OSCAR PREDICTIONS: WE ARE LIVING IN A GLOBAL ACADEMY: #OscarsSoGlobal

Posted on February 21, 2019 by mlsentertainment

 

Article by Marcus Siu

This year’s announcement for the 91st Annual Academy Awards nominations certainly has diversity written all over it.  Especially when compared to the “elitist” years of 2015-16, during the time when the controversial #OscarsSoWhite hashtag was used to protest the under representation of people of color in the nomination process when all twenty nominees in the acting categories were all white for the second year in a row.

After the immediate outcry, the 6000+ member Academy of Motion Pictures of Arts and Science (AMPAS) responded quickly and invited not only more black filmmakers, but international filmmakers, as well. That year, out of the 663 new members recruited, 46% were women and 41% were people of color.  That may have helped the nomination process the following two years, as, there were a total of eight black actors nominated for acting categories, with two black actors winning awards; Viola Davis for “Fences” and Mahershala Ali for “Moonlight” in 2017.

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Conversation Between Two New York Filmmakers – Martin Scorsese and Spike Lee at a Special Screening of BlackkKlansman”. -Pictured: Martin Scorsese and Spike Lee -Photo by: Kristina Bumphrey/StarPix -Location: Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center

Today, after a few years have passed since the #OscarSoWhite protest, it seemed appropriate, after 40 years of making unforgettable American films about American race relations in the black community, Spike Lee finally received recognition with his first ever “Best Director” nomination with “BlacKkKlansman”, which also received six nominations, including “Best Picture” and  Best Screenplay”, his second since “Do the Right Thing” thirty years ago, in which he shares writing credits.

Even though the Academy gave Lee an Honorary Oscar in 2015, he has always been highly critical and outspoken in the past about the Academy’s nomination process.  Being only the sixth black director to have been nominated for an Oscar, he will create history if he wins by being the very first black director to have ever won.

Despite not having a “Best Director” nomination, it was still encouraging to see Ryan Coogler’s film “Black Panther” getting seven nominations, which makes the people and the Kingdom of Wakanda especially proud, as it is the first time a comic book-based type movie was ever taken seriously.  It also received a Best Picture nomination. Not only has it reaped its rewards at the box by being the 9th highest grossing movie of all time, but it also surprised everyone by recently taking the top prize at the SAG awards for Best Outstanding Cast Ensemble.

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Yalitza Aparicio as Cleo in Roma, written and directed by Alfonso Cuarón. Image by Alfonso Cuarón.
 Photo courtesy of Netflix.

As with the lack of representation of black filmmakers over the years, the same could be said about any other race or culture.  Just last year, the National Hispanic Media Coalition staged a pre-Oscars protest a few weeks ago to call attention to the dismal representation of Hispanic Americans in film.  It is safe to say that it certainly didn’t hurt them this year with “Roma”, sharing the lead with “The Favourite” with ten nominations”.

With 17% of the U.S. population being Hispanic, you can expect excitement within the Latino community surrounding the Oscars this year with “Roma” leading the pack. It also received four individual Oscar nominations for Alfonso Cuarón alone (as producer, director, writer and cinematographer), which has only been done twice before by a director; Warren Beatty for “Reds” and the Coen Brothers for “No Country for Old Men”.

Also, having two Mexican actresses nominated in the same year for the same film in a foreign language Best Actress nominee, Yalitza Aparicio, in her first-time role, along with a Best Supporting Actress nominee Marina De Tavira is a historic first.  It could be a big night for “Roma”, Cuarón, Mexico, and Netflix, who has officially become a Hollywood disrupter with its original content. Viva Mexico!

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Tomasz Kot in Pawel Pawlikowski’s “Cold War”. Photo courtesy of Amazon.

Not only is Mexico well represented at this year’s Oscars, but so is Eastern Europe.  In addition to getting Best Foreign film nods for Roma”, Poland’s “Cold War” and Germany’s ‘“Never Look Back” have also each received a “Best Cinematography” nomination, and a rare “Best Director” nomination for Pawel Pawlikowski for “Cold War”.

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Rachel Weisz and Olivia Colman in the film THE FAVOURITE. Photo by Atsushi Nishijima. © 2018 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation All Rights Reserved

How can you say diversity exists unless you have some LGBTQ written into the scripts? Five of the nominated films for “Best Picture” certainly have them; most notably in “The Favourite” which takes lesbian royal perversity to new heights; especially with the final ending climax of the film. With the gorgeous Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone, how can a queen refuse this bizarre love triangle?

Other LGBTQ characters or themes in the other nominated films include Dr. Don Shirley, played by Mahershala Ali in “Green Book”, Queen’s Freddie Mercury played by Rami Malek in “Bohemian Rhapsody, Dick Cheney’s daughter, Mary, who comes out of the closet in “Vice,” and the son of a Baptist preacher is forced to participate in a church-supported gay conversion program after being forcibly outed to his parents in “A Star is Born”.

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Rami Malek stars as Freddie Mercury in Twentieth Century Fox’s BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY. Photo Credit: Alex Bailey. TM & © 2018 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.

If we were still living in 1989, the year that “Driving Miss Daisy” won for “Best Picture” and “Do the Right Thing” only received an original screenplay nomination for Spike Lee, and some fortune teller told you that a small independent movie about a young, gay black man growing up in an impoverished Miami neighborhood would be a future “Best Picture” winner…would you believe him?

Times certainly have changed with the Oscars and “diversity” happens to be the new word.  We are officially now living in a global Academy.

