Of the nearly 1,000 foreign-language films released in the U.S. since 1980, only 22 have grossed more than $10 million, with more than 70% of them taking in less than $1 million, according to boxofficemojo.com.

via Kottke

This ranges from the regular cast and crew; the actors and cinematographers and script writers and editors and sound recordists, etc through to the effects departments.

When you think of movie visual effects you may assume they’re all done in the US.  You may have heard of companies like Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), started by George Lucas, creator of Star Wars, or Digital Domain, started by James Cameron, director of Terminator and Avatar. 

What you probably don’t realise is that a lot of effects work is done in the UK too, because we’re a big player in the effects market (and the video games market).

The Guardian has an interesting article discussing the work done by some of Bournemouth University’s graduates who worked on Avatar.

He found that the more recent the films were, the more likely they were to obey the 1/f fluctuation, and this did not just apply to fast action movies. Cutting said the significant thing is that shots of similar lengths recur in a regular pattern through the film.

Cutting believes obeying the 1/f law makes films “resonate with the rhythm of human attention spans,” and this makes them more gripping. Films edited in this way would then tend to be more successful and the style of shooting and editing more likely to be copied. Films of Cutting’s own favorite genre, the Film Noir, do not generally follow the 1/f law, with shot lengths tending to be more random. By contrast The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and the 2005 blockbuster movie Star Wars Episode III (which Cutting considers to be “just dreadful”) both follow 1/f rigidly.

via Kottke

It’s fairly unusual, it looks fairly good quality and the contributors seem to have been globally spread and was directed by a woman (most fan films are the work of guys). It goes to show that dedicated people can make movies for relatively little money.

You can find the main Born of Hope site here.

So I guess they have been placated.  It has sparked an airing of some of the points around the release window though with the Beeb having a good summation of the main arguments.  I can understand the arguments from both sides and obviously Disney has decided to try some experimenting to see what results.

Another interesting article discusses how Blockbuster have secured an exclusive window for new releases that could damage independent rental store.  I still rent from Blockbuster occasionally, they’re the closest store to me, there was an independent chain but they went out of business years ago.  You have to think their days are numbered (certainly Blockbuster, who keep reporting loses) and we’ll just get machines dispensing disposable media or downloadable rentals in the future.

I’m with Adam Rutherford on this one though.  As much as I would like to see better science in films, we’re missing the point.  These aren’t teaching materials, they’re entertainment.  They’re first, and indeed only, requirement is to entertain.

I love the quote about The Core, which Perkowitz didn’t like:

The Core did not make money because people understood the science was so out to lunch.

I think he’s giving most movie audiences too much credit there.  The Core didn’t make any money because it was a crap idea poorly executed.  By way of an example, take the asteroid movies Armageddon and Deep Impact.

The latter was by far the more scientifically accurate (although it still took liberties) but may much less money that the scientific cowboy that was Armageddon.  Why?  Plot and characters.

Science is cold, detached and generally boring, it’s not something to get people hooked on.  Just look at how many liberties are taken with historical facts (U-571 anyone?)

I agree that it can ruin the suspension of disbelief, it does it in any medium.  I’m not a cryptographic expert, but when, in Digital Fortress, Dan Brown introduces use to a computer which uses massive parallel processing to brute force break passwords even I was well aware that with the combined processing power of the entire World it would take longer than the universe has existed to crack it (most ‘cracks’ are done by guessing commonly used passwords, therefore cutting the odds, if you have a random string it’s basically impossible).

Having said that, most audience members aren’t familiar with anything more than basic science, so understanding the crushing pressure of the core or that giant bugs don’t exist because they would weigh too much (and couldn’t breath with their rudimentary respiratory system if I remember my Biology correctly).

So, why bother limiting it?  Watch practically any movie about soccer (i.e. made in the US) and you’ll notice people being subbed on and off several times.  If they can’t get the basics of sport correct what hope have we got for physics?  The fact is, it’s not important as far as the story is concerned.

It’s a bold move as they’re likely to lose a lot of revenue on this release and, should the shorter release window be successful, more films may got that way with or without them.

Kick-Ass looks, well, kick-ass.  It’s a great concept, some ordinary people figure they don’t need super powers to be super heroes.  Some of them have great fighting skills and some are just good at surviving a beating.

I suspect part of the appeal, frankly, is seeing a little girl swearing like a trooper and then kicking the crap out of a bunch of bad guys.  Seeing Kick-Ass (a super hero) getting beating up and dishing it out is quite exciting too.

It’s nice to see a super hero movie that isn’t some crappy attempt at psychoanalysis or heroes striving to do the right thing and just getting down to people beating the crap out of bad guys.

You can find the official website here, or check out the trailers on Apple.

This isn’t a new revelation, William Goldman has long said Hollywood’s key demographic was teenage Asian boys.

You could argue some of the ‘heavier’ films that have slipped off the list (Jaws, Star Wars, Indiana Jones) were all aimed at teens anyway.