#with big bro space core danny

[wazafam]

  Zack Snyder's Justice League is finally streaming on HBO Max and other platforms around the world, so now that it's out we can finally see just how different it is from the 2017 cut by Joss Whedon. The Snyder Cut represents Zack Snyder's pure original vision for Justice League before he left teh project and Warner Bros. and Joss Whedon rewrote and reshot it to drastically alter the story and tone, and it's far more than just a color change and some deleted scenes, but almost a totally different movie outside of the basic plot skeleton (although that has some changes, too).

Thanks to non-stop demand for his version of the movie, HBO Max saw an opportunity and gave Snyder $70 million to finish his cut according to his original vision, and so far it's seen strong audience and critical reactions, with many viewers expressing shock at how different the Snyder Cut truly is.

Related: Justice League's Anti-Life Explained: Why Earth Matters

Due to the massive difference and 4-hour runtime, it's not practical to list every minor tweak or scene addition, so this piece will cover the major differences from color and music and aspect ratio to restored characters and altered plotlines.

One of the Snyder Cut's most immediately apparent changes is the restoration of Snyder's original aspect ratio of 1.33:1. During principal photography, Snyder wanted to use the typical IMAX ratio for the whole film, unlike Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, where it was only used in a few scenes. The additional vertical space allows Snyder and cinematographer Fabian Wagner to frame shots in such a way that the same imagery can't be captured fully in widescreen, which is why many of the Whedon reshoots felt poorly framed and too tight. Snyder's aesthetic loves the human figure and statuesque poses, and the change from a wide screen to a square screen allows a single figure to dominate the majority of a shot without being too tightly cropped.

Zack Snyder has been well known for his visual aesthetic ever since the release of 300. His aesthetic choices are one of the more polarizing aspects of his filmmaking approach, and the darker, more natural, and high contrast looks of Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice were a subject of controversy for some, so that was one of the biggest changes in the Joss Whedon version of the film.

The theatrical cut didn't merely lighten every shot, but also increased the saturation in a color grade that added an almost salmon-colored hue to the whole movie. Everything was more orange and pink, especially skin tones, and the entire third act was bathed in a red-orange light that ultimately also washed out much of the contrast, making the visuals pop far less.

Snyder, of course, returned to his preferred palate in the Snyder Cut, although it should be noted that due to the characters and story being told, there's a lot of visual variety, making it far brighter and more colorful than Batman v Superman, and possibly even more than Man of Steel. Of course, the third act is also returned to its dark, high contrast look, and is one of the most praised aspects of the film.

Tom Holkenborg (Junkie XL) worked with Hans Zimmer on Man of Steel and graduated to splitting credit with him on Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and was set to be the sole credited composer on Justice League before Snyder stepped down and Danny Elfman was hired to replace Holkenborg.

Related: Justice League Snyder Cut Reverses BvS' Martha Moment (To Prove The Point)

While much of his score was already completed, Holkenborg spent 8 months in quarantine in 2020 to compose an entirely new score, which he calls his "Mount Everest" as it's the longest score ever released. While Elfman's more whimsical style and iconic Batman '89 score is iconic, it didn't fit at all with the original tone of the movie. Junkie XL's 4-hour score, however, brings all the bass drums and bombast expected from a massive Snyder project but also embraces the iconic Hans Zimmer Superman theme from Man of Steel.

While the theatrical Justice League was just two hours long, Zack Snyder's Justice League comes in at a full 4 hours. Snyder was subjected to a 2-hour mandate by Warner Bros., which was part of the major struggle with his edits of the film prior to his departure. Presumably, Whedon was subject to the same requirement as his cut is exactly two hours long.

If Snyder's movie had been released in theaters in 2017, there's almost no chance it would have been four hours. It's hard to see the studio agreeing to more than 3 hours, and even that would have been a struggle, but due to the nature of the campaign to "Release the Snyder Cut" and the HBO Max streaming release, Snyder has far more leeway this time around, bringing an even purer "Snyder experience" to the final product. Since only about half of Whedon's version used Snyder footage (albeit cropped and recolored), Zack Snyder's Justice League has roughly 3 hours of footage that was excluded in 2017.

Zack Snyder's Justice League divides its 4-hour runtime into 6 different chapters and an epilogue, all marked by a fade to a black screen and title card before moving to the next chapter. Each chapter has a clear theme and arc in the movie, and the chapter cards do a great job of splitting up the 4-hour runtime into something far more consumable than many would expect. Since the 2017 Justice League was only 2 hours and lacked many of the subplots referenced in the chapter title cards, they were excluded from that version.

