Saturday, May 1, 2010

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Shrek 4 Official Trailer HD



The Final Chapter in 3D in TV spots, is an upcoming American 2010 animated film. It is planned to be released in cinemas May 21, 2010 in the US and July 9, 2010 in the UK.Tim Sullivan wrote the original story Shrek Goes Fourth, but Darren Lemke and Josh Klausner made the rewrites, and Mike Mitchell will direct it.The principal cast members will all reprise their roles.[4] It will also be released in 3-D and IMAX 3-D theaters.The plot was announced February 23, 2009.

This movie will be the final film in the Shrek series. Forever After follows Shrek, Shrek 2 and Shrek the Third.[7] Like the first three Shrek films, the movie will be significantly based on fairy tale themes.
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How to Train Your Dragon Takes the Lead

Before the weekend began, I was absolutely positive that The Losers would walk away with the number one slot. It may not be a victory by a wide margin, but I was certain it would win with all of the advertising that was going on for it. It looks like I was wrong. Clearly. The film failed to take the top spot, or the second spot. It finished way back in fourth place where it failed to crack the $10 million mark and very nearly came in fifth as Kick Ass was right on its tail.The weekend winner is the film that nearly overtook Kick Ass last week, the 3D animated feature How to Train Your Dragon. The Dreamworks film really is having a nice run and I am very happy for it. It is a wonderful family film that makes a familiar story involving, has some very nice animation, a big heart, and some great 3D. Also, fans should know that a sequel is being planned for a 2013 release. Yes, I know that is a long way off but that should mean plenty of time to do it right.
Second place belongs to the debut of Jennifer Lopez's latest big screen effort, The Back Up Plan. I have no interest in seeing this and have not read much positive buzz for it. The commercials look like a cheap sitcom. Lopez plays a woman tired of looking for Mr. Right and decides to start a family on her own. After a successful clinic visit she meets a man who may be the right guy. Comedy ensues. Sorry, it just looks pedestrian and I suspect it will not have a long shelf life.Date Night lays claim to third place. While it is no classic, it is a fun comedy that is different than your typical rom-com and stars a couple of very funny sitcom stars. This is one I suggest you check out if you haven't. I am glad to see it having a nice run.
There is nothing particularly special in the back half. Well, there is the arrival of Disney's latest documentary release, Oceans, debuting in eight place. Primarily it just last week's returning films sliding down a little bit. Next week they will slip a little more.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

BlackBerrry Announces Two New CDMA Handsets

The Bold 9650 is a very conventional BlackBerry with a trackpad and QWERTY keypadA few of the features that did make it out according to reports, say that this handset will feature, Wi-Fi, GPS, EDGE/GPRS and a 3.2mp camera. There is also word that this model would also be launched as a CDMA device.The BlackBerry Bold 9650 smartphone supports 3G (EVDO) networks in North America and (HSPA/UMTS) abroad and has a full-QWERTY keyboard, optical trackpad and built-in Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g), which makes it possible to talk on the phone while browsing the web or sending and receiving email. The BlackBerry Bold 9650 also includes 512 MB Flash memory and an expandable memory card slot that supports up to 32 GB microSDHC card.The 9650 will be available in May, and Sprint has already said that it will offer the phone. The Bold 9650 will replace the Tour, and offers some similar features, including a 2.44 inch display with a 480 x 360 pixel resolution. It also comes equipped with 802.11b/g support, a 1,400mAh battery, a 2GB microSD card with support for 32GB cards, and a 3.2 megapixel camera.
The Bold 9650 measures 111mm x60mm x 14.2mm (4.4in x 2.4in x .56in) and weighs 136g (4.8oz). Its display measures 2.44 inches diagonally and has a 480 x 360 pixel resolution. RIM included a 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera on the rear, the same shooter that is available on the Tour, Storm, Storm 2, and Bold 9700 modelsthere are two keyboard layouts for the BlackBerry Pearl 3G smartphone. The BlackBerry Pearl 3G 9100 smartphone features a 20-key condensed QWERTY keyboard. The BlackBerry Pearl 3G 9105 smartphone features a traditional phone keyboard with 14 keys.

