Showing posts with label Video. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Video. Show all posts
Monday, 31 August 2015
Sunday, 30 August 2015
Monday, 24 August 2015
Tuesday, 18 August 2015
Wednesday, 31 July 2013
State of the Art: Chromecast, Simply and Cheaply, Flings Web Video to TVs
Take the story of the iTunes music store. The instant somebody offered the chance to buy songs individually, the world changed forever. Hello, music à la carte. Goodbye, Tower Records.
Now it’s cable TV’s turn.
We are engaged in a great civil movement, testing whether that business, or any business so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. The number of people who cut the cord, or cancel the satellite, in favor of getting all their TV from the Internet is still small — maybe 1 percent of us a year. But the online alternatives to cable TV are growing. And once it becomes simple and easy to get Internet video from our laptops and phones to the actual television, well, the term “TV drama” will have a whole new meaning.
Actually, that has just happened. Google’s new Chromecast gizmo is the smallest, cheapest, simplest way yet to add Internet to your TV. It looks like a portly flash drive or maybe a fat keychain — and it costs $35. That’s not a typo.
So what does it do? If you have a Wi-Fi wireless network in your home, the Chromecast can perform two useful stunts.
Stunt 1: It lets you watch videos from YouTube, Netflix and Google Play (Google’s movie and TV store for Android gadgets) on your big screen. You use your phone or tablet (Apple or Android) as a remote control.
Stunt 2: The Chromecast displays Web sites on your TV — by broadcasting from Google’s Chrome browser on your Mac or PC. More on this in a moment.
Google’s promotional videos depict a fantasy of effortlessness: a hand slides the Chromecast into an HDMI jack on the back of a big-screen TV, clicking like a key into a lock. And then suddenly everything good on the Internet seems to be watchable on that TV, to the ecstasy of many young, attractive, multiethnic couch potatoes.
The videos leave out the fact that the Chromecast requires power. You can plug it into a power outlet or a USB jack on the TV itself, but either way, the result isn’t as clutter-free as the ads make it seem. Still — $35, remember?
Then you download a setup program, introduce it to your Wi-Fi network, name your Chromecast and so on. The whole setup process takes about five minutes; a child could do it. (Adults may need slightly longer.)
To perform Stunt 1, you open the YouTube, Netflix or Google Play app on your phone or tablet. Find a video to play. A special icon appears at the edge of the touch screen, resembling a rectangle with Wi-Fi signal waves in the corner. To begin watching that video on the TV, tap that icon and choose your Chromecast’s name.
Your phone is not actually transmitting anything. The Chromecast gets the video from the Internet directly; you use your phone or tablet only to find the movie and control its playback. You can even adjust the volume using the physical volume keys on the side.
The good news: this arrangement means you can do other things on your phone or tablet during playback, like working in another app or even turning the thing off.
The bad news is that the phone/tablet is the only remote control you’ve got. So if you want to pause, rewind or mute the video, you first have to find your phone/tablet, wake it up, enter the password if required, and finally reopen the app that’s doing the playing. It’s not especially graceful.
On Android gadgets, at least the Pause button appears right on the lock screen. You don’t have to unlock the device and reopen the app.
Otherwise, all of this is effortless and excellent. Even if you can already get Netflix and YouTube on your TV because they’re built into the TV, Xbox, TiVo or Blu-ray player, you may prefer the Chromecast; it’s just much easier to search for videos, thanks to the on-screen keyboard and voice dictation. You can also cue up several videos to play in sequence. That’s especially handy for YouTube videos, which are not exactly, you know, epic in length.
Now it’s cable TV’s turn.
We are engaged in a great civil movement, testing whether that business, or any business so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. The number of people who cut the cord, or cancel the satellite, in favor of getting all their TV from the Internet is still small — maybe 1 percent of us a year. But the online alternatives to cable TV are growing. And once it becomes simple and easy to get Internet video from our laptops and phones to the actual television, well, the term “TV drama” will have a whole new meaning.
Actually, that has just happened. Google’s new Chromecast gizmo is the smallest, cheapest, simplest way yet to add Internet to your TV. It looks like a portly flash drive or maybe a fat keychain — and it costs $35. That’s not a typo.
So what does it do? If you have a Wi-Fi wireless network in your home, the Chromecast can perform two useful stunts.
Stunt 1: It lets you watch videos from YouTube, Netflix and Google Play (Google’s movie and TV store for Android gadgets) on your big screen. You use your phone or tablet (Apple or Android) as a remote control.
Stunt 2: The Chromecast displays Web sites on your TV — by broadcasting from Google’s Chrome browser on your Mac or PC. More on this in a moment.
Google’s promotional videos depict a fantasy of effortlessness: a hand slides the Chromecast into an HDMI jack on the back of a big-screen TV, clicking like a key into a lock. And then suddenly everything good on the Internet seems to be watchable on that TV, to the ecstasy of many young, attractive, multiethnic couch potatoes.
The videos leave out the fact that the Chromecast requires power. You can plug it into a power outlet or a USB jack on the TV itself, but either way, the result isn’t as clutter-free as the ads make it seem. Still — $35, remember?
Then you download a setup program, introduce it to your Wi-Fi network, name your Chromecast and so on. The whole setup process takes about five minutes; a child could do it. (Adults may need slightly longer.)
