Where Is Your Character Going?

by Jacob Krueger

I’m writing this from the air on my way to Costa Rica, thinking about the importance of location, both in screenplays and in life.
We behave differently in different places, and so do our characters. Travelling abroad, we speak to people we wouldn’t necessarily speak to, face fears we wouldn’t normally face, and get in touch with aspects of ourselves we wouldn’t normally recognize. New locations break us out of our routines, and open us to new experiences.

 

And of course they do the same for our characters.

As writers we know our job is to take our characters on a profound journey. But oftentimes we pay so much attention to the emotional side of that journey, that we forget the value of the physical side.



Simply choosing the right physical location for a scene to take place can completely change the value of that scene, the given circumstances for your character, and the feeling it gives to your screenplay.

 

There are many ways to take your characters abroad.

The concept of home is important for everyone, and we tend to be attached to the places we consider home, whether they are working for us or not. We stay in places we find unsatisfying simply because it feels safe, normal or routine. And our characters do the same thing.
Taking your characters abroad means forcing them out of the places they think of as home: the places are comfortable and normal for them. You can do this by taking them to a foreign place or an unexpected location. Or by choosing a location that already has a strong value for them and allowing that value to change.



Make your characters confront their fears, go to a place they are afraid of and allow something beautiful to happen to them there. Or, pick a place that seems comfortable and safe and violate that safety with something out of the ordinary. Force them to confront an old memory in a location in a place where they grew up, and find something different than they expected. Or allow an element from a location in their past to enter their present day life.

When you break your characters routine, you force them to take profound journeys.

And the great thing is, when you choose the right location, the place itself can do half the writing work for you! In Toy Story 3, think about the value of the daycare center, which begins as pure heaven, the answer to the toys’ desperate need to be played with, and ends up turning into a living hell, run by a satanic teddy bear. The contrast between the value of the daycare center and the shifting value of home helps us understand the character’s journey, simply by understanding the location.
Think about the value of a location in a movie like Into The Wild, as a character travels toward his imagined paradise of Alaska, only to realize he’s said no to all the real paradises that were offered him along the way.
Think about any haunted house movie, or a twist on the genre like Cabin in the Woods, and once again you’ll see how important the specifics of a given location can be to your storytelling and your character’s journey.

 

Your scenes can travel too.

If you’ve ever tried to get anyone to change, you know it doesn’t happen easily. Our characters cling to familiarity just like our loved ones do. And we cling to familiarity as well.
One of the unconscious ways we do this is by writing familiar scenes in familiar locations: the breakup at the fancy restaurant, the argument about dirty dishes in the kitchen, the drunken binge at the bar. We end up unconsciously writing scenes that feel cliché, simply because we’re attached to the locations that feel familiar to us.

 

When you switch your location, magic can happen.

Allow your breakup scene to happen at the top of a ferris wheel. Move your argument about dirty dishes to midnight mass, or allow your drunken binge to happen in a nursery school, and suddenly you transform a scene that feels cliché into one that feels fresh and exciting.
I’m reminded of a student who wrote his very first scene in my Write Your Screenplay class. It was a lovers’ quarrel, taking place in the bedroom as the couple got dressed. And it read pretty much like every other lovers’ quarrel. I suggested that he change the location, and he came back next class with one of the most hilarious scenes I’ve ever read. And the dialogue was exactly the same.
All he’d done was switch the location, from the bedroom, to a skydiving lesson. The characters were delivering the same lines to each other, but they were doing so as they plummeted toward the earth. The result not only made us laugh—but also made us recognize just how bad things actually were between them, because they were still discussing it, even in this totally ridiculous situation.

 

Location forces your character to do something interesting.

 

One of the big problems many writers have is that their characters aren’t doing anything. They stand around posed, delivering their lines, or doing their normal routine. But when you allow them to interact with a new location, they suddenly start to do fun stuff that roots your scene in action, and creates those movie moments that people can really connect to.
Remember the scene from When Harry Met Sally, when they’re “doing the wave” at the ballpark? Set this scene in any other location, and it’s going to be one of the most boring scenes in history. It’s purely exposition: Billy Crystal catching his friend up on his breakup with his ex-wife. There’s no conflict, and in the lines themselves there’s not so much comedy.
But watching the two of them seamlessly continue their conversation, standing and sitting to do the wave each time it comes around to them, transforms this scene into one of the most memorable scenes in the whole movie.

The Truth About Awesome Dialogue..

by Jacob Krueger 

 

Just Because Your Character Says Something Doesn’t Make It Dialogue.

 

Dialogue can be one of the most daunting aspects of writing for many screenwriters. It’s easy to become so obsessed with how an audience is perceiving your dialogue (is it believable, memorable, original, unique to our characters, realistic and compelling enough to captivate an audience) that you entirely forget to ask the most important questions:

What is dialogue? And what is it supposed to do in your screenplay?

I’m about to say something radical: just because your character SAYS something doesn’t make it dialogue.
Real dialogue, good dialogue (and the kind of dialogue you actually want in your screenplay) is distinguished from all the other stuff your character says by one simple quality…

Dialogue is just another way of getting what a character wants.

Your characters are just like you. When they talk, they’re doing it for a reason, whether they are conscious of that reason or not.
There’s no such thing as “just talk” in movies, or in life. And though that idea may seem counterintuitive at first, think about a recent social situation where you were “just talking” and you’ll probably be surprised to realize how many hidden wants were happening just under the surface, things you were trying to get from the person you were talking to: approval, congratulations, laughs, sympathy, compassion, protection, encouragement, excitement, thrills, sex, status, a free drink, a friendly smile.



