TellMyStory 1.0

August 11, 2009

Our application which has been in Apple’s review pool since 27th April 2009 has been approved and is now available at App Store on 9th August 2009. At last it’s accepted and is available for everyone out there.

TellMyStory - Default imageTellMyStory is not an ordinary application. It is a serious application for sharing thoughts and images with friends on the run. This application can be used in almost all domains, e.g. this can be used by a reporter; to take snapshots of an important event, record sounds of those event or add verbal/textual comments and send the slideshow instantly to newspaper/magazine editor. This application can also be used for entertainment purposes; people can share their visits, their feelings, their emotions instantly with their friends. They can go to football match for example, capture snapshots , add crowds noise, add comments and share the football craze with their football fanatic friends…………….these are just basic examples, TellMyStory can be used in almost all aspects of daily life.

I have enjoyed a lot developing it. I have used it many times in couple of wedding functions by taking snapshots, applying Ken Burns, adding background music and by recording different sounds. I was quite successful in surprising other people with this quick compiling of real time images and playing them in a slideshow. I enjoyed it and I hope that everyone will enjoy it in their own ways. The learning curve of this application is hardly 15-30 minutes. When my 14 year brother saw this application, he was very interested, he started taking snapshots and adding music and came to me to ask only one thing which was how do I move/scale the images………..he was asking about how to apply the Ken Burns effect and I showed him the steps and there he was. He starting making shows with different effects and funny sound effects and the rest is history. Our chairperson’s daughter came up with a show which is now added as a default story in the application. This is just to inform everyone that making a story is very easy and interesting.

It took about 3 months for development, about a month for quality assurance and about 2 months for desiging in parallel. The main image also changed with the passage of developement. The one above is the released one, a couple of other Default images are:

TellMyStory - Default1 TellMyStory - Default2

The application TellMyStory can be downloaded from this link: TellMyStory.

Thank you Vahzay iPhone Team for making the dream come true. ;)


Wag the Dog….

May 28, 2009

Why does a dog wag its tail?

Because a dog is smarter than its tail.

If the tail were smarter, the tail would wag the dog.

The above part looks funny but it’s true and it is very well presented in a classic film Wag the Dog. I usually suggest this film to all my friends, but they rarely find and watch it. But today, I found the movie in youtube and therefore I am uploading all the links here ;)

more at: IMDB

more at: WikiPedia


Murder or Suicide?

May 22, 2009

Last night I received a mail form friend with this subject. I thought that it might be a riddle or some problem for which I will have to spare some time and find solution. But when I checked it, I was surprised to see the following story:

Its still a mystery whether this incident took place or not? The same thing has been filmed in a major Hollywood Movie named “MAGNOLIA“. Here is the clip from  the movie of the same scene, of course the name of the characters as well as the dates are different from the one mentioned in your attachment.

Murder or Suicide


Movies to die for in 2009 :)

March 18, 2009

2009 will be a great year, many blockbuster sequals are releasing there new parts this year. Besides these, there are many other movies which I would never want to miss. Here is the list of those upcoming films this year. If I have missed any films, please give me a comment and I will add that too in my list. This is going to be a real feastful year :) chow ;)

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans

A prequel to the successful Underworld series, targeting the flashbacks in first 2 parts. It will be an interesting movie. IMDB Wikipedia

Taken

Although, I have already seen this movie…but it is an outstanding movie and will ask those to see it atleast once if they haven’t seen it. Simply superb. IMDB Wikipedia

Friday the 13th

Friday the 13th a massacre of all those who encounter Jason Voorhees in Crystal Lake. This movie will surely be outstanding with special effects and direction. IMDB Wikipedia

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li

The previous Street Fighter presented Guile as a leading hero and M. Bison as a leading villain, but I wanted Ken & Ryu to be main leading heroes. Still not good but at-least they are going for Chun Li :) . I expect that this one will be better than the previous one. IMDB Wikipedia

Watchmen

This is got to be outstanding from the directors of 300. Though I never knew about Watchmen but still they seem interesting. IMDB Wikipedia

