Cranking it up to 11

Spooky Movie Night

Island of Terror

Presentation for Friday 02.13.15
Alex missed a good one tonight. The Amazon UK blu-ray looks great – even revealing some monster-operating wires that no one would notice in old VHS copies. Peter Cushing, as always, brings charm and charisma to the proceedings as he and another scientist travel to a small island off Ireland to investigate a dead body found with (wait for it) . . . no bones! Seems some reclusive scientists on the other side of the island have accidentally bred "silicates" – slimy, crawling slug-like creatures that divide & multiply like cells – who inject a substance that melts down the bones of their victims. One gruesome scene caught us all off guard. Summer was not happy. Still, an overall enjoyable SMN!
Forbidden Planet

Presentation for Friday 02.06.15
Revisiting a classic of the sic-fi film world this week. Great film with grand ideas, space dudes brimming with testosterone, cute Anne Francis strolling around in her space age mini skirts, an invisible id monster and, of course, Robby the Robot. Only the annoying drone of some of the "futuristic" sound effects detract from an otherwise stellar evening of classic cinema!
The Living Coffin

Presentation for Friday 01.30.15
13 years into SMN, and I'm always looking for something new that's been off my radar. Enter, the Mexican horror film. Hey, it's a Mexican-western-mystery-horror film – what's not to love! It's a reworking of the classic Mexican legend of the crying woman. Fun and entertaining. Some good creepiness, all while not taking itself too seriously.
The Magnetic Monster

Presentation for Friday 01.23.15
Curt Siodmak. Really, that's all you need to know. One thing I've learned in 13+ years of Spooky Movie Night, is that Mr Siodmak was kinda The Man. He wrote screenplays for classics like The Wolfman, House of Frankenstein and I Walked with a Zombie. Here he tells a gripping tale of two A-Men (Atomic Men) who are investigating the presence of a strange magnetic field that appears suddenly in a small town. The source is eventually traced to a new atomic element that uses the magnetic field to convert energy to matter. As it grows out of control, it threatens to throw the earth off it's orbit. Classic 50's post-war end of the world potboiler!
Dead of Night

Presentation for Friday 01.16.15
Now THIS is why I bought that region-free blu-ray player!! Without it, we would have never seen this absolute gem that's unavailable in the US – which would have been a crime! An architect shows up at a country manor for contracted work only to find that the house – and everyone in it – have been appearing in his recurring nightmares. He knows some bad mojo is afoot as he keeps predicting people who enter the story and events that eventually unfold. Several eerie tales unfold in anthology style, shifting in tone without taking you out of the film's grip. The kids and I were blown away. Simply fantastic!
Unearthly Stranger

Presentation for Friday 01.09.15
Another win for the region-free player as we load in the UK blu-ray of an amazingly intellectual treatment of the same sort of concept explored in the fun, but ultimately less satisfying, "I Married a Monster from Outer Space". Had never seen this one and I was surprised by it's depth of emotion for what is essentially a B movie. I chalk it up to the Brits, who prove again that they can do creepy sci-fi in a though-provoking way that transcends the genre. Certainly earned our applause as the credits rolled.
The Quatermass Xperiment

Presentation for Friday 01.02.15
The American title of this British classic was "The Creeping Unknown"– and a fitting title that is! This is a creeping, slow-burn of a chiller. A rocket returns from space with one survivor and only empty clothes left of his two crew mates. To make matters worse, there seems to be something very wrong with the survivor...and he's getting worse by the day. Crotchety Professor Quatermass throws his scientific weight around while trying to get to the bottom of what became of the missing astronauts. Tension builds steadily in this cerebral alien invasion film – Fun stuff!
The Phantom Carriage

Presentation for Friday 12.26.14
Summer was asleep early, so Corbin, Alex and I opted for a rare silent film. The plot sounded compelling: Every year, the last soul to die before the clock chimes in the new year is forced to drive death's carriage for the next year, picking up all the lost souls who have died. The special effects from this 1920 Swedish film were impressive for the period. Sadly, at 107 minutes, the film goes on too long (some editing was needed). What was unexpected was that this ended up a pretty potent tale of redemption. Obvious Christian undertones gave us a good post-film discussion. Would been about perfect if it'd just been about 20-or-so minutes shorter.
Planet of the Vampires

