FilmBuff At Home takes a regular look at the technology being developed to improve our home entertainment choices. The FilmBuff perspective will ensure that you are empowered to make your personal viewing experience the best it can be.
Being a FilmBuff means a little more than 3D televisions and Netflix addictions–not that they’re wrong, either. It means a finer appreciation for the finer things in life, like an awesome poster to hang alongside your 3D TV while you’re watching Uncle Boonme Who Can Recall His Past Lives on Instant.
We love our iPhones, we’re not going to lie. It’s our baby, our precious, our best (only) friend. It goes everywhere with us and lets us do almost anything. You can shoot and edit video, which very cool for all you amateur filmmakers out there. Oh yeah, and you can watch almost anything and even have Netflix streaming. Just when you thought your iPhone couldn’t get anymore awesome-er, well, now you can shoot 3D quality video. That’s right, applause is appropriate now.
Remember when you were a kid and went on a trips with your parents and after you checked into the hotel, you ran straight upstairs to watch TV? And then there was an awesome button that gave you options to watch movies that weren’t at Blockbuster or the movie theater. They were in between these two releases. It was awesome…and LodgeNet (a company that provides the service to hotels) is looking to put their business in people’s homes!!!
At some point we all had to realize that, like the VHS era, the DVD era was going to come to an end. We just didn’t want it to surprise us. Netlflix surprised us by raising the monthly DVD fee (+ streaming) by about 60%–from $10 to $16 a month…and we don’t exactly like it.
There’s an agenda going on, an agenda worse than that of George Clooney’s nipple costume in Batman Forever. It’s called streaming your movies on the internet and Netflix has always and will continue pushing it on us. It’s cheaper for Netflix, it can faze out DVD’s and you will get it directly and instantly. We don’t care about how it will help Netflix, we care about how it will help us. And that is: not at all.
I don't care about your well-being.
Those who get the DVD’s get the newest titles. They get the new releases and the pleasure of waiting a day to get them in the mail when they come out. It’s awesome. They normally have to wait forever for something to come out on Instant…and then get a Roku box or some sort of cable to plug their computer into their television.
When things get complicated like that, too many cables and too many boxes, that’s where DVD’s come in handy. Sure, we like having what we want when we want it…mostly those are slightly older titles–but we get them on instant all the same. It’s easier and more fun than waiting when you can just stream it. But then we can’t be on our computers doing stuff while we watch.
So what do we do? Switch to Amazon Instant for everything? Rent it on iTunes? Or just pay that money to Netflix?
It could simply just come down to this: It’s more money. We like money too. It’s still a pretty solid deal, but we would rather them not charge more.
We like having DVD’s. It’s nice. In the great words of Albert Einstein: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
What about you guys? We are torn around the office. What do YOU think Netflix raising it’s prices?
Being a FilmBuff means a little more than 3D televisions and Netflix addictions. It means a finer appreciation for the finer things in life, like an awesome poster to hang alongside your 3D TV while you’re watching Uncle Boonme Who Can Recall His Past Lives on Instant. (We’d argue the actual Boonme poster, which you can buy here).
Seeing is believing and movie posters are themselves becoming high class pieces of art. They range from the geek-tastic (the limited run of teaser posters for Revenge of the Jedi, which would be retitled to Return since George Lucas realized under his canon Jedi’s couldn’t take revenge per se) to the newfound “actual” art being pushed by the crew at Mondo Tees, one of the many heads belonging to the film-related hydra that is the Alamo Drafthouse.
Mondo offers a lot more–ok, t-shirts–around March and September during the respective South By Southwest’s and Fantastic Fest, where they offer some amazing posters. How amazing you ask? Well, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (i.e. “The Oscars”) are now archiving their work, especially Drew Struzan’s work for Frankenstein.
That’s not all–Reelizer collects and provides an online archive for the works (both printed and conceptual) of art inspired by films from local double features like The Dryden Theater’s Night of the Creeps versus The Monster Squad to an alternative poster for The Town shifting the tone from Ben Affleck staring up at himself in nun outfit to high art:
The Town vs. The Town? Who ya got?
Want less poster art and more abstract? The gang behind Crazy 4 Cult has spent the last four years pumping out art inspired by classic concepts and it gets wrapped up in a handy little book now. There’s something mesmerizing about “Punxsutawney Murray” that just happens to be utterly frightening when you get down to it.
Half the fun of being a FilmBuff is all the inventive stuff we can surround ourselves with–and who wouldn’t want a bizarre mash-up of a groundhog and Bill Murray to stare us down over morning coffee every day? It’s a conversation starter and more importantly, it proves you’re one of the few who know how long he really spent in in Groundhog’s Day. TVs and streaming pricing plans come and change like the wind, literally as Netflix is shifting to a $15/month model for streaming and 1-DVD rights.
You know what doesn’t decay or disappoint your wallet?
Awesome art. Except for when you need to get it framed…but it’s worth it. And you can tell your future FilmBuffs all about why you’ve got such sweet stuff hanging on your wall while clicking around the Huluflixamatron 3000 to watch some old zoetropes.
We love our iPhones, we’re not going to lie. It’s our baby, our precious, our best (only) friend. It goes everywhere with us and lets us do almost anything. You can shoot and edit video, which very cool for all you amateur filmmakers out there. Oh yeah, and you can watch almost anything and even have Netflix streaming. Just when you thought your iPhone couldn’t get anymore awesome-er, well, now you can shoot 3D quality video. That’s right, applause is appropriate now.
