Common sense dictates that special effects sell movie tickets. If you look at a list of the most successful movies in the world, 18 of the 20 highest-grossing live-action films are notable for their high-quality CGI. Big, splashy effects drive people to seats, get them to buy DVDs, and frequently win critical acclaim. One recent […]
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Archivist finds a lost film from… 1980?
In the last few years, film historians and collectors have found prints of famous lost films, including the earliest surviving Hitchcock and an extra-length version of Metropolis. These early silent films almost carry an expectation that they’ll be missing or damaged in some form. You would never expect to lost a film made in, say, […]
Continue readingNational Film Registry adds new films for 2012
The National Film Registry, a subset of the Library of Congress, preserves a collection of American films deemed culturally or historically significant. Each year, the NFR adds 25 new films to their archives, ranging from major recent hits to silent shorts from the 19th century. The Library of Congress has released this year’s batch, and […]
Continue readingMeet the Poster Printer
The library has a fun new addition: meet the poster printer! This dashboard-sized behemoth prints large-form posters for presentations and events. No longer will you have to awkwardly print out paragraphs and glue to them to CVS posterboard; you can design the whole poster with software available at the New Media Center. Price varies by […]
Continue readingAU professor debuts documentary series on Showtime
Time for a little AU horn-tooting: a faculty member and frequent patron of Media Services got their television debut last night! American University professor Peter Kuznick has spent the past four years working with filmmaker Oliver Stone to write a new documentary TV series, Oliver Stone’s Untold History of the United States. The series covers […]
Continue readingHurricane update
As a result of the incoming hurricane, the library will be operating on limited hours tomorrow. Media Services will be open from 11am to 6pm.
Continue readingWe’re on Pinterest!
Media Services is now on Pinterest! We’re using Pinterest as a way to visually organize some of the popular titles in our collection. One of the most popular parts of our browseable Home Use binder is the poster section in the back, so we decided to take the next step and put them online. We […]
Continue reading2012 Sight & Sound poll: Citizen Kane toppled!
Sight & Sound, the esteemed film magazine that polls critics and other professionals every ten years about the greatest films of all time, has released the results of their 2012 survey. For the first time in 60 years, Citizen Kane is no longer the number one film on the list! Vertigo now takes the top […]
Continue readingAstrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson gets James Cameron to fix a scientific inaccuracy for the 3D version of Titanic
SlashFilm recently posted a great article about how Neil deGrasse Tyson noticed that the sky in the scene were Rose (Kate Winslet) is floating on a plank and gazing at the sky. According to Neil deGrasse Tyson, the sky is completely inaccurate for the time of night on that particular date (April 15, 1912 at […]
Continue readingEco-Comedy Video Competition winner is Alexander Lucas!!
The winner of this year’s Eco-Comedy Video Competition is Alexander Lucas with his short video Clean Coal by the Bituminous Marketing Agency.
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