It's a object of mathmatics too I think.

So many films are made every year and only a small percentage of them actually make it to the screen.

there will always be a subset of really cheezy and bad films

Of course, a bunch of those make it to the theater as well.

For example, the Blade sequels should have been direct-to-DVD... in my opinion... at least then my SO wouldn't have subjected me to seeing them!

Oh lord Yes!

And I actually like Blade. I'd still have seen the sequels, but I wouldn't have felt so dirty after...if I'd done it in the privacy of my couch.

Heh. Exactly. And then I could have rewound the only worthwhile part of Blade:Trinity, which was Ryan Reynolds chained up half-naked.

DITT-O!

On Topic, one of my convertees called tonight specifically to say that she'd watched episodes on FX. "The one with the prostitutes was so SAD!" she wailed. Then went on to muse that Nathan could be a major leading man.

My toaster is shiny!

Please don't let Slither! suck as badly as I'm afraid it will.

Oi. Talk about direct-to-DVD fodder.

I don't suppose Slither could also have Ryan Reynolds chained and half-naked? Nathan's hot and all, but more hot=better.

Huh. This is weird. I thought Moore had downplayed any Firefly inspiration on BSG's special effects. (But I can't remember exactly what he said, or where I read it.)

Loni Peristere, visual effects supervisor on the SF movie Serenity, told SCI FI Wire that the movie's computer-generated visual effects mimicked handheld camera moves and realistic lens effects, which also directly influenced the F/X on SCI FI Channel's original series Battlestar Galactica.

When Galactica creator Ronald D. Moore and visual effects supervisor Gary Hutzel saw the visual effects that had been pioneered for director Joss Whedon and Serenity's predecessor TV show, Firefly, they came to Peristere. They told him "that's the way it should be photographed, and please bring those rules to Galactica," Peristere said in an interview. "That is the way this should be shot. And now Galactica has taken on its own set of rules. But it started with appreciation for Firefly and appreciation for work Joss had begun." (Serenity is now available on DVD.)

In Serenity, digital animation of the title spaceship taking off in the rain included raindrops on the camera lens. "When you have a massive ship lifting off, it would be hard for the cameraman to keep the lens clean," said Peristere, who worked with Whedon on both the TV show and movie. "We proposed this as a style to Joss, where the animation would have mounted cameras, depth of field, zoom lenses, all in CG, and he's like, 'Well, yeah, my whole movie is a documentary. Find the story in the camera design.' And we went with it."

Peristere's team from his Zoic Studios created Firefly/Serenity's jerky digital style, which differs from the static style of 2001: A Space Odyssey or the more fluid F/X of the Star Wars films. The style adds a sense of realism, as if things were shot by real people and not created in computers. "It seemed sort of silly to not apply the cinematic language to digital photography as well," Peristere said.

As an example, in Serenity climactic battle scene, visual-effects designers worked as if they had three camera operators following the title ship. "Our job from an animation standpoint was to create an action that moves through the battle, rather than participating in the battle," Peristere said. "Our pilot is chasing Serenity and has to keep Serenity in frame, even though large chunks of debris and fire is coming toward him." The new Serenity DVD includes features on the creation of the movie's visual effects.

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For those interested in Medium, Mark Sheppard (Badger) has a guest spot tonight as a bad guy/ghost.

More SciFi Wire stuff from Loni:

Loni Peristere, visual-effects supervisor for the SF movie Serenity, told SCI FI Wire that there's hope for future flights of the cast and crew of the movie, which just came out on DVD. Director Joss Whedon—who also created the canceled Fox TV show Firefly, on which the movie is based—expected that the movie might draw the low numbers it did in its theatrical release, Peristere said in an interview. But he added that the movie's sales on DVD, which came out on Dec. 20, are running neck-and-neck with the hit comedy Wedding Crashers, which bodes well for a possible Serenity sequel.

"We kind of expected this from our audience," Peristere said. "We did so well on [Amazon.com] with the Firefly box set and the performance of that helped us get the movie made. We wish the audience would get up and go to the theater, but it shows that they like to keep coming back and revisiting the world Joss created." Serenity made $25 million at the domestic box office after it was released Sept. 30.

Whedon and his crew are waiting to see how well the DVD numbers go before proceeding with a Serenity sequel, Peristere said. "We really hope to return to this work," he said. "We love the characters. It's fun storytelling, and we all love using our talents. ... It all depends on Joss. He's not giving up on the characters. He had incredible writers who had a million stories to tell, and we're all just hanging out and seeing what the world has to give us, and given the opportunity we'll make more."

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