To perform Stunt 1, you open the YouTube, Netflix or Google Play app on your phone or tablet. Find a video to play. A special icon appears at the edge of the touch screen, resembling a rectangle with Wi-Fi signal waves in the corner. To begin watching that video on the TV, tap that icon and choose your Chromecast’s name.
Your phone is not actually transmitting anything. The Chromecast gets the video from the Internet directly; you use your phone or tablet only to find the movie and control its playback. You can even adjust the volume using the physical volume keys on the side.
The good news: this arrangement means you can do other things on your phone or tablet during playback, like working in another app or even turning the thing off.
The bad news is that the phone/tablet is the only remote control you’ve got. So if you want to pause, rewind or mute the video, you first have to find your phone/tablet, wake it up, enter the password if required, and finally reopen the app that’s doing the playing. It’s not especially graceful.
On Android gadgets, at least the Pause button appears right on the lock screen. You don’t have to unlock the device and reopen the app.
Otherwise, all of this is effortless and excellent. Even if you can already get Netflix and YouTube on your TV because they’re built into the TV, Xbox, TiVo or Blu-ray player, you may prefer the Chromecast; it’s just much easier to search for videos, thanks to the on-screen keyboard and voice dictation. You can also cue up several videos to play in sequence. That’s especially handy for YouTube videos, which are not exactly, you know, epic in length.
Monday, 29 July 2013
Researchers Present Striking New Hypothesis On Why We Sleep
We spend nearly a third of our lives sleeping, yet the reasons why we need to are still poorly understood. What we do know is that the brain is highly active during sleep. According to a popular current theory, the resting brain is nearly as busy as the waking brain because during sleep, neural circuits replay memories in order to aid learning by strengthening the circuits. But now researchers are presenting a very different explanation for this activity.
"Every night, while we lie asleep, blind, dumb and almost paralyzed, our brains are hard at work. Neurons in the sleeping brain fire nearly as often as they do in a waking state, and they consume almost as much energy," researchers Giulio Tononi and Chiara Cirelli of the University of Wisconsin–Madison write in a new Scientific American feature. "What is the point of this unceasing activity at a time when we are supposedly resting? Why does the conscious mind disconnect so completely from the external environment while the brain keeps nattering on?"
The answer they propose in a new hypothesis is, essentially, that the brain's activity during sleep weakens the brain's neural connections, rather than strengthening them, as has generally been thought. Their reasoning is that strengthening the neural connections would saturate the brain's circuitry, consuming so much energy that the brain would struggle to encode new information. The purpose of sleep, they argue, is to bring brain cells back down to their baseline.
"Every night, while we lie asleep, blind, dumb and almost paralyzed, our brains are hard at work. Neurons in the sleeping brain fire nearly as often as they do in a waking state, and they consume almost as much energy," researchers Giulio Tononi and Chiara Cirelli of the University of Wisconsin–Madison write in a new Scientific American feature. "What is the point of this unceasing activity at a time when we are supposedly resting? Why does the conscious mind disconnect so completely from the external environment while the brain keeps nattering on?"
The answer they propose in a new hypothesis is, essentially, that the brain's activity during sleep weakens the brain's neural connections, rather than strengthening them, as has generally been thought. Their reasoning is that strengthening the neural connections would saturate the brain's circuitry, consuming so much energy that the brain would struggle to encode new information. The purpose of sleep, they argue, is to bring brain cells back down to their baseline.
Tuesday, 23 July 2013
Break the Bottleneck: Smooth out your business’s voice and video streaming with QoS
If you’ve ever engaged in a voice over IP (VoIP) phone call or conducted a video conference over the Web, you’ve probably experienced choppy audio, pixelated video, and other “hiccups” that make these technologies frustrating to use at best and and an impediment to doing business at worst.
Those annoying interruptions are the result of data struggling to get across your network. It’s important for all of the data to get from Point A to Point B, but some types—like streaming voice and video—simply won’t work if the data can’t travel smoothly. You can solve the problem by spending a lot of money for a bigger, faster Internet connection, but the smart way to address the issue is with QoS: Quality of Service.
QoS manages network traffic, and prioritizes certain types of data over others to ensure consistent network quality. It is generally managed at the network router or switch, to direct network traffic appropriately.
Data traveling across the Internet is a lot like vehicles driving across town. If five cars leave a building to drive to a restaurant, there’s a mesh of roads in all directions, and there are multiple potential paths to take. Each vehicle could take an entirely different route, and the car that left first might arrive at the destination last.
There are also certain vehicles that are given priority treatment. An ambulance transporting a patient to a hospital or a fire truck racing to a house on fire is allowed to bypass standard traffic rules to ensure they reach their destination as quickly as possible because lives are in danger. It’s unlikely anyone’s life hangs in the balance of your streaming voice or video connection, but that same sense of urgency that occurs with emergency vehicles on the road is similar to the high priority treatment your voice and video data require.
When you transfer data from a server on the Web to a PC on your network, you might imagine that the data packets all follow each other in sequence on the same path, but that’s not how it works. Data crossing the Internet has to bounce across multiple routers, and those routers determine the best possible route on a packet-by-packet basis. Like the vehicles driving to the restaurant, the packets of data in a file you download may all take different paths and arrive at your PC out of order. They’re each tagged with sequence information, though, so your PC rearranges them in the proper order as they arrive.