(This is a revised but similar article that originally appears in CC Magazine – Feb 2019 issue)

Oscar Predictions:

Best Picture: “Roma”
Best Actor: Rami Malek, “Bohemian Rhapsody”
Best Actress: Glenn Close, “The Wife”
Best Supporting Actor: Mahershala Ali, “Green Book”
Best Supporting Actress: Regina King, “If Beale Street Could Talk”
Best Director: Alfonso Cuarón, “Roma”
Best Adapted Screenplay: “BlacKkKlansman”
Best Original Screenplay: “The Favourite”
Best Cinematography: “Cold War”
Best Costume Design: “The Favourite”
Best Film Editing: “Bohemian Rhapsody”
Best Makeup and Hairstyling: “Vice”
Best Music (Original Score): “BlacKkKlansman”,
Best Music (Original Song): “Shallow” from “A Star Is Born”
Best Production Design: “The Favourite”
Best Sound Editing: “First Man”
Best Sound Mixing: “Bohemian Rhapsody”
Best Visual Effects: “First Man”
Best Animated Feature Film: “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”
Best Foreign Language Film: “Roma”
Best Documentary (Feature): “Free Solo”
Best Documentary (Short Subject): ”Period. End of Sentence”
Best Short Film (Animated): “Bao”
Best Short Film (Live Action): “Skin”

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A MOMENT IN TIME WITH “COLD WAR”: DIRECTOR, PAWEL PAWLIKOWSKI

Posted on February 13, 2019 by mlsentertainment
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Joanna Kulig & Tomasz Kot star in Pawel Pawlikowski’s “Cold War”.   Winner of five Europeon Film Awards.   Photo courtesy of Amazon Studios

Article by Marcus Siu

2018 was a banner year for film writer-director, Pawel Pawlikowski.  Last year, he was awarded “Best Director” prize for his film, “Cold War” when it debuted at the Cannes Film Festival.  In December, he won two European Film Awards for both his writing and directing, while his film took “Best Picture” honors, with his lead actress Joanna Kulig, taking the “Best Actress” award.

The journey continues this year for Pawlikowski, as he was just recently nominated for “Best Director” at this year’s Academy Awards, which is certainly a rare feat that only few international directors have accomplished for a foreign film.

As Pawlikowski was honored with yet another award (“Outstanding Directors of the Year”) shared with the “other” four Academy Award nominees at the Santa Barbara Film Festival, he discovered his airplane flight from Southern California to the Bay Area was going to be delayed due to inclement weather.  That would have certainly postponed his arrival as he was due to give a Q&A in San Francisco for a private screening for “Cold War” that evening.

Like the instincts of a prominent film director and not afraid of taking any risks, he made his decision swiftly and on the spot. Without hesitation, he rented a car and drove eight hours through California’s rampant storms and pouring rain to make it on time for his Q&A.  Since the Bay Area hadn’t seen that much rain in quite awhile, it was very questionable to the audience that there would be one.  Luckily for the audience, he managed to show up on time and unharmed.

The fierce weather that evening seemed to have symbolized the stormy torrential relationship of the passionate couple in his latest movie, “Cold War”, a tumultuous love story set in Post-war Europe.  The film is loosely based on Pawlikowski’s parents who had passed away in 1989, at the end of the Cold War before the Berlin wall came down.  It is a story about two very different people with very different backgrounds, temperaments and ambitions that spans nearly 20 years from the 1940’s that takes place in Poland, Berlin, Yugoslavia and Paris that were destined to be together.

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Joanna Kulig as Zula & Tomasz Kot as Wiktor in Pawel Pawlikowski’s “Cold War”. Photo courtesy of Amazon Studios.

Ironically, besides their obvious desire for one another,  the only real common link was that they are both accomplished musicians.   Wiktor, (Tomasz Kot), is a extremely talented musician, whose musical passion is mainly with Western music, specifically in jazz, whereas Zula, (Joanna Kulig), is a singer/dancer who eventually becomes the star of the Mazurek, a Polish folk arts ensemble that Wiktor leads as musical director.  Though having no real interest in Polish folk music, Wiktor uses his occupational position as a way to funnel musical talent, such as Zula, who will eventually record a “Western influenced” vocal album in France under his guidance that becomes a artistic success, even though she despises him for it.

Other than that, they are complete opposites of one another.

With a precarious relationship already established surrounded by an ever increasing growing social-political environmental climate, it makes it even more problematic for the couple.  As the Mazurek increasingly becomes a more successful international ensemble, the Stalinist regime takes advantage of their popularity and uses them specifically for communist political propaganda purposes mainly for their own benefit, and in the meantime, bans all of Western music in Poland.

Again, there is no option but for Wiktor to go West to Paris for his “musical desires” and escape for personal freedom, whereas Zulu is just fine living in her village surrounded with communism…or is she?

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Joanna Kulig stars as Zula in Pawel Pawlikowski’s “Cold War”. Photo courtesy of Amazon Studios.

Prior to “Cold War”, Pawlikowski directed “Ida”, which won Poland its first Foreign Film for the Academy Awards, though it didn’t come without some controversy within their country.   In contrast to “Cold War”, “Ida” seems like a perfect companion piece for it.  Both films run less than 90 minutes long, shot in Academy format (1.33 to 1), and is in pristine black and white.  It wasn’t until after “Ida” was completed, that Pawlikowski was able to construct a real narrative into his story rather than just ideas and concepts.  He realized that to write the story for his film, he had to make it “not” about his parents.

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Tomasz Kot stars as Wiktor in Pawel Pawlikowski’s “Cold War”. Photo courtesy of Amazon Studios.

At the Q&A session, Pawlikowski was asked why “Cold War” was shot the way it was.

