A Special Thanks to my Friend and housemate Charlie for bringing this game to my attention.
Ever wish you could watch a movie and interact with it through it's characters? Kissing the girl, punching the villain, or interrogating the tough suspects?
As of February 23rd a game by Quantic Dream by the name of Heavy Rain was released. Labeled as a Film Noir thriller (my favourite) the game immerses you into a film-like story, taking you on an interactive ride as several characters as they try to figure out the mystery of the oregami killer, a merciless and mysterious child murderer.
Now you must be thinking "aren't all video games interactive?" well of course, but the game's graphics and style as you will see in the trailer and review videos approach the gameplay and cinematics as completely immersed into one another. Many games limit your movement or improve graphics during cinematics before they switch back to the gameplay. The design of the game allows you to play with the most detailed and consistent graphics to date, almost bordering photorealism, and with a great soundtrack and compelling mystery I find it very hard to call it a videogame instead of a movie.
The nature of the movement-sensored gameplay and controls during the game do not take away from the camera positioning or cinematic techniques that are simulated in the game. Some reviewers wonder if this cross-over between cinematic storytelling and gameplay together is a watershed moment in video game and film technology.
If in a few years we are able to be part of our favourite movies by "playing them" would it be a cool new improvement? Or should we keep a healthy barrier between Hollywood and our ever evolving games?
I don't know about the rest of you, but I wouldn't mind fighting as russell crowe while watching Gladiator or Chasing a bomb maker through Madagascar as Daniel Craig in Casino Royale.
While watching the Olympic highlights on theCTVnetwork, an anchor in the marketing department brought up the great decline of Campbell's soup and their cuts in order to give some money flow and new marketing strategies a chance to continue their sales. Strangely, much of their television advertising was pulled for these cuts and put towards person-to-product marketing, such as the rebranding of their iconic soup can.
The rebranding of the can would change the location of the red stripe, the omission of the spoon, a contemporary bowl, and the addition of some or more steam over the soup. This may sound very silly and terrible for the image of campbell's, and it was, but it was all in an attempt at funding their Neuromarketing strategy, sounds like a government conspiracy, doesn't it?
In a nutshell, the idea of Neuromarketing is to use popular imagery that has been studied through live subjects in order to evoke universal emotions. New tests were initiated to update their branding, and thus, the changes came, but it was all in vain.
In these times of economic strife, other companies, are fighting to keep peices low while competing with sale brands like No Name in order to cater to the deal-seeking populous. Unfortunately not all companies can sacrifice much and therefore lose their customers. Market researchers believe that their consumer losses will not replenish with the economy, due to their lack of affordability in a time of need. Those who are able to prosper, have done so with re branding.
The mega store Wal Mart has recently changed the details of their brand and slogan during this period to "Save Money, Live Better". This change engages the audience to think that their traditionally low prices will affect not only their wallet but their life/family life at home. One of their most recent commercials, although hilarious, strikes home this message.
Some consumers seem to embrace change in their products or stores as they re brand, whereas they feel alienated by others in a brand's attempt to entice the user with cheap labelling tricks. But after such a long tradition of Campbell's soup giving nourishment to millions of Americans for decades, why are they in the decline? Why don't they continue to rise like World-sucking Wal Mart?
I just finished watching the USA-CANADA Hockey game on CTV for the last two periods and had a few issues with it, no wait, that is an understatement, a GIGANTIC amount of issues with it. A friend mentioned on his facebook status and I quote "...is wondering why there is Timbits Hockey on CTV" I completely agree with this. I do not watch hockey as much as I used to *eversincethestrike*cough*richbastards*cough* but when I did I remember watching players scoring awesome goals, checking clean, and STAYING ON TWO SKATES!!!! I felt like I was watching a bunch of baboons on roller skates trying to play hockey on an uneven frozen lake (u heard me, roller skates, frozen lake), and it wasn't just Canada, the United States as well!!
You would think that these guys are getting paid through the nose, ears, and other gaps in the human anatomy to play HOCKEY, but apparently even after their NHL and Canadian lets-win-medals program money they STILL can't skate, or play a proper last minute with six players.
At this time in my rant I would like to point out that WOMAN'S HOCKEY appeals to me for this exact reason. They are CLEAN, they are AWESOME, and they don't bother doing this deaking BS that all men's team players do. The women skate up to the net and shoot, they don't get uber close and try to dizzy the sumo wrestling goalie into forgetting where the puck is then MISS when they are point blank because they forgot that they actually had to score!! So lots of respect to the simplicity, clarity, and finesse of Woman's hockey.
