Thursday, March 30, 2006
I don't want to spend my whole life worrying about organisation.
I was sitting at the dinner table tonight and we were eating and the entire conversation was made up of organisation and worrying and talking about small trivial things. Sometimes you just want to eat your dinner and spend some time with your family without having to worry about logistics. But it just keeps coming back.
That's why films like American Beauty are great. It just gets it. For some reason it's so much better when you just let things happen. Who cares about the sofa. I'm not talking about not organising things. Just not worrying or getting angry. At least trying. Whenever there's none of that things are good. Really good.
Lunch meet up today was good. Lots of people showed up, almost as many as we had in the first week.
Huge chocolate bunnies are insanely hard to eat: No photo, focked internet.
Good evening and take care.
I was sitting at the dinner table tonight and we were eating and the entire conversation was made up of organisation and worrying and talking about small trivial things. Sometimes you just want to eat your dinner and spend some time with your family without having to worry about logistics. But it just keeps coming back.
That's why films like American Beauty are great. It just gets it. For some reason it's so much better when you just let things happen. Who cares about the sofa. I'm not talking about not organising things. Just not worrying or getting angry. At least trying. Whenever there's none of that things are good. Really good.
Lunch meet up today was good. Lots of people showed up, almost as many as we had in the first week.
Huge chocolate bunnies are insanely hard to eat: No photo, focked internet.
Good evening and take care.
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
[Film Rating Key: An A+ has no flaws, an F has no value and C is average. Anything A-ish is in my top 100, B-ish is worth watching, C-ish is passable and D-ish is not worth seeing.]
Blogs always break their own rules. For example, I said I was gonna do a four part feature on Utada Hikaru as a Video Artist. I've only done two so far. I might do more. The thing is, she just released like three new songs in the few months and I am still digesting them. Also she has a new Jap album coming out this year, plus I am busy, plus I can't find ways to take good screenshots. So therefore parts three and four will be here in the future, some time.
So the point of me saying this is that, I usually review movies in threes because I like three and also it means I don't have to write about films all the time. But anyway, tonight I'm tired so I'll just talk about one movie I saw about an hour ago.
A History of Violence: This was a good movie. There's something wrong with it though, or rather mind-boggling, would be a better word. First off, I don't like violent movies, I've mentioned before. Main downsides - violent film, you see dead bodies, you hear violence. Also it is really simple. If you watch the trailer and make a guess at the entire storyline you'll probably get it right. Main highs - great direction, creation of atmosphere and just a superbly constructed film in general. Great performances from the central cast. Now, the script was interesting. I don't think you could call this a very good script. Or very bad. It was just, 'uhhhhh'. I can't quite say whether or not it's outstanding. The best part of the film is the amount of symbolism and the social commentary packed into the title of the film and the overall plot. That alone makes it a good movie. However, I have to come back to its simplicity (if you ignore all the symbolism and the film as a microcosm and all that film theory shiznit). People shouldn't have to go read a Cronenberg interview to find out all the layers. Although they are very good, and also the film works and is understandable even if you don't get the other stuff. But here's the thing:
Crew/Development Personnel: Hey, I have a good idea. Let's get the main character and his wife to push, shove, slap, strangle [various combinations] each other and then get the main character to rape his wife on the staircase of their home. No really. Then let's follow that up with a nude shot of the wife as she walks out of the bathroom the next morning. Also, it'd be a good idea for a lot of people to get killed in the movie. Cos a high numerical head count would really show just how violent violence is. Despite the fact that the main theme of the movie is about the history of violence, not violence itself, we should make the violence as thrilling and amazingly well-cut as possible. Also the main guy must be superhuman and be able to flip around at break-neck speed (pun intended) and kill three people while trying to recover from a gun shot wound to his right shoulder and a knife stab in his left/right foot and after just being strangled by a piece of thick, unsympathetic wire. Everyone else must suck at killing. But he must be awesome. Yeah, I think that'd get our message across.
I wonder how people come up with ideas. I mean, how do they think up those exact details in a film? Notice that I'm not saying what they chose to do was a good or bad thing, I'm just merely saying that it's quite interesting. Anyway this movie gets a B, despite an hour of sitting there and thinking about the 'B-'-ness of the film. I recommend this film. Just know that it's violent and that you could be watching a nice and pleasant film which could talk about how beautiful humanity could be.
Some think this film is a masterpiece in its combination of 'violence and simplicity'. If you wanted to see violence, you could see this film. Or you could see another film that is slightly closer to the masterpiece marker on the ruler.
Oldboy.
Blogs always break their own rules. For example, I said I was gonna do a four part feature on Utada Hikaru as a Video Artist. I've only done two so far. I might do more. The thing is, she just released like three new songs in the few months and I am still digesting them. Also she has a new Jap album coming out this year, plus I am busy, plus I can't find ways to take good screenshots. So therefore parts three and four will be here in the future, some time.
So the point of me saying this is that, I usually review movies in threes because I like three and also it means I don't have to write about films all the time. But anyway, tonight I'm tired so I'll just talk about one movie I saw about an hour ago.
A History of Violence: This was a good movie. There's something wrong with it though, or rather mind-boggling, would be a better word. First off, I don't like violent movies, I've mentioned before. Main downsides - violent film, you see dead bodies, you hear violence. Also it is really simple. If you watch the trailer and make a guess at the entire storyline you'll probably get it right. Main highs - great direction, creation of atmosphere and just a superbly constructed film in general. Great performances from the central cast. Now, the script was interesting. I don't think you could call this a very good script. Or very bad. It was just, 'uhhhhh'. I can't quite say whether or not it's outstanding. The best part of the film is the amount of symbolism and the social commentary packed into the title of the film and the overall plot. That alone makes it a good movie. However, I have to come back to its simplicity (if you ignore all the symbolism and the film as a microcosm and all that film theory shiznit). People shouldn't have to go read a Cronenberg interview to find out all the layers. Although they are very good, and also the film works and is understandable even if you don't get the other stuff. But here's the thing:
Crew/Development Personnel: Hey, I have a good idea. Let's get the main character and his wife to push, shove, slap, strangle [various combinations] each other and then get the main character to rape his wife on the staircase of their home. No really. Then let's follow that up with a nude shot of the wife as she walks out of the bathroom the next morning. Also, it'd be a good idea for a lot of people to get killed in the movie. Cos a high numerical head count would really show just how violent violence is. Despite the fact that the main theme of the movie is about the history of violence, not violence itself, we should make the violence as thrilling and amazingly well-cut as possible. Also the main guy must be superhuman and be able to flip around at break-neck speed (pun intended) and kill three people while trying to recover from a gun shot wound to his right shoulder and a knife stab in his left/right foot and after just being strangled by a piece of thick, unsympathetic wire. Everyone else must suck at killing. But he must be awesome. Yeah, I think that'd get our message across.
I wonder how people come up with ideas. I mean, how do they think up those exact details in a film? Notice that I'm not saying what they chose to do was a good or bad thing, I'm just merely saying that it's quite interesting. Anyway this movie gets a B, despite an hour of sitting there and thinking about the 'B-'-ness of the film. I recommend this film. Just know that it's violent and that you could be watching a nice and pleasant film which could talk about how beautiful humanity could be.
Some think this film is a masterpiece in its combination of 'violence and simplicity'. If you wanted to see violence, you could see this film. Or you could see another film that is slightly closer to the masterpiece marker on the ruler.
Oldboy.
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
On Set Experience - Part II
[I realise this is not written in the most literate way, and I apologise, but I better note this down fast before I forget, or before I screw it up. There are a lot of conversational 'like' and 'huh' and tense-screw-ups and 'yeah' 'right' 'whatever' but bear with me, it happens when I blog.]
Hi. So anyway.
My job was basically doing food. This meant that if anyone needed anything to drink or eat I had to handle it. I didn't actually conjure things out of thin air, I was in charge of food, but I wasn't actually the caterer, cos yeah, with the number of people there'd you someone to deliver lunch. So it was like, basically people need water, I go get water. People need coffee, I get coffee. I set up the food table and access and afternoon tea and carry it around for people to get their cups and so on. Kids need fruits, I cut up fruits. Kids need whatever, I make whatever. One note, I lost my coffee virginity today. Sounds lame huh? Well it is, I am supposed to be 'straight edge' guys, but I drank some coffee because, hey I made something like 25 jugs of it (most of it really bad too, but man, these guys never complained about it) and you're bound to taste it to know if it tastes like shit before giving it to someone else to drink.
The great thing about this was that I never left the set. If I was runner, I'd probably be out getting stuff and driving around 40-70% of the time. But since I did food, I just needed to make sure things were set up and there was ALWAYS food available and ppl weren't dehydrated, and as soon as that was done, I could go upstairs (they mainly shot upstairs in the house) and watch watch watch.
Meeting people: It's the magic of being on a film set. You meet all these people for the first time, and you immediately get right into making something that's both really personal and huge that involves so much cooperation. Sure, I didn't do 'much', but in just one day I met these great great people, and it's like, damn, now that's pretty much it. I'm sure I'll see some/a lot of them in the future, but there are some people I might not meet again. But how magical is that, to do all these different projects through your career and meet new people every time and then you suddenly bump into someone you worked with years ago and it's like, 'woah hey hey'. Yeah, incredible atmosphere.
Sound: I didn't get to ask Ande (the boom operator) as many questions as I wanted to, but I watched him a lot while they were shooting and just how he controlled the boom (since sound is the area I know the least about). It takes so much skill and precision and endurance and endurance and stamina and stamina to be a boom operator. The way you leverage the weight of the microphone and the boom pole with one hand and put it in between the thumb and index finger of the other and how small the range of motion has to be is amazing. He followed the turning heads of the actors and shifted the microphone to follow their movement when they were sitting down/standing up/moving left and right . Another key part of boom operation is making sure it's out of the frame. That must take so much practise and experience, because not once did they say, 'boom in frame, let's do it again'. No easy task. I sat behind Mike for a while, watching him do the levels and mix the sound. I didn't understand what he was doing most of the time, but it's amazing the level of precision they have with this kind of thing, in terms of the connection between the camera and the sound departments. And I love the monitors (both CRT and LCD) that they looked through. So cool seeing the video-feed of the types of angles they were doing, without having to squint into a tiny viewfinder.
Director/continuity: I sat behind the shoulder of the director and continuity supervisor for a bit, and basically Aria had a laptop and she was typing everything to do with continuity in there and had a 'script' of sorts and beside her the director was watching the monitor intently. Zia is a director of few words, but she gets her takes. Esp. with film, every second costs, so they rehearse and rehearse and rehearse and set it up and set it up and then bam they do the take and they either nail it on the first one or do it three times at most (in usual circumstances). It was great watching them work under that kind of pressure. One thing to note is that they had kid actors and they cooperated so well. They got really good kids who were willing to eat totally disgusting, stale fish 'n' chips. And do some other things too.
Camera/lights: This is like, the uber-cool gear department. The rigs, the way they load the magazine, measuring the distance for focus, the massive dolly rig they had sitting there (which I don't think they used), the handheld handles on their camera, the massive matte-box (is that what you call it?), the big box of lenses they had, how they changed the lenses (I couldn't see exactly how that was done, but yeah), how they had 3 people surrounding the camera all pressing/noting different things, even though only one of them was the camera operator. Noticing how silent the Director of Photography was during the shoot, yet how precise their planning was. Storyboards! Snuck a peak at them - they have both drawn and photograph storyboards. Loads of pre-production, obviously, and it certainly paid off, esp. with how fast they were able to set up the shots. The interesting thing about shooting on film is how much longer everything takes. The same moment from several angles takes hours, and I'd go downstairs, come back up, and they'd still be doing the same thing, yet the whole feel of it would be different because of how they set things up and obviously because of how it was framed.
The best part of it: (long long rant)
The people were close to egoless. This was great. While there was a hierarchy, it existed because it was necessary for there to be a chain of command if things were to go smoothly. But no one had an ego. Contrary to the nightmare stories, everyone was so down to earth and humble and were so willing to help and talk. Esp. when it's your first day you are scared of getting in other people's way, but honestly, it was like, 'the film comes first', if you were doing something important everyone gets out of your way even if you are the lowest paid person on the set or whatever. I know it seems basic, but this isn't how it is in a lot of places. In a lot of places and other situations people seem to think that their position comes before the job at hand. But not today. I am not sure if that was just cos I was lucky to get a really good crew on my first experience on a set, or because that's how all/most NZ crews are, or if it's how most/all crews are around the world. Probably not. But they sure assembled a great team.
Oh yeah, everyone got those radio walkie talkie things with an earpiece. So when they were starting to shoot the 1st AD would say 'shooting' etc. and when they cut you'd hear 'cut' no matter where you were. Also you got a little microphone thing attached to it and so anyone could 'phone-home' to anyone else. It was really cool like, those army things, 'Bex to Dennis,' then you had to say, 'Dennis, copy,' then she said like, 'Bring up two cups of water, copy,' then I'd be like, 'ok.' So on and so on. And you got to hear and know exactly what was happening when. Again, it's so simple, but it's just the amazing difference between a professional and non-professional set. Organisation and clarity and transparency and always knowing what was happening were what made the difference.
