Harry Potter

I took the tour of the new Harry Potter "land" at Universal Studios. I'm not a huge Harry Potter fan, but this was pretty cool. I loved the dragon challenge where you could ride a "dragon" and go through scenes from the movie. The town of Hogsmeade was really quaint and set up like the book described. It had the shops and everything. It even included owls in the rafters just like Hedwig. You had the ability to stop by and taste butterbeer(in the books and movies) and some of the "delicacies" mentioned in the books. You can buy a wand that's a replica of those in the movie. I personally think the wand would be the coolest thing to buy. You can go into Hogwarts and explore where wizards get their education. Flight of the Hippogriff you can interact with Hagrid as he teaches you how to approach one of these mythical creatures. You then board a "training flight" (roller coaster) and swoop past Hagrid's hut. Even not being much of a Harry Potter fan, I have to admit, I'm very intrigued and curious about this new attraction and would love to go and see it.

The Screening Room

I had never heard of YouTube's Screening Room. So when I got on, it was a little different for me. I watched "Fast Film". A film done with entirely pieces of paper and a little animation. In the film, there are several plots to the story. It starts with the typical 50's film mantra of a man coming in and passionately and maybe a little over zealously kissing an attractive actress. The film then moves from this to a horse. The horse, in true classic western fashion, runs along side a train. By the time you come to the climax of that scene, there are four trains. All have some sort of bad guy aboard and there is only one "good guy" train featuring Cary Grant as the good guy. Grant goes into a car on the train to rescue a girl, which, of course, he completes with ease. He rescues her as the four trains are plummeting toward the ground because they've run off a cliff. The girl and Grant drive a car out of the train James Bond style. Then you see Grant and a host of other 50's actors walking through a darkened cave. The hero comes to a torture wheel where the body is stationary, but the head is not, the film rolls through several different heads on the wheel. It switches heads on the wheel like those boards at carnivals where you put your face inside the circle and become the old farmer and his wife, or a cow and host of other barnyard animals. The film ends with a dog fight in the air with good guys like John Wayne shooting down Frankenstein and other traditional villains.

I really enjoyed the Fast Film for many reasons. One is I'd never seen a film like that before. Every time you watch it it could become something different. The horse, death wheels, planes, trains, and automobiles, etc. were all shapes in it of themselves. Inside these objects were moving film snippets from a variety of different 50's, 60's, and 70's movies. It gave you a great walk through history if you're a old movie watcher like myself. Different films I recognized gave me a sort of nostalgia and made me want to go back and watch them again. You could either keep up with the films themselves, or follow the story of the moving object independently. Moreover, if you watch the subsequent film 'Making of Fast Films' the directors, producers, and makers of this film walk you through this complicated art. It's a great change of pace from your traditional animations and special effects of today. It was somewhat hard to follow, but that's because you're trying to follow two different story lines at once. Overall though, a really nice change of pace and a great work of art to appreciate.

Warner Brothers Tour

Warner Brother is such a big company. It was so awesome to watch as the tour "buses" drove by the many stages of the shows most everyone is familiar with. Like F.R.I.E.N.D.S, Ellen Degeneres Show, Supernatural, and the Pushing Daisies "set". They have a lot to offer with their tours. If you go with the Deluxe Tour, you get to see, in-depth, how they make movies/shows and you even get a lunch to go with it. Warner Brothers offers you the chance to come in and see how they've stayed in business all these years and been such a success. They do have some goofs running around(Ellen) who hijack tour "buses". But, who would complain about a star hijacking your "bus"? Getting to see how they made movies back as far as 1955 to present would be captivating. For a business to make it this long they must have many secrets and brilliant outlook. I would love to tour the Warner Brothers Studio someday and see how TV is really produced. Maybe even meet a few stars.

Blue Store v. Redbox

There are so many ways to get movies and shows nowadays. Including Netflix, On Demand, Redbox, Hulu, Amazon, Torch.net, etc. I'm not really sure how to feel about all of them. On one hand, it's nice to have affordable access to entertainment. Better still, in the comfort of your own home. You can have a never-ending bowl of popcorn and as many drinks as as you want because your DVD player makes it possible to push pause anytime.

On the other hand however, isn't this contributing to obesity and detachment from socializing? We have an awful trend in America right now with obesity. More than one third(35.7%) of US adults are obese. And 40% of college students state that the internet is more important than dating or going out with friends. These "outreach" companies with movies making it easier to stay in, eat more for less, and interact with a TV screen isn't helping. Was it really that big of a deal to rent a movie at the store? Picking out a movie as a family without 5 people staring at your selection and sighing impatiently while you return your movie from last night and rent another is something that is fleeting quickly. Who are we to tell America they can't have convenience? No one really. Just my opinion. I'd be lying if I said I didn't use these services. But it's a two-sided coin. You have to find that fine balance between convenience and laziness. I myself never minded going to the store and choosing out a movie with my mom and sisters. The only thing that was a pain sometimes was remembering to take it back. Short of that, it was fun. We'd go out, pick a movie, maybe we'd grab some candy, then head home for a movie night at home.

