In my previous posts you could read about Blogging and Twitting, now it is time to cover the topic of Facebook.
Facebook
Facebook is another social networking website which focus mainly on giving ability to quickly navigate from one's friend site to another. Users can join and create groups according to their interests or areas of expertise. Groups or single users' sites may be public or private. One of the most amazing thing about facebook is it's pictures albums and simple, very responsive images editor (which was one of the first web-based image editor available on that scale). You cannot customize your profile's page as on other social networking services like My Space (where you can, for instance, use HTML while on facebook only plain text customizations are allowed) and whole website is rather simple. Which is good, as most people consider simplicity as main factor of any website.
Brief history
First version of Facebook called Facemash was introduced in 2003, and a year later TheFaceBook was launched. They weren't very successful, however many companies and individual investors found the idea interesting and started to invest money into Facebook. $12.7 millions venture capital investment has been made just before start, and till 2007, Facebook total implied value was around $15 billion. On the other hand, year 2009 was first since the Facebook has been established that turned positive cash flow.
In 2007 many new features has been introduced - among them, better API and developers tools (called Facebook Platform) which allows other programmers to create their own applications. using Facebook engine. For instance there are over 30 applications to access Facebook available for iPhone users.
My experience
As I've already mentioned I'm not a big fan of social networking websites and I agree
with many opinions gathered in this article. On the other hand, I must admit that I have my own Facebook profile. I created it a while ago mainly to put some pictures from my Greece trip. In fact, I'm not sure where those pictures go as I cannot see them now. Well, I don't care, it wasn't best idea anyway.
Have you ever been using Facebook on a daily basis? Time to time? Or maybe you don't really care about those social networking websites? Let me know.
Everyone knows what a blog is but how about this blue bird? Nowadays it is very popular and in short it is a weblog containing only very short entries (about 140 characters length) called a tweet. You can post it via web interface or you can use other tools, like external applications from your computer, phone or even by simply sending sms. It was established in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Ev Williams and Biza Stonea.
It is quite amazing how does twitter grow during it's relatively short period of time - after 3 years it has approximately 6 billions users and... How many tweets? Well, here you would go to a twitter searching engine with requests for tweets with iPad tag, one of the most popular topic recently. Open the link above and do not close the page. Check it back after reading this post - you would be probably surprised how many people tweets on it per minute.
Who use twitter?
Twitter is used by so many people that it would be hard to list even most popular of them. Among the twitter users you can find: Barack Obama, Bruce Willis or Juesus Christ. How about the companies? As with blogs, companies' public relations departments have adopted twitter as another communication transmitter and among others you can find Google tweeting about their hottest news.
What is your experience?
Did you even heard about twitter? Did you know that we, in Poland, have our own similar service called BLIP (Bardzo Lubię Informować Przyjaciół)? Have you ever use twitter or blip?
For me, twitter is absolutely waste of time - I really do not need to know what had Bruce Willis ate in the morning. Blog can be informative, twitter on the other hand is like access to totally useless information or a link to real one. And did you know that twitter has it's own blog? How surprising...
We use blogs all the time - to share our thoughts, to learn other people or simply to find solution on the problem we are googling around. And this isonly a tip of the iceberg as nowadays web logs are used in nearly everypossible area, for instance, politicians use blogs to promote themselves (see http://blogi-politykow.com/) and companies post "news" in the form of a blog (example: http://www.gnvpartners.com/web/category/blog/).
Digital communications was there long before first blog pop out. This part is boring and I'm sure most of us know what email or web forum is. But why blog? Well, Jorn Barger coined the term weblog and shortly after Peter Merholz used phrase we blog for the first time back in 1997. It needed only a couple of months for other users to start blogging with other bloggers on blogs.
Today everyone know what a blog is, many people maintain their own web log. Some of them treat this much too seriously [1] in my opinion.
On the other hand nowadays it is important to publish thoughts in proper form. What does it mean? First impression is very important so one's blog have to be nice looking - of course substantive value of the post is important too but most people browsing web need to make quick decisions on which content they would consume. One of the ways it is done is judging a book by its cover. It may not be fair but that's how reality looks like.
Even if you didn't want to read one's blog at the time you started searching for something it is quite possible that you would end up digging one or maybe even more blogs. It's simple - you wanted to read about some topic, you found someone who you share interests with, so you want to know more about him/her. By participating in blog's discussions you may find even more such people within posts' comments. So you jump to another blog. And another. It is called blogosphere - a net of blogs connected somehow. In fact, blogospheres create one of the largest community on the web [2]. In Poland we have about 2,800,000 blogs but only about 300,000 are active [3].
