Movies – moralde.com

My Kids Love Oz The Great and Powerful

My kids loved Oz the Great and Powerful and enjoyed watching the movie. They even asked that we buy the DVD of the movie.

There’s nothing like seeing your kids having a great time watching a movie made specially fo them.

oz the great and powerful movie

The whole family watched the movie Oz the Great & Powerful. It was a movie we were all eager to watch since the movie’s ads went live. The kids had pictures with them standing in front of the big cardboard standees a couple of weeks ago, after we watched another movie – Jack the Slayer. The kids enjoyed that too, although Shaniah Niles admitted to being scared of the giants.

James Franco looked perfect for the role of Oz. He does seem to radiate, at first glance, of a selfish man who is full of himself. Only rarely do I ever disagree with the caster’s choices. With this one, I would agree.

The movie kicked off with a setting in the past when Thomas Edison probably just rocked the world with his ideas and inventions. That’s who Oz wanted to be, after all.

It’s a movie of deception against deception; of evil vs the masterful use of trickery and implementation of some ‘new’ technology.

Even after good wins over evil, Oz stills continues to play his deception.

“Your secret’s safe with us”, say his newfound friends.

oz the great and powerful nice movie

Only a hero with a character like Oz can pull that off. But of course, I’m no expert movie critic. I hear that some critics think that the actors fell short of their expectations, especially as they compared this to the movie back in 1939 which they seem to imply as one that cannot be surpassed.

I don’t know about them critics but as far as I know, the kids loved it. And this is a movie for kids after all. With movies like these, I let the children judge whether it’s a good watch or not.

Thus, I deem Oz the Great & Powerful – an enjoyable movie to watch. You can find the DVD of Oz the Great and Powerful in my favorite movies below.

I Like This Hansel and Gretel Story Better

I definitely like this version of the story of Hansel and Gretel. The movie continues where the children’s tale left off. They became witch hunters.

We watched Hansel and Gretel a couple of days ago and went home certain that I definitely like this story better than the one I heard when I was a kid.

I know the original story by heart because back in the 3rd grade, I played Hansel in our school play while a cute girl (who’s a doctor now) played Gretel.

Hansel and Gretel grows to become witch hunters

Of course, the original story is only a small part of the new storyline in the movie because this one continuous where the original left off. But even with that alone, I would still consider this a better story because the mother and father are, after all, not necessarily evil. They only had to leave the children in the woods to protect them from death in the hands of the villagers.

The movie shows a lot of ugly evil faces and, of course, unlimited blood and gore. More often than not, I would stay away from movies of this type, but this one turns out to be an exception of some sort. I didn’t seem to find the blood and gore too offensive. Or, is it just me levelling up to tolerate seeing blood and gore now that I’m older?

I love it that they cast Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye) as Hansel and Jean Grey, err Famke Janssen, as Muriel.

The movie is super fun to watch. Don’t mind the guns that don’t seem to fit the era of witch-burning hypocrites. But come to think of it, if guns were already available in those days, it would really make any legitimate witch-hunters’ job easier. And those steel strings sure makes for a fun way to slice overspeeding witches into small pieces.

I think I’m going to buy a DVD (Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters) of this movie as I think this one passes my criteria for highly re-watchable movies. I wouldn’t recommend it for children viewing though. That’s why only me and my wife watched it.

“Some people will say that not all witches are evil. That they’re powers could be used for good. I say burn them all!”

Do you know that the line above created some very interesting and funny reading as it created a thread of seemingly endless debate on religion, atheism, witchcraft, etc. Check it out here.

Jack Reacher – Awesome Movie

You just got to watch the Jack Reacher movie. If you want entertainment, you’ll get it. It’s got all the bells and whistles of a cool suspenseful action movie. In difficult situations, you’ll want Jack Reacher on your side.

Me and my wife watched Jack Reacher a couple of days ago.

The day before that was our wedding anniversary and we had planned on watching a movie. When we got there however, all 4 movies being shown were not our type of movies. The lady at the ticket booth told us the next movies will be ‘The Life of Pi’, ‘ Jack Reacher’, ‘The Red Dawn’, and one other movie but that they will be shown after 2 days.

