New media release

The third annual Toronto Jewish Film Festival launched an interactive publicity bid, recently sending out multimedia releases on their May 4-11 event on disk. The disks (one Mac, one pc) were visually tres fine, and were a darn clever way to disseminate info on the great lineup of films playing at the Bloor Cinema.

The disks (provided by Verbatim) and production were donated. Concept, design and programming was done by Sheridan College students, with supervision from the jff’s designer Devlin Multimedia, and prof Katherine Devlin.

While the point-and-click concept is very au courant and apropos for festivals, the package was sent snail mail (terrestrial) and arrived in our Toronto office May 2; timely but not on time.

Sprinting into

interactive

Toronto’s Regan Productions created an interactive kiosk for Sprint Canada which debuted at the National Home Show in April. Ted Regan produced the multimedia offering, designed by software guru Raymond Gubala and featuring the ubiquitous ‘most for the least’ commercial mantra.

The kiosk let consumers do a self-study of their long-distance habits, and provided them with a printout of savings they could realize with Sprint, compared to ‘local telephone company standard charges for long distance.’

In addition to programming, Gubala is also an art director, enabling a single design vision to be carried through projects, a happy combination of skills. Authorware is his template of choice. The Sprint kiosk was primarily designed on the Mac, with some design and playback on Windows.

Gubala was also the designer on a Suzuki interactive kiosk Regan recently produced, on which both design and playback were Mac-based.

In terms of budgets, both kiosk projects were under $20,000.

Regan Productions is currently bidding on three more interactive kiosk jobs, one of which is a mega-project with budget to match.

Cypher me up Scottie

Toronto-based tv commercial dupe-and-deliver operation Forbes Broadcast Services formed Forbes Satellite Services last month, after acquiring exclusive Canadian rights to Cycle Sat of Iowa’s Cyclecypher automated satellite delivery technology.

Forbes has its point-of-origin satellite hardware installed and is busy equipping Canadian stations with Cyclecypher tech (as required, a printer and dish), targeting mid ’95 as the fully operational date for the service.

The end user need only have a vtr at the standby for Forbes’ transmission, recording will be remotely controlled, and the spots will be sent in the wee hours, ready for carting next a.m.

Although he hasn’t ironed out the pricing yet, president George Forbes says the system will not be more expensive than tape distribution, ‘in reality it will probably be cheaper.’ Forbes says automated satellite delivery is a better system because with tape distribution, Forbes is limited by shipping times/courier pickup, plus existing satellite delivery is also people and co-ordination intensive. And, Customs won’t come into playÉ

The timetable for the eventual replacement of the traditional dub-and-ship system depends on advertisers’ response. Forbes currently has a contract with 28 broadcasters, and hopes to increase the network once it’s up and running and some feedback gets transmitted among stations.

Drawing optional

L.A.-based PowerProduction’s StoryBoard Quick version 2.0 supplies pencil-challenged filmmakers with instant elements for their graphic storyboarding needs. Characters, props and a place to put them come already drawn, and one’s artistic resources need only extend to point-and-click prowess.

Scanning in location shots and stock footage is also an option. The package is listed at us$229, with extra image libraries for us$49. The Canadian agent is Toronto-based Bullock Entertainment Services.

Less fuzz

Through accessory image interrogation, the folks at the University of Rochester have come up with a solution to a personal peeve of ours, fuzzy video stills. Eastman Kodak scientists and u of r engineers figured out a way to steal information from the frames around the one you’re trying to capture to boost its clarity. Rather than the common compensation for motion between frames, the new process considers the motion that is happening while the image is captured.

Blurred resolution on photo finishes and trouble calling fouls in sports will be a thing of the past. Clearing up image conversion from various standards to palatable hdtv quality is one future application, others include forensics and satellite imaging.

Grad Andrew Patti (Patti@ee. rochester