It's gonna be cold, it's gonna be gray, and it's gonna last you the rest of your life

Coming back 5 years later, I'm especially proud that my portrait of Weisback and Costal still has a place of honor.

A Simple Job

Well I have not posted in forever (I Apologize). I thought I would post my short film from last semester. It was primarily shot on 16mm color film on the Arri SRII, with exception for a small portion being shot on the Cannon T2i and a handycam. It was edited on Final Cut Pro. I tried to keep things as simple as possible for my first try on film stock. This semester I'll be shooting digital for my film, so I'm going for something much more grand in size.

@strobist, 2/20/10 17:48

David Hobby (@strobist) 2/20/10 17:48 This 5D video rig would leave @vincentlaforet crying and drinking cheap scotch on his linoleum floor: http://vimeo.com/9243537

34 Days to Go: Precariously Precious/Mo'Nique = Oscar

(NOTE: Sorry I got this posted late...kids, snow, ya know. And yes, I am aware of the apostrophe, but come on!)

Yes, the longest journey begins with a single step. It's the day after Oscar nominations, and I begin my annual pilgrimage to watch, and write about, the Academy Award nominees. All of them. And this year, oh joy, all 10 of them! 

We begin with Precious.

True to Paul Brower's (my little Precious) critique below, it seems that another villain is heading toward Oscar gold.

Paul went on a diatribe about villains, claiming that not only are they easier to portray than protagonists, but also that the depth of evil within them is more vital to a film than heroism or strength. 

He calls upon a few Oscar-caliber baddies. Yet, Bardem's murderous Dutch Boy in No Country and Ledger's new-age, peeling painted Joker (I have yet to see Basterds, so I cannot comment on Walz's stone-cold Nazi) have one thing in common: a resume of destruction so consummate, it is otherwordly, almost cartoonish. Bardem played a ruthless, stoic predator. Ledger played a lunatic who also dressed the part. Their reign of terror is so encompassing that the protagonists, as well as the audience, can only cower and pray. The hero's job is to stop an insanity so wicked that Susan Powter would leave town.  

As a film, Precious, fell short of my expectations. Meandering and filled with generalities, it failed to stand or deliver (ahem). Though admittedly, Paula Patton is much, much, much easier on the eyes than James Edward Olmos. It also seemed to perpetuate some of the stereotypes it aimed to expose. The nurse, the teacher, the professionals...all light-skinned. The abused, the abuser, the accessories to abuse...all dark skinned. One African American critic, acknowledging this disparity in skin tone, hailed that the movie was: "a set back in cinematic portrayals of blacks." He even compared it to Birth of a Nation, a film in which the Ku Klux Klan (literally) marches in and runs out the "sex-starved darkies." Yikes.

While my assessment is less historically scathing, I found the casting for the film to be both curious and unforgivable. Was it an oversight? Or is Daniel's making some sort of indictment of color? Was he hoping we'd notice. Either way, I couldn't get over it. It eclipsed the film's theme. It even eclipsed the fact that Mariah Carey, everyone's favorite public drunk and cleavage purveyor, actually delivered a solid performance as a haggard social worker.

The film is saved from racially-charged cliche by two factors.

One: Lee Daniel's inspired "fantasy" scenes that occur in Precious' imagination. Precious escapes, as we all do, in daydreams of glamour and celebrity. She escapes, as I do, to a soundtrack of early 90s hip-pop (word to Bobby B and Heavy D, the overweight lover MC). These fanatasies provide a ying to the brutual yang of Precious' reality. Bad news accumulates on Precious faster than a Cape May County blizzard. Without these scenes, it would definitely be too much for most viewers to stomach. With them, it is probably too much for most viewers to stomach.

