I am at a loss for words.
Yesterday I saw the trailer for the film Boyhood. A feature length movie featuring a continuous cast across 12 years.
It's a really interesting concept behind how to make a movie. Every project is a race against the clock after all. Increasing that amount of time is a stroke of genius. I'm sure I'm not the only one who dreamed of being involved in a project like that. The only problem is that it takes would take years upon years to build faith with enough people to get them to dedicate their time too.
But that's just it. It's a dream project and by its nature it's impractical. But here we have a director, Richard Linlater, who defied the practicality. Anybody can make a series over the course of 12 years, because the funding is easy to get as long as you produce something periodically. For instance, there's a series of documentaries called the Up series which started in 1964. Each episode has a space of seven years in between it and it is still ongoing. It is similarly ambitious but at least the creators are getting some returns in between each episode they release.
One of the things I have come to realise is that this industry is not about cannots. You have to push yourself to the limit, even if that limit is placed from years of tradition from the industry. Nobody remembers the film that was standard for the time. I know from experience that it's easier to talk about movies with a major point of difference than it is to speak about ones that have no difference.
Now is the time to make entrepreneurial films and pieces of art. With crowd-sourced funding we are able to live our dreams and make dream projects reality. If the crowd funding falls through then we can just fund it on the bare bones of whatever you can find, as Linlater did. This is our generation's hallmark. Let's own it.
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Monday, April 28, 2014
Sequels
I've just discovered my favourite sequel.
It's The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
Superhero movies are really unique things. For a long time now various movies and television shows have tried to encapsulate comic book characters, with varying success. The sub-genre comes and goes like the tide with various amounts of interest from the public.
But in this day and age we're able to do something that our forefathers were unable to accomplish with latex masks, analogue editing and animatronics (not to discount their efforts). Almost anybody could tell you that I'm talking about computer generated images when it comes to what advantage modern filmmakers have. Due to the nature of CGI now is the time for another renaissance of film. Both the Harry Potter and X-Men series opened the floodgates of the reality of how possible it was to have a large continuous cast spread out over many years on a series of stories.
Playing second fiddle to X-Men and Harry Potter was the Spider-Man series, starring Toby MacGuire. This trilogy was doomed to repeat the mistakes of falling into the old shackles of the industry... I've come to assume that anybody who was passionate about making movies in the early 2000s would shake in their boots when they heard buzzwords like, "blockbuster" and "trilogy" due to the nature of how coffin-like those terms are to a project. X-Men and Harry Potter were punching above their weight, but the Spider-Man series died after the third movie for reasons I don't want to remind myself of... But if you aren't familiar to the series then watch the following video at your own risk (and yes, that really is not a parody):
Some people were really skeptical when it was announced that the Spider-Man movies were getting a reboot in 2012. I myself didn't bother seeing it in cinemas due to having crippling flashbacks to certain scenes in Spider-Man 3. Eventually I saw that movie and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, given the reviews. It was far from my favourite movie however due to a few details across the board.
And then recently I saw The Amazing Spider-Man 2. And I have to say that it ticked the boxes for a good sequel. Namely the story was heading on the same direction; the consequences of the first movie carried over well but didn't distract from the multiple new elements to the series. Dialogue took a major step up - if the dialogue was taking baby steps in the first movie it was jumping hurdles like Liu Xiang in the second. It felt like it was the first movie but it was bigger and better - the villains weren't the deepest but three new villains emerged. Each of them had enough focus to display their own strengths and traits... When compared with the first film's singular villain, who was only sometimes a good character the sequel is impressive. Finally all the fight sequences with Electro, the main villain were visually stunning.
Electro, surprise surprise is an electric themed villain. As such it's really hard to convey how fast he moves when he's fighting Spider-Man. Nonetheless the CGI enviroments where we see Spidey and Electro face off allow for photo-realistic pockets of time that dazzle and impress, and while The Amazing Spider-Man had a few moments that were inventive, this really took the cake.
It's incredibly hard to make any sequel without stuffing it up. And for many movies that get a sequel there was never supposed to be a sequel when the script was initially written. There's only a few sequels that actually work well, and even less that work greatly. In my opinion Aliens was the best sequel prior to Amazing Spider-Man 2. Aliens added a lot of depth to the series and was twice the film Alien was. Alien was a hard act to follow up on and I really respect the work the team did for Aliens. At the same time though, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was three times the film The Amazing Spider-Man was, and that's a true marvel of an accomplishment for a sequel.
If all things go very well for me, I'd love to make a movie that was four times its predecessor. Then I might just hang up the towel and call it a day.
It's The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
Superhero movies are really unique things. For a long time now various movies and television shows have tried to encapsulate comic book characters, with varying success. The sub-genre comes and goes like the tide with various amounts of interest from the public.
