Garage Door Guillotine
The French Revolution might have been so much easier if they'd given the aristocrats ATV's with partially opened garages nearby. Off with their heads!
2008-11-02 20:00:00Glenn Haege: Prepare garage door for cold
The weather is starting to get colder as we move from fall to winter. One item in your home that feels the weather change the most is your garage door...
2008-11-01 08:37:24Rollerblading is Bad for Health, Coolness
Some clown is upstaged by a garage door when he tries to show off his rollerblading skills for the camera.Runtime: 00 hrs 00 min 50 sec
2008-10-25 22:31:12Jolt Foward, Fall Flat
This guy is basically a pro. He pretty much has the whole Rollerblading game mastered. Check out the way he closes the garage door on himself as he lands on his back. Masterful.
2008-10-25 05:15:30Analog Meets Its Match in Red Digital Cinema's Ultrahigh-Res Camera
<!--pageType= magazinewideslug= ff_redcamerasection= entertainmentsubsection= hollywoodheadline= Analog Film Meets Its Match in Red Digital Cinema's Ultrahigh-Res CameraauthorName= Michael BeharcreditType= photocredit= Christian Stollcaption= The Red One, an ultrahigh-res digital camera, is ready for its close-up.--><p><strong>A crowd has gathered in front of the Las Vegas Convention Center, where a security guard is about to unlock the main entrance. It's less than a minute before 9 am, the official opening of the 2008 National Association of Broadcasters Show&mdash;typically a sleepy sales and marketing event known more for schmoozing than buzz. But as the glass doors open on this April morning, a hundred people race toward a large crimson tent in the center of the hall.<p>The tent is home to <a href="http://www.red.com/">Red Digital Cinema and its revolutionary motion picture camera, the Red One. Standing nearby is the man who developed it&mdash;a handsome guy with a neatly trimmed goatee and a pair of sunglasses perched atop his clean-shaven head. He clutches a can of Diet Coke in his left hand, an unlit Montecristo jutting from between his fingers. <p>Jim Jannard, 59, is the billionaire founder of Red. In 1975 he spent $300 to make a batch of custom motocross handlebar grips, which he sold from the back of a van. He named his company Oakley, after his English setter, and eventually expanded into sci-fi-style sunglasses, bags, and shoes. In November of last year he sold the business to Luxottica, the owner of Ray-Ban, for a reported $2.1 billion.<p>Jannard won't say how much money he has poured into Red, but his target market clearly appreciates the investment. Supplicants swarm the tent, many of them with offerings&mdash;fine wine, gourmet coffee, single-malt whiskey&mdash;all to thank Jannard for building the Red One. "I guess they just like me," he says with a wry smile.<div class="feedroomstoryembedlarge" style="width: 601px; height: auto; align: left;"><object height="338"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://www.vimeo.com/moogaloop.swfclip_id=1340684&amp;server=www.vimeo.com&amp;show_title=0&amp;show_byline=0&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color=00ADEF&amp;fullscreen=1" /><embed src="http://www.vimeo.com/moogaloop.swfclip_id=1340684&amp;server=www.vimeo.com&amp;show_title=0&amp;show_byline=0&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color=00ADEF&amp;fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="338"><div class="storyimagecaption"><p>An example of video shot on the Red One. For a better look, <a href="http://www.vimeo.com/groups/redusers/videos/1340684">watch it in HD. <div class="storyimagecredit"><em>Video by <a href="http://www.vimeo.com/user600113pg=embed&amp;sec=1340684">opus magnum prod.<br /> More <a href="http://www.vimeo.com/groups/redusers/videos">Red One video at Vimeo.<p>It's more than that: His team of engineers and scientists have created the first digital movie camera that matches the detail and richness of analog film. The Red One records motion in a whopping 4,096 lines of horizontal resolution&mdash;"4K" in filmmaker lingo&mdash;and 2,304 of vertical. For comparison, hi-def digital movies like <cite>Sin City and the <cite>Star Wars prequels top out at 1,920 by 1,080, just like your HDTV. There's also a slightly higher-resolution option called 2K that reaches 2,048 lines by 1,080. Film doesn't have pixels, but the industry-standard 35-millimeter stock has a visual resolution roughly equivalent to 4K. And that's what makes the Red so exciting: It delivers all the dazzle of analog, but it's easier to use and cheaper&mdash;by orders of magnitude&mdash;than a film camera. In other words, Jannard's creation threatens to make 35-mm movie film obsolete.<p>Two years ago, Jannard brought a spec sheet and a mock-up of a camera&mdash;not much more than an aluminum box about the size of a loaf of bread&mdash;to NAB 2006. Even though it wasn't a working product, more than 500 people plunked down a $1,000 deposit to get their names on a waiting list. For months, industry watchers wondered if the company was for real. Today, there's no question. The Red One is being used on at least 40 features. Steven Soderbergh, the Oscar-winning director, borrowed two prototypes to shoot his Che Guevara biopics, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May, and later purchased three for his film <cite>The Informant. Peter Jackson, the Lord of the Rings himself, bought four. Director Doug Liman used a Red on <cite>Jumper. Peter Hyams used one on his upcoming <cite>Beyond a Reasonable Doubt. Digital cinema that's all but indistinguishable from film is finally coming to a theater near you.