Presentation for Friday 12.19.14
Beautiful blu-ray transfer of a classic Italian sic-fi that's a bit on the deceptive side where it's title is concerned. Let me say this up-front: This is NOT a vampire film. What it is, however, is some pretty engaging space opera fun. A race of bodiless aliens mess with the minds of space explorers, causing them to violently turn on one another. The dead come back to life, and things start to feel more like a zombie film than anything having to do with vampires. Fun stuff though...lack of actual vampires notwithstanding!
The Reptile

Presentation for Friday 12.12.14
Last year's Christmas gift of a region-free blu-ray player has led to GREAT fun as I'm able to find stellar Amazon UK discs to replace my washed-out, scratched up, taped-from-TCM copies. Case in point, this week's pristine blu-ray of Hammer's 1966 classic, The Reptile! The film is just some great, creepy fun, and it looked & sounded better than I've ever seen! The story is sort of a werewolf-vampire-creature from the black lagoon mashup. While the kids may not appreciate its technical aspects – they really dug this classic gem from the Hammer House of Horror!

Does that mean it's louder?

Is it any louder?

Well, it's one louder,

Isn't it?

Call it upping the ante, raising the bar or just kicking it up a notch, but we've been busy little bees here at the Born to Design World Headquarters. The past couple months we've been quietly toiling away behind the scenes – all so that we can be ready and able to take our game to another level.

What exactly have we been up to? I'm excited to finally spill the beans . . .

Photography Capabilities Upgrade: Invested in a new Canon 7D and two high-end lenses (one especially well-suited for product photography). Likewise, we've upgraded our product photo boxes and lighting considerably.

Computer Equipment Upgrades: OK, I've read for years about RAID setups and how fast they are, but, until now, never dug deep to unpack what they are, how they work and whether or not they're worth the investment. Likewise, I researched the new Solid State Drives (SSD) that Apple is using in the new MacBook Air. They are ridiculously fast. No, really. Ridiculously. After an almost unhealthy amount of research, I took the plunge and not only upgraded the primary workstation to an SSD for system and applications, but added two more SSDs and created a 100 GB Striped RAID that is designated solely as a Photoshop Scratch Disk. Adding another 8 GB of RAM (for a new total of 21 GB) was the icing on the cake.

Now, I understand if that's too techno-speak to follow. Suffice it to say that we have created a Godzilla-esque beast of a workstation. I'm chomping at the bit for a big Photoshop project to really put it to the test.

Office Reorganization and Purge: Maybe not as immediately impressive as the other upgrades, but I can assure you that finally getting to some long overdue organizational issues in the office leaves me a happier lad – and frees me up to be creative with fewer distractions.

New Blog: In an ongoing effort to grow the fine art photography facet of the business, we launched Photoplay, our infrared and color photography blog. It's much less wordy than this one, and has "purtier pitchers" (a new one posted every week). A more robust store for purchasing prints is planned, but til then, we'd still love for you to stop over and check it out.

New Ways to Stay Connected: In addition to an updated LinkedIn profile, we've finally launched the Born to Design Facebook page. Check it out and give that little "Like" button a click – we welcome the opportunity to connect with clients and friends there as well as here.

The New Guy: OK, easily the most significant new change is the addition of Chris Settimi to the Born to Design team. We hired Chris a few months back and are extremely excited by what he brings to the table. Chris is an exceptionally talented designer with over 20 years experience. He has worked for clients in health care, financial, high-tech, packaged foods and manufacturing industries, creating and developing advertising campaigns, web and e-communications, presentations, annual reports and other creative products including branding and communications materials for Clarian Health, Cook Medical and Purdue University. He also provided creative direction for Eli Lilly and Company’s brand launch, development of RealMed corporate and product materials, as well as interactive media, 3D animation and collateral services for Hughes Aircraft (see why we're just a teeny bit excited to have him?).

Chris has received recognition from Wired and New Media magazines as an innovator in interactive media, and greatly expands our interactive capabilities. My man can whip up a PowerPoint that'll make you weep! OK, maybe that's a little oversell – but he is quite good! I'm sure you'll enjoy working with him as much as I do. Welcome Chris!

While there have been a few other little wrinkles, this comprises the bulk of what we've been up to. Not only do these changes get me excited, but they also bring a measure of quiet confidence that we are doing what's necessary to perform and deliver for our clients at an even higher level.

We want to continue to provide design solutions that "go to 11".

And that's one louder . . . isn't it?

Sharing My Crayons

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Spooky Movie Night

Cranking it up to 11

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