Showing day came and we got 3 choices. I would have loved to watch ‘The Life of Pi’, but the wife seems drawn to watching Tom Cruise instead of some Hindu kid being lost at sea with a fierce imaginary tiger. “Besides”, she said, “you have already read the Life of Pi book (twice) anyway”. And you know how perfect husbands behave.They always say yes to the wife. So Jack Reacher it is.

Jack Reacher

All in all, I would say it’s a good and entertaining movie. Me and my wife were riveted to our seats most of the time. I had to eat my shawarma (from KFC) without looking down at it the whole time and not minding the stray catsup sticking outside my mouth. It was dark inside the moviehouse anyway.

jack reacher pic

The part of me who hates too much conflict was surprisingly pleased at the whole movie, not that it didn’t contain enough conflicts, but that there wasn’t much damage being endured by the hero. Some cool movies would have the protagonist being brought down with fatal blows and injuries, but surprisingly recovers in perfect time. Here, Jack Reacher is such an expert at fighting that he never gets hurt badly, or gets hit by a bullet or something to that effect. Well, some folks would rate this as a little too soft, but somehow I like this case as it does not stretch my comfort limits too much.

The story revolves around how Jack Reacher tries to bring to light the truth about the apparent framing of a sharpshooter marksman, James Barr, into a random shooting crime.

Having known James Barr in the past and knowing how he operates, Jack Reacher is convinced that Barr was framed and as the story unfolds, he finds himself being framed likewise. And thus, he embarks on a hunt for the murderer, with only a lady lawyer who is handling Barr’s case and who happens to be the DA’s daughter, as his confidant.

Now my only criteria for a good movie is whether I was entertained or not. I don’t analyse it for any film-making nuances, although I do know how to differentiate good acting and bad acting. This movie? It is entertaining. Now go and watch it.

Have You Watched Breaking Dawn?

The second part of Breaking Dawn, and the last book of the Twilight series is now showing in theatres. We watched the premiere showing a couple of nights ago. Price of the premiere showing ticket was worth it, I think.

Watched Breaking Dawn last night* and enjoyed the final chapter of the Twilight series by Stefanie Meyer.
kirsten stewart breaking dawn 2

I have read the whole Twilight series a few years ago but as I was watching the movie and tried to foresee what would happen next, I found myself unable to recall much of the story. Well, I suppose this makes the movie even more enjoyable. Thing is, I wouldn’t be able to pinpoint any revisions the movie makers did to the story, if ever there were.

It is the much awaited ending to the Twilight Saga and un-arguably, all moviegoers I was with that night enjoyed it, relishing the fight scenes especially the sequences where the Volturi guys get ass-whacked, with their heads getting jerked off and hurled away from their bodies. It’s scenes like these when we all hooted and clapped in glee. And oohhed in dismay when the same thing happens to our beloved clan folks, e.g. to Carlisle.

And then, of course, we laughed again at ourselves after we realized that those scenes were actually just the ones which Alice allowed Aro to download from her mind. Scenes that will happen if Aro pursues his plan to eradicate this wayward herd.

The disappointment of the two war-shocked guys who were rearing for a battle was amusing.

But of course, the battle scenes were really cool although I could have injected some better effects on it had I been it’s battle choreographer.

Is this really the end of the Twilight saga? I kind of imagined that another series would probably be spinned off about Renesmee and how she’d mature. But the arrival of the last witness near the end of the movie, that latin(?) guy who was supposed to be the first half-human, half-vampire born of a human-vampire couple sort of spoiled the possibility. But with Stefanie Meyer, imaginative as she is, you could never tell.

If you’re a Twilight fan, and haven’t seen this last episode yet, well…get the hell out of that chair and go watch the movie, now!

*Actually, the other night.

The Avengers, My Family Movie of the Year

Watched the Avengers movie together with the whole family. Had a great time. I’ll consider this the family movie of the year. Heck, yeah there are violent scenes, lots of it. I’ve seen violent movie scenes in my childhood too. I didn’t turn into a violent thug. Again, this is my family movie of the year.

