Archive for the News Category

Lucky star is a Japanese comic strip by Kagami Yoshimizu which is serialized in the Comptiq magazine from January 2004. Other magazines like Shonen Ace, Newtype, Dragon Magazine, CompAce, Kadokawa Hotline and Mobile Newtype also published its cameo strips. The four main characters of the strip are: Konata who is an intelligent and athletic girl dedicated to the prime time animes of her choice to do extremely well in everything but in otaku culture; Miyuki who is a cute living creature who wears specs and has encyclopedic knowledge on almost every subject; Kagami who is a sweet-bitter, tough and shy girl who likes to read light novels but feels alone because nobody in her group shares this interest with her; and Tsukasa, her twin younger sister who is a air-headed klutz, she is not good at studies neither in sports but is an excellent cook.

The comic strip does not have an on-going plot but typically focuses upon the everyday lives of its characters. The Lucky Star, Vol. 1 was released on 8th January 2005, followed by four more volumes. The show appears to have great sense of humor and despite the perky characters, four panel origin and attractive style of art, the show is set on low-keys. As the volume moves forward, we are able to know the characters.

The Lucky Star, Vol. 1 available in DVD is a wide-screen anamorphic transfer and the quality of the video is just excellent. Due to its great presentation values and fantastic design, the show shines manifolds. There is no compression, grain, cross-coloration or aliasing and the bright style of art allows a very vibrant display. As far as audio is concerned, the choice 2.0 Digital Dolby presentation is just perfect for the plot. The DVD of Lucky Star Vol. 1 includes the trailers, textless opening and promotional clips of the show. In terms of characters, potential and design, the volume is quite appealing and attractive.

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The real west-cowboys & outlaws, is yet another masterpiece by the history channel which has been hosted by Kenny rogers. Each of the episodes has been hosted and narrated superbly well and succeeds in making the viewers faun over the show. His authenticity and creativity has produced charm to virtually all the episodes. The talent of roger is exposed to the fullest as large varieties of topics have been discussed. Narrative is of paramount importance in the documentaries of history channels and the ultimate collection of the real west could not have got better host than him.

The different discs of the real west-cowboys &outlaws:

1. “buffalo bill & his wild west” and “wild bill hickok”
2. “the real west: legendary cowboys” and “the law behind the tin star”
3. “the James gang” and “the Texas rangers”

The first episode gives detailed insight into lives of James butler hickok and William Frederick Cody. The former documentary particularly revolves around the incidents of life where he plays the role of soldier, scout, showman and eminently features his high rise to the celebrity status. Different stories and plays were released for depicting his adventures and accomplishments. The penchants of hickok for gun-fighting and gambling became legendary success and the documentary chronicles his trip from the acme of fame to the point of time he transited into an irrelevant personality.

The disc two has featured broad topics and discusses in length about the lives of, cowboys in very general terms and do not touch the lives of specific personas of any time period. Rather the documentary revolves around the involvement of the cowboy with the cattle driving and how the living legend grows in those surroundings. The other one focused on the issues of law and justice. Hickok is introduced into the documentary for the kind of information which is somewhat redundant.

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Lipstick Jungle, based on a novel of 2005 by Candace Bushnell, draws comparison with the ‘Sex and the City’ which is another show depicting powerful and successful businesswomen of New York. The story of Lipstick Jungle revolves around Wendy Healy (played by Brooke Shields), Nico Reilly (played by Kim Raver) and Victory Ford (played by Lindsay Price), the three friends and successful at their work.

The Wall Street magazine has included them in its list of top 50 powerful women, but recently Victory has fallen in her work due to a disaster at the Fashion Week of New York. Soon, she meets Joe Bennett (played by Andrew McCarthy), a wealthy businessman, giving way to a relationship during her attempts to reinvent her creativity. In the mean while, Wendy has to balance her work with her domestic life, raising 2 children and her husband Shane (played by Paul Blackthorne). Nico gets married to Charles (Christopher Cousins), a professor, whose relationship soon looses its passion.

