April 12, 2006
Neil Gaiman on comics and film
Neil Gaiman writes about the increasingly intertwined paths of comic writers and film-makers and questions the value of an unlimited special effects budget mentality. As he points out, often aiming at a smaller audience makes for a more interesting story. I love the notion that comic people have a willingness to "do our learning and experimenting in public". That's what's missing from the popular conceit of storytelling - the live aspect. For all the challenges of bringing a story to the screen, what really excites me is the potential for turning this into performances that the audience can engage with.
"Not having to be liked is enormously liberating."
In praise of moving pictures - Film - Entertainment - smh.com.au
March 30, 2006
Take the lead - Addictive TV remix
Addictive TV score the first Hollywood remix gig with a trailer for the upcoming Antonio Banderas flic Take the Lead.
March 06, 2006
Lucas predicts the end of big movies
During this year's Oscars weekend, George Lucas predicted that "by 2025 the average movie will cost only US$15 million." after indie movies secured most of the major prizes. It certainly makes sense. The rise of user-generated-content generation is a sign that the tools of production have finally been democratised. Ironically it's the global success of the Hollywood machine that has contributed more than anything to the appeal of do-it-yourself storytelling.
Not a good sign for the film business or is it? You could argue that the "big" movies of the future will be wider than long. Starting with a cinema release, the best stories now have a chance to live far beyond the traditional distribution model. Which Oscar-winning film will be the first to let the audience in? Its cheap and it will happen.
New York Daily News - Home - Lloyd Grove's Lowdown: Lucas: Big pics are doomed
February 10, 2006
Fascade beta testers wanted
The makers of Fascade, the interactive narrative experiment, are looking for new beta testers.
January 17, 2006
retrievr - search by sketching
retrievr is a rather interface to flickr which searches the online photo system using your scribbling as a reference. Colour and shapes form a refreshing break from keyword tags.
My tests didn't immediately spring back with relevent responses. It was more like the first round of playing Pictionary with strangers but the idea is brilliant and you can see how this could be refined over to time to be highly accurage. I read about something similar for furniture a few years ago via the SIGGRAPH conference and was struck by how useful this process is for a more uniform collection of images (e.g. tables and chairs).
January 12, 2006
Participant Productions
The last line in the credits of Syriana is a URL - . An activist call to arms at the end of a Warner Bros movie? I had to investigate further...
The site appears to be a portal for community activism stemming from feature film releases. Founded by ebay president, Jeff Skoll, Participant Productions is in the business of producing political movies.
"Participant believes in the power of media to create great social change. Our goal is to deliver compelling entertainment that will inspire audiences to get involved in the issues that affect us all."
What is most interesting is that the films to-date, Syriana, North Country, Murderball, Goodnight and Good Luck are not simply grassroots productions but heavy-hitting Hollywood productions with A-list stars like George Clooney and Charlize Theron. What happens when the majority of film productions, regardless of country of origin, make this much effort to establish a social context outside of the cinema. The medium evolves.
January 04, 2006
Disney and iTunes
The Mouse House has expanded its offerings on iTunes dramatically in what Variety predicts will be a familiar refrain this year. The offerings mainly consist of TV content but two feature films from the 1930s, Three Little Pigs and The Tortoise and The Hare are also being released.
January 03, 2006
Alternative ending DVDs
Scrounging for scraps or producing interactivity? You decide.
"Universal Studios Home Entertainment recently surveyed consumers and found alternate endings are their favorite bonus features"
DVD producers hunt for novelties - Yahoo! News
Non-liner narrative, especially alternative endings, is a tricky subject for storytellers. On one hand audiences expect more choice yet providing one (let alone several) compelling storylines is often hard enough. Where do you draw the line?
As usual, the studio endorsements expressed here come after years of cautious experimentation and considerable money burnt by independents. What have we learnt? The innate appeal of a non-linear storyilne for its own sake is limited but offering a wider pool of assets is often appreciated by the audience. The appeal of peeking "inside the box" to see how movies are made is not to be underestimated, especially by jaded ("seen it all before") professionals.
December 28, 2005
Hollywood opts out of the Google Economy
A new media strategy report details how and why the US film industry is refusing to play ball with broadband. It identifies the UK as the bellweather market in 2006. All eyes obviously remain on the BBC and BT to see how their video service offerings play out.
