| directing traffic |
[May. 21st, 2008|04:19 pm] |
Being on the cusp of graduating from AFI (or at least, attending commencement at AFI; I won't actually graduate until my thesis is done in the fall), I am going to try to make some decided changes in my life. You know, all the usual things, like losing weight and being better at getting jobs as a DP and keeping my room clean. But I'm also going to start writing in a blog again... and for some reason, in my head, this new "No More School" part of life necessitates a new blog. So...
My new, yet very similar blog can be found at http://gobears1983.blogspot.com
Everyone seems to use blogger nowadays anyway. If I am super ambitious, I might start posting simultaneously on both, or at least transfer all my livejournal posts onto the blog... we shall see.
Hope to see you all over there =)
cameron |
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| i'm famous! |
[Dec. 11th, 2007|08:34 pm] |
Yes, it has been ages-- months and months-- since I have posted anything proper. This is awful of me. Unfortunately, this post isn't going to be particularly proper either, since I am running out the door to see The Golden Compass with Jack... but I had to put this out there:
One of the random, horribly touristy photos I took when I was in Copenhagen was found on Flickr and picked to be put in an online travel guide sort of thing. Check it out!!
I realize this is sort of a lame thing to be excited about, but it's also kinda cool... it's cool to see my name after the words "Photo by." Anyway. That's all. I think I will be writing more soon, especially over Christmas break.
cam |
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| *rambles* |
[Sep. 20th, 2007|03:01 am] |
As I've mentioned before, things are very different here now that I'm a second year and, you know, have time to do things. The biggest difference between this year and last, though, is the fact that Kevin and Jack are here. This is a supremely good thing. Sure, I make fun of Jack for not having a car, which necessitates me going to Pasadena every time we hang out, but I'd sooner do this than have him far away in Chicago, even if he IS going back there eventually... and seeing Kevin around campus is just bizarre, but definitely in a good way. It's nice to kind of pass on the wisdom that Will passed to me last year, and which I'm sure JP passed to him before that. We are the beginnings of a strong Northwestern tradition in the cinematography department, I can just feel it.
Kevin shot his Boot Camp scene today (which, in case you don't remember, is when you have to shoot a scene from your Cycle 1 in 4 hours on campus in an assigned location with very little lighting), and I walked by his set to say hi and then immediately ran into Peter, who brought up that exactly a year ago WE were shooting our Boot Camp scene. It seems like a lot more than a year ago, and yet also seems like just a few months ago. I guess it's both, in a way. Thank goodness I made it out of that miserable Cycle 1 experience having only made one actual enemy... I don't know what I would do if Peter and Miguel and I weren't on good terms, or Seth and Andrew for that matter. Anyway.
Our main cinematography class this year is on Tuesdays at 7am, which sucks. Well, the class doesn't suck (though it does have its issues), but the timing sucks big time. I don't know about anyone else, but I just barely function at 7am. At Pacific Primary it was all I could do to get out of the house and make it to school by 7:30. On the plus side, though, class is at Mole Richardson, which is about 8 blocks south of my apartment, so I've been walking every week, which makes me happy (and there's a Starbucks on the way, which keeps me awake for the first two hours of class). Every week we have a guest cinematographer come in to show us something... for example, two days ago it was Eric Adkins, who shot <i>Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow</i>, and he had us shooting on the brand spankin' new Sony F23 camera, which records in 4:4:4 color space, and which was pretty cool... I'm still not exactly a digital convert, but it was cool to think that only a handful of people in the world have dealt with this camera. And I was the operator! We rotate crew positions every week in class, so this week was my turn to operate, which, as Richard put it, "makes [me], like, the 11th person in the world to shoot on that camera." Kinda cool. I got to go to camera prep on Monday, too, with Chris and Pat and Hanvit, and it took forever, but we did learn a lot more about the camera than we got to cover in class, so I'd say it was worth it. Eric Adkins is really cool, too. He's a total geek, and I mean that in the best possible way. The other guests we've had so far have been Richard Crudo (who used to be president of the ASC), Donald M. Morgan, and Yuri Neyman. Yuri Neyman is going to be teaching a class this year to all the cinematographers on the History of Cinematography, and being the ubernerd that I am, I'm looking forward to it more than pretty much anything else.
We also have the 2nd year compliment to our 1st year "American Approaches to Cinema" class, "World Approaches to Cinema," which I'm really enjoying despite having already seen roughly half the films that are slated to be screened. Barry Sabath, who teaches the 2nd year class, is completely awesome. As much as I love and adore Jim Hosney, and as much fun as his class was, Barry is a lot better at getting our class involved in discussing a film than Hosney was, which I really appreciate. Tonight we watched <i>Umberto D</i>, which was a refreshing change from the tried-and-true <i>Bicycle Thieves</i> as an example of Italian neo-realism... I think it's a much more relateable story, but that's just me.
In other news, our apartment is currently playing host to roughly half the ant population of Los Angeles, as well as a large extended family of moths, which enjoy procreating in our cabinets. It is not ok. Something must be done. I am not one to kill innocent insects at random, so this is not an enjoyable process, but it really would be nice to be able to cook again without accidentally microwaving ants into your food. Of some comfort is the fact that this is happening to the whole building, not just us, but still... yuck.
I'm going to write some (short) movie reviews tomorrow, I hope, because I have nothing to do tomorrow, so stay tuned =)
cam |
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| happy labor day! |
[Sep. 1st, 2007|12:50 pm] |
So it is Labor Day, and I don't really have a whole lot planned, which makes me sad. What I *really* want to do is go home, but it's an awfully long drive to do twice in three days. So here I am in LA, and it's uncomfortably hot, and I really wish I had something to do this weekend. Oh sure, I have three separate barbecues to go to, which is really more than anyone could want in a single weekend, but I want to do something INTERESTING, not just drink beer around a grill in someone's backyard. Those will be fun, but... I crave something more! Like Belle said in Beauty and the Beast, "I want adventure in the great white somewhere/ I want it more than I can tell/ and for once it might be grand, to have someone understand/ I want so much more than they've got planned."
