(3dtv.com) We kind of hinted this was coming a few days ago and now the story is confirmed and the film has a release date.
Universal has announced that the 1993 mega-hit Directed by Steven Spielberg will debut on the big screen on July 19, 2013. In its first release, Jurassic Park grossed $915 million worldwide. It’s likely the film will go over $1 billion in revenues with the 3D conversion, which would be the first Spielberg film to make that mark.
Universal isn’t saying if the other 2 Jurassic Park films will get a conversion. Hollywood seems conversion happy lately, probably after the Beauty and the Beast re-release, and perhaps the George Lucas re-release of Star Wars: Episode 1, the Phantom Menace.
Jurassic Park seems a perfect match for 3D. We’ve already seen several IMAX films dealing with CGI dinosaurs in 3D, and if the original Jurassic Park is done well, it should be box office gold.
I think a lot of fans would rather have seen a Jurassic Park 4 in native 3D, rather than this conversion of the original film, but chances are this decision will pay off for Spielberg and Universal Pictures.
We’ll need to see a 3D trailer to really know how the film will look, but I expect Spielberg will try to do it right.
The original Jurassic Park was written by the late Michael Crichton and starred Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum and Richard Attenborough. Old timers will remember the film deals with a theme park that has a power failure, which allows the DNA cloned dinosaurs to run wild during a preview tour.
At the time of its release, Jurassic Park was one of the first large scale CGI films. Spielberg originally planned to use stop motion animation, but after seeing a demo of the CGI rendering put his effort behind that technique. Some of the dinosaurs were animatronic beasts manipulated by an out of sight crew.
The Physics of Pixar’s Hair
(geeksyndicate.wordpress.com)
The Physics of Pixar's HairHow is a curling hair like a long-range oil pipeline? And what two groups are working on the physics that apply to both? Learn about the science of engineering mop-tops.
Over at Physics Central's podcast, there's a fascinating discussion with an MIT grad student, Jay Miller, who looks at the curve of the flagella on an amoeba, the spiral of a double helix, and the buckling of an oil pipeline. Through a group of acquaintances, he found out that a the movie-makers at Pixar were doing the same. They were trying to figure out the exact motion of the curly hair that the heroine in Brave flips around the screen. Checking their models against each other, they found that they were both studying the same curling motion.
As Miller says on the podcast, "Hair actually is the easiest example of a whole class of problems."
So what do a human hair, a steel pipeline and an amoeba's flagella have in common? Once they all assume the right proportions, they all work the same. A miles-long pipeline, though it can be massively thick when looked at up close, looks like a long, spindly hair when it's spread across the landscape. When a hair is short enough (like a military buzz cut) it's sticking out from the head directly as it grows. It's short enough that its internal strength can stand up to the force of gravity. As it grows, however, it has to 'carry' a longer length, and gravity pulls it down.
Even those of us who aren't at MIT — or working for Pixar — can see the interplay of gravity, exerting a force in in one direction, and the structure of the actual 'hair' curling in on itself. Grow a hair long enough, and its own weight will pull it straight. However, as you get to the very tips of the hair, which don't have as much weight on them, the curl will come back. The more towards the end you get, the less weight is on it, and the more extreme the curl.
You can see this successfully rendered in the table scene above. Although it's clear that the young boys have larger, softer curls than the girl, the hair on the top of their heads is piled up, while hers is pulled straighter than the rest of her hair. The weight is pulling the top of her hair straight while the bottom is in tighter ringlets. In real life, people will notice that their 'straight' hair will curl at the end, showing that what they have is curly hair that only has enough strength to curl at places that don't support a lot of weight. Meanwhile, in the macro scale, an oil pipeline will 'curl' in reverse. Its length it set out horizontally, so gravity 'pulls' its straight structure into a curl. Shifting earth or driving wind can cause it to curl in on itself, at exactly the point that are feeling the most force. The ends, or the parts that are supported by struts, will remain. A straight pipeline is, essentially, a curly hair in reverse, but the interplay of forces is the same.