Zack Snyder has a reputation for R-rated violence in most of his movies, and that's on full display in Zack Snyder's Justice League. While Man of Steel was PG-13, Snyder's director's cut of Batman v Superman (the "Ultimate Edition"), is widely regarded as the better cut and also contains an R-rating. The movie includes lots of 300 style action, complete with CGI blood spurts, and 3 different f-bombs can be heard throughout.

One of the biggest criticisms of Justice League 2017 was Steppenwolf. Not only was his backstory and motivation slashed down in the final edit, but his voice was also fairly non-threatening, but the big criticism was his design and VFX. Steppenwolf was originally revealed at the end of Batman v Superman (only in Zack Snyder's director's cut), but they changed his design to be more human-like for Justice League, and it just didn't work. Part of the issue was the lack of polish to the character made him feel fake, but his design also just wasn't inherently very scary.

Related: Justice League's Complete Darkseid Timeline Explained

Zack Snyder's Justice League certainly changes that in one of the most substantially praised differences, which is the return to the scary, alien-looking Steppenwolf with his spiky armor. The armor is almost a character unto itself, constantly shifting and becoming more or less spikey, adding variable intensity to Steppenwolf moments. His voice is also more modulated, making him much more fierce, giving the Justice League a truly threatening foe.

Since Snyder's original movie was so drastically rewritten and reshot by Joss Whedon, a number of characters didn't make it into the final cut of the movie, and many of them are characters from DC comics who played a significant role when they were restored to Zack Snyder's Justice League, in addition to a few characters who were added after the fact in 2020. The characters include:

Darkseid

DeSaad

Granny Goodness

Ryan Choi

Iris West

Vulko

Martian Manhunter (and Harry Lennix)

Joker

Killowag

Doomsday (Flashback)

Since the Snyder Cut is 4 hours long, there's a lot more room for character development, and that's one of the movie's biggest improvements. Flash's introduction scene with Iris West is a great entry point into his character, Aquaman's trip to the Atlantean outpost establishes more of his backstory and motivation, Wonder Woman's connection to (and separation from) the Amazons becomes a major focus of her arc, and Batman trying to atone for his guilt after the death of Superman in Batman v Superman becomes a central focus for his character.

The biggest beneficiary of the expanded arcs is Cyborg, and by association, Silas Stone. Cyborg was heralded as the heart of the movie since even before the 2017 Justice League release. Every single Cyborg scene except for the GCPD rooftop scene was reshot by Whedon, so Cyborg saw a drastically altered story, making him the emotional core of the movie. Silas Stone's sacrificial end and ending monologue add a lot to both Cyborg and the rest of the characters, making his restored role integral to Zack Snyder's Justice League.

In order to complete a few elements Snyder didn't shoot in principal photography, he brought some of the cast back for brief reshoots in October 2020. The additional photography accounts for 4-5 minutes of footage and includes a Knightmare scene in the epilogue with Batman, Cyborg, Flash, Mera, Deathstroke, and Joker where they face a cliffhanger ending featuring evil Superman.

Snyder also shot a brief moment of Harry Lennix to show his transformation into Martian Manhunter, and also added him to a brief exchange with Bruce Wayne after he jolts awake following the Knightmare scene. Both Affleck and Lennix's part in this exchange are from 2020 reshoots, although a similar version of Affleck's part was shot during principal photography when the intention was to introduce a Green Lantern instead of Martian Manhunter.

The Snyder Cut has a couple added Superman moments that reuse Superman footage from Man of Steel and Batman  v Superman. They're only small moments and most viewers likely won't notice, but during Cyborg's Knightmare when Superman is seen kneeling and holding Lois Lane's dead body, Darkseid puts his hand on Superman's shoulder in a shot from after Superman kills Zod in Man of Steel, only the shot is reversed.

Related: How Zack Snyder's Justice League Set Up A Sequel

The second shot is at the end of the Knightmare, and it's repurposed from Batman v Superman when Superman drops down into the house in Nairomi where he rescues Lois Lane from the warlord. Both shots only stand out to anyone familiar enough with the original footage to recognize it, but due to pandemic restrictions in 2020 and Henry Cavill's busy schedule shooting The Witcher, he wasn't able to join for Snyder's reshoots.

Speaking of Henry Cavill and reshoot scheduling issues, when Joss Whedon originally did reshoots in 2017, Henry Cavill was shooting Mission: Impossible - Fallout and couldn't shave the mustache he grew to play August Walker. As a result, they had to digitally remove Henry Cavill's mustache for Justice League and the results were less than stellar, leading to years of internet memes of Henry Cavill's uncanny valley face.