I want to go to San Diego, first of all, because I've never been there and people say I should. It looks awfully pretty in pictures, plus they have the awesome zoo. I also want to go to Death Valley, although I would be crazy to go there in the summer. And there are a bunch of random ghost towns and national parks I would like to check out, but other than that... I have no ideas.
SO! I need help from the two or three people who read this thing who know Southern California. I have a bit more time for breathing this year at school, which will hopefully translate into time for doing some interesting things on the weekends. (Weekends! How unprecedented!) Let me know if you have any places I absolutely must visit, whether they be of geographical, picturesque, historical, quirky, ghostly, or any other kind of interest. I know next to nothing about Southern California, a fact I am reminded of every time someone says "what should we do?" and the only cool place I know how to get to is the beach. Let's face it: I have to live here for awhile at least, so I might as well make the best of it. Right?
Strangely optimistic for me, I know, but let's see where it leads. Send me ideas!!
cam |
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| back to the south |
[Aug. 25th, 2007|07:00 pm] |
It's completely bizarre to be back in LA. I don't really know why, since I haven't been gone that long and I knew I would be coming back... maybe it's because it was all so sudden. I waited untiil the last possible moment ot come back down here, so as to be home as long as I could, and so I got here and all of a sudden I was picking up Kevin and going to the Bigfoot in Glendale as though we'd just gotten out of Mark and Bob's class on Thursday night. And then the next morning was registration, where I saw nearly everyone, and there was Jamba Juice with Chris and Chris and David and then the 101 Cafe, site of so many lunchtime cycle meetings, with Letia, Richard, Veronica, Naomi, Todd, and Jennifer. It was as though no time had passed whatsoever, like we'd just gone on Spring Break or something. I guess summer vacation isn't really as long as it always seemed in high school, but my perception of it is definitiely still as a looooong period of time. Odd.
It's really strange to think that it's only been a year- in fact, exactly a year ago last Thursday- since I got into AFI and drove down here and started this whole crazy thing. It feels like it's been a LOT longer. I saw Seth last night, who was the producer of my Cycle 1, and we had an interesting conversation about our first impressions of people a year ago and how much they've changed. I guess most of the changes are good... and I'm determined to make this year a bit more successful than last year. Not that last year wasn't successful, but... well, let's say I want this year to be more satisfying. That's a good word.
A big part of it being more satisfying is the fact that Kevin and Jack are here. Even though Kevin will be ridiculously busy with cycle projects, and Jack will only be here until March or something, it will make me a whole lot happier. And Kyle Smith is going to AFI too, for directing! He got in last week off the waiting list, just like I did. We were never really friends, but he's a good guy, and it's always good to have more Northwestern blood around here =)
So anyway, things are good but weird, and tomorrow Li-Wei and I are having some people over for dinner to celebrate Jack, Kevin and Nazan becoming Los Angeles transplants. Between that and the party we had last night for Breann and Richard's birthdays, it's turning into a good weekend.
cam |
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| playing catch up on the summer |
[Aug. 22nd, 2007|03:56 am] |
Well I'll be darned if it hasn't been all summer and I haven't written a smidge. This is odd, as you would think that, while I was sitting around being uncomfy post-tonsilectomy, I would kill some time by writing. But I didn't, because I am lame.
The tonsilectomy wasn't so bad, really. I hardly ate anything for two weeks, and I couldn't talk very well, but it wasn't nearly as uncomfortable as previous victims had lead me to believe. Perhaps this was the result of the liquid codeine, or perhaps I am just a more adaptable person, who knows. In either case, it was nice to find that the experience wasn't as horrible as I was anticipating. There's not a whole lot else to say about it, really. It took up a good chunk of my summer in which I could have been doing interesting things, or making money, but I guess it's good that I did it. Health is a good thing.
Before the tonsilectomy was actually the best part of my summer: I went to Chicago, and then the day after I got back to LA I drove up north to Sacramento/Auburn to AC for a movie my friend Richard was shooting. My trip to Chicago was so lovely! Mind you, I didn't get to see EVERYONE I wanted to, but there was a whole happy gaggle of people I did see, and it was grand. I stayed with Jack, in the room vacated by Annie, who was back home in Maryland for the week. I almost completely missed her, but we were able to hang out the day I left for awhile, and to have lunch with Jackie Doherty at Potbelly's! Ah, Potbelly's. The taste of Chicago. Anyway, I got to see Jack and Tim, obviously, and Kevin, and Kat and Mike DePilla and Mike Sippel and even Pat King, who is impossible to pin down. Kevin and I went to the Andersonville Street Fair and to Ann Sather's, which is also quintessentially Chicago (and quintessentially Swedish, which I like), and had a drink one night with Erik Neinstedt of all people, who just happened to be in town on business. Jack and Kat and I went and had Indian food on Devon Street. I hung out with Brian Perkinson in his "office" at the cage for awhile and heard all the production horror stories of the past year. I also ran into Jamie Madison and Paul Kruse (separately), both at random times. I meant to see more of Jamie but it was not to be, just like seeing Sarah Graber was not to be. Boo.
(Pat and Tim)
I spent some quality time on the Northwestern campus, which always makes me happy because it doesn't change much (although that building next to Tech is done now, and looks weird). The lakefill always makes me so happy, with its painted rocks and pristine trees, the site of picnics and Dillo Days and countless midnight walk-n-talks with Kevin. All over Evanston little things have changed here and there, but it's essentially the same. It certainly has the same atmosphere, thank goodness.