That relationship, the length of the 'hair,' the internal strength of the 'hair' and the force causing the internal structure of the hair to bend out of its shape are the same model, even if the specifics change. Both groups, the movie makers and the engineers, are figuring out how to 'plug in' certain characteristics to the model in order to get the kind of structure that they want. The structure, both in scale and in purpose, is very different. Animators want a springy, chaotic, visually interesting head of hair. Engineers want an orderly structure capable of pushing an amoeba around a petri dish or water through a pipeline. But both are working from the same model, and using the same physical relationships.
'Hunger Games' Tracking to Break Box Office Records
(hollywoodreporter.com)Rarely does a film generate the sort of numbers that Hunger Games -- based on Suzanne Collins' wildly popular young adult novel -- is enjoying. When the movie first popped up on tracking two weeks ago, the scores were so good box office observers and exhibitors immediately predicted an opening in the $70 million to $100 million range, with most betting on the higher number.
PHOTOS: Behind the Scenes of THR's 'Hunger Games' Cover Shoot
But with pre-release surveys growing even stronger, those numbers have been revised upwards.
Hunger Games is even tracking better than The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn--Part 1, which opened in November 2011 to $138.1 million, the fifth best debut of all time domestically (that film did have the advantage of opening the weekend before Thanksgiving, when some kids are out of school).
Box office observers say it's difficult to predict exactly how much Hunger Games will make, and give a more conservative estimate of $100 million to $120 million (they say it's difficult to predict a number once tracking becomes this big and a film gets into the $100 million-plus range).
Hunger Games certainly has a shot at taking the crown for best March opening from Alice in Wonderland, which debuted to $116.1 million in 2010.
Bay to Produce New Turtles Movie
(UKPA) Michael Bay is to produce the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Paramount has confirmed it is reviving the hit 90s martial arts movie franchise under its Nickelodeon label and the Transformers director is on board as producer, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Wrath Of The Titans' Jonathan Liebesman will direct the CGI/live action film about teenage mutant turtles and martial arts experts Raphael, Michaelangelo, Donatello and Leonardo.
The film has a budget of 100 million dollars and is due to be released in cinemas in December 2013.
The original film, based on the hit 80s cartoon, saw the Turtles - who lived in the New York sewers, loved pizza and were guided by mutant rat mentor Splinter - do battle against the Foot Clan, lead by the evil Shredder, with the help of TV news reporter April O'Neil.
Creature Design Pro Jordu Schell Interview
(sketchtheatre.com)A look at Jordu Schell’s resume reads like a monster movie fan’s dream, having worked on films such as Starship Troopers, Bride of Re-Animator, Guyver, Predator 2, Puppet Master 2, Galaxy Quest, Planet of the Apes, Hulk, Dawn of the Dead, Hellboy, 300, The Mist, Aliens vs Predator: Requiem, Cloverfield, Prince Caspian, Dragonball, and James Cameron’s Avatar, among many other countless films you’ve likely seen. Some of his character and creature work resides in the collections of Stephen Spielberg, Rick Baker, and Richard Taylor to name only a few. Don’t hate him because he is talented and wonderful, learn from him because of it.
Jordu, Tell me about your background? How did you begin your journey?
JS: My primary influences were Sat afternoon television, creature double feature matinees stuff like that. And when I was very young my mother used to read Greek mythology to me as a way of keeping me occupied. My imagination was always really on fire thinking about what the monsters in the books she was reading to me looked like, and having a healthy dose of monster movie stuff when I was growing up in the 70s and the fascination with the macabre and myth-making … stuff like that.
What was the turning point from hobby to career choice?
JS: Well, it’s just something I’ve always done. I think that true artists are always creating and so it’s hard to say where it became something I was taking seriously as a career path, but I suppose probably around the time I was 12 or 13, there was the influence of Fangoria magazine and I remember seeing An American Werewolf in London in the theatre. And just being really galvanized wanting really badly to be a part of making monsters for the movies it just seemed so exciting to me.
Full article with creature pics: http://www.sketchtheatre.com/interviews/jordu-schell- interview/
Peabody & Sherman Head To DreamWorks Animation
(comingsoon.net)DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc. today announced that Emmy Award winner Ty Burrell ("Modern Family") and Max Charles (The Amazing Spider-Man, The Three Stooges) will voice the lead roles of Mr. Peabody and Sherman, respectively, in the studio's Mr. Peabody & Sherman, which is scheduled to be released on March 14, 2014.
