and Avatar is worth seeing in 3D. The surprise for me was Sigourney Weaver was in this film. Had I known that before seeing it I would have been slightly dubious about seeing it. But as it turned out she didn't detract from the film for me.
When I go and see a big special effects film I often sit and try and work out what composite layers and filters are being used to produce the effects and often I can roughly figure it out. However, this film has me stumped. I'd love to know more about it.
The film is colour rich. I'd love to know the file size of some of the scenes in raw format. Digitally producing faux neon colour is not easy. I have heard that one of the animators had to go back to the director over 150 times with edits trying to achieve the correct look on just one of the illuminated plants.
Then thinking more about that while watching the film the 3D aspect puzzled me. Ok, lets say you're an animator working on a scene and want to see how it looks in 3D. Can they render and then view the polorised 3D on their monitors? Can they edit in 3D? Getting a natural depth of field would be tricky. Yeah, I know the computers work it out, but too composite on top of that would be challenging.
So all that aside, the movie did actually take me along with it and sometimes I just forgot all the technical questions in my head and enjoyed what I was watching. I thought it was long. Maybe a little too long, but you get that from 'epics'.
This movie does signal a change and a step forward in entertainment. I would imagine this film is the modern day equivalent of going from silent movies to talkies and then b&w to colour. It is the benchmark. And judging from the lines of people waiting to see this I'm glad I'm one of them who had the chance to see it on the big screen.
Had a great weekend away visiting Mark and my family. Mark and I were up for a bit of adventure so we grabbed the GPS and a few co-ordinates for some Geocaches located out on the bay. This is how it went:
Stop 1: Russel Island.
Stop 2: Lamb Island.
Stop 3: Macleay Island
Last stop: Karragarra Island.
what you see above is my latest item of lust. The Midnight Shipstern Tidemaster watch from Rip Curl. Actually, it's the Titanium Tidemaster version of this watch that is my true heart's desire, however the price of this lovely time piece is way beyond my budget and almost made me drop the watch when the shop dude told me. He also gave me that "duh" look and said, "Yeah, that's because it's titanium."
therefore I loved it.
On the weekend I went for a walk. Mark joined me on this walk. He was down from Brisbneyland for the weekend. Now, I have to say, it was one of the most beautiful days for a walk.
Sydney Harbour is really one of the most amazing harbours in the world. There are tiny little coves like the one above dotted all around the perimeter. Some only accessible by boat, others only by walking a long way from the main road and others are just at the end of your average suburban street.
There was a nice breeze blowing and the yachts were out enjoying the harbour as well.
Yeah, pulling a bit of a face here in this one. Not only did we enjoy the paths through the national park we also snuck off the well worn paths to sit on the edge of the cliffs and climb over rocks looking for a geocache or two.
Top of the world Ma... Top of the world. I think Mark has more of a fear of cliff edges than Judo does. I was reprimanded once or twice for getting too close to the edge. One thing I really loved about this walk was that there was no time limit on it. We allowed ourselves time to just stop and enjoy where we were. No pressure, no hurry... until we got hungry and then enough was enough, we couldn't arrive at the pub quick enough.
So, by stealing a couple of questions from another 2009 review meme, I've come up with this one (Thanks Kookyknut for the inspiration).
and I really thought I would be.
apparently not. The bizarre behavior in my tank continues. Blanket suddenly decided to clone itself. This is the first time I have ever witnessed this sort of behavior in marine life - or any life for that matter. It was fascinating. In the above pic you can see blanket is stretching himself out into two forms.
In this pic above he has really started the split. His body has separated and he is still held together by his outer skin.
*Snap* Still has a small hold but that's about it.
Ta daaaa. Two Blankets. Both are very healthy. But this raises an important question for me. Which one is now Blanket? They are both the same genetic material. Do I continue to call them both Blanket? I'm thinking I should re-name one of them.... Hmmmm. Meet Blanket and Blanket's clone "Snuggie".
