A Little Bit of Anything

3D Television?

2010-04-29T11:21:00.000-07:00

Companies are beginning to release TVs that will be able to show their picture in the third dimension. Samsung seems to be leading this new 3D TV revolution. What I dont understand is how these televisions will sell. The cheapest one that I came across was just under $2000 and this does not include the other equipment needed to actually see the 3D. The other equipment needed includes special 3D glasses that go for $350 and you will also need a new 3D Blu Ray player to see movies in 3D.

I understand that 3D is getting big and no one can really tell if its here to stay or if it is a faze, however, with the way the economy is and how recently plasma and LCD TVs have been introduced, I dont see the demand being their for these expensive machines. A lot of people are just now getting LCD TVs because the prices are beginning to decrease. I dont see these people going out to buy new TVs just for the 3D. I guess we'll have to wait and see when they are released how they sell.

Avatar Taking Down More Records With Its DVD Release

2010-04-26T18:32:00.000-07:00

Avatar broke the record for the most gross ($2.7 billion Global) in film history when it took down James Cameron's other monstrous movie, Titanic. This past Thursday when Avatar hit the shelfs on Blu Ray and DVD it was no surprise that it would sell and it would sell big. I dont think anyone expected it to sell as big as it did though. It took Avatar four days to sell 2.7 million copies breaking the record held by the Dark Knight. The Dark Knight sold 2.5 million Blu Ray copies since it release and that was 16 months ago. Avatar also sold 4 million copies in standard DVD. What I find sad about this is that this version that was released on Thursday is just the film, there is no extras on board the disc. Also the technology that really made Avatar special is not featured on this film because that technology is not ready yet for Blu Ray. It is said that Avatar will be released in a few months with that technology, extras and over 40 additional minuets in the film. What I dont understand is why would someone go out and buy a copy of this film to probably only buy the better version when it is released down the road. This is a great marketing idea and will definitely help to bring in much more money making Avatar possibly the largest movie to ever be release. Its difficult to see how any movie ever could touch the success that Avatar has had.

The Thin Red Line

2010-04-15T13:48:00.000-07:00

Last night at work I decided to watch The Thin Red Line. Now I had seen this movie a long time ago, probably the year after it came out. My mom decided to rent it because she loves George Clooney (sadly for her Clooneys role is no longer than a minuet and a half and you can barely make out what hes saying because Sean Penns character is talking over it.) I didn't remember too much about the movie since I was maybe nine when I saw it. However, I knew it is one of the greater war films out there and I had to see it again. Anyways, The Thin Red Line tells the story of a group of American soldiers fighting in the Pacific Theater. The cast is one that is quite remarkable including Sean Penn, Adrian Brody, George Clooney, John Cusack, Woody Harrelson, Nick Nolte, and Elias Koteas. After watching the film I do what I always do, I went on IMDB to find more information about the film. I found out that when the movie was finished filming and had been through the editing process the total screen time was just about six hours. Of course the six hour version was not going to be played in theaters because most audiences would not have the attention span to pay mind to the entire film. The film was then cut down to just under three hours. This fact kind of bothered me. The three hour version of the film was great but because of how dense the story was I felt as those I was robbed of some of the character development. Adrian Brodys character had one line in the entire film. John Cusack had one major scene and then was barely seen through out the rest of the film. The only characters that were really consistent in the film was that of Sean Penns, Elis Koteas and James Cavizels.

Basically what I'm saying is that this film was so well done in every aspect, especially the cinematography, that I feel like fans of the film deserve to see the six hour version. It would be fantastic if they release this version on DVD for people to see. I dont think its right that Hollywood robbed fans of a version that would be more intuitive and exciting.

