirt.

The uses applied to digital content creation tools will be

determined by the creative talents using them and by current

and future market forces. As time goes on, HDTV, interactive

cable, and greater Internet bandwidth will present further chal￾lenges and opportunities to moving-image professionals. We

have assembled a collection of essays by a broad array of

uniquely qualified experts who have graciously provided the

background, tutorials, and analysis necessary for understand￾ing many of the changes brought about by the digital content

creation age. We are grateful to these contributors, all of whom

tackled topics worthy of separate books in their own right.

It is our hope that this edition will enable moving-image pro￾fessionals to adapt and prosper in these changing times, and to

participate in the evolution of what is, in the end, storytelling,

one of humanity’s oldest and most important forms of commu￾nication, welcome to the Age of Digital Content Creation.

John Rice, Brian McKernan

August 2001

INTRODUCTION ix

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TEAMFLY

Team-Fly®

xi

FOREWORD

THROW ANOTHER

ANALOG ON THE

DIGITAL FIRE:

CONFESSIONS OF A

DIGITAL CONTENT

CREATOR

PETER BERGMAN

For 25 years I had no trouble describing what I did or who I

was. I was a comedian, an artist turning out high-end com￾edy on records and stage with my band of brothers, The

Firesign Theatre.

But those halcyon days are over thanks to the advent of the

digital revolution. Ah, the digital revolution, operating at 800

million clock cycles a second, processing 11 trillion machine

decisions every 20 minutes, and producing four ex-billionaires

every six months. I should have seen it all coming with the

arrival of Bill Gates, the Kubla Khan of the Nerds. He does

possess the perfect digital name. Think about it: Microchips

are nothing but millions and millions of little gates opening and

closing, and he’s billing us for it.

In this strange new cyber landscape, peopled with the

Princes of Packet-share, the Esquires of E-Commerce, the

Browser Barons, and the Dukes of URL, I could no longer

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compete as a simple artist; I’ve had to reinvent myself as a “dig￾ital content creator.”

Me digital? How could I, the last baby born before the

boom—how could I, the youngest member of the generation

whose oldest member is Bob Dole, ever hope to be digital?

I certainly didn’t grow up digital. The only computer I

encountered as a schoolboy was a picture of the Univac on the

front page of Life magazine. It looked like a giant black toaster

that took up three rooms. In college I was never in the same

room with a computer, which explains why I failed to grasp

Shakespeare’s underlying inherent interactive message when I

studied him in freshman English:

2B~<2b

The first great Boolean inequality in modern literature, and

I missed it!

I had a chance to go digital back in the late ’70s when a

buddy of mine built an 8080 Imsai computer out of a kit. That

was no help. I’ve never been able to build anything out of a kit.

I tried twice. The first, a Heathkit voltmeter, which never reg￾istered a single volt. The second, a pair of Heathkit walkie￾talkies that neither walked nor talked.

Like it or not, I had to get on board the digital train before

it left me at the station with the rest of the Luddites, blind men

all, tapping their way into the future on their manual typewrit￾ers. Fortunately, I woke up just in time and joined the swelling

ranks of the early adapters. Now, I buy the newest and fastest

computer the minute it comes on the market. I run home

immediately and set it up; and then to nip that nagging feeling

of buyer’s remorse right in the bud, I turn on my old computer

and pour what’s left of my Big Gulp into the mother board of

that slow, obsolete, useless Pentium-assed dinosaur that I paid

beaucoup bucks for six months ago.

So now I’m a bona fide digital content provider and

although this brand-new job description is great for picking up

Web Mistresses in Silicon Valley, it does have its inconvenient

side when it comes to actually delivering comedy in the digital

environment. A caveat here: If you, gentle reader, are tasked

with designing nothing more entertaining than the home page

for a plastics extrusion company in Indianapolis, then you may

xii FOREWORD

skip the upcoming paragraph on the perils of fashioning com￾edy bits out of bytes. In fact, you can blow off this entire chap￾ter and move on to the nether realms of this worthy tome,

where weighty thoughts and globs of impenetrable computer

code await you.