Also, there's this thing about them wanting you to know and wanting you to learn. I was downstairs doing food, and Bex said, "Quick quick, as soon as you're done here I want to get you upstairs and watching as much of the action as soon as possible." They really tried to make sure I learnt stuff and had a good time. Also when I asked people questions they answered in a nice way and were enthusiastic and it was like, 'Yes, we're shooting a movie, but that doesn't mean I can't give you a few moments to explain what I'm doing right now.' And I guess the fact that no one took things for granted made such a difference. I was doing these 'little jobs' like filling up water bottles and carrying trays and washing all the metal heater things and the fuel tank or whatever but I never felt like I was undervalued because they just kept saying 'thanks thanks, love your work, cheers, bless you, etc. etc.' no matter what the situation or how much of a hurry they were in. Also because I was doing food I pretty much had to talk to everyone so that was a bonus as it maximised how many people I could meet. Hmm, except the camera people didn't seem to eat much.
Also there weren't 'barriers'. You could sit or stand anywhere you wanted to as long as you weren't making a noise or in shot. So you could position yourself to see the stuff that you were most interested in, e.g. sound/camera/lights and so on. That sense of 'equality' which I have never felt before. You know when you're a kid and places have all these 'rules' that you don't seem to think there are reasons for? Or when you felt like teachers would tell you, 'You can't go in there,' just because they needed to negate someone so they could feel good about themselves? On this set it felt like the rules were actually reasonable and if you were going to do anything inappropriate, they'd tell you, instead of telling you off later or going psych. No hostility, completely logical reasons for everything.
This pretty much confirms why film sets are incredible. People who can set up a creative environment like that are really inspirational and just reaffirm what I've always thought, that the filmmaking process is just as valuable as the film itself. You could spend minutes or hours watching a film, but you could be filming for days/months. One day on this set really wasn't enough, but then it's never enough. Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who organised for this to happen, it was fun, it was interesting and damn, again I say one day is not enough. Next time I am missing class for this, actually, there won't be a 'next time' as this kind of thing only happens once, but on the next frickin' amazing shoot or whatever I am gonna be there as soon as they txt/call/email without question. Thank you thank you thank you, this was more than the best 'first on-set experience' I could have possibly imagined and I can't wait to be on a set again. I'm really looking forward to seeing the final film and hope the next few days' shooting go as well as today's.
I probably didn't describe things in as much detail as I could've, for example there were things that happened involving random conversations unrelated to the shooting, finding out people's backgrounds and where they are from and how they got into film, what they want to achieve, how the industry is, and stuff which is too long to talk about here and also would be weird cos then I'd be regurgitating what they said to me online which I'm sure you'd find weird, if you had a convo with someone who you just met and then it makes its way in perfect detail onto their blog. Also, I think people start forgetting things as soon as they happen, which is a shame. So I've probably forgotten some [many] things already. Also, I can't articulate some things. I think this experience may have occured in a 'heightened-reality' feel for me because you know, I'm into this stuff. So I dunno, maybe someone else just would not feel that spark when they're on set, maybe for them it has to be a different environment. But yeah, filmmaking is about the people and having fun. Epiphanies galore.
Good night and take care. Once again, so grateful for this.
Oh btw my title is Unit Manager, which actually sounds way more impressive than what I think I did, but anyway, that will be cool, to have an official credit for a film. Not saying the DV ones I make aren't real films, but they belong to a totally different world of organisms. The weird thing about this 'role' is that people who seemed really scary and authoritative were asking me questions about what they could do/couldn't do because I was, 'the Unit guy'. But anyway I just felt that it was cool to contribute. I think traditionally Unit did do more than just food (at least from definitions I can find online), but the impression I got was that in NZ or perhaps nowadays (or in this part of the world), Unit primarily meant taking care of food. Throughout the day the stuff I helped out on did branch out into other areas, but I'm prett sure Unit = food in NZ.
Awesome, learnt to make coffee. That's the first step to survival in the industry. So far, orking from the ground up is one of the best experiences I have ever had. I do feel tired (who doesn't feel tired after a 12 hour day?), but if I wasn't then it'd be because I didn't work hard enough.
[Note: There are no photos because my cell phone makes a loud 'click' whenever I take a photo, so that would've been one of the most distracting things to do on set. Another reason is because there was already a pro-guy taking photos and I'm pretty sure it's illegal to take 'em if you haven't been given permission. Or at least distribute them online before the film is completed or something.]
Hi. So anyway.
My job was basically doing food. This meant that if anyone needed anything to drink or eat I had to handle it. I didn't actually conjure things out of thin air, I was in charge of food, but I wasn't actually the caterer, cos yeah, with the number of people there'd you someone to deliver lunch. So it was like, basically people need water, I go get water. People need coffee, I get coffee. I set up the food table and access and afternoon tea and carry it around for people to get their cups and so on. Kids need fruits, I cut up fruits. Kids need whatever, I make whatever. One note, I lost my coffee virginity today. Sounds lame huh? Well it is, I am supposed to be 'straight edge' guys, but I drank some coffee because, hey I made something like 25 jugs of it (most of it really bad too, but man, these guys never complained about it) and you're bound to taste it to know if it tastes like shit before giving it to someone else to drink.
The great thing about this was that I never left the set. If I was runner, I'd probably be out getting stuff and driving around 40-70% of the time. But since I did food, I just needed to make sure things were set up and there was ALWAYS food available and ppl weren't dehydrated, and as soon as that was done, I could go upstairs (they mainly shot upstairs in the house) and watch watch watch.
Meeting people: It's the magic of being on a film set. You meet all these people for the first time, and you immediately get right into making something that's both really personal and huge that involves so much cooperation. Sure, I didn't do 'much', but in just one day I met these great great people, and it's like, damn, now that's pretty much it. I'm sure I'll see some/a lot of them in the future, but there are some people I might not meet again. But how magical is that, to do all these different projects through your career and meet new people every time and then you suddenly bump into someone you worked with years ago and it's like, 'woah hey hey'. Yeah, incredible atmosphere.
Sound: I didn't get to ask Ande (the boom operator) as many questions as I wanted to, but I watched him a lot while they were shooting and just how he controlled the boom (since sound is the area I know the least about). It takes so much skill and precision and endurance and endurance and stamina and stamina to be a boom operator. The way you leverage the weight of the microphone and the boom pole with one hand and put it in between the thumb and index finger of the other and how small the range of motion has to be is amazing. He followed the turning heads of the actors and shifted the microphone to follow their movement when they were sitting down/standing up/moving left and right . Another key part of boom operation is making sure it's out of the frame. That must take so much practise and experience, because not once did they say, 'boom in frame, let's do it again'. No easy task. I sat behind Mike for a while, watching him do the levels and mix the sound. I didn't understand what he was doing most of the time, but it's amazing the level of precision they have with this kind of thing, in terms of the connection between the camera and the sound departments. And I love the monitors (both CRT and LCD) that they looked through. So cool seeing the video-feed of the types of angles they were doing, without having to squint into a tiny viewfinder.
Director/continuity: I sat behind the shoulder of the director and continuity supervisor for a bit, and basically Aria had a laptop and she was typing everything to do with continuity in there and had a 'script' of sorts and beside her the director was watching the monitor intently. Zia is a director of few words, but she gets her takes. Esp. with film, every second costs, so they rehearse and rehearse and rehearse and set it up and set it up and then bam they do the take and they either nail it on the first one or do it three times at most (in usual circumstances). It was great watching them work under that kind of pressure. One thing to note is that they had kid actors and they cooperated so well. They got really good kids who were willing to eat totally disgusting, stale fish 'n' chips. And do some other things too.
Camera/lights: This is like, the uber-cool gear department. The rigs, the way they load the magazine, measuring the distance for focus, the massive dolly rig they had sitting there (which I don't think they used), the handheld handles on their camera, the massive matte-box (is that what you call it?), the big box of lenses they had, how they changed the lenses (I couldn't see exactly how that was done, but yeah), how they had 3 people surrounding the camera all pressing/noting different things, even though only one of them was the camera operator. Noticing how silent the Director of Photography was during the shoot, yet how precise their planning was. Storyboards! Snuck a peak at them - they have both drawn and photograph storyboards. Loads of pre-production, obviously, and it certainly paid off, esp. with how fast they were able to set up the shots. The interesting thing about shooting on film is how much longer everything takes. The same moment from several angles takes hours, and I'd go downstairs, come back up, and they'd still be doing the same thing, yet the whole feel of it would be different because of how they set things up and obviously because of how it was framed.
The best part of it: (long long rant)
The people were close to egoless. This was great. While there was a hierarchy, it existed because it was necessary for there to be a chain of command if things were to go smoothly. But no one had an ego. Contrary to the nightmare stories, everyone was so down to earth and humble and were so willing to help and talk. Esp. when it's your first day you are scared of getting in other people's way, but honestly, it was like, 'the film comes first', if you were doing something important everyone gets out of your way even if you are the lowest paid person on the set or whatever. I know it seems basic, but this isn't how it is in a lot of places. In a lot of places and other situations people seem to think that their position comes before the job at hand. But not today. I am not sure if that was just cos I was lucky to get a really good crew on my first experience on a set, or because that's how all/most NZ crews are, or if it's how most/all crews are around the world. Probably not. But they sure assembled a great team.
Oh yeah, everyone got those radio walkie talkie things with an earpiece. So when they were starting to shoot the 1st AD would say 'shooting' etc. and when they cut you'd hear 'cut' no matter where you were. Also you got a little microphone thing attached to it and so anyone could 'phone-home' to anyone else. It was really cool like, those army things, 'Bex to Dennis,' then you had to say, 'Dennis, copy,' then she said like, 'Bring up two cups of water, copy,' then I'd be like, 'ok.' So on and so on. And you got to hear and know exactly what was happening when. Again, it's so simple, but it's just the amazing difference between a professional and non-professional set. Organisation and clarity and transparency and always knowing what was happening were what made the difference.
Also, there's this thing about them wanting you to know and wanting you to learn. I was downstairs doing food, and Bex said, "Quick quick, as soon as you're done here I want to get you upstairs and watching as much of the action as soon as possible." They really tried to make sure I learnt stuff and had a good time. Also when I asked people questions they answered in a nice way and were enthusiastic and it was like, 'Yes, we're shooting a movie, but that doesn't mean I can't give you a few moments to explain what I'm doing right now.' And I guess the fact that no one took things for granted made such a difference. I was doing these 'little jobs' like filling up water bottles and carrying trays and washing all the metal heater things and the fuel tank or whatever but I never felt like I was undervalued because they just kept saying 'thanks thanks, love your work, cheers, bless you, etc. etc.' no matter what the situation or how much of a hurry they were in. Also because I was doing food I pretty much had to talk to everyone so that was a bonus as it maximised how many people I could meet. Hmm, except the camera people didn't seem to eat much.
Also there weren't 'barriers'. You could sit or stand anywhere you wanted to as long as you weren't making a noise or in shot. So you could position yourself to see the stuff that you were most interested in, e.g. sound/camera/lights and so on. That sense of 'equality' which I have never felt before. You know when you're a kid and places have all these 'rules' that you don't seem to think there are reasons for? Or when you felt like teachers would tell you, 'You can't go in there,' just because they needed to negate someone so they could feel good about themselves? On this set it felt like the rules were actually reasonable and if you were going to do anything inappropriate, they'd tell you, instead of telling you off later or going psych. No hostility, completely logical reasons for everything.
This pretty much confirms why film sets are incredible. People who can set up a creative environment like that are really inspirational and just reaffirm what I've always thought, that the filmmaking process is just as valuable as the film itself. You could spend minutes or hours watching a film, but you could be filming for days/months. One day on this set really wasn't enough, but then it's never enough. Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who organised for this to happen, it was fun, it was interesting and damn, again I say one day is not enough. Next time I am missing class for this, actually, there won't be a 'next time' as this kind of thing only happens once, but on the next frickin' amazing shoot or whatever I am gonna be there as soon as they txt/call/email without question. Thank you thank you thank you, this was more than the best 'first on-set experience' I could have possibly imagined and I can't wait to be on a set again. I'm really looking forward to seeing the final film and hope the next few days' shooting go as well as today's.
I probably didn't describe things in as much detail as I could've, for example there were things that happened involving random conversations unrelated to the shooting, finding out people's backgrounds and where they are from and how they got into film, what they want to achieve, how the industry is, and stuff which is too long to talk about here and also would be weird cos then I'd be regurgitating what they said to me online which I'm sure you'd find weird, if you had a convo with someone who you just met and then it makes its way in perfect detail onto their blog. Also, I think people start forgetting things as soon as they happen, which is a shame. So I've probably forgotten some [many] things already. Also, I can't articulate some things. I think this experience may have occured in a 'heightened-reality' feel for me because you know, I'm into this stuff. So I dunno, maybe someone else just would not feel that spark when they're on set, maybe for them it has to be a different environment. But yeah, filmmaking is about the people and having fun. Epiphanies galore.
Good night and take care. Once again, so grateful for this.
Oh btw my title is Unit Manager, which actually sounds way more impressive than what I think I did, but anyway, that will be cool, to have an official credit for a film. Not saying the DV ones I make aren't real films, but they belong to a totally different world of organisms. The weird thing about this 'role' is that people who seemed really scary and authoritative were asking me questions about what they could do/couldn't do because I was, 'the Unit guy'. But anyway I just felt that it was cool to contribute. I think traditionally Unit did do more than just food (at least from definitions I can find online), but the impression I got was that in NZ or perhaps nowadays (or in this part of the world), Unit primarily meant taking care of food. Throughout the day the stuff I helped out on did branch out into other areas, but I'm prett sure Unit = food in NZ.
Awesome, learnt to make coffee. That's the first step to survival in the industry. So far, orking from the ground up is one of the best experiences I have ever had. I do feel tired (who doesn't feel tired after a 12 hour day?), but if I wasn't then it'd be because I didn't work hard enough.