Mr. Peabody & Sherman is directed by Rob Minkoff (Stuart Little, The Lion King) and produced by Alex Schwartz, who had previously served as Head of Development for the studio, and Denise Cascino (Megamind, Shrek the Third). It is being written by Craig Wright ("United States of Tara," "Six Feet Under"). Bullwinkle Studio's Tiffany Ward and Classic Media's Eric Ellenbogen are serving as executive producers on the film along with Jason Clark (Monster House, Stuart Little).
"The brilliantly comedic and paternal sensibilities of Ty Burrell make him ideal for the role of the beloved Mr. Peabody and we are thrilled that he will join Max Charles as the leads of 'Mr. Peabody & Sherman,'" said DreamWorks Animation Chief Creative Officer Bill Damaschke. "Combined with Rob Minkoff's legendary pedigree and Craig Wright's re-imagining of these classic characters, the stage is set for an unbelievable film experience."
Based on Jay Ward's classic cartoon, Mr. Peabody is the world's smartest person who happens to be a dog. When his "pet" boy Sherman uses their time traveling WABAC machine without permission, events in history spiral out of control to disastrous and comical results. It's up to this most unexpected of father-son teams to somehow put things back on track before the space-time continuum is irreparably destroyed.
Sony Pictures Imageworks Provides Industry Scrutiny to Student Reels
(blog.vfs.com)Sony Pictures Imageworks paid a visit to VFS recently, to review student work from 3D Animation & Visual Effects and discuss opportunities at their studios. Current student Joseph Alina had his reel undergo industry scrutiny, and filed this report.
It is no secret that students in 3D Animation & Visual Effects work quite diligently to create demo reels with aspirations of attracting an opportunity from a heavyweight production house. In this instance, that opportunity and that heavyweight production house came to us in the form of Sony Pictures Imageworks.
My fellow classmates and I were graced with a visit by Ken Maruyama, Vice President Recruiting and Academic Relations /Animation Artist Management. Ken came up from Los Angeles to discuss Imageworks’ operational chart, recruiting, and the future for their Vancouver studio. Along the way Ken toured The Studio and, to my surprise and good fortune, I was one of six students to directly present our work. I was somewhat nervous to show my diamond in the rough of a reel to Ken and to an audience of schoolmates. However, my review with Ken showed our faculty and staff are dead on when telling us how to achieve a demo reel that draws interest from studios such as Imageworks.
Imageworks, with their involvement in movies like Arthur Christmas, The Amazing Spider-Man, and MIB 3, has approximately 150 employees in the Yaletown district. The exciting part – they mean to double that figure within several months. Ken highlighted an avenue to join their stellar core team through a paid internship program. Eight weeks in duration, internships are paid, allowing you to become familiar with their processes in creating blockbuster movies, with the opportunity to become a full-time hire. The added benefit to the internship is that your work can be featured in a major film production. In securing movie credits at such an early stage it becomes a great start to a fun career.
During my enrollment as a student in 3D Animation & Visual Effects, I have felt more connected to this industry than ever before. Thank you Vancouver Film School!
Lionsgate to Reboot Leprechaun
(Variety) Leprechaun is headed back to the big screen. Variety reports that the 1993 original is aimed for a reboot.
Warwick Davis starred in the original six-film horror franchise (Leprechaun 1 - 3, Leprechaun 4: In Space, Leprechaun 5: In the Hood and Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood) as the devious creature of Irish legend.
No writer, director or cast have been announced yet, but the plan is to target a 2013 release.
The first film, directed by Mark Jones, is also famous for launching the film career of Jennifer Aniston.
Star Wars, Avatar VFX Hotshots Get CG Artists & Animators To Work For Free
(geeksyndicate.wordpress.com)A new sci-fi web series teams Hollywood visual effects artists with a global scattering of up-and-coming animators, all of whom are working for free to craft CGI elements for a wigged-out futuristic saga.
The New Kind project is being spearheaded by visual effects hot shots whose resumes include Star Wars, Avatar and Hugo. These moonlighting pros are sharing their expertise with 200 anime enthusiasts to produce a crowdsourced labor of love made possible because the cost of CGI animation tools has dropped several hundred thousand dollars in the past few years.