Now that those humorless drones have fled, we can return

to the challenge of delivering entertainment in the digital

mode. Five years ago I created PYST a best-selling CD-ROM

comedy game, based on a parody of the much better selling

adventure game, MYST. I learned straightaway that the sense

of timing I had developed performing before a live audience

was of no use to me in the realm of digital interactivity. On

stage, I could develop a joke, nurse the audience, hold them

until I was ready, and then wham!—hit ’em with the punch

line. Not so, when the audience is on the other end of a CD￾ROM or out there somewhere floating on the Internet. There’s

no real time and space connection between me, the provider of

digital ha-has, and the bozo or bozoette stroking the mouse. I

lay out the joke, and they can wait for bloody ever until they

decide to click for the punchline.

To entertain and amuse via the digital domain is no longer

an issue of split-second timing, but of providing your interac￾tive audience with humorous situations and icons that intrigue

and inspire them to click on and experience the joke. In PYST,

for example, there’s a screen that depicts the lawn in front of

the main temple. No longer the idyllic greensward portrayed in

MYST, I had transformed it into a decidedly low-end trailer

park. Click on the dog and he relieves himself on a marble

plinth. Click on the dilapidated Airstream and hear the TV

inside the mobile home blare out a promo for Ken Burns’ new

12-part documentary on “Hopscotch” or an infomercial for the

latest in careers, reading books backwards for blind Satanists.

Five years ago when I crafted PYST, I also launched

RFO.NET, a Web site that offered a rich menu of streaming

and downloadable comedy routines, which included the talents

of John Goodman, The Firesign Theatre, and a bevy of Los

Angeles humorists. Back then, the equation was fairly simple:

“me” plus “media” equals “multimedia,” but in the ensuing

half-decade the variables have increased enormously. To bring

THROW ANOTHER ANALOG ON THE DIGITAL FIRE xiii

RFO.NET up to speed, I have had to offer streaming video

files, chat-room access, Shockwave animation, and an ever￾increasing assortment of bells and whistles that I have to ring

and blow just to avoid being wiped out as I surf the bitstream

in the digital pipe.

And that’s just the Web. All you emerging digital content

providers have to wrestle simultaneously with the ever-expanding

palette of digital content distribution channels—live, tape, broad￾cast, narrowcast, satellite, and the burgeoning intranets, which

are hungry for formats that will keep the worker bees stuck to

their computer screens while the boss reels out the company line.

Then there’s the matter of the competition. Any ordinary

citizen in this post-modem world can put his or her hand on his

or her PC and declare, “I am a digital content provider!”

Example, my neighbor, Dot Broadband. Once a typical

Stepford Wife, she has up-stepped herself into the digital

domain, Web casting “Dot’s Home Page Cooking” from her

kitchen and making real bread along the way.

That being said, there’s a ton of good work waiting out there

for you real professionals; and nowhere else has the rapid

onrush of digital content creation posed so many challenges

and opportunities than in Hollywood, where the Hot Shots and

the big-time Suits gamble umpteen millions of dollars on the

latest blockbuster. That’s where the most glamorous cyber jobs

reside; so I think it only meet that I let you in on the latest dig￾ital dish from Tinsel Town.

In Hollywood, the stars are lining up on both sides of the

digital divide. Case in point, my lunch last week with

Braveheart and Ms. Icepick at Baldy’s Le Dome, the glitter

eatery on the Sunset Strip.

Braveheart was real excited with his latest cutting-edge

encounter with digital filmmaking.

“Ever since I laid in that all-cyber Irish army in Braveheart,”

he said, “I’ve learned there aren’t any actors, just gigabit parts.

Now, I’m in the middle of lensing the sequel and thanks to the

digital pipe they laid in my back-yard, I don’t have to go over to

the set any more to be me. I just show up in my Home

Entertainment center in this blue jumpsuit, and the studio

remotely renders my costume, hair-do, and skin color. Then, I

xiv FOREWORD