That’s fine for downloading the latest version of Firefox because you can’t actually use the file until all of the packets have arrived. However, it doesn’t work for streaming audio or video. When those packets arrive out of order, it introduces jitter and lag into the stream as your PC struggles to put the packets in order in real-time as the audio or video arrives.
QoS is like designating certain data as the emergency vehicles of your network: It gives higher priority to specified data to ensure it arrives at the destination in order as quickly as possible.
You can use QoS to create “express lanes” on your network for designated applications or computers, but QoS is not simply about getting the data there faster. It employs different techniques and algorithms for streaming media to make sure it arrives smoothly in the proper order to avoid interruptions, or the dreaded “buffering” message.
There are a variety of benefits to using QoS, but it can also get complicated. Small and medium businesses should keep it as simple as possible and set up basic QoS policies for critical services and applications.
For example, if your business relies on Skype for online voice and video chat, you can designate a QoS policy that prioritizes network traffic for that service. If you have a designated PC in a conference room that is used for conducting video conferencing with clients, you can configure a QoS policy to maximize network throughput to that device.
QoS also comes in handy if you host a podcast, video tutorials, or other streaming media content from your own servers, or have files that customers might need to download. You want visitors to your business’s site to have a good experience, so you should set up QoS policies that give your server a higher priority than other data or systems.
Most small and medium businesses rely on consumer-grade equipment and don’t have dedicated IT personnel or router experts on staff to monitor and manage network performance. This presents a couple of problems: First, QoS is an advanced network management feature that doesn’t exist on most consumer-grade routers, and second, proper configuration of QoS requires at least some knowledge of how networks work, and why some traffic might deserve a higher priority than others.
You can get a router or switch with QoS features by doing a little homework. Devices like the Netgear RangeMax WNDR3700 wireless router include an automated form of basic QoS. Essentially, the Netgear router is able to automatically detect audio, video, and gaming traffic, and apply different techniques to improve the quality and stability of the data transfer.
There are also devices like the Linksys E2500 wireless router, which are equipped with basic QoS features. Hidden under Applications & Gaming in the Web-based management console are settings for QoS. You can designate applications, games, or the MAC address of specific servers or PCs to be handled as a higher priority than standard network traffic. You can also use the QoS settings to assign a lower priority to data or systems that aren’t as important to make sure they don’t interfere with other traffic.
Linksys wireless routers include some rudimentary QoS features.
If you’re feeling more adventurous, you can try DD-WRT. DD-WRT is a firmware update that’s available as a free download. It can be installed in place of a manufacturer’s firmware on a wireless router and includes functionality that may be missing—like QoS features.
A word of caution, though: You have to be careful using something like WW-DRT. It’s easy to mess up the configuration and disable the router entirely or make it impossible to log back in and fix it without doing a complete reset. You also won’t be able to rely on the product manual or contact the router manufacturer for technical support, so make sure you know what you’re doing.
Keep in mind that QoS is not a “silver bullet” that will magically make all of your network traffic flow smoothly all the time. When you’re uploading or downloading data over the Internet, that traffic has to traverse a number of networks, routers, and switches to get where it’s going, and you don’t have any control over what happens to the data outside of your own network.
That said, employing QoS at the edge of your network can ensure that the right servers, applications, or services are treated with a higher priority, and help make certain your video conference with an important client isn’t interrupted by a co-worker streaming his Spotify playlist.
Those annoying interruptions are the result of data struggling to get across your network. It’s important for all of the data to get from Point A to Point B, but some types—like streaming voice and video—simply won’t work if the data can’t travel smoothly. You can solve the problem by spending a lot of money for a bigger, faster Internet connection, but the smart way to address the issue is with QoS: Quality of Service.
QoS manages network traffic, and prioritizes certain types of data over others to ensure consistent network quality. It is generally managed at the network router or switch, to direct network traffic appropriately.
Data traveling across the Internet is a lot like vehicles driving across town. If five cars leave a building to drive to a restaurant, there’s a mesh of roads in all directions, and there are multiple potential paths to take. Each vehicle could take an entirely different route, and the car that left first might arrive at the destination last.
There are also certain vehicles that are given priority treatment. An ambulance transporting a patient to a hospital or a fire truck racing to a house on fire is allowed to bypass standard traffic rules to ensure they reach their destination as quickly as possible because lives are in danger. It’s unlikely anyone’s life hangs in the balance of your streaming voice or video connection, but that same sense of urgency that occurs with emergency vehicles on the road is similar to the high priority treatment your voice and video data require.
When you transfer data from a server on the Web to a PC on your network, you might imagine that the data packets all follow each other in sequence on the same path, but that’s not how it works. Data crossing the Internet has to bounce across multiple routers, and those routers determine the best possible route on a packet-by-packet basis. Like the vehicles driving to the restaurant, the packets of data in a file you download may all take different paths and arrive at your PC out of order. They’re each tagged with sequence information, though, so your PC rearranges them in the proper order as they arrive.
That’s fine for downloading the latest version of Firefox because you can’t actually use the file until all of the packets have arrived. However, it doesn’t work for streaming audio or video. When those packets arrive out of order, it introduces jitter and lag into the stream as your PC struggles to put the packets in order in real-time as the audio or video arrives.
