Category Archives: Video

Cloverfield 2 is coming, intense viral marketing has begun?

J.J. Abrams’ Cloverfield is a great film that emphasizes shrouded mystery, unique camera work, spectacular special effects, and an intriguing and original story with believable characters.  There is no way Abrams and crew (including producer Bryan Burk, director Matt Reeves, and writer Drew Godderd) could leave this franchise to waste after one film; especially that there is so much unused backstory material from all the viral marketing used to hype the movie way back when.

The crew on a potential sequel in the works…

Reeves: “While we were on set making the film we talked about the possibilities and directions of how a sequel can go. The fun of this movie was that it might not have been the only movie being made that night, there might be another movie! In today’s day and age of people filming their lives on their camera phones and Handycams, uploading it to YouTube… That was kind of exciting thinking about that.”

“There’s a moment on the Brooklyn Bridge, and there was a guy filming something on the side of the bridge, and Hud sees him filming and he turns over and he sees the ship that’s been capsized and sees the headless Statue of Liberty, and then he turns back and this guy’s briefly filming him. In my mind that was two movies intersecting for a brief moment, and I thought there was something interesting in the idea that this incident happened and there are so many different points of view, and there are several different movies at least happening that evening and we just saw one piece of another. That idea sort of tickled me.”

“The idea of doing something so differently is exhilarating. We hope that it created a movie experience that is different. The thing about doing a sequel is that I think we all really feel protective of that experience. The key here will be if we can find something that is compelling enough and that is different enough for us to do, then it will probably be worth doing. Obviously it also depends on how Cloverfield does worldwide and all of those things too, but really, for us creatively, we just want to find something that would be another challenge.”

Burk: “The creative team has fleshed out an entire backstory which, if we’re lucky, we might get to explore in future films.”

Abrams: “It would be a totally different kind of thing but it’s too early to talk about.”

As you can clearly see, there areideas floating around about what a sequel to Cloverfield can entail.  Focusing on the backstory of the monster and changing up the style of the way the movie is portrayed to audiences seems to be the two big concepts to take away from the sequel jabber.  Also, let me remind you that Cloverfield did leave some questions at the end of the film in two instances.  (1) In the final scene of the film (the recording at Coney Island) a quick camera shot reveals a large object falling into the ocean.  It has been oft-confirmed that this object was a satellite and that the excavation of said satillite woke up the monster who “[has] been down there in the water for thousands and thousands of years.” [J.J. Abrams]  (2) Loyal fans of Abrams and Cloverfield (yeah, that’s me) who waited out the end credits to see if there was a reveal at the very end heardquite the treat.  An unknown person whispers softly “It’s still alive.”  When played backwards the audio plays “Help us.” {Listen below.}  All in all, I would place all bets on a sequel coming to theatres soon.  Let the crazy detailed viral marketing and hype begin!

Oh wait…what’s this?  It seems as if viral marketing as started for Cloverfield 2.  Although it is has not been confirmed as an official video for a sequel, and many speculate it may be fan-created, this video is still quite the treat for the Cloverfield following.  Today a video was uploaded to YouTube titled “そこに何ですか?- R U THERE?” by abcharu21.  It contains shaky-cam scenes from what appears to be Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, CA, bizarre cuts to a father playing with his Asian baby, a shot of what may be the monster terrorizing civilians, and it ends with a quick shot of a street sign that reads “Cloverfield.”  Though it may very well be a user-generated video, it seems too authentic to me.  Check it out below and let the hype begin all over again.

[Via Wiki; Comingsoon.net; Movie-Moron]

Half dome screen really puts you in the game

The big screen experience is forever but it’s the 3D wave that is fascinating everyone from gamers to cinephiles. T.O.O.B. brings the iMax experience into your home with its omni-directional digital screen that allows a person a full range of visual experiences, without compromising on media formats. Animator and inventor Alexander Marten McDonnell turned his fascination into reality with this new generation inflatable dome projection screen that virtually takes the viewer from real to reel life. Attach a home projector from the outside of the half dome, and a mirror in the middle reflects movies and games to encompass the inside of the screen for an immersive experience. Continue reading Half dome screen really puts you in the game

Nokia N900 shows off new software dubbed Maemo 5

Check out the Nokia Maemo 5 Internet Tablet.

According to Engadget: “The specs include a 3.5-inch 800×480 pixel (resistive) touchscreen, sliding QWERTY, 32GB of on-board storage expandable to 48GB via microSD, GPS/A-GPS, FM transmitter, TV-out, Bluetooth 2.1, WiFi, 1320mAh battery, and 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and dual-LED flash…ARM Cortex-A8, up to 1GB of application memory, and OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics acceleration…Nokia promises [it] will be a “PC-like experience on a handset-sized device.” It also brings a Mozilla-based Maemo browser with Adobe Flash 9.4 support.”

Looks cool.  Maybe Maemo can salvage what’s left of my interest in Nokia from the dark abyss that is the Symbian OS.

[Via Engadget]

This short film is what District 9 is based on…WATCH IT.

If you have seen the trailer (or the movie itself) for District 9, you will notice it says “Presentend by Peter Jackson, Directed by Neill Blomkamp.”  This short film “Alive in Joberg” is what Peter Jackson stumbled upon and got him interested in picking up the concept for D9 and putting Blomkamp at the helm.  This six and a half minute short shows off Blomkamp’s raw talent of mixing CGI with live action.  With what was surely a low budget and a light crew, Blomkamp took a great idea and displayed his talents in just the right way that led him to making a higher budget masterpiece that is District 9.  (Fun fact: D9 star Sharlto Copely appears in and a producer of this short.)

New PS3 slim Japanese commercials are bizarre, the usual

Sony is known for making such crazy and strange commericals for their Playstation products.  Who can forget one of the original PS3 commercials that featured the scary crying baby doll?  Now the marketing team has done it again for the new PS3 slim.  Check it out above.

[Via Engadget]

Colbert gets his liftoff

After receiving the most votes at NASA’s website, actor Stephen Colbert won the contest to put his last name on the next ISS module to launch into space.  After deeming the situation inappropriate, NASA decided to name the module “Tranquility” and gave Colbert a consolation prize.  After all, he did give the International Space Station a boost in popularity on his show “The Colbert Report.”  His prize?  NASA came up with this acronym: C.O.L.B.E.R.T. is the Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill.  Better than nothing, I guess.  Check out his response video above.

[Via Gizmodo]

‘Narrow Stairs’ is wide in scope

Simply put, Death Cab for Cutie’s Narrow Stairs is what music is all about.  All eleven tracks, from the rhyming “Bixby Canyon Bridge” to the soft yet entrancing “The Ice is Getting Thinner,” reveal to the listener a doorway to a place where vocals do not just provide words to a song–they are there as a vital piece of the instrumentation and wholeness of the song.  Death Cab is comprised of a guitarist in Chris Walla, a bassist in Nick Hammer, a drummer in Jason McGerr, and the lead vocalist, guitarist, and pianist in Benjamin Gibbard.  Although one can sit and review the meanings behind the emotion embedded within each track, this is not my mission.  It is far more worthy to discuss Gibbard’s attempt at going against the status quo and creating a spectacular album that shines in almost every way.

Continue after the break.

Continue reading ‘Narrow Stairs’ is wide in scope