The latest batch of my favorite All State ads. I gaurantee you laugh at least one of these, enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndHOmYCMaXQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thzUR_mq6OY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbTSsJ558Fw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WV33szSmrWA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecp1AFW6Irc
If you have been following the ‘Fault Line’ trailers of the upcoming game Battlefield 3, you know that this game release is building a lot of momentum. The teaser gameplay trailers have kept us interested in one of the slickest looking games to date. And with the recent release of the full ‘Fault Line’ 12 minute trailer, one can only get a little more excited. But if you can’t wait to get your hands on a copy, you have to wait a little longer, the game is not set to be released until November 2011.
Set in 2014, the current trailer scenes document a squad of marines in Iran carrying out missions against the PLR. From walking through the marketplace, gunfights on the street, to crawling across the rooftops, the visuals are impressive.
From a generation that used to play Wolfenstein 3D, and Duke Nukem 3D; games that included the ’3D’ heading just to let us know we were stepping out of the traditional 2D realm, BF3 is a fantastic example of how far gaming has come. Check out the new trailer below, but be sure to watch it in HD.
Automakers produce some of the most innovative and enjoyable advertisements in the industry. Whether its making us feel good about life, our car, or anything inbetween, these ads all portray a lifestyle. It’s that lifestyle you associate with, look up to, and want, not necessarily the car itself. It’s with that little trick that marketing agencies around the world target us. Our brains by default connect the shortest path to a destination, we think that maybe if we buy this car, we can have that lifestyle. Even if we know that is not the case, we like to think that owning that car could help propel us on the path to achieving our dreams. This is a very difficult urge to supress, but one must take advertisements with a grain of salt. Either way, if you can maintain your ability to make good decisions, you should be able to enjoy the ads nonetheless. Below is a sample of some more favorites of mine.
As more and more videos appear from Japan, the extent of the disaster is becoming more evident. Check out this video just recently released of a car driving to escape the tsunami in Asahi City, Chiba Prefecture. The driver survived and recalled what happened. ”When I came to the fishing port and turned the corner I could see the wall of water. At that moment I could do nothing else but keep driving. In the middle of that situation my car was taken by the wave.”
In the wake of the recent events in Japan, I was inspired to share some of my favorite short films and videos about Japan. As the death toll pushes into the thousands, I know that the Japanese people will remain strong and push onward through this tough moment in their history. With strong memories of Japan, I was lucky to experience the culture, food, and the people of this wonderful country one warm summer back in 2009. From hiking in the beautiful mountains, early morning Tsukiji sushi stops, riding the Nozomi trains, and meeting cool people in every city, it is a place I always wanted to go back to. Japan has contributed so much to the world, and they are an amazingly friendly, compassionate, respectful and creative people.
Check out some of these videos all about Japan.
A fantastic portrayal of a day in the busy capital city of Tokyo.
Great video by MylesInLondon.
I have to put the dancing storm trooper in Tokyo video up here too.
Another great video by markusman25.
1:47am, March 11, 2011. Many in North America will be waking up to news of the earthquake in Japan. The 8.9 magnitude quake was measured by the U.S Geological Survey, with an epicenter 373 kilometers from Tokyo, according to CNN coverage. This massive earthquake comes just a day after a 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Japan’s Honshu island. To put this recent quake in perspective, the largest ever recorded earthquake was measured at 9.5 in Chile in 1960.
The earthquake has been said to last for minutes, and could be felt throughout the region. And although tsunami warnings were quickly issued for over 20 countries, it was little warning for the walls of water that are hitting Japan. The process of issuing warnings can offer little help to those areas which would be affected by a tsunami by a tsunami 30 minutes after an earthquake. According to BBC, the waves moved at speeds up to 800km/hr. [Update 3:07am: Tsunami warnings are now being issued as far as Hawaii, and the west coast of the U.S.] Shocking footage of the resulting waves are coming in as media from around the world is covering the story. If you haven’t already seen, you need to watch these videos:
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2011/03/11/sot.tsunami.hit.japan.cnn?hpt=T1
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2011/03/11/sot.tsunami.hit.japan.cnn?hpt=T1
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2011/03/11/sot.tsunami.hit.japan.cnn?hpt=T1
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2011/03/11/sot.tsunami.hit.japan.cnn?hpt=T1
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2011/03/11/sot.tsunami.hit.japan.cnn?hpt=T1
On the discussion board today is a film I saw last night. The film I saw was Monsters. It’s safe to say that I had no previous knowledge or expectations about this film before I saw it. I had pretty much only heard of the name, and was told it was a low-budget film from a friend.
