Sounds like music and networking

Wizzit Magazine interviewed me about Blogging and Social Networking. I have to thank Matti Mattila, the reviewer and open networker. If you remember, Matti wrote A musician story. Here is a short excerpt from the magazine article that you can download here in pdf format.

Sounds like music and networking

Matti Mattila: About blogging, you have an active blog, when did you start writing it?

Manuel Marino: I started ManuelMarino.com in October 2007.

What inspired you to first start blogging?

First of all the idea to freely surf and read everything about anything always fascinated me. I think this is why people love to have many blog feeds to read daily.

Next to this idea is the one to freely write interesting articles for the Internet community. Both gives a kind of freedom that I never felt before.

What is your blog about?

ManuelMarino.com is about music, arts, philosophy, poetry, independent artists, humanities and freedom. I invite experts and sincere professionals and artists to write articles.

I believe very much in freedom, honesty, sincerity and I’m able to feel these when I meet people. There are many good persons in the world, but sometimes we are too much obsessed by everyday life to understand this and find this.

How much time do you spend blogging every week?

Probably I spend too much. I love blogging, read other people’s blogs, surf and find interesting news.

What inspires you to write an entry to your blog?

Usually my ideas about news, culture and art, sometimes my intuition. We need more intuition, people tend to forget the importance of it and uses too much their left brain.

How do you spread a word about your blog?

Well, word of mouth, mainly backlinks, more than 30,000 on Yahoo. But a tracker gave me also a global number of 70,000 so I can say between 30,000 and 70,000.

Posted in Arts, Reviews, Technology | 3 Comments »

Videos everywhere with Spotzer

Today we interview Dennis Brouwer. Dennis company, Spotzer, offers an online library of creative, ready-to-air commercials produced by industry-leading professionals from around the world. They also help you plan and buy spots across multiple advertising media, including television and the web.

Videos everywhere with Spotzer

Manuel Marino: Ciao Dennis! First of all, what is your role in Spotzer?

Dennis Brouwer: Hi Manuel, my role is VP Video Productions.

MM: What do you think about internet videographers community? seems there is a big community out there!

DB: As you can imagine I believe strongly in the internet videographers community, at the end of the day that’s the future or the biggest part of the production of video for internet and in later instances the television.

Both you and I have been growing up in a world were the television was always superior above the internet for were it came to the quality and the importance.

When I now look at my children what they (5 and 7) do with the internet and how school is moving them into that direction. And look at how the world of the production has changed I think with the constant renewing internet technologies and the production possibilities its inevitable to conclude that the world changed and is changing still.

MM: So what all of this will lead to?

DB: Where we move to eventually is not crystal clear but what even a blind man can see is that the classical production is a dead end street. At least were it comes to mass productions. There will always be an urge for Oscar winning productions but the mass will do with the ones that are not winning the prices. And therefore be happy with the current quality. This off course is arbitrary because what is quality in general, but that’s a total different discussion.

Some 15year old do not even recognize the 4k film images and are not aware if they look at SD, HD or BluRay. And I dare to say that thats because they got used to the “crappy” youtube image quality.

Having this said it opens up the discussion that I raised before; what is quality? Again its arbitrary. But what we as creative professional people can see is that the method of the production is changing rapidly.

MM: What about the short videos industry? Spotzer is really doing well in this area.

DB: We here at Spotzer believe that the market for the short promotional video is only just beginning. There are a lot differentiators that make the short video successful or not. We do acknowledge that there need to be a sales proposition in every video for every customer. We also believe that every video needs to be more or less tailor made for as far as we can achieve that for the incredible low budgets that we work with.

A very good personalisation tool off-course is the music that goes with every video, that is one of the items we make a video personal with. Obviously there is also video and voiceover to show the personal touch in the video. But a consumer could interpret-ate the video also as being stock material, the voiceover in contrary is very much personal because we let the customers name come back a few times always.

MM: When we first met you told me that Spotzer was going to expand to all Europe.

DB: We have started up our productions in Austria, Finland, Sweden and will shortly start in Poland and Czech / Slovakia. And we have found out that the customers are very happy with the end-result. Specially the quality that we deliver is very highly appreciated.

MM: What did you produce, beside the promotional videos?

DB: Beside the promotional videos we have also produced a big library of what we call “Ready to Air” videos. We have been delivering those RTA’s to Hearst and Merchant Circle in the USA and they offer these video ads to their customer base.

This is a very different product because every second of video is already produced and edit in the video, the changeable items in the video are: slogan, call for action and end-card.

And again we sell them at remarkable low prices!

MM: After this very interesting interview I just suggest to check Spotzer website at once! Thank you Dennis!