"...change will come largely on Hollywood's terms and at an incremental pace..."
December 12, 2005
MOD Films for mash-ups
Wired 13.12: Thinking Outside the Box Office
"Interviewer: Have you thought about making a mash-up?
Steven Soderbergh: I have ideas like that - video mash-ups. Some of them I've done privately. But there's no way for them to be seen legally. I wish we could come up with a system that allowed someone to do a Grey Album without having to pay millions of dollars for music rights. A system in which rights holders share profits of a new piece of work and people can access it without breaking the law."
Looks like the appetite for MOD Films is increasing.
Kong lives
I was deeply sceptical that the monkey-and-blonde-chick-flick would be anything beyond VFX candy but King Kong (2005) surpassed my expectations. If not for the plot, the cinematography, the colours, and above all the emotive performance of the world's biggest CG character make this a classic.
The godfather of mocap acting, Andy Serkis, has spent quality time hanging out with the gorillas of London Zoo and it shows. On The Culture Show, you can see gorillas responding in the background as he demonstrates a few phrases to the interviewer. One revision on from the process of creating Gollum was the 'Kongalizer', a voice-masking system that allowed Serkis to vocalize gorilla-like on set.
December 09, 2005
Film (The Sequel)
Cass Creatives: On Film (The Sequel) is a thoughtful report on a recent debate in London where panellists looked at strategies the UK film industry may need to adopt in order to survive the next decade.
December 02, 2005
VJ Peter Greenway
NoTV Visual Music - 17.06.2005: Peter Greenaway's magnificent VJ debut back in June has been documented by NOTV. About time that feature film directors get in on the action.
November 22, 2005
World Cinema Online
UK online distributor, World Cinema Online, has around 30 titles available for purchase and/or 5-day rental. Like the BBC's iMP, the service relies on Microsoft DRM. World Cinema Online - Legally download essential independent and classic filmsOctober 05, 2005
Re-mixable advertising
'Create your own Manga online' is the tag line of this re-mix toy advertising JP Gaultier perfume. A Flash re-mix interface lets you sequence together the most abstract scene of a short film in which a decidely fashion-friendly cyber-feral concocts a new perfume. It's a wise move to limit audience participation to the most non-narrative element of the film. One of the biggest hurdles with making non-linear storytelling concepts work is the niggling truth that the same old rules apply. It's not that easy to tell a good story without care and attention - attributes lacking in web experiences decided to capture your imagination... for a minute or two.
September 16, 2005
Superplay
A new kind of video genre - Superplay videos show gaming gurus working their way through titles in record time. Available for download and even for sale online, these vids help people to master the moves of the pros.
August 19, 2005
IMDb API
"In other news, at Open Tech 2005 an Amazon representative said that they’d be opening up IMDB with an API in the near future, so something to watch there."
August 02, 2005
Digital Cinema Specification 1.0
The film industry has spoken. There will be a standard digital cinema experience and you can now read the spec.
http://www.dcimovies.com/DCI_Digital_Cinema_System_Spec_v1.pdf
Nothing new as far as the experience is concerned and certainly no mention of sampling culture.
One interesting observation is that cinema owners are going to have to have reliable Internet connections to screen films. Failure to connect to a new release’s “license server” might prove disastrous to box office takings. It reminds me of my first and only experience playing Bingo. The Bingo caller announced that due to modem troubles there would be no big cash prize on the next game, as they couldn’t connect to the nation-wide system. Of course, that is when I got the winning numbers, and I have never been back since!
June 27, 2005
ColorEngine
Geek.com Geek News - A first-hand look at ColorEngine
After the stir created by Waking Life, Bob Sabiston's ColorEngine is being used
to rotoscope the new Phillip K Dick adaption, A Scanner Darkly. Can't wait for that one.
Read one geek's close encounter with the software you cannot buy.
April 25, 2005
Models for Sustainable Media
Eli Chapman does a round-up of the ways in which traditional artists are using not-so-new media to grow their audience and leverage digi culture.
Models_For_Sustainable_Cinema_eli_chapman_IIFF.pdf (application/pdf Object)
April 07, 2005
Sketching at Pixar
The facility of being able to sketch on top of video is being used to good effect at Pixar. The Review Sketch tools is emerging as a powerful communication device.
