Monthly Archives: October 2013

1-By Laksh, ET, Movies

Gravity: Dizzying spectacle..

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Just a few minutes into the movie, you could get dizzy by the sheer vastness of space, and tracking the protagonists suspended in gravity-less void. Sandra Bullock and George Clooney play two astronauts–Dr.Ryan Stone and  Matt Kowalski–who meet with an unexpected danger (what would one expect in space anyway) and struggle to make it to safety. While Matt is a veteran, Dr.Ryan is on her first mission which soon turns into a nightmare. It is her point of view, that of a suffering rookie, that gives the movie its challenging and triumphant moments.

If in ‘Castaway’  Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) bonds with one Mr. Wilson (who is nothing more than a bloody handprint on a volleyball), in ‘Gravity’ Dr.Ryan bonds with Matt and latches on to his every word even after he is long gone, to keep her going.

‘Gravity’ is a spectacle of the first order, with a special mention for sound design and editing. It ‘s a near impossible feat to create a thriller with just a character stranded in space (for the most part), but the film makers pull it off.

The movie is a must watch for all sci-fi movie lovers.

I was reminded of Steven Spielberg ‘Duel’  where the point of view shifts form the protagonist to that of the villain, to create that sense of imminent danger even when the chase isn’t on. Just substitute the truck with space.

P.S
Here are two articles on the movie’s VFX

  1. THR: 5 Ways ‘Gravity’s’ VFX Wizards Sent Sandra Bullock Into Space
  2. Fxguide: Gravity: vfx that’s anything but down to earth | fxguide
Doing Business, Etc.

Silicon Alley’s First Billionaire Aims To Dominate Images On Web

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Jon Oringer marches along the gutted 21st floor of the Empire State Building and ducks out a window onto a deck to pose for a magazine shoot, snapping his own photos as the photographer snaps photos of him. Starting this winter, the entire floor (and an identical one below it) will play home to Shutterstock SSTK -2.07%, Oringer’s 295-person photo website whose shares have more than tripled to a $2.5 billion market value since their debut on the NYSE last October.

It’s an appropriate headquarters for New York’s first tech billionaire ($1.3 billion, to be exact) as he looks to ride the proliferation of screens, smartphones and bandwidth to turn Shutterstock into the world’s largest marketplace for buying and selling images. Right now that title belongs to the Carlyle Group-owned Getty Images, but over the last few months Oringer, 39, has inked a deal with Facebook FB -0.76% for its advertisers, launched offerings of high-end photography and raised $276 million in a secondary offering–all while expanding and simplifying his library of 25 million images and a million videos searchable in 20 languages. What began ten years ago with one $1,000 Canon Rebel and a 600-square-foot office has exploded into a platform that adds 20,000 new photos a day from 40,000 contributors in more than 100 nations.

Click here for complete article at Forbes.com

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14 Famous Business Pivots

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“To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often” – Winston Churchill

The most critical decision for an entrepreneur is to know when to stay the course vs. change direction. I’ve spoke at length about how to deal with “The Entrepreneur’s Dilemma.” Today we launched the new version of Docstoc that completes our 6 year evolution from a professional document sharing website to the go-to resource to start and grow small businesses. In part we were inspired by some of the most famous business pivots of some of the most famous brands. Here are fourteen extraordinary examples:

  1. Twitter
  • The most legendary pivot in social media history is the transformation of Odeo into Twitter. Odeo began as a network where people could find and subscribe to podcasts, but the founders feared the company’s demise when iTunes began taking over the podcast niche. After giving the employees two weeks to come up with new ideas, the company decided to make a drastic change and run with the idea of a status-updating micro-blogging platform conceived by Jack Dorsey and Biz Stone.

Click here for the rest of list at Forbes