Kubrick

Here's an interesting article (linked from Daring Fireball about filmmaker Stanley Kubrick. Worth a read.

http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,4120,1177734,00.html

Photoshop

I got this from a link at AppleGeeks, and it was pretty incredible.

http://www.iwanexstudio.com/

Go to the "Portfolio" section and start clicking the thumbnails... rollover the resulting image for the original...

Some observations:

• As a colorist, I can't help but notice that they're adding a lot of yellow to everyone's faces. It's always the Magic Hour for stars...


• One of my favorites is the guy in the bottom middle. His picture is of a teen heart-throb... while the original is a former teen heart-throb with a seven year-old kid. They shaved several years off of him. But as they say, it's not the years, it's the mileage...


• Also looking through my professional eyes, they're using the oldest trick in the book to sell these retouches: blow out the image. Just like cinematographers used to overexpose women, and defocus them, to hide wrinkles and blemishes, all of these photos get severely brightened. They're smoothing out in Photoshop, too, and cleaning up the skin, but this is helping them make it seem more "real."


• She actually looks normal, but because of the touchup, now the girl on the bottom-right corner looks like she's had a stroke in the original.


• Top row, second from the right: this time, it's the mileage they pulled off.


• Eva Longoria's (bottom row, 5 from the middle) pic is pretty drastic. Look at the folds of the sheet... you can see artifacts of the original when you A/B the images. Also, they cleaned up a stray crease on the pillow. Leave no stone unturned...


• After looking at all of these, I can say with assurance: my skin isn't nearly as bad as I thought it was.

Suck

*EDIT*

I may be adding to this all day, depending on what I read. Nikki Finke has an interesting post with info on the HD-DVD payout to Paramount/Dreamworks for this commitment. This shit makes me sick, but I am not the least surprised.

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/desperation-move-cash-grab-or-intensified-blu-rayhd-dvd-format-war/


It's also worth pointing out that there is a HUGE conspiracy theory as to Microsoft backing HD-DVD solely to prolong the format war, so as to let digital downloads take over the market. True or not, do any of you have a hard time believing it? I thought not.


*ORIGINAL POST*

http://www.viacom.com/NEWS/NewsText.aspx?RID=1042073

This news makes me sad today. Just as the next-generation HD Disc format war was giving signs of ending, Paramount/Dreamworks has to go and muck it up.

My stance is this: maybe Blu-Ray Disc is better tech, maybe HD-DVD (I tend to think BR is for a whole host of reasons). But regardless, the format war is BAD. It stops general adoption. It stops studios from investing in real quality releases. All it does is push back the day I watch all my movies in high definition. Universal was, until today, the *only* HD-DVD exclusive studio. Now there are 2 with Paramount/Dreamworks in the mix. That leaves us with 5 for BD (Disney, Fox, Sony, MGM, Lionsgate), of which 3 are majors, and 1 format-neutral company (Warner Bros). New Line may go neutral as a subsidiary of WB, but who knows.

Paramount's decision is theirs to make. They may've seen some features in HD-DVD that seemed better than BD, but I doubt it. With BD 1.1 spec two months away (with all BD-Java and PiP features), and BD 2.0 maybe 6 months away, BD will be extraordinarily capable by next summer. HD-DVD has a lot of that now, but the sales figures have been supporting an approx. 3:1 sales ratio in favor of BD (see The DigitalBits for more info), dropping BD completely seems rash.

Two days ago I was telling friends that Sony probably has a team of engineers working on replicating Universal's needs on a BD system, and as soon as they had it, Uni would probably go neutral. Today I find a studio made a switch in the *opposite* direction.

I'm at the point: I don't care what format wins. I DON'T CARE.

I just want a winner AS FAST AS POSSIBLE.

A final side note: if you read through the press release, there's an interesting note:

Today's announcement does not include films directed by Steven Spielberg as his films are not exclusive to either format.

Makes me wonder what The Beard thinks of all of this. With his first film due for BD release in October (Close Encounters), it seems he doesn't have a preference. Universal announced a bunch of his films in HD-DVD at one point, but then recanted. I must say, I'd love to see influencial filmmakers call out the studio execs and hardware manufacturers and tell them to pick a format ASAP. Not that I think it'd make a difference, but one can dream...

YES!

On August 9th, 1974, my mother got a surprise birthday present: Richard Nixon resigned.

This morning, I got a similar bithday present, albeit a day late:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/13/washington/13cnd-rove.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

All I have to say is, this is seven years too late as far as I'm concerned, and that the lack of any criminal repercussions is disheartening yet wholly expected.

Favorite quote from the article: "Mr. Rove was not only the chief architect of Mr. Bush’s political campaigns but also the midwife of the president’s political persona itself."

No Comment

Here's a NYT article about possible causes for the Minnesota bridge collapse. I only bring it up because they seem to be zeroing in (although not conclusively yet) on parts there from installation, and which all bridges of this design have.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/09/us/09bridge.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Fascinating...

Linked from Daring Fireball, here's an in-depth interview with the head of the TSA. There's no pandering going on here; Bruce Schneider, the interviewer, digs in and doesn't apologize. He isn't mean or rude or furthering an agenda-- he's just taking the topic serious. Worth a read

http://www.schneier.com/interview-hawley.html

Sigh...

Why is it that as soon as a block of time is planned out, it feels as if you've already moved past it? I say this specifically in relationship to summer... you start getting close to the end, you figure out what you're going to do, and then, as far as you're concerned, it's over. I started thinking about this because today, we planned out the rest of the summer's schedule here at work, as it's going to be busy.

So it's officially fall over here as a result of that.

Sigh.

I haven't posted as much as I intended to recently... sorry about that. Laziness mixed with some work on a project soon-to-be-revealed have stopped my efforts to keep this regular.
Any of you linking here from my MySpace page, welcome! I certainly post here more often that I do myspace; last night's updates notwithstanding, I pretty much never go there. But please, comment here anytime you want, I pay much more attention.

Hope all is well with you, my dear readers. Until next time, enjoy the summer.

While it lasts...