Categories
Bowl Of Noses

Magnetic Fields: The Beauty Of Science

In “Magnetic Movie” the filmmakers use actual scientists’ discussions about the nature of magnetic fields but then illustrate it with sound and animation to give you a better idea as to what they look like.  It’s freaky in the most beautiful of ways: it makes us think of all the things we can’t see but that do shape the world around us.


Magnetic Movie from Semiconductor on Vimeo.

Categories
Bowl Of Noses

Answer Man: 20 of the top 101 Questions Ever (and their answers)!

The Telegraph in the UK ran the twenty of a much longer list evidently published in BBC magazine.  We’d like to see it, but why are they holding out on the answers to the UNanswerable questions.  Typical grown up behavior, telling you only the stuff they already know.

Where is the safest place to stand outside in a thunderstorm?
Tall, pointy objects standing alone in an open space are more likely to get struck by lightning but it’s by no means a certainty. Sometimes the flat ground next to a tall tree can be hit. A car or other enclosed metal structure is the safest place to be in a thunderstorm. Failing that, a ditch, trench or group of shrubs of uniform height is better than nothing. Keep away from boundary areas between dissimilar terrain (water and land; rock and earth; trees and fields). Also keep at least five metres away from metal objects or other people as lightning will often jump from one object to another.

Why do identical twins have different fingerprints?
Although identical twins share the same DNA, they don’t look identical cell-for-cell, because not every aspect of your physical appearance is rigidly determined by your genes. Fingerprints are formed semi-randomly as the foetus develops in the womb andare affected by such things as chance fluctuations of hormone levels. Similarly, the pattern of freckles and moles on the skin is caused by random mutations and will vary between identical twins.

Is the human race still getting taller?
The average height, at least in Western society, is increasing because of better childhood nutrition and sexual selection. But the tendency of women to find men taller than six feet (183cm) more attractive can’t be extrapolated upward, and people above 6ft 2in (188cm) are much more likely to suffer back problems. Above 6ft 8in (203cm), and the heart strains to pump blood round the body.

Why do I feel cold and shiver when I have a fever?
A fever is when your body increases its internal thermostat, found in the hypothalamus. If you exercise hard or it’s a hot day, your body temperature might increase, but the thermostat remains at around 36.8°C. When you feel hot the hypothalamus tries to correct this with sweating and increased blood flow to the skin. But with a fever, it is the thermostat that has risen. This means your body temperature is now below 36.8°C, so you feel cold and shiver, to try and raise your temperature. The higher body temperature may help fight infection by speeding white blood cell production and slowing bacteria reproduction.

What is OK short for?
The most popular theory is that OK comes from ‘oll korrect’, a deliberately misspelled writing of ‘all correct’. It was popularised in Boston newspapers around the 1840s when it was fashionable to go around spelling things incorrectly for humorous effect. Legend also has it that New York Democrats later adopted the abbreviation to promote their candidate Martin Van Buren – the initials ‘OK’ were derived from his nickname, Old Kinderhook.

Why can’t we just fill in the ozone hole with man-made ozone?
The sheer scale of the notorious hole – or, more accurately, depleted region – in the Earth’s ozone layer over the Antarctic beggars belief. At its peak each September, it spans an area bigger than the continental United States, and tens of millions of tonnes of ozone would be needed to fill it up again. Simply creating that amount of ozone, let alone getting it where it’s needed, would be astronomically expensive.

Why do fingers and toes wrinkle when left in water?
The waterproof coating on our skin gets rubbed away from areas of our bodies like our hands and feet that are frequently in contact with objects. If you immerse yourself in water with a lower concentration of dissolved salts than that of your cell contents, water will be absorbed by osmosis and cause your skin cells to swell. Since they are anchored to the tissues below, they are forced to corrugate to accommodate this.

What is a hiccup?
A hiccup comes from an involuntary contraction of the diaphragm, producing asudden intake of air. The glottis (the vocal apparatus of the larynx) slams shut at the same time, so that the column of air strikes the closed glottis to produce the characteristic, onomatopoeic noise.

Is there an easy way to prove the Earth is round?
Yes, travel. Because the Earth’s surface is curved, you’ll notice that different constellations of stars are revealed.

