10.31.14 |
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I thought I’d move past linking to more Gone Girl articles, but here we are; it’s that strong of a film. DP Jeff Cronenweth talks about Fincher’s preferred visual style:
I think that, for the most part, the camera is never in a position that would be a typical shot. There are no shots that are ever taken for granted. There’s a purpose behind everything — without getting crazy; obviously certain situations allow you a lot more freedom than other situations, but it always intrigues me that it’s slightly not normal, or not traditional, rather. The camera tends to stay lower; we’re always looking at people in an observational way that allows you, really, to study them and give them an opportunity to express whatever turmoil’s going on in their heads that then reflects in their performances. The camera has movement but nothing is ever moving for the sake of movement, you know? There’s purpose for everything, as opposed to filling in a void in content or our energy by deciding to make some interesting camera moves. The camera moves have a reason.
10.30.14 |
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HTML email has always been a major annoyance to code for given the wide range of CSS and support various email clients provide. So admittedly when I see a post boast about “responsive” HTML email, I usually chuckle and move on. Not so with web designer Benjy Stanton. I like how Benjy moves through his whole process from sketching a design to a starting point code framework (he digs Ink, a Foundation setup that I’ve used and liked in the past) to common debugging issues.
10.28.14 |
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I was worried when I saw the feature title; was The Dissolve stooping to cheap listicle work for page hits? Turned out to be a false alarm – the entire Dissolve staff trades off for analysis of how each music snippet works so well within a film’s context. There’s almost always a Youtube clip to accompany each selection as well.
Only disappointment: The Big Lebowski’s “Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In” should have ranked higher.
10.27.14 |
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I enjoyed reading this A List Apart post from Susan Roberton. Unlike a lot other CSS optimization articles, there’s a formalization to Susan’s breakdown of an “audit” that I appreciate. An audit isn’t about making direct code changes, it’s working through the entire CSS base and delivering an document that summarizes changes to make. I find most teams skip even informal auditing, instead preferring to just hack away on a CSS snippet they don’t like. In the process they miss larger, more important architectural changes.
10.23.14 |
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Words to consider by Giant Bomb’s Patrick Klepek, especially in light of the very splashy Destiny release:
Now, we may be seeing the rise of games that ditch single player entirely. It’s not a great PR message. Many are going to be reluctant to actually pull the trigger. But that may be a disservice to everyone involved. Players go into the game thinking they can get something they can’t, and developers are forced to compromise a gameplay experience, knowing it’s not what they’re truly building. That’s a lose-lose.
10.22.14 |
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I’ve been a firm believer in the Filament Group’s picturefill for months as the premier way add responsive imagery to any modern browser. It’s not just a tool for side projects either; I’ve implemented the latest 2.1 release on several of our externally facing corporate web pages at Pocket.
But that might be changing soon. For the last week I’ve been researching respimage, a new performance enhanced variant of picturefill that is just as easy to implement but performs, from my informal tests, noticeably faster than the original. As Scott Jehl, one of the contributors to respimage argues, respimage is “simply a picturefill on steroids”. I’ve already switched this site to respimage, and if the setup remains stable I’ll likely do the same over at Pocket.
10.21.14 |
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The Dissolve’s Matt Singer writes a David Fincher essay that’s thankfully not another think piece on misogyny within Gone Girl (there been many excellent pieces, but it feels done to death at this point.) Instead Matt takes a broader look at the director’s entire career:
Perhaps the most compelling rebuke to the idea that Gone Girl isn’t worthy of Fincher, or that he has no authorial stake in the material, is the fact that Flynn’s story—about the exceedingly nasty fallout of an unhappy marriage—lets Fincher finally foreground one of the most persistent background themes in all his work: the inherent incompatibility of men and women, and the inevitability of an unhappy ending in almost every relationship.
Lots of smart examples and analysis throughout.
10.20.14 |
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Another OS release, another great review by John Siracusa. Some might find John’s depth maddening (the review’s word count is probably larger than most other OS reviews online combined), but I think that’s exactly why it’s so essential. Treat it like a small novella: have a drink, sit on the couch and parse through the whole thing for a few hours on a low key night. If you love tech, it’s great entertainment.
10.17.14 |
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Ars Technica’s Kyle Orland writes on the state of the PS4, Xbox One and Wii U now that we’ve seen some system updates, lots of game releases and had some long term impressions. As he concludes:
The choice between the Xbox One and PS4 remains an especially tough one. Microsoft has the edge in big-name exclusives, and it no longer costs 25 percent more than the competition. Sony has enough interesting indie titles to stand out itself, and its console boasts the best technical performance on a number of cross-platform games. You can make a good case for either system over the other on those differences. But if you’re going to choose, all we can really recommend is that you take a look at which of those exclusive games, including those coming in the future, best appeals to your tastes.
I’ll likely touch on this subject as part of my retrospective of owning the PS4 in an upcoming post.
10.16.14 |
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Gaming writer and Gamasutra editor Leigh Alexander covers a wide range of concerns we should have about the gaming industry: abhorrent labor policies, questionable review practices and much more. I won’t spoil the conclusion, but it’s wonderful.