Posted Aug 11th 2008 5:02PM by Christopher Campbell
Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Tech Stuff, Harry Potter
I recall reading about real-life experiments with invisibility
a couple years back, and I could have sworn I blogged about them here on
Cinematical. But I must have decided to keep Harry Potter fans from getting their hopes up, despite the fact that the original article I read had specifically mentioned Potter's invisibility cloak. Plus, I must have been hesitant to attempt to explain the science behind it.
Well, now that
more news has come out about the development of materials that may be able to render people and other three-dimensional objects invisible, I figure it's time to get excited. Now we can definitely wander around Hogwarts after dark without being spotted by Argus Filch. Or, for the grown up kids, you can potentially sneak into the girls' locker room. Just beware that these real-life cloaks probably don't work so well in such foggy conditions.
Continue reading Is Harry Potter's Invisibility Cloak Becoming a Reality?
Posted Jul 18th 2008 8:02AM by Christopher Campbell
Filed under: Tech Stuff, Home Entertainment
With the popularity of those
new Netlix-playing Roku devices and this week's news that
Xbox will also work with the Netflix Watch Instantly service and
yesterday's launch of the documentary site
SnagFilms and the fact that everyone including your grandma has a site that streams movies, it's no surprise that
Amazon has finally also launched a stream service called Amazon Video on Demand. And it's got its own special Roku-type device to be manufactured by Sony, only it's much more expensive at $300 (compared to $99 for the Roku). And it seems you also need a Sony-made hi-def television to use it. The good news: eventually Sony's Bravia TVs will cut out the middle man (aka that $300 device) and Amazon may be able to work out future deals with other TV manufacturers.
Because it comes a little too late in the game, and because
iTunes will likely forever keep its rival from offering Disney and ABC titles, I don't see Amazon Video on Demand being hugely successful. But the service at least sounds better than
Amazon Unbox, which sold movie downloads. Because everyone and your grandmother subscribes to Netflix, if anyone wants to stream a movie they're going to just go with Watch Instantly and Roku. And because the main downside to that service is that it doesn't transfer to portable devices nor does it allow offline viewing, movie consumers are better off with iTunes for their non-Netflix needs. Hey, at least Amazon is still the preferred place to buy books, whether in paper or digital format.
[
via Cinema Tech]
Posted Jul 15th 2008 8:02AM by Eugene Novikov
Filed under: Tech Stuff, Exhibition, Family Films
As anyone who went to see
Journey to the Center of the Earth 3-D last weekend knows, a viable, attractive, non-headache-inducing 3-D technology now exists for feature-length films in regular theaters (albeit ones outfitted with a special projector). Unfortunately, it's still not being used as a storytelling tool so much as an attempt to impress people -- look, it's Brendan Fraser, spitting water in your face! -- but maybe
James Cameron will fix that soon, what with his plans to film a low-key drama in 3-D after he finishes
Avatar. In any case, now that
Journey has proven the mettle of the format (the 800-some theaters showing it in 3-D made up for more than half of the film's opening weekend gross, and rightfully so), you should probably expect to wear goofy plastic glasses with increasing frequency.
Case in point: Sony's announcement yesterday that its
previously-announced adaptation of the children's book
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs will be the first digital 3-D release for Sony Pictures Animation. The movie (which I believe still has
Anna Faris and
Andy Samberg doing the lead voices) is about a scientist who tries a radical approach to solving world hunger only to wind up with food coming down from the sky, which doesn't turn out to be as awesome as it sounds. A Sony exec provides an amazing quote to go along with the announcement: "The story is about 'food weather,' and so food falling from the sky lends itself so well to 3-D." No kidding.
I anxiously await the day when 3-D is used to tell better, more engaging stories rather than to provide the equivalent of a novelty theme park ride. Maybe soon.
Posted Jul 6th 2008 9:02AM by Christopher Campbell
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, New Releases, New Line, Tech Stuff, Exhibition, Family Films, Columns
I don't know the last time I felt like a kid at the movies, but while watching
Journey to the Center of the Earth 3-D this past week, I honestly reverted to my 8-year-old self. That isn't to say the movie is necessarily as good as the movies that astonished me as a kid -- because of the subject matter, I'd think about comparing it to
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and
The Goonies, both of which came out when I was around that age, and neither to which this film holds up in terms of originality or storytelling craft. But as far as holding onto my sense of wonder,
Journey is up there.
Of course, it's necessary to point out that
Journey would be nothing without the digital 3-D factor. It's actually the first live-action narrative feature to be shot and released in the new format (the non-fiction concert films,
U2 3D and
Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour were technically the first live-action 3-D features), and while it's far from perfect, it is a terrific pioneer. I shall continue favoring the look of animated 3-D films, especially those directed as well as
Monster House, and I anticipate that James Cameron's
Avatar will blow away all live-action 3-D films released prior to its arrival. For now, though, I'm telling you, with the utmost cinemaphilic urgency: you need to see this ASAP.
