CES 2011
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Last week was the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. If I’m counting right, this should have been my 9th CES now as I believe my first was in 2001 and I missed one because of school a couple years ago. This year I spent 3 days at the show and still feel like I skimmed the surface. Like last year there were a lot of 3D T.V.s shown and quite a few demonstrations of glassless 3D T.V.s. I personally think that will be the future as the most common complaint about 3D is having to wear the glasses. Right now with the technology you have to stand in certain spots for it to work, but I’m sure this will be perfected in years to come.
Star Wars in 3D
Yes, it’s true! After George Lucas made mention of it in 2005, an official release year has been announced. All 6 Star Wars movies are going back to theaters starting in 2012 with Episode I. The official announcement can be read here on starwars.com. The griping has already started on the internets with many fans saying, “here’s Lucas again cashing in on Star Wars”. We have the recently announced Blu Rays coming out next year and now there will at some point be 3D releases for home. I will not deny that this is another way of him making more money with Star Wars, but to me nothing matches the experience of seeing these movies in a theatre with an audience. It is very much a different experience than watching them from the comfort of your own home. The last time we got to see the original movies was in ’97, which by the time these start coming out will have been 15 years ago. I’ve personally always thought it would be great to have them rereleased every few years. While I know a few vocal people are criticizing the fact of it coming out in 3D, I’m really more excited to have the opportunity to go back and see these in the theatre rather than the 3D aspect. Knowing how Lucas is with technology though, I imagine the 3D will still be very good even with the fact that these are conversions instead of proper films shot with 3D cameras like Avatar.
A video can also be watched of John Knoll talking about the 3D conversion. He was the video effects supervisor on most of the films. video link
Canon HV20 to HV30 Camera Upgrade
I had no plans of upgrading my camera, but found out about a great deal that a member posted on the hv20 forums. The website samys.com has a refurbished HV30 model for $450. I decided to look on ebay and see what my camera, the previous model, the HV20 would sell for. I was amazed to see that used ones sold roughly between the $450-$550 range. I decided to go ahead and order the HV30 and then promptly put my HV20 up on ebay. Instead of an auction I decided to try a fixed price listing at $500 and had the option for potential buyers to make an offer. Over the last couple of days, I had offers ranging from $200-$400. I counter offered at $450, but no one took it. I then had one of the potentials who lived in Australia offer the $450 if I would ship it out today, so he could have it in time for a shoot he was doing. In the process of working out that deal someone hit the buy it now of $500 and got it at the full price. I’m really happy it worked out this way because with the ebay fees and such I pretty much break even with the new model. Continue Reading →
Fanboys Coming to DVD
Well it never did make it to Utah for the theatrical run. Each week they added more cities, I would have even considered a small road trip if we needed to, but it never happened. The DVD release is set for May 19th which is perfect. That day also happens to be the 10th anniversary of The Phantom Menace, which happens to be the movie the characters in the film are trying to see early. I’ll probably rent it first before I decide if I need to buy a copy. Below is the box cover and special features reported on starwars.com
- Deleted Scenes
- Commentary with the Cast and Crew
- The Truth about Fanboys
- Star Wars Parallel
- Four Fanboys and One Fangirl
- The Choreography
- Disturbances in the Force: A Series of Webisodes
10 Years Ago
I can not believe it has now been a decade since 1999. That was a big year for a lot of reasons, but one of the biggest for me was the first new Star Wars movie in 16 years. It was close to this time that the first teaser trailer for The Phantom Menace was released. I was in England at the time and I remember that the trailer showed up with The Prince of Egypt. I went to that movie just so I could see the trailer.
The teaser poster was cool in that it showed Anakin with his shadow being Darth Vader. Here is that poster
Also, Hasbro released a couple of sneak preview figures early on. I missed out on most of the Episode 1 marketing blitz, but Paul was nice enough to pick up one of these for me.
Marketers went overdrive with the Episode 1 merchandise, so even by the time I got back home a lot of it was on clearance. I picked up the main characters and the Naboo Starfighter, but other than that I didn’t go too crazy.