<p><strong>The Red headquarters is in Lake Forest, California, a sprawling Orange County exurb consisting mainly of strip malls and office parks. The 32,000-square-foot facility, which Jannard recently bought for a reported $7.7 million, has a stark white exterior unbroken by windows except at the entrance, where a winged human skull is painted on the glass. Jannard, wearing blue jeans, black slip-on sandals, and a lime-green short-sleeve shirt, greets me in the lobby and ushers me through a set of gray metal doors. On the way into the workspace, there is a sign:<p><em>1 Please knock.<br/>2 Take two steps back.<br/>3 Kneel.<p>Since I'm getting a tour from the wizard himself, I'm apparently excused from genuflecting.<p>Behind the doors, the walls are festooned with camouflage netting&mdash;a nod, perhaps, to the postapocalyptic design of the steel-clad Oakley headquarters half a mile away.<div class="wide_img"><img src="http://www.wired.com/images/article/magazine/1609/ff_redcamera2_f.jpg" alt=""><div class="wide_caption"><div class="wide_caption_txt">Jim Jannard in his Red screening room.<br/> <em>Photo: Amy Crilly<br/><br/><p>"I had been thinking about this project for a long time," Jannard says. "As a camera fanatic and a product builder, this was something I seemed destined to do." When businesspeople talk destiny, it can sound like bullshit. But at Oakley, Jannard not only ran the company, he personally shot one of its two TV spots and all of its print ads from 1975 to 1995. He owns more than 1,000 cameras, both still and motion picture, several dating back almost a century. "I have a Bolex, Aaton, Arriflex, Eyemo, Filmo, Mitchell, Photosonic, Beaulieu, Keystone&mdash;just about every movie camera you can think of."<style type="text/css">.nDiv width:300px;float:right;margin:0px 0px 12px 12px;.nTable color:#fff;font-size:0.87em;.nTable td padding:4px;border-right-style:solid;border-right-width:3px;border-right-color:#A3A3A3;.nTable img display:block;margin-bottom:12px;border:1px solid #A3A3A3;.nTable .cell1 width:20px;background-color:#464748;font-family:courier new;line-height:0.85em;font-weight:bold;text-align:center;.nTable .cell2 background-color:#716c66.nTable .cell3 background-color:#716c66.nTable .cell4 background-color:#d4201f;border-right-style:none;<div class="nDiv"><h3>Why The Red Rocks, Part I<div style="font-size:0.9em;margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:1em;">The Red One camera gives moviemakers the best of both worlds. It delivers the ease of use and editing flexibility provided by digital cinema cameras. At the same time, the Red's resolution and color fidelity rival that of 35-millimeter film, and it allows the same kind of control over focus. Bonus: Like HD and 2K digital, it's cheap.<table class="nTable" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tr valign="top"><td class="cell1" rowspan="2">C<br/>A<br/>M<br/>E<br/>R<br/>A<td class="cell2">Film<br/>Example: Panavision<br/>Millennium XL-2<td class="cell3">2K and HD Digital<br/>Example: Sony F23<td class="cell4">4K Digital<br/>Example: Red One<tr align="center" valign="top"><td class="cell2"><img src="http://www.wired.com/images/article/magazine/1609/ff_redcamera_table2_1.jpg" /><td class="cell3"><img src="http://www.wired.com/images/article/magazine/1609/ff_redcamera_table2_4.jpg" /><td class="cell4"><img src="http://www.wired.com/images/article/magazine/1609/ff_redcamera_table2_7.jpg" /><tr valign="top"><td class="cell1" rowspan="2">R&nbsp;M<br/>E&nbsp;E<br/>C&nbsp;D<br/>O&nbsp;I<br/>R&nbsp;U<br/>D&nbsp;M<br/>I&nbsp;&nbsp;<br/>N&nbsp;&nbsp;<br/>G&nbsp;&nbsp;<td class="cell2">Film<td class="cell3">Tape deck or disk<td class="cell4">CompactFlash and <br/>RAID<tr align="center" valign="top"><td class="cell2"><img src="http://www.wired.com/images/article/magazine/1609/ff_redcamera_table2_2.jpg" /><td class="cell3"><img src="http://www.wired.com/images/article/magazine/1609/ff_redcamera_table2_5.jpg" /><td class="cell4"><img src="http://www.wired.com/images/article/magazine/1609/ff_redcamera_table2_8.jpg" /><tr valign="top"><td class="cell1" rowspan="2">I&nbsp;C<br/>M&nbsp;A<br/>A&nbsp;P<br/>G&nbsp;T<br/>E&nbsp;U<br/>&nbsp;&nbsp;R<br/>&nbsp;&nbsp;E<td class="cell2">Silver halide emulsion<br/>on plastic<td class="cell3">3 sensors with <br/>colors split by prism<td class="cell4">1 propietary sensor<tr align="center" valign="top"><td class="cell2"><img src="http://www.wired.com/images/article/magazine/1609/ff_redcamera_table2_3.jpg" /><td class="cell3"><img src="http://www.wired.com/images/article/magazine/1609/ff_redcamera_table2_6.jpg" /><td class="cell4"><img src="http://www.wired.com/images/article/magazine/1609/ff_redcamera_table2_9.jpg" /><tr valign="top"><td class="cell1" rowspan="2">L&nbsp;R<br/>I&nbsp;E<br/>N&nbsp;S<br/>E&nbsp;O<br/>S&nbsp;L<br/>&nbsp;&nbsp;U<br/>O&nbsp;T<br/>F&nbsp;I<br/>&nbsp;&nbsp;O<br/>&nbsp;&nbsp;N<td class="cell2">No lines, but <br/>comparable to 4k<td class="cell3">HD: 1,920h x 1,080v<br/>2K: 2.048h x 1,080v<td