QoS is like designating certain data as the emergency vehicles of your network: It gives higher priority to specified data to ensure it arrives at the destination in order as quickly as possible.
You can use QoS to create “express lanes” on your network for designated applications or computers, but QoS is not simply about getting the data there faster. It employs different techniques and algorithms for streaming media to make sure it arrives smoothly in the proper order to avoid interruptions, or the dreaded “buffering” message.
There are a variety of benefits to using QoS, but it can also get complicated. Small and medium businesses should keep it as simple as possible and set up basic QoS policies for critical services and applications.
For example, if your business relies on Skype for online voice and video chat, you can designate a QoS policy that prioritizes network traffic for that service. If you have a designated PC in a conference room that is used for conducting video conferencing with clients, you can configure a QoS policy to maximize network throughput to that device.
QoS also comes in handy if you host a podcast, video tutorials, or other streaming media content from your own servers, or have files that customers might need to download. You want visitors to your business’s site to have a good experience, so you should set up QoS policies that give your server a higher priority than other data or systems.
Most small and medium businesses rely on consumer-grade equipment and don’t have dedicated IT personnel or router experts on staff to monitor and manage network performance. This presents a couple of problems: First, QoS is an advanced network management feature that doesn’t exist on most consumer-grade routers, and second, proper configuration of QoS requires at least some knowledge of how networks work, and why some traffic might deserve a higher priority than others.
You can get a router or switch with QoS features by doing a little homework. Devices like the Netgear RangeMax WNDR3700 wireless router include an automated form of basic QoS. Essentially, the Netgear router is able to automatically detect audio, video, and gaming traffic, and apply different techniques to improve the quality and stability of the data transfer.
There are also devices like the Linksys E2500 wireless router, which are equipped with basic QoS features. Hidden under Applications & Gaming in the Web-based management console are settings for QoS. You can designate applications, games, or the MAC address of specific servers or PCs to be handled as a higher priority than standard network traffic. You can also use the QoS settings to assign a lower priority to data or systems that aren’t as important to make sure they don’t interfere with other traffic.
Linksys wireless routers include some rudimentary QoS features.
If you’re feeling more adventurous, you can try DD-WRT. DD-WRT is a firmware update that’s available as a free download. It can be installed in place of a manufacturer’s firmware on a wireless router and includes functionality that may be missing—like QoS features.
A word of caution, though: You have to be careful using something like WW-DRT. It’s easy to mess up the configuration and disable the router entirely or make it impossible to log back in and fix it without doing a complete reset. You also won’t be able to rely on the product manual or contact the router manufacturer for technical support, so make sure you know what you’re doing.
Keep in mind that QoS is not a “silver bullet” that will magically make all of your network traffic flow smoothly all the time. When you’re uploading or downloading data over the Internet, that traffic has to traverse a number of networks, routers, and switches to get where it’s going, and you don’t have any control over what happens to the data outside of your own network.
That said, employing QoS at the edge of your network can ensure that the right servers, applications, or services are treated with a higher priority, and help make certain your video conference with an important client isn’t interrupted by a co-worker streaming his Spotify playlist.
Monday, 22 July 2013
Friday, 19 July 2013
Review: Convert video to many formats with Sorenson Squeeze 9
If you're looking for a video transcoding product to compress your vacation
vids, look to something other than the ultra-competent, but extremely pricey
Sorenson Squeeze 9. If however, you're a busy professional who needs to produce
video in a variety of formats in the shortest possible time, Squeeze is what
you're looking for. It's a fast, comprehensive, extensible, and highly
configurable transcoder. The client program comes in three flavors: a $799
standard version, a $999 pro version, and a $2000 server version.
Sorenson Squeeze 9's interface sports a host of minor
improvements and some color to break things up, but it didn't need a lot of help
in the first place. Here you see the side-by-side preview with a B&W filter
engaged on the left.
New to Squeeze 9 are support for HTML 5, an improved video preview window
with side-by-side preview, a slightly improved interface…and more speed. The
company claims three- to six-fold improvements, depending on the output codecs
involved—and Squeeze supports a lot of those—from Main Concepts h.264 to Ogg
Theora, and just about everything in-between. Also new is pre- and post-roll
video for advertising headers or tags. Closed captioning support now includes
EIA-608 or EIA-708 and Quicktime timecode is now passed through. The Adobe
Premiere plug-in has also been updated.
Using Squeeze is a breeze. Simply open or drag the files you want to convert to the main window, select an output template, do the same with any FX or corrective filters you wish to apply, then click on the Squeeze It! button. Sorenson Media maintains an online library where you can grab more presets. You may of course also choose individual video and audio codecs and tweak individual settings such as bit rates, resolution, etc. on your own.
Squeeze 9 supports nVidia CUDA GPU acceleration, but not AMD APP or Intel's Quick Sync. However, it will now take advantage of all the cores in your CPU. With the four physical and four virtual cores in my Core i7-3770 test bed, that meant very, very good performance. That meant transcoding a two-hour DVD to h.264 and aac in the background in about half an hour. Despite the heavy CPU usage, the rest of Windows 7 was still quite responsive.
Despite the heavy CPU usage, Squeeze plays nice with your
other programs. There was no noticeable slowdown in my Core i7-3770 test bed.
