theOven

It looks like we are heading for another DVD war between two of the mayor companies that produces DVDs and DVD burners. The two companies are Sony and Toshiba and they have both launched their own new DVD format, which they think should be the only format on the market.

Sony has introduced the Blu-Ray format, which have a storage capacity of 50 GB and Sony is going to used Blu-Ray in the new Playstation 3. Toshiba have introduced the HD-DVD which have a storage capacity of 45 GB and supports High Definition footage. Thosiba has also launched a HD-DVD Burner which puts them ahead of Sony at the moment. Toshiba also have more support from the film companies, and the HD-DVD is not that different from the DVDs we are using now, which will make the production costs lower.

Last time there was a DVD format war, they were fighting about the DVD+ and DVD- formats, that war resualted in that most DVD-players and burners could read and use both formats, and it didn’t make much difference which format you where using. This is less likely to happen this time, since the Blu-Ray and HD-DVD is too different. Both sides agrees that it should only be one format, however it will take time before they agree on which one.

Before the DVDs there was the war between BetaMAX and VHS in the time before the VCR, so it looks like this is a never ending battle. As the technology evolves there will always be more than one company that wants the biggest piece of the market, and introduce a new format that they will claim as the best and that should be the only format. I’m positive to the concept of one format world wide, and think that is important. However it must be another way of decide which format we should use. I’m not willing to spend hundreds of dollars on a product that I in a year time would have to throw away, because I bought the wrong format and then have to spend another couple of hundreds on the other fomat. I would rather wait untill they decide…whenever that will be.

Keep you self updated on the recent DVD war here.

While I’m on the subject of special effects and incredible stories…have a look at the new Narnia teaser, The Chronicles of Narnia; The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.
The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis was my favorite books and tv show when I was a kid, and I expect this to be bigger than Harry Potter and even Lord of the Rings, when it comes in December. There is more on the upcoming movie here.

I used loved the old television show in the beginning of the 90’s, where there was a man in a lion costume running around as the mighty Lion, and it scared the shits out of me. This movie will the best version of Narnia, one of the biggest adventures in the world, and the teaser looks great, have a look!!

After watching the Eurovision 2005 and can’t be anything else than disapointed, not only didn’t Norway win, but the whole concept that I previously claimed to be better than Australian/American Idol (and it still is) is changing. It has turn from a pop-culture songcontest from 1950’s to 1980’s to a sub-cultural western European songcontest in 1990’s to 2000 and is now turning into a east European eurotrash songcontest. Let’s clearify that I’m not a huge Eurovision Song Contest fan, but I am grown up with it as yearly event and find it an interesting concept.

The 2005 show:

In Kiev we are welcomed by a woman in a toiletholder-lady like dress, that is screaming something to you in a language that is suppose to be english. Than before every song we get to see some random pictures of Ukraine and Kiev, which doesn’t mean anything. After the songs you think; it can’t be any worse. Wrong! The Ukrainians puts two boxers on the stage, that isn’t as famous as they claim, to hit a little tiny bell. If you use boxers to hit something, at least let them hit something slightly masculine, please!

After the boxers and another screaming Ukrainian woman, who talks jibberish, we get the voting, 39 countries!! It drags on and on and on. Why are the countries that hasn’t gone through from the semifinals allowed to vote? Points after points goes from a Balkan country to another Balkan country, I’m just left wondering, when did Balkan take over the Eurovision? One of the most funny moments this year was when the Slovenian presenter had a bluescreen background that made it look like she was farting fire out of her ass, it’s just so trashy!! I have to admit that the winner was ok, and it was the right one even if Greece is half Balkan, however 3rd, 6th and 7th ?? Don’t get it. And as the British commentor said:”It’s interesting than the 4 biggest west European countries and the biggest contributers to the Eurovision are the 4 last countries; Spain, France, UK and Germany.”

Norway came 8th, which in my opinion was too low, but ok to be Norwegian. This is what the Eurovision webpage wrote about Norway:

“Norway’s Wig Wam were greeted by huge cheers as they took to the stage. It seems that Kyiv is being converted to their rock ‘n’ roll manifesto. Again, Glam somehow managed to squeeze into an unbelievably tight silver spandex suit, but it didn’t seem to restrict him and he belted out the song, while drummer Sporty grimaced in the background angrily – pure rock.”

