Where are the Comic Books

The most awesome characteristic of a comic book is its sheer amount of imagination! There is a credible literary element and a vibrant visual element also, you cannot lack creativity and have a successful comic book. But are they becoming obsolete? There are countless movies today based on comic books, Batman, Superman, X-men, you name it there's been a movie in the past decade or so. This begs the question, are movie makers losing their creativity & stealing the work—via licensing agreement—or is this the way these characters are going to be introduced to the next generation?.

This is an intriguing thought as an entire archetype of people, the nerd-oaf who frequents the comic book store ran by the archetypical fat, long hair, bearded guy we see on the Simpsons has to merge or adapt.

ARTICLE: http://comics.ign.com/articles/629/629984p1.html

Lost in Transmission

Lost in Transmission By Michael Endelman
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1117175,00.html

This is an interesting articing pointing out some of the affects of the numerous commercials and repeated play of songs on the top FM radio stations. In additions to the same song always being on and commercials, there ar other problems not always noticed directly by the audiance, such as payola (pay to play) where labels bride stations to play songs, hence we hear them all the time. Below are a few excerpts for you to check out that i found pertinant.. the article is quite long

Mark Wallace a 23-year-old graphic designer from Quinby, Va., loves music, but he couldn't be less interested in what's available on the airwaves these days. ''I can't even remember the last time I listened to FM radio,'' he says. His complaints? ''The annoying ads and those constant repeats. And if you change the channel, you just hear the same song on another station.''

A typical Top 40 station has a total playlist of fewer than 200 songs — less than halfof what it was a decade ago. the 1996 Telecommunications Act, which led to a huge consolidation of radio holdings. ''Consolidation has led to increased homogenization of what gets played,'' says FCC commissioner Jonathan Adelstein. ''It's harder for local and new artists to get on the air. labels are bribing stations to get records on the radio.

The Future Role of Gaming Systems

"Games have the potential to subsume almost all other forms of entertainment media. They can tell us stories, offer us music, give us challenges, allow us to communicate and interact with others, encourage us to make things, connect us to new communities, and let us play." - Will Wright, game designer and creator of the Sims franchise

It is increasingly clear that games and interactive technology will be driving the way people consume content in the future. Each year the medium is taking a rising share of consumer time and wallet from traditional media. Games are becoming an engine for creating new global entertainment franchises with crossover properties in film, TV, and the Internet. In short, games are redefining the boundaries of entertainment.

Some facts:
PWC projects the worldwide video game market is projected to become a $46 billion market in 2010, with the overall fastest growth in the US of all entertainment markets

More than 8 million people around the world are paying $10-15 per month to play World of Warcraft. The average player spends more than 20 hours a week in the game world

More than 100 million PlayStation 2 consoles have been sold worldwide

Over 5 million subscribers can access 1000 hours of video content from CBS, MTV, Warner Bros, TBS, Lions Gate, and Paramount on Xbox Live
Current and future leaders in the entertainment industry will need to be familiar with this ascendant medium. Our panelists will help us understand the following key issues:

Entrepreneurial opportunities in games

Convergence of games, animation, film/TV

Managing creative teams

New forms of gameplay

THe key thing to take into account here, ina holistic sense is that with the more technology we have available, then more mediums will become available for use. Gaming systems, and cell phone do many of the same thing. You can play video games on a phone, right? And you can have conversation via video game systems, with as good, or better quality than actual phones & may invlove numerous people--puts the 3-way connection to shame.

Future Concerts

(Picture taken from Flikr.com)

I’m sure you all heard of the Hannah Montana 3D concert movie and also the Jonas Brothers 3D Concert movie. If you haven’t basically they turned the live concerts into a 3D movie. All the concerts were sold out and showings in the first week in theaters were sold out or close to being sold out. In future years I believe more music artists will too turn their concerts into movies. This would allow many people to see sold out concerts on the big screen. Also it would allow people that cannot afford to buy tickets to the live concerts. The down side is you don’t get the feel of being at a live concert. Will ticket sales of the live concerts go down?

HD Cellphones: The Final Chapter

Finally, there needs to be a way in order to get the HD content off of the phone and onto a HDTV. Usually, cumbersome cables are involved in this process, creating quite a mess as people are stepping over cables, and one has to be right in front of the TV so that the cable can reach both devices. That impractical setup will be a thing of the past within the next three to four years, as wireless HD technology works it's way into mobile devies and HDTV sets. This technology will allow for one of just have their phone in range of the HDTV set, and would wirelessly stream the footage to the set without the need of cables.

This is the final step for complete autonomy in HD cellphones. The ability to shoot, edit, and wirelessly stream the HD content onto other devices could be a paradigm shift for consumers within the next 10 to 15 years.

HD Cellphones: Part 2

A good quality picture on a camera is directly tied to (on a digital camera) the sensor, as well as the lens being used. Most small camera's that are on cellphones and other mobile devices are not equipped with powerful lenses like those on regular cameras. Several years ago, a company patented a type of cellphone lens that used no power, and could function like the human eye, though it never reached production, though I feel this technology is due for a breakthrough within the next few years. It can zoom and auto focus, features that are DESPERATELY needed in order to create decent video recordings on cellular phones.

HD Cellphones: Part One

Cellular phones have proliferated as wonderful convergence devices. In reality, cell phones are not phones, especially in terms of smart phones (Blackberry, iPhone, Palm Pre), they are computers that can place calls over wireless cellular internet. As an iPhone user, I can attest that the phone program is the weakest feature of the device, which is quite ironic. As these devices become even more and more homogenized and converged, there will be a lessening demand for the other dedicated prodcuts. The first way in which cellphones will do this to pocketable HD camcorders is through the future advacement of small HD camera sensors that will be imbeded into these smartphones. Development has already began on the incorportation of 12MP (megapixel) sensors capable of 720p HD playback. Having the ability for HD playback is the first step towards being able to record that quality video on mobile devices