Archive for November, 2006
Fans Find New Dimensions in “The Nightmare Before Christmas.”
Now that beloved classic is returning to the theater, in a way you’ve never seen it before. Don told about the process of turning “The Nightmare Before Christmas” into a 3D spectacular, and how the unique charm of the movie was preserved.
As he describes it, audiences will not be seeing your grandfather’s 3D. Instead of red-and-blue lensed glasses, “Nightmare” will be shown with special polarized lenses — no blurry picture, no headaches, just scenes that seem to leap off the screen. How’d they do it? “I don’t know how to explain it in simplified terms, but basically we used a computer to make a three-dimensional model of every scene, and then we ‘projected’ the movie onto it,” he says. The process took six months — first creating a computerized colorless image of every scene modeled in three dimensions, than combining it with the original frames of the film.
And the original frames are exactly what you’ll see on the screen — nothing was added or cut. “This is a movie that people really love — they know every frame almost,” Don explains. “We really wanted to respect the connection fans feel to this film.”
Director Tim Burton, composer Danny Elfman, and many more of the creative team who brought “Nightmare” to life were heavily involved in the restoration (which also included remastering the soundtrack so that it sounds clearer and better than ever). The result is a “Nightmare Before Christmas” that’s even more magical.
SA Family Services
Salvation Army - Video on the Homeless inToronto
Homelessness in Canada
Homelessness in Canada
From housing to shelters to blankets
by Connie Hargrave
A report about increasing homelessness in Canada, which like other countries, has cut funding for housing to reduce its deficit and save taxpayer money.
Nanaimo, Canada
Over the past two decades homeless people are increasingly evident on the streets in Canada. Who are they? Newspaper articles occasionally profile a homeless person who once had a job and savings like anyone else. Such stories point out that the homeless can be “normal folks” who have fallen through the safety net and these articles easily blend in with reports about layoffs and job losses in general. Yet in spite of a public recognition of high unemployment, on the street the homeless remain an embarrassment and continue to be seen as transients, derelicts, “dirty” and generally not worthy of one’s attention. As one woman passer-by in Victoria, BC, put it: “They just come here for the mild weather, you know; we have been told not to give anything to them.”
Only a handful of attempts to count the homeless have been made at both local and national levels in Canada. These attempts have failed for a lack of a consistent definition of who the homeless are, as well as the elusiveness of the population. Absolute homelessness refers to people living on the streets with no physical shelter, while relative homelessness refers to those who live in spaces that do not meet basic health and safety standards. The broad definition of homelessness includes those who live in sub-standard housing, or in overcrowded or undesirable conditions. For instance, a woman may live with an abusive man as the lesser of two evils, thereby avoiding being on the streets.
Social action agencies reported in the late 1980s that the number of homeless Canadians was between 100,000 and 250,000, out of a total population of 28 million. In January 1987 the Canadian Council on Social Development conducted a one-night count of persons using shelters across the country, yielding the following statistics: 7,751 people sought shelter that night, of whom 61 per cent were men, 27 per cent women, and 12 per cent children. At that time, Canada had 472 facilities capable of sheltering some 14,000 individuals a night.
Of this “snap-shot” sample taken in 1987, 45 per cent were actually employed, underscoring the fact that not all the homeless are without resources, but that many live in conditions of poverty and underemployment; 50 per cent were receiving financial social assistance of some kind; 33 per cent fit into the category of alcohol abusers; 20 per cent were former psychiatric patients; 15 per cent could be classed as drug abusers and 3 per cent were physically handicapped. Almost 10 per cent had been evicted from where they lived.
Major Disaster Strikes - People left without homes!!
Homelessness and poverty are disasters of this world but because they are the slow moving, rarely headline making so you don’t see this major pouring out of aid, you hear about the great works done by the Salvation Army and you give then some money, maybe donate some bric-a-brac to sell in the thrift store but the reaction to these disasters should be as if a flood has swept through the town rendering, we should be appalled at the tragedy and be thinking daily of ways to help our fellow human beings.
