Two Houses.
Comics Alison's post about producing short comic strips to add interesting content reminded me that this blog ran a weekly six episode strip back in 2003. It was not well liked at the time, but since my planned blog post for the evening was cancelled for reason best explained over a drink some time should we meet (say Son of the Pink Panther to me) I thought I'd introduce you to ...
Two Houses.
These episodes are best read in order.
Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5
Episode 6
Two Houses.
These episodes are best read in order.
Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5
Episode 6
and for free.
Journalism Sometimes it's possible to be ready to blog about something then find someone else has done the job for you, ironically on this occasion since Sian is writing about someone else who is trying to get someone to else to do a job for them, and for free.
The whys and wherefores are captured here but what it boils down to is a freelancer who writes for "womens" magazines wanting an intern to essentially find stories and do the grunt work on stories to save her the bother, unpaid.
As Sian notes it's been knocking around in Twitter all day but there's been no word from the journalist who has generally been kicked around by social networking's core user base for her presumptuousness.
Internships have been something of a transparent dangling carrot for me. I know that they would be valuable experience and good fun, but I feel so old now that the imperative to also have money to walk around, eat and pay the rent also weighs heavy.
Unless anyone, as ever, has any ideas ...
It reminds me of an article I read many moons ago about an intern who hired an intern (the source of which I can't remember so again, ironically, I've asked someone else). Expect an update should it turn up.
Updated: 06/07/2010
It was an article I heard. Many thanks to Apricot at AskMe for identifying that (somewhat inevitably) it was a piece on This American Life in episode #385, Pro Se:
The whys and wherefores are captured here but what it boils down to is a freelancer who writes for "womens" magazines wanting an intern to essentially find stories and do the grunt work on stories to save her the bother, unpaid.
As Sian notes it's been knocking around in Twitter all day but there's been no word from the journalist who has generally been kicked around by social networking's core user base for her presumptuousness.
Internships have been something of a transparent dangling carrot for me. I know that they would be valuable experience and good fun, but I feel so old now that the imperative to also have money to walk around, eat and pay the rent also weighs heavy.
Unless anyone, as ever, has any ideas ...
It reminds me of an article I read many moons ago about an intern who hired an intern (the source of which I can't remember so again, ironically, I've asked someone else). Expect an update should it turn up.
Updated: 06/07/2010
It was an article I heard. Many thanks to Apricot at AskMe for identifying that (somewhat inevitably) it was a piece on This American Life in episode #385, Pro Se:
Act Four. Underling Gets An Underling.
Stef Willen tells Ira about a time that she took matters into her own hands, even though she was only a lowly production assistant on a reality show. (7 minutes)
I’m a bit more cautious.
Theatre In the dying moments of his Volpone, Ben Jonson risks ridicule by requesting that the audience only applaud if they have enjoyed what they have just witnessed. Luckily for the cast and crew in the Greenwich Theatre for this recording of the play for Stage on Screen (who were good enough to send me a copy for review) they’re met by an appreciative audience. I’m a bit more cautious which shouldn’t reflect on the Greenwich, rather that Jonson’s satire on greed left me disenfranchised and disappointed and even more appreciative of the complexity of his King's Men colleague Shakespeare’s writing.
Jonson’s story of a repulsive aristocratic conman destabilising the lives of his equally despicable peers portrays the dark heart of humanity; from Volpone to his Iago-like dissembling servant Mosco to the Venetian gentlemen who crave his inheritance, this is a society that covets wealth above human feelings. One “VIP” is even willing to prostitute his wife Celia to Volpone in order to secure his fortune. When the central nobleman is initially brought to court, the judges are easily persuaded of his innocence by those of reputation rather than the truth, which admittedly has a certain contemporary resonance.
But I wasn’t involved. None of the characters are particularly sympathetic, which I know is a probably a reductive view of the play since they’re not supposed to be, but in general my taste is for drama in which the protagonists have dimensions and don’t quite so nakedly exist as signifiers for whatever themes the playwright is hoping to expose. Even a delicious bastard like Richard III has complex (if misguided) reasons for his reign of terror, whereas Volpone is simply a hedonistic empty vessel I was unable to connect to because Jonson refuses to allow us below the surface.