class="cell4">4,096h x 2,304v<tr align="center" valign="top"><td class="cell2"><img src="http://www.wired.com/images/article/magazine/1609/ff_redcamera_table_1.jpg" /><td class="cell3"><img src="http://www.wired.com/images/article/magazine/1609/ff_redcamera_table_7.jpg" /><td class="cell4"><img src="http://www.wired.com/images/article/magazine/1609/ff_redcamera_table_13.jpg" /><tr valign="top"><td class="cell1" rowspan="2">R&nbsp;N<br/>E&nbsp;E<br/>L&nbsp;G<br/>A&nbsp;A<br/>T&nbsp;T<br/>I&nbsp;I<br/>V&nbsp;V<br/>E&nbsp;E<br/>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br/>&nbsp;&nbsp;S<br/>&nbsp;&nbsp;I<br/>&nbsp;&nbsp;Z<br/>&nbsp;&nbsp;E<br/><td class="cell2"><td class="cell3"><td class="cell4"><tr align="center" valign="top"><td class="cell2"><img src="http://www.wired.com/images/article/magazine/1609/ff_redcamera_table_2.jpg" /><td class="cell3"><img src="http://www.wired.com/images/article/magazine/1609/ff_redcamera_table_8.jpg" /><td class="cell4"><img src="http://www.wired.com/images/article/magazine/1609/ff_redcamera_table_14.jpg" /><br/><em>Icons by Jason Lee<p>In 2004, Jannard bought a Sony HDR-FX1&mdash;the first hi-def videocam for consumers. When he found he couldn't use the files it produced without translation software from a company called Lumiere, he telephoned Lumiere's owner, filmmaker Frederic Haubrich. "I told Frederic that I couldn't even view my footage on a Mac and that this had pissed me off enough that I wanted to build my own camera. And he said, 'Jim, I know guys in the industry who can help.'" Haubrich introduced Jannard to interface designer Ted Schilowitz.<p>Schilowitz, Haubrich, and Jannard spent a year trying to design that dream camera, one that would combine the practical advantages of digital moviemaking with the image quality of analog film. They recruited mathematicians, programmers, digital imaging experts, hardware engineers, and physicists. "We needed a bunch of guys who were inventors to come up with entirely new ways of getting to the finish line," Jannard says. He kept the project quiet until his team could determine whether building the device was even feasible, but rumors swirled through Hollywood about some kind of mysterious supercamera in the works. "I didn't know who Jim was," Soderbergh says. "But I heard about Red because they were canvassing filmmakers and cinematographers, asking, 'If you could wave a magic wand, what camera would you design'"<p>Most of the work took place in what employees call Jim's garage, a 20,000-square-foot warehouse across the street from Red's massive headquarters. The team quickly concluded that existing technology was inadequate. The guts of the camera&mdash;the image sensor and all the accompanying circuitry&mdash;would have to be created from scratch. It was a daunting challenge, but the fact that Jannard's management style falls somewhere between Mr. T and Steve Jobs on the autocracy scale helped. "What separates us from other camera companies is that the vision guy is the decisionmaker," he says. "That was one of my biggest advantages at Oakley, and it's the same at Red&mdash;I'm in the trenches, in the product development, and I make the final call. Red is a benevolent dictatorship."<p><strong>The video revolution has been on pause in Hollywood. Just as digital still cameras now rule the photography market, hi-def digital movie cameras were supposed to replace film. But moviemakers never fully bought in. Typical digital videocams use prisms to split incoming light by color and send it to three separate sensors, which tends to soften images. Onboard software sharpens the footage but also introduces halos and exaggerated edges. Worse, the small sensors put too much of the picture in focus, giving it a canned look. Cinematographers hate that; the ability to guide the viewer's eye by selectively blurring focal planes is one of their favorite techniques. "That's a storytelling tool," says Pierre de Lespinois, a producer and director who spent three weeks in April filming a feature in the Mojave Desert with two Red Ones. "In HD, what's right in front of the lens and what's 20 feet away are both sharp, so the image looks flat."<p>To compete with celluloid, a digital cine-camera would need an image sensor identical in size and shape to a single frame of 35-mm motion picture film. Without that, the Red couldn't give filmmakers the control over depth of field, color saturation, tonality, and a half dozen other factors that 35-mm film provides.<style type="text/css">.nDiv width:300px;float:right;margin:0px 0px 12px 12px;.nTable color:#fff;font-size:0.87em;.nTable td padding:4px;border-right-style:solid;border-right-width:3px;border-right-color:#A3A3A3;.nTable img display:block;margin-bottom:12px;border:1px solid #A3A3A3;.nTable .cell1 width:20px;background-color:#464748;font-family:courier new;line-height:0.85em;font-weight:bold;text-align:center;.nTable .cell2 background-color:#716c66.nTable .cell3 background-color:#716c66.nTable .cell4 background-color:#d4201f;border-right-style:none;<div class="nDiv"><h3>Why The Red Rocks, Part II<br/><table class="nTable" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tr valign="top"><td class="cell1" rowspan="2">C<br/>A<br/>M<br/>E<br/>R<br/>A<td class="cell2">Film<br/>Example: Panavision<br/>Millennium XL-2<td