The Wizard of Oz 75th Anniversary Edition

 Well I have double dipped on The Wizard of Oz! I always regretted not purchasing the initial limited edition box that came out, settling instead on the local limited edition release, but now of course I am glad I held off as I really do like this edition. It will compliment my other version quite nicely :D

Anyhow, this set features the newly created 3D version of the film (not that I have any interest in that what-so-ever) on Blu-ray as well as a normal 2D version and extra features presented on two more Blu-ray's, a standard DVD version with extras and a double sided disc featuring the MGM documentary "When the Lion Roars". Other "extras" include a 52 page hard cover photo book, a journal, a map of Oz, a Nobel Collection pin set, a light up ruby slipper snow globe and my personal favourite (and exclusive to the Amazon version) a USB flash drive in the shape of the Wicked Witches legs! :D

Cinemagraphs Part 3 and Phone Upgrade!

Hello Hello,

Yes I am still alive.... not many updates of late I know!

Well the month of September came and went and with it I have changed mobile phones once again.  The Lumia 920 has been sold (and is currently doing a trip across Europe!) and has been replaced by its bigger brother the Lumia 1020!  Featuring 41 Megapixels of awesome!.

As usual, a new phone needs a bit of a work out and whilst the operating system and apps remain the same the upgrade to the camera also came with a change to the Cinemagraph app which now allows photos to be taken in HD (720) resolution.  Cinemagraph is still by far my favourite photo application on the Lumia phones and is constantly giving my ideas for photos I want to try and capture! So here are a few of the Cinemagraph shots I have captured on the Lumia 1020!

Please be aware that some of the files after the break are 10mb+ and as such, the page may take awhile to load on slower connections!

New Things!

A few new things have been added to the ol'collection in the last few weeks!

Firstly Joss Whedon's short lived series Dollhouse has finally dropped in price on Amazon UK so I have finally picked that up after months of staring at it in my cart!

Zavvi continue to punish my wallet releasing wave after wave of gorgeous steelbooks... I have no less than 10 pre-orders for their upcoming releases, but here are a few that have arrived thus far:

Withnail & I (Another double dip for me!)

Aladdin & The Jungle Book

 I must admit that the Disney steelbooks are actually a little disappointing when compared to the Canadian Viva Metal cases that Futureshop was releasing (prior to Steelbook suing Viva of course), but the Brave, Muppets and Finding Nemo cases are vastly superior to these latest releases which is such a shame....

I have also completed my Resident Evil U.S Walmart Exclusive steelbook collection (I don't really have any intention of owning the 5th film as frankly it was an abomination)

and lastly a couple of single releases...

 I really enjoyed Sound of My Voice, in fact there have been very few Brit Marling films I haven't enjoyed and I am really looking forward to the upcoming release of The East!!

Saving the best for last, my current favourite film of the year,Chan-wook Park's first English speaking film Stoker!  With exceptional performances, fantastic cinematography and an amazing soundtrack this film was the highlight of my Sydney Film Festival viewing this year!!  It has just come out today in cinema's here in Australia and I highly recommend checking it out!!

Wonderful world of promotional items!

Having received a promotional gift in the mail yesterday from Starz Entrainment for the release of Spartacus Vengeance on August 28th this year... I decided to create a post for some of the other odds and ends that have been sent to me over the years in this industry.  Sadly, movie promotion has dwindled quite significantly over time so most of the juicy stuff is from a number of years back, but here are some of the things I still have starting with the Spartacus Vengeance set:

More after the break.....

The Conjuring (2013)

Based on the supposedly true account of the Perron family who were terrorized by a dark presence in their farmhouse in Harrisville. The family enlist the help of renowned paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren (Of Amityville Horror fame) to help them overcome the horrors that are happening to them.

 

 The Conjuring is about the closest thing to an 80's horror film in look and feel that I have seen since The House of the Devil back in 2009.  Whilst it does use a number of obvious horror movie baits, for the most part it is just a genuinely atmospheric and creepy ride into the paranormal.  Director James Wan uses sound very effectively at creating and setting mood, both with the lack of score in certain scenes and the use of low frequencies to create a chilling and almost constant foreboding presence. The film also looks fantastic; recreating both the look and feel of the 70's with aplomb, but where the film really shines is in the actual scares themselves.  Unlike most horror films of the past 10 years or so, The Conjuring is fairly restrained in its depiction of violence and gore and opts instead to just let the nature of the activity build the tension.  Yes it does have some horror elements (you can hardly be possessed without spewing something up), but on the whole the film is a refreshing revival of the old horror lore.

As to the true nature of the story, well I am a sceptic when it comes to these kind of things, whilst I am fairly open to the possibility of ghosts and the like, the artistic license taken by Hollywood is often more laughable to me than frightening. As an example of this - the image below is a doll known as Annabelle, she features in the film quite a bit and is based on this account, however the 'real' Annabelle is in fact a Raggedy Ann Doll (as pictured with the real Ed and Lorraine Warren below that.)

Annabelle as seen in The Conjuring

Annabelle in real life with Ed and Lorraine Warren

I actually think the Raggedy Ann Doll would have been creepier, but I guess that is just me...

Possession movies are currently the "in-thing" in Hollywood with no less then 10 of them appearing in the last 2 years alone, from your Paranormal Activities to your Possession 1 & 2, even director James Wan has another one out this year with Insidious 2!  If you like scary movies or the idea of at least being creeped out then this film will certainly fit the bill, hell, in the U.S the MPAA was sent the film with the studio expecting a PG-13 rating, what they got back was an R rating and the following statement: "'It's just so scary. There are no specific scenes or tone you could take out to get it PG-13.'" Now if that isn't an endorsement of your horror film, I don't know what is!