And guess what? The person you were “just talking” with had a similar symphony of wants playing in their mind, the whole time they were talking to you, adding complex, barely perceptible conflicts to the scene that infused it with a certain feeling, and a certain reality.
When dialogue gets separated from the wants that motivate it, it’s almost impossible to make it feel authentic.

The reason most writers have such a hard time writing dialogue is because what they’re really trying to write is not dialogue, but simply talk.



Rather than listening to the complex symphony of their character’s wants, writers find themselves obsessing over the characters individual words and the way they’ll be perceived by an audience.
When you write dialogue in this way, there’s no drive or structure to it. Your dialogue isn’t actually doing anything. And more importantly, it’s not reflecting anything in the real world. That means the burden falls upon you, as the writer, to turn in the perfect virtuoso performance, in order to pass off a false product as a real one. And even if you succeed, unless you have a marvelous gift, you’re going to have to work your butt off for every word.
It’s like attending a concert at Carnegie Hall and listening only to a single violin. No matter how well executed the performance may be, it can’t help but sound a little tinny and false when divorced from the broader context of the symphony.
And heaven forbid a single chord be misplayed or a mistake be made in this context. Rather than being absorbed, or providing an interesting complement to the larger soundscape, it suddenly becomes an object of fixation for the writer, cutting them off from their creative impulses and from their natural talents.

Once you learn that your characters are using their words to get something from another character, the character starts to do most of the heavy lifting for you.

Rather than fixating on the words of the character (and your fear of being judged for how you write them), you can instead allow yourself to tap into the complex symphony of your character’s desires, allowing yourself to play around with the different ways your character can use their words to get what they want, in ways that are unique to that character.
Now, when you first set out to write a scene, the words themselves no longer need to be perfect, because you’re building around the deeper intentions that drive them, following your instincts and listening to the instincts of your character, focusing on what the characters are doing with their words, rather than what they are saying.
As you then work into later drafts, it becomes much easier to hone and refine your dialogue, and to separate the lines you need (the ones that pursue a want in a way that’s unique to that character) from the ones you don’t.

Tap into the symphony, without micromanaging the conductor!



It’s important to remember that just like you, your character may not always be consciously aware of their wants. And if you get super literal about analyzing every want before you even start to write, you may find that it’s just as much of an impediment to your writing as not thinking about the want at all.
Instead, I’d encourage you to keep your characters’ big wants (or at least the ones they are consciously aware of in the scene) somewhere in the back of your mind. And then allow yourself to play, enjoying the different tactics they use as they attempt to achieve those wants, and allowing your subconscious impulses to guide you.
You can then work back into the dialogue you have written, eliminating dialogue that doesn’t relate to the character’s desire, and getting more specific with the dialogue that does.

The Truth About Truth & Cliche, J Krueger

by Jacob Krueger

Cliché. If you’re a writer, you’ve probably experienced the terror this word implies about your writing:  boring, tired, overused, uninspired, uncreative, or just plain not good enough.

If you’ve ever been part of a writing class, you’ve probably had the dangers of cliché burned into your brain like a mark of shame.

 

And detecting it like a bad smell lurking in your pages despite all your attempts to avoid it, you’ve probably found yourself questioning if you really have what it takes to be a writer.
So here’s a little bit of truth for you to chew on:

 

All Writers Write Clichés.  All The Time.

Screenplays are just like people.  At first glance, they seem like they fit into certain types, but if you look at them closely, you come to realize that they are all filled with complexities and contradictions.
People are weird and strange and surprising, and absolutely nobody is normal if you’re looking at them closely.  The same is true of every character, every line of dialogue, every image and every scene of your script.

 

 

Writing a first draft of a screenplay is like going on a first date. 

Based on a very little bit of information, you extrapolate an entire story of who your characters are, and what your journey together might look like.  And as well observed as you may try to make it, this story is naturally full of clichés, because you haven’t really gotten the chance to know the character or the story deeply.
As you spend more time with your characters and your story, you start to discover all the things that make them special.  The qualities about them that you never could have seen coming on that “first date.”  Just like a relationship, this takes time, meditation and exploration… and involves going through some tough times together.

 

Clichés Are Necessary For Survival

If you were bombarded with all the complexities and contradictions of a person the first time you sat down to sip a Margarita, the chances are you’d never get to a second date with anyone.  Yet this is the mistake writers often make with their screenplays, trying to discover every layer of detail before they even have a sense of who their characters are or what their story is.

As cliché as they might be, it’s those early assumptions, that early sense of the scene, the character, or the story, that allows you to hang in long enough to decide which ones you want to explore more deeply.  And which ones you want to get the heck out of!

 

Your job as a writer is not to avoid cliché, to fear cliché, or beat yourself up over being cliché. 

When you’re feeling that desperate need to impress people as a writer, it’s hard to just sit down and be real with your characters.  So instead of worrying about how people are going to perceive your writing, put your focus on learning to step into the worlds of your characters, so you can capture them as truthfully as you possibly can.
Your job is to allow yourself the clichés you need in early phases of your writing, and then to look more closely at them, so you can uncover the truth, and turn them into more specific, more exciting or more closely observed writing.



