Category: Media 
When a 1 hour 36 minute movie takes 4 hours to show.
And before you start thinking too much, I already did the math for you:
- Movie length = 96 minutes
- Total length of showing = 240 minutes
- Total commercial time = 144 minutes (Total length - Movie length)
- Amount of commercial time for each minute of movie time = 1.5 minutes (total commercial time / movie length)
That means that if they display 10 minutes of movie, you have to sit through 15 minutes of commercials.
And you just know the commercials on the Hallmark Movie Channel will make you want to scratch your eyes out.
I was watching TV when a commercial for Verizon FiOS in NYC came on. I noticed that the Verizon installer was using an electronic gadget to keep track of his installation appointments. The gadget looked surprisingly like an Amazon Kindle. That’s when I realized that they must be testing an updated version.
Based on the commercial, we can see the following:
- Same basic size and shape.
- It will have a touch screen with cute little beeps when you touch it.
- It will have either a backlit screen or a much brighter screen.
- It will support custom applications like the Verizon FiOS installation application.
I assume it will be released in time for Christmas.
I’ve included the commercial and some large screen caps below.
Continue reading . . .
HD DVD is officially dead • Feb 19 2008
This was merely a formality, but Toshiba finally announced that “it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders”. It’s over. Time to move on.
Is Toshiba finally giving up on HD DVD? • Feb 16 2008
Sounds like Toshiba has finally admitted the obvious...that Blu-ray won the format war. Here’s hoping that they do close up shop and we can all move on with our lives. And congratulations to Sony for finally getting one of their formats widely adopted. Here’s hoping they don’t screw it up, which it sounds like they are well on their way to doing. (via Engadget)
According to CNN, there were two important breaking news stories today. The first was the emergency interest rate cute by the Federal Reserve, and the second was Heath Ledger’s death. I won’t get into why the second one is not important, but I just wanted to point out that CNN did not have a story on it so I went to one of my local TV station’s sites to see if there was an article on it. There was, and I was sort of interested in one particular sentence.
Now I understand that this was a fresh story that was breaking at the moment, but that doesn’t let the writers off the hook for getting some basic facts correct before they publish something. Take the following sentence:
He was pronounced dead at 3:26 p.m. in his downtown Manhattan residence by his housekeeper [...]
His housekeeper pronounced him dead? I’m fairly certain that in NY State only a doctor or someone with official medical training can pronounce someone dead. Perhaps he was “found dead” by his housekeeper?
But that’s not the sentence that bothered me. It was the one right before that:
The Australian-born actor was just 28.
Why was his age reported as “just 28”? Is there a hard-and-fast rule that people under a certain age are reported as being “just” x years old, and if so, what is that age? When does someone’s age stop being a “just” and start being just an age? If he were 34 would he still have been “just 34” or would he be “34”? What’s the cutoff for getting the “just” in the sentence? Does it depend on the age of the author, and anyone younger than he/she is “just” x years old? Does it have to do with the circumstances of the death...for example, if a 68 year old woman was killed by a hit-and-run, would she be “just 68”? Or is it nothing more than just the whim of the writer, and on a different day he would have been “28” instead of “just 28”?
Update: I wrote to one of the authors of the story and asked why the “just”. Never got a response.
Note: The original article has been edited and corrected. A screen shot of the original article can be found here.
When you watch English speaking shows, they have the Spanish audio on a SAP (secondary audio programming) channel. How come the Spanish channels don’t have English audio on a SAP?
‘How It’s Made’, on the Science Channel, is one of the best shows on TV. If you haven’t heard of it or seen it, it’s title pretty much describes it. In a typical show, they show three segments profiling how “things” are made. The “things” range from sandpaper, to chocolate, to kitchen sinks, to curling stones, and they take you into the factory and show you the most interesting steps in the process. I’m almost always fascinated at how automated processes are, but yet they still require a lot of manual intervention. I’ve never been disappointed with a ‘How It’s Made’ show...until now.
They say there are two things you never want to see made, sausage and legislation. Guess what ‘How It’s Made’ showed in episode 16? Yup, hot dogs, and they showed it all. It’s true that no matter how hard you try, you will never be able to “unsee” something that you’ve seen, and this is one of those times I wish you could. Yuck. Pig parts...chicken parts...all mushed together...blech!
I’m just glad I don’t get Science Channel HD!
Is it me, or is she the second most annoying* person, ever? Evidence: “Delish”, “EVOO”, the Dunkin’ Donuts commercials, and she’s just so darn cheery all the time. I really dislike people who are cheery all the time.
* there is no “first most annoying”...sorta prevents one person from running away with the title...of course, she pretty much could run away with it if allowed to.
