FIRST ENTERTAINMENT

One actor who has made his presence felt in Hollywood is Kevin Spacey. Spacey has starred in a multitude of films, ranging from comedic to serious. There is no doubt that he prefers to star in dramas over comedies however. At this point, it seems that Spacey only chooses roles that he is happy doing, and does not seem to be working for the money.

Here are some of Kevin Space’s greatest movies up to this point in his career.

The Usual Suspects is the first and arguably best movie on this list. This is certainly one of the movies that Spacey will be remembered for most; it is an incredible role in an incredible film.

Another fantastic movie that he has starred in is American Beauty. This movie is ranked as the number 40 best film of all time according to imdb.com and not surprisingly, won the Academy Award for Best Picture of the Year.

Outbreak is another film that definitely makes the cut for me. I do not know why I am attracted to movies about terrible things like this, but apparently I am not the only one. This film did very well at the box office, and I’m not surprised.

Another movie that definitely makes the cut is L.A. Confidential. This is film noir at its finest. If you are not familiar with the genre, this is a good place to get started. This movie also stars Kim Besieger, Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce.

Finally, one film of his that I thoroughly enjoyed was K-PAX. In this movie, Kevin Spacey plays a man who claims he is an alien from a planet called K-PAX. Both the characters in the film and we, as an audience, are unsure whether or not this claim is true.

Sometimes a snap decision can result in an unexpected windfall. This was what happened with Cynthia Howell of Williamsburg, who only intended to bet on the Virginia Lottery’s Mega Millions game when she went to the Food Lion to buy a ticket. On impulse, Howell also decided to get a Virginia Lottery Win for Life ticket, using family birthdays and anniversaries as her numbers. She then became the seventh winner of the Win for Life top prize in 2009 during the December 19 drawing, successfully matching all six winning numbers.

Betting on the Virginia Lottery Win for Life game is simple. All you have to do is get a play slip and pick six numbers from one to 42 on a play area. Each game costs $1 and you can play as many as 26 consecutive draws using the same numbers on one ticket. You can also subscribe to the Win for Life game to ensure that you never miss a game. Each subscription is good for three, six and twelve months or 26, 52 or 104 drawings respectively. While single tickets must be bought at Virginia Lottery outlets, subscriptions can be bought online at the Virginia Lottery site.

During the online drawings, six winning numbers are drawn plus a seventh Free Ball number. You win the grand prize if your ticket matches all six numbers. If you only match five numbers plus the Free Ball number, you win $52,000 or the equivalent of $1,000 a week for a year. There are also consolation prizes ranging from $600 to $2 depending on how many numbers you’ve matched and if the winning numbers include the Free Ball number. You can check to see if you’ve won by watching the streaming video of the daily drawings on the Virginia Lottery website, check out the Lottery’s Face book site and Twitter feeds to get results, visit the nearest Virginia Lottery outlet or call the Player Information Line. Your local newspaper may also publish the results.

Many celebrities have died in tragic car crashes their lives swiftly taken without any notice. Some of the most memorable are those who did not live full and happy lives their images forever young set in the mind of millions and with the question of what might have been had they lived on. The below celebrities each contributed differently to the world, but all left indelible marks which inspired and entertained people from all walks of life.

On July 11th 1956 American artist Jackson Pollock who was 44 died instantly when his car careered of the road at high speed into a tree. He was an abstract artist who struggled with alcoholism and was well known for his ‘drip’ painting technique and the use of alkyd enamels. He used to also number his paintings instead naming and in 2005 his number 5 painting sold for an incredible $140 million dollars, which is still one of the most expensive paintings ever sold.

Jayne Mansfield whose real name was actually Vera Jayne Palmer died in an accident on June 29th 1967 aged just 34. She was travelling to a talk show appearance with her three children when her car hit the back of a truck late at night. Fortunately all three children survived the accident. She was famous during the 50s for her blonde hair and hourglass figure she also won a Golden Globe for her performance in ‘New Star of The Year’. Her life was apparently entwined with controversy at times as she allegedly had affairs with John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert F. Kennedy who were both later assassinated.

