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Backstories

Windows Media in Action

High-Definition Digital Dailies

Produced by Bill Birney
Microsoft Corporation
September 2004

This month we visit Sample Digital—a Hollywood company that occupies a lucrative niche encoding specialized content for the motion picture and television industry. In this video, one of the founders, Josh Kline, describes the company's growth. When the company first started, they encoded and hosted sample reels, which are short videos or films that directors and cinematographers use to market their services. Today, Sample Digital handles the encoding and distribution of digital dailies for a growing number of productions.

Dailies are the unedited film from a production company's previous day of shooting. Directors and producers view dailies to make sure the footage is acceptable before moving on to another location. Traditionally, they view a film print of the original negative in a screening room. However, with the digital dailies service, filmmakers can now view dailies as high-quality Windows Media video, virtually anywhere at anytime, as long as they have access to a computer and the Internet.

Starting samplereels.com Watch the video! (300 Kbps, 4:33)	Making Digital Dailies Watch the video! (300 Kbps, 6:08)	High Definition: The Next Step Watch the video! (300 Kbps, 4:31)	Building Your Own Tools Watch the video! (300 Kbps, 2:09)

Josh Kline describes his process for laying the initial groundwork of their encoding business.	How does Sample Digital convert the dailies to digital form, and then move the content out quickly and securely to customers anywhere in the world?	What's required to outfit duplication facilities with the equipment and software to encode high-definition video that plays back at over 5 megabits per second?	Content companies like Sample Digital often use professional encoding tools or build their own tools with Windows Media software development kits.

Next month, we visit a Hollywood editor who's cutting a feature film on a computer running Windows, and distributing it in Windows Media format. To view last month's Backstories column, see Getting Music from the Studio to the Online Store.

For More Information

Bill Birney
Bill has worked as writer, director, and producer on numerous film and video projects, as well as music composer, sound designer, and disc jockey. He's co-written several books for Microsoft, including the Windows Media Resource Kit, and is a regular contributor to the Knowledge Center.

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