I love ESPN, especially SportsCenter, and I love most of the commercials in the “This Is SportsCenter” campaign. They are often funny, irreverent, and do a good job of incorporating, and poking fun at, sports stars.
One of my favorites from the last few years is The Manning Family Tour in which the entire Manning family (mother, father, three brothers) are given a tour of, what is probably, a small section of ESPN’s production offices. During the tour, Peyton and Eli, each wearing their respective team’s t-shirts, are “getting on each other’s nerves” by flicking ears, giving wet willies, and even a behind the back kick. While your focus is on the brothers and their antics, the tour guide talks about the various areas. The best part of the commercial is when Archie Manning looks back at the brothers and Peyton points to Eli like it’s all his fault. You can see the commercial on YouTube.
So, for the public’s benefit, I present the transcript of the tour. I love how the hallway plays a prominent roll.
Anyway, that’s the control room. Lotta chaos there, but it all looks good when it comes out on the show, actually thanks to those people. Then over here in the digital center is our highlight screening area. So that’s where we get all the games that are played that night down into ninety-second or two-minute clips or whatever you see on SportsCenter. This hallway, it runs between, you know, between both rooms, you know. If you want to get from the control room to the screening, then this is the hallway you take. Questions or anything? I can answer whatever you want about the place. No? Nothing?
I was watching TV and saw a Wendy’s commercial touting how their burgers are made with fresh beef. I like looking at the fine print in ads, so I noticed the following screen:
In case you can’t read it, at the bottom it says, “Fresh beef available in contiguous US and CN.”
So what exactly are the burgers made of in Hawaii and Alaska?
I’m several days behind watching Ken Burns’ “The War”, but I just started watching episode five, “FUBAR”, in which the explanations for the acronyms SNAFU and FUBAR were clearly bleeped.
To be honest, I’m surprised that WNET went with the bleeped version, but with the inconsistencies from the FCC over the use of certain words, I can’t blame them for being scared and cautious.
Kenneth Branagh’s version of Hamlet is not only the complete, unabridged, long version that faithfully recreates Will’s vision and does not cut out “unimportant” scenes for time, it is also visually stunning and very well acted. In short, it is the best movie version of Hamlet.
It’s a shame that it has taken Warner Brothers so long to bring this beautiful movie out on DVD. The only downside is that it is only on DVD. This movie screams for High Definition. I don’t have HD-DVD or Blu-Ray, but if this movie was available in HD and with 300 and Planet Earth also in HD, it might be time to take the plunge. Here’s hoping that it doesn’t take Warner Brothers 10+ years to get this out on HD.
According to an analyst at Piper Jaffray, 500,000 iPhones were sold between 6pm Friday and 6pm Sunday. Furthermore, the report indicates that 95% of the iPhones sold were the 8GB ($600) model. With that info, let’s look at the numbers:
- Assuming the Piper Jaffray model ratio is correct, 475,000 8GB models were sold for a total of about $285 million, and 25,000 4GB models were sold for a total of about $12.5 million, bringing the combined total to $297.5 million.
- If we use the Piper Jaffray total of 500,000, but use the Josh Madison ratio of 60% 8GB to 40% 4GB, then 300,000 8GB models were sold for a total of $180 million, and 200,000 4GB models were sold for a total of $100 million, bringing the combined total to $280 million.
- Ratatouille, according to Box Office Mojo, brought in $47.2 million for the weekend.
Clearly, the iPhone won. Was there really any doubt?
Today is June 29th, and if you’ve been living under a rock for the last few days, today’s the day that Apple’s iPhone is unleashed upon the general public. It also happens to be the day that Disney/Pixar’s newest movie, “Ratatouille”, opens. Just to make sure that everyone understands the connection, Steve Jobs is the CEO of Apple, Inc., and he was the CEO of Pixar before Disney bought them not too long ago. Mr. Jobs is currently the largest shareholder of Disney stock.
This leads me to wonder...which of Mr. Jobs “babies” will have a bigger opening weekend in terms of dollars?
According to Box Office Mojo, the biggest opening weekend of all time is “Spider-Man 3” at just over $151 million. The biggest opening weekend for an animated movie is “Shrek the Third” at around $121.6 million. The biggest opening weekend for a Pixar animated movie is “The Incredibles” at $70.5 million.
Let’s assume that “Ratatouille” will beat “Spider-Man 3” as the largest opening weekend for a movie and will do so at $155 million (I don’t think it will, but we’re just going to use that as a round number). For the iPhone to beat $155 million, Apple/AT&T needs to sell 310,000 of the 4GB ($500) model, or 258,334 of the 8GB ($600) model. Since I suspect that the sales ratio of iPhone models will be 60% 8GB and 40% 4GB, Apple/AT&T needs to sell 155,000 of the 8GB model and 116,000 of the 4GB model, with a grand total of 271,000 combined.
