Are Holograms the New Reality?

I just read an article on The Hollywood Reporter  about Tupac's Resurrection at this year's Coachella Music Festival. I'm not a big rap fan, but last time I checked that rapper was dead. However thanks to the new technology in media, your favourite singer/actor can come back to life and  perform anything you want! The technology is quite simple to understand (if you're not me) but for Tupac's performance the crew used this technology called Pepper's Ghost, which apparently has been around since the 1500s! It's a 2D illusionary technique, so technically not a perfect hologram since holograms are 3D, but it has the same great "OMG" effect for fans.

According to THR, there is to be a Marilyn Monroe Virtual Live Concert before the end of the year. Of course there is a bunch of legal issues before this can happen, but once it passes, record labels can make any of their deceased (for lack of better word) performers come back from the grave and hold virtual live concerts! It think that it would be amazing for older generations to relive their favourite music moments but would it be a great experience for the young kids of today? The generation that is obsessed with the Justin Bieber, One Direction boys bands. Hmm, I wonder if Frank Sinatra would mind doing a duet with Carly Rae Jepsen? 

 Personally, I don't think that resurrecting entertainers to compete with the talent that we have today is such a great idea. First, once  you have the power to make an actor do anything you want, there are so many opportunities for exploiting and possibly ruining their well respected brand image. Second, the actors and actresses today have so much potential! It's probably hard enough during casting calls, now they're going to compete with the dead? Sure Marlon Brando is a great, great, fantastic Oscar-winner, but let's give Peter O'Toole a chance! (side joke: Peter O'Toole has been acting for over 80 years, with 8 Oscar nominations...it's a rough life) Third, I'm sure that holograms are going to be more realistic in the future, but how realistic will you feel when you know that the tears coming from the "hologram's" face was produced? Sure it would be easy to market the real but not real Marilyn in theaters given her famous star power already, but to what extent? Will she be programmed to answer pre-determined questions during interviews and walk down the red carpet alongside her colleagues? Well we'll have to see.  

Currently in Japan, this music company called Crypton Future Media has developed the next sensation in Japanese pop music. By using the voice of Japanese actress Saki Fujita, they are able to synthesize the voice of a holographic singer called Hatsune Miku. She is amazingly popular in Japan, with fans waving their glow sticks and singing along at her sold-out concerts. 

Is this going to be the future of our entertainment world? Synthesized smokes and mirrors? 

Here is a Dior commercial, starring Charlize Theron, Grace Kelly and Marilyn Monroe: 

JLT

Interactive Movie Trailer!

Hey all!

I totally forgot to mention that the new Snow White and the Huntsman movie released this new interactive trailer, where people can click on the scenes and behind-the-scenes images, short videos, or comments can be seen. This is so brilliant, fans can become more involved with the movie and it's a great way to generate interest and word of mouth. The studio did a great job with this new trailer, I hope that more epic movies will follow this interactive trend.



Click on this link to check out the trailer:

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/snow-white-and-the-huntsman/custom-1/

My dear, dear Snow White

Hey!

Very exciting reminder for all you fairy tale lovers out there! the new Snow White and the Huntsman movie is arriving this Friday! Starring Kristen Stewart, Charlize Theron, Thor Chris Hemsworth, and hottie newcomer Ian Shane. I'm super pumped for this movie because of so many reasons. When I saw the trailer a few months back, I was so stoked at the artsy visual effects and stunning location filming (I love it when filming locations are at ACTUAL locations and not in studios where forests need to be CGI-ed) It had the beautiful, magical creatures similar to some of Guillermo Del Toro's work (one of my favourite directors/writers) and the whole cast and crew is so talented. Did I mention that the script was helmed by John Lee Hancock (the Blind Side), Evan Daugherty (the Killing Season) and Hossein Amini (Drive)?