April 05, 2005
MEAA rages on about CC
MEAA is up in arms over growing support for Sanctuary. The art of getting up the establishment' nose continues...
http://modfilms.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=517#517
Not everyone is impressed. Brian Flemming writes of the Return of the Boston strangler
March 29, 2005
Future Cast
FutureCast is a real-time face-scan technology being used to put faces up on screen in "Space Child Adventure Grand Odyssey". Now all they need is a new title and we're hooked!
March 14, 2005
MEAA halts re-mixable film
How hard is it to make a film and give it away? In Australia, very hard...
apc.au ICT Rights Monitor - ICTs and Culture: MEAA halts world-first film project in Australia
but neither Sanctuary or the issue of licensing a film under Creative Commons is going to go away.
More info on the MEAA submission has been posted to the MOD Films forums.
January 25, 2005
Feature Film Wireless Delivery
Intel completes a proof-of-concept delivery of a feature film (Rise) to its audience via wireless.
January 22, 2005
miniseries - episodic stories for mobile
The ABC miniseries project - commissioning episodic "adventures" for mobile phone will be out later this year.
January 12, 2005
December 20, 2004
BitTorrents under attack
New development in the War against Torrents.
Two of the largest Bit Torrent tracker sites have gone down, Supernova.org and TorrentsBits.com, with commentators suggesting that the Motion Picture Association of America is behind this. The end of file sharing as we know it?
Hardly. All that has happened is that file sharers have got to find a new way of doing business as usual. And once again media businesses demonstrate a total lack of imagination. People pay for convenience...
As much I love the idea of Bit Torrent, in practice I've never been that satisfied. BT works best for distributing the most popular files in the network. The files I've always been interested in are rarely these ones. Hence the appeal of subscription download services that provide good bandwidth to niche programs. One day the idiots will get it.
SuprNova.org ends, not with a bang but a whimper | The Register
November 23, 2004
Peter Jackson says re-mix The Two Towers
MikeH writes in that on The Two Towers' Director's Commentary (the start of the second disk), Peter Jackson explicitly encourages some fan out there to re-mix the film in chronological order. But what does New Line Cinema have to say about that?
November 20, 2004
November 09, 2004
Online films vs online music biz
Faultline argue that the case for online film business is fundamentally different to online music business.
Newcomer video-on-demand firm, Akimbo, is compared to older outfits.
Stealing movies: Why the MPAA can afford to relax | The Register
October 25, 2004
Alan and Joan Root
I've always wondered why Alan and Joan Root, two of my favourite film-makers remain so obscure and unrecognised.
Finally, at least one web page devoted to their films - Alan Root thanks to the Academic Film Archive of North America that catalogues the best 16mm film-makers that never engaged with Hollywood.
The Natural History Museum in London has a small sample of the film "Mzima: Portrait of a Spring" playing on a monitor alongside its life-size model of a hippo. The footage is an underwater shot of the "river horse" bounding along the bottom of Mzima Springs, in Samburu National Park, north Kenya.
September 22, 2004
Outfoxed - first re-mixable major motion picture
"film may be poised to join music as a medium ripe for being re-edited and re-imagined by third parties."
Brilliant news for re-mixable film-makers, the ice has been broken by Outfoxed - the first time a major motion picture has been released in this way. MOD Films is preparing to release pure entertainment titles in similar fashion.
July 06, 2004
Russian Ark
"The making of RUSSIAN ARK is a story of records and firsts - the first entirely unedited, single screen, single take, full-length feature film; the longest-ever steadicam sequence, the first ever uncompressed HD Movie, recorded onto a portable hard disk system, rather than 35mm or tape."
Director's permission to download Fahrenheit 9/11
Moore: pirate my film, no problem - [Sunday Herald]
Valenti said:"Nobody can allow their rights to be stolen because, if you can' retrieve your investment, you're out of the movie business,
I don't think there's really a single actor or director in the world who does not believe that if you don't combat piracy, it will devour you in the future.'
No really, there are some. I think the future is devouring in any case and the film business is changing. How quickly remains to be seen but it is good to see established film-makers sanctioning sampling as well as us newbies. Piracy and non-commercial use have to be separated.
June 22, 2004
Complete eejit's guide to film-making
The lengths that people have to go to in order to get around film studio copyright protection...
This is a nicely illustrated case study of Jaws the movie using one of my favourite open source technologies - Lego.
