Posted by
Martyn Drake – June 23, 2010
I wanted to get the official stance from Apple relating to the iTunes UK Store HD movie playback on any computer, since any HD information is listed only as “Available in HD on iPad and Apple TV”. No mention of anything else. So I dropped iTunes customer support a quick email via their online form, and this is what I got as reply. Somehow, I think Deborah is fibbing as to where she really is given the style of reply..
Click to enlarge
I’ve decided to email Steve Jobs and get his official verdict and clarification – I just Apple to clarify what you’re getting when you’re buying or renting a movie from them. I ought to have asked about the iTunes Extras as well as I’ve noticed that not all listings provide exactly what features you get when you buy the film. That said, Mo McRoberts (from whom I’m hosting the Project Baird mailing list) has told me that his purchases have arrived as 720p HD files. But why is Apple being a little unclear on it’s movie description about HD availability, referring to only the iPad and Apple TV?
iTunes movie purchases/rentals would be an excellent alternative to Blu-Ray – but they’ve got to be a bit more upfront as to what the consumer is getting for their purchase/rental and if I’m a little confused by it, I reckon other people will be too.
Posted by
Martyn Drake – June 13, 2010
Over the past few days I’ve been tinkering with Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid). I like it enough to seriously consider moving my work Dell laptop running Windows 7 with Blu-Ray reader/burner and dual SLI NVIDIA 9800M GT graphics cards over to it. Especially as I’ve found a good number of articles surrounding how to play Blu-Ray titles. It is still awkward, but then again, Linux is unfortunate that Hollywood doesn’t seem to like it much. I’ve discussed this issue on this very blog time and again, but here it is again for those that may have missed it:
But Hollywood DOES like Linux. Or rather the multitude of post-production and visual effects facilities that rely on Linux to create the gorgeous artwork that we see grace our cinema screens, Blu-Ray discs, or DVD discs. Yes – Linux is used in both big VFX studios and small boutiques. And yet for the artists, producers and engineers that work on these films it’s never easy because Linux has not yet (to the best of my knowledge) received proper licensing from the relevant authorities that control DVD and Blu-Ray specifications. As a result most artists require a standalone DVD player attached to a TV to playback any reference material DVDs/Blu-Rays rather than on their own workstations. And given the complications of region encoding, these facilities have to use multi-region players – mainly those that can use the DVD manufacturer’s control codes to work around the set region which the unit ships with.
So Hollywood loves Linux to create it’s movies (as it’s also free as in beer to them), but HATES anybody wanting to use it on their own home computers to watch the very same movie that Linux helped create in the first place.
Posted by
Martyn Drake – June 10, 2010
.. that is to say, it makes everything better after the dreadful Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.
SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!
Salvation is definitely a vast improvement despite handled by a director with just three letters to his name (I’m just kidding – McG does a fine job – yes, that statement may probably shock you, but I have nothing against the guy’s work at all). For starters the visual effects are excellent, but then again they should be given that it’s being handled by the world’s most expensive and sought after VFX house: ILM. They actually spend some money on physical terminator effects courtesy of the Stan Winston Studio and it looks great.
Where Salvation lets itself down is in the storyline. How the hell did Cyberdyne develop something technically superior back in the early 2000s that’s actually BETTER than the T-101 and T-800s that were sent back in time to try and eradicate Sarah Connor and Co.? They weren’t to know that Skynet was going to become self-aware, so they must have perfected Marcus’ infrastructure prior to this. Unless a bit of sneaky time travelling DID happen since Dr. Kogan, in Skynet form, clearly stated why he was created and that couldn’t have happened unless Kogan, back in human form (or WAS SHE?), came from the future.
I also fail to understand what Skynet would do once humans are completely eradicated. Would the Terminators become self-aware and start building themselves houses and have tea parties with the Hunter Killers? Seriously – what would it do? It’d be bored, that’s what. Essentially it’ll be talking only to itself (after all it controls *everything*) unless it made it’s army self-aware as well. Then it’d probably start a war with them itself just to pass the time.
Salvation is a entertaining film, and brings back a sense of grandeur and plot completely missing from T3 (which was just a recycling exercise in my opinion). Christian Bale is decent enough as John Connor and Sam Worthington is fine as Marcus Wright (before buggering off to Pandora to become a member of the Blue Men Group). Expect eye candy from the visual effects (including an early sequence which very much reminded me of the car hijacking from Children of Men – a “one take” masterpiece which I think works extremely well – hugely impressed) and just enough story to be engaging.