Which isn’t to say I didn’t laugh with this production, especially at the Steptoe-like chemistry between Richard Bremmer and Mark Hadfield (who played the Gravedigger in the recent RSC Hamlet), the latter bringing to the fore Mosca’s patient wait to get one over on his master. There’s also some hilarious antics of the clowns led by Conrad Westmaas, who add some bravado during the play’s darker moments. Aislin McGuckin is also worth mentioning for giving bite to the otherwise submissive Celia, making her treatment by Volpone all the more shocking.
Director Elizabeth Freestone’s blocking of the courtroom scenes is remarkable; the cast address us, with the law high at the back of the stage to offer the judgement we cannot. There are also occasion when she transports in "filmic" elements, the actors creating moments in which the action rewinds or enters slow motion. These are accentuated by OB director Chris Cowey who places cameras on the lip of the stage putting the viewer right on the front row of the audience when the various characters step into the spotlight. Cowey was formerly the producer of Top of the Pops and is very good at putting the camera in position to catch the best of the action.
I’m willing to admit that my overall reaction to the play itself might simply be because my experience of the drama in this period is skewed towards its most famous son, which is a result of a general tendency to focus on Shakespeare at the expense of his contemporaries. If the likes of Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher are increasingly being ignored in theatres, they’re even less present in the home market, which means that unless you have access to theatreland, it’s impossible to get a proper sense of their work, especially as it appears on stage. If nothing else, this Stage on Screen release is vital in demonstrating that Jacobean drama was as any other era and allowing us to decide whether we appreciate it. Or not.
Volpone is available on dvd from Stage & Screen.
The dross.
Games This online ZX Spectrum emulator features the classic games you'd expect (5% of all releases) and the dross (the other 95%).
I was a Commodore 64 owner, can you tell?.
Includes a rare appearance from Doctor Who: Dalek Attack, the 1992 game featuring the Seventh Doctor which is worth seeing for the pitiful attempt at recreating the television title sequence and Sylvester McCoy's face which is fine until the wrong logo appears.
Oh and the game itself which is unplayable.
Like most games on the ZX Spectrum.
Sorry.
I was a Commodore 64 owner, can you tell?.
Includes a rare appearance from Doctor Who: Dalek Attack, the 1992 game featuring the Seventh Doctor which is worth seeing for the pitiful attempt at recreating the television title sequence and Sylvester McCoy's face which is fine until the wrong logo appears.
Oh and the game itself which is unplayable.
Like most games on the ZX Spectrum.
Sorry.
"Things are starting to pick up again work-wise."
TV Eve "Gwen Cooper" Myles has given an interview to WalesOnline on the subject of the upcoming US Torchwood series in which she confirms that the production will be based over there (either LA or Canada). When asked about other projects she says:
The casting on the Baker boys starts here. I'd like a couple of the McGanns or Laurence Fox and Tom Hollander. It'll probably be Horne & Corden.
"Things are starting to pick up again work-wise. I’m about to sign for a BBC Wales TV remake of The Fabulous Baker Boys and I’ve got another film in Bulgaria and then we start shooting the new Torchwood in January."Really, Eve? In the Michelle Pfeiffer role? Please?
The casting on the Baker boys starts here. I'd like a couple of the McGanns or Laurence Fox and Tom Hollander. It'll probably be Horne & Corden.
Igloos.
Liverpool Life Further to my post the other day about the cleanliness of Sefton Park's visitors, the council have delivered about ten yellow wheelie bins which are now dotted about the field ...
... and are generally being used as goal posts. We passed one earlier which has been upturned even though it is full of rubbish.
Meanwhile, on a brighter note, In The Night Garden Live have arrived and erected the staging igloos which we can just about see hidden behind some trees on the far side. Here is a time lapse video of the installation:
Lovely.
... and are generally being used as goal posts. We passed one earlier which has been upturned even though it is full of rubbish.
Meanwhile, on a brighter note, In The Night Garden Live have arrived and erected the staging igloos which we can just about see hidden behind some trees on the far side. Here is a time lapse video of the installation:
Lovely.
an untapped hotbed for anthropological study.
Life Our regular fish and chip and Chinese meal emporium is closed for what looks like a holiday so we had to walk further afield for supper this evening. As ever, there’s a slight apprehension about entering an alien takeaway but little did I realise that we’d be stumbling into what turned out to be an untapped hotbed for anthropological study, particularly in the realm of human adaptation.
Here is the potential area of study:
Our order included a chicken curry. We were told that there would be a fifty minute wait for a meal because of the backlog. Not wanting to wait that long, we asked for the time limit on fish and chips. Ten minutes. We ordered three sets and sat down.
