Moviezine!

Movie & culture series (II) - Trailers (Finale)

2009-11-13T18:46:00.000+08:00

Trailer, trailer, did you know you fascinate me a lot? Every time when I saw you, I just want to watch your full version in cinema nearby...However, suddenly I found that you have many brothers and sisters, all of them have different clothes and speak in different languages... Oh, which should I watch...

The answer is, watch them both on the same time! Moreover, as we know, the culture between Western and Eastern countries are quite different, we can view that differences on - movie trailers too! In our mind, we often know the differences between 2 cultures, but we often are speechless while we need to describe their unique characteristics clearly. However, in the movie trailer, according to their using of background music, or the orders or which scenes they strongly put emphasis on can show their differences.

Poster from http://www.filmofilia.com/2009/07/23/new-2012-poster/

Only words are not enough, maybe have a look on the trailer of "2012" first? I chose the 4th Japanese trailer(above) and the US 2nd trailer. Although the number of trailer is not the same, you may found out the first 30 seconds have lots of similarities. Like their words/slogan are the same, the scenes are the same - Of course! They showed the same movies! But do not close them immediately, the climax will start from 0:50!

You may found that the background music and the scenes they choose are not the same after 50 seconds, but they still have some identical elements. For example, both of them try to create a circumstance of Doom, they all tried to use rapid scenes to overwhelmed the audiences and often used scenes of something collapsed, like the shopping mall or the highway.

Japan, representative of Eastern culture

Why I choose Japan as a representative of Eastern culture, it is simple. Japan is somehow a traditional nation, also it prefer the products of Japanese more than Western one, even for a Western movie, they will make a different version with the original version. Because of that, it would be easier for us to recognize the differences between Western and Eastern.

Obviously, the Japanese trailers focus on the religion first, it used psalm as background music with sorrowful scenes to build up an atmosphere of tragedy and attempt to let audience have an imagination of the end of the Earth, such as the church collapses, to made them desperate.

Besides of that, the Japanese focus on the relationship between families. For example, it used a humour scene of father and daughter discussing the catastrophic scene of fire balls.

Click here to see larger trailer once more!

"Daddy, what was that?"
"Don't look at that! Just look at me! Do I look scared?"
"Umm!"

The Japanese trailer shows the relationship between father and daughter at first. Then, it shows the family hug together and father said, "No matter what happens, we will all stay together". At the end, we can see a scene of father tried to save his daughter.

As "2012" is a movie of catastrophe, the catastrophic scenes are needed. However, the Japanese, unlike the US, it will focus more on the communication or the relationship of people. Also, it tried to portray the event in a tragic way.

US, representative of Western culture
Why I choose US as the representative of Western culture? It is simple, it is the main producer of movies, just like the Hollywood! The trailers' approach should be near the producers' notions.

After the scene of father and daughter, the major differences appears. In this US trailer, we can see that, it focused on the action scene more than relationship among people. Moreover, at the scene when the church collapse, it plays the sound effect of people scream, to made an attempt to scare audiences.

Click here to see larger trailer once more!

Then, it used superb background music and rapid scenes to attract audiences' attentions. Moreover, it focused on people's struggle against the Doom. For example, it shows the scene of President argues with others because of their different views. Then, we can see people stampede into the ship built by the government. At last, we can see some action scenes with scary music and the scene of family hug each other as a finale.

For the US trailer, it is evident that, it tend to use a technique of using scenes to overwhelm you and use a touching scene to end the trailer. It just like push you to the peak of the mountain, then push you down the mountain at last. This huge contrast may draw your desire and pay for it at the cinema.

2012 is a movie made by US, maybe we can see a movie made by Japan? Howl's moving castle! The first is from Japan and the latter is from US.

Poster from http://item.rakuten.co.jp/jigsawclub/am1000-243/

The difference between Japanese and US is more clear than the 2012 trailer. It is obvious that Japanese put emphasis on relationship of people and the daily life scene. On the contrast, US trailer focused on the action or splendid views, also, the romantic relationship between the main character and heroine, moreover, they often shows the heroic scene of main character.

Got it?

Japanese often use some scenes or trivia to imply the feelings of the characters, also focused on relationship of people. US mainly focused on the spectacular scenes or the rapid scenes. Both the culture could saw the same things differently, for instance, the "2012" church collapse scene, this may be scary in Americans eyes, but be sorrowful in Japanese eyes. If you want to know more of this phenomenon, maybe you can have a check of "High-context" and "Low-context" culture on books, this website or simply on Wikipedia!

Trailer is to catch audiences' attentions and boost their desire to pay for this movie, therefore it must suit for their own tastes and culture, otherwise it may lost its effect of attracting people. Therefore, we can simply see the major differences between cultures through movie trailers!

Read more!

2012 Official website

Howl's moving castle US official website

Wikipedia of High/Low context culture

Communicating Across Cultures - High/Low Context description

Movie & culture series(II) - Trailers

2009-11-12T20:45:00.001+08:00

Hey! What will you do if your favorite bag or tee arrived to HK?
Will you stand in the queue in midnight waiting the shop open?
Let see how people show their love to movie!=]

They are the big fans of "The Twilight Saga: New Moon (official website)". Althought it is just a video which the two girls want to make fun of the film.

However, it may be a real scene of the fans.
According to the trailer of ""The Twilight Saga: New Moon (Click to watch the trailer)" which broadcast to the world in 2009 MTV Movie Awards that on the first day that attracted more than 4.2 million people .
It is very interested that the two girls make fun of the trailer to show their love.

Why they do so?

It showed a different culture bump of the culture of the Western and Chinese culture. When you search in YouTube, you may not find some reaction of the people in Chinese countries which they just watch the movie and just discuss at forum or just watched it only.

However, you can search a lots of video which took by the western people to show their love to the movie they love. It showed a deep side of the people of what they are thinking and may appealed some of the character of the people. For example, the western especially the Americans whom are more willing to show their passions of the things they love but Chinese are not really showing what they are thinking.

Will you make some video to show your reaction of the movie?