Posted in Business, People, Technology | 1 Comment »

Mobile Games and Technologies

Federico Elinger, owner of Pocketsol Games, wrote this exclusive article for us. Pocketsol Games creates high quality mobile games for the mobile phone based java platform (J2ME). The development studio is in Argentina where fun and addictive games are created for most of the actual mobile phones.

Mobile Games and Technologies

Currently, we can forget the keys of our house when we leave, but not the mobile phone. People are everywhere with their phones talking, chatting, the phone has a very important place in our life. Mobile phones are not only a communication device, are computer themselves, with a cpu, ram memory, persistence storage.

Games in this context are very important because you can get full advantages of the capabilities of a modern mobile phone that becomes this way a game console. Today, people of all ages play with their phones. They get fun and share multiplayer games over Bluetooth or Internet.

The technologies that involve games development are: Java (J2ME, Symbian, Windows Mobile, Linux, Brew). Each one has different capabilities depending on which device are installed.

An important issue is about the technological limits of the devices. Each one has different limits of memory, cpu, color depth, resolution. That push us to do a porting solution of every game to reach the greatest number of mobile devices. This limit obliges us to be more creative, makes us seek how to entertain people with simple games with a few levels. We must create images simply using the old technique of pixel art.

Mobile games are experimenting a constant evolution. In few years, most of the mobile phones will have 3D graphics accelerators such as Nokia N95 phone. The future is very promising, we will find devices that can compete with Sony PSP and Nintendo DS.

Posted in Games, Technology | No Comments »

Creating Clouds

Frank Kane job is very particular… he creates clouds! He can do it through his C++ library for real-time sky and 3D cloud rendering, used worldwide by scores of games and visual simulation applications on the Windows platform.

Its name is SilverLining.

Creating Clouds

Manuel Marino: Your sky and clouds library is impressive :)

Frank Kane: Thanks! SilverLining is a software library that allows real-time computer graphics developers to physically simulate the rendering of the sky, clouds, precipitation, and astronomical objects. You can specify any time at any location for pretty much any weather conditions, and SilverLining will draw what the sky would look like quickly enough for games and flight simulators.

Can we say that creating clouds is a form of Art?

It’s funny, because I didn’t go into this project thinking of it as a form of art at all - in fact it was quite the opposite and based on pure science; we went through almost a century worth of academic research into how light scatters through the atmosphere and clouds, the nature of precipitation, computing the location of the sun, moon, stars… stuff like that - and SilverLining was just meant to be a real-time implementation of the raw physics behind what makes the sky look the way it does.

However, a few months ago, I found myself standing inside New York’s Museum of Modern Art looking at an interactive art exhibit that featured SilverLining as part of it, running on a flat-panel display (this was Jonathan Harris’s and Sep Kemvar’s “I Want You To Want Me” piece. So there’s my sky rendering software, on display in the same building that houses works by Picasso and countless other other Art greats. It was surreal. So yes, Art and technology very much can live together.

Did you receive many requests of your library from game developers?

Yes, many game developers use SilverLining, and it’s even been ported to the XBox. But, we have just as many, if not more customers, in the visual simulation industry or “serious games” - people who create simulators for the military, for example - and also from broadcast video customers. A few people are working on using SilverLining for TV weather reports.

What do you think about the indie scene?

Well, I got my start as an independent game developer myself, so it’s a great way to people to learn and demonstrate that they have the skills and the drive to create something great and something big, if they do want to move on to larger projects. The growth of casual games and things like XBox Live have made it possible for indie game developers to carve out their own niche again, which is great. The world needs more people who are as passionate about their work as indie developers are.

What do you think about how internet became in 2008? What do you think about its future?

It’ll be interesting to see what direction social apps go in the long run. Will the world continue to support a few big social “portals” like Facebook and MySpace, or will a more open, simpler solution take over? Will people stay glued to their iPhones watching people Twitter about what they are doing? I think at some point we’re going to see a big divide between people who are very attached to their technology 24/7 with mobile devices, and people who rebel against the whole thing and become something akin to Luddites. It’ll be interesting to watch.

What do you think about the future of technology in general?

It all hinges on our educational system and the value society places on technology. In the US, we’ve had a real problem with a lack of interest in technology and science in general, and an educational system that does not do a good job at all in math and science.

Fortunately, there are other countries where this is not the case, and unless we see some big reforms here in the US, fewer technological advances will come from here. Already, most good technical workers here come from other countries - and our country’s restrictions on immigration and work visas make it increasingly hard to hire them. Who knows, perhaps the growth of the indie scene will counteract that effect by creating more interest in software engineering within our own country. Right now, it’s just really hard to find good developers, and that limits what the industry is able to create.

What will you develop in the future, new libraries? New projects?

I still have a few plans for making SilverLining even better, so I think that will keep me busy for awhile. Beyond that, I have lots of ideas - some involving computer graphics and some not - so if SilverLining gets to a point where it’s about as good as it can get, well, we’ll see.