[Note: There are no photos because my cell phone makes a loud 'click' whenever I take a photo, so that would've been one of the most distracting things to do on set. Another reason is because there was already a pro-guy taking photos and I'm pretty sure it's illegal to take 'em if you haven't been given permission. Or at least distribute them online before the film is completed or something.]
On Set Experience - Part I
[I realise this is not written in the most literate way, and I apologise, but I better note this down fast before I forget, or before I screw it up. There are a lot of conversational 'like' and 'huh' and tense-screw-ups and 'yeah' 'right' 'whatever' but bear with me, it happens when you blog.]
Fuck. Today I helped out on Clean Linen, a short film that is being shot this week on location in an old 80's-style house. For information, visit: http://nomadzunlimited.com/ There isn't a lot of info there on this short film yet, probably because they're still shooting.
Learning film and media theory at the University of Auckland: Good, good stuff.
Making your own DV short films: Good, good stuff.
Being on a professional set for one day: The most valuable experience ever.
I'm gonna do a really long post:
a) So when I read back on this I can remember what happened
and
b) So I can attempt to recreate what happened.
This post is about the people I met. The next one is about what actually happened.
THE DAY: Part I - The People I Met
Melissa (Production Assistant) came to pick me up at 6 AM, and we drove towards the Shore. We thought we were gonna be late, but we got there 7 minutes early (start time: 6:45AM)! On the way there we talked about good papers to take during the BA for film, what to watch out for etc. She was/is on this 'summer scholarship' thing and basically means she's helping out and learning and 'interning' as such for Shuchi Kothari and Sarina Pearson (two of UA's practical papers' lecturers). Her role on this film is basically doing a heck of a lot of organisation from picking up people to photocopying things to making sure everyone gets their call sheets (sheets saying when and where people need to be at which place) and that they get their information packs (these include your contract, 'mud maps' to the location, shoot times, what's happening on each day, cast and crew contact details and roles).
After we got there I met a heck of a lot of people. The house was cool and they had cones and all that clearing off the area and a portable loo set up and all that jazz. I went through and saw the camera department set up their Arriflex SR-II 16mm film camera. I know this probably is old news to people who work on film all the time, but this was pretty exciting for me. This was where things got complicated cos I had to learn like 30 names. This must happen every time you start shooting a new movie, and it's awesome. So first off I met Rebekah (Bex) Kelly, our Production Manager, who I knew from the Friday prep meeting. She is awesome. She organises like everything other than shooting related stuff. Basically she and Melissa does the shit. Every question I had I'd ask her. If anyone had problems or queries on set, they'd ask her. And the awesome thing was the great patience and initiative she took. E.g. I'd need markers to write ppl's names on the cups, and there wasn't one. So I'd ask her if anyone had any. If not, she'd send someone out to get markers. Then I needed Glad Wrap. She sent people out to get that. We needed more power plugs. She organised for that to come in. The hot water urn didn't work. She organised for a guy to come in to fix it within 20 minutes. I didn't know how to make coffee. She taught me how to make coffee. Production Manager may be one of the most important people on a movie set?
Then I met the director, Zia Mandviwalla, who is only in her mid 20's or something. Her previous short film screened at London, Spain and in Korea etc. and man, she was in control. I heard someone say this was probably the best first day they had ever seen. Basically nothing went wrong and everyone did their job and the shoot went smoothly and even if there were problems people just kept going and we finished on time. It was a 12 hour day, but honestly, it didn't feel like work. I'll elaborate more on that later. The main thing here is that no one was 'out-of-control' at any point.
Then I met the sound guys, first up - Mike Westgate. Now, it was an honour to make fucking bad coffee for this guy. If you type his name into imdb, he has like 40 credits and way more unlisted. Awesome awesome sound mixer who did work on tonnes on documentaries and also The World's Fastest Indian. Also, he was a really nice guy. Also met Ande Schurr, the boom operator, who did the practical course at South Seas last year. Also he was great with the kids (the short film's about this family so there were quite a few kid actors on set, ranging from 7-8 to 12 years old).
Also met Hamish Mortland, the Location Manager guy. He helped me out with settling in and everything, carrying stuff, which rooms were what and so on. The great thing about today's shoot thing was no one had an ego. I mean, all the misconceptions people have about film sets, if they are true, then this was an incredibly awesome crew, cos everyone did their job and all their shiznit and so on.
By the way I'm not talking about the people in the order I met them, because I can't remember the order, and also it's easier to do it by department. Also I don't think I talked to everyone on set, which is a shame, but yeah.
Anyway, the Art Department: the Art Director was Angeline Loo. Now this stuff is pretty cool. I mean, on the little DV shorts we would set the props up and that'd be it. But in a short film like this, even when you think it's just furniture in a house, it's so detailed. And how they dress up the fish 'n chips and like, make sure everything is laid out exactly right and the ketchup and so on. Art Department Assistants: Mythily Meher - she's an Anthropology and Film conjoint if I remember correctly and she's doing that ethnographic paper which sounds pretty good. Natacha Chossudovsky (whoa) - she's from Montreal and is in NZ for one year doing programming and distribution work for the Documentary Festival (yeah, that one). She has a really cool accent. The art department is pretty cool eh? For the stuff they do, if it's done well, people don't notice it.
There were some people I didn't get to really talk to, like Maya Lewis, the wardrobe and make-up artist, who had like 5 different brushes, some of which cost like over $100 and all these clothes on the rack and all that stuff. Cool. I also didn't get to talk to the photography and lighting departments as much as I got to talk to the other people, which was a shame, but anyway I tried to make the most of the day by asking questions when I could and taking notes while watching the shoot and talking to people. But one day really isn't enough.
Some really key personnel - Jen Butcher, the 1st Assistant Director, basically she was upstairs running the actual shooting. That included making sure everyone was quiet and when the light was fine and how much film they had left and informing the director what she could do in a practical sense and so on. Also met today's runner - Selika Gilbert, who went to Unitec and did a full-on practical degree, a Bachelor of Performing and Creative Arts if I remember correctly. In that she did like, 1st AD work for loads of films and therefore she had a wealth of experience and yeah, it was good working with her, esp. cos she was basically running out and getting all the stuff we were missing like apples, toast, detergent, veges, tools, lighters. Never complained, helped whenever I couldn't figure things out.
The actors - met the two actors playing the father and the mother in the film - Anu and Ajashri I think (I apologise if I got it wrong, because I'm copying the names from the contacts sheet in the information pack, and I didn't catch the character names). Anyway, they were really cool, the dad actor guy conversed about Miami Vice and the 80's and so on, and also his hair had to be all slick 'n stuff for the shoot cos it is a period piece and etc. etc. The kids were freakin' cute, also met Alicia Dowsett, the kids' Chaperone, who basically made sure the kids were happy and they had good transport/safety on set and so on.
Oh yeah, the Continuity Supervisor for the shoot, Aria Harrison didn't talk to me much, but she was really busy, and also cos she was typing on her laptop heaps. But she did ask me for a table to put her gear on(;_;) and and and was Assistant Script Supervisor on King Kong so that was cool. And apparently she lives in Wellington and heard about this short film and got really interested so moved up here just to shoot it. W00t.
The camera department consisted of the Director of Photography, the Focus Puller, the Clapper Loader, the Video Split and the Stills Photographer. Basically you can kind of guess what they do from the names of their roles.
Lastly, I met Shuchi Kothari (writer-producer) and Sarina Pearson (producer). Ok, now they were cool. From this post it sounds like everyone was just 'cool' but they were the cool of the cool.
a) Because they let students like me who know nothing help out on set,
and
b) Because they actually are cool.
The actor guy let me scan through the script while I had a break (I didn't manage to read through the entire thing) but it was really good up to where I stopped which was like 3 pages in out of like 13. It was really visual and just cut economically bamn bamn bamn to the room in the house where there was action.
Shuchi and Sarina really down-to-earth and laid back and friendly and enthusiastic and so on, but yeah, you probably know that already if you take their classes. But anyway I think it takes a lot to get a project like this off the ground, and producing and writing and applying for funding and getting people together is no small feat. It's also great that they have this tight thematical focus in terms of the kind of films they choose to make, the 'nomadic' - sort of like their auteur-team-theme, except they choose not to direct/chose not to direct this film (?).
Ok, time for what I learnt.
Fuck. Today I helped out on Clean Linen, a short film that is being shot this week on location in an old 80's-style house. For information, visit: http://nomadzunlimited.com/ There isn't a lot of info there on this short film yet, probably because they're still shooting.
Learning film and media theory at the University of Auckland: Good, good stuff.
Making your own DV short films: Good, good stuff.
Being on a professional set for one day: The most valuable experience ever.
I'm gonna do a really long post:
a) So when I read back on this I can remember what happened
and
b) So I can attempt to recreate what happened.
This post is about the people I met. The next one is about what actually happened.
THE DAY: Part I - The People I Met
Melissa (Production Assistant) came to pick me up at 6 AM, and we drove towards the Shore. We thought we were gonna be late, but we got there 7 minutes early (start time: 6:45AM)! On the way there we talked about good papers to take during the BA for film, what to watch out for etc. She was/is on this 'summer scholarship' thing and basically means she's helping out and learning and 'interning' as such for Shuchi Kothari and Sarina Pearson (two of UA's practical papers' lecturers). Her role on this film is basically doing a heck of a lot of organisation from picking up people to photocopying things to making sure everyone gets their call sheets (sheets saying when and where people need to be at which place) and that they get their information packs (these include your contract, 'mud maps' to the location, shoot times, what's happening on each day, cast and crew contact details and roles).
After we got there I met a heck of a lot of people. The house was cool and they had cones and all that clearing off the area and a portable loo set up and all that jazz. I went through and saw the camera department set up their Arriflex SR-II 16mm film camera. I know this probably is old news to people who work on film all the time, but this was pretty exciting for me. This was where things got complicated cos I had to learn like 30 names. This must happen every time you start shooting a new movie, and it's awesome. So first off I met Rebekah (Bex) Kelly, our Production Manager, who I knew from the Friday prep meeting. She is awesome. She organises like everything other than shooting related stuff. Basically she and Melissa does the shit. Every question I had I'd ask her. If anyone had problems or queries on set, they'd ask her. And the awesome thing was the great patience and initiative she took. E.g. I'd need markers to write ppl's names on the cups, and there wasn't one. So I'd ask her if anyone had any. If not, she'd send someone out to get markers. Then I needed Glad Wrap. She sent people out to get that. We needed more power plugs. She organised for that to come in. The hot water urn didn't work. She organised for a guy to come in to fix it within 20 minutes. I didn't know how to make coffee. She taught me how to make coffee. Production Manager may be one of the most important people on a movie set?
Then I met the director, Zia Mandviwalla, who is only in her mid 20's or something. Her previous short film screened at London, Spain and in Korea etc. and man, she was in control. I heard someone say this was probably the best first day they had ever seen. Basically nothing went wrong and everyone did their job and the shoot went smoothly and even if there were problems people just kept going and we finished on time. It was a 12 hour day, but honestly, it didn't feel like work. I'll elaborate more on that later. The main thing here is that no one was 'out-of-control' at any point.
Then I met the sound guys, first up - Mike Westgate. Now, it was an honour to make fucking bad coffee for this guy. If you type his name into imdb, he has like 40 credits and way more unlisted. Awesome awesome sound mixer who did work on tonnes on documentaries and also The World's Fastest Indian. Also, he was a really nice guy. Also met Ande Schurr, the boom operator, who did the practical course at South Seas last year. Also he was great with the kids (the short film's about this family so there were quite a few kid actors on set, ranging from 7-8 to 12 years old).
Also met Hamish Mortland, the Location Manager guy. He helped me out with settling in and everything, carrying stuff, which rooms were what and so on. The great thing about today's shoot thing was no one had an ego. I mean, all the misconceptions people have about film sets, if they are true, then this was an incredibly awesome crew, cos everyone did their job and all their shiznit and so on.
By the way I'm not talking about the people in the order I met them, because I can't remember the order, and also it's easier to do it by department. Also I don't think I talked to everyone on set, which is a shame, but yeah.
Anyway, the Art Department: the Art Director was Angeline Loo. Now this stuff is pretty cool. I mean, on the little DV shorts we would set the props up and that'd be it. But in a short film like this, even when you think it's just furniture in a house, it's so detailed. And how they dress up the fish 'n chips and like, make sure everything is laid out exactly right and the ketchup and so on. Art Department Assistants: Mythily Meher - she's an Anthropology and Film conjoint if I remember correctly and she's doing that ethnographic paper which sounds pretty good. Natacha Chossudovsky (whoa) - she's from Montreal and is in NZ for one year doing programming and distribution work for the Documentary Festival (yeah, that one). She has a really cool accent. The art department is pretty cool eh? For the stuff they do, if it's done well, people don't notice it.
There were some people I didn't get to really talk to, like Maya Lewis, the wardrobe and make-up artist, who had like 5 different brushes, some of which cost like over $100 and all these clothes on the rack and all that stuff. Cool. I also didn't get to talk to the photography and lighting departments as much as I got to talk to the other people, which was a shame, but anyway I tried to make the most of the day by asking questions when I could and taking notes while watching the shoot and talking to people. But one day really isn't enough.
Some really key personnel - Jen Butcher, the 1st Assistant Director, basically she was upstairs running the actual shooting. That included making sure everyone was quiet and when the light was fine and how much film they had left and informing the director what she could do in a practical sense and so on. Also met today's runner - Selika Gilbert, who went to Unitec and did a full-on practical degree, a Bachelor of Performing and Creative Arts if I remember correctly. In that she did like, 1st AD work for loads of films and therefore she had a wealth of experience and yeah, it was good working with her, esp. cos she was basically running out and getting all the stuff we were missing like apples, toast, detergent, veges, tools, lighters. Never complained, helped whenever I couldn't figure things out.