Using Squeeze is a breeze. Simply open or drag the files you want to convert to the main window, select an output template, do the same with any FX or corrective filters you wish to apply, then click on the Squeeze It! button. Sorenson Media maintains an online library where you can grab more presets. You may of course also choose individual video and audio codecs and tweak individual settings such as bit rates, resolution, etc. on your own.
Squeeze 9 supports nVidia CUDA GPU acceleration, but not AMD APP or Intel's Quick Sync. However, it will now take advantage of all the cores in your CPU. With the four physical and four virtual cores in my Core i7-3770 test bed, that meant very, very good performance. That meant transcoding a two-hour DVD to h.264 and aac in the background in about half an hour. Despite the heavy CPU usage, the rest of Windows 7 was still quite responsive.
The transcoding results with Sorenson, thanks to top-flight codecs, are
nothing short of excellent, and the filters—such as black and white,
sepia, auto crop deinterlace, etc.—produce very good results. Squeeze
also supports VST plug-ins for audio.
If you're a pro who does lots of encoding, Squeeze 9 is absolutely worth the price. The encoding is as good and fast as it gets. That said, it's an investment and casual users are better off with a free program such as Freemake Video Converter or Any Video Converter.
If you're a pro who does lots of encoding, Squeeze 9 is absolutely worth the price. The encoding is as good and fast as it gets. That said, it's an investment and casual users are better off with a free program such as Freemake Video Converter or Any Video Converter.
Sunday, 14 July 2013
Kanye West Rants About "Heartbreaking" Black Skinhead Nude Video Leak
North West's daddy is damn angry! Kanye West took a break
from tending to love Kim Kardashian and their infant daughter
to bemoan the leak of his "Black Skinhead" video late Tuesday, July 9. In the
widely circulated clip, a shadowy, CGI version of an extra-muscular West
(shirtless, wearing a gold chain) raps the provocative track from his acclaimed
Yeezus album, dancing and jumping energetically. Towards the end of the
video, the murky West figure appears to be completely nude.
The clip, however, is not ready for prime time. "The BLKKK SKKKN HD video that leaked yesterday was not the official version," West, 35, tweeted. "Me and Nick Knight have been working on this video for 5 months and for creatives it's heartbreaking when something like this happens."
Continued the very emotional new dad: "The final version will be ready within the next week. So any website that may have the unapproved / unfinished ruff. I ask you to please take it down. Allow me and Nick to give the world what we've been losing sleep over."
"And to who ever leaked the video," he fumed, "F-- YOU!" West and Kardashian, 32, have been holed up at Kris Jenner's home during little Nori's first days. "He doesn't leave North for more than an hour," one pal told Us. Added another: "Kanye holds the baby all the time."
The clip, however, is not ready for prime time. "The BLKKK SKKKN HD video that leaked yesterday was not the official version," West, 35, tweeted. "Me and Nick Knight have been working on this video for 5 months and for creatives it's heartbreaking when something like this happens."
Continued the very emotional new dad: "The final version will be ready within the next week. So any website that may have the unapproved / unfinished ruff. I ask you to please take it down. Allow me and Nick to give the world what we've been losing sleep over."
"And to who ever leaked the video," he fumed, "F-- YOU!" West and Kardashian, 32, have been holed up at Kris Jenner's home during little Nori's first days. "He doesn't leave North for more than an hour," one pal told Us. Added another: "Kanye holds the baby all the time."
Dustin Hoffman Breaks Down Over Tootsie Role, Video Goes Viral: "It Was Never a Comedy For Me"
Dustin Hoffman's 1982 comedy Tootsie was no laughing
matter for the veteran Hollywood actor. The 75-year-old actor opened up about
cross-dressing as a woman for his lead role in the film during a 2012 interview
that went viral this week, and in a moving clip, he fights back tears as he
remembers the experience.
During the interview, Hoffman explains that Tootsie co-writer Murray Schisgal once asked him, "How would you be different if you had been born a woman?"
PHOTOS: Celebrity makeovers
"Not, 'What does it feel like to be a woman, because all sexes have asked the question of what it would feel like to be the opposite sex,'" Hoffman clarifies. "But his question was different. If you were born a woman, how would you be different?"
The actor goes on to explain that in considering the role, he asked the studio to provide him with several make-up tests so that he could see whether or not he would be able to get into character and stroll through the streets of New York as a woman -- not a cross-dressing man, but as a woman.
The first time Hoffman saw himself in the mirror in full makeup as his character Dorothy Michaels, he says, he was surprised.
PHOTOS: Best celebrity movie makeunders
"I was shocked that I wasn't more attractive," he admits. "I said, 'Now you have me looking like a woman, now make me beautiful.' I thought I should be beautiful if I was going to be a woman. I would want to be as beautiful as possible."
When the makeup team assured him that there was nothing else they could do to make him more "beautiful," Hoffman says he had an "epiphany" that shook him.
PHOTOS: Stars' most romantic movie roles
"It was at that moment I had an epiphany, and I went home and started crying," he says in the AFI interview, fighting back tears as he recounts his realization. "Talking to my wife, I said, 'I have to make this picture,' and she said, 'Why?' And I said, 'Because I think I am an interesting woman when I look at myself on screen. And I know that if I met myself at a party, I would never talk to that character because she doesn't fulfill physically the demands that we're brought up to think women have to have in order to ask them out.'"
