Good movie generates economic spin-offs

Monday Starters - By Soo Ewe Jin

THE Lord of The Rings trilogy was one of the first books I bought when I started earning a salary. It is a classic that any father would want to introduce to his sons the moment they could read.

Although my two boys were voracious readers from young, they were not the least interested in the book initially. My version was very thick and the print was very small.

Things changed when the first movie from the trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring, was released in 2001.

The marketing strategy included the books being repackaged into interesting versions and Tolkien soon became one of their favourite authors.

Now they not only know the Tolkien tale by heart, they can even remember the lines in certain scenes in the three movies. And I am the one struggling to remember who is Aragon and who is Boromir.

File pic shows Actor Elijah Wood is shown in a scene from New Line Cinema's "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring," in this undated photo. (AP Photo/New Line Cinema) 

 

The reason I bring this up in the business pages is that a movie is not just about box-offfice sales but also the economic spin-offs that it can generate.

And the LOTR trilogy is an example of how New Zealand reaped the windfall because Peter Jackson decided to shoot the movies there.

Jackson and his team scoured New Zealand for the most beautiful and diverse areas. The rolling hills of Matamata became Hobbiton, while the volcanic region of Mt Ruapehu transformed into the fiery Mt Doom where Sauron forged The Ring.

The tourism figures after the first movie came out went up by more than 10%. Overnight, New Zealand became Middle Earth.

And that is not to mention the 2,000 people employed during production which included artisans including prop builders, set creators, make-up artists and costume designers.

The filming was done in over 274 days in more than 150 locations all over the country; so you can imagine the supporting industries that benefitted from LOTR.

So, it is no wonder that when Warner Brothers threatened to take the long-awaited prequel, The Hobbit, elsewhere after some union dispute, the government was quick to react.

It not only agreed to make changes to its employment laws but also offered additional tax incentives to convince the Hollywood moguls to film in the country.

Prime Minister John Key was quoted in The Financial Times: “Making the two Hobbit movies here will not only safeguard work for thousands of New Zealanders but it will also follow the success of The Lord Of The Rings trilogy in once again promoting New Zealand on the world stage.”

An economist estimated that the US$500mil to be spent on the production of The Hobbit could be worth an additional US$1bil to the economy, which could certainly do with a boost after the recent earthquake.

The Kiwis certainly understand the power of a good brand. They now have Middle Earth and the All Blacks.

Malaysia, likewise, is blessed with breathtaking natural scenes with quaint towns and kampungs scattered throughout the country, as well as a very developed Klang Valley.

We were the setting for movies like Anna and the King and Entrapment. But we could certainly reap more benefits if we are prepared to see movie-making for what it is – fiction rather than fact.

We cannot be overly sensitive if the script takes certain liberties; one needs to give some latitude for artistic licence. This applies whether a movie is local or foreign.

A good local movie, after all, can make waves internationally and bring in the economic spin-offs as well.

● Deputy executive editor Soo Ewe Jin, who has been told that the two countries closest to Heaven on earth are New Zealand and South Africa, still dreams of visiting Middle Earth.

Sister slaps Rempit girl

By WINNIE YEOH
winnie@thestar.com.my

GEORGE TOWN: A 16-year-old schoolgirl was slapped several times by her elder sister at the state police contingent headquarters here for being involved in illegal motorcycle racing.

The girl was among 112 Mat Rempit and pillion riders aged between 13 and 26 who were detained in an operation at Jalan Bukit Gambier in Gelugor from midnight till 3am.

Policemen and reporters were stunned when the elder sister, in her 20s, slapped her younger sister in front of onlookers at about 10.30am.

“You janji you akan bertukar! (you promised you’ll turn over a new leaf),” the sister was heard rebuking the girl.

The angry older sister slapping her sibling at the police headquarters in Penang Saturday.

 

Later, when the girl tried to salam (greet) her sister, the latter was heard shouting “jangan sentuh aku!” (don’t touch me!).

Earlier, the sister and her mother had pleaded with state public order and traffic chief Supt Wan Aziz Wan Husin to release the younger girl, who was a pillion rider.

She was also heard telling police that the younger girl had played truant from school.