Cavill didn't have the mustache during Snyder's principal photography, so the problem is entirely a product of Whedon's reshoots and therefore Henry Cavill's clean-shaven face is present for all his scenes in Zack Snyder's Justice League.

In a presumed attempt to add more personal stakes to the movie instead of focusing solely on the heroes, Joss Whedon added additional scenes featuring a Russian family in their home near the nuclear reactor Steppenwolf takes over in Pozharnov. The family never fully fit and felt cheap and distracting in Whedon's version, and it's entirely absent in the Snyder Cut.

Justice League 2017 cut most of the backstory and setup for the new characters, and one of the victims was Flash's introductory scene, where he's applying for a job as a dog walker when he saves Iris West from a car accident, which does a lot of work in establishing his character, personality, and skill set. It's also one of the more touching and humorous moments of the movie, so it's odd Whedon removed it, since it's exactly the kind of thing he was asked to add by Warner Bros.

Aquaman goes to the Atlantean outpost in Justice League 2017, but the Snyder Cut features even more interaction, including scenes with Vulko establishing Aquaman's backstory and motivations. This scene also explains where Aquaman's armor and trident came from, since they just appear in Justice League 2017 with no explanation. There's also a scene of Steppenwolf pulling Atlantean soldiers out onto land to interrogate them about the location of the Mother Box.

The History Lesson flashback scene follows the same general plot as in Justice League 2017, but the major difference is it features Darkseid instead of Steppenwolf. On top of that, it's a bit longer and better edited, has a little more Green Lantern in it, and has a much more epic fight (albeit a short one) between Darkseid and Ares, the God of War. Also, in this version, it's clear the alliance of Atlaneans, Amazons, and men (featuring far more diverse tribes of men than before) are much more clearly victorious, significantly changing our perception of how Darkseid might feel about the threat of Earth, and why the Mother Boxes stayed dormant for so long.

Related: Is The Snyder Cut Better Than 2017's Justice League?

Zack Snyder always wanted Superman to wear the black suit after the League brings him back from the dead, just like in the comics. Unfortunately, Warner Bros. didn't allow it, so instead, Snyder worked with his crew to produce and shoot the Superman suit in a way that would be much easier to convert to black and silver in post-production if he could change WB's mind. Obviously that didn't happen for the theatrical, but the Snyder Cut has the black and silver suit in all its glory.

Just like how Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice explored the climax of Man of Steel from a new perspective, Zack Snyder's Justice League opens with Superman's death in Batman v Superman, showing Batman and Wonder Woman's reaction to his sacrifice, which is what inspires Bruce Wayne's entire arc to bring together the Justice League.

This was cut in Justice League 2017 in favor of a cell phone video of two kids interviewing Superman. While there may be a version of a Superman movie where that quaint video works, it wasn't only a total tonal mismatch with the rest of the movie, but also prominently featured Henry Cavill's CGI mustache removal, which was needless to say a jarring way to open the movie.

In Justice League 2017, much of the sequel set-up from Snyder's version was cut or altered, as the DCEU was moving in a different direction, but the characters all have their original endings back, which largely sets up for long-since canceled solo-films, with a few exceptions.

Batman is shown having rounded up a gang of criminals and tied them up in front of his tank-like "War Machine." The big detail about this shot is the fact that the criminals are tied up, whereas he's more known for branding, seriously injuring, or killing criminals in his introduction in Batman v Superman. There's also another scene where Lex Luthor tells Deathstroke that Bruce Wayne is Batman, setting up Affleck's canceled solo movie.

Wonder Woman is shown holding the arrow of Artemis and looking out over the ocean, implying she's seeking a way to get back to her people on Themiscyra, possibly setting up a different version of Wonder Woman 2, although since Wonder Woman 1984 was a prequel, this story isn't off the table yet.

Related: Zack Snyder's Justice League: Every Easter Egg & DCEU Reference

Barry Allen reveals his "foot in the door" job at a crime lab to his dad, setting up a sequel where Cyborg helps him clear his dad's name. While the new version of The Flash movie could deal with Barry trying to exonerate his dad, Cyborg has been removed due to Ray Fisher's conflict with the head of DC Films, Walter Hamada.

Aquaman's last scene is set-up for his solo movie where he tells Vulko he's going home to see his dad. While the setup itself is fairly clean, the Snyder Cut does introduce some minor continuity contradictions with Aquaman.