Posted by
Martyn Drake – April 22, 2010
Movie trailers are cheeky buggers. They’re there to entice you into watching the films they’re advertising. Yet they must be one of the most difficult aspects of any part of the movie making process because for me they can do quite the opposite even if it’s a film that I know I’m likely to enjoy.
This was the problem with Wes Anderson’s The Fantastic Mr. Fox – his take on the Roald Dahl classic. The trailer revealed a stop animation process that was so far removed from the smoothness that the likes of Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas and Neil Gaiman’s Caroline) and Mark Johnson and Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride, the latter which was shot at Three Mills Studios (and MPC, for whom I was working for at the time, provided the visual effects). The thing seemed to lack depth. It short: it sucked.
It sucked until I started watching the entire film on Blu-Ray. It stopped sucking from the first frame. After 10 minutes I was enraptured by the style, the voice acting, the puppet acting. Everything. The animation is exceptional even though the style is simplistic and imperfect. In the accompanying documentary, Wes Anderson states that he is a fan of the original King Kong film, and in that of the animation revealed the animator’s presence as the fingers would press down on the fur during each and every frame. He *wanted* that imperfection for his own film. And we get it in abundance here as the puppets utilise proper hair rather than it being moulded from some synthetic substance. Damn it – it shouldn’t work – it’s imperfect. But it just DOES. As does the facial and lip sync – all working together in perfect harmony. These deliberately imperfect puppets come alive at the hands of the animators.
Then there are the voices of George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray, Jason Schartzman, Michael Gambon and many others. All of them working together so well you’d hardly think that it’s performance from two beings – the voice actor and the animator. It all blends together so well. Clooney in particular is excellent.
I’m also surprised that this isn’t a film that’s aimed at kids. It’s actually very adult oriented in it’s approach, but both adults and (older) kids can enjoy this film. I especially liked that every single swear word utter is merely just “Cuss” (including graffiti on the town’s walls). I liked that this is a film that does not talk down to anybody.
This is by far one of the best animated films I’ve seen in a long while. It’s a pity that the trailer initially let it down for me, but so glad I forged ahead and saw the film. Oh, and kudos to my former colleagues (most of whom had worked or still work at Lip Sync Post) for the excellent visual effects work.
Posted by
Martyn Drake – March 30, 2010
With the news that Blockbuster is in trouble (thanks Ijaz!), it makes me wonder what the heck consumers are going to do in order to rent Universal Pictures films? Oh, sure, one can buy them, but is that really economical or cost-effective buying every single film you want to watch? I use rental as a mechanism into buying what I like. Given the limited amount of money I have, I have to be careful with the pennies. I do not have the luxury of buying everything thing I want to watch – especially since buying a Blu-Ray is far more expensive than going to the cinema..
As you will know by now, NBC Universal are not selling any new titles to LOVEFiLM due to a spat regarding the prices paid for allowing LOVEFiLM to rent their titles (in short: Universal wants more money and whatever it is they want, it appears that LOVEFiLM are not prepared to pay it). As far as I know, the only DVD/Blu-Ray rental company that has agreed to the deal is Blockbuster, who are now in financial mess due to agreeing to the “deals” imposed on it by Hollywood studios. The consequence of which is that renting DVDs and Blu-Rays may take a bit of a nosedive. Would this mean that Universal’s biggest rental outlet in the UK would be via iTunes? Hardly ideal for consumers.
Mind you, I’m sure Blockbuster will bounce back. At one point I thought Apple would nosedive during the early 2000s, but it bounced back spectacularly and now has it’s fingers in many pies – especially in the video on demand and music sales business courtesy of iTunes. But it goes to show that Hollywood is either becoming increasingly arsey and is used to getting it’s own way, or is desperately losing money through bad decisions/deals.
Posted by
Martyn Drake – March 9, 2010
Over the next week or so, I’m intending to post my findings of a variety of online backup services. I’ve tested:
SquirrelSave (note: I work for the company that runs it and am it’s primary support)
Jungledisk
Mozy Home
Mozy Pro
SugarSync
Humyo
Backblaze
Dropbox
I run both Windows 7 and Mac OS X (Snow Leopard), and have attempted try both platform where offered. My findings may surprise you, and I still advocate that you beg, borrow or buy a portable USB hard drive at the very least to store a copy of your data locally or invest in a Blu-Ray writable drive (they’re becoming cheaper slowly but surely) and doing the same.
