Messages

Well I don't see the sun much and my eyes hurt when I'm simply outside during the day.Ã,  I think before I try staring at the sun, I should just try to hang around outside and stare at everyday objects.

like the road,Ã,  or the mail box, or whatever I happen to be interacting with at the time.

hell, I had to eat MacDonald's immediately after seeing it. 

good points DG.

Another strange factoid of studios is that films don't stand alone.

Lord knows why a studio spends so much money on I, Robot and Catwoman but when they flop, every movie in that studio's immediate future serves as a crutch for the loss.

But yes, certain people in Hollywood never deserved to make these decisions to begin with.

PS: I just had a good laugh by looking at the IMDb credits for "I, Robot"

Asimov is listed as "suggested by book".Ã,  To me that's like saying "Haha, silly Asimov- your book reminds me of this hack idea I have for a movie!  Thanks for the suggestion!"

Kinoko, anything that attracts the attention of the masses eventually becomes a business.

I fear the day that I make a film and someone comes to me and offers me a nice sum of money if I simply have my character wear a particular T-shirt.Ã,  Should I accept?Ã,  I mean, with a little extra cash, I could afford that crane shot I wanted, afterall.Ã,  And did I really care what the character was wearing when I wrote the script?

I hope this demonstrates one instance where product placement does not interfere too much with the art.

And I have to mention that filmmaking began as an assembly line operation.Ã,  There wasn't just one screenwriter, there were ten.Ã,  And they were all simply cramming ideas into eachother to outsell the other movies doing the same thing.

Slowly Hollywood develops the star system.  People either like Buster Keaton or they like Charlie Chaplin.   Now the star system even extends itself to writers and directors. 

How many people decided whether or not to see Kill Bill because Tarantino made it?

How many people saw Eternal Sunshine because Charlie Kaufman wrote it?

Sure, they're artists but even more so-  they're investments.

I used to be extremely pissed off about the price of movie-going.

I still am really.Ã,  But it breaks down like this:



$6-8 ticketÃ,  --Ã,  goes almost entirely to the Studio, not the theatre.

Hence theatres are going mad raising prices for popcorn, sodas, and making no outside food and drink rules.Ã,  They make most of their money on concessions.Ã,  And they are struggling.Ã,  The equipment it takes (bulbs, projectors, sound) to keep up with Hollywood is tremendously expensive.

Regal Cinema, the largest exhibition chain in the US, has made it a LAW in their theatres to show atleast aÃ,  minimum number of ads before movie trailers.Ã,  AND most theatres play slides even before showing commercials.

Really, all you need to understand is that your money and consumership is going to several places.Ã,  Ã, The studios make risks with box-office flops like Catwoman, and hope to break even with another movie later (therefore the trailers).Ã,  And the theatres get no percentage if one movie does better than another, they just simply need you to buy popcorn and they need advertisers to buy ads.


---I edited out my idea because I want to do more research on it ---- sorry dg

Movies lie to us anyway.Ã,  That's the purpose of film - to perpetuate fantasy.Ã,  Do you honestly want movies to say "Here comes product placement!!!" before every instance?

Listen, I hate advertisements too.Ã,  I especially hate commercials.Ã,  I hate how a potential thirty minute television show becomes 22 minutes due to ads.

That's why I like product placement as a subsitution for commercials. We could get stories with no interruptions.


Kinoko, I don't mean to offend you with "I once thought just like you" talkÃ,  but viewing advertisements as evil is a fairly naive view.Ã,  Shows such as Seinfeld, the Simpsons, Friends, Daily Show, Adult Swim, etc etc wouldn't exist without selling some sort of advertising spots.Ã,  This is especially true for network television.

Get used to product placement and learn to love it,Ã,  because TiVo is slowly going to phase out the use of commercials altogether.Ã,  Advertisers can't get viewers to watch their ads, so naturally ads will blend into the content of the show.

Product placement is a touchy topic.

A bad example of product placement is in SWAT where a character sees a sprite can and says, "Holy shit! I love sprite! Now what was that you said about terrorists?"

A good example of product placement is anytime in a story where a character tastefully uses a product without it effecting the story or presentation.Ã,  For instance, in Mystic River Sean Penn has an emotional moment in front of a closet shelf full of Jello.Ã,  But fortunately,Ã,  he never turns around and says "Damn! We need more Jello!"Ã,  Movies have to get money from somewhere;Ã,  if a soda is written into the script- why not ask sprite to pitch in?

Now in Wayne's World, Evolution, Minority Report, and Demolition Man- those are all instances of real product placement.Ã,  Even though their delivery was more humorous or innovative, they weren't entirely shameless.

http://www.pianojuggler.com/DanMenendez2.wmv


seems to me that first piano juggler could simply hit his keyless piano anywhere with a ball and it will play the next note regardless.

The drinking, spitting, gambling puzzles in MI2.

They just helped the game feel so much more lively when you competed with NPCs and timing was a factor.

LGM, so perhaps the name of the movie SHOULD have been named something else?


For instance, say the next Batman movie had Spiderman instead of Batman.  I would go see the film solely on the chance of seeing Batman.   Once dissapointed, I would bitch to everyone I know that it wasn't even a batman movie.

You however, would claim "so what? the movie was pretty good anyway."  ?

You all are retarded.

No, seriously, you are.

It's Bruised's sister. 

[The Grudge]

The Grudge series is creepy, but i've only seen the sequel

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0364385/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0367913/

So naturally they are remaking the film with Sarah Michelle Gellar. (boooooo)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0391198/

I haven't seen Ringu and I laughed thru the Ring.Ã,  Ã, And The Eye was beautifully horrific.

I don't like smilies. 

Seriously, I don't.

Was it because of that picture where I edited an ice pick into your eye?


I didn't mean it.  Promise!

The show Silver Hawks had a character who wore a cowboy hat..

It's official:  My work dates in Memphis are the 25th - 5th.  I am unmittenified.

Boyd- neat idea, but not likely to happen too frequently.  First of all, most commerical game companies compete against each other so its not likely they would advertise other games' "actors".

Now the likelihood of a game developer using their game's actors in more than one series is hindered by the fact that those developers usually don't make many games in a given time.  For instance Rockstar (one of the most successful) has GTA, State of Emergency, Red Dead Revolver, and a few others.  Most developers are not that fortunate (or wealthy) to have that many series.

I think the humor and artwork of all four games are worth their respective prices.

A red herring is a legal term in (atleast) the united states

As for the origin, I asked jeeves:

A "red herring" is a diversionary tactic - something that draws attention away from the central issue. The term originated from the use of smoked herring (which is reddish brown and extremely strong-smelling) to distract hunting dogs from the trail. In the seventeenth century, smoked herring was actually used as a lure to train dogs to follow a scent. But it was ALSO used by criminals to divert bloodhounds from the trail.