From IMAX to Fake IMAX at Birmingham’s Thinktank Millenium Point
No doubt the following post will make me a prime candidate for inclusion on the First World Problems website. And before I start I should note that I understand that the cinema had to change its screen format in order to be profitable.
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I’m a big fan of the first and third Mission: Impossible movies. As David Bordwell explained in detail in this excellent essay, the pace and rhythm of M:I-3‘s story beats is such that the movie provides the perfect example of the archetypal template of the modern action movies’ narrative structure. Fortunately, within that outline the specifics were tweaked in numerous flashy and memorable ways (opening the film with Philip Seymour Hoffman’s tense 1-to-10/gunshot-to-the-head count; keeping the true nature of the “Rabbit’s Foot” MacGuffin unexplained; coming into the Shanghai escape halfway though), and the whole thing was generally executed very well (that bridge action sequence is superb). It had its flaws, but M:I-3 is still one of my favourite action movies of the last few years.
The fourth entry in the series is directed by Brad Bird, and, like The Dark Knight, it sounds like native IMAX filming was a central enough element of its production that it’ll be worth paying the premium to see at an IMAX cinema.
The two IMAX films I’ve seen so far are The Dark Knight and Inception, both of which I saw at the IMAX screen at Birmingham’s Thinktank Science Museum. So today I visited their website to check their M:I-4 showing times and prices.
To my surprise, I learned that they’ve recently renamed the venue “The Giant Screen” and changed the screen’s format from IMAX film to a 4K digital format by a company called Barco. This raised alarm bells, because I’ve previously read comments and articles online warning that some screens marketed as IMAX Digital (or other non IMAX large-screen formats) are smaller than and inferior to true IMAX.
The cinema’s FAQ says:
Q) Do you still have a giant screen?
A) Yes. The new giant screen is the same width as before. The new screen and new projection system will mean that the projected image will better fit the screen. The cinema is still classified as a Giant Screen Cinema.
Now that sounded a bit evasive to me… they might emphasise that the screen is horizontally identical, but what about its height?
The science museum also has a separate technology website, where there’s a page all about the new screen’s equipment. (The video at the top of that page is worth a watch for the shots of the old IMAX projector in the process of being dismantled and removed.) In that page’s comments section, one of the venue’s staff helpfully provides this comment:
Our new screen is as wide as ever. However, due to the lack of film content produced in the previous 4:3 ratio (only a few IMAX documentaries and a percentage of scenes in a few feature films), we are moving to the feature resolution of 1.85:1. For all future feature presentations, the size of the projected image will be no smaller on our new screen than on the old IMAX screen. We are still classified as a Giant Screen Cinema.
As I understand it, that should probably read: “For all future presentations of features that were shot throughout with normal cameras in 1.85:1 or 2.35:1, the size of the projected image will be no smaller on our new screen than on the old IMAX screen – but for things natively shot with IMAX cameras, the screen won’t extend vertically enough to display them properly.“
So, it sounds like any sequences that were shot with IMAX cameras on 70mm film won’t appear at their full, spectacular height in their native 4:3 aspect ratio. Presumably they’ll either be cropped to the same 1.85:1 or 2.35:1 ratio that is used for their releases in normal cinemas and on DVD; or the 4:3 ratio will be retained by pillarboxing it so the full screen width isn’t used. Either way, it’s a little disappointing to learn that the IMAX sections of Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol that were shot natively in IMAX won’t be as spectacular as when I saw The Dark Knight in that auditorium.
Now, I understand that the cinema had to change its screen format in order to be profitable. And although it’s become Fake IMAX, it does sound like it’ll be better in some ways: supposedly the screen’s brighter, that “luxury seating” sounds nice, and they can use the screen to show live events like sports and concerts (not that that’ll be relevant to me). And of course, it’s certainly still much more preferable than the alternative of seeing it at a normal Cineworld or Odeon multiplex: the incredible sound alone will ensure that.
But it’s not true IMAX, and that’s a bit of a shame.
Rock Band Making Ofs
For Rock Band’s fourth anniversary, Harmonix have uploaded some fairly interesting behind the scenes information about the series’ development.
Here’s an interview about the production of the instrument peripherals, together with a video:
There’s also this more general video about the games’ development:
Frank Zappa – Lumpy Gravy and Zoot Allures
“Well, you have to call them something, so why not call them something amusing?”
Frank Zappa is a musician with one of the most daunting discographies in rock music: sixty-two albums during his lifetime by this count, plus a steady stream of posthumous releases.
I haven’t yet made much headway through that list. So far I’ve only heard: Hot Rats (excellent – “the Frank Zappa album for people who don’t like Frank Zappa!”), his 1966 debut double-album Freak Out! (very good), Apostrophe(‘) (okay), and Joe’s Garage Acts I-III (the title track and “Watermelon in Easter Hay” are great, but I’m less keen on the rest); plus the compilation albums The Best of Frank Zappa and Cheap Thrills. Recently I added another two to that tally.
Lumpy Gravy (1968)
A mixture of musical snippets, conversation fragments and sound effects loops: a little bit like a highly extended, slower-paced, less dense, less unsettling “Revolution 9″.