The actors - met the two actors playing the father and the mother in the film - Anu and Ajashri I think (I apologise if I got it wrong, because I'm copying the names from the contacts sheet in the information pack, and I didn't catch the character names). Anyway, they were really cool, the dad actor guy conversed about Miami Vice and the 80's and so on, and also his hair had to be all slick 'n stuff for the shoot cos it is a period piece and etc. etc. The kids were freakin' cute, also met Alicia Dowsett, the kids' Chaperone, who basically made sure the kids were happy and they had good transport/safety on set and so on.
Oh yeah, the Continuity Supervisor for the shoot, Aria Harrison didn't talk to me much, but she was really busy, and also cos she was typing on her laptop heaps. But she did ask me for a table to put her gear on(;_;) and and and was Assistant Script Supervisor on King Kong so that was cool. And apparently she lives in Wellington and heard about this short film and got really interested so moved up here just to shoot it. W00t.
The camera department consisted of the Director of Photography, the Focus Puller, the Clapper Loader, the Video Split and the Stills Photographer. Basically you can kind of guess what they do from the names of their roles.
Lastly, I met Shuchi Kothari (writer-producer) and Sarina Pearson (producer). Ok, now they were cool. From this post it sounds like everyone was just 'cool' but they were the cool of the cool.
a) Because they let students like me who know nothing help out on set,
and
b) Because they actually are cool.
The actor guy let me scan through the script while I had a break (I didn't manage to read through the entire thing) but it was really good up to where I stopped which was like 3 pages in out of like 13. It was really visual and just cut economically bamn bamn bamn to the room in the house where there was action.
Shuchi and Sarina really down-to-earth and laid back and friendly and enthusiastic and so on, but yeah, you probably know that already if you take their classes. But anyway I think it takes a lot to get a project like this off the ground, and producing and writing and applying for funding and getting people together is no small feat. It's also great that they have this tight thematical focus in terms of the kind of films they choose to make, the 'nomadic' - sort of like their auteur-team-theme, except they choose not to direct/chose not to direct this film (?).
Ok, time for what I learnt.
Monday, March 27, 2006
Hi. Had a convo last night about 'career options plans dreams' and stuff. I think I need to tone down the 'action now' talk, it's not fair on others. So I apologise for the times I have sounded too '----' in the past.
In other news: My mum chucked out the party ice.
XD
Unfortunately our house's internet is pretty screwed up right now so I can't upload a photo of the melting ice in the sink but you get the tragedy of this situation.
Have a nice day.
In other news: My mum chucked out the party ice.
XD
Unfortunately our house's internet is pretty screwed up right now so I can't upload a photo of the melting ice in the sink but you get the tragedy of this situation.
Have a nice day.
Sunday, March 26, 2006
A 'cool' term to call yourself if you don't drink or take drugs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straight_edge
Weather is crazy today. Yikes. Goo Goo Dolls are releasing their new album on the 25th of April. Hmm... I hope the rest of it is better than Better Days, because that wasn't a very good song.
Mike's house is cool. Records and stuff. Thanks for having us over.
Lost is totally shit. It has actually gotten to the point where I am not looking forward to the next week's new episode. Like, you watch it knowing that nothing is going to happen. There's so much fragmentation with the characters, and no one does anything. Desperate Housewives, despite a 'new season arc', is actually still keeping it up. The main thing about it is that they've really created more depth and sophistication this season, especially with these three relationships: Bree-Andrew, Lynette-Tom and Gabriel-Carlos. Good stuff. If someone wants to watch a good show, watch Veronica Mars. This is a well-written show with a tight narrative that is both episodic in the sense that each episode has its own mystery to be solved, and also serialistic, in the sense that there is a massive arc that keeps being pushed forwards all the time. Basically you could get a 'writing-for-tv' checklist and tick everything off - this show would pass that exam. Also, the lines are funny. Haw haw haw. What those Lost people really should've done was finished it off in like two seasons. Or made it just a mini-series or somethin'. But now they're so fucked it's not funny.
Oh, and Grey's Anatomy is still kicking and screaming. As in, it's still good. It's consistent and it's well paced and it's got the characters there. How embarrassing is it for Lost, really, to be this crappy after only one and a half seasons? Actually there was this show called Bones that I started watching when it first started. It looked pretty good, but I stopped watching it cos I was following too many shows. Maybe I should start watching that again. But who else here thinks Lost has lost it?
Weather is crazy today. Yikes. Goo Goo Dolls are releasing their new album on the 25th of April. Hmm... I hope the rest of it is better than Better Days, because that wasn't a very good song.
Mike's house is cool. Records and stuff. Thanks for having us over.
Lost is totally shit. It has actually gotten to the point where I am not looking forward to the next week's new episode. Like, you watch it knowing that nothing is going to happen. There's so much fragmentation with the characters, and no one does anything. Desperate Housewives, despite a 'new season arc', is actually still keeping it up. The main thing about it is that they've really created more depth and sophistication this season, especially with these three relationships: Bree-Andrew, Lynette-Tom and Gabriel-Carlos. Good stuff. If someone wants to watch a good show, watch Veronica Mars. This is a well-written show with a tight narrative that is both episodic in the sense that each episode has its own mystery to be solved, and also serialistic, in the sense that there is a massive arc that keeps being pushed forwards all the time. Basically you could get a 'writing-for-tv' checklist and tick everything off - this show would pass that exam. Also, the lines are funny. Haw haw haw. What those Lost people really should've done was finished it off in like two seasons. Or made it just a mini-series or somethin'. But now they're so fucked it's not funny.
Oh, and Grey's Anatomy is still kicking and screaming. As in, it's still good. It's consistent and it's well paced and it's got the characters there. How embarrassing is it for Lost, really, to be this crappy after only one and a half seasons? Actually there was this show called Bones that I started watching when it first started. It looked pretty good, but I stopped watching it cos I was following too many shows. Maybe I should start watching that again. But who else here thinks Lost has lost it?
Saturday, March 25, 2006
Saturday eh. Got up, went into Uni, did my weekly assignment.
Went to Ajita's got muffins.
Went to Jack/AJ/James/Film-Group people's shoot of an outdoor scene for their feature length musical.
Role: Extra.
Tasks: Sitting around doing nothing.
I'll admit that I didn't do much apart from whistle. But we did get to see the dolly set up, meet new people, get a feel of the scale of the production, etc. etc., and the weather was really nice.
:o)
It was pretty cool. Academy was good, I didn't get that 'extra solo', but we played the Barber. No covers this weekend, but I'm am working on something, just a bit tight with time.
Have a good weekend. Take care.
Went to Ajita's got muffins.
Went to Jack/AJ/James/Film-Group people's shoot of an outdoor scene for their feature length musical.
Role: Extra.
Tasks: Sitting around doing nothing.
I'll admit that I didn't do much apart from whistle. But we did get to see the dolly set up, meet new people, get a feel of the scale of the production, etc. etc., and the weather was really nice.
:o)
It was pretty cool. Academy was good, I didn't get that 'extra solo', but we played the Barber. No covers this weekend, but I'm am working on something, just a bit tight with time.
Have a good weekend. Take care.
Friday, March 24, 2006
This was an unforgettable day. I think it has simultaneously been the worst day of the last five months and the best. Basically I had to let all of the weight of the difficult times our family's been going through go and now I'm feeling much better. A lot of screwed up things have happened since the end of last year. Like you suddenly have to do all these things yourself and you aren't ready and you don't get to say no or complain or back down.
Or cry.
I think that's the hardest part. I don't think I've cried in years, and I just can't. It's so hard now but I can't do anything to change what's going on except keep doing what I'm doing and get through it. A lot of the time things are tough but it's weird how everything clusters and happens around the same time. Like you look at your life and the lives of the people around you and say, 'This is way too real. This is fucking real.' But through all that you just keep growing and learning and you get more grateful. That's probably the most important thing, becoming more grateful for everything. It's not easy. But it means a lot.
Or cry.
I think that's the hardest part. I don't think I've cried in years, and I just can't. It's so hard now but I can't do anything to change what's going on except keep doing what I'm doing and get through it. A lot of the time things are tough but it's weird how everything clusters and happens around the same time. Like you look at your life and the lives of the people around you and say, 'This is way too real. This is fucking real.' But through all that you just keep growing and learning and you get more grateful. That's probably the most important thing, becoming more grateful for everything. It's not easy. But it means a lot.
Hi. Friday again. Finished the two assignments. What's up for the weekend?
- helping out on that 'musical' on Saturday,
- finishing the rough cut for Avocado, everything done except music,
- read over the Road Code, practise driving,
- research the sharemarket.
Time for Uni. Um. Have a nice day.
:o)
- helping out on that 'musical' on Saturday,
- finishing the rough cut for Avocado, everything done except music,
- read over the Road Code, practise driving,
- research the sharemarket.
Time for Uni. Um. Have a nice day.
:o)
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Lol I forgot about Mafia Club today. Oops.
PersonalDNA! My one isn't too bad. It's here. But there's some stuff that's so wacked out. Like me 'loving parties'. I mean, haw haw haw haw, that's hilarious.
And what is up with the confidence rating? I sure don't feel it.
Btw it's pretty cool how they phrase all your qualities in a positive way. It cheers you up. Now I'm happy. AHAHAHA. Ahem.
-------
Man ENGLISH 210 is so frickin' hard. But the tutor is really awesome. Like, she turned the class from being completely clueless to being pretty confident at analysing Renaissance poetry within like, one tutorial. I feel better about it now, and I think I can do okay in this. But I really have to work at the vocab though.
Hey ch-ch-ch-ch-check it out, I got this 'seaweed shaker' thing that you're supposed to put on your fries. Apparently it's been sitting in Lip's bag for like a month because he was supposed to pass it to me from Ajita and Yuen, who in turn got it from a McDonalds store in Singapore, from goodness knows how long ago. Hmm. I think I should probably eat it some time. Um. There are no use by dates on these things.
>< ------- Good one, Steve. I revise my pretentiousness thing. It's STILL slightly pretentious if it's enjoyable, BUT it makes it a more 'justified' pretentiousness. So like, a movie can be pretentious but as long as there's still enough enjoyable-ness to it without the understanding-part then it still passes. But even 2001 had a narrative that was relatively understandable. I mean, for most of it, you still had HAL, going to Mars, being in a spaceship, prehistoric man fighting, conflict, antagonist etc. So in that sense, I still think the fundamentals are there. In the sense that there were just hard-to-grasp elements of it, but that regardless of that, the HAL thing and monkey-fights still would intrigue just about pretty much anyone. Whereas if you had a movie which could intrigue and entertain people ONLY if they understood something that was incredibly hard to understand (and the core of the movie relied purely on that), then it'd basically be shit. Which is what I'm talking about. Like some movies out there. Or a lot of movies out there. Um. Like Red. White was definitely way better. I know so many arthouse fans love this movie man, but honestly Red and Blue were killer pieces of cinema. In that I'd probably die if I had to watch them again. I mean, Lost in Translation isn't really pretentious, it's just overrated. There were funny moments and stuff I enjoyed and little subtle things, but it was blown pretty big that year it came out. Anyway, I'm mainly talking about Kieslowski. This emperor has like, a singlet. I'll give him that.
He has one small, white, and out-of-fashion singlet.
PersonalDNA! My one isn't too bad. It's here. But there's some stuff that's so wacked out. Like me 'loving parties'. I mean, haw haw haw haw, that's hilarious.
And what is up with the confidence rating? I sure don't feel it.
Btw it's pretty cool how they phrase all your qualities in a positive way. It cheers you up. Now I'm happy. AHAHAHA. Ahem.
-------
Man ENGLISH 210 is so frickin' hard. But the tutor is really awesome. Like, she turned the class from being completely clueless to being pretty confident at analysing Renaissance poetry within like, one tutorial. I feel better about it now, and I think I can do okay in this. But I really have to work at the vocab though.
Hey ch-ch-ch-ch-check it out, I got this 'seaweed shaker' thing that you're supposed to put on your fries. Apparently it's been sitting in Lip's bag for like a month because he was supposed to pass it to me from Ajita and Yuen, who in turn got it from a McDonalds store in Singapore, from goodness knows how long ago. Hmm. I think I should probably eat it some time. Um. There are no use by dates on these things.
>< ------- Good one, Steve. I revise my pretentiousness thing. It's STILL slightly pretentious if it's enjoyable, BUT it makes it a more 'justified' pretentiousness. So like, a movie can be pretentious but as long as there's still enough enjoyable-ness to it without the understanding-part then it still passes. But even 2001 had a narrative that was relatively understandable. I mean, for most of it, you still had HAL, going to Mars, being in a spaceship, prehistoric man fighting, conflict, antagonist etc. So in that sense, I still think the fundamentals are there. In the sense that there were just hard-to-grasp elements of it, but that regardless of that, the HAL thing and monkey-fights still would intrigue just about pretty much anyone. Whereas if you had a movie which could intrigue and entertain people ONLY if they understood something that was incredibly hard to understand (and the core of the movie relied purely on that), then it'd basically be shit. Which is what I'm talking about. Like some movies out there. Or a lot of movies out there. Um. Like Red. White was definitely way better. I know so many arthouse fans love this movie man, but honestly Red and Blue were killer pieces of cinema. In that I'd probably die if I had to watch them again. I mean, Lost in Translation isn't really pretentious, it's just overrated. There were funny moments and stuff I enjoyed and little subtle things, but it was blown pretty big that year it came out. Anyway, I'm mainly talking about Kieslowski. This emperor has like, a singlet. I'll give him that.
