Blog somewhat abandoned looking

It was brought to my attention recently that I haven't touched this blog in years. So, in a rather feeble attempt at an update, here is a link to my proper site where I recently posted about SVG Weather Icons

Sinestro - Mark Strong to appear in Green Lantern movie?

Well - the latest rumour going round is that Mark Strong is lined up to play Sinestro - the lead villain in the new Green Lantern movie. Or perhaps Sinestro will be introduced as Hal Jordan's Green Lantern 'mentor'.. setting the stage for a villainous turn in a sequel...? Anyway - here's my quick artist's impression of Mark Strong as an 'old school' Sinestro in his traditional black and blue outfit. I daresay the real make-up and costumes would be a bit more funky in the real movie, but hey it was just a quick effort. Enjoy.

Here's a link to the Sinestro story on the MTV site 'Green Lantern' Director Says Mark Strong In Talks to Play Sinestro, Confirms Kilowog, More!

Disney Marvel acquisition (with added Sinestro)

Disney are going to own Marvel Entertainment. Four billion.

OK, so "this transaction combines Marvel`s strong global brand and world-renowned library of characters including Iron Man, Spider-Man, X-Men, Captain America, Fantastic Four and Thor with Disney`s creative skills, unparalleled global portfolio of entertainment properties, and a business structure that maximizes the value of creative properties across multiple platforms and territories".

Which is all well and good. But what we all really want to know is - "What would Jeremy Irons look like playing Sinestro in the new Green Lantern Movie..?"

Jeremy Irons without much make-up there. Just shine a pink light on his head and get him to grow a little moustache. Sorted. He's probably a wee bit cheaper than Daniel Day Lewis too.

Personally, my money's on Antonio Banderas.

Not quite pointy enough, it's true, but it's amazing what they can do with prosthetics these days.

And while we're at it...

Hal Jordan (Green Lantern) : Ryan Reynolds (confirmed)
Guy Gardner : Stephen Baldwin (unconfirmed)
Kilowog : Clancy Brown (voice)
Actually, scrap that, they're not having Kilowog in the movie at all. Ch'p does all the training.
Kyle Rayner (2nd sequel only) : Freddy Rodríguez
Carol Ferris : Kate Beckinsale
Clark Kent (cameo) : Him from Smallville
Alan Scott : Any other available Baldwin.

Oh yeah. I know that wasn't really about the Disney Marvel acquisition. Should have probably titled the post 'Irons Sinestro pic".

Ryan Reynolds as Green Lantern

Well, let's see if Ryan Reynolds ends up sticking with the Green Lantern movie (who knows - see What Does Ryan Reynolds' 'Green Lantern' Role Mean For 'Deadpool' Movie?). In the meantime - here's my quick attempt at a teaser poster for the Green Lantern movie.



Not much of a tease, it's true - actually kind of gives the whole thing away. But anyway. Just a bit o' fun.

Check out my fake Green Lantern movie trailer on YouTube too!

Daily Mail rubbish

Just spotted this load of old nonsense from the Mail - "BBC weatherman warns people of Kent to prepare themselves for temperatures of -99C"

Really?

No, of course he didn't.

Sure enough the map showed -99... it's happened a few times over the years and I'm surprised it took the Mail this long to pick up on it.

The live graphics will show a figure of -99 when there's a problem with the data reaching the graphics. Normally it'd be picked up by a human being and corrected to something more likely. That's kind of the point. It's a deliberately impossible figure, obvious to everyone (even Mail readers) that there's been an error.

Even so, that didn't stop the Mail padding out the flimsy story with record low temperatures and raiding the stock images for a picture of Antarctica to help explain the concept. And to think the BBC gets accused of 'dumbing down'.

Strangely the Telegraph ran the same story using instead a great big moon-faced picture of Dan Corbett.

In other news, BBC admit another hilarious weather blunder. This time a typo results in a very hot temperature.

Jesus if this keeps up my sides are going to split.

TV Graphics Showreel

I've just put an alternative version of my television graphics showreel on YouTube. This version includes some clips from the BBC Arabic TV channel branding which was the last project I was working on at the BBC before I left for the good life in Ireland! In most other respects it's identical to the Flash version on my TV graphics web site - and includes clips from BBC General Elections, BBC Weather and various other broadcast design projects.

I'm linking here also to check whether the little hack works to get the high quality YouTube video embedded.



If you want to link to the high quality version of a YouTube video you need to add '&ap=%2526fmt%3D18' into the embed code after 'rel=0'. The 'HQ' symbol doesn't seem to light up - but I'm pretty sure it's the higher quality version that's playing.

Link to the Mike Afford Media YouTube Channel - TV Graphics, Weather Graphics, Elections, Web Video

Things that made me chuckle (1)

I've always been a big fan of 'The Onion' - there's a handful of their regular columnists that are guaranteed to raise a smile (Gorzo The Mighty, of course, and Larry Groznic). But best of all is Smoove B (Love Man).

I just came across this masterpiece :

Smoove B's Political Goals For 2009

"Smoove is not a political man. However, during the most recent election, something changed for Smoove. He has found a purpose. A new desire.

I will make Michelle Obama my woman, body and soul."

Read the whole thing here.

Genius.