As we watched, the take away only seemed to have two different types of customers:
Type A entered, made a meal order, asked the time it would take to materialise and left. None of them were surprised about the wait. This lengthy waiting time is a regular occurrence. It’s expected.
Type B entered and to a person ordered sausage and chips. Sometimes they would vary the order. More than one sausage. Larger sausages. An extra savoury cake. Tub of gravy, tub of peas. They were all served straight away and all before us.
No one ordered fish and chips.
From the vantage point of the waiting chair, I began to draw a couple of conclusions.
Either that the sausage chips are so gorgeous and the fish so inferior that there was no choice. Good for them, not good for us.
Or that through a process of trial and error, the Type B customers, visitors to what is the only fish and chip and Chinese meal emporium in the very local area have realised that the only way to be served straight away in busy periods, to walk away quickly with a meal, is to ignore the couple of hundred menu choices and order the pig meat and potato.
Which they do, in their droves, the additional extras their way of creating some variety to a meal which could become boring very quickly (assuming they don’t order the same variations each time as well).
There may be other external factors which separate those who patiently wait for a “meal” and those who impatiently want their food straight away. Is there a demographic divide or does it depend on the day’s activities? The “I can’t be bothered waiting, just get us a sausage will you” factor?
As it turned out, there were so many Type B's that a queue developed anyway and our fish and chips took even longer because of the number of sausage dinners being dished out.
As ever it wasn’t as nice as the usual place. I expect you could do an anthropological study about the implications of that too.
Here is the potential area of study:
Our order included a chicken curry. We were told that there would be a fifty minute wait for a meal because of the backlog. Not wanting to wait that long, we asked for the time limit on fish and chips. Ten minutes. We ordered three sets and sat down.
As we watched, the take away only seemed to have two different types of customers:
Type A entered, made a meal order, asked the time it would take to materialise and left. None of them were surprised about the wait. This lengthy waiting time is a regular occurrence. It’s expected.
Type B entered and to a person ordered sausage and chips. Sometimes they would vary the order. More than one sausage. Larger sausages. An extra savoury cake. Tub of gravy, tub of peas. They were all served straight away and all before us.
No one ordered fish and chips.
From the vantage point of the waiting chair, I began to draw a couple of conclusions.
Either that the sausage chips are so gorgeous and the fish so inferior that there was no choice. Good for them, not good for us.
Or that through a process of trial and error, the Type B customers, visitors to what is the only fish and chip and Chinese meal emporium in the very local area have realised that the only way to be served straight away in busy periods, to walk away quickly with a meal, is to ignore the couple of hundred menu choices and order the pig meat and potato.
Which they do, in their droves, the additional extras their way of creating some variety to a meal which could become boring very quickly (assuming they don’t order the same variations each time as well).
There may be other external factors which separate those who patiently wait for a “meal” and those who impatiently want their food straight away. Is there a demographic divide or does it depend on the day’s activities? The “I can’t be bothered waiting, just get us a sausage will you” factor?
As it turned out, there were so many Type B's that a queue developed anyway and our fish and chips took even longer because of the number of sausage dinners being dished out.
As ever it wasn’t as nice as the usual place. I expect you could do an anthropological study about the implications of that too.
"I gave Mr. Sulu a first name."
TV With Doctor Who's relatively open door policy in regards to mythology, it's easy for us fans of the best franchise to forget how restrictive it is in other areas. At some point in the late eighties, Gene Roddenbury decided that only the live action Star Trek material was considered "canon" (and the flashback sequences about Spock's childhood in the Animated episode Yesteryear) which rather left the authors of the spin-off fiction rather rudderless.
But it wasn't always so. Star Trek was a franchise fiction pioneer and one of the first examples produced by licensee Pocket Books was The Entropy Effect by Nebula and Hugo award winning author Vonda M McIntyre. At this earlier stage, in general, anything went and when for story reasons, McIntyre needed to give Sulu a christian name (which hadn't already been established in the tv series). So she did:
But it wasn't always so. Star Trek was a franchise fiction pioneer and one of the first examples produced by licensee Pocket Books was The Entropy Effect by Nebula and Hugo award winning author Vonda M McIntyre. At this earlier stage, in general, anything went and when for story reasons, McIntyre needed to give Sulu a christian name (which hadn't already been established in the tv series). So she did:
"... I couldn't figure out how to write a love scene where the protagonists called each other by their surnames. So I gave Mr. Sulu a first name, "Hikaru," which is from The Tale of Genji. I was blissfully unaware of the glitch till long after the fact; someone at Paramount objected to the idea of the character's having a given name, for reasons unclear to me. David had the good idea of asking Gene Roddenberry and George Takei their opinion, and both of them said "Go for it" or words to that effect. And so Mr. Sulu has a first name."McIntyre would go on to give Saavik and David Marcus a health sex life in the Star Trek movie adaptations. Where did I leave my copy of Star Trek IV?