Two: a movingly powerful performance by MoNique. Her welfare mom is a vicous villain on the level with any of Brower's allusions, even Bardem and Ledger. She's a vile and reprehensible woman. She chucks infants. She chucks televisions. She chucks pots and pans. And, she dances to disco with hairy armpits. She hurts everyone in her wake. She hurts animals, kids and old people. Her selfishness and misguidance knows no bounds. Yet, when she cries, during the climatic, final confrontation with her wayward daughter, the effects are crushing. MoNique breathes both evil and humanity into this portrait of destitution and creates a character that will haunt audiences way after the film fades. The product is a masterpiece of acting. MoNique anchors the anguish in Precious, not only the character, but also the film. MoNique deserves and likely will become only the fourth African American woman to win a Best Supporting Actress Oscar. Hopefully, this truth about race and color will prevail where the truth of Precious failed.

The Villain Always Wins

Well with both The Golden Globes and the SAGs behind us, the BAFTAs and Oscars are looming over the many award winning films which will receive nominations. While I'd love to nick pick over who should and should not win, there is a category that I feel has already been decided. The supporting actor award has practically been won already by German actor, Christoph Waltz. Having won literally every award for his portrayal of Col. Hans Landa, he has even won the Golden Globe and SAG award for supporting actor.

This is where it gets interesting. IF Christoph Waltz wins the Oscar, this will be the third year in a row that the Supporting Actor award has been received by an actor in a villainous role. For those who do not remember Heath Ledger nabbed a posthumous Oscar for his role as The Joker last year and Javier Bardem won for his role as Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men the year prior. While this sets a trend, not all villains win. William Hurt in 2006 lost with his role as Richie Cusack in A History of Violence. The real question is what sets villains apart from heart warming old men (Hal Holbrook, Into the Wild) and possible pedophile priests (Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt).

First and foremost roles of these nature allow the actor to over act. Was the Joker really a seamless blend of reality and villainy? No! He was a character. Character acting is one of the best ways to get people to notice your skills as an actor, without having to break down crying in front of the camera. Dustin Hoffman, Al Pacino, Petter Lorre and many other funny little men have made a living with character roles. While Javier Bardem's role might not come off as overacting, the little smile he gives the gas station clerk pushes a barrier that cannot be seen. Actors are allowed to act inhuman, unethical, and unruly all while they smile. It also allows the audience to escape into a mind set they will never embody or create something to absolutely hate. This reaction from the audience is what film in essence is about. Film is about reactions- crying, laughing, fear, etc.

Take a movie like It's a Wonderful Life. Jimmy Stewart is given continuous praise for his new cynical acting style which he embodied after his run in WWII. While Stewart is extraordinary, Lionel Barrymore as Mr. Potter is probably the most successful of all the roles. He makes you hate him and by doing so we can easily side with Stewart even with his feelings for Mary (He loathes her because she represents him never getting out of the grubby little town). Taking this idea of the villain allowing the viewer to like the lead, look at films like The Dark Knight or No Country for Old Men. While there is no doubt in my mind that Josh Brolin and Christian Bale are two of the greatest actors to grace the silver screen, their characters are not the most lovable or praise worthy. The reason an audience member screamed "HELL YEAH BATMAN!" after Batman took out the 18 wheeler, is because Heath Ledger has laid down the unsettling road to which we side with the Batman.

With actors becoming so unsettling and the perfect outline for what a villain should be, audience members can end up siding with them. More people undoubtedly dressed as the Joker for Halloween, rather then the Batman. In this case the villain has become so successful he outshines the hero. Unlike The Dark Knight which is about the black and white and grey areas of morality, Inglourious Basterds is about showing that all of the characters are in the grey or black. When Christoph Waltz outshines Brad Pitt, Eli Roth, and Diane Kruger, it is alright because they all are cruel characters. There really is no good or bad, just bad and worse.

The villainous role has slowly left the realm of Snidley Whiplash and moved towards Professor Moriarty or even Sherlock Holmes on a bad day. This transformation has undoubtedly improved cinema, just as leaving the Dudley Do-Right characters in the past and making leads multilayered emotional anchors. It is because the villainous role as started to truly mature so much we are siding with them, actors are receiving more nominations for such roles.