For many people blogs are very important which shouldn't be so surprising as, in fact, web log is kind of a diary with personal thoughts. Community has even established some ranking sites [4]. Additionally, many tools for easier searching through blogs content were made [5].
For over two years I've been working as a programmer and I was thinking about starting a blog for a couple of times. Why? Mainly in order to have access to history of ideas, workarounds and solutions for problems I had faced. Eventually, one of my friends started a blog (which is available at www.python-blog.com [6]) and grant me access to it. I still do not have enough time to write there as much as I would like, but I try my best. Oh, and I had written a blog engine for company I'm working for [7].
Occasionally I store feeds [8] to blogs I'm interested in. I'm also using Django's aggregator which provides quick access to entries from it's community blogs.
And how about you? Do you have your very own blog? Do you visit some blogs on a daily basis? Or maybe you are just ocasionally reading blog's entries if google redirects you into one?
Take a look at this. You can find there many tips how to make your blogging experience better. And more time consuming. There is even a book about it and you may get one on amazon.
Following the success of 1992's Reservoir Dogs, Quentin Tarantino released his finest film to-date, the self-proclaimed masterpiece Pulp Fiction. It is arguably the most influential of the last few decades. It is known for its rich, eclectic dialogue, ironic mix of humour and violence, non-linear storyline, and host of cinematic allusions and pop culture references.
Pulp Fiction marked the new-wave, avant-garde cinema, it became recognised for its vigorously exciting flavour and unfathomable cool. Revolving around a deconstructed narrative, composed of three stories, which are all insanely surreal, Pulp Fiction brings you inside a world Quentin Tarantino has successfully crafted through individuality. The film starts with a lavishly entertaining conversation of tension and wit between two robbers, one being Tim Roth and the other being Amanda Plummer, who kick-start the film with furious energy. This scene is then followed by the infamous conversation of Amsterdam and burgers between the justifiable "cool" of Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) and Vincent (John Travolta).
The film's title refers to the pulpmagazines (inexpensive fiction magazines) and hard-boiled crime novels popular during the mid-20th century, known for their graphic violence and punchy dialogue. Pulp Fiction is self-referential from its opening moments, beginning with a title card that gives two dictionary definitions of "pulp". The plot, in keeping with most of Tarantino's other works, is presented out of chronological sequence.
The cast of this film is truly excellent. Travolta got nominated for best actor at the Oscars but lost out to Tom Hanks (who truly deserved it as Forest Gump but, imo, not as much as Travolta did as Vincent Vega). The character of Vincent is a scum bag but Travolta's performance makes him lovable and funny and likeable. Sam Jackson also puts in a stunning performance (check out the referenced scenes).
Sure, Pulp Fiction is undoubtedly one of the "coolest" and "hippest" films around. Nevertheless it holds much, much more than that. The film stands as a piece which depicts the psychology of normal people who have been thrown into extreme circumstances, meaning their personalities have changed along with their situation. The film has countless recurring themes, such as redemption, vengeance, spirituality, morality, individual morals, and a person's mannerisms
@ Pulp Fiction: Vincent telling Jules about hash being legal in Amsterdam & a different metrics system in Europe – both on their way to assassinate bosses’ debtor
@ Pulp Fiction: My favourite and one of the most memorable scenes in the film -
@ Pulp Fiction: Restaurant scene.
This is without a doubt, one of the finest movies ever made. It has an Oscar winning script, great characters and some career performances from Jackson, Willis, Travolta and Thurman. The movie is so clever and well thought out, even though some people find it confusing. I say ‘rubbish’! The structure of this film is one of the things which makes it so good and original. When put in chronological order, the story makes complete sense, the structure is not a gimmick. Needless to say, the score (music from the film) is marvellous!
I could talk this film up all day but I won’t :) I you haven’t seen it yet, I strongly recommend you do. You'll see for yourself how films should be made.
Discussion topics
I wonder what is your reaction to high rate of violence in Pulp Fiction. Isn't it too messy and bloody in your opinion?
Do you find Tarantino's Pulp Fiction type of humour funny and original?
Also, could you please name your favourite director and his best movie?
Are you bored with dull and boring movies? Does it seem to you that Hollywood is more concerned these days with pumping out a lot of films rather than creating quality?
Assuming your positive answers I decided on continuing the film industry presentation theme and haveprepared some interesting information on the life and the movie heritage of my favourite director - Quentin Tarantino.
"I don't think there's anything to be afraid of. Failure brings great rewards in the life of an artist." -- director Quentin Tarantino, on the pressure to repeat the smash success he had with "Pulp Fiction."
