Category: media

“At their core, they’re still games. You can blast your way through BioShock II or Mass Effect II if you wish, ignoring the political and aesthetic accouterments that set them apart from their predecessors. It would be like watching ‘The Sopranos’ as merely an entertaining mafioso epic.”

“The problem, studies indicate, is that the films often cause unnatural eye movements. … [A] 3-D object flying off the screen causes sensory conflict. The eyes rotate inward to follow it, but they must also maintain a fixed focus on the display surface.”

The populist platform embraced by the presidential candidate in Robert Altman’s 1975 movie “included forbidding lawyers from serving in Congress (‘Did you ever ask a lawyer the time of day? He told you how to make a watch, didn’t he?’), taking on oil companies, abolishing the Electoral College and eliminating farm subsidies.”

With a redesigned logo unveiled Monday, “[t]he network — known more for its scripted reality show programming these days than the music videos and industry it revolutionized — dropped the ‘Music Television’ tagline from the Frank Olinsky-designed original.”

“There is no reason this game could not be set in any of the hundreds or thousands of generic hells that have hosted video games over the years. What Electronic Arts has done, quite transparently, is appropriate Dante’s brand to use as a light marketing skin on top of the God of War clone the company so clearly wanted to make.”

“The largest is the creative freedom allowed by nonprofit status. Another is Film Forum’s rigorous selection process. … And then there is the emphasis on marketing.”

“I would have hypothesized that there are two basic strategies for making the most-e-mailed list. One, which I’ve happily employed, is to write anything about sex. The other, which I’m still working on, is to write an article headlined: ‘How Your Pet’s Diet Threatens Your Marriage, and Why It’s Bush’s Fault.'” Not so, researchers have found.

“Whatever it is, many of us have a TV theme tune we cherish, in many cases more than the show itself. Getting it right is crucial for the army of composers who score music to fit the type of programme.”

“Whereas all other categories will use the same system used in the past — every voter gets to pick one of the five nominees, and the nominee with the most votes wins — the 10-nominee Best Picture category will function differently.”

“The upcoming movie The People vs. George Lucas gives disgruntled Star Wars fans a chance to vent their frustrations about the direction the franchise has taken over the years. Thousands of fans submitted video clips for the crowdsourced film, which will have its world premiere this March at the South by Southwest Film Conference and Festival in Austin, Texas.”