Posts Tagged ‘Script’

In case you’ve not already heard The King’s Speech is a costume drama based on real life events around the end of the reign of King George V, King Edward VIII time on the throne and George VI reign up to the outbreak of World War II.  It’s focus is not the abdication, death or build up to war – the main focus is on Bertie (the Duke of York later King George VI) and his battle with a debilitating stammer that affects his public and private life.

The top class cast give excellent performances.  Colin Firth as Bertie is excellent throughout and deserves awards.  The stutter alone should be award-winning; it’s not a comedy stutter but a thoroughly believable affliction with variation and nuance.  Geoffrey Rush creates a radical specialist in speech impediments who would rather succeed in treating his patients than in business.  A man who has little time for pomposity or position and so manages to become Bertie’s friend.  Helena Bonham Carter’s Dutchess of York/Queen Elizabeth works because she doesn’t try to play the part as likable but as a snob who is quietly driven to cure her husband.

Michael Gambon has only a couple of scenes but manages to convey the weight of George V sitting on Bertie’s shoulders.   Guy Pearce’s smooth bullying Edward VIII is a similarly strong performance.  The supporting cast includes Derek Jacobi’s Archbishop Cosmo Lang, Timothy Spall’s slightly odd Winston Churchill, Jennifer Ehle’s Myrtle Logue and many others turn in excellent performance in supporting roles.

The costumes, sets, locations and other technical work is outstanding.  The inspired use of bad weather allows external scenes without the modern London sky line encroaching – thick fog in the street when the Duchess of York first visits Lionel.  Fog again when the Duke and Lionel go to the park and rain on the way to the palace.  Despite large sections being set in London its refreshing that the capital’s landmarks aren’t splattered all over the film as cheap window dressing.

Some people may not like the way aspects of history of the 1930s time such as appeasement, the abdication and the great depression are brushed over.  The film isn’t about those aspects, it’s about a man overcoming a stammer and a situation he can’t simply walk away from.

The King’s Speech is at times dramatic, poignant, funny and human.  It reminded me in places of the West Wing’s relationship between President Bartlett and Dr. Stanley Keyworth that began in episode Night Five.  The central relationship between the miserable King George VI and the theatrical Lionel is entirely believable.  The use of a training montage amused me as we see some of the techniques Lionel uses.  The film’s most astonishing moment has to be pulling off the reading of a long minute speech as a climax with.  All Firth’s hard work in creating the stammer through the film allows tension to be maintained throughout what is basically one person reading  a speech written by someone else from a script.

If The King’s Speech had been released here a few weeks ago it would have topped my Top Films of 2010 list.

Last week I posted a Rotating Star Field. I’ve enhanced the script that builds the Vue scene from the star data to approximate the colour of the stars from their spectra and to size them relative to each other too. Unfortunately the high quality, uncompressed render comes in at about 1.2GB and I’ve yet to manage to upload it onto YouTube without some loss of quality. The version embedded above looks pretty good full screen but the colours have unfortunately been lost somewhere in the compression and transmission of the video.

Another script gets its own page: Equal Scale Replicate.

So glad I switched this site to WordPress – adding new pages is so much easier.

Tonight I’ve added a new page for the simple Vue Stereo Image Camera Creation Script I wrote back in 2007.

Keeping up the momentum from yesterday I’ve added a new page for my EcoRotate python script for Vue.

I’m slowly working through old blog posts creating pages for scripts and other bits and stuff that deserve to have more permanant pages so that they can easily be found. Tonight I’ve added one for the EcoSystem Vertical Scatter Script I wrote a couple of years ago.

Here is a little python script for Vue Infinite and xStream to switch the mapping of all the images used in the selected objects materials to bicubic mapping. I’ve tested it using Vue 7 Infinite. The script is more of an experiment towards a bigger script to work with the images in Vue materials to check out how to find and then fiddle with the nodes that make up a material in Vue.