Now remember I am not mad about our loss as much as I am about what men's hockey has become. This was disgraceful on both ends and I hope either both coaches are fired, or they just do not allow NHL players to be in the Olympics, because clearly, they have too much money to care whether they are playing a great game, or playing the same way a rock parties at a rave.
Next time CTV, Show something more awesome next time, that we are actually good at, Like Skeleton, Moguls, Snowboarding, or Speed skating.
An online film critic and founder of the "(Film) in 5 Seconds" internet phenomenon, That Guy With The Glasses(TGWTG) has made countless movie lovers, and haters come together in laughter at the spoofed and satirical renditions of films in their shortest form. Of course these films are either summarized in the most critical but comical manner but at the same time summarizing their value in their visual and stylistic aesthetics and poking fun at them by leaving most of the plot out.
The video below is one of his videos on Amadeus, a critically acclaimed film with an elegant and stylistic aesthetics. Instead of embracing them, TGWTG decides to use only the parts in which Mozart cracks his most contagious and nerdy laugh (which he does often in the film) and end it with his abrupt and gritty death. This struck a huge chord for me because upon first seeing the film and reflecting upon it those were the parts that I remembered, and like many others I nodded at my computer screen and thought That's pretty much the whole movie.
Since his videos became viral, many people have made other "5 Second" summaries of films not yet done, often crediting TGWTG in the very abrupt and quick end credits.
This culture of re cutting or critiquing a film through its key themes, or elements of style and script which could make it funny has also led to the internet phenomenon of re-cutting films into genre-specific trailers. 10 Things I Hate About Commandments (Based on Footage from Heston's The 10 Commandments) is an absolute favorite and prime example of how movie lovers engage in post-production activities to pay homage and have fun with their favorite good, or bad film.
The London Eye, one of the many structures part of Britain's millennium project that now stands face to face with the rustic majesty of Westminster and Big Ben, which have kept the tube running on time and their Island Nation safe. As the old meet the new from across the river Thames the very positioning of these two iconic symbols of London spring an irony about their greatest gadget CCTV surveillance. Very literally, London has an eye on everyone.
Ever since 9/11 and the terrorist roundup at Heathrow in '06 England has cracked down on security measures within their grand cities, and sleepy hamlets. Rarely can you find a bench to sit on or a garbage can to throw waste in unless you are in a grand park. Most people in train stations and other public transport docks are encouraged to litter due to their heightened employment of garbage pickers (to replace the rubbish bins). As a mostly litter-free Canadian I was guilt-stricken at the idea. The greatest, most expensive, and controversial of these precautions is the CCTV camera which has cost the government over 200 million pounds! Talk about a safe investment.
Although on the other hand, many critics and citizens are skeptical of this camera which acts as the overlord of national security. Many studies show that even though their cameras can catch criminals, it hasnot stopped the rate of crimenearly as much as it should. People are beginning todebate whether it was a good idea to begin with, and many are scared rather than feeling secure.
In the North, the Scottish have also begun installing the cameras but have been reviewing the issueof their expenses. Many believe that the sheer expense should go into recruiting more police officers rather than just street eyes.
I feel the argument to put money into hiring more able-bodied police would be much more effective that throwing money at cameras that can only observe in a kind of 'we'll catch them later' kind of system. Let's get more cops on the streets and less bureaucrats watching us do our grocery runs. we ♥ sharing
Remember the days when DJ's used spinners and crazy soundboards? Oh right! Most still do, but the future of cool beats and synth sounds seems to lie in a cool technology called Reactable Technology. As the video and picture shows it seems like a cute interactive table that people would find at a club featuring DaftPunk. In reality this technology is being introduced to the music and clubbing world as interactive bar tables are serving drinks on sensor coasters and famous singerBjork begun to use the Reactableas a medium for some of her performances.
The concept is to physically interact with the sound cubes on the table and measure the beat and rhythm by the distance and setting you applied between the interacting cubes and discs. On top of it all it's design is sleek and stylish for the Techno-beat DJ's which are their lead target investors.
While looking at this cool glowy instrument I wonder how it will affect the way people define talent within the music mixing circle. How someone who needs to ear out and synthesize beats between records has been rendered obsolete by a kid whith a new glowy table full of cool lines, sounds, and shapes. At the same time this new technology may add an element to the vintage style of DJ mixing, while one spins, the other Reactables.