A common joke being used in different ways?
TV Emma Bunton is soon to present a new talent show for Five, Don't Stop Believing, which is piggybacking on the Glee craze for collective harmonies. Here's the trailer:
Which is entertaining and features some amazing singing. Except there is something familiar about four chords (and these four chords in particular) being used to underscore all of these pop songs, and the way the harmonies fit together.
When watching this video from 05 January 2009, I'd also like you to take note of the first song Axis of Awesome mention:
Honest opinion. Coincidence? A common joke being used in different ways? Affectionate homage? Not really that similar and just my imagination?
This is the only other variation I can find on the theme, an Oasis piss take by Porcupine Tree, but it's not quite the same:
Which is entertaining and features some amazing singing. Except there is something familiar about four chords (and these four chords in particular) being used to underscore all of these pop songs, and the way the harmonies fit together.
When watching this video from 05 January 2009, I'd also like you to take note of the first song Axis of Awesome mention:
Honest opinion. Coincidence? A common joke being used in different ways? Affectionate homage? Not really that similar and just my imagination?
This is the only other variation I can find on the theme, an Oasis piss take by Porcupine Tree, but it's not quite the same:
Theatre The Guardian hosts a mini-documentary about the new Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford. Such a shame, though, that they can't have that and The Courtyard running at the same time. The town, ironically, has a paucity of theatres and would really benefit from more than one physical location for hosting touring companies.
"turn any text into an interactive playlist" #spotify
Music Given my generally cynical demeanour lately, something has to be really, really impressive to inspire awe.
Hello, Playlistify.org
This Spotify playlist tool was mentioned here but mostly there at about March time because of its ability to convert itunes lists for Spotify making them shareable.
Look a bit closer and there is also something rather magical.
Visit Playlistify.org
Click the "bake your playlist" button.
This releases a box with a bunch of tabbing options at the top, brand names like iTunes, Last.fm, Spotify etc.
And cut and paste. Click that.
New box, more words:
"turn any text into an interactive playlist"
If you have a list of songs with artists names next to them as cleanly as possible, it searches for each one on Spotify and spits out a playlist at the end.
So, if there's a film you quite like, you can visit the imdb, find the soundtrack listing, clean it up a bit so that each line only has the track name and artist on it, plug it into Playlistify and a few minutes later a compilation is generated.
Like this one for Almost Famous.
As you can see it's not perfect (what is?). If it can't find the track or there are some quirks in the list it'll try to find the nearest option.
Cameron Crowe did not choose MC Bounds for his 70s rock opus, and in terms of this example, because the actual soundtrack itself isn't on Spotify, there is no Stillwater.
Now and then it'll choose a cover by session artists over the original, although in the case of the Fleetwood Mac track here, it's because for all the Mac music on Spotify, "Future Games" isn't part of the selection.
So some post-search editing is required if you care about such things.
From here we reach the a few stumbling blocks. Because there are always stumbling blocks.
Firstly, once the list has been generated it asks for a few details, title of list tags, description, which is fine, then location details and user name and a social network.
Then on the playlist page, the "open in Spotify" button doesn't open in Spotify. You have to create a playlist in the music player then copy and paste the track details over, which is bit fiddly.
But in comparison to having to search for each track separately which I did when I was curating some of these old playlists, that's as nothing.
Plus it seems to work even if you just type in any old thing, if you are worried about privacy and whatnot.
I generated this Now That's What I Call somewhat disappointing 42 playlist in about three minutes by copying over the tracks from the Wikipedia.
It even works for just lists of artists names, though as you can see the results are distinctly oddball.
Hours of fun, I'm sure you'll agree.
Hello, Playlistify.org
This Spotify playlist tool was mentioned here but mostly there at about March time because of its ability to convert itunes lists for Spotify making them shareable.
Look a bit closer and there is also something rather magical.
Visit Playlistify.org
Click the "bake your playlist" button.
