The BBC announced it will take a hiatus from developing 3D TV programming based on the public’s “lack of appetite” for the technology. Kim Shillinglaw, the BBC’s head of 3D, says that British television viewers have not taken to the format, despite the fact there are now an estimated 1.5 million UK households with 3D TVs. As a result, the BBC is planning a three-year break from its 3D project once the current two-year pilot comes to an end later this year. Continue reading BBC Places 3D Pilot on Hold, Cites Lack of Public Interest

Earlier this month, we reported that ESPN is planning to shut down its ESPN 3D channel at year’s end. “Due to limited viewer adoption of 3D services to the home, ESPN is discontinuing ESPN 3D,” explained the company in a statement. While ESPN’s top tech exec Chuck Pagano is not yet convinced that 4K TV will take off either, the sports broadcaster is setting up a technical framework for Ultra HD to prepare for its eventuality. Continue reading ESPN Chief Technology Exec Cautious About Future of 4K TV

In an effort to help curb frivolous lawsuits initiated by patent assertion entities (also called “trolls”), the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) says it will require some companies to prove they have a significant domestic presence. As part of the commission’s new pilot program, six administrative judges will determine within 100 days whether or not companies that file infringement suits do in fact have the necessary U.S. production, research or licensing credentials. Continue reading Trade Commission Pilot Program Aims to Curb Patent Trolls

DreamWorks Animation has signed a multiyear deal to produce original series for streaming video service Netflix. While financial details were not disclosed, the companies announced yesterday that more than 300 hours of programming are planned to debut exclusively on Netflix. A kids’ show based on DreamWorks’ summer movie “Turbo” will debut online in December. Netflix will also replace HBO as DreamWorks’ premium subscription video partner, beginning with this year’s theatrical releases. Continue reading DreamWorks Animation Passes on Cable in Favor of Netflix

Amazon Studios, the production arm of Amazon.com, has introduced a new tool called Amazon Storyteller to help with its initiative to develop original movies and TV series. The free online tool enables writers and content producers to easily convert RTF scripts into storyboards. According to Amazon, Storyteller scans the script and then “identifies the scenes, locations and characters from scene descriptions, and ‘casts’ them from a library of thousands of characters, props and backgrounds.” Continue reading Free Amazon Storyteller Tool Converts Scripts to Storyboards

Columbia Pictures’ “After Earth” was screened via a Sony 4K digital cinema projector this weekend during the Cine Gear Expo in Los Angeles. After attendees filled the 500-plus-seat Paramount Theatre on Friday, a second screening was added on Saturday. “After Earth” was among the first feature films produced using Sony’s 4K F65 camera. Sony, Canon and Red are among the major camera makers now able to support 4K. Continue reading Cine Gear Expo: Industry Vets Discuss 4K for Cinema and TV

Los Angeles-based rental house and digital cinema solutions provider Radiant Images unveiled an updated Novo action camera on Friday at the Cine Gear Expo. Built with the GoPro sensor and designed for cinematic use, the 3.2-ounce Novo 2K shoots uncompressed RAW and includes a C-mount lens system, PL mount adapter, back focus adjustment and exposure control capabilities. The camera was engineered by Valencia-based View Factor Studios; Radiant collaborated on design and function. Continue reading Cine Gear Expo: Radiant Images Unveils Novo 2K Camera

The Entertainment Technology Center @ USC will announce the launch of “Production in the Cloud” today, a new project that brings together key media and cloud-resource leaders to develop guidelines and accelerate innovation and adoption of next-gen cloud-based content creation, production, and distribution tools and processes. Senior executives from the six major studios in coordination with Rackspace, EMC, EVault, Dell and other cloud companies convened recently to serve as governing body to collectively guide this process. Continue reading ETC Announces Launch of Production in the Cloud Project

Veteran television writer/director/producer Ken Levine suggested on his blog last week that Big Hollywood has no business financing projects via Kickstarter, an approach he believes should be reserved for the little guy. He references actor/filmmaker Zach Braff, who has raised nearly $2.6 million through the crowdfunding site to finance “Wish I Was Here,” his follow-up to “Garden State.” Levine believes offering Braff money “defeats the whole purpose of Kickstarter.” Continue reading TV Veteran Questions Value of Kickstarting Known Artists

Animator and special effects pioneer Ray Harryhausen, 92, died on Tuesday in London, where he had been living. Harryhausen, an innovative artist whose work still inspires filmmakers, often played a principal role in the movies that featured his technical effects. “He frequently proposed the initial concept, scouted the locations and shaped the story, script, art direction and design around his ideas for fresh ways to amaze an audience,” according to The New York Times. Continue reading Media Industry Mourns the Loss of Pioneer Ray Harryhausen

Actress Kristen Bell may soon become the poster child for a new era of film production and distribution. Following the success of a new “Veronica Mars” project crowdfunded via Kickstarter, which reached its $2 million goal in just 10 hours, Bell’s upcoming indie film “Some Girl(s)” is slated for a June 28 release in theaters and online through Vimeo’s new VOD platform. This could mark another change in the digital distribution of media. Continue reading Vimeo On Demand Gets Exclusive Distribution of New Movie

According to new projections from DTVE publisher Informa Telecoms & Media, the number of 3D TV homes will jump from 13.5 million in 2012 to more than 100 million by 2017. Asia Pacific is expected to have the highest penetration with 49.6 million, while North America will follow with 33.2 million and Western Europe should see 18.3 million. The 112.7 million 3D homes projected by 2017 will represent 8 percent of global TV households. Continue reading Report Projects Spike in Global 3D TV Adoption by 2017

The end of celluloid film distribution in North America may come as soon as the end of this year, as the transition from film to digital continues. Michael Karagosian, president of MKPE Consulting, said that by the end of last year, 75 percent of worldwide cinema screens had already made the digital transition. This is expected to be an important topic this week at the annual CinemaCon convention in Las Vegas. Continue reading Distribution of Film Prints May Soon End in North America

First announced at last year’s NAB, cloud-based production service Adobe Anywhere is scheduled to launch in May and will be on display at next week’s NAB (booth SL3910) in Las Vegas. The toolset enables collaboration for creative professionals using Adobe Premiere, After Effects and logging tool Prelude. It uses Adobe’s Mercury streaming engine, a server that streams relevant video frames and scales quality based on available bandwidth. Continue reading NAB 2013: Cloud-Based Production with Adobe Anywhere

Sony announced it has entered the cloud-based services market with the launch of a new set of tools intended to help creative professionals such as production studios, filmmakers, producers, broadcasters and marketing teams work with various media applications online. The Ci scalable cloud platform features a “fast and secure” collection of tools for collecting, producing, sharing and archiving high-quality media content. Continue reading NAB 2013: Sony Announces New Scalable Cloud Platform