Continuing our trend of highlighting visual effects work, here’s a reel from Stargate Studios showcasing their work on The Walking Dead season 3. In addition to all the great zombie kills, pay particular attention to what they did with the prison. And they did it all with Adobe After Effects. Huh.
Great stuff.
[vimeo 63430867 w=525 h=295]
Geeks/nerds out there expecting a child in the near future, this video is for you: How to Teach Your Unborn Child About Star Trek. That’s right, it’s never too early to start teaching your child the important fundamentals.
Well, you might want to wait until they actually have ears and can hear (about 20 weeks or so). But then, get to it.
If I ever have children (hey, you never know), in addition to Star Trek, I will also be teaching them about Star Wars during the all-important internal gestation period. This will, of course, inevitably lead to many enjoyable Star Trek vs. Star Wars debates.
That does sound like fun. I may have to work on that.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPt9vVYd-oE?rel=0]
(h/t to Dr. Tom Mahoney for the link)
This amused me quite a bit. Of course, it helps if you watch Downton Abbey… And love zombies.
Fortunately, I do. I guess I should also mention that if you do watch Downton Abbey but haven’t seen this season’s finale, you may actually get some spoilers in this. So, beware and enjoy.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2p540lbdF70?rel=0&w=525&h=394]
I have been extremely busy the last several days and as such, haven’t had much to say here. Rest assured I’ll be back in short order. In the meantime, check out this promo for the upcoming season of Mad Men.
It’s in black and white, so you know it’s gonna be classy. Also, see if you can spot any new faces in the mix. I bet you can.
Cheers.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I03g36sbU8Y?rel=0&w=525&h=295]
If you watch a lot of movies and TV as I do (and occasionally even make them), you’ve probably sometimes wondered “How did they do that”? Well, as you’ll see from this video, they “did that” with a lot of green screen and visual effects.
Visual effects is a huge part of Hollywood and the men and women who work in that industry should be recognized and rewarded as such. This is only a small fraction of the work they do each and every day.
Enjoy and try not to be too shocked.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clnozSXyF4k?rel=0&w=525&h=295]
Hey, it’s Friday. Congrats, you made it through another week! I’ve had a fun week (more on that below) but, as usual, I’m glad it’s Friday and the week is over.
Although, knowing me as I do, I’m pretty sure I won’t be taking the whole weekend off or anything. Much too much to do, especially with the new project and knowing we’re going to be moving again in a few months.
But that’s later. Now, sit back, relax and enjoy another edition of Useful and Interesting Things.
• My pal Matt Raub and I are back doing a podcast for The Flickcast. I’m very happy about it and you can listen to the brand new episode which kicks off season two right here.
• Confused about who’s who and who’s related to who in the Star Wars universe? Perhaps this handy chart will help.
• I know, you’re still sometimes having trouble with well-known punctuation like the comma “,” or the semi-colon “;” but that hasn’t stopped some enterprising individuals from coming up with 8 new punctuation marks to surprise and delight you.
• Feeling anxious or nervous? Lifehacker has you covered on how to beat it. No, alcohol or other controlled substances are not involved, sorry.
• If you make coffee at home and ever do a Pour-Over, you need a Hario V60 Power Kettle
• Angry, sad, happy, undecided, indifferent about the end of Downton Abbey season three? Perhaps these tidbits about season four will help you feel better/worse/whatever?
Finally, a here’s a little video I like to call Lego Michael Jackson. Coincidentally that’s pretty much what the person who made the video calls it too.
Plus, in case you haven’t seen it, here’s a little bit of Alison Brie and her freestyle rap skills. This video is here mostly so I can put a photo of her at the top of this post. Yes, she’s eating ice cream, so?
What, you don’t like ice cream or something?
[vimeo 60169112 w=525 h=395]
I already have a Sonos music system at home and it’s great. The Playbar looks awesome. Take my money (again).
As a huge fan of the original Star Trek series, I was quite skeptical when Star Trek: The Next Generation came out. Fotunately, it only took about five minutes for the new show to win me over and I’ve been a big fan of Picard, Riker, Data and the rest ever since.
With the series coming out on Blu-ray, we’ve gotten some great supplimental material. One such bit of greatness is this blooper reel from Season Two of the series.
Great stuff indeed. Enjoy.
Update: Sorry kids but it seems the video has been taken down by YouTube for those pesky “copyright violations.” I’ll see if I can find it somewhere else. Meantime, go read a book or something.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_nVEm5Yc3c&w=500&h=281]
In keeping with the Avengers theme going this week, I saw this, courtesy of the fine folks at Fan Art Exhibit, and had to post it.
Alison Brie as Cap. I like it. Quite a bit. Probably a bit too much.
Oh well.
Yep, that’s right. No good movie trailers were released today. Or, at least not for movies I’m interested in. So there.
On the other hand, I did get a lot of writing done, so today wasn’t a total loss. In fact, I think I’ve finally figured out some problems with a script I’m working on, which is always a good feeling. Of course, fixing some problems can often lead to finding others . . . And so it goes.
Speaking of writing, screenwriter (among his movies is Big Fish, one of my personal favs) and snazzy iOS app developer John August has a great podcast (co-hosted by Craig Mazin) for all you aspiring screenwriters out there. I’m sure I’m late to the party on this and you’ve all been into the podcast from the beginning, but I’ve listened to almost all of the episodes now and I’ve learned a great deal.
Yes, I can still learn. So can you. Come on, you can do it.
Mr. August offers a lot of other advice at his website as well as several examples of his writing work for your reading pleasure. It’s a great resource and one I recommend highly.
I’m not alone in this, of course, but I’ve always believed one of the best ways to learn to write something like a screenplay is to read a lot of scripts. It helps to read good ones, too, as Mr. August’s are. No, that’s not brown nosing. They’re just very good and I don’t mind saying it.
In truth, I’m a big fan of reading in general. I guess if you’re reading this, you probably are too.