Cyborg's ending shows him reassembling the tape recorder with Silas Stone's closing message on it, suggesting his technological powers are expanding, and the overall call from Silas in that message is for him to embrace his ability as a hero and grow. It's been revealed the ultimate plan for Cyborg was for him to become almost as powerful as Doctor Manhattan, so this is definitely a step in that direction.

Superman's ending shows him assuming the role of Clark Kent again and doing the classic shirt rip, just like the theatrical cut, only now he's wearing the black and silver Superman suit.

Ryan Choi also gets his own moment here where he's made STAR Labs' head of nanotechnology, where he simply says "that's my thing." Snyder has since revealed that he pitched an Atom movie with a Chinese cast to WB.

While the basic premise of sopping Steppenwolf from destroying the world with the Mother Boxes is the same, the third act battle is quite different in Zack Snyder's Justice League. The absence of the red hue throughout is an obvious major difference, but it's also longer, more violent, and has a lot more teamwork between the league, including an epic speed-ramped team shot.

Flash was mostly sidelined in the theatrical cut as he was running to save civilians, but in the Snyder Cut, he's actually building up speed to give Cyborg a charge and help project him into the Mother Boxes to stop the unity. He fails and the unity explodes, so he has to run fast enough to time travel back to save the League before giving the charge to Cyborg. Also, instead of Steppenwolf being dragged away by parademons like in the theatrical cut, a Boom Tube opens revealing Darkseid, DeSaad, and Granny Goodness and Steppenwolf is punched through as Wonder Woman cuts off his head, which rolls under Darkseid's boot before it's crushed. Darkseid then tells DeSaad to ready the Armada to invade Earth. Without the Mother Boxes, they'll have to "do it the old way."

After the polarizing response to Batman v Superman's Knightmare scene, that storyline was entirely removed from Justice League 2017. Of course, the Snyder Cut brings it back with a raging fury. Starting with a Knightmare vision by Cyborg where the Mother Boxes scorch the Earth, he sees Wonder Woman dead on a funeral pyre as Darkseid looks on, a glimpse at Darkseid killing Aquaman and Vulko with Omega beams, a shot of a destroyed Hall of Justice with Easter eggs from several major characters including the dead body of the Green Lantern Killowag.

Related: Justice League's Complete Knightmare & Future Timeline Explained

Finally the biggest reveal of this vision is Superman, kneeling in the Batcave holding Lois Lane's burned corpse as Darkseid stands over him and puts his hand on his shoulder, as Superman is about to succumb to the Anti-Life equation, which is supposed to start the Knightmare future.

The Snyder Cut also has an additional Knightmare scene in the end, revealing Batman's Knightmare Justice League, including Cyborg, Flash, Mera, and Deathstroke. The scene shows Batman make an uneasy alliance with Joker before Superman arrives, his eyes glow red, and Bruce snaps awake.

Related: Zack Snyder's Justice League: All Endings, Cliffhangers & Setup Explained

Justice League: The Snyder Cut’s Biggest Differences From 2017 from https://ift.tt/3tJzVHX

[weekinethereum]

January 18, 2018

Ethereum News and Links

Protocol

David Knott: Construction of a Plasma Chain 0x1.  Here's the OMG Plasma repo

Truebit's plasma repo

Last Friday's core devs call.  Agenda.

Latest Casper standup

Danny Ryan on the Casper testnet's networking issues

Vitalik compares FFG to PBFT

State-minimised executions

ZkSTARK paper published

Yellow paper is being updated

Stuff for developers

Ethereum Alarm Clock v0.9.0

Ganache v1.1

solidity highlighting coming with next github/linguist release

Dapphub's Seth can now deploy code from your Ledger and broadcast to Infura

Token standard proposals

ERC820.  Esteban Ordano on why we need an improved non-fungible standard

Avsa: everything you need to know about ERC777, but were afraid to ask

Tutorials

CryptoZombies lesson 3 is out

Eth development walkthrough part 1 and part 2

Three part tutorial using a notary service

Zeppelin's gentle intro to Eth programming, part 3

Jon Evans in TechCrunch: Eth programming for web devs

Ecosystem

New York Times: Beyond the Bitcoin Bubble examines whether Ethereum can fix what ails the web.

Etherprise Ethereum Alliance hires its first executive director: Ron Resnick

How miners could be messing with transactions

Simon de la Rouviere: Memetic Singularity Economics Using Curation Markets & Meme Futures

Token curated registries as peer review systems

Eth Community Conference in Paris on March 8 through 10.

