Giant Robot Store and GR2 News

A drug kingpin on death row is about to be executed, and television airs an hour of images of a Laotian man who is responsible for killing 13 Chinese fisherman in the Mekong River. In case you were wondering, that’s what he looks like. Earlier in the week the drug kingpin said, Chinese television also broadcast a chilling interview with Naw Kham taped earlier this week in which he said, “I am afraid of death. I want to live. I don’t want to die. I have children. I am afraid.” (LA Times - Naw Kham)
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Tune in to TBS at 10pm/9c Thursday, June 19th to watch the premiere episode of Sullivan and Son. You’ve probably already seen the K-Town video online, so check out another Asian crew with a little more body hair and less posturing. Sullivan and Son stars hapa stand-up comedian Steve Byrne (Korean and Irish), Dan Lauria (the dad from the Wonder Years), Jodi Long (All American Girl & much more), and most notably, Vivian Bang (friend to GR and seasoned film and TV actress, including a role in Derek Kirk Kim’s project Mythomania). Looks to be like good entertainment for a network show. Family friendly, and giving America a peek at how more and more families are in the US – mixed race/ethnicity and totally not weird because of it (well, maybe just a little weird). The focus here is on laughs, family, and how we go about living a life we can love. I like it already.  Tune in, or set your DVR and support a show that’s bringing more of what we need to mainstream media.  
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Korean companies Samsung and LG took the market away by making TVs cheaper and just as good. TVs went from being huge boxes of tubes to being flat and nearly disposable. They technology changes every other year and buying something that’s not a decade of commitment is the new way to go. Like Nintendo, Sony and Panasonic, two big TV makers had shares fall from quarterly losses. They’re now going to output half of their projected amounts of TVs. (ft – Japan Waves White Flag)
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The set of a popular TV Show Hawaii 5-0 is like the sets of all TV and film productions. At Universal Studios the 70s Jaws shark moves and looks like giant plastic toy. The buildings have believable facades but no interior. The magic is in the final product that’ll get magically projected onto your 60 inch HD LCD 3D television. It’ll look perfect. I’m prepared to see the charisma of the special police force: McGarrett, Danno, Chin-Ho, and Kono and not their human counterpart, Alex O’Loughlin, Scott Caan, Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park. It all changes in an instant.

I wait at a parking lot of the old Honolulu Advertiser Newspaper that now has rows of Star Waggons, white box trucks, tons of gear, cars, and a security gate that has a small sign telling folks who to contact if you want to be an extra. I wait for some time and then a few minutes later, Daniel Dae Kim walks up. The pleasant security gate keeper jokingly says, “maybe he’s here to pick you up.” She was right and also surprised. I was labelled as a social networking journalist. We walked straight to the Daniel’s Star Waggon where he sat and worked on his lines to portray Detective Chin-Ho. The next shots are going to be difficult. Unlike the normal, shoot a scene then ready up for the next, he was prepping for a five scenes in a one set up segment – something that hasn’t been done before. It’s a time saving effort and a perfect moment for me to witness.

 

 

In the Star Waggon, Daniel mutters some lines, first reading, then staring into space while moving his lips. Mostly inaudible. He apologizing for his needing to do this. The interior is standard, there’s some Hawaii 5-0 mini posters, a back room with costume changes hanging, food that’s not his, and nothing much else to show that it’s his particular trailer.

While practicing, a knock happens and we’re walking to the set which depicts the middle of their squad room. The scene is Daniel talking to Office Lori Westen played by blond, Lauren German about a suspects ID and they talk to each other while staring at the screens. I sit in the Daniel Dae Kim “directors chair” behind the actual director and script supervisor and am given a headset to hear their lines. The set runs like a machine. The script supervisor watches every word and makes sure the dialogue are recited correctly. She’ll also cue the actors with the first few words to get them going. She signals with a karate chop like move to the director that the lines were done correctly at the end of a scene. Shots are done with multiple angles, some close ups of the principals in the scene. The reverse site shots are the easiest since there’s no dialogue being recorded.

 

Daniel Dae Kim like oranges, and Grace Park likes the smell of orange peel. Fans, now  you know what to get them.

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