Sam's Journal http://dig.mixnmojo.com/journal Sam's ramblings about The Dig Museum, The Dig, the world, life, LOST, peanut butter and any other thing that pops in his mind. en Tue, 04 Sep 2007 18:54:11 -0300 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 1440 RSSeditor v0.9.54 (http://www.rss-info.com) Still Alive http://dig.mixnmojo.com/journal/index.html#04_09_07 Sam Oh damn, it happened again. This has to be a record. I haven't posted in like.... many months. But this is a quick post to reassure you I'm still alive and doing well. Lot's of things happened during this time so I'll be telling you about it next time (tomorrow I hope).
As you can observe there are some improvements. New pictures for the header (all taken by your lovely host of course) and new phrases on the randomatic thingie. Also, you can check out my new website about....me. It's right up there, and right over HERE. Finally I've added another thingie which allows modern browsers recognize the syndication feed. By the way, how many of you are subscribed to the feed? Drop me a line and tell me.

- Sam

]]> At World's End http://dig.mixnmojo.com/journal/index.html#22_05_07 Sam Today I was fortunate enough to watch Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End in a theater. This private screening (for the press) was held early in the morning. I watched the previous movie for the first time... yesterday night (I rented the dvd).

So given this rare opportunity I had, of having watched this movie before most of the people on earth (yeah, it's a stupid thing, but it really makes me feel good), I'll review it.



Not Enough Midgets
A Pirates of The Caribbean: At World's End Lovely Review
By Sam

NOTE: Spoilers will be avoided, and anyway, there isn't much to spoil.

So, let's see. There's been a while since a write a movie review (or any review for that matter), so I'll start it roughly and follow the bliss from there.

The movie is way too long! Three frigging hours! So, my first shook of head goes to the editor. Having myself never edited nothing longer than a 5 minutes short, I would be delighted to try my feature length editing skills chopping a good hour chunk out of this movie.
It's just unnecessary long. There are some movies that ARE necessarily long (like...let's say.. Titanic, The Return of The King, etc), but that's because those stories require it. In the case of At World's End, it DOESN'T!
Overall, the movie is entertaining, and I had a good time. The first half of it, was quite good. I particularly enjoyed when Jack Sparrow makes his appearance in this chapter. It was kind of experimental, very odd and very good at the same time I really liked that part. But then, once the conflicts in the movie had been more or less established, coherence and dynamics where thrown out the window.

The story-line was just all over the place, getting ridiculously complex. There is people changing sides all the time, but instead of achieving it in a subtle attractive way like in The Departed, it was just silly and poorly justified. It seems the movie takes and attitude that says "Hey, don't judge me, I'm just a movie..." and that is supposed to make it up for some major holes in the plot. You snap your fingers and suddenly a character that had died is alive and kicking again. But how did he came back? dah, who cares? It was a charming character!

Other thing I enjoyed was Keith Richard's character. Very smooth appearance, lot of style. Almost perfect. Even his costume design was my favorite. Like a more refined version of Jack Sparrow's.
I don't even have to mention that Johnny Depp was marvelous as always. And of course Orlando Bloom sucks as always.

The music is disgustingly hollywoodish, a shame because I've recently heard Hans Zimmer's work on The Weather Man and it was wonderful.

(I love ranting harshly about movies, I feel like a real critic)

Well, in a more serious observation, and given that lately I've learned a lot about story telling, I could say that this was a very FORCED story. It's like they had a bunch of random DOTS (dots like: "The sexy girl now becomes really piratey and is more than just the hot chick on the film", "Epic pirate meeting", "Unnecessarily long and epic battle in the sea", "put all the main characters against each other", etc etc) and they FORCED them together. And that line between each dot is very poorly sustained, and in consequence there is a lack of purpose in the story. It's just a bunch of things happening, and they don't really connect with each other.

So, is this a crappy movie? Not at all, it made me smile a lot, and laugh a little. Other important thing, I recommend you to watch the previous movie Dead Man's Chest (in case you don't remind the details) before you watch this one. I wouldn't have understand half of it, if I hadn't watched it yesterday.
Other important thing, the visual effects are stunning and most of the time they are there to serve the story (even a "so so" story like this one), not the other way around (errr...Spider-Man..errr).

Summary: One whole unnecessary spear HOUR, and definitely it would have been better if it had more midgets.

It opens worldwide on May 25. So watch it, enjoy it, and write me to tell me what you thought of it!

- Sam

]]> Catching up http://dig.mixnmojo.com/journal/index.html#15_05_07 Sam Damn, it's been a quite long while since my last post. I have a problem of continuity, it would seem.
I envy people who post something everyday. To my defense I can claim that I use no fancy system like Google's Blogger or anything more simple like it. I just have to put together every single post, and that takes some time.

It has been good times for me lately. Erectly I've got to meet one of my favorite comics-making duets. I'm talking about master storyteller Carlos Trillo and fine arts genius Juan Bobillo, they are both fellow Argentineans, but their work is all over the globe. Some of their titles are Bird (which they both signed me), Zachary Holmes (which I asked Juan to draw one for me) and Chocolate and French Fries (which hasn't been published here yet, but I really look forward to read it).
So, that was awesome. I was ridiculously happy that day.