Knowing

Nicholas Cage’s last film Bangkok dangerous was not able to impress me a lot but I have lot of expectations from this film. The plot seems good and I think visual effects will take this movie up in the listings. IMDB Wikipedia

Monsters Vs Aliens

An animated movie for this year. It looks good and interesting. Will surely get it as soon as it comes in market. IMDB Wikipedia

Fast & Furious

Tokyo Drift did not seem to be part of the sequel but this seems to be. I hope it has lots of cars and it’s going be fun. IMDB Wikipedia

Dragonball Evolution

I still don’t know what is the concept behind Dragon balls but I expect this Stephen Chow’s movie to be rocking like Kungfu Hustle. IMDB Wikipedia

State of Play

Russel Crowe take on Ben Affleck in an upcoming thriller. This is gonna be a classic. IMDB Wikipedia

Fighting

Terrance Howard gets a guy for underworld street fighting. This is going to be one of good movies. IMDB Wikipedia

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Hugh Jackman is back and after the three part series of X-Men, it is good to go back in time to see how Wolverine became Wolverine :D . This is going to be the best X-Men episodes, in my view………there is Gambit(my favorite X-men character) and many others. Simple outstanding plot and a must see film. IMDB Wikipedia

Star Trek

I used to see Star Trek: The Old Generation series and I really loved Mr. Spock. The new generation lost my interest by losing Mr. Spock……..but here we go; in this movie we have Mr. Spock played by Sylar of HEROES……….simply superb. He is an ideal for this role because of his image he has made in small screens. This is going to be an outstanding movie. IMDB Wikipedia

Angels & Demons

A very similar named movie as Monsters Vs Aliens, but behold this is not an animated movie. It is a sequal of DaVinci Code. Tom Hanks is called back for yet another mystery which was planned decades before we existed. This is gonna be a great thriller based on a novel Illuminati. IMDB Wikipedia

Terminator Salvation

John Connor has grown up and this time he is portrayed by Christain Bale. This part will mostly deal with the consequences he will face after the Judgement day when Sky net was taken over by machines in Terminator: Rise of the machines. Lets see what’s new, but still I will miss Arnold a lot for this part; he should have given a guest appearance at least. IMDB Wikipedia

Up

This year Pixar is going UP :D . This animated film is looking good, I hope it is as entertaining as Wall-E and Cars and many other Pixars’ films. IMDB Wikipedia

The Taking of Pehlam 123

John Travolta is back in a thriller with Denzel Washington. I believe there is not gonna be easy negotiations between John & Denzel.  IMDB Wikipedia

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

My list is incomplete without Trasformers’ sequel where Decepticons are coming back strongly to take on Autobots. Surely this is going to be an awesome movie. IMDB Wikipedia

Till now the above list is of all movies which are expected to release till the end of June 2009……..The remaining list will be updated sooon ;)


Slumdog Millionaire

February 20, 2009

I got a chance to watch this movie last weekend…………………and I would say that it has portrayed our sub continent in a very original way. I said sub continent because, India and Pakistan are very much alike in majority of the things. I am not going to compare Pakistan and India over here. This post is for Slumdog Millionaire,  which has bagged awards at BAFTA and GRAMMYS and has been nominated for 10 Oscars Acadamy Awards categories. I think it might perform a clean sweep…….but I still haven’t seen other movies nomainated with SM in all categories; so I can’t say that I believe it will perform a clean sweep :D

The storyline is impressive, direction is good and I liked the dialogues too. A boy answers all 15 questions at a famous show “Who wants to be a Millionaire?” and gets the big money. Hmmmmmmmm, movie about answering 15 questions and winning a quiz show………how can they make a movie like this :) But there have been many movies related to quiz shows, which take us into the lives of people involved in that show……….and that’s the same thing in this movie. The participant Jamal who has lived majority of his life in slum, gets a decent job at Call Center and then comes to the show to win big money. But the main concept of movie was how did he know all the answers? and there we have whole movie in flashbacks. All in all a good movie, worth watching with family.


‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’ tops the nominations of Oscars 81st Annual Academy Awards

February 10, 2009

81st Annual Academy Awards are scheduled for 22nd February 2009 and it’s nominations are lead by The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Following is a rough list of films which have been nominated in more than one categories.


