blimps are cool too

Awards Watch: Directors Roundtable

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 18:50:48 +1100

the last of The Hollywood Reporter’s annual Awards Roundtable series, THR’s Elizabeth Guider and Matthew Belloni gathered six A-list directors — Kathryn Bigelow (“The Hurt Locker”); James Cameron…

Did Christianity Cause the Crash?

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 18:50:48 +1100

Did Christianity Cause the Crash?:

America’s mainstream religious denominations used to teach the faithful that they would be rewarded in the afterlife. But over the past generation, a different strain of Christian faith has…

Unofficial 2009 Spec Market Scorecard – Deadline.com

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 18:50:47 +1100

Unofficial 2009 Spec Market Scorecard – Deadline.com

"Surprisingly, while just about every year between 1972 and 1999 required a leap second to keep the..."

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 14:06:11 +1100

“Surprisingly, while just about every year between 1972 and 1999 required a leap second to keep the clock synchronized with the Earth’s rotation, there have only been two leap seconds added in the last ten years. The Earth has sped up just a bit, and no one knows why.”

- ] What does “blue moon” really mean? via Daring Fireball

"The ability to create compelling, beautiful cinema using performance tools that used to only exist..."

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 11:41:59 +1100

“The ability to create compelling, beautiful cinema using performance tools that used to only exist in the world of live theater is a paradigm shift for this art.”

- Eric Escobar has been following the development of “improvised” cinema in the American Indie film scene. These developments interest me for obvious reasons ie i’m a filmmaker and an improviser.

I’m filing this articles for future reference - thinking I’ll do a improvised short next year as a practice run for a feature.

http://prepshootpost.blogspot.com/2009/12/joshua-leonard-director-lie.html

http://prepshootpost.blogspot.com/2009/12/katie-aselton-director-freebie.html

http://prepshootpost.blogspot.com/2009/04/money-meet-mouth.html

] “Let’s Enhance” /via @5tu Best Line:...

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 11:15:05 +1100

] “Let’s Enhance” /via @5tu

Best Line: “Can your software bitmap?”

November 2009: Jason Zinoman on Robert Mckee | vanityfair.com

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 02:03:00 +1100

November 2009: Jason Zinoman on Robert Mckee | vanityfair.com:

He spends very little time in the seminar exploring the nature of suspense, an essential element of horror. Instead, McKee draws a distinction between what he calls the Cheap Surprise—a sudden shock out of nowhere—and the True Surprise, which includes a revelation. “It’s hard to imagine a satisfying horror film without a Cheap Surprise,” he says. This is snobbery masquerading as hipness.

James’ wicked dub table.

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 20:53:06 +1100

[Flash 10 is required to watch video.]

James’ wicked dub table.

Artemis, a directors viewfinder app for iPhone, is rocking my...

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 09:38:59 +1100

Artemis, a directors viewfinder app for iPhone, is rocking my world. Expensive as far as apps go, but a helluva a lot cheaper and more useful than the optical kind… but sadly without the instant cred.

The Watcher: Sex, secrets and 'Dollhouse': Joss Whedon talks about the end of his Fox show

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 02:10:27 +1100

The Watcher: Sex, secrets and 'Dollhouse': Joss Whedon talks about the end of his Fox show

App Store Is a Game Changer for Apple and Cellphone Industry - NYTimes.com

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 17:48:47 +1100

App Store Is a Game Changer for Apple and Cellphone Industry - NYTimes.com

Photo

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 14:10:09 +1100

Photo

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 17:49:42 +1100

"To an unnamed executive at MGM I have hired Roger Caras [Polaris Productions] to implement the plan..."

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 17:18:27 +1100

“

To an unnamed executive at MGM

I have hired Roger Caras [Polaris Productions] to implement the plan to obtain co-operation and exploit cross plugging from companies such as General Electric, General Motors, etc

”

- ] Stanley Kubrick, May 14, 1965

Kubrick really was a genius. Product placement in one of the greatest pieces of visual art in the 20th century.

“In a properly functioning capitalist economy, rich people don’t ‘create jobs’ for workers; workers, upon having jobs, create rich people.”

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 16:20:15 +1100

“In a properly functioning capitalist economy, rich people don’t ‘create jobs’ for workers; workers, upon having jobs, create rich people.”:

(via claytoncubitt)

Photo With Kim Jong Il and Bill Clinton Tied to Journalists’ Release Spotlights Dictator Kitsch - WSJ.com

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:32:49 +1100

Photo With Kim Jong Il and Bill Clinton Tied to Journalists’ Release Spotlights Dictator Kitsch - WSJ.com

Academia vs Business

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:31:15 +1100

Academia vs Business

The Reading Brain

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:32:00 +1100

The Reading Brain:

For instance, the neuroscientists Marc Changizi and Shinsuke Shimojo have demonstrated that the vast majority of characters in 115 different writing systems are composed of three distinct strokes, which likely reflect the sensory limitations of cells in the retina. (As Dehaene observes, “The world over, characters appear to have evolved an almost optimal combination that can easily be grasped by a single neuron.”) The moral is that our cultural forms reflect the biological form of the brain; the details of language are largely a biological accident.

] via Jonah Lehrer at the Frontal Cortext

Hi-Def DSLRs May Be Cheap, But Talent Is Priceless | Raw File

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:02:00 +1100

Hi-Def DSLRs May Be Cheap, But Talent Is Priceless | Raw File:

Wired covering developments in video DSLRs.

What’s significant is that this is the technology going mainstream in awareness. This is a Good Thing as it legitimizes DSLRs as an acquisition medium.

Key Disputed Values

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:13:00 +1100

Key Disputed Values:

I suggest the two main value disputes in the world are rich vs. poor and family vs. community priorities. It is ironic that the cultures like Russia with values focused on competing against other communities lost the last big community conflict, the Cold War. Have China, Korea, Japan, etc. learned their lesson about over-centralization, enough to win the next big conflict?

] Robin Hanson via Overcoming Bias