This is something I would love to see developed in the future and used more often, especially since autotune has finally gotten on my nerves, its time to React, with this cool new table.
Ever since texting took flight in the cell phone universe it immediately jumped on asocial text bar that was strapped on the bottom of every Much Music video full of teenagers posting random comments like 'I love ya Tina" or "Play Rick Astley! lol!" Now with the birth of a new social network God, Twitter decided to overblow their expanse from the internet to TV. Twitter has already done this during hit shows like Fringe and Glee. This idea was also exploited during the Michael Jackson Memorial.
Now I understand in comparison to music video text bars twitter posts relevant comments to the programming, but does anyone really give two tweets about 'Randoguy58's' concern about who will bring the moonwalk back. Many viewers sharedhorrified sentiments with the TV Tweet trend when it appeared on FringeandGlee, and it was soon pulled. Like many who have blogged or commented, the Tweets were distracting to the audience despite the Tweets being from production crews and the actors.
This 'lower-third-social-information' impedes on the asthetics of watching and enjoying the romance, action, and suspense, let alone the suspension of disbelief of the shows we watch. I would hate to be watching Battlestar Galactica if Edward James Olmos had tweets popping up during an exciting spaceship battle.
This Twitter bird has also flown its way to IBM who has patent the Tweet remote, so people can ramble about watching television while watching television, this spelled a nightmare come true for many TV lovers who are afraid that it will encourage shows to have more live feeds on the show. Although IBM is working on this technology the annoyance with this idea may kill the Remote before it gets the green light.
Television has always given the comfort of escapism within the comfort of your own home, we do not need little tweets to interrupt our fantasies and pleasures.
As a person who enjoys an older form of period drama like The Tudors and Rome, it is not the easiest to find the gorgeous clothes of Henry VIII or those wicked feathered helmets of Lucius Verinus. On the other hand, if you are one for one of the countless CW love octagon shows like One Tree Hill or Gossip Girl or have a soft spot for the vintage wit of Madmen and are wondering "where can I buy/find something like what she/he's wearing?" then the networks and their publicity will lead you right to it.
This particular video focuses on one of Mad Men's characters and her classy vintage wardrobe and how the common viewer could purchase a close substitute for a low price. This video is one of a series known on YouTube as Fashion411 which looks at celebrity and show fashions and clothing. I recall this method of branding and advertising being done on shows like Entertainment Tonight and Magazines like Vanity Fair to brand and price the clothing items at their high end price, or their box store deals. One thing always bothers me when I observe this branding phenomenon, are some shows watched for the clothes or general style? Has the plot of these Neo-soaps become a background neccessity while people gawk at the clothes. Sounds like ''style pornography'' to me rather than a respectable source of entertainment.
The Internet has taken this TV/Film wardrobe labelling craving to the next level as sites like SeenON do nothing but advertise for the clothes shamelessly paraded on these shows. Some television networks that make a living out of beautiful people like CW have an entire section devoted to Styles on each of their hit shows. So for those gentlemen who want to class up a night out at the bar, or your next polo match with some Sweater Vests worn by Chuck Bass from Gossip Girl, these links are for you.
One thing is for sure, when Bond 23 comes out, I will be looking at the pricetag of his latest cuff links...Just saying.
Whether you are hanging off the crenelations of a 13th century crusader castle in Acre, wall running along mudbrick walls of a persian palace, or just grabbing some stars and green mushrooms for a 1up, there is something to be said about the open world, sandbox games that are slowly consuming and contending on the video game market. Although many have marked games like Prince of Persia: The Sands Of Time and Grand Theft Auto as the first great sandbox games, we have to remember the definition of what this means.
ASandbox game is based on an open world and concept system in which the environment and capabilities of the avatar or character you play do not limit them to one linear objective or route. Instead, sandbox games allow you several possibilities and maneuverability throughout the atmosphere. For example, one game brought to my attention as a sandbox game was Mario 64! This shocked me when I read this but upon further explanation the game allows you not just platform jump through a level, but even choose several different routes and choose which world you want to enter whenever you want (for those who remember, the paintings on the wall).