Let's MAKE FUN! =]

Know more:

Move thee reviews

http://www.mov-reviews.com

MovieSoon Hong Kong
http://moviesoonhk.com/

Movie & culture series - Movie posters (3)

2009-11-12T11:43:00.012+08:00

The following posters are the old days movie posters. Let's have a game before starting the article, can you guess the price of the following posters?

Let guess "MONACO"'s poster,what is your answer?

photos from http://hk.apple.nextmedia.com/template/apple_sub/art_main.php?iss_id=20070321&sec_id=38163&subsec_id=6038907&art_id=6919789

$500?$1500?$3500?Maybe you just think that it is not worth to pay any things to buy it.
Actually the price of the poster is $88000(HKD). It may be the most expensive poster of the world. And the other poster is also with a very high price.You may think it is absurd to buy the above poster.

However for the poster-lovers or collectors, it is worthy because they treat these posters as an artistic production.

「電影海報我都是當油畫來畫，教畫的老師曾說，藝術反映生活，反映內心，對我來講，沒有左右派之分，繪畫只要人有思想。」
「那時我們要先進戲院看試映場，明白了故事才開始畫。我對電影興趣一般，虛榮心也不太重，無所謂能否接觸明星，只是喜歡畫畫。」
From 陳楚鴻

From the ex-creator of poster ,Chan told us a story about the change of the film poster. For the past drawer, they will view the poster as a major thing of the movie.It is a must compent of the movie to help the audiences to have a better and completed understanding of the movie.

It is quite different from now as we can see the poster creator treat the poster as a production of the movie and may not important for the movie.The producer of the movie will forcus more on the trailer of the movie as it is the mass media to attract the audience.

The history of the film poster

(From Lille, Poster Gallery, London (Reel Poster Gallery) the owner of Bruce Marchant said, the poster market in the 1990s, only began to appear.)

Originally, film posters were produced for the exclusive use by the theatres exhibiting the film the poster was created for, and the copies of the posters were required to be returned to the distributor after the film left the theatre.

In the United States, posters were usually returned to a nation-wide operation called the National Screen Service (NSS) which printed and distributed most of the film posters for the studios between 1940 and 1984.

As an economy measure, the NSS regularly recycled posters that were returned, sending them back out to be used again at another theatre. During this time, a film could stay in circulation for several years, and so many old film posters were badly worn before being retired into storage at an NSS warehouse (most often, they were thrown away when they were no longer needed or had become too worn to be used again). Those posters which were not returned were often thrown away by the theatre owner, but some film posters found their way into the hands of collectors.

Beginning in the 1980s, the American film studios began taking over direct production and distribution of their posters from the National Screen Service and the process of making and distributing film posters became decentralised in that country.

Conclusion
From this generation , many people will just buy the ticket to watch the movie ,the other production of the movie are always be annoyed by the audiences.However ,to make the film more attractive to the people ,the prducer and sponsor should not only forcus on the movie and the trailer but also pay more effort on the side-production to make the movie more life-longing.

Movie & culture series - Movie posters (2)

2009-11-12T11:08:00.023+08:00

Have you ever watch a movie poster that really memorable?
Or you have some movie poster which is special to you?
But,do you know the reason of their design??

In the above poster, we can see the poster of love the design of the film are generally from the male and female for the entire poster theme.

April Bride
(生命最後一個月的花嫁 /余命1ヶ月の花嫁)
April Bride Japanese Official website

Photo from
http://jackyheimovie.mysinablog.com/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=1972802

The time traveler's wife

(時空旅行者的戀人)

The time traveler's wife Official website

photo from http://www.showbizcafe.com/en/films/the-time-travelers-wife/584

Another poster from the male and female in the position also reflected the male and female in the drama in the relationship.

As April Bride, a man has been hoping to complete the wish of the female lead, so posters can be seen from the actor on the heroine's determination and wish to complete the eyes of love, from the heroine in the eyes of love, in fact, the performance of a heroine of the actor's hesitation, but she is also the appreciation of the male lead in our employees.

From male and female also shows that while the position angle is a couple of man and woman, but because the female lead of the disease, the two did not show a very close relationship, but with the middle distance, to reflect that the couple if they could eventually come to end it?

Similarly, the time traveler's wife (click for larger poster), we can see the relationship between male and female, because the film refers to the actor has been forced to walk through time and space of the disease, so that the female lead has been waiting for, even if the two had been married, but there are husbands is equal to no.

Therefore, the poster on the formation of a heroine with the actor while relying on each other, but both remained independent. However, the situation in the heroine's eyes can see, she was not lonely, she was convinced that there is a wait for the results, and she loved the male lead's heart will always stick to it.

But also for that post-marriage, she is also no regrets, because the emphasis from the posters of her wedding ring can also be reflected. From the actor perspective, we can see that actor on the heroine's guilt, and his actress has been hoping for compensation.

In other words, posters, to a certain extent, reflects the theme of the film. Meanwhile, in love the movie, due to plot the relationship between the majority of whom would play with male and female in the relationship between the spindle formed in order to design the poster.

Here are two new film poster of the coming movie, before you watch the movie, can you guess what is the relationship between the actor and the actress?
In the ugly truth, will they have a competition? Will they argue of position of male and female?
And in the twilight –new moon ,will it be a triangle relationship? What will the actress choose?

The ugly Truth
The ugly Truth Official website

(click image for a larger poster)

photo from http://www.impawards.com/2009/ugly_truth.html

The twilight-new moon
The twilight-new moon Official website

(click image for a larger poster)

photo from http://truthoncinema.com/movie-news/the-twilight-saga-new-moon-details/

Movie & Internet series (Finale): I wanna watch movie!

2009-11-11T23:24:00.009+08:00

Don't know what you want to watch? Look here! From the previous article, we can find out information of movies, either new nor old one. However, what we should do if we really want to watch movie, but do not know which to watch? In this case, recommendations are needed! You will see some of the movie review websites in the following, hopefully they can help you to decide which to watch!

