Posts by Jessica Martinez2

9 posts shown.

Photoshop beginner's guide in Software · Mar 27, 2008

Keith Robinson78 said:You can find them in every single bookstore... but which ones? $100 It’s coming... and man, it is an absolute beast of a book. Honestly, though? You’ll get way more out of it if you just dive in and play around yourself. Open up a photo in Adobe Photoshop CS 3 and just start clicking things. See what happens when you mess with a specific tool or throw an effect at it. That hands-on trial and error is where the actual learning happens.

😂

Sure, they could try teaching themselves by clicking around tools and seeing what happens, but that’s a slow way to learn. Honestly, nothing beats having a mentor to guide you through the process. If a mentor isn't in the budget, picking up a solid textbook is a decent fallback, but just poking at software without any actual structure isn't going to cut it if they want to actually master the craft.

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Most disturbing movies? in Movies · Mar 4, 2008

Bradley Fisher3 said:Which movies do you all find particularly morbid? If you can, try to break down why they hit you that way.
For me personally, it’s Unbreakable, even though you won't find any typical "morbid" scenes in it. It's an incredible film, but what makes it feel so dark to me is the score, the acting, and perhaps most importantly, that profound sense of emptiness and wasted potential that some of us know all too well. I really think Bruce Willis did a masterful job portraying David Dunn, which is a huge reason why the atmosphere feels so heavy.

Ichi the Killer—completely senseless and sick.

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Metallica's new album in Music · Feb 8, 2008

David Sullivan4 said:That’s exactly what I was getting at—he can't just ban them from playing the songs. He can sue if they aren't paying royalties for the performances or their cut of the sales from those first two albums (and the others) where he holds the songwriting credits. If he had actually banned them from using the tracks, you wouldn't find The Four Horsemen, Mechanix, or Ride The lightning on the debut, and certainly not on the second record.

edit: Besides, James is mostly just a mess of booze and drugs. Same goes for Mustaine. I won't get into who's more talented; honestly, it was a bit uncomfortable watching Dave end up in some kind of monster place after twenty-five years because the guys kicked him out of the band...

Actually, we're misunderstanding each other... the ban was specifically on performing the songs under the Metallica name.
I read about that somewhere about ten years ago when the Megadeth vs. Metallica feud was still being treated as a side story.

Sure, they can play them as long as they pay, just like any other band would. I'm pretty sure over the last couple of years, they've probably played stuff by Edge of Sanity too. I doubt his songs are handed out for free indefinitely.

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Metallica's new album in Music · Feb 8, 2008

David Sullivan4 said:www.allmusic.com claims:

Ride The lightning (Burton, Hetfield, Mustaine)
The Four Horsemen (Hetfield, Mustaine, Ulrich)

He supposedly banned them from using certain tracks, otherwise you wouldn't find RTL as the second track on the debut, let alone on the second album.

I believe the ban started around 1987.

If you look up any biography of Mustaine and James online, you'll see the reality.
Just read them... you'll realize just how arrogant James can be.
And I’m not talking about those Behind the Music clips. For a guy whose go-to word is basically "Fuck," it's almost impressive he managed to write stuff like Ride The lightning or The Four Horsemen...
Haha... honestly, it's no wonder his contributions were mostly limited to ballads.
It took the man twenty years to stop using profanity as his primary vocabulary. It's a bit embarrassing.
Not to mention that Metallica songs are incredibly thin on metaphors, onomatopoeia, or vivid imagery. I've never been a huge fan of Metallica, and their lyrics—especially what they've been churning out over the last five years—never really grabbed me.

As for what was written here... obviously, when Hetfield sings, Ulrich provides the rhythm.
But the lyrics and the musical foundation came from Mustaine. That means without the guitar and the words, there would be no drums or vocals to speak of.

You don't exactly build a song by starting with the rhythm; usually, you pick up a bass or a guitar and start crafting a composition from there.

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Metallica's new album in Music · Feb 8, 2008

David Sullivan4 said:Besides, Mustaine would be an absolute fool to ban them, considering the royalties from sales and public performances he’s entitled to under copyright law.

The ban definitely exists, and those claiming "I doubt there's a ban" clearly don't know what they're talking about.

Copyright law is real. After Megadeth was formed, Metallica kept playing those two tracks, and Mustaine actually asked them several times to stop. He didn't get a cent of the songwriting credit since he wrote and composed them entirely by himself without any input from the rest of the band, and it ate at him that Hetfield was claiming authorship. That's why it ended up in court.

The court ruled in favor of the actual songwriters. I'm not sure if Mustaine ever officially blocked them over a ten-year span, but every single time they wanted to play those two songs, they had to pay him publishing royalties.

And since Mustaine is a far superior soloist and guitarist compared to Kirk—which hasn't changed—he never fell under the influence of grunge, punk, or nu-metal like Metallica did.
The guy knows he built a top-tier band, and no matter how much critics might push Megadeth down, they've been one of the most lyrically mature bands out there for the last five or six years. It's a shame he got kicked out of Metallica because of drugs, but on the flip side, unlike Metallica, Megadeth wasn't just chasing seventeen-year-olds.

I don't see the point in arguing; I agree with the restriction. Between the style of Ride The lightning and The Four Horsemen and the lyrical content, they deviate too much from the standard Metallica sound. It's obvious.

