Film Journal 2/14

One time I had to do an oral proficiency exam in Japanese (for my Advanced Modern Japanese class), and although I do speak Japanese fairly well, things got a little rough when I mentioned the movie Contact and the professor asked me to talk about Contact in Japanese.

Long story short, I didn't know the words "interplanetary portal," or "SETI satellite dish array," or "complex discussion between theists and atheists" in Japanese.

Film Journal 2/13

The popularity of ytmnd leads me to believe that the average viewer these days really likes repetition. We see it everywhere. Perhaps this speaks to a shorter attention span of people today (or longer for that matter, able to take repetition over and over), but that's definitely something to keep in mind in the practice of filmmaking.

Film Journal 2/12

Recently, the Discovery Channel aired a documentary about finding the tomb of Jesus Christ (presumably). It seemed like a fairly well made documentary, it was certainly interesting, though I'm no religion major (I do know someone who is though... ;) ).

But one thing bothered me: when they first open the tomb, they start to climb in and the
camera cuts to inside of the tomb watching them enter it. The previous shot showed no cameraman inside of the tomb and even the scientists themselves were just in the process of entering for the first time themselves.

It's reasonable to believe they went back and reshot that to make it more cinematic, so I'm not suggesting foul play here. I'm just confused if reality TV is the culprit here, demanding we mix regular fictive films where this sort of thing could happen with on-the-fly shooting/single takes on single-camera reality shoots... or has it just always been this way, ever since the exact same thing was done in the making of Nanook of the North over 80 years ago.

Film Journal 2/11

There was a ridiculously (and hilariously) long titled game advertised on TV today ("Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Ghost Recon Advanced War Fighter 2" or something of that nature... I'm not making this up!), and watching the commercial I realized video games need to stop pretending to be movies. The commercials show cinematic sequences from video games, but the special thing about them is that they're interactive.

Films are stories with set endings being told to you as you watch (and of course there's lots of gray area here), but video games are something you participate in. Video games won't come into their own until they stop trying to be films, just as the film medium came into it's own after it stopped trying to be live theatre (the previously established and respected art of the day).

Film Journal 2/10

Well, I'm fairly embarrassed about how much I enjoy horror movies, so to make up for it I'm going to run the opposite direction here and mention how much I love Cameron Crowe's early film Singles, a romantic comedy about dating in the early 90s Seattle grunge scene. It's not really just a run of the mill romantic comedy: the story is told in vignettes, and the characters seem more believable than characters in most films of this genre. Also, the soundtrack sold extremely well featuring music from Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Smashing Pumpkins, Mudhoney, Screaming Trees, and many other popular bands from the Seattle area.
The visual style is pretty run of the mill, as is the editing, but the characters and story take front seat in the movie making it a lot of fun to watch... especially on a date (I think there's plenty to keep men and women interested here). I've always loved Cameron Crowe, and this is certainly an important film from his early years for any Cameron Crowe fan to see.

Film Journal 2/9

I have no idea whether or not I should want to see Dead Silence when it comes out. It's the new one by James Wan and Leigh Whannel, the two kids from Australia who made a short film, and sold Lion's Gate on making it into a feature called Saw. Yes yes yes, I genuinely enjoyed Saw. It's not classic cinema by any means but it's a very interesting horror film, especially in conjunction with the second movie, written and directed by Darren Lynn Bousman (who's from my hometown).Anyway, so now you know I'm a total sucker for bad horror movies... but even I'm not sure that Dead Silence looks all that good... or all that scary for that matter. Maybe I'm just not afraid of dolls or something, but it just doesn't look like it has that same raw feel that the first movie had... but then again, the third Saw movie didn't have it either...

Film Journal 2/8

FADE IN
City streets, morning.

A Clown is sitting on a curb, smoking a cigarette, looking as if shit has just hit the fan.

Next to him: a man, lying on the hard cement, face down. As he wakes up and lifts his head from the ground, we see that he has a clown's makeup smeared on his face.

The Clown looks over at him and murmurs:

Clown: Shit.

FADE OUT.

Film Journal 2/7

All hail to George Clooney!

Movies are way too fast these days. But last year's Good Night and Good Luck had beautiful pacing. More films should stop and smell the flowers these days. That's all I have to say. "Slow down!"