Vitalik: Collateralized debt obligations for issuer-backed tokens.  Interesting idea to slice up the counterparty risk for issuer-backed stable coins, thus avoiding the systemic risk of a widely adopted on-chain stable coin  

Project Updates

Brave growth statistics and BAT 2018 goals

Brave is also giving away more tokens from the user growth pool

Digix update -- aiming at q1 launch

Aragon Q4 dev update and transparency

Iconomi Dec update

Mercury Protocol 2018 roadmap

VariabL Q4 update

uPort year in review and 2018 look ahead

Token Sales

Building the Interactive Token Sale protocol

Economics of the Dether token

Interviews, Videos and Talks

EthLondon:  Jaak, Alice.si, Oraclize.it

I talk to Aragon's Luis Cuende and Maria Gomez

Joe Lubin print interview with Factor Daily

Taylor Gerring on Chicago Tonight

General

"Everyone Is Getting Hilariously Rich and You're Not" NYTimes on crypto bros in SF.  Maybe a bit of a hit piece, but not a good look.  

The antidote to crypto bros: Jeremiah Nichol tells the true story of Joe, who uses crypto gains to help natural disaster victims.

More NYT: Will the art market's next big thing be crypto?

Cornell paper on decentralization in Bitcoin and Ethereum.  tl;dr is Ethereum is more decentralized.

Linda Xie: tips for newcomers

Vitalik: "2018 . . . will be the year of action. Everyone in the Ethereum space recognizes that the world is watching, and we are ready to deliver."

Dallas Mavs will accept Bitcoin, Ether, and maybe some tokens

Dates of note

From Token Sale Calendar.

Upcoming dates:

February 1 – Winding Tree

February 7 – Dether

February 16-18 -- EthDenver

Mar 8-10 -- Ethereum Community Conference in Paris

Ongoing token sales:

Nous Platform

Relest

Dopameme

Hirematch

ScriptDrop

WARNING: list may include or even likely includes scams and quasi-scams.  Do your own research and due diligence before putting value at risk.

[I aim for a relatively comprehensive list of Ethereum sales, but make no warranty as to even whether they are legit; as such, I thus likewise warrant nothing about whether any will produce a satisfactory return. I have passed the CFA exams, but this is not investment advice.]

If you appreciate this newsletter, thank ConsenSys

I'm thankful that ConsenSys has brought me on as an employee and given me time to do this newsletter.

Editorial control is 100% me.  If you're unhappy with editorial decisions, blame me first and last.

Sharing

Here's the link: http://www.weekinethereum.com/post/169847267578/january-18-2018 Follow me on Twitter? @evan_van_ness

This newsletter is supported by ConsenSys (surely you have seen that we're hiring?) and Status.im.  Many thanks to both.

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[defensefilms]

Toronto Raptors Stop Miami Heat In Overtime, Are They Conference Favourites?

7th April

The no. 2 seed Toronto Raptors defeated the Miami Heat 117-109 in overtime to end the Heat's playoff hopes.

The quality of this victory spoke volumes about this current Toronto roster. The Heat were scrappy and physical throughout but more importantly than that they were making shots. The do-or-die feel of this season defining game brought out the best in Miami's veteran stars. Dwayne Wade, Dion Waiters and James Johnson had 21, 17 and 18 points respectively and the Heat's front court guys Hassan Whiteside and Bam Adebayo helped setting the physical edge and tone the team have been known for all season. Whiteside was also 7-9 from the field and finished with 17 points and 9 rebounds in the 22 minutes he was on the court

.The Raptors for their part overcame a lot in this win. Kyle Lowry and Fred Van Fleet contributed 5 and 3 points each. Jeremy Lin did not play and my "journalistic level" google searches have yielded no answers as to why. OG Anunoby had a terrible offensive night but he made up for with some smart ball movement when the Heat went zone. Kawhi Leonard certainly didn't have his best game, he was 7-19 with 22 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists and was made to settle for some absolutely terrible shots at the close of the fourth quarter.

And yet despite all that the quality of the Raptors' depth and defense is what shone through today. Serge Ibaka in particular gave the Raptors more than just quality minutes. His usual defensive ferocity and shot blocking was very much alive but he was also 6-14, 12 points, 5 rebounds and 3 blocks and proved integral at finishing at the rim against Miami's zone defenses. Danny Green was sensational 5-9 from the perimeter and had 21 points in the game but of all the Raptor's role players it was Norman Powell who stepped up and knocked 23 points on a ridiculous 7-7 from the field. Bro, the Raptors got bench dudes that have 100% field goal percentage days. This is unreal but some how it gets better.

Pascal Siakam is the real deal  and without question he's in the conversation for best stretch power forward in the NBA for sure. Man was a ridiculous 8-10 with 23 points and 10 rebounds as well as a cold blooded 3 in overtime to close out the Heat in their own arena.