BlackBerry Pearl smartphone to have both GPS and Wi-Fi(including 802.11 n!) first with HSDPA support, it has the best display we have put on a device this small, has plenty of memory for downloading applications from BlackBerry App World , and we have added our new optical trackpad as well. The BlackBerry Pearl 3G smartphone also has more media-oriented features like media keys on top of the device, a more powerful 3.2 MP camera supporting new features like VGA recording and image stabilization, and landscape playback to provide a better video experience.The BlackBerry Pearl 3G 9105 smartphone is also the first BlackBerry smartphone ever to have a traditional phone keyboard for those not as familiar using QWERTY keyboards. But it is still recognizably a BlackBerry Pearl smartphone, featuring a similar styling and profile.
The BlackBerry Pearl 3G smartphone had two of the best possible inspirations: the BlackBerry Pearl 8100 smartphone and the BlackBerry Bold 9700 smartphone. We wanted a handset that was true to the form of the original BlackBerry Pearl 8100 smartphone, but brought in some of the high-end styling of the BlackBerry Bold smartphone line.The BlackBerry Pearl 3G smartphone still fits the same two roles the BlackBerry Pearl smartphone line has had since its inception. The first is to provide a powerful, but slim and attractive, alternative to the full-QWERTY products for those who prefer a smaller device.

 

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

DQE and The Hive Enterprises sign agreement with Playhouse Disney

DQ Entertainment announced that the new CGI pre-school series "The Hive", 26 x 21‘ (or 78 x 7‘) being co-produced by DQE has resulted in The Hive Enterprises signing a broadcast deal with Playhouse Disney for a record number of 150 countries. The series is due to be aired on Playhouse Disney channels worldwide from early 2011. It will premiere this autumn in the UK on GMTV‘s pre-school Fluffy Club weekend strand.The Hive‘ is being co-produced by The Hive Enterprises, DQ Entertainment, Lupus Films and Monumental Productions with a production budget of 3.5m pounds. DQ Entertainment and Lupus Films previously worked together on the 2008 remake of the 1950s children‘s classic The Pinky And Perky Show for the BBC and France 3. Bejuba Entertainment has come on board as the distributor for this pre-school series, and Space Enterprises are handling all the Licensing and Merchandising for the show.The Disney deal, negotiated by The Hive Enterprises, lead producers of this show, and Bejuba Entertainment, covers regions including France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Korea, Japan and India as well as South East Asia, Latin America, Scandinavia, Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Tapaas Chakravarti, Chairman and CEO of DQ Entertainment said, "This acquisition by Disney is an affirmation of the strength of this property and our partnership with The Hive Enterprises. We are indeed delighted to be co-producers on The Hive and on yet another wonderful production backed by Play House Disney for 150 countries

Monday, April 26, 2010

The future is [Hindustan Times, New Delhi]

 Forget Avatar, it was just the tip of an ice-cube. In comparison, the three-dimensional iceberg that's drifting in its wake towards the entertainment industry is far bigger than the effect James Cameron's $2.7-billion grosser has wrought. It looks set to change the course the industry till the visible technology horizon.The technology that Cameron's film is credited to have breathed life into has been around in some way or the other since the 1890s, when a 3D moviemaking process was first patented in Britain. Over the next century came technologies that failed on the cost-benefit scale.
What Avatar did was to show the marketing possibilities of 3D -- marking the second coming of the old magic.Filmmakers at home, too, want to ride the wave. India's first 3D movie was in 1998 -- Jijo Punnoose's Chhota Chetan. Then came a few animation films, but not much more. Now Pooja Bhatt wants to make a Jism sequel in 3D. Ram Gopal Varma has announced an adventure flick and a horror movie in the format. The animated Bal Hanuman 2 has just been released on 3D. Call it the Avatar effect.

