atomicscissors

So a friend just got me wise to a trend in Japan, Dajjbans, or Dodge Vans. Pretty sweet, I think.

I'd rather have a boxy, lowered V8 Dodge Ram van with deep dish low-offset wheels, than a boxy Scion xB.

I think it's doubly cool that these guys also take their vans out to the track.

Oh yeah, you're right.

Everytime someone says "Inception's trailer music", I assume they're talking about Mind Heist.

edit: After some googling, I discovered that Two Steps From Hell composed the track you are looking for. Don't know the title of it though.

Two Steps From Hell is a production music company based in Santa Monica, California. Founded by Nick Phoenix and Thomas J. Bergersen, the company produces music for movie trailers.

In particular, the group's music has been used in trailers for such films as Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Star Trek, The Dark Knight, 2012, X-Men: The Last Stand, Tron Legacy, Avatar, Prince of Persia, Stardust, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Inception and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader as well as video games such as Mass Effect 2 and the British television show Doctor Who.

Here's a link to a torrent collecting all of their work as of 11/2010:

SNIP!

Maybe you'll find it in there.

Like I wrote in my previous post, the torrent is the only source of the track I know of.

Just google "Mind Heist torrent" and the first hit (from isohunt.com) looks like the same file I have, which should be in 256kbps.

I never found another copy of it in a higher bit-rate, or in a lossless format.

Is "You're under arrest " any good?

thinking about watching it.

I enjoyed the original 4 episode OVA. Isn't groundbreaking or thought-provoking, but I enjoyed it. I thought the movie was a little too serious, considering how silly the manga is.

I've never watched the TV series, so I don't have an opinion on that.

Grew up with West Coast gangsta rap, metal, and ska. I listen to pretty much everything, though. One of my guiltiest pleasures is listening to rancheras, even though I've only learned to speak Spanish at an elementary level.

Anywho, here's a blast from the past; one of the funniest/weirdest (IMHO) music videos I've ever seen.

Slightly NSFW

lulz

What with all the Sean Penn hate? Did he kick a baby in the face or something?

Its coming to US theaters but not near me:(.

Hear is the list if it helps anyone. Maybe there are some more people in Madison/Chicago that can "demand it" and we can get a showing.

I'll drive a hour to see it in a theater.

http://eventful.com/performers/evangelion-20-you-can-not-advance-/P0-001-000244285-6

Thoranime has 720p and 1080p torrents of both movies. That's how I caught it.

Definitely going to a showing, though. Absolutely going to rock on the big screen.

I, for one, welcome our new computer overlords.

How is this Sci-fi, Anime or considered a popcorn movie?

It is, admittedly, more metaphysical than science-fiction. But if we are to believe AintItCool.com, The Tree of Life is a complimentary film for a second Malick movie being shot for IMAX about the birth and death of the Universe. I assume the shots of the planet and space in the trailer is from this second IMAX movie.

Also according to AintItCool "visual f/x legend" Douglas Trumbull (of 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Blade Runner fame) is working on Tree of Life.

I think Malick is working on something amazing here.

IBM’s “Watson” Computing System to Challenge All Time Greatest Jeopardy! Champions

I'm so excited. This should be very interesting.

This one is for Shaorin. I know you aren't into the new digital formats/inputs, but thought you'd appreciate their "retro" looks. Pretty classy, I think.

More pics and details here.

Did they put that track up somewhere? I didn't know it was available outside of the trailer.

There was a torrent floating around; that's where I grabbed it from.

The Admiral Akbar costume your dog is wearing. I hate that technology. Every time I see it I scream "ITS A TRAP!!"

lol

But it's not Admiral Akbar, it's Red Lobster. Come in Dog Fort.

That's superb! Amazing how well that worked with your footage.

Thanks. Believe me, I was just as surprised that the music synced up so well.

Video I took of take-off from LAX to DCA that I made this summer that I added "Mind Heist" to.

JavaScript

I can't get the timestamp to work for some reason. The entire video is awesome, but my favorite part starts at 2m46s.

First off, Happy New Years everyone. Hope everyone here had a great time.

I'm not certain this is a rational opinion. If the audience, even those looking for it, cannot tell when they see the final product how can one justify calling it cheap? Especially when it's an extra, and costly step in production or used to achieve some effect not otherwise possible?

You're right, most of the sheeple will not realize what they are looking at. Also, when I use the word "cheap" I was not referencing the technique's monetary cost.

What would you consider a greater achievement: creating atmosphere naturally (through lighting, set design, and direction), or creating atmosphere on a computer? If you picked the latter, then we are on two different wavelengths with regards to film-making.

I don't believe 3-D is an effect "not otherwise possible", see below.

Let's step back a few decades and replace a few words.

Yes, 3D is a gimmick to get people into theatres for an experience most cannot get at home, but so was colour, so was THX, etcetera.

Done well, colour has added much to film making. Done poorly, well look at a lot of the early colourized stuff, where colour was put into films not originally created in colour. These movies often look worse than the black and white originals. When something originally recorded for mono audio is turned into full surround the end result can sometimes be pretty bad, too.

Agreed. Anything done poorly, even color, can adversely affect a film. The "colorization" of black and white films is an atrocity. However, the advent of colored films should be seen as a natural evolution of the art form, after all we all see in color. But before anyone says, "Aha! We all see in three dimensions as well!", take into account Roger Ebert's first reason about why he hates movies in 3-D. To paraphrase: movies are already filmed in 3-D, even when they're filmed in 2-D. That is, there is already perspective and depth of field. Objects in the foreground already seem closer to the viewer than those in the background.

