Film Journal 3/16

Well, today marks the beginning of Spring Break, which means all sorts of crazy relaxation on the horizon for our young hero. I’m going to make serious attempts at continuing my 9/11/Kid A project over the next week (although I can’t say how successful I’ll be). I would love to have the whole song paired with footage by next week, although I may not have that accomplished with a lot of news footage digitizing yet to do.

I think if I can get events in the footage paired with events in the song, then I can start doing the “experimental” stuff with it (i.e. effecting the image and distorting stuff, plus the couple of effects shots I had planned). I don’t think we were required to keep these things up over the break, so I’ll give you a big update on how the project is going when I return, oh faithful readers (if there are any of you), and hopefully I’ll have good news to report.

Film Journal 3/15

I'm currently working on my 9/11 project for class, and it's almost surreal cutting those events to music... especially in the way that I'm doing so. I recieved 12 hours of footage from the Fox News Channel from 9/11/01 in the mail today (c/o eBay), and I've started going through it to see what I've got... and I almost feel like I'm exploiting the event for creativity, but I assure you (and me) that I'm not!

I really want to try and provide my perspective on that particular day's events, without getting too political or anything. I hate Mr. Bush and his war, but this project is not the place to make those statements. What I do want to say in this project is that the TV media did a great job in freaking us out that day, when they should have been trying to calm us down (considering the terrorists wanted us to be, well, "terrified").

So I'll start keeping you updated on how that's going, but so far so good. I like what I've got, even if it is sort of odd.

Film Journal 3/14

Well, I've lost at film festivals before, and been constructive criticism, but recently someone (who I don't know) put this on my Zombie Movie YouTube post:

"Umm what did you plan to make when you first thought of this video"

I'm not entirely certain what to make of this. I mean, I can take the idea that someone might not like my work, of course there will be people who don't, but It's kinda weird to get random anonymous criticism from the internet. It's a first for me. Almost feels good-- hey, at least he watched it. :)

Film Journal 3/13

I made a bloopers reel for the modern adaptation of Job that I shot a year or two back. I realized that I never really made an "official" DVD to give to my cast and crew as thanks, so I made this for the DVD I'm making. Maybe it's less funny if you haven't seen the film (which I'm not sure I really want to put on YouTube... I'll think about it), but nonetheless, you can check this out if you like:

Film Journal 3/12

I'm thoroughly enjoying the Chocolate Alphabet assignment so far. I think people are really
changing the way they approach the words these days as they watch themselves do them in the early cuts of the ones we've already done. People seem to know how to be entertaining more now that they've seen what works and what doesn't.

I for one have stopped trying to seriously explain the words, in favor of using the word as a means to have fun and make silly connections. I think it's just as valid, and more fun to do, plus more fun to watch. Everybody wins. :)

Film Journal 3/11

Baby squirrels are adorable. I’m so happy with the availability of baby squirrel/kitten/puppy/anything cute videos on youTube these days. Anyone can just get on YouTube and search for devastatingly cute animal footage and find it.

I’m curious if short readily available videos such as the ones on YouTube will ever replace the fictive feature film. It’s been such a classic tradition for over 100 years now that I don’t think anything (especially not YouTube) would possibly topple the likes of Hollywood, but it certainly may change how things are done. I’m curious to see what’ll happen.

Film Journal 3/10

I mentioned Zodiac last time, so I thought I’d follow up by mentioning that Zodiac is indeed the first film to be shot on digital and send directly to a hard drive. No tapes involved. Films shot in HD are not a new phenomenon obviously, but most feature films shot that way are shot on tape, but this was the first one to go directly to a hard drive.

I find this interesting because at work (KU Media Productions) we shoot most of our footage, especially the High Def stuff, onto an external hard drive called the FireStore, and it works really well. I suppose this is the future of cinema here.

Film Journal 3/9

DAMMIT! I never saw The Fountain in theaters. I don't know how I managed to miss it. I'm a huge fan of Darren Aronofsky (though apparently not enough to actually look up the official spelling...) but I didn't manage to make it to the theater to see his latest film.

I also haven't seen Zodiac yet, and again, I'm a huge fan of David Fincher (I do know how to spell him name). I might just be a lazy movie fan, which saddens me. I have the excuse for a lot of the independent films that never made it to Liberty Hall, but after those come out on video, I'll have to catch up on those too.

I've really got some catching up to do.

Film Journal 3/8

I always like popping movies into the ol' DVD player when I know I have nothing else to do but watch sit back and relax for a while. This is not the case with watching television most of the time. When you have commercials to deal with, and you are only getting 21 1/2 minutes of entertainment for ever half hour, and you're aware that the producers only produce TV shows to make you watch the next show, and not allow you to just enjoy one show-- it's just nowhere near as good.

I love movies so much more than television (and don't get me started on movies on television... ulgh, "full screen" [shudder]...).

(yes... it's the Goonies)

Film Journal 3/7

Someone actually posted a comment on my YouTube post of the scene we reproduced from Citizen Cane for my video production class. I'll be the first to admit: it's not really that good...... and THERE'S NO REASON TO REPRODUCE CITIZEN CANE. Sorry.

