Film GeekFilm | 2005
I say this not with disapproval, but with affection. "Serenity" is an old-fashioned space opera, and differs from a horse opera mostly in that it involves space, not horses. It takes place in a solar system of a dozen terraformed planets and "hundreds of moons," and there is a war going on between the Alliance, which runs things and wants everybody to be happy, and a group of rebels who begin to make disturbing discoveries. As the film opens, a psychic named River Tam (Summer Glau) is rescued from Alliance mind-washers by her brother Simon (Sean Maher), and then we learn that River was unwisely exhibited to a roomful of important Alliance parliamentarians. Because she can read minds, she knows their secrets.
Film GeekFilm | 2005
Methods: A total of 49,528 asymptomatic women presenting for screening mammography at 33 sites in the United States and Canada underwent both digital and film mammography. All relevant information was available for 42,760 of these women (86.3 percent). Mammograms were interpreted independently by two radiologists. Breast-cancer status was ascertained on the basis of a breast biopsy done within 15 months after study entry or a follow-up mammogram obtained at least 10 months after study entry. Receiver-operating-characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to evaluate the results.
Results: In the entire population, the diagnostic accuracy of digital and film mammography was similar (difference between methods in the area under the ROC curve, 0.03; 95 percent confidence interval, -0.02 to 0.08; P=0.18). However, the accuracy of digital mammography was significantly higher than that of film mammography among women under the age of 50 years (difference in the area under the curve, 0.15; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.05 to 0.25; P=0.002), women with heterogeneously dense or extremely dense breasts on mammography (difference, 0.11; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.04 to 0.18; P=0.003), and premenopausal or perimenopausal women (difference, 0.15; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.05 to 0.24; P=0.002).
Conclusions: The overall diagnostic accuracy of digital and film mammography as a means of screening for breast cancer is similar, but digital mammography is more accurate in women under the age of 50 years, women with radiographically dense breasts, and premenopausal or perimenopausal women. (ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00008346.)
This review covers important advances in recent years in the physics of thin-film ferroelectric oxides, the strongest emphasis being on those aspects particular to ferroelectrics in thin-film form. The authors introduce the current state of development in the application of ferroelectric thin films for electronic devices and discuss the physics relevant for the performance and failure of these devices. Following this the review covers the enormous progress that has been made in the first-principles computational approach to understanding ferroelectrics. The authors then discuss in detail the important role that strain plays in determining the properties of epitaxial thin ferroelectric films. Finally, this review ends with a look at the emerging possibilities for nanoscale ferroelectrics, with particular emphasis on ferroelectrics in nonconventional nanoscale geometries.
The von Trapps never saw much of the huge profits The Sound of Music made. Maria sold the film rights to German producers and inadvertently signed away her rights in the process. The resulting films, Die Trapp-Familie (1956), and a sequel, Die Trapp-Familie in Amerika (1958), were quite successful. The American rights were bought from the German producers. The family had very little input in either the play or the movie The Sound of Music. As a courtesy, the producers of the play listened to some of Maria's suggestions, but no substantive contributions were accepted.
In the film Sideways, which earned an Academy Award in 2005 for best adapted screenplay and boosted the careers of Thomas Haden Church, Virginia Madsen and Sandra Oh, those descriptive words aptly captured the character of angst-ridden, wine-obsessed protagonist Miles Raymond, played with self-flagellating glee by Paul Giamatti.
The same words also tell the story of an equally important, but liquid, character in the film: pinot noir. A dozen years later, pinot noir has become a mainstay of the California wine industry, and winemakers credit the film with bringing deserved attention to the varietal, calling it "The Sideways Effect."
Indeed, last November Froymovich did his own analysis of the Sideways Effect, based on USDA reports rather than retail sales, and found that any damage done by Miles' aversion to merlot in the film appeared to have finally run its course, resulting in increased plantings and grape prices.
Serenity is a 2005 science-fiction film written and directed by Joss Whedon. It is set in the universe of the canceled Fox science fiction television series Firefly, taking place a few months after the events of the final episode. Like the television series that spawned it, Serenity is a science fiction Western, using elements of both genres. The film was released in the US on September 30, 2005.
Joss Whedon, the Oscar- and Emmy-nominated writer/director responsible for the worldwide television phenomena of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, now applies his trademark compassion and wit to a small band of galactic outcasts 500 years in the future in his feature film directorial debut, Serenity.