Without setting up a drama, during the first episode itself Nico strikes an affair with Kirby Atwood, a young photo assistant, Victory fires off her employees and moves her office to her home and Wendy fends off the tell-all book on her. The show is an attempt to balance the struggles of women with friendship, love and work through sometimes comedy and sometimes drama giving entertainment as a result. The seven episodes of Lipstick Jungle:

1.             Pilot
2.             Nothing Sacred
3.             Pink Poison
4.             Bombay Highway
5.             Dressed to Kill
6.             Take the High Road
7.             Carpe Threesome

The seven episodes are available on two discs in 1.78:1 transfer improved for wider screens. With soft presentation and subdued colors, it is a fine presentation overall. The sound surround track is 5.1 and dialogues are never problematic as a solid work is done by the track throughout. In addition to the trailers, there is a collection of deleted scenes that were enjoyable too.

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Unless you know me, you probably don’t know what a martial arts enthusiast I am, having been in and around the martial arts world now for 25 years. Starting with TaeKwonDo years ago during my early college years, through Karate through my later college years to Ninjutsu (the art of the Ninja) post-college years. It has been a passion since age 6 thanks to the old “Kung Fu” series back in the 70’s (yes, I am THAT old!).

When I came to Duplium almost four years ago, one of the first clients I brought in was Century Martial Arts, the largest manufacturer of MA equipment and uniforms in the world, based in Oklahoma City (www.centurymartialarts.com). They own the Martial Arts Industry Association or MAIA (www.masuccess.com), which is a trade organization for the MA world, reaching out to over 20,000 instructors and school owners each month with “MA Success,” their trade magazine.

I have written for “MA Success” before, but this month have a new article out entitled “From the Bat to the Mat” addressing how instructors can market their programs in conjunction with major Hollywood releases, such as this summer’s “Batman” release hitting theaters July 18th. KFM or Keysi Fighting Method was the style/system utilized by Christian Bale in the new film franchise. KFM Founders, Justo Dieguez and Andy Norman, also happen to be new clients here at Duplium as they launch their first 3-part DVD series (available on their website and via DVD in early July). With my ties to both KFM and “MA Success” I penned the article mentioned above.

In addition, another article will soon be appearing (mid July) in “Black Belt Magazine” which goes to the masses and available at most major bookstore and grocery store news stands. This, too, features KFM and the how and why it was utilized for the Batman franchise.

So if you are an enthusiast yourself, be looking for the article soon in “Black Belt Magazine” or if you just happen to be an instructor and receive “MA Success” then look for the article I wrote this month as well.

It has been a great pleasure to bring many martial arts DVD projects in house here at Duplium, KFM being no exception. Check out their website at www.keysikfm.com and be sure to order their new DVD’s online this July! And do not miss “The Dark Knight” (http://thedarkknight.warnerbros.com/) out in theaters this July 18th!

Acme Filmworks of Hollywood has brought us an incredible project in their DVD series, “The Animation Show of Shows.” This 18-disc DVD set (6 DVD’s in each of 3 box sets) will feature never-before collected animated cartoons by artists from around the world. In fact, 200 of these box sets will have the DVD wraps signed by the actual animators from all over the globe. How cool is THAT?! Check out their online advertisement at http://www.filmporium.com.

Some of the reviews for this series come from well-known animators and animation companies including Matt Groening of “The Simpsons,” Stephen Hillenburg of “Sponge Bob Square Pants,” Ed Catmull, President of Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios and Roy Disney of the Disney family. Other director comments come from Andrew Stanton, the Director of “Finding Nemo,” Chris Wedge, the Director of “Ice Age,” and Pete Docter, Director of “Monsters, Inc.” All in all, a very impressive list of commentators on this series.