There are some interesting and pleasant pieces of music, but you can be certain that just as you’re getting into one, it’ll be interrupted by a contextless, not very funny spoken-word bit.
Zoot Allures (1976)
I’m in two minds about this one. On the one hand, the playing throughout the album is fantastic, and so is the production (love that guitar tone). “Black Napkins” shows how you do a four minute piece of virtuoso fret-wanker-noodle-ry and keep it interesting:
I also really like the other two instrumentals, and the solo on opening track “Wind Up Workin’ in A Gas Station” (although the rest of that song is rather spoilt by irritating chipmunk vocals).
But unfortunately, the album features some of the most tedious, toilet-humour-heavy lyrics of any Zappa album I’ve heard so far, and that’s saying something. The opening words on the album are “This here song might offend you some/If it does, it’s because you’re dumb”, which gives you adequate warning of how it’s going to proceed.
Now, Zappa could be funny: as the quote at the start of this post illustrates, I very much agree with his approach to song-entitling; his delivery of “dried muffin remnants” in the intro to “Muffin Man” is hilarious; and there’s something irresistibly silly about “Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow” (especially the cry of “Great googly moogly!”). The toilet humour shouldn’t be a problem either – even songs like “Bobby Brown Goes Down” and “Why Does It Hurt When I Pee?” are fun due to the sheer audacity of how OTT they go (and it helps that they’re set to good tunes).
So yes, humour does belong in music. The problem is that the dick jokes on this album are mostly lazy and not very funny:
“Ms. Pinky“:
Her eyes is all shut in an ecstasy face
You can cram it down her throat, people, any old place
Throw the little switch on her battery pack
You can poot it, you can shoot it till your wife gets back…
I got a girl with a little rubber head
Rinse her out every night just before I go to bed
She never talk back like a lady might do
An’ she looks like she loves it every time I get through
I went to the country
And while I was gone
I lost control of my body functions
On a roller-headed lady’s front lawn
I’m so ashamed, but I’m a wino man
I can’t help myself
“Disco Boy“:
“You never go doody!” (That’s what you think)
“You never go doody!” (That’s what you think)
“You never go doody!” (That’s what you think)Doody
Ah, go doody
Doody
You never go doody…
But thank THE LORD
That you still got hands
To help you do that jerkin’ that’ll
Blot out yer Disco Sorrow!
Etc, etc…
As far as wank jokes go, it’s not exactly the surprising, character-based £20 note scene from Peep Show, is it?
But as I said, the musicianship is pretty consistently excellent throughout; it’s just a shame it’s in service of such unfortunate songs. For the most part, though, I think the playing makes up for the words – hence my four-star rating.
I really like Frank’s sleazy vocals on “The Torture Never Stops“, but the female shrieks mean I wouldn’t want to play it loud! I prefer the live version on the Cheap Thrills compilation, which has Captain Beefheart singing, a different guitar riff throughout, and lacks the screams. Not sure either version really deserves to be nine minutes, though:
Red Hot Chili Peppers – The Uplift Mofo Party Plan
The Uplift Mofo Party Plan was one of the first RHCP albums I ever heard. I’m still rather fond of it.
I originally posted this review at Rate Your Music.
The 2003 remastered edition:
If you intend to listen to this album, I urge you to seek out the original CD release rather than the 2003 24-bit digitally remastered version, because in my opinion the re-release is down there with the Chili Peppers’ own Californication as one of the worst victims of the Loudness War I have ever heard. I’m no audiophile (I wish I could afford to be one…) but it’s clear that the 2003 edition suffers from an absurd degree of compression, clipping and lack of dynamic range that makes it extremely fatiguing to the ears.
The 1987 version was perfectly adequately punchy as it was, so get that. True, by buying the older version you’ll miss out on the 2003 edition’s two bonus tracks and the liner notes booklet featuring numerous images and retrospective comments from Flea – but at least the thing will be listenable for more than two minutes at a time!
There are other differences too: for example, on the original release the final guitar lick of “Fight Like A Brave” fades out so that it’s barely audible; on the 2003 remastered version the whole riff is heard, but it concludes by cutting off very abruptly. For someone familiar with the original version, it’s a disconcerting alteration.*
The music:
Enough about the remastering; what of the music itself? It’s a decent little album, and probably the best of the Chili Peppers’ pre-Blood Sugar Sex Magik work. It suffers from dated shouted choruses, but the production is a big step up from RHCP’s first two albums, and there’s some great guitar playing from Hillel Slovak, who died shortly after the album’s release.
The two absolute highlights are “Fight Like A Brave” and “Me and My Friends”; the latter has a great guitar solo. (It’s nice to learn that “Me and My Friends” has apparently made a return to the Chili Peppers’ live repertoire in their recent I’m With You album tour.)
“Behind the Sun” is a lovely lazy summer song and one of the most melodic things the band did in the ’80s. “Skinny Sweaty Man” is fun comedy number in which Anthony Kiedis does his best Mel Blanc Looney Tunes voices. “Organic Anti-Beat Box Band” is an energetic party track, and there’s a Bob Dylan cover which is OK (but not as good as the band’s later covers of Stevie Wonder’s “Higher Ground” and Jimi Hendrix’s “Fire”).
