The Oscars

OK… so the Oscars were last week. I didn’t watch them, I never do (I’ll get to that later), but I did manage to see the cool Horror Montage the morning after. Very cool.

A couple of days later, my buddy Cinesthete, at Reel Friction posted his thoughts on the Oscars. Upon reading it, I felt that I had express some of my own thoughts… mostly as rebuttal to his thoughts, and adding a few of my own.

I reproduced most of his article here, at least the parts that I had felt the need to comment. To read the whole article, go here. There were a few things that I had no thoughts or cares about.

Here goes:

I don’t pretend to understand cinematography (anyone who has seen my films can attest to that), but does lighting generated on a computer count? I’m surprised Avatar won.

I won’t even claim to understand any cinematography (at least you made a few films, Cinesthete), but as a 3D artist and animator, I can say that lighting is one of the most challenging aspects of the job. Every aspect of lighting is translated through hundreds of parameters that we take for granted. Positioning, intensity, and attenuation are just a difficult to determine in a virtual scene as it is in real life. And then there is the whole science of Radiosity (shadows and light bounces) that need to be configured… otherwise you’ll end up with something like a scene in the original Tron (they may have been ground breaking in 3D, but we have gone a long way since then).

Once you tweak all the parameters in order to imitate real life, you then have to marry it to actual real life footage. Granted, on many of todays sophisticated computers and equipment (thanks to George Lucas), this is not too difficult. But trust me, it takes damn near rocket science to figure out how to use all that equipment and programs.

So “lighting generated on a computer” is really putting it lightly. It’s like saying anyone can pickup a camera and become a James Cameron. It is, after all, just “looking through a lens”, right? I’m not shocked that Avatar won that award. As a matter of fact, I am shocked it didn’t received more technical awards, but thats how the Oscars work…
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Cool stage theatrics from pop star Lady GaGa

I’m really not into pop music. I’m more of a heavy metal/classic rock type of guy. Through out the history of the genre, many artists would put on a great show using some pretty awesome theatrics. My personal favorites were the Pink Floyd shows that I attending in my tween years. There are quite a few bands out there, especially some heavy metal bands, that have intense stage props that would even put Broadway to shame.

You’ll never catch me at a Lady GaGa show, for sure. But I stumbled across this video (probably from a cell phone, just look at all the other cell phones!) of a performance for the song Paparazzi. I have to say… I may have to give her nod to some pretty cool props on this one. Kind of looks like a cross of a Lovecraftian creature and the monster in George P. Cosmatos’ Leviathan.

Zombie Porn

Got your attention, right? Yeah, well this is no joke. Two of the my favorite things have finally merged to create, what will probably be, one of the best zombie films ever. OK… I’m exaggerating a bit. But really… like chocolate and peanut butter, what male, in his not-so-right mind, can not resist zombies and porn? And now, someone took the time to combine them into, what I’m sure to be, a masterpiece of a film! Come on… look at what others are saying…

“DAWNA OF THE DEAD is so wrong on so many levels, that it actually achieves high art in cinema. Plus, there is simply nothing sexier than something you shouldn’t be seeing.” – Dave Navarro

“The DAWNA OF THE DEAD trailer is obscene, disgusting and just plain wrong… So naturally we are now dying to see the whole film!” -DIGITAL RETRIBUTION

In all seriousness, who ever did take the time to make this film was obviously a big zombie aficionado. The costumes and make-up are above par for your typical porn flick. Hell… they are worthy of most the zombies films out there, past and present!

Check it out the Website, but:

**Warning #1: NSFW (that means “Not suitable/safe for work”… don’t be stupid).

**Warning #2: If you are offended by any kind of sexually content, pornographic material, blah, blah, blah…. don’t bother.

Official Website

Screw that! Just take me straight to the TRAILER!

Facticious Science: Good Science or Bad Science?

The main focus of the blog is to examine the factious science found in story based media. Whether it’s in a movie, literature, or even video games, I consider the setting, and it’s science, equally as important as the structure of it’s wrapping story.

Discover Magazine online recently released a great article (coinciding with its Extreme Universe issue) that points out just that… the science in fiction. This particular article was written by a lad who likes to call himself the “Bad Astronomer.” I’ve been following this fellow for years (before joining Discover) and his writings were awesome. He basically scanned the internet and found articles where science was abused: written to appear like real science, but really just a bunch of cow fodder. So I though it was pretty fitting that he pointed out some inconsistencies in movies that just defy science.

You see, sometimes it may not be real or even possible, but it can be believable. Science Fiction movies of the old days are funny now simply because we know better… our real science has advanced so much, that we find the old ideas comical. You can’t get away with that some much these days… How many times have you watched something that had some kind of scientific thing that was so blatantly not possible that it just ruins the story? Many movies fail because of this. However, many movies can get away with it because it crosses over the science barrier and into the magic. But even magic has it’s weaknesses. One has to be very careful with the details: once there is an inconsistency in those details, the story will be destined to fail just as badly.

This little interactive on the Discover website is pretty cool with some very interesting, valid, points. It’s nice to know that there are others out there that think like I do. Check it out!

Han Solo, P.I.

This is clever and very cool. For those who loved Magnum (as I did), and are big fans of Star Wars (as I am, as well): you’ll love this. I’ve also provided a video showing the comparison to the original… which you will see just how clever it actually is.

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