“Somebody in Malaysia or Greece who lives in their mom’s basement can now create visual effects with a $2,000 computer and a $3,000 software license that’s on par, or even superior to, what you would have seen in Jurassic Park,” New Kind creator Peter Hyoguchi said in a phone interview with Wired. “If you know how to find them, there’s a glut of visual effects artists out there.”
Judging from concept art and an eerie teaser clip that’s already become a viral sensation, Hyoguchi may be on to something big. While risk-averse Hollywood studios increasingly rely on blockbuster brands and nine-figure budgets, Hyoguchi is experimenting with a super-cheap production model that costs nearly nothing to implement. Everybody works on spec, and creative talent will be paid for their efforts if the 80-episode adventure turns a profit, according to Hyoguchi.
Hyoguchi plans to post the series for free, but make money on merchandising and by charging viewers $1 for a sneak preview of the following week’s episode. He estimates that $1 million in assets have been created since The New Kind project launched last spring, and his Kickstarter campaign, running through Friday, aims to raise $100,000 in cash to finish the first two episodes.
VIDEO - Take a look: http://geeksyndicate.wordpress.com/2012/03/15/are- you-ready-for-a-new-kind-of- adventure/
Illumination Entertainment to Animate The Cat in the Hat
(Deadline)In the wake of the tremendous box office receipts being generated by The Lorax (currently at over $130 million domestically), Illumination Entertainment has announced to Deadline their intention to adapt another classic Dr. Seuss story. Rob Lieber will adapt the tale for a 3D CG animated feature.
Arguably the most famous children's book of all time, The Cat in the Hat was published in 1957 and tells the story of a young brother and sister stuck inside their house on a rainy day. Their parents gone, the pair -- against the better judgment of their fish -- let a mischievous cat into their house.
The Cat and the Hat was previously adapted into an animated television special in 1981 and a live-action feature in 2003 with Mike Meyers playing the lead.
Lieber, a relative newcomer, is also adapting the children's book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day at 20th Century Fox. Lisa Cholodenko (The Kids are All Right) is attached to direct that film.
CREEP!, A Movie about the Making of a Monster Movie, Launches Kickstarter Campaign
(blogs.westword.com)CREEP! is a movie about the making of a movie whose biggest star is a phallic monster made out of a rug. The monster is from outer space and it's hungry. Oh, and its mouth? It looks like a vagina. The CREEP! crew, including Colorado Springs-based director Pete Schuermann, launched a Kickstarter campaign today to raise $65,000 to bring the rug monster (back) to the big screen after its debut in 1964's The Creeping Terror.
Considered one of the worst movies ever made, The Creeping Terror was the brainchild of a psychopath named Art Nelson. He was a small, violent man who used drugs and wouldn't hesitate to steal a donation can or pick someone's pocket, Schuermann says. Obsessed with redheads, he stalked Lucille Ball for a while, and he once shot in the arm the actor who played Alfalfa in The Little Rascals. But the victims of his bullying were most often women, especially his starry-eyed young wife. Nelson, who used the alias Vic Savage in Hollywood, would parade other women -- many of them looking to break into the film business -- into their home, Schuermann says.
"He didn't have a pot to piss in," Schuermann says, "but he'd convince these women he was making movies. Forget the fact that his monster is a rug."
But the lameness (and sexual innuendo!) of the monster isn't the only thing that makes The Creeping Terror awful, Schuermann says. Monster movies were moneymakers in the 1960s, and many were made without an eye toward detail or quality. Still, this one stands out as the worst of the bunch. For one, there's almost no dialogue. Nelson skipped town before the film was done -- and he took the sound recording with him.
"So in the movie, all of the dialogue -- every bit of dialogue! -- is read by the narrator," Schuermann says."'The colonel felt the monster might be roaming in the woods...' That's what makes it the worst." Desperate to save the movie somehow, the film's backers settled on narration, hoping that at least a few drive-ins might show it simply because it was a monster flick, Schuermann says.
"What's fun about CREEP! is popping the ballon of show business," he says. "And it's not just show business. It's show business."
