When Walt Disney Co debuts its ESPN 3-D channel for World Cup coverage, the split-second cutaways and bold graphics that ESPN has become known for will be replaced by scenic panoramics and wide-angle player shots.
“You’ll see a different-looking story,” Chuck Pagano, ESPN vice president of technology, said in an interview. “We aren’t going as fast or with as many graphics. 3-D is a different viewing experience.”
Producing the in-your-face technology has proven to be a learning experience for the crew at ESPN. When testing 3-D camera shots at an Ohio State-University of Southern California football game in September, ESPN found it couldn’t track the action as well as with high-definition cameras because the ball moved too fast for the mounted 3-D cameras to capture without jarring the viewer. Also, some graphics shown in early 3-D testing proved visually overwhelming, so they were cut back.
Unlike filming in high-definition, capturing action on 3-D requires two high-definition cameras tied together on a mount. One camera shoots the image for the right eye, the other for the left. The signals from both cameras are fed from the live event for production, and then pushed to pay-TV distributors, where the signals are eventually merged together by a 3-D TV set.
Comcast Corp, DirecTV and AT&T Inc. have signed deals to carry ESPN’s 3-D channel in the U.S. Only customers with 3-D capable television sets will be able to take advantage of the programming. About 2.5 million U.S. homes will have such sets by the end of this year, according to U.K.-based research firm FutureSource Consulting.
Higher costs
For the World Cup, soccer’s governing body FIFA is producing the 3-D footage. The filmed action will be sent about 8,000 miles from South Africa to ESPN’s headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut, via a fiber-optic line under the Atlantic Ocean, and then transmitted from Bristol to viewers’ homes on the same video stream as high-definition feeds. A 3-D video stream consumes about the same bandwidth in a cable pipe as a high- definition feed.
Sony Corp., which is an official sponsor of the World Cup and partner with ESPN 3-D, will be supplying cameras to film the 3-D sports coverage. Sony has developed a specialized 3-D image processing device, the MPE-200, that will help correct any image differences between the two cameras, for example if one camera zooms out faster than the other, creating distortion.
Production costs for 3-D events are higher than the average telecast. Live 3-D broadcasts require ESPN to use a separate production truck and more cameras, Pagano said. Although he said filming in 3-D was more expensive, Pagano declined to specify how much, saying the charge was “incremental.”
“We’re still learning,” Pagano said. “3-D started as a science experiment and it still is a science experiment. We’re setting the protocols and methodologies for filming as we go along in our journey.
“They are more than an underwear to me, Mr. Farkus,” said George Constanza. “Two cups in the front, two loops in the back. How do they do it?”
Indeed, a bra is a paradox among paradoxes. It fits a woman so snugly and supports her bosom so well, yet for some men remains so impossibly difficult to remove. It may perhaps be the number one reason why quick-thinking but clumsy-fingered men never score.
Looking to permanently ameliorate this pesky situation is a shopping mall in China that just launched a bra-removing contest. Read on and pay attention, fellow nerds!
Our story begins at the Guangzhou mall in Guangzhou city, China. Earlier this month, officials at the shopping center staged a bra-removing contest in which participants were charged with removing eight bras in under 60 seconds. Whoever could manage the task was awarded with a 1,000 yuan ($146.50) voucher to spend as he or she chose.
During the contest, eight scantily clad ladies sporting a bra, face mask, and short-shorts stood in line on stage as competitors rushed by them quickly removing their bras. The catch was that that they had to do it with only one hand.
According to the Mumbai Mirror news agency, most crowd members clapped and cheered in jubilation. However, one uptight fart complained: “This must have been the brainwave of a dirty old man. Why would anyone want to take part in such a degrading spectacle?”
A shopping mall spokesman defended the competition, saying, “The workings of a woman’s bra are a mystery for many men. This activity helped more people understand bra culture and explore its secrets.” I suppose that knowledge is indeed power!
The irony is that it was in fact a woman who came out on top by undoing all eight bras in just 21 seconds. During an interview with Fox Chicago, she said, “I didn’t expect to win; maybe it was because I get so much practice in my everyday life.”
Remember fellas—practice makes perfect. So go buy a bra, put it on IN PRIVATE and get to undoing it over and over and over again. It’s embarrassing, but it may be your last chance to master the art of quickly undoing a bra—lest you’re cast out of the world of male-to-female copulation forever!
Release Date: April 3, 2009
Studio: Universal Pictures
Director: Justin Lin
Screenwriter: Chris Morgan
Starring: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, John Ortiz, Laz Alonso, Gal Gadot, Shea Whigham, Tego Calderon, Liza Lapira
Genre: Action, Thriller
Official Website: FastandFuriousmovie.net
Plot Summary: Vin Diesel and Paul Walker reteam for the ultimate chapter of the franchise built on speed -- "Fast & Furious." Heading back to the streets where it all began, they rejoin Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster to blast muscle, tuner and exotic cars across Los Angeles and floor through the Mexican desert in the new high-octane action-thriller.
When a crime brings them back to L.A., fugitive ex-con Dom Toretto (Diesel) reignites his feud with agent Brian O'Conner (Walker). But as they are forced to confront a shared enemy, Dom and Brian must give in to an uncertain new trust if they hope to outmanuever him. And from convoy heists to precision tunnel crawls across international lines, two men will find the best way to get revenge: push the limits of what's possible behind the wheel.
Click Picture to Enlarge
Two photographs of Madonna set to appear in a Christie's auction next month will probably sell for at least $10,000 each, according to estimates posted on the company's Web site.
One, a full-frontal nude black-and-white photograph of the singer, was taken in 1979 by celebrated American photographer Lee Friedlander for a series of nudes he was working on, said Milena Sales, a spokeswoman for the auction house.
Madonna was about 20 when the photograph, one of several, was taken.
A handful from the shoot appeared in Playboy magazine in 1985, Sales said. Christie's put price estimates for the photograph at $10,000 to $15,000.
The second photograph of Madonna was taken in the 1980s by Helmut Newton.
In the Newton photograph, which is in color, Madonna is wearing a short dress and black stockings with garters. The circumstances behind the photo shoot were not immediately clear.
The auction will take place in New York on February 12.