James Dean’s star quality and charisma have transcended time when he died he was one of the most adored stars in Hollywood starring in films such as ‘Rebel without a Cause’ and ‘Giant’. He died in his Porsche Spider on the 30th of September 1955.

Tennessee sheriff Buford Passer died in a car accident as a result of foul play when he was 36. His life was dramatized in several Hollywood films two of the most famous are called walking tall. He conducted a one man war against organized crime in McNairy County, Tennessee. During his career has sheriff he targeted the Stateline Mob and the Dixie Mafia. He became famous after his wife, Pauline, was killed in an ambush which was meant for him. He was such a celebrity in the 1970s that songs, books, films and a TV series have been made inspired by his life.

We all hate them! They ring at the most inconvenient times to sell us junk we neither want nor need and all done in an indecipherable accent. I recently had a telemarketer stalker. Bizarre, but true. Once a week, every week for the past five years I would receive a call. That’s right, FIVE years!

“Can I speak with Mesta Den Is Aye to?” the voice, presumably Philippine, would ask.

“No-one here by that name, sorry.” I would firmly reply. (The gentleman in question had been the previous owner of the business I had purchased.)

There was never a hint of acceptance or glimmer of understanding of this simple, unassailable fact. They would persist and I, stupidly, would continue to deny, apparently unable to get them to deviate from the script, until I would hang up in frustration! They drove me nuts!

I tried everything; surfed the net for hints, took advice from family and friends. How was I to get rid of them? My response escalated over the following weeks and months from firm denial, to explanation, to rudeness, to demanding to speak to supervisors, to, I’m sad to say, screeching obscenities. Every week I would think I’d beaten them and then the next week, like an incurable rash, they’d be back to get under my skin.

I finally hit upon the perfect response. I simply agreed.

“Sure, I’ll just get him” I said in my sweetest voice. I put the phone down and walked away. Gave it a couple of minutes and came back.

“Are you still there? Great! He said he won’t be a moment. Can you hold?”

This gorgeous, wonderful game lasted for about 15 minutes until my last attempt to confirm that they were still ‘On Hold’ and sadly they’d hung up.

They NEVER called me again. After five years. Obviously in the world of telemarketing it’s ok to waste my time and money, but not their own. The weird thing is I think I miss them.

As a beginner, working with Adobe after Effects can seem complicated. Many newcomers are scared off by its daunting user interface – looking neither like photo editing software like Adobe Photoshop or film editing suites like Apple Final Cut. So many buttons and expressions yet so little you know about them.

Don’t fear! This article is here to help you with an important part of After Effects’ workflow: the key frames in the composition window. This is what all animation in the software is based around. The purpose of this guide is focused on making you understand the concept of key frames rather than how to technically use them.

Regular, old-school animation is done by individually creating each frame by hand. For example: if you wanted a ball to bounce over screen, the animator would draw each frame – in the air, slightly closer to the ground, even more close to the ground, really close to the ground and hitting the ground. With modern motion graphics this time consuming process is no longer needed, thanks to the wonder that is key frames. A key frame is just what it sounds like: a frame that is key to the animation.

To keep the ball metaphor going, an animator working with key frames would place a key frame when the ball is at the top of the drop, and one at the bottom. The software then calculates what happens in between the different states, called twining. Using this method, we can animate position, scale, rotation, opacity; blur levels – basically anything that can have a numerical value. You can even animate distortion of clips to create funny facial expressions for example.

You can also use easing, a process when the computer calculates the speed of change between the key frames. For example, if you animate a car starting and driving away, you would want the animation to seem realistic in that the car slowly accelerates. In order to do this, you place one key frame at the start of the driving stretch and one at the end, and apply the easing. Now the car will start off slow, and finally reach its driving velocity. Combine this with key frame-animated wheels and – viola – it took you seconds to do what would have taken hour’s years ago.