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Today we are going to talk about movies, because don’t we just all like seeing a good movie. So what would you think about movies, without real actors? Can you imagine if real actors were completely left out of the movies? I guess that’s really hard to imagine, because how can we like it, if for instance Chris Hemsworth doesn’t act in the movie or if Scarlett Johansson is left out of the movies. I bet that’s hard to imagine. But what if we told you actors can be virtually made and look exactly like real people?

The first technology that is used for creating virtual actors is computer-generated imagery (CGI). It is the usage of computer graphics for special effects in movies (Technopedia 2016). CGI makes it possible to create or re-create actors and make virtual actors of them. A few famous deceased actors have been digitally re-created with CGI: Paul Walker, Audrey Hepburn, Oliver Reed and Bruce Lee (Matthews 2015).

If Lionsgate can develop the techniques to a higher level it can benefit in the following ways:

• In the future there will be no real actors needed, saving millions of dollars per movie;
• Virtual actors are 24 hours per day available, will not age, are always convenient, won’t die and can do dangerous scenes without risks (UKessays 2015);
• The company will have their own rendering farm which is more efficient and powerful than other farms. Simultaneously making Lionsgate less dependent on other companies like Weta Digital.

Lionsgate will become more competitive if the company develops the technologies (computer-generated imagery and digital cloning) in creating virtual actors further, until real actors become redundant. The technologies then reach a level where real and virtual actors can’t be distinguished from each other. It is hereby important that the firm not only can make a digital clone of a human but also one that is realistic enough in its movements, talking and expressions (Epstein 2006). There is a lot of processing power required for making fantastic visual effect movies: Avatar needed Weta Digital’s super computers for over a month 24 hours per day, processing 8 Gigabytes of data per second (Osborne 2009). Due to Moore’s Law the processing power has become much more powerful allowing the proposed disruptive technology to be fully integrated within ten years (Perry 2014). By evolving these technologies Lionsgate remains innovative and eventually saves money by filming without any real actors (CBS News 2014).

As you can see in the movie Avatar there are also virtual creatures, that look a bit like real human beings. This movie exists for 60% of virtual creatures and 40% of real actors (Wikipedia 2016). This is a good example of how movies can already be made. So can you imagine how movies can be like in ten years from now.

Thus if you have ever had a dream, of becoming an actor or actress now is the time to pursue that dream! Because maybe within a few years technology will have taken over!

 

References:

CBS News. (2014). Is “digital cloning” actors the future of movie making?. Retrieved October 7, 2016, from https://ispr.info/2014/06/11/is-digital-cloning-actors-the-future-of-movie-making/

Epstein, E.J. (2006). Can You Clone a Movie Star?. Retrieved October 7, 2016, from http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/the_hollywood_economist/2006/03/can_you_clone_a_movie_star.html

Matthews, V. (2015). ACTORS THAT HAVE BEEN DIGITALLY RE-CREATED FOR FILMS WITH CGI. Retrieved October 7, 2016, from http://news.digitalmediaacademy.org/2015/04/11/actors-that-have-been-digitally-re-created-for-films-with-cgi/

Osborne, D. (2009). The computing power that created Avatar. Retrieved October 7, 2016, from http://www.geek.com/chips/the-computing-power-that-created-avatar-1031232/

Perry, T.K. (2014). Digital Actors Go Beyond the Uncanny Valley. Retrieved, October 9, 2016, from http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/software/digital-actors-go-beyond-the-uncanny-valley

Technopedia. (2016). Computer Generated Imagery (CGI). Retrieved October 7, 2016, from https://www.techopedia.com/definition/24069/computer-generated-imagery-cgi

UKessays. (2015). Virtual Acting In The Cinema Industry Film Studies Essay. Retrieved October 9, 2016, from https://www.ukessays.com/essays/film-studies/virtual-acting-in-the-cinema-industry-film-studies-essay.php

Wikipedia. (2016) Avatar. Retrieved October 10, 2016, from https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar_(film)

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How can such a successful company as Blackberry once was, be at such a low nowadays?

Once Blackberry had a 50% market share in the smartphone industry, now that share is less than 1 %. Blackberry is the perfect example of disruptive innovation. The company that introduced the Blackberry in 1998 became a $20 billion company from nothing to less than a decade. Then four to five years later, it was back down to a $3 billion company.

If we look at Blackberry it’s not only a story about a disruptive innovation, but also a technology that quickly entered the consumer market as the smartphones of Blackberry did. Blackberry was the innovator at that point. You could even compare it with the upcoming of the television in the 1950s. Never before was there such a big growth, so quickly. They went form zero to more than 50%. When Blackberry first started they knew exactly what the customers needed. Blackberry was deeply connected with the business community. They came in from a different point of view, they changed the rules of the game.  (Tsai, 2015)

So how did a company like Blackberry get to such a low point, when they were the innovators of the smartphone market. It has everything to do with innovation. When you don’t keep moving in markets like these, you will end up losing. It’s always important to be aware of the needs in the market and of course the timing. When a company is growing so fast, it’s hard to still keep both feed on the ground and don’t get ahead of the success. Blackberry was the victim of several unfortunate events. From the three-day outage in 2009 till the upcoming of other phone, like the iPhone.

Blackberry is now at a point in time where they decided to change their strategy, they are not going to make hardware. They now just want to focus on making software, instead of the complete smartphone.

The race of the smartphone market is faster than ever. Blackberry was just not fast enough to keep track of their competitors. It’s so difficult to stay ahead. The leaders of today, are the followers of tomorrow.

http://2machines.com/184127/

 

 

 

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Crowdsourcing is the process of getting work done, usually online, from a crowd of people. The word is a combination of the words ‘crowd’ and ‘outsourcing’. The idea is to take work and outsource it to a crowd of workers. (Bratvold 2016) The biggest example of crowdsourcing is Wikipedia. Instead of making an encyclopaedia itself, they gave the crowd the possibility to share their knowledge. It’s the most comprehensive encyclopaedia the world has ever seen.  The idea of crowdsourcing comes from the principle the more heads the better. The more people that share ideas, skills, thoughts and knowledge the better the quality of the work.

There are different types of crowdsourcing, you have design platforms where you can ask the crowd for creating logo’s, websites and marketing. Microtasking is dividing a big project into smaller projects, and bring it back together later on in the process. This way you can divide the work, and get things done quicker. Asking the crowd to donate money for your project, is called crowdfunding. This way small businesses can make a head start. In my opinion this is a very good way of getting things done, without exactly borrowing money.

Just imagine if you are the owner of a company who sells healthy food and you really want a new logo for your company, but you are not creative at all. You can just post your demand on a design platform and tell the crowd what you want, how much you will pay and what the deadline is. The people who are interested in making logo’s will react and you will have a wide range of choice. You can reach so many different people with different ideas.

The biggest benefit of crowdsourcing is the ability to receive a lot of knowledge and good quality results for several people. They can post their best ideas, share their skills and give support. I think the biggest down side of crowdsourcing is that you don’t really know if the information that you receive is based on the truth. The quality of the work can be difficult to judge.

So you can have all the knowledge of the world, if you are clear about what you expect. So why not ask people about their ideas and skills, the more the better.

https://dailycrowdsource.com/training/crowdsourcing/what-is-crowdsourcing