He has one small, white, and out-of-fashion singlet.
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Trivia: The final scene in Oldboy was filmed in New Zealand.
The weather was great today. Dinner was fried noodles. That was pretty good too. My mum is watching The Hotelier.
XD
She's like halfway through already and it's only been two days (there are twenty hour-long episodes in total). I've seen bits of it. The characterisation is actually pretty good and it's not badly written. The only bad thing about it is that the lighting makes everything look sort of cheap. If they filmed the same thing with really nice lighting, it'd be a pretty good show, since there's not much that's wrong with it in its current form.
The US series of The Office continues to surprise me. They have managed to keep relationships going and continually develop the story despite the fact that there are so many episodes. It's really a great show with a genuine core that manages to not take itself too seriously. There are a lot of fanatics out there who totally hate the American series, and I think that's understandable, but the US series has done some great things with the concept. It's not so much remaking the UK Office as it is taking the basic ingredients and making a new dish.
Uni workload has actually been pretty cruisy lately. I think as long as I know which areas to target with my study I can keep the time I spend down to exactly what's required and no more. Unfortunately I just haven't found the right flow with my Avocado editing, so it's still sitting there. Today I did go through the footage and sort of move things around, but it just didn't feel right. Maybe writing some music for it will help.
Yay next production meeting for 'film group on campus' has been announced. Goodo.
Waiting for Godot. This is a crazy play. Sometimes I just think, is there a point when things become pretentious? I had an epiphany the other day after reading this play. If one had the choice between making something that was perfectly understandable to 90% of the audience or something that was perfectly understandable to 30% of the audience, which one would you choose? I mean, I am going to say it right now:
From now on I will fight against pretentiousness. Not the 'normal' kind of pretentiousness (like Linklater movies). That's fine, because sometimes it's necessary, especially if you're talking about philosophy. But I'm talking specifically about the really not-understandable kind of pretentiousness. Like movies that go, 'Ooooo you can't figure out the meaning, damn I am so smart.'
I've definitely made ambiguous short films in the past, not because I wanted to be smart, but rather because my film-communication-skills weren't good enough for me to express what I wanted to say.
But from now on I want to make movies that are straightforward and understandable. There.
And that also means that next time there's a movie that I don't understand at all even after watching it several times and actually trying to figure it out, I shall deem it pretentious and move on. It shouldn't be the audience's shortcoming if they can't figure a movie out. Even if they aren't particularly intelligent, since movies shouldn't be made for only certain kinds of people. I mean, I think that's a respect one must have for film's role as a mass medium. On the other hand I am not asking for the typical on-the-nose stuff like, 'I must say something for everything I mean instead of just using actions to convey my intentions because the audience must understand me,' I just want relatively clear indications.
Good night, take care.
The weather was great today. Dinner was fried noodles. That was pretty good too. My mum is watching The Hotelier.
XD
She's like halfway through already and it's only been two days (there are twenty hour-long episodes in total). I've seen bits of it. The characterisation is actually pretty good and it's not badly written. The only bad thing about it is that the lighting makes everything look sort of cheap. If they filmed the same thing with really nice lighting, it'd be a pretty good show, since there's not much that's wrong with it in its current form.
The US series of The Office continues to surprise me. They have managed to keep relationships going and continually develop the story despite the fact that there are so many episodes. It's really a great show with a genuine core that manages to not take itself too seriously. There are a lot of fanatics out there who totally hate the American series, and I think that's understandable, but the US series has done some great things with the concept. It's not so much remaking the UK Office as it is taking the basic ingredients and making a new dish.
Uni workload has actually been pretty cruisy lately. I think as long as I know which areas to target with my study I can keep the time I spend down to exactly what's required and no more. Unfortunately I just haven't found the right flow with my Avocado editing, so it's still sitting there. Today I did go through the footage and sort of move things around, but it just didn't feel right. Maybe writing some music for it will help.
Yay next production meeting for 'film group on campus' has been announced. Goodo.
Waiting for Godot. This is a crazy play. Sometimes I just think, is there a point when things become pretentious? I had an epiphany the other day after reading this play. If one had the choice between making something that was perfectly understandable to 90% of the audience or something that was perfectly understandable to 30% of the audience, which one would you choose? I mean, I am going to say it right now:
From now on I will fight against pretentiousness. Not the 'normal' kind of pretentiousness (like Linklater movies). That's fine, because sometimes it's necessary, especially if you're talking about philosophy. But I'm talking specifically about the really not-understandable kind of pretentiousness. Like movies that go, 'Ooooo you can't figure out the meaning, damn I am so smart.'
I've definitely made ambiguous short films in the past, not because I wanted to be smart, but rather because my film-communication-skills weren't good enough for me to express what I wanted to say.
But from now on I want to make movies that are straightforward and understandable. There.
And that also means that next time there's a movie that I don't understand at all even after watching it several times and actually trying to figure it out, I shall deem it pretentious and move on. It shouldn't be the audience's shortcoming if they can't figure a movie out. Even if they aren't particularly intelligent, since movies shouldn't be made for only certain kinds of people. I mean, I think that's a respect one must have for film's role as a mass medium. On the other hand I am not asking for the typical on-the-nose stuff like, 'I must say something for everything I mean instead of just using actions to convey my intentions because the audience must understand me,' I just want relatively clear indications.
Good night, take care.
[Film Rating Key: A+ is a work I cannot find flaws in, F is one of the worst films I have seen and C is a dead centre average film. Anything A-ish is likely to be in my Top 100, anything B-ish is worth watching, anything C-ish is passable and anything D-ish is not worth seeing.]
Wallace and Gromit: Second viewing. This is a very well done film. The story is fairly simple, and the ending was also unspectacular. Why is it getting a B+? Gromit's expressions are almsot entirely conveyed through that little bit of clay above his eyes. That is incredible. Execution, execution, execution. Puns, puns, puns. Does everything that it needs to do well.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang: One of the very best movies from 2005. The actual story is this mystery/thriller case that is rather unspectacular. What's great about this movie? Everything else. The writing, the pacing, the direction, the casting. Robert Downey Jr. has what people call screen charisma. His narration job is spectacular. The script is witty, well-paced, and balanced. This movie stands as one of the freshest pieces of entertainment to have been made in the last few years. If a movie isn't going to be 'deep' then make it a good movie. Val Kilmer oozes cool and delivers a good two-thirds of the film's best lines to perfection. Michelle Monaghan is also very well cast and has great screen appeal. But quite honestly none of this would've worked if you didn't have a fresh script. Everything pretty much fits with this movie - A-. Like I said, execution, execution, execution. Do something well and it works as a whole.
Stand by Me: Old, old movie, made before I was born. River Phoenix scene about lunch-money is fucking spectacular. The kids are fucking spectacular. The direction is fucking spectacular. However, this just didn't quite make it. It's a really, really good movie. But it's so simple? Don't get me wrong, simple isn't bad. But there was so much potential with this movie - it got like 90% of the way there, then it took the shortcut and went 'boom boom boom' with the narration at the end. It's sort of like Brokeback Mountain, in terms of the script. One or two more rewrites could've done it. We'll never know. Like doing the marathon then when you get to the last 100m you just hop into a car and drive past the finish line. You still get there, it's just not that good - B+. Good movie, very good movie.
Wallace and Gromit: Second viewing. This is a very well done film. The story is fairly simple, and the ending was also unspectacular. Why is it getting a B+? Gromit's expressions are almsot entirely conveyed through that little bit of clay above his eyes. That is incredible. Execution, execution, execution. Puns, puns, puns. Does everything that it needs to do well.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang: One of the very best movies from 2005. The actual story is this mystery/thriller case that is rather unspectacular. What's great about this movie? Everything else. The writing, the pacing, the direction, the casting. Robert Downey Jr. has what people call screen charisma. His narration job is spectacular. The script is witty, well-paced, and balanced. This movie stands as one of the freshest pieces of entertainment to have been made in the last few years. If a movie isn't going to be 'deep' then make it a good movie. Val Kilmer oozes cool and delivers a good two-thirds of the film's best lines to perfection. Michelle Monaghan is also very well cast and has great screen appeal. But quite honestly none of this would've worked if you didn't have a fresh script. Everything pretty much fits with this movie - A-. Like I said, execution, execution, execution. Do something well and it works as a whole.
Stand by Me: Old, old movie, made before I was born. River Phoenix scene about lunch-money is fucking spectacular. The kids are fucking spectacular. The direction is fucking spectacular. However, this just didn't quite make it. It's a really, really good movie. But it's so simple? Don't get me wrong, simple isn't bad. But there was so much potential with this movie - it got like 90% of the way there, then it took the shortcut and went 'boom boom boom' with the narration at the end. It's sort of like Brokeback Mountain, in terms of the script. One or two more rewrites could've done it. We'll never know. Like doing the marathon then when you get to the last 100m you just hop into a car and drive past the finish line. You still get there, it's just not that good - B+. Good movie, very good movie.
Monday, March 20, 2006
" ...and I wonder
when I sing along with you
if everything could ever feel this real forever
if anything could ever be this good again... "
Every time I feel down or meditative I play this song. I just read Kat's entry then.
I think a lot of the time there aren't a lot of words you can say. Sometimes I don't say anything at all. Actually I don't think I said much at all. So there are a few reasons this cover came so soon.
1) This is one of the most serene, grateful and pure songs around. It's really just there. I think it's one of those few songs that don't require any ornamentations. You just pick up one guitar and sing this song.
And just for those few minutes everything makes sense, because you're singing. And because you're singing, in a weird way things are okay.
2) The Home For Now song was so painful to sing that I decided to sing something lower for the next cover.
3) I just got into a weird state after coming home today, thinking about, you know, stuff.
4) I don't have time this weekend to record a cover, so this one comes early.
I give you one of the Foo Fighters' best songs.
Everlong.
Lyrics.
Take care and good night.
when I sing along with you
if everything could ever feel this real forever
if anything could ever be this good again... "
Every time I feel down or meditative I play this song. I just read Kat's entry then.
I think a lot of the time there aren't a lot of words you can say. Sometimes I don't say anything at all. Actually I don't think I said much at all. So there are a few reasons this cover came so soon.
1) This is one of the most serene, grateful and pure songs around. It's really just there. I think it's one of those few songs that don't require any ornamentations. You just pick up one guitar and sing this song.
And just for those few minutes everything makes sense, because you're singing. And because you're singing, in a weird way things are okay.
2) The Home For Now song was so painful to sing that I decided to sing something lower for the next cover.
3) I just got into a weird state after coming home today, thinking about, you know, stuff.
4) I don't have time this weekend to record a cover, so this one comes early.
I give you one of the Foo Fighters' best songs.
Everlong.
Lyrics.
Take care and good night.
Sunday, March 19, 2006
Home For Now (Patrick Park Cover)
Lyrics.
Some lyric changes here and there, like, 'I' and 'it' and so on. Also Patrick Park (and some other artists) often miss out words from their written lyrics. In the case of this song it happens quite a lot.
The vocals are hoarse, partly as a tribute to Patrick Park, and partly because it was painful to sing.
In more ways than one.
Take care.
Lyrics.
Some lyric changes here and there, like, 'I' and 'it' and so on. Also Patrick Park (and some other artists) often miss out words from their written lyrics. In the case of this song it happens quite a lot.
The vocals are hoarse, partly as a tribute to Patrick Park, and partly because it was painful to sing.
In more ways than one.
Take care.
Couldn't blog last night because internet was down.
Saturday in reverse order:
Researching on the Super 8 format - interesting.
Pilates - good.
Dinner - tasty.
Academy - so so.
Gin Rummy - alright.
Assignment-ing - manageable.
I was thinking, video camera manufacturers should really develop their hard drive solutions more. I know there are consumer cameras out there that already employ hard drive recording systems, but imagine if they really pushed this so that miniDV becomes a thing of the past? I think they're going in the right direction with the DVD-video cameras, however they have limited quality choices in terms of the file format. I'd like to be able to choose the file format and perhaps have the option of recording to flash-drives in a few years. Panasonic are apparently developing one of that nature (that is rumoured to be HD), so kudos to them. All the 'pro' HD solutions seem to record to massive hard drives or something, but there's just nothing of that kind right now for 'prosumers', hobbyists and no-budget videomakers.
Imagine doing 'drag-and-drop' or copy and pasting when you upload footage to your computer? Or imagine taking out a flash-card and leaving the camera there (for example, if you had rented it). You wouldn't 'need' any special hardware to upload your footage in, cos when you drag the files over they'd just instantly be uncompressed AVI files. This should really then be extended so that you could literally alter the frame rate (since you wouldn't have to worry about tape speed), shutter speed and so on from a menu system from a laptop either plugged in or wirelessly connected to your camera. So quite literally your camera would have 'internet' access, or at least have Bluetooth or something (some cameras apparently already have Bluetooth). Or they should design the exterior of the camera so that it mimics a Super 8 film camera, with all the external knobs so that people can learn. I know Arri have this hard out digital camera (D-20) out right now that has all the knobs and controls on it like a 35mm camera (plus 35mm lens usage), but it's completely digital. It costs shitloads though.
All I know is that manufacturers are narrowing their miniDV lines this year (in favour of the not-so-ideal HDV?), so I won't be buying a new camera any time soon. It'll probably take longer before the market stabilises and there's one format that stays. Hopefully hard drives will totally rip HDV to shreds. Sounds like it's not gonna happen for at least five years though.
Have a nice day.
Saturday in reverse order:
Researching on the Super 8 format - interesting.
Pilates - good.
Dinner - tasty.
Academy - so so.