This releases a box with a bunch of tabbing options at the top, brand names like iTunes, Last.fm, Spotify etc.
And cut and paste. Click that.
New box, more words:
"turn any text into an interactive playlist"
If you have a list of songs with artists names next to them as cleanly as possible, it searches for each one on Spotify and spits out a playlist at the end.
So, if there's a film you quite like, you can visit the imdb, find the soundtrack listing, clean it up a bit so that each line only has the track name and artist on it, plug it into Playlistify and a few minutes later a compilation is generated.
Like this one for Almost Famous.
As you can see it's not perfect (what is?). If it can't find the track or there are some quirks in the list it'll try to find the nearest option.
Cameron Crowe did not choose MC Bounds for his 70s rock opus, and in terms of this example, because the actual soundtrack itself isn't on Spotify, there is no Stillwater.
Now and then it'll choose a cover by session artists over the original, although in the case of the Fleetwood Mac track here, it's because for all the Mac music on Spotify, "Future Games" isn't part of the selection.
So some post-search editing is required if you care about such things.
From here we reach the a few stumbling blocks. Because there are always stumbling blocks.
Firstly, once the list has been generated it asks for a few details, title of list tags, description, which is fine, then location details and user name and a social network.
Then on the playlist page, the "open in Spotify" button doesn't open in Spotify. You have to create a playlist in the music player then copy and paste the track details over, which is bit fiddly.
But in comparison to having to search for each track separately which I did when I was curating some of these old playlists, that's as nothing.
Plus it seems to work even if you just type in any old thing, if you are worried about privacy and whatnot.
I generated this Now That's What I Call somewhat disappointing 42 playlist in about three minutes by copying over the tracks from the Wikipedia.
It even works for just lists of artists names, though as you can see the results are distinctly oddball.
Hours of fun, I'm sure you'll agree.
As River Song would say, spoilers ...
The Doctor Who finale explained with some wit, although I think most people are confused by the pre-destination paradoxes, especially the Doctor's process for getting himself out of the Pandorica.
the IMAX 3D experience at Odeon Liverpool One.
Film Tomorrow sees the launch of the IMAX 3D experience at Odeon Liverpool One and this morning I was invited to see a preview by the publicity company stage managing the opening few days. The email came via my Liverpool Blogs blog, which happens sometimes because of its proximity to the search terms "liverpool" and "blogs". It’s good that they’re reaching out to the social network, and quite exciting to be treated like a proper journalist, joined in the process by a Merseyside radio personality and someone from the local press, both of whom rushed off to talk about and write up what they saw.
I came home and finished painting the living room, which isn’t quite as glamorous.
If the idea was for me to offer some good word of mouth, it worked. As a film presentation and projection system this is amazing. A refit of one of the third floor auditoriums, the screen size has been increased to 9.7 high by 17.8 wide with stadium seating so that it’s almost impossible to be blocked by someone sitting in front of you (unless they have a very big head). The half hour spent in there were comfortable, with only the aisle based, under seat lighting providing a slight irritation, always twinkling brightly at the edge of vision.
The sound and picture quality are magnificent. We were presented with a show real of some old and new content, mostly trailers for the likes of Batman Begins and 300 complete with the green band US MPAA ratings at the top. The clarity of the image is sometimes astounding, especially in the promo for Chris Nolan’s latest Inception, were the grain from the 35mm negative was perfectly visible, removing that slight stumbling block I’ve always had with digital projection experiences in the past (cf, Cornerhouse Manchester) which have always retained the slightly artificial quality of dvd.
The most astounding examples were of course in 3D; excerpts from a documentary about the Hubble telescope in which the edge of the satellite are at eye level, the train in Polar Express flying past your face in a way that makes you understand quite why that first audience that saw a similar locomotive projected by the Lumiere Brothers over a hundred years ago in L'Arrivée d'un train à La Ciotat. The sound quality is extraordinary, very detailed and realistic; the press release speaks of being able to hear a pin drop and I can believe it.
We were treated to a preview of Tron Legacy in which it seems the “real” world will be presented in 2D only entering the third dimension as Kevin Flynn’s son materialises within the game world, in much the same way as the Wizard of Oz flips from monochrome to colour when Dorothy and Toto aren’t in Kansas any more. I’ve always thought that 3D will only shift from gimmick or enhancement to art form when filmmakers begin to somehow produce stories that only work in that format and this could be the first indication of a shift in that direction.