Undeniably 3D is making its mark on filmmaking. Almost every blockbustetr film released has 3D capabilities. Whether this is to boost sales because of a bad script (you know who are Green Lantern) or because studios look to make even more money, it is still widely enjoyed by audiences for its immersive experience. We’d like to formally apologize that this post isn’t in 3D…but to make it up to you, we’re going to share some cool videos people created using their iPhones…
Someone even shot an entire music video in 3D! Even though red and cyan glasses are a must to get the full dimensions, it’s still pretty awesome. The process was done by mounting dual iPhone 4′s and aligning them perfectly while accounting for lighting and moving subjects. You can check it out for yourself below and watch the more in-depth 3D tests, here.
Thanks to the rising popularity of 3D in the comfort of your own home and on your computer, YouTube now features a 3D plug-in feature for all their 3D uploads that allows you to toggle the more precise settings of the video for the best possible viewing experience at home.
So if you feel like making a film where you eyes feel so dry by the end of it there’s a slight puff of smoke every time you blink, it’s now been made easier than ever. Do you think it’s as awesome? Do you think it’s purposeless? Let us know! And if you have one you’ve already made, give us the video link below!!
Don't you just love this cloud as you would your own child?
iCloud is coming out this fall. Sound sexy? If not, you’ve been looking at the wrong clouds. You can read a little bit about iCloud here, but the basic gist is that you can store up to 5GB of whatever you want online so you can access it anywhere anytime. “THAT MUST COST LIKE A MILLION DOLLARS THOUGH!” No, you are wrong. It’s actually free for iOS 5 users. So what does this mean for all you people who love iProducts and movies?
You put your movies on the Cloud and you can watch it anywhere. You can watch a movie on your laptop, then when you need to leave your coffee shop, you can take out your iPhone and watch it there as you walk to your car. Heck, even as you drive the car! Driving while on the phone is irresponsible! Then in the middle of your business meeting, you can take out your iPad and pretend to be listening, while still watching the movie instead.
Aaawww yeah. Cloud it up people. It’s time. Who’s in? Don’t say you aren’t buzzing even thinking about this!!!
We are cutting the BS, guys. We aren’t going to bore you with gigabyte, megabyte situations. This is straight up our opinion.
Listen. Everything these days is basically like watching Netflix Instant, Amazon Instant or having a Roku connect to your instant Netflix. Yes, Apple devotees love their Apple TV and supporters of google technology love Google TV. But we’re going to be PERFECTLY FRANK here. There isn’t much of a difference between Google TV and Apple TV. Apple TV wants 100 bucks up front for the box, then you can rent things for 5 bucks or get TV show episodes for a buck. It’s more like iTunes, really–a bit cheaper though…a bit. But honestly, the investment into the box also requires investment into what you actually view.
Google TV is like a higher class of Hulu plus (only you can’t get Hulu on Google TV…its been nixed). Granted, you don’t get new releases right as they hit the DVD shelves (if those still exist)–with Apple TV you do–but it’s worth it. The system partners with Netflix and in the long run, will save you money through that alone. Plus, it is just easier to use, it’s easier to find movies you may be interested in, and especially for FilmBuffs, it helps us find indie movies we wouldn’t normally watch.
Let’s be honest. It’s fun. We like to rate whole bunches of movies on Netflix. We don’t need another Hulu with more movies. The only thing Apple TV has going for it is new releases right to your TV. You still have to rent things for 5 bucks a new release (4 for older ones) and you still have to buy TV show episodes.
So what is everyone preference out there? Are you in love with Apple technology and will never stray? Or do you love the accessibility of the Google TV?
Remember when you were a kid and went on a trips with your parents and after you checked into the hotel, you ran straight upstairs to watch TV? And then there was an awesome button that gave you options to watch movies that weren’t at Blockbuster or the movie theater. They were in between these two releases. It was awesome…and LodgeNet (a company that provides the service to hotels) is looking to put their business in people’s homes!!!
LodgeNet’s bread and butter is in the interactive TVs found in hotel rooms and maintenance of the film catalogs. Variety broke down the enticing aspect to big studios: “LodgeNet’s service offered 359 titles…with 35 of those films each generating sales of more than $1 million.” That included major 2010 titles like The Blind Side, Avatar and Sherlock Holmes.
Major studios have been lukewarm toward home theatrical releasing, likely from the still-warm stigma of Direct-To-Video, which we’ve already unearthed from the dreaded “Variety-speak.” LodgeNet provides a model that has been working in a media-consumption world dominated by Netflix–even with second and third tier releases, plus partnership with Starz Media–and Hulu. Of course, we shouldn’t be worshiping yet at the LodgeNet altar–their plan is looking at a tiered format: $15 for new releases and then as low as $4.99 for “daily select titles.” Again, that always can add up compared to a monthly All-You-Can-Eat format like with Netflix or Amazon Prime, even with older and more random titles like Batman Returns.
Now that Netflix is getting into original content and a number of rather good shows are being pulled off from premium channels so they can offer them as App-based incentives, it wouldn’t be a terribly bad idea to start checking out every option as we get it.
But don’t fret–we’ve got you covered at FilmBuff when it comes to Instant media. Just add water.
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