Gin Rummy - alright.
Assignment-ing - manageable.
I was thinking, video camera manufacturers should really develop their hard drive solutions more. I know there are consumer cameras out there that already employ hard drive recording systems, but imagine if they really pushed this so that miniDV becomes a thing of the past? I think they're going in the right direction with the DVD-video cameras, however they have limited quality choices in terms of the file format. I'd like to be able to choose the file format and perhaps have the option of recording to flash-drives in a few years. Panasonic are apparently developing one of that nature (that is rumoured to be HD), so kudos to them. All the 'pro' HD solutions seem to record to massive hard drives or something, but there's just nothing of that kind right now for 'prosumers', hobbyists and no-budget videomakers.
Imagine doing 'drag-and-drop' or copy and pasting when you upload footage to your computer? Or imagine taking out a flash-card and leaving the camera there (for example, if you had rented it). You wouldn't 'need' any special hardware to upload your footage in, cos when you drag the files over they'd just instantly be uncompressed AVI files. This should really then be extended so that you could literally alter the frame rate (since you wouldn't have to worry about tape speed), shutter speed and so on from a menu system from a laptop either plugged in or wirelessly connected to your camera. So quite literally your camera would have 'internet' access, or at least have Bluetooth or something (some cameras apparently already have Bluetooth). Or they should design the exterior of the camera so that it mimics a Super 8 film camera, with all the external knobs so that people can learn. I know Arri have this hard out digital camera (D-20) out right now that has all the knobs and controls on it like a 35mm camera (plus 35mm lens usage), but it's completely digital. It costs shitloads though.
All I know is that manufacturers are narrowing their miniDV lines this year (in favour of the not-so-ideal HDV?), so I won't be buying a new camera any time soon. It'll probably take longer before the market stabilises and there's one format that stays. Hopefully hard drives will totally rip HDV to shreds. Sounds like it's not gonna happen for at least five years though.
Have a nice day.
Friday, March 17, 2006
Hey hey hey. How was your week? Tagboard it. My week had its ups and its downs, but in the end I got through. I made mistakes, learnt things, met new people, had some good conversations, ran, walked, ate fruits.
Uni definitely takes a lot of energy, but starting from next week I'm going to concentrate more on editing Avocado. I've been neglecting it during the weekdays, and I'm going to make it a must. Aiming for a March finish.
Not much more to say tonight. Take care everyone.
Uni definitely takes a lot of energy, but starting from next week I'm going to concentrate more on editing Avocado. I've been neglecting it during the weekdays, and I'm going to make it a must. Aiming for a March finish.
Not much more to say tonight. Take care everyone.
Thursday, March 16, 2006
I am so wasted right now. Sonny's family is doing 'Winsor Pilates'. He gave me the '20 Minute Workout' to try.
I am so wasted right now. These exercises are insane. They are more intense than doing crunches or pull-ups.
I am so wasted right now.
I tried the Rocky Road bar for the first time at lunch today. It's awesome.
Lunch time meet up was very pleasant and the weather was good. It was a good day.
Good night.
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Hi. Seemingly important things become unimportant. Stuff become illuminated. What's all these things? Little consequence. Where's all that. Huh? Seeing things clearly really is just about being grateful, I suppose. I'm not sure.
But.
Take care and good night.
:o)
But.
Take care and good night.
:o)
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Heyyy.
FTVMS 202 essay, first draft. Done.
Went to this 'filmmaking networking group' meeting today. It was awesome. Finally there's something around for aspiring filmmakers at Auckland Uni. Basically it's a group of people who make short films and the like, and they have fortnightly meetings and/or pitching sessions where anyone can pitch ideas and get feedback, input, support, etc.. The meetings also form a basis on which crews can be assembled for projects of any size or scale, and as a place to find like-minded people. They also occasionally get faculty members to come in and talk and/or hear pitches and/or talk about job opportunities, which seems pretty exciting. The great thing about it is there is no one governing body. Well I suppose with anything there must be a few key organisers, but at least at this stage it does not seem bureaucratic at all.
:o)
I turned on the TV on Arts channel and there was this weird awesome 'dance' film. It's called Amelia, directed and choreographed by Édouard Lock, with music by David Lang and cinematography by André Turpin.
It's all set on one dance floor, and at bits the dancing's fast forwarded and slowed down for effect. The lighting is really awesome, especially the use of silhouettes and the almost always-moving camera. Each dancer also has their own 'style' and it fits with the particular piece of music playing. It's about an hour long, but I only caught the last 40 minutes.
It's one of those things that's sort of scary to watch because they seem abnormal because of the speed of their motion, but at the same time a lot of their actions mimic real-life behaviour that makes it compelling to watch. Add 'scary, intense expressions' to that and you've got a pretty unique mix of theatre, dance and film. The dance group is a Canadian troop called 'La La Human Steps', and you can visit their official website here.
Take care and good night.
FTVMS 202 essay, first draft. Done.
Went to this 'filmmaking networking group' meeting today. It was awesome. Finally there's something around for aspiring filmmakers at Auckland Uni. Basically it's a group of people who make short films and the like, and they have fortnightly meetings and/or pitching sessions where anyone can pitch ideas and get feedback, input, support, etc.. The meetings also form a basis on which crews can be assembled for projects of any size or scale, and as a place to find like-minded people. They also occasionally get faculty members to come in and talk and/or hear pitches and/or talk about job opportunities, which seems pretty exciting. The great thing about it is there is no one governing body. Well I suppose with anything there must be a few key organisers, but at least at this stage it does not seem bureaucratic at all.
:o)
I turned on the TV on Arts channel and there was this weird awesome 'dance' film. It's called Amelia, directed and choreographed by Édouard Lock, with music by David Lang and cinematography by André Turpin.
It's all set on one dance floor, and at bits the dancing's fast forwarded and slowed down for effect. The lighting is really awesome, especially the use of silhouettes and the almost always-moving camera. Each dancer also has their own 'style' and it fits with the particular piece of music playing. It's about an hour long, but I only caught the last 40 minutes.
It's one of those things that's sort of scary to watch because they seem abnormal because of the speed of their motion, but at the same time a lot of their actions mimic real-life behaviour that makes it compelling to watch. Add 'scary, intense expressions' to that and you've got a pretty unique mix of theatre, dance and film. The dance group is a Canadian troop called 'La La Human Steps', and you can visit their official website here.
Take care and good night.
Monday, March 13, 2006
Wireless connection is down again. Hmm...
Do you guys have those people in your classes who you sort of know but don't really know? Like those people who may have been in your tutorial but you never did any group work with them last year, then this year you're like in the same class again (because you're doing the same major) but you don't say hi to them and they don't say hi back to nothing? Yeah... I'm not sure if it occurs university-wide, but it definitely happens a lot if you do Arts papers. It's because every paper is only one semester long and you change tutorial groups all the time. While you do see a lot of familiar faces in your lectures, your tutorial group just keeps changing and you never really get to know anyone well. That is of course, unless you make an active effort. Which is what I suppose I'll be doing from now on.
XD
Tomorrow is assignment day. Going in on the 7 bus. See you guys on Thursday!
Do you guys have those people in your classes who you sort of know but don't really know? Like those people who may have been in your tutorial but you never did any group work with them last year, then this year you're like in the same class again (because you're doing the same major) but you don't say hi to them and they don't say hi back to nothing? Yeah... I'm not sure if it occurs university-wide, but it definitely happens a lot if you do Arts papers. It's because every paper is only one semester long and you change tutorial groups all the time. While you do see a lot of familiar faces in your lectures, your tutorial group just keeps changing and you never really get to know anyone well. That is of course, unless you make an active effort. Which is what I suppose I'll be doing from now on.
XD
Tomorrow is assignment day. Going in on the 7 bus. See you guys on Thursday!
Heya. Weekend was quite good. Did some editing for Avocado, it's coming along alright. Perhaps a week or two and it'll be complete. Media Analysis (FTVMS 204) readings are getting pretty heavy. The workshops are really awesome though. Content-wise it's so-so, but group-work is always fun. Both ENGLISH papers are interesting, although ENGLISH 210 is really tough. I've seen Simon's film quite a few times now, not sure if I'm in double digits in terms of viewings. Saw Wallace and Gromit for the second time last night. Will talk about it in the next trio movie-talk post.
Have a nice week.
Have a nice week.
Saturday, March 11, 2006
Hi, new cover.
Down - blink-182. Click here.
Once you get there click grey for lo-fi stream, green for hi-fi stream and yellow to download.
Lyrics are here.
It's pretty minimalistic but I suppose that's in the spirit of the song.
Down - blink-182. Click here.
Once you get there click grey for lo-fi stream, green for hi-fi stream and yellow to download.
Lyrics are here.
It's pretty minimalistic but I suppose that's in the spirit of the song.
Friday, March 10, 2006
Fock I lost my post. Starting again.
I found this playground today. It's 20 seconds from my house. I am so happy. I'm going to go there every day.
This is the first time I've cooked in three weeks. Spicy. But my Dad had three bowls of rice. No spicy any more. My mum has a new rotation system for cooking, everyone else is cooking once a week. Hmm... they are going to get so sick of chicken and onions. Heck I'll throw in some lemons and hope for the best, just like last time.
My dad put on this new cloth thing for this stool/seat. If you've been to my house, you'll notice the colour of this stool is way darker. It's awesome. I don't want to ever sit on it. I'll take photos and drool. It's soooo awesome, having a stool cushion thing that isn't faded.
I got water spilt on me today. I was having lunch at Daikoku Ramen with Yuen, Ajita, Lip and Wi Bian. Well I ordered this $3.50 fried rice thing because that was the only thing on the menu under $8.00. Anyways the waiter guy decides to pour a cup of water on my shorts. Like 400 ml.
XD
I couldn't stop laughing, it was hilarious. Maybe because he gave me the fried rice for free. Or because he gave me a five-inch stack of serviettes. Or the fact that we were previously discussing the fact that the restaurant had an E hygiene rating. Or that it didn't display its rating at all. Anyways, this is the most exciting thing that has ever happened to me. Honestly if I get shot into space tomorrow on a giant croissant, the first flashback I'll have is of me getting splashed. I'll remember hearing the clang of water-glasses and using my over-developed reflexes to dodge the splash of water. Didn't work. But boy was it exciting.
Thanks Sonny for recommending KT Tunstall. I think this is a pretty good album, but the problem is Other Side of the World (lead track) sounds too different from the other songs here. It's a very nice song though, and her voice is exceptional in the choruses. However, the song does misrepresent the style of the album.
Currently listening to: Aimee Mann's debut solo album - Whatever. Her voice is really great like usual, and so are her lyrics. But in terms of providing hook-songs, she definitely grows with time. Songcraft is solid but raw here. I do like her more upbeat songs though.
Imogen Heap - Speak for Yourself. This is an awesome album. Every song is good, and it's also very balanced. I mean this in the sense that you could listen to the album from beginning to end and feel like everything was substantial and worked well together and there weren't too many songs that sounded the same. It's also very cohesive. What the she has such a huge voice range. Check this album out.
Night, take care. Have a good weekend!
I found this playground today. It's 20 seconds from my house. I am so happy. I'm going to go there every day.
This is the first time I've cooked in three weeks. Spicy. But my Dad had three bowls of rice. No spicy any more. My mum has a new rotation system for cooking, everyone else is cooking once a week. Hmm... they are going to get so sick of chicken and onions. Heck I'll throw in some lemons and hope for the best, just like last time.
My dad put on this new cloth thing for this stool/seat. If you've been to my house, you'll notice the colour of this stool is way darker. It's awesome. I don't want to ever sit on it. I'll take photos and drool. It's soooo awesome, having a stool cushion thing that isn't faded.
I got water spilt on me today. I was having lunch at Daikoku Ramen with Yuen, Ajita, Lip and Wi Bian. Well I ordered this $3.50 fried rice thing because that was the only thing on the menu under $8.00. Anyways the waiter guy decides to pour a cup of water on my shorts. Like 400 ml.
XD
I couldn't stop laughing, it was hilarious. Maybe because he gave me the fried rice for free. Or because he gave me a five-inch stack of serviettes. Or the fact that we were previously discussing the fact that the restaurant had an E hygiene rating. Or that it didn't display its rating at all. Anyways, this is the most exciting thing that has ever happened to me. Honestly if I get shot into space tomorrow on a giant croissant, the first flashback I'll have is of me getting splashed. I'll remember hearing the clang of water-glasses and using my over-developed reflexes to dodge the splash of water. Didn't work. But boy was it exciting.
Thanks Sonny for recommending KT Tunstall. I think this is a pretty good album, but the problem is Other Side of the World (lead track) sounds too different from the other songs here. It's a very nice song though, and her voice is exceptional in the choruses. However, the song does misrepresent the style of the album.
Currently listening to: Aimee Mann's debut solo album - Whatever. Her voice is really great like usual, and so are her lyrics. But in terms of providing hook-songs, she definitely grows with time. Songcraft is solid but raw here. I do like her more upbeat songs though.
Imogen Heap - Speak for Yourself. This is an awesome album. Every song is good, and it's also very balanced. I mean this in the sense that you could listen to the album from beginning to end and feel like everything was substantial and worked well together and there weren't too many songs that sounded the same. It's also very cohesive. What the she has such a huge voice range. Check this album out.
Night, take care. Have a good weekend!
[Film Rating Key: A+ is a work I cannot find flaws in, F is one of the worst films I have seen and C is a dead centre average film. Anything A-ish is likely to be in my Top 100, anything B-ish is worth watching, anything C-ish is passable and anything D-ish is not worth seeing.]