The series offers such titles as Gopher Broke, City Paradise, Astronauts, Hilary, Jolly Roger, Strange Invaders, Mr. Head, Bob’s Birthday, The Monk and the Fish, and The Cat Came Back. Other international animation shorts are also included, so this represents an incredible collection for animation enthusiasts (not just children) of all ages.

Whether it is for kids at home, or kids at college studying animation; whether for your school library or a donation to your local college library, the “Animation Show of Shows” will make an incredible gift at an unbelievable price at just either $30 per set of 6 DVD’s or $90 for all 18 DVD’s! Kudos to Acme Filmworks for such a unique and fantastic collection now available to the buying public!

There’s been a lot of talk about Blu-ray taking over as the next big thing in the video industry. I personally haven’t seen a big explosion of business to business, training or marketing videos on this platform. HD recently lost the battle for high definition video to Blu-ray and all the HD players and the content on discs that were produced are now going away. I was wondering if blu-ray is going to take off now in the business world. All I’ve seen so far are a hand full of blockbuster Hollywood movies.

Popular Blu-ray title examples: An article I read proclaimed Spider-Man 3, Transformers and James Bond’s Casino Royal were the most popular sellers in the retailer channels this month.

I work at a manufacturing plant called Duplium Corp. I’m an account manager in our USA facility. We are a large full service disc replication, packaging and fulfillment company. Our plant replicates millions of DVD’s each year and we work with people

in many industries. So far I have not had many calls from clients with requests for Blu-ray replication or duplication services. I don’t expect I will until Sony drops the price of the players and the manufacturing costs associated with the production of the disc. I’m guessing that it’s only a matter of time before we see the pricing come down and maybe then the demand will increase and more videographers will create content and use blu-ray discs as the preferred platform.

For now, the DVD-5 is still the primary Disc for corporate video presentations, training videos and the titles in the entertainment industry. It will be interesting to see what the future holds for blu-ray. Will it enter the business market in a big way or will it primarily be a vehicle for high definition movie titles.

Richard Stickel

Senior Account Manager

Duplium - USA

For our fourth year, Duplium will be exhibiting at the Martial Arts SuperShow, this year in Orlando, Florida, July 10-12. This is an annual industry show for over 2,000 instructors and school owners sponsored by two Duplium “super” clients–Century Martial Arts (the largest manufacturer of martial arts equipment and supplies in the world) and MAIA, the Martial Arts Industry Association.

Each month Duplium produces the various monthly CDs and DVDs for MAIA that go to their instructor and school owner members across North America. We have also replicated several projects for Century Martial Arts including DVDs for Mixed Martial Art sensation, Matt Hughes, and high-flying martial arts performer Mike Chat, founder of Xtreme Martial Arts (XMA) featured on the Discovery Channel.

This year Duplium has two new clients in the industry we are pleased to be working with as they hit the U.S. market. First is Theresa Byrne with her program, “Fitness Revolution for Kids,” which is being picked up by ABC Family Channel this summer. Theresa has a passion for helping kids “kick” the obesity trend by offering fun, in-home exercise that gets them off the couch and hopping on the carpet. The second group we are working with is KFM or Keysi Fighting Method, featured in both “Batman Begins” and, this summer’s sequel, “The Dark Knight.” Founders Justo Dieguez and Andy Norman were the personal fight trainers to both Christian Bale in the two films as well as the late Heath Ledger for the latter film. Both Theresa and the KFM founders will also be in attendance at this year’s SuperShow.

If you are a martial arts instructor or school owner, or know someone who is, make sure you check out information on the SuperShow at www.masuccess.com and come see these fantastic athletes as well as your Duplium representative this July in Orlando at the Gaylord Hotel in Kissimmee, Florida!

This June 10-14, Duplium will be exhibiting at the National Performing Arts Convention at the Denver Convention Center. This unique gathering of the various performing arts disciplines in chorus, orchestra, dance, theater and opera has been in the past separate conventions. However, this year all are coming together to create both better synergy among the disciplines and their directors, as well as synergies between those who are vendors and suppliers to these disciplines. Over 3,000 industry leaders are expected to attend!