(Chicago from the Lakefill)
(painted Lakefill rocks)
And of course I went up to Ryan Field and spent a few hours with Natalie and Alec and Jill, who are doing really well. They got a new dog, Lily, who is a tiny little dachshund and rather afraid of things, which is quite a contrast to Chloe, a big, galumphing Airdale whom they had to give away because she started attacking other dogs. We all played cards for awhile, then got ice cream at Homer's, and then Jill left to do something and the kids and I went to dinner at a Japanese place in the neighborhood. Natalie is going into 6th grade, if you can believe it, and Alec is going into 3rd... this makes me feel very old, given that Nat was 5 and Alec was two when I met them. Age! Bah.
(Natalie and Alec on the bench in their dad's memorial in the park next to their house)
The movie I worked on with Richard was completely insane. I could go on and on and on about what, specifically, was insane about it, but let's just say that the production department had no idea what it was doing. We were in the hot sun in Auburn for 6 days, and they didn't really care about when we had meals, or whether we had enough to eat, or whether they'd scheduled enough time at a location to feasibly shoot a scene, etc. etc. etc. into infinity. I don't want to say too much bad about it or name names, as this is ye olde interweb, but let's just say that every single one of us deserved to be paid for putting up with their bullshit, and none of us were. Plus, Richard and I were staying with the director and producer and their wives, which made everything just that much more awkward. The good parts were that a) I learned how to load 35mm film, which is actually a marketable skill, and b) the 1st AC, a guy from Sacramento, was really cool, and now me and Richard are friends with him. Of course he moved to New York when the shoot was over, but still, it was nice to meet someone normal in the film industry.
(Dragos (the director/AFI producer), Richard and me with the 35mm BL3)
The rest of the summer has been spent working at Pacific Primary, which is good because I definitely need the money. I've been in all the classrooms for at least a day, and so I feel like I've gotten to know the new kids pretty well, and the old kids remembered me pretty quickly, and in some cases, immediately. It's always a little sad when they don't remember you instantly, but I suppose that in the grand scheme of their lives, I've been gone a really long time. So I've spent a lot of time in the last three weeks doing things like making Play-Doh, playing Tiger Stripes (this great game in which the kids run around the yard incessantly and you give them a marker-stripe on their arm for each lap they do, tires them out to no end), problem solving, rounding up kids for Sand Toy Cleanup (easily the worst part of the day), making snack, singing songs, reading stories... the list goes on and on. I went on a field trip to Rodeo Beach in the Headlands last week with the Rainbow Dolphins and Coyotes, and it brought back lots of memories of that field trip when I was a Summer Assistant. It was never my favorite field trip, because it basically consists of walking up a giant hill with complaining children, having snack, going to the extremely windy beach, and going home... and this time was no different. It was, though, an absolutely beautiful day, and it made me want to go hiking out in the Headlands. At least I had good partners in Rosie, Marcos and Teo. Three old favorites =) So many of my favorites are graduating this year that it actually hurts to think about it. I went to graduation and nearly cried... but I didn't, which is a big step for me. Here are Ryann and Anna, two Rainbow Dolphins, at graduation:
Let's see, what else? Danielle and I went to Santa Cruz one day, just to hang out at the beach. I didn't get to see her much this summer because she was running Aim High. We hung out on the beach all day and then went to the Boardwalk after 5:00, when the rides are all only one ticket each, which we didn't realize. It was a nice surprise, being able to go on 11 rides with the tickets we bought instead of only two! We went on the Cave Train (I had to drag her), and one of the upside-down rides, and the pirate ship and the sky chair and of course the Giant Dipper. We didn't use all our tickets, but it was immensely satisfying nonetheless. Mom and Dad and I went down to Santa Cruz a couple weeks ago, too, to hang out with Uncle Paul for the day and have dinner. That was nice. He just remodeled his house and it looks incredible and completely different, yet somehow still totally feels like Uncle Paul. He gave me a wine rack that came from his childhood home in LA. It's pretty awesome.
I also went to Sonoma by myself for two days last week, just to be in the sun for awhile. It was great. No one was around and I could swim and read and watch silly tv shows all I wanted. It felt like the perfect summery thing to do.
The one thing that absolutely sucked about this summer was that we didn't go to Camp. It was awful, not going, and I don't ever want to not go again, although I'm sure it will probably happen. I think we decided to go next year, though, even if it's just me and Mom and Dad. Not going to Camp is like not having a part of my soul or something. It's just not right. I don't like to think about it.
Last weekend was Diane Blattner's wedding to Shawn in Sonoma, which was fun in a low-key sort of way, and meant that Whitney was in town, and David and Jessica and Willa came down for it after their vacation in Oregon. And Jonah just moved to San Francisco too, to teach at a new private high school in Marin! Between the wedding and Taylor moving back in to our house before he goes travelling in Asia for two months (he quit his job at Dreamworks!), I've seen a lot of family recently. Taylor, Tobin, Jonah, and Michael Selvidge and I went and saw Superbad the other night, which was absolutely hilarious. I've seen a lot of movies with Tobin this summer, which is awesome. He's a good movie buddy.
Now I have to go back to LA the day after tomorrow and I don't want to at all. Yes, it will be nice to see people, and Jack and Kevin will both be there, which is a step up from last year, but man... do I really have to? I just want to stay here in my beautiful city forever. Not looking forward to it. Bother.
How are all of you?
cam |
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| a rare holiday |
[Jul. 20th, 2007|10:29 pm] |
HAPPY HARRY POTTER DAY!!
I, for one, CANNOT WAIT for the final book to come out. And don't any of you dare tell me what happens... I'll be done with it by Sunday so I'll know soon enough and I don't want it ruined!
YAY!
