According to this article on Slashdot, Theora, the totally free and open-sourced video codec has reached version 1.0 and will be supported by upcoming versions of the browsers Firefox and Opera. The final release of the standard will allow anyone, anywhere, to create and play videos unencumbered by patents and other licensing issues. Congrats to the developers, and let's start seeing some open-videos that use the new HTML5 "VIDEO" element....

Is it just me or is this really entertaining? Thanks to Channel 101, the monthly 5-minute video competition that brought the world "Kicked in the Nuts", we now have a show in "prime time" that educates the public about the danger of "nature's hell sticks", that is-- swords. According to Trip Fisk, they will F***ing cut you wide open. The show is called "Cautionary Tales of Swords" and so far there have been three bizarrely funny episodes.

If you have an idea for your own 5-minute series, check out Channel 101. Oh, and caution-- there's really strong language.

Some of you may have read about a new method for resizing images (hires), which may revolutionize how pictures on the Web are viewed in your browser. This method is called "Seam Carving", "Retargeting" or "Liquid resizing". Already at least one open source implementation has been written (warning: The link seems to be down at the moment).

This technology got me wondering.... Would it be possible to use this technology for moving images to resize theatrical releases on film to the varying aspect video aspect ratios? Could cinemascope films and wide-screen formatted movies like "Laurence of Arabia" be re-rendered for a 3:4 TV aspect ratio without resorting to the usual cropping and pan-and-scan? Is this preferable to those methods or does it compromise the cinematographer's integrity in a new and even more offensive way?

More after the jump...

24P HD finally comes to the home market. According to this article at Camcorderinfo.com, Sony is about to announce a three CCD hi-def camera for the "prosumer" market. Looks pretty good, so you might wanna break open your piggie bank soon.

mollyfilms writes, "I'm interested in purchasing my first camera...I'm just starting out. I've been looking at the SONY PD 150. Any thoughts? I have NO training thus far....obviously I am looking into taking some classes in NYC. Any suggestions would be helpful."

Hi. Hope you don't mind me letting you know about a Starship Troopers Fanfilm that is being made at this moment. I'm the maker of the "Call it a Stargate" series (can be downloaded from here). Anyway the Starship Troopers film will have 2 versions made, a normal version and a 3D version ( glasses needed ) trailer is on this site.
It's video, but there's some fun special effects, and anglophiles will love the accents

Dear Sirs,
I would like to inform you about my short film archive page containing over 70 various videos made by myself. I made this page recently and now am interested in promotion. Videos are more like about alternative entertainment, everything in real. Please If you know links or some ways to expand audience of my videos I kindly ask you let me know. Kindest and best regards, Girts
I thought this was an interesting way to feature independent shorts. Nice interface.

Wildform, creators of $99 video and animation software for Windows and Mac, today announced the release of Wild FX Pro, a video titling and text animation software. Wild FX Pro comes with 417 effects that work with a user�s installed fonts, including double-byte characters such as Japanese and Chinese.
I've included a bit of their press release, so excuse the marketese please.