Let’s get to the nitty-gritty then...
EARLY LIFE (BITS OF HISTORY)
Whether it’s starting a family or starting a career, the Tarantino’s like to begin early. Quentin Tarantino was born to Tony Tarantino, an actor and amateur musician from Queens, and Connie Zastoupil, a health-care exec and nurse who was just 16 years old at the time she gave birth to the would-be auteur.
By the time Quentin was 16 years old, he had already dropped out of Narbonne High School in Harbor City, California, to study acting at the James Best Theatre Company. At 22, he landed a job recommending (and restocking) films at the Video Archives in Hermosa Beach, which is where he developed his encyclopaedic knowledge of film alongside fellow filmmaker Roger Avary, with whom he wrote Pulp Fiction several years later.
FILM CAREER
FIRST STEPS
After Tarantino met Lawrence Bender at a Hollywood party, Bender encouraged Tarantino to write a screenplay. He directed and co-wrote a black and white amateur film called 'My Best Friend's Birthday' in 1987. The project started in 1984, when Hamann wrote a short 30-40 page script about a young man who continually tries to do something nice for his friend's birthday, only to have his efforts backfire. Tarantino became attached to the project as co-writer and director, and he and Hamann expanded the short script into an 80 page script. The original cut was about 70 minutes long but due to a fire only 36 minutes of the film survived. The 36 minute cut has been shown at several film festivals. Tarantino has referred to this film as his "film school". Although the film was by his own admission very poorly directed, the experience gained from the film helped him in directing future films. Even though the final reel of the film was almost fully destroyed in a lab fire that broke out during editing its screenplay would go on to be the basis for 'True Romance'.
Over the years Quentin has been working as: a film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. What many people don’t realise though is that one of Tarantino’s first acting roles was as an Elvis impersonator. Quentin frequently makes cameos in his own movies and in movies directed by friend and fellow filmmaker Robert Rodriguez, but one of his first real acting gigs came in 1988 when he played an Elvis impersonator on the popular television show 'The Golden Girls'. Despite performing in the back row of the 10-man “Elvis ensemble,” Quentin still manages to stick out like a sore thumb. Quentin Tarantino has also appeared in four episodes of 'Alias' in addition to his several cameos in feature films.
@ True Romance:The famous scene in True Romance where Dennis Hopper explains Christopher Walken's ancestry.
RESERVOIR DOGS
By 1988, Tarantino had written his second script, 'Natural Born Killers' and in 1990 he sold the script for 'True Romance' for $50,000. He decided to use this money to make his third script, 'Reservoir Dogs'on 16mm and in black and white with his friends in the leading roles. It was around this point that Tarantino left the video store to do rewrites for CineTel, a small Hollywood production company - it was at this time he met Lawrence Bender and struck lucky. Bender was attending acting classes with Peter Flood, who was divorced from acting teacher Lily Parker and knew Harvey Keitel from the Actors Studio. Keitel saw the script and was impressed enough to raise some more finance, act in the film and help Tarantino cast the main roles.
'Reservoir Dogs' is the debut film of Tarantino as a director and a writer. The film deals with the meeting at a pre-planned rendezvous of a group of robbers who have been involved in an attempted jewelry heist. The robbery has been organized by Joe Cabot with his son Nice Guy Eddie who have put together a team of six men, each with a different role to play and each with a pseudonym chosen by Joe. The robbery has gone wrong although the participants have still managed to get away with a quantity of diamonds. The protagonists believe that one of their number is a police informer and the film deals with the recriminations that arise from this.
What is the meaning of the title 'Reservoir Dogs'?
When Tarantino worked in a video store, he referred to the French film 'Au Revoir Les Enfants' as 'the reservoir film' because he couldn't pronounce the title. He combined this with 'Straw Dogs', a Sam Peckinpah film from 1971, to produce the title 'Reservoir Dogs'. Although Quentin chooses to remain quiet about this, this story has been confirmed by Quentin's mother and Roger Avary, among others.
The movie incorporates many themes and aesthetics that have become Tarantino's hallmarks: violent crime, pop culture references, memorable dialogue, profuse profanity, and a nonlinear storyline. The film has become a classic of independent film and a cult hit. It was named "Greatest Independent Film of all Time" by Empire.
Which films influenced Quentin Tarantino in the making of this film?
In the 1974 American film, 'The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3', the four hijackers of the subway train are all dressed alike (hat, glasses, moustache, big overcoat and machine gun) and had the pseudonyms of Mr Blue, Mr Green, Mr Brown and Mr Grey.