-cam |
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| surely the beginning of something big |
[Jun. 6th, 2007|01:57 am] |
I would like to take a moment to point you all in the direction of a dear friend's dream, which has (started to) come true: Tim has become a published film critic. Tim is easily the best writer I know in person, and for years he has written amazing movie reviews on his blog, so the fact that someone has taken notice makes me very happy. As long as he doesn't get all pretentious on me*, or start seeing movies with a flashlight to take notes, I say go forth and conquer the world of criticism. Here is review #2.
-cam
*Oh wait... Tim has been pretentious since the day he was born. |
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| completely random |
[May. 31st, 2007|03:09 pm] |
In the spirit of Cameron's Annual Wanderlust, I found this online, and thought it was fun. I don't usually post stupid quiz things like this, but this one was after my heart. Here are the states I have visited:
create your own visited states map
(I seem to have something against the extreme northern and southern states.... weird.)
And there are the countries I have visited:
create your own visited countries map
This last one is really depressing. I've got to get to work on it and color in some of those other continents... anyone want to fund a Cameron Goes Around The World trip? Pleaaase? (Or, come to think of it, anyone want to fund a thesis film first?... Anyone?... OK, more on that later.)
-cam |
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| lots of things! lots of things! DONE WITH CYCLE CREWING |
[May. 10th, 2007|12:01 am] |
Before I tell you about Alfred Ortega, I must pause to tell you about my new baby:
This is Cody. He is a dark gray Toyota Matrix and he is named for a Jack Kerouac novel, because his license plate doesn't have any letters that can really be forced into a name, the way Enx0's did. The letters in Cody's license plate are YQS. Nothing nice can come of those letters. I got him over Spring Break, after Carol and Lyssa and I drove up the coast in one last great Enx0 roadtrip. Enx0 is at home with my parents now, and I think he'll like it there better, because all the driving I do in LA didn't really agree with him and he kept breaking down. Besides, he's a San Francisco car at heart, just like I'm a San Francisco person at heart. I do miss him, though. Cody is very fast and zippy, but Enx0 is an old friend with fond memories.
No, it is NOT weird that I personify my cars with names! Really!
So anyway, on to our Alfred Ortega shoot.
I think I should give you a brief description of the plot of the movie, just because otherwise you'll have no idea what I'm talking about. So. Alfred Ortega is an immortal. He comes bursting into a church looking for a preist who had been alive a long time ago, hoping to receive his last rites so he can try to kill himself. Instead he meets another priest, Father Vidal, who takes him into the confessional to hear his story. Alfred tells him about how he is immortal, and how he had used his life to be a great soldier until he fell in love with a woman named Esmeralda, who died tragically in childbirth. After she died Alfred went into hiding and became a hermit until he couldn't stand it any longer and decided to try to kill himself, at which point he came to the church. Father Vidal tries to calm him down and tells him the story of Simeon, who lived a very long life and could not die until he fulfills his destiny. He tells Alfred that things are the same for him. Alfred takes this to heart and goes to comfort a Weeping Woman who is mourning the death of her husband in the church. The implied ending is that Alfred accepts his fate and trusts that he will die when God decides he should.
We were screwed to begin with, because week 4 of Cycle 3 had five teams shooting as opposed to the usual four, so the cinematographers had smaller crews, which is never a good thing on these projects. To add to that, thesis scripts were due from everybody who wrote one the day after we shot, so the majority of the directors and producers weren't so keen on crewing the whole weekend. So we had a very, very small crew, but guess what? It didn't matter. My crew was fantastic-- I had Richard gaffing for me, Chris Burgon key gripping, David best boying, and Monika ACing. We did just fine without the extra person. Hurray for rising above your troubles and all that.
We shot the first two days on AFI's campus, on the soundstage for the first day and part of the second day, and also down the hill in the grotto area and near the stairs. The first day was entirely confessional scenes, in a confessional that BreAnn, our production designer, built on the stage. I really like the stuff we shot in the confessional. We had just one "lightbulb" as the source in there, on the priest's side of the confessional, and that meant we could do fun criss-crossy things on Alfred's face:
The second day we shot all our flashbacks, like Esmeralda's death scene:
in which Letia and Bre got to pour food coloring and Karo syrup all over our actors:
And Alfred's soldier flashbacks:
And the scene where he and Esmeralda fall in love:
On Monday and Tuesday we were at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Pasadena, which is gorgeous and looks more like a cathedral than a church. Most of the stuff in the church was just between Alfred and Father Vidal, with the Weeping Woman in one scene. Oh, and we did one more flashback, in a room off the main sanctuary of the church. Oh wait, two more flashbacks. Geez, where is my mind? One of the flashbacks, which we did in the lowest room of the bell tower, was basically my favorite shot of the movie: it's Alfred hiding from his pain after Esmeralda dies. I loved it... and of course, it got cut.
And yes, in that photo I am wearing my brand new AFI Cinematography hat, which says "Killa Cam" on the back, because that is what people have taken to calling me for some reason-- maybe because it sounds like an awesome rapper name. It's Richard's fault... he took the idea and ran with it.
Anyway, because I'm kind of sick of talking about it, here's some other stuff we did in the church. Oh, are you tired of pictures? Too bad!
(Alfred about to comfort the Weeping Woman)
(Letia and Bre standing in as Alfred and Esmeralda)
(setting up a dolly shot)
(Father Vidal tries to calm Alfred down)
You get the idea. Overall, I was really happy with how everything went with our set. I'm mostly happy with what I did-- I don't think it was all that gutsy, the style we went with, but I am happy with how we pulled it off. The story got complicated and then we tried to make it simpler, and it ended up with lots of plot holes, but that's ok. People seemed to like it ok in Narrative Workshop. There were some who didn't dig the whole religious thing, and some who just didn't really get it, but for the most part people liked it. And people seemed to like in particular what I did, which makes me really happy, because I definitely need reminding of why the hell I'm here sometimes.