The police also made the group push their machines for about 15km from Jalan Bukit Gambier to the headquarters at Jalan Penang.

The journey started at 4.30am and they took about three and a half hours to reach their destination.

The bikers being escorted by policemen on their 15km walk.

 

The motorcyclists were allowed to rest briefly after every 2km. Many were seen huffing and puffing and were also drenched in sweat.

Supt Wan Aziz said 74 summonses were issued to the 73 Mat Rempit for various offences.

“We carried out urine tests but none of them tested positive. We will issue letters to their parents informing them of their children’s racing activities,” he said.

Advance Could Change Modern Electronics

Science News

This image of an asymmetric MIM diode reflects a major advance in materials science that could lead to less costly and higher speed electronic products. (Credit: Image courtesy of Oregon State University)

ScienceDaily (Oct. 31, 2010) — Researchers at Oregon State University have solved a quest in fundamental material science that has eluded scientists since the 1960s, and could form the basis of a new approach to electronics.

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The discovery, just reported online in the professional journal Advanced Materials, outlines the creation for the first time of a high-performance "metal-insulator-metal" diode.

"Researchers have been trying to do this for decades, until now without success," said Douglas Keszler, a distinguished professor of chemistry at OSU. "Diodes made previously with other approaches always had poor yield and performance.

"This is a fundamental change in the way you could produce electronic products, at high speed on a huge scale at very low cost, even less than with conventional methods," Keszler said. "It's a basic way to eliminate the current speed limitations of electrons that have to move through materials."

A patent has been applied for on the new technology, university officials say. New companies, industries and high-tech jobs may ultimately emerge from this advance, they say.

The research was done in the Center for Green Materials Chemistry, and has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Army Research Laboratory and the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute.

Conventional electronics made with silicon-based materials work with transistors that help control the flow of electrons. Although fast and comparatively inexpensive, this approach is still limited by the speed with which electrons can move through these materials. And with the advent of ever-faster computers and more sophisticated products such as liquid crystal displays, current technologies are nearing the limit of what they can do, experts say.

By contrast, a metal-insulator-metal, or MIM diode can be used to perform some of the same functions, but in a fundamentally different way. In this system, the device is like a sandwich, with the insulator in the middle and two layers of metal above and below it. In order to function, the electron doesn't so much move through the materials as it "tunnels" through the insulator -- almost instantaneously appearing on the other side.

"When they first started to develop more sophisticated materials for the display industry, they knew this type of MIM diode was what they needed, but they couldn't make it work," Keszler said. "Now we can, and it could probably be used with a range of metals that are inexpensive and easily available, like copper, nickel or aluminum. It's also much simpler, less costly and easier to fabricate."

The findings were made by researchers in the OSU Department of Chemistry; School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; and School of Mechanical, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering.
In the new study, the OSU scientists and engineers describe use of an "amorphous metal contact" as a technology that solves problems that previously plagued MIM diodes. The OSU diodes were made at relatively low temperatures with techniques that would lend themselves to manufacture of devices on a variety of substrates over large areas.

OSU researchers have been leaders in a number of important material science advances in recent years, including the field of transparent electronics. University scientists will do some initial work with the new technology in electronic displays, but many applications are possible, they say.

High speed computers and electronics that don't depend on transistors are possibilities. Also on the horizon are "energy harvesting" technologies such as the nighttime capture of re-radiated solar energy, a way to produce energy from the Earth as it cools during the night.

"For a long time, everyone has wanted something that takes us beyond silicon," Keszler said. "This could be a way to simply print electronics on a huge size scale even less expensively than we can now. And when the products begin to emerge the increase in speed of operation could be enormous."

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Story Source: Newscribe : get free news in real time

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Oregon State University.

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 Journal Reference:

1. E. William Cowell, Nasir Alimardani, Christopher C. Knutson, John F. Conley, Douglas A. Keszler, Brady J. Gibbons, John F. Wager. Advancing MIM Electronics: Amorphous Metal Electrodes. Advanced Materials, 2010; DOI: 10.1002/adma.201002678 

See Also: 

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• Spintronics
• Chemistry

Reference

• Materials science
• Electrical conduction
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• Germanium