Cell Motion Productions

Gerald Porter asked:


Motion Picture and Television Production Companies Compete For Sound Stages To Film Multi-Million $$ Projects

(November 2, 2007 —Hollywood, California)—Legendary Hollywood Sunset Gower Studios has standing room only! The famed 15 acre full services film and tv production facility that has been home to academy award-winning motion pictures such as “It Happened One Night,” “From Here To Eternity” and “The Caine Mutiny” now has its soundstages buzzing with hit television series “Heroes” and “Dexter.” Both shows are high atop the ratings at their respective NBC and Showtime networks and occupy many of the newly refurbished 175,00 sq ft of sound stages.

Since Sunset Gower Studios has installed a huge state-of-the-art panoramic cyclorama on one of the stages and recently added the Airplane mock-ups of Air Hollywood on another, available space for production companies is at a premium. In addition to feature films such as “Alvin & The Chipmunks” (Fox), “The Good German” (George Clooney), “Georgia Rule” (Jane Fonda, Lindsey Lohan) and “The Good Shepherd” (Robert DeNiro) being shot on the lot, there have been music videos, commercials and other TV series all occupying 415,000 sq ft of production and office space.

Also nearing completion is a 96,000 sq ft high rise building that will be leased by Technicolor Post Production services at year’s end. The Northeast corner of the lot boasts the fashionable newly-opened gourmet restaurant Eat On Sunset, with the large commissary on the lot providing daily fare for the thousands of talented crew members while in production. According to studio VP of Sales and Marketing Terri Melkonian, “

Marvin J Markus asked:


With the release of Dig Out Your Soul last week, the British rock band Oasis has now released seven studio albums (along with the B-Sides collection The Masterplan.) In this article I’ll give a short overview of each of those seven studio albums. If you are new to Oasis, you can use this article as a guide to which Oasis albums you’d like to buy first.

Oasis broke onto the UK scene in a big way with their debut album Definitely Maybe in 1994. Many music critics and Oasis fans still think Definitely Maybe is their best album to date. It’s their only album where every song is sang by Liam Gallagher (Noel Gallagher sings at least one song on each album released since.)

With songs like “Rock ‘n’ Roll Star,” “Columbia,” “Supersonic,” “Bring It On Down,” & “Cigarettes and Alcohol” it’s hard to argue against Definitely Maybe being the most “rock” of all Oasis albums. But while it’s heavy on the rock, it also has some transcendent sing along (but still rocking) songs such as “Live Forever” & “Slide Away.” Many Oasis fans still think “Live Forever” is the best song they’ve ever done.

They followed up with 1995’s (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? and it was an even bigger success commercially as it really broke the band big time in the United States behind the success of “Champagne Supernova,” “Don’t Look Back in Anger,” and of course “Wonderwall.”

“Wonderwall” is one of the most popular songs of the entire 1990s as shown by it’s constant high rankings on the “most played tracks” charts on Last.FM even 13 years after it’s release.

Besides those three hits the album also includes Oasis classics such as “Some Might Say,” & “Cast No Shadow.” If you’re more into melodies than rock then Morning Glory? may be a better choice for you than Definitely Maybe (not that it doesn’t also have some great melodies.)

1997’s Be Here Now was considered by many to be a big disappointment at the time but I think it has aged pretty well. Now some of it’s excesses seem kind of endearing although others sometimes not as much (particularly the fact that all of the songs are about two minutes too long.)

I still think “D’You Know What I Mean?” is one of the best songs Oasis has recorded. It’s got a great psychedelic rock stomp. It’s a direction I would have liked to see them go more towards. “Magic Pie,” “Don’t Go Away,” & “Fade In-Out” are other highlights for me.

2000’s Standing on the Shoulder of Giants is an album I liked a lot when it was first released as I felt it was an exciting new psychedelic turn for the band but unlike Be Here Now, I don’t think it’s aged as well.

That being said I am a big fan of the slow motion closer “Roll It Over” & the experimental (by Oasis standards) “Gas Panic!” I also think “Go Let It Out” & “Who Feels Love?” are underrated tracks.