Oh, and I have to say, I'm really proud of Richard. This was the first time he'd ever gaffed, and I think he did a great job. I made him gaffer because my first two gaffers both kind of had an "I'm better than you" attitude, and I knew Richard wouldn't. I wanted the movie dark, and I told him not to let me fear the darkness, because I know I always chicken out with stuff like that. He was great. He knew just what I was going for and went there with me. So, not that Richard reads this, but thanks, kiddo.
OK, I actually have homework to do, now that CYCLE PROJECTS ARE OFFICIALLY OVER WITH. I spent the whole last weekend on night shoots, gaffing a black and white noir sort of comedy in a dry cleaner's. Weird, right? Yes. So now I have stuff to do. But, I'll leave you with a couple more pictures, just because they're funny, of me wearing a Steadicam rig in class last Thursday and of my section of the cinematography class with the Steadicam operators who came in to show us the rigs:
Oh, and two random movie recommendations: Fay Grim is really funny, and Year of the Dog is also really funny but in a completely different sort of way. Both kind of obscure, but worth it if you want to laugh. Oh, and Hot Fuzz is hilarious! The uptight cop guy reminded me of a certain former roommate of mine if he had been a British cop!
-Cam |
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| alive and kicking |
[Apr. 23rd, 2007|10:28 pm] |
I have no good excuses for why I haven't written for so long. Why is it that when my life is dull and nothing happens to me (like the entire year I was working at Pacific Primary) I write pracitcally every day, but when things are actually going on in my life that people might want to hear about, I stop writing almost completely? Please forgive me for being so lame. I have been rather busy.
I suppose let's start right after my last entry of substance, which I believe was right before Kevin came to visit. Kevin, as some of you know, came to LA to visit and interview at AFI. He was here during my prep week for Cycle 3, which was a bit of a wash as far as prep weeks go because of all the fun people who were in town. So anyway, Kevin showed up Thursday night after our cinematography tech class. I picked him up and it was so nice to see him! So good to see someone from what I still think of as my "real" life, that is, my pre-AFI life. He came to class with me the next day, to Narrative Workshop in the morning and then to Bill Dill at night, with his interview in between. Kevin is very hard to read sometimes, especially when he's being purposefully vague, so I'm not exactly sure how he feels about going to AFI at the moment, but I really hope he does. I think he's just what the place needs. Anyway, we also went out to lunch with Li-Wei and Steve one day, and went to dinner with a bunch of people and Jim (!) on Sunday night. Jim was in town to help Kevin Richey out with a commercial he was shooting. It was most excellent to see Jim too. He's doing really well in Montana and loves the school he's teaching at (MSU Bozeman) and the kids he teaches. Seems like the perfect fit for him, although of course we all wish he were closer to us... but what can you do.
Kevin left early Monday morning, which is about when Taylor called me saying he'd missed his flight home from New York, where he was visiting his sort-of girlfriend, and he had to change flights and do a layover for 6 hours in LA, and did I want to hang out for awhile in the middle of the night? Inconvenient, especially since I had an early-morning location scout the next day, but I hadn't seen Taylor since Christmas break and I missed him, so I said I'd pick him up and he could crash at our apartment for awhile. So I went back to LAX for the third time in four days and picked him up at midnight on Monday. He came and saw where I live and slept on the air mattress for awhile, and then a cab picked him up and took him back to the airport. Unnecessary, maybe, but it was really nice to see him.
Taylor, by the way, is currently in New Zealand making me jealous about how he has the time and money to travel the world and I do not. His blog has some pretty amazing pictures on it, and his Flickr page has even more. It doesn't help, either, that Jack just got back from Australia. I don't know what it is about Taylor going cool places that inspires that ultimate sort of wanderlust in me, but it does, and now all I can think about is what sort of places I might be able to afford to go this summer. The answers, unfortunately, are places like Oregon, where I have lots of places to stay for free... but that's not so bad. I would really like to go camping, actually. Real camping, in Yosemite or somewhere like that. And I might get to go to Montana to videotape Letia's wedding, which would be lots of fun. That depends on a lot of different things, though.
So anyway, Kevin left, Jim left, Taylor left, and things were back to normal for about two days until Carl and Lyssa came for Spring Break! We had the best time. They got in pretty late on Friday night, after Bill Dill. I brought Steve to the airport to surprise them, which was fun because it worked! Plus it gave Steve a little more time to hang out with them than he would have had otherwise. On Saturday morning we got up as early as we could stand and went to Disneyland! The day started off with a bang when the 20-someting parking attendant let us into the parking lot for free instead of paying $11. We decided that it was probably because we were a car full of girls with big boobs, as evidenced by the fact that before he let us in the lot he looked at my chest and asked what my shirt said. So, hurray boobs!
Disneyland was great fun, despite the fact that we were there on a Saturday and the lines were ridiculous. I think we only actually ended up going on six rides: the Haunted Mansion (one of my favorites), Pirates of the Caribbean, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Peter Pan's Flight (my all-time favorite), the Matterhorn, and Space Mountain, which had been temporarily redone to include lots of flashy neon lights and a Red Hot Chili Peppers soundtrack. We waited in line for Space Mountain for about an hour and a half, stuck behind 5 insufferably stupid 14 year old girls, but it was all worth it in the end. I had forgotten how great a ride it was, since the last time I was at Disneyland it was closed. Oh, also we tried on silly hats! Observe:
So, in the end we spent a lot of time in line at Disneyland, but it was worth it. We had a great time. And I even got a new Nightmare Before Christmas sweatshirt =)
Will and Steve came over to hang out on Saturday night, but all of us except Will were completely exhausted, so we didn't do a whole lot other than lazing around talking. I wish they had all gotten to see each other more, but I guess we didn't plan that part of the trip well. They needed another day in LA to see people.