class="cell3">2K and HD Digital<br/>Example: Sony F23<td class="cell4">4K Digital<br/>Example: Red One<tr align="center" valign="top"><td class="cell2"><img src="http://www.wired.com/images/article/magazine/1609/ff_redcamera_table2_1.jpg" /><td class="cell3"><img src="http://www.wired.com/images/article/magazine/1609/ff_redcamera_table2_4.jpg" /><td class="cell4"><img src="http://www.wired.com/images/article/magazine/1609/ff_redcamera_table2_7.jpg" /><tr valign="top"><td class="cell1" rowspan="2">C&nbsp;&nbsp;<br/>O&nbsp;&nbsp;<br/>S&nbsp;&nbsp;<br/>T&nbsp;&nbsp;<br/><td class="cell2">Rents for about<br/>$25,000/month<td class="cell3">$150,000<td class="cell4">$17,500<tr align="center" valign="top"><td class="cell2"><img src="http://www.wired.com/images/article/magazine/1609/ff_redcamera_table_3.jpg" /><td class="cell3"><img src="http://www.wired.com/images/article/magazine/1609/ff_redcamera_table_9.jpg" /><td class="cell4"><img src="http://www.wired.com/images/article/magazine/1609/ff_redcamera_table_15.jpg" /><tr valign="top"><td class="cell1" rowspan="2">L&nbsp;&nbsp;<br/>E&nbsp;&nbsp;<br/>N&nbsp;&nbsp;<br/>S&nbsp;&nbsp;<br/>E&nbsp;&nbsp;<br/>S&nbsp;&nbsp;<br/><td class="cell2">Proprietary or<br/>standard mount<td class="cell3">Proprietary mount<td class="cell4">Standard mount<tr align="center" valign="top"><td class="cell2"><img src="http://www.wired.com/images/article/magazine/1609/ff_redcamera_table_4.jpg" /><td class="cell3"><img src="http://www.wired.com/images/article/magazine/1609/ff_redcamera_table_10.jpg" /><td class="cell4"><img src="http://www.wired.com/images/article/magazine/1609/ff_redcamera_table_16.jpg" /><tr valign="top"><td class="cell1" rowspan="2">C&nbsp;D<br/>O&nbsp;I<br/>S&nbsp;G<br/>T&nbsp;I<br/>&nbsp;&nbsp;T<br/>T&nbsp;I<br/>O&nbsp;Z<br/>&nbsp;&nbsp;E<br/><td class="cell2">$300,000 and up<td class="cell3">$0 already digital<td class="cell4">$0 already digital<tr align="center" valign="top"><td class="cell2"><img src="http://www.wired.com/images/article/magazine/1609/ff_redcamera_table_5.jpg" /><td class="cell3"><img src="http://www.wired.com/images/article/magazine/1609/ff_redcamera_table_11.jpg" /><td class="cell4"><img src="http://www.wired.com/images/article/magazine/1609/ff_redcamera_table_17.jpg" /><tr valign="top"><td class="cell1" rowspan="2">E&nbsp;S<br/>D&nbsp;O<br/>I&nbsp;F<br/>T&nbsp;T<br/>I&nbsp;W<br/>N&nbsp;A<br/>G&nbsp;R<br/>&nbsp;&nbsp;E<br/><td class="cell2">&nbsp;<td class="cell3">&nbsp;<td class="cell4">&nbsp;<tr align="center" valign="top"><td class="cell2"><img src="http://www.wired.com/images/article/magazine/1609/ff_redcamera_table_6.jpg" /><td class="cell3"><img src="http://www.wired.com/images/article/magazine/1609/ff_redcamera_table_12.jpg" /><td class="cell4"><img src="http://www.wired.com/images/article/magazine/1609/ff_redcamera_table_18.jpg" /><br/><em>Icons by Jason Lee<p>You'll find that kind of full-frame sensor at the core of any high-end digital single-lens reflex camera. But they're designed to shoot no more than 10 frames per second. That's warp speed for still photographers but barely first gear for filmmakers. Movies are shot at a minimum of 24 frames per second, with some scenes topping out at 120 fps for slow-motion effects. The Red's sensor would have to do everything a DSLR sensor does&mdash;and do it significantly faster.<p>The camera also had to be able to record in the same bulky file format that DSLRs use&mdash;called raw. The format preserves picture data in essentially unprocessed form, which gives photographers more latitude to tweak images with software the way they once did in a darkroom. Cinematographers do the same thing with 35-mm film, but it's a complicated, expensive process: The film must be scanned into digital to be manipulated, then converted back to analog for projection. Since a movie is just a long sequence of still pictures, using the raw format presented bandwidth and data-storage problems. A two-hour feature could run up to 7 terabytes. The Red engineers built a workaround, a lossless compression codec they call Redcode Raw.<p>Finally, in August 2006, Jannard's team flipped the switch on Red's first prototype, codenamed Frankie. It wasn't really a camera at all, just a mechanical test bed containing the new sensor. "Our whole business was predicated on this sensor," Jannard says. "If it didn't work, we'd be cooked. When it did, it was like giving birth and counting all the fingers and toes to make sure everything was there. It was phenomenal. Everybody went nuts." Schilowitz remembers that moment, which camera makers call first light, as mind-blowing: "Everyone started screaming like little kids, 'First light! First light! It's alive!' The thing actually worked."<p>Two weeks later, at an industry event in Amsterdam, Jannard showed test footage taken with Frankie&mdash;a clip of two perky women in '50s garb chugging milk from glass bottles&mdash;on a 60-foot screen. "People were stunned," Schilowitz says. "They were standing around scratching their heads. That moment made a lot of people into believers." Filmmakers didn't care how the Red One worked, but they liked what they saw. "The Red camera is the closest thing to film I've seen," says Tristan Whitman, a cinematography lecturer at USC.