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The theme of Microsoft Advance ‘08 is “Connected Entertainment:” mobile, music, TV/video, gaming. The big Live Search announcement will be covered live tomorrow.

Today, filmmaker James Cameron’s producing partner at Lightstorm Entertainment, Jon Landau said the abundance of digital information and the ability to use technologies opened up a whole new window for Jim didn’t know e3xisted.

James Cameron started making films when they were photochemical emulsions. Now, films are digital.

“The essence of storytelling stays the same,” said Cameron. “Intense CG (computer-generated) scenes with multiple shots doesn’t change that. My greatest horror was the best thing we create would end up like Ark of Covenant and put in a warehouse somewhere. I will make all my films in 3-D. I’ve been banging on the door at Microsoft since I introduced Windows Media 9 with LL Cool J and Bill Gates in 2002. Now I tell them, this is what you guys need to be doing. I’m going to continue to
surf that wave.”

His new film, Avatar, features a man who tries to become a miner by combining his being with an alien during an interplanetary war in which aliens can manifest themselves through human bodies — avatars.

“‘Avatar’ will make people truly experience something,” said Cameron.”One more layer of the suspension of disbelief will be removed. All the syn-thespians are photo-realistic. Now that we’ve achieved it, we discovered CG characters in 3D look more real than in 2D. Your brain is cued it’s a real thing not a picture and discounting part of image that makes it look fake.”

Part of the movie is subtitled because it takes place on alien planet.

Avatar will have a human heart beating at its narrative center. It’s an emotional journey of redemption and revolution; the story of a wounded ex-marine, who’s thrust into an effort to settle and exploit an exotic planet rich in bio-diversity. He eventually crosses over to lead the indigenous race in a battle for survival.

Cameron has created an entire world, a complete ecosystem of phantasmagorical plants and creatures, and a native people with a rich culture and language. The film has a December 2009 release date.

“I don’t know whether will be great film from narrative and critical standpoint,” said Cameron. “The experience of Avatar will be an experience unlike any other movies.”

He started with Microsoft Research looking at the way people see. The project soon moved out of the realm of speculation.

“‘Avatar’ is the single most complex piece of filmmaking ever made,” said Cameron. “We have 1,600 shots for a 2.5 hour movie. It’s not with a single CGI character, like King Kong or Gollum. We have hundreds of photo-realistic CG characters. We were Microsoft’s sandbox for filmmaking beyond the cutting edge.”

During the film he would grab chairs, gather his team, and talk about what they were doing wrong, how to do it better. That just isn’t done on a film set.

The heart of the film technology is a digital asset management system created by Microsoft, which was praised by Cameron and Landau for understanding the arts and filmmaking. The system can track every cloud and every blade of CGI grass in the film.

Cameron noted that Titanic was about how technology let us down. He has always tried to be on cutting edge of what’s going on. The Abyss featured the first photo-realistic CG character. Then “The Terminator” combined CG and human actors. “True Lies” pushed the bar even higher with composite technology.

In “Titanic” as a filmmaker, I struck the perfect balance of technology and the human heart,” said Cameron. “I haven’t forgotten that lesson with Avatar. It’s the best lesson for any filmmaker.”

Cameron also noted the radical changes in film distribution and made a prediction for the future:

“I’m on the fourth screen. The giant screen. Then it scatters down to other screens. It gets more interesting as more means of digital distribution become available to us. The interesting thing the actual movie business going strong. If valued up revenues of what’s lost to piracy, movies doing better now than they ever have. You can have HD screen in your home.

He noted, “Windows organized things spatially. That gave it its power. But we’re not displaying things spatially. What could happen is now that digital cinema revolution has taken place is killer app is 3D. Dreamworks has announced all its animated films will be made and projected in 3-D. Gaming will be changed by 3-D. Consumer electronics people will need to make players stereo-enabled monitors. Future version of Windows should be fully stereoscopic. Smaller devices already are 3D enabled without glasses. If you play “Avatar” on a 50 inch monitor, you’re in the game.”

Cameron said, “This is the ultimate immersive media. It’s my fundamental belief that when you’re viewing media in stereo, more neurons are firing, learning rates are higher. Engagement levels are higher. As advertisers, you need to think about how you’re going to use this new dimension. How will you use the deeper levels of engagement?”

While Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft battle for online mapping domination, another competitor is fortifying its position quietly off to the side. In today’s Vertical Challenge column, “Local Search: Competing All Over the Map - Part 2,” local search expert Michael Boland looks at EveryScape, a new 3-D mapping beta site from MapQuest that could change [...]

Google Maps, launched with AJAX functionality, draggable maps, and satellite imagery in late 2005, started an “arms race” in development of new features and functionality. In today’s Vertical Challenge column, “Local Search: Competing All Over the Map,” local search expert Michael Boland looks at the many ways competitors have raised the bar with real-time traffic [...]

Maps, local, and mobile services all figured in Microsoft’s latest updates to their Live Search product, following their work on the entertainment, health, and shopping search verticals.Microsoft has a 411 phone number just like Google now. People can dial 1-800-LIVE-411 for local business information. That service draws upon Microsoft’s Tellme acquisition, which drives the local [...]

Ask.com has seen brighter days. It’s one thing when nobody thinks you can compete with Google (Yahoo and MSN have yet to accomplish that), but it’s quite another to lose continually despite all efforts. The algorithm may have killed Jeeves, but that may have been a bad idea. (Technically, Jeeves is encased in carbonite. We [...]

Google Maps and Microsoft Live Search Maps released new ways of looking at the world through their products at the Where 2.0 conference.3-D looks at the Big Apple and street views of Miami were two of the big announcements at Where 2.0 in San Jose. Microsoft and Google each attempted to out-splash the other with [...]

Those who worry about Google’s impending world domination are probably going to be terrified, but for the rest of us, this is just neat: the search engine giant has made a deal that involves Stanley, the robot car that won the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge.
“Google has quietly licensed the sensing technology developed by a team [...]

Architecture is one of those subjects that appeals, on some level, to just about everybody; from your basic suburban house to St. Basil’s Cathedral, it’s just too entwined in our lives to go unnoticed.  Now architecture is being noticed by Google Earth - The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has helped design two new 3D [...]

Google Earth has become a very popular application among users wanting to explore various parts of the glob via satellite imagery. Rumors are now circulation that Google is looking to take its technology a step further and implement facets of Google Earth in a project aimed a creating a virtual environment, much like that of [...]