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As a treat for all my hard work at Siggraph (ha!), I decided to splurge a little.. So I picked up an eeeBox yesterday, which came today in the mail. I picked the jet black one, and it's pretty darn sweet. While it is an XP Home box, I'm sure there'll be an Ubuntu distribution for it sometime in the future! There's also a wicked ExpressGate (linux) boot, it comes up pretty much immediately on turning on the box, which allows you to use Skype, surf the internet, browse photos, and chat.
It's easy to get set up, just plug in all the bits, and away you go! It even comes with a USB keyboard and mouse. No network cable included, but it's got 802.11b and n! It also has a 10/100base-T port (can't tell if it's GigE). The hard drive comes split between two partitions; when you check Windows Explorer, the C: drive is 39.9GB (8 used / 32 free) and a D: drive (31.3GB free). I quickly installed Quicktime 7.5, Firefox, and Opera, and I think I'm done for now (I might fool around with flock), but will continue to play with it as time goes on. It does only have 1GB of RAM, but I think I'll pick up another 1GB SO-DIMM and just toss it in, especially for XP. So far it'll play 720p QT movs. I haven't had a chance to toss any 1080p footage its way, but the monitor that I'm using for it is only 1280x1024, so it would have to rescale the footage down.
I'll probably toss some Python tools on it, as I'm starting to learn Python, all over again. Especially now that Nuke 5 can utilize python, I think it would be a smart move. I can also use Python to generate web pages, so I will use the eeeBox as a web development machine too. The django framework looks pretty promising.
One thing that sucks so far is that the VESA mount to attach it to an LCD panel only works if your LCD stand does not block the VESA attachments! Case in point, check the image below. Check your LCD panel, and tell me if its like the image below, or if the stand mounts and covers the VESA area. Seems like slight oversight there. It would have been nice to invert the bracket so you could attach the box over the existing mount.
Looks like I'll have to rig something up in the meantime!
We hit the theatres Sunday morning to see Cloverfield in all its glory. The great thing about going at that time is that there's no line up, and it's half price, at six bucks a person! There were a number of great trailers in front of the film, including a teaser for the next Star Trek, and of course, The Dark Knight, all of which look great!
The film itself was short, at around 75 minutes long. The story progressed quickly though. I felt that it could have been longer, or even better, this could be one story among many in a miniseries! I left the theatre wanting more; more effects, more story, more drama. The effects work was wonderful, and integrated beautifully with the erratic camera work. If you see the movie, make sure to sit further away from the screen, as it's filmed from a handicam ala Blair Witch, and could really make you nauseous. It took a little while to get used to it. Tippett Studio and Double Negative worked on the visual effects, while Company 3 took care of the DI and The Third Floor managed the previs. I can only gather that Tippett did the creature effects, while DNeg worked on greenscreens and matte paintings. Overall, they did a spectacular job!
Over the holiday break we caught the film No Country for Old Men, starring Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, and a newcomer I had never heard of, Javier Bardem. While the visual effects were very subdued and nondescript, Luma Pictures did a wonderful job. This Coen brothers film is in very much the same way as Fargo, violent and unpredictable. Unless you read the book of the same name, of course. After watching the movie I ended up hitting the library (they still have those!) and borrowing the book by Cormac McCarthy, to see what I might have missed. True be told, not much! The film is a direct copy of the book, almost down to the dialog, and in some cases, exactly like the dialog. As well, the way McCarthy writes doesn't leave much to the imagination, as his words are very direct and to the point.
The film (and book) follows the plot of a drug deal gone bad, where our main character, Llewelyn Moss, wanders upon the scene and takes off with a large sum of money. He's now being chased by three parties; a psychopathic and methodical killer, Anton Chigurh, a small town sheriff, Bell, and a Mexican outfit who wants their money back. The scenes with Chigurh (Javier Bardem) are wonderful and very telling of his character. You don't want to get on his bad side. The rest of the cast does wonderfully as well, portraying the Texas life to a T. As the films ends, I was struck by its abruptness, and I decided to get the book, instead of watching the movie again and listening to the Bell speak near the end of the movie. Because the book is almost exactly like the film, I was able to read it over again, and it does make more sense on the written page. The executions and murders by Chigurh are just shocking on the page as they are in the film, and Bardem does a great job.
As a film, 7 out of 10. As a book, 8.
A special treat for all of you that are subscribed to this blog via RSS or email! Last night I attended a VES screening of I am Legend. After the screening there was a discussion panel from Imageworks showing and describing some of the work that went into creating the creatures and environments.
The film itself was great, much better than the book/novella by Matheson, I felt. Even the ending was better than the book. The supervisors described how they created two endings to the movie, and didn't find out which ending the production would use until a couple of weeks before the films release! The film switches between the present and the past, the past being of a thriving New York metropolis, unspoiled by a cure for cancer that goes wrong. The present is of Robert Neville, a soldier and scientist who is immune, trying to find the a current cure for all the creatures that only emerge at night. The sound design is excellent, and conveys a definite sense of loneliness, his only companion being his daughters dog that he was held custodian of when he put them on a chopper out of the city in the past. Through his basement research lab, we find the reasons and his attempts to solve the mutated cancer gene which cause aggression.
Last night we attended the Below The Line screening of The Kingdom at the Writers Guild of America Theater in Beverly Hills. After a harrowing journey to the theater (rush hour in LA heading towards Beverly Hills, missing the turn off for our street, and heading straight into Arlington Heights on Pico), we arrived just in the nick of time, at 7:30, ready to see the film. I was at the Writers Guild Theater earlier this year attending the VES Festival, so I should have known how to get there, but of course I had taken Olympic previously, and not Pico.
The Below The Line Film Screenings are for qualified artisans whose occupation is below the line producer. A line producer is a key member of the production team for a motion picture. Typically, a line producer manages the budget of a motion picture. Alternatively, or in addition, they may manage the day to day physical aspects of the film production, serving a role similar to the unit production manager. Line producers usually do not act as part of the creative team for a picture. Because line producers work on location, they don't work on more than one film at a time (unlike other producer roles). A line producer may also hire key members of the crew, negotiate deals with vendors, and is considered the head of production on the set.
Being a part of the VES, I was able to RSVP for this screening ahead of time. However, before the film started, one of the BTL crew introduced the film and mentioned that most screenings are open to anyone that is in the industry that is below the line.. Only certain screenings are for guilds, like the VES and other filmmaking ones. After his brief presentation, in which he also mentioned that BTL is going onto its fifth year, the film began, sans trailers.
From the looks of it, the film seemed to be projected digitally, but shot on film originally. There was no gate weave, but the texture and grain of the film was decidedly shot on film. It opens with a brief introduction of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and how it came to be, as well as going into the dates of well known events in the world, such as the date of oil discovery in Saudi Arabia, and attacks on American assets in the Middle East and elsewhere.
After the introduction, the film opens on a baseball game, as shown in the trailer, and the predictable results. The film progresses quickly, showcasing an FBI team that works its way into the Saudi world to try and solve the terrorist attack. As foreigners that were only brought on as a courtesy to the Saudi government, they quickly become integral in the solving of the crimes. The actors all play their respective parts well, and this film is mostly action. The politics are left aside for the most part, and this is a simple whodunit plot. The finale is surprisingly abrupt, but it's a fitting end to the film. Most of the key action scenes in the film are shown in the trailer, but they are definitely longer in the film. As a whole, I enjoyed it. Some good invisible effects work and some adequate greenscreens, but nothing that would detract from this film. This film comes out this Friday. I give it a good 8/10.