“Choices can be intuitive…this should be black and white and the right format for the story – One of things, I couldn’t think of any color palette for Poland at that time, it wasn’t very colorful, I wanted to the film to be punchy and dramatic as possible.  Some of the black and white scenes are much more effective than the colors of that time”, Pawlikowski explains.  As far as the Academy Ration, “I like directing around it, it makes you feel more inventive, no restrictions.  I like to do portraits and double portraits; it’s very good for composing in depth”.

It certainly shows in the stunning black and white images from Cinematographer, Lukasz Zal’s camerawork, as he just received his second Oscar nomination for “Cold War”.  His first is for “Ida”.  The details shine throughout both films.

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Joanna Kulig & Tomasz Kot star in Pawel Pawlikowski’s “Cold War” Photo courtesy of Amazon Studios

An amusing question came from the audience from a viewer who asked what it felt like to be nominated this year for “Best Director” for this year’s Academy Awards.

Pawlikowksi reflects from the previous evening…

“Funny, you cannot pretend you don’t care, and you get onto this elevator and it just carries you – what is fun is you end up with a bunch of film people who are completely with you and are great characters.  Yesterday I had a session with five nominated directors (Spike Lee (BlacKkKlansman), Alfonso Cuarón (Roma), Andy McKay (Vice), and Yorgos Lanthimos (The Favourite))… …such great characters… one of the good things is that you meet extraordinary people.

….  Overall, it’s a good experience…I recommend it.”

The audience roared in laughter.

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Pawel Pawlikowski at a recent screening in San Francisco.   Photo by Marcus Siu

 

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CAPERNAUM:  MIRACLES DO HAPPEN

Posted on January 4, 2019 by mlsentertainment

“Capernaum”, translates into “Chaos”, the original Biblical meaning of the word was about a place that was cursed, but also a place where miracles could happen. 

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Left to right: Boluwatife Treasure Bankole as Yonas, Zain Al Rafeea as Zain.  Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

Article by Marcus Siu

“Capernaum” begins with an emotional, foul-mouthed but sad-eyed Lebanese boy, named “Zain”, (Zain Al Rafeea), shackled in handcuffs in his prison uniform in a courtroom receiving his penalty for a crime.  After his sentence, he seeks justice by requesting that he wishes to sue his parents for the “crime” of giving him life.

Naturally, a child cannot legally sue their parents for being born in any country, but it certainly brings awareness that those around him that something has gone awry within his environment.  Especially of an undocumented child, like Zain, who has no papers or documents to prove he even exists.  Certainly, to pass judgement on his parents as the ones to blame would be way too simple.  Life is more complex than that.

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Left to right: Zain Al Rafeea as Zain, Cedra Izam as Sahar Photo by Christopher Aoun, Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

Through Zain’s point of view, we see how he got into this grave situation.  We see his unbearable living conditions, his abusive parents, and the unforgivable reason why he decided to run away involving his younger sister whom he adored.  Without much of a plan, we see him struggling to survive out in the in the poverty stricken shantytown streets of Beirut.

Somehow, he uses his street smarts in order to survive and to find shelter, where he befriends Rahil, a poor illegal Ethiopian refugee mother who takes him in as her own, despite working illegally.  He soon looks after her infant baby while she is away, not only as a “big brother”, but also as a maternal parent as they become his new “family”.

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Left to right: Yordanos Shiferaw as Rahil Photo by Fares Sokhon, Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

Director Nadine Labaki marvelously casted non-professional actors playing characters whose past resembled their own, set amongst the poor with its social-political problems and filmed on location, much like the Italian neorealist films.  Labaki explains, “I wanted to find people where there is very little difference between them and the character. And then I wanted to ask them to go on their raw instinct and just be.”

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Left to right: Nadine Labaki and Zain Al Rafeea Photo by Fares Sokhon, Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

In fact, Yordanos Shiferaw, who plays Rahil, was actually a refugee from Ethiopia and was living illegally in Lebanon while filming the movie.  Three days after playing a scene of being arrested in the film, she was actually arrested for not having an ID card and spent two weeks in jail, before Labaki and her husband, producer and composer Khaled Mouzanar were able to bail her out.

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Left to right: Zain Al Rafeea as Zain, Boluwatife Treasure Bankole as Yonas Photo by Christopher Aoun, Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

Labaki couldn’t command these non-actors to be able to act on demand, so instead of the typical “action” or “cut” that directors prompt with, she let the actors act at their own pace with her flexible script, and kept the cameras rolling.  The results are scenes that are authentic, heartfelt, and poignant that may be impossible from a professional cast, especially Zain Al Rafeea, who is a revelation.

After filming was complete, there was over 600 hours of footage which took 2 ½ years to edit the final film.  The first cut was 14 hours long, but was finally trimmed down to two to make the Cannes Film Festival in May.  There, it had its world premiere and it received a 15-minute standing ovation.  It also took the Grand Jury Prize at the prestigious festival and continued to sweep audience awards globally.

Miracles do happen.

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Left to right: Zain Al Rafeea as Zain, director Nadine Labaki at a recent Q&A session at the Smith-Rafael Film Center. Photo by Marcus Siu.

(Originally printed in the January 2019 issue of CC Magazine)

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DOCUMENTARY FEATURES SHORTLIST TO BE RELEASED IN THEATERS FOR THE FIRST TIME NATIONWIDE

Posted on January 1, 2019 by mlsentertainment
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For the first time ever, film audiences will be able to see the entire “short” list of the 15 documentary features that are contending for an Oscar nomination this year, including the extremely “highly” successful and “gripping”, “Free Solo”.    Photo courtesy of National Geographic.

