Digital FX Design | Production | Post

When the original iPhone made its debut, it was a truly revolutionary device. Nothing had ever been made like it. It was small, powerful, entertaining and downright sexy. Since then, there have been three iterations of the device – the 3G, 3Gs and now the iPhone 4. The 3G finally offered 3G connectivity, but was hampered by slow processing and memory speeds. The 3Gs fixed those issues but still left out a number of “wish-list” items. The iPhone 4 seeks to do address all of these issues. So does it? Well, yes and no…

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How the iPad is revolutionizing the way we look at entertainment online

Good design does a lot of things. It inspires, it functions, it communicates. But above all, good design focuses the eye leaving the viewer locked in on an image, on a message on what the designer wants you to see, hear and read. The personal computer, even Apple, has failed miserably in this. I’m not talking about the physical design of a computer; I’m talking about the experience of using one. For all of the things that are wrong with the iPad (more on that later), Apple designers nailed it on the head when it comes to the user experience and focusing our attention on what’s directly in front of us.

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Operating a facility 1500 miles from either Los Angeles or New York can present challenges. After all, we can’t just run down the road and collimate our lenses or check the back focus on our Red One cameras. We have learned to adapt, and in the process built our own rental facility to supply our own needs for top quality equipment and services. But until recently we were still forced to send our cameras and lenses out to check for proper flange focal depth or back focus issues and lens collimation. Fortunately, some new affordable products have become available that allow us to handle this locally. These optical collimation devices allow us to set the PL mount of a digital cinema camera relative to the sensor. Several months ago Abel CineTech released the IB/E Null Lens for the RED One camera. At the time, the Null was the only option shipping – until now. Optitek has released the Optimator. Optitek claims this new tool improves and expands on the Null concept with greater ease of use and makes all tests “laboratory condition” compliant regardless of location. Accuracy really isn’t an issue here, since both devices are accurate to within 5 microns which is literally splitting hairs.

We just got our hands on the Optimator and our tests have proven very promising.

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In contrast to my previous post, here are ten films from last year that were not very good…In fact, some of them downright SUCKED!

Now I didn’t populate this list with the obvious cinematic crap that was inflicted upon unsuspecting audiences last year. I didn’t need to sit through Disaster Movie, The Hottie and the Nottie, or The Love Guru to be able to tell you that you would have a better time having the veins slowly pulled out of your legs with tweezers than sitting through such cinematic abortions. The goddamn trailers were enough!

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Okay, after much contemplation and deliberation I have finally decided to list my ten favorite films of the past year. I must say however that this list is not etched in stone – like a late entry in last year’s list (the fantastic Joe Strummer documentary The Future is Unwritten), I might stumble upon a small film that eluded me. So if that happens I will certainly post an update – but for now, this is what I have come up with.

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