Film Journal 2/6

**This post may contain spoilers for Pan's Labyrinth. It's a great film, go see it before you read this.**
If anybody is an avid reader of my blog (which I highly doubt), you'll know that I do enjoy the occasional gory movie (see several posts back). But I do have to say that the gory elements of Pan's Labyrinth were excessive and almost unnecessary. First off: this is not an official review of the film. If it were I'd be talking about many other things, but for this entry, I just want to address my issue with the violent images in this "adult fairytale."
Perhaps the filmmakers didn't think adults would go see a "fairytale" if they weren't really secure in the knowledge that it wasn't just a kids movie, so they poured it on a little thick. Any person who gets shot throughout the film gets shot a minimum of two extra times after they're dead. A man gets stabbed with a knife into his open mouth. An innocent man hunting rabbits gets his face pulverized by glass bottle. I just don't feel these were anything more than gratuitous elements in an otherwise non-gratuitous film.
I will say I was positively floored by the effects wizards behind the stitches scene. I have absolutely no idea how they were able to show a man giving himself stitches in the mouth all in one unflinching take. Slightly hard to watch (the audience at Liberty Hall was squirming), but simply amazing film making.
Whether or not the events involving the Faun really took place or not will be addressed in a later post on here (when I have nothing better to talk about), but as for now I just don't see why Pan's Labyrinth needed the level of gore it contained-- not because I was offended or because I "couldn't take it," but because it just seemed unjustified and out of place with the rest of the film. Anyone who disagrees, feel free to post a response... :)

Film Journal 2/5

Walking home from class today and listening to Ben Folds Five I realized that the last 55 seconds of the song "Regrets" (off of the Reinhold Messner album) would be amazing at the end of a film. Maybe as a group of people finds something-- way too vague I know, but trust me, it looked cool in my head.
Which brings me to my next topic: if anybody could lend me a machine that took ideas from my head and displayed them to my friends to help them assist me in creating the art I long to create, that would be just great.
Or if anyone wants to give me enough money to actually go out there and make films rather than lending me the machine. Story boards and tempt tracks will do fine in the mean time...

Film Journal 2/4

Another idea for an effect:
Shoot a person against a green screen walking or something. Composite them into a scene on the street or other comparable location, and then effect just the person so they are almost liquid in form, stretching and wiggling like gelatin and they walk.

Fairly postmodern and I have no meaning implied to the effect, but maybe it could suit a music video of some sort fairly well.

Film Journal 2/3

Idea for an effect:
If you could separate colors as well as areas of a frame into their own elements, you could slowly layer them in, object by object, and create something akin to painting real life into the shot.

It could be used as perhaps a POV of an imaginative character, having fun with their surroundings. It doesn't seem too difficult of an effect. Maybe I'll give it a try...

Film Journal 2/2

It's no secret that I've been bitten by the horror bug (it's probably one crazy-looking badass bug- Edgar Allen Poe's short story The Gold Bug pops to mind), over the past several years I have been watching plenty of horror movies, to the point that it kinda scares me sometimes.

But I see some truly amazing film making in horror movies. Perhaps because inherently, horror movies have rather lack-luster plots they must make up for it with truly stunning cinematography. One writer/director currently working in the horror genre is French filmmaker Alexandre Aja, whose visual sensibilities blow Eli Roth out of the water any day of the week.Last year Aja's Haute Tension was a visual triumph. Every frame drips with style and atmosphere. And while some of the violence will certainly turn some viewers away (the R-rated version released in American theaters was cut down by several minutes from the original), the real merit of this film is not the gore, but the guts of Aja's unflinching cinematography: no crappy hand-held shots, as is the convention, but solidly composed
filmic portraits.

As I said this film is not necessarily for everyone, but those with the stomach for this kind of thing will be treated to a horror film with more (though fewer spilled brians) than your run-of-the-mill Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Film Journal 2/1

Are music videos hack work? It seems that most feature film directors these days started with a few silly music videos for alternative rock bands-- and quite frankly, that sounds like a ball to me. I feel one of my strong suits as an editor is editing to music. Here's is a sample of my work with music: it's basically a preview for my zombie Dead Reckoning, but more so it's a music video I made using the footage I shot for Dead Reckoning.

I can't see not being proud of music video work, although I can see growing tired of it as a professional film maker if I get stuck in that role. Sorry, no great film review of movie ideas today, just pondering career choices. In the mean time, I don't think I'll quit music videos...

