New to the site is Josh Armstrong’s latest interview, and today he’s talking with Mark Smith, the author of new book The Art Of Flash Animation: Creative Cartooning. Mark came to Flash as a newbie and packs in the full experience of the software in what is described basically as the manual he wished he’d had when he started. The book also draws on the benefits of being written by a working animator and teacher, and Mark also speaks with enthusiasm about his many years as a freelance artist, working on a variety of corporate, client and his own company’s projects. It’s a fun – and lengthy – piece to start the week off with!

Further to my post last week about the 80th Anniversary edition of Al Jolson’s The Jazz Singer, Warner Bros’ theatrical catalog supremo George Feltenstein has made some interesting comments regarding the original release of the film. Of course it was the first feature to be released with a synchronized soundtrack, and the disc will be “one of the landmark releases for 2007. The story of the emergence of sound and its early days is such a fascinating one. There were competing technologies, competing studios, lots of egos and differences in public taste and perception. Sound familiar?”

Just a reminder that the three-disc Jazz set will feature a restored print of the film with cleaned up soundtrack and a collection of vintage cartoons, plus the new documentary The Dawn Of Sound: How Movies Learned To Talk, among many other things, which will end up going for far less than the suggested $39.98 list price.

But Feltenstein’s wry comments do bring me to the latest in the Hollywood hi-def disc format wars still being waged by everyone (in the Blu-Ray camp) and Universal Studios (the only non-neutral HD-DVD supporter). Now the Blu-Ray Disc (BRD)’s biggest direct advocates, Sony and Disney, have set up, with 20th Century Fox, the Hollywood In Hi-Def website, ostensibly to promote high-definition discs on the whole, but in a way that heavily favors the BRD format.

Blu-Ray Disc is certainly the Hollywood filmmakers’ format of choice, which has led to wide industry support from most studios, including even Warners and Paramount, both of which were initially batters for HD-DVD but who now release their titles “format neutral” on BRD and HD-DVD. The new site, anchored by digital disc business vet Scott Hettrick, will interview top talent as Jerry Bruckheimer and John Lasseter about their preferred format (BRD, natch!), while looking to to ease nervous early adopters that they have made the right decision as well as appealing to the usual early adopters who haven’t yet picked a side.

You could have recently counted me in that group, but I’ve pretty much decided to jump into the Blu-waters come this fall, when the second generation of players start emerging. With all the studios providing their content on BRD and only Universal staunchly reserving theirs for HD-DVD, the Blus are certainly in the stronger position, from industry support and thereby the amount of titles available on the format to the public. Disney really looks to have been the deal clincher here, what with its legions of fans and parents that will want the hi-def format for their own movies while being able to leave it to babysit the kids with the latest from the Mouse House.

Although animation hasn’t had the strongest showing on either format so far, look for that to change this fall as both Pixar (with Cars and Ratatouille) and DreamWorks (the Shreks) start to release their considerable catalogs. And after that it’s only a matter of time before Universal buckles under the strain. Once a certain Mr Spielberg sees how well his Paramount distributed DreamWorks Animation titles perform (and the fact that BRD is currently outselling HD by two to one), he will insist on pressuring Universal to bring his classics (Jaws, ET, Schindler’s List, Jurassic Park, the Amblimation films) to both formats, or maybe even just Blu-Ray. At which point, Sony wins the war, other Universal titles will follow, and HD-DVD goes the way of Divx. It’s only a matter of time.

– Ben.