But in this day and age we're able to do something that our forefathers were unable to accomplish with latex masks, analogue editing and animatronics (not to discount their efforts). Almost anybody could tell you that I'm talking about computer generated images when it comes to what advantage modern filmmakers have. Due to the nature of CGI now is the time for another renaissance of film. Both the Harry Potter and X-Men series opened the floodgates of the reality of how possible it was to have a large continuous cast spread out over many years on a series of stories.
Playing second fiddle to X-Men and Harry Potter was the Spider-Man series, starring Toby MacGuire. This trilogy was doomed to repeat the mistakes of falling into the old shackles of the industry... I've come to assume that anybody who was passionate about making movies in the early 2000s would shake in their boots when they heard buzzwords like, "blockbuster" and "trilogy" due to the nature of how coffin-like those terms are to a project. X-Men and Harry Potter were punching above their weight, but the Spider-Man series died after the third movie for reasons I don't want to remind myself of... But if you aren't familiar to the series then watch the following video at your own risk (and yes, that really is not a parody):
Some people were really skeptical when it was announced that the Spider-Man movies were getting a reboot in 2012. I myself didn't bother seeing it in cinemas due to having crippling flashbacks to certain scenes in Spider-Man 3. Eventually I saw that movie and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, given the reviews. It was far from my favourite movie however due to a few details across the board.
And then recently I saw The Amazing Spider-Man 2. And I have to say that it ticked the boxes for a good sequel. Namely the story was heading on the same direction; the consequences of the first movie carried over well but didn't distract from the multiple new elements to the series. Dialogue took a major step up - if the dialogue was taking baby steps in the first movie it was jumping hurdles like Liu Xiang in the second. It felt like it was the first movie but it was bigger and better - the villains weren't the deepest but three new villains emerged. Each of them had enough focus to display their own strengths and traits... When compared with the first film's singular villain, who was only sometimes a good character the sequel is impressive. Finally all the fight sequences with Electro, the main villain were visually stunning.
Electro, surprise surprise is an electric themed villain. As such it's really hard to convey how fast he moves when he's fighting Spider-Man. Nonetheless the CGI enviroments where we see Spidey and Electro face off allow for photo-realistic pockets of time that dazzle and impress, and while The Amazing Spider-Man had a few moments that were inventive, this really took the cake.
It's incredibly hard to make any sequel without stuffing it up. And for many movies that get a sequel there was never supposed to be a sequel when the script was initially written. There's only a few sequels that actually work well, and even less that work greatly. In my opinion Aliens was the best sequel prior to Amazing Spider-Man 2. Aliens added a lot of depth to the series and was twice the film Alien was. Alien was a hard act to follow up on and I really respect the work the team did for Aliens. At the same time though, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was three times the film The Amazing Spider-Man was, and that's a true marvel of an accomplishment for a sequel.
If all things go very well for me, I'd love to make a movie that was four times its predecessor. Then I might just hang up the towel and call it a day.
Sunday, April 27, 2014
Actors
I love actors.
If someone has been keen enough to express a different kind of person, or even display a truth that's fabricated then they are really interesting. I haven't had much experience telling actors what to do yet, but I've had a few opportunities. Despite this people I've met who call themselves actors have never ceased to amaze me. I suggest you go out and meet an actor sometime, they're an amazing species.
Last year I got the opportunity to create a short film over the course of two months as part of my education. After much deliberation about what I should make leading up to the foreboding assignment I was ready to create a neo-noire short film. Unfortunately this meant that almost nobody in my class could act in it, as a more mature film requires more mature actors.
One of the things that really stuck out to me as a director was that the cast was really keen to get involved in this kind of project despite my age. Not a single member of the cast was unenthusiastic about contributing to the production of the project. The kind of interaction that a group of people have regardless of their role during a production is absolutely fascinating to me and has convinced me that I'm right at home in making videos.
This energy and ambition is fantastic. The lead actor, Savjot, was a really interesting man who really stepped up to the plate. Interestingly enough he had never had experience in acting before, but he was able to take onboard any advice I, the other crew and cast members gave him. His accent was a stumbling block but I could tell that he was passionate about learning about how to act and as a young director that's something that I am more than happy to help mould.
The leading lady, Nancy was a charm to work with. She herself did a whole myriad of odd jobs on top of a busy life. I have a rule when dealing with actresses: let them sort out their own make-up and wardrobe. My crew on the days we had Nancy acting was made up of all males, so that rule came in handy when she laid out a whole bunch of clothes and asked us what she should wear for her scenes. Naturally she just received baffled looks.
I met all but one of the actors in Inherit thanks to a website called Starnow. But I'm sure that anybody who is keen to act can be found wherever you look.
