LUCAS' GENIUS BEYOND STAR WARS

Lucas Reimagined Movie Tech, Then Sold It

After filming the first "Star Wars" movie with special effects far from special,
George Lucas spent millions to develop a complete digital editing system to
populate his sequels with armies of X-wing fighters and Gungan warriors.
Then, he virtually gave it away…

Apple Computer Inc. chief executive Steve Jobs paid $10 million for the team
that became Pixar Inc., and the movie company went on to make $3 billion at
the box office…

First, the computer team created "EditDroid," the first digital-editing system.
It
allowed movies to be transferred to computer disks so editors won't have to
fiddle with cumbersome film reels. Lucas sold that technology to Avid
Technology Inc., which went on to sell the forerunner of modern movie-editing
bays…

http://movies.yahoo.com/mv/news/ap/20050512/111592788000.html

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MINI-OSCARS

Academy Announces Student Finalists

Twenty-nine students from 18 colleges and universities are vying for the
Academy's top student prizes.

http://movies.yahoo.com/mv/news/fs/20050511/111584009900.html

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BETWEEN IRAQ AND A HARD PLACE

Read this article before you want to complain about how hard it is to make a
movie. It's about the first Iraqi film which has been accepted to Cannes.
However, I can't take credit for the clever title - it's from Channel 4 in
England.
-Anup

http://movies.yahoo.com/mv/news/ap/20050512/111594318000.html

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MAYBE HE GREW IT. MAYBE IT'S MAYBELLINE.

Here's a cool trick I learned when I had to grow out a moustache for the film
noir set in the 80s I shot a few weeks back. Use mascara to thicken even a
two days' worth of facial hair growth to look like a month's growth.

-Anup

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MEMBER UPDATES:

DVD RELEASE - AMERICAN MADE

Sharat Raju (writer/director) of "American Made" the DVD is almost ready.
Just around the corner, with the official release is scheduled mid- to late May.
In fact, you can reserve a copy of American Made at a discounted price of $10
(including shipping and handling)! If you pre-order American Made by May
1st, you'll save $5 off the usual price of $15.

On the web: http://www.AmericanMadeTheMovie.com

Place your vote on IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0352165/
And through that word of mouth, we have a remarkable new development.
American Made is now being endorsed by the Austin Police Department.
That's right -- our little short will be used for cultural outreach and
sensitivity
training in Austin, Texas for the police officers there. It's really an honor
and
we hope it helps in anyway possible. We're delighted they approached us
and are really thrilled about it.

And we hope you decide to get a copy of the film to be a part of your own
personal collection. Remember: "American Made -- If it's good enough for the
Austin PD, it's good enough even for me."

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DVD RELEASE - ARYA

my movie ARYA
www.nritvfilmclub.com/aryatrailer.html
is releasing may 25th worldwide
 
please do help spread the word
people can prebook the DVD online - www.nritvfilmclub.com/store.php
for discounted price 9$
 
 
regards - manan singh katohora

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FUNNY SHORT

Holly Bolly
http://www.imotion.com

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COOL DAY JOB OR AWESOME IDEA FOR ENTREPRENEURS

Harvard Prof Works As Hollywood Math Whiz


Harvard professor Jonathan Farley is an award-winning scholar, but he
wouldn't mind being known as a Hollywood mathematician.

Inspired by the box-office success of math-themed movies like "A Beautiful
Mind" and "Good Will Hunting," Farley figured there was a growing demand in
Hollywood for experts who can make sure the numbers add up on the screen.

Farley and a colleague founded a consulting company to offer their expertise
to television producers and filmmakers and hit it big with his first client:
consulting the CBS drama "Numb3rs," which stars Rob Morrow as an FBI
agent who recruits his mathematical genius brother to help solve crimes.
ADVERTISEMENT"It's not just about fixing mathematical mistakes in the
script," he said. "It's also about helping them get the culture right."

Plenty of films and TV shows employ military experts, police officers or doctors
to serve as technical advisers, but Farley believes his company Hollywood
Math and Science Film Consulting fills an unmet need.

Many movie mathematicians seem to luck into the job.

"A Beautiful Mind" director Ron Howard hired Barnard College math professor
Dave Bayer after he read a review of the play "Proof" that Bayer wrote for the
American Mathematical Society.

Before he consulted for "Good Will Hunting," University of Toronto physics
professor Patrick O'Donnell was hired as an extra. A producer stopped him on
the street and asked him to play a drunk in a bar scene with Robin Williams.
O'Donnell later helped actor Matt Damon with the math his character, a
troubled genius, would be tackling on screen.

"Hollywood is not a math class," O'Donnell said. "Every scene was accurate,
but you wouldn't learn mathematics from it."

Farley, 35, co-founded his company with Lizzie Burns, a London-based
biochemist he met studying at the University of Oxford a decade ago. Farley
said he and Burns are philosophically at odds over how mathematically
accurate movies should be.

"To make a film really credible," Burns said, "it's important to get the science
right."

Farley, on the other hand, said he knows filmmakers sometimes sacrifice
scientific accuracy in the name of entertainment.

"I just think there's a way of making the science not look ridiculous, as you
often find in many science-fiction shows and movies," he said.

Farley has recruited some of his colleagues, including Harvard postdoctoral
fellow Anthony Harkin, to serve as consultants. Harkin said mathematicians
love to police television programs and movies for errors. One of the most
famous, he added, comes from "The Wizard of Oz"

"When the scarecrow gets his brain, he incorrectly states the Pythagorean
theorem," Harkin said. "If any mathematician would looked at it, they could
have easily fixed that flaw."

Farley gives high marks to the makers of "Numb3rs" for what he says is an
accurate portrayal of how mathematicians work and interact with each other.

"Getting the math right is very important to our creators," said Andy Black, a
researcher for the show. "We do want to have that kind of credibility."

After "Numb3rs" premiered in January, Farley e-mailed the show's producers
and offered his services. He traded messages with Black, who agreed to start
sending him copies of unfinished scripts. Farley won't disclose what his
company is paid for their advice.

"Jonathan seemed very enthusiastic about pitching in," Black said.

Farley and Harkin check the scripts for errors, scribble suggestions in the
margins and send them to Black, who passes them on to the show's head
writers.

"He presents nice, concise suggestions," Black said. "It's up to the writers to
implement them."

Farley said he objected to a scene where one of the main characters, an older
mathematician played by Peter MacNicol, talks about his "brazen attack on
the Lorenz invariance."

"I asked a string-theory friend, and he said it doesn't make sense," he said. "I
told them, but they didn't change it."

The show also works closely with Gary Lorden, who chairs the math
department at the California Institute of Technology. Lorden comes up with
some of the formulas that Charley scribbles on chalkboards. In early
episodes, one of his younger graduate student's hands filled in for those of
the math genius, played by David Krumholtz.

Lorden said he sees the job as a lark, not a business opportunity.

"I grew up seeing virtually nothing about math in the popular media," he said.
"I'm really hoping 'Numb3rs' spawns some imitators."

Farley and his agent Caron Knauer, a former associate producer at 20th
Century Fox, are banking on that happening. "More and more projects are
featuring math on the forefront," Knauer said. "It's the Hollywood bandwagon
mentality."

On the Net:

Hollywood Math and Science Film Consulting: http://www.hollywoodmath.com

http://movies.yahoo.com/mv/news/ap/20050502/111506184000.html