<div style="width:250px;float:left;margin:0px 12px 0px 0px;padding:6px;"><h3>The Analog Advantage<br/><div style="margin-bottom:6px;font-size:0.9em;">Typical 2K and HD digital movie cameras keep everything in focus. The 4K Red One is more like an analog camera, allowing depth of field control, which blurs the foreground or background.<div id="embed"><div id="pic"><img src="http://www.wired.com/images/article/magazine/1609/ff_redcamera3_f.jpg" alt=""/><div id="caption">Analog film lets moviemakers control the depth of field.<div id="embed"><div id="pic" style="margin-bottom:12px;"><img src="http://www.wired.com/images/article/magazine/1609/ff_redcamera4_f.jpg" alt=""/><div id="caption">2K and HD cameras force everything into focus.<p><strong>By March 2007, Red had assembled two additional prototypes, named Boris and Natasha. But now, with three weeks to go before NAB 2007, Jannard wanted new footage to show what the camera could do. He emailed Jackson, asking if the director could recommend a good cinematographer in Los Angeles to help create a Red promo spot. Not long after, Jackson telephoned. "Jim, why don't you fly down here to New Zealand, and I'll shoot the footage for you," he said.<p>"Don't tease me," Jannard replied.<p>"No, I'm serious," Jackson said. "Bring the cameras down."<p>Jannard packed up Boris and Natasha, still crude machines with no features other than a run/stop button and a shutter, and headed south. When he got to Wellington, Jackson was ready. "Peter had put together an army," Jannard says. "He was going to shoot a mini-movie to put the cameras through their paces, using them on helicopters and Steadicams, crawling on the ground with them&mdash;and I'm thinking, 'Oh my gosh, I just hope they keep working through the weekend.'" Boris and Natasha performed flawlessly. "We stayed at Peter's house, and he was just beaming because he was having so much fun." Jackson delivered his 12-minute featurette, titled <cite>Crossing the Line, the night before the NAB Show opened.<p>Jannard shows me the film at Red headquarters. His desk is in an open workspace that he shares with six staffers and his puppy. Next to his computer there's a box of the Montecristos he favors and a pinewood crate from Napa Valley Reserve, the world's most exclusive wine club. Members reportedly pay up to $145,000 to join, in exchange for which they can partake in grape harvests and create their own blends. There's something oddly honorable about a billionaire with insanely expensive taste in wine but no office.<p>I watch <cite>Crossing the Line on Jannard's 30-inch HD display while he stands behind me. The film, set on the front lines of World War I, alternates between aerial dogfights and bloody ground combat. The screen resolution is about half what it would be in a theater. Nevertheless, it's like looking through a window onto a battlefield. I can barely discern a single pixel. The detail is stupefying; the colors are rich and sensual.<p>After NAB 2007, Jannard showed <cite>Crossing the Line at the Directors Guild in LA. "I rearranged my travel plans to be there," Soderbergh says. After he saw the film, he called Jannard.<p>"Jim, I'm all in. I have to shoot with this."<p>"OK, great," Jannard said. "But what does that mean"<p>"I'm making two movies with Benicio del Toro. Come to my house, and we'll do a test. If it looks as good as what I saw in Peter's film, I want these cameras for my movies."<p>Soderbergh took two prototypes into the Spanish wilderness. "It felt like someone crawled inside my head when they designed the Red," he says. What impressed him most was the cameras' sturdiness. Movie sets are often a flurry of crashes and explosions, which can vibrate sensitive electronics, introducing visual noise known as microphonics into images. "A lot of cameras with electronics in them, if you fired a 50-caliber automatic weapon a few inches away&mdash;which we did&mdash;you'd get microphonics all over the place," Soderbergh says. "We beat the shit out of the Reds on the Che films, and they never skipped a beat."<p>Then there's the economics: The Red One sells for $17,500&mdash;almost 90 percent less than its nearest HD competitor. The savings are even greater relative to a conventional film camera. Not that anyone buys those; filmmakers rent them, usually from Panavision, an industry stalwart in Woodland Hills, California. Panavision doesn't publicize its rates, but a Panavision New Zealand rental catalog quotes $25,296 for a four-week shoot&mdash;more than the cost of <em>purchasing a Red. "It's clearly the future of cinematography," Peter Hyams says. "You can buy this camera. You can own it. That's why people are excited."<p>Even so, traditionalists cling to film's reliability. Film is tangible. Hard drives crash; files get corrupted. "You put film in a can and stick it on a shelf, and it costs $1,000 a year to store," says Stephen Lighthill, who teaches cinematography at the American Film Institute. "With a project that starts as data, you have it on a hard drive, which has to be nursed and upgraded. It's an electronic, mechanical device that can't be left unplugged." Preserving a 4K digital master of a feature film would cost $12,000 a year, according to a report by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. And that doesn't address the reliability of the camera itself. "In the slammin', jammin' world of production, you want a really tough machine that takes very simple approaches to problems," Lighthill says. "I'm not sure Red is the way to go. It's a supercomputer with a lens on it."