In church we get told to act, we sit we listen and church goes on by and we come away refreshed but what one thing do we do in the week can we honestly say was done to help a homeless person?
I personally will put up my hands and say I have done nothing…
People on the streets…
What do you do when you see people sleeping rough who are there through bad luck or even those there due to addictions or mental disability? I saw a couple, kids really, mid to late teens on the steps of the Central Baptist Church, its cold tonight, high winds, not a night to be outside, what do you do?
What could I have done…
… be better informed, know the territory, im painfully aware it could be me sitting there, if I knew the programs available to help these kids I could of gotten them some assistance. … I could of brought food but for my need to catch my bus, thing is with busses, there would of been another, I could of stopped and listened. I could of offered the use of my phone, I could of called Pastor Glen and asked him to pray with me. I did pray but is that enough…?
What would you of done?
think I do need to educate myself better as to the support structure there for people at least then I have some concept of how to get help, knowing the problem helps in working to a solution… how do you know a problem? … by getting as many people who know and work in helping the homeless together with those capable of hearing, understanding and funding solutions, involving the community, facilitating communication and in turn understanding and in turn correct action.
The birth of an idea
The concept of an idea for a volunteer organization to facilitate the needs of organizations fighting homelessness, addictions etc were we have no office space requirements and very little overhead, someone contacts us needing blankets, we find them by phoning around and putting people in contact with each other so we have no warehousing, no offices just, people volunteering, communication and caring.
How do I begin something like this?
I guess I need to put something pitch-able together and start beating on doors…
Trains, Plains and “Cars n’ Buses”
Buses on the other hand give me time to gather my thoughts.
I was angered to hear that a monthly bus pass in BC could go up to 75 a month next april but I think half the buses that run are not full anyway so why not reduce the pass for poeple and premote bus travel in a clever campaign that would increase bus commuters, the transit would get the extra money it needs but still maintain its current service and were is the BC provincial govrnment in all this, in on Vancouver island they are so concerned about the Colwood Crawl in the mornings surely they should step up and assist BC transit, mind you in they did they would probably raise tax but as a bus commuter if my tax went up to a lesser exent than my monthly pass fare I would not oppose it.
Im actually sitting on the bus in the crawl as I write this, its a grey one but my spirits are high.
Ttfn
Bert.
INTERVIEW: MIKE DOYLE
INTERVIEW: MIKE DOYLE
Myriam Nafte - Werner Pürstl - Mike Doyle
Mike Doyle of the Search and Rescue Society of British Columbia was part of a Canadian search team funded by Bob and Lynda MacPherson that flew to Austria to help in the search for their missing son.
Hana Gartner spoke with Doyle about the obstacles they faced.
Hana Gartner: WHAT WAS YOUR JOB IN THIS OPERATION?
Mike Doyle: Managing the search effort which means the dogs and the handlers and managing where they went. In other words the search areas, which we couldn’t tell them until we had gone through a little bit of mathematics.
In 1986 we had put together a program called SHIFTPOA which did probability theory.
Hana Gartner: THIS WAS A SOFTWARE?
Mike Doyle: We took a computer with us a laptop computer, heavy in those days of course but took it anyway. And the hotel provided us with a printer and other services that we required fully free. And we then crunched numbers. First of all we had to figure out what had been done and then we segmented the areas and crunched some numbers. And came up with some areas that we thought could be looked at again. And initially that’s where the dogs and the handlers went.
Hana Gartner: AND WHAT ELSE WOULD YOU PUT INTO THIS PROGRAM? DID YOU HAVE TO KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THE VICTIM?
Mike Doyle: Yes, yes specifically the point last seen. I mean where was he last seen? Well nobody knew where he was last seen. The car was found in the parking lot at the hotel so that was the last known position in LKP and that’s what we had to go with.