I believe the band hit a low point (so far) with 2002’s Heathen Chemistry. While it had a couple of decent songs like the opener “The Hindu Times” and Liam Gallagher’s “Songbird” overall it’s easily their worst album in my opinion. The ballads are too hokey and the rockers don’t connect.

2005’s Don’t Believe the Truth was a return to form for the band. Songs like “Love Like A Bomb,” “The Importance Of Being Idle,” & “Guess God Thinks I’m Abel” along with the beautiful closer “Let There Be Love” make for a fantastic album that I think ranks up there with their ’90s work in some ways.

And this year Oasis released their 7th album, Dig Out Your Soul. While Don’t Believe the Truth was a return to form, Dig Out Your Soul is an advancement to a new sounds for Oasis. Every song (save maybe “Ain’t Got Nothin’”)sounds like a vital part of the album. Unlike most of their albums, there isn’t much in the way of “obvious singles” on the album but in a way that makes it even better. It seems to just fit together as a whole. I highly recommend it if you are an Oasis fan and even if you are not.

Alex Don asked:


effect refers to the photographic technique in each you take the photo in such a way that it seems the subject is coming towards you or moving away from you. The movement is simulated by some motion-like lines. This technique is also called ‘racking the lens’. This effect can also be created after the photo is done in programs like Photoshop (where it is called ‘radial blur’). This article will refer to the creation of a motion effect while shooting.

There are three steps you should follow if you want to achieve this effect:

Step 1: Set the shutter to a longer exposure.

Step 2: Compose the picture, focus and then shoot.

Step 3: Zoom the lens in and out in between the times when the shutter opens and when it closes.

This may not work from the beginning, but you’ll get it right with a lot of practice, and that’s the fun part about photography. Here are a few tips that can get you better results in less time:

1. Setting the shutter speed - You should choose a the speed in such a way as to give you enough time to zoom the lens all the way in or out. There is no standard setting. There are some factors you should take into account whenever you take such a photo. These factors include the level of lighting available, the type of lens you have and the amount of movement (both of the subject and the camera). Again, experimenting with different speeds is very important as a different setting will give you another level of the zoom effect.

2. Aperture - Though not very important for the zoom effect, aperture can be a problem in overexposed situations when you set the shutter speed very low as it allows more light inside. You can cope with this by setting a larger aperture.

3. Zooming - In order to get nice and uniform motion lines in the photo you should be able to keep the zooming speed constant. Speeding up at one point and slowing down later will ruin the picture. Experimenting is again critical for success.

4. The use of lighting - Using lights in a certain way can have pretty interesting effects on the zoom effect. Below are two pictures taking at a stage performance with the stage being lighted in colorful bright lights while the rest was dark. The first photo is aimed to show the real situation, while the second uses the racking the lens effect. In the second photo, the photographer pressed the flash button just enough to catch the subjects on the foreground. In long exposure, he did manage to freeze just part of the picture (the audience and video crew) while creating a movement effect behind it (the stage performance) as well as around it (the infrared effect from a camera)

Hope you will find these tips useful. However, remember that the more you practice, the better you’ll get. It’s all about experimenting and playing with the camera.

Pat Bedall asked:


Creating motion graphics is often the synergy of many different applications and skill sets. In addition to a good sense of design, an artist involved in modern motion graphics needs to have knowledge of four major areas: bitmap graphics, vector graphics, 3D graphics and compositing software.

Bitmap graphics, also referred to as pixel-based graphics, is probably the most common form and the most familiar to the laymen. In bitmap graphics, the images are composed of different colored dots (known as pixels) that together form an image. Bitmap images are typically photographs or real world images. Resolution of the image is dependent on how many pixels comprise the image. The more pixels in an image, the higher the resolution. As a result, the file size increases. Although there are several applications on the market that one can use to create and treat bitmap images, by far the most popular is Photoshop. Knowledge of Photoshop is integral to modern motion graphics.