The Question Now Is Are They The Favourites In The East?

The Raptors this year have been steady, consistent and drama free. There's been no noise from their locker room other than Kawhi's future, first year head coach Nick Nurse has enjoyed a controversy free first season as head coach. Surprising in today's NBA given how many veteran players are on that roster. 

Outside of the looming Kawhi Leonard negotiations the Raptors are a model of stability. A stability created and credited to General Manager Masai Ujiri. He has built the deepest squad in arguably all of the NBA through the blockbuster trade for Kawhi Leonard, then supplementary trades for Marc Gasol and Jeremy Lin and capped off with the commitment to the developments of Fred Van Fleet and Pascal Siakam. This has served to turn the once-soft Demar-Lowry led team into a group filled with defensive minded, tough veteran players.

Raptors fans have reason to be high about this group and it's just as well as they've given a lot of indicators of being a group with serious playoff potential. Here are some reasons why:

Fred Van Fleet,OG Anunoby,Norman Powell:

 The Raptors young core have validated the faith of Toronto;s front office. Few teams can rely on the 3rd,4th and 5th guy off the bench and thats what the Raptors have. Van Fleet (along with Lin) completes the most solid point guard rotation possibly in the league. Anunoby is proving he can keep up, stay in front of, and defend good athletic players at the NBA level and Powell is a wing that adds spacing and scoring off the bench. 

Danny Green:

 Danny Green is experiencing a career renaissance. Danny Green has found a 2nd wind. Danny Green is flourishing with being given more freedom to shoot that rock than Popovich would have ever allowed. He is the designated bad shot taker and he's excelling at it. Contested, off balance, around a screen or catch and shoot, Danny's floor spacing, shot making, defense and experience have been much needed for a team with a reputation for going cold in key moments prior to his arrival.  

Pascal Siakam:

The revelation and living, breathing,walking confirmation that Masai Ujiri knows what he's doing. Spicy P as he is becoming affectionately known is no doubt among the most improved in the league and quickly becoming the best stretch modern day power forward. His improvement from 3 point shooting to cuts to the rim are deadly and he's also giving the Raptors an extra dimension by being able to switch and defend guards as a power forward. The modern game demanded stretch 4's. Masai Ujiri built this man in a lab and it could be the most successful case of NBA player development should this team fulfill their potential.

Serge Ibaka and Marc Gasol:

With these two on the roster at the same time the Raptors boast arguably the most talented front court in the Eastern conference. The two couldn't be more different as players. Serge is more athletic and less of a scorer whereas Gasol stretches the floor mid range and further out and provides a post scoring option. What they have in common is defense. Gasol a former defensive player of the year and Ibaka once a league leader in blocks. That's 48 minutes of rim protection and both completely versatile enough to play with the bench or the starters. Gasol in particular was key in stabilizing the bench players offense by allowing an inside out style of play that puts the ball in his hands.

Kyle Lowry:

The heart and soul of this Raptors team and the man who still gives them a sense of continuity on the court with all the new faces that have shown up Lowry has been the constant. He averages just 14 points per games but staying constantly in the 8-10 assists range is where most of his value is. Lowry has been through a lot and is without question the 2nd best player on this talent stacked roster.

Kawhi Leonard:

The man of mystery/fun guy has delivered value to this franchise since his arrival. The cold blooded nature of his game winners are a big contrast to what last year's Raptors were prone to doing in game winning situations. The Raptors designated 1 on 1 scorer is spreading his wings since arriving from San Antonio and his finals experience will prove invaluable for the Raptors. He'll potentially enter a 2nd NBA finals in his career not as a defensive stopper but as the premier offensive player for the Raptors.

 The Raptors still do have their share of question marks. We do not know what kind of coach Nick Nurse is in the post season. It's strange how much Nurse has been able to avoid the headlines given where his team are in the conference.

Nurse was appointed from within after the Raptors fired Dwayne Casey at the end of last season. Since taking over Nurse has run arguably the most quiet coaching staff in the league. His opposites in Brad Stevens is constantly answering questions about chemistry. Brett Brown is constantly wrestling with how well his best players fit together and Mike Budenholzer in Milwaukee while comparably quiet he's had to deal with the hum drum of having the potential league MVP on his roster. Nurse hasn't been inundated with any of this. Part of this is the general manager signing veterans and some credit needs to go to Nick for sure because these games must be won before anything is proven. However with the talent at his disposal, head coach Nick Nurse is the Toronto Raptors' biggest unknown and variable.