After the screening whilst my journalistic colleagues were interviewing the Odeon’s manager, I inevitably asked instead to see the projection room. I met the technician/projectionist who spearheaded project to bring the system to Liverpool and he was positively evangelical, patiently answering my questions about how the films are stored (giant removable hard disks) and how the system works (two giant projectors that look like the kind of equipment Galactus might use for his holiday slides). His glee was infectious and only increased my excitement for seeing a complete “film” projected this way.
But, and this is a big but, and after being treated so well this morning I take no pleasure in saying this, it’s not IMAX, or at least it’s not the traditional projection IMAX format. As I surmised in my bonkers unsurprisingly unanswered email to the Odeon last week, no matter how large the screen, it doesn’t have the wrap around experience of the classic IMAX aspect ratio reaching to the ceiling and floor and filling the field of vision on either side as seen at the Manchester Filmworks, the BFI and the National Media Museum in Bradford.
Before the preview I put this to a gentleman who was introduced to me as knowing more about the technical side. As the projectionist would later, he talked about how IMAX was about the immersive experience and that was what they were interested in. I suggested that in fact that meant they were reconfiguring the IMAX name but that there would be people who knew (what I kept calling) “proper IMAX” but would be disappointed to discover that’s not what they were getting here and that perhaps they needed to make that clearer in the publicity.
I tried not to sound overwhelmingly negative since I was still looking forward to investigating this other system (always interjecting with “I don’t want to be a cynical sausage...", "I'm honestly trying not to be a cynical sausage..."), but having seen the new IMAX logo which had been added to the Odeon signs in the foyer, as a passionate film fan, I’m genuinely concerned that when the people of Liverpool greet this new way of seeing movies, that they’ll think they’re finally seeing a range of film made in the IMAX format (assuming they’ve heard of it before). They’re not. They’re seeing a range of films which in the main are made for an ordinary projection system that are being transferred to this other format.
That difference is also covered by the media fact sheet, which says “a major change of aspect ratio from the traditional ‘full-height’ 1.33 of 15 perforations 70mm film, to the 1.78 of their DMR system, which is more consistent with the general framing of Hollywood films.” Except, since “DMR” is Digital Media Remastering system that upscales a 35mm film, that change in format means that the image quality, however detailed, could actually still be inferior to the original IMAX which has more information in the original print, unless like some sections of Inception they're shot in at least 65mm.
The FAQ also asks itself about the key difference between this IMAX auditorium and the one in Manchester, and answers by talking about crystal clear imagines and the special audio system when in fact its that watching a film here involves looking at a giant rectangle but there it's feeling as though your about to fall out of a helicopter into the Grand Canyon or whatever. I think about my own first jaw dropping experiences in Bradford in the 90s in which I felt like Jodie Foster in Contact ("they should have sent a poet"), my eyes agog at this strange new world, as penguins swam beneath the glaciers above my head.
Imagine this trailer projected on a screen the size of a three up, two down:
I brought up the problems last year in the US when people turned up for IMAX showings to find this system in place (which led to the Destroy Fake IMAX campaign), all he could offer was that yes, there had been criticism on some technical blogs. But journalists also wrote like this one which I’ve linked to before and lists the key differences. At length. With pictures. Roger Ebert also went over the topic in much greater detail and I’d direct you to his article too. As he says, “(IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond)’s problem appears to be that most people do foolishly persist in thinking of IMAX as the giant screen” when they’ve branched out further in the battle against home formats.
So Liverpool is still waiting for its first IMAX film projection system, but what it does have is a truly excellent new option for seeing Hollywood film releases, which admittedly has been well received in other areas. The first week will see Shrek Forever After and coming soon are Inception, Toy Story 3, Resident Evil: Afterlife, Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole (partly voiced by Bernard Cribbins), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part One) and the film which could be the game changer, Tron Legacy. I’m really looking forward to seeing most of those (yes, even Resident Evil, it’s a guilty pleasure) with only the price a potential barrier (£11.75 for adults).
Because, let’s be honest, despite my reservations about calling a spade a spade, it’s probably just all about some pupils from a local school in a photo which was sent to me this afternoon by the PR company (because they were the first to see the system), on the edges of their seats and the rapt expression on their faces. The boy on the left looks like he's going to be a film fan for life.