1. IMDb

As I mentioned from the last articles of this series, IMDb is a movie database, but at the same time, it is a place for netizens to give their opinions. For example, you can view a list of reviews of 2012 from this website. The most important thing is, you can view them without login, of course, if you want to give a comment of films, you still need to register an account.

To view movie reviews, you can simply enter a movie name to view it; or you can start from viewing "now playing movies". Besides of these choices, you can select this from the top menu: Movie->Top 250. You can view the Top 250 voted by users. Interestingly, most of them are productions of 90s in Top 10. Then scroll down, you will see a column called "Category", you can view the top 250 from different categories. Maybe you can find your favourite from here!

2. RottenTomatoes

Like its name rotten tomatoes, the worst movie will definitely have a grade of rotten tomatoes. The reason is, they use a meter called "tomato meter", more positive comments, the tomato would be fresher. The tomatoes are all came from critics of the Internet, you can read all their reviews online.

The Tomatometer measures the percentage of positive reviews from Approved Tomatometer Critics for a certain movie.
(Quoted from RottenTomatoes website)

Furthermore, you can view reviews by putting movie titles in the search bar or find from DVDs, now playing movies and the "Best of"! You can find the "best of the rotten tomotoes" by year, genre or all time. Also you can find the Academy Adward's winners on that page.

One of the funny page is the "certified fresh", what is "certified fresh"? See the description from Rotten Tomatoes!

Rotten Tomatoes awards the Certified Fresh accolade to theater releases reviewed by 40 or more critics (including 5 Top Critics) that score at least 75% or higher on the Tomatometer. A film remains Certified Fresh unless its Tomatometer falls below 60%.

It means, the movies which can get "Certified fresh" is guaranteed as Good by 75% of the users and 40 or more critics. Although they may not suit your taste, they are good movies in most of the users' heart.

3. MRQE (Movie Review Query Engine)
A new try! MRQE is founded in 1993, a website for movie reviews. After you arrive MRQE, you may attracted by the little orange bars after the movie titles. It is users' rating and critics' rating. You absolutely know what users' rating means, but what about critics' rating? The critics rating is a formation of critics in many medias, like newspaper, magazines, etc; For example, New York Times or The Wall Street Journal.

You can see all the critics' comments at the same time, if you do not have time, just look for the orange chart! It is a integration of the list of critics. Sometimes you may see a interesting phenomenon: the result between users and critics have a huge difference. To decide to believe who's opinion is depends on your wisdom and your feeling!

It is not just for now playing movies, you can look for the reviews by inputting movie titles on search bar or look into other sections, like DVD, Box-office result of US, etc. Besides of reviews, you also can view the news, trailers or blogs about that movie. You also can look for the recommendation of MRQE's staff, like 2009 summer movie guide, or simply select "Best by genre" or "Best of the 2000s". It does has a column called "Best by actors", but only a few actors can be selected.

For the "Best by genre", it does not like IMDb's one with traditional genres, the MRQE has many special genres, like "Best Workplace Movies", "Best Star Trek" or "Ranking Religion on Film". It is fun and special, you may find out the next movie you want to watch in the spare time!

4. Flicktweets

It is a service provided by MRQE, it used Twitterverse to gain information from Twitter. Therefore, you can see lots of tweets on this site. Of course, as it gain information directly from Twitter, I guess it search tweets by keywords, so you may find something unrelated tweets.

In this site, you can find movies in theatre, DVD and upcoming movies' tweets, just like the main MRQE website. It is also a good way for you to know more people's comment from different sites!

5. Twitcritics

This is also a site used Twiterverse to gain information from Twitter directly. The most significant difference is that it also calculated the results automatically, you can see the percentages of good or bad comments on movies easily, and when you touch the movie titles, it will show four reviews with pictures of good or bad. Moreover, you can sort those tweets in rating, popularity and names.

Unfortunately, as it is a new service, you can only find out new movies' comment on this site.

Also, as tweets are judged by computer automatically, it may occurred some misjudgement. Just like the one above, a user commented Christmas Carol as "highly recommended", however the system misjudged that comment as bad comment, maybe it caused by the negative keyword "unreal".

Nevertheless, I think the misjudgement is just minority case, they will not affect the percentages a lot, mostly 5%, I guess?

Umm...You still cannot find a movie to watch for? Try this!

Our last weapon - Jinni!

It is a website for you to find movies that suit your unique taste. It is easy, you just need to input your favourite movie's name, click Like more, then see the results!

Picture Tutorial:

If you want to get the results from the front page, one word is needed:

like: <*input your favourite here*>

Input the whole phase above to the search bar on front page!

Then it will shows the result on the front page without accessing the information page of that movie. After complete your search, you can also use the genre from left to squeeze the search ranges. Although it does not require log in to view the results, but if you create an account, Juuni can help specifically help you to find movies you may like, also you can add some movies into your wishlist.

It is a website specifically recommend movies by clarifying your favourite movie types, it is not following traditional movie genres, they make an effort to re-categorize movies in special genres, like mood, it has five sub-categories: Suspenseful, Stylized, Exciting, Rough and Bleak. You may find your Mr Right on this site! Try it!

Conclusion

Before the century of Internet, movie reviews often seen on newspaper or other print media, however, Internet's bloom make lots of netizens can express their opinions on movies. As we can see, movie review's sites already became more and more integrated with those social communities websites, like Twitter, Facebook, and this definitely is the trend and future of movie reviews and Internet.

Also, movie producer also concern of the power of Internet communities and they can view the opinions from the public instantly after movies aired on theatres. Producers can receive different comments from the Internet, it can also be the tools for their self-improvements. Let's look forward to viewing their improvements!

Movie & culture series - Movie posters (1)

2009-11-09T13:58:00.011+08:00

The above poster are the scary movie posters.
Can you find the common elements in those posters?