On Sunday we woke up around 9 and left to drive up the coast, stopping on the way to buy giant sunglasses in order to achieve our Thelma & Louise sunglasses-and-hair-scarves styling plan for the drive:
It was very important that we look totally awesome and ridiculous. We drove out to Malibu and Highway 1 and we were on our way to San Francisco! Hurrah. I absolutely love introducing people who have never been to California to the state. Lyssa and Carol were completely in love with the scenery and were not too cool to exclaim over it repeatedly.
But, ok, more about that tomorrow, and cycle 3 and all that, because I'm totally zonked and I have to wake up to do color correction before set tomorrow. Oh right, did I mention that I AM DONE WITH CYCLE PRODUCTION???? Cause I am! Well, with my own projects at least. I still have two more weeks of crewing, but whatever. Easypeasy. Night.
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| still alive |
[Apr. 13th, 2007|12:11 am] |
contrary to popular belief, i have not in fact dropped off the face of the Earth. no, i am just annoyingly busy. for a couple weeks it was a good kind of annoyingly busy, the kind where all sorts of people came to visit me and there was disneyland and pretty coastal highways and san francisco. but now it's the kind of annoyingly busy where i'm so tired that i forget to use a hot pad when taking things out of the oven and now have blisters on my two most important camera fingers because of it.
at least last night i got to get messy with plaster of paris when building the set. that was good. plus letia and i went to IKEA and had hot dogs and lingonberry juice for lunch. that was also good.
if you hadn't already figured it out, we're shooting this weekend. it's going ok. you'll get a full report next week, along with some sort of account (pictures included, of course) of kevin's visit and spring break. until then, i'm going to fall off the edge again and plunge into my third (and last!) Cycle film. whoa.
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| happiness is a warm... light... and a whole bunch of friends |
[Mar. 18th, 2007|10:51 pm] |
Fun things! First, a couple of our potential locations for Cycle 3:
(Westminster Presbyterian Church in Pasadena)
(inside the sanctuary)
(the very top of the bell tower, which we probably won't shoot in but man, it would be cool!)
(Letia and Bre and me at the Bates Motel at Universal Studios... obviously we wouldn't actually shoot AT the Bates Motel, but we MIGHT shoot at Universal!)
(the Western Town at Universal, which we probably will use)
So locations for the shoot are looking good, and the script is getting better with every draft (the latest draft I think is really close to what we want), and so that's going pretty well. I'm just glad that I finally got a workable draft today, because I was starting to panic about how little time we have.
More fun things: Carol and Lyssa will be here in 13 days! Kevin Cannon got an interview at AFI and will be out here on Thursday to do that and come to classes with me and visit! And Jim might be coming into town to shoot a commercial spot with Kevin Richey! AND Jonny will probably be down here for a couple days next week, which is great even though I will hopefully see him when Carol and Lyssa and I are in the city. So at the moment life is good. Plus I am so far not making an idiot of myself best-boying on a set run by two DPs who are straight out of the electrician's union. So that makes me happy... even if I'm not the best electrician in the world, at least I can cut it on a small AFI set. At the moment, that's good enough for me.
Oh, and did I mention that I WILL BE HOME IN 15 DAYS??? Not for long, but still! San Francisco, I'm comin' home again...
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| all things AFI, because my life is boring |
[Mar. 6th, 2007|09:46 pm] |
Oops. It has been quite awhile. I'm sorry.
Well, as promised: Introducing Tammy Lake went over mostly well in the all-first-year screening we had a week and a half ago. Critiques were mainly aimed at one scene that we had chosen to imply rather than show outright; apparently people thought it was necessary to actually see it. I see what they mean, but we did talk about it, and Robin made the decision to not show it, and I don't really think he was wrong. Anyway, people definitely thought it was funny, and no one that I know of found it particularly offensive, so I'm pretty much happy. I have one friend who didn't like it at all, which made me really sad, but for the most part I'm satisfied with the response it got. Here's hoping Bill Dill likes it too... although I can't say I'm getting my hopes up when it comes to winning him over.
Today we did our first location scout for Cycle 3, which is shooting in a little over a month. We went to Elizabeth, our screenwriter's, church, in Pasadena, and it is AMAZING. Absolutely perfect for what we were envisioning. The actual sanctuary part is gorgeous, with vaulted ceilings and stained glass and all that, and then the BEST part was climbing about three flights of stairs and seven ladders to get up to the bell tower, from the top of which you can see all the way out to the beach and a complete 360 degree view of LA. So cool! Of course there were lots of pigeons and pigeon poop, but I am really hoping to set a scene up there. A love scene or something. Very Vertigo, I know, but how cool would that be? I have no problems with paying homage to Hitchcock. I don't think we could feasibly shoot a scene ALL the way up at the top, but maybe in one of the lower rooms, which are very medieval looking... either way I'm really excited about these locations, which is great, because our locations on Tammy Lake (and on my Cycle 1, for that matter) weren't really anything special.
Cycle 2 is officially over for everybody, and Cycle 3 starts this weekend... it's insane how fast the year has started to go by. Cycle 2 felt about half as long as Cycle 1. And soon Carol and Lyssa will be out here for spring break! We're going to Disneyland and then driving up the coast to San Francisco. I can't wait to be home. I've been really homesick ever since I saw Zodiac, which was SO FRICKIN' AMAZING I CAN'T GET OVER IT. But that is for another entry. Right now, I'm tired, and I should do some research or something for Cycle 3, just because I can. Oh, and for Cycle 3 we're going back to 4-day shoots. No more days off for us DPs. Yippee.