Exciting news for movie-goers who love documentary feature films.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, led by its Future of Film Committee, will present “Oscars® Spotlight: Documentaries” a new program showcasing the 15 shortlisted documentary feature films in contention for the 91st Oscars. The films will screen theatrically in 13 cities nationwide starting December 31, 2018 through January 21, 2019. Participating theaters include AMC Theatres, Alamo Drafthouse Cinema and Laemmle Theatres.

“The Academy is thrilled to be collaborating with exhibitors and distributors to shine a light on the best documentaries of the year,” said Albert Berger, Academy governor and chair of the Future of Film Committee. “We want to encourage moviegoing and engage audiences across the country in our process as we move through the shortlists, nominations and towards the Oscars.”

Theaters and showtimes are subject to change; check your local listings in the following cities:

Austin Alamo Drafthouse Mueller
Boston AMC Loews Boston Common 19
Chicago Music Box Theatre
Dallas/Fort Worth Alamo Drafthouse Lake Highlands
Denver Alamo Drafthouse Sloans Lake
Los Angeles Area AMC Sunset 5, Laemmle Monica Film Center, Laemmle Playhouse 7 (Pasadena), AMC Promenade 16 (Woodland Hills)
New York IFC Center, Alamo Drafthouse Downtown Brooklyn
Phoenix Harkins Shea 14
Raleigh Alamo Drafthouse Raleigh
San Francisco Area Alamo Drafthouse New Mission, Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center
Santa Barbara Santa Barbara International Film Festival Riviera Theatre
Seattle AMC Pacific Place 11
Washington, D.C. Warner Bros. Theater at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History

Nominations for the 91st Academy Awards will be announced on Tuesday, January 22, 2019.

The 91st Oscars will be held on Sunday, February 24, 2019, at the Dolby Theatre® at Hollywood & Highland Center® in Hollywood, and will be televised live on the ABC Television Network. The Oscars also will be televised live in more than 225 countries and territories worldwide.

The 15 feature documentaries to be showcased are:

“Charm City”
“Communion”
“Crime + Punishment”
“Dark Money”
“The Distant Barking of Dogs”
“Free Solo”
“Hale County This Morning, This Evening”
“Minding the Gap”
“Of Fathers and Sons”
“On Her Shoulders”
“RBG”
“Shirkers”
“The Silence of Others”
“Three Identical Strangers”
“Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”

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TIME TO UPDATE YOUR BLU-RAY PLAYER TO UHD? TO 4K OR NOT TO 4K?…THAT IS THE QUESTION.

Posted on December 21, 2018 by mlsentertainment
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The Blu-Ray Association of America makes its debut at San Francisco’s Pepcom show. Photo by Marcus Siu

Article and photo by Marcus Siu

Funny how most consumers felt they were future-proofing their DVD player when they replaced it with an HD-DVD or Blu-ray player just ten years ago, just a few years after flat screen HDTV’s were initially introduced to the consumer market, replacing the traditional bulky CRT (cathode ray tube) televisions that hardly ever changed much since it was invented back in the Fifties.  Yet again, it seems history is about to repeat itself thanks to the advent of the latest Ultra HD technology or 4K.

4K “everything”, whether it’s Ultra HDTV’s, computer monitors, projectors, cameras, phones, media streamers, or Ultra HD Blu-ray players has become the hottest consumer trend in the market this holiday season.  It seems everyone wants a piece of the format.

In fact, according to the forecast by ABI research, they have predicted that more than a third of all households globally are anticipated to be 4K UHD TV’s by the end of 2021.  It will be very soon that the Ultra HD TV Market will be the new top-shelf standard of High Definition

Let’s face it, your standard 1080p HDTV that you bought is already looking drabby  compared with the latest technology.  Ultra HD TV’s or 4K televisions with its 3840×2160 lines of resolution has four times the pixels (as opposed to standard HD with 1920×1080 lines of resolution), translating into four times the sharpness. Not to mention, they are a dramatically thinner, lighter, and faster.

You get the picture?

The same obsolescence applies to Blu-Ray technology which has been the de facto standard for the last ten years.  Like Ultra HD TV’s compared to the standard HD TV’s, with the latest Ultra HD Blu-ray, you get double the resolution as standard Blu-ray, but you also get four times the sharpness.

Now with an ever-increasing number of UHD Blu-ray players out on the market today, is it worth upgrading your Blu-ray player to an Ultra HD Blu-ray player?

According to Victor Matsuda, the Promotions Committee Chair, who was here promoting and representing the Blu-Ray Disc Association at the most recent Pepcom showcase in San Francisco; it certainly is and the HDR Side by Side demo at their booth clearly indicates his answer.  It is not just the number of pixels of resolution that makes it a “must own”, but it’s the contrast and color; the HDR (High Dynamic Range) and its WCG (Wide Color Range) that gives a whole gamut and spectrum of colors; from the darkest of darks and the lightest of lights with a higher bit rate which gives much more information. It’s much more immersive and realistic to the viewer.

Matsuda says that today’s consumer can become a “superhero” when they partner their 4K TV with an Ultra HD Blu-ray player. “You’re becoming a superhero for the family, but you’re not a real superhero for the family unless you get that super hero partner.”, Matsuda continued, “You have a Robin for every Batman, there’s a Tanto for every Lone Ranger, and that superhero partner for the 4k UHD TV is Ultra HD Blu-rays.”

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The UHD Blu-ray player is the “Swiss knife for your entertainment center at home…it plays hard disks and plays all your streaming as well.”, Matsuda continued, “90% of the Ultra Blu-rays have HDR (the mandatory HDR-10 or proprietary premium HDR of Dolby Vision), but just make sure your 4K television supports HDR, as well. Pretty much all the major brands do support it: LG, Sony, Samsung, Panasonic…”

Matsuda explains; “Number, one, it’s the best quality that you can get for the TV, especially now that you have internet-based services and products…the disks are not reliant on any internet speed services.”  In other words, you don’t need a high-speed internet connection.  In order to stream and have a proper 4K experience with HDR you need at least 25mb per seconds as your internet speed to stream Apple or Netflix.

