James Tauber's Blog 2004/06
Film Project Update: Week One
Work's been busy and between that, exercising and Pimsleur Italian, I haven't had much time to think about the film. I was getting worried that I wouldn't come up with a concept and a script in time. Then last Friday, I read an article describing a new meme that sounded like it would make an interesting film. I don't want to say much more about the idea itself at this stage but I'm liking it more and more. Should provide a great foundation for some comedy and some conflict. Ferris Bueller's Day Off was on last night and, in an interesting way, there are some similarities. Will be interesting to see how the idea develops.
Unlike a lot of ideas I get for short films, I know how this one should end. That's half the battle, so hopefully the script writing will go smoothly. I only have three weeks.
by James Tauber : Created on June 27, 2004 : Last modified Feb. 8, 2005 : Categories filmmaking alibi_phone_network : (permalink)
Film Scheduling Software
I've been looking to use some scheduling software for the film project and I recently came across Sun Frog. Not only does the software look interesting but I love the company's approach. They have a blog and a discussion group, a cafe press store, a competition for the best production of the sample script that ships with the product and finally, you can rent the software, which I think is great for film productions.
I'm going to try out the trial version for the next few weeks and, if I like it, I'll rent it for the duration of the production.
You may be wondering why bother using film scheduling software for what is a short film with skeleton crew. The simple answer is that I'm fascinated by production management (I even have an Amazon.com List of production management books) and I want to manage this production as if it were a full feature production.
by James Tauber : Created on June 27, 2004 : Last modified Feb. 8, 2005 : Categories filmmaking alibi_phone_network : (permalink)
VCs and Films
At the same time mValent was going for its first round of VC funding, I was also reading a lot about producing films. I saw many interesting parallels and even at one point conceived of a short film (tentatively called The Pitch) that juxtaposed the two worlds.
Joshua Newman, former hi-tech entrepreneur, VC and now film producer has a great blog entry on the development of independent films.
I'd like to follow in Josh's footsteps one day, which is humbling given that, at 24, he is six years younger than me.
by James Tauber : Created on June 27, 2004 : Last modified Feb. 8, 2005 : Categories filmmaking entrepreneurship : (permalink)
Twelve Week Film Project
Speaking of film projects...
I'm about to embark on an extended trip to the US; extended enough that it will be longer than any stretch I've spent in Australia since moving back.
This means I have to bring more of my hobbies with me. This time, I'm bringing filmmaking and plan to make a short film from scratch while there.
I'll update readers of this blog as I go along but the current plan, working with my good friend James Marcus, is to spend weeks 1-4 on development; 5-6 on pre-production; 7-8 on production and 9-12 on post.
Stay tuned!
by James Tauber : Created on June 16, 2004 : Last modified Feb. 8, 2005 : Categories filmmaking alibi_phone_network : (permalink)
Tintin Script in First Draft
Ever since I found out about Spielberg's plans to make a trilogy of films based on Tintin, I've run marlinspike.org, a site dedicated to news on the film project. In the first real news in a while, it seems that a draft script for the first film is complete.
by James Tauber : Created on June 16, 2004 : Last modified Feb. 8, 2005 : Categories tintin : (permalink)
Why Are There Three Primary Colours?
One question that has long puzzled me (although not enough to motivate me to find an answer until now) is:
why are there three primary colours?
Another, possible statement of the problem might be: why is the linear space of colours three dimensional?
Once when I posed this question to a friend they suggested the reason was that the human eye has three cones. But that could be the result of rather than the reason for the three dimensional colour space.
One possible answer is that it isn't three dimensional, it's infinite dimensional but three gives a reasonably good approximation and the marginal utility of adding more dimensions drops off quickly. This reminds me of music where 12 notes gives a decent approximation to the harmonic series—much better than seven notes which is the next best under 12 and enough that few have been motivated to go to 19 notes where the next improvement happens.
After all, isn't white light a combination of all frequencies, not just three?
If you take a sine wave with the frequency of red and one with the frequency of green and add them, you get a wave whose periodicity resembles that of yellow. But it isn't the same as a pure sine wave of that frequency. This in itself suggests that additive colours are just approximations.
Newton recognized that there were colours that didn't appear in the spectrum but were achievable through combining spectral colours. What I'm not clear about is whether such combinations require three components. Will a combination of two spectral colours only give you an approximation of another spectral colour? Do you need a third component to get non-spectral colours? Does adding a fourth component give you better approximations but with a far reduced marginal utility?
Anyone care to shed some light? (pun intended)
UPDATE (2004/06/07): now see Update On The Primary Colours.
by James Tauber : Created on June 7, 2004 : Last modified Feb. 8, 2005 : Categories colour_science : (permalink)
Update On The Primary Colours
Already got a response to my primary colours question from T.J. Jankun-Kelly.
Some great points:
- "Perceptual spectral color space is three dimensional: two chromaticity coordinates (which specify hue and saturation) and one brightness coordinate."
- "The space is not necessarily linear, but most approximations to it are."
- "Two spectral color combination, depending on the colors chosen and the weight of the combination, can give you a range of spectral colors along a line through the spectral color space (on the CIE diagram which the CIE space is embedded upon). You can actual get white light with a combination of only two colors if they are on opposite ends of the color space and space through the achromatic point (white)."
TJK also cited http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/vision/colper.html which is a nice summary of colour science and makes a point that is key for me:
"It is found that many different combinations of light wavelengths can produce the same perception of color."
So there is a definite distinction between the dimensionality of colour perception and the actual space of light. I feel more confident now in asserting that the actual colour space of light is infinite dimensional but that it is projected onto a three dimensional non-linear space of perception.
So does that mean that the number of cones is the reason for the dimensionality of the (perceptual) colour space?
UPDATE (2004/06/08): TJK say yes. The number of cones is the reason for the dimensionality of the perceptual colour space. Chickens, which have 12 cones, would have a 12-dimensional perceptual colour space. Makes me think of a name one could use for an article on this topic: "If Munsell Were A Chicken".
by James Tauber : Created on June 7, 2004 : Last modified Feb. 8, 2005 : Categories colour_science : (permalink)
Da Vinci's Notebooks and RSS Reading Plans
Catching up on blog reading, I discovered Matt Webb's day-by-day feed of the Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci. Besides the actual feed itself, which I've now subscribed to, Matt nicely solves the problem of how to provide an RSS-based day-by-day reading plan that allows the reader to start at any time.
Rather that a single feed, it appears Matt offers a new feed each day. If you start the reading plan on the 4th of June, for example, you use the feed at http://interconnected.org/home/more/davinci/2004-06-04.rss whereas people starting in a week's time will presumably use a feed at http://interconnected.org/home/more/davinci/2004-06-11.rss
The main page provides a dynamically generated link to the feed to use if you're starting today.
It's a very simple idea but a great way of implementing a reading plan. I'll probably implement it in my own Leonardo.
by James Tauber : Created on June 4, 2004 : Last modified Feb. 8, 2005 : (permalink)
Alive and Well
It's been a while since I've blogged, due to three factors: busy in US with mValent including an office move to Burlington; travelling back to Australia; being sick for the last week.
Expect a bunch of stuff soon.
by James Tauber : Created on June 4, 2004 : Last modified Feb. 8, 2005 : (permalink)