I've been working on building a new website to display my portfolio. I decided to use Wix.com as the platform for this website. It's still a work in progress, but here is the link to my home page. Check it out, let me know what you think.
http://brandondor9.wix.com/brandondorn
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Thursday, May 16, 2013
The Future of Iron Man
I recently went to the movie theater with some friends to
see the continuing story of Iron Man and Tony Stark. Iron Man 3 has reached
$700 million in the worldwide box office in the first two weeks of its release.
This film has already broken a couple records, it has had the biggest
international opening of all time, and had the second biggest domestic opening.
The Avengers is the only film to top Iron Man 3 in that category. All of the
Iron Man movies have been very successful in the box office, as well as the
other Marvel movies. Disney and Marvel Studios have released a flurry of movies
featuring other super heroes, such as, Thor, Captain America and the Incredible
Hulk. After the release of The Avengers last summer, everyone expects the Marvel
super hero story to continue. The Studios have had a difficult time figuring
out how to keep Robert Downey Jr., who plays Tony Stark/Iron Man. Marvel
Studios has gained a reputation for singing on their cast at a low-pay rates
and keeping them that way. Many of their super hero actors started out as
lesser known, low paid actors who were turned into super stars after one of
Marvel’s super hero blockbusters. Robert Downing Jr. was one of the few actors
who was able to avoid this. He was able to renegotiate his deal with the
studios after Iron Man and was able to get somewhere between $50 - $80 million
from The Avengers. Downing ended up being paid several dozen times more than
his co-stars. In the first two weeks of the release of Iron Man 3, Downing has made
over $35 million already. I wonder what it will take to get Downing to appear
in The Avengers 2. Iron Man has become the de-facto leader of the Avengers and
Downing has been the face of that character. Who knows what the studios will do
next, will they pay Downing a lot more to keep him? Or will they replace him with
another actor?
http://screenrant.com/robert-downey-jr-avengers-2-3-contract/
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Pepsi's Latest PR Stunt
Pepsi has released a new commercial that features one of
their many products, Pepsi Max. In this commercial professional NASCAR driver
Jeff Gordon changes his appearance by having facial hair, wrinkles and makeup
applied to him. He is made to look older and nothing like he normally does.
Gordon arrives at a car dealership with a hidden camera crew. The crew places
hidden cameras on the car, in a fake soda can, and in Gordon’s glasses. Gordon
meets a car salesman who suggest that they take a test drive in a Chevrolet
Camaro. The two men get into the Camaro, Gordon places the Pepsi Max can in a
cup holder and faces the hidden camera toward the car salesman. The salesman
still had no idea that anything out of the ordinary is happening.
Gordon starts up the car and floors it, speeding out of the
parking lot. The two men fly around corners and speed through different
obstacles. The salesman starts freaking out and telling Gordon that he needs to
slow down and stop driving crazy. He still doesn’t know what is really going
on. Gordon takes the Camaro back to the dealership and parks. Both men get out
of the car and Gordon reveals who he is and shows the salesman the hidden
cameras in the glasses, the Pepsi can and the hidden camera crews. The car
salesman is relieved to know the truth. The end line of the commercial is
“Pepsi Max – a zero calorie cola in disguise.”
The full length commercial on YouTube has already reached
over 28 million views. This PR stunt has been much more than a normal
commercial, it has raised all sorts of hype and been shared in all sorts of
social media. Even though the stunt was staged and Jeff Gordon didn’t really
take an unsuspecting car salesman on a crazy test drive and use hidden cameras
to record the event, this has been a great was to spread the word of Pepsi Max.
Thursday, March 7, 2013
"Disney Wars"
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In October of 2012, The Walt Disney Company announced that it was purchasing Lucasfilm and the rights to ‘Star Wars’ for 4.05 billion dollars. This huge deal would consist of Disney paying Lucas half the amount in cash, and the other half in Disney stock. Lucas ended up owning nearly 40 million shares in Disney stock. These shares would give him about a 2.2 percent stake in the 1.83 billion shares of Disney stock that are in circulation. Disney is now in the process of making a new Star Wars trilogy. They will be releasing the seventh episode in 2015 and Episodes 8 and 9 will be released every two to three years after the previous one. This new trilogy will continue to follow the story of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Princess Leia.
In October of 2012, The Walt Disney Company announced that it was purchasing Lucasfilm and the rights to ‘Star Wars’ for 4.05 billion dollars. This huge deal would consist of Disney paying Lucas half the amount in cash, and the other half in Disney stock. Lucas ended up owning nearly 40 million shares in Disney stock. These shares would give him about a 2.2 percent stake in the 1.83 billion shares of Disney stock that are in circulation. Disney is now in the process of making a new Star Wars trilogy. They will be releasing the seventh episode in 2015 and Episodes 8 and 9 will be released every two to three years after the previous one. This new trilogy will continue to follow the story of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Princess Leia.
In an article by Bloomberg Businessweek, George Lucas said
that Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, and Harrison Ford are all in the final stages
of negotiation to be in Star Wars, Episode 7. Disney has brought J.J. Abrams on
this project to direct Episode 7. Abrams has directed and produced blockbuster
films and series such as; Lost, Alias, Super 8, Star Trek and Mission:
Impossible – Ghost Protocol.
The original Star Wars was released back in 1977 and this
film made George Lucas into a visionary in the film industry. Lucas created two
more Star Wars films shortly after that. It wasn’t until the past decade when
Lucas made another Star Wars trilogy which received mixed reviews by his fans.