Thirst (饑渴誘罪 / KOREA)
http://www.movieposteraddict.com/2007/10/12/it-came-from-korea/
Photo from http://www.pieuvre.ca/contenu/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/thirst_poster.jpg

Ju-on (白色咒怨 / JAPAN)
Photo from http://item.rental.rakuten.co.jp/dvd/p/1045481/%E5%91%AA%E6%80%A8+%E7%99%BD%E3%81%84%E8%80%81%E5%A5%B3

Phobia 2 (5條大路通陰間 / THAILAND)

Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/25743887@N08/3924529123/

A Nightmare on Elm Street (猛鬼街 / AMERICA)

Photo from http://www.obscurehorror.com/anoes.html

Yes! Their background colors mostly are BLACK and RED and they became the main attractions in the movie poster. And they will try to associate with the imagination of the movie in thinking which will make you scary and fear.

By the poster, you will have a first impression of the movie that you may afraid of. And the above poster is from different countries. Even they are both scary movies but they still have different characters as their country.

From the poster of “Thirst”, you can see the actors showed the main action of the vampire which trying to tell you the main idea of the movie in your first sight. Although it is not obviously but Korea movie poster often banned by the south Korea media which some of them can show in public or they can be really horrible.

“Because it showed a priest in a sexual position, the original teaser poster of Thirst was banned then replaced in South Korea. According to Variety, “The ban is the work of the South Korea’s Media Rating Board, which has become more strict about the depiction of sexuality these days.” (Quoted from “Thirst” Poster Banned In South Korea)

Related to the Japanese movie, mainly ghost story about retaliation, they usually use the ghost or the main actor of the movie as their attraction of the posters. It can engage people more because it seem scarier and they will have a first taste of the movie when they see the poster.
The effects of the advertisement will be more efficient because it wil make a assumption to the people of the movie. And the contrast of the movie name of the poster can bring a bit phobia to the people.

But why people want to watch the horror movie? They want to have an exciting moment on the cinema? They want to be afraid of something? Or, especially the boys, they want to hug a girl when she feel scary?

In Psychoanalysis, consciousness is the surface, only the subconscious can reveal the nature of the human psyche. The modern horror film reflects the fear and anxiety and even to the conscious experience of fear to pursue. From the audience's point of view, through the viewing experience, triggered by excitement and joy, thereby eliminating the accumulated real-life negative pressure. Although the horror movie itself is based on the performance for the purpose of terror, but the spirit of analysis which reveals the deep psychological level, the objective is not to deepen the audience's psychological terror, but rather people's negative pressure can be from vent.

Therefore, when we want to watch a horror movie, it is not only have exciting experience of the movie, but also a reflection of the pressure you are facing of .So have fun in the horror movie to reduce your pressure! Don’t just focus on the girl beside you because she may not the real one! =]

At last, please look forward to the next article of Movie & culture series!

Digital movies and future Series (Finale) - 3D movies

2009-11-08T19:15:00.014+08:00

Recently, lots of 3D movies come forth and become hot topic around the society, like the "UP", "Christmas Carol", "Avatar" etc. , these can also be called as "Digital movies". After we go through 2 articles, maybe you still do not understand, what is digital movies?

Digital movies, mean that we use digital method rather than using analog way to encode video and audio, just like video, they will use DV instead of film to produce video; for the audio, the simplest example is: analog is just like audio tape, the digital audio is like your MP3 file. If you want your AVI file to use sound from analog signal from the middle, you need to transmit it to MP3 or other audio format, it implies that if your audio length 1 hour and it is on the middle of the tape, you need to play to that location and re-record it into digital audio format for 1 hour. For the digital audio, you can just cut that length directly.

Then, our main theme: 3-D film!

Start our class in 3-D!

Thank you for indymogul's tutorial!

Now you may know, the original 3-D films need us to wear a 3-D glasses otherwise, you can only see the ghost of red and blue just like the previous tutorial. The Principle of 3-D film is, as human eyes have different angles (if you do not notice, try to close one of your eyes!), the 3-D film use the same principle, they use two cameras in side by side in 90 degrees angles in order to make audiences have an illusion of depth view. (See How do 3d glasses work!)

However, nowadays we can view 3-D films without using 3d glasses, thanks for the computer graphic! We simply call that type of movies as "pseudo-3D films" and they definitely do not need two cameras worked at the same time.

IMAX - The superb 3-D films producer.

Probably you may heard of IMAX (http://www.imax.com/), it is a motion movie format, it used 15/70 mm film and it is 10 times of the normal 35mm films, it means audiences can see every pixels clearly on the enormous screen. Also, in IMAX theatre, the layout of the seats will be steeper and there would have many small holes in theatre to keep the audio clearer and create realism. The audio system there would use IMAX Proportional Point Source System, a 6-channel system with uncompressed sound, so the audience can enjoy movies with clear sound.

Besides of that, the IMAX movie use a different approach rather than the previous red-blue-glasses approach, it encode two films for left and right movies and play it simultaneously, with the 3-D glasses of IMAX, audiences can receive two movies in the same time and create a vivid effect.

This is the IMAX movie trailer for 2010, Alice's Adventure in the Wonderland! (For a larger version, click here)

The only IMAX in Hong Kong is in MegaBox, a shopping mall in Kowloon, you can find its location in the Google map. Also, according to the news (Chinese version only), a new IMAX cinema will locate in Tsim Sha Tsui.

MegaBox's location:

View Larger Map

I have heard of 4-D, what's that?

4-D film, it means that besides of the 3-Dimension experience, you also can have a physical experience, like raining, or feel the perfume ... etc. However, in order to create these physical effect, its cost is too high, so you would only view them on some theme park like Disneyland or some small venue. Practically, in the next few years, the widespread of 4-D films remain to be impossible.

Conclusion

As the cinema use harddisk instead of film to show movies, the cost would be lower and it also helps 3-D movies build their realm. Moreover, more and more movies remake in 3-D, like Tron, the bloom of 3-D films would be continued for a long time.

This is the finale of this series, do you know more about present and the future of movies? I hope you will love this series! Thank you!

Read more!

