District 9 was directed by: Neill Blomkamp, written by: Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell. Starring: Sharlto Copley, Vanessa Haywood, Johan van Schoor, Nathalie Boltt.

Without giving away the movie, I’ll just share a few details and my thoughts. From the start, you are presented with media footage and interviews around the area which is called “District 9″ (similar to the movie trailer). This leaves you with interest and eagerness to continue on with the movie! The filming style and editing is just about above any movie I have seen. It’s cut and edited from different camera types and qualities, thrown in at the perfect sequence to just look amazing! If you have ever watched WALL-E, you know you can have emotions towards CGI animations, which D-9 presents to you. Just to say, the aliens in the movie are not your usual thoughts of an “alien”- go watch to see what I mean!

This was Sharlto Copley‘s first time acting in any movie, he played Wikus Van De Merwe, who the movie is based around. Amazing job! I didn’t know what to expect from him because I had never heard or seen anything from him before (obviously). Now I can’t wait to see what we get from him next!

Overall, I’d rate D-9 at 9/10 stars!

I have waited a little over a year to finally see this up in theaters to watch. I first saw a teaser trailer on Apple.com and was on the edge of my seat for more. Like the trailer, the movie was WAY more than just a house that floats away into the sky. I didn’t expect the story line to lead to where it had, but the approach was just purely amazing. Yes, it was a Pixar film, so obviously it would be amazing.

I don’t want to give too much away if you have yet to see this, but I’ll share a few little details. As you know, an old man floats his house away and lands in a jungle place.  It turns out to be a love story behind it all, as for the idea of ‘tying balloons to your house to fly away’ started when Carl (played by Edward Asner) was a kid and Ellie (who turns out to marry Carl) had an adventure book stating of this far away place where she was going to live. Oh, and bringing her clubhouse there, too. As for how the rest of the movie goes, I’m leaving that up to you to go find out!

I’d definitely recommend seeing this in 3D(RealD) for the added excitement and depth it gives. Makes it more of an amazing experience.

My rating: 4/4

So after sharing videos every so often through updates on Twitter, I figured it would be easier to post them to a blog of some sort, the ones that are my favorite. And then it turned into a ‘Video of the Day’ thing. 

Each day now, I pick a favorite one from a bookmark folder I have named “VOTD” and post it on the VOTD site. It seems to be working out well now. 

The following pictures are screenshots of the Twitter page (@VideoDaily) and the ‘official site’ on Tumblr (videooftheday.tumblr.com)

And on another note, I also take VOTD suggestions from anyone. So just send an ‘@reply’ to @ryanhawiya (on twitter) or @videodaily (although I check replies on my personal Twitter account more frequently). Or you can email me directly at ryaninman@me.com (with appropriate subject ‘VOTD Suggestion’ please).

I have always been interested in the whole ‘photography’ thing, but never had a great camera. So I researched and tested out a few cameras, and found the Nikon D60 to be on the tops. It felt great in the hands and took pretty amazing pictures. 
I have now had it for almost five days, and already pretty use to it. Before the camera, I was uneducated about ISO,  shutter speed, and aperture. But thanks to a couple of websites [1 & 2 and YouTube videos], I was able to catch on to the basics. I can honestly admit, I am far from achieving that ‘perfect shot’, but as they say, ‘practice makes perfect’. 

I upload my photos to my Flickr account (feel free to add me as a contact). Below are a some photos straight from my Flickr.

(CLICK HERE TO SEE ALL PHOTOS)

So if you are in the process of looking for a Digital SLR, try the Nikon D60 out, you may enjoy it just as much as I am.