-Cam
P.S. Tomorrow we get to see Black Snake Moan with Amy Vincent and Craig Brewer! Yay. And last week we saw Letters From Iwo Jima with Tom Stern there and he talked afterwards about the cinematography... that was cool, but I've become much less of a fan of the cinematography in that film. It's too DI'd for me. DI is "digital intermediate," where they can change the color to pretty much anything they want... and I just think he went overboard on this one. His traditional photochemical stuff with Clint Eastwood is miles better. |
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| Oscar season! |
[Feb. 24th, 2007|06:55 pm] |
It is completely weird that I live a mere three blocks from the theater where the Oscars are held. Today I drove past the block the Kodak Theater is on (the block itself is closed off for the week), and they had those giant gold Oscar statues up, and there were scads of tourists. It was pretty cool.
I haven't seen all the Oscar-nominated films this year (although I've seen the majority of the major players), so I can't really try to predict all the categories, but here are some thoughts:
Best Picture: It's a tough call to say which one of these movies WILL win and which one SHOULD win. I feel like Letters From Iwo Jima probably SHOULD, but I also really liked all of the films, and they each have their merits, so it's hard for me to say that it's the only one that deserves it. It just seems the most Oscar-worthy, I guess. I would be thrilled to death if either Little Miss Sunshine or The Queen won, because they're both such small, well-crafted films that aren't all "look at me! I'm Martin Scorcese!" You know what I mean? The only one I'd be a little disappointed in if it won is Babel because I feel that, even though it's an amazing film, it's a little... sappy. Sappy is not the right word, but I can't find the right word, so deal. For the sake of predicting, I'm going to say Little Miss Sunshine wins, because Hollywood loves an upset (although what is it really upsetting? Again, there's no front runner.), as evidenced by last year's Crash debacle.
Best Director:
Will Win: Scorcese
Should Win: Stephen Frears
The Academy loves them some Eastwood, but I don't think he'll win because I don't think he'll win Best Picture. Does that make sense? Not really. One does not necessarily dictate the other. Stephen Frears should win because The Queen is quite literally unlike any movie in recent memory, but everything he does in it makes absolute sense. Scorcese WILL win because he's Scorcese, and he's tried so hard for so many years to no avail. If he doesn't win this time, I wouldn't be surprised if he just threw up his hands and stomped out of the theater.
Best Actor:
Will Win: Peter O'Toole
Shoud Win: Forest Whitaker
I haven't even SEEN The Last King of Scotland, but I have a fondness for Forest Whitaker, so I would like him to win. Ryan Gosling was pretty great in Half Nelson, though, so he might sneak in there. No, wait. What am I saying? O'Toole has this one locked. He's practically dead and he's pretty much the best actor ever and has never actually WON an Oscar, therefore he will win. In this case, one DOES necessarily dictate the other.
Best Actress:
Will Win: Helen Mirren
Should Win: Helen Mirren
I haven't seen Little Children, which I hear is amazing, and Penelope Cruz is great and all, but still, there's absolutely no contest here. I feel like they couldn't even find 5 Oscar-worthy performances, so they just said to hell with it and tossed Meryl Streep in there because she was a likely suspect. Not that she wasn't good in The Devil Wears Prada, but she wasn't Oscar-good. It is nice, though, to see someone nominated for a comedic performance.
Best Supporting Actor:
Will Win: Alan Arkin, cause he's old.
Should Win: I dunno, but it's not Eddie Murphy. Dear god, it's not Eddie Murphy. Maybe Mark Wahlberg.
Best Supporting Actress:
Will Win: Jennifer Hudson
Should Win: Abigail Breslin
This reality annoys me, because just about everything about Dreamgirls annoys me, yet it is a reality nonetheless. How boring. I honestly didn't think Jennifer Hudson was all that great. She was a great performer when it came to the songs, but I found her actual acting to be a little lackluster. No one else agrees with me, I know, because once people start screaming that a performance is the breakthrough role of the year, blah blah, everyone jumps on board and wets themselves over said performance. Crowd mentality, you know.
Best Cinematography:
Will Win: Emanuel Lubezki
Should Win: ...um... *BRAIN EXPLODES*
This is the greatest Best Cinematography slate I've seen in years. I would be thrilled to death if Lubezki, Navarro or Pfister won. I pretty much WANT Pfister to win. But blah, I also want Navarro to win! Lubezki is amazing (he really should have won for The New World last year) but he already has his ASC award, let's toss something the way of the other two. Dick Pope made The Illusionist look great, but the movie itself was only meh, so I don't want it to win (although Memoirs of a Geisha was a pretty craptastic movie, and Dion Beebe won for it, so who knows), and while Vilmos Zsigmond is a frickin icon and does amazing work, I don't want him to win. It would be boring if he won. Vilmos Zsigmond won another award! And yesterday the sun rose!
The only other one I really care enough about to predict is Best Documentary Feature, and I want An Inconvenient Truth to win just to bring even more attention to the global warming issue. That would be great. Also, I want Pan's Labyrinth to win just about everything it's nominated for, except that I hear The Lives of Others will probably win for Foreign Language Film.
I will be watching the Awards with Deirdre and Karl and some random friends of theirs and Nick Palmer. And I will probably be on the phone with Tim a lot. Because that's how these things work.
More soon, particularly about how Introducing Tammy Lake was received.
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| Introducing Tammy Lake |
[Feb. 13th, 2007|11:40 am] |
I hear it's snowing in Illinois, and I assume that means it's snowing in Evanston. I miss snow. Snow used to mean that everything was a little bit different. It meant it was ok to be a little bit late to the cage for work in the morning, because it took a long time to get there through the unshoveled snow. It meant work at the Childcare Center would fly by because we could take the kids outside instead of staying in against the below freezing weather, and it meant they would all be soaked by the time we went in. It meant driving with Kevin to Andersonville, which usually took about 15 minutes, would take an hour each way. It meant rock salt was all over town and Natalie and Alec and I would go outside and sled or make snowcones. It meant Martha and I would sit by the dorm window just watching it snow for awhile. And senior year it meant John and Karen and I all checking the weather report every 5 minutes to see if it was going to snow the weekends we were shooting. Whatever it meant, I loved it. People from places where it snows routinely don't understand why I love it, but they're crazy. Snow is like magic.