The Stories behind Hollywood Studio logos

December 6, 2008

I came across a post with similar name and could not resist to read the stories behind couple of Hollywood Studios. It’s good to know how some inspiring minds work. :)

Following are some Hollywood Studios, which have their logos background stories disclosed.

DreamWorks SKG: Boy on the Moon

In 1994, director Steven Spielberg, Disney studio chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg, and record producer David Geffen (yes, they make the initial SKG on the bottom of the logo) got together to found a new studio called DreamWorks.

Spielberg wanted the logo for DreamWorks to be reminiscent of Hollywood’s golden age. The logo was to be a computer generated image of a man on the moon, fishing, but Visual Effects Supervisor Dennis Muren of Industrial Light and Magic, who has worked on many of Spielberg’s films, suggested that a hand-painted logo might look better. Muren asked his friend, artist Robert Hunt to paint it.

Hunt also sent along an alternative version of the logo, which included a young boy on a crescent moon, fishing. Spielberg liked this version better, and the rest is history. Oh, and that boy? It was Hunt’s son, William.

The DreamWorks logo that you see in the movies was made at ILM from paintings by Robert Hunt, in collaboration with Kaleidoscope Films (designers of the original storyboards), Dave Carson (director), and Clint Goldman (producer) at ILM.

dreamworks-logo

Warner Bros.: The WB Sheild

Warner Bros. (yes, that’s legally “Bros.” not “Brothers”) was founded by four Jewish brothers who emigrated from Poland: Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack Warner. Actually, those aren’t the names that they were born with. Harry was born “Hirsz,” Albert was “Aaron,” Sam was “Szmul,” and Jack was “Itzhak.” Their original surname is also unknown – some people said that it is “Wonsal,” “Wonskolaser” or even Eichelbaum, before it was changed to “Warner.”

wb-logo-history

Paramount: The Majestic Mountain

Paramount Pictures Corporation was founded in 1912 as Famous Players Film Company by Adolph Zukor, and the theater moguls the Frohman brothers, Daniel and Charles.

The Paramount “Majestic Mountain” logo was first drawn as a doodle by W.W. Hodkinson during a meeting with Zukor, based on the Ben Lomond Mountain from his childhood in Utah (the live action logo made later is probably Peru’s Artesonraju). It is the oldest surviving Hollywood film logo.

The original logo has 24 stars, which symbolized Paramount’s then 24 contracted movie stars (it’s now 22 stars, though no one could tell me why they reduced the number of stars). The original matte painting has also been replaced with a computer generated mountain and stars.

paramount-majestic-mountain-logo

20th Century Fox: The Searchlight Logo

In 1935, Twentieth Century Pictures and Fox Film Company (back then mainly a theater-chain company) merged to create Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation (they later dropped the hyphen).

The original Twentieth Century Pictures logo was created in 1933 by famed landscape artist Emil Kosa, Jr. After the merger, Kosa simply replaced “Pictures, Inc.” with “Fox” to make the current logo.

twentieth-century-fox-logo

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM): Leo The Lion

In 1924, studio publicist Howard Dietz designed the “Leo The Lion” logo for Samuel Goldwyn’s Goldwyn Picture Corporation. He based it on the athletic team of his alma mater Columbia University, the Lions. When Goldwyn Pictures merged with Metro Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer Pictures, the newly formed MGM retained the logo.

Since then, there have been five lions playing the role of “Leo The Lion”. The first was Slats, who graced the openings of MGM’s silent films from 1924 to 1928. The next lion, Jackie, was the first MGM lion whose roar was heard by the audience. Though the movies were silent, Jackie’s famous growl-roar-growl sequence was played over the phonograph as the logo appeared on screen. He was also the first lion to appear in Technicolor in 1932.