Posted in Arts, Technology | No Comments »

Raymond Thoughts about Games and Arts

Today we interview Raymond Jacobs, owner of Ethereal Darkness Interactive. Founded in 2002 Ethereal Darkness Interactive is commited to developing quality indie games with high production values. Raymond talks about his latest project, Morning’s Wrath 2, about videogames, Arts and technology.

Raymond Thoughts about Games and Arts

Manuel Marino: You are working on some new features for your next game…

Raymond Jacobs: yes, it is going to be Morning’s Wrath 2, the Sequel to our first game. You would be the first news source to really mention that!! As for the new systems… they are some various forms of internet integration with our new engine (The S3Engine 2.0) (version 2.0 of the engine used to make Malathedra). They will allow players to directly in-game leave comments to the developers about what they think of the game as well as submit any errors encountered via the internet automatically.

This is part of our new ‘internet technologies integration’ initiative as well as trying to know the minds of our target market better so that we can provider better games and faster fixes.

Sounds really innovative! The game reminds me Ultima Online…

Somewhat, though it is a single player game. In MW1 you had to fight off an invading army from taking over your castle along with learning the ways of magic though in doing so you get stricken by a terrible ‘dissease’ since the magical elixer that you use (mana) is by nature poisioned.

MW2 continues with this story, having morning lead her army across the continent to strike back at the invading Ashidian Army; and her search for a cure for her poisioning which is slowly driving her insane. It will likely be done in episodic format, and 3 episodes are currently slated.

Can we say that videogames are a form of Art?

Personally I consider videogames as a major form of Art but I don’t believe that people yet see games as an Art form, at least not the vast majority. They are still mainly an entertainment source however indie developers are definitely causing a movement of games as an Art form.

As for my company everything we do is first a source of artistic inspiration and second a business endevor. We feel that without the artistic and creative backbone, what we develop isn’t likely to be enjoyable.

How technology fits with creative skills?

We limit ourselves to fairly proven technology, choosing not to push the technological envelope very much; but instead create a platform for creative expression; by creating a limited and finite set of functionality on existing technology it forces us to be creative, rather than to rely on technology to turn heads.

The newest HDR rendering may be very pretty, but beyond that it says nothing about the depth of a particular game, so in short, we use technology as a pedistal from which to express our creativity.

Posted in Games, People, Technology | No Comments »

The value of photographic prints

Stephan R. Lewis is a professional photographer. He accepted to share his knowledge with us, with this exclusive article.

The value of photographic prints

I have been in the photo industry trenches for a long time and have watched many things come and go in popularity.

When I say ‘trenches’ I mean not the glamour part of the industry that you see everyday on magazine covers, beautiful and famous people, but rather the nuts and bolts of mass producing press release photos of tired employees, photographs of products for advertising for small business, other time sensitive materials with a short shelf life, created for immediate usage with no value once the deadline has come and gone.

My actual primary concern at the beginning of my career was printing archival black and white photographs for exhibition and professional use, art prints designed to last 100+ years, so the disposable and transient nature of consumer photography amazed me.

Which brings me to the popularity of one-hour photo finishing of snapshots that existed until recently. Everything from birthday parties and Christmases, the latest vacation snaps and spontaneous party photos to out of focus and overexposed close-ups of newborn babies, dog noses and amateur porn.

Everyone seemed to be shooting like crazy and getting prints that ended up in a box or still in the envelope, if they (the prints) were lucky they were put in a photo album or even framed on the wall- or maybe just stuck to the refrigerator with a magnet.

110, 126 and 35mm cameras made it easy and affordable to make photos, fun, quick and relatively cheap. Then came APS, the last gasp of film as a consumer product, and now we have the most insidious of all- the camera built into your cell phone and all types of image capturing devices. These devices are so great because once you have bought one your ongoing expenses theoretically are nothing- but computer time!

A big part of my photo lab duties has always been restoring old photographs. Photographs from 1890, torn and or folded images from the 1950s, photographs that had Dad cut out in the 60s after a bad divorce and the kids want him reinserted in the 90s! I have worked on wallet sized prints that had in fact been in a wallet for 20 years until someone realized it was the ONLY print of that person and now they needed an 8×10 for the wall, for the memorial service… the oldest photograph I ever worked on was from 1849. Plenty of those images I have worked so hard to restore and make like new had started out as ‘happy snaps’ and ended up being the only or last or best photograph of someone beloved and, sadly, now departed.

Why? People forget - photographs are priceless, one-of-a kind records of a specific moment in time, a moment that will never occur again, a method of capturing and preserving memory that mankind has only had for about 160 years.

As small children we go through the family photo albums, laughing at the way people used to dress, marveling at how much someone looks like great-grandpa, examining vintage cars and houses, looking at things and people that no longer exist. History.

