Popular Media
« Older Entries | Newer Entries »They Spent $10 Billion Developing 3D Movies & All We Got Was These Lousy Glasses
[ Comments Off ]Posted on December 1, 2009 by admin in Popular Media
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009Will 3D bring people back to the theaters? Not if companies like Panasonic and Sony have their way.
Sorry, this clip won’t be available in 3D until 2012 |
As we pointed out in last month’s piece Hollywood’s 3D Conspiracy, there’s been quiet but consistent industry buzz that the film industry is pushing so many 3D films because it’s a technology that’s difficult to replicate at home, and will force consumers to keep filling seats at the theater upon release. Personally, my home is already three-dimensional with surround sound, but if your home is a little too two-dimensional for your tastes, fear not. The film industry is getting it a little wrong once again. First of all, the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers started working on a standard in 2008, meaning that in a sense – as the linked article puts it – Hollywood’s new-found cash cow is walking out the barn door. And more importantly, home entertainment vendors like Sony & Panasonic are already rolling out big plans. Sony has announced their commitment to 3D that will be available on Bravia TV’s, Vaios, and PSP, and Panasonic is actually rolling out a full product launch with a nationwide truck tour. Learn more about Panasonic’s plans at their dedicated Panasonic 3D web site. Personally, I’m still holding out for a holodeck; even with all this new 3D technology you still have to wear glasses! In the case of Sony it’s these RealD glasses, Panasonic has a slightly more stylish version, but they’re both based on “Active Shutter” technology. Which in my typically paranoid, delusional fashion I’m deciding are encoded with secret messages that will turn the user into a 3D movie-buying zombie. Read the rest of this entry »
Why Did Wilhelm Scream? He Found Out Alan Smithee Was Dead
[ Comments Off ]Posted on November 22, 2009 by admin in Popular Media
Sunday, November 22nd, 2009Most people go to the movies to WATCH them. Some of us go to HEAR them. A look at some movie trivia you may or may not have heard.
 The tools of a Foley Artist |
If you’re a film buff, you’ve probably heard of the Wilhelm, and if you’re not, you’ve almost certainly heard it. For those who aren’t familiar with the now legendary film sound effect and insider joke, Wikipedia has a thorough history of the Wilhelm with a sound sample, and some nut has created a fairly comprehensive collection of the scenes in which it’s been used in this YouTube clip. It’s interesting that such an absurdly out of place sound can be used so pervasively without being noticed, but that without hundreds of other sounds, even the most visually compelling film is rendered lifeless. George Lucas definitely understood the value of sound; imagine Star Wars without the triumphant music, the distinctly different sounds of the empire vs rebel fighter crafts, the lightsaber, or the voices of Chewbacca and R2D2. The owners of the patented Godzilla Roar also understand the value of sound, they’ll sue the pants off of anyone who seems to infringe. And for several decades, “eerie” meant theremin. But otherwise, one of the most impactful aspects of film goes unacknowledged, with peculiar language to go along with its mysterious subculture. That background noise of people talking? It’s called – depending on the context – “walla”, “rhubarb”, or “snazzum”. Snazzum is a special kind of walla; it’s gibberish spoken by a specific extra Read the rest of this entry »
Making The Unreal Real
[ 2 Comments ]Posted on November 15, 2009 by admin in Popular Media
Sunday, November 15th, 2009What If Things Inside Your Computer Were Real?
I ran across a rather amusing real-world rendition of the Mac and Windows calculators yesterday (images below), which sent me on a little quest for similar items that explore the realm of “what if it were real”. Probably the most disturbing things I found were these realistic renderings of cartoon characters like Charlie Brown and Homer Simpson. Another artist has done the entire Simpsons family , and apparently there’s an actual Simpsons house in Las Vegas. But back to the idea of making things in your computer real, French artist Guillaume Reymond has created a series of vintage video games rendered with pixels as people for his GameOver project, including classics like Space Invaders (YouTube clip). This concept was put to more exploitive use on Italian TV (we’ve warned you about Italian TV before) with Human Tetris With Bikini Chicks. On a slightly more clever note, you may have already seen Internet Party and Internet Party II: An Intervention for MySpace, in which real actors play popular web sites at a cocktail party. Maybe we should start a Facbook group demanding an updated Facebook/Twitter version. And more recently, CollegeHumor.com created the Sims Horror Movie Trailer, presenting a frightening world in which real life people all turn out to be Sims characters, living entirely at the mercy of their game-playing masters. Know of any other realistic renditions of unreal things? Read the rest of this entry »
Stunning Building-Sized 3D Projections
[ Comments Off ]Posted on November 13, 2009 by admin in Popular Media
Friday, November 13th, 2009Dutch company Nuformer Digital Media generates some buzz with their mind-blowing building-sized 3D projections.
For a longer version of this demo, see the clip below |
As something of a stimulation junky myself, I find it amusing that our actual reality, with its 3D visuals, surround sound, and full-function tactile and olfactory responses is simply not enough. We’re always trying to recreate that special 3D experience, and – usually – falling a bit short somehow. In spite of the fact that the film industry is making us slap the 3D glasses back on so they can charge us more money, and that free standing holograms made our Top 10 Disappointing Technologies list, some interesting headway is being made elsewhere. You may have seen the Puma Lift ad that uses 3D projection mapping to make it appear as if a dancing couple is being constantly transported to different landscapes and changing outfits magically. Well, Dutch company Nuformer Digital Media has taken this idea to an impressive new level with their ProjectionOnBuildings work (clip featured at left, more below). They don’t say anything on their site about how it works; they’re mostly trying to sell it to high-budget advertisers. But if you’re interested, here’s the math, as they say. The results are stunning. The last seemingly innovative projection technology to get some decent press kind of “mist the point”; as impressive as I02 Technology’s “Mid-Air Touchscreen Display” seemed to be (see a clip here), it required a fine mist in the air. Something that’s not really gonna fly in most boardrooms, no matter how impressive the results. Read the rest of this entry »
Hollywood’s 3D Conspiracy
[ 1 Comment ]Posted on November 4, 2009 by admin in Popular Media
Wednesday, November 4th, 2009It’s actually pretty two-dimensional. They want your money. They want their profits back.
As I sat at a friend of a friend’s house the other evening watching a torrented “DVD rip” of the new Star Trek movie