Roger Ebert has had many questionable opinions over the years. This is the man who said videogames could not under any circumstances be considered "art". He has settled firmly into the "grumpy old man stuck in the past" set. A lot of the opinions he expresses lately remind me of the 1927 quote, "Talking film is as little needed as a singing book." If Ebert were an old man then I'm sure he would have agreed with that statement.

I also disagreed with Ebert when he mentioned videogames not being art. However he is a man, and like all men, he is not infallible. It is wrong to disregard him, like you seem to have, just because of his opinion on videogames, or his other "questionable" opinions (whatever those may be).

Just as in The Walking Dead thread, I didn't come here looking to change any minds, just voice my opinion: 3-D has given 20th Century Fox and Ridley Scott an excuse to come up with not just one, but two, prequels. I don't believe they will ever come close to touching the creepiness of Alien, or the action of Aliens.

20th Century has already lost $40 on the film. That's the cost of the two tickets I'm not going to buy.

"Eeek!! my Panties!! Waahh!! tu-hu-hu..."

( "tu-hu-hu" the Japanese equivalent of "boo-hoo-hoo" yes, i'm being a "Weeaboo". ASK ME IF I CARE. )

Shouldn't "Eeek!!" have been "Kyaa!"?

Actually, this is done more often than you might think. It can be done really well, too. Chances are, if you saw the movie before reading this on wikipedia you probably wouldn't realize.

You're right about this, but adding atmosphere in post-production seems cheap to me. In fact, I think the whole fad of filming a movie in 3-D cheapens the art of making movies. "If you can't make it good, make it 3-D," seems to be the post-Avatar Hollywood mantra nowadays. The prequel just seems like a money grab by 20th Century Fox and Mr. Scott.

Roger Ebert wrote an article for Newseek earlier this year wherein he said 3-D is best suited for children's films and animation. He also writes:

Scorsese and Herzog make films for grown-ups. Hollywood is racing headlong toward the kiddie market. Disney recently announced it will make no more traditional films at all, focusing entirely on animation, franchises, and superheroes. I have the sense that younger Hollywood is losing the instinctive feeling for story and quality that generations of executives possessed. It’s all about the marketing.

Full article here: http://www.newsweek.com/2010/04/30/why-i-hate-3-d-and-you-should-too.html

It's been a while, so what was innovative about Black Hawk Down?

I think it was the first 144-minute action scene.

I was checking out the The Numbers website, and apparently Phantom Menace did a lot better than SW II, III, or even the twice-released IV! Take what you will from that, but Jake Lloyd has a huge selling power.

http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/records/worldwide.php

#13 SWI

#22 SWIII

#29 SWIV

(Alien, Predator, AvP, none on the list.)

What bothers me about Box Office Gross lists is that they never take inflation into account. Still it's a damn shame that The Phantom Menace made more than A New Hope or Citizen Kane, Casablanca, Vertigo, The Wizard of Oz, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Chinatown, Apocalypse Now, Dr. Strangelove, Taxi Driver, The Deer Hunter, M*A*S*H, Unforgiven, The Shawshank Redemption, A Clockwork Orange, Platoon, Goodfellas, Casino, Pulp Fiction, Blade Runner...I could go on and on...

edit: and Phantom Menace has probably made more than True Grit ever will. True Grit is a great movie. Go see it.

The problem with this perspective is that there is never at any point in the first two movies where it's confirmed that the Notromo is the first group of humans to encounter these beings. In fact, the very idea that Weyland-Yutani has a built in protocol that will not only stop a current mission mid-stride and send the crew out in search of possible alien life and that there is even an android on board that will prioritize this over the crew's life seems to indicate that corporation has good reason to halt a profitable mission to go chasing little green men that probably don't exist.

It's like people crying "Retcon!" when the ruins of the Global were revealed in Macross Frontier. Sorry, no, incorrect. That does not contradict what we know, it fills in the gaps of things we didn't know. DIFFERENT.

And yes, don't take this wrong but there is some fanboy rage going on here. You're making assumptions about a movie that we haven't even seen a trailer for which seem to fly in the face of the facts. Despite the fact that we're getting the director of the original classic back you're saying it's going to be another typical modern Hollywood action fest. I'm not quite sure how you've come to the conclusion that the director of Alien and Blade Runner is going to make a sugar hyped Matrix style MTV video.

I'm not saying we're guaranteed some good movies here, believe me I'm cautiously optimistic here at best, but I'm just not seeing Ridley Scott giving us something as bad as AvP.

I'm going to concede: I believe you are right, there is never a point in the first two movies where it is specifically mentioned that the Nostromo was the one to make first contact.

And you're also right on another point: I don't know what the prequel is going to be about; I shouldn't say that's it's going to be your typical Mindless.Summer.Action.Blockbuster because I haven't read the script, let alone viewed a trailer (but, I'll tell you one thing: they don't film serious dramas in 3-D).

I read the Wikipedia entry like sketchley suggested (it never occurred to me to do so). I learned two things today. The first made me sad:

Since 3-D films need high lighting levels on set, the hallmark atmosphere of the Alien films with darkness and shadows will be added in post-production...

Sigh. Sacrificing true atmosphere for an excuse to sell overpriced movie tickets.

The second thing I learned today made me even sadder:

[Ridley] Scott...hinted at the possibility that the Xenomorph Alien was designed either as a biological weapon or as a means to "clean up" planets.

The Xenomorphs are no longer just eyeless creatures who lurk in the dark; no longer faceless monsters who kept me up all night as a kid. No, they're possibly biological weapons now. I guess they're right: ignorance is bliss.

I wish I could be just as "cautiously optimistic" as you, but in 1999 I didn't think George Lucas could give us something as bad as The Phantom Menace.

Holy crap, I want to visit this place so badly: a cave in Vietnam so large you could put a half-mile block of 40-story buildings in a section of it.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/largest-cave/peter-photography