Two Quick Movie Mentions: Iron Man and Indiana Jones

I wanted to quickly note that I've seen two really great films this summer and I wanted to mention my reactions briefly.

IRON MAN

Yeah, this one was surprisingly awesome and I think a lot of people reacted that way. Fans of Marvel Comics have had some ups and downs in the last several years with some good movies and some bad ones. From what I hear, the good has been outweighing the bad with their latest ventures because the powers that be in Hollywood finally decided to let Marvel have total control of their own films. Imagine that!

INDIANA JONES

Do I have to actually come out and say this one was great? Can't it just be a given? Some spectacular work went into this picture. It's not a hindrance to the plot at all that our beloved Indy is now much older. Nor is it a problem that we haven't known his whereabouts for nearly 20 years. In fact, it makes for some interesting character exposition how much he has aged and the fact that much of his adventuring life is supposedly behind him. Also, in the first 20 minutes enough hints are dropped about the intervening time period that you think Of course that's what he's been up to! There are a few surprises too and at the end of the first act there is a special effect BANG that you don't want to miss.

See these quickly before they leave the theaters!

PhotoshopDisasters: Washington Post: Unlikely

Okay, first read this description from PhotoshopDisasters.

Have you seen a truly awful piece of Photoshop work? Clumsy manipulation, senseless comping, lazy cloning and thoughtless retouching are our bread and butter. And yes, deep down, we love Photoshop.

I know that a lot of the visitors here will be familiar with Photoshop, and might even have some experience in what should be done and what mistakes should be avoided. But hopefully, none of you will ever be this sloppy. Read the latest post called Washington Post: Unlikely.

Wired.com - Coolest Movie Metamorphoses

Here's a quick post about a cool article that came to me on Wired.com about the 12 greatest movie transformations in all time. Check out the full list along with shots of each creature in the Coolest Movie Metamorphoses, From Wolf Man to Hulk.

The Day There Was No News

The Day There Was No News
Originally uploaded by Pixelsurgeon

This video is striking. To quote the description...

"Today there was no news. And here is the proof."

THE CUTTING EDGE: the magic of movie editing (pt1)

This is "Part 1 of a fantastic documentary about movie editing." The other parts of this are also possibly available on YouTube. This documentary gives the history of and an emphasis on the importance of EDITING as an art form and an important piece of any film-making.

Fiftieth Post!

Doing some maintenance on the site earlier and I noted that the post earlier this month on Video on Flickr was this site's FIFTIETH PUBLISHED POST. There are a variety of drafts in progress that will be dated earlier than today, but I wanted to announce this fact briefly with some --albeit humble-- self-congratulatory nods.

Please stay tuned and keep the cameras rolling.

Video on Flickr! « Flickr Blog

If you haven't heard of Flickr yet, it's one of the best photo community sites available right now that is actually taken seriously by professionals. Certainly there are competitors out there (like Photobucket) but they are usually frequented by MySpace teens.

However, Flickr has not had the technology or infrastructure in place to allow video uploads and sharing, something that their competitors have had a head start with. But that has just changed! You can now upload videos albeit in a slightly limited fashion. Read more about it at the announcement on Flickr Blog.