Nobody is normal.  And no scene is normal either.  So next time you feel your writing is cliché, just sit with it awhile, and ask yourself what you’re missing.  What’s that extra detail that would make it special, and compelling?  What would be slightly cooler, slightly more exciting, or slightly more complex about the truth?
Capture that detail, and you’ll no longer have a cliché.
In fact, you may even find you have a screenplay worthy of a second date.

 

Connect to the Truth of Your Characters With Meditative Writing

 

If you’d like to discover a new way of moving beyond your clichés, connecting to your characters, developing your voice as a writer, and capturing the compelling heart of every moment of your story, I invite you to check out our new 6 Week Meditative Writing class with Jessica Hinds, starting soon.
Each class begins with a guided meditation, and then segues into a series of mind opening writing exercises designed to set free your voice as a writer and connect you to your characters, your story, and the truth of each moment in your writing.  Over several weeks, you’ll develop a meditative writing practice that you can use every time you sit down to write to get to your best writing faster, and find the inspiration you need every time you sit down to write.
I’m so excited about this class that I’m taking it as a student!  And hope that you will join me either in our NYC Studio, or through our Live Online Video Stream.

Film Director by Wikipedia!

A film director is a person who directs the making of a film. Generally, a film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects, and visualizes the script while guiding the technical crew and actors in the fulfillment of that vision. The director has the "final day" in choosing the cast members, production design, and the creative aspects of filmmaking.

Responsibilities

Film directors create an overall vision through which a film eventually becomes realized. Realizing this vision includes overseeing the artistic and technical elements of film production, as well as directing the shooting timetable and meeting deadlines. This entails organizing the film crew in such a way as to achieve his or her vision of the film. This requires skills of group leadership, as well as the ability to maintain a singular focus even in the stressful environment of a film set. Moreover it is necessary to have an artistic eye to frame shots and to give precise feedback to cast and crew, thus, excellent communication skills are a must. Since the film director depends on the successful cooperation of many different creative individuals with possibly strongly contradicting artistic ideals and visions, he or she also needs to possess conflict resolution skills in order to mediate whenever necessary. Thus the director ensures that all individuals involved in the film production are working towards an identical vision for the completed film. The set of varying challenges he or she has to tackle has been described as "a multi-dimensional jigsaw puzzle with egos and weather thrown in for good measure". It adds to the pressure that the success of a film can influence when and how they will work again. Omnipresent are the boundaries of the films budget. Additionally, the director may also have to ensure an intended age rating. Theoretically the sole superior of a director is the studio that is financing the film, however a poor working relationship between a film director and an actor could possibly result in the director being replaced if the actor is a major film star. Even so, it is arguable that the director spends more time on a project than anyone else, considering that the director is one of the few positions that requires intimate involvement during every stage of film production. Thus, the position of film director is widely considered to be a highly stressful and demanding one. It has been said that "20-hour days are not unusual".

Career pathways

Some film directors started as screenwriters, film editors or actors. Other film directors have attended a film school to "get formal training and education in their craft". Film students generally study the basic skills utilized in making a film. This includes, for example, preparation, shot lists and storyboards, blocking, protocols of dealing with professional actors, and reading scripts. Some film schools are equipped with sound stages and post-production facilities. Besides basic technical and logistical skills, students also receive education on the nature of professional relationships that occur during film production. A full degree course can be designed for up to five years of studying. Future directors usually complete short films during their enrollment. The National Film School of Denmark has the student's final projects presented on national TV. Some film schools retain the rights for their students' works. Many directors successfully prepared for making feature films by working in television. The German Film and Television Academy Berlin consequently cooperates with the Berlin/Brandenburg TV station RBB (Berlin-Brandenburg Broadcasting) and ARTE.
A handful of top directors made from $13 M to $257 M in 2011, such as James Cameron and Steven Spielberg. The average movie director makes a lot less. In May 2011, the average US film director made $92,220.

Almaz, You lucky lucky thing...

Με το ίδιο μακό, Ελευθερία Αρβανιτάκη..

Να μείνεις εδώ... Χατζηγιάννης

"Μπορεί να παίξει την ευτυχία μονά ζυγά.."

A far l'amore comincia tu RaffaellaCarra

A 48 hour computer simulation of Typhoon Mawar using the Weather Research and Forecasting model!

 

(Source Wikipedia)

The Art of Stagecraft by Wikipedia!

Stagecraft is the technical aspect of theatrical, film, and video production. It includes constructing and rigging scenery, hanging and focusing of lighting, design and procurement of costumes, makeup, procurement of props, stage management, and recording and mixing of sound. Stagecraft is distinct from the wider umbrella term of scenography. Considered a technical rather than an artistic field, it is primarily the practical implementation of a designer's artistic vision.
In its most basic form, stagecraft is managed by a single person (often the stage manager of a smaller production) who arranges all scenery, costumes, lighting, and sound, and organizes the cast. At a more professional level, for example modern Broadway houses, stagecraft is managed by hundreds of skilled carpenters, painters, electricians, stagehands, stitchers, wigmakers, and the like. This modern form of stagecraft is highly technical and specialized: it comprises many sub-disciplines and a vast trove of history and tradition.
The majority of stagecraft lies between these two extremes. Regional theatres and larger community theatres will generally have a technical director and a complement of designers, each of whom has a direct hand in their respective designs.