Schuermann's fascination with The Creeping Terror began in 1978, when he was a young teenager who'd just moved to Colorado. A fan of creature features, Schuermann saw the movie on TV one night. "This one, The Creeping Terror, was so badly done, it was hilarious," he says. "It was one of the funniest things I'd ever seen -- unintentionally."
He and his brother wrote a letter to a science-fiction magazine, asking if anyone else had seen The Creeping Terror. They got responses from as far away as Canada and France. The boys even started a Creeping Terror fan club. Schuermann still has his homemade membership card, which featured a drawing of the monster.
Both Schuermann and his brother grew up to be filmmakers. Schuermann's most successful project to date is a documentary called Haze, about the death of University of Colorado student Gordie Bailey, who died in 2004 of alcohol poisoning as the result of a fraternity hazing ritual. After that film did well, Schuermann says people kept asking him what he wanted to do next. "I didn't really want to do another serious project," he says. "I just thought back and said, 'It'd be great to learn how The Creeping Terror was made.'"
creep! movie poster.jpg
Schuermann began interviewing people involved in the film, including Richard Edlund, who designed the title sequence for The Creeping Terror and went on to win four Academy Awards for his work in special effects on the Star Wars movies. But it was tough to find any archival footage or photographs of the filming of The Creeping Terror. That's when Schuermann realized that he'd have to re-create those scenes himself, and CREEP! morphed into a combination documentary and narrative film.
And to re-create the filming of the movie, they'd need to re-create the monster -- which they did. "One of the themes of our film is that Art Nelson is essentially this walking human organ," Schuermann. As for his monster, Schuermann says the screenwriter of The Creeping Terror told him that "the intention back then was to try to make it look like a combination of male sex organs and female sex organs."
By that criteria, the movie was a smashing success.
The rug monster will be in attendance at a sold-out event in Colorado Springs tomorrow called CREEP! with Cocktails & Cinema. The Kickstarter campaign offers another opportunity to get up-close and personal with the hairy thing. If you donate $5,000 or more, the monster will eat you on film. "And we'll put it into the movie," Schuermann says.
Director Burton's Monster Exhibition Hits Paris
(AFP) PARIS — Inhabited by lonely little monsters, dancing corpses and boggle-eyed creatures from the underworld, Tim Burton's cult universe comes to Paris this week with a show that journeys through his life's work.
Some 500 sketches -- the starting point for all Burton's films -- whisk visitors deep into the US director's surreal inner world, with gothic doodles dating back to his misfit childhood in Burbank, a bland suburb of Los Angeles.
"These are things that were never meant to be seen by anyone," the filmmaker told a press conference introducing the travelling exhibit, titled "Tim Burton" and first set up for New York's MoMa museum in 2009.
"But I am so grateful to the creators!"
Film clips, photos and props complete the picture, from a pumpkin-headed scarecrow from the 1999 "Sleepy Hollow", to a life-sized "Martian Anatomy" chart from the 1996 "Mars Attacks", or black rubber masks from "Batman" in 1989.
When Ronald Magliozzi went rifling through Burton's accumulated possessions, the curator initially planned a show looking back at his career.
"We discovered he had these vast archives," he told AFP. "His parents had saved every last drawing he had ever done. We realised this would be an exhibit of Tim Burton's art -- art that we didn't even know existed."
Gems include Burton's earliest animated film, made in 1974 and unearthed by a former art teacher: a 33-second long, gory attack by a pair of pliers on a green plasticine monster.
Burton's world is always shot through with humour.
"I never try to make it just dark. I'm always drawn to material that's both funny and sad, light and dark," he said.
Paired with witty little poems, his sketches come under headings like "Childhood", full of bandaged little mummies, or "Couples", one of them of a man and woman tucking gorily into eachother's shins.
"Drawing keeps your hands busy. And it keeps depression at bay," said Burton, who doodles constantly, including on restaurant napkins -- with dozens from the Paris Ritz lined up on display.
Glow-in-the-dark creatures, all eyes and tentacles, spin on a carousel like a kind of "monster-go-round", while a gallery of polaroids from the 1990s features a macabre mother and child, deathly blue and covered in Frankenstein stitches.