The other form of graphics is vector, also known as resolution independent graphics. Vector graphics are lines, curves and shapes that the computer interprets through mathematical equations. Vector-based images are usually illustrations, logo designs or other comparatively simplistic compositions with potential complexities. Whereas bitmap graphics are composed of pixels and can become distorted if scaled too large, vector graphics have unlimited resolution. Because the information used to compose the graphics is all mathematics, the image can be the size of a building without losing resolution. Several vector graphics packages exist, the most common being Adobe Illustrator.

With the leaps in computing power in recent years, 3d graphics have become a more accessible and practical tool for motion graphics artists. The world of 3D graphics is immense and comprises many different disciplines from architectural rendering to major motion picture special effects; however, these applications can be used to solve design problems that only they can solve. Both bitmap and vector graphics are inherently flat, but a motion graphics artist can use a 3D software package to take these flat graphics into the third dimension. Many 3D programs, such as Maya, Lightwave or 3D Studio Max, are up to the task, Maxon’s Cinema 4D’s use of layers and hierarchies will be familiar to users of Adobe’s programs. This program is simply more intuitive than its bigger and more complex rivals, making it a superior package for the motion graphics artist.

Last and probably most importantly is compositing. This is where all your flat graphics will come to life! Compositing software creates motion through the use of key frames and the program interpolates the in-betweens. A skilled motion graphics artist will use bitmap, vector and 3D graphics together to create attractive and effective animations. The most common consumer level compositing program is Adobe After Effects. In addition to their familiarity with the Adobe software, After Effects users also benefit from the ease of integration it offers with the bitmap and vector graphics of Photoshop and Illustrator, respectively.

A good motion graphics artist tries to accomplish one central idea: communicating effectively while retaining the viewer’s attention. Today’s audiences have a shorter attention span than ever, as well as a more refined and ever more savvy recognition of a good graphics treatment. A video that presents itself with lackluster or uninspired visual treatments is doomed to appear “behind the times” and lose credibility as a result. Knowledge of the four facets of motion graphics is indispensable and serves as the cornerstone of effective modern two-dimensional animation.

Albert Alcance asked:


If you are looking for fun, thrills, and adventure, Universal Studios is the place to go. There are rides that will thrill you and rides that will scare you senseless. From caves to the air, there is something to please all of the thrill seekers out there.

Start your day with Revenge of the Mummy. This is a psychological thrill ride that is unlike anything you have ever experienced. This is a roller coaster ride in total darkness. Traveling at a very high speed, you will have many terrifying creatures jumping out at you. If your heart is still beating and you think you can handle more, your next stop should be Jurassic Park: The Ride.

Jurassic Park may seem a bit tame after Revenge of the Mummy, but it is still great fun, and there are still many thrills. This ride entails you riding a raft which is slowly being cranked up. Dinosaurs of various breeds appear out of nowhere while you are going up. Suddenly, you and your raft are falling quickly downhill, and the ride ends with a huge splash that leaves you soaked! Make sure you bring a change of clothes, because you will want to move on to Back to the Future.

Back to the Future will have you riding in a car like the one on the movie. The scenes from the movie literally come to life, and many people experience motion sickness…so if you are prone to motion sickness, you may want to skip this one. Other attractions not to miss if you enjoy thrills include Nickelodeon Blast Zone, Van Helsing: Fortress Dracula, the Special Effects Stages, and Shrek 4-D.

If you get scared easily, you may want to avoid these thrill rides and attractions. They are also not recommended for very young children, pregnant women, or people with heart conditions. People with anxiety issues should avoid these attractions as well. There are many tamer rides and attractions that can be enjoyed in the park if the thrill seeking rides aren’t suitable for you.

The purpose of going to the park is to have fun. If the thrill rides and attractions scare you to the point where it isn’t fun anymore, than they should be avoided. Don’t allow others in your party to coerce you into visiting the attractions that scare you too badly. Again, there are many attractions at Universal Studios Tours that are suitable for those who aren’t comfortable with the thrill seeking rides – so don’t think that you can’t have a good time without getting scared senseless!