How do 3-D glasses work?

http://www.3dglassesonline.com/how-do-3d-glasses-work/

IMAX official website

http://www.imax.com/

Hong Kong MegaBox's IMAX official website

http://www.uacinemas.com.hk/eng/imax/imax_faq.jsp

尖沙咀新IMAX影院明年開幕 / MovieSoonHK (Chinese / Cantonese version only)

http://moviesoonhk.com/2008/09/09/isquare-imax-theatre-hong-kong/

Digital movies and future Series(2) - Storage Media

2009-11-08T00:16:00.007+08:00

What is the future of video and sound? The answer is... on the storage media! VCD, DVD, Blu-ray, HD DVD... I think you may familiar with these abbreviations, however, did you know their specifications and histories? Before knowing the future of sound, we can start with the historical journey of these storage media!

1. VCD, Video Compact Disc.
This is the first Digital media standard format in the world, established by Philips, Sony, JVC and Matsubushi. As its cost is low, now it spreads to the worldwide in a cheap price, and because of the low cost, easy to copy and without the protection of region code, VCD somehow still became a tool for pirate nowadays.

Let's see the basic specification of VCD:

Audio Format:	MPEG-1 layer 2
Bit rate:	224 kb/s
Sample rate:	44,100 Hz
Number of Channels:	2 (stereo)

Video Format:	MPEG-1
Resolution:	352×240 pixel /NTSC video 352×288 pixel /PAL video
Frame rate:	29.97 Hz (NTSC) 25 Hz (PAL)
Bit rate:	About 1.13 Mbit/s

As you can see, it resolution is so low and even the audio format is using mp2, not the one we most familiar with: MP3. The maximum minutes usually are 60 to 74 minutes, it means that it may not cover the whole in one disc, so it is common for VCD to have disc 1 and disc2.

Moreover, since it is using CBR(constant bit rate) for recording movie and audio, the quality of some complex scenes would be lower than VBR(variable bit rate). CBR means always use the same bit rate to encode something, VBR means the bit rates are changeable.

For example, to use the easiest example, like MP3, when you choose encoding some music or trans-coding from CD, after you use CBR for 320kbps, you will see the bit rates remain unchanged in the Windows Media Player or the other music player, like foobar2000. However, if you use VBR to encode the same music, you will found that the bit rate often changes, the lower for the quiet one, the higher for the complex one, like playing many musical instruments or echos at the same time.

Therefore, for the VCD, some complex scenes may not provide the best performance on screen.

2. SVCD, Super Video Compact Disc.
Since VCD's video and audio still have room for improving, the industries keep go ahead and create a new media called SVCD, Super Video Compact Disc. Just like its name, it is the super version of VCD.

Comparison between VCD and SVCD, let's see what it had improved!

Media:	VCD	SVCD
Audio Format:	MPEG-1 layer 2	MPEG-2
Bit rate:	224 kb/s Cannot choose CBR/VBR	32 to 384 kb/s Could choose CBR/VBR
Number of Channels:	2 (stereo)	1 up to 5.1-channel
Storage:	Up to 800MB	Up to 800MB
Video Format:	MPEG-1	MPEG-2
Resolution:	352×240 pixel /NTSC video 352×288 pixel /PAL video	480x480 /NTSC video 480x576 /PAL video
Bit rate	1.13 Mb/s Cannot choose CBR/VBR	2.6 Mb/s Could choose CBR/VBR

As you can see, the specification of SVCD highly improved the flaw of VCD. Interestingly, the SVCD format were first created by the China government's China Recording Standards Committee, it is even earlier than Philips and Sony union: Video CD Consortium's new product — HQVCD. At last, the China Recording Standards Committee co-operated with Video CD Consortium and make the SVCD standard in 1998.

Normally, most of the DVD players are not compatible with SVCD but some of the China products or products from big brands support SVCD.

3. DVD, Digital Versatile Disc / Digital Video Disc

The most common format of the last generation and it is still widespread after the appearance of HD DVD and Blu-ray. As the space of DVD increased a lot, also video and audio codec keep improving from VCD, make DVD got a better image than VCD and SVCD.

4. HD DVD, High-Definition/Density DVD.

HD DVD means a evolution of DVD, a High-Definition DVD. It is created by DVD Forum, supported by Toshiba and Warner Bros. However, as the Warner Bros advocates Blu-ray later and the turnover of HD DVD dramatically drops, cause Toshiba to relinquish this format war and stop the production of HD DVD and its player in 2008.

5. The winner of this generation, Blu-ray.

It is a format developed by Blu-ray Disc Association, mainly lead by Sony and has became the winner of the format war in this generation.

To know their performance, look at their comparsion on this table!

Media	DVD	HD DVD	Blu-ray
Audio Format	Dolby Digital (AC-3) DTS PCM(uncompressed sound/ lossless) MP1/MP2	Dolby Digital Dolby Digital plus DTS-HD MPEG Audio (lossy above) DTS HD PCM MLP (lossless above)	Dolby Digital Dolby Digital plus DTS (lossy) PCM DTS HD Dolby TrueHD (lossless)
Number of Channels:	1-7.1-channels	1-7.1-channels	1-7.1-channels
Storage:	Up to 4.7GB(single layer)	Up to 15GB (single layer)	Up to 25GB (single layer)
Video Format:	MPEG2	VC-1 H.264 MPEG2	VC-1 H.264 MPEG2
Resolution:	720×480 /NTSC Video 720×576 /PAL Video	1920x1080	1920×1080
Bit rate	9.8 Mb/s	29.4 Mb/s	40 Mb/s

Comparison between DVD and BD! (larger version? Click here!)

The future of video and sound? Lossless.

1. Dolby True HD

Click image to view its logo movie!

A lossless sound format developed by Dolby, according to its official specification, it has supported up to 14 channels and the maxium bitrates are doubled to 18Mb/s! Unlike Dolby's old products before, this TrueHD is lossless, it means that you can hear the raw, original sound from your home theatre with only one HDMI cable.

