Mar 26, 2010

Chris Evans Wins the Role of 'Captain America'

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After nearly two years of speculation, The Hollywood Reporter broke the news on Monday that Chris Evans will be playing Marvel Comics' iconic hero Captain America in the big-screen adaptation.

The movie, titled "The First Avenger: Captain America," was announced in 2008 after Marvel Studio's first production, "Iron Man," became a box-office hit. The names of many actors -- from established stars to mostly unknowns -- have been rumored to be up for the role for months. Action movie veterans Channing Tatum ("G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra") and Garrett Hedlund (the upcoming "Tron Legacy") were reportedly considered, as were TV regulars Chace Crawford ("Gossip Girl") and Scott Porter ("Friday Night Lights"). Even wild-cards like "The Office" funnyman John Krasinski tested for the part.

Chris Evans was a late addition to the roster of potential leads, but he had already established himself as a comic-book hero by playing the Human Torch in the two "Fantastic Four" movies. This goes against director Joe Johnston's stated intention to use an unknown actor for the role. But Evans is an American, which was Johnston's other requirement (and left out foreigners like Australian "Avatar" star Sam Worthington).

Finding the right actor to play Captain America has been pivotal for Marvel Studios because they have grander plans for the character beyond the one film. According to Johnston, "The First Avenger" is an origin story set predominantly during the 1940s, when the red-white-and-blue suited hero first appeared in comics. But the movie will also set up "The Avengers" -- based on Marvel's long-running team series -- where Captain America will lead a group of superheroes that will include Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man.

While fans of the comics have expressed their doubts at some of the candidates for the role, response to Evans has been uniformly positive. His performance as Johnny Storm in "Fantastic Four" and "Rise of the Silver Surfer" were widely considered to be the best parts of those movies. It's been said that Evans will sign a nine-picture contract that could see him appear as Captain America in multiple films, both on his own and with the Avengers.

Production on "The First Avenger" will begin in the U.K. in June. Hugo Weaving ("The Matrix") is in talks to play Captain America's nemesis, the Red Skull. It is the third movie in Marvel Studio's pipeline, following "Iron Man 2," which is coming to theaters on May 7th of this year, and "Thor," currently filming for a May 2011 release. "Captain America" is scheduled to open on July 22, 2011.

In the meantime, Chris Evans has two films set to open this year, both of which also happen to be based on comic books. Next month, he'll play a Special Forces operative in the adaptation of Vertigo Comics' "The Losers." Then in August he will appear in "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World," based on the graphic novel series.

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Mar 25, 2010

N-Viro Green Technology

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Environmentalists are continuously searching for green and clean fuel. While new energy solutions are being discovered, refined and brought further and further into the public light, something that does not get a lot of headlines is waste to energy. Now researchers are thinking about using this waste energy.

A good news come from N-Viro International which support this green technology. They convert various types of waste into beneficial alternative fuel products. Their clean coal fuel product of course will help us to save our green environment.



N-Viro Fuel has received alternative energy status from the US Environmental Protection Agency, which qualifies the technology for renewable energy incentives. N-Viro operates processing facilities independently as well as in partnership with municipalities.

As we have known, the consumption habits of modern consumer lifesyles are causing a huge worldwide waste problem. Some alternative energy companies are now developing new ways to recycle waste by generating electricity from landfill waste and pollution.

N-Viro green technology offer us an opportunity fuels. This is any type of fuel that is not widely used, but has the potential to be an economically viable source of power generation. Opportunity fuels are typically unconventional, and usually derived from some sort of waste or byproduct.


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Mar 3, 2010

Treasures From American Film Archives

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Academy Film Archive, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences™
Luis Martinetti, Contortionist (1894, 1 minute), peepshow kinetoscope of the Italian acrobat made by the Edison Co.
Caicedo, King of the Slack Wire (1894, 1 minute), the first film shot outdoors at the Edison Studios.
The Original Movie (1922, 8 minutes), silhouette animation satire on commercial filmmaking, by puppeteer Tony Sarg.
Negro Leagues Baseball (1946, 8 minutes), footage featuring Reece "Goose" Tatum, the Indianapolis Clowns, and the Kansas City Monarchs.

Alaska Film Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks
The Chechahcos (1924, 86 minutes), first feature shot entirely on location in Alaska.