The whole family watched ‘The Avengers’ last night right after work. Needless to say, we had another one of those ‘feel good’ experience during and after the movie. The kids can’t stop chattering about it while we were riding homeward.

If you haven’t watched the Avengers yet, check out the video clip below this article.

My youngest daughter, Shaniah Niles surprisingly enjoyed the movie inspite of the violent parts that she usually just naturally shy away from watching.

Both kids just love the Hulk, especially the way he seemed to be able to work along with the other avenger guys while the enemies are crawling all over them, but as soon as there’s a lull in the fight he turns on whoever fellow avenger is near him and gives him a wallop. The shrieks of delighted laughter from both of my kids were deafening. Is he really all CGI? If so, it’s really good CGI, made perfect by the addition of the original hulk Lou Ferrigno’s voice, though it’s just all growls and a couple of garbled words. And oh, it must be awful being Bruce Banner and living angry 24/7.

What’s up with Edward Norton, by the way? Why would he opt to give up playing Bruce Banner in this movie? I hope it’s about licenses and copyrights, not about money. What? It’s all about the money?

My personal favorites are of course the Iron Man and Thor. They exude cool and invulnerability. The fight scenes between the avengers are fun. It must have been a surprise for Thor to realize that not all humans are as frail as the majority. Just as it must have been shocking for Loki to experience the beating he had from the Hulk. As for the Captain, maybe it’s not the Captain’s character, silent and so selfless as he is, but for me, I was hoping the scriptwriters or Chris Evans would inject a little more humour to Captain America the way Ryan Reynolds did to Green Lantern.

All in all, I can say it was fun all the way, especially knowing that the wife and the kids all had real fun watching the movie too. I remember having the same satisfaction with Cliffhanger (years ago, I was single then), Transformers, etc.

Like I said earlier, the movie is not without its share of violence. Yet, I’d still consider this a good family movie. Not your typical wholesome family movie of course, but we all enjoyed it and the children are not showing signs of making the Hulk their model, bashing people’s heads randomly and being angry all the time.

Additional Avengers info:

I found this message from Ed Norton about his non-participation in the Avengers movie from a wikia.com page:

“As most of you know, I don’t like to talk much about the business of making movies because it means a lot to me to protect the audience’s fullest enjoyment of the ‘magic’ that films can have,. “But I am so appreciative of the outpouring of support from fans of the Hulk and The Avengers that I feel it would be rude not to respond. So there it goes: It seems it won’t work out for me to continue playing Bruce Banner for Marvel in The Avengers. I sincerely hoped it could happen and be great for everyone but it hasn’t turned out as we all hoped. “I know this is disappointing to many people and that makes me sad. But I am so grateful to Marvel for extending the offer and even more so for the chance to be part of the Hulk’s long and excellent history. And I really can’t thank the fans enough for how much enthusiasm you’ve sent my way… It means a lot to me. “I grew up with Banner and Hulk and have been a fan of every incarnation. I’m really proud, and very blessed, to have been one of them and will be thrilled to see him live on through other actors. Hulk is bigger than all of us, that’s why we love him, right?”

And who can resist TRIVIA? All trivia below are also taken from the same wikia page linked above:

Joe Carnahan was in talks to direct the film before Joss Whedon got the job.
Edward Norton was originally set to reprise his role from The Incredible Hulk (2008) but negotiations between him and Marvel Studios broke down. Norton was replaced with Mark Ruffalo.
Jeremy Renner was said to be taking archery lessons for his role as Hawkeye.
The film will be the first Marvel film to be distributed by Walt Disney Pictures.
Before Mark Ruffalo was cast as The Hulk, Joaquin Phoenix was rumored for the part.
Morena Baccarin, Jessica Lucas, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Cobie Smulders screen tested for the role of Agent Maria Hill. Smulders was eventually cast.
Lou Ferrigno returns as the voice of the CGI made Incredible Hulk whom he first portrayed in 1977.
The movie is thought to take place in New York City, as NYC buses and cabs are shown during the trailer.
Chris Hemsworth had to increase and expand his dietary/food intake in order to maintain the physique he built up for Thor.
Mark Ruffalo describes Bruce Banner’s role in The Avengers as “a guy struggling with two sides of himself, the dark and the light; everything he does in his life is filtered through issues of control.” He furthermore describes Banner’s alter ego the Hulk as “a loose cannon – he’s the teammate none of them are sure they want, it’s like throwing a grenade into the middle of the group and hoping it turns out well!”
Mark Ruffalo is personally going to portray the Hulk through virtual-camera motion-capture, which allows him to actually portray the Hulk. Previous live-action versions have had Bruce Banner and the Hulk be played by separate people (Bill Bixby and bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno), or had the Hulk rendered into the film in computer-generated imagery.
Director Joss Whedon had earlier been considered to direct X-Men in the 1990s. A big fan of the X-Men, he even wrote a script, from which only two lines made it into the film.
Producer Kevin Feige compares the film to Transformers: Dark of the Moon: “It set a standard for that level of ZOMG-awesomeness and scale. We’re working to try to outdo that.”
Mark Ruffalo states it was an honour to take over as Bruce Banner from his friend Edward Norton: “Ed has bequeathed this part to me, I look at it as my generation’s Hamlet.”
The Science and Entertainment Exchange provided a science consultation for the film.
According to Joss Whedon, the film is strongly influenced by the early 1960s Avengers comics, which he was a fan of while growing up: “In those comics these people shouldn’t be in the same room let alone on the same team – and that is the definition of family.”
Tom Hiddleston spoke of his role as Loki in an interview by saying, “I can tell you that it’s all of them against me. I am the super villain. So it’s Iron Man, the Incredible Hulk, Captain America, Thor, Hawkeye, Black Widow and Nick Fury forming a team because I’ve got so bad ass.”
In the preview, Robert Downey Jr.’s character of Tony Stark can be seen wearing a Black Sabbath T-Shirt. Black Sabbath performed the unrelated single “Iron Man” which is on the soundtrack from the first Iron Man movie.
Has an unusually high number of Academy Award nominees in the cast for a comic book movie – or most movies for that matter: Robert Downey Jr.; Samuel L. Jackson; Jeremy Renner; and Mark Ruffalo. However, it still falls short of the five in Iron Man 2: Downey Jr.; Jackson; Gwyneth Paltrow; Mickey Rourke; and Don Cheadle.
Two founding members, Henry Pym (Antman/Giantman) and his wife Janet (Wasp), of the avengers are not included in this movie.
Tony Stark describes his group as “Earth’s mightiest heroes, that kind of thing.” This refers to the bold label that has appeared on “The Avengers” comic books since its 1963 publication. The phrase has also been used as the subtitle for The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, the most recent animated series before the live-action Avengers film.
This is the second time that Bruce Banner/Hulk and Thor have appeared together in a movie. They previously appeared together in The Incredible Hulk Returns.
According to Director Joss Whedon, The original cut of the movie was over 3 hours long. There will be about 30 minutes of the excised footage included in the DVD Release, most of which revolves around Steve Rodgers (Captain America). Whedon revealed that one of these scenes involved Rodgers struggling to adjust to the modern world in his Brooklyn apartment and another revealed Steve Rodgers’ reunion with Peggy Carter, his love interest from Captain America: The First Avenger.

The Green Lantern Movie

The Green Lantern movie is entertaining, regardless of what the critics say about it. I’m looking forward for a sequel that hopefully would feature the war of the green lanterns.

“In brightest day, in blackest night,
No evil shall escape my sight.
Let those who worship evil’s might,
Beware my power…Green Lantern’s light!”

Me, my wife and my son watched the Green Lantern movie a few days ago. I really like movies of this type. Perhaps I still haven’t outgrown this kid stuff about superheroes and the like. My son of course is a Green Lantern fanatic. The first time he watched the Justice League series, he made Green Lantern his idol, not Superman. Superman’s not my favorite either. It’s Batman. My wife? None of the above. She just watched with us because there were no other movies in the other 3 cinemas that she liked.