Technology Specifications

Sampling frequency: 44.1 kHz to 192 kHz

Sampling rate: Constant for all channels

Word length: Up to 24 bits

Blu-ray Disc™ channel support: Up to eight channels of 24-bit/96 kHz audio; designed to be expandable should the Blu-ray Disc standard adopt additional channels

Two- to six-channel support: Up to 24-bit/192 kHz

Maximum bit rate: Up to 18 Mbps on Blu-ray Disc

(Quoted from Dolby True HD website)

2. DTS HD

Click image to view its logo movie!

This is the product of DTS, it still compete with Dolby today. The DTS HD Master Audio is the rival of Dolby TrueHD as both of them support Blu-ray, HD DVD and they are lossless audio formats.

DTS-HD Master Audio Features

• Lossless Audio with variable data rates up to 24.5 Mbps for Blu-ray Disc and up to 18.0 Mbps for the

HD DVD format

• Up to 7.1 discrete channels with a sampling frequency of 96 kHz and 24 bits of signal resolution

• Up to 192 kHz sampling frequency and 24 bits of signal resolution for 2.0 channels

• Speaker Re-mapping with multiple speaker playback confgurations for 7.1 channel systems

• Secondary Audio/Sub Audio Stream for supplemental audio content

(Quoted from white paper of DTS HD)

As you can see, the resolution of video have a significant increase after the new generation of storage media's birth. Of course, so were the sound. From the oldest VCD to Blu-ray nowadays, the codec of sound or the sound system of these latest storage media had also undergone a big evolution.

Conclusion
As the generation tries to move on to high resolution and loseless audio, the trend of high definition would be continued by the industries. Maybe we can look forward the lossless video format for storage media in the next generation!

The finale of this series would be - 3D movies!
Wait for it!

Reference:

Principles of digital audio by Ken C. Pohlmann, 2005, P.305
http://books.google.com.hk/books?id=VZw6z9a03ikC&pg=PA305

Technical Explanation of SVCD — Philips (pdf)

http://www.ip.philips.com/view_attachment/2450/sl00812.pdf

DVD FAQ

http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html

HD DVD, white paper in Japanese (pdf)

http://www.dvdforum.org/images/DVD_Forum_Whitepaper-JPN.pdf

HD DVD - A Technical Introduction in English (PDF)

http://www.dvdforum.org/images/Forum_HD_DVD_Universal_24.pdf

Warner Bros. Entertainment to Release Its High-Definition DVD Titles Exclusively in the Blu-Ray Disc Format Beginning Later This Year

http://www.timewarner.com/corp/newsroom/pr/0,20812,1700383,00.html

Toshiba, ＨＤＤＶＤ事業の終息について

http://www.toshiba.co.jp/about/press/2008_02/pr_j1903.htm

Dolby TrueHD official introduction

http://www.dolby.com/professional/technology/home-theater/dolby-truehd.html

DTS HD official introduction
http://www.dts.com/DTS_Audio_Formats/DTS-HD_Master_Audio.aspx

White paper of DTS HD (pdf)

http://www.dts.com/~/media/B962F033C9254AD4B62ECFC6293C9E86.ashx

Digital movies and future Series(1) - Cinema Sound System

2009-11-04T13:25:00.020+08:00

Hello! I think all of you must have seen many movies in the cinema, but did you know the technology system of the cinema? Bang! Bang! Will you feel surprised by the sound in the cinema? Well, sometimes I will. However, did you know the sound system they used where you are sitting? First, I would introduce the sound system we are using nowadays!

Look at this!

From the Broadway website, a cinema in Hong Kong, we can see something like SRD, DTS, etc. They are the abbreviations of the sound system developed by Sony and Dolby.

First, did you know this logo?

Yes, it is Dolby, definitely you did see its logo before some movies started. Dolby Digital is a company established by Ray Dolby, he also founded the "Dolby Laboratories" to technically develop the sound system, the first creation is a noise reduction system.

At first, the 35mm and 16mm film only support mono sound system, as it did not support stereo system, the atmosphere created for the audiences would be reduced. However, the Dolby Digital Sound could solve this problem since it can handle sound into stereo or more channels and provide a surround sound at the cinema. From the first Dolby stereo system in 1975 to now, Dolby has developed different types of sound system and it successfully became standard of the movie industries, so when you sit on the cinema, you are enjoying the fruit of Dolby laboratories.

1. Dolby Digital

This is analog film sound format first used in 1992 by the movie "Batman Returns". It is using multichannel to play sound and it is called as 5.1-channel.

Click the logo to view logo movie of Dolby Digital!

Dolby Digital Benefits
Delivers a worldwide standard in surround sound
Enables up to 5.1-channel surround sound for an enveloping audio experience
Ensures excellent audio quality for any Dolby Digital soundtrack
(quoted from Dolby official website)

As you can see, it is the prevalent standard around the world, and you can enjoy it on Broadway and many other cinemas!

2. Dolby Digital Surround EX

It is also called as Dolby Digital Surround Ex, the name we can see on the Broadway website is SRD-EX, developed on 1999.

Dolby Digital EX takes the Dolby Digital 5.1-channel setup one step further with an additional center surround channel (reproduced through one or two speakers) for extra dimensional detail and an enveloping surround sound effect.
Feature films originally released in Dolby Digital Surround EX (the cinema version) carry the encoded extra surround channel in their subsequent DVD releases, as well as onto 5.1-channel digital satellite and TV broadcasts.

(quoted from Dolby official website)

What is 5.1-channel? They usually included the left, center, right and left,right surround, these five channels could be called as 5-channel. What about the "0.1" channel? It is implying the Low Frequency Effect (LFE) channel, which specialized for those low frequencies sound between 3-120Hz only, this "0.1-channel" could increase the reality of the sound. Therefore, the 5.1-channel usually means the left, center, right and left,right surround and the LFE channel.

For the SRD-EX, it is different with the previous SRD system in 1992, it adds a center rear channel to the original 5.1 system, and it actually has 6.1 channels. Although it is a product of 1999, cinemas are still using this system on their theatre.

Then, tell me more about DTS!