Film Journal 1/31

Having scribbled these various thoughts down on cocktail napkins and other scraps of paper yet forgotten to post them as of yet, I am now going to attempt to catch up with this ol' film journal.

An idea for today: I should try a project in pixilation. I've always loved the style whenever I've seen it employed (of course Norm LcLaren's Neighbors is an absolute classic), so I should try my hand and see if I can do anything substantial with the technique. However I don't feel I have anything to add to the playful practice of pixilation as of yet, so I'll let you know if I come up with any ideas worth execution.

Film Journal 1/30

Last night I watched Infernal Affairs, the Hong Kong film that Scorsese's The Departed was based off of. It wasn't the best film I've ever seen, but the story was brilliant. Basically there is a drug lord who sends his younger minions off to become police officers so they can work for him on the inside. One gets "kicked out" and works undercover for the police and the other becomes a high ranking police chief. Many years later, the under cover one is a mole for the police and the other is a police chief mole for the drug lord.
The two moles eventually learn of each other and in the end you find out whether they will team up for one side or whether they have to kill each other. It's not the most original sounding premise (the double more thing), but I really can't think of any other film that plays this dynamic so well. I haven't seen The Departed yet (though I plan to as soon as it comes out on DVD), but now I'm very excited to see Mr. Scorsese's spin on the whole thing.

Film Journal 1/29

I watched Pink Floyd's The Wall the other day for the first time in a couple of years. I was really hoping that I would understand more of it this time through. I understand that "the wall" represents alienation and the barriers we put up for ourselves and that are put up for us by others, but I still don't think a lot of the symbolism is all that meaningful. It could have used some more thought maybe.

But don't get me wrong, the animated sequences still blow my mind. I love them so much I usually end up watching those over again after finishing the whole movie.

Film Journal 1/28

Today I watched one of my favorite TV shows across the years: The Simpsons, although almost everybody agrees the show just isn't funny anymore. Just a quick thought right now about why it's just not up to the same quality it used to be-- the characters have become unbelievable. So the thing I hope to take from this is that if I write anything with characters, they need to be similar enough to actual people that viewers can relate (or something along those lines), otherwise people don't have a reason to watch.

Film Journal 1/25

Yesterday while walking to class I was listening to a Blind Melon song called "The Duke," which goes "Out here in the nothin' engulfed by the sea/ And there's no one here 'cept these fishes and me." So I started picturing myself walking underwater and I decided that would be a beautiful image for an experimental film: someone walking underwater, only they're actually on the street, there's no one else walking like that, and there's no water around.

The person would be walking much slower and doing that thing with their arms to kind of swim/walk as they go, but they'd be removed from their surroundings in this cool visual juxtaposition.

I'm nearly certain that this can't be a totally original idea; it must be in some music video or avant-garde film somewhere. But I'm also wondering what the best way to do it would be? It would be nearly impossibly to chroma key a person who's actually under water, and a roto-scopejob would take nearly forever if the shot was at all sizable in length.

Nonetheless, I'd love to see if this little "problem" would be a fun one to tackle. Maybe I'll try to photoshop something more like what I'm actually picturing and post it at a later date.

Film Journal 1/23

Well, I'd be surprised if anybody except for Professor Jacobson is reading this, so, hello Professor Jacobson.

Last night I watched Die Hard 2, and it wasn't exactly "fine cinema" by any means, but it was a fun ride nonetheless I suppose. The main thing I took away from it was that the plot didn't have the break-neck pace of most of the action films that come out these days. It seems to me that almost all movies released in the past 5 years or so race towards their ending almost as if they don't feel they can keep the audience's attention span through clear to the end.

The action itself in Die Hard 2 wasn't slow, nor was it an especially long movie, but there were parts near the middle of the film where they were pretty much just waiting on the terrorists to do something (and for Bruce Willis to witty quips). It was almost as if the filmmakers were giving the audience the benefit of the doubt that we weren't going to change the channel between explosions just because they couldn't cut the plot down to a "stomachable" 90 minutes.

It's very refreshing to see a film (especially an action film!) that stops to smell the roses along the way. Just off the top of my head, another movie released lately that did this was Good Night and Good Luck. A relaxed pace is certainly something I would like to incorporate into my work.