I just read that Clash of the Titans made over $500 million dollars. That’s a lot of box-office, especially for a movie that appeared to have the warm reception of Showgirls. You remember Clash of the Titans – the movie that was panned, slapped, ridiculed for it’s slightly painful 2D to 3D conversion. There was so much talk about the technology, there was almost no talk about the movie.

But that was then, two years ago – ancient history – and this is now. There are a number of successful conversions en route, according to a recent Underwire column in Wired; Thor, big winner of the box office marathon last weekend, among them.

While all that heat was being tossed at Clash, the technologists and artists in post production just kept working – getting better, figuring it out, and educating clients that faster sometimes does have some devastating consequences. When Star Wars comes out in 3D, the product of 2D to 3D conversion, chances are that the Lucas supervised conversions will be as good as they can be in 2011. They will have spent the time, money and technology needed to satisfy a hungry audience of Star Wars fans who will be very, very carefully watching.

As they always do, the facilities, manufacturers and workers behind the scenes at facilities will plug away, try and test, struggle and succeed. Here’s to an inventive group of individuals and companies who embrace the challenge and the unknown.

-Chris Purse

May 17, 2011 – 12:09 pm | News

Hoorah to you!

I just read that Clash of the Titans made over $500 million dollars. That’s a lot of box-office, especially for a movie that appeared to have the warm reception of Showgirls. You remember Clash of the Titans – the movie that was panned, slapped, ridiculed for it’s slightly painful 2D to 3D conversion. There was so much talk about the technology, there was almost no talk about the movie.

But that was then, two years ago – ancient history – and this is now. There are a number of successful conversions en route, according to a recent Underwire column in Wired; Thor, big winner of the box office marathon last weekend, among them.

While all that heat was being tossed at Clash, the technologists and artists in post production just kept working – getting better, figuring it out, and educating clients that faster sometimes does have some devastating consequences. When Star Wars comes out in 3D, the product of 2D to 3D conversion, chances are that the Lucas supervised conversions will be as good as they can be in 2011. They will have spent the time, money and technology needed to satisfy a hungry audience of Star Wars fans who will be very, very carefully watching.

As they always do, the facilities, manufacturers and workers behind the scenes at facilities will plug away, try and test, struggle and succeed. Here’s to an inventive group of individuals and companies who embrace the challenge and the unknown.

May 17, 2011 – 12:08 pm | News

Brilliance.

There’s nothing like it – cannot be replaced, cannot be diminished, and often it lives forever. Technology is important, honestly, I know. We live in the most technological of times: driven, distracted, empowered and enslaved to personal, and professional technologies. It’s what I spend 99.9% of my professional life, quite happily, working on. But, all of that is meaningless if entertainment technology is just pushing out bad content.

And then there is the sheer power of beautiful writing.

Arthur Laurents died last week, at 93. If you don’t know who he is, or if you don’t hold West Side Story, Gypsy, or The Way We Were in the high regard for their scripts (”book”) that I do, well, then this post may not be all that meaningful to you. But this is basically an unadulterated love letter to writers. Because without the script, or the words, or the lyrics….well, it just doesn’t work.

And, disclaimer here, this love note to writers, especially one whose brilliance is at Laurents’ level, is written not just because I’m married to one, but that certainly impassions that fact!

Laurents, sometimes known as a “holy terror,” is important because he revolutionized 20th Century Theater. A vibrant, brilliant, legendary writer, director and producer, Laurents is responsible for daunting contributions – West Side Story and Gypsy aside – he was the first to cast Barbara Streisand, one of the few to refuse her (no Gypsy re-launch with Babs, thank you very much) wrote the screenplays for The Way We Were (Oscar nom’d) and The Turning Point among others. He directed La Cage Aux Folles, and Gypsy’s triumphant return and kept working through his 80’s and 90’s.

As Charles McNulty at the LA Times said today, “Musicals rarely if ever reach such dramatic heights, but Laurents’ legacy proves that they can. Crossing his path could be dangerous, but he was a pioneer who led where others feared to tread.”

So the next time you hear The Jets and the Sharks, or remember the painful scene with Katie (Streisand) & Hubbell (Redford) outside The Plaza, or hear Ethel Merman blasting out one her outrageously bitter and beautiful songs in Gypsy…say “thank you Mr. Laurents.” Then let’s thank our lucky stars for the brilliance among us…seek it, support it, protect it.

- Chris Purse

May 10, 2011 – 12:03 pm | News

A Chance at Brilliance

I had the privilege of hearing a great panel at NAB, “Sons of Anarchy: Grit and Texture in Small Town America.” Kurt Sutter, creator, writer and executive producer of FX’s number one show, DP Paul Maibaum and Production Designer Anthony Medina took us behind the scenes of the show that has taken the audience by storm. In a fairly lighthearted look at the show, Sutter said something that has stuck with me, rolling around my consciousness and making me think.

In spite of the fact that this is the biggest hit on FX, the show is created without much luxury – tightly budgeted, shooting in seven days, weekly stunts, bikes, and a big, sometimes far-flung cast. What Sutter said was that there were lots of limitations that kept coming up as they planned and began the show. Low time, low budget, high risk, etc. This is the brilliant part, and why he is a great entertainment creator. And, I paraphrase….”I decided to take the limitations, to take the box that they were shoving us into with all of the restraints, and make them the positive. To take the negatives and create something positive and wild and different. That’s what we do every week from the depths of the farthest point of North Hollywood.”

I have thought a lot about this, how there are so many reasons to feel like we can’t do our best, to excuse ourselves from reaching for the top when there are reasons that it’s tough. But I am challenging myself, for my own company and for the companies we work for, to look hard to see how the limitations might just give us a chance at brilliance.

-Chris Purse

April 20, 2011 – 10:43 am | News