What is DTS? It is the abbreviation of Digital Threatre Systems developed by the DTS Inc. It is the main competitor of Dolby and actually DTS developed many sound systems in attempt to defeat Dolby's system.

3. DTS Extended Surround (DTS-ES)

Click logo to view the logo movie!

Played back with a DTS-ES capable receiver and a 6.1-speaker layout, a movie encoded in DTS-ES will dramatically intensify the DTS surround effect. You’ll clearly hear sound effects — such as footsteps coming up behind you — along with other sounds that move front-to-back, and from side-to-side behind you. Even with an older DTS-capable receiver and a 5.1-channel speaker layout, you’ll still hear the center surround channel information; it will be “matrixed” or mixed in between the rear speakers. In either case, you’ll get the fuller, more realistic audio that comes with all DTS formats. (quoted from DTS official website)

This is the sound system developed by DTS and exclusively used in cinemas, also it mainly compete with Dolby's SRD-EX and Sony's SDDS. Its previous version is DTS SURROUND, which only had 5.1-channel, and the ES version increased to 6.1-channel.

All above are for Dolby and DTS systems, what about Sony's?

4. Sony Dynamic Digital Sound (SDDS)

As you see, it is the abbreviation we saw from the Broadway website: SDDS. It is developed by Sony and exclusively for cinema sound system in 1993. It used 8-channels, included five front channels, two surround channels and one sub-bass channel, actually it is a 7.1-channel system. However, it is quite expensive for companies to produce in 7.1-channel, only 101 films used fully 7.1 channel from 1993 to 2007 June, according to Sony's official data in its website.

Since SDDS's late arrival and its expensive cost, the mainstream of movie sound system still are Dolby Digital and DTS's realm. After this belief introduction, do you know more about the sound system of movies and cinemas?

At last, what is the future of sound? High Definition!

Let's look forward to the next article of "Digital cinema and future Series(2) - Storage Media"!

Reference:

DTS official website

http://www.dts.com/DTS_Audio_Formats/DTS_Audio_Formats.aspx

Dolby Digital official website

http://www.dolby.com/consumer/understand/playback/index.html

Logos

http://www.theaterintros.com/logos/

Sony SDDS official website

http://www.sdds.com/

台灣電影筆記(Chinese version only)

http://movie1.cca.gov.tw/Cinema/Application/Content.asp?ID=73

All the logo copyrights are belonged to their own companies.

Know more about film festivals!

2009-10-26T21:12:00.020+08:00

As film has became an prevalent entertainment around the world, the film festivals worldwide also become the hot topics towards movie lovers. In Hong Kong, most of the Hongkongers would know about Festival de Cannes (known as 康城影展 in Hong Kong). However, it is only the edge of the iceberg, there are numerous film festivals around the world!

I want to know some basic information!

According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, the first festival began at Venice, 1932. Then, in 1946, the most well-known film festival: Festival de Cannes held in Cannes for the identifcation of achievement on arts. These two festivals were accredited by FIAPF as "Competitive film festivals". Besides of that, FIAPF also accredits film festivals into these catagories: Competitive, Competitive Specialised, Non-Competitive and Documentary/Short Film.

W-wait! What is FIAPF?

FIAPF, it is an organisation established in 1933. For the film festivals, it aims to unify those producers, sales agents and distributors in those film festivals. Also it established a standard called "International Film Festivals Regulations" to supervise those festivals' qualities and make sure they had reach industries' expectations.

These standards included:

Good year-round organisational resources

Genuinely international selections of films and competition juries

Good facilities for servicing international press correspondents

Stringent measures to prevent theft or illegal copying of films

Evidence of support from the local film industry

Insurance of all film copies against loss, theft or damage

High standards for official publications and information management (catalogue, programmes, fliers)

(Quoted from FIAPF offical website)

Just like I mentioned above, FIAPF would categorized some film festivals into four categories, Competitive, Competitive Specialised, Non-Competitive and Documentary/Short Film. To gain the accreditation from FIAPF, they need to fulfil some regulations stated by FIAPF, such as the highest number of screenings or the duty of asking for any additional screenings.

Moreover, the FIAPF also have a classification system for their members to know which festivals are the most worth going. At the first time, only Cannes and Venice got the highest remark, which means the class "A" festival. Time flows, now there are more film festivals got the reputations of class "A", included Cannes, Berlin, Venice, San Sebastian, Montreal, Karlovy Vary, Tokyo, Moscow, Mar del Plata, Shanghai, Locarno and Cairo and they all also belonged to the group of "Competitive feature film festivals".

As you can see, due to the censorship and accreditations of FIAPF, big film festivals in worldwide could be more organised. Moreover, the "A" class film festivals' is accredited as they fulfil all the regulations and supervisions, its quality would be guaranteed. They would had more influences to the whole film industries too as you can see that news report often notice the circumstances of those A-class festivals.

What about Hong Kong?

For Hong Kong, we also had the HKIFF, as known as the "Hong Kong International Film Festival", which established in 1977, is one of the oldest film festival in Asia. According to the official website, it has already "screening over 300 titles from 50 countries in 11 major cultural venues in Hong Kong". As same as the Tokyo International Film Festival, the HKIFF also has became a big event for Hong Kong's movie industries and mass media.

In 2010, HKIFF will be started from 21 March to 6 April. Enjoy!

Reference

"film festival." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009
http://0-search.eb.com.lib.cityu.edu.hk/eb/article-9034269

"Cannes film festival." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009
http://0-search.eb.com.lib.cityu.edu.hk/eb/article-9471969

"FIAPF moves Locarno fest into A-list group" Variety. 2001
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117857713.html?categoryid=19&cs=1&query=%22A+list+festivals%22

FIARP official website.
http://www.fiapf.org/

"FIAPF Accredited Festivals Directory 2008" FIAPF, 2008
http://www.fiapf.org/pdf/directoryFIAPFv3.pdf

"Film festivals: from European geopolitics to global cinephili" P.56
Author: Marijke de Valck
http://books.google.com.hk/books?id=JotcRIeihQ8C&lpg=PA56&ots=iUwCfuycYK&dq=International%20Federation%20of%20Film%20Producers%20Associations&pg=PA56#v=onepage&q=&f=false

Hong Kong International Film Festival Society
http://www.hkiff.org.hk/en/

Review: Forrest Gump

2009-10-26T14:39:00.022+08:00

A well-known movie—Forrest Gump acted by Tom Hanks which also my beloved movie in my life.