I think the producers of this SWATH movie really knew what they were doing, compared to the other Snow White movie, Mirror Mirror, starring Lily Collins, Armie Hammer and Julia Roberts (who had this ridiculous accent, I couldn't tell if she was British or American). The movie bombed at the box office, and it's still not doing well, having earned to date $62 million (approx) and a starting production budget of $85 million. The movie was directed by Tarsem Singh, the director of 2011's Immortals, so you can expect very soft and gold visuals and settings. When I watched the trailer for Mirror, Mirror it had a large dance number, very "Bollywood" inspired I would say but the overall feel of the movie was totally kid-ish. It probably drew in the younger-teen demographic but not many went to see it.

Now with this upcoming Snow White movie, I would say that it's a recipe for success! It has Kristen Stewart (so you can bet your teens and twi-hard fans are going) Thor (who is still kicking butt at the box office in the Avengers! drawing in the boys/men) and Charlize Theron, she's an Oscar-winner and she just adopted a baby so enough said. The feel of this movie is much more darker but it got the gold rating of PG-13 (so basically anyone can go, over 13 years of age). Let's hope that Universal Studios will do well with this picture, considering Battleship totally sunk.

Here are both trailers, you can compare the two:

JLT

The Heart Attack

HELLO WORLD!

I've been vacationing around and I just had to share some amazing food photos with you all, because they're so mouth-watering! (Thanks Instagram!)

I went to this restaurant in Montreal, Quebec called Poutineville and they have some of the BEST POUTINE EVER!!. For those of you who are not Canadian, or have not visited Canada, or have been living under a rock and recently discovered the world wide web, let me explain to you the intricate mechanics of a poutine. You add french fries + gravy + cheese curds (no other cheese is permitted!) and VOILA! This resto makes the best poutines and with such a variety of choices.

At Poutineville, you can pick your choice of fries (smashed fries-it's they specialty, sweet and normal cut fries) with 5 different types of gravy (including red wine gravy..how awesome is that!) and a variety of meats, ranging from hot dog pieces to steak triple A, and a whole lot of veggies! Check out my awesome night out!

The sample platter of smashed potatoe fries with red wine gravy, and sweet potatoe fries with black pepper sauce, both covered in cheese curds! 

 To finish the meal off, I always love a good sweet. Macaroons will do the trick. There's this cute place, also in Montreal, called Point G where they sell the best macaroons and homemade confectioneries! Here is their beautiful wheel of flavours:

Voila ici, are my yummy macaroons: (I forgot which flavours I got, but that's why I added the wheel up there for you!)

A very foodie blog post today. But I want to leave you with this "glutton for punishment" video on Youtube. If you didn't know, Poutineville has this dish called "the heart attack" where it's this huge plate the size of a baby pig, of fries+every kind of meat in Quebec+A LOT of pig fat.

I am not exaggerating, check out the video and you'll want to run on the tread mill afterwards! It's a very fitting challenge for the guys at Epic Meal Time, (don't worry, not one actually got a heart attack...yet)

JLT

Stupid is as stupid does

Hello! Welcome to this insane blogging creation for my passion of movies, marketing and munchies. (Munchies as in food, I was going for perfect alliteration). If you enjoy watching films and eating than I have a feeling that we'll be good friends! Hi friends! Now that we're kind of intimate, I'll love to share with you some of my food adventures and if I dare say, some secret recipes.

I also have this huge fascination for how studios market and brand their movies. Successful movie marketing has a big correlation with successful box office results, sadly even if the film sucks, (aka Twilight, don't worry fans, I also went to watch all their movies...RPATZ PR got to me too), Studios are getting more brilliant with the way they try to get audiences engaged, especially with the huge boom, continual boom, in new media and good ol' fashion mass media (that's television and anything that will grab the attention of the mass population).

I hope you'll tune in my blog in the future, because cool pictures, videos and ideas will be posted. That means you wont need to finish reading my blurbs. I'm cool with that, as long as you enjoy the show.

So, I will leave you with this awesome new pre-show promo for Cineplex's Brand Anthem "What's your movie moment?" created by this Toronto ad agency called Cloud AdAgents. If you guessed already, mine is from Forest Gump, what's yours?