I was hoping to see the movie Cloverfield while it was still showing in theaters last year. But as with the latest series of major movies hitting the big screen, I eventually missed on catching this one too.

Bedridden since a few days back, I luckily chanced upon this movie in HBO.

The entire film is shown to look as if it were a video recording recovered by the US Department of Defense. A presentation style not unlike how the movie Blair Witch Project did it around 10 years ago.

Since its official release, the movie has gotten a lot of mixed reviews. Some loved the relatively distinct perspective used in presenting the story. Some hated that it only took around 75 minutes to finish. With this particular film, I will leave the formal reviews to the experts.

Before seeing the movie, I was aware of at least two easter eggs hidden in the film:

• a background scene near the end where something was shown mysteriously falling from the sky
• a barely audible clip at the end of the credits saying something like… “help us” but when played in reverse (backmasked) actually says… “it’s still alive”

That was until I saw this clip on the web. It discusses the items above, as well as a third easter egg that I was previously unaware of.

The third secret is a dharma logo ingeniously hidden in a frame of the film. As you may know, Cloverfield is produced by J. J. Abrams — the same person who produces the hit TV series “Lost“.  Thus, the dharma connection.

By the way, since Abrams also produced the recent movie adaptation of Star Trek, there was also a scene in that film connecting it to Cloverfield.

With all these, one can’t help to think that a Cloverfield 2 movie might be coming out soon.

It’s here now!

The first official trailer for M. Night’s movie rendition of the popular animated series from Nickelodeon – Avatar: The Last Air Bender – is now out for public viewing.

Noticeably, the film has now been re-titled to The Last Airbender. This is clearly to avoid confusion with another upcoming movie from James Cameron bearing the title Avatar.

Still slated to be released for July next year, this movie has already gotten a lot of mixed reactions from fans of Aang and the other characters from the show. There are considerable concerns on how Shyamalan would handle production of the live action adaptation. Everyone is hoping that the acclaimed director remains loyal to the “spirit” or true essence of the original story line.

There had already been a lot “discussed” about the casting choice for the key roles in the movie. But hard core fans are still worried that the movie might end up having the now almost “distinct” feel from M. Night’s movies.

Here is what’s known so far as cast selection is concerned:

• Noah Ringer, an acting newcomer will play the main protagonist of the story — Aang
• Nicola Peltz, will play Katara of the Water nation
• Jackson Rathbone, from Twilight fame will play Katara’s brother — Sokka
• Jessica Jade Andres, will play Sokka’s Kyoshi warrior love interest — Suki
• Dev Patel, from the recent hit Slumdog Millionaire gets to play the primary antagonist in the story, the exiled prince of the Fire nation — Zuko

Based from this trailer, I think the movie could still be on its way to being a very good one. Hopefully, the feeling eventually translate for the entire movie.

Stitch was here in the Philippines!

A collaboration between Disney and leading toy collectible company MINDstyle brings a unique product to life.

The partnership resulted in a line of customized vinyl figures patterned after the fictional alien character from Disney’s “Lilo and Stitch” series.

This Stitch Experiment 626 project features custom art toys now on an international tour. In this initiative, the uniquely cute alien gets to have different looks as renowned artists are empowered to reinvent and create their own rendition of Disney’s most mischievous character. The ongoing tour has already been to Hong Kong, Orlando and Manila. Next in line for the tour as destination will be Taipei.

Too bad the toys didn’t really get to have their own day via the MINDstyle launch that was supposed to happen before the Manila Toy Convention. Sadly, that event is currently postponed and is still to be rescheduled.

Fortunately though, MINDstyle still had a part during the recently concluded Manila ToyCon 2009 where they launched and displayed their Stitch toy series . I wasn’t able to photograph any of the main activities. But I still did manage to get a few snaps of the customized Stitch that were on display during the convention.

I recognized one of the toys on display (black ninja Stitch) as one that Gaby dela Merced designed herself.

I am not aware who designed the other figures but the collection was very diverse. From the absurdly funny to weirdly cuddlesome, all were uniquely artistic.

The annual toy convention for the year is now over. And as was with previous years, it must have been a success based from the number of people who participated and went to the event.

I visited Megamall for the 2 days the convention was on last weekend. I purposely didn’t bring a camera during the first day expecting not being able to shoot because of the crowd size. As an afterthought now, maybe I should have just brought a camera along and not miss out on taking snaps of the opening day activities.

The event had a good mix of regular exhibits and new ones as well. As usual, perennial displays like the Voltes 5 team were there to greet everyone. What was noticeably distinct this year were the considerable number of people wearing surgical masks. I guess it could very well be one of the latest fashion trend with all the news about the H1N1 virus spreading. Anyway, I found a lot of people wearing face masks during the event that only needed a little more accessory to blend pretty well with the cosplayers at the venue. hehehe

Here are just some of the pictures I managed to take during the second day.

Recognizing these days as rather hard times, I intentionally left most of my money and all ATM cards at home to help prevent myself from buying anything I didn’t really need right now. Cleverly though, a lot of sellers in the convention offered credit card payment facilities. To that, all I can say is… damn them! hahaha

I’m planning to take pictures this coming week of things I got from this year’s toycon. Hopefully I get the chance to actually do so. I’ll post pictures as soon as this pushes through.

I’ve always considered people as one of the most interesting subjects in photography. Consequently, I believe they are one of the most challenging subjects to work with. So every time I’m presented with the chance to hone my skills further by taking portraits, I would almost always jump at it like a proverbial undernourished wolf on its prey. Growl!

A couple of weeks back, I got the opportunity again to shoot with some of my photography friends. And it just happened to be… (tada!)… a model shoot.

The theme for the shoot was along the line of “sexy”, which believe it or not, made it more difficult for me. Fortunately, the model we worked with was very apt for the theme. Her name is Jessie Medina (Jahziel Manabat), and she was just recently chosen Playboy playmate for March.

Here are a few of my takes from the shoot…

Jahziel was very professional and easy to work with. This made it a lot easier for me to get the shots I wanted.

But as my luck would have it, I experienced technical problems with my working lens during the actual shoot proper. This forced me to switch lens, and abruptly restricted my perspective for the shots I earlier planned. Ai ya!

Oh well… I guess that just means I have to get another try at shooting Jahziel again sometime in the future.