There's a good article floating around on theplaylist.com which summarizes a recent article written by Steven Soderbergh which essentially smacks the cable companies in the face in an effort to demand satisfaction. His gripe is basically over the cropping of super-widescreen movies. Confusion follows...

This is a 2.40:1 movie (Superwide):



And this is the same image cropped to fit a 1.85:1 ratio (widescreen TV ratio):


With the "less" rectangular shape of the 1.85 image size there is less of a horizontal scope. This is achieved by cropping the original image or by opening the matte up, which is essentially taking the black bars off the top and bottom of a super wide film. Open matte can only be achieved through when the director chooses to film this way. The director chooses to shoot in a less wide aspect ratio because it's easy to both crop the image to make it wider for theaters and show the less wide footage on cable networks to fill up a widescreen TV with no black bars.
Most networks especially, cable networks crop the 2.40 to fit the 1.85 so the viewer sees no black bars and is comforted. But some crop it down to 1.33:1 (a square) which is really baffiling.
Phew, it's a confusing issue, and I know I didn't make it any clearer, but this might help. I'm interested to see if Soderbergh addressed the open matte issue.

I got a laugh out of this...

The Amerikin' version of the theme from Disney's release of Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo.



They managed to get a Jonas and a Cyrus on the track! Seriously though, it's pretty damn catchy, and the kiddies sound great with Autotune vocals. Most of the melody and lyrics from the original Japanese version are included, which will surely go unappreciated by grumpy Ghibli fans.

Here is the original version of the song...



I don't know, the Disney version seems to lack the innocence and timelessness of the original. Whatcha think?

Look for Ponyo in theaters on August 14!

Once is really, really fantastic. I'd heard about when it was first released in '07 but never had the opportunity to check it out.
My interest was peaked when I found out it was a film about music! Some of you might not know, but, I love music.

I came across the dvd today. And for a real bargain too: $9.99. I took a chance.I was not disappointed. I rarely am, actually.

The story, put simply, is about a friendship that grows out of two strangers love of playing music. They come across each other one night in Dublin. The lead male character, "Guy", performs with his guitar on the streets for money. He doesn't need the extra money necessarily, his main source of income comes from him repairing vacuum cleaners at his dad's shop. He performs because he loves it. The female lead, "Girl",who cleans houses for a living and lives with her mom and daughter, just so happens to hear one of his own original songs one night and from there decides to inquire more about him. She's a musician, too, he discovers, who plays the piano.
They take an interest in each other, at first, musically and decide to collaborate on some songs. From then on the relationship grows, beyond just music, and they start becoming a part of each others lives.

The film has very real and very natural performances by the "actors". They're not professional actors. They're musicians first, which is why the music works so well in the film, who the director himself knew and asked to be apart of the project.

They do a spectacular job for persons who have never acted in a film before.
Granted, a lot of the scenes they're just playing music together, so, I guess, they didn't really need to act so much.

The scenes that do involve music are probably some of the most convincing moments I've seen captured on film that involve the process of writing and rehearsing songs. I have some experience with this process myself. Other "music" movies tend to skip over these creative moments in songwriting. Or if they do try and show it it always seems too fake (it is, of course) or rushed. Case in point: the recent film, Cadillac Records. Horrible, horrible movie.

Once rushes nothing. It's a slow boil, but in the best possible way. It's great! Did I mention that?
It's not hokey, fake, or formulaic at all. This is why the film is so good.

I recommend anyone who likes good movies to check this one out. It's bloody brilliant!



Also: If you want to know about another great film that has to do with music bringing strangers together to form beautiful friendships, check out The Visitor. Also on dvd now.

Richard Jenkins, the star, was nominated for an oscar for his performance.

Not that you'd care, but this is a blog after all. Since it's summer and I recently finished school, I've had plenty of time to enjoy all the meats of our cultural stew (pardon the Simpsonsism). Let's go down the list shall we?

First: Old Games
I've been playing a lot of Battlefield 1943, trying to level up my character, I'm at level 24/50. This game has become increasingly enjoyable since I've become adept at capturing bases. I've been playing sniper more often than not which really affects your close range game if you haven't had the chance to hone it. I finally got all the achievements for this one, but I don't think I'm going to give it up any time soon.

On the other hand, I've also been playing a lot of Street Fighter IV. Again, I've been trying to level up. I recently reached G1-E which the second highest level. Match making is a little more difficult but the level of competition is much better than G2. But I must admit that since I've reached G1 my compulsion to play the game so regularly has dwindled a bit.

Second: New Game
I've purchased the game TMNT: Turtles In Time Reshelled. Which I haven't played much, because there's not to much to it. It was pretty fun for a 10$ game, though 4 player action was hectic. Look for a video review in the coming days.



Third: Movies
I recently had the chance to watch Time Crimes, which was pleasantly surprising. ***Spoiler Snitch***
The story is that of a man who sees a beautiful young girl disrobing in the forest getting murdered by a mysterious masked man, and pursues the two. I was so sure that I had this movie figured out in the first five minutes, but the movie really doesn't try to spring any surprises on you since the plot twist I predicted happened fairly early on. This movie is about inevitability and disaster, and I must say, is probably the best movie on the subject of time travel I've ever seen. It's not a movie that's power lies in a reveal at the end of the film, though there is one, it's a movie that examines the consequences of time travel in a more meaningful way than Back to the Future ever could.



I also had the chance to watch was Who Killed the Electric Car. This documentary puts the blame squarely on you, the viewer. Just kidding, but it actually does put the blame for holding back the electric car to some extent on the viewer, as well as car companies and oil refineries. This is a flavorless little documentary that really doesn't have any rhythm. It's pretty bland and seems only somewhat informative. The interviews are pretty crazy, in one Mel Gibson has a huge black and white beard and the street testimonials seemed down right phony. Two thumbs down on this one.



And by the way my new Xbox avatar has bike messenger style thanks to Sam Fisher.

Reminder: On slow news days/weeks publish posts about top ten lists or video game cakes. I stumbled across this on Hackaday. These tiny little Arcade cabinets give new meaning to scrounging through your pockets play coin-op. They're pretty cute, I wish they had a six button layout, but hey they're Neo-Geo!! You can see some the production stuff here.