The other superhero my son liked is Ben Ten. If you recall, Ben Ten also wears green. I don’t know what’s with this green stuff that my son likes. The Green Lanterns think green is the color of courage. Me? First thing I think when green is involved is money.

Green Lantern The Movie

I didn’t know much about Green Lantens’ history so I was kinda surprised to see Hal Jordan instead of John Stewart. Turns out Hal Jordan was the very first human Green Lantern and John is third.

Playing as the very first human Green Lantern is Richard Reynolds (and Blake Lively plays Carol). I haven’t read the original comic books about Hal Jordan so I couldn’t exactly tell if Reynolds fits perfectly as Hal Jordan. So far, I would say Reynolds plays the role cool enough. And that’s coming from a movie-goer, not a movie critic. And I really think people who want to check out a movie before watching it should read reviews made by ordinary movie watchers instead of reviews made by movie critics. Critics sometimes waste too much time on the technical side of a movie instead of just summing up the movie’s fun value to the general movie watching population. This is the reason why, if ever I do, I read the reviews only after I’ve watched the movie because if I do it the other way around, my movie experience is bound to be ruined.

Knowing Reynolds, I kept hoping he’d pour forth more of his brand of humor throughout the movie. I think he held himself at bay most of the time though. But wherever he displayed his funny antics in the movie, I liked it a lot. Then again, had he gone full throttle with his humor, the movie might turn into a comedy movie instead of the kind we want for such a superhero.

Now, my son is already babbling about the next Green Lantern movie. He talks about Sinestro and his new yellow ring. And he hopes to see John Stewart the next time around. Perhaps a movie of the War of the Green Lanterns would be very interesting. We’d be seeing both Hal and John there.

Should you watch it? Hell, why not? If you watch movies like Batman, Superman, etc., go ahead and watch the Green Lantern movie. Even if you’re not a fan of the guy (the superhero), I think you’ll still find the movie entertaining. Let go of any expectations and just connect with the kid in you.

