Now, with DVD sales I am sure the studio won't end up in the red when all is said and done, but $25 million for a high budget high profile movie is terrible. Serenity will probably be pointed to in the future as a good reason not to use cult DVD followings as a reason to greenlight films. Sorry to tell ya all.
With a production budget of $39 mil, it's definitely on the low end of sci fi movies this year.
War of the Worlds - $132 mil The Island - $126 mil Star Wars III = $113 mil Constantine - $100 mil Fantastic Four - $100 mil Doom - $60 mil Aeon Flux - $50 mil Hitchhikers Guide - $50 mil Serenity - $39 mil
And I think few would call it high profile. Every other Sci-Fi movie on the list received far more advertising, etc. Universal played very conservatively both with the production cost and the advertising costs. They wanted to make money, but weren't willing to spend millions advertising it... instead choosing a viral marketing campaign.
It's done decently considering that there was no big advertising push... $36 mil worldwide... it'll make them money.
On a "science realism" note, one nice touch in Firefly was that the space scenes had no sound, since obviously there's no sound in space. They broke with that for Serenity, though.
Did they? I thought that when they were in deep space going through the Reaver "shipyard" or whatever you want to call it, there was no sound... and it was only once they were chased into the upper atmosphere of the planet where the large battle scene occurred, that there was sound.
As others have already mentioned, yes, Photoshop is now available for OS X. I'm looking forward to playing with it after getting ahold of the beta a little while back. I've never seen such a flood of adopters as I have for this recent release. If it was indeed the reason that most graphic designers hadn't moved up to OS X, we will soon know for sure.
As for Quark, it looks to be shooting itself in the foot. Not only do most graphic designers I speak to prefer InDesign, but the fact that an even better version of InDesign is now available for OS X while Quark sits on their hands and does not release a Carbonized version, certainly lead me to believe a changing of the guard may be happening soon if it hasn't already begun.
Restricted and limited in that I have to buy a system preconfigured by Apple, according to what they want to sell me.
Have you ever been to the Apple Store. Sure there are limitations, but you don't have to choose a "preconfigured" system. You can customize your system. Plus, the G4 towers are very expandable: firewire, USB, Gigabit Ethernet, up to 2 GB RAM, up to 3 HD, up to two "disk" drives (CD, DVD, Zip), 4 PCI slots, 1 AGP, Airport wireless network ready... not bad.
Now, in a PC, if it starts becoming obsolete, I can go out and buy a new motherboard and CPU, slap it in, and bang, my computer's ready to live another few years.
What do I do with my becoming obsolete Mac? Doorstop, anyone?;-)
While you cannot purchase a new motherboard for your Mac, you can upgrade the processor. Several third parties sell CPU upgrades for Macs.
firewire is nifty, but still poorly supported by devices, though it's getting better
It seems like they have everything for Firewire now: CD-RWs, scanners, DV cameras, hard drives... just about anything that needs high speed transfers.
Apple didn't stop when you stopped paying attention... and it would seem that a lot of things have changed since the last time you did. Check 'em out.
Slashdot Mirror
Now, with DVD sales I am sure the studio won't end up in the red when all is said and done, but $25 million for a high budget high profile movie is terrible. Serenity will probably be pointed to in the future as a good reason not to use cult DVD followings as a reason to greenlight films. Sorry to tell ya all.
With a production budget of $39 mil, it's definitely on the low end of sci fi movies this year.
War of the Worlds - $132 mil
The Island - $126 mil
Star Wars III = $113 mil
Constantine - $100 mil
Fantastic Four - $100 mil
Doom - $60 mil
Aeon Flux - $50 mil
Hitchhikers Guide - $50 mil
Serenity - $39 mil
And I think few would call it high profile. Every other Sci-Fi movie on the list received far more advertising, etc. Universal played very conservatively both with the production cost and the advertising costs. They wanted to make money, but weren't willing to spend millions advertising it... instead choosing a viral marketing campaign.
It's done decently considering that there was no big advertising push... $36 mil worldwide... it'll make them money.
On a "science realism" note, one nice touch in Firefly was that the space scenes had no sound, since obviously there's no sound in space. They broke with that for Serenity, though. Did they? I thought that when they were in deep space going through the Reaver "shipyard" or whatever you want to call it, there was no sound... and it was only once they were chased into the upper atmosphere of the planet where the large battle scene occurred, that there was sound.
Years ago, Michael Dell said he wanted to sell Apples... and it got misquoted as:
"I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders."
lies, lies, lies. My G4 cube is Totally devoid of a fan, including the PSU.
:(
Damn... forgot about the cube. It was here for such a short amount of time...
According to the article, new IBM 64 bit processors are a year away, but the G5s from Moto could be out in January.
Except for some of the CRT iMacs which used convection to cool themselves, every G3 and G4 Mac has at least one fan.
I have a feeling that although this chip runs cooler, it will still be hotter compared to the G3, maybe the current G4.
As others have already mentioned, yes, Photoshop is now available for OS X. I'm looking forward to playing with it after getting ahold of the beta a little while back. I've never seen such a flood of adopters as I have for this recent release. If it was indeed the reason that most graphic designers hadn't moved up to OS X, we will soon know for sure.
As for Quark, it looks to be shooting itself in the foot. Not only do most graphic designers I speak to prefer InDesign, but the fact that an even better version of InDesign is now available for OS X while Quark sits on their hands and does not release a Carbonized version, certainly lead me to believe a changing of the guard may be happening soon if it hasn't already begun.
Restricted and limited in that I have to buy a system preconfigured by Apple, according to what they want to sell me. Have you ever been to the Apple Store. Sure there are limitations, but you don't have to choose a "preconfigured" system. You can customize your system. Plus, the G4 towers are very expandable: firewire, USB, Gigabit Ethernet, up to 2 GB RAM, up to 3 HD, up to two "disk" drives (CD, DVD, Zip), 4 PCI slots, 1 AGP, Airport wireless network ready... not bad. Now, in a PC, if it starts becoming obsolete, I can go out and buy a new motherboard and CPU, slap it in, and bang, my computer's ready to live another few years. What do I do with my becoming obsolete Mac? Doorstop, anyone? ;-)
While you cannot purchase a new motherboard for your Mac, you can upgrade the processor. Several third parties sell CPU upgrades for Macs.
firewire is nifty, but still poorly supported by devices, though it's getting better
It seems like they have everything for Firewire now: CD-RWs, scanners, DV cameras, hard drives... just about anything that needs high speed transfers.
Apple didn't stop when you stopped paying attention... and it would seem that a lot of things have changed since the last time you did. Check 'em out.