We beat both Denmark and Sweden which is as important as winning. We did as the Balkan, swap points. Denmark gave Norway 12, Sweden 7. Norway gave Denmark 12, Iceland gave Norway 12, Sweden gave Norway 8 and Denmark 10, and Finland gave Norway 12 (don’t ask , I just remember). “We kept it in the club”, to put it as the British commentor said it. I think it is interesting that in a Europe that is uniting, we still puts us self in “clubs”, “groups” or “klicks”, except Spain, Germany, France and the UK. The Balkan sticks together, the Nordic countries sticks together and the former Sovjet Republic states stick together. But countires like the Netherlands, Belgium and Monaco did not, and didn’t even give points to France and Germany. Neither did Switzerland or Austria, which is bizzar since even countries like Turkey and Greece are now giving eachother points. You may think I’m putting to much into this, and I maybe you’re right however, it is reflexing something about Europe, and that is that east Europe is getting more powerful as it is joining the western society of Europe. Not only have they the same bad taste in music, they also have the same interests and agenda, and are bigger than western Europe.

The show ended with more screaming Ukrainian women and their newly elected President Yuschneko, which again isn’t not a normal scene in the Eurovision. I know that they are proud of their President and the Orange Revolution, but everything has its time and place.

This years highlight was the British commentator, I have never heard him commentate before, and he just nailed it. However we could hear a little bit of resentment towards what was going on, on our television screens in his voice. He has commentated for 37 years, and this year he only commentated all the trash and bad taste that was displayed, I didn’t hear one compliment coming out of his mouth. Yes he is funny, but it is sad that he couldn’t find one positive thing in this broadcasting after 37 years in the same job, up in his box. On the other hand it may not be that bad, as we say in Norway; ”Eurovision; the show everyone loves to hate!”

Lately I have been looking at thriller and horror movies for my Media Project script. I have come over a lot of intererting topics, but the most interesting for me have been that almost all of the films in this category deals with supernatural phenomeons or wrong use of technology. Is there a connection, can technology make us ever be able to understand the supernatural and how? The recent movie White Noise, deals with the topic of Electronic Voice Recording (EVR). EVR is voices of dead people recorded by electronic devices, and is one of the best examples on how technology is trying to prove things, that have been a myth.

Another question is if I believe in this, is this all a bizarre coincident or not. It guess it’s kind of like believeing in aliens. However, humans wants and needs to believe in something unknown and bigger than us self and I think it is health as well. A cocky human, can be dangerous in my opinion, and imagine if we all believed we were the most advanced and powerful creatures in the univers.

I just finished the book Angels and Demons of Dan Brown, and even if it’s not near as good as the Da Vinci Code, not that I’m a huge fan of that either, I think one of the reasons that they have become so popular is the fact that Dan Brown is using the old story of faith versus facts, religion versus science as his base of the stories. In Angels and Demons he describe a person that tries to prove that God exists through science, interesting and some what frighting though. What if technology or science in the future forces us to believe in God or a life after death?

Back to White Noise and my script, related to my studies. I think this is a interestig topic, however I see it as mostly fiction. Dan Brown gives out alot of facts in his books and than makes his own theroies and conspiracy based on these facts, which makes the it all more believable. The film industry does the same. However, it made me think; why are there so many movies made about this? Why am I making a film on a related topic? Is the film making us believe there is more to life than we can see or is it there really something out there?

I was sitting and watching the Norwegian final of the Eurovision song contest the other day on webtv and thinking: “Why on earth am I watching this piece of sh..?” I just don’t understand why I’m want to watch 40 years old men dressed up like heavy rockers from the eighties, singing like the Darkness, winning the Norwegian competition of the Eurovision. Can I blame my partents for forcing me to watch this as a kid or is it just that now that I am in Australia I see how sosial out of balanced the hole thing is?

This was my thoughts untill I watch a commercial for the X-factor on Ten; “Nine contestents left, a live audience and you will decide how our next superstar will be!!” Then it hit me: That’s Eurovision! It is the same concept, 8-12 contestents in each countries is put infront of a live audience and the viewer decides how wins, and the winner normally get fame and fortune in that country. Then the winner is sent to whichever european country that won last year to try to become famous in Europe. 25 contestents, songwriters and artists, infront of a live audience, and the viewers decide who wins! Not that I love shows like Idol and X-factor, but it made me think more about this.

So then I thought; the X-factor is based on the Idol-consept and so is Popstar. Is this really an original idea or are they all based on the Eurovision? It may be said that the Eurovision isn’t a talent competition, but I don’t agree with that. Every year in the national competition you see a new face and a few times the European winner becomes big stars because of their proformence in the contest; ABBA, Cliff Richard, Celine Dion, Secret Garden (I know they are only semi famous and Norwegian..), Sandie Shaw and Lulu. >Winners of the Eurovision They all went on and became huge stars all over the world, without people outside realising that they started their career in the Eurovision.