History

Greeks were the earliest recorded practitioners of stagecraft. "Skene" is Greek, translating roughly into "scene" or "scenery", and refers to a large scenic house, about one story tall, with three doors. On the audience-side of the Skene, what are now known as "flats" could be hung. Flats developed to two-sided painted flats which would be mounted, centered, on a rotating pin, with rope running around each consecutive pin, so the flats could be turned for a scene-change. The double-sided-flat eventually evolved into the periaktoi (pl. periaktos).
As well as flats, the Greeks also used such machines as the ekkyklema, essentially a platform on wheels, and the deus ex machina, a hand-cranked lift to be used to lift a character/scenery over the skene. Over 20 such scenic inventions can be traced back to the Greeks. No light but that of the sun was used; plays started at sun-rise and continued until sun-down.
Plays of Medieval times were held in different places such as the streets of towns and cities, performed by traveling, secular troupes. Some were also held in monasteries, performed by church-controlled groups, often portraying religious scenes. The playing place could represent many different things such as indoors or outdoors (plain-an-gwarry (theatre)). They were played in certain places so the props could be used for the play. Songs and spectacles were often used in plays to enhance participation.
More modern stagecraft was in developed in England between 1576-1642. There were three different types of theaters in London - public, private and court. The size and shape varied but many were suggested to be round theaters. Public playhouses such as the Globe Theatre used rigging housed in a room on the roof to lower and raise in scenery or actors, and utilized the raised stage by developing the practice of using trap-doors in theatrical productions. Most of the theatres had circular-design, with an open area above the pit to allow sunlight to enter and light the stage. It was a penny admission to stand in the pit. Prices increase for seating. Court plays were used for holidays and special occasions.
Proscenium stages, or picture-box stages, were constructed in France around the time of the English Restoration, and maintain the place of the most popular form of stage in use to-date, and originally combined elements of the skene in design, essentially building a skene on-stage. Lighting of the period would have consisted of candles, used as foot-lights, and hanging from chandeliers above the stage.
Lighting continued to develop, first with the help of the English, in an effort to accurately map the coast of England, would triangulate cliff locations by using flame, and two ships at sea. Due to extreme fog, limestone had to be burned in order to see the light from the ocean. English sailors, propagators of many modern stagecraft practices, brought the use of limestone as a light source into the theatre for the purposes of spotlighting, hence the phrase "limelight". To control the focus of the light, a Fresnel lens was used.
Originally intended to replace large, convex lenses in lighthouses, Dr. Fresnel sectioned out the convex lens in a series of circles, like tree-rings, and keeping the angle of the specific section, moved the section much closer to the flat side of the convex lens.
After candles, came gas lighting, utilizing pipes with small openings which were lit before every performance, and could be dimmed by controlling the flow of gas, so long as the flame never went out. With the turn of the 20th century, many theatre companies making the transition from gas to electricity would install the new system right next to the old one, resulting in many explosions and fires due to the electricity igniting the gas lines.
Modern theatrical lighting is electrically-based. Many lamps and lighting instruments are in use today, and the field is rapidly becoming one of the most diverse and complex in the industry.

Sub-disciplines

Stagecraft comprises many disciplines, typically divided into a number of main disciplines:

• Lighting: Lighting design, which involves the process of determining the angle, size, intensity, shape, and color of light for a given scene. Hanging, focusing, procurement and maintenance of lighting and special effects equipment, aspects of show control
• Make-up/Wigs: The application of makeup and wigs to accentuate an actor's features.
• Mechanics: Design, engineering and operation of Flown scenery or flying of performers and mechanised scenic elements and special effects.
• Production, comprising stage management, production management, show control, house management and company management
• Scenery, which includes set construction, scenic painting, theater drapes and stage curtains, and special effects.
• Sound design, which can include musical underscoring, vocal and instrument mixing as well as theatrical sound effects.
• Theatrical property, or props, which includes furnishings, set dressings, and all items large and small which cannot be classified as scenery, electrics or wardrobe. Some crossover may apply. Props handled by actors are known as hand props, and props which are kept in an actor's costume are known as personal props.
• Wardrobe: costume design, construction, procurement and maintenance.
• Video (or Projection) is a relatively recent field of stagecraft which is gaining recognition. As well as being a discipline in itself, its role may also be taken on by the Lighting or Scenery disciplines.

Music Workstation by Wikipedia!

A music workstation is an electronic musical instrument providing the facilities of:

• a sound module,
• a music sequencer and
• (usually) a musical keyboard.

It enables a musician to compose electronic music using just one piece of equipment.

History

The concept of a music sequencer combined with a synthesizer originated in the late 1970s with the combination of microprocessors, mini-computers, digital synthesis, disk-based storage, and control devices such as musical keyboards becoming feasible to combine into a single piece of equipment that was affordable to high-end studios and producers, as well as being portable for performers. Prior to this, the integration between sequencing and synthesis was generally a manual function based on wiring of components in large modular synthesizers, and the storage of notes was simply based on potentiometer settings in an analog sequencer.
Examples of early music workstations included the New England Digital Synclavier and the Fairlight CMI.

 

Key technologies for the first generation

Low-cost computer hardware

Leveraging the technology of personal computers, adding a microprocessor enabled complex control functions to be expressed in software rather than wiring. In 1977, the Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 and other polyphonic synthesizers had used microprocessors to control patch storage and recall, and the music workstations applied it to control sequence storage and recall as well. The Fairlight used a dual Motorola 6800 configuration, while the Synclavier used a mini-computer called the ABLE.