With that we eagerly await the 2018-19 NBA playoffs and the answers to the question of who will represent the Eastern Conference in the NBA Finals.

[nessietessimalnua]

SCORE - research notes

SCORE: A FILM MUSIC DOCUMENTARY

Marco Beltrami - PIANO TUNES WITH THE WIND - MALIBU (LOOK INTO): Sound travels through the wire faster than the air, results in a reverse echo - no effect needed (find film used for) - The gunman - columba (instrument), intrigue - following a mystery,

ROCKY

Jon Burlingham, film music historian - Leonard something or other Bill Field, organist - Wurlitzer

MAX STEINER - king kong - orchestra music in a movie?? It completely changed the movie - what was before unexciting and studied became terrifying with the addition of music  

ALFRED NEWMAN - horns and woodwinds - 20th century fox logo

David Newman - a flow, like speaking: it fluctuates

John Debney

James Cameron - spot session, trying to communicate the sound they hear in their heads, etc. - most directors don't know how to convert emotions into music, so the composer has to act as a 'therapist and go through the mish-mash 

BEAR MCCREARY - try to figure out what their insecurities are first,

MERVYN WARREN

MYCHAEL DANNA

HANS ZIMMER - always the blank page,

RACHEL PORTMAN - change in the direction in the scene, often a prompt for when music will come in (quote);

CHRISTOPHE BECK -

Joseph Trapanese - invent a clever way of introducing something familiar

Motif - group of notes that might highlight what a film is (close encounters)

Beethoven - took a motif/theme, spin it out : 5th symphony

Simple hooks, feels like a pop song, casting them in different lights

HOWARD SHORE: "by using motifs, it helps you to understand the relationships in the story - when you hear a certain motif, you connect it, and it actually helps you follow the story." LOTR AS AN EXAMPLE "By the time you get to the end of the film, when you play that music in its full glory, it's already familiar to the audience. We're kind of building our way up to that main course."  

ALEX NORTH - a streetcar named desire (background of ballets and shows - first film score incorporating jazz in writing)

The Pink panther,

JOHN BARRY - James Bond. Came from a band - band sensibility to movies,

big band was cool, swung, felt like a guy that could do anything - no spy/secret services without a reference to James Bond, just like Morricone with spaghetti westerns

ENNIO MORRICONE - Kill you with a melody - The good the bad and the ugly: guitar into the western environment - still the sounds of westerns 50/60 years later

BERNARD HERRMANN - THEME FROM VERTIGO: mystery - little phrases that circular madness to them that worked really well - everything driving you forward in a sick, disastrous way

psycho - tricked you into thinking you saw way more of the violent acts in the scene that actually occurred

TOM HOLKENBURG -

HEITOR PEREIRA

MARK MOTHERSBURG - rugrats on a toy piano

Any instrument is valid if it improves the music

Anything can be music

hurdygurdy - instrument

DARIO MARIANELLI

PARTICK DOYLLE

TRY TO FIND THE GENERAL RHYTHM IN THE SCENE - SEVEN MONTHS PRODUCING THE SCORE, DIFFERENT TYPES OF DRUMS (MAD MAX) - DRUMS UNIQUELY RECORDED, COMBINING TRACKS, AGGRESSIVE, - " don't care what it is, if I make a track, it has to i’ve me goosebumps myself"

"Goosebumps"

PROF. SIU-LAN TAN: different aspects of music are processed by systems in the brain - multifaceted - melody pitch, tempo and rhythm, -- physiological reaction - reward center, dopamine, react to music. Film music and orchestral music is of great interest to scientists because of it's ability to emote: film music isn’t something we pay conscious attention to and yet it has such a powerful impact on us - an audience's eyes can be drawn to different parts of the screen with music that matches certain characteristics being shown on the screen - for example a rising pitch with something that's rising: UP - first time we see the balloons - important visual motif and theme - interesting to see that music can be part of the choreography of our eye movements ET - Vast expansive music with the taking off of the space ship - go from big music to small - reminding us who's going into the spaceship, it's very sad, these are farewells - this fanfare that's very triumphant, saying we're looking at it from Elliot's view point, it's not a loss, it's almost like saying "Mission accomplished" - film music, so powerful, so un-captureable to scientists

QUINCY JONES -  everything you see, you here (used to be) - eyes doing the same things the ear was doing

JERRY GOLDSMITH - planet of the apes: using modern techniques, reapplied it into drama - rubber balls being bounced in bowls, metal bowls, CHINATOWN - four pianos, etc. - ballsy

