My brain just melted a bit trying to comprehend this.

This. Just this all over the place. I want it on the walls, on the ceiling. EVERYWHERE.

SO. FUCKING. EXCITED.

I mean the buzz about that scene has been everywhere. Although I guess that's what happens when you have to farm out to 3/4s of the VFX houses in the western US and Canada

Looks like we won't have to wait til the weekend for that billion dollar mark.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=3443&p=.htm

I think they briefly address that, when Thor lands on the plane and comes in, Loki has quick line about how "Odin must have had to summon up a lot of ju-ju juice to get you here."

It's something like that, basically it's assumed that Odin had to manually send Thor across the barrier, and it nearly put him a coma, or something like that.

Spoilers for TGWTDT

I'm curious what your issue with it is.

And I think the guys like it...it's been a while for me too.

Really? Huh. I like Mars Attacks, but I'd put them closer to even than anything.

Sweeney Todd is great because all Tim Burton had to do was be Tim Burton. The music and everything were already there, he just had to goth it up (Although if you know anything about the actual show...not much more than what was there) and make it. I love Sweeney Todd (The musical, not Burtons specifically), and the only reason I'll watch Burtons version over a broadway one is Johnny Depp and HBC. And the fact that it's wrapped up in a nice little package of a movie.

Although Squiggly, you forgot Big Fish, which is probably even closer to normal movie than Ed Wood. And just to get it out of the way, I love Big Fish with a passion. Easily my favourite Burton movie.

And although it's not perfect by a long shot, I did enjoy Corpse Bride.

What a charmed life you must lead. Never having anyone hold you up to a gold standard the media shoves down our throats, that no living man can even hope to match. And of course we all know that it's impossible for something like that to drive a man to have low esteem, or even gods forbid an eating disorder. Because they're stereotyped as being strong and in control, so it's impossible for a man to be weak, right? That's how this works, right? Just like all women are sexual objects only here to stared at and used?

You can sit there and be snarky and dismissive all you want, but that doesn't change the fact unrealistic portrayals of either sex in the media, cut both ways. (And yes, by the guys of the Avengers being these unattainable perfections of what man should be, they are being sexualized. And same goes for Black Widow...except about women...yeah. It's that simple.)

And back to point. In the Avengers image, Black Widow has her particular assets on display because that's what the media believes all men want women to be. And the guys are shown as dominating and powerful because that's what they believe all women want men to be like (And every girl I've talked to about the movie has not proved that wrong yet.)

You seem to be under the opinion that portraying men as dominant and powerful isn't sexualizing them.

There's a reason a market for those books exist. It's to fantasize that they are the ones in his arms, being rescued, wooed, whatever. To be lost in the powerful arms of a strong man.

Please explain to me how that is any different than the millions of guys out there thinking about Scarlett's ass.

That's the weird thing though, I didn't actually understand any of it at the time. Like I said, it was just this thing, that everyone said was really bad and I could tell because everyone was so horrified, but just a thing standing in between me and my cartoons when I was sick. And only as I grew up that the horror actual became real.

Anyways, new story. This one probably won't be interesting to most of you, but it stands as a high (incredibly low?) mark for me, as it contains a record that still stands to this day. Also this might come off a bit angry towards a certain person, but trust me it's not unjustified.

So, first year at VFS, about 4-5 months into the program we get this project. 13 shots, horror film, 3 minutes. So. One of the guys in our class had this idea to do a full sci-fi epic with it. And me being, well, me, decided that would be awesome, and I manage to get a few other guys interested and we team up. We spend the next week or so convincing our instructor to let us do it. He finally gives in. So we spend a week or so (The week right before a break) brainstorming ideas and coming up with a story. So I feel we have some good ideas going around, but that we need to have a script locked before the break so we could launch straight into preproduction and production right away (It was maybe 4 weeks from deadline, from when we got back)...and they all agree, the guy who created the group says he can do it, no problem. 4 days later. Nothing, despite his constant assurances he was "working on it". So break comes and he has nothing. So I say fine, screw that,... and I spend a couple days over break writing the script. No big deal for me, I enjoy doing it, and it's not like I had anything better to do.
We get back from break, I have script in hand, the rest of the guys love it...he puts up a fight. So I spend the next few days fighting with him about it, while also trying to put wheels in motion to actually get the fucking thing made.

Now some info. Our team was 5 guys. 2 afx guys, 2 3D guys and a sound guy. 3 of them were awesome and one of them was me.

Anyways. So I start stressing out, trying to find actors, get costumes together, building 3D models, texturing, yada yada you know the drill. Finally we find some actors, one is awesome and I still know him to this day, the other not so much, but beggars can't be choosers. We do the shoot (Full greenscreen btw, with one of the actors in full makeup), on a greenscreen set that was was too small. The shoot goes off well for the most part...until we get the footage back. Someone *cough* not naming names *cough* who said they knew "everything about the cameras", had left the gain on high. And if you don't know anything about cameras...basically that meant the footage was grainy as FUCK. Meaning virtually impossible to key. So anyways. Myself and the other 3D guy are pumping out renders, we had an entire lab and a half running our renders for nights on end. And we're passing on our renders to the afx guys (well guy...a certain man decided to not really be in the picture at this point). All this time the sound guy has been collecting recordings and effects and doing a seriously kickass job.

So in our short, we have some holographic displays, like you do, and a certain...ahem...person, was supposed to be in charge of half of them. Well needless to say 3 days before deadline he finally has something to show me. I say fine whatever chuck it in there let's go (This will make sense soon).

So a week before deadline comes (Again only 4 weeks earlier we had nothing but a script) and we barely have a movie. So I sit myself down and start working...for 5 days straight. I go to classes in the day, go home and work, shower go to school work, stay all night, go home, work, shower, come to class. For a week. Part of this was stress induced insomnia as you can imagine, part of it was an overwhelming passion to make this work. By the end of the week we were all staying there all night. We finally, finally got our final render out 15 minutes before the class it was due and being presented in. I was fried beyond anything I had ever before or have ever since experienced. So I hand over the dvd and crash in a chair.

It plays, and everyone loves it. I'm happy. I'm seeing spots...closest I've ever gotten to hallucinating btw. I tap out and head home (70 minute train ride...that just about killed me) get home and crash for 26 hours (It was the weekend, don't worry).

Now about that hologram my dear comrade "designed" and "created" from "scratch". A couple months after the project was done and I'd managed to repress most of it. I decided to watch, Iron Man of all things. And I noticed a remarkably familiar item. Needless to say I was pissed, but by then it had sort of become common knowledge this was not even remotely out of character for him, suprise suprise. So I didn't even bother.

So that's the story of the most intense film-making experience I've ever had. Oh and if you're wondering, the film in question is here: (I know the copyright thing might come around to bite me in the ass eventually, but I'm not doing anything with it and it's just sitting there and it's not going anywhere, I think you'll see why. But it still sucks):

(Yep, it's horrible. but remember, this is pretty much the first real movie I ever made. And we did it in 5 weeks, with effectively 4 guys).

So in conclusion, I used to be even more fucking insane than I am right now. Of course, without that I never would have gotten the taste of blood for directing and I'd probably be a very different artist than I am now. So there's that.