It's high time you kids learn about exposure

So take a peek at my handy web-based tutorial

ZUZU'S PETALS!

It's a Wonderful Life is on TV. Guess I'm going to have tears in my eyes in thirty minutes or so. That ending just gets me every time.

(Sorry it's finals week I'm not going to write a heart felt review just yet)

Not Exactly Film

Well this isn't exactly about film. For my photography class this semester we have to use this site to make a photography blog and post our pictures. If you want to look at my pictures, you are more then welcome. They are featured here. I'll be posting more throughout the semester and will most likely continue even after the class. I hope you all enjoy.

Everyday People in Extreme Situations

"In my films, I focus on pain and fear. The fear just before an act of violence and the pain after. This applies to the perpetrators as well as the victims." - Chan-wook Park

The Revenge Trilogy which consists of Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy, and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance are films about revenge, kidnapping, pain, suffering, and everyday people. While considered a trilogy they are no more related to each other than Sergio Leone's Man Without a Name trilogy are. Chan-wook Park (writer/director) acts as a conductor who skillfully leads his characters through the worst part of their lives. The pain reverberates through the room leaving each viewer feeling it in their chest as the credits role.

Each person has great days and bad days, the characters within these films are pushed to their greatest extreme during one of those bad days, for some, a bad 15 years. Park builds suspense unlike any other director. Violence hovers over ever shot even when peaceful imagery fills the room. Tension builds as stomaches tighten and sweat pours down foreheads. Hammers, baseball bats, and pairs of scissors are the weapons of choice to exact harm against protagonists and antagonists alike. While the word "senseless" can be thrown around, the violence essentially makes sense. Characters are left with no life left to live except that of revenge, what would they turn to other than violence? (Religion?) In addition it is never glorified and always leaves a sense of disgust or anguish left in its wake.

Where most films involving violence focus on it alone, Chan-wook Park uses it but always focuses on human relations and qualities of being human. He cares about these characters and knows that they are not just violent soles. Great moments are hand crafted with no words exchanged to tell so much about each relationship. From a small smile to a brushing of hair out of another's face, a human quality is given to each character. It's because of these heart felt well constructed scenes that the film work. Tears role down faces and people yell and scream in anguish because love lost is one of the greatest pains in life.

Needless to say the acting with these films are top notch, proving that other countries do have actors to contribute to cinema. Every character is at their wits end and are hysterical at times, only the best actors could pull such scenes off and leave an audience speechless. Min-sik Choi in Oldboy eats a live octopus which he performed four times on set. He also lost 20 pounds for the part and has one of the most emotionally demanding roles in the trilogy. Where is his oscar? (A day late and a dollar short)

No one ever lives happily ever after in these films, but who ever does. Chan-wook Park makes the viewer actually feel something whether it is pain, sympathy, fear, or even disgust. His skill is measured in how much he effects his audience and in that case it is immeasurable. Just like Leone's trilogy there is no order which you have to watch these films, you just should watch them because they are what real movie magic is made of.

Movies, Movies, Movies

Usually I do not sit on this blog and rave about movies I've watched because frankly I watch too many movies- too often to write for this site all the time. This still is not exactly one of those times. Since there some new people I want to give some advice and suggestions that would be helpful for all.

For those who truly want to become a director my suggestion is watch everything you can get your grubby little hands on. Do not ignore the present because film is always evolving, but the past holds some of the greatest treasures. Howard Hawk's His Girl Friday makes me laugh more than any comedy made in the past ten years. Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Samourai and Le Cercle Rouge embody the word "cool" and create something new out of old cliches. Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin and Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless taught me the true power of editing. Sergio Leone's The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly will forever be the first film that I noticed what a director could stylistically do with a film. These are only a handful of movies I've watched the past 2 1/2 years that have led me to understand all the powers cinema holds and let me discover what I wanted to do as a director.

