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Showing posts from January, 2008

Fag blog

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Aaah... Too busy to blog! All I will say is this -

Animated Japanese Landscapes

I love these animations, they are so funky.

Long Form Storytelling and Hollywood Marketing

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I want to revisit some of the ideas I was fumbling to elucidate in my earlier post about the Cloverfield marketing. Cloverfield was an excellent ignition for some thoughts I've had on this topic for a while, and they were equally stirred up again today whilst reading about the concerns in Hollywood now with how to market The Dark Knight , particularly some of the comments on the issue over at Defamer . For TDK the issue is around the centrality of Ledger's apparently powerful performance to the marketing campaign, and whether that is appropriate, post mortem. My feeling is that it is completely appropriate to continue as planned. It is openly acknowledged that Ledger put a lot of himself into the role, and he would want that role valued and given the attention it deserves. All the more so now that he has died and it is his last role. Appropriateness is a thin veil for what is really at issue for the studio though. After all, it is appropriate to cry when someone dies, but i

Glum connections in Hollywood

Earlier this evening my mother gushed about the recently released Juno , and how it was imperative that I see it, particularly for the performance by Ellen Page. I've been browsing the net too, as I'm want to do, and of course there has been a deluge of Heath Ledger related news. Messages from Ledger's family in a Perth newspaper were halting, a brief glimpse into their tragedy and the real Heath. His father lamented never again playing chess with his son, whom he could never beat. As if this weren't maudlin enough, I was also reading about the Hollywood industry response to Ledger's death as well. As I mentioned before, Terry Gilliam was shooting a film with Heath, and the quote he gave at the end of the Variety article , just served to compound the melancholy. Gilliam tells us that Ledger was about to direct soon, and that had was keenly observant of all of his techniques on set. Gilliam was sure he was going a be a better director then himself. The movie that Led

Heath Round-Up and Movie News

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~ There's a great little piece at TV Guide by Michael Ausiello about watching Brokeback Mountain again after hearing of Heath Ledger's death. ~ Poor Terry Gilliam was in the middle of shooting " The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus " with Heath Ledger. Rather then recast and reshoot, there is some talk of Johnny Depp replacing the Ledger in the film. Read how here . ~ Latest Britney goss is that her crazy antics that fuel the paparazzi might be due some sort of deal where she gets a cut from the sale of the pics . Could explain why she shacked up with a pap... ~ The Warner Bros backed big-screen CGI adaptation of Astro Boy has changed has switched directors. It's now being helmed by Flushed Away director David Bowers. ~ As if you really need a good reason to post a pic of Daniel Craig, but the new James Bond movie, coming out in November, now has a title - Quantum of Solace . Plenty of new details about the plot and characters have been released too.

Pearl the comic genius

Oh, what the heck, I'm in a funny video mood. Here is Pearl's debut performance, followed by her retirement piece. Enjoy. The Landlord on FunnyOrDie.com Good Cop, Baby Cop on FunnyOrDie.com

More Tom Cruise fun...

I never intended this much Tom Cruise, but I think this send up clip is pretty funny. Which is odd, because its just some random guy who has cut himself into the interview, finishing Tom's answers. Yet, somehow he gets Tom's delivery just right... I can't explain it ok, it just funny! Tom Cruise Scientology Interview (UNCUT!) on FunnyOrDie.com

Martians?

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Is it life on Mars or just a freaky rock? No it's bigfoot! Life on Mars?

The Shock of Heath Ledger's Departure

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What a sad way to wake up this morning, particularly for little Matilda. Heath Ledger has been found dead in a Manhattan apartment, apparently from a drug overdose. Friends have said that he had a drug problem, but that he's been clean for a year. His family are adamant it wasn't suicide, and apparently he was ill with pneumonia, so it seems likely he misjudged his self-medication. His death is one of those celebrity events I find quite sad, much more so then I would have predicted. Thinking about it, I guess my esteem for him has gradually grown since the initial pretty boy phase of his career. I admired the risk he took with starring in Brokeback Mountain, and he always came across as a pretty genuine, down-to-earth sort of guy, who loved his daughter deeply. I always imagined him ageing well as an actor, given the success he had already with stepping outside of expectations in the roles he chose. Poor Terry Gilliam, in the middle of shooting a film with Heath, will have yet

