Interview. Tony Gilroy.

Tony Gilroy had been writing screenplays and watching directors turn them into movies for about a decade when he wrote Michael Clayton. For six years, the project simply would not get up off the ground. Then along came Jason Bourne. With the help of, among others, George Clooney, Sydney Pollack and Steven Soderbergh, he was finally able to get Michael Clayton made - and direct it himself.

The film was well-received when it premiered at the Venice Film Festival and lauded in Toronto. But when it hit theaters... well, you may have missed it. Now's your chance. It's out on DVD this week, just in time for the Oscars. It's been nominated for seven of those, including Best Picture. And Gilroy's been nominated for Best Director and Best Screenplay.
Michael GuillÃ

What is the most expensive film ever helmed by a first-time director?

Movie studios usually like to have a seasoned veteran in the director's chair when they pony up the big bucks for their tent-pole picture, but that wasn't the case when Paramount decided to put a first-time helmer in charge of the third installment of their Mission: Impossible franchise.

But to be fair, when J.J. Abrams took the reins of Mission: Impossible 3, he was already a household name thanks to his very successful TV series Lost, Alias and Felicity. According to Hollywood legend, Mission actor Tom Cruise sought out and befriended Abrams after watching a few early episodes of Alias.

He convinced his new friend and the studio heads at Paramount that he was the right man for the job and the rest, as they say, is history.

J.J. is back this weekend as the producer of the soon-to-be cult hit Cloverfield that is riding a wave of Internet marketing brilliance to the box office. This Christmas, Paramount hopes that Abrams can work his magic again when he revives their Star Trek franchise with a whole new take on the beloved series.

Adobe Premiere Elements

Overview

I think the programmers at Adobe simply placed a nice user interface on top of Adobe Premiere Pro to create Premiere Elements. There's a taskbar that guides you through the workflow, from capture to exporting. To help beginners, Adobe added a number of customizable presets for common operations, such as PiP effects and still-image pans and zooms.

Capturing Your Video

Using Adobe Premiere Elements to capture video is a fairly straight forward process. Elements will capture via Firewire, using either a camcorder or analogue capture via a analog-to-digital conversion device.

Once you've captured the raw video, there are a few things you can choose to do. A nice tool is to use Scene Detect, which automatically detects various scenes in the entire footage and exports it to the timeline. If you've used Pinnacle Studio Plus, you'll realize that Premiere Elements does not allows you to control brightness, contrast, hue, saturation and audio levels before or during capture.

Editing Your Video

Editing your video with Premiere Elements is pretty simple if you stick to the presets, operation remains fairly simple. However, if you venture beyond into the Effects Control palette, you'll immediately see the intimidating screens found in Premiere Pro - which may scare off novices. This is not a bad thing though - some Premiere Pro's most powerful functions like the titling tool and chroma key capabilities are at your disposal.

The timeline in Elements opens with 4 tracks showing: 2 video and 2 audio. Audio or video tracks may be added, and the link between captured audio and video can be broken so that clips can move independently. You can place transitions between 2 adjacent clips on the time line - and there is a wide variety to choose from.

Integration with Photoshop Elements

If you edit photos with Adobe Photoshop Elements, you'll be pleased to know that Photoshop Elements can be used to edit any image on the Premiere Elements timeline. Once edited, the image on the timeline is updated automatically. This tight integration with an image editor is not found in competing products like Ulead VideoStudio and Pinnacle Studio Plus.

Audio Capabilities

A note about audio capabilities to highlight here. In Elements, like in most other video editing programs, you need to record voice overs separately and then import it to the project. This is where Pinnacle Studio outshines over virtually every other editing program - you can record direct to the timeline.

DVD Authoring

Burning the edited video onto a DVD is always a problem for many consumers who are just starting out in digital video production. Fortunately, in Adobe Premiere Elements, the process is extremely simple.

The program provides 33 DVD menu templates, most of which are stunning. The program will automatically generate DVD menu markers, or you can set them manually in the timeline quite easily. However, there are restrictions - you can customize only text, neither can you modify the backgrounds that come from the templates.

Shortcomings

Although it has many great features, Adobe Premiere Elements is not without its quirks. In my test run, I found that Premiere Elements was very finicky with my MSI DVD burner during the DVD burn process. I had to render the files to a folder and then use a separate DVD burning application (Nero Burning ROM) to burn my video.

Conclusion

On the whole, Adobe Premiere Elements is a nice consumer video editing program that will please many. By incorporating high-quality effects and precise controls, along with a chroma key tool and picture-in-picture options, Premiere Elements is will allow you to make amazingly good movies. Definitely worth a look for the budding videographer.