When the show was unveiled in New York, "the art world was a little rude -- perhaps that's the best way of putting it," said the director.
"But the best compliment I got was from kids, who thought 'Well if he can do it, maybe I can as well.'"
Looking back to his own childhood in Burbank, home to both Disney and Warner film studios, he remembers a deadening place to live, "with no sense of history, no sense of culture, no sense of passion for anything."
"Growing up, I was made to feel like an alien," said the director, who sought refuge in B-movies and horror stories -- in which "the monsters were the most interesting characters."
and insists that when it comes to scariness, "Kids are the best judge of what they can take."
"Fairytales are basically horror stories. They have always been a way for kids -- in a symbolic way -- to start to understand the world.
"My three-year-old watched 'Alice in Wonderland' and loved the scary parts!"
Today, Burton gives thanks for crossing the path of inspiring art teachers, "Ones who just said 'Draw what you feel, draw what you can.'"
"That changed my life," he said.
Later on, working as an animator at Disney -- during a period when he now reckons he was suffering from depression -- Burton would hide in closets to nap during the day.
But he also remembers that time, in the early 1980s, as "a fertile period": "They sort of locked me in a room and let me draw whatever I wanted."
Thirty years on, Magliozzi says Burton's ability "to work as an independent filmmaker within the Hollywood system is what makes him unique."
Burton himself says he "realised very early on that every film is a struggle to make -- which is a good thing in a way".
"Once you get labelled a weirdo, they always think there is something wrong with you. 'Is he going to do something crazy?'
"But I never quite understood their take on it," he said. "I always felt quite normal."
"Tim Burton" opens Wednesday at the French Cinematheque, its final stop, after stints in Los Angeles, Melbourne and Toronto. It runs until August 5 alongside a retrospective of Burton's work.
Tim Miller to Direct Comic Book Adaptation Gravel
(Deadline) Blur Studios' Tim Miller, who directed the opening credits for David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, has been set by Legendary Pictures to direct Gravel, says Deadline.
Gravel is a comic book series created by Warren Ellis. The project revolves around the character William Gravel, a soldier in the British S.A.S. who uses his skills in dark magic to moonlight and battle supernatural beings for clients in order to make some extra cash.
Ellis introduced the character in a 1999 limited series of graphic novels published under the title "Strange Kiss."
Legendary will produce the project with Rick Alexander, with Ellis as executive producer and Oliver Butcher and Stephen Cornwell are writing the script. Warner Bros. will distribute the film.
Miller is also attached to direct Deadpool at Twentieth Century Fox.
Are Video Games Art? Draw Your Own Conclusions
(vancouversun.com)Sure, the three-dimensional vistas explored in video games such as Super Mario Galaxy and Halo are enchanting, immersive and often dramatic. But, as the age-old question goes, are they art?
For that matter, are video games worthy of being counted, like movies and paintings, among accepted art forms?
The 120,000 Americans who work at creating games probably would argue yes. And many of the 100-million-plus who spend upward of $20 billion a year to play them would concur - if they ever looked up from their screens and joysticks long enough to think about it.
On the other side fall writers such as film critic Roger Ebert, who famously said several years ago that video games weren’t comparable to great paintings, poetry, films and novels and could never be considered art. He was battered by Internet reaction to the point that he replied, "I am a fool for mentioning video games."
The Smithsonian American Art Museum, which houses such masters as Georgia O’Keeffe and John Singer Sargent, steps right into the middle of the argument with a new exhibit, The Art of Video Games. It begins a six-month stay at the Washington museum Friday before going on a national tour.
The exhibit has something for players of all generations., with an 80-game lineup ranging from Pac-Man to Super Mario Bros. 3 to Mass Effect 2, plus 20 systems - 1977’s Atari Video Computer System is the elder statesman - selected to show the medium’s evolution from Space Invaders to Super Mario Galaxy.
Not surprisingly, artists and designers consider the exhibit as validation for their field. "It’s a big honor, and it just establishes our industry in a more credible way," says Ray Muzyka, co-founder of Edmonton-based studio BioWare, whose Mass Effect 2 is represented in the show. "It helps to establish games as an art form, and it is."