RANDY NEWMAN

JOHN WILLIAMS - jazz pianist - JAWS - crazy experiment - engine, accelerate - if we didn’t have that theme, we wouldn't know what was happening - spots and places music in the movie - only wanted music to announce the arrival of the shark STAR WARS - huge impact - theme - symphonic score, rediscovered the classical orchestral film score, good and bad, beautiful themes for romance and heroes, the Darth Vader theme - so marshal and broad - "oh boy there’s something not good here"; helps discern characters SUPERMAN theme - krypton theme: mysterious, av-ante garde, way of surrounding pieces with other pieces INDIANA JONES raiders of the lost ark - spends more time on those small bits of musical grammar so they seem inevitable - plethora of parts ET - film music has changed because film has changed, what it needs to do - end of ET - wide space of just music, JURASSIC PARK -

air studios - pick a studio ‘cus it's appropriate to the sort of sound you want to make - churches - haunted, etc. DAVID ARNOLD. - CASINO ROYALE - acoustics, choice - hundreds of mics - how close/how far you wanna feel from the music.

ABBEY ROAD STUDIOS - live sound, less absorbent material on the walls - great reverb, Beatles, Return of the Jedi, lord of the rings, mission impossible - different layouts for different sounds - Rogue Nation, changing music at different cuts to fix problems/change it up

film making styles have changed, so has film music

19702 - synthesizers and punk

DANNY ELFMAN - short musical ideas that become big musical ideas - Tim Burton, batman - only one rule: there are no rules -

THOMAS NEWMAN - difficult to develop what the sound it - like Danny elf man, developed his own sound  - Shaw shank Redemption. American Beauty - marimba, sets the tone of the film, sets you a little off balance, captured the way of ding uncertainty - establish a key center, things will then weave in and around that baseline - creates a texture that lives behind the orchestra, yes could write orchestral scores, but sometimes a film needs something more intimate. prevailing mood, slap it on an image and let it sit for 2 minutes - cold, emotive piano

HANS ZIMMER: unconventional rock swagger to film screen - GLADIATOR - brutality, violence where the notes are placed, intensity - woman's vocals over the orchestra - shaped cinema - took the string section and made it like a guitar - they're playing rhythm - PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN - like led zepplin payed by an orchestra; DARK KNIGHT - blurred the line between giant symphonic and orchestral - constant pulse - powerful, exciting - INCEPTION - it's like a new morning, washes over you in waves, music just piles up - left with a big question.

People who aren't film composers being asked to make film scores - can bring so much authenticity to sound music - sounds are extremely contemporary - SOCIAL NETWORK - disturbing lyrical piano - human and technical, emotionally dark, - ATTICUS ROSS and TRENT RIZZLER

unconventional image and unconventional sound - so much greater than the sum of their arts beautiful chaos far more experimentation, freedom, Technology has made it possible for every composer to be a producer - at the core of it is the tune

STEVE JABLONSKY - Lockdown theme - first introduces french horns into the score, mixing them up a bit, bringing texture to the piece, you want your intention to be clear - the horns give it more of an emotional weight - you want to make sure the emotions you mean to grab the audience are strong enough, make bold statement

ALEXANDER BELSPATT

FOX STUDIOS - LA, stronger sound, London, softer sound -

HARRY GREGSON-WILLIAMS -

WARNER BROS. STUDIOS - JOHN (PAUL??) DEBNY -  

music - the most human and emotive thing we have

ELLIOT GOLDENTHAL

BRIAN TYLER - if everything was perfect in music, everything would sound terrible - fast and furious 6 - you can feel when a cue is working the audience - goes to watch audience reactions when watching the movie, helps him for future films - get a sense of how did this work, do they scenes move people - will run into a bathroom stall, will see if anyone is humming or whistling the theme - feels like he affected them on a level they're not aware of -

TYLER BATES

MOBY - the one art form that doesn't technically exist - you can't put your finger on music - it's just air waves moving a little differently

Film music being used outside of film - Remember the Titans - Obama, whatever the audience felt in the theater was resonant again

HANS ZIMMER - LAST PEOPLE ON EARTH THAT FREQUENTLY COMMISSION ORCHESTRAL PIECES - WITHOUT THEM, ORCHESTRAL MUSIC WOULD DISAPPEAR, WOULD BE A CULTURAL LOSS TO HUMANITY, - we all have fragility, when i play you a piece of music, i completely expose myself, and that's a very scary moment - i love i love i love what I do -

music plays such an important role in a film

film music i one of the great art form of the 20th and 21st century

RYAN TAUBERT - SCORE

James Horner - titanic - sketch out on synthesizer