If someone has been keen enough to express a different kind of person, or even display a truth that's fabricated then they are really interesting. I haven't had much experience telling actors what to do yet, but I've had a few opportunities. Despite this people I've met who call themselves actors have never ceased to amaze me. I suggest you go out and meet an actor sometime, they're an amazing species.
Last year I got the opportunity to create a short film over the course of two months as part of my education. After much deliberation about what I should make leading up to the foreboding assignment I was ready to create a neo-noire short film. Unfortunately this meant that almost nobody in my class could act in it, as a more mature film requires more mature actors.
One of the things that really stuck out to me as a director was that the cast was really keen to get involved in this kind of project despite my age. Not a single member of the cast was unenthusiastic about contributing to the production of the project. The kind of interaction that a group of people have regardless of their role during a production is absolutely fascinating to me and has convinced me that I'm right at home in making videos.
This energy and ambition is fantastic. The lead actor, Savjot, was a really interesting man who really stepped up to the plate. Interestingly enough he had never had experience in acting before, but he was able to take onboard any advice I, the other crew and cast members gave him. His accent was a stumbling block but I could tell that he was passionate about learning about how to act and as a young director that's something that I am more than happy to help mould.
The leading lady, Nancy was a charm to work with. She herself did a whole myriad of odd jobs on top of a busy life. I have a rule when dealing with actresses: let them sort out their own make-up and wardrobe. My crew on the days we had Nancy acting was made up of all males, so that rule came in handy when she laid out a whole bunch of clothes and asked us what she should wear for her scenes. Naturally she just received baffled looks.
I met all but one of the actors in Inherit thanks to a website called Starnow. But I'm sure that anybody who is keen to act can be found wherever you look.
In short, actors universally have a can-do attitude. I'm sure you can ask an actor to do the can-can on a stack of beer cans and they'll definitely say they can try. If you can meet them halfway, then your whole production will take off like a rocket.
Saturday, April 26, 2014
Education
I'm a designer.
It's funny I say that because that term is so elastic. Almost any job could be labelled a designer job. Given that you could be a designer from the day you learn how to draw on the walls as an infant. Some people would argue that squiggles drawn on walls in crayon is fine art, but I would say that's an insult to babies given some fine art I've seen.
I suppose I really only called myself I designer after I did a small course on introductory design. 'Til then I never really had any experience to certify that I was one. That was two years ago. Since then I have been saying yes to all kinds of opportunities and haven't looked back. That's the strange thing about education at a tertiary level. "You're only as good as your last show" is a common saying, but in the educational world it's more like you're only as good as your last yes.
Tertiary is a place to find out how driven you can be. I've seen some people who have no drive to pass, most of them have enough drive to scrape by and a few have enough drive to get to the top. The strange thing is that your drive in one moment in your life is not the drive you're stuck with your whole life. Everybody has drive, but it's a case of finding something that drives you to your best potential, and that's half the battle of tertiary I believe.
In primary school you're driven by your parents, sometimes literally. In high-school you're more driven by your friends and teachers. But tertiary is the place to drive yourself. I guess it reflects aging, but by the time you get to tertiary education level it's more about maturity.
When I was in high-school I had various role models tell me, "You'll love it in university!" or "University will be a great place for you!" I'm still not sure if they meant it would be a great place for me to discover myself or if they meant that the style of education was going to suit me more than the bureaucratic style of previous schools. Either way, those people needed a schooling in me before they recommended schooling for me.
The best thing I found after dropping out of university and going to design classes was that there was plenty of liberty in design. Like I said before, anyone's entitled to the term designer. But that's the beauty of it. I know that for some people it takes four years before they can call themselves a lawyer. Or alternatively upwards of five years before they can call themselves architects. On my first day of design school I could call myself a designer.
And that's awesome.
Friday, April 25, 2014
Laptop
I'm in a funny predicament.
For my 21st birthday I received a very nice desktop computer from my dad's side of the family. It works extremely well, and I enjoy using it, both when I have work to do and when I want to sit back and play.
However there's one thing I need to change about it.
It doesn't have wi-fi hardware.
Thankfully, the desktop is actually my cousin's husband's old computer, and being the technological legend he is, he had sent it down with a USB wi-fi aerial.
But sadly... My desktop is quite some distance from the router, so unfortunately Internet crawls at a snail's pace if I try using the USB aerial.
Before the desktop arrived, I had been surfing the Internet on a dusty Acer Extensa 5220 laptop due to my brand new laptop kicking the bucket from a corrupted hard disk/hard drive. Needless to say I wasn't as happy using the laptop that refused to run anything that was developed past 2005 after driving a race car of a laptop.