And while Ebert doesn’t rank games alongside films, the comparison is valid, says Luis Cataldi, chairman of interactive design and game development at the Savannah (Ga.) College of Art and Design. "There is a tremendous amount of artistry that goes into video games. The final product, especially at the triple-A level, is a consumer good; it’s entertainment. You could certainly make the same argument ‘Is the movie Avatar art?’ I don’t think it’s an argument that can be won, but it’s an argument that can be had."
Designer Jenova Chen, who gravitated to digital arts after painting as a child, takes his craft personally. "My parents were very strict on what movies and TV I would get to watch and what books I got to read," says Chen, who grew up in Shanghai before moving to the USA and earning a master’s in interactive media at the University of Southern California.
"A game was actually the first entertainment medium that made me cry. So I thought at the time, if I could make a game that (would) also not just move people to tears but make them feel like a better person after they play, that would be awesome."
Having never visited the Smithsonian, Chen initially didn’t think much about the induction of two games he co-developed, flOw and Flower, both on the PlayStation Network for the PS3. "But everybody kept saying: ‘This is a big deal. It is really an official recognition,’ " he says.
"I guess the mainstream recognizing games as an art (is) a big deal," says Chen, co-founder of thatgamecompany in Santa Monica. "(It) makes me happy and proud."
More important, the images are on display for all to see, not just those who play sagas that can unfurl over more than 20 hours. "There is a tremendous amount of talent in the industry and a whole range of things that are being done, and a lot of it is not seen by the public," says BioWare’s Casey Hudson, executive producer of Mass Effect 2 and a just-released sequel. "It’s great for people to be able to have a way to see (the art) outside of video games so they can understand what is going on."
It’s a truly interactive installation. Viewers can check out 20 video kiosks with short programs illustrating the breadth of each system’s game catalog. They can go hands-on and play games from click-and-explore trailblazer Myst to first-person PS3 pollinator, Chen’s Flower.
For the record, the exhibit, one of the first at a major institution to display video games, doesn’t attempt to resolve the art debate. "We certainly are offering games that we feel have a lot of creativity and a lot of artistic qualities to them, and we are inviting the audience to come form their own opinion," says the museum’s Elizabeth Broun.
The Art of Video Games came out of the Smithsonian’s attempt to be more of a player in modern media pursuits. Three years ago, officials invited high-tech creative types from companies such as Microsoft and MySpace to a summit called Smithsonian 2.0. Among those in attendance was Chris Melissinos, then chief gaming officer for software and systems company Sun Microsystems.
"Video games are now 40 years old and have never really had the kind of focused attention that so many art forms and creative expressions have," Broun says. "We thought it was important to begin to frame a story of how the medium has evolved and highlight the great talents. So the next thing I knew, we had a show on the books."
Melissinos came on as curator and helped compile the accompanying book, The Art of Video Games - From Pac-Man to Mass Effect (Welcome Books, $40). A game designer himself, he set a goal for the exhibit of elucidating the voices that "encompass a video game," he says.
First, the artist or game designer has a story to relate. "They are trying to say something," Melissinos says.
In the exhibit’s discovery area, displays include concept art and packaging. Since early Atari titles such as Combat and Space Invaders "had a very abstract aesthetic to them," publishers enhanced them with artwork, comics and maps "to expand the universe" of the game, he says. And displays will run video loops of interviews with game developers, from Atari founder Nolan Bushnell to Chen’s Thatgamecompany co-founder Kellee Santiago talking about the creative process.
But the player also has a voice in the equation. "It is that voice (by which) truly art is born out of these things," Melissinos says. "We play through these games in very different ways, so from these same set of materials it imparts a personal experience."
Visitors can test-drive five games -Pac-Man, Super Mario Bros. 3, Myst, The Secret of Monkey Island and Flower- for timed sessions to get "a taste of these games that were so important or pivotal in their respective generations," he says.
Fans were engaged early on in the selection process: Last spring, they were invited to participate in online voting to help narrow 240 games to the final 80. More than 3.7 million votes were cast by 119,000 people in 175 countries.
Eventually, games will be commonplace in museums, says Ken Levine, creative director at Irrational Games, whose 2007 BioShock is an exhibit entry.
