Take a peek at NASA’s Constellation program, which will replace the space shuttle. The first test flight will be in July. (via Bad Astronomy Blog)
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Ten Reasons Facebook is for Old Fogies. #11. I’m on Facebook.
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Is magenta a color, or just something our brains made up? It doesn’t exist in the light spectrum, but there’s plenty of it in my flower garden.
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The Top 5 Weirdest Mating Calls. I’m a bit disillusioned at the penguin call; I hoped it would be more like this.
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Anti-Gravity Quarter Stacking. Is this really possible, or is there some super glue involved?
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Escape from City 17 is a story based on the video game Half Life. This was made on a $500 budget, so why do Hollywood movies cost so much?
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Klan Economics in Black and White (But Mostly White). For decades, it operated like a pyramid scheme for bigots.
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This was made on a $500 budget, so why do Hollywood movies cost so much?
Because Hollywood movies are done by union workers and highly-paid stars.
posted by Chad Cloman on 2-17-2009 at 5:26 am
A friend of mine is a member of the producer’s union. I have used their recommended budgeting spreadsheet to help him estimate costs for projects. With no salaries, it still costs half a million dollars to make a full length Hollywood-style movie. Things like craft services (food and drink) and film processing cannot be avoided. Adding in basic salaries and space rental (no stars, no special effects and no travel) brings the cost to about $5 million.
posted by Edward on 2-17-2009 at 5:58 am
I don’t think those are quarters–Euros maybe?
posted by My 2 bits on 2-17-2009 at 8:47 am
That half-life movie was better than most on the Sci-Fi channel…
Though nothing will ever pass the awesomeness of “Megalodon.”
posted by Joel on 2-17-2009 at 9:30 am
Those half-life guys must’ve spent untold hours doing those effects — for free — a highly-specialized skillset people usually get paid primo moolah for. Take out the cool viz fx and I think this would look a lot more like something that cost $500.
posted by Ransom Riggs on 2-17-2009 at 10:30 am
I know it’s not really funny, but this:
Klan Economics in Black and White (But Mostly White)
Made me laugh way too hard. Well done!
posted by bedhead on 2-17-2009 at 11:25 am
I don’t believe that the $500 includes the price of purchase for a copy of half-life, much less the production cost of the software that made this “movie” possible.
posted by n2y2 on 2-17-2009 at 5:52 pm