If there was one thing I have learned is film cannot be taught. Not to say you shouldn't take classes, but these classes should spring board into your everyday life and lead to hundreds of hours of watching film and hundreds of hours in agony with a pen and paper, writing ideas and scripts. If you haven't bought a note pad yet, get one. This will be the best tool a director can have. You can write all the thoughts you ever had and always be able to go back to them. Never abandon a good idea because you don't know where it is going. It will lead you somewhere even if it is later in your life.

With all that said I am going to attempt to make movie suggests since too often I complain and not praise. I started my conquest into cinema with AFI's Top 100 movies list. I have not finished said list because I get side track by all the other films I have not yet watched, but it is a great starting place for anyone. Next I would suggest using Roger Ebert's Great Movie list because the list is composed of a large amount of foreign films which obviously will not appear on the American Film Institute's list. For me personally the works of Sidney Lumet, Martin Scorsese, John Huston, Jean-Pierre Melville (a director I feel is my little treasure since no one around me has seem to seen his films), Sergio Leone, Woody Allen, and Buster Keaton are the most influential around. I could go on for hours about individual movies but I'll restrain myself. What I'm trying to say is watch movies, watch a lot of them, and never lose the passion.

-On a side note I am open to talk on Fridays any time through out this semester and am more then willing to sit in front of a class and babble on about movies. My favorite subject is the movies of the 60's and 70's but I really am willing to talk about anything. -

EVEN MORE MEMORIES

MORE MEMORIES :D

Memories :]

Robots, Zombies, and A Chicken from Outer Space

While driving a Light Cycle from Tron through the massive landscapes of the internet, I stumbled upon a treasure from the past that I never gave too deep of a look into. Dismounting the cycle, I meander over and picked up a rock which was covered in simple slapstick, a dog, and the Cartoon Network emblem. However there was some shine to this rock and much like Aladdin's lamp, this rock held inside treasures beyond the workings of time and space. With a few rubs I soon found great artistic vision, a dark and comical view on the paranormal, and enthralling story lines. There he stood in front of me, Courage the Cowardly Dog, my newest muse.

For those unfamiliar with this cartoon, here's John R. Dilworth's Golden Globe and Academy Award nominated animated short that started it all, The Chicken from Outer Space.

A major part that makes Courage, Courage is its artist design. Blending a world of cartoon with elements of 3D, such as the chicken's UFO, brings a level of creepiness and other worldliness.

 In many other episodes, vehicles, characters and other elements are created in the 3D format which makes them stand out within this shabby world Courage lives in. Another element of its artistic design, is the color choices. Courage the Cowardly Dog is drawn up much like Watchmen, keeping towards the secondary colors like green, purple, and orange. This ultimately gives the world a tone of it's own. Using secondary colors in a world dominated by primaries, allows the cartoon to look withdrawn from the world we're used to. These two elements allow the slapstick filled cartoon to continue to haunt us during each viewing.

In addition to the artistic vision, the story lines are mixture of Looney Tunes and The Twilight Zone. The opening of each episode, tells us everything we need to know about each character, who never grow, just continue being ignorant about the world they live in (except for Courage). Every episode starts with the conflict being introduced and Courage is then faced with a large amount of slap stick, one liners, and most important paranormal. Most episodes draw from a different seminal piece of work of science fiction or horror. References to Peter Lorre, Sweeney Todd, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame all are used as starting points for stories, however other stories pull ideas out of nowhere, such as an island inhabited completely by bananas or a gerbil vacuum salesman named Doc Gerbil. While many episodes follow similar curves of villain appears, Eustace and Muriel are in danger, and Courage gets beaten to a pulp but manages to save the day, the story stays fresh with the references and many other original ideas. This save the day story line combined with the dark paranormal references and slap stick comedy, creates a haunting tone which leaves you uncomfortable at times. When Courage has been comical brutalized by a Weremole and his teeth are knocked out, are we intended to laugh or feel sorry for our hero?