Digital synthesis

While it was possible to create a music workstation with digitally controlled analog synthesis modules, few companies did this, instead seeking to produce new sounds and capabilities based on digital synthesis (early units were based on FM synthesis or sample playback).

Disk-based storage

Again leveraging the technology of personal computers, music workstations used floppy disks to record patches, sequences, and samples. Hard disk storage appeared in the second generation.

Control devices

In a music workstation, the keyboard was not directly connected to the synthesis modules, as in a Minimoog or ARP Odyssey. Instead, the keyboard switches were digitally scanned, and control signals sent over a computer backplane where they were inputs to the computer processor, which would then route the signals to the synthesis modules, which were output devices on the backplane. This approach had been used for years in computer systems, and allowed the addition of new input and output peripherals without obsoleting the entire computer. In the case of the music workstations, the next output devices to be added were typically computer terminal displays (some with graphics), and in the case of the Fairlight, the next input device was a light pen for "drawing" on the display screen.

The result was that music workstations evolved rapidly during this period, as new software releases could add more functionality, new voice cards developed, and new input technologies added.

 

Second generation music workstations

By 1982, the Fairlight CMI Series II represented another advance as it now offered more RAM-based sample memory than any other system with an improved sample rate, and in the Series III (1985) changed from 8-bit to 16-bit samples. The Synclavier introduced hard-disk based sampling in 1982, storing megabytes of samples for the first time.
Other products also combined synthesis and sequencing. For instance the Sequential Circuits Six-Trak provided this possibility. The Six-Trak was a polyphonic analog synthesizer, which featured an on-board six-track sequencer.
Still other products focused on combining sampling and sequencing. For instance the E-mu Emulator models, first introduced in 1982, combined sample memory (read from floppy disks) with a simple sequencer in the initial model, and an 8-track sequencer in later models.
The biggest change in the industry was the development of the MIDI standard in 1983 for representing musical note sequences. For the first time, sequences could be moved from one digitally controlled music device to another.
In the late 1980s, on-board MIDI sequencers began to appear more frequently on professional synthesizers. The Korg M1 (released 1988) was the first widely known and popular music workstation, and became the world's best-selling digital keyboard synthesizer of all time. During its six-year production period, more than 250,000 units were sold.

 

Key technologies for the second generation

MIDI

As mentioned above, MIDI data represents pitches, velocities, and controller events (e.g. pitch bend, modulation wheel). MIDI information could be used on the backplane that linked the elements of the workstation together, connecting the input devices to the synthesizers, or it could be sent to another device or received from another device.

Display technologies

Music workstations adopted the most effective input/output devices available for their price range, since there were complex control settings to display, complex waveforms, and complex sequences. The lower-end devices began to use LED displays that showed multiple lines of characters and later simple graphics, while the higher-end devices began to adopt personal computers with graphics as their front-ends (the Synclavier PostPro used an Apple Macintosh).

Large memory banks

Music workstations soon had megabytes of memory, located on large racks of cards.

Modular software

Music workstations had software that was organized around a set of common control functions, and then a set of options. In many cases, these options were organized as 'pages'. The Fairlight was known for its "Page R" functions which provided real-time composition in a graphical form which was similar to that later used on drum machines such as the Roland TR-808. The Synclavier offered music notation.

Digital signal processing

This enabled the music workstation to generate effects such as reverb or chorus within its hardware, rather than relying on external devices.

SMPTE

Since the primary users of the high-end workstations were film composers, the music workstations added hardware and software to generate SMPTE timecode, which is a standard in the motion picture industry. This allowed one to generate events that were matched to scenes and cuts in the film.

Third generation music workstations

Although many music workstations have a keyboard, this is not always the case. In the 1990s, Yamaha, and then Roland, released a series of portable music workstations (starting with the Yamaha QY10). These are sometimes called walkstations.

 

The concept of the workstation mutated around mid-1990s by the emergence of groove machine-concept birthed in mid-1980s - a keyless version of a workstation, still with a self-contained sound source and sequencer, mostly aimed at dance. Again, nowadays they also feature a sampler. The groove machines were realized in 1980s (ex. Linn 9000 (1984), SCI Studio 440 (1986), Simmons SDX (1987), well known E-mu SP-12/SP-1200 (1985/1987) and Akai MPC60 (1988)), and finally the concept have been widely accepted. Then in mid 1990s, Roland entered to the hype, with the MC-303, and also Korg and Yamaha followed suit. Korg created the much-used Electribe series.
Akai developed and refined the idea of the keyboard-less workstation, with the Music Production Center series of sampler workstations. The MPC breed of sampler freed the composer from the rigidity of step sequencing which was a limitation of earlier grooveboxes.

 

Key technologies for the third generation

Low-cost, high-capacity memory

By 1995, a music workstation might have 16 to 64 megabytes of memory in a few chips, which had required a rack of cards in 1985.

Sample libraries

While a second-generation workstation could be sold with just a few sounds or samples and the ability for the owner to create more, by 1995 most workstations had several additional sample sets available for purchase on ROM, and an industry had been created for third-party sample libraries. In addition, there were now standard formats for sound samples to achieve interoperability.

Battery power

Since music workstations were now used by wide range of performers, down to individual dance music DJ's and even street performers, portable designs avoided power-intensive components such as disk storage and began to rely on persistent memory and later flash-memory storage.