"Not a lot of people were playing games when I was growing up. Now everybody plays," says Levine, 45. "By the time my nephew is my age, it is not going to be a question of whether games are covered or in museums or on The Tonight Show. It is just going to be a given, because the people booking those things are going to be gamers."
'Creature from the Black Lagoon' Monster Man Ricou Browning Inducted into Florida Artists Hall of Fame
(tcpalm.com) Ask any movie buff to name a classic sci-fi, horror movie from the 1950s and the answer may well be "Creature from the Black Lagoon." What probably isn't known to most people in Martin County, however, is that a local boy, Ricou Browning, played the role of the underwater creature for that thriller film.
Browning was born Feb. 16, 1930, and was raised in Jensen Beach. His father, Clement 'Clem' Walker Browning, was an auto salesman in Stuart and his mother, Inez Louise Ricou, was a member of one of Jensen's pioneer families. His maternal grandparents owned the R. R. Ricou and Sons Fish Company in Jensen, among the largest fish wholesalers in South Florida.
It probably wouldn't be much of an exaggeration to say that Ricou learned to swim before he could walk. He was never far from water, whether it be the river or ocean and he loved swimming and skin diving. This enjoyable activity soon became a passion. In fact, it was to play a major role in his career!
As a youth he participated in all forms of diving along with springboard competitions and water shows. Before reaching his teen years, he worked on Grantland Rice films as a swimmer. During World War II, the Browning family lived in Tallahassee and Ricou worked at Wakulla Springs, being involved there in underwater shows. He later helped clear and develop Weeki-Wachee Springs as a tourist attraction in Hernando County for a friend, Newton Perry.
When Ricou entered the U.S. Air Force, he was a star on the swimming team. After military service, he attended Florida State University and in 1953, Newton Perry, who managed Wakulla Springs, asked Ricou to show the freshwater springs to Jack Arnold, a film director and Scotty Welbourne of Universal Pictures, who were scouting locations for a movie.
There was a deep cave at Wakulla, where Ricou took them and with a movie camera which had been brought along, they filmed Browning swimming in the spring waters. A few weeks later Ricou was contacted by Arnold, who had been greatly impressed by the youth's swimming style and offered him a sizable sum of money to play the role of the "gill-man" in Universal-International's movie "Creature from the Black Lagoon." Young 23-year-old Ricou replied, “Fine. Let's have at it.”
Ricou went to California where a special $18,000 outfit was constructed; the "creature" would have gills and a fish-like face. Browning would do all the underwater scenes for the movie, many times holding his breath up to four minutes at a time, not releasing any air bubbles from his mouth or nose! The underwater action was filmed at Wakulla Springs while some of the "above water" segments were done at Rice Creek near Palatka in Florida.
Another heavier gill-man costume was made for all the scenes filmed out of the water and were shot in California. Ben Chapman, a cousin of actor Jon Hall, played the role for these scenes. Other actors included Julie Adams, Richard Denning and Richard Carlson and the filming was completed in late 1953.
The final edited version was 79 minutes in length, cost approximately $1 million and would be the first 3-D movie made by Universal Pictures, although this format was not popular in the "gill-man" film and it was eventually converted to standard footage. It premiered March 4, 1954. To maintain the mystery of the creature, neither Browning nor Chapman were credited.
The horrifying, suspenseful action scenes, eerie background music, sound effects and viewer sympathy for the monster, all combined to make it an immediate hit with audiences. There was even a later reference made to it in Marilyn Monroe's '55 film, "Seven Year Itch." The "creature" was developed into a phenomenal marketing concept with action figures, toys, bobble heads, pinball games and comic books.
Ricou Browning would be the underwater creature again in 1955 for the sequel, "Revenge Of The Creature," followed in 1956 with the "Creature Walks Among Us". The show business career for Ricou continued as an actor, director, stunt man, producer, underwater cinematographer and action specialist.
In March 2012, Ricou R. Browning will be inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame for his substantial contributions to the arts in Florida. A former resident of Martin County and descendant of two well-known pioneer families, who learned much of his early aquatic skills in the area's rivers more than 70 years ago, is a credit to the community.
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