Now we have digital photography, images that might never leave the memory card, maybe get stashed in a folder on the desktop, turned into a slide show that can only be seen on that specific computer, at best uploaded to share with friends and family online. Where will these images be in 20 years?

Is the current advent of technology creating an attitude towards photography that is undermining its inherent value as a historical record, thoughtlessly making it too disposable and transient to be appreciated and preserved?

I photograph lots of special events, large groups, and school kids and sales of prints from these sessions are down markedly. After spending 30 minutes setting up a group shot and capturing it with my high-end digital camera, with the intent of selling true photographic prints designed to last 50 or more years, a Mom or kid next to me will hold up their camera phone and grab a shot and figure: “Got it!” and good enough. As a result, they don’t buy a thing.

Then they get home and maybe look at their quickie capture, email it to grandma and forget about it. Ultimately it may be saved under an incomprehensible filename or not at all, put on a hard drive that will inevitably crash, or uploaded to a website that ceases to exist in three years, or even worse- forgotten about altogether!

Let me tell you people- that camera phone image, that image on your computer screen is not a memory preserved for all time! As long as it is not PRINTED, a physical hard copy that can be whipped out years and years later, it only exists for the moment.

Do yourself a favor. Print that photograph and put it in a photo album so your kids, your grandkids, maybe even their children can see what you looked like on your myspace or Yahoo profile in 2008!

Posted in Arts, Technology | No Comments »

The State of Music Business

Marcos Marado wrote this exclusive article. Is the situation really so dramatic as he explains? Leave your comments, this could be our first really important debate on ManuelMarino.com.

The State of Music Business

I’m, first of all, a passionate for music. My passion for music before I can recall it, and grew with the fact that I had the luck to have older brother and sisters whose music collection was wide enough to feed my music interests. Also since a little kid I was interested in technology, and started programming at the age of four. Being nowadays a music lover and also a musician, and at the same time graduated and working as a Computer Science Engineer, I feel myself lucky to have some ground bases to analyse the state of music business.

The music business is in a chaotic state. The record industry is declining, and is throwing the guilt of it to what they like to call “piracy” - the unauthorised downloading of music. While they blame it, the truth is the fault is from the music industry itself. Doug Morris, Universal Music CEO, recently admitted he knows nothing about the music industry of nowadays. They decided to sue their customers by suing music fans that do unauthorised downloads instead of suing those who really make money out of copyrighted works, and restricting their clients’ rights with technologies like DRM.

It is surely true that it’s hard to find a completely fair way of compensating musicians while promoting the access to culture, but there are efforts to design market models that work - at least better than the actual one. The biggest problem is that the music industry - defined by the four major labels - doesn’t get it. The music market has changed, music, musicians and music lovers adapted themselves to new trends and technologies, but the music industry decided to ignore all the signs, refusing to see the big elephant in the room, and kept doing business in an obsolete way. The proof that they simply don’t understand what’s going on is right in front of everyone wanting to see it, when we get news that Elton John wants the Internet shut’ed down, or when countries try to impose Internet Services Providers to “filter illegal downloads“, even if that’s technicly impossible to do (illegal stuff surely don’t have an evil bit), and the music industry does political pressure that even makes countries change their laws. They spend tons of money implementing DRM systems, and others sell the rights that were restricted to listeners back, making money from what they first took, even if it’s known that DRM systems cause sales losses, music artists and fans are against such systems and new businesses are arising just by the fact that they don’t adopt DRM technologies, radio stations create petitions against DRM. Now, it’s too late for them - but what’s going to happen to the music market?

Well, we’re also seeing a lot of emergent business models. First of all, we have to realize that while CD sales are decreasing, music consumption is rising twice as fast. Also, if you open your eyes and start considering the music business as everything around music and not just music sales, then you’ll see that, for instance, in North America, the music business will total $26.5 billion in 2011, growing at an average annual rate of 2.8% from $23.1 billion in 2006. Recorded music revenues will still declining as declining CD sales cancel out the sharp gains in digital sales. Music publishing and live music will grow. Norway has a party that wants to free file sharing and sampling, shorten the commercial copyright and ban DRM. The number of web services for bands is wildly growing. Artists have now the means of making money while giving music for free, for instance. Musicians are finding new ways of doing their work by themselves, even if sometimes things aren’t simple. While there’s no formula on how to create the perfect record label, there are some labels and distributors that understand nowadays music market and know how to do business in it.

The future is smiling at us - we just have to let obsolete formulas and vices die.

Of course, new issues to be solved will appear. New fights have to be fought and won, or we’ll end like citizens of a dystopian world.

But soon enough it is going to be a great time to live - as a musician, a music lover or even a technologist.

Posted in Business, Music, Technology | 47 Comments »