Anyway, I thought it was interesting that someone I don't know saw it and said, "excellent man, really good."

Boggles my mind.

Film Journal 3/6

I wish there were a better way to light night shots to make them look like what it actually looks like to the human eye at night. Perhaps this is too dark to be aesthetically pleasing, I'm not sure, but I do know that it almost never actually look like "night" when you see ext. night shots in movies.

I recall one scene in Red Shadow: Akakage (I believe) where they shot day for night by putting a dark blue filter over everything. It looked cool, but it didn't quite look like real night. I should look into being able to do that...

Film Journal 3/5

Let me just say it: I love The Matrix 2. Yes, the third one is pretty bad, and neither of them are as good as the first one, but I was not disappointed at all with the second installment in the Wachowski brothers' trilogy.There are tons of reasons why I could defend the film, and many reasons why I could knock it. But mostly I just absolutely love the whole car chase. After the special effects of the first film, they had big expectations to fill. With the Agent Smith(s) battle they were sort of able to do this, but the highway sequence took their brand of action to a new territory. It was a wholly original take on the olllld tradition of the car chase. When those who semi trucks slam into each other and explode in slow motion at the end, I almost shed a tear from the sheer beauty of it.

I know I end up saying this a lot on here, but this movie is not "classic cinema" by any means, but It's a damn fun ride, and that was good enough for me.

Film Journal 3/4

So Sam Neill, or "Dr. Grant" as we Jurassic Park fan prefer to refer to him, has his own vineyard, "Two Paddocks" wine. Is that ridiculous? For an actor to have a vineyard based mainly on a character he played in a Steven Spielberg film?

Don't get me wrong, I'm probably one of the biggest Jurassic Park fans you'll ever meet... but Jurassic Park wine? I dunno. One way or another, I'm trying to track some down to buy it. :)

Film Journal 3/3

On ESPN they have a desk with video showing on the front with the team logos and such, but the desk had a 90 degree angle bend in it where the video was continuous throughout. I was in a bit of a debate as to whether this was the effect of a green screen or flat panel televisions.

I don't think we have the television technology to make a television like that, so I bet it was some chroma key technique, but man was it advanced. There was a reflection on the floor, and the camera moved around in real time. Well done ESPN.

Film Journal 3/2

One of my favorite songs ever ("Change" by Blind Melon) has a lovely music video.

And here it is:

Film Journal 3/1

Luke a young man with long blonde hair, is left alone in the apartment with Peter's (his roommate) Cap'n Crunch. Luke eats it, and enjoys every last bite. Peter gets back to see this and begins to question him. Angry that Luke has eaten his cap’n crunch, Peter begins screaming and flailing the box everywhere, sending the cereal flying all over the room as he cries out, “Try and eat it now Luke! Try and eat it now!” Luke looks horrified.

The end.

Film Journal 2/28

I'm sorry. I'm still stuck on the Forrest Gump II debacle. I found this about the second novel (thanks to Wikipedia):

"Gump and Co. is the 1995 sequel to Winston Groom's novel Forrest Gump.

Several years after the events of Forrest Gump, Forrest's shrimping business has gone bust. Jenny has died, leaving Forrest to provide for Forrest, Jr., his intelligent, though emotionally distant, son. Forrest's mother has also died. Jenny occasionally makes an appearance as a sort of guardian angel for Forrest and their son.

As in the first book, Gump stumbles through important U.S. events in the 1980s and early 1990s. He plays football for the New Orleans Saints, sells encyclopedias, works on a pig farm, and helps develop the infamous New Coke. He accidentally crashes the Exxon Valdez, helps destroy the Berlin Wall, and fights in Operation Desert Storm. He meets many celebrities, including Oliver North, the Ayatollah Khomeine, Jim Bakker, Ivan Boesky, Ronald Reagan, Saddam Hussein, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and of course, Tom Hanks."

This sounds truly awful....

Film Journal 2/27

It's official. Hollywood is insane.

Possible Forrest Gump Sequel

There's just nothing to write about this. You know how I feel about Forrest Gump from a few entries back (I believe I used the phrase "made me cry," which is no laughing matter (har har)). A sequel, despite the existence of a second book, it just sounds entirely contrived.

Film Journal 2/26

Led Zeppelin's The Song Remains the Same is a masterpiece.
Unless anyone needed any more proof (beyond "The Battle of Evermore" and various other Lord of the Rings themed songs), these guys were serious nerds... but still they were serious rock stars.
The show itself here is brilliant, as if there were any question about that, but the vignettes are simply amazing. Wizards and magic and sword fights... I thought it was so much fun, waaaaay nerdy, but lots of fun. The 30-minute version of "Whole Lotta Lovin'" didn't hurt either ;)

Film Journal 2/25

I want to make a short film of the children's book The Man Who Was Five Minutes Late. It's basically about a guy who is 5 minutes late his entire life, and people are always waiting on him. One day he sees that the princess is getting married to a bachelor of her choosing at the castle that day. But since he is 5-minutes late, he figures he won't get the princess... but it turns out she's five minutes late too, so they get married, etc etc etc.

And in the end it turns out that they weren't actually five minutes late... everyone else was just five minutes early.

Maybe I've mentioned this before. I didn't check.