I guess I'm half and half. I like the convenience of being able to rent a movie. But I guess I don't think the extinction of video stores was necessary either.

http://www.eaglenews.org/study-shows-internet-is-replacing-real-social-interaction-1.2645627
http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html

The Weather Channel Tour

This "studio of the future" was awe-inspiring. It had a lot of upgrades for the futuristic purposes of conserving energy. The studio used local materials from no further than 500 miles away. They used things like cork and bamboo wherever possible. These materials are quickly renewable materials, unlike lumber and steel. Low emitting adhesives, sealants, capreting, and paints were ued to minimize or eliminate contributions to ozone depletion and global warming. 170 sq ft was devoted to recycling glass, aluminum, paper, and cardboard. Light colored roofing materials were put in place of traditional shingles to keep studio cool naturally, all year long and reduce energy usage. A smart feature the studio used was a green screen that can swivel from one side of the studio to the other to accomodate different weather stories. This is accentuated by the amount of lights present in the studio. Each has it's own backup so it never goes dark and consumers can stay updated on weather at all times. A cozy half-circle couch is a tidy addition for meterologists to talk about the weather and help the viewer to feel as if they're there. This specific effect is made easier by the fact that the weather channel moved to all HD. They have robotically controlled cameras eliminating the use of human cameramen. Images and graphics seen on the screen are added by the production team to make your weather experience all the more exciting. This is added to the area where the weather is reported from. The reporting desk. The desk actually swivels 360 degrees. This give the set the ability to be in a stifiling 11 different configurations. The set itself also has a "scenic view" of 3 small LCD display televisions. But, on the off chance they would need a bigger view, there are at least 10 more LCD display TV's throught the studio.

This "studio of the future" was a very intimate look at how stations are changing to meet viewer concern and expectation. This new studio was very concientious of the environment. Something many builders and other corporates looking to expand are not. I enjoyed this tour very much. Did I enjoy it more than the New York Times Building? They were about even. The NYT presentation was better, but The Weather Channel had more gadgets and such to look at. Both were very informative.

Times Tour(NYC)

I found the ceramic rods on the outside of the building to be very remarkable. I didn't know architects could design a building with rods that actually helped control the lighting inside of it. I liked the fact that Mr.Piano tried to make it more private. Nobody likes to feel like their shoulder is being looked over. I'm sure the writers, editors, producers, etc. found this environment welcoming to write their stories in. The lobby had a beautiful design. Particularly the atrium where you could look down at the tall birch trees with the overlay of moss. It gave the lobby a somewhat normal and relaxing appearance and feel. Mr. Piano's goal was to breakdown the boundary between the lobby feel and the busy street. Bring a little of the New York life that happens all day, into the hum drum of a 9-5 job. The glass that surrounded and encased the lobby made it possible for anyone in the auditorium to see into the lobby where it became a "stage" of sorts. And from the lobby you could see the auditorium. Both views caused you to look right through the atrium, bringing in that relaxed and "real" feeling. This building was designed to speak to a more progressive, open, and democratic culture. It wasn't necessarily beautiful from the outside; but, it more than made up for it in design and intrigue on the inside. The newsroom for example was very flowing with the staircases instead of elevators to keep people working together. There was double the head space to give the rooms an airy feeling. The same effect was created for the cafeteria so people could enjoy their little break in the day. All in all a very beautiful building to work in.

Recording Studio Tours

Wow. I'm really out of touch with how recording music to get yourself out there works. I didn't know they had such accomodations for the budding musician. Blue Jay had the coolest site I thought. I loved the "fuel guage" navigator in the bottom left-hand corner. The site was well laid out and you could even change the music to your liking. They had a very comprehensive list of places to stay while recording and what they were close to. The SoHo Studio didn't have as much of an interactive website. They had a good client list and seemed like a decent location, however, the presentation wasn't as good as the other three. Radio Ready had a good introductory video, especially the clientele list. They highlighted most of their aspects well. The classiest studio by far was the studio in MN called Pachyderm Studio. Their website was the most elegant layout of the four. They offered the most amnenities and had the best accomodations. If I were an artist, I'd definately pick Pachyderm for my needs. However, my second pick would be Blue Jay. And it's because of their website. It has so many cool features and it's a very fun website to navigate and play with. The recording industry is far more in depth than I'd anticipated. I didn't know studios provided places for the artists to stay. Nor did I know they provided staff for them to work with. This was more eye-opening than I had anticipated earlier. I enjoyed touring the studios and looking at their websites.