Can you have a fish out of water?
Yes. Several species of fish can breathe air and crawl on land. There are about 50 species of flying fish, too.

Why is sea air good for you?
It isn’t, particularly. In Victorian England, seaside resorts got a reputation for having healthy air – maybe in comparison to the era’s city smogs. The seaside’s “bracing” smell is caused by a chemical produced by coastal bacteria, present in very low concentrations. But a study last year found that sea salt can react with chemicals in marine exhaust fumes to worsen the atmospheric pollution in a busy port.

Do plants die of old age?
Given good conditions, some plants can live for ever. It takes a change in external conditions to finish them off. But annuals die soon after seeding.

Does chewing gum really stay inside you for years?
No. Chewing gum is indigestible but it doesn’t have any magic property that allows it to escape the normal digestive transit. Three days is the usual limit.

Where do phobias come from?
Around 10 per cent of the population suffer from phobias. Some may be triggered by a traumatic event while others are linked to physical problems. Studies suggest that simple phobias are partly genetic while others may be due to cultural history. For example, a fear of spiders may be passed down from the Middle Ages when spiders were associated with the plague, as victims’ deserted homes became shrouded in cobwebs.

Do men have cellulite?
Yes. It’s not just women who are cursed with orange peel skin, although in men cellulite tends to be in different places, usually around the neck and abdomen.

Can germs catch germs?
Yes. The germ would be an even smaller organism that attacks its host germ from within.

Why do I get more car sick in the back?
It’s probably because you don’t have such a good view of the horizon. Motion sickness occurs when the balance mechanism in your ear registers movement while your eyes are telling you that you are stationary.

Could we live on water and supplements?
No. As well as vitamins and minerals we need carbohydrates, fats and proteins for energy and cell repair.

Do hot drinks cool you down?
Yes. They make your body think you are hotter than you really are so you sweat more and that leads to heat loss.

What would happen if there were no Moon?
The most immediate effect (other than the lack of moonlight, of course) would be on the Earth’s tides. With only the Sun’s gravitational influence, the difference between high and low tides would be reduced dramatically – as would tidal drag, which slows the Earth down at a rate adding about 0.002 seconds to the length of a day each century. Long term, the effects would be far more serious. The climate of the Earth is sensitively dependent on the 23.5° tilt of the Earth’s axis, and without the stabilising presence of our relatively huge Moon, the gravity of the other planets would produce big changes in this angle – as it does with Mars, whose tilt changes by 60° over a few million years.

Categories
Truly Free Film

Determining Foreign Sales Fees

The question came up over one of last weeks posts, why foreign buyers base license fees on budget percentages.  I have accepted this for so long, I had stopped questioning it — but it is one of those things worth questioning, so I am glad it was raised.  Thanks.

It made me feel we should have an ongoing “ASK THE EXPERTS” section over here at Truly Free.  For this one I went to the legend of Glen Basner, a graduate of the Good Machine School of Everything, and the man behind the founding of the new sales powerhouse FILM NATION.  The Baz explains:
There are many factors in determining what a territorial license fee should be – a percentage of the budget is only one. These are standard amounts that are “typical” for an individual territory based on what distributors have paid historically (Yes, the world has changed quite a bit recently!). I don’t believe that they apply in singular fashion unless you are contemplating some form of output deal. 
On a single picture license, a distributor will want to know what the budget level is so that: a) they understand what the production value will be; and b) they can feel comfortable that they are not paying an excessive amount in relation to the cost of the film. These are valid points but what people forget is that ultimately the budget of the film does not necessarily have a correlation with its success at the box office (Blair Witch etc). 
Our approach is to think like a distributor and run estimates – both revenue and expense – for a film in all media to determine a low, base and high value a film is likely to have in any given territory. With these estimates we can back into a license fee figure that would allow for a distributor to make money should the film turn out well. The budget comes into play if the sum total of our international estimates do not raise enough money to finance a film.
Curiously enough, the WSJ has chimed in today on the issue of value of foreign licenses, albeit the lack thereof.  Check it out here.
Categories
Bowl Of Noses

Up! With Papercraft

We’ve a bit neglectful of our folding and glueing as of late, yet papercraft figurines fill up our bowl with joyful memories.  