UPDATED 14/7/2010:For all my huffing and puffing above about screen areas, I've just discovered that the Odeon aren't using the proper IMAX screen they inherited (when they bought out UCI) at the Filmworks in Manchester to show proper IMAX films anyway. Boo. (see below)
Updated 02/08/2010 Haylay has been in touch with the Odeon regarding all of this and has sent me their response. She's agreed to let me publish her email to me below. All I've done is break up the central quote into small paragraphs for ease of reading (FYI we swapped emails after I saw a comment from her on Twitter):
Interestingly our nearest proper IMAX screen at the Manchester Odeon in the Printworks has Ghost Protocol and the Batman preview which indicates that although they've installed Digital, they can still show floor to ceiling when necessary (Chris Nolan has indicated the preview could not be shown on faux-IMAX screens).
I came home and finished painting the living room, which isn’t quite as glamorous.
If the idea was for me to offer some good word of mouth, it worked. As a film presentation and projection system this is amazing. A refit of one of the third floor auditoriums, the screen size has been increased to 9.7 high by 17.8 wide with stadium seating so that it’s almost impossible to be blocked by someone sitting in front of you (unless they have a very big head). The half hour spent in there were comfortable, with only the aisle based, under seat lighting providing a slight irritation, always twinkling brightly at the edge of vision.
The sound and picture quality are magnificent. We were presented with a show real of some old and new content, mostly trailers for the likes of Batman Begins and 300 complete with the green band US MPAA ratings at the top. The clarity of the image is sometimes astounding, especially in the promo for Chris Nolan’s latest Inception, were the grain from the 35mm negative was perfectly visible, removing that slight stumbling block I’ve always had with digital projection experiences in the past (cf, Cornerhouse Manchester) which have always retained the slightly artificial quality of dvd.
The most astounding examples were of course in 3D; excerpts from a documentary about the Hubble telescope in which the edge of the satellite are at eye level, the train in Polar Express flying past your face in a way that makes you understand quite why that first audience that saw a similar locomotive projected by the Lumiere Brothers over a hundred years ago in L'Arrivée d'un train à La Ciotat. The sound quality is extraordinary, very detailed and realistic; the press release speaks of being able to hear a pin drop and I can believe it.
We were treated to a preview of Tron Legacy in which it seems the “real” world will be presented in 2D only entering the third dimension as Kevin Flynn’s son materialises within the game world, in much the same way as the Wizard of Oz flips from monochrome to colour when Dorothy and Toto aren’t in Kansas any more. I’ve always thought that 3D will only shift from gimmick or enhancement to art form when filmmakers begin to somehow produce stories that only work in that format and this could be the first indication of a shift in that direction.
After the screening whilst my journalistic colleagues were interviewing the Odeon’s manager, I inevitably asked instead to see the projection room. I met the technician/projectionist who spearheaded project to bring the system to Liverpool and he was positively evangelical, patiently answering my questions about how the films are stored (giant removable hard disks) and how the system works (two giant projectors that look like the kind of equipment Galactus might use for his holiday slides). His glee was infectious and only increased my excitement for seeing a complete “film” projected this way.
But, and this is a big but, and after being treated so well this morning I take no pleasure in saying this, it’s not IMAX, or at least it’s not the traditional projection IMAX format. As I surmised in my bonkers unsurprisingly unanswered email to the Odeon last week, no matter how large the screen, it doesn’t have the wrap around experience of the classic IMAX aspect ratio reaching to the ceiling and floor and filling the field of vision on either side as seen at the Manchester Filmworks, the BFI and the National Media Museum in Bradford.
Before the preview I put this to a gentleman who was introduced to me as knowing more about the technical side. As the projectionist would later, he talked about how IMAX was about the immersive experience and that was what they were interested in. I suggested that in fact that meant they were reconfiguring the IMAX name but that there would be people who knew (what I kept calling) “proper IMAX” but would be disappointed to discover that’s not what they were getting here and that perhaps they needed to make that clearer in the publicity.
I tried not to sound overwhelmingly negative since I was still looking forward to investigating this other system (always interjecting with “I don’t want to be a cynical sausage...", "I'm honestly trying not to be a cynical sausage..."), but having seen the new IMAX logo which had been added to the Odeon signs in the foyer, as a passionate film fan, I’m genuinely concerned that when the people of Liverpool greet this new way of seeing movies, that they’ll think they’re finally seeing a range of film made in the IMAX format (assuming they’ve heard of it before). They’re not. They’re seeing a range of films which in the main are made for an ordinary projection system that are being transferred to this other format.