Finally, a new interview! This time with the great Ryan Kaufman, who was one of the testers of The Dig. One of the funnier interviews I've done. Read it here!

MAIL TIME:

FROM: Fatih Dicle

hi, i recently play the dig and i love it. actually i have this game from when its release but because of bad english and being a child i even cant pass the meteor section :D. actually i just want to ask are you still there ? :), i am a old game lover, like dungon keeper 1-2, X-COM 1-2-3-4-5 vs..., so its sads me to see this game has been forgotten, anyway i hope you like this messege, take care and good by.

Note: english is not my first language so please forgive my writing mistakes.

Well, glad you enjoyed The Dig. Regarding your question, I can assure you I'm STILL HERE. I don't know what those weird numbers are suppoused to be, but it certainly scares me.
I can tell you that as long as this site lives, The Dig won't be forgotten.

NEXT!

FROM: John H-W

Hello Sam,
Firstly, Your website is great and I've used it as a reference for Dig related material for some time now.

My question for you and the reason for this email is to query the wallpapers section of your site. Can we expect anything in the near future from you? My question was also a result of what was said by someone called Uwe in Ask Yoda section, who mentioned high definition art from the game.

Lastly, do you recommend any programs I can use to capture my own screen shots from the game. I'm assuming this is how you have taken the art from the game and implemented it into your site.

Thanks,
John H-W

Well, I will certainly make some wallpapers in the future. There is a lot to do on this site, and I have not even half the time I had when I started it. But I will eventually, just have some patience. If someone wants to make wallpapers they will be welcomed (just send it in 2 or 3 different resolutions, starting with 800x600).
To capture screenshots from the game I simply used the PrintScreen key on the keyboard, and then pasted them on Fireworks, which is the program I use to do all the graphics.

NEXT!

From: Stefan Sundin

Just wanted to tell you about a video I've put together where all the dig cinematics come in order, you can watch it at google video.

hey, nice job. I just wish you also included the tram sequences, even if there is no way to put them chronologically. They are still wonderful. (Warning, don't watch it if you haven't finished the game, it includes both endings)

Decently I've discovered the great world of uploading videos to YouTube. So soon all the trailers and videos I did for the site will be up on YouTube for everyone to enjoy.

- Sam

]]> The art of digging http://dig.mixnmojo.com/journal/index.html#20_03_07 Sam Lot's of things to talk about. Let's begin with Dig related topics.

LucasFilm suing issue.
Do you remember that LucasFilm sued Digg.com for creating confusion in the world? Well, they now suspended the thing, because the negotiations started. That means Digg.com is going to pay LucasFilms some millions of dollars for all the confusion they caused. And they better pay them well, because can you imagine all those thousands of people that went to Digg.com looking for information about Ludger Brink being disappointed? It's just horrible.

What surprises me is that if Digg.com is paying LucasFilm that means they probably had some chance of winning which is rather insane. Another speculation is that LucasArts might be planning on doing something with "The Dig" trademark. I doubt it, but who knows...

Interviews coming up.
Ok, It's been a while since my last published interview (the one with the great Bill Eaken). So, I went back at my contact list and also did a LARGE research on people I didn't know were to find. And I found a lot of them. Actors are particularly easy to find, but rather hard to contact. That's because I usually find out what their agency is and then try to contact the agency. But for some reason talent agencies don't find email to be a useful medium of communication. They mostly rely on this ancient thing called "phone" which apparently involves entering a numeric pattern in it. The weirdness of the past.

Nevertheless I managed to find email addresses for most of the agencies, and so I can tell you there is an upcoming interview with...... ONE OF THE LEADING CHARACTERS in The Dig!!! Yeaaaaahh! Really exciting. And not only that but I'm actually conducting other 3 interviews with great people who participated in The Dig. So there is a lovely amount of interview material coming your way soon.....[READMORE<[BR>

]]> A return, a gathering and a lawsuit http://dig.mixnmojo.com/journal/index.html#05_03_07 Sam RSS Readers: Sorry for not having included the last post earlier.

Oh yes, I'm back, after some long vacations. I'm no good for a journey to a desolate place in which I can barely find something usefull/entertaining to do. So I wish I've come back earlier.

I could tell you some things about the journey but I don't feel like it right now I'm afraid. Instead let me express my frustration on my (again) not so good predictions, having made 8 out of 24 on the Oscars. For some reason I can't seem to nail more than ten.
I'm frustrated because Pan's Labyrinth didn't won the two more important Oscars to which it was nominated (Best Foreign Language Film and Best Original Screenplay) although it did take 3 golden gays home. And I'm very very happy that Martin Scorcese finally won an Oscar, and not only that but it was given to him by Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola. The four of them are friends since long ago...

]]> Journey, predictions and more http://dig.mixnmojo.com/journal/index.html#17_02_07 Sam Okay, here I'm again. Very very busy and with a lot of stuff still to do before I leave. That's right tomorrow morning I'll be heading for a trip to Rio Negro, to a place called Las Grutas, which is one of the few places in south america to have beaches with warm water. And I'll be there for ten days or more, enjoying some vacations, taking lots and lots of pictures, reading, writing and sleeping.

As I'll be off when the oscars arrive, so I'll leave my predictions here...

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