xhonzi

FanFiltration said:

Is it in bad taste to invest extra funds I may have by buying stock in the Japanese stock market? The market is low now, and I felt that buy buying now I am helping boost confidence in the rebuilding effort to come. I have already made a donation to Red Cross. 

If everyone starts buying those stocks, then the price will go up and therefore the Japanese way of life will get back to normal faster.

It's probably as effective a use of your money as any charity you could find, in my opinion.

R2-D2: Beneath the Dome.

Dang- I just lost the game by catching up with this thread.  I was not losing it for 3 or 4 days there.

none said:

In the moviebarcode vein:

http://0xdb.org/

(this is what imdb will become one day)

browse -> (select movie [not barred out]) -> View: by Timeline

then you'll see a similar movie representation, can click on the imagemap to see that frame and subtitles show up.

What about.... Pad.ma? [/vaderisnowhayden]

^By "filler" don't you mean "the rest of the movie"?

TV's Frink said:

doubleofive said:

 

CP3S said:

Dude, forget about the controller for a few days and enjoy Florida with your wife. I have a feeling you can find way better things to do there with your time than play video games.

I kid, you know it. I'll be themeparking it up Friday, tons of fun.

 

But it's Frink!  ;-)

And xhonzi!

doubleofive said:

You can watch the enhanced special features without watching the movie. But that's not the point.

I wondered if that was the option I saw.  Thanks for the clarification.

I can tell you that the Bootleg Director is not me, that much I know.

That does narrow it down.

As for act breaks, I'd break it down like this:

Act 1: Extraction and Building the Dream Team
Act 2: The first two levels of the Dream
Act 3: The snow level / Limbo

I might even be convinced that Limbo might be the entire third act. It definately ties up all of the plot points.

What do you see as the central problem?  I think this question is a tad problematic since, depending on your interpretation of the film, it could be very different.

The central problem of Inception is definitely "inception", but really whose?  Fischer's, as the straight interp of the movie would have you believe?  Or Cobb's?

If you say that Fischer's inception is the main problem of the film, then the movie is structured around the heist just like you'd think it would be.  Everything after Fischer's realization is just epilogue/wrapup.  Cobb's character issues are wrapped up, but that is not the "main problem."  BUT! If you follow the other theory- that all of the events are controlled to correct Cobb's problems... then the epilogue/wrapup is actually still the resolution of the problem and therefore still part of Act 3.

Are both interpretations valid?  Is it possible to say that the movie does indeed contain 2 parallel 3-Act structures- one for Fischer's problem/AKA the heist and the other for Cobb's problem, but only if you track with the nonconventional theory of the ending?

Interpretation 1:

The problem: Cobb and co are hired to "do a job" on Fischer.

Act 1- Introductions: The rules of dreams are introduced, some action is played out, most of the main characters are introduced, and Cobb accepts the job.  Cobb's "can't return home problem" is introduced.

I'm not sure if Ariadne's joining the team is Act 1 or 2.  Probably 1, but I don't think that's a necessary interpretation.  Usually there is some small resolution that marks the end of Act 1- maybe it's Ariadne coming back or the idea that everything is in place for the heist.

Act 2- The Problem Gets Worse: Certainly, within minutes of entering Fischer's dream, the problem gets worse.  Fischer is armed, Saito gets shot, Mal is more malificent, and we and the characters learn there is a deeper risk of death/insanity than we were previously lead to believe.  The Mr. X scenario wasn't in the plan and that might not go well.  And perhaps the coup de gracé- They miss the kick.

This makes for a relatively short Act 2.  With so much to introduce in Act 1, perhaps Act 2 was shorter to compensate.  Also, I'm not actually looking at scene start times, so maybe it's not as short as I think...

Act 3- The Problem gets resolved: Arthur figures out how to create a gravity free kick, Eames kills everybody, but Mal shoots Fischer.  (This could be where Act 2 ends- the actual lowest spot.  And then, 005, you'd be right about Limbo being pretty much Act 3, but then Act 3 is actually very short. ) Ariadne and Cobb go to limbo to rescue Fischer, Cobb explains his issues with Mal, and then conquers them, Fischer is rescued and solves his issue with his father, which ends the heist.

Epilogue- The Mopup: Cobb saved Saito, Cobb and Saito remain sane, Cobb returns to the US, and Cobb is reuinited with his kids.

OR IS HE?

I'll type up next.

CP3S said:

xhonzi said:

Oh yeah!  That reminds me, we net to set that up!

005+1, Ringo, C*- are you up for some L4D or Reach on Friday?

 

Uuuhh, if the "C*-" is referring to me... (I seriously took it as you censoring a slang word for genitalia that begins with the letter "c" at first glace)... there is a 100% chance I'll be up for it and a 90% chance I will be able to.

Would you prefer C$@)(!?

I tried calling you [CE](3?)[PR](3?)(i?)[CSX]/i, but I don't think anyone else here speaks regex.

What time works for you?

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Oh yeah!  That reminds me, we net to set that up!

005+1, Ringo, C*- are you up for some L4D or Reach on Friday?

Back to Inception:

I wanted to listen to commentary in my car, but it turns out that there's not a 'commentary' per se- just one of those "enhanced viewing modes" which I'm not much of a fan of because I'd much rather watch the features or the movie, not the features while watching the movie- I mean, it takes about 150% as long to watch the movie with the features and you're not really watching the movie or the features, if you know what I mean, so anyways I was googling 'Inception commetary' to see if the DVD version maybe had a standard commentary and if it had showed up on youtube or something but it hadn't so I kept looking and eventually came across a website called 'The Bootleg Director' which claimed to feature director commentary for a variety of movies but, in actuality, it's some dumb guy and his friend (allegedly industry insiders, but they prove to be quite uniformed in a lot of cases, which is maybe proof that they work in the industry since fans would be more knowledgeable) and I had to turn off the Inception commentary once they claimed that the second act started 20 minutes into the film, which is ludicrous unless you think like cut'n'shut and that many films have 7 acts, but I sympathize because I think Inception's narrative is rather complex and I haven't done the mental gymnastics to try to reason out where the act breaks are in Inception.