Amazon.com Widgets

Powers of the Green Lantern Ring

Animating: A Green Lantern can will things to move how he wants.
Artificial Intelligence: Every ring has a connection to the Main Battery on Oa, which taps into an artificial intelligence. It acts as an “on-board computer,” telling the wearer what they need to know. It can either respond out loud, or silently directly to the wearer’s mind. The AI contains a large database of information that may be crucial to a Lantern’s success. The ring also translates nearly every language to and from the wearer (though they have difficulty translating profanity), which is why the Corps can communicate with each other. When the bearer of a Green Lantern ring dies, the ring will seek out a suitable replacement for their sector. The AI can be used to play a holographic playback sequence complete with colors across the spectrum based on information in memory banks. The ring can dictate when to pause or stop the playback should an interruption arise where the Lanterns undivided attention is needed. The AI can also alert the wielder of incoming threats or of attempts to manipulate the wielders construct by an outside party.
Burglar Alarm: A Green Lantern can coat anything with the ring’s beam and thus, if anyone other than himself touches it, his ring will glow, alerting him to the possible theft.
Communicator: The ring can act as a personal communicator between Green Lanterns. They have also been seen connected to telephones.
Costumes: The wearer of the ring may create any costume they choose, based on their personal preferences, whenever they choose. The ring projects the costume over any clothes already worn at the time.
Energy Projection: The rings can also project beams, form protective bubbles and force fields, and fire destructive blasts. Sometimes, depending on the wearer, the beams and blasts make sounds. Kilowog’s ring is one such example of blasts making sounds.
Energy Constructs: The rings can construct anything the wearer can imagine from hard-light energy, as long as they are willing to make it. The more determined the wearer is, the more complex and intricate these things can be. The constructs can even be so complex as to form working machines, computers, and even people.
Flight: The ring allows the wearer to fly in atmosphere or in space, and can achieve incredible speeds, moving from planet to planet in a matter of hours.
Invisibility: The ring can make the wearer or anything else invisible.
Matter Manipulation: A Green Lantern can use their ring to manipulate nearby matter, such as water, for various purposes such as a construct that acts like an energy construct but can block something yellow and may serve a purpose that an energy construct couldn’t perform.
Mind Control: The wearer of the Ring can use it to plant post hypnotic commands or control a person.
Mirages: The Ring can create mirages/illusions.
Phasing: The ring allows the user to go through walls.
Power Absorbing: In the JLA’s first fight with Amazo, it was GL who defeated him by drawing out all of Amazo’s powers. In Green Lantern/ Silver Surfer: Unholy Alliances, Kyle defeated Parallax with SS’ power and Thanos with Oa’s energy by drawing out all that extra energy from them which made them unconscious. However he couldn’t hold all that power nor could his Ring like Hal did with Amazo’s powers, so that move isn’t often used with so much power.
Probing: The ring can probe the Lantern’s or another person’s mind, allowing him to uncover memories or the person’s thoughts.
Radiation: Besides light based radiation used to create the energy constructs associated with a Green Lantern, the ring can simulate various forms of radiation. One example of this is the ability to simulate the radiation of Green Kryptonite, a form of radiation that is harmful to Superman. However, this ability is no longer valid and has been retconned.
Recharging: The rings need to be recharged by means of a Power Battery. Other large sources of power may be used to recharge a power ring, however effectiveness may vary. The internal power source of a Manhunter Android is, in effect, the same as a power battery, and can be used to recharge a power ring. During the JLA / Avengers crossover, a Cosmic Cubewas used to recharge a depleted ring, although this is not an ideal solution and is available if there are no other options.
Ring Duplication: Each ring can duplicate itself, creating a second ring which may be given to another as a backup, for protection, or to help the lantern in times of great need. This duplicate ring is exactly like a normal ring.
Temperature Control: The Ring can increase or decrease the temperature of anything, even something as large as stars, or even create bubbles of intense heat or cold, even down to Absolute Zero.
Transforming: The ring can transform anyone or anything, be it into an animal, altering their state of appearance, or their size. Once Hal and Alan turned the two Flashes ( Barry and Jay) to light protons in order to free them from prisons.
Electro-magnetic scanning: The ring can allow(through the use of x rays) the user to see through walls, without the people on the other side knowing. it can also scan along the Electromagnetic spectrum.
Wormhole/Warps: The ring can open wormholes to cut down on distance.
Time travel: The ring allows the wielder the ability to travel through time, though the process requires great willpower.
Healing: A wielder can command a ring to heal him/her/itself of any injures incurred. It can also heal others.
Energy twin: The ring can create an energy copy of the wielder which is connected to the ring wielder, any information the twin gathers is transferred to the wielder upon touch while others cannot see this twin apart from fellow Green Lanterns.
Pocket dimension: Within the ring is a pocket dimension which can altered to the wielders specification. It can be used to contain opponents.
Sub-routines: The power rings have inner programmings or mechanisms which can executed without the users permission. One such sub-routine is the autoshield. This shield automatically protects a wielder from external harm and has been proven to be capable of protecting the wielder from planetary level attacks.

source: http://www.comicvine.com/

Youtube Copyright Infringement: This video contains content from…

Youtube copyright infringement issues bugged me right when I learned that attaching music to my videos make it look and sound better. A video that infringes on the copyrights of the background music used gets flagged down and become un-viewable.

I bumped right up to a youtube copyright infringement issue on the very first few youtube videos I uploaded.

This video contains content from… , who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds

That’s what I saw on my third video a few hours after uploading it on youtube.

This video contains content from… , who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds.

After a few seconds in a ‘what the…’ limbo I got back up and realized that I had used a background music that of course is copyrighted. I remember having used Kelly Clarkson’s ‘My life would suck without you’. And then I realized how stupid of me to have not thought about youtube copyright infringement issues before uploading.

I thought that it was alright to use any kind of music because a lot of youtube videos have background music from current popular artists. And they don’t get flagged down for youtube copyright infringement issues. Questions, questions. Nowadays, when you have questions, you go right up to google for answers. And what better source of solutions would there be than an entity which owns youtube…Google.