Alas, “Party on Your Pussy” (which was listed as “Special Secret Song Inside” on the 1987 release, for obvious reasons) and “Love Trilogy” represent the Chili Peppers’ unfortunate tendency toward the childish and crude at its worst. The later “Sir Psycho Sexy” on Blood Sugar Sex Magik was just as vulgar, but funnier and set to much better music.
If you’re a fan of later RHCP albums looking to investigate their earlier work, I would recommend getting the What Hits!? compilation before you delve into this album. That compilation contains this LP’s highlights “Fight Like A Brave” and “Me and My Friends”, plus two other decent songs from it (“Backwoods” and “Behind the Sun”), as well as most of the worthwhile songs from the Chili Peppers’ other early releases.
* The music video uses the original outro:
Here’s the other highlight:
01. Fight Like a Brave (3:54) 02. Funky Crime (3:00) 03. Me and My Friends (3:09) 04. Backwoods (3:08) 05. Skinny Sweaty Man (1:16) 06. Behind the Sun (4:41) 07. Subterranean Homesick Blues (2:33) 08. Party on Your Pussy/Special Secret Song Inside (3:16) 09. No Chump Love Sucker (2:42) 10. Walkin' on Down the Road (3:49) 11. Love Trilogy (2:41) 12. Organic Anti-Beat Box Band (4:03) 2003 EDITION BONUS TRACKS: 13. Behind the Sun (instrumental demo) (2:55) 14. Me and My Friends (instrumental demo) (1:54)
A prediction regarding Joss Whedon’s Avengers film
News! There’s a new Buffy the Vampire Slayer reimagining on the go (which, as Slashfilm points out, is completely unrelated to the one that was rumoured in 2009), which caused Joss Whedon to give an amusing response that was reminiscent of his Terminator franchise proposal a while ago.
This provides a great excuse for me to air my pet prediction regarding his next movie!
I can see one of two things happening with The Avengers:
A) The film makes an obscene amount of money eclipsing Titanic, Avatar, and all the Harry Potter and Bond movies put together. Studios fall over themselves to let Whedon make whatever he wants, which happens to be a Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie. Then — while finding time to do some part-time script-doctoring on a couple of Pixar films, because they’ve really missed his help since the original Toy Story — he goes to HBO and makes more episodes of Firefly, which runs for ten seasons, three feature films and a spin-off animated series, is universally adored, and ushers in a new utopia of world peace and prosperity, Wyld Stallions-style.
OR…
B) Coming fourteen years after Blade, twelve years after X-Men and ten years after Spider-Men, it has the misfortune to be released just after the end of the superhero movie boom and flops miserably. 
My CAPTCHArt contribution
These’re funny. Here’s my attempt:
A Sustained Gravitas Deficiency
The last few days have been something of a sci-fy-y sort of week for me. On Saturday we had the penultimate episode of the first Steven Moffat/Matt Smith series of Doctor Who, and the day after its broadcast I both finished watching the finale of Battlestar Galactica season 1 (which I’d been renting from Lovefilm) and downloaded the first Mass Effect game from Steam while it was on special offer.
But a couple of days before all that, I had finished reading Iain M. Banks’ Culture novel Excession for the first time. It’s the fourth of his novels I’ve read (after Consider Phlebas, The Player of Games and Use of Weapons — all “M. Banks” genre fiction), and it was blummin’ brilliant.
[Some spoilers below]
“Once you see it, you’ll see it everywhere…”
Perfect Dark XBLA – changes from the N64 version
November 2011 update: I eventually bought an Xbox 360 and the XBLA Perfect Dark a few months after first publishing this post. The game turned out to be superb; it was wonderful being able to play it at a decent framerate. Unfortunately analogue movement didn’t really suit time attacking the game: judging the narrow stick angle required to speed-strafe was much less consistent than simply pressing [C-Up]+[C-left] on the N64! I always intended to thoroughly update this post, using my own copy of the game to go into more detail confirming or debunking each claimed alteration, but unfortunately I never got round to doing it.
The Xbox Live Arcade version of Perfect Dark was released a few days ago. I thought someone ought to try and compile a list of everything that’s changed from the original. I decided I might as well do it myself!
Unfortunately, this process is complicated by the fact that, er, I don’t actually have the new XBLA game. (Or an Xbox 360, for that matter… is it sad that this new version of a ten year old game is one of the main reasons I want one?) So I’m basing this list on second-hand information: things discussed in forum threads on Rllmukforum, on the GE/PD speedrunning community at the-elite.net (in both this thread and this thread), and on GameFAQs (I asked numerous questions in this thread I started). Also, the Youtube channel of the Elite’s Takahiro Arai contains a complete set of slow, methodical Perfect Agent walkthroughs of every level in the XBLA version.
Please let me know if I’ve missed anything or there’s anything in this list that’s incorrect and I’ll change it.
Read more…
Spy & Pyro
Probably the best Internet animation I’ve seen since Saturday Morning Watchmen a year ago.
Some very cartoony animation too… John K would approve! (Well, maybe. But come to think of it, probably not.)