Hollywood & Body Image Issues

Whilst using Facebook last night, one of my friends 'liked' the following image:

It had this comment attached: "Silly, superficial world; please tell us why phony is more beautiful & why the dude is fine 'as is' no matter what size or age? Thanks!"

I initially took at face value that the bottom image represented a promotional shot for the film that had been Photoshopped, and that the image above it was a screen capture from the film. Well for starters, the shot is a promotional shot specifically for the purposes of advertising the film, not a shot from the actual film itself.  (The scene, as it takes place in the film, has the two characters on opposite sides of each other and the image below is not mirrored.)  I then had a look at the official press release photos from Getty Images (also confirmed at Movie Stills) and the following is the official press release photo as distributed by the studio:

As you can see, it has not been altered in the same way is the image at the top.  A little digging around on-line seems to reveal The Hollywood Reporter as the first organization to use the bottom image in reference to the films screening at Cannes this year.  Whether they created it or not remains to be seen, but it does show up on a number of festival websites including a number here in Australia.

I cannot understand why anyone would see the need to edit this photo in the way that they have?! What possible purpose does it serve?  I would love to find out who did this, why and for whom!

Body Image is a major issue among women, especially younger women and this kind of blatant manipulation is frankly horrific to me.  If I were Julie Delpy I would be mortified and insulted beyond comprehension. Sadly, this issue is not new, and this case above reminded me of one a number of years ago involving Saffron Burrows and her film Deep Blue Sea. Here is a clip of her explaining quite candidly some of the issues she had during and after filming:

The clip above is taken from the brilliant series Dinner for Five hosted by Jon Faverau. I highly recommend checking it out on YouTube if you get a chance!  Below you can see the issues she raised with the poster art for Deep Blue Sea and beside that an actual image of her in costume from the film for comparison:

It is just sad and insulting.  We are breeding a culture of women who feel ashamed about their bodies and a culture of men with completely unrealistic expectations of the female form and it has to stop.  Those who perpetuate this kind of obscene manipulation should be named and shamed!


You can find more information about Body Image issues and concerns at the Australian Governments Body Image page.

Playing with Cinemagraph Part 2

Well, I am getting a little better at finding things worth taking animated pictures of, but it is certainly not as easy as you would think to get it right!  Nokia have updated the app to allow editing of existing images which is a welcome addition, however since that update the phone is a little sluggish with the actual playback of files.  I seem to have developed a habit of holding the phone slightly off centre when taking images horizontally, not sure if this is as a result of the keys to the right of the screen and my attempts to avoid pressing them, but it is getting a little old to capture a great shot only to have it on an angle! Overall I have been quite happy with the control afforded by the app and I am especially impressed by some of the night images that it captures with nothing more than default settings!

Anyhow, without further ado I have placed a few more Cinemagraphs after the jump from my recent trip to Melbourne & Sydney as taken directly from my Nokia Lumia 920. (Please note the page may take quite awhile to load!) Select Read More below to view them :)

Rant Alert: Movie Rental Industry 4 Years On

So four years ago I wrote this blog post.  For those of you who weren't aware, I work in the movie rental industry.  An industry that has supposedly been dying for the past 10 years.  I have decided on this four year anniversary to take a look at the state of affairs in the Australia rental industry.

As it stands currently, the physical rental industry is on its way to an ice age, one that will see the physical rental stores dissipate and be replaced by the ever evolving move to on-demand or streaming services.

As with any ice age though, the change is not immediate, and will see a number of years of transitional weather as the industry comes to terms with exactly what it is going to do.

In Australia DVD rental is still a popular form of entertainment, and for many, it is still the only way to get access to the latest movies to watch in the comfort of your own home. 

Why?

Well, despite the many options for streaming or on-demand movie rentals available, the majority of new technologies rely on the internet. A technology in which Australia currently ranks number 40 in the world, even Israel, Bulgaria and South Korea have internet access almost 10 times faster than our average!

Ah, but the NBN I hear you say!  Despite having commenced or completed NBN access to almost 1 million premises as of this year, Australia was one of only 3 countries to register a decline in national broadband speed averages. (A decline of 13% no less!!) 38 percent of Australians have internet access at or above 4Mb/s, whilst a paltry 4.1 per cent have speeds 10.1Mb/s or higher.  Compare that to South Korea (Number 1 on the list) with 86% coverage at speeds over 14.1Mb/s

In movie terms, it would take the average Australian over an hour to download a standard definition movie from iTunes.  Not exactly “on demand”.

The other hindrance to the take up of online services is their very nature.  Most of the popular web based rental services are subscription, meaning you must sign up to each of them individually and in some cases pay a monthly subscription fee in order to rent titles.  There is not a single service that offers movies from all studios and distributors as each movie studio generally wants to control its own content and will not license it to other vendors.  As a result, most services offer a restricted selection of new release or back catalog titles and while this may change, presently the easiest way to get access to the largest selection is still on physical DVD.

Pay TV is in a similar situation, with monthly subscriptions as well as “on demand” rentals at a fixed cost.

As with my previous post. there is still the argument for quality.  With flat panels getting bigger every day and projectors becoming more common place in homes the compression used by most online services will become more and more obvious. In the U.S services like Netflix are offering HD streaming, but it is still a paltry 10-12Mbp/s vs Blu-ray's upwards of 32Mbp/s

So as it stands, 4 years after the so-called death of physical media, DVD is still by far the winner in the home media format front.  Blu-ray a close second and streaming media still bringing up the rear!

It will be interesting to see how things play out in another 4 years time!