Switch Image Mapping (2k Zip Archive Released)

• RT @wordpress: WordPress 2.8.2: http://bit.ly/12nm2b #
• Just added myself to the http://wefollow.com twitter directory under: #writer #vue #rpg #
• @SJGames Superfluous O! http://bit.ly/pEDf just after I read the Two Ronnies missing hose http://bit.ly/1p9Wp4 Conspiracy or coincidence lol #
• @DanDiplo lol and incomplete XSLT parsers used to make them very (how can I put it politely) interesting. And variables that don't vary… in reply to DanDiplo #
• A new John Lewis stock pot of slow cooked spicy black-eye beans ment dinner plans were easy http://bit.ly/XpcCS #recipe #food #
• 2 Sites updated without a hitch RT @wordpress WordPress 2.8.2: http://bit.ly/12nm2b #
• @KimKnox They're working hard analysing this to death. A fashion expert focuses on the boots not being done up right has too much spare time in reply to KimKnox #
• @KimKnox Better Paul than Joe who gave me a harsh stare at the deli shelf in M&S on two Sats. I've better things to do than stalk him. in reply to KimKnox #
• @KimKnox lol He was disguised by a forest of facial hair. I guess for a role: would have been a fire hazard on masterchef in reply to KimKnox #
• And Serif Software call me again. At least this time they handled my lack of interest and my not playing along with their script OK. #
• @AlphaComplex Enjoyed the posts but Posting way too often = No follow No more #
• Anyone know if there's a thesaurus of hashtags that are in use? #
• Posted a bit from an old, funny Valkyrie article on how #rpg characters go through doors http://bit.ly/9mmUs #
• @very_true_thing You're right – a few of those games are post Valkyrie I just keep adding to it if I think of a good new one #
• RT @severdia: #joomla 1.5.13 released – upgrade immediately http://bit.ly/25blLU #
• RT @MonteJCook Here's another game site that I enjoy: http://www.gnomestew.com/ #
• @jearle it may be arbitrary but if it make you happy who am I to knock it lol. Congratulations on 1000 followers in reply to jearle #
• @jearle I miss Valkyrie, with all its odd little production difficulties, sometimes. Always sad I never got to do a SLA Industries piece. in reply to jearle #
• @jearle Not really a surprise. It wasn't just Nightfall: Jay told me the slush pile of SLA fan articles could have filled its own mag in reply to jearle #
• @jearle Your stuff every time – helped yours were lots better lol. in reply to jearle #
• @jearle Jay used to worry about being seen as the official SLA rag with an article an issue. He'd email me for funny, grit free articles. in reply to jearle #
• @KimKnox Gratz. 9/10 for cover cheese picture although at least its not Casu Marzu in reply to KimKnox #
• @alyankovic Polka Your Eyes Out but a medley could be even better… #
• Yeh. Vue 8 Announced. Well it will be soon. #

Short and sweet tonight: I’ve added a page to the Vue section of impworks for the Vue Preview Colour Change Script.  Need to work on my snappy title writing skills.

Back in August 2007 I posted a set of Miniature Victorian and Edwardian Posters which at the time didn’t really seem to get a lot of downloads or get any feedback. When I rebuilt the impworks website I almost left them out and the file got moved round late compared to some of the python scripts and what I thought were more popular pages.

A few days later I got a very nice, polite e-mail from a gentleman in Germany asking where the posters were because users on his gaming forums were asking for them. He also asked if I had anymore similar sets. I fixed the problem and I’m pleasantly surprised at the level of downloads the posters have been getting. So by way of a thank you for bringing the problem to my attention I’ve posted two more sets that I’d found the pictures for but never created the PDFs for.

This time there are a total of 130 different advertising posters from the pulp era covering dates from the 1920s and 1930s. A few may be from as late as the 1950s but I can’t be sure. I’ve split them roughly into US destinations and the rest of the world because there were roughly 60ish in each category and a sheet of Avery labels has space for 65. Hopefully they’ll be of some use to someone. You can download them, or download the original Victorian set, from my new Miniature Posters page.