June 18, 2004
T-shirts that play trailers
Hollywood marketing idea of the week. Chicks wearing video t-shirts that play trailers around E3. |
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June 09, 2004
Re-mixable film release
A taster for the MOD Films business model this week with the release of a VJ content pack,
The pack is a collection of files that let you play a film from a PC or Mac using a MIDI keyboard. You can use a regular keyboard to trigger the visuals but the latency is far lower using MIDI.
Arkaos specified a limit of 300MB so it wasn't possible to include the entire films in linear form.
May 30, 2004
Fourthwall Films
Fourthwall Films is promoting the Internet Archive's free offer to host any film with free for non commercial use assets. The Archive offer appears to be for one file only so budding film-makers are going to have been clever about packaging.
MOD Films is trying to come at it from the other end. Instead of starting with a community of film-makers we are busy gearing up to publishing our own films. Ego moi? At that point we will be in a position to offer peer-to-peer syndication of our assets. Good to see other folks breaking the fourth wall. It's a scary big patented universe out there.
April 26, 2004
Fan Films
Below are some links to fan films available online. There are some fairly diverse films receiving tribute in these, although the fan films themselves are of varying merit.
Indiana Jed – a very ambitious teenager film in the Indiana Jones mould.
http://linnproductions.com/jed/jedsections.html
Marla – A French effort riffing on Marla Singer, the Helena Bonham-Carter character from Fight Club
http://www.fanflicks.com/tickets/marla.htm
Pink Five – A Star Wars comedy, bringing in the Clueless girl. Very funny.
http://atomfilms.shockwave.com/contentPlay/mediapref/mediaPrefForm.jsp?keyword=pink5&returnUrl=/contentPlay/video.jsp?id=pink5&ratingBarExclude=0&preplay=1&brand
Return to the Woods –Evil Dead tribute
http://www.lougentile.com/mr_olaf/RTTW.wmv
Skeletor and Gang – A series of seriously mashed up, crude silent He-Man animations. Wonderful.
http://www.skeletorandgang.tk/
Predator: Hunter’s Match – an impressive (except for the acting) Predator tribute. Can’t find the film, however…
http://homepage.mac.com/cbauer/hunter/clips.html
Run Student Run – Run Lola Run retread, some good animation and slapstick.
http://www.itswalky.com/david/runstudentrun.rm
For more fan films see:
http://www.theforce.net/theater/
Hosted by theforce.net (Star Wars fan site), these are mostly Star Wars fan films and fan effects tests, some fantastic, some absurd.
http://www.theraider.net/community/theater/index.php
Indiana Jones fan films
http://www.fanflicks.com/
All sorts of fan films
http://www.fanfilms.net/
Over 300 fan films in categories as diverse as Pulp Fiction and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
April 13, 2004
Stockstock Festival recycles Prelinger archive
A film festival based entirely on re-interpreting stock footage.
March 18, 2004
Director-file
What is there not to love about a website showcasing directors who work across various forms of media... with a homepage laid out like the Commodore 64 start screen.
Features Chris Cunningham, Michel Gondry and Athens Music Video
March 10, 2004
Creative Commons icons
The Creative Commons brands is making people think about sharing when they publish films and video. By licensing footage and work with free-for-non-commercial-use, a growing pool of material is becoming available for creative projects that weave threads of new narrative through sampling.
Fan films
There is an unprecendented degree of coverage of big budget productions, like LOTR, and yet, despite the range of interactive technology available to the production, most of these products are passive. Few are dynamically derived, direct from the source material.
The gap between film fan and film fan who plays games is not supported by these products and arguably open for exploitation in the future.
At the same time, Hollywood studios continue to resort to legal action on fans whenever they tamper with film licenses. Only recently have certain fan films been tolerated by license holders but only if they re-create (not sample) film art purely for non-commercial use. Warner (e.g. Superman) and Viacom (e.g. Star Trek) have been known to shut down web sites with fan-sampled IP. The largest community is fanfilms.com (part of theforce.net Star Wars fan site). As of 20/11/2003, there are 36 Star Wars short films and 15 animations on fanfilms.com. There is also one Batman short (the highly acclaimed Batman: Dead End and 3 Matrix shorts).