Interoperability with personal computers

Initially through custom interfaces and later USB standards.

Modern music workstations

Yamaha, Roland and Korg now have sampling as a default option with the Yamaha Motif line (introduced 2001), the Roland Fantom series (introduced 2001) and the Korg Triton (introduced 1999), Korg OASYS, and Korg M3 Workstations have a fairly large screen to give a comprehensive overview of the sound, sequencer and sampling options. Since the display is one of the most expensive components of these workstations, Roland and Yamaha initially chose to keep costs down by not using a touch screen or high-resolution display, but have added such in later models.
Another path of music product development that started with the feature set of music workstations is to provide entirely software-based products, using virtual instruments. This is the concept of the digital audio workstation, and many of these products have emulated the multitrack recording metaphors of sequencers first developed in the music workstations.
Open Labs introduced the Production Station in 2003, which changed the relationship of the music workstation and the personal computer from a model where the music workstation interfaces to the PC into one where the music workstation is a PC with a music keyboard and a touch screen display.
A variation on Open Labs' approach, Korg released the Korg OASYS in 2005. OASYS housed inside a keyboard music workstation housing a computer running a custom operating system built on the Linux kernel. OASYS was an acronym for Open Architecture SYnthesis Studio, underscoring Korg's ability to release new capabilities via ongoing software updates. OASYS not only included a synthesizer, sampling, and a sequencer, but the ability to digitally record multi-track audio. OASYS was discontinued in 2009, and Korg Kronos, an updated version built on the same concept, was introduced in January, 2011.

 

Evaluation of a music workstation

While advances in digital technology have greatly reduced the price of a professional-grade music workstation, the 'time cost' of learning to operate a complex instrument like this cannot be underestimated. Hence, product selection is critical, and is typically based upon:

• Ease of use
• Number of tracks in the sequencer
• Expansion options and modularity
• Size of user and support community
• Support for standards such as MIDI, SMPTE, Internet, etc.
• Reliable functioning
• Adaptation to most requirements of music production.

WebTV by Wikipedia!

Web television (abbreviated web TV) is original television content produced for broadcast via the World Wide Web.
Web television content includes web series such as Husbands (2011–present); original miniseries such as Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (2008); animated shorts such as those of Homestar Runner; and exclusive video that supplements conventional television broadcasts.
Some major distributors of web television are YouTube, Myspace, Newgrounds, Blip.tv, and Crackle.
Some examples of web television production companies are: Next New Networks, Vuguru, Revision3, and Generate LA-NY.
In 2008, the International Academy of Web Television (an organisation headquartered in Los Angeles) formed with the mission to organize and support web television authors, actors, producers, and executives. The organization administers the selection of winners for the Streamy Awards.
In 2013, Netflix made history for earning the first Primetime Emmy Award nominations for web television web series House of Cards, Arrested Development, and Hemlock Grove at the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards.

History

1994 to 2000: Pioneers

In 1995, New York advertising creative Scott Zakarin convinced his employers Fattal and Collins to finance an online television drama along the lines of the contemporary television drama Melrose Place. The Spot became the first episodic fiction website, the first web soap opera. Fattal and Collins asked their Vice President, Sheri Herman, to obtain venture capital to finance it, because it was draining the resources of this boutique agency. Herman raised 7 million in a round led by Intel. She brought in advertisers including Visa and Apple to sponsor both The Spot and additional pieces through via banner ads and product placement. This was the first time advertising sponsored novel fictional content on the web. The Spot featured beautiful actors in a Santa Monica, California beach house called “The Spot”. The characters authored what would be later termed blogs, with movie clips and photos of their current activities. Viewers could post to the site and email the cast to offer advice and became part of the storyline. Audience opinion was used by the writers to shift the plot-lines around.
According to Zakarin, at its height the site received over 100,000 hits a day. The site earned one of the original Webby Awards. However, the business was unable to generate sufficient revenue The site had competitors such as The East Village. Zakarin sold his interest in 1996 to investors who formed American Cybercast and was later fired. Zakarin produced another comic soap, Grape Jam, before returning to television and film (notably producing the Shatner-Nimoy dialogue Mind Meld before returning to the Internet with Soup of the Day and Roommates. The Spot continued alongside other American Cybercast web series, notably the first sci-fi series Eon-4 and The Pyramid, until the company fell into bankruptcy in 1997.
In January 1999, Showtime licensed the animated sci-fi web series WhirlGirl, making it the first independently produced web series licensed by a national television network. A month later, the series, created by David B. Williams and produced by his Visionary Media studio, premiered on Showtime in a first-ever simultaneous web/telecast. The WhirlGirl character went on to appear occasionally on Showtime, hosting a “Lethal Ladies” programming block, for example, but spent most of her time online, appearing in 100 webisodes.
In 1999, Santa Monica based Television Internet premiered the eight-minute weekly series Muscle Beach. It was a sitcom, news and fitness program in one, viewable for free with the just introduced Windows Media Player. The series lasted three seasons.
In 2000, The Raven started Daytona Beach Live. The station showed video about life, events, and attractions in the Daytona Beach area for up to 17,000 viewers.
Other early web television pioneers included Harold O'Bryant Jr., who was inspired by a CNN interview with Ted Turner that sparked the creation of webcentraltv.com in 2002, as well as icebox.com, Digital Entertainment Network, Shockwave, pop.com, and cyberserial.com.