Continue reading The Exhibitionist: Journey to the Cinema for an Astonishing 3-D Experience
Posted Jul 3rd 2008 6:15PM by Kim Voynar
Filed under: Tech Stuff, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand, Home Entertainment
There's a very interesting discussion going on over on Hollywood Elsewhere today about whether studios re-releasing older movies on Blu-ray are going too far in tweaking the originals to make them look "better." At the center of the discussion is the Dirty Harry Blu-ray DVD. Glenn Erickson, writing for film.com, points out that the Patton Blu-ray DVD was "enhanced to minimize the natural grain," but that in that case, the altering makes it look more like the theatrical 70mm presentation, so he doesn't take issue with that one. The Dirty Harry Blu-ray, however, Erickson considers "more complicated." He notes:
"The Blu-ray disc shows heavy tweaking to minimize grain, sharpen contrast and brighten colors. Sunny exteriors haven't changed much but heavy processing has given most night shots an almost unnatural look -- detail and bright color in what were once dimly lit areas, with everything else falling into inky blackness. "
Jeff Wells doesn't have a problem with this -- if it makes Dirty Harry look better, who cares? But in the discussion thread on the post, folks are getting down into the nitty-gritty of the issue: studios doing digital remastering for Blu-ray transfers, sometimes without consulting the cinematographer as to why scenes where shot as they were. HE commenter TheVicuna links to an excellent interview at cameraguild.com, the website for the International Cinematographer's Guild, with cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond; in part of the interview, he talks about the DVD transfer of Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye, for which he was not called in to supervise the transfer; the resulting transfer, Zsigmond says in the interview, was "terrible."
Continue reading Discuss: Are Studios Ruining Older Films on Blu-ray?
Posted Jun 22nd 2008 8:02PM by Jette Kernion
Filed under: Tech Stuff, Home Entertainment
A couple of weeks ago, I ordered a Netflix Player by Roku -- a little box that lets Netflix subscribers watch the company's video-on-demand selections on a TV set. We already had a media computer hooked up to our TV, but it runs on a Linux platform so we couldn't use it to Watch Instantly on Netflix, which is Windows-only. The Roku player was priced at $99, which is a little steep for a gamble on whether the quality would be acceptable and whether we could make it work with our increasingly bulky TV/media setup, but we decided to give it a shot.
The box, which is about the size of a large paperback, arrived last weekend while I was at the farmers' market, and by the time I returned with tomatoes and peaches, my husband had hooked the box into our TV setup and activated it through our Netflix account. He tells me this was a very easy thing to do, although we're talking about someone who spent time the night before creating a fancy diagram of our devices and cabling input/output so he'd know exactly where and how to hook up the Roku box. (We also have a digital TV tuner, two DVD players, a VCR, and the media computer.) Here are the ups and downs we've discovered so far about the newest addition to our home's TV/media setup.
Continue reading What's The Deal With: Roku's Netflix Player
Posted Jun 22nd 2008 9:02AM by Christopher Campbell
Filed under: Tech Stuff, Distribution, Exhibition, Home Entertainment, Columns
As usual, I'm not going to pretend to understand the technologies behind modern home entertainment. And so, before I begin, I'd like to prematurely thank any commenters who choose to weigh in on things such as "selectable output control," "the analog hole" or any other terms I might misuse or incorrectly explain. The only thing I comprehend about those electronic doohickeys in my living room is that they each somehow connect to my antiquated analog television and through the magic of, well, I don't know, I'm able to watch the occasional classic movie and mindless cake design program.
Those familiar with this column should know that I'm not here to necessarily explain how threats to movie theaters work. I'm just here to yell, "the sky is falling!" from within the lobby of the local cinema and hope that you Henny Pennys and Goosey Looseys are listening to my rants and ramblings and at least try to go to the movies more often (and hopefully buy at least one thing at the concession stand). This time, however, I feel even less knowledgeable about the latest threat, and I feel even more fearful that this is the beginning of the end. The cinemapocalypse, if you will.
Continue reading The Exhibitionist: Window Shutting, Sky Falling
Posted Jun 5th 2008 6:02PM by Christopher Campbell
Filed under: Tech Stuff, Exhibition
Who of us hasn't been annoyed by young teens texting during the movie? Even if the kids have the sound turned off on their phones, the light from the displays are enough of a distraction to take our eyes off the bigger screen in front of us. Hollywood has made it clear, too, that text messaging is a problem for the movies. But for studio execs, the issue is with people texting their friends about how the new movie they're watching is not worth seeing. Bad buzz travels fast these days, and part of it's thanks to cell phones.