I wanted to know a way around this youtube copyright infringement problem specifically regarding a video’s accompanying music. Here’s a couple of ways around it.

3 Ways Around Youtube Copyright Infringement

Use Your Own Music
To avoid copyright problems with youtube, the best technique would be to use your own music. But this of course is useful only to musicians, or people who have a knack for composing original music. That would leave 91% of us behind and in the dark. And uh, I just made that statistics value up.
Use free / public domain music
So, for those who can’t compose their own music, the only apparent solution would be to use other people’s music. Thankfully, there are the so called public domain music and there are musicians who generously give their music freely to others. An initial cursory search gave me the following sites:

http://www.publicdomain4u.com/
http://www.publicdomain2ten.com/
http://www.mp3jackpot.com/
http://mkk2ten.com/
The first two sites above are sources for old music that is already in the public domain and thus are copyright-free. If you don’t mind using really old music (1922 and earlier), then these sites will provide your needs. The other 2 are sites offering music created by modern-day musicians who gave permission for anyone to use their music as they please. You can search for more sites like these online. I’m sure there are countless others out there.
Change the music’s speed or pitch

This must be what other folks are using in their videos with popular music in their backgrounds. How else can they post videos with Jason Mraz singing in the background?

The trick is to change the music’s tempo, or pitch, or speed by a very small amount that’s not very noticeable to human ears but is very apparent to the music bots that youtube or other audio monopolizers are using.

You can use your favorite audio editting software. If you don’t have one, you can download a free one that works pretty much like the pricey audio editting software out there. It’s called Audacity. If you have even just a little aptitude for tinkering with music software, you can download audacity here.

Here’s a video showing you how to change tempo, pitch, or speed of a sound file.

Do you know of any other ways to get around youtube copyright infringement issues?

NOTE: The best methods would be the first 2 methods stated above. Obviously, the third method still is a violation of the original artists’ copyright, even if passes through youtube’s filters.

Chop a Portion of a YouTube Video and Embed or Share

You can chop or cut a portion of a youtube video and share to your friends or embed into your blog. Read on to see how.

Say, you found an awesome video but you only want to show your friends a specific portion of the video. It can be done by chopping that video and creating a link to it so your friends can watch it online. This way, your friends won’t have to go through the agony of watching the whole video.

Here’s how:

Copy the URL of the youtube video from which you want to chop a portion of. Say, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vo0Cazxj_yc ./li>
Then, go to http://www.tubechop.com/ .

Chop a Portin of YouTube

On the textbox to the left of the ‘search video’ button, paste the youtube video’s URL.

Press the ‘search’ button.
After the video is loaded in the page, fill up the time start and end boxes at the bottom of the video box

Then click the ‘Update’ button below the boxes.
The video above will update itself and will now contain only the chopped portion.
Add some short message for your friends on the box just above the ‘chop it’ button.

Title of chopped video

Click the ‘chop it’ button.
The resulting page will now have the embed and chopped video link you can copy to embed or send to your friends.

Original Un-chopped Youtube video

Here’s the youtube video I tried to work on with tubechop.com:

Chopped Youtube Video

And here’s the resulting chopped portion of the video:

Of course, the above is for example purposes only. That portion is not exactly the coolest part of the video. Fact is, I think the whole video is awesome. In this case, I won’t chop it but instead show the whole video to my friends. But I’ve seen a lot of instances where friends would tell me to watch a video and say ‘go to 3:21’ or something. Now, you could just say simply ‘watch this!’.

Note: The resulting chopped video will now be accessed (and hosted I think) via tubechop.com, and not youtube.com. Please correct me if I’m wrong. 🙂

Alternative to Chopping Youtube Video

Automatically Start YouTube Video at Certain Time

If you find chopping videos a chore, you can opt to use another method where you add a time-start element to the video’s url like so:

If the above video automatically started at 20 seconds, it’s because I added “#t=0m20s” immediately after the video’s url. This however doesn’t always work as I want it to be. But it just might work for you. Check the procedures here for more information.