While Idol, X-factor and Popstar are a nice package of a TV show that is aimed at teenager and middle aged women who think they all are cute and talented, the Eurovision is a freak show of a song contest that could compete with the Sydney Mardi Gras parade on every level, for example there had already been a transexsual winner before we even heard of Miriam (the song “Diva” with Dana International competing for Israel in 1998). Idol is all about the money; phone companies loves it because 14 years old girls spend all their pocket money ringing or sms’ing on their favourite, the record companies loves it because it gives them a sure hit and they may be able to sell a few albums extra as well.

The Eurovision on the other hand is a competititon that reflex the trends in Europe both the underground culture and the pop culture. The voting also reflex, not only the “best” show, trendsetters and song, but also the political situation in Europe. If Romaina have done something that Switzerland didn’t like that year, I’ll bet you that they won’t get any points from them. And than you have all the ethnic groups that support their home nation; Germany always give Turkey max points because of all the Turks in Germany. Norway loves Sweden and give them max points, but Sweden looks at Norway as a little brother and don’t care and rarly give them points. Last year it made headlines that Turkey and Greece gave eachother points (they are no longer fighting over Crete)… The Eurovision is such a complex and historically popular TV-show that I don’t think Idol or Popstar will ever get even near the joy, anger and all the other feelings that the Eurovision creates. It has sustained since 1956 and is only increasing in popularity, and will outlast all the other talent shows for years to come. My thoughts of the Eurovision has change to be more admiration of a TV show that have lived its own life for 49 years and is impossible to recreate. It’s no longer a talentshow, a songcontest or a freakshow, it’s all.

We had some creative excersices at uni where we had to create or come up with a concept of a TV-show. And there was many concept that we came up with and there is 1000’s that can be created, but I don’t think that no one ever could make another Eurovision, it takes time to make something so trivia and powerful at the same time. It may be difficult for people outside Europe to see this and like it, but the next time some one in Australia asks me why we watch the Eurovision Song Contest I will say: “Because it is all that Idol is and so much more”.

And that concludes the points from the Oven(ian) televoting!!

While reading Butch’s blog, I remembered something I did read at the “Australians in Hollywood” exhibition last year at the Arts Center here in Melbourne. The exhibition had a section about how Australia was coming a “part” of Hollywood, with the new film studio on the Gold Coast. It also said that Hollywood isn’t what it used to be. Hollywood used to be the place to go if you wanted to be a star or a part of the film industry, cause everyone and everything that was important in the industry was located in the glam suburb of Los Angeles. This is not the case anymore, Hollywood has become a name that is used on the american film industry, not depending on where it is shoot or produced. Butch mentioned Lord of the Rings triology as an example that Hollywood isn’t the only place in the world where you can have enourmous motion pictures made.

The world is getting smaller, in the sense of that it is easier and better way of travelling, communication over the world continents is not longer a problem, with satellite telephones, internet broadband and email. Compared to the 50’s and 60’s when it was cheaper to build a set that looked like Paris or New York, then actually going there (they still have a New York set in Hollywood), that may not be the case anymore. Actually going to Paris or New York is a better alternative, money wise and the quality of you enviroments.

Adding to all this is trade agrements between countries, like the European Economic Cooperation and the Free trade agrement between USA and Australia. This agrements makes it easier make your film in another country and countires that may not afford to make a big film production can cooperate with another country in the same situation, without it costing extra in national taxes etc. Just look at the last Nicolas Cage movie, Ghostrider, that they are filming in Melbourne now. They are using Melbourne as a part of their locations, because it’s as cheap to do it in Melbourne as in the US, and that makes the location more important than the money.

You can see some of the same trends in Bollywood as well. Two years ago I saw a documentary of a swiss busdriver who made a fortune on driving Bollywood film crews around Switzerland on film shoots. According to this documentary Indians saw Switzerland as very exotic and loved the swiss nature. So it was normal for Bollywood producers to go to Switzerland to film. This busdriver, had also became a producer and did some acting for these movies he was working on and had become a huge star in Bollywood. This is just another example that the film industry no longer is attatched to a spesific place, but has become a world wide industry.

So what will happen to Hollywood? I don’t know, but it is still the place for big events like the Academy Awards and the world capital of glamour and luxury. But the term “Hollywood movie” is becoming more a negative decription of a film, than something positive. Hollywood is looking more and more like monument of what was and not what will be in the futures in the motion picture industry.