One thing I love about low-budget films is that the film makers don’t possess the funds necessary to create large action sequences or incredible CG. This forces the filmmakers to focus on the story, the characters, their relationships, and ultimately be creative to draw in their audiences.
Monsters is no exception, the film follows Andrew; a photo journalist as he is forced to put aside his assignment and help the daughter of his boss Samantha get back to the United States from Central America. The catch is that 6 years ago, a space probe returning to earth with samples thought to prove the existence of alien life crashed into Central America. And ever since then, the ‘monsters’ have been multiplying, pushing the limits of the Mexican and American governments capability to contain them.
In order to return to America, the couple has to travel through ‘the infected zone’, an area off-limits to humans and is meant to contain the monsters. As they do so, they develop an interesting relationship, as Andrews cynical yet realistic point of view combines with Samantha’s soft-spoken gentle nature. The characters are easily likable, and you can’t help but hope they succeed in their journey to the border.
Scifi monster movie buffs might be disappointed with the very little actual monster contact. The best relation I can think of is that of Cloverfield, in which you saw very little of the monsters themselves. But the similarities stop at that, as Monsters is far superior in quality to that of Cloverfield.
So for a movie that was created with 2 people, filmed entirely on locations, and utilized local people as characters in the movie, this was a spectacular film. Check it out.
This week I had the opportunity to finally goto Joshua Tree National Park, while visiting my mother down in Palm Springs. Having been to California numerous times before I had never been to the Coachella Valley, so I was eager to explore the desert surroundings, and the famous Joshua Tree. Not just because its featured in a favorite episode of Entourage of mine..
Theres 3 access points into the park, the west Joshua Tree entrance, the north 29 Palms entrance, and the Cottonwood entrance at the very south end of the park. We drove up the 62 to the west Joshua Tree entrance, it took us about 45 minutes from Palm Springs, but was well worth the drive. The park itself is massive, with some very well maintained but limited roads through it. We checked out the Keys lookout, where you could look into the Coachella Valley, picking out Palm Springs, Indio, the mountains, the I-10, and even the Salton Sea far to the south-east.
We then hiked up Ryan mountain, a 3 mile in and out hike up the mountain. Southern California desert is very interesting in January, you can be hiking in the heat of the midday sun, and encounter frosty snow-covered sections of the trail on the backside of the mountains. Either way, making for an incredible experience as we pushed up to the top of Ryan mountain for extensive views of the park. We then drove through the park to the southern Cottonwood entrance for a rip up the I-10 back to Palm Springs.
One of the most interesting aspects of Joshua Tree is the changes you experience in the terrain and the flora and fauna with each ridge you pass over. The iconic Joshua trees giving the park its name spanning much of the higher elevations on the Mojave Desert, and the Cholla Cactus gardens blanketing some of the lower elevations. A dried up wash in the shade will host tall Junipers, while areas 20 feet away in the sun hosts a different flora altogether. With the help of a car, you can witness the scenery changing drastically as you descend down from the higher elevations on an ever winding road.
When I have more time, I’d love to head back into the park and spend a couple of days, doing some more hikes, but for now it was a great introduction to the park itself. I took my camera along with me, so all the photos you see I took myself. Needless to say, my time there was everything I hoped it would be, it may be just piles of rocks, but at the same time so much more.
Tilt shift is a method of photography which can provide a new aspect to traditional photography that was previously imposibble. One of the most common effects that tilt-shift photography can accomplish, is the effect of miniatures. By altering the focus of an image you can present a very real subject with a miniature effect. This can be done either with the hardware itself, or through a method which is becoming more and more common today and that is done digitally in post production. I presented a video previously on the blog which had this effect, and it spurred me to elaborate more on the subject.
If you are unfamiliar with tilt-shift photography, the basic principle is that you can alter the plane of focus of the lens through phyiscally tilting or shifting a specially designed lens. Whichever method a photographer or artist chooses to create these effects, the results are truly amazing. And with that, I am including a couple of my favorite tilt-shift videos.
On May 18, The Call of Duty franchise released the world premier trailer for the next installment of the Modern Warfare series: Black Ops. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 has been a massive hit since its release in November 2009. No doubt they expect to keep the ball rolling with the release of Black Ops in November 2010. Its too early to see how the gameplay is, but it takes place in the Vietnam War era apparantly. For now, we can only watch the trailer…
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