March 09, 2004
Now the Movie
NOW THE MOVIE - A COLLABORATIVE FILM PROJECT is a UK funded exercise in creating a film from contributions made by the global network of film-makers.
March 03, 2004
Bodysong
Bodysong was commissioned as a part film/part web site project with the research that went into each and every shot showcased and available online.
My Little Eye
My Little Eye is a Big Brother-style horror movie that works better on DVD than for cinema thanks to a very sophisticated Special Edition DVD that presents the movie in a web interface with multi-track audio and multi-camera views available.
http://www.ideasfactory.tv/new_media/features/newm_feature_21.htm
March 02, 2004
February 24, 2004
Market review of pre-viz
Pre-vis, previs, pre-viz, previz, previsualistation... whatever you call it, tools are appearing.
FrameForge 3D Studio is a "3D virtual film set" equipped with actors, outdoor and indoor scenery, furniture, and other elements that directors and others can use to depict scenes. The software was developed to help provide a more effective representation of the director's visual intentions, complete with pictographic and technical information.
January 28, 2004
Re-mixable films tribe
As a taster for the re-mixable films community, I recently set up http://remixablefilms.tribe.net to collect stills, signposts and discussion.
Why let game players have all the fun? Let's MOD the movies. How would you fiddle with your favourite films if they let you? What are people doing anyhow?
January 12, 2004
Tracey Moffatt and Leigh Bowery films
Tracey Moffat's photography and films are being showcased at the Museum of Contemporary at Art, Sydney at the moment. She is not known for interactive film-making but Love (2003) is a stunning 21 minute compilation of male/female kissykissy/love/hate/slap!/"I can't take this any more"/*woman blows guy away* moments from popular cinema.
Tracey Moffatt - Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery - Sydney, Australia
More of a cover than a re-mix, the MCA is also currently the place to sample the life and fabulousness of Leigh Bowery, including a music video cover of Walk This Way that would have Run DMC choking on their lattes. If you have never seen a merkin (ie pubic wig) in action then better get wise and check this out.
============ LEIGH BOWERY XTRAVAGANZA ============ (a loud link but appropriate)
December 18, 2003
Judge overrules MPAA film screener ban
A US federal judge has issued a restraining order against the MPAA so the major studios are now powerless to prevent free film screeners being issued as promotional tools. Many studios will nonetheless not be sending out DVDs as they are more easily copied.
Judge Deals Studios Defeat, Restores Movie 'Screeners'
(requires free registration)
December 17, 2003
Spiderman blogs
Sony Pictures gets blogs. The Spiderman 2 website has downloadable templates for most blog systems so you can customise your own Spiderman fan site.
December 15, 2003
Fast Film
Austrian director Virgil Widrich has released Fast Film, a 14 minute short made up of 65,000 printouts of stills from 400 films. An article on the production is on AWN.
December 12, 2003
Gaijin Magazine
New Australasian sub cult magazine GAIJIN! launched this week to cover anime, robots and related goodies. The site features a competition for a 30-second action movie.
November 20, 2003
Machinima in the press
Machine cinema in the mainstream press. Guardian Unlimited | Online | Play it again, Sam.
An article is also coming out in New Scientist, although not clear which issue.
November 08, 2003
Robota
Doug Chaing (concept artist for the Star Wars prequels) is promoting his new book/film project, Robota, using animated concept art.
November 06, 2003
Thunder Road - interactive BBC soap
A report on a recent New Media Knowledge talk on the making of Thunder Road
October 30, 2003
Nothing so strange
NOTHING SO STRANGE has taken the limelight as "the world's first open-source movie".
In practice, what you get is a 70 minute low budget mock-documentary video (for US$5) and a handful of short clips (US5cents each).
http://www.nothingsostrange.com/open_source/assassination.html
October 13, 2003
Remind Me
“Directed by the design duo H5 (Herve de Crecy and Ludovic Houplain), Royksopp's "Remind Me" may just be the most depressing video ever made.”
September 24, 2003
Scene poetry in 64K
.the .product is more than a couple of 64K real-time 3D graphics demos. This is one talented mob of german coders and designers making "scene poetry". The demo use somel very impressive techniques but require a PC with a fat graphics card and recent DirectX. Hard disk space is not a problem.
September 21, 2003
September 04, 2003
This is not a love song
This is not a love story, released tomorrow (20030905) is being billed as "the world's first online film release" simultaneously online and in cinemas. The production is sponsored by the UK Film Council.
