My wife and I saw King Kong this week, and wow — what to say, what to say. Of course, I was blown away by the special effects. In the age of computer graphics, nothing seems to be a big deal anymore, but this movie did raise the bar a couple notches. And I thought the lion’s hair in Narnia was realistic. I think WETA Workshop is on to something by getting a live actor to play creatures – in this case, Andy Serkis, who also played Gollum. Kong’s face displayed incredible emotion, and not a soul in the audience wasn’t touched by the growing attachment between Kong and his girl.

Folks were speculating that this "film event" (don’t you hate that phrase?) would top Titanic, but it’s off to a slow start. Speculation abounds — some people think the movie is too long, others think the action-oriented trailers turned off women. I personally think time will tell. My wife thought it was too long, but I thought it was just right. We both agreed that the time flew by, and there was never a dull moment. Perhaps some of the action sequences were a bit long, but one of the advantages of the remake was the ability to really explore Skull Island. 

Jackson, who gets $20 million and 20% of the take, is sitting pretty regardless. He made the movie he’s always wanted to make, so now what?

Speaking of Narnia: another excellent interpretation of a classic. I’m sure we’ll see more from the series on the horizon. It’s been a while since I read the book, but I can’t think of anything that they left out. And it’s not just a bunch of flashy effects, either — much like Kong, the characterizations are terrific. It’s fortunate that today’s audience is able to tolerate longer running times. In my opinion, these films deserved it.

Well, it appears the war over the next-generation DVD format is as well as over, as most of the industry is backing Blu-Ray discs by Sony. MGM, Warner Brothers, Lions Gate, Paramount, Disney and Fox are among the movie studios supporting it, and most of the IT industry (except Microsoft) is behind it as well. After much speculation that Sony may be promising more than it can deliver, they announced on November 18th that they had made their first full-length movie on a Blu-Ray disc (Charlie’s Angels Full Throttle), and .

According to the Sony FAQ, you can fit up to 27GB on a single layer, or 54GB on a dual-layer BD. Not only can standard DVD data be written to a disc, but one layer can contain standard DVD data, and another BD data, making the discs playable in either machine. Whether anyone will actually MAKE discs like this is a matter of speculation, but at least it is possible. BD players should be able to play both formats regardless, so you don’t have to chuck your current DVD collection out the window. Yet.

One thing I was concerned about was the durability of the discs. When you’re trying to cram much more information in the same space, one would assume that the smallest scratch or dust particle would make a big difference. These discs, however, are being coated with a special hard coating by TDK, which is supposed to not only increase resistance to scratches but also repel dust by rapidly discharging static electricity. I don’t know how they do it, but I hope it works!

I think this is probably the last piece of the puzzle needed to finally solidify HD-TV into the American consumer conscience. After integrating BD discs and players into the marketplace, and after the initially high costs go down, we’ll probably see widespread adoption of high-def technology.

I, for one, am looking forward to the data storage possibilities offered by the next generation DVD discs. I was trying to archive our Artists’ Essentials projects last night, and I filled a 200GB hard drive to the max. To be able to burn 4-8 discs to do the same thing would make raw digital video storage much easier and cheaper.

Of course, now that everything is going high-def, I’ll probably find myself in the same boat. 
Only 2 hours of high-definition television (HDTV) will fit on a 25GB disc, compared with about 13 hours of standard-definition television (SDTV).

"Sometimes, in the moment, you have something –
an idea, a bit, a line — that you think is
critical and the other person doesn’t see it
that way and you feel like it never sees
fruition. But in the end, when one person has
reservations, I can’t think of an example where
that instinct wasn’t correct."

– Aeon Flux‘s Phil Hay, on
collaboration