PHOTOS: Jessica Langes' best film and TV roles
"She says, 'What are you saying?'" he continues. "And I said, 'There's too many interesting woman I have … not had the experience to know in this life because I have been brainwashed.'"
By the end of the clip, Hoffman's eyes are misted over as he remembers truly understanding the meaning of female beauty.
"That [Tootsie] was never a comedy for me," he concludes.
During the interview, Hoffman explains that Tootsie co-writer Murray Schisgal once asked him, "How would you be different if you had been born a woman?"
PHOTOS: Celebrity makeovers
"Not, 'What does it feel like to be a woman, because all sexes have asked the question of what it would feel like to be the opposite sex,'" Hoffman clarifies. "But his question was different. If you were born a woman, how would you be different?"
The actor goes on to explain that in considering the role, he asked the studio to provide him with several make-up tests so that he could see whether or not he would be able to get into character and stroll through the streets of New York as a woman -- not a cross-dressing man, but as a woman.
The first time Hoffman saw himself in the mirror in full makeup as his character Dorothy Michaels, he says, he was surprised.
PHOTOS: Best celebrity movie makeunders
"I was shocked that I wasn't more attractive," he admits. "I said, 'Now you have me looking like a woman, now make me beautiful.' I thought I should be beautiful if I was going to be a woman. I would want to be as beautiful as possible."
When the makeup team assured him that there was nothing else they could do to make him more "beautiful," Hoffman says he had an "epiphany" that shook him.
PHOTOS: Stars' most romantic movie roles
"It was at that moment I had an epiphany, and I went home and started crying," he says in the AFI interview, fighting back tears as he recounts his realization. "Talking to my wife, I said, 'I have to make this picture,' and she said, 'Why?' And I said, 'Because I think I am an interesting woman when I look at myself on screen. And I know that if I met myself at a party, I would never talk to that character because she doesn't fulfill physically the demands that we're brought up to think women have to have in order to ask them out.'"
PHOTOS: Jessica Langes' best film and TV roles
"She says, 'What are you saying?'" he continues. "And I said, 'There's too many interesting woman I have … not had the experience to know in this life because I have been brainwashed.'"
By the end of the clip, Hoffman's eyes are misted over as he remembers truly understanding the meaning of female beauty.
"That [Tootsie] was never a comedy for me," he concludes.
Britney Spears' Sons Sean, Jayden Make Music Video Debut in "Ooh La La"
Britney Spears' latest music video is a family affair. "Ooh
La La" premiered on Thursday, July 11, and features the pop star's sons
Sean, 7, and Jayden, 6 -- plus niece
Maddie, 5 -- watching The Smurfs 2 in a movie theater. The
track serves as the first single from the film's soundtrack.
PHOTOS: Sean and Jayden Federline's childhood album
In the video, Spears suddenly disappears in a flash of blue light and then appears in the movie. Her boys become excited, smiling and pointing at the big screen. "Cool," they say in unison. Jayden then adds, "Hi, Mom!"
During a June 17 KIIS-FM radio interview with Ryan Seacrest, Spears said her boys "were really, really good on set." Her sons with ex-husband Kevin Federline "were, like, acting, and my oldest son, [Sean] was right on cue every time they would tell him to do something," she added. "Later on, I got to see what they actually did on camera and it was adorable."
PHOTOS: Britney Spears' most iconic music videos
Spears also revealed that her kids are "obsessed" with the cartoon characters: "We've seen The Smurfs movie a million trillion times."
PHOTOS: Britney Spears' bikini body through the years
At the time, the multiplatinum pop star didn't reveal that her sister Jamie Lynn Spears' daughter would also be making a cameo in the video.
PHOTOS: Sean and Jayden Federline's childhood album
In the video, Spears suddenly disappears in a flash of blue light and then appears in the movie. Her boys become excited, smiling and pointing at the big screen. "Cool," they say in unison. Jayden then adds, "Hi, Mom!"
During a June 17 KIIS-FM radio interview with Ryan Seacrest, Spears said her boys "were really, really good on set." Her sons with ex-husband Kevin Federline "were, like, acting, and my oldest son, [Sean] was right on cue every time they would tell him to do something," she added. "Later on, I got to see what they actually did on camera and it was adorable."
PHOTOS: Britney Spears' most iconic music videos
Spears also revealed that her kids are "obsessed" with the cartoon characters: "We've seen The Smurfs movie a million trillion times."
PHOTOS: Britney Spears' bikini body through the years
At the time, the multiplatinum pop star didn't reveal that her sister Jamie Lynn Spears' daughter would also be making a cameo in the video.
Saturday, 13 July 2013
'I Give It a Year': Newlyweds Matchmake for Each Other
Marriage isn't easy.
In the new comedy, I Give It a Year, a newlywed couple (Rose Byrne and Rafe Spall) deals with the challenges that come after the "I do's."
Here, The Hollywood Reporter exclusively hosts a clip from the film, which shows the mismatched couple getting ready for a double-date night with pair of single friends they seem to be trying to set up.
However, while analyzing their friends, Nat (Byrne) and Josh (Spall) both "casually" pitch the idea of their spouse being better suited to date one of their single friends. This leads to some awkward accidental insults.
FILM REVIEW: I Give It a Year
Directed by Dan Mazer and also starring Anna Faris and Simon Baker, I Give It a Year opens in U.S. theaters Aug. 9 via Magnolia Pictures. It's been available via VOD since July 3.
