Chuck Me!!

NBC finally announced their decision about the future of Chuck yesterday and the answer to that question is more Chuck! NBC ordered a 13 episode season, with a lower production budget which undoubtedly means an end to the big guest stars that the show has on previously ala. Chevy Chase (hopefully doesn’t include Scott Bakula!). But this is all good news as far as I am concerned – the show has much more to offer and hopefully the 3rd season will deliver to the usual high standard and more people will become interested in the show *fingers crossed*

Little. Big.

My girlfriend’s housemate recently got a PS3 and it has made me think of getting a PS3. I have been outspoken against Sony consoles for a long time, I give the impression that I have never and will never care for the Playstation. But this is a point I would like to make; I was going to buy a PS1 way back, but more of my friends had N64’s than PS1’s so I changed my mind. A similar situation happened with the Xbox and the Gamecube – but I chose the Gamecube and bought an Xbox later. The point I am making is this; I am not an elitist as some may think when it comes to consoles, although I do not see that Sony is a ‘better’ console, but I do see its merits.

Some of the PS3 exclusive games are quite decent, although many of the Playstation games do not appeal to me. The way I am looking at it is that I could buy a ‘cheap’ $400 BluRay Player at the end of the year to go with my shiney new HDTV that I will be acquiring around that same time – or I could pay roughly $600 for a PS3 and get the added bonus of having another console.

And on that note, I may buy Little Big Planet for myself and play it at my girlfriends place – it looks awesome.

My Favourite ad for Little Big Planet.



A few other videos to show how cool the game is;

The Unaddressed

I just came across this series of work by Dan Bergeron. You can read his interview with the Wooster collective here.

Here is a brief explanation of the work from the interview;

'The project is called "the Unaddressed" and it focuses on the under-housed, giving voice to their personal opinions. Over the course of 3 months I met with 18 individuals who are currently or have recently been homeless. Through meeting, talking about their lives and discussing issues that were important to them, they developed their announcements and created a cardboard sign to reveal them. By photographing homeless and formerly homeless individuals holding cardboard signs that announce their concerns, the hope is challenge preconceived notions of homelessness and make the passers-by realize how serious the situation is and that everybody deserves the same basic necessities of life and to be treated the same way. Basically do unto others as you would have them do unto you.'

AGDA Poster Annual

Received the weekly update from AGDA (Australian Graphic Design Association) today which had a link to their annual poster competition, deadline is the 5th June and I have decided that I should most definitely do something for it. If nothing else it will provide me with a new portfolio piece – something that displays my passion for the area in which I will soon be seeking employment. Because I do get very excited about design and animation and as my lecturers having been mentioning of late – the majority of students portfolios (especially those coming out of CSU) display ‘student’ works which are undertaken as assessment items (non-negotiable) and no works undertaken as a personal endeavour and therefore do not display you interest and passion. And of course if i was actually short-listed or anything as amazing as that it would look fantastic in a portfolio/in a cv!

So my work for this poster will be a passion piece, I shall place updates on this blog and you can check out the brief here.

X-Men Origins Wolverine Review

**SPOILERS FOLLOW**

I’m going to say straight off that I really enjoyed this film and found it a great addition to the X-Men film franchise. In terms of the film’s content staying true to the comic it wasn’t so strong but personally that’s not something that I mind. If you want to be elitist and stick to the original text and be unable to see past it you are never going to enjoy any film that is an adaptation.

As an origin story for such a beloved character the film served quite well, I did feel that the time that Wolverine spent in Canada as a lumberjack in hiding could have been shortened in favour of lengthening the time spent during the Weapon X years. This would have allowed the audience to connect with the characters more and care a little more seeing as they were to be killed off throughout the duration of the film. On that note Ryan Reynolds and Dominic Monaghan deserved far more screen time than they were given, not because of the interesting powers that their characters had but the fact that they are actors of a certain calibre – Ryan Reynolds remains a sumwhat untapped action star.

I was looking forward to the war sequences but I did approve of the execution, it displayed what was necessary – Sabretooth’s growing passion for violence as well as the number of wars that they participated in. Liev Schreiber was outstanding as Victor Creed/Sabretooth and introduced an imposing presence without too much effort his bounding during the fight scenes was spectacular. And keeping his obsession with gaining Wolverine’s adamantium was well done. Schreiber and Jackman’s fight scenes whilst short were wonderfully viscous and brutal and most definitely some of the most exciting of the film. Hugh Jackman performed perfectly as he usually does – a result of playing the role for 10 years.

Weapon XI was somewhat of a downer to the film – made for a cool fight, but there was no real reason for its inclusion other than having a big final fight in the film. I feel this is the case with the inclusion of Emma Frost, Cyclops and Xavier – although it was cool to see Prof X in Wolverine. Not that a child Storm was shown in the trailer but excluded from the film. Gambit’s inclusion was odd, longer than expected and basically a fan service.

On level with the other X-Men films I would rate it above X-Men 3, below X-Men 2 and possibly on par with X-Men 1.

XYZ

I did a week of work experience at XYZ Studios [www.xyzstudios.com] during the holidays. It was really great, it was a quiet week for the studio but I still learnt a lot about how the industry (+ industry houses) work. The studio was really nice as were the people that work there. I worked on a few different things; an animatic for a Herron TVC, motion graphics for AGIDEAS, concept for MIFF. The best thing about the whole thing was observing how the studio worked and their file system and how to manage all different versions of the work without the file sizes and number to spiral out of control.

I haven’t undertaken any work experience prior to this but found that the experience is definitely worth it. Not too many (if any) of my friends and classmates have done any work experience and I think that they are missing out and may be slightly under-prepared for the expectations of the industry that they are wanting to find employment in.

Basically I have come away from it with a tad more enthusiasm and a definitely clearer understanding of where my work (and its standards) need to be to stand out and blow some minds.