Into the teeth of death PDF Print E-mail
Thursday, 06 May 2010

 

By MITCH TRAPHAGEN
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Are you tired of all that the Web, or even Hollywood, has to offer?  Do you often find yourself thinking, “I could do it better!” Well, now you have your chance.  You can make your very own movie with xtranormal.
Xtranormal’s stated mission is to bring moving-making to the people.  Traditional movie making involves finding and hiring actors, dealing with writers and a production crew, finding and paying for a location and a million other things so that before you know it, you’re out $30 million and are just starting to look at spending some real money. 

xtranormal
You can make a movie without spending millions at xtranormal.com
Xtranormal removes all of the hassle and you save millions upon millions of dollars.  Their approach to movie-making is based upon what they describe as a universally held skill — typing.  You type in something and xtranormal turns it into a movie.
Need ideas?  There are links to movies already made by your Tinsel Town peers.  We’re talking great films with titles such as, Don’t Date a Ninja!, Kung Fu Flick, Lazer Gun and the industry favorite, Tour De Idiots.
If you have a few hours to kill, give it a shot and then send me a link to your masterpiece.  If your movie ranks up there with Don’t Date a Ninja, I’ll review it in an upcoming column.  
Visit www.xtranormal.com.
When I was a kid in pre-Web times, one way to see the world was by watching Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom.  I also recall a running joke by Johnny Carson about how the program’s lead man, Marlin Perkins, could often be found comfortably away from the teeth of death mixing martinis while his sidekick, Jim Fowler approached the hungry lions or the angry, ill-tempered rhinoceros.  The truth is that both Perkins and Fowler put themselves into some pretty interesting situations and both men should be credited with bringing awareness of not only wildlife but also of the world into American homes.
Now we find ourselves, decades later, wondering where Perkins and Fowler have gone.  News is a 24/7/365 business and the talking heads of network news (with a few notable exceptions) rarely stare into the teeth of death  (I’m not sure about the martinis).  Yeah, I remember a few clips of CBS News’ Dan Rather holding on to trees during hurricanes (in fact his on location coverage of Hurricane Carla in 1961 helped build his career), but while the talking heads often go to the location of the world’s hotspots, they rarely get blown around anymore.
vbsnews
VBS.TV is a news organization that doesn’t just report, it experiences the news from the world’s dark underbelly.
Enter VBS.TV.  This news organization doesn’t just report on the news of the world; it lives it, films it and then uploads it to the web for all to see.  Whether interviewing a deranged, cross-dressing war lord in Africa from inside his compound, or discussing the merits of testing a reportedly nasty drug (on themselves, no less) that is sweeping the streets of Bogota; they report the news from the inside.  You won’t find perfectly coifed hair on VBS.TV.  I don’t know about the martinis but who would blame them?  The world’s dark underbelly is no place for normal people.  But then again, these guys aren’t normal.  No matter what you think of their work, you will have to admit that what they do takes guts.
From interviewing a Jihadist over milkshakes as he discusses assassinating the Pope to producing the “Vice Guide to North Korea” to trying to explain Devo, the pioneers of musical bizarre, VBS.TV has been there and done that.  Literally.  In comparison, Fowler had it easy with a foul-tempered rhino or two.
Check them out at www.vbs.tv.  Their web site can be a little difficult to navigate and not all of the material is suitable for small children (but then if your small children are news junkies, you may have other things to worry about).