2000 to 2005: Streaming

As broadband bandwidth began to increase in speed and availability, delivering high quality video over the Internet became a reality. Web Central TV, YouTube, Vimeo and DailyMotion launched their services to deliver original video. Shows such as Rocketboom appeared and post-dot-com-bust video networks such as ManiaTV!, iSTATION TV and the Ripe Digital Entertainment networks launched. In 2003, The Spot executive producer and head writer Stewart St. John revived the brand for online audiences with a new cast, and created a separate mobile series to air on Sprint PCS Vision-enabled phones. St. John and partner Todd Fisher produced over 2,500 daily videos of the first American mobile phone soap, driving story lines across platforms to the web counterpart, The Spot (2.0). By 2005, St. John-Fisher created and launchd the first online half-hour scripted drama, California Heaven.

2006: Independents

In mid-2006, several independent Web series began to achieve popularity, most notably lonelygirl15 (created by Miles Beckett, Mesh Flinders and Greg Goodfried),Soup of the Day (Zakarin and Rob Cesternino), California Heaven (St. John and Todd Fisher) and SamHas7Friends (Big Fantastic). These series were distributed independently, often using online video portals YouTube and Revver. All series acquired audiences in the millions, led by lonelygirl15s over 100 million views during its 26-month run. The series was so successful that it secured a sponsorship deal with Neutrogena. Soup of the Day was later re-crafted and edited as a feature length film, making it the first web series distributed on disc by distribution company Echo Bridge Entertainment. SamHas7Friends was nominated for an Emmy and temporarily removed from the Internet when it was acquired by Michael Eisner. March 2006 also saw the debut of Goodnight Burbank (created and (Hayden Black) as a "webisodic" series. The original series was named one of iTunes best podcasts of 2006. Also hitting the scene during the summer towards the end of the year was Feed Me Bubbe which ended up showcasing that even a Grandmother and Grandson can achieve internet celebrity status.

2007: Expansion, interactivity and social networking

In 2007, Beckett and Goodfried followed up their lonelygirl15 success with KateModern, a series which debuted on social network Bebo, and took place in the same fictional universe as lonelygirl15. Big Fantastic created and produced Prom Queen, which was financed and distributed by Michael Eisner's nascent online studio Vuguru, and debuted on MySpace. These web serials highlighted interactivity with the audience in addition to the narrative on relatively low budgets.
In contrast, the web series Sanctuary, starring actor/producer Amanda Tapping, cost $4.3 Million to produce. Both Sanctuary and Prom Queen were nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award. Award-winning producer/director Marshall Herskovitz created Quarterlife, which debuted on MySpace and was later distributed on NBC. Meanwhile, IronSink produced Roommates, the second original series hosted by MySpace. Roommates ran for two seasons, was sponsored by companies such as Ford, and was known for its sophisticated product placement. Felicia Day created and starred in the independent comedy web series The Guild, which won the 2007 YouTube Video Award for Best Series.

2008: Hollywood

The Internet continued to grow as a marketing tool and outlet for independent creators to display their work. Web television continued to improve in quality, rivaling network television. Online viewing was becoming less foreign to viewers and creativity flourished. Independent producers gained popularity, demonstrating that web television was a legitimate medium, and that web series would be more than a passing fad. The major networks and studios took notice of the trend, and began to debut their own original series. ABC started the year with the comedy web series "Squeegies," created by Handsome Donkey and produced by digital studio Stage 9. NBC debuted Gemini Division, a science fiction series starring Rosario Dawson, produced and created by Electric Farm Entertainment (the creators of the cult web series Afterworld). Warner Bros. relaunched The WB as an online network beginning with their first original web series, "Sorority Forever", created and produced by Big Fantastic and executive produced by McG. With the rise of studio based web series, MTV announced a new original series created by Craig Brewer that brought together the indie music world and new media expansion.
Established creators also started producing high profile original web series in 2008. Joss Whedon created, produced and self-financed Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog starring Neil Patrick Harris and Felicia Day. Big Fantastic wrote and produced Foreign Body, a mystery web series that served as a prequel to Robin Cook's novel of the same name. Beckett and Goodfried founded a new Internet studio, EQAL, and produced a spin-off from "lonelygirl15" entitled "LG15: The Resistance". Dedicated media coverage of the web television space debuted with organizations such as GigaOm's NewTeeVee and Tubefilter News. Mainstream press also began converate. In the UK, KateModern ended its run on Bebo. That site also hosted a six-month-long reality/travel show, The Gap Year, produced by Endemol UK, who also made Kirill, a drama for MSN.
Australia emerged separate market for online series. Most notable was the made-for-MySpace series the MySpace Road Tour produced by FremantleMedia Australia. The first series, which ran from July to October 2008 drew the MySpace audience and the show received positive press. During MipCom in October 2008 MySpace announced plans for a second series and indicated that it was in talks with cable network Foxtel to distribute series 1 on network television. Additionally MySpace spoke of their plans to produce versions of the MySpace Road Tour in other countries.

2009: Network interest

The International Academy of Web Television formed in 2009, followed by the first awards program for the web television industry, called the Streamy Awards.
The emerging potential for success in web video caught the attention of top entertainment executives in America, including former Disney executive and current head of the Tornante Company, Michael Eisner. Torante's Vuguru subdivision partnered with Canadian media conglomerate Rogers Media on October 26, securing plans to produce upwards of 30 new web shows a year. Rogers Media agreed to help fund and distribute Vuguru's upcoming productions, thereby solidifying a connection between old and new media.