Recently, the cool factor to sandbox games has taken a great leap, especially towards the idea of using accessible atmosphere and architecture as props and holds in the many parkour-based games like mirrors edge, Assassins Creed, and Prince of Persia. These have raged through the market as the ''must-play'' games of their respected years and have remained my favourite video games for the most recent consoles.
This growing popularity in the concept of adding malleability to gameplay also makes me wonder about a possible genre mixing pot now that these games have given a 'be there or be square' attitude to most game developers who have added many of these features to once untouched genres like first person shooters and arena combat games. Now games like Modern Warfare 2 give airstrike capabilities and camouflage options, and others like Sould Calibur give armour deterioration details and downgrades when an opponent has been hit.
Are changes like these just a closer step to video game realism? Or are we ruining the true-beating heart of nice simple linear games and their genres?
With cheap and availability to editing equipment and cameras everyone and their mothers can make video's. Although the dawn of this phenomenon sparked skits a la America's Funniest Home Videos some more creative amateur film makers decided to re enact or re imagine their favourite cinematic moments. For those not acquainted with Stephen Spielberg's great 1991 classic Hook this scene is a ode to the editing and concept of one of the key scenes in the film when an older Peter Pan, played by the wonderful Robin Williams begins using his imagination again as part of his Pan re-orientation.
The comedy troupe Goodneighborstuff filmed this skit and are an internet based group that has some ties in theatre and used clever devices such as out of sequence shooting with a flowing script in order to fool the eye and add the magic to the scene, thus making the food miraculously appear. They also used the original music from the very same scene (scored and conducted by the magical John Williams) in order to hit the point home and let the audience identify with the scene that they may remember from their childhood as some sort of nostalgic 'a-ha' moment.
This nostalgia factor to comical renditions of pop culture films, music, or television connect to the viewer differently than other forms of comedy and entertainment because of their familiarity to a media filled audience, which are likely to respond to such an iconic film director, film, and score.
In our media and 3-screen age, the power of parody prevails
To Draw or click-and-drag, that is the question that animators and films have been contesting on the screen since the emergence of Pixar's revolutionary technology. With the debut of films like Toy Story (1995) independent and big time studios were beginning to question the future of stop-motion and drawn animation. Although Disney, Treehouse, and countless other studios and networks have embraced this technology their still remained the beating heart of the Anime giant. With visionary directors like Hayao Miyazaki fighting the CG empire's of the west Anime was still able to span some of Europe and North America on the film festival circles as a higher visual art than that of the mainstream CG animations. This small demand for traditional animation sparked directors like Wes Anderson to use stop-motion for his adaptation of The Fantastic Mr. Fox and for Disney to release a traditionally animated fairytale The Princess and the Frog. Many in the industry as well as critics hope that traditional methods will start a renaissance in the film industry.
While the film industry is playing with the idea of balancing traditional animations with CG ones, the television industry seems to still be in different directions on the debate. For some children's stations it is still easier and cheaper to continue using traditional animation rather than converting to CG animated shows. On the other hand, hit claymation studios that brought classics like the Wallace and Gromit series are looking and experimenting with CG integration for their hit franchise. It seems like the battle over CG and Traditional Animation has only begun, I look forward to seeing the work of the next decade, will CG prevail? Or will vintage creativity stand its ground? Only time will tell.
An original 3D animation test from 1983 when Disney still owned the rights to Where the Wild Things Are. Putting together hand drawn animation with 3D framing and atmosphere. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvIDRoO8KnM
Hello Blogger!I am Christian Petrozza a competitive fencer, independent film maker, and film major. Since I have recently been injured and reading week is coming up, I thought I would begin re-posting some of my old blogs from the other Blog I write on Transmedia TV. I will also be posting some new content as well once all my blog posts have been re-enstated on this site. On this blog I will look into popular media, technology, the sport of fencing (the best sport evar!) and mostly my defence for films which I enjoy but critics hate, which has been the case soo many times before, pretty much since siskel died. I hope you enjoy my posts, interests, and the occasional anecdote or experience.
...my athletic fencing journey in the CFF (Canadian Fencing Federation) and its trials and tribulations. Mostly, this blog will look into the film industry and how to get a foot in the door, through my current experiences and those of friends and opportunities that arise. Being a movie lover, I will also tackle some of my favourite films and film genres and defend their honour against terrible critics. Like all good blogs, I will also share the occasional rant or cool fact about film and media and technology...Just enjoy and comment :)
A Special Thanks to my Friend and housemate Charlie for bringing this game to my attention.
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