Michael Vick's New Ad Campaign

Getting Back in the Blogging Game

It's been a while since I blogged anything here (three months!) but that's mostly because most of my bloggy activities are now on Facebook.  But I'm going to start blogging here and on my NEW companion blog, VicDiGital's Production Blog, where I blog exclusively about video production, filmmaking and productivity, from the perspective of a very small business owner.

This will be created in conjunction with my revamped website.  However, I'm thinking of having the blog replace the website, as it allows me to be far more interactive with it.  We'll see.  I'll leave my Dark Piranhas blog for all things media and fun related.

Until then, take care and God bless.

I'm Not 100% Sure, But I Think I Hate Blu-Ray

How can this be? The highest (thus far) of the high-definition formats available to home consumers is something I don't like?

It's true.

My local Best Buy and Circuit City have had the full Blu-Ray/1080 HDTV setup on display for a few months now, and every time I go, I make a point of checking it out, especially when they have a new DVD release. And EVERY time, I get freaked out, in a bad way, at the image quality I see.

It's just TOO good. Films look like it's high definition VIDEO. It almost looks like live-action. It's too crisp. Too clean. Too grain-free.

From many many experiences watching TV and movies with non-media people, I know that 99% of the viewing public usually doesn't notice, or can't tell the difference between a video look and a film look, and even when I point it out to them, they don't care. So I know that when I gripe about the look of Blu-ray, I'm going to be in the extreme minority.

I know I sound like those nutjob audio purists that turn their nose up at CD's and mp3's, saying that only analog playback (like albums or audiotape) can truly present music in it's full glory. But my complaint is the exact opposite.

Film, or the 'film look' is NOT a pristine image. It's a purposefully grainy and/or degraded image. It's how film has always been, and how I WANT it to always be. Even films shot on HD video in recent years retain that 'film look' when projected from a film projector, because it's still film as an end product.

But now, we have Blu-Ray, which bypasses the film projection step, so the image that appears on your HDTV is perfect. What's worse, is that the studios have actually gone back and REMOVED grain from films because people with new HDTV's were complaining about it. Gah!

I don't want total clarity with the FILMS that I watch. I don't want it to seem like it's happening NOW, or right in front of me. The 'film look' allows for that layer of separation, that filter of being at least one step removed from the events unfolding on screen. It's still a story being told with some perspective, rather than something happening like a news broadcast or reality show.

I know that it's all over for me. There isn't going to be some "Let's Save the Grain!" movement that's going to pop up. This is what the masses want, even though the don't know it's not what they really want. But it's what they're going to get.

So don't feel sorry for me when in a few years when you see me scouring the plain old DVD releases as opposed to the Blu-Ray shelf. I'm there on purpose. I'm stubbornly and (correctly) holding on to the BEST movie experience available to me.

Chinese Astronauts

It's been a while since I deliberately posted something (thanks, Ike!).  My "Survivor" post from the other day was actually something I had created a draft for several months ago and post-dated it "way in the future", and apparently that post-date was this week.  Oh well.

Anyway, enjoy this brilliant news item from The Onion. 


China Launches First Willing Manned Mission Into Space

SURVIVOR Around the World - 1 - Bulgaria

Welcome to a new series! This is inspired by this article I came across this morning, talking about how huge a hit the Israeli version of "Survivor" is in Israel. I started watching the opening segments of various international versions of the show and found it fascinating to see the similarities and differences between our culture and other cultures. Most of them were merely interesting until I got to this one, and this guy in particular.



It's Rasputin! He's on Survivor Bulgaria!


Here's the rest of the intro segment. I'll post a new one each day this week.

I Am Home Alone Legend

Excellent trailer mashup.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

For those of you not getting enough Olympics coverage.

I especially love the cycling.  They don't have a 'degree of difficulty' component of Olympic cycling, but I'd certainly vote for this to become a part of it.


http://view.break.com/157415 - Watch more free videos