There are six themes to the upcoming convention:

  • Sustainability and innovation for non-profit performing arts organizations
  • Nurturing individual artists
  • Arts education for audiences of all ages
  • Broadening and deepening public participation in the arts
  • Public policy conducive to the growth of the performing arts
  • The performing arts ecosystem

Duplium has long been involved in the various performing arts, both in CD and DVD capacities. Music and theater are two very common arenas that call for CD and DVD as these non-profits offer their unique talents to their patrons via disc media.

If you are the director of any such group or possibly work in the area of development for any such group, you might consider attending this first-time event. It certainly promises to be energizing as creative minds and talents from all across the country converge on the Denver Convention Center that week for seminars, performances and networking. In fact, over 50 breakouts, workshops and art-making sessions will be offered. For more information on this event go to http://www.performingartsconvention.org.

Remember the days of junior high science classes? Did the very memory of those classes just cause you to shiver? Well this was not the case for Richard James III. He was one of those guys who loved the sciences. In fact, he loved it so much he made a career of it as a rocket scientist for NASA! But his career did not stop there, he wanted students coming up to share his passion, so he turned science into a game that students could relate to based upon other role playing games they are already playing.

Adventures of the Elements has been on various bookstore shelves for a while in a three-part book series. Richard took the periodic table most of us had to in some form memorize for those science classes, and turned it into a story in which the various elements become superheroes based on their “elemental” properties. Now that same concept is being applied in a role playing game to be used in schools by which students can interact with the elements as they learn their properties and how they interact in order to win the game. Genius? Yes and, at least in this case, it did take a rocket scientist to come up with the concept!

Now AoE is going big-time with kits that will soon be going into the schools as well as an entire retail line of products for various chain stores. Look for posters, books, trading cards and DVD’s in the immediate future with other products in R&D including a possible animated series for television. Check out their website at www.adventuresoftheelements.com for more information.

This is an incredible way to reach our younger generation and give them a fun and entertaining way to learn. Duplium is excited for Richard and AoE and look forward to not only his success, but the success of the future generation of scientists he is helping to educate.

Many organizations are looking for the most effective way to get their vision to market. They ask themselves and colleagues questions such as:

What marketing method will get the highest response? (direct mail print, direct mail CD or DVD, web campaign, email campaign, television, trade show)

How do I maximize my marketing content in the field and create a consistent branding across multiple offices in different regions or much less different countries?

How can I market effectively in an economy where marketing budgets are shrinking?

What can I do to see tangible results and measurable returns from my marketing campaign?

To answer these questions effectively, you need the consultation of an organization that understands digital asset management. Since the beginning of the digital revolution and the explosion of e-commerce, Duplium Corporation has been helping clients answer these questions by taking a holistic view of your company goals and marketing objectives to create solutions that deliver results.

Our experience in the manufacturing and fulfilling of CD and DVD products has given us a unique perspective and advantage in the new global economy driven by the internet. We understand the value of your digital assets and we know how to maximize them. We have been been duplicating and managing digital content for companies of all sizes from start up ventures to Fortune 500 as long as anybody in the industry. From taking your 30 second video on DVD-R and creating an interactive CD or DVD presentation to taking your costly printed brochure and creating a fully functional e-brochure that can be delivered via email, web download, CD, DVD, or on branded data preloaded USB flash drives. Duplium will listen to your needs and work with you from concept to delivery. Anything from a specific digital or printed product to designing a custom solution that fits all of your digital asset management needs, Duplium can provide the expertise needed to deliver the desired results.

If you would like to learn more about how we can help you maximize the value of your digital assets and expand your marketing reach, please contact us for a free consultation.

Alfred Van Hoven

800-928-2018 x1105

Duplium Corporation