I just returned from a whirlwind trip to NAB. Two things stood out as “technologies to watch” that the advertising industry should be considering now with an eye to the future.
With Sony’s game-changing price reduction in 4K/ULTRA HD Home Televisions to under $5,000 (from $30K List at CES), many consumers will soon have access to 4 times the resolution of HD piped right into their home. On the production side, Blackmagic announced a 4K camera to their lineup that is under $4,000. There were impressive 4K/Ultra HD displays everywhere from Samsung, Toshiba, LG, which are sure to release competitive prices shortly.
The question becomes: should commercials be finishing in 4K? Aesthetically, true 4K is a radically immersive and eye-popping experience. We’ve finally reached “retina display” and there is a visual difference between HD playing on an Ultra HD TV and true 4K content playing natively at 4K. But is it too early?
Clearly television is not going to be broadcast in UltraHD for a few years; however, having a 4K master would prepare Brands for that transition and provide unique advertising opportunities on 4K cinema and Ultra HD displays that are looking for 4K content. The wisest path would be to shoot for a negative format that allows for 4K future-proofing.
On the production side this requires either a digital camera with a high resolution digital negative (RED 4/5K, F55 RAW, F65 4K RAW, Alexa 3K RAW, Canon C500 4K RAW, Canon 1DC 4K AVHC, Blackmagic 4K) or 35mm film which has 4K resolution on the film negative and can be scanned to 4K for cheaper than generally perceived. On the postproduction side it is important to work with vendors that are setup for cost effective approach to 4K color grading and finishing: HD for today and a matching 4K master for tomorrow.
If you’re going to consider 4K, you’d be wise to have a plan for big data management from camera all the way through post and archive. Reviewing all of the systems and emerging technologies goes beyond the scope of this piece, but I say that there are some very smart solutions at an increasingly reasonable price point.
We are in the business of creating beautiful images and narratives that, when done well, engage audiences if only for seconds or minutes. In this rapidly changing landscape we have largely overlooked archiving and future proofing content. We need to ensure that the time, creativity and money spent today doesn’t disappear tomorrow.
Paul Korver is managing director of and the principal in Cinelicious.
AI-Assisted Works Can Get Copyright With Enough Human Creativity, According To U.S. Copyright Office
Artists can copyright works they made with the help of artificial intelligence, according to a new report by the U.S. Copyright Office that could further clear the way for the use of AI tools in Hollywood, the music industry and other creative fields.
The nation's copyright office, which sits in the Library of Congress and is not part of the executive branch, receives about half a million copyright applications per year covering millions of individual works. It has increasingly been asked to register works that are AI-generated.
And while many of those decisions are made on a case-by-case basis, the report issued Wednesday clarifies the office's approach as one based on what the top U.S. copyright official describes as the "centrality of human creativity" in authoring a work that warrants copyright protections.
"Where that creativity is expressed through the use of AI systems, it continues to enjoy protection," said a statement from Register of Copyrights Shira Perlmutter, who directs the office.
An AI-assisted work could be copyrightable if an artist's handiwork is perceptible. A human adapting an AI-generated output with "creative arrangements or modifications" could also make it fall under copyright protections.
The report follows a review that began in 2023 and fielded opinions from thousands of people that ranged from AI developers, to actors and country singers.
It shows the copyright office will continue to reject copyright claims for fully machine-generated content. A person simply prompting a chatbot or AI image generator to produce a work doesn't give that person the ability to copyright that work, according to the report. "Extending protection to material whose expressive elements are determined by a machine ...... Read More