On March 2, 2004, according to an article in Variety, the movie was officially greenlighted to enter production with a $40 million budget. Principal photography started on June 3, 2004. Joss Whedon said that the film would be released as Serenity, in order to differentiate it from the TV series. All nine principal cast members from the television series (Adam Baldwin, Alan Tudyk, Gina Torres, Jewel Staite, Morena Baccarin, Nathan Fillion, Ron Glass, Sean Maher, and Summer Glau) returned for the movie.
The entire Firefly set had to be rebuilt from scratch for the film, using frozen images from the Firefly DVD set. ZOIC, the CG-rendering company that produced the graphics for the series, also had to perform a complete overhaul of their computer model of Serenity, as its television model would not stand up to high-definition cinema screens (and future HD DVD resolution). The set for the failed colony, Miranda, was filmed on location at Diamond Ranch High School in Pomona, California. (The building into which the Alliance ship is crashed is the DRHS Band and Orchestra's rehearsal room.)
The film opens with Simon Tam (Sean Maher) in the process of breaking his sister River (Summer Glau) out of an Alliance facility where she is being experimented upon. After the pair escape into a ship, the adventure is revealed to be a recording being viewed by the Operative, an Alliance agent working on behalf of Parliament with unspecified (but clearly very great) authority and responsibility.
In the payoff to a subplot from both the series and the film, Simon and Kaylee finally make love. Zoë tells Mal that "she's tore up plenty, but she'll fly true," ostensibly referring to the ship but also describing her own state. Mal then heads to the cockpit and meets with Inara and asks her if she's ready to disembark... and Inara admits, with a smile, that she doesn't know. Mal tells her that it's a good answer and takes his seat at the helm with his new co-pilot, River. He is surprised when she already shows aptitude for piloting but tells her that it's not knowledge or expertise that keeps a ship in the air or makes her a home.. it's love. With that the two take Serenity, now restored to her former glory, into the air and back out into space. The final shot shows the ship flying off triumphantly, until a random piece of metal flies from the back of the ship and hits the camera, prompting the movie's final line from Mal: "What was that?"
In addition to traditional advertising methods, Universal sought a few unique approaches to promoting the film. Hoping to generate buzz through early word-of-mouth, Universal launched an unprecedented 3-stage campaign to sneak-preview the movie in 35 US cities where the television series had earned high Nielsen Ratings. The first stage of screenings was held in 10 cities on May 5, 2005. The second stage, held on May 26, 2005, added an additional 20 cities and was also the source of controversy when individual theatres began selling tickets before the official announcement was released, leading some shows to be sold out before being announced. The third round of screenings, with an additional 5 cities, was held on June 23, 2005. The screenings proved a success, with all three stages selling out in less than 24 hours, the second-stage screening in DC sold out in a mere 22 minutes and the second screening in Phoenix sold out in 8.
Australian audiences were the first outside North America to get preview screenings. After an exclusive Sydney test screening, Melbourne held a public screening on July 21, 2005. This was followed by a film festival screening on the Gold Coast on July 22. Public preview screenings were held in Adelaide and Sydney on August 1, and Perth on August 4. Further screenings were held in Victoria, Tasmania, and Queensland in late August. A showing of the finished film billed as the "Gala Premiere" was held at the Edinburgh International Film Festival on August 22,[1] followed by an interview with Whedon the next day,[2] and preview screenings across the United Kingdom and Ireland on August 24, in London, Birmingham, Manchester and Dublin. Several of the screenings in all the countries featured the attendance of Joss Whedon and the film's cast, followed by a Q&A session with the audience. Whedon also attended two Q&A sessions after sold-out screenings of the finished film in Melbourne and Sydney on September 12 and 13.
Universal also utilized a viral marketing campaign, producing five short videos that were released on the internet between August 16 and September 5. These short films, known as the "R. Tam sessions," depicted excerpts of counselling sessions with the character River Tam while she was being held at a "learning facility" known only as "The Academy". The counsellor in these sessions is played by Joss Whedon himself. Taking place before the events of the film or the television series, the videos shed some light on the experiments and torture "The Academy" conducted on River. They "document" her change from a shy child prodigy to the mentally unstable character of the television series.[3] One aspect of River's psyche often overlooked is that once the secret of Miranda came out, she no longer was unstable. Presumably, the visit of the Alliance officials happened during these sessions. 041b061a72