Which brings me to my question: What are the act breaks in Inception?

And another question: Does anyone know who the bootleg director is?

And question #3: Don't listen to the bootleg director. 

doubleofive said:

Orlando, FL. The plane is having "maintence issues" whatever that means. The wings could be falling off and they needed to get more duct tape. Looks like its still being pushed back. We don't need to be there until tomorrow (when the conference starts), but it'd be nice to be in Florida.

Lame.  I thought you were flying out to Denver to crash Frink's and my date on Friday.

(I referred to this to a friend as a man-date, and he thought I said mandate.)

No...

DEADLY PREMONITION!

doubleofive said:

xhonzi said:

And I just saw Predators.  Pretty good.  I thought it was going somewhere in the 2nd half it didn't go.  The ending (last third) was a little 'meh' to me, but on the whole I enjoyed it.

Same here. I loved that they never even gave the characters names.

I was surprised to see all of the characters had names on IMDB.

I guess they're "saving it for the sequel" when it comes to the foreshadowing I thought I ws picking up on.

^True Story.

We watched A-Team recently, which I quite enjoyed.  I never really watched the TV show, so no comparisons or nostalgia to help or hinder.

And I just saw Predators.  Pretty good.  I thought it was going somewhere in the 2nd half it didn't go.  The ending (last third) was a little 'meh' to me, but on the whole I enjoyed it.

captainsolo said:

The Day the Earth Stood Still. ...

avoid the Keanu version at all costs.

A friend of mine at work accidentally rented The Day the Earth Stopped from redbox when attempting to get the Keanu version.  They paid a dollar for it, so they figured they might as well watch it.

When they returned it and got The Day the Earth Stood Still remake, they found they actually enjoyed the knockoff more.

That's pretty cool. 

I totally called this one:

<Hover over image for answer>

How big of a Matrix fan is Chris Nolan?

I was/am a pretty big Matrix fan, and I remember looking forward to Memento to see Trinity and Cipher together in another movie.  I mean, Memento came out right on the heels of The Matrix, he had to have hired them based on their performances there, right?

And now Inception.  I think there's plenty of room for both stories/universes... but you can't deny there are a lot of similarities.

^Am I supposed to put that on a table and then look at it from a low angle?

DEADLY PREMONITION!

^Still dead to me.

Ric Olie said:

WhatsMyName said:

i still don't get what the deal is with changing Naboo to Alderaan. What do people have against Naboo?

It's probably because of dopes like Panaka.

Panaka said:

Panaka say he pity the fool who don't like Naboo.  Jus' like Panaka pity the fool who don't like them tasty PanakacakesTM.  Available at your local grocer and where ere frozen delicacies are served.

adywan said:

Nerfherder said:

Nerfherder said:

If anyone's interested the 3D transfer mentioned above can be found by doing a BIN search for:

star wars ep4-3D.SBS.720p.jimbo69jones

Forget about the above search - it's passworded. Waste of download time :/

I wouldn't bother with it anyway. They have used XVID for this and isn't a very good encode. Not only that but the 3D is impossible to watch without feeling sick from a banging headache after the first few minutes. For some reason there are some very strange things going on with the left eye. The crawl is almost unreadable in 3D as its totally distorted.this causes hell with the 3D (just click on images to view full size)

Every time a shot ends in a scene you get 1 frame on the right side from the next shot because of the method used

The 3D version of EPV has the same problems too

Yeah, the first frame/last frame of any shot is a head-ache inducing problem given the technique they're using.  Do TVs that have 2D->3D on the fly converters suffer from the same thing, I wonder?

Even so, given some TLC, the first/last frame of a cut could be simply replaced with the same shot the other eye is getting.  You'd lose 3D for a whole frame, but I think the experience would be less jarring than one eye seeing the last frame of the previous cut and the other eye seeing the first frame of a new cut.

And the picture quality of the files is pretty poor.  But once you throw red and blue colour washes over the picture and then red/blue glasses on your face... I have to say the PQ is the least of your problems.

And finally: the password.  I have the password, but Nerf- it looks like you already deleted your files.  I'd post it here, but I can't remember what the rules have to say about that.  Can I post that here?  Or you can just PM me.

Warb-

Glad to hear you're agressively pursuing a new job.  I hope you find what you're looking for.

It's my experience that technology has changed the face of getting a job (e-mail, web applications, etc..) but that actually getting a job is just as un-technical as its always been- I've gotten all of my jobs through networking.  There's nothing like a résumé that's handed to you by someone you know.  It's just sort of the way humans are built, I guess.  Have you considered people you know personally that can help you find work?  Some of the best advice I ever received was this:

Divide up the people you know into three categories:

1. Close relatives and close friends
2. Not as close friends, friends of friends
3. Acquaintances, etc..

That the people in group 1 will seldom actually be able to get you a job.  If they could, they would have already.  You have to look at groups 2 and 3.  Some of these people you won't have talked to in a while and you might feel some chagrin in calling them up to ask if they can help you get a job when you don't call them about anything else.  Ever.  But ignore that feeling... it's likely these people know that you aren't a close friend and don't expect you to act like one.  They know they might call you about a job if the roles were reversed, so they probably won't feel like you're just trying to take advantage of them.  Again, it's just sort of human nature.

So my advice would be to give that some serious thought, if you haven't already.

^Would be better (more sparkly, at least) with Edward Cullen.