July 22, 2003
Hulk as live action comic
Ang Lee's Hulk turned out to be just as memorable for its use of comic panel styling as for the big green guy himself. Interestingly, all the promotional material for the film seems to carefully avoid showing this (dominant) visual aesthetic. Comic book fans will love it.
I, for one, found the constant movement between panels annoying in the first half of the movie where the story was slow moving. Some effects came across as gimmicky. Some of the 3D transitions (like screen images twisting and rotating like a cube in time to laboratory equipment) were distracting.
However, as the fast-paced second half kicked in, the panelling approach worked a treat. The Hulk leaps from panel to panel in spectacular fashion. In a manner reminiscent of Timecode and 24, the parallel viewpoints increase the tension.
Today's audience is too sophisticated for all this to be dismissed as sensory overloading. Panelling is clearly a technique we are going to see a whole lot more of, and one too easy to misuse.
July 21, 2003
Batman reclaimed by fans
Fans of the Dark Knight have been raving about a Batman short film shot quietly in LA by fans and which was supposed to be unveiled at ComicCon this weekend in LA. Ain't It Cool has the story and some intriguing stills. Very buff. Rumour has it that this is the best onscreen portrayal of the superhero yet.
July 07, 2003
Film's not dead, damn it!
Good reality check on Salon.com, Film's not dead, damn it!. Why cinematographers are suspicious of the digital cinema "revolution".
"Sony and Panasonic both manufacture high-definition cameras, and have a stake in getting their products used and accepted (not to mention plugged by Lucas), whether they produce satisfactory results or not."
It is really the same argument as the one urging caution with regards to human cloning, genetically modified foods, hell any high technology area. There is no need to rush into a new framework when technology is moving so fast, leaving last year's products obsolete? Who wants to raise a family where each child reflects the technology of his or her day. Obsolete kids? "My big sister was Win95, I was XP. We always had a few issues."
I can relate to the argument that creative technology vendors are not to be trusted. My last (digital) film "Horses for Courses" relied on proprietary software that (two years later) is no longer supported (although the cheeky sods still sell it). In hindsight, digital technology could have served the story much better.
June 09, 2003
Sing-a-long at the Prince Charles
It's amazing how useful the old adage "Keep it simple stupid" is. One of the most entertaining interactive movie experiences I've ever encountered has to be the (very offline) Sing-along Sound of Music, the karaoke print of the film/variety show regularily held at the Prince Charles Cinema in London.
Singalonga.com must be doing something right. They've just released their fourth film - Singalonga Annie.
"Expect all the Singalong regulars – free goody bag, magic moments, fancy dress competition and the chance to cheer, boo and hiss to your heart’s content. And, if you can’t get your costume together, remember, it’s what you wear from ear to ear and not from head to toe that maaaatters..."
June 02, 2003
Dude! Ask Crush!
Finding Nemo -- The Official Website is out. For low-bandwidth fun, the Ask Crush is pretty neat. It's good to see voice actors being used on a site.
Flash movie on clean energy
Activist eye candy. A contradiction in terms?A clean and simple campaign to the Australian Federal Government requesting that 10% of Australia's power come from new renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar in 2010. help make a difference
March 31, 2003
Fahrenheit 911
Mother of all documentaries? Not quite but Michael Moore's new project, Bush-bin Laden film, sounds like it could be good for a few laughs and a shudder.
March 19, 2003
Zombie head explosion
Stress getting to you? Apply to be a zombie extra and you may be "awarded with a loving photographed head explosion". Is this the job ad of the month? Spaced Out Forum -> Shaun of the Dead goes into Production
Zombie head explosion
Stress getting to you? Apply to be a zombie extra and you may be "awarded with a living photographed head explosion". Is this the job ad of the month? Spaced Out Forum -> Shaun of the Dead goes into Production
March 07, 2003
Spielberg to sample films
Last month, Dreamworks signed a deal with Mike Myers to re-work existing movies with new characters and storylines. "Film sampling", says Dreamworks, will put a new spin on existing movies the way rap artists re-work old songs.
February 08, 2003
Flashback by Danny Gomez
This week's award for best splash screen (make that, movie) goes to Danny Gomez for Flashback.