Regarding copyright ethics, if Hetfield were to leave Metallica, more than half of their lyrics would likely be banned from being performed by the remaining members.
It's similar to how Cronos left Venom and effectively sealed Venom's fate regarding performing the songs he wrote and composed himself.

Copyright is one thing, but the real issue is pure spite. Stealing and performing something that isn't yours just because you can claim "I made this!" is the height of arrogance.

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Metallica's new album in Music · Feb 7, 2008

Donna White5;11084752 said:I honestly don't know what else there is to say about Metallica..
By the way, this new track is solid. The vocals could use a little more polish, but the solo? It doesn't get any better than that.

Personally, I think every single Metallica album is top-tier, and you can't sit there and claim the songs aren't hits..
Here’s my breakdown of the best tracks from each record:

-Kill 'Em All:
whiplash
motorbreath

-Ride The lightning:
Ride The lightning
for whom The bell tools
fade to Black

Technically speaking, "Ride The lightning" and "The Four Horsemen" aren't really Metallica songs, and there's a legal reason they aren't performed.
They were written and composed by Dave Mustaine without any input from Hetfield.
When he started Megadeth, he legally barred his compositions from being played by Metallica because, strictly speaking, nobody else contributed to their creation except Mustaine himself.

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Metallica's new album in Music · Feb 7, 2008

Eric Nelson said:The songs will undergo more polishing, obviously. They haven't even settled on the final tracklist yet—they’re currently sitting on about 25 different tracks to choose from.🙂

Honestly, they might be better off just not releasing an album at all. From everything I’m hearing, it looks like they're doubling down on this whole emo thing.

Someone mentioned that Metallica ran out of things to say a long time ago... and honestly, I couldn't agree more.

It’s not really about whether they’ve gone commercial or not. At the end of the day, making music is a business, plain and simple. But it’s honestly a shame that a band capable of delivering heavy hitters like Kill 'Em All and ...And Justice for All hasn't been able to put out anything that good since.

For them, that old sentiment from Hetfield still rings true: "My dream is to make music that everyone listens to!" 👎

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Resident Evil: Apocalypse in Movies · Jan 17, 2008

feralorca82 said:Plot, a book, and a screenplay aren't the same thing. How exactly do you think he managed to make a movie if he didn't stick to the script? 😕
What exactly do you think constitutes a "scenario"? Have you ever actually sat down and read a single script in your life?

I’ve been digging through Romero's original script for Resident Evil—back before Anderson took over and essentially kicked it to the curb. The gap between what Romero envisioned and what Anderson actually put on screen is... well, it's massive.

Pay some idiot to write the script, then fire them the second they try to have an actual vision. It doesn’t matter if they happen to be one of the greatest directors out there with the most visceral, stomach-turning special effects; apparently, the rule is that I am the law. I’m just Anderson, right? Just some guy who managed to scrape together one mediocre flick that everyone watched—you know, like that Mortal Kombat movie everyone saw. Blah, blah, blah...

There isn't much of a difference between them, really, except for one glaring issue: the movie should have leaned harder into the horror elements. I mean, what kind of "expert" are you supposed to be if you're going to deliver a sanitized version and rewrite the entire script halfway through?
Romero's script didn't actually stray that far from the core plot and dialogue of the game; the narrative beats remained pretty much intact. Plus, since Romero was also responsible for the special effects, the movie was always going to lean more toward an action-heavy thriller rated PG-13 rather than a pure, gut-wrenching horror flick.
Anderson is smart, sure, but he’s also an idiot. He let the studio take over because he wanted to commercialize the movie and make it palatable for a younger crowd. He basically took someone else's script—which is obvious when you compare his version to Romero's—and censored everything. He turned the whole thing into a generic action flick, and then he completely nuked the franchise with the sequel. In that one, the characters are such a mess they don't even belong in the story, and don't even get me started on that fake scene where Nemesis "senses" something... Long story short, the guy is a terrible director.
You really have to be a genius to let go of experts and people who actually know more about a subject than you do.
Even with Romero's latest film, I wasn't exactly blown away. Honestly, if he had just taken that same script from the Resident Evil movie and simply swapped out the characters and names, the film would have easily pulled a 4 out of 5 from me.
Here’s my take on Anderson and any director who decides to tackle a video game adaptation by just skimming the surface and assuming it’s all about the explosions. It’s pretty obvious that even if they actually played the game, nobody bothered to pick up a single note or read a single report scattered throughout the levels to understand the actual context. But hey, why bother with depth when you can just grab a walkthrough and call it a day?

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Resident Evil: Apocalypse in Movies · Jan 15, 2008

cosmicraven2 said:Alright, after digging through a few forums where some guys who actually worked on the production dropped some pretty interesting hints (no spoilers, I promise), all I can say is: I am beyond hyped for this movie!

- for those hunting for visuals

RE:Resident Evil: Apocalypse set pictures

and here is the official site with the first trailer

Resident Evil 2

or more shots from this unofficial site

Inside Resident Evil

If you want to know anything else about the film, just ask...

The Resident Evil 1, 2, and 3 PC games are absolute masterpieces,
but the Resident Evil movies? Usually just straight garbage.
None of them actually stick to the plot or the source material. In the second film, everything is such a mess that it’s clear Anderson has the IQ of a lukewarm soda; he bragged about how he was incorporating everything from the games and the scripts, but clearly, he didn't have a clue what he was doing. As for the third part, it’s a train wreck piled on top of another train wreck—pure trash.
I watched it three months ago.

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