Based on the line at the Apple Store on 5th Avenue, which I can now see from my office on Madison Avenue, I’d say that the iPhone will beat “Ratatouille” in the opening dollars game.
Update: Posted a wrap-up of the amount of money each made based on analysts reports.
I’m far from the best writer out there, and my excuse for not learning a second language is that I’m still trying to learn my first. However, when I see an article on a major news outlet (ABC News) written by someone who is supposed to be at the upper echelon of news reporters (Barbara Walters), I expect them to understand the different between “proscribe” and “prescribe”.
In her article describing a jail house interview with Paris Hilton, Ms. Walters writes:
She wears the proscribed prison garb: an orange or brown jumpsuit.
If that sentence is correct, then Ms. Hilton is getting preferential treatment since she is wearing garb specifically forbidden by the prison, which is in contradiction to Ms. Walters implication in the rest of the article that Ms. Hilton is not receiving any preferential treatment.
In our version of the English language, “proscribe” is a verb which basically means, “to denounce or condemn.”, while “prescribe” is a verb which means, “to set down as a rule or guide; to order the use of.” In this case, Ms. Walters got confused.
Many businesses have dress guidelines. In many cases, they specify that you must wear appropriate attire, and proscribe, for example, that you can’t wear shorts, t-shirts, jeans, and sneakers. However, there are many jobs out there where you must wear a provided uniform. In that case, they prescribe that you must wear a UPS approved uniform, for example. Which verb you use depends on which subset is smaller and easier to define.
Prisons almost always have a prescribed dress code for inmates, usually something along the line of a bright orange jumpsuit, to make it easier for law enforcement officials to spot if someone makes a break for it. I’m guessing that the language police will put out an A.P.B. on Ms. Walters shortly.
Update: The error has been fixed in an updated version of the article.
On this date in 1977, Star Wars the movie opened in theaters. I never got to see it in the theater until the Special Edition came out.
I do have a very vivid memory of the first time I saw Star Wars. I don’t remember how old I was but I was pretty young. I remember that I was with my parents and we were visiting a colleague of my father’s country house. They had a new fangled contraption called a VCR which allowed you to watch a movie on a VHS tape, and my father told me to give Star Wars a chance. He sat me down in front of the TV and I never realized that he left the room.
I was totally lost by the story (I was pretty young), but I loved the Stormtroopers and Darth Vader. To this day, I can still recall the room, TV, and bed I was in at the time, and see the opening of the movie when the Stormtroopers break down the door of the Tantive IV.
Whenever I interview prospective employees these days, I always ask the question, “Star Wars or Star Trek?”
After the jump is a photo from a convention (I’ve never been to one), and I’m almost ashamed to say that I find it totally hot.
Continue reading . . .
I’ve had HDTV for about a year now and can say that it is one of the most amazing products technology has brought us, but also one of the most frustrating.
It’s true that an HD picture is great, and at times, breathtaking, but this is also the most frustrating part. In a nutshell...once you see a true HD program, you never want to watch anything in standard definition again. Ever.
Discovery HD Theater (DHDT) is a great example of what is great about HDTV and what is frustrating about it. Basically it has it’s own programming and is not just an HD broadcast of what’s on standard definition Discovery Channel, unlike most HD channels. I love the Discovery Channel and many programs on it, and would love to see some of them in HD, but for some reason, not a lot of their shows are shot in HD, or if they are, aren’t shown on DHDT.
Planet Earth is a special series that is broadcast on both Discovery and DHDT and it’s fantastic. In the most recent episode they showed a great series of shots of angel falls, and they were absolutely breathtaking in HD.
Discovery Channel shows “Dirty Jobs” and “Deadliest Catch” should be broadcast in HD if they can be. “American Chopper” is broadcast in HD...does it need to be? The main difference between the shows is that “American Chopper” is mostly shot in a controlled environment whereas the other two are shot in various and, in the case of “Deadliest Catch”, harsh environments and it might not be possible to shoot in HD all the time.
As I previously predicted, Sanjaya was voted off the island on ‘American Idol’. While I’m no great predictor of the future, I will go out on a limb and predict that I will have grilled chicken for lunch today. Anyone wanna takes bets on that?
Update: I was right, grilled chicken for lunch! Maybe today’s the day I should play the lottery.
U2 in 3D • Apr 10 2007
U2 has a concert movie coming out in the fall of 2007. It’s in 3D, but you can catch the preview in plain old 2D. There used to be a time when if you wanted to see a band in 3D, you went to a concert.