The scene which runs over the credits near the beginning of 'Reservoir Dogs' showing the characters walking in slow motion is a homage to a similar scene in Sam Peckinpah's 1969 film, 'The Wild Bunch'.
Jean Pierre Melville is also a great influence on Tarantino, he was the director of several stylish gangster films in France in the 1950's and 1960's which deal with honour and gangster ethics and are set in a bleak urban environment where everybody is cynical and impeccably dressed. The 'three way stand-off' appears in Melville's film, 'Le Samourai'.
Other influences include 'Rififi' from 1955 directed by Jules Dassin and 'The Killing' directed by Stanley Kubrick in 1956. The films of Hong Kong director John Woo are also a great influence on Tarantino.
However, City on Fire, a Hong Kong action movie directed by Ringo Lam in 1987 is by far the biggest influence on Reservoir Dogs. Tarantino has used a number of ideas in the film and these are worth outlining:
Just before the robbers in City on Fire rob a jewelry store, one of them says 'Let's go to Work'.
The relationship between Chow (the undercover cop) and Fu (the gangster) is mirrored by that of Orange and White.
One of the gang members kills a shop girl in the jewelry shop for setting off the alarm.
There is a scene where Chow is shot by a cop and kills him (Orange is shot by a woman and kills her) while Fu is shooting cops in a car by shooting at them with two guns.
In the warehouse there is a Mexican standoff.
A dying Chow tells Fu that he is a cop.
@ Reservoir Dogs: The greatest credit intro to a film, without a doubt.
And that would be all for now I suppose.
Please share your thoughts on the film scenes I preselected and linked. I'm curious if you've recognised them - I'm a big fan of Tarantino's works, so I know these dialogues almost by heart :) Also, give me a heads up if the article is going into the details of film-making too deeply.
Today I will tell few word about things and events that were inspired by "zombie films"
1) Zombie walk
A zombie walk is an organized public gathering of people who dress up in zombie costumes. Usually taking place in an urban centre, the participants make their way around the city streets and through shopping malls in a somewhat orderly fashion and often limping their way towards a local cemetery or other public space (a series of taverns in the case of a zombie pub crawl).
Few photos from USA zombie walk:
And short film from Warsow edition of Zombie walk:
Links:
http://zombie-walk.prv.pl/ <- if you would like to try Warsaw Zombie walk go here.
http://www.zombiewalk.com/ <- offical zombie walk page
http://www.joemonster.org/filmy/4475/Zombie-Walk-w-Warszawie <- films from few nice Zombie Walks.
2) Games: Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2
L4d and L4d2 are one of best games i played. If you like games you should try them i will link few reviews for interested. For none-gamers i link there 2 trailers ;]
Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_4_Dead_2 <- info about Lfd2
http://www.l4d.com/ <- official game page
http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/104/1045664p1.html < - lef4dead 2 review
3) Community
This section is about one page: LOSTZOMBIES.COM
Please check this movie:
Acording to www.LostZombies.com:
"Lost Zombies is a social network whose goal is to create the world’s first community generated zombie documentary. Members of Lost Zombies, have their own profile page, can submit photos and videos, as well as take part in chat discussions, and submit content to be used in the documentary."
Here is link to videos and photos generated by people all over the world. Some of them are really amazing work - http://www.lostzombies.com/video
QUESTIONS
- What do you think about Zombie walk ? Would you like to try it ?
- Did you know that such event takes place in our country/capitol/city ?
- What do you think about games inspired by zombie culture ?
- Did you ever play any "zombie game" ?
- What do you think about pages like www.lostzombies.com ? are they good idea? or this is just nerdy way of spend spare time ?
- Did you ever try to make some amateur film?
Horror film are very wide movie genre that's why we can split it between few smaller subcategorys:
Cannibal films (23 movies)
Natural horror films (154 movies)
Science fiction horror films (294 movies)
Slasher films (406 movies)
Supernatural horror films ( 416 movies)
Frankenstein films (51 movies)
Ghost films (185 movies)
Haunted house films (112 movies)
Monster movies (351 movies)
Religious horror films (54 movies)
Zombie films (218 movies)
Today i would like to tell you about my favourit subcategory of horror films - ZOMBIE FILMS!!
History first...
In the period of time that I like to call B.R. (Before Romero) the zombie as we know it didn't exist. Before 1968 zombies were something entirely different. They were a product of voodoo and the movies portrayed them as such. In films such as White Zombie (1932) and Revenge of the Zombies(1943), lifeless bodies were removed from the grave right after burial and turned into living mindless slaves obeying the biddings of a human master.