The third lion and probably most famous was Tanner (though at the time Jackie was still used concurrently for MGM’s black and white films). After a brief use of an unnamed (and very mane-y) fourth lion, MGM settled on Leo, which the studio has used since 1957.

mgm-leo-lion-logo-history

Columbia Pictures: The Torch Lady

Columbia Pictures was founded in 1919 by the brothers Harry and Jack Cohn, and Joe Brandt as Cohn-Brandt-Cohn Film Sales. Many of the studio’s early productions were low-budget affairs, so it got nicknamed “Corned Beef and Cabbage.” In 1924, the brothers Cohn bought out Brandt and renamed their studio Columbia Pictures Corporation in effort to improve its image.

The studio’s logo is Columbia, the female personification of America. It was designed in 1924 and the identity of the “Torch Lady” model was never conclusively determined (though more than a dozen women had claimed to be “it.”)

jenny-joseph-columbia-torch-lady In her 1962 autobiography, Bette Davis claimed that Claudia Dell was the model, whereas in 1987 People Magazine named model and Columbia bit-actress Amelia Batchler as the girl. In 2001, the Chicago Sun-Times named a local woman who worked as an extra at Columbia named Jane Bartholomew as the model. Given how the logo has changed over the years, it may just be that all three were right!

The current Torch Lady logo was designed in 1993 by Michael J. Deas, who was commissioned by Sony Pictures Entertainment to return the lady to her “classic” look.

Though people thought that actress Annette Bening was the model, it was actually a Louisiana homemaker and muralist named Jenny Joseph that modeled the Torch Lady for Deas. Rather than use her face, however, Deas drew a composite face made from several computer-generated features.

columbia-pictures-logo


The Dark Knight………..Why so serious?

November 18, 2008

Why so serious? Let’s put a smile on that face! :D

Definitely the best line of dialog of this year. Heath Ledger played a brilliant and artistic role of The Joker. Christain Bale’s performance as Batman is also good. The Dark Knight is a non-stop action film. The story line is nice. No doubt this film has attracted a lot of audience. The Dark Knight released in July 2008 and started breaking a lot of Box Office Records. Currently, it is just behind Titanic as the most grossing film of US.

I have seen this movie couple of times, and I get impressed by The Joker every time. This is a must watch film.


Desperado – Antonio Banderas playing guitar

November 17, 2008

A very nice musical video portion from Desperado…

Soy un hombre muy honrado,
Que me gusta lo mejor
Las mujeres no me faltan,
Ni el dinero, ni el amor

Jineteando en mi caballo
Por la sierra yo me voy
Las estrellas y la luna
Ellas me dicen donde voy

Ay, ay, ay, ay,
Ay, ay mi amor
Ay, mi morena,
De mi corazon

Me gusta tocar guitarra
Me gusta cantar el sol
Un mariachi me acompana
Cuando canto mi canción

Me gusta tomar mis copas
Aguardiente es lo mejor
Tambien el tequila blanco
Con su sal le da sabor

Ay, ay, ay, ay
Ay, ay mi amor
Ay mi morena,
De mi corazon

Me gusta tocar guitarra
Me gusta cantar el sol
Mariachi me acompaña
Cuando canto mi canción

Me gusta tomar mis copas
Aguardiente es lo mejor
Tambien el tequila blanco
Con su sal le da sabor

Ay, ay, ay , ay
Ay, ay mi amor
Ay, mi morena
De mi corazon

Ay, ay, ay, ay
Ay, ay mi amor
Ay mi morena,
De mi corazon

;)


I love the whole world…

October 6, 2008

Discovery: “I love the whole world”

(Dialogue)
Astronaut 1: It never gets old, huh?
Astronaut 2: Nope.
Astronaut 1: It kinda makes you want to…
Astronaut 2: Break into song?
Astronaut 1: Yep.

I love the mountains,
I love the clear blue skies
I love big bridges
I love when great whites fly
I love the whole world
And all its sights and sounds

Boom-de-yadda, boom-de-yadda
Boom-de-yadda, boom-de-yadda

I love the oceans
I love real dirty things
I love to go fast
I love Egyptian kings
I love the whole world
And all its craziness

Boom-de-yadda, boom-de-yadda
Boom-de-yadda, boom-de-yadda

I love tornadoes
I love arachnids
I love hot magma
I love the giant squids
I love the whole world
It’s such a brilliant place

Boom-de-yadda, boom-de-yadda
Boom-de-yadda, boom-de-yadda