December 29, 2003
Return of the King
WORLD December 20, 2003: 'Baptized imagination'
This is a great cover story from World Magazine. Thought I'd give you a heads up.
December 28, 2003
Triplets of Belleville
View the Triplets of Belleville trailer here.
Great independent film. Nothing of this sort has been seen since 101 Dalmations. Though this is quite a bit different. There is almost NO dialogue.
Polar Express
View the Polar Express Trailer here.
This film looks pretty exciting. All done with motion capture techniques similar to how Gollum was done in Lord of the Rings.
Portland Studios Update
I just wanted to take a moment to write an introduction about Portland Studios:
About 3 years ago, I started writing down some thoughts about the possibility of starting a media company with a group of friends. At first, the concept began as sort of way to combine a wide variety of disciplines under the roof of one freelancing group. We wanted to be a place where publishing, web design, animation, illustration, and film could all be developed under one roof.
A group of us (about 10) began meeting on Saturday mornings to read articles on business, on art philosophy, and about media---and begin to hammer out the manner and the means that we could develop the company.
Eventually, the realization and growing understanding came over me and the others that the company would have to be one that was focused on doing one thing or a few things very well, rather than trying to be an all-encompassing freelance emporium. That kind of business would simply be unwieldy and ineffective.
We decided to focus our efforts on developing an illustration and animation studio.
Why "Portland"? I've always been interested in moving out West. Particularly a growing urban area. (For more thoughts on urban ministry, listen to the MP3 sermons by Tim Keller on www.redeemer2.com.)
A church planter named Tom McDonald was sent out from Heritage Bible Church in Greenville, SC to start a church in Portland, OR. I feel that eventually I would like to be able work with him in some way in that field---whether directly or indirectly. Ultimately, I see the company making Portland, Oregon its base of operations.
On April 2, 2003 Portland Studios was officially incorporated with three equal directors holding the shares--me (Brannon McAllister), Justin Gerard, and Michael Collins.
Since then, Jamin Jantz has come on board to represent artists to our clients. Currently, we are primarily focusing on develop an awareness for Justin Gerard--A great new talent.
We've been doing illustration work for clients including Jackson-Dawson Communications, VantagePoint, Quarasan/McGraw-Hill, The Leslie Agency/The Martin Luther King Center, CreativeBeast, BJU Press, Riggs Creative, Design Labs, and several other clients.
We would like begin working on a freelance basis with several larger animation studios (Blue Sky, Warner Bros., Disney for example) to provide conceptual development art for their films. The possibility for this kind of work is coming.
We hope Portland Studios will provide some great art and animation to many clients. On a personal level, I hope to be able to bring the Gospel to bear on all I do in this business. Our mission and philosophy speak for themselves. There is so much potential.
I'll be writing more about the business again soon.
Sky Captain
Sky Captain Trailer (Quicktime).
Really nice looking trailer if you ask me! Very consistent with the late 1930's superhero look.
Google News
If you're not familiar with this, check it out. At Google Newsalerts (www.google.com/newsalerts) you can list words that you would like Google to monitor for you. Google sends you an email whenever that word shows up in any news story. I find this absolutely fascinating!
Brannon
TV Watching on Decline
From the current issue of World Magazine...
....But television watching as a whole is also in decline. Nearly all of the new shows that premiered last season were bombs. NBC lost an average of a million viewers a week from last year.
In the demographic most prized by advertisers, men ages 18-34, ratings for the broadcasters are down 7 percent, a catastrophic drop-off that has studio executives doubting the instrument, insisting that the Nielsen raters must be making a mistake.
But the networks have an even bigger problem with younger viewers. Among women in the younger demographic of 18-24, viewership has dropped 20 percent. With young men in that age bracket, the drop is 18.3 percent.
And they are not all going to cable. Despite its relative success, ratings for ad-supported cable among men 18-24 is down 3.7 percent. Nor are they going to pay channels like HBO, despite their much-hyped series like The Sopranos and Sex in the City. Ratings for that age group on pay cable are down 25 percent.
Maybe a generation that has grown up on so much TV has finally gotten tired of it.
Reading List
This is a part of a reading list I found on Redeemer Pres.' website recently. If you can find the time, I would certainly encourage anyone to pick up a few of these titles.
Michael Horton
Putting the Amazing Back into Grace
Harvey Conn
Evangelism: Doing Justice and Preaching Grace
(This one is excellent!)
J.I. Packer
"Introduction" to J.Owen's The Death of Death
Jonathan Edwards
On the Religious Affections
Martin Luther
"Preface" to Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians
(Just read this yesterday. A pivotal work.)
Dick Keyes
Chameleon Christianity
First Real Blog
I've finally decided to begin blogging. Yes, after reading an article about the mind-blowing, grassroots potential of the blogger in World Magazine's current issue, I've finally decided to get started.
Not that I have anything revolutionary or sigificant to bring to the table necessarily, but I thought I would like to be able to post some occasional thoughts, sites I've found interesting, or something I'm learning more about.
Check out my company's website, www.portlandstudios.com.
I'll have more to say about the company soon.
Brannon