Courage the Cowardly Dog's greatest strength was it's fearless approach to create a story. No subject or reference was too far for this show. If the story was about foot fungus, then they have the fungus take over Eustace and act like Little Caesar. The Doc Gerbil episode ends with a boat chase dubbed over with operatic music. The show continued to test the bound of the comedic cartoon platform and ended with a haunting story of a dog seemingly living the same day over and over just with a new twisted turn of events. If Nowhere, Kansas isn't hell, I'd fear to find out what is. 

The French Revolution

I'll be damned if I don't turn this into a music blog.


In today's installment is the up-and-coming pop artist, Yelle. A contemporary of so many teen pop acts, her style is comparable to that of Gwen Stefani or Britney Spears - but with a dash of Briochin zest. Her first full-length album, Pop-Up, has a distinct electronic feel not unlike The Ting Tings. This, coupled with the intoxicating vocals, makes Pop-Up a worthwhile listen and a great excursion into foreign territory.

Pop-Up is available here on Amazon. For those less-inclined to purchase music before hearing it, the better part of the album is available for listening on her Myspace, and the full album can be found with a bit of searching on the internet.

I'll leave two songs - Je Veux Te Voir and A Cause Des Garcons up as Youtube links.

Incredible and Bad

Now I know this is the Film Institute, but a huge part of any film is its soundtrack. So for my first serious post, I'm gonna expose your fragile young minds to Incredibad, by The Lonely Island.

Incredibad is nothing short of greatness, aiming squarely for comedy and nailing a perfect bullseye. It's a mashup of tons of different genres of music, being that it's a compilation of new content and songs from Samberg's SNL work. And if you're familiar with his skits, there are some gems to be found like "Lazy Sunday" and "D**k In a Box". It's a great album musically, and the lyrics are downright fun. At forty-two minutes, Incredibad is an average length for an album - great to listen to while doing work or just relaxing, while not overstaying its welcome.
I highly recommend this album to anyone who enjoys fun, happiness, or even a light tickle upon their funnybone.



**WARNING**
IF YOU ARE OF WEAK CONSTITUTION OR HIGH MORALS, THEN PERUSE NO MORE, FOR FOUL LANGUAGE LIES BEYOND THESE LINKS
**WARNING**

I'll leave up my two favorites, Natalie's Rap (feat. Natalie Portman and Chris Parnell"), and Incredibad - both are youtube links. And to those of you that collect music, the full album is available on Amazon, but definitely can't be found on any torrent sites or in any google blog searches ;)

HEY GUYS PIRATE CONTEST

I COULDN'T PLACE PICTURES IN ZANDER'S POST, SO HERE'S MY ABSENTEE SUBMISSION!

I FIGURED IT'D BE BEST TO HAVE A MODERN PIRATE RIGHT? AND I EDITED OUT THE GUN AND MADE SURE HE DIDN'T HAVE ANY PROSTHESES OR ANYTHING PIRATEY - GOTTA MAKE SURE HE'S NOT OFFENSIVE!

I HOPE YOU ALL LIKE IT BECAUSE I'M SURE THE STUDENTS OF CEDAR CREEK WON'T!

Yet the Sun Keeps Setting

Hello FI,

I recently wrote a film treatment for my film class but also for a summer movie script. I like the over all story I've written and I wanted to get the story out there, for people to read, give ideas and critique. This is not the final draft, what so ever, and I'm still going through a ton of changes. Mr. Costal, you can expect an email from me with this identical draft of the film treatment, asking for your thoughts. To be kind to the blog, I'm going to post this paragraph as the main comment and then post the actual treatment as a comment underneath to save space on the home page. Anyone who wants to read it, go ahead, I won't be offend if this doesn't get any responses because extra reading sucks, especially when it's three pages long. Enjoy everyone and I'll probably keep in contact about this when it get further into preproduction like casting.

Thank you for the help,

Paul Brower

P.S.- I used Reina's name because I need a name... it happens.