<p>Proponents dismiss such criticism as Luddite drivel. "Hollywood is just used to shooting on film," says Bengt Jan J&ouml;nsson, cinematographer on the Fox TV show <cite>Bones. "Honestly, if you proposed the film work-flow today, you'd be taken to the city square and hung. Imagine I told you we're going to shoot on superexpensive cameras, using rolls of celluloid made in China that are a one-time-use product susceptible to scratches and that can't be exposed to light. And you can't even be sure you got the image until they're developed. And you have to dip them in a special fluid that can ruin them if it's mixed wrong. People would think I was crazy."<p><strong>As Reds infiltrate Hollywood, the typical filmgoer might not notice much difference at first. After all, once they're projected onto a cineplex screen, movies shot with Jannard's camera will look like the analog movies audiences are used to. But the camera's ease of use and lower cost are sure to change the industry. "There's talent on the streets, kids with ideas who have stories to tell and never get a chance," Jannard says. "Up to now, they've been limited to tools that confine their stories to YouTube." Access to this kind of tech will make it easier for aspiring auteurs to break in and could ultimately expand the range and variety of films that get made.<p>Of course, most theaters still show movies the old-fashioned way, running analog film in front of a bright light. For now, pictures shot with the Red must be transferred to celluloid for distribution. It's a cumbersome system: A full-length feature might take as many as five heavy, expensive to print reels. A major release goes to at least 3,500 theaters. Plus, the celluloid stock gets damaged and dirty and has to be sent in for cleaning and repair after every few dozen screenings.<p>Luckily, analog projection seems to be on the way out. In March, four big Hollywood studios announced plans to retrofit 10,000 screens&mdash;about a quarter of the US total&mdash;for digital projection at 2K. Movies shot with Red's 4K camera will look every bit as good as those shot on film, and they'll all be ads for the company's next camera, the Epic, with more than 5,000 lines of resolution. That's a knockout pixel punch. I ask Jannard if Red plans to develop a 4K projector or perhaps even a 5K that it would market to theater owners. He's cagey. "I will say that the future of motion-capture will be digital," he says, "and I think you can extend that to say the future of presentation will be digital."<p>Jannard is doing his best to fulfill that prophecy. He spends nights on the company's Internet user forums sifting through customer feedback, answering technical questions, and addressing rumors about upcoming products. "I'm passionate about this because I'm building the camera I've always wanted to shoot with," he says. "When my grandkids and great-grandkids look back, they're going to say I was a camera builder. I did handgrips and then goggles and then sunglasses to prepare myself. But cameras are magic."<p><cite>Michael Behar <a href="mailto:michael@michaelbehar.com">michael@michaelbehar.com wrote about computer graphics guru Jos Stam in issue 16.01.<br style="clear: both;"/> <a style='font-size: 10px; color: maroon;' href='http://www.pheedo.com/hostedMorselClick.phphfmm=v2:3132e0d17699397a6800044c148cca8f:g6TBwyYcKObadcY3qvA6GQ4q66EMPr2FzmrrXVebqKXaFDWVzv+j7+iReJOXH5wZFGWAIeMxrqf5HJEqW3mgO4nhFn1U74pgGobSo0MGb8I='><img border='0' title='Add to Facebook' alt='Add to Facebook' src='http://www.pheedo.com/images/mm/facebook.gif'/> <a style='font-size: 10px; color: maroon;' href='http://www.pheedo.com/hostedMorselClick.phphfmm=v2:abf476072eb7ae9e638a2747399097c4:xFNApt4db2kJoyiPACltX1mFRBtl77yP0aFzH5AYNXGYBUAnmtjL4HRQURsiXHVp79cPFknEUzc12yyVioGmTgEZAkOEK7bj2lB4NS/6N60='><img border='0' title='Add to Reddit' alt='Add to Reddit' src='http://www.pheedo.com/images/mm/reddit.png'/> <a style='font-size: 10px; color: maroon;' href='http://www.pheedo.com/hostedMorselClick.phphfmm=v2:9d89f871fe89f41db2296d3f652dbb4e:nqj1ZJqhtwDem5OoEkoGXnVMQfKwqbbVe08FNzv0eiozp78Lnvx5A1LXAUvejRaFUeCL5iQiBJ3sKVNF7Ly0CEzCuvWv4eVsVwCMYK7Q338='><img border='0' title='Add to digg' alt='Add to digg' src='http://www.pheedo.com/images/mm/digg.gif'/> <a style='font-size: 10px; color: maroon;' href='http://www.pheedo.com/hostedMorselClick.phphfmm=v2:1489c90ea28d845c0b9a583ebcf40f86:tzi56XZPBoxFPhE6hubKEx6aExX3Pv62MSdFar8U+M71EcVcfzFONwFixKJQMPF8BNJTvHuJPHNjRgcqq3R+22k3Uz+ztPNp7oQIRJNlKsQ='><img border='0' title='Add to Google' alt='Add to Google' src='http://www.pheedo.com/images/mm/google.png'/><br style="clear: both;"/> <img alt="" style="border: 0; height:1px; width:1px;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdoi=4f172454267afdbc784c2592bc2e1740" height="1" /><img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.phpi=4f172454267afdbc784c2592bc2e1740" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" alt=""/><p><a href="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/indexa=eGy6xN"><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/indexi=eGy6xN" border="0"><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~4/373947073" height="1" />