January 13, 2003
On the Brink - Conservation video activism
Australian environmental groups are taking their video, "On the Brink", on a roadshow around New South Wales in the lead-up to the March 22nd State Election.
The half hour video, with contributions by Sir David Attenborough, Olivia Newton-John, and David Bellamy, puts forward the case for increased protection of old growth and high conservation value forests.
Injustice - too hot for TV, now out on video
Too controversial to be screened on British television, too controversial to fade away, Injustice, a documentary on black deaths in UK police custody, is now for sale on video.
As a documentary, the film is compelling but when I attended a screening last year (at the Prince Charles cinemain London), I was also struck by how tireless the film's producers had been in resisting ongoing pressure from the London Metropolitan Police Service, the Police Complaints Authority and the UK Crown Prosecution Service to shut up and go away.
November 21, 2002
British Pathe
Funded by the UK Lottery, British Pathe has released an online archive and preview service of their full library. "3,500 hours of video, 90,000 web pages, 75 years".
November 17, 2002
Dog Soldiers
 | Soldiers on exercise in the Scottish Highlands meet blood thirsty werewolves. Dog Soldiers is a well paced action movie that smoothly executes all the usual conventions without CG or too much budget. |
November 14, 2002
Mr Pay-back didn't pay-off.
Mr Pay-back, an early attempt at commercial interactive cinema, might have shot itself, and everyone else involved in interactive film-making, in the foot. Audiences moaned about bad acting, a terrible script, the short running-time and poor quality in general.
Perhaps the problem was that, interactive movies being an experimental area, the studio was not prepared to budget for a full-length film with an engaging well-written script and big-name actors to draw in the crowd. The novelty piece they came up with was shoddy and may have put audiences off interactive movies for a while. At the very least any new forays into this area are going to be viewed by the media with suspicion and sceptisism. But what studio is going to take the leap and put some serious money into interactive movies? Are we seeing a Catch-22 situation here?
November 07, 2002
Attack of the Clones IMAX edition
Last weekend marks the debut of the first Star Wars movie presented in IMAX® format. Episode II has undergone the revolutionary IMAX-DMRTM process, which not only results in a clear image up to eight stories tall, but also a colossal 12,000 watts of sound for a truly immersive experience.
November 05, 2002
Massive crowds in Lord of the Rings
Massive happens to be the name of the crowd animation software used to spectacular effect by Weta Digital in the Lord of the Rings movies. Popular Science magazine has published an article on Massive.
Speaking of massive crowds in Middle Earth, what will ever happen to Middle-earth Online, the MMRPG that was touted last year? Not much besides lawsuits it seems.
From http://mevault.ign.com/thegame/overview/
Middle-earth Online, a massively multiplayer role playing game, was announced in mid 1998. Nearly a year later, Sierra underwent a reorganization, which resulted in the cancellation of several game titles and the restaffing of the Middle-earth Online project. Since then, Sierra Studios has been tight lipped about the progress of the game but has repeatedly stated that it is being worked on and that new staff is being hired for the project. The current state of Middle-earth Online is not known at this time, but we'll keep you updated as things develop.
November 04, 2002
The Movie of your Dreams?
Whatever happened to the 'MindDrive' movie? In 1995 California based 'The Other 90% Technologies' announced an alliance with Miramax films that would enable film-goers to determine the outcome of movies using "the power of their minds."
The Other 90%'s MindDrive technology incorporates a large ring that users will slip on to their fingers. The ring acts as a sensor, receiving signals from the mind which are transmitted to the MindDrive and a computer. MindDrive then interprets those signals and allows viewers to alter the course of a film with a simple thought. an amazing idea, much reported by the press and looked forward to by sci-fi buffs, tecchies and movie lovers alike. So what happened to it?
The whole Minddrive thing came as a complete surprise to me when I came across it whilst researching something totally different. And loving the movies and new technology as I do I was amazed that I had never heard about it before. So with trembling fingers I proceeded to search the internet for up-to-date information on the movie project, and what did I find? Well, nothing that's what. At least, nothing postdating the initial reporting. I certainly don't remember a film being released which made use of this technology and there's nothing to be found on the Miramax or The Other90% sites. Mysterious....
There is a lot of information to be found on Minddrive gaming and virtual reality uses, but as for the application to film-making the page is blank. Does anybody know what went on?