It's not just about films. Last month Samsung, Sony and Panasonic launched 3D television sets in India. Taiwan's Acer has launched a 3D laptop. Computer games such as Avatar, Batman: Arkham Asylum and G-Force are available across the country on the format. This year's football World Cup will be the first one to be telecast on 3D. Much of these must have been in the works for years. What has brought about their releases now? The force's with them The spread of digital projection and better camera technology helped. But there's surely more to the momentum.

A few weeks ago, the Delhi-born Ali Kazimi, assistant professor at the Centre for Film and Theatre in Toronto's York University, started on a $1.4-million interdisciplinary project to research 3D cinema. "A project this size cannot be started overnight... but the funding fell in place after the success of Avatar." Now everyone is playing for the 3D effect. Sony Pictures, for one, will release five films in 3D the coming year, ending with Tintin. The Hollywood biggie also opened its 3D Technology Center in the US earlier in April. Kazimi says almost all Hollywood animation films next year will have a 3D release too.

Most 3D films are conversions from 2D contents (like Alice in Wonderland) and are seen through the two-colour 'anaglyph' glasses. Very few (like Avatar) are done through the much costlier process of shooting with 3D cameras.France-based Tom Sirdix, director of the first 3D porn film, Shortcuts, rigged his own 3D camera at a cost of more than 60,000 euros (Rs 36 lakh). He writes on email: "I wanted to check the current limitations of 3D techniques in shooting. We tested a French company leading in 2D-to-3D conversion and they did a convincing job, but the price had to improve." An Indian opportunity The conversion is a painstaking process that's done frame by frame, judging the depth of the scene, movements and angles. A feature-length film may need tens of thousands of man-hours in front of specialised computers. This is where India's backroom techies are coming forward, says Kazimi. Companies such as Prime Focus, in which Anil Ambani holds a stake, are bidding for such projects at lower-than-First-World prices.

Three-dimensional animation already employs more than 20,000 people in India. Puneet Sharma, technical adviser to Arena Multimedia, a company that teaches animation technology to 22,000 students in 16 countries, informs that more than four out of every 10 students want to learn 3D techniques today. "The problem is that they think 3D is all about technology. They do not tend to focus on the drawing, the old art of it all." Even in gaming, it's a "post-Avatar era now", admits Rohit Sharma, CEO of gaming website Zapak. Gamers are hooked to playing not-so-new games such as Half-Life and Need for Speed in 3D, says Sharma, adding that despite the more-than-double charges for 3D, its popularity has not gone down.
Television makers, too, have launched their latest products here not long after they have been launched in North America and Europe. And for 3D TV, sports is expected to be the market driver. "Five of the 2010 World Cup matches will be produced using Sony's 3D cameras," says Takakiyo Fujita, general manager (marketing) at Sony India, whose mother ship has inked an 8-year agreement with football's overlord, Fifa.

IS it here to stay? Not everyone, understandably, is convinced that the second coming will not meet the fate of the first.Rajiv Makhni, managing editor (technology) at NDTV and host of the Gadget Guru show, says, "3D has been force-fed to the consumer. Everyone wanted to go from black-and-white to colour, cathode ray tubes to plasma, standard-definition to high-definition -- but no one was really asking for 3D." There are niggling health questions too. Laurie M. Wilcox, associate director at the York's Centre for Vision Research and member of Kazimi's team, says, "The eye adjusts to focusing at various lengths in the short term... Overuse -- say, of more than 8 hours a day -- may bring on headache or nausea. But there's no proof of eye damage in the normal 3D viewing experience." For now, several marketers are putting their money where the buzz is.In film projection, 3D requires theatres to install more expensive projectors and more luminescent screens."We are rolling out (3D) capability all over the country," says Sanjeev Bijli, owner of the PVR chain of cinemas. "We are investing serious money in this. So obviously we don't think it's a gimmick. Also, the 3D versions of Alice in Wonderland and Up got almost twice the response than the regular, 2D versions." The market is voting with its money. Now if only the consumer will.