In Her Shoes: This was a good movie. Fair and square - B. (What kind of a review is that? Well watch the movie)
My Darling Clementine: This was a good movie. Fair and square. The script worked for the most part. The 'clues' were very obvious and the film was pretty unsubtle. However, it's really competently put together and immensely enjoyable. At no point did I feel old-movie-syndrome. The narrative was pretty tight. The Clementine motif and character is not as prominent as the name suggests, but I quite like how you never really know her, or Doc Holliday's background too much. Nice movie - B.
Lord of War: This was a disappointing movie for me, but it's still not bad. There's no problem with the visual side of the film. Very slick, very cool shots. Nothing wrong with the performances. The weird thing is the script. On one hand it has some funny, cool and ironic one-liners that make you chuckle. On the other hand it over-simplifies a lot of things and fails to create character development or believable relationships. Side characters very under-developed. Storytelling method is based on one guy narrating the entire film. There are also some very cliche elements throughout the whole movie. Also, Jared Leto, Nic Cage and Ethan Hawke are all pretty unspectacular here. But it's still not a bad movie. Just not as good as it could have been, considering the talent working on it. I would've given it a C+, but I think there are a few good questions raised by this movie - B-.
In Her Shoes: This was a good movie. Fair and square - B. (What kind of a review is that? Well watch the movie)
My Darling Clementine: This was a good movie. Fair and square. The script worked for the most part. The 'clues' were very obvious and the film was pretty unsubtle. However, it's really competently put together and immensely enjoyable. At no point did I feel old-movie-syndrome. The narrative was pretty tight. The Clementine motif and character is not as prominent as the name suggests, but I quite like how you never really know her, or Doc Holliday's background too much. Nice movie - B.
Lord of War: This was a disappointing movie for me, but it's still not bad. There's no problem with the visual side of the film. Very slick, very cool shots. Nothing wrong with the performances. The weird thing is the script. On one hand it has some funny, cool and ironic one-liners that make you chuckle. On the other hand it over-simplifies a lot of things and fails to create character development or believable relationships. Side characters very under-developed. Storytelling method is based on one guy narrating the entire film. There are also some very cliche elements throughout the whole movie. Also, Jared Leto, Nic Cage and Ethan Hawke are all pretty unspectacular here. But it's still not a bad movie. Just not as good as it could have been, considering the talent working on it. I would've given it a C+, but I think there are a few good questions raised by this movie - B-.
Thursday, March 09, 2006
Hello! Today was what one would call 'wide ranging', both in terms of the weather and emotions.
Lots of 'meet ups' throughout the day. I had a pretty cool 'Hollywood and its Others' lecture in the morning. It was about John Ford's film My Darling Clementine and the Western genre's place in American history. I really enjoyed this movie, but I shall comment on it when I do a trio-movie post later this week, as soon as I finish watching Lord of War.
Today's meet up was quite nice. Hour one participants included Henry, Sonny, Steve and David. Hour two participants included the addition of Raymond and Simon. For most of the rest of the afternoon Ray, Henry and I walked around the city looking at shops. First stop was a tiny 'hat' shop that had only four hats and fifty gazillion party pills. Second stop was a retro-'rare-books' shop. They had old Disney and Archie comics. They also had 'the Happy Boys' book and the 'Great Girls' book. Interesting. They alos had these creepy-coloured security monitors that looked like the screens from The Ring/Ringu. So we got out of there and continued our journey around High Street. After two days of not knowing what to do next, we decided to visit 'oh-I'm-so-cool' surf shops to look at hats. Amazon, Billabong and Quiksilver shops. They had hats all over the place, not that many ofmgr-I-am-going-to-choke-it's-so-nice hats. Many were expensive. So we went back to Uni, where we found Chris and Rikky.
Fire alarms go off. Everyone moved out of Quad. Wait wait wait.
Later went to Ray's Geo prizegiving event. Food. Fotos. Fun. Frenzy. Or not. But attempting to use alliteration while you're sleepy is fun. Then had dinner with Ray, Sonny, Helen and Henry at Kubick. It was good.
Wow I just wrote about what happened today. Tired huh? End of the week again. Editing Avocado! Assignment! Music! Guitar! Time to do stuff! Yay!
Ok night. Take care.
Lots of 'meet ups' throughout the day. I had a pretty cool 'Hollywood and its Others' lecture in the morning. It was about John Ford's film My Darling Clementine and the Western genre's place in American history. I really enjoyed this movie, but I shall comment on it when I do a trio-movie post later this week, as soon as I finish watching Lord of War.
Today's meet up was quite nice. Hour one participants included Henry, Sonny, Steve and David. Hour two participants included the addition of Raymond and Simon. For most of the rest of the afternoon Ray, Henry and I walked around the city looking at shops. First stop was a tiny 'hat' shop that had only four hats and fifty gazillion party pills. Second stop was a retro-'rare-books' shop. They had old Disney and Archie comics. They also had 'the Happy Boys' book and the 'Great Girls' book. Interesting. They alos had these creepy-coloured security monitors that looked like the screens from The Ring/Ringu. So we got out of there and continued our journey around High Street. After two days of not knowing what to do next, we decided to visit 'oh-I'm-so-cool' surf shops to look at hats. Amazon, Billabong and Quiksilver shops. They had hats all over the place, not that many ofmgr-I-am-going-to-choke-it's-so-nice hats. Many were expensive. So we went back to Uni, where we found Chris and Rikky.
Fire alarms go off. Everyone moved out of Quad. Wait wait wait.
Later went to Ray's Geo prizegiving event. Food. Fotos. Fun. Frenzy. Or not. But attempting to use alliteration while you're sleepy is fun. Then had dinner with Ray, Sonny, Helen and Henry at Kubick. It was good.
Wow I just wrote about what happened today. Tired huh? End of the week again. Editing Avocado! Assignment! Music! Guitar! Time to do stuff! Yay!
Ok night. Take care.
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Hello! How are you? I'm pretty tired. I set up the wireless network. Thanks for the advice Henry.
What can I say? It's pretty hard to blog well when there isn't a lot of stuff going on. Things are going pretty well though, I'm really enjoying the classes this semester. The content's really interesting. I have some really cool people in my tutorial groups.
One thing about the way people speak. People who say, "You have no idea how I feel. There's no way you'll ever experience this. Never." It's weird.
I'm really happy with the way I'm spending money these days. Just in terms of how I've allocated my savings. I dunno, there's this feeling that comes with saving money, that's even better than when you buy something. Maybe because your imagination always has the potential to be infinitely more wonderful than any toothbrush you can buy. Not that I spent my savings on toothbrushes.
Yay! Thursday tomorrow. This semester my week really starts out intense, culminating in an exhausing Wednesday. Then from Thursday onwards I get to breathe.
Goodnight. Take care. More stuff on the way, I promise.
What can I say? It's pretty hard to blog well when there isn't a lot of stuff going on. Things are going pretty well though, I'm really enjoying the classes this semester. The content's really interesting. I have some really cool people in my tutorial groups.
One thing about the way people speak. People who say, "You have no idea how I feel. There's no way you'll ever experience this. Never." It's weird.
I'm really happy with the way I'm spending money these days. Just in terms of how I've allocated my savings. I dunno, there's this feeling that comes with saving money, that's even better than when you buy something. Maybe because your imagination always has the potential to be infinitely more wonderful than any toothbrush you can buy. Not that I spent my savings on toothbrushes.
Yay! Thursday tomorrow. This semester my week really starts out intense, culminating in an exhausing Wednesday. Then from Thursday onwards I get to breathe.
Goodnight. Take care. More stuff on the way, I promise.
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
Sorry about not blogging in detail today.
1) Did about five hours of reading.
2) Saw Simon's film.
3) Pathetic fallacy is pretty much spot on. I did something I'm not too proud of today and therefore I'm not feeling too good at the moment. But it's ok, won't elaborate on it except to say I'm trying to be a better person. But I'm still sorry.
Have a good night. Take care.
Advertising: Thursday meet-up, one pm outside Munchy Mart, if coming at two just txt for location. Everyone's welcome, would love to see you guys there. Hey, even if you're someone in
Wyoming who's flying into Auckland on Thursday, join us for lunch!
:o)
1) Did about five hours of reading.
2) Saw Simon's film.
3) Pathetic fallacy is pretty much spot on. I did something I'm not too proud of today and therefore I'm not feeling too good at the moment. But it's ok, won't elaborate on it except to say I'm trying to be a better person. But I'm still sorry.
Have a good night. Take care.
Advertising: Thursday meet-up, one pm outside Munchy Mart, if coming at two just txt for location. Everyone's welcome, would love to see you guys there. Hey, even if you're someone in
Wyoming who's flying into Auckland on Thursday, join us for lunch!
:o)
Monday, March 06, 2006
Three things:
1. I'm more calm about the Best Picture thing now.
2. Thursday meet-up is still on. 1 pm at Munchy Mart, or 2 (txt one of us for location). See you then!
3. Simon Zhou has finished his first short film.
Good night.
1. I'm more calm about the Best Picture thing now.
2. Thursday meet-up is still on. 1 pm at Munchy Mart, or 2 (txt one of us for location). See you then!
3. Simon Zhou has finished his first short film.
Good night.
Oscar results are out. Don't click if you want to watch it tonight but, I am mildly disappointed.
In terms of guessing the Oscars, I got a whopping FOUR wrong. Three of the WRONGS are fair enough, but there is one category that I um... wasn't particularly happy about.
What the huh? Crash got Best Picture. Some side of me thought this was gonna happen, but oh no. I just can't bear the thought of this DVD cover sporting 'Best Picture' and the little Oscar statue all over it. It's the ultimate defeat of subtext and truly great screenwriting when the members of the Academy vote this as the best film of the year. Don't get me wrong, this movie has a lot of strengths. But this 'upset' has upset me.
Shall blog later. But today I was so tired! Just walking around Uni today I could feel myself falling asleep. Slept all the way on the bus home.
In terms of guessing the Oscars, I got a whopping FOUR wrong. Three of the WRONGS are fair enough, but there is one category that I um... wasn't particularly happy about.
What the huh? Crash got Best Picture. Some side of me thought this was gonna happen, but oh no. I just can't bear the thought of this DVD cover sporting 'Best Picture' and the little Oscar statue all over it. It's the ultimate defeat of subtext and truly great screenwriting when the members of the Academy vote this as the best film of the year. Don't get me wrong, this movie has a lot of strengths. But this 'upset' has upset me.
Shall blog later. But today I was so tired! Just walking around Uni today I could feel myself falling asleep. Slept all the way on the bus home.
Sunday, March 05, 2006
Hi there. I tried finishing off my original but whenever I recorded it it just didn't feel right. So I have a cover for you instead.
Starlight. An acoustic cover of the Zed cover of the song by Weezer.
Download instructions:
1. Click on the above link.
2.
a) Click on the orange button to download the mp3 to your computer.
or
b) Click on the green button to stream the file HiFi or the grey button to scream the file LoFi.
It's the first time I've tried recording over myself and it worked out alright. The improvised solo didn't go down all flash and slick, but hey, at least I played it in the spirit of the original song.
Lyrics are here. Enjoy!
Good night and take care.
Starlight. An acoustic cover of the Zed cover of the song by Weezer.
Download instructions:
1. Click on the above link.
2.
a) Click on the orange button to download the mp3 to your computer.
or
b) Click on the green button to stream the file HiFi or the grey button to scream the file LoFi.
It's the first time I've tried recording over myself and it worked out alright. The improvised solo didn't go down all flash and slick, but hey, at least I played it in the spirit of the original song.
Lyrics are here. Enjoy!
Good night and take care.
Saturday, March 04, 2006
Yo! Today - awesome.
ONE: Went into city to visit Ajita's mum, got a txt from Janko about the Philippa Boyens 'Screenwriting' talk for the Auckland Uni Alumni weekend. I had originally thought that you had to pay to get in, but apparently not. So I headed there first, being about five minutes late, I missed out on finding out that Boyens did English while she was at Auckland U. But she did anyway. Her main credits include being one of the three kick-ass-ers (Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and herself) who wrote and adapted the Lord of the Rings trilogy and co-producing King Kong. Her next project is adapting The Lovely Bones, set to be directed by Peter Jackson in the coming year or two.
The talk was good. Not life-changingly good, but good. Boyens was articulate, down-to-earth and friendly. There were some good questions asked, and she mainly talked about the NZ screenwriting industry, funding and talent development.
At the end I went up and stood in line. There were only about two people lining up to speak to her, as pretty much everyone just left after the talk. The first guy in line talked to her about a book in some library about screenwriting which was apparently quite good. She agreed. I didn't get the entire conversation but it was something about good books on American screenwriters. The girl in front of me kept throwing nervous glances around the room then turned around and smiled at me. She looked at Boyens and tensed up a bit. Then she scuttled out of the lecture hall. I was pretty nervous huh. But anyways, I introduced myself and shook her hand and asked her the one magic question. And got a really good answer.
I shook an Oscar-winner's hand. Ok, whatever, pfft yeah how lame. But I was pretty stoked. No, I didn't ask for her autograph, I hate autographs. What I should have done was given her a CD of my short films, a pack of M&M's, an Effo Films t-shirt (yes, I was wearing one today, and yes, she looked at it) and an orange. Never mind, I'll do that next time I see someone from the film film film film industry.
TWO: Went to Ajita's, where she and her mother were gambling. I learnt to play Gin Rummy and after three hours of losing, I gave up 50 cents worth of my life savings.
THREE: Ajita's brother, Ananda had an authentic Paul Frank Now Start A Band shirt. They are discontinued. And he apparently never wore it. So I bought it off him.
