Vote for Comment of the Week

Quick turnaround this week.  Need votes tomorrow lunchtime.

Student #1 has left a new comment on your post "Movies With Women in Prominent Roles Earn More Mon...":

The Bechdel test, while it does help determine a bit in regards to equal gender representation in films, does not really mean all that much. Just because there is more than one woman and that the two women talk to each other about something other than a man, does not make it a successful, good, or even a well-represenmtative movie. The world is made up of more than two women, there is an even divide. Women have so much more to them than men, and passing the Bechdel test does not make up for the lack of female characters. Women also don't only have to be in strong leading roles, there can be women who struggle, who work at home, either from choice or force, there can be women who lead and women who assist. I just want to see more women in every role, leading and not. There is just a severe under-representation of women in films. That means that the Bechdel test needs to be updated in order to pass only truly equal movies. 

Student #2 has left a new comment on your post "A tiny Arduino laser cutter":

Hey cool, this machine is pretty useless. In it’s current state at least. Take out the laser, put in a diamond point or carbine scribe, and it becomes the worlds most fragile layout tool. You could use it to scribe out clews, caster plates, or most usefully, a printer circuit board.

I don’t know that the maker community should be playing around with class III lasers. It’s just too easy to get injured. Building a little router is one thing, its damage is fairly limited to the length of its cutting mill. A laser can be damaging still far past its focal length. It scares me that people could build this with just instructions from the internet, and things in their basement. 

Student #3 has left a new comment on your post "SFX: making rain, 3D printing & blow-up greenscree...":

This is a great article that highlights and breaks down the relationship between some of the latest practical effects and computer generated effects. For Noah, Burt Dalton’s practical rain effects were – mouth open – controlled by an iPad app! I especially liked learning how the team was able to block out sections of background they did not want seen on-site (as opposed to digital post) by choosing smaller mist heads on the rain rig and then backlighting the rain to produce a visually impenetrable fog. Sweet! I also like that the article addresses the issue of draining and reusing the enormous amount of water used during the shoot. In profiling New Deal’s workflow, we see how the use of 3D printers opens up a new world for miniature sets. (While this does not relate to the content of the article, I could not help but notice that the concept for the Vizio commercial rips off Ridley Scott’s epic 1984 Apple commercial. Perhaps that was the point, but even with the 3D-printed miniatures, it is not nearly as cool as Scott’s 1984.) The Airwall inflatable greenscreen is valuable for its ability to provide more location options for erecting screens. And while I am sure the pneumatic car flipper is awesome by some standards, if I never see another car flip or car chase in a movie, I will be the opposite of sad. 

Student #4 has left a new comment on your post "Interns are now protected against sexual harassmen...":

Wait wait wait, shouldn't everyone be protected against sexual harassment? Isn't it a general consensus now that sexual harassment is WRONG? Why do these bills have such a hard time going through? Do the politicians have people paying them that like to sexually harass their interns? I can't believe that this is still a problem. I thought that since the case in October caused such a big uproar there would be more attention to it. Like, I understand a company not wanting to pay for someone to sue a high ranking official in their own ranks, but these people are perverts and need to be taught a lesson. Maybe if they realize how much they are costing the company then they will shape up. I doubt it though. 

Student #5 has left a new comment on your post "What would you pay for unlimited Broadway shows a ...":

I love the idea, but I don't think it would work. Movie pass sounds like an incredible program for those people who see movies in theaters often. Trying to make a movie pass for theatre is completely different and much more difficult. Broadway is completely different than going to a movie. When you go to the movies, you can park your car 10 minutes before the show starts, get a ticket, find a seat, then watch a 1hr-2hr movie. This entire process is much shorter than going to see a show. The amount of time you have to sacrifice to see a broadway show is huge and people aren't going to do that once a week in my opinion. The cost would probably be $200 minimum, considering most shows are around $100. I have a feeling most people would purchase this offer maybe once a year and go on a show watching spree for one month, then stop, because it would get to expensive. People taking advantage of this program, would they have priority over the regular ticket purchaser, or would they get the worst seats imaginable. Great idea, but I don't see it going anywhere and if it does, it won't last long.