ORIGINALLY AIRED: 1/25/2005
Alien vs. Predator, eXeem, DVDuesday
Episode #5013
| Too Much Time on Their Hands, Pt. 13: A Calvin & Hobbes fan recreates the strip’s snowmen death scenes with real snowmen.
Keep Your Secrets Public: Reveal your deepest, darkest secrets to the world by sending a postcard to PostSecrets.com. Or just read other people’s weird confessions. Let’s Do the Time Warp: Relive Steve Jobs' most powerful reality distortion field ever with this video of his 1984 presentation of the original Macintosh. |
| DVDTalk.com’s Kim Morgan dropped by with today’s big DVD releases:
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow: “Its innovative use of CGI was one of the most impressive things in this film,” said Kim. “I know people who didn’t like it as much as me, but I recommend it.” As for the extras, “the best thing on it is the 6 minute short that inspired the film – gorgeous, expressionistic use of film.” Batman the Animated Series Volume 2: “This is the best Batman ever,” Kim declared. “I think it’s better than the Tim Burton Batman – it’s much closer to the comic book.” The extras also look good, with interviews of the voice actors, such as good ol’ Mark Hamill. Here’s DVDTalk.com’s review of Volume 1. MacGyver The First Season: “This 1985 secret agent didn’t use guns – just rubber bands, paperclips, duct tape, whatever was in his bag,” said Kim. “What you’ll learn in MacGyver is that bullets are useless.” Nevertheless, fans of this cult TV show starring Richard Dean Anderson will be pleased. Read more of Kim’s opinions on film at sunsetgun.typepad.com. |
| More great bargains on digital goodies:
200GB ATA Hard Drive = $96.99 Dell 19" Flat-Screen Monitor = $377.40 |
Cool Creatures
In celebration of the DVD release of Alien vs. Predator today, special effects experts Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff, Jr. of Amalgamated Dynamics, Inc. brought some of their deadliest Predator weapons onto the show.
Alec and Tom are Academy Award winning creators of special characters and character effects, their creations visible in such movies as Spider-Man 2, Elektra, and the upcoming Superman Returns. Utilizing a wide array of techniques, they create prosthetic make-ups, animatronic puppets, actor duplicates and replica animals. How fun is it doing that every day?
“It’s work,” said Alec. “No, it’s a playground. No, it’s work. I’m not sure.”
The fellows create mostly with physical objects, such as the metallic-looking Predator helmets and spears, but also combine their devices with CGI. However, they see reality making a comeback in movies.
“We’re seeing a turnaround these days of directors wanting physical effects,” said Tom. “The thing is to find a balance. If you stick with one [technique] too much, people become aware of it.”
Tom and Alec have also written a book that takes a deep look at their work on Aliens vs. Predator.
“This is not only a complete step by step, but also a celebration of the craft,” said Alec. “So much attention goes to CG these days, but we really wanted to bring the public’s attention to the physical effects.”
Interested in learning how create movie creatures? Buy your copy of AVP: The Creature Effects of AD.
| In tech topics…
Crazy Like a Fox: Google snatches the lead engineer from Firefox. Wonder what they’ll use him for? Empire Building: Electronic Arts buys a majority stake in game developer Dice. Gee, what’s left for them to buy next? Sure. Why Not. Napster looks into providing movie downloads. Go to Google Groups: That’s what AOL is telling its customers who might actually want to read newsgroups. |
| For every BitTorrent site that gets yanked down by the MPAA, another five sprout up. But now, a company is daring to provide a P2P program based on BitTorrent. Currently in open beta, eXeem is a file sharing program tout as a great way to share personal files.
“This is nothing but a huge site for piracy right now,” said Kevin R. Well, you might want to try it while it still exists. The program is ad-supported, though you might be able to find lite versions. For the free beta download, visit http://exeem.com/ One of our viewers wrote and asked whether eXeem will track your actions and block or report any illegal activity. Kevin R. said he didn’t think the company will monitor you, but just like Kazaa, you can be tracked by copyright holders and their agents. |
| Explore our solar system from your PC with Celestia. |
