Rings Digital Dailies Circled Globe via iPod

KD writes "During the making of the 'Rings' trilogy, Jackson and his crew upped the ante on Apple's innovative iPod storage technology, using it for filmmaking sessions during production on The Two Towers and The Return of the King. Media was transferred from Weta to Pinewood Studios in London. There Jackson then viewed the QuickTime files on an Apple Cinema Display, tied to his G4 laptop, which drew directly from his iPod. The director's setup was mirrored in New Zealand, and crew could step through shots with the help of their iPods, with Jackson's guidance piped in over a videoconferencing system. During the course of two movies and four months, 'Rings' iPods stored and served up nearly one-half terabyte of digitized footage from 'Towers' and 'King.'"

Comments

Versatile

[pb_boi]

Which goes to show how rediculously versatile the iPods are in relation to almost anything. A task that important, for which they weren't designed, and STILL they're used, and STILL they perform amazingly well. Impressive. pb_boi

Re:Versatile

[pldms]

Versatile indeed.

"Jackson then viewed those 1K-resolution QuickTime files on an Apple Cinema Display, tied to his G4 laptop, which drew directly from his iPod."

I've been warned against using the iPod in this way. It was designed (I was told) for brief disk access, i.e. pulling the next x minutes of compressed music into ram. Sustained access, however, will invite disk problems due to cooling problems. (Indeed I find mine heats up noticeably when copying large amounts).

Perhaps this quote is misleading. OTOH I guess their budget could cope with a few failures (unlike mine :-).

Re:Versatile

[mj_1903]

As someone who writes software for the iPod all day, I can say without reservation that iPod's can stand up to this usage pattern. My iPod 5gb has been running basically non stop for 16 months in this mode with no adverse affects.

My tips for cooling:
- Keep the metal side up (the dock is fine)
- Never cover your iPod while connected to your computer
- Never place it metal side down while connected to your computer on a blanket/pillow or something similar
- Place a small fan on it if you are very concerned

I have not had my iPod go above touchable temperature (any of my iPod's, 5gb, 15gb, 40gb). Touchable from memory is around ~55C and hard drives can usually handle 60C quite fine.

Slow news day?

[rokzy]

not meaning to troll or anything, but surely anyone who cares about this kind of trivia (like me) would have known about it months ago when watching the TT DVD documentaries?

are the slashdot editors trying to have a competition of who can post the oldest story?

Not exactly exciting news.

[MountainMan101]

Someone uses a portable large (10-20GB) USB harddrive to transfer data. Okay, so it was non-Microsoft. This would have been news if it had been new hardware/software/protocols, but honestly. Is this worthy of Slashdot?

Re:Not exactly exciting news.

[shockbeton]

In other "news," the mighty Peter Jackson reportedly uses a telephone to transmit voice data in real-time to his mom. Rumors also suggest that he and other key players in the production of the widely acclaimed LotR trilogy purge their bodily waste into a toilet.

Re:Not exactly exciting news.

[kfg]

There is a tendency these days for even the technologists to look at a core technology wrapped up in a shiney new shell and view it as something essentially new and more technologically advanced.

This tendency is "good" for the industry but financially draining for the customer. The entire software industry rests upon this tendency and the recent recession in the purchasing of software by business represents a crack in this point of view. Office 97 works.

In point of fact the core technologies of all office software have been in place since the release of Visiscalc. Database, spreadsheet, text editor. Everything else is just variations on these and the latest new feature of Word is nothing more than a text editor macro attached to a button.

It's akin to painting a disposable razor pink instead of orange and calling it "for women," a technique that works distressingly well.

A Perl script wrapped up in Royal robes isn't "new technology" and a portable HD is just a portable HD.

Maybe I need to make an iPod clone, put it in a titanium case and call it the "Movie Meister" or something.

KFG

One big ad for Apple

[fruey]

And not in the Apple section (even as a subsection?)

Kudos to the fact it was indeed the iPod, but it would be cheaper to use a generic portable hard drive, since this is movie footage and not soundtrack data. The iPod wasn't used for what it was designed for.

The laptop needn't have been a G4 either, and they stuck in iSight as well. What they SHOULD be telling us is whether these things were purchased at RRP, at big discount, or given away for free by Apple...

Dailies almost got stolen, too

[jokkebk]

I watched Two Towers extras where the fellow who was doing the transportation of iPods to Jackson's hotel told that he was almost robbed by two thugs following him one day.

Thankfully the guy was pretty quick sprinter, so the dailies (and I even seem to recall that they exceptionally had the whole version on iPod that day) narrowly escaped the London underworld.

As a funny sidenote, I don't think any beautiful women offered to plug their earpiece into iPod while waiting traffic lights, too bad for them. :)

funny quote during the article...

[derekb]

After spending time frustrated at the battery life of my ipod, I read this bit of sentence...

Just as Frodo exists basically to transport that precious ring to where it needs to go, ..

and thought about how many times I've wanted to send my ipod to the same firey doom..

ahh but I couldn't do that to the little guy..

Never Underestimate...

[erpbridge]

the bandwidth of a station wagon filled with iPods.

News for Nerds

[kinnell]

My tips for cooling:

you forgot:

• Put a cup of liquid nitrogen on it
• Modify the case to incorporate an overly expensive liquid cooling rig
• Drill a hole for a firewire cable into your USB mini refrigerator

Apple leads the way in the digital creative arts

[SPYDER Web]

They really know what the artist needs. Apple has become the art supply store for the world. Being able to take any work no matter what medium and help with its creation is truly a wonderful thing. I am not a big apple supporter but its hard to argue with the impact apple has from Pixar animation to Lord of the rings. Every musician, film maker, and digital artist has an apple for a reason.

Why using an iPod vs external HD makes sense:

[Anonymous Coward]

Physical security. Half the planet would have loved to steal the dailies from LoTR and more than a few were possibly actively looking to get their hands on them.

- The iPod is smaller than most dedicated external drives and thus easier to conceal and transport.
- The iPod looks like, well, an iPod and might not raise suspicions that they are actually storing the dailies, if word does not get out.

While an iPod in itself is a huge thief magnate, it inspires more casual theft from lax owners than attracting the eye of a more determined, professional thief.

I mean, who would get suspicious of a bunch of movie types walking around with iPods?

Anonymous Joe