Transformers: Dark Of The Moon

Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon. Watch the trailer here.

Coming on 7.1.11, this movie, Transformers Dark of the Moon, is something me and my son will be waiting with bated breaths. Inspite of some negative feedback from those who deem themselves expert movie analysts and judges, I still insist that we went home feeling very much entertained and tingling after we watched the last Transformer movie. Judging from the trailer (although most trailers nowadays most often don’t deliver on their promises as they invoke higher expectations from those who watch them), I bet me and my son are going to have another helluva good movie experience with this.

Watching the trailer, I found it amusing that conspiracy theorists haven’t thought of this and wrote on their websites that some advanced extra-terrestrials have crash landed on the moon before and that Neil Armstrong and company had seen their remains and had kept mum about it. What? They have theories like this? Ok, but I think Steven Spielberg is still a lot more imaginative than they are.

“You cannot believe what we’re seeing.”

“We are not alone after all, are we?”

“Yes sir, we are not alone.”

But what’s with Shea’s girl being no longer Megan Fox in this film? In one of those shooting-scenes-videos released in youtube, Shea’s dragging along some skinny blond girl (Rose Huntington-Whiteley) that’s a lot less cool than Megan. Wait, if the this girl in the picture below is Rose Huntington-Whitely, err… she might not necessarily be that un-cool.

Replacement for Megan Fox?

Watch Transformers 3: Dark Of The Moon Video

Watch more Transformers Dark of the Moon videos: As soon I get hold of more videos, I’ll post it here, in addition to the above video.

Note: I must have been long out of the circuit because I only knew about this after I visited Hannah’s flaircandy blog.

Legend of the Seeker Cast

If you enjoy suspense, magic, warrior action, love, loyalty, then you must have watched the Legend of the Seeker. If not, see what you’ve been missing.

Of course the main Legend of the Seeker cast matters most – Richard Cypher (with Craig Horner being perfect for the role), Kahlan Amnell (Bridget Regan), Zeddicus Zu’l Zorander (Bruce Spence), Darken Rahl (Craig Parker) and Cara Mason (Tabrett Bethell). These actors, as far as I’m concerned, are perfect and were born to play these roles. And Bridget Regan – why do I always think of her each time I call to mind the Twilight Series? Had she been younger and retained the look of her ‘Legend of the Seeker’ days (but younger), I think she’d play Bella better than Kristen Stewart. No offense to Kristen’s fans, but in all fairness, Kristen does have the looks but her acting is a little bit wanting in some parts.

I liked Legend of the Seeker the first time I saw it re-played on TV. I have not followed it very religiously but today, I had to take a sick leave due to a sinusitis attack (which may have been triggered by the odd weather and the stress of serving as examiner for the first time in the recent civil service examination). Having nothing to do at home and being bored after the effect of the decongestants wore off (which means I’m no longer sleepy), I browsed through the DVD collections beneath the TV rack and found the Legend of the Seeker disc. It contained the Legend of the Seeker season 2 episodes 13 to 22.

Needless to say, I had one hell of a good time watching these cool episodes of magic, courage, friendship, love, treachery, apathy. One can’t help but notice that Richard and Kahlan are both good lovers material both on and off screen. I wonder if they are really close off screen. Robert Tapert did a really cool job of getting these two to play the lead roles. The producers of the show agreed with Tapert, especially after they had the two brought to Los Angeles for a ‘chemistry reading’ and found both to be perfect.

Cara Mason. Gosh, I love this sexy creature. She’s the sexiest Mord’Sith I’ve ever seen. Perhaps meeting a Mord’Sith like her, with her agiel (weapon that inflict utter pain), would most surely turn any man into a masochist. Like I said before, she’s also perfect for the role. She so cooly handled the role of an apathetic red-leather clad warrior, who, upon having transferred her allegiance to the Seeker, now is confused by the changes she experiences within…from being apathetic to feeling compassion, love, kindness, happiness, etc. I’m not sure about it in the original books, but in the television series, she is bisexual.

For more information on the other cast members of the Legend of the Seeker, please go here.

Category: Movies