Anthology Film Archives
Rose Hobart (1936, 19 minutes), artist Joseph Cornell's celebrated found-footage film.
Composition 1 (Themis) (1940, 4 minutes), Dwinell Grant's stop-motion abstraction.
George Dumpson's Place (1965, 8 minutes), Ed Emshwiller's portrait of the scavenger artist.

George Eastman House
The Thieving Hand (1908, 5 minutes), special-effects comedy.
The Confederate Ironclad (1912, 16 minutes), Civil War adventure, here accompanied by the original music score, in which the tough heroine saves the day.
The Land Beyond the Sunset (1912, 14 minutes), social problem drama about a tattered newspaper boy who yearns for a better life.
Snow White (1916, 63 minutes), live-action feature of the Brothers Grimm tale starring Marguerite Clark.
The Fall of the House of Usher (1928, 13 minutes), avant-garde landmark created by James Sibley Watson, Jr., and Melville Webber from Poe's short story.

Japanese American National Museum
From Japanese American Communities (192..., 7 minutes), home movies shot by Rev. Sensho Sasaki in Stockton, California, and Tacoma, Washington.

Library of Congress
Demolishing and Building Up Star Theatre (1901, 1 minute), the time-lapse demolition of a New York building, preserved from a paper print.
Move On (1903, 1 minute), Lower East Side street scene, preserved from a paper print.
Dog Factory (1904, 4 minutes), trick film about fickle pet owners, preserved from a paper print.
Princess Nicotine; or, The Smoke Fairy (1909, 5 minutes), special-effects fantasy of a tormented smoker, by the Vitagraph Company.
White Fawn's Devotion (1910, 11 minutes), probably directed by James Young Deer and the earliest surviving film by a Native American.

Minnesota Historical Society
Cologne: From the Diary of Ray and Esther (1939, 14 minutes), small town portrait by amateur filmmakers, Dr. and Mrs. Dowidat.

Museum of Modern Art
Blacksmithing Scene (1893, 1 minute), first U.S. film shown publicly.
The Gay Shoe Clerk (1903, 1 minute), comic sketch with celebrated early editing.
Interior New York Subway, 14th St. to 42nd St. (1905, 5 minutes), filmed by Biograph's Billy Bitzer shortly after the subway's opening.
Hell's Hinges (1916, 64 minutes), William S. Hart Western about a town so depraved that earns its own destruction.
The Lonedale Operator (1911, 17 minutes), D.W. Griffith's race-to-the-rescue drama, starring Blanche Sweet.
Three American Beauties (1906, 1 minute), with rare stencil color.

National Archives and Records Administration
We Work Again (1937, 15 minutes), WPA documentary on African American re-employment, including excerpt from Orson Welles' stage play of "Voodoo Macbeth".
The Autobiography of a Jeep (1943, 10 minutes), the story of the soldier's all-purpose vehicle, as told by the jeep itself.
Private Snafu: Spies (1943, 4 minutes), wartime cartoon for U.S. servicemen, directed by Chuck Jones and written by Dr. Seuss.
The Battle of San Pietro (1945, 33 minutes), celebrated combat documentary directed by John Huston.
The Wall (1962, 10 minutes), USIA film on the Berlin Wall made for international audiences.

National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution
From The Keystone "Patrician" (1928, 6 minutes), promotional film for new passenger plane.
From The Zeppelin Hindenburg (1936, 7 minutes), movies by a vacationing American family made on board this famous lighter-than-air-craft, one year before its destruction.

National Center for Jewish Film
From Tevye (1939, 17 minutes), American Yiddish-language film, directed by Maurice Schwartz, adapted from Sholem Aleichem's stories.

National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
From Accuracy First (ca. 1928, 5 minutes), Western Union training film for women telegraph operators.
From Groucho Marx's Home Movies (ca. 1933, 2 minutes).

National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution
From Beautiful Japan (1918, 15 minutes), early travel-lecture feature by Benjamin Brodky.

New York Public Library
From La Valse (1951, 6 minutes), pas de deax from George Balanchine's 1951 ballet, featuring Tanaquil Le Clercq and Nicholas Magallanes and filmed at the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival.
Battery Film (1985, 9 minutes), experimental documentary of Manhattan, by animator Richard Protovin and photographer Franklin Backus.

Northeast Historic Film
From Rural Life in Maine (ca. 1930, 12 minutes), footage filmed by Elizabeth Wright near her farm of Windy Ledge, in southwestern Maine.
From Early Amateur Sound Film (193..., 4 minutes), scenes of family life captured by sound-film hobbyist Archie Stewart.