We could definitely use some new designs if you are hiding them any where.  
We are sure you can understand why we were so excited to find this grumpy old guy.  We have set the timer for the new Pixar flick, and any new bit of news or super neato giveaway gets our heart all a flutter.  
Fold, baby, fold!

Thanks /film!

Categories
Bowl Of Noses

Anything Can Happen… in a comic strip!

Our friend Bill Horberg sniffed these out for us.  Nancy may be old school, but the idea of breaking with the rules of reality will forever feel new to us.  They call it “the fourth wall” and here the artist shatters it.  Whatever he’s doing, he’s making us laugh!

Categories
Truly Free Film

It’s All One Big Continuum…

My post on “Is There A “Too Many” When It Comes To Playing Film Festivals” generated some good questions and points in the comments.  I hope to get to them all in the days and weeks ahead.

One thing that truly resonated for me though was Jon Jost’s dismissal of the box office performance of Ramin Bahrani’s, Lance Hammer’s, and Kelly Reichardt’s recent films.  These artists, along with a few others, represent some of the great hope for American Art Film in the near future (and Jon probably raises them precisely for that reason).  
It’s a mistake to take the theatrical results of their most recent films as the criteria for their financial success.  No one can think about a single film anymore as the litmus test.  When all filmmakers still dwelled in the world of acquisitions, that way of thinking was understandable; people felt you were only as successful as your last film.  What your film sold for and how it performed was all that seemed to matter.  In a world where it makes less and less sense to license your film for all media in exchange for a paltry sum (should you even be so fortunate to have such offers), new ways to evaluate success are emerging.
Bahrani and Reichardt licensed each of their last films to quality art-house distributors.  Hammer took another approach.  Yet, Bahrani and Reichardt built on their audience from the prior film, as you can be assured that Hammer will too.  These are what the music business would see as catalogue artists.  Their fan base will grow with each new release.  The more they are able to maintain an ongoing dialogue with their audience, the richer a dialogue they can offer, the more that audience will support them.  It is not about the one-off film anymore — nor that film’s results.  It is all about the community of support that artists can develop for their work.  That community will only flourish to the degree that there is both dialogue within the community, and well-maintained flow of content.
Artists who maintain a rich dialogue with their community will benefit in many ways from what they have built.  Some of it will be directly financial, both in terms of amount of that reward but also predictability thereof.  Other ways will include increased access to audience (which has a wide and varied group of benefits), decreased marketing & distribution costs, and new streams of revenue.
The more filmmakers can think of how to maintain and deepen the on-going dialogue with their supporters the better off they will be.
P.S.  I disagree strongly with Jon’s comment that the aforementioned films and filmmakers don’t do anything “aesthetically daring or difficult” — but this isn’t where I chose to look at such issues.   But since it was raised, dare I say that whereas no one is reinventing cinema, that compared to the norms, each one went out a limb without a net — and they flew pretty damn high when they jumped.  And man that ain’t easy  — and it is extremely brave is this world of ours.
Categories
These Are Those Things

Johnny Hit And Run Pauline

I have been playing the alternative soundtracks to ADVENTURELAND since yesterday morning.  As good as a group of songs we licensed, and for all the loving embraces Greg gave the bad generoulsly placed them next to the good — and thus allowed the worthy to rise in all their glory, there was also a great amount of truly memorable tunes we considered along the way but had to let go.  And some were truly greats.

I don’t think a song ever blew my away as much as X’s “Johnny Hit And Run Pauline”.  I remember hearing it for the first time in my kitchen on SW Kelly when I was a freshman.  Bingo and Charlie and me were drinking in the afternoon.  Maybe it was the weekend, but I doubt it.  I was a music snob and thought I had heard it all.  The song scared me in that it was so far beyond my imagination and yet still so much of what I wanted.  It went right into my veins.  I was so eager for everything to be faster and harder.  
Mindblowing still is such a seldom reached plateau.  We settle for less unfortunately, but then again such creations help chart the course too.  We need the comparisons.  Every time that song comes on, I get locked in a flashback and stuck in the past but one where I knew the future would be glorious and fulfill many dreams.  Yet bodies would be left in the wake and that rhythm impossible to maintain.  Rare has been an album that reached the power of the first three cuts on “Los Angeles”.  Whew.