I was never restricted. I was never told what to do.
-Ray Harryhausen
A lot of really annoying political news right now, but let’s just focus on the great work of Ray Harryhausen. Here’s a bunch of gifs from the 1982 Clash of the Titans (and a couple of his other films). Sweet dreams, internet.
“Hello Zippy” by jayveezed (@jvzdesigns) available at RedBubble and Society 6 - #rainbow #britishTV #hellokitty
All we need now are George and Bungle ;o)
In Lyra’s world the Chthonic Railway is the mirror of the London Underground. I’ve given it an appropriate ‘old style’ monochrome tube style logo.
Available here.
Reposting this article to support my friends in the VFX industry, especially at Rhythm and Hues.
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2013
The Oscar protest that you didn’t know happened
If you watched the Academy Awards tonight, you may have noticed an awkward music cut-off during the Life of Pi Visual Effects acceptance speech. It may have looked like they were just stopping a long running speech, but in truth the speaker was about to mention a hot button topic of the evening, and many people think it was cut short intentionally to hide the truth.
Most viewers were unaware of this incident and most media outlets failed to report on it, but outside the Dolby Theater, there were over 400 picketers protesting the poor state of the visual effects industry. Although it was being ignored on the televised broadcast, it started gaining momentum online during the ceremony, and is finally getting the media attention it was lacking.
So what is the protest about?
The film Life of Pi was nominated for Visual Effects (and won!), but sadly the studio that did the effects for the movie (Rhythm & Hues) had to file for bankruptcy a few weeks ago, and laid off close to 250 employees. The protest was named “A Piece of the Pi” to show that the VFX studio behind the film weren’t getting their share of its success.Photo credit: @tvaziri (pic.twitter.com/JjGOJ8zsQg)
This tragic story is just one example of the poor state of the VFX industry. With overseas competition, domestic VFX houses have been surviving on less than 5% profit margins, and other studios have gone bankrupt as well (see: Digital Domain). Supporters decided it was time to raise awareness to figure out how to stop this from continuing, so they set up a protest outside the Oscars.Photo credit: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/feb/25/oscars-protest-life-of-pi, right photo unknown
Sadly, the media did not report on the protest at all, and there was no mention of it on the televised broadcast. But the Internet can always be counted on in cases like these, to get the truth out there.
When Life of Pi won for Visual Effects, everyone was listening intently to hear any mention of the protest happening outside. But when Bill Westenhofer was done giving his thank yous and tried turning the subject to Rhythm and Hues, the orchestra music obnoxiously drowned him out until his mic was turned off (watch the video here).
When this happened, the #VFXProtest hashtag on Twitter went nuts calling foul play:
The next opportunity for visibility came when Ang Lee gave his speech for winning Best Director for Life of Pi. While he did thank “all 3,000 people” who worked on the movie, he didn’t mention Rhythm & Hues by name (possibly just an oversight), and that enraged the protestors and fueled the fire even further:
So let’s view the reality of the situation. Even if these 2 incidents were unrelated to the protest, it still seems like the Academy handled this situation poorly. The speech being cut off could have been purely about Westenhofer going over his time limit. And Ang Lee may have honestly just forgotten to mention them in all his excitement. But the damage has been done. People are angry, and the events from tonight are only fueling that anger further.
In the hours since the Oscars ended, throngs of people are changing their profile picture to a solid green square. This represents a green screen, which temporarily substitutes for effects during a film shoot so they can be added later. It looks like it started from the Facebook group VFX Solidarity, which has been “liked” more than 7,000 times since last night.
This movement seems to be just getting started. It will be interesting to see big it gets, despite being ignored by the Oscars. To me, it represents the Internet’s ability to reach beyond corporations and businesses, and get the truth out there.
My hope is that it really does raise awareness to these issues, and make it possible for real discussions to be had. They will need to start thinking about tangible solutions, but as we’ve seen before, the first step to solving any problem is to raise awareness. The success of the film industry depends on it.
#Psycho Mosaic :) (via “Psycho” mosaic)
Don’t think it’s mentioned explicitly on the website (apologies if it is), but these Hitchcock mosaics can be found at Leytonstone tube station in East London.
Lenticular Clouds Over Mount Fuji, Japan.
I believe this may be, um, photoshopped! Original image can be found here; http://entersection.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/mount_fuji-japan-lenticular_cloud-hat.jpg
![robpwood:
Over the last several months Doctor Pooh has been away and unfortunately suffered a CATastrophic accident. BUT AS YOU KNOW… this is not the end of the Timelord with little brain… he has regenerated.
Being a close friend of the previous generation, he’s kindly sent me a pic of his re-generation’s body…
I have to warn you though… He’s ginger (which I get the impression he quite likes)!
So without further ramblings, may I introduce ‘Doctor Hu-huh-huh-Whooo’…
Oh, and he’s asked me to tell you… “It’s Tigger on the Inside”!
Available at RedBubble (in more formats than regenerations [unless this one has 9 regenerations alone??])](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mc21lcz3du1qio5y4o1_500.jpg)
Over the last several months Doctor Pooh has been away and unfortunately suffered a CATastrophic accident. BUT AS YOU KNOW… this is not the end of the Timelord with little brain… he has regenerated.
Being a close friend of the previous generation, he’s kindly sent me a pic of his re-generation’s body…
I have to warn you though… He’s ginger (which I get the impression he quite likes)!
So without further ramblings, may I introduce ‘Doctor Hu-huh-huh-Whooo’…
Oh, and he’s asked me to tell you… “It’s Tigger on the Inside”!
Available at RedBubble (in more formats than regenerations [unless this one has 9 regenerations alone??])
Vote Imperial!
Available from my Redbubble store.
Death Star version here.
Imperial badge version here.
gimme
Am I the only one who thinks it’s odd that Vader is the VP? I mean, if it were Palpatine/Vader, I could understand. Maybe Vader is planning to force choke his way into the Oval Office after the election?
“Am I the only one who thinks it’s odd that Vader is the VP? I mean, if it were Palpatine/Vader, I could understand. Maybe Vader is planning to force choke his way into the Oval Office after the election?”
Fair point :o) My draft design did have Vader as Pres. In my defence I present the following evidence, a quote by one Princess Leia; ‘Governor Tarkin. I should have expected to find you holding Vader’s leash…’