I had enjoy the movie for many times and every time I watch it I would get something new.I had read the book of this movie and it is a really special book because it use the words from Forrest that it is not the simple word we use in our normal life.This movie is a story about a child who only has a low intelligence quotient (75).When Forrest was young, he was isolated by others because of his strange “magic shoes” that he need to braces his leg.

At the first time I saw this scene, in my mind, I thought it is unfair to Forrest because he are not smart and why he have those disability. However , Forrest show his strong-willed defy to life with always doing his best in every moment in life. “You are no different than anybody else is.” that his mother told him when Gump braced his leg and not allowed to study in normal school. It really sparkle a fire in my mind because sometimes we will think we don’t have the ability to doing something that others are already doing so. We will feel depressed and may want to give up and let go.

However Gump showed to me that even he is different from other ,he still try hard. In the War ,when others bulling him and in the basketball competition ,he still try do his best. And in his life ,he never put other’s opinion to his mind and it makes him became a strong man even he was isolated by others when he is in the military. Although Gump is not a smart guy but his life style is what we need to learn. Do not put other's opinion in the top because it will confused us and make us hand back in worry.

However Gump taught me that we just need to be ourselves, real, and responsible which can make us strong enough to life .Maybe God is fair. Even Gump need to deal with a lots difficulties, he have some valuable Friends such as Jenny ,Lieutenant Dan and Bubba.Maybe we sometimes take friend’s help for granted and seek them to be a “BEST” friend to us . However Gump showed a different version to me that he save Bubba’s life and try to achieve the dream of Bubba. He tries to help Jenny to leave her thorny life. Maybe we should not force our friends to give their help to us but to treasure what we are having now.

I am deeply affected by the ambition of Gump that he just do the things he willing to do .And at the ending of the story, Gump run for no reasons and he just run which really touching me. Sometimes when we are mystified by the failure, we do not know what should we do and will think do we need to give up or not. And we may have some dreams to achieve but we may not brave to do it by the reality and problems we may fear to. And we will decide to give up and regret it.

Therefore, Gump taught us that we need to seize our goals at the moment when we want to.“Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you are going to eat.”I am highly recommend this movie to you when you feel bemused with life. And I hope you will earn something by the movie! Share your feelings to me after you watched it!

Information:

Title: Forrest Gump
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Writers (WGA):Winston Groom (novel), Eric Roth (screenplay)
Release Date: 15 December 1994 (Hong Kong)
Genre: Comedy | Drama | Romance | War
Plot: Forrest Gump, while not intelligent, has accidentally been present at many historic moments, but his true love, Jenny, eludes him.
Awards: Won 6 Oscars. Another 32 wins & 38 nominations
(quoted from IMDb)

Movie & Internet series (1): How can we know movie information from the Internet?

2009-10-20T19:56:00.037+08:00

Nowadays, movie has became one of the prevalent entertainment in Hong Kong. It is easy for us to find movie information through the Internet.

Then, how can we found out current movies' information in Hong Kong?

It is easy, first for the current or upcoming movie in Hong Kong, you can use these websites:

1. Yahoo! Movie (Chinese Version only)
http://hk.movies.yahoo.com/
In this site, you can check the synopsis of current movies and upcoming movies. Also, it has a column for the introduction of latest DVDs release.

2. Filmplay.com (Chinese Version only)
http://www.filmplay.com/

Here, you can check for the synopsis of the current and upcoming movies in Hong Kong, also you can use the tool of Google Maps in this site to check which cinema had provided which movies.

3. Broadway circuit (Chinese & English version provided)
http://www3.cinema.com.hk/revamp/html/index.php?lang=e

It is the official website of Broadway, you can use their website to check the current and upcoming movies' information and trailers of current movies. Moreover, you can buy tickets through this website, but you need to sign up an account first.

Okay, but what should I do if I want to find an international one?

1. Apple - Movie trailers

http://www.apple.com/trailers/

It is the movie trailer website in Apple, you can find out some of the current or upcoming movies' synopsis, official websites and trailers in different resolutions, for example, the majority of them provides a High-Definition videos for the trailers, you can choose among 480p, 720p and 1080p. Also, you can view the box-office on this week.

2. The Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

http://www.imdb.com/

This is the biggest Internet database of movies. You can found out the current and upcoming movies' information bu clicking the left column: "Opening this week" and "Coming soon".There will show some images and the basic information of the film. Also, there is a message board, you can see some comments of that movie too. If you want to buy DVD or Blu-ray, they would also lead you to the amazon pages.

What should I do if I want to find some information of the old movies?

1. The Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

http://www.imdb.com/

Sure! The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) can give you a favour! You just need to type the movie name on the search bar, then you can find the movie you like! However, for the Hong Kong films, such as "Shaolin Soccer", after you input the name of the movie in the search bar, you would find that the results show the film name on Cantonese Pinyin: "Siu lam juk kau", it would not show the international title on the heading.

2. Chinese movie database (Chinese only)
http://www.dianying.com/

For the Chinese movies, you may find it on this database. Also, Just like I had done on IMDb before, I tried to find "Shaolin Soccer"(2001) on this database and it can find it successfully. However, when I tried to find other Hong Kong movie such as "Golden Chicken" (2002), I cannot find it on this database, but on IMDb. For the latest movies, it seems to be no problem. This is an alternative way for those who want to find Chinese movies on a database in Chinese.

So, you see? To find the latest information on the Internet is just a piece of cake! If you want to know more about movies, expecially current and upcoming movies, visit these sites!

Next: Movie & Internet series (Finale): I wanna watch movie!