Campus Movie Fest at BSC

2010-04-14T23:18:00.000-07:00

Since I've been a freshman here at BSC, every year the school hosts the likes of Campus Movie Fest. CMF is a unique opportunity for students here at BSC to get a chance to shoot their very own 5 minuet long film. CMF sets students up with the proper equipment needed to shoot their film (camera, editing software, microphones, etc.). Each team has 1 week to film their movie and edit it before passing in the final work. Films can range from drama to comedy, to musicals to horror, its up to the student. It seems to me that CMF has grown over the past few years. I know this year on one of the films I was working on, our team leader said that when he signed up out team there were already 40 other movies signed up to be made. After the week of filming and editing, the movies are screened and selected. 16 of the films are played at the RCC for a showing for the entire school. Out of these films awards are given that hold some great prizes and even a trip to New York City to have your movie played in a larger festival. Anyone that has not participated in CMF I highly suggest that you look into when they roll around next year. Its a great opportunity to have your name on something that you can truley call your own, and its a lot of fun.

The Majestic Power Of Twitter

2010-03-25T11:31:00.000-07:00

A few of my friends back home have decided to start a sketch comedy bit. They write their own material and then film it and post it on youtube. After they released one of their newer shorts, they asked me to help promote it over twitter. I have been on twitter awhile, but to me it had seemed just like a facebook status bar. I wasn't really sure what the meant by "promote it." So I asked and they told me that there were these links on the side called trending topics. I had seen these before but I hadn't really ever paid them the time of day. My friend told me to send a tweet with one of these topics in it and the link to their video. So I did that as well as the rest of the trending topics on the page. Within an hour and a half, their small no budget youtube video had gone from the 21 views from the immediate friends of the group to almost 400 views. After seeing this happen I finally understood that twitter actually had a rather amazing power. Through those trending topics you can reach out to anyone who is discussing such topic, even if you arnt following them or they arent following you. When people see a random link they may click on it. If that link brings them to a reliable site such as youtube, they may stick around to watch the video. If they like the video they may spread the word around. With out twitter it would be a lot more difficult to self promote short videos such as these.

Heres the link of their youtube page if you would like to check them out for your self.

Shooting Gallery Comedy

Websites No More?

2010-03-03T20:36:00.000-08:00

One of my professors the other day brought up an interesting topic. She said that eventually, and not really anytime soon, websites will become obsolete. Now when she first said this it baffled me. We hear all this talk and facts that paper news (magazines, newspapers, etc.) are going out of style which is understandable since you can find all of that information on the web. Now with the talk that websites will no longer be around makes one wonder, what will replace them? She went into talking about how "smart phones" are really beginning to take off with Apples iPhone, Googles G1 and My Touch, and Blackberries. All of these phones have the ability to run applications. Now I have a Blackberry and for instance, when I open up the ESPN app that I have on it, it then opens up my internet browser and brings me directly to ESPN's mobile page. So this belief didn't really sit with me well. But the more Ive thought about it the more It kind of makes sense.
Think about the most common uses for web pages. Facebook, twitter, weather updates, news, and shopping. With "smart phones" you can open up the facebook application and use facebook almost exactly the same way without being on the actual website. The same applies to twitter. They also make applications for weather. You can check everything from the current temperature to the five day forecast and in some cases even the Doppler radar. On some phones the main screen even has the weather for your area right on it. Makes you kind of wonder, whats the point of Weather.com. AS for news, well this, at least in my case, is very similar to the ESPN app that is on my phone. The CNN and Associative Press app brings you to their respective mobile sites. However, on some phones you can have a news feed right on your home screen, just like the weather, making those websites obsolete. And shopping, well I am only familiar with the Amazon application, but it works almost identically to Amazon.com, you just dont have to actually go to their website.
After thinking more about her statement, it seems to actually make sense. I would not be surprise if eventually websites were talked about in the same breath as newspapers and magazines. Maybe someday people will be writing their term papers on their phones and taking online classes through an application. Who really knows, but it sure is interesting.

Chris Nolan, Please Keep Making "Other" Movies....