Pacific Film Archive
Running Around San Francisco for an Education (ca. 1938, 2 minutes), early political ad, shown in San Francisco theaters, that helped win approval of local school bonds.
OffOn (1968, 9 minutes), Scott Bartlett's avant-garde film, the first to fully merge film and video.

UCLA Film & Television Archive
Her Crowning Glory (1911, 14 minutes), household comedy, with comic team John Bunny and Flora Finch, about an eight-year old who gets her way.
I'm Insured (1916, 3 minutes), cartoon by Harry Palmer.
The Toll of the Sea (1922, 54 minutes), Anna May Wong in an early two-strip Technicolor melodrama, written by Frances Marion, and here accompanied a performance of the original music score.
The News Parade of 1934 (10 minutes), Hearst Metrotone newsreel summary of the year.
From Marian Anderson: The Lincoln Memorial Concert (1939, 8 minutes), excerpt from a concert film, reconstructed from newsreels, outtakes, and radio broadcast materials.

West Virginia State Archives
From West Virginia, the State Beautiful (1929, 8 minutes), amateur travelogue along Route 60.
From One-Room Schoolhouses (ca. 1935, 1 min), amateur footage from rural Barbour County.

4 DVDs
DVD RELEASE: May 10th, 2005 (First Edition 2000)
SYSTEM: NTSC
SCREEN: Various from (Picture boxed) 1.15:1 to Full Screen (Standard) - 1.33:1
COLOR: Black & White/Colour
AUDIO: Dolby Digital 2.0 (Mono)
LANGUAGE: Silent/English
INTERTITLES: English
RUNTIME: 642 minutes
FILE SIZES: 6.64/7.34/6.54/7.09GB

download information via this link

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Digital Film Tools Digital Film Lab v2.5

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The ultimate film look plug-in Digital Film Lab simulates a variety of color and black and white photographic looks, diffusion and color grad camera filters, lighting gels, film stocks and optical lab processes. The power of the plug-in lies in its presets which can be loaded to achieve a variety of different effects. There are over 135 useful presets organized into black and white looks, color looks, diffusion, grain and temperature. Feel free to use our presets, modify them or create your own.

Features :

Color Correct
Color Correct manipulates the Black and White, Hue, Saturation, Brightness, Contrast, Gamma, Red, Green and Blue values of the image.

Diffusion
Diffusion creates atmosphere by reducing contrast while creating a glow around highlights or shadows. It simulates diffusion and fog filters as well aglows. In addition, a pre-built texture library allows you to add realistic diffusion to scenes as if you were adding diffusion directly to your camera lens.

Color Grad
Color Grad colors and or darkens only a portion of the image giving you tability to simulate any Color Grad or ND (Neutral Density) Grad filter. Presefor your favorite color grad filters are provided as well as the ability to create

MAKING DIGITAL LOOK LIKE FILM
The quest to make video and digital images look like film has been going on f years now. Some have even grown entire businesses around this idea. Without making judgements as to which medium is "better" than the other, let??™s swith the notion that video and film are completely different animals and both have their advantages and disadvantages. There are a number of factors to consider when attempting to achieve a film look: lighting, cameras and lenses, filters, depth of field, grain and frame rate. While some of these items are addressed during shooting, Digital Film Lab can simulate many of them digitally.

Lighting
In our opinion, the most important factor in achieving a film look is lighting. Don??™t just blast a scene with light. Make sure that you employ modeling in yo lighting, making sure that the shadows have some detail and that you don??™t completely blow out highlights. Video and digital cameras have a narrower contrast ratio than film and the limits of their brightness range are sharply defined, whereas film gently rolls off in the whites and blacks. Remember, you can always digitally make the shadows darker and the highlights brighter. Going in the opposite direction is murder and yields lousy results.

Cameras and Lenses
Another factor in achieving a film look is the video or digital camera. They frequently have their Detail or Sharpness settings cranked up. Detail controls the sharpness of the image and creates jagged, aliased edges. The first thing to do before shooting is to turn the Detail or Sharpness down. This can be accomplished by adjusting either a menu or pot inside the camera. Once turned down, it is harder to focus but will soften edges.Depth of field also plays a role in the way film is perceived and is a measure the amount of picture that is in focus. Video and digital cameras differ fro35mm film in that they have a much greater depth of field. This is a result of cameras CCD??™s being physically smaller than 35mm film frames.


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Digital Film Tools Digital Film Lab v2.5 or
Digital Film Tools Digital Film Lab v2.5

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