Hana Gartner: LKP?
Mike Doyle: LKP, last known position and that’s what we had to go with. Normally someone would have seen someone up on a hill over here and over there and that. We had nothing, we had nothing at all.
Not only that, the car wasn’t even discovered for a few days and it had been sitting in the parking lot all this time. So the trail was cold.
Hana Gartner: AND WHAT ABOUT DUNCAN MCPHERSON DID YOU HAVE TO FACTOR IN DID YOU HAVE TO LEARN WHO THIS PERSON WAS RATHER QUICKLY?
Mike Doyle: Yes, we had to do some interviewing. We interviewed the parents because they were the ones that were closest to him that were in Austria. And we talked with them and tried to get a little bit of background on what they thought he would do in certain circumstances and we factored that in as well.
Hana Gartner: SO WHAT KIND OF PROFILE DID YOU COME UP WITH? WHO WAS THE DUNCAN MCPHERSON YOU CAME TO KNOW?
Mike Doyle: Well we didn’t come to know him. I wish we had.
Hana Gartner: PERSONALITY WISE?
Mike Doyle: Normal, normal yeah not someone who’s extreme. Someone who’s out for an adventure but not someone who goes to an extreme to have that adventure.
Hana Gartner: CAUTIOUS?
Mike Doyle: Yeah, yeah.
Hana Gartner: NOW HOW WOULD THAT FACTOR INTO YOUR PROGRAM? HOW DOES THAT HELP YOU AS A SEARCH AND RESCUE MISSION?
Mike Doyle: Well that helps us in certain ways in that certain areas up in the glacier that were dangerous, we felt that he would probably not attempt to take further. He would stay in the bounds of areas that were not as dangerous as that.
…
Hana Gartner: WHAT WAS YOUR OBJECTIVE? WHAT WAS THE MISSIONS OBJECTIVE?
Mike Doyle: To see if there was any other areas that could be searched or to see if there were areas that should be searched again.
…
Hana Gartner: BUT YOU ALSO SAID YOU FOUND OUT THAT A WHOLE LOT OF PEOPLE GO MISSING ON THAT GLACIER EVERY YEAR. DID YOU ALSO PUMP INTO YOUR COMPUTER THE LAST KNOWN SIGHTS OF THOSE DISAPPEARANCES?
Mike Doyle: No we didn’t we didn’t learn that until the last day.
Hana Gartner: WHAT?
Mike Doyle: We didn’t learn that until the last day.
Hana Gartner: HOW COME?
Mike Doyle: It was something that was just given to us as an aside.
Hana Gartner: BUT WE FOUND OUT THAT JUST THE YEAR BEFORE A JAPANESE BRITISH GUY FELL INTO A INTO A CREVASSE NOT FAR FROM WHERE DUNCAN WAS THOUGHT TO HAVE GONE IN. SO YOU WEREN’T TOLD THIS? WOULDN’T THIS HAVE BEEN A LIKE A GRAND CLUE?
Mike Doyle: It would have been helpful yes.
Hana Gartner: I DON’T UNDERSTAND HERE. RECONSTRUCT WHAT HAPPENED WHY YOU DIDN’T GET THIS INFORMATION?
Mike Doyle: I don’t know whether they thought it was important. They didn’t want it out as far as the tourist are concerned because it would look bad. And so we weren’t made aware of that at the time.
…
Hana Gartner: SO WHY DID YOU PACK UP AND LEAVE?
Mike Doyle: We didn’t pack up and leave. We came to a conclusion, the search came to a conclusion and again we used the computer program. When you search an area once we, we give it a certain probability that the person would have been found based on the resources at the time the spacing all kinds of factors. When you do it twice, that probability gets higher. And when you do it a third time it’s even higher yet.
There’s no 100% but you get to a point where you go on to other areas. And of course you can search multiple areas at the same time if you have the resources to do so. And we eventually got to the point where our analysis showed that all of the areas in question were at that stage where if he had been there he would have been found.