2010-03-02T17:57:00.000-08:00

A rumor broke out early last week I believe. It concerned Christopher Nolan, the director of films such as The Dark Knight, Memento and Insomnia. The rumor began with the fact that the third installment on Nolan's Batman franchise, has begun to be written. The only thing that was interesting here was that this time around Chris Nolan will not be participating in writing the script. Instead those duties will be given to Nolans younger brother Jonathan Nolan and David Goyer. This will be the only film in the series that Nolan did not write. This however does not concern me too much, because I know that if Chris Nolan is still in the directors chair then the film will be made well.
My concerns come with more information that came with this rumor. The second part of this rumor said that Chris Nolan will be directing the Justice League movie and will be over seeing the reboot of the Superman franchise. To me it seems as though Warner Brothers knows that Nolan can make a great film involving superheros (his Batman movies are incredible) and they do not want to let anyone else put their hands on these projects. They know that if Nolan is attached to these projects then they are going to make a good amount of money.
Now I know that these movies made by Chris Nolan would be good movies, this doesn't bother me. What bothers me is that if Nolan's attention would be completely on these films and would limit his other work that we as an audience may see. His other movies besides the Batman films are great films. Memento, Insomnia, and the Prestige are all worth seeing and are all very well done. His newest film Inception, which will be released on July 16, looks very similar to Memento and appears to be a very interesting film.
I guess what I'm getting at is that if Chris Nolan diverts his attention strictly to superhero films, then audiences around the world will be robber of ideas that Nolan definitely has stored for a later date.

The Big Five and No More.

2010-02-18T16:23:00.000-08:00

There have only been three films in the history of the Oscars that have won the five major categories (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay). The first being It Happened One Night in 1934. The next didn't come for over 40 years when One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest brought home all five of the big prizes in 1975. The most recent and last film to win all five categories was The Silence of the Lambs in 1991. I never really even thought about if any movie had won in all of these categories. What got me thinking was a poll i saw on imdb.com. The poll ask which one of these films was your favorite (my personal favorite out of the three would have to be One Flew Over the Cuckoos nest just cause I'm a big fan of Jack Nicholson and I loved Ken Kesey's novel). This got me thinking, will we ever see another film that could be deemed "perfect"? The call these movies that won the Big Five. I honestly don't think that we will ever see another movie to join the category of the Big Five. It seems like movies that get nominated are nominated for one aspect alone.
I want to look at the nominees for the Oscars this year to further my point. Lets start with Avatar. Its a great movie that is visually stunning. It was nominated for Best Picture and Best Director. It did not receive any acting nominations and it did not receive a nomination for the screenplay. This really isn't much of a shock since the acting wasn't anything over the top or memorable and the screenplay has been written before. Avatar however, is the big film this year at the Oscars and it isn't even close to joining the big five.
A movie that came a little bit closer to joining the Big Five is the Hurt Locker. The Hurt Locker received nomination for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Screenplay. The one category missing would be best actress. As good as the Hurt Locker was I don't see it winning all four of those categories, maybe three at the most with Best Picture, Best Screenplay and Best Director.
The reason I think that we wont see another film join the Big Five is because modern movies have begun to really focus on one aspect. Avatar focused on the special effects which is why there were no acting nominations. I don't think that Hollywood will be spending money to make a movie like Avatar with great actors in it. Until they decide to change this fact we will be left with the three lone Big Five winner.

Web Cam Savior

2010-02-08T17:51:00.000-08:00

Now I'm sure you've all heard that belief that technology will be the downfall of human kind, well that may be true but for now I think its working out rather well for us. We have cellphones that can do almost anything and TVs with a picture so precise you feel like you are sitting in the same room as the people on your favorite show. However, something that I found insanely useful was this article I can across last week. You can read the article if you'd like:

http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2010/02/03/german_man_saved_on_frozen_sea_by_webcam_spotter/?rss_id=Boston.com+%2F+Boston+Globe+--+World+News

The article is about a woman who was watching the sunset via web cam and found a man who was missing on the frozen North Sea. How cool is that? A simple web cam that was set up for tourists to view the North Sea saved a mans life. Now web cams are a recent invention so if this were to happen 30 years ago, the man may have never been found. Imagine that, being lost out on a frozen sea and being rescued because a woman saw you on her computer hundred of miles away.

