Toy Story 3: Then and Now

The new trailer for Toy Story 3 came out recently, and it looks amazing. My hat goes off to Lee Unkrich and the rest of the Pixar Team.

Just a look at how far we’ve come in Animation in the past 15 years. A look at the character design of a few of the well known characters.

(Click the links for larger images)

Lastly, just because some of the shots were utterly breathtaking and beautiful I wanted to showcase some of the amazing visuals that are in the film. From the moody dark shots, to the ominous green shots to the great depth of field and shading/lighting.

View the full trailer on YouTube (Trailer 1, Trailer 2) or Apple Trailers (Three Trailers in 1080p). Also be sure to check out the Featurette.

Tags: Animated, Animation, Look and Feel, Pixar, Style, Toy Story 3, Visuals

B&N Nook vs Amazon Kindle

For the sake of actually getting content on this blog, I’m going to post this. I wrote this in November of 2009, since then my wonderful Fiance and family bought me the Amazon Kindle. Which is amazing, with the announcement of the Apple iPad, this article may seem dated. But the point is just to get it out there.

To this day i still think that the Kindle is by far the better choice in the eReader market, even with Amazon allowing book publishers the ability to set their own prices. I’ll write up something later comparing thee four big guys (Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader, iPad) but for now I just wanted to post this.

I’ve been looking into eReaders lately with the Christmas season coming up in an effort to see if I want to make the jump to a paperless book world, and I do. So the question comes to which one do I buy (or request someone else buy for me, as that is the season.)

In one corner we have the Amazon Kindle 2, coming in at $259.00. The Kindle has been around for a long time, and has a huge lead on the consumer market when it comes to eReader devices. Amazon recently updated the origional Kindle and split it into two seperate devices: the Kindle DX which offered a much larger screen, native PDF support and access to more textbooks for students. The price was far to steep for my liking though, around $500. Amazon’s other new device was the Kindle 2, international edition. The eReader could read overseas, was $279.99 but couldn’t read PDF files natively (you had to convert them).

I had my eye on the Kindle for a while, but never pulled the trigger on buying one. Now Barnes and Noble announced recently that their newest product, the Nook, was a new eReader which offered a memory card slot for up to 18 GB of space (17,500 books), a sleek design, a color touch screen and it runs on Googles Android operating system which means that they can add extensions and updates to the firmware as time goes on which may or may not be possible on the Kindle which to my knowledge uses a different Linux system.All this for a price point of $259.00, a price which was lower than the Kindle and drove Amazon to lower it’s prices.

Now, the Nook seemed like a dream come true: awesome design, expandable storage, color touchscreen, extensible operating system, what could Amazon possible do to compete?

The answer as it turns out, was nothing. They needed to keep doing what they do best, offer a vast array of quality books at affordable prices. Which is exactly where Barnes and Noble went wrong.

I’ve been a B&N member for years, paying $25 per year for a 10% discount was fairly nice. Especially because I split the cost with someone, so my breakeven point is only $125 which I can easily spend in a year on Magazines, books, and coffee. I regularly visit B&N, spend hours there reading but rarely purchase from them. I fall into the category which finds a book they like at a brick and mortar store and then buy it online from Amazon on the way out the door. With prices at 50% lower than the store, I can’t logically bring myself to spend $40 when I can buy it online for $25 and get free shipping.

Now, that might make me biased towards Amazon. But I sincerly wanted the Nook when I first read about it, it sounded like an avid readers wet dream. But that dream quickly became a nightmare when I turned to look at the book selection and eBook pricing.

I did some research, and looked up all the books that I currently own and have on my wishlist on both Amazon and B&N for their respective eReaders. Barnes and Noble charges 25% or more on a majority of the books and has 50% less books than Amazon does. This stunned me, because B&N claims to have over 1,000,000 titles in their eBook store,* and Amazon only offers 350,000*.

World Builder by Bruce Branit

This has been flying around the interwebs for a while now, but I figured I’d throw my own opinion into the ring.

World Builder from Bruce Branit on Vimeo.

This is a really good short film, primarily visual effects (Bruce says it was a one day shoot, and two years of effects) that tells the story of a man and what he’ll do for his true love when she is in a coma (Or at least that’s what I took out of it).

Bruce is best known for his work as a digital artist on Ghost Rider, King Kong, Serenity, Sin City and 405 among others. Spent aproximately $2,500 (According to IMDb Pro) to make this project, but I’m sure if you count the time he spent working on the visuals as part of the budget, it would be much larger.

It’s done really well, but the only problem I have is that at some parts you can see the green spill around the actor that he couldn’t quite get rid of. I’m sure with more time, a better keyer or a better green screen it would’ve looked much better. The only reason I’m knocking it, is because Bruce has worked as a Compositor on a lot of major films and owns his own Visual Effects company. To let something like that slip through is odd.

But other than that, it’s a great short and I commend Bruce for his work on it and the time he spent to make it happen. Great concept, great execution, A+.

