Level Orange

Last week, Paramount held a screening of the upcoming The Curious Case of Benjamin Button using a new 2K digital cinema system when problems with the presentation caused the show to come to a dead stop.

There was a problem with the digital server — which had been rented for the screening — that resulted in the absence of the color red from the projected image, giving the film a washed-out look.

With other silmilar incidents happening during recent screenings of Quantom of Solace and Soderberg’s Che, the theater industry is raising concerns over just how reliable the new digital rollout across the country will be, and studios are wondering how incidents like this could affect box office take and audiences alike

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OK, so this might not be the most accurate depiction of me, but then again, I did try to make it as accurate as possible. I’ve played around with the new Avatars with the new Xbox 360 dashboard (wisely being marketed as the New Xbox Experience, or NXE, for anyone not into gaming), and I have to say, it’s kinda neat.

I’m not particularly a fan of the plans to capitalize on things like clothes and accessories and whatnot for the Avatars by game publishers and licensors, but I can understand the business sense of it. And after personally tinkering around with the system, I can see where it’s starting to come up short, assumedly so that third parties can come in and add even greater value to it.

I’ll be interested to see just how much a Halo or Rock Band t-shirt costs for an Avatar. One can only hope that a whole new outfit wouldn’t be much more than say, a set of gamerpics (roughly a buck or two), but with some publishers eager to nickel-and-dime gamers for every little item, I wouldn’t be surprised to see purchases like this broken down even further. “Want a new bracelet? How about a new baseball cap? That’ll be $1 each, please.”

Yeah, let’s hope not.

Today comes news of the first downloadable content to hit Xbox Live since the April release of Grand Theft Auto IV. The new episodic content, titled Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned, will hit XBL on February 17, 2009 and is the first of two new episodes to come to the platform. No other details, such as plot or price point, have been revealed, but stay tuned!

“Making these episodes has enabled us to expand the narrative and the experience of interacting with a game world in really innovative ways,” said Sam Houser, Founder of Rockstar Games. “We hope fans of the game enjoy the new way of experiencing life in Liberty City contained in this first episode.”

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Now in the iTunes App Store: The Iconfactory’s Frenzic! Looks like fun and at a good price point, especially with the quality that Iconfactory brings to their work.

Wolfgang Ante, the game’s creator and lead engineer explained, “The iPhone’s revolutionary touch-screen interface combined with a simple premise that takes only minutes to learn, makes Frenzic a compelling game for players of all ages.”

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Fresh off the wave of hits over the past few years and the recent release of Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Seth Rogen may be going back to TV with his new project for Showtime.

Rogen and production partner Evan Goldberg are developing a comedy series for the pay cabler about three twentysomethings who learn about life and love while running a pornography shop.

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Interesting that the President of all people in today’s world has to go without e-mail. People are constantly shocked that the last Bill Clinton and George W. Bush didn’t use computers much, and now we know why. Could it be Obama that changes this trend and builds an open, mobile line of communication with his presidency?

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Great roundup of some of the most-watched designers in the web design community. Zeldman, Cederholm, Moll, Budd, Meyer…I’ve been personally following some of these folks for years, as they often have great insights and opinion on where web design and principles. If you do any work that’s even remotely design-related, you should read up on what these guys (no ladies?) are doing. LINK

I’m usually not one for bothering with awards shows, but I noticed that the People’s Choice Awards are now accepting votes from the public. Now, if you’re like me, you’re probably all voted out after the crazy election that just went down a couple of weeks ago. Totally understandable, but there are some great shows nominated for some awards and it’d be pretty awesome to see them get some recognition before they get canned (as new shows do these days). That and some great movies that are shoo-ins for the win (or are they?).

That said, feel free to use the handy links below to help your decision making process or just go to www.pcavote.com

WATCHMEN on Yahoo! Movies.

A examination on the disturbing trend of highly mobile undead beings, from an actor who would know best. Brilliant.

“The speedy zombie seems implausible to me, even within the fantastic realm it inhabits. A biological agent, I’ll buy. Some sort of super-virus? Sure, why not. But death? Death is a disability, not a superpower. It’s hard to run with a cold, let alone the most debilitating malady of them all.” LINK