June 26, 2009

Special Effects: Why realistic is less believable

This afternoon Apple posted the new HD trailer for Roland Emmerich’s new Film 2012, an “epic adventure about a global cataclysm that brings an end to the world and tells of the heroic struggle of the survivors”. It amazes me how terrible the effects look in this thing. It’s so bad in fact, that I’ve come up with a new theory. Whenever you attempt a realistic effect, i.e. recreate something that we could actually see in real life, it cannot and will not ever look believable.

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posted by Christopher Schnese

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June 9, 2009

In defense of the 'unfair' iPhone 3Gs pricing

Apple's WWDC keynote yesterday was probably one of the more exciting one's we've seen for a while now. We got a few quick looks at Snow Leopard (and it's amazing $29 price tag) and we got the big announcement of the new iPhone. I for one was completely excited. Unfortunately, there's a huge stink brewing on the internet from iPhone 3G[pre-s] customers who are upset that they wont be able to take advantage of the $199 and $299 price points. To those people I'd like to say the following: "Owning a iPhone 3G[pre-s] is not different than owning a Blackberry, Motorola, or any other cell phone. If you're ineligible for an upgrade, you have to pay more".

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posted by Christopher Schnese

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May 31, 2009

What’s up with all the Twitter spam?

From the moment Twitter made the public timeline searchable, the spam followers have been out in droves. If you mention a product name, that company begins following you. If you name a problem, someone claiming to have a solution begins following you. If you tweet about a job position, someone who’s unemployed starts following you. For the most part, this doesn’t really bother me that much. What does bother me, however, is the ever increasing number of MySpace-esque pornography spam followers I’ve been getting lately.

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posted by Christopher Schnese

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May 12, 2009

Spoilers vs Familiarity

If you’ve ever been excited about a film, only to have major plot elements ruined for you by some jerk, then you know that spoilers are one of the worst things you can possibly experience as a filmgoer. While a film may be worth repeat viewings, you’ll never be able to recreate that first time experience. Lately, however, I’ve been finding that my favorite filmgoing experiences are for films that I already have an intimate familiarity with.

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posted by Christopher Schnese

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April 27, 2009

How an audience ruined my film experience

This past weekend I went to a screening of Obsessed for the latest episode of The Spoiler Warning. When I first walked into the theater, I was surprise by how many people had brought their children (around 5 to 8 years old) with them. As I sat waiting for it to begin, more and more kids piled into the theater. As the show time drew nearer, I got the sinking feeling that I was about to have the worst film watching experience of my life. Little did I know, it was going to be far worse than I could ever have imagined.

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posted by Christopher Schnese

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April 20, 2009

A rude awakening

I may not be a fan of sleep, but since I am a being that requires it, I do like to take full advantage whenever I can. The thing I hate more than anything else in the world is when someone, or some thing, wakes me up within minutes of my alarm going off. You see, if I’m woken up in the middle of the night, I can go back to sleep. Not true if I’m woken up too close to my scheduled time. Instead, I’m forced to sit there angrily staring at the alarm clock until it actually goes off. Not only was this morning’s experience one of the worst yet, but the almost suspect timing of it truly added insult to injury.

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posted by Christopher Schnese

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April 19, 2009

A good ‘bad film’ vs a bad ‘good film’

Judging film can be quite difficult. If I’m just watching casually, each viewing can be an isolated experience and I can love or hate it in it’s own right. However, being a host of a film enthusiast podcast, I feel more of an obligation to justify every opinion I have and judge each film within the context of every film that I’ve seen before it. I mean, I really struggle with the fact that I enjoyed Push and Crank High Voltage, but thought Seven Pounds was a terrible film. The more I think about it, the more I feel that there really is a difference between a good ‘bad film’ and a bad ‘good film’.

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posted by Christopher Schnese

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April 14, 2009

The problem with multi-tier, queue-based rental systems

I’m a huge fan of both Netflix and Gamefly. I love the convenience of rentals being delivered to my door and I love that these services afford me the ability to sample everything without breaking the bank every time I want a new game or film. The systems work beautifully and it’s incredibly simple to manage your queue. Unfortunately, as I recently discovered, both services become huge inconveniences when you want to downgrade to a lower tier.

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posted by Christopher Schnese

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April 10, 2009

Will Shadow of the Colossus survive it’s film adaptation

This week The Hollywood Reporter released the news that Shadow of the Colossus, the amazing and widely loved 2005 game title for the PS2, would be adapted for the big screen. Upon reading the news I was filled with intense joy. In an instance I was transported back to the games imaginative world, beautiful story, and moving score. Unfortunately, as the realization of the what I had read began to settle in, my world began to crumble as I realized what a film adaptation could do to this beloved franchise.

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posted by Christopher Schnese

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April 8, 2009

What I hope is gained from the X-Men Origins: Wolverine leak

[have no fear the following post is completely spoiler-free and contains no mention of the film's plot at all]

If you’ve been following all the buzz surrounding 20th Century Fox’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine, then you’ve likely already heard that a copy of the film was leaked onto the ‘interwebs’ a few weeks ago, a full month before the films scheduled release. I was fortunate enough to catch a screening of said film at a friends house a few nights ago and I learn one incredibly interesting fact. A rough cut of a film, with only partially completed special effects, is incredibly compelling.

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posted by Christopher Schnese

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