2008-08-25 05:00:00The Fix: Garage Doors for All Seasons
Garage doors are a crucial component of a home’s curb appeal and a potentially large source of heat loss.<br/><br/><span class="advertisement"> <a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdox=e6fe5cb455024fb0a38a83de04ff8b33&u=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/21/garden/21fix.html"><img src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdox=e6fe5cb455024fb0a38a83de04ff8b33&u=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/21/garden/21fix.html" border="0"/>
2008-08-24 04:44:41Lawmaker gets a break on code violations for Sacramento home
Rep. Laura Richardson caught a break on Wednesday when code enforcement officers decided not to bill her for boarding up the garage door on her vacant Sacramento home.
2008-08-21 19:30:32The Softer Side of Hardware
Home Depot is testing a warm-and-fuzzy approach to selling hammers, lighting and garage doors that targets female shoppers.
2008-08-09 04:52:19Escape From Alcatraz...The Race!
I have been trying to write this column, but I do not have a clue where to begin! This past Sunday, I competed in my first full "Accenture Escape from Alcatraz". After each race, I try to write a "race report". But Escape from Alcatraz does not have a beginning, middle and an ending. I am convinced, this is a journey that I will forever remember and learn from. I find myself day dreaming, recalling each detail, every personal moment. From sucking in salty Pacific Ocean water, to climbing the steep hills of San Francisco to feeling the squishy sand/mud of high tide while running on the seashore.  I am still in the moment. Escape from Alcatraz is not just a Triathlon. It is an soul searching adventure! It is a chosen path that begins with a smoldering desire seeded deep within your heart. The passion pumps into your blood with every stroke, pedal and step. During last Sunday's competition, in less than four hours, I learned more about myself than I had ever possibly acquired in a lifetime. The Day Before.  Coach Patricia LaSalle ready by side, was as excited to attend the Athletes Meeting . She enjoyed being a spectator rather than a competitor. We found our way through registration don't ever forget your USAT card, it muddies the process then found our way to the Mandatory Athletes meeting.  This is a meeting in which we group to hear the dos and don'ts of the race, but also receive critical information about conditions of the Bay as well as Roads. It is also a place where we size up the competition!  I always find registration day mentally and physically exhausting. After a sweep of the souvenir booth goodies for the family it's off to drive the Bike Course. What an education. Highly recommended. The course is a roller coaster, except there is no advantage on the descends. As soon as you want to let it rip, there is a tight turn revealing another climb. For me, my strength is on the flats and the descends. This is not my kind of a course!  While navigating the bike course, we discovered the most stunning views of a place I call home. San Francisco was shining in all of its glory, the day before race day. Now if the weather could hold for another 24 hours, we will all be in good racing shape. After a dinner of carbo loading and only a half glass of red wine an absolute record for me pre race! we head to the hotel. It's getting late and around 9pm I decide to start placing my race stickers on my bike. I pack  my swim and transition bags with glide, goggles, wetsuit, bike shoes, running shoes, socks, gloves, arm warmers, sunglasses, gels, cliff bars, Ibuprofen and a banana. Oh yea, and another bag for the unusual transition from the swim to the mile run to the bike. All set, all done, to bed by 10p and up at 4am. That was the plan. Until I noticed two extra stickers. Oh yeah, those are for my helmet. Yes, the helmet I left sitting on the garage floor 45 miles away. Nooooooooooooooooooooooo!!! The phone call to my husband began lovingly. "Hi honey, how are you What are you doing Did you have a good day Are you watching a movie Are you really into it I'm only asking because I was wondering if you would like to jump in the car and head towards San Francisco with my helmet.  It really was not that much of an ordeal for him. We met half way. I slipped into my hotel bed at 11pm, fell asleep around 11:30 and slept pretty solid until 2:30 am. The remaining 2 hours or so were spent tossing and turning with every ocean swell filling my head. But isn't it always that way before any big event! I was at Marina Green by 5:15, Just in time to see the sunrise cast a beam of sunlight on Alcatraz. I said a silent prayer. I set up transition then hopped on the bus to Pier 3. I am now officially heading to the Horn Blower Boat to Alcatraz.  