Yes, it is pink. Yes, I don't particularly like pink. However, I now have both the original AND my spoof shirt. Awesome.
FOUR: Academy of Strings was pretty good. We got to try violins from this violin maker. I think I came home with my own one, not sure. Maybe I should check to make sure.
Have a good night and take care!
ONE: Went into city to visit Ajita's mum, got a txt from Janko about the Philippa Boyens 'Screenwriting' talk for the Auckland Uni Alumni weekend. I had originally thought that you had to pay to get in, but apparently not. So I headed there first, being about five minutes late, I missed out on finding out that Boyens did English while she was at Auckland U. But she did anyway. Her main credits include being one of the three kick-ass-ers (Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and herself) who wrote and adapted the Lord of the Rings trilogy and co-producing King Kong. Her next project is adapting The Lovely Bones, set to be directed by Peter Jackson in the coming year or two.
The talk was good. Not life-changingly good, but good. Boyens was articulate, down-to-earth and friendly. There were some good questions asked, and she mainly talked about the NZ screenwriting industry, funding and talent development.
At the end I went up and stood in line. There were only about two people lining up to speak to her, as pretty much everyone just left after the talk. The first guy in line talked to her about a book in some library about screenwriting which was apparently quite good. She agreed. I didn't get the entire conversation but it was something about good books on American screenwriters. The girl in front of me kept throwing nervous glances around the room then turned around and smiled at me. She looked at Boyens and tensed up a bit. Then she scuttled out of the lecture hall. I was pretty nervous huh. But anyways, I introduced myself and shook her hand and asked her the one magic question. And got a really good answer.
I shook an Oscar-winner's hand. Ok, whatever, pfft yeah how lame. But I was pretty stoked. No, I didn't ask for her autograph, I hate autographs. What I should have done was given her a CD of my short films, a pack of M&M's, an Effo Films t-shirt (yes, I was wearing one today, and yes, she looked at it) and an orange. Never mind, I'll do that next time I see someone from the film film film film industry.
TWO: Went to Ajita's, where she and her mother were gambling. I learnt to play Gin Rummy and after three hours of losing, I gave up 50 cents worth of my life savings.
THREE: Ajita's brother, Ananda had an authentic Paul Frank Now Start A Band shirt. They are discontinued. And he apparently never wore it. So I bought it off him.
Yes, it is pink. Yes, I don't particularly like pink. However, I now have both the original AND my spoof shirt. Awesome.
FOUR: Academy of Strings was pretty good. We got to try violins from this violin maker. I think I came home with my own one, not sure. Maybe I should check to make sure.
Have a good night and take care!
NEW ZEALAND WEBSITES & BLOGS
Look for NZ #985. I wonder how he (Kelvin) found my blog. But hey, this is awesome! Thanks Kelvin.
Kind of like being listed in these directories:
DMOZ Directory
Google Directory
And this one: (romance notes? huh?)
Romance Notes Directory
Honestly these sites just copy and paste from each other. Pfft.
And who the moocow is this?
http://dennisliu.net/
It says media/moving image too. But it's not me.
:o/
There is of course the infamous 'Dennis Liu' of 'Ghost Dog' listed on IMDb:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0514912/
Interesting place, the net.
Have a nice day!
Look for NZ #985. I wonder how he (Kelvin) found my blog. But hey, this is awesome! Thanks Kelvin.
Kind of like being listed in these directories:
DMOZ Directory
Google Directory
And this one: (romance notes? huh?)
Romance Notes Directory
Honestly these sites just copy and paste from each other. Pfft.
And who the moocow is this?
http://dennisliu.net/
It says media/moving image too. But it's not me.
:o/
There is of course the infamous 'Dennis Liu' of 'Ghost Dog' listed on IMDb:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0514912/
Interesting place, the net.
Have a nice day!
Friday, March 03, 2006
[Film Rating Key: A+ is a work I cannot find flaws in, F is one of the worst films I have seen and C is a dead centre average film. Anything A-ish is likely to be in my Top 100, anything B-ish is worth watching, anything C-ish is passable and anything D-ish is not worth seeing.]
Casshern: This is a remake of a Japanese anime or something from the 70's. It's about a hypothetical future in which WWII kept going and then Japan forms an 'Eastern Empire' or something. I'm not sure about the historical stuff, but basically it's an anti-war movie that promotes peace, unity and co-existence for all human beings. A beautiful movie with some really cheesy lines. The premise is interesting and sci-fi (it's about these 'neo-humans' who want to fight for survival) and the action is very exaggerated. However, the script over-simplifies the conflict between each of the characters and it beats its message on the head of the audience, much like Crash. The shots are absolutely stunning, but they are very showy. This is another one of those 'digital backlot' films. The acting is alright. I also thought that they didn't have to kill all the people at the end. It's a B-, because of the care put into the set design and visual effects.
The 40 Year Old Virgin: This movie had its heart in the right place. It was funny, honest and well acted by its two leads (Catherine Keener and Steve Carell). However, there were a lot of very fundamental problems with this movie. Continuity errors. I know there's a lot of improv, but Carell's hands and head direction just kept changing during shot reverses. The editing was also not very good. It lagged a bit in the middle section. The script could also do with a lot of smoothing out and a lot of the side-plot things were not very funny, e.g. the 'you know how I know you're gay' lines. But Carell and Keener were well cast, great actors who nailed their roles, and the film's really positive and enjoyable, so a B-.
Oldboy: A Korean 'critically acclaimed' film. What the hell. This movie really should be seen. It has unnecessary and unethical violent revenge scenes, but the cinematography is beautiful. It has semi-gratuitious violence, torture and sex scenes, but the directing is superb. It's directorial style reminds one of the great Fincher films (even its execution of the selected theme is similar), but still manages to resonate with a really strong message of its own. It's slick. The use of music is wonderful, and the lead performer is a great, great actor. Now there are a couple of things. There are a few 'logical' things that aren't explained very well (the usual, 'how did this person get to this place?' and 'where are they now?'), but they don't affect the main thrust of the film. The script could also do with more of a tidy-up in terms of the film's structure, however it is pretty well paced and moves along quickly, doing a lot in the film's two hours. There is one scene in which the 'craziness' goes a bit overboard. But yeah, as a whole you can't deny great direction.
The movie has a 'twist'. But I don't think it's a twist. It's additional information. None of what you find out is a lie in the beginning. The guy's locked up in a room for 15 years. Yes that is correct. The main criticism people have of this film is that the twist is implausible - i.e. the actions involved in setting up something would be too difficult to achieve in real life. Well, I point to a movie like The Game or Seven (and apparently Saw, which I have not seen). If you want to watch a movie like this, you must accept that they have an awesome plan worked out and it worked. The 'twist' in this movie was not underwhelming. It was essential and necessary for the thesis to be delivered strongly. A must see. I'm a guy who really does not like violence and beating up people endlessly and crazy hysteria, but regardless this is still a great movie, I was moved and provoked to feel and question things by this film - A-. There is no reason they should be remaking this film in English. That would be one of the most stupid things to do, ever. I mean, it's honestly pretty 'Hollywood' and 'uber-slick' in its execution, so there'd be no point. It's totally 'commercial' already. It's like, there's nothing wrong with this movie so let's just copy everything except set it in an American city and use American actors and make them speak American.
Casshern: This is a remake of a Japanese anime or something from the 70's. It's about a hypothetical future in which WWII kept going and then Japan forms an 'Eastern Empire' or something. I'm not sure about the historical stuff, but basically it's an anti-war movie that promotes peace, unity and co-existence for all human beings. A beautiful movie with some really cheesy lines. The premise is interesting and sci-fi (it's about these 'neo-humans' who want to fight for survival) and the action is very exaggerated. However, the script over-simplifies the conflict between each of the characters and it beats its message on the head of the audience, much like Crash. The shots are absolutely stunning, but they are very showy. This is another one of those 'digital backlot' films. The acting is alright. I also thought that they didn't have to kill all the people at the end. It's a B-, because of the care put into the set design and visual effects.
The 40 Year Old Virgin: This movie had its heart in the right place. It was funny, honest and well acted by its two leads (Catherine Keener and Steve Carell). However, there were a lot of very fundamental problems with this movie. Continuity errors. I know there's a lot of improv, but Carell's hands and head direction just kept changing during shot reverses. The editing was also not very good. It lagged a bit in the middle section. The script could also do with a lot of smoothing out and a lot of the side-plot things were not very funny, e.g. the 'you know how I know you're gay' lines. But Carell and Keener were well cast, great actors who nailed their roles, and the film's really positive and enjoyable, so a B-.
Oldboy: A Korean 'critically acclaimed' film. What the hell. This movie really should be seen. It has unnecessary and unethical violent revenge scenes, but the cinematography is beautiful. It has semi-gratuitious violence, torture and sex scenes, but the directing is superb. It's directorial style reminds one of the great Fincher films (even its execution of the selected theme is similar), but still manages to resonate with a really strong message of its own. It's slick. The use of music is wonderful, and the lead performer is a great, great actor. Now there are a couple of things. There are a few 'logical' things that aren't explained very well (the usual, 'how did this person get to this place?' and 'where are they now?'), but they don't affect the main thrust of the film. The script could also do with more of a tidy-up in terms of the film's structure, however it is pretty well paced and moves along quickly, doing a lot in the film's two hours. There is one scene in which the 'craziness' goes a bit overboard. But yeah, as a whole you can't deny great direction.
The movie has a 'twist'. But I don't think it's a twist. It's additional information. None of what you find out is a lie in the beginning. The guy's locked up in a room for 15 years. Yes that is correct. The main criticism people have of this film is that the twist is implausible - i.e. the actions involved in setting up something would be too difficult to achieve in real life. Well, I point to a movie like The Game or Seven (and apparently Saw, which I have not seen). If you want to watch a movie like this, you must accept that they have an awesome plan worked out and it worked. The 'twist' in this movie was not underwhelming. It was essential and necessary for the thesis to be delivered strongly. A must see. I'm a guy who really does not like violence and beating up people endlessly and crazy hysteria, but regardless this is still a great movie, I was moved and provoked to feel and question things by this film - A-. There is no reason they should be remaking this film in English. That would be one of the most stupid things to do, ever. I mean, it's honestly pretty 'Hollywood' and 'uber-slick' in its execution, so there'd be no point. It's totally 'commercial' already. It's like, there's nothing wrong with this movie so let's just copy everything except set it in an American city and use American actors and make them speak American.
Thursday, March 02, 2006
I had a dream about Calista Flockhart three nights ago.
No, it wasn't that kind of dream. Anyway, it was pretty weird because I had never watch Ally McBeal much. But now I think I shall watch it on DVD.
No, it wasn't that kind of dream. Anyway, I forgot what happened in the dream exactly, but I somehow woke up and the first two words I said were, "Calista Flockhart." So there. Maybe it's subliminal dream advertising. I don't know. But I think the dream was something about floating boats and swimming pools. Not sure.
Today the 'meet-up' went as planned. It pretty much went alright. We managed to get a lot of people, maybe around 7-9 people over the period of the two halves, save two or three ppl who either had class, went home early or wasn't in Uni that day. Not sure about making it regular or not. Maybe we should alter the day of the week every now and then so that we get different combinations of people at different times. Also it'll mean some people who didn't make it today can come some other time.
I heard the most amusing and funny story today. A person I know is being set up by his dad to be paired with a 14-year old girl who is overseas. I know, it is hilariously funny. I'm gonna write it into a short story or a movie. It's brilliant.
My dad and my sister have laptops that need internet access! I think I shall set this up in the weekend. This networking stuff is all pretty new to me. I'm glad I'm learning to do these things.
My mum made dumplings today. They were awesome. Like, because they were made on the day it meant that they were really really good and... good. It was also pretty amazing because she'd just gotten off the plane like a day ago and now she is making this awesome stuff.
I love my papers this semester. So far the lecturers have all been excellent. Not sure about the workload yet, but I'll just work hard.
I figured out what chord progressions I wanted for the song I am writing this week. I want to record it in the weekend and then maybe upload it.
Good night! Take care.
No, it wasn't that kind of dream. Anyway, it was pretty weird because I had never watch Ally McBeal much. But now I think I shall watch it on DVD.
No, it wasn't that kind of dream. Anyway, I forgot what happened in the dream exactly, but I somehow woke up and the first two words I said were, "Calista Flockhart." So there. Maybe it's subliminal dream advertising. I don't know. But I think the dream was something about floating boats and swimming pools. Not sure.
Today the 'meet-up' went as planned. It pretty much went alright. We managed to get a lot of people, maybe around 7-9 people over the period of the two halves, save two or three ppl who either had class, went home early or wasn't in Uni that day. Not sure about making it regular or not. Maybe we should alter the day of the week every now and then so that we get different combinations of people at different times. Also it'll mean some people who didn't make it today can come some other time.
I heard the most amusing and funny story today. A person I know is being set up by his dad to be paired with a 14-year old girl who is overseas. I know, it is hilariously funny. I'm gonna write it into a short story or a movie. It's brilliant.
My dad and my sister have laptops that need internet access! I think I shall set this up in the weekend. This networking stuff is all pretty new to me. I'm glad I'm learning to do these things.
My mum made dumplings today. They were awesome. Like, because they were made on the day it meant that they were really really good and... good. It was also pretty amazing because she'd just gotten off the plane like a day ago and now she is making this awesome stuff.
I love my papers this semester. So far the lecturers have all been excellent. Not sure about the workload yet, but I'll just work hard.
I figured out what chord progressions I wanted for the song I am writing this week. I want to record it in the weekend and then maybe upload it.
Good night! Take care.