Just when the idea of rotting reanimations were about to go the way of an Ed Wood film, along came a man who would revolutionize the horror genre and breath new life (or undeath) into the zombie. A small budget black and white film titled Night of the Living Dead, written and directed by George A. Romero, hit theaters and drive-ins in 1968. The effects of Romero's ground-breaking treatment of the theme are still being felt today.
From the moment that we heard "They're coming to get you Barbara", the zombie became fair game again, and the gore effect became a staple of the genre.
In 1978 Romero gave the genre a much needed “fatherly” shove in the right direction with Dawn of the Dead (1978). The first to gather an understanding of where the genre was going was Lucio Fulci who ended the decade with the release of Zombi 2 (1979, 1980 U.S.).
The list of movies adding to the Zombie Movie History from the 80s is long and includes many of the classics if the genre: Dead and Buried (1981), The Evil Dead (1982), Day of the Dead (1985), The Return of the Living Dead (1985), Night of the Creeps (1986), Evil Dead II (1987), The Dead Next Door (1988).
It was also during this time that certain rules became staples of the genre, some accepted, some rejected, and others made fun of:
• If you didn’t die first, you ain’t a zombie.
• Zombies are not cannibals. They do not feed on each other only living flesh.
• The only way to stop a zombie is a well placed head shot. (Hammer, ice-pick, gun, axe, etc.)
• Intelligence is not a their strong point.
There are other rules that are deemed acceptable to bend if necessary, but these are pretty much untouchable.
Zombies exeples:
The George Romero arisen ones had the look of "every day". Their dress consisted of either the clothes that they wore in the casket at their funeral, or normal work clothes (i.e. waitress, mechanic). Injuries such as missing limbs were also common. Their intelligence was very low, and movement stiff and slow.
The zombies from Evil Dead were the result of possession by evil spirits, so their faces quickly developed a white crust over them. Pure white eyes with black circles around them are also typical. These demonic heartbreakers could carry on conversations and attack with focus.
This is "Bub", the pet zombie from Day of the Dead. Bub is a little smarter than his typical brethren, and is often seen with a walkman. Wrinkled bluish face ala Romero.
Braindead is considered the goriest movie EVER. The zombies reflect this, with blood and guts everywhere. Also characterized by black eyes and ripping flesh.
The Dead Next Door added quite a bit of blood and gore to the persona of the animated deceased. Other characteristics are broken chains from being locked up and face masks to prevent them from biting humans. Very dumb and slow.
Zombie Nazi from "Dead Snow" 2008 are one of the best zombies created between 2000-2009.
My favourite zombie movie scenes:
best movie/ best scene/ really bloody by Peter Jackson
(before he decide to create Lord of the rings series)
Bub the smartest zombie ever
NIGHT OF LIVING JEWS!!
One of the best Zombie-themed comedy
Few Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Zombie_films <- wiki page with all zombie movies titles
http://horror.com.pl/ <- page of polish horror community
http://www.homepageofthedead.com/ <- G.Romero fans page
http://www.homepageofthedead.com/baps/romero_interview.html <- very interesting interview with G.Romero from 2009
Questions:
- What do you think about "Night of living jews" and "Shaun of the Dead" trailers? Did they encourage you to watch these films ? ;]
- Did you know that P.Jackson made Braindead before Lord of the rings?
- What do you think about zombies ?
- Choose your most and least favourite genre of horror movies and explain your decision.
3 Social impact
Today everyone know what a blog is, many people maintain their own web log. Some of them treat this much too seriously [1] in my opinion.
On the other hand nowadays it is important to publish thoughts in proper form. What does it mean? First impression is very important so one's blog have to be nice looking - of course substantive value of the post is important too but most people browsing web need to make quick decisions on which content they would consume. One of the ways it is done is judging a book by its cover. It may not be fair but that's how reality looks like.
Even if you didn't want to read one's blog at the time you started searching for something it is quite possible that you would end up digging one or maybe even more blogs. It's simple - you wanted to read about some topic, you found someone who you share interests with, so you want to know more about him/her. By participating in blog's discussions you may find even more such people within posts' comments. So you jump to another blog. And another. It is called blogosphere - a net of blogs connected somehow. In fact, blogospheres create one of the largest community on the web [2]. In Poland we have about 2,800,000 blogs but only about 300,000 are active [3].
For many people blogs are very important which shouldn't be so surprising as, in fact, web log is kind of a diary with personal thoughts. Community has even established some ranking sites [4]. Additionally, many tools for easier searching through blogs content were made [5].