Through some act of God or latent technological prowess I was able to somehow able to share the internet from the laptop to the desktop using a simple Ethernet cable. I was at the very least, chuffed. I resumed my studies with renewed vigour thanks to my ability to have access to a good computer 24/7.
The course finished in mid December, and soon after I made my way up from shaky Christchurch to sunny Auckland to get a summer job so I could fund the student lifestyle when I started my studies in Snells Beach. For obvious reasons I just took the laptop. On Christmas Eve I got a job trial as a kitchen hand. I passed the gauntlet and soon started working afternoons 'til late. While battling my way through minimum wage an internship at a design firm descended from the heavens into my lap thanks to my parents. The only catch was that I would be getting 6 hours sleep a day for about 10 days due to when I was rostered at the kitchen.
Somewhere along the sleep deprived line something horrible happened to the laptop...
A hinge on the screen broke off.
Since then the laptop's acquired a sort of lean to it, as if it was created with some kind of deformity. Air pockets have since appeared beside the power button, wires are poking out where the hinge disconnected. The laptop started shutting off from overheating far too easily until I loosened the screws on the bottom. The screws fell out for some weird reason so I've resorted to using tape... A whole epic saga of wear and tear has happened to the laptop that it's almost impressive. If my old laptop was an iPhone then the Extensa 5220 is one of those indestructible Nokias.
The thing is that since I've started my course this year, I've heard at least seven different notes of concern about the laptop, ranging to "Woah" to "I think someone went into your room and broke your computer while you were out". Also during the course my laptop's IP has gone from static to dynamic so that I could use the internet in my room...
And now... Much to my dismay, the Internet connection will not connect from my laptop to my desktop.No matter how much I trawl through the Internet in hopes of discovering some way that Windows XP and Windows 7 can work together... It's useless. I've never been a victim of parents divorcing but I imagine this is what it feels like. Daddy Desktop isn't talking to mummy Laptop and I'm stuck in the middle wondering if it was because of something I did.
Ah well; sod it. I'm taking the desktop up to Auckland.
For my 21st birthday I received a very nice desktop computer from my dad's side of the family. It works extremely well, and I enjoy using it, both when I have work to do and when I want to sit back and play.
However there's one thing I need to change about it.
It doesn't have wi-fi hardware.
Thankfully, the desktop is actually my cousin's husband's old computer, and being the technological legend he is, he had sent it down with a USB wi-fi aerial.
But sadly... My desktop is quite some distance from the router, so unfortunately Internet crawls at a snail's pace if I try using the USB aerial.
Before the desktop arrived, I had been surfing the Internet on a dusty Acer Extensa 5220 laptop due to my brand new laptop kicking the bucket from a corrupted hard disk/hard drive. Needless to say I wasn't as happy using the laptop that refused to run anything that was developed past 2005 after driving a race car of a laptop.
Through some act of God or latent technological prowess I was able to somehow able to share the internet from the laptop to the desktop using a simple Ethernet cable. I was at the very least, chuffed. I resumed my studies with renewed vigour thanks to my ability to have access to a good computer 24/7.
The course finished in mid December, and soon after I made my way up from shaky Christchurch to sunny Auckland to get a summer job so I could fund the student lifestyle when I started my studies in Snells Beach. For obvious reasons I just took the laptop. On Christmas Eve I got a job trial as a kitchen hand. I passed the gauntlet and soon started working afternoons 'til late. While battling my way through minimum wage an internship at a design firm descended from the heavens into my lap thanks to my parents. The only catch was that I would be getting 6 hours sleep a day for about 10 days due to when I was rostered at the kitchen.
Somewhere along the sleep deprived line something horrible happened to the laptop...
A hinge on the screen broke off.
Since then the laptop's acquired a sort of lean to it, as if it was created with some kind of deformity. Air pockets have since appeared beside the power button, wires are poking out where the hinge disconnected. The laptop started shutting off from overheating far too easily until I loosened the screws on the bottom. The screws fell out for some weird reason so I've resorted to using tape... A whole epic saga of wear and tear has happened to the laptop that it's almost impressive. If my old laptop was an iPhone then the Extensa 5220 is one of those indestructible Nokias.
The thing is that since I've started my course this year, I've heard at least seven different notes of concern about the laptop, ranging to "Woah" to "I think someone went into your room and broke your computer while you were out". Also during the course my laptop's IP has gone from static to dynamic so that I could use the internet in my room...
And now... Much to my dismay, the Internet connection will not connect from my laptop to my desktop.No matter how much I trawl through the Internet in hopes of discovering some way that Windows XP and Windows 7 can work together... It's useless. I've never been a victim of parents divorcing but I imagine this is what it feels like. Daddy Desktop isn't talking to mummy Laptop and I'm stuck in the middle wondering if it was because of something I did.
Ah well; sod it. I'm taking the desktop up to Auckland.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)