That difference is also covered by the media fact sheet, which says “a major change of aspect ratio from the traditional ‘full-height’ 1.33 of 15 perforations 70mm film, to the 1.78 of their DMR system, which is more consistent with the general framing of Hollywood films.” Except, since “DMR” is Digital Media Remastering system that upscales a 35mm film, that change in format means that the image quality, however detailed, could actually still be inferior to the original IMAX which has more information in the original print, unless like some sections of Inception they're shot in at least 65mm.
The FAQ also asks itself about the key difference between this IMAX auditorium and the one in Manchester, and answers by talking about crystal clear imagines and the special audio system when in fact its that watching a film here involves looking at a giant rectangle but there it's feeling as though your about to fall out of a helicopter into the Grand Canyon or whatever. I think about my own first jaw dropping experiences in Bradford in the 90s in which I felt like Jodie Foster in Contact ("they should have sent a poet"), my eyes agog at this strange new world, as penguins swam beneath the glaciers above my head.
Imagine this trailer projected on a screen the size of a three up, two down:
I brought up the problems last year in the US when people turned up for IMAX showings to find this system in place (which led to the Destroy Fake IMAX campaign), all he could offer was that yes, there had been criticism on some technical blogs. But journalists also wrote like this one which I’ve linked to before and lists the key differences. At length. With pictures. Roger Ebert also went over the topic in much greater detail and I’d direct you to his article too. As he says, “(IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond)’s problem appears to be that most people do foolishly persist in thinking of IMAX as the giant screen” when they’ve branched out further in the battle against home formats.
So Liverpool is still waiting for its first IMAX film projection system, but what it does have is a truly excellent new option for seeing Hollywood film releases, which admittedly has been well received in other areas. The first week will see Shrek Forever After and coming soon are Inception, Toy Story 3, Resident Evil: Afterlife, Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole (partly voiced by Bernard Cribbins), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part One) and the film which could be the game changer, Tron Legacy. I’m really looking forward to seeing most of those (yes, even Resident Evil, it’s a guilty pleasure) with only the price a potential barrier (£11.75 for adults).
Because, let’s be honest, despite my reservations about calling a spade a spade, it’s probably just all about some pupils from a local school in a photo which was sent to me this afternoon by the PR company (because they were the first to see the system), on the edges of their seats and the rapt expression on their faces. The boy on the left looks like he's going to be a film fan for life.
UPDATED 14/7/2010:
Updated 02/08/2010 Haylay has been in touch with the Odeon regarding all of this and has sent me their response. She's agreed to let me publish her email to me below. All I've done is break up the central quote into small paragraphs for ease of reading (FYI we swapped emails after I saw a comment from her on Twitter):
"Hi StuartUpdated! 25/12/2011 Slashfilm have posted an FAQ which covers much the same ground but updates to include material about Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol and The Dark Knight Rises.
Thanks for the email (sorry its taken me so long to reply!)
Glad to hear that I'm not the only one who felt this way.
I emailed Odeon after I had been and thought you might be interested to read their response:
"I'm sorry to hear you feel you are disappointed with our new IMAX installation. I would like to assure you that the IMAX we have had fitted is a 'True IMAX' and was installed and tested by IMAX technicians from Canada.
Unfortunately Liverpool ONE was not designed for IMAX when built so we were limited on how large we could make the screen.
The IMAX we have is Digital IMAX which historically has a smaller screen than traditional IMAX as it is more difficult to enlarge a digital image to the size of older IMAX screens. With the digital age of cinema becoming more apparent you will find newer IMAX installations to be of similar size.
The IMAX experience is not just the screen size and the laser aligned sound it is the full process from filming on special IMAX cameras to enlarging each frame of film.
I do agree however that if you are sitting close to the front or far out on one of the sides the Immersive wrap effect is some what lost. We are current working hard with IMAX to see if there is any solution we can come to."
I'm guessing they have probably had a fair few emails about this!
As you had said in your email, the thing that's bad is that they are selling it as IMAX, and people expect IMAX to be the giant screen and wrap around shape.
Take Care,
Hayley
Interestingly our nearest proper IMAX screen at the Manchester Odeon in the Printworks has Ghost Protocol and the Batman preview which indicates that although they've installed Digital, they can still show floor to ceiling when necessary (Chris Nolan has indicated the preview could not be shown on faux-IMAX screens).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)