However,  currently only 20% of households have that as an average speed, though it is up from last year from 14%, and only 30% -35% have HDR on their internet-based product. With the future of 5G technology, this percentage is expected to increase dramatically.

In regards to Ultra HD Blu-ray catalog titles, as a general rule of thumb, studio movies that do well at the box office get released on the Ultra 4K format, however, Matsuda sites that there are three more factors that are helping bringing out titles. There is a demand for episodic television, such as “Game of Thrones”, and, older movies, such as the “Twilight” series which Lionsgate will be re-releasing. He also says that even smaller film studios are contributing to the mix.

Sales of Ultra HD Blu-ray players has seen a dramatic increase in year-to-year sales.  According to Matsuda – There has been a 66% increase from 2016 to 2017, as well as an increase in the number of disk releases; from 250 in 2017 to 430 titles in 2018.

“This is going to be the last format for Blu-ray players”, Matsuda remarked, which is itself a pretty surprising and bold statement coming from the Association that represents the technology.

If you do have a 4K TV with HDR, or intend to buy one soon, maybe it’s time to future proof your disk player yet again, but this time, become a superhero for it.

(originally published on 12/21/18 – Bright Blue Innovation)

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MAKING VR GAMES EXCITING FOR THE MASSES IN THE ESPORTS LEAGUE

Posted on November 15, 2018 by mlsentertainment

 

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Article and photos by Marcus Siu

A mere four years ago, at the Games Developers Conference (GDC 2014), VR gaming was going through yet another revival after several decades and had another chance to revolutionize the gaming industry.  During that time, Oculus was just a small little company funded from a Kickstarter campaign that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere before being acquired by Facebook.

Immediately after that, Sony PlayStation decided to jump on the VR bandwagon, joining Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.  Many thought it had the potential to completely disrupt and revolutionize the game industry and that everyone would be abandoning their game controllers in favor of VR headsets. In addition, many assumed Sony would take the PS4 platform into more of an online VR community of VR gamers, much like they have done with the success of their traditional online games.  Sony and Xbox had dominated with over the years allowing you to be put in the same community as your friends no matter where you are in the world.

Instead, VR gaming has mainly been a one-person/player experience, being shut into an environment virtual reality world where you are in isolation.  However, through social media and online communities, things are beginning to change all that.  Especially the devoted community for Survio’s “Sprint Vector” which recently made it’s debut on Esports in the VR League at Oculus Connect 5 this year.

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Survio’s Andrew Abedian, Senior game designer speaks at a session “Evolving VR for the eSports Scene” at the XRDC 18 conference in San Francisco. Photo by Marcus Siu.

Andrew Abedian, the Senior game designer at VR game company, Survios, was recently at the 2018 XRDC conference in San Francisco and talked about the grassroots evolution of how their game, “Sprint Vector” was turned from an early speed-running prototype that evolved into a pioneer multiplayer VR title in Esports, thanks mainly through the help of their online community.

“Humanity loves sports…there’s a great drive towards watching it because it’s so physical and athletic and stamina based…there’s a mental game with teamwork and strategy.  When you see a player going down the field you get a sense of what they are going through and the heart they are putting into it”.  Abedian continued, “On the other side of the coin you have Esports…which is really a mental game…highly dexterity based and drives with the mind”. “VR Esports are the middle ground”…”Sprint Vector is built around those concepts”.

He explained that “Sprint Vector” is the “middle gap” of real sports and Esports, where real sports is very physical and gaming is very mental.

In “Sprint Vector”, players achieve speed and mobility by pumping their arms like a runner and turning their heads to steer.  Other controls allow them to jump and climb, drift and fly at tremendous speeds.  It is a very physical game and to be a contender at a high level, contestants really do need to be athletic and fit.

Replacing the more conventional traditional teleport locomotion or joystick for moving around, Survio’s developed and utilized their proprietary “Fluid Locomotion” system in “Sprint Vector” which nearly eliminates nausea.   90-95% of the people have reduced nausea or no nausea”, explains Abedian.  That essentially makes it much easier for the players to stay in the games longer.

For spectators of traditional sports, this makes Esports much more credible compared to watching couch potatoes with close up shots of showing their incredible finger dexterity.

These players are sweating it out with their arms, twisting and turning.  Action in movement creates excitement within a real competition and it’s much more exciting to watch the players getting a real workout.

Prior to its official release this year, “Sprint Vector” was able to gain much exposure through GDC2017 where their booths were gathering crowds and their events were becoming spectacles by themselves with many onlookers cheering and watching above from the guard rails.

They also had tournaments, such as the Alienware VR Cup at CES2018, along with leader boards and prizes, sponsored by partners Alienware, Nvidia and Intel.

After its release in February, despite the game’s exposure throughout GDC and CES, the game was wearing thin after a few months and it was near impossible to find players online to compete with.  Many were already losing interest in playing the game and the numbers were dropping rapidly.

That all changed when Survios reviving the small but passionate community by organizing Happy Hours on Saturday nights, along with Speed Running Tournaments, facilitating game rooms and ensuring game play for those that were interested.   In addition, they also offered prizes for online competition.

Suddenly the community started getting bigger and bigger.

Even ESL started to take note of the devoted community and they eventually chose “Sprint Vector” to participate in this year’s Oculus Connect 5 show and into the VR League making their major debut on Esports.  $12,000 was awarded in prizes for the “Sprint Vector” competition.