Tags: Short Film, Visual Effects, World Builder

Must Have Firefox Addons

So, I’m going to write up a quick article about the Firefox addons that I use, and why I use them.

All-in-One Gestures

All-in-One Gestures is a mouse based gesture system that allows you to control everything in the browser with a quick mouse gesture. The thing that really makes this awesome is that you can customize your gestures. This is awesome for speedy web surfing, and especially awesome for people with a mouse that lacks a forward/backward button (like my MX518 mouse has). You hold down the right mouse button and drag in a series of directions. You can do everything from go back and forward, open a new tab, a new window, close a tab or go full screen.

AnyColor

AnyColor allows you to change the colors of your tabs, and the overall look of Firefox. Customizing the colors to, well, pretty much any colors. It comes with pre-designed themes, one of which I use. But you can customize it to any color scheme you like.

Tab Mix Plus

While Tab Mix Plus doesn’t do a lot for me, it does one thing that is a MUST have. If you’re like me, you have a ton of tabs opened up at once and having to scroll through them with the built in Firefox scroller, it takes up a lot of time and can be annoying. Tab Mix Plus allows you to have multiple rows of tabs (with a maximum that you can decide on) in addition to that you can make it highlight updated tabs or scale the tabs down to fit a certain width. It’s incredibly powerful, and I only scrape the surface of it’s features.

Delicious Bookmarks

This is only useful if you use del.icio.us bookmarks — and you should be, the ability to bookmark anything and then take it with you (and share it with friends) is a great tool. This plugin allows you to quickly view your bookmarks and more importantly, bookmark a page with the click of a button. Not only that, but if you bookmark something to your browser bookmarks it will ask you if you want to bookmark it to del.icio.us as well.

Download Statusbar

One of the things that is cool about Google Chrome is the ability to view downloads in the browser without having to have that pesky downloads box open up. Download Statusbar does this, and allows you to click on it in the bottom of the browser to open the file.

FoxTab

This is an amazing addon. With a quick keyboard shortcut (Control-Q by default) you can see a graphical representation of your current open tabs. Not only can you customize it to what you want it to look like (From the iTunes movie scroll look, to the giant TV monitor look that I use) but you can also sort the tabs by what site you have open. So if you’re like me and havefive google tabs open and two Life Hacker pages, you can quickly navigate to them.

PDF Download

A really simple addon that works really well, and is really easy to use.  Instead of downloading to your browser each time, or automatically downloading. PDF Downloader gives you the option of what you would like it to do. Really nice if you do a lot of online PDF viewing.

Speed Dial

Speed Dial is amazing. It replaces your new tab box with a setup similar to Google Chrome.  But with this you can setup different tabs, and the best part? Right click and “Open All in Tabs” will open all the windows in that tab into new windows. This is a great tool if you are doing something like checking 50 Freelancing websites, or checking all your gaming sites at once. You can have as many rows and columns per tab as you want, and as many tabs as you want as well.  I put it up to as much as 20×20, but that was pretty slow and pointless. But hey, to each his own.

Alright, that about wraps it up. These are most of the addons I use on a daily basis, what addons do you use that you couldn’t live without?

Tags: addons, firefox, must have

Film Review: Role Models

Today I’m going to be reviewing the latest comedy film to hit to silver screen, Role Models starring Seann Williams Scott (American Pie / American Wedding / Road Trip), Paul Rudd (Knocked Up / The 40 Year Old Virgin / Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy), and Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Superbad), among others.

The story is about two energy drink promoters journey to find themselves and fix their relationships after they crack under the pressure of life. Wheeler (Scott) and Danny (Rudd) find themselves given the choice of thirty days in prison, or thirty days community service working in a big brother program called Sturdy Wings.

The two choose Sturdy Wings, only to want to change their mind after the first encounter with the kids Augie (Mintz-Plasses) and Ronnie (Thompson). Augie is a a nerdy teenager who has a passion for LAIRE (Live Action Interactive Roleplaying Explorers), the films own version of LARP (Live Action Role Playing). Ronnie is a wise cranking kid that goes through big brothers like normal people go through Keelex.

Act 1 was a little big long but it worked and that’s what matters. We’re setup with the story and we get to see the characters in their normal world. But it does seem to drag on, albeit hilariously. They could have tightened it up a little and trimmed a few small bits of fat from the opening act but despite that it was hilarious through til Act 2.

This films antagonist and protagonist as well as it’s central theme is a little hard to follow. In the beginning of the film it seems more about the relationshp between Danny and his girlfriend (Played by Elizabeth Banks) but as the film goes on it becomes more about Augie vs the King of LAIRE. It seems as through the relationship with Danny and his Girlfriend was more of a subplot and less of the main plot, which it appeared to be in Act 1. Wihle this isn’t a bad thing, the story is told hilariously and everything is wrapped up neatly for us, I would’ve liked to see the opening a little bit more about Augie and develope his relationshp with Danny and the game he plays.

