Posts by Simon Bennett
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We used the old K-Rd over bridge as a key location in Sione's 2. I loved it's dinginess, and those motley colored tiles. Felt like an integral part of K-Road and Old Auckland. The replacement is just so bland and soulless. Sad.
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Hard News: Steve, 1999, in reply to andin,
I'm using an Apple TV synced with my laptop to play music through the stereo via RCA leads. Therein probably lies part of the problem - the DAC in the Apple TV is probably pretty rudimentary.
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My bugbear with iTMS is that music can only be purchased at 256kbps. Not good enough for serious listening IMHO.
I'll download an album as an audition, and if I really like it, I'll still buy the CD for the richer sound. But I'm a dinosaur.
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I've never had any direct professional dealings with Apple, but Apple products have been my main work tools for the last 20 years.
I've worked in theatre, television and film and had hobbyist passions for photography, gaming, and music. So I'm probably the perfect target market for Apple, and it'd be fair to say the equipment and software have contributed a lot to my enjoyment of life and work.
Just as some people measure out their life in the cars they've owned and driven, so the various phases of my life have a particular computer attached. From the elderly second-hand Mac Plus acquired in 1990 and used for word-processing, budgeting and funding applications, to the LC3 which made poster design a possibility, to the LC575 with its CD-ROM drive (Myst opened up a whole world of gaming), to the LC5500 (which with its painfully slow dialup modem opened my eyes to the world of the net and 12 hour downloads of game demos), to the lovely blue translucent iMac (the last desktop I owned), to a series of laptops: a black G3 Powerbook (great for Unreal Tournament), a titanium G4 Powerbook, an aluminum G4 powerbook, and finally my current 17" Macbook Pro - each device carries memories of home, office, children and projects across the decades.
Add to this 4 iterations of iPods, two generations of iPhones, and an iPad 2 - and I'd have to admit to slight fanboy tendencies.
Today I use my Mac for viewing Quicktimes of work in progress, auditioning music for film/TV projects, editing photos, participating in forums, web-browsing, downloading podcasts, staying in contact with family, friends and colleagues, helping my daughter with homework and projects, buying and discovering new music, reading the news and very occasionally playing games.
Two mac-related stories: When I became producer of Shortland Street, I introduced Mac computers to all the sets. This was in 1997 when Apple was at a very low ebb. I did it because I wanted to give the underdog some exposure, and because the colourful Apple computers looked cool. I know that medical facilities are unlikely to run Apple gear in the real world, but this was my little evangelical opportunity. Nowadays of course Apple gear is ubiquitous in the media and it may be time to withdraw Macs from Shortland Street in favor of generic boxes.
The second story: When I started working in SPP Head Office 2003, all the IT was Windows-based. I wasn't allowed to introduce by own Powerbook to the system for fear it might corrupt the network with viruses or somesuch. For the first and only time in my life had to struggle with an ancient Windows machine. The horror! The ugly interface, the crashes, the confusing directory system, the sheer drudge of having to work on such a soulless system. Now, things are different. Many people in the company are working on Macs.
Both these stories demonstrate in a small way the extraordinary change of fortune that Apple has engineered since Steve Jobs returned from the wilderness. Although I don't know the man, I used to watch podcasts of his 'One more thing…' addresses with admiration and anticipation. I hope he finds rest and recuperation in his new role. I imagine that the indelible stamp his leadership made on the culture of Apple will remain long after his departure.
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Good sound and pictures coming from the BBC website:
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Happy to help. Would contribute annually if you wanted to launch a subscription scheme.
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I always enjoy your writing, Fiona, wherever it resides.
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I don't think John Key was composited onto that background. I think the picture looked un-natural because of fading daylight and the need to artificially light the foreground subject (Key). This meant there were two different colour temperatures at play and the picture looked artificial.
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Muse: TV Review: Good Gods Almighty!, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
Many years in the drama industry has taught me how to identify and dissect subtext.