Marketing Cloverfield - Story Beyond the Screen

Cloverfield seems to have done quite well at the box office over the weekend, doing $46 million in the US, which is comparable to Peter Jackson's King Kong opening, reports the LA Times . I find it interesting in these sort of articles how the explanations for the success of films like this, are pretty meagre. Cloverfield only cost $25 million to make, so its already broken even in that respect, although apparently the marketing campaign cost more then production. The reasoning given by the Times for its success... it was pet project of the a studio exec, and the good 'buzz' generated on the Internet was reinforced by good reviews. Two important questions are not really answered. What made it a good movie? What made people think it would be a good movie before they saw it? Apparently its a good movie because people went to see it, and people went to see it because its a good move. And people say Hollywood isn't insightful! The other reasons given for it's succes

Roboroach - Cockroach cyborgs

I am somewhat creeped out by this clip. Yes, its all explained in the clip why they did it, but it's still damn freaky! All the reasons they give, while logical, still beg the question... couldn't they have thought of other ways to explore those concepts. Clearly it is just a cover for the development of a cyberoach army that rules the night. I dread their second version, I'm sure it flies...

Curse you Veronica Mars!

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Veronica Mars is making this whole blogging thing rather difficult. How am I supposed to post stuff when they go and end every episode of season 3 with a juicy cliff-hanger?! It's compounded by things like this - The universe is trying to stop me blogging I tell you! Actually I came across some fascinating info on IMDB. So Michael Muhney who plays the dumb sheriff on Veronica Mars is actually a member of Mensa. He has just written, produced and starred in a movie, released this year presumably, which also stars Amber Benson, AKA Tara from Buffy. So there is yet another Buffy connection to Veronica Mars, what with Charisma Carpenter and Alyson Hannigan both having recurring roles in the show. Suddenly my Veronica buzz has worn off, and I'm sad that I'll never get to watch another new episode of Buffy...

Cloverfield

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After months of drooling over the clever viral campaign and teaser footage, I finally saw Cloverfield last Friday. Sigh. Sometimes I wish all Hollywood features would only be a maximum of five minutes long, then it might be possible for them to just be on par with their trailers. I think Manohla Dargis over at the New York Times summed Cloverfield up succinctly when she said, Like too many big-studio productions, “Cloverfield” works as a showcase for impressively realistic-looking special effects, a realism that fails to extend to the scurrying humans whose fates are meant to invoke pity and fear but instead inspire yawns and contempt. What disappoints me, and this isn't the first time JJ Abrams has disappointed me, is that the basis of this film is an excellent conceit, but it seems rushed and not very thought through. I will admit that I loved Shyamalan's 'Signs', and one of the best moments in that film is when Joaquin Pheonix's character, sitting in the closet,

Facebook Founders

There is a fascinating article over on the Guardian website by Tom Hodgkinson called 'With Friends Like These...' which discusses the power-brokers behind Facebook and their personal ideologies. I don't necessarily find the information presented in the article as sinister as the author clearly does, particularly the irrational fear that an older generation seems to have about 'targeted marketing', but I do think the information definitely gives pause for thought.

Tom Cruise & Will Smith Interview Remix

So I'm somewhat in love with the remix culture that YouTube has facilitated, and given that I'm partial to a bit of celebrity gossip (ha, understatement!) this clip just tickled me. It remixes the Tom Cruise 'Look-how-crazy-I-am-now' Scientology vid that was leaked recently with some Will Smith interview. I could only bring myself to watch a couple minutes of the original leaked vid, Tom is just too crazy, not in the fun, pathetic Britney way, but in a creepy, almost sexual way. I would like to see a craziness showdown between Brit and Tom tho. That would be gold. :D

Why Blog?

I might be more frequent with my blogs if I had a clear idea of why I want to blog. And I I do have an idea of why I want to blog, so perhaps if I lay it out it will become clearer. For a while now I have been thinking about how bloggers are gaining more cultural significance. Blogging represents several broader trends in our culture, reflecting our increased capacity to communicate and stay connected with people, the culture of celebrity which has morphed into the cult of personality, and the need for a means to guide us through the overwhelming quantity of cultural information out there. In that sense, I want to blog so that I can experience first-hand these cultural shifts. Hopefully even gain some insights into them. I know all the online blogging lit recommends picking a topic you like to write about, and focusing your blog if you want it to be successful (and by that, I mean actually read by people). While I see the logic in that, unfortunately I like everything . There are very

Two Nights in a row...

Well its been several days already and I'm yet to post anything at all on this blog. A dire sign? I hope not. Once again I have spent the last two nights out drinking until the early hours. I wonder if this is why I am so unproductive with my spare time. Tsk, tsk. Well anyway, I'm awake (just) and here now, so I'll try to post something interesting.

My first blog post....

Well the day has finally come for me to create a blog. Now, when the day comes that I will actually post some meaningful content is an entirely different matter all together... :)