The Swim The swim is what everyone asks me about. After nearly an hour on the boat, I am talking it up with athletes from all places other than the Bay Area! I sat down and stretched out on the floor with a fabulous woman from North Carolina and George from San Jose. We chatted about everything under the sun until a shadow swallowed us. There it was, up close. The Rock. Alcatraz. The boat stopped and people jockeyed for positioning. We ran out to the deck to get a glimpse of the PROS diving into the water. E rained perched one full deck above the Pros until our turn. We filed down several sets of stairs, around a corner, down a stretch and boom! Right in front of me, an open door leading no where! I looked down and there was the frigid Pacific. Someone yelled 'JUMP!" and without thinking, I did! Just like that! I was in the Bay on my quest to finish my first Full Escape From Alcatraz! My 43 minute swim was one of the most challenging endeavors of my life. For the first 10 minutes, I was fine. I think I was kind of in "awe and shock". I remember a friend, Lee Cannon telling me, "When you are in the Bay, stop and look around. You will never see the Golden Gate Bridge and the city of San Francisco from that perspective view again". So I stopped. And my heart raced. It was truly overwhelming! The next time I looked at my watch, 23 minutes had passed. The water was getting rough. I felt as if I was inside the drum of a washing machine. Then I heard a yell. It was a man in a Kayak telling me I was caught in the ebb and try to swim hard to get out. It was exhausting. For a split second I wondered if I would complete the swim. After that moment, I knew I could not have those thoughts again or I would fall apart. So, I prayed. About 200 yards from the shore I could hear the cheers and roar of the crowd. I smiled and tasted the salt of the ocean. Escape From Alcatraz has the most unusual exit form the water. In order to defrost your hands and feet before jumping into the saddle and pedal the uneven surfaces of San Francisco, an extra transition station is set up. This is the place you go to peel off your wetsuit and put on a pair of shoes and run one mile to your bike transition. That run couldn't take me far enough from the water. I was glad to be on solid ground! For fear of writing a novel, let's just say the bike course was the most beautiful but hilly course I have ever had the pleasure to ride.  Exiting the bike to the run, I felt as if I was in an episode of "Survivor". The mainly all "trail run" had us hopping over logs, ducking under overpasses, running through a tunnel, climbing stairs after stairs and sloshing my way across high tide. I have never felt so alive.  As I crossed the finish line, I kneeled and said a silent prayer of gratitude, then cried when I saw friends gather and Kim Coyle interview me for CBS 5 Sports.  Off to T-3. Margaritas.  And I am still savoring every moment. There truly is, no Escaping  the mystique of Alcatraz.   Â
2008-08-05 13:10:52Rich begin feeling the pain in slowdown
<p><font size="2"><strong>By MARK JEWELL<p>New York<p>Aug. 4: The rich are sharing your financial pain — and contributing to it.<p>It may have taken longer and it may not be as acute, but there are early hints that the economic slump is crimping the lifestyles of the wealthy. They are investing more conservatively, spending less on luxury goods and are being more thrifty with their credit cards. Many are asking their personal shoppers and private-jet travel providers to seek the best deals rather than over-the-top extravagances.<p>That news may produce a shrug from many people who have lost their jobs or homes in this economy. The problem is that when the wealthy get stingy, it trickles down to the rest of us.<p>&quot;It’s a sluggish economy, and its difficulties are felt all over,&quot; said Mr Joseph DiRenzo, a married 38-year-old father of three who left a hedge fund two years ago to enter commercial real estate.<p>Mr DiRenzo says he’s feeling the hit in many places, especially in the value of his house on Long Island’s upscale Gold Coast in Muttontown, New York.<p>He owns the kind of place you’d expect a former hedge-fund manager would call home: six bedrooms, seven full baths, hand-crafted Italian doors throughout, high-tech security and sound systems, and 9,000 square feet of living space on 2.4 acre.<p>It can be had for $7 million — a good deal, he says, when you consider his next-door neighbour’s comparable home sold for $9 million last fall. He has cut the price twice in the 12 months it’s been on the market.<p>Mr DiRenzo is looking for a smaller, cheaper home. He also may buy a hybrid to supplement the two Mercedes Benzes in his heated four-car garage. And, he’s driving less these days.<p>The DiRenzos aren’t unlike many American families cutting back to weather a downturn. They’re just richer. To be sure, the poor and middle-class are being hurt more, but upper crust thriftiness could reverberate across the rest of the economy.<p>The 10 per cent of households with the highest incomes account for nearly a quarter of all spending, according to data compiled by research firm Moody’s from a 2006 federal survey.<p>&quot;That does suggest those folks are important for the spending outlook, and the overall economic outlook,&quot; said Mr Scott Hoyt, Moody’s director of consumer economics.<p>Other government data show households in the top one-fifth of the US population ranked by income earn about half of all total personal income before taxes — an imbalance that gives the wealthy immense economic clout, said Ms Sara Johnson, an economist at the research firm Global Insight. — AP
2008-08-05 13:00:00
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