Thoughtful Preparations: Media Spin Blog

Brad Bird recently spoke at the San Francisco International Film Festival on a topic that was entitled, “State of the Cinema Address.” The Oscar winning writer and director of Pixar’s “The Incredibles” warned that cinema is in trouble due to the deterioration of the movie-going experience.

Coincidentally, Ishared that experience last November on a Friday night trying to see The Incredibles – it was sold out at two theaters that had overflowing parking lots. I vowed to stay clear of going out to the movies for awhile. Instead I settled for Polar Express, after 15 minutes of commercials and warnings, through cell phones and kids theater hopping.

No surprise that Bird spoke of movie productions now factoring DVD material into their schedules as an important component of the overall revenue stream. A nod to the well managed art cinemas still doing business, and yet for many, cinema resides with a home DVD collection, where great movies such as those by The Criterion Collection can be enjoyed in comfort. For less than the price of two going to a movie and buying refreshments, you can own the movie.

P.S. In a timely interview, vanguard of French new wave cinema, Jean Luc Godard, is quoted on cinema, “It’s over,” he sighs. “There was a time maybe when cinema could have improved society, but that time was missed.”

Rush Limbaugh’s up periscope must be checking out the Suicide Girls website for his meter on modern youth sexual morality. Finding no space at MySpace: a place for friends or having no Nerve.com or no invites to Friendster must pain the portly pompous pundit.

See a list of 35 of Rush’s Kinky Truths here.

Following up on the Adobe-Macromedia story, today’s San Francisco Chronicle Business section On The Record: Bruce Chizen.

This is a lengthy interview, and Mr. Chizen lays many cards on out on the table, open and personable, while remaining firmly and discretely professional. Regarding any threat from Microsoft, Bruce describes a scheme in which mighty MS attempts to gain partnership with the IRS telling us to fill out tax forms with MS Office Professional. Chizen states, “the fact that PDF is embedded in society, we believe it’s really going to be hard for them to displace us.”

The interview turns kinky approaching the relationship with Apple…

Q: Being in a marriage with Apple means being in a marriage with Steve Jobs. What’s your relationship with him like?

A: I have a very good relationship with Steve. It’s very open and very direct. There have been Saturdays and Sundays where we’ve had very active conversations about a variety of topics.

Q: Physically active?

A: No, no, no — verbally active. He’s brilliant.

There are serious topics I am contemplating, such as Nationalism, Militarism and Christian Fundamentalism and why so many Americans blindly follow. Others march to Diff’rent Strokes, such as free thinking, independent and good natured Gary Coleman. He’s a tough little guy, challenging Arnold Schwarzenegger by campaigning in the 2003 California race for governor.

I checked Celebrity Blogwatch and was disappointed that Gray has not gotten into blogging the way David Duchovny has. A poll of the web tells me poor Gary suffers from public whipping boy status: celebrities who are fair game in the press, who some folks just love to hate, such as Jane Fonda. Still, it would be interesting to read what is stroking in his different mind.

The JELL-O brand history goes back almost 100 years, and there is even a JELL-O Museum Gallery in LeRoy, NY.

JELL-O (hyphenated, not jello moron!) first entered computer graphics in 1987 when Paul Heckbert was looking to stretch the rendering R & D being done on ray tracing. Ten years later Paul put me in touch with an ambitious sculptor, Daniel Wurtzel, who was designing large scale gelatin objects. Daniel had me try 3D renderings of his JELL-O mold ideas, but 2D Photoshop sketches turned out to be better concept renderings. His entire Gelatin Sculpture Proposal is online here at Media Spin.

Daniel tried fabricating the gelatin objects and was confronted with many physical challenges such as temperature, dust, mass versus surface tension. Having outgrown JELL-O kid’s stuff, Daniel has moved on to the phallic and militaristic symbolism with Rubber Bullets. This QuickTime movie shows a young lady in the gallery playfully interacting with the tall, glowing dildo totems. The Sharper Image had better stock up on these babies!

But hold on… JELL-O is no longer kids stuff! Adults once again have perverted a nice innocent dessert, with JELL-O WRESTLING! Sweet green slime! Gory red goop! The new dessert treat is a singles dating ritual in which partiers return to the primordial gelatinous ooze. I guess it’s a fun way to lick your opponent. Make JELL-O, not war.

Remember those little blinking eye Crackerjack prizes? Lenticular displays have grown up into a medium worthy of Pixar 3D animators and fine art photographers, such as Brian Loube’s photo above.

“I’m thinking how cool it would be to have an animated business card“, the geek entrepreneur ponders. What exactly is a lenticular? Find plenty of descriptive information at WiseGeek. There are also Photoshop plugins and actions floating around for you do it yourselfers, but you’ll still need to buy the plastic lenses. I attended a SIGGRAPH Studio that provided the tools and materials to create lenticulars from your images on site at the conference.

In these recent days of Pope John Paul II‘s passing, there has been great attention to religion and God’s earthly presence. Some even see the Virgin Mary on a concrete wall stained by salt water. I think it looks like something less sanctified, but to each their own.

The Catholic Church‘s conclave and selection of the new Pope reminds me a bit of the U. S. government and Supreme Court. In the real world of business it is very rare to see a 78 year old man chosen for a top position. Religions and governments, being very good at soaking the masses for their funding, appear to be great retirement homes for the good old boys.

Johnny The Baptist is a good old boy who was not eligible for the papacy, and found his pathway to Salvation through the School of Hard Knocks. If you are looking for some kind of honest redneck inspiration, his rugged life story is worth a look.

Quarterly publication CINEFEX celebrated its 100th issue recently with a panel interview with 50 of today’s leading visual effects professionals, including questions such as, “We have terrific visual effects in movies now. Is it possible we’re getting too much of a good thing?” John Gaeto of Matrix series renown states, “I would have liked half the shot load.” Instead, the whacky Agent Smith effects apparently influenced Kung Fu Hustle, the over the top spoof of kicking and flying action fight films.

Also discussed is the drift of visual effects from the cinematic aesthetic, into CG non-photographic looks. Virtual cameras, video game image assaults and I’d like a Raging Bull Monster drink with my popcorn dude!