But cinemas will soon embrace texting as an interactive part of the moviegoing experience. Of course, it's just the latest way in which the exhibition industry is actually
ruining the experience by bombarding patrons with obnoxious advertisements. This time it's part of
a Verizon Wireless V Cast campaign in which audience members are asked to participate in polls appearing throughout the pre-show "entertainment." The ads ask a question, maybe about your favorite music, then you text the answer, and the results show up on the screen. Apparently, it's thought to actually be something that will
lure customers, not keep them away.
The technology and ads, courtesy of Verizon and Screenvision, will be appearing in cinemas later this month, but only in the 10 major U.S. cities (New York, Chicago, Boston, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Detroit, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Washington D.C.). Reportedly, one of the ads was directed by
Spike Lee and features Chris Cornell and Timbaland, but it's probably still not worth the nuisance of knowing the spots encourage texting during the movie.
[
via CinemaTech]
Posted May 24th 2008 2:02PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Classics, Warner Brothers, Tech Stuff, Home Entertainment
I love seeing old film. I'm glad that I first saw
Touch of Evil in an old theater with a gritty and grainy copy. I wouldn't be too thrilled to see a current film that way, but there's just something about the mixture of squiggles and grains on a piece of old film that makes the oldies pop and become a whole different experience.
However, the more time that passes, the more damaged film becomes, and restorative measures have to be taken. And of course, not everyone wants those squiggles.
The Hollywood Reporter posts that Warner Bros. Technical Operations is restoring George Cukor's
A Star is Born in 6K resolution as a test run. Right now, most restoration is at 2K, and an increasing amount are done at 4K, but of course, that still loses a lot of information. So, this is the first jump into even more.
The project is scheduled to take four-six months, and at some point, this restored version will then get released on Blue-ray and normal DVD. This is a test run, but who knows what's next? What old WB films would you like to see get the 6K treatment?
Posted May 16th 2008 8:02AM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Animation, Classics, New Releases, Disney, Tech Stuff, Home Entertainment
I'm beginning to believe that no one really wants to watch movies anymore. Or, at least, they don't want to actively watch them. Big movie theaters are hurting with the advent of saucy home theater systems, and it seems like most people would rather curl up on their couch then head out for the big community experience. We've already heard arguments about the mass distractions that are attached to home viewing, but I never thought that it would become part of the movie experience.
The Hollywood Reporter posts that Walt Disney is itching to use Blu-ray's Live technology to make a more interactive movie experience. But they're not talking about the
Choose Your Own Adventure sort of fare. They're adding a whole lot of bells and whistles to their classics. First up, my favorite Disney film ever --
Sleeping Beauty.
Luckily, it doesn't seem to be presenting anything that will make me want to go out and get a new player. It's all movie distractions. It might be cool that the menu will have a customized version of Sleeping Beauty's castle that will reflect your weather conditions, but that's just fluff. Besides that, there's just things to distract you from the film -- integrated chats on the movie screen, customized video messages to insert into the movie, the option to mail clips to friends, trivia games, and the option for a constant stream of web trailers.
Continue reading 'Sleeping Beauty' Gets Fancy on Blu-ray
Posted May 13th 2008 11:32AM by Jessica Barnes
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Paramount, Tech Stuff, Dreamworks, Remakes and Sequels
If you're anything like me, you have completely given up on the next installment of
Transformers having even a whiff of plot, and instead you are just going to sit back and enjoy the spectacle. Speaking of, it looks like it's going to be quite the show, too. The keen eyes over Comic2Film noticed that in the Dolby News release for ShoWest 2008,
Transformers 2 was
listed as a 3D film slated for 2009.
There have been plenty of updates for the film lately, but unfortunately most of them turned out to be
smoke and mirrors -- just ask
Teresa Palmer. But, a 3D release could be the real deal, even though we haven't heard a peep from
Michael Bay on the matter. Kind of surprising, too, considering he is
not the kind of guy who likes to keep quiet about these sorts of things.
Transformers 2 is scheduled to start filming
on location in Pennsylvania this June, but everything is going to hinge on whether or not the
SAG strike can be averted. A 3D release does make sense if you think about it, especially since the only way to top the FX of the first film is to have them flying off the screen at the audience this time around. (Yay! A monster truck is flying toward me at 150mph! Ain't this fun!)
Weigh in below and let us know if you think 3D is the way to go for our robotic friends, or will it just be an excuse for Bay to spend even more time on the FX and even less time on the script?
[via
Comic2Film]
Posted May 8th 2008 5:02PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Celebrities and Controversy, Tech Stuff, Politics
With every passing story I read about border control or security insanity, I'm beginning to think that once you have any responsibility for your country's safety, you go insane. Everyday objects become suspect (like a friend harassed in the US for having a couple pictures of an ex amongst the pics he was traveling with), and sometimes, objects are given extraordinary value. I was once charged a couple hundred dollars in Canadian tariffs for a Buffy DVD that was sent to me as a gift, and had to prove that the box set wasn't worth their astronomical estimated cost. But I guess I can consider myself lucky that "Buffy" didn't make the border powers that be think the discs were porn.