Sure we have movies like the Terminator where the machines kill human kind, but until they start to turn on us, i think today's technology is remarkable and helpful in more ways than we can even imagine.

And The Winner Is... (Best Picture)

2010-02-05T15:35:00.000-08:00

Early Tuesday morning in Los Angeles the 82nd Academy Award nominations were released. To my disgust Moon did not receive a single nomination, but I wont further rant about that here. Rather I would like to talk about my prediction for best picture and a few surprises that I noticed when looking through the nominees.
This is the first year that the Academy nominated ten best pictures. This years nominees include Avatar, The Blind Side, District 9, An Education, The Hurt Locker, Inglorious Basterds, Precious, A Serious Man, Up, and Up in the Air. Obviously Avatar was going to be nominated. Any movie with that type of hype and sheer income would be bound for at least a nomination. The Hurt Locker, Inglorious Basterds, and Up in the Air were all expected to receive a nomination. The movies that really surprised me for being nominated were The Blind Side and District 9. Now I haven't seen The Blind Side yet, but just by seeing the trailers, it did not seem to me to be an Oscar type movie. What surprised me about District 9 Being nominated was the fact of the budget that this movie was made on. D9 was made on a budget of $30 million. Sure that's a lot of money but that is nothing compared to the budget of Avatar which was approximately $237 million. I guess if I had to pick a winner for best picture I would give it to The Hurt Locker. The Hurt Locker tells the story of a bomb squad in Iraq. This film is not only relevant but was well made. Sure people are gonna want to see Avatar win, but take away the special effects and it wouldn't have been anything special.
I guess we will have to wait until March 7 to see who brings home the title and I'm sure my opinion will change before that dead line but for now I am sticking with the Hurt Locker.

Moon

2010-02-01T16:48:00.001-08:00

Well tomorrow the Oscar nominations will be released. Many have made their predictions of who will win and for the most part they all predict the same for almost every category. However, there is one film that is being left off of every list that I have seen, Moon. Moon is a science fiction film directed by Duncan Jones (David Bowies son), that takes place on none other than Earths moon.

It tells the story of a man name Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell). Sam was sent to the moon to harvest Helium 3 which is used to power everything on Earth; a nice solution to the global energy crisis. Sam was contracted for a 3 year stay and the movie starts when Sam has 2 weeks left. Strange events begin to occur on the base and throws Sam into a frenzy of unpredictable and unexplainable occurrences.

The story alone deserves a nomination for best original screenplay, however, what really stands out is Sam Rockwells acting. Its convincing and honest and the first time I saw the film I literally had chills. If this film doesn't receive at least one nomination it will be a shame.

Another movie that came out around the same time as Moon was District 9. District 9 was a good movie and deserves the attention it got. However, I feel like the reason that D9 got more attention than Moon was due to the fact that Peter Jackson produced it and during the trailer for D9 they made this very clear.

Now I am a fan of both movies, but Moon was a much more original idea and for the budget that Jones had to work with he made an incredible picture that redefined the science fiction category. If you havent seen Moon do yourself a favor and do it immediately!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1182345/

An Opinion of Media in the Music Industry

2010-01-27T22:46:00.001-08:00

A question has crossed my mind a lot lately, how do musicians make it big? Is it pure talent, or is luck a factor? Does their individual style have anything to do with it? The more new music that I discover and listen to, the more I wonder why these smaller unknown artists haven't been found and made big. A lot of these bands have sounds that fit into contemporary musical categories. I feel as though the media plays a huge role in this. My personal belief is that in a competition between two acts, the act that is more marketable will be the one that is offered a bigger contract and all those bells and whistles. Even if you are extremely talented and your music sounds great, I feel that the people in charge will pay you no mind unless they can use you for their own profit. Now maybe this is a narrow minded view but its just something that I thought up and found interesting. Please let me know what you think, I'd love to hear it.