Mazer (the writer of Borat and Bruno) makes his directorial debut with the film, which opened in the U.K. in February and had its U.S. premiere at the South by Southwest festival in March.
In THR's review of the film, Megan Lehmann writes: "Snarkier than your average Hollywood romantic comedy, the fitfully hilarious British outing I Give It a Year seeks to slice up happily-ever-after tropes with a hacksaw."
In the new comedy, I Give It a Year, a newlywed couple (Rose Byrne and Rafe Spall) deals with the challenges that come after the "I do's."
Here, The Hollywood Reporter exclusively hosts a clip from the film, which shows the mismatched couple getting ready for a double-date night with pair of single friends they seem to be trying to set up.
However, while analyzing their friends, Nat (Byrne) and Josh (Spall) both "casually" pitch the idea of their spouse being better suited to date one of their single friends. This leads to some awkward accidental insults.
FILM REVIEW: I Give It a Year
Directed by Dan Mazer and also starring Anna Faris and Simon Baker, I Give It a Year opens in U.S. theaters Aug. 9 via Magnolia Pictures. It's been available via VOD since July 3.
Mazer (the writer of Borat and Bruno) makes his directorial debut with the film, which opened in the U.K. in February and had its U.S. premiere at the South by Southwest festival in March.
In THR's review of the film, Megan Lehmann writes: "Snarkier than your average Hollywood romantic comedy, the fitfully hilarious British outing I Give It a Year seeks to slice up happily-ever-after tropes with a hacksaw."
Thursday, 11 July 2013
First 'Oldboy' Trailer: History, Hotel Rooms and Hammers to the Head
For those looking for a revenge flick that's exciting, confusing and more than a little violent -- a hammer in the head, Josh Brolin? -- the first trailer for Spike Lee's upcoming remake of the 2003 South Korean thriller Oldboy might be exactly what you're looking for.
Oldboy started life as a manga series running in Weekly Manga Action by Garon Tsuchiya and Nobukai Minegishi that ran from 1996 to 1998, before being adapted by director Park Chan-Wook in 2003 and, now, Lee for this new American version of the story.
PHOTOS: 26 of Summer's Most Anticipated Movies: 'Man of Steel,' 'Wolverine,' 'The Lone Ranger'
Each version of the story features the same basic plot. A man is locked away for years without reason, and once released, goes looking for explanations and those responsible. But what's odd is that each successive version of the story adds additional years to the length of imprisonment. In the original manga, Shinichi Goto is trapped for a decade. In the first film adaptation, Oh Dae-su is locked away for 15 years, and as the new trailer for the American edition reveals, Brolin's Joe Doucett is kept in solitary confinement for twenty years.
(As is always the case in such movies, Brolin ages suspiciously well in those twenty years; by the time he's released with his new haircut, he almost looks younger than he did in 1993.)
PHOTOS: Second Time's the Charm: 15 of Hollywood's Most Notable Remakes
The American version of the movie has been in the works for some time; in 2008, it was Will Smith and Steven Spielberg attached to the project, although both dropped out a year later, effectively killing the project until Lee became involved in 2011. Mark Protosevich, who provided scripts for I Am Legend and The Cell, has remained attached as screenwriter throughout.
The film also stars also stars Elizabeth Olsen and Sharlto Copley. Oldboy will be released October 25 via FilmDistrict.
Twitter: @sajilpl
Amazon Adds 'Pulp Fiction,' 'Good Will Hunting' to Instant Video
Amazon has added additional movies from Miramax to its Prime Instant Video library, via a new licensing deal.
The new movies available to Amazon Prime subscribers include Pulp Fiction, Good Will Hunting, Life Is Beautiful and The English Patient.
STORY: Amazon, Viacom Ink Multiyear Licensing Deal
Amazon Prime Instant Video allows users to stream movies and TV shows to their computer, mobile device or TV, using a console like PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360. The service costs $79 a year.
Amazon has been trying to boost their instant video offerings to compete with Netflix and other subscription streaming services. It recently inked a deal to carry Viacom TV shows that were formerly available on Netflix, including popular series like Dora the Explorer and SpongeBob SquarePants. And the company previously snagged exclusive rights to Downton Abbey and CBS' Under the Dome.
Miramax, meanwhile, has been trying to monetize its film library, which contains more than 700 titles. New chairman Thomas Barrack recently told The Hollywood Reporter that the company would also be interested in acquiring other libraries and returning to producing its own TV series and movies.
Twitter: @sajilpl
Wednesday, 10 July 2013
Rare Clip Shows Roosevelt's Use Of Wheelchair
The press and the president's aides kept Franklin D. Roosevelt's use of a
wheelchair hidden from most of the public during his more than 12 years as the
nation's leader.
So hidden, in fact, that an Indiana college professor's discovery of just 8 seconds of film that shows Roosevelt gliding down a ramp aboard the U.S.S. Baltimore in July 1944 is making news this week.
Photos of President Franklin D. Roosevelt sitting in a wheelchair are also rare and weren't shown to the public while he was in office. In this image from 1941 he's with his dog Fala and Ruthie Bie, the granddaughter of a gardener who worked for the Roosevelt family.