“Not bad for a game that originally had no intention of being an Esport.” Abedian noted.

It was just last year’s Oculus Connect 4 Conference where Mark Zuckerberg announced his lofty ambition goals for VR:

“We’re setting a goal: we want to get a billion people in virtual reality.”

According to CCS Insight, there are approximately 22 million VR headsets that were sold this year and the number is expected to grow four fold to 121 million next year.  If that’s the case, then Zuckerberg will certainly hit his goal soon.

Maybe in the future we can have a VR League marathon involving thousands of participants.

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An attendee at the XRDC 18 conference at the Partner Showcase floor enjoying a VR Game in San Francisco. Photo by Marcus Siu.

 

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THE WORDS OF WHITE BOY RICK: MEET THE BAY AREA FILMMAKERS, WRITERS OF WHITE BOY RICK, TWINS LOGAN AND NOAH MILLER

Posted on October 8, 2018 by mlsentertainment
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Screenwriters of “White Boy Rick”, Logan and Noah Miller.  Photo by Marcus Siu.

Article by Marcus Siu

It’s been ten years since identical twins Noah and Logan Miller did the implausible by “literally” breaking into Hollywood.  The Fairfax natives snuck past the tight security during the San Francisco International Film Festival to pursue Academy Award winner, Ed Harris, where he just received an acting award at the Castro Theater.  Immediately after the standing ovation and Harris’ exit, the twins darted onstage on a mission and followed Harris behind the red curtains with an open laptop and their script.

When the twins got Harris’ attention backstage, the excited fast-talking duo persuaded the amused Harris to go out into the alley by the side of the theatre so he could hear what they desperately wanted to say and to also have him watch their two-minute trailer on their laptop atop a dumpster to pitch him the script of “Touching Home”; their autobiographical coming of age drama about their alcoholic father who attempts to reconcile with his two sons as they pursue their dreams of professional baseball.

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Richie Merritt (White Boy Rick, right) and Matthew McConaughey (Richard Wershe Sr.) star in Columbia Pictures’ and Studio 8’s WHITE BOY RICK.

Their mission was to make good on an eternal promise to their father; to make and dedicate a movie about him and show, despite his struggles with alcohol, that he was a good father who did his absolute best to keep his family together.

Along the same lines, it is with this same understanding about family that brought the twins their third writing credit with Sony Pictures, “White Boy Rick”, based on the true story about Richard Wershe Jr., a teenager who became an undercover informant for the FBI in Detroit during the 1980s and was ultimately arrested for drug-trafficking and sentenced to life in prison.

Before production, there were two different scripts floating around from two different production companies of the life of Richard Wershe Jr.  However, it was the Miller’s script that won each of the production companies over as both teams were drawn more to the emotional familial elements of the tale over the “gangster” themes.

Logan Miller explains, “I think just trying to look at each character as a fully formed human being in a two hour setting is very forced and restricted, but if you try to go through each person and figure out a little bit about them and not judge them morally, …they’re living their lives, they’re struggling, they’re just trying to get through the day like everybody else”.  Miller pauses, “That’s some of the great challenges but also one of the great privileges of writing…trying to understand people better.”.

Regardless if a character is a self-abusive father or a teenage kingpin crack dealer, or even the father of “White Boy” Rick played by Matthew McConaughey, who sells guns for a living, it’s hard to feel empathy for them if you are only looking from the outside in.  With the Noah and Logan Miller’s script, it shows the characters as real people who have real dreams but are struggling to make it in life in an ever-changing world.

(Originally printed in the November 2018 issue of CC Magazine)

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A WHALE OF A TALE – THE OTHER SIDE OF THE “COVE”

Posted on September 6, 2018 by mlsentertainment

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Article by Marcus Siu

If you’ve seen the 2009 Oscar winning documentary, “The Cove”, the film that brought international and attention to the masses regarding the slaughtering of dolphins and whales in Japan, led by renowned dolphin trainer Ric O’Barry and his team of activists and espionage filmmakers infiltrating the cove near Taijii, then you may wonder what has been going on since then.

Megumi Sasaki’s latest film, “A Whale of a Tale” covers many of those questions and follows up where “The Cove” ends.

Nearly ten years later, after Taijii become a major destination place to hoards of global activists, things have settled down quite a bit.  However, rather than focusing on the angst of the activists, director Sasaki mainly lets the town villagers from Taijii speak out instead, giving them a voice and a sense of more balance and humanity into the delicate subject.

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Whale Statue at the Entranceof the Town/ Taijiin Megumi Sasaki’s A WHALE OF A TALE (Photo Credit: FINE LINE MEDIA)

Since traditional whaling has been around for over 400 years, Sasaki also gives us a intimate portrayal and a glimpse into the many generations of the people and village of Taijii.  We hear from families who have no other skills, except to hunt for dolphins and whales.  We even hear from the people who run the esteemed “Whale Museum”, which is the main attraction in Taijii.   We even hear from activists and political figures views, including “The Cove’s activist”, Ric O’Barry, who gets “arrested” in Japan, because he has no passport.

While “The Cove”, with all its wonderful intentions to save the dolphins and whales, and exposing the truth of inhumanity to the western world;  it was told mainly from an activists point of view.  It unfortunately didn’t represent and capture the real voices of the people who actually live around the cove in Taijii.

That is where the strength of “A Whale of a Tale” comes in.

After all, there are at least two sides to every story.