Paul Judd and Sean Williams Scott play off each other hilariously, every joke is well timed and keeps you laughing through the entire film. Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Bobb’e J Thompson make the movie what it is. Thompsons witty remarks and quick comebacks keep you laughing til the very end.

Overall, this is an amazingly funny film with a well throught out story. A must see for any comedy fan, and a must buy when it cmoes out on Blu Ray and DVD.

Overall Score: 9/10

Tags: christopher, comedy, film, fogel, funny, judd, mintz, mintz-plasse, models, movie, paul, plasse, review, role, scott, sean, william

More Data, and Plans!

So, I’m still unsure which, if any, Film School I’m going to attend. I grabbed Wikipedia’s Top 50 Highest Grossing Films of all time and compiled a list of the directors of those films in the same fashion as yesterdays chart. This is what I found:

• 24 Directors Featured
• 59% of Directors Majored in Film
• 71% of Directors Went to college
• Youngest Directors Start was 22
• Oldest Directors Start was 38
• Average Start Age was 30
• 2 Directors Attended USC
• 1 Director Attended UCLA
• 1 Director Attended LMU
• 1 Director Attended CSULB

I am leaning towards attending school, and trying for USC… but I’m not entirely sold on it yet. Many film makers (29% to be exact) were very successful without any degree or any college. Ron Howard (The Grinch, American Graffiti, A Beautiful Mind), Jon Favreau (Elf, Ironman), Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings, King Kong), Larry Wachowski (The Matrix), Sam Raimi (Spiderman 1, 2 and 3), Martin Campbell (Casino Royale, Goldeneye, The Legend of Zorro), et al.

But does that mean I shouldn’t try because of them, or try harder despite them? It’s true, they aren’t the majority, 29% is in fact the mintority.

The old saying goes that if you are talented and have the desire, discipline and dedication to be successful in this business, you will be.

What do you think? Do you plan to attend film school, or the school of life?

Tags: california, director, film, howard, life, Loyola, Marimount, nyu, producing, production, ron, school, university, usc

Fun Facts About Directors (Stats and More!)

This originally started as a document for my own personal use. It was a spreadsheet used to find out how many major directors went to college, how old they were when they started their first major film, and how they started their careers.

The following information was obtained from Wikipedia:

• Birth Year
• College
• Major
• Degree Type
• Age When they had their first hit

For the purpose of this spreadsheet, and the purpose that it is supposed to serve. The Director MUST have been born AFTER 1944, and must have had at least one film that had a wide theatrical release. For this reason, directing legends such as Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, Jean Renoir, et al. have not been included.

The reason for this is that during their era of film making, Film School was not an option. The best way to get into the industry at the time was an apprenticeship at a studio, or lower level job.

For the purpose of the graphs and stats below, the term “of Directors” really means, “of Directors featured in the survey.” For a full list of the directors used, as well as seeing the raw data, visit the link at the end of the article.

• 45 Directors Featured
• 69% of Directors Who Attended College Majored in Film
• 64% of Directors attended College
• Average Start Age (No college) was 29
• Average Start Age (College) was 29
• The Youngest Director Started at Age 23 (Ron Howard)
• The Oldest Director Started at Age 38
• 82% of Directors Born Between 1930-1949 Attended College
• 85% of Directors Born Between 1950-1959 Attended College
• 40% of Directors Born Between 1960-1969 Attended College
• 40% of Directors Born Between 1970-1979 Attended College

If you take away anything from these stats it should be this, those that went to college and those that did not were just as successful as those who did not go to college.

I’ll be doing some more in depth look at the differences between those who attended and those who did not attend. What’s your opinion of Film School? For or against it? Post a comment and let me know!

For a full look at the data, check out this spreadsheet.

Tags: age, average, born, career, college, directors, film, movie, old, producer, school, start, stats, university, video, years

Netflix Ups It’s Blu-Ray Subscription Price

While the economy is hurting pretty bad, Netflix decided now would be a good time to increase the price for Blu-Ray movies. If you, like me, are a Blu-Ray fanatic then you should probably take note that you’ll be paying a little more per month for Blu-Ray rental capabilitiies.

Netflix is increasing the subscription price on November 5th by $1.00, plus any taxes (Which, in California comes to around $1.08). A small price to pay indeed, but kind of annoying.

Below is the email I received from Netflix regarding the price change:

Dear Tyler,

As you may know, Blu-ray movies are more expensive than standard definition movies. As a result, we’re going to start charging $1 a month (plus applicable taxes), in addition to your monthly membership charge, for unlimited access to Blu-ray movies.

The additional charge for unlimited Blu-ray access will be automatically added to your next billing statement on or after November 5th, 2008 and will be referenced in your Membership Terms and Details. If you wish to continue getting Blu-ray movies for $1 a month more, you don’t need to do anything. If not, you can remove Blu-ray access anytime by visiting Your Account at the Netflix website.

If you have questions about this change or need any assistance, please call us anytime at 1-888-638-3549.

-The Netflix Team

Tags: blu, change, economy, movies, netflix, playstation, price, ps3, ray, sony