Exploring Stuff That Makes Life Great
Class is now in session. First on the list of lessons is how to comment on any video in our video player called The Pipeline. I knew that you wouldn’t want to read how to do this so here’s a 16-second video tutorial. Yes it’s really easy and fun to comment!
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Next-Gen.biz had a great article with Jeremy Bolt, the Producer from the upcoming Resident Evil: Extinction film. I love this article because it talks about someone other than Uwe Boll. Sure everyone loves making fun of Uwe, as well as anyone that attempts to adapt a video game to film. Lets face it, video game movies aren’t high quality – but some are at least enjoyable.
Next-Gen’s article reveals how little producers care for the material that they’re adapting from. It’s good that Paul W.S. Anderson at least plays the game before writing the film script, but does he and other writers understand what makes the game great in the first place?
“Gone are the days where you could just quickly jump on an IP like a videogame, make a close adaptation, and then just watch the money roll in,” said Jeremy Bolt. From my perspective it seems like filmmakers are still doing this. Obviously films have to appeal to general audiences as much as possible, in order to gross the largest amount of money possible, but why is it that films based on games have sucked, do suck, and will suck?
What it comes down to is one simple thing. You can play a game as much as you want to, but you will always have a different experience than someone else. That’s the beautiful thing about video games – there are multiple possibilities that change the experience users receive and in turn react to. Before any worthwhile adaptation can be created, it is key to understand what made the game good and how it impacted the player.
Lets face it, there has probably never been a film based on a video game that was directly made for the fans. If there ever was, it probably still bombed at the box office. Is any gamer really going to pay to watch a direct translation of what they’ve already done on their own in a video game?
This is a dilemma that all filmmakers face when trying to adapt a video game to film. It’s not an easy process. Much like the comic book to film adaptations, the best films will come when there are more closely tied collaborations between filmmakers, that fully understand why the material has a fanbase, and the industry that created the original material.
Yes you could be playing Command & Conquer for FREE! No this is not a scam nor are we talking about piracy!
Due to the C&c 12th anniversary EA has released the original game for free! The Official C&C website says the game is available for Windows XP users – hopefully there will be a patch for Vista.
One of the key things that I think our media player The Pipeline has struggled with is the fact that it has so many shows. The way that they are currently listed in the Channel Guide almost overwhelms any user. I’ve gone through and cleaned up the Channel Guide, merging shows together such as the Xbox 360 and PS3 trailers to form the Video Games show. While simplifying the Channel Guide, I tried to avoid lowering the amount of content available in each show. The Channel Guide also now lists the shows in a way that they are more so related to one another.
Remember to click on the Channel Guide button, in the upper left hand corner, to view all the different shows available on The Pipeline. Simply click on the title and you can start watching hours of content.
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NBC has declined to renew its agreement to sell its shows on iTunes because Apple refused to increase its video prices from $1.99 to $4.99!
“We are disappointed to see NBC leave iTunes because we would not agree to their dramatic price increase,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. “We hope they will change their minds and offer their TV shows to the tens of millions of iTunes customers.”
Apple’s agreement with NBC ends in December. Since NBC would withdraw their shows in the middle of the television season, Apple has decided to not offer NBC TV shows for the upcoming television season beginning in September. NBC supplied iTunes with three of its 10 best selling TV shows last season, accounting for 30 percent of iTunes TV show sales.
ABC, CBS, FOX and The CW, along with more than 50 cable networks, are still signed up to sell TV shows from their upcoming season on iTunes at $1.99 per episode.
I realize that many of you probably don’t know what’s going on outside in the “real” world. To much cyber interaction can lead to a somewhat time travel effect. When you thought it was Tuesday it might actually be Thursday. So in order to set you straight, I’m introducing three new shows onto The Pipeline that are real-world news videos.
These new shows are CNN’s Sick Twisted Freak, ABC World News, and Fox News Flash. In addition to the previous news shows such as NASAcast and the National Geographic Video Shorts – I hope that you all gain a better appreciation for the world around you.
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