What ultimately decided the format war between Betamax and VHS?

Some claim that it was the relatively short recording time of the Betamax as compared to that of the VHS. Others argue that it was Sony's short-sightedness not to bring in other manufacturers to help make Betamax machines.

Some other theories range from the "cutting-edge" deployment of pause buttons and timer features on the VHS machines/remote controls to the vastly superior marketing techniques employed by the backers of VHS.

there are even some that still maintain that it was the availability of pornography on VHS that tipped the scales in its favor. And then, there are those that claim it was a vast government conspiracy.

All of these reasons probably played a part towards the ultimate demise of Betamax, but the real reason that VHS emerged as the clear winner in the format war was because of you, the consumer. Ultimately, for whatever reason, people chose VHS over Betamax.

Thirty years later not much has changed. You still have the power to decide the outcome of the high def DVD format war.

15 Deserving movies that will be overlooked at this year's Oscars

Across the Universe What are the chances this delightful musical gets nominated for Best Picture? Slim to none, unfortunately. Especially in a year with lots of great dramas at year's end. It might sneak a lesser nom.

Amazing Grace This powerful film really deserves nods for Best Picture and Best Director but it'll probably get shut out. What a shame.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford Andrew Dominik deserves recognition as director of this film as does Casey Affleck for his role. Affleck might get a sort-of cumulative nomination for his work here and Gone Baby Gone.

Away From Her Julie Christie could very well get a Best Actress nod for her performance as an Alzheimer's victim. But why not Best Director or Best Screenplay for first-time filmmaker Sarah Polley?

Breach This movie has gotten some well-deserved attention on DVD but that probably won't be enough to give it a nomination -- either for its screenplay or for another excellent job by Chris Cooper.

Eastern Promises Viggo Mortensen and director David Cronenberg deliver another critical hit after 2005's A History of Violence. Neither were nominated for that film and they most assuredly deserve it here again.

In the Valley of Elah For some reason political films have been box office poison this year. Regardless, this is a fine film that deserves more attention from the Academy than the Tommy Lee Jones and writer-director Paul Haggis nominations it'll probably receive.

The Lookout No one seems to be talking about this movie in the Oscar race this year. It should be up for screenplay and possibly even for the underrated Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

A Mighty Heart Because of her celebrity status, Angelina Jolie might get a Best Actress nomination for her performance as Daniel Pearl's wife. She definitely should get one for this forgotten film.

The Namesake Another early release that won't get a fair shot at Oscar glory. It really begs attention in Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay cats. Maybe even more so an acting nod for Irrfan Khan. Number of Oscar nominations it'll get: zero

Once The people who see this romantic musical can't help campaigning for it. It'll assuredly get attention in the Best Song category but it needs to be up for Best Picture as well.

Rescue Dawn Christian Bale and writer-director Werner Herzog really should demand attention for this unrecognized achievement. I'm guessing they won't get anything at this year's awards.

Waitress Late director Adrienne Shelly will probably get a token nom in the screenplay category but the movie should be up there for Best Picture as well.

The Wind That Shakes the Barley This movie is perhaps the biggest of these dark horse picks. Director Ken Loach and lead actor Cillian Murphy would be the best choices for recognition in this Irish war story.

Year of the Dog C'mon, Academy! Give Mike White some recognition for his brilliant writing. Molly Shannon is a great long shot in the actress category as well.

Zodiac The last film in our list alphabetically and perhaps the worst victim of poor timing. Director David Fincher really needs a nomination for magnificently recreating San Francisco in the '60s and '70s. A Best Picture nod would be worthy as well.

One last, bonus consideration: Ratatouille is a gimme in the Animated Film category but why not Best Picture as well? Critics as well as the general public loved it. It's a great achievement in filmmaking and doesn't deserve to be pigeon-holed in just the cartoon list.

There Will Be Blood

Someone we know said Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood was going to be the best movie of the year, and f-making-ilm scoffed. But turns out we kind of have to eat our words, because PTA has made an incredibly tense and powerful film filled with gorgeous cinematography and spectacular performances, particularly the one by Mr. Method Daniel Day-Lewis. We also absolutely loved Johnny Greenwood's score, it creates the most intensely palpable tone of dread. The title tells you oh yeah, there will be blood, but Greenwood's score has you on the edge of your seat waiting for it. The only thing that made CC put it on our top 10 list in the number two spot was the lack of female characters. Weren't there any ladies of interest in independent oilman Daniel Plainview's life? This bleak story could've used an infusion of estrogen, in our opinion. But regardless of the gender imbalance, get thee to a theater to see this movie. It's going to be considered a classic and start sweeping the awards season.