Many of the hard-core Star Wars fans had become convinced that Lucas had become
a commercial sell-out with the release of Episodes 1, 2, and 3. These fans
complained about many issues in the newest trilogy including the addition of a
character, Jar Jar Binks. Only time will tell how Star Wars fans will react to
the new trilogy that will be released two years from now.
Friday, March 1, 2013
House of Cards
Netflix has paid $100 million for two seasons of the new
series, “House of Cards.” This series is a political drama that stars Kevin
Spacey and Robin Wright. Netflix has announced that “House of Cards” is their
most streamed show. The show was released on February 1st, where
Netflix made the 13-episode show available for streaming. Most viewers of the
show ended up watching more than one episode. Chief content officer Ted
Sarandos spoke at the Dive Into Media conference, he said “We’re thrilled,
Netflix got more bang fro its buck out of “House of Cards” than it would have
using the same amount of money to license more traditional TV content.”
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said that he sees the business as
a long-term business opportunity. People who subscribe to Netflix don’t sign up
for their original content or for specific TV shows, they sign up for the
overall experience. “House of Cards” is just the beginning of Netflix’s
original content. Reed Hastings said, “You want to think of “House of Cards” as
a down payment on the potential to build real franchises.”
I believe that this is a great new way for Netflix to
increase their content on their website. Creating and producing their own
television series is ambitious and thinking outside of the box. I have not seen
“House of Cards” as of yet, but I intend to watch the pilot episode and see for
myself how it stands up to other drama series. I have had a subscription to
Netflix for nearly three years now where I stream movies and television shows
all the time. Netflix offers a large variety of content for a very reasonable
price. They are much cheaper than having some sort of cable or satellite
subscription. Releasing new, quality content on a regular basis is important in
keeping their customers happy.
"Life of Pi" and Rhythm & Hues
I recently went to the movie theater and saw the “Life of
Pi.” This movie is about a boy named Pi, who starts a journey with his family
to the other side of the world. His father owns a large variety of wild animals
and brings them along on their trip to Canada. During their long sea voyage,
they encounter a storm that disables the ship and sinks it. Pi is fortunate
enough to get aboard a small wooden lifeboat before the ship sinks. Pi’s family
and everyone else go down with the ship. Pi has to become resourceful enough to
survive on the open ocean for a long time with a wild tiger that shares the
same boat.
The “Life of Pi” is made up of a large quantity of CG,
including the ocean and the animals. Without these effects, the movie would be
made up of a boy on a boat in front of a blue screen. Rhythm & Hues is the
visual effects company that is responsible for creating the tiger in this
movie. Unfortunately, Rhythm & Hues has recently filed for Chapter 11
bankruptcy. There are more and more visual effects companies who are competing
for work in feature films. This is causing the price of these services to go
down and make it very difficult for these companies to maintain a decent profit
margin.
The director of the “Life of Pi,” Ang Lee, commented on
Rhythm & Hues’ bankruptcy. Lee said, “I would like it to be cheaper and not
a tough business fro VFX vendors. It’s easy for me to say, but it’s very tough.
It’s very hard for them to make money. The research and development is so
expensive; that is a big burden for every house. They all have good times and
hard times, and in the tough times, some may not survive.” It is sad to see a
company like Rhythm & Hues, that can produce such beautiful and stunning
work, struggle like this and have to file bankruptcy.
Monday, January 14, 2013
Copyright Infringement: It’s Everywhere
Copyright infringement can happen in all forms of media,
including film. The movie, The Hangover Part II has been subject to claims of
copyright infringement. In this movie, Ed Helms plays a character who has a
tribal tattoo around his left eye. This tattoo is the exact same design as the
one on the boxing champion, Mike Tyson. Tyson’s tattoo artist S. Victor
Whitmill had obtained a copyright for the “artwork on 3-D”. Whitmill filled a
lawsuit against Warner Bros Entertainment just weeks before the movie was
released in theaters. He said that Warner Bros had committed copyright
infringement by using his design in their movie and in advertisements without
his consent. Before there was any sort of ruling on this matter, both parties
came to an agreement out of court that resolved this problem.
Images are not the only things that can be protected by
copyright law. In 1985, Lucasfilm filed a lawsuit against High Frontier and the
Committee for a Strong, Peaceful America. In the middle of the 1980’s
politicians nicknamed the Reagan administration’s Strategic Defensive
Initiative, the “Star Wars” program. George Lucas didn’t want his film to be,
in any way, associated with this government program. This program wanted to put
anti-missile weapons in space. Lucasfilm had a trademark for “Star Wars” but
they were not successful in winning the court’s decision. The court decided
that these interest groups could use the term as long as they didn’t use it to
sell any product or service.
Adidas has been using the three-stripe marking on their
shoes and other products since 1952. Adidas filed a lawsuit against Payless
Shoesource, claiming that they had broken the law by trademark infringement. Payless
was selling shoes with similar logos of two and four stripes that looked like
the Adidas logo. Adidas got a jury trial that took seven years to reach a
verdict. During this time, 268 of Payless shoes were reviewed because of
similar, Adidas style logos. Adidas won the case and was awarded $305,000,000. Its
fairly easy to see that copyright infringement can be very costly and never a good idea to try and steal
someone else’s intellectual property.
Sources
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