The Indianapolis Star writes that "Franklin College Professor Ray Begovich actually was most interested in finding photos of alumni Elmer Davis, a Hoosier journalist who became a war information specialist for President Franklin Delano Roosevelt." It was by accident, the Star says, that Begovich came across the film clip while he was researching at the National Archives in 2009 or 2010.
As you can see in the clip, Roosevelt's wheelchair is blocked from the camera's view by sailors lining the ramp. But the motion clearly shows the white-hatted president gliding past them.
Begovich told the FDR Presidential Museum and Library about the clip in 2010. The Star says he "hopes that its wider release now will spur other researchers to comb through old files that might contain other images of FDR in his wheelchair."
The AP reminds readers that:
Roosevelt's biography on the White House's website says that:
So hidden, in fact, that an Indiana college professor's discovery of just 8 seconds of film that shows Roosevelt gliding down a ramp aboard the U.S.S. Baltimore in July 1944 is making news this week.
Photos of President Franklin D. Roosevelt sitting in a wheelchair are also rare and weren't shown to the public while he was in office. In this image from 1941 he's with his dog Fala and Ruthie Bie, the granddaughter of a gardener who worked for the Roosevelt family.
"Bob Clark, supervisory archivist at the Roosevelt library in New York, said he wasn't aware of any other similar film. A spokeswoman for the National Archives concurred.
" 'With respect to whether or not this is the earliest or only existing footage of FDR in a wheelchair, we cannot state that this is definitively the case, although such footage is certainly rare,' Laura Diachenko said in an email."
The Indianapolis Star writes that "Franklin College Professor Ray Begovich actually was most interested in finding photos of alumni Elmer Davis, a Hoosier journalist who became a war information specialist for President Franklin Delano Roosevelt." It was by accident, the Star says, that Begovich came across the film clip while he was researching at the National Archives in 2009 or 2010.
As you can see in the clip, Roosevelt's wheelchair is blocked from the camera's view by sailors lining the ramp. But the motion clearly shows the white-hatted president gliding past them.
Begovich told the FDR Presidential Museum and Library about the clip in 2010. The Star says he "hopes that its wider release now will spur other researchers to comb through old files that might contain other images of FDR in his wheelchair."
The AP reminds readers that:
"Roosevelt contracted polio in 1921 at age 39 and was unable to walk without leg braces or assistance. During his four terms as president, Roosevelt often used a wheelchair in private, but not for public appearances. News photographers cooperated in concealing Roosevelt's disability, and those who did not found their camera views blocked by Secret Service agents, according to the FDR Presidential Museum and Library's website."
Roosevelt's biography on the White House's website says that:
"In the summer of 1921, when he was 39, disaster hit — he was stricken with poliomyelitis. Demonstrating indomitable courage, he fought to regain the use of his legs, particularly through swimming. At the 1924 Democratic Convention he dramatically appeared on crutches to nominate Alfred E. Smith as 'the Happy Warrior.' In 1928 Roosevelt became Governor of New York."
Monday, 8 July 2013
CNN Airs Bystander's SF Plane Crash Landing Footage
On Sunday, as investigators piece together the chain of events that lead to the crash landing of the Asiana Airlines flight at San Francisco airport that left two dead and many injured, a new video has surfaced of the plane's descent.
CNN exclusively aired amateur footage by Fred Hayes, an observer described as an "aviation buff" who had "gone to a place where you could see these planes taking off and landing," said network correspondent Dan Simon.
In the clip, the Boeing 777, which carried 291 passengers, can be seen descending onto the runway before appearing to to skid as smoke rises. Anchor Don Lemon said that the video was shot while Hayes was out walking with his wife.
The news network also aired the video in a split screen along with the National Transportation Safety Board press conference that was scheduled for 1:30 pm PT.
"Everything is on the table right now, it is too early to rule anything out," said NTSB spokesperson Deborah Hersman when asked about any potential mechanical failure on the aircraft by a reporter at the presser.
Hersman encouraged those with photos and videos of the crash to submit an eyewitness report to the agency.
Sunday, 7 July 2013
Chris Evans Rides Post-Apocalyptic Train in 'Snowpiercer' Trailer
A plan to stop global warming has gone very, very wrong in Snowpiercer, which has debuted a new trailer.
The post-apocalyptic sci-fi film from South Korean director Bong Joon-ho is set in a future in which a failed experiment to put an end to global warming has resulted in an ice age, kiling off most of humanity. The only survivers live on Snowpiercer -- a train that circumnavigates the globe and is powered by a perpetual-motion engine.
PHOTOS: 'Snowpiercer' Character Posters: Chris Evans, Tilda Swinton in Propulsive Sci-Fi Thriller
A class system has developed, with the poor living in the train's tale and the rich living in the front. One man (Chris Evans) has had enough, and seeks to reach the front of the train to benefit everyone on it. Among those seeking to stop him is the strangely dressed Mason (Tilda Swinton).
It's the first English-language film for Bong, known for directing the Korean monster blockbuster The Host (2006).
The film lso stars Jamie Bell, Alison Pill, John Hurt, Octavia Spencer, and Ed Harris. Frequent Bong colaborator Song Kang-ho plays Namgoong Minsu, a mysterious securty specialist Evans' character seeks out for help.
Snowpiercer is being released domestically by the Weinstein Company, which has not announced a release date. It hits South Korean theaters this summer.
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