Gizmodo Australia » cinema

George Lucas Imagines the Future of Cinema

Joanna Stern — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 02:00:00 +0000

Wow! That’s what I’ve got to say after listening to George Lucas speak at the World Business Forum today. The legendary filmmaker discussed everything: innovation, his movies being viewed on iPhones and how amazing he thinks Steve Jobs is.

In the “Future of Cinema” discussion Lucas was asked questions (by Ben Mankiewicz of At the Movies) about his accomplishments, but also about his drive to innovate new film technology (if you don’t know Lucas has started a handful of film companies). “I had to invent what I didn’t have,” Lucas said. That technology included the ability to pan scenes of flying ships in Star Wars. “I wanted to simply pan around, so we had to invent a way of doing that. I was up there with Silicon Valley pushing that end of it,” he added.

It was then that Mankiewicz asked him how he feels about our technology getting “cheaper, better, faster”. You can watch Lucas’ response to viewing movies on the iPhone yourself, but he definitely doesn’t have a problem with it. He makes movies to be watched, no matter what devices people watch them on. That sentiment is a bit different than David Lynch’s opinion. Of course, Lucas has also been a proponent of beaming movies into living rooms as soon as they hit theatres.

Excuse the film quality, the suits took all the good seats.

As for whose work he notices and the company he thinks is really excelling, Lucas answered none other than Apple. “Steve Jobs is really amazing,” he remarked. “Who would have thought 20 years ago they would have been making mobile phones and doing it well?” I’ll tell ya, Yoda didn’t know. [World Business Forum]

Take Five Minutes To Watch 100 Years Of Visual Effects

Rosa Golijan — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 01:30:00 +0000

Let’s take a five minute break from Food Week to watch this compilation of some incredible moments in the history of visual effects, from silent films to recent blockbusters. Oh, and pay attention to the background track. The tune’s nice.

The movies included in this clip span over 100 years of cinema history:

1900 – The Enchanted Drawing

1903 – The Great Train Robbery

1923 – The Ten Commandments (Silent)

1927 – Sunrise

1933 – King Kong

1939 – The Wizard of Oz

1940 – The Thief of Baghdad

1954 – 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

1956 – Forbidden Planet

1963 – Jason and the Argonauts

1964 – Mary Poppins

1977 – Star Wars

1982 – Tron

1985 – Back to the Future

1988 – Who Framed Roger Rabbit

1989 – The Abyss

1991 – Terminator 2: Judgment Day

1992 – The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles

1993 – Jurassic Park

2004 – Spider-Man 2

2005 – King Kong

2006 – Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest

2007 – Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End

2007 – The Golden Compass

2008 – The Spiderwick Chronicles

2008 – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Did your favourite visual effect get left out? The comments allow for videos and pictures for a reason, so show us! [YouTube]

JVC Introduces Their First 8K Projector

Andi Wang — Wed, 13 May 2009 01:20:00 +0000

JVC latest projectors—one at 8K (8,192×4,320pixels) and the other at 4K (3,840×2,160pixels)—come with 10,000 lumens of brightness and produce a 5500:1 contrast ratio.

JVC has also created a prototype of their new 4K handheld camcorders, which shoot in 4240p and was made to be more of a broadcasting camera. Although release dates and prices are yet to be announced, they are rumoured to cost under $US200k, which is not that surprising considering that this cutting-edge technology is aimed more at professionals. [Akihabara New via CrunchGear]

Video: Philips’s Crazy 56-Inch Ultra-Widescreen Cinema 21:9 LCD Is Real

John Mahoney — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 15:20:00 +0000

Philips took the wraps off their 21:9 Cinema LCD in merry ol’ England, confirming the renderings that circulated earlier this month. It does display 2.40:1 ’scope with no letterboxing, but is that what you want?

Like we pointed out before, this TV is only practical for movies; and even then, some movies that weren’t filmed with big old Panavision 70mm film still very well might show up in something closer to 16:9, so we can’t say this will completely rid letterboxing from your life. If that’s on your bucket list.

Details are still pretty shady, but the Megawhat TV folks are estimating it’ll run around £3,000 (around $US4,275) and be released in the Spring (in the UK). [Pocket Lint]

Apple Cinema Displays To Get LED Refresh?

John Mahoney — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 16:31:53 +0000

Macrumors is reporting that new Cinema Displays are coming from Apple that will bring LED backlights to the whole line, which is in sync with the company’s plan to ditch fluorescent backlights entirely. The tipster is seeing Macworld in January as a likely time for them to pop up. They haven’t been updated in any large fashion since 2004, so this doesn’t seem that out of the question. HDMI please? [Mac Rumors]

Sam Fisher Will Be Watching You Watching The Dark Knight

Nick Broughall — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 00:05:28 +0000

It’s probably the beginning of the apocalypse or something, but Australia is actually starting to get things before the United States. Last week it was the iPhone 3G, and this week it’s the new Batman movie – The Dark Knight is in Australian Cinemas today, but not hitting the US until Friday. This almost makes up for Disney delaying Wall-E by 3 months in Australia. Almost.

In any case, because of the exciting Australian exclusive, Village Roadshow are cranking up the piracy ~~paranoia~~ prevention, and issuing staff at workers at cinemas nationwide with night-vision goggles, according to News.com.au. That’s right, the same guys that will be picking up your empty popcorn boxes will also be armed with state of the art military tech to stop you from recording a copy of the film for YouTube.

If you do decide to risk it and are caught, expect to be ~~silently shot in the back of the head~~ ejected from the cinema post haste.

[News.com.au]

Sony’s New Ad Campaign Teaser: Crazy Stuff With Cameras

Wilson Rothman — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 20:15:00 +0000

Sony’s launching a new ad campaign on April 22, following up all those other spots we’re crazy about. We got our hands on the teaser, entitled “Nothing,” and it is both very cool and totally irritating at the same time, because “Nothing” is exactly what happens. Kind of. It’s a bunch of smug film dudes talking with British accents about explosions and special effects, while doing increasingly crazy things with their cameras. If I was one of those cameras in the video, I’d be praying for a stunt double—look for the one that gets tossed off a bungee platform, and the other that gets rolled down a friggin’ mountain. But all of this build-up is for what, Sony? WHAT ARE THEY SHOOTING!!??! [Sony]

Directors Believe 3D Movies are the Future, World Keeps Looking the Other Way

Addy Dugdale — Wed, 23 May 2007 01:00:52 +0000

As if most movies weren’t bad enough in two dimensions, now studios and top directors believe that the future of movies will be 3D projections. According to the New York Times, people like Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson and Jeffrey Katzenberg are preparing films in this format, both for the creative possibilities (or so they say) and to stop piracy. More details after the jump.Spielberg and Jackson are going to produce a trilogy based on HergÃ©’s famous character, Tintin. Quite frankly, I don’t know if I want to see a Tintin movie (I have enough with the comic book, thanks), much less see Captain Haddock and La Castafiore floating in front of me in three dimensions. Just this week at Cannes, the public was just able to see a U2 concert with an improved 3D projection system:

“The concert film gives the audience the palpable experience of being present, as the camera swivels around Bono’s face, then soars over and down among the 60,000 concertgoers.”

Great. Bono in 3D as some freaky Wizard of Oz, screaming about redistributing the world’s wealth while he changes his band’s company address to a tax-free paradise. And Katzenberg even says that we will all have “our own 3-D glasses in the same way they have sunglasses for going outside.” Mmmmmm’kay.

Top Directors See the Future, and They Say It’s in 3-D [New York Times]