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Taiji Whalers / Taiji in Megumi Sasaki’s A WHALE OF A TALE (Photo Credit: FINE LINE MEDIA)

The documentary A WHALE OF A TALE is opening at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema – New Mission Theater this weekend. Filmmaker Megumi Sasaki will be in attendance for a post-screening Q&A on Friday, September 7th and Saturday, September 8th at 6:30PM. Read the recent Washington Post review here and get tickets here.

 

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DOUG JONES RECEIVES LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD AT THE CALIFORNIA INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL

Posted on August 29, 2018 by mlsentertainment
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Doug Jones, recipient of the California Independent Film Festival Lifetime Achievement Award presented by CAIFF founder, Derek Zemrak at the Orinda Theater. Photo by Marcus Siu.

Article and photos by Marcus Siu

ORINDA, CA, August 25, 2018 –  After pulling off an all-nighter on the set of the popular TV series “Star Trek – Discovery” in his role as Commander Saru, actor Doug Jones was scheduled to fly the next morning from Toronto to San Francisco to be honored and presented onstage with a “Lifetime Achievement Award” at the California Independent Film Festival.

Not bad for an guy who has been unrecognizable to most of the public since he is usually behind  layers and layers of prosthetic makeup in the majority of his roles, but has become a Hollywood icon for over his thirty-year career by playing some of the most unforgettable characters ever created on screen.  The latest being “Amphibian Man”, the sea creature who falls in love with a mute woman, played by Sally Hawkins in last year’s Best Picture winner, “The Shape of Water”.

As soon as he arrived in the theater, he was sincerely apologetic to the cheering crowd for being late.   He certainly didn’t disappoint his legion of fans, including the many Trekkie’s, as some actors in this position might have taken a different approach, such as cancelling all together, but Jones seemed to care more about his fans than about himself and it definitely showed.

EARLY DAYS

Interviewed by CAIFF founder and President, Derek Zemrak , Jones recalled growing up as a “a very tall, goofy, skinny kid” in a small town in Indiana.  He was made fun of and picked on by all the other kids over the years.  To survive all that, he went on to become the class clown, inspired by the likes of Dick Van Dyke, Jerry Lewis, Danny Kaye…Carol Burnett, Mary Tyler Moore, just to name a few.  Those were “his” people.

“I’m inspired by that TV, so I should be on it one day”, Jones reminisced.  “All my friends are on there, so I want to join them, right?”.

While going to school at Ball State University in Indiana, in addition to being the team mascot, Charlie Cardinal (with the red bird suit) he was learning mime as part of the mime troupe, “Mime over Matter”.  His first job after graduating was as a street mime and contortionist at King’s Island, an amusement park in Cincinnati.

Jones explained that his “excuse” job to move to Los Angeles was to apply for a bank management training position for nine months, but was fired after eight months.

“As they should have!…Banking?  You don’t want to trust me with your money.” Jones exclaims. 

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Doug Jones and Sally Hawkins in Guillermo del Toro’s “The Shape of Water”. Photo courtesy of Fox Searchlight.

COMMERCIALS & MOVIES

Then he got involved in TV commercial acting classes in Los Angeles, and within six months he was a dancing mummy on a Southwest Airline spot, and the three years following that, did 27 commercial TV spots for MacDonald’s “Mac tonight” campaign that allowed him to buy his first house.

With his contortionist skills and his “flexible” reputation as “a tall, skinny goofy guy, who moves well; wears a lot of crud on his head and doesn’t complain about it”, his attitude, along with his affable personality helped Jones make that successful transition from TV commercials to the film industry; more specifically the creature effects makeup industry”.

Jones reminisced how he was referred to by a well-known stunt friend, who was well aware Jones could put his legs behind his head, which eventually led him into his first gig on his first major motion picture.

 “I got a call from the Stunt department…”, Jones explains.  “We want to you to come and meet us”.  After Burton demonstrates his skills, the stunt writer says “hang on a second, I’d like you to meet somebody… and he comes back with Tim “freaking” Burton.  So, after I wet myself…”, Jones demonstrated his skills again.  Jones got the part in “Batman Returns”, without even having any head shots.

In addition to playing the Thin Clown in “Batman Returns”, his other highlights include playing Billy Butcherson in the perennial favorite Halloween movie, “Hocus Pocus” starring Bette Midler; and the title role in “Fantastic Four – Rise of the Silver Surfer”.  However, he has become Guillermo del Toro’s “go to man”, in which he no longer needs to read the script for his films to accept the role.  He has worked in seven of his films, including roles of Abe Sapien in the Hellboy series, the Faun and Pale Man in Pan’s Labyrinth, and Amphibian Man in the Oscar winning Best Picture, “The Shape of Water”.

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The original costume worn by Doug Jones as Orlok from the forthcoming movie, Nosferatu,, scheduled to be released in 2019. Photo taken at the lobby of the Orinda Theatre. Photo by Marcus Siu.

DREAM ROLE & UPCOMING FILM

After having played so many monsters and creatures, Jones had just one dream role left…

“If you asked me ten years ago, what’s the one role you haven’t played yet you really would love to?”  My answer was “I haven’t played a proper vampire yet…I want fangs…I want to be a classic vampire…I’m too old and gross to play a young sparkly vampire.  Jones continued.  “Who’s old and gross? “Nosferatu!”.”

As chance would have it, Jones would get a call from Director David Lee Fisher, who did a 2005 remake of one of the first original German horror silent films, “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” that was shot over a hundred years ago; in which the remake updates the silent film with sound and dialogue.  He called to see if Jones wanted to play the lead role in his upcoming project, “Nosferatu”.  Little did Fisher know this was Jones’ absolute dream role was to play Count Orlok in “Nosferatu”.