So we talked and this was with the consensus of all of the search people that were there. We then did a briefing for the chief police and the family and some other people that had been in gotten involved at that point that were supporting the family. And gave them that, that briefing as well. The final decision of course was theirs but we felt at that time that based on no other information that we had taken it as far as we could.
Hana Gartner: SO WAS THAT GIVING UP WAS THAT A FAILURE?
Mike Doyle: That’s not giving up that’s just a suspension. We didn’t have new information. A suspension usually is unsuspended based on new information if there’s any kind of new information.
…
Hana Gartner: BUT WHAT WENT WRONG? WHAT DO YOU KNOW NOW THAT YOU SHOULD HAVE KNOWN THEN THAT WOULD HAVE HELPED YOU?
Mike Doyle: When we found out that he was found with his snowboard, which was a rented snowboard rented at the lodge the hotel and the police had been told when they were doing their investigation that it had been returned. Obviously it had not and if we had known that then, then we know we would have known, for sure he’s on that hill.
Hana Gartner: WHY WOULD YOU HAVE KNOWN THAT?
Mike Doyle: Because it wasn’t returned and the car was in the parking lot. But they were told it was returned, Somebody lied and again you fall back to what you know which is starting somewhere and we had to start with the car in the parking lot.
Hana Gartner: SO YOU HAD A LOT OF FACTS AND INFORMATION BUT IT SEEMS YOU HAD A FEW LIES AS WELL?
Mike Doyle: Yes misinformation.
…
Mike Doyle: Search and rescue depends on truth on getting the straight goods in order to develop a plan and; and get people in the right areas to look.
Hana Gartner: AND YOU GOT?
Mike Doyle: Well we didn’t get the full story! Neither did the police, it was not their fault. They were told a lie. I mean we did ask they said, yeah, it was returned.
Hana Gartner: SO YOU WEREN’T TOLD THAT THE SNOWBOARD AND THE GEAR WASN’T RETURNED? YOU WEREN’T TOLD THAT A YEAR BEFORE SOMEBODY HAD FALLEN INTO A CREVASSE?
Mike Doyle: Not in that area, no.
Hana Gartner: IN THAT AREA?
Mike Doyle: No, they weren’t no.
Hana Gartner: TWO KEY PIECES OF INFORMATION THAT WOULD HAVE MADE A DIFFERENCE?
Mike Doyle: Oh absolutely, you bet. I mean, that would have that would have caused us to rethink, redo, re-compute and change the numbers to a much higher probability in that area, much higher probability. And my god, we didn’t have the information. We didn’t have the information.
Hana Gartner: OVER THE YEARS DID YOU THINK ABOUT THIS OPERATION THIS MISSION? DID YOU THINK ABOUT DUNCAN MCPHERSON AND WHAT HAPPENED?
Mike Doyle: You always do. Any search that you don’t find the person you always keep thinking about and you always question yourself and you always say what could I have done? What could I have done differently?
Hana Gartner: SO WHEN YOU FOUND OUT THAT IN 2003 DUNCAN MCPHERSON WAS FOUND ON THE CONTROLLED SKI RUN NOT FAR FROM THE TOW YOUR REACTION WAS?
Mike Doyle: Dismay mostly. Not surprise, not surprised because he was, I thought, going to be found somewhere in that glacier. But certainly dismay that he was found that close.
…
Hana Gartner: SO AS A PROFESSIONAL WHO DOES THIS HOW – WHAT WAS YOUR RESPONSE WHAT WAS YOUR REACTION?
Mike Doyle: I was just very glad he was found. We get involved in searches for people who disappear and are not found. And some of those searches are very intense and very personal as far as your involvement and feelings are concerned. And I was just really happy for the MacPhersons that he was found and really happy that there was a conclusion as far as all of the efforts over years that had gone into that search or into finding him. Not the search per se but into finding him or trying to find him.