Even though I didn't always think this way until I became one myself, I respect media companies that put their content behind paywalls (enough so it warrants a post by itself) but this piece by Vickie Chan (@HKChanTown on Twitter) on the social media meet-ups in Hong Kong needs to be seen by people other than subscribers of the SCMP - so here is a copy-and-paste of the article - read it now, because if the SCMP asks me to take it down I will:

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Not only is it great to have 2 Joss Whedon projects in the cinemas at the same time - but because of teh success of The Avengers everyone wants to cover the man of the hour so we get some amazing in-depth looks at Joss' career and his working style which I am inspired with. 

Check out this 6-page Forbes interview with great quotes like:

The secret to multitasking is that it isn’t actually multitasking. It’s just extreme focus and organization.

The best way to learn is to do it. Get it wrong a couple times.

Every moment that I love is the moment when a character basically stands up and says “I have the right to exist.” 

On the budget for Dr. Horrible:

The initial investment was about $200,000. The budget with everybody actually being paid was about $450,000. With the movie and the soundtrack and everything we’ve been able to do with it, we made over $3 million with it. Now, $3 million doesn’t get [CBS CEO] Les Moonves out of bed in the morning. But if you look at it in terms of percentages, that’s a very healthy profit. And, more importantly, it continues to make money years after. It’s on a limited basis, but the model is extraordinary. And we’re all getting a piece of it, which is very exciting. And I’m getting the most, because I’m the studio. And that’s very exciting tooooo!

Joss on Twitter:

I don’t want to be on Twitter and just go, “That burrito made me gassy.”

How Joss "takes a break"

After I do international publicity for “Avengers” and it opens, I’m pretty much a free agent. I’ll be finishing the cut of “Much Ado” and working on the score, and I’ll be working on “Dr. Horrible 2” and “Wastelanders,” and whatever else I can do from home.

Check out this great video with Joss from CBS with some clips from his self-financed, black and white version of Much Ado About Nothing:

 

I made 2 flyers which one do you like better?

Either way you can sign up here: http://tdhk9.eventbrite.com/

Just read this article on my iPad via the GQ app (but you can find it at GQ.com) - great insight into Joss' career and how The Avengers is really his breakthrough after working so hard. Go watch Firefly and then Serenity if you loved The Avengers - because that team is where he got to practice making the movie about Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

I'm really happy to see something like this in Hong Kong - I remember going to a B-movie festival in HK more than 10 years ago in the same cinema seeing such classics as "Faster Pussycat Kill Kill" and "Branded to Kill" - so I'm happy to support this kind of screening as it's really a taste of a US-style screening in HK and hope there is more to come:

More here: http://blogs.wsj.com/scene/2012/05/04/weekend-plans-in-hong-kong-the-worlds-w...

When I was a kid I loved those digest sized photo comics where they take frames from a movie and add comic balloons on them so you'd have the movie in a 100-page paperback volume - I had one for Grease and Popeye (a whole round-up of some of them is here) - but it seems the artform had died out just as paper comics are now - but with apps its almost so easy to make yourself.

Taking a couple of screen shots from the trailer for The Avengers and using the Halftone app on my iPhone 4S I was able to make these frames in 60-seconds. And while looking at them together I was thinking, yeah, I'd buy this if it was a full book of the whole movie.

What do you think? Potential revival or is it really a dead artform?

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