“What’s really special…is the film in the background is all shot in green screen and the original footage from shot nearly 100 years ago will be all in the background.” Zemrak added, who came on board as one of the producers of the film, as well.

Jones also added, “not only did I get to play that character that I longed to play, but I got to play in the environment that Max Schreck got to play in.”

Something tells me with the enthusiasm and amazing talent of Doug Jones, this new and upcoming “Nosferatu” won’t suck.

The California Independent Film Festival continues this week:  https://www.caiff.org/

 

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SHURE SOUNDS LIKE HEAVEN: THE KSE1200 ELECTROSTATIC EARPHONE SYSTEM

Posted on July 15, 2018 by mlsentertainment
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Shure’s KSE1200 portable Electrostatic Earphone System shown at the Pepcom Show in San Francisco. Photo by Marcus Siu

Article and photos by Marcus Siu

Most consumers who listen to music through their personal devices don’t hear much of the nuance and detail that was meticulously crafted and constructed during the recording process in the studios.  Sure, they “listen” to their music through their headsets and enjoy it enough to sing and keep listening to it, but they really don’t “hear” the highly detailed and immersive sounds which recording engineers have meticulously captured.

There is quite a lot lost during the journey from that was faithfully recorded initially in the music studio to the path of the consumer’s ears.

At the most recent Pepcom Digital Experience show in San Francisco, some of the most cutting edge companies displayed their latest mobility wares, and featured a few audiophile manufacturers thrown into the mix, which was a refreshing change. Problem was that some of the companies couldn’t instantaneously demonstrate how good their audio products were since the surrounding booths would drown each other out and no one would be able to hear anything in the room.

Luckily, at the Shure booth, they didn’t have that issue.  Their audio demo was quite minimalist with a table that included an iPad attached to their KSE1200 analog Electrostatic Earphone System.

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Lyle Lovett’s “Her First Mistake” was the first demo from the Shure booth. Photo by Marcus Siu

When I put those little earphones on, the sound was so pure and lifelike that I felt I was put right in the actual recording studio alongside with singer Lyle Lovett and his band.  I could hear every little acoustic detail from his band, along with every breath that Lyle took while singing.  This demonstrated to me that this is as honest as music is going to get.  Even coming from the mainstream iPad, it was still unbelievable that the sound could sound so true.

My initial impression was how could something so light and small put out such detailed and realistic lifelike sound coming from these tiny little 5.8 ounce earphones?  It was disbelief for me for the first few minutes, and then I just surrendered to the music and just could not stop listening.

Not only that, but these lightweight earphones were extremely comfortable.  There was never an issue with “headphone fatigue” like other headphones I have tried on before.  After the first minute or so, I almost forgot I had them in my ears all together once I started hearing the music.

I really got into the music while I was moving and a grooving.  I was gettin’ down like James Brown and I’m sure the other fellow journalists around me probably thought I was a nut or just overreacting around the Shure booth to get some attention, but I was most certainly not.

I was so immersed with the music making that was produced through this system and was listening carefully to hear if I could discover any imperfections at all, which never happened.  This is as close to hear what the sound engineers hear in the studio.  Nothing to obstruct between your ears and the music.  It was just me and the music.  Pure and simple.

Actually, the KSE1200 Electrostatic Earphone Systems aren’t new with Shure.  According to Sean Sullivan, who gave me the demo in the booth, he explained that the Shure KSE1200 is the second product in Shure’s lineup of the Electrostatic Earphone Systems, but is the same system as the Shure KSE1500 (list price $2999) that included the same electrostatic amplifier and earphones, except that the KSE1500’s amplifier included a digital front end (a DAC; a screen on it, and also a DSP built into it).

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Photo courtesy of Shure

“So many people starting using the KSE1500 ($2999 list) with the analog input, but the price was still a hurdle for that.  The KSE1500, and now the KSE1200 both have an analogue input and the same circuity, literally the exact same electrostatic earphones for $1,000 less. Takes all of the digital front end and stream additional components out of the mix that people really already have in their players these days,”  Sullivan noted.

Nowadays, most people don’t need the additional components that were built into the KSE1500 system, since many media devices already have these components built in.  Bypassing these items, Shure was able to release the KSE1200 for $1000 less.  Especially that more than ever, common everyday media players have started sending digital audio out from their devices.  More and more of these players that have been coming out allows you to store massive lossless files already have great components, such as DACs,  already built right into them.

At $1,000 less, it becomes a pretty good deal.  Especially, if you happened to have heard the KSE1500’s when they first came out a few years ago.

But what makes these earphones extremely special compared to all the other ones out there is the electrostatic circuitry technology.  This is why these headphones sound like no other.

“The earphone themselves are driven differently than a standard speaker…so, in your dynamic speaker; you have your magnet, you have your coil, you have your diaphragm…all of that has a relative mass to it…and as fast as it could move, we’re so used to using these speakers…they produce really good sound, don’t get me wrong…”, Sullivan explains…

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At 5.8 ounces, music will never be “lightweight” ever again. Photo courtesy of Shure.

“however, the electrostatic driver is compiled of a massless diaphragm that literally weighs nothing.  It has a DC charge on it, and there are two plates that hold the audio signals at plus or minus 200 volts.  Those plates are placed right next to each other, but not touching and they create the electrostatic energy field between them.  The diaphragm is suspended between those, and because it’s massless, it moves as fast as that energy field can move, so there is no magnet or coil that has to force back and forth.,, the result is the fastest diaphragm, best transient response, clarity in detail…out of this world.”

I couldn’t agree more.  It sounded out of this world…and I felt like I was transported to heaven, but went back to earth after taking the earphones off.

Once you go to heaven, it’s tough going back.

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Photo courtesy of Shure

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