2010-2011 Cross-channel distribution

In the last eighteen months web shows have been picked up by networks, including Childrens Hospital, Sanctuary, Web Therapy, and Goodnight Burbank.

2012-present: Taking steps into the mainstream

With the advent of shows such as House of Cards and the revival of Arrested Development on Netflix, the number of sitcom and children's show introduced Amazon.com, and brief revivals of the long running soap operas All My Children and One Life To Live on Hulu and iTunes before the shows were cancelled again a short time later. Despite these momentary setbacks, the future of web based television series otherwise looks brighter and brighter. Time will only tell if free online services such as Amazon.com, Hulu, or iTunes will sooner or later produce or distribute an original dramatic series of network primetime or basic cable quality with 250,000 viewers and 100 episodes or more to become profitable and have web based series finally break out into the mainstream. One answer might be more cross-platform storytelling involving a cable series.

Production and distribution

The rise in the popularity of the Internet and improvements in streaming video technology mean that producing and distributing a web series is relatively cheap by traditional standards and allows producers to reach a potentially global audience who can access the shows 24 hours a day.

Methods used for distributing online television

• Streaming from a single or multiple websites.
• Downloadable media, in the form of video podcasts or individual files
• Peercasting

Technologies

• Dirac
• HTTP
• RSS
• RSS enclosure
• RTSP
• SMIL
• WTVML

Contact Theatrical Trailer!

The Elysium Movie of Hollywood!

In 2154, a minute number of people reside on a luxurious space habitat called Elysium and the vast majority on an overpopulated and devastated Earth. While those on Earth are policed by ruthless robots, Elysium's citizens live in absolute comfort and regularly use medical devices called Med-Bays to cure any disease and injury.
Max Da Costa (Matt Damon), a former car thief and parolee, lives in the ruins of Los Angeles and works at an assembly line for Armadyne Corp, a company which supplies Elysian weaponry as well as the robots which police Earth. After being accidentally lethally poisoned by radiation, Max has only five days to live. Meanwhile, when a caravan of illegal immigrants from Earth attempts to reach Elysium and its Med-Bays, Elysian Secretary of Defense Delacourt (Jodie Foster) orders a sleeper agent, Kruger (Sharlto Copley), to shoot down the shuttles. Elysian President Patel (Faran Tahir) reprimands her and dismisses Kruger from service. Delacourt, vowing to protect Elysium and her own power, bargains with Armadyne CEO John Carlyle (William Fichtner) to create a program that can override Elysium's computer core to give her the Presidency. Carlyle neurally stores the program for transport to Elysium and encrypts it with a lethal denial system.
Max knows his only chance for survival is a Med-Bay and seeks help from a smuggler named Spider (Wagner Moura) and his friend Julio (Diego Luna). Spider agrees to get Max to Elysium if he steals financial information from Carlyle. To assist him, Spider's doctors link a powered exoskeleton to Max. Max, Julio and a team of Spider's men intercept Carlyle's ship, and Max downloads the program to his suit's neural implant, but realises that the encryption makes it unusable. Delacourt secretly deploys Kruger to rescue Carlyle and recover the program. In the ensuing firefight, Carlyle and most of Max's allies are killed, while Max himself is wounded. He heads to the house of his childhood friend Frey (Alice Braga), whose daughter Matilda has leukemia. Frey begs Max to take Matilda to Elysium so that she can be cured, but Max refuses. While Kruger hunts for Max, Delacourt orders an airspace lockdown over Los Angeles to buy enough time to recover Carlyle's program.
When Max returns to Spider, they realize that the program can be used to make all Earth residents Elysian citizens, but they can't leave the surface of Earth due to the lockdown. Instead, Max bargains with Kruger to be taken to Elysium, not knowing Kruger has Frey and Matilda held hostage. During the journey, a fight ensues and Kruger is horribly injured by a grenade blast. After Kruger's ship crashes on Elysium, Max, Frey and Matilda are arrested and taken to Delacourt, who orders the download of the program despite the fact that it will kill Max.
Having been healed by a Med-Bay, Kruger kills Delacourt after being chastised for his recklessness and plans to steal the program for himself to rule Elysium, and his men kill most of Elysium's leaders. Meanwhile, having escaped his confinement, Max realises that Med-Bays only work for Elysian citizens and resolves to use Carlyle's program to give everyone citizenship. He heads for Elysium's core but is ambushed by Kruger, now donning an exoskeleton superior to Max's. In the ensuing fight, Max manages to disable Kruger's suit but Kruger tethers himself to Max's suit and arms a grenade with the intent of killing both of them. Max rips off the tether and hurls Kruger over a ledge to his death.
Spider and Max reach Elysium's computer core where Spider realizes that the program's activation will kill Max. Max personally activates the program, having spoken a last time with Frey via radio. As Max dies, Elysium's computer core reboots and registers every Earth resident as an Elysian citizen. President Patel arrives with security but the robots refuse to arrest Spider whom they recognise as an Elysian. Matilda is cured by a Med-Bay, and Elysium's computer dispatches a fleet of medical ships to Earth to begin medical treatment of the new Elysian citizens.
(Source Wikipedia)