Dot Com Pho – The Sort of Cinematic Edition

Dot Com Pho has always been a low budget, low production value weekly mish mash of the dumb things that we do while eating Vietnamese Noodles. While we’ve always talked about doing a proper higher production value podcast or show, the actual effort to make something like that happen just doesn’t seem to register in our somewhat easy going Dot Com Lifestyles. This week at Dot Com Pho, I decided to introduce a new piece of gear that could possibly bring up the quality of the show while still maintaining the genuinely idiotic things we do and say at this weekly gathering.

The JAG35PRO is a 35mm DOF (depth of field) adapter. What this thing does is allow you to take advantage of the high quality lenses used in CANON and NIKON DSLRs. The folks at JAG35 sent me one of their units adapted to a NIKON mount so that I could try it out and give it a review for Futurelooks. As part of my ongoing testing, I decided to debut it at this week’s Dot Com Pho which features the return of Michael Kwan from the middle of absolutely nowhere, John Chow’s joy over the new shirt he got for free, and Ed Lau’s Yoga bumb fetish that we did not know about.

Products featured this week include the Poken Social Media Token, every man’s favourite Yoga Teacher App for the iPhone and of course the JAG35Pro adapter which films this week’s episode, giving it a very high production value look…

While the JAG35Pro provided some pretty stunning results similar to what you would see in a big blockbuster movie, the device is somewhat cumbersome in tight spaces. The 50mm lens was far to long and the fact that I was filming and manually focusing a flipped around picture (due to the JAG35 having no prism) was a challenge to say the least.

Some grading was done using Red Giant Software’s Magic Bullet Looks, but I have yet to find a good piece of conversion software that will allow me to convert the AVCHD files into an easy to edit format while simultaneously flipping the picture. Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 really didn’t like having to turn the picture 180 degrees, and then having to render adjustments on top of that.

Look for a review of the the JAG35Pro at Futurelooks sometimes in the next while!

PS: We’re also giving away a 128GB Patriot USB Flash Memory Drive worth $359 US over at Futurelooks. Check out the contest details here.

China’s Answer to Megan Fox and Those Robots

So how does China copy the Transformers? First off, you don’t employ a smokin’ hot lead actress. Second, you make everyone kind of regular looking (or slightly effeminate). Third, you make those robots do Kung Fu and fourth… you spend 1/10th the budget to produce it!

Coming out on August 13th, “Kung Fu Cyborg” lacks the massive “WTF sometimes” spectacle that is a signature of Michael Bay movies. Instead, it replaces it with a story (how novel!), human relationships, romance and comedy with a clearly SciFi twist. So basically Transformers with no Megan Fox, fewer somewhat pointless robot battles and people trying hard to act out a real story instead of a random sequence of events that Michael Bay thought looked cool strung together.

I’m sure we’ll be seeing this one at a Chinese Night Market near you. The badly dubbed English sub titles (or voiceovers) will be worth the entertainment value alone.

The Secret to Transformers 2’s Success – Megan Fox

Megan Fox is so hot that she can’t possibly be real. That’s why it was no surprise when I found out that Megan Fox really wasn’t real. That’s right! According to the people responsible for the special effects, Megan Fox is actually a very special effect combining CGI, animatronics and other state of the art technologies. Yes, even more special than huge robots that turn into vehicles. Just watch!

So there you have it! The illusion is shattered. I mean, seriously now. How could a woman be that hot and be real at the same time? Ahh the magic of special effects! Maybe in Transformers 3, we’ll finally be able to see those robots do some cool things too!