Canoe reports that a new Canadian film from
John N. Smith (
Dangerous Minds) was held at the border because of its name:
Love and Savagery. The romantic drama headed to Ireland last month to shoot some scenes, and then the footage was shipped to Montreal for processing, where it was stopped by the border patrol. Smith says: "There was a big kerfuffle and they suspected us of being involved in the pornography trade. They were insisting they were going to send it off to the RCMP lab to develop it to see if we were engaged in pornography." This created a bit of a panic as they worried about the potential damage RCMP processing would have on the footage.
Continue reading New Canadian Film Held at Border, Suspected of Pornography
Posted May 1st 2008 11:32AM by Eugene Novikov
Filed under: Deals, Tech Stuff, Home Entertainment
Well, okay: maybe that's hyperbole about the death of DVD. On the other hand, maybe it's not. In what has to be seen as a major vote of confidence in online content delivery, almost all of the major studios (including Fox, Disney, Paramount, Warner Bros., Universal, Lionsgate, and what's left of New Line)
have signed with Apple to offer many of their movies on the iTunes Store's download-to-own service -- simultaneously with the release of the DVDs. This seems to show that they're not squeamish about losing DVD sales -- or at least not squeamish enough to turn down the attractive deal Apple no doubt offered.
Most new movies currently offered for sale on iTunes cost 10 to 15 bucks and about 1 GB in hard drive space (depending on the length). AppleTV, the device that Apple hoped would make the iTunes Store even more prevalent by making content purchased there watchable on users' television sets, has been beset by problems, and free advertising-supported content providers like
Hulu.com also present a challenge. But whether or not iTunes wins, we're getting inexorably closer to the day of physical media obsolescence. The studios have now shown they're willing to go there (this announcement comes on the heels of
Time Warner's decision to offer all of its movies via On-Demand cable day-and-date with DVD releases).
Of course, videophiles will still want their Blu-Ray, and it's hard to blame them. But it's only a matter of hard drive space. Tick-tock.
Posted Apr 27th 2008 9:32AM by Christopher Campbell
Filed under: Tech Stuff, Exhibition, Movie Marketing, Columns
Once in awhile I come across little stories that are relevant to this column that don't necessarily call for so many words of commentary. But it's a shame to skip over them, so occasionally, I'd like to break The Exhibitionist up a bit and write about a few of them at once.
The first thing that caught my attention this week was a
report of a study focused on ambient lighting, such as the kind used in cinemas. According to research conducted by academics at the University of Cumbria in England, and at University College Dublin in Ireland, movies should be viewed in rooms that are as well lit as the movies themselves. So, yes, that means your local multiplex has the lights dimmed way too low.
But, you wonder, isn't it dark in theaters because we can see the movie much better that way? And when we're at home don't we turn out the lights, or, when it's daytime, close the shades for the same reason? Well, yes, but incorrectly so, say Cumbria's Professor David Manning and UCD's Professor Patrick Brennan. Their findings indicate that such darkness actually hinders the eye's ability to see at optimum capability. "Ideally, ambient light should be adapted to the brightness of the screen for the eye to pick up as much detail as it can," Manning said. "However, most people prefer to watch films in a darkened room, but as the eye adapts to the surrounding light these conditions may not be conducive to picking up maximum visual detail."
Continue reading The Exhibitionist: Odds and Ends
Posted Apr 22nd 2008 10:02AM by Erik Davis
Filed under: Fandom, Tech Stuff, Home Entertainment
I saw this floating around several different websites over the weekend (I believe
JoBlo first pointed me there), and, at first, I totally thought they had discovered some real girl who looked exactly like
Jessica Rabbit. Yup, I just about freaked. Then I began reading the post and realized this dude (or dudette) created the image above using photoshop (click to enlarge). Oh well. She looks pretty damn real, though, and this person over at
Pixeloo has created similar pieces for both
Homer Simpson and
Mario from Super Mario Brothers. The Homer one just freaks me the hell out, but the Mario one is pretty spot on.
Oh Jessica Rabbit ... how come we only had you in our lives for one feature-length film and three shorts? Which animated (or video game) character should Pixeloo tackle next? Personally, I'd love to see one of the South Park kids, like Cartman. You? (Additionally, for those curious, you can head after the jump to watch a sped-up video of the first hour of this Jessica Rabbit creation. Very cool stuff -- check out which popular actress is used to help make Jessica Rabbit a reality.)
Continue reading If Jessica Rabbit was a Real, Live Girl ...
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