Anyway.
I'm a little behind on filling you all in on our Cycle 2 shoot. What a difference from Cycle 1! We had our problems, of course, but they were the sort of small endearing problems that now, a week later, we can already look back and laugh at. My car broke down the night before so I spent the whole weekend driving around with Robin, who lives near me. We got to set at 5:30am on the first day; call time for the rest of the crew was at 6:00. Our first day we were shooting on AFI's campus, both behind the manor house where we check out G&E equipment and up in the glade, which is a grassy sort of area where they hold graduation. We got to the manor house and ran around in the dark for half an hour looking for potted plants and things to do some last minute production design.
(Tammy says goodbye to her mom and her dog)
That first scene went really well, despite the fact that there will be a few shots where the sunlight doesn't really match. Shooting at dawn was a good scheduling call on our part, because it didn't require a lot of lighting (just a lot of silks and nets) and we could get it done fairly quickly. Then we moved up to the glade for our burning cross scene:
(Young Tammy sings her racist song)
It's weird how immune I've become to the thought of the KKK. Obviously it's a horrible organization that has done horrible things in its past, but the primary KKK icons- the burning cross and the hoods- will now always remind me of this shoot. And I'll probably always laugh about it. I feel like that makes me a horrible person... hmm.
Anyway, the afternoon scene was a little nuts. We had a 9 year old actress, Britney, who was a little hyperactive, and a crazy woman, Sydney, playing her mother. Sydney was a perfectly decent actress, but she was obsessed with putting on makeup, and we would routinely be ready to shoot and waiting for quite awhile on Sydney and her 7 layers of makeup. What a weirdo! Also, poor Britney was a little freaked out to be standing 6 feet away from a giant flaming cross, so she's not really "acting" so much as reciting her lines in order to get the hell out of there, but what can you do. Hopefully the scene will still be funny. We started to lose the daylight towards the end of it (of course... does anyone ever shoot day exteriors where they don't start to run out of daylight?), and there are some things that I wish were framed differently and one shot that I really don't think makes any sense at all, but these are the sorts of things you learn from. They're why I'm here, really. You have to think every single shot all the way through, not just the money shots.
Oh, and the burning cross was really cool. Magela (my gaffer) and I were standing by the monitor when it lit on fire and it was all we could do not to start giggling. We had a special effects guy named Larry Fiorretto, who has done a lot of fairly big-name stuff, help us out with it, and he was awesome. He basically put glue on it and burned the glue. Do not try this at home.
Sunday we ran into a couple issues. Our main actress, Annie, forgot her costume in the morning, and had to go back and get it, and then she had to leave again in the middle of the afternoon to go to an audition for a tv pilot. Things went really well in the morning, and then we once again ran into losing-daylight problems in the afternoon, and we had to completely redesign a shot in order to not show that it was shot at night... but in the end, I think that shot might even be better for it.
(a redesigned shot of Tammy picking up a KKK hood)
Charlie Rose, who is a cinematography faculty member who stops by everyone's set to make sure things are going ok (and who yelled at my entire team Cycle 1 for not giving me a chance to do my job, and is thus my hero), stopped by on Sunday when we had nothing to do because we had no actress, and just hung out for awhile. I really like Charlie. He doesn't teach us classes or anything, just comes and hangs out on everyone's set for an hour or so. He commented that things seem to be going well and that Robin and I seem to be getting along well, and that Robin was "a lot calmer" than my first director. Ain't that the truth. I don't think Charlie even saw us shoot anything, but he must have seen enough to be satisfied that things were going well. And that makes me very happy.
Day 3 was in a sports bar, of sorts, in Pasadena. One of the floors isn't used during the week, so we could shoot there and have the entire floor to ourselves, which was awesome. It's basically the scene where Tammy, the girl from the KKK, gets what's coming to her. It was probably the hardest day, lighting-wise, but things still went ok. We should have done more rehearsals. Will was there key gripping for the day (I lost a crew member to Chicago and the Super Bowl, so I was short-staffed the whole weekend and basically had rotating key grips... David Lassiter helped out on Sunday =) and basically said that our main problem was lack of blocking rehearsals. Not that it was a huge problem, really, but I think Magela and the G&E crew were a bit frustrated about it. Good to know. I'll do it better next time.
(me and Robin watching the monitor during the performance scene)
I know I've gushed about Robin and Jennifer before, but I have to reiterate: it was so much fun working with them. They're working together again for Cycle 3 and I'm totally jealous. They both just really know how to get things done and handle situations that arise, which is more than I can say for our producer, who is a great person but can't really deal with stress (and he's my producer for Cycle 3 too... yikes). I would shoot for Robin again in a second. I just hope the movie comes out ok. I keep coming up with shots or inserts that we should probably have gotten. It will work without them, but it would have been better to have them. I think it's going to be the sort of movie that you either get or you don't. If you don't get it, you'll be pretty dumbfounded or else really insulted. If you get it, you'll think it's hilarious. I just hope most people at AFI get it. I have my doubts about some of the faculty, and actually some of the students too to be honest. We'll see. I'll let you know how it goes.
And now I really have to go to bed. More soon!
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| that's a wrap! |
[Feb. 6th, 2007|10:58 pm] |
all done! went really well! exhausted! more tomorrow, including pictures!
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| cycle 2 looms |
[Jan. 31st, 2007|11:51 pm] |
Well! Here we are, two days from the beginning of my Cycle 2 shoot. I am bizarrely not freaked. There are a gazillion and one reasons I should be freaked, but I'm not. I don't know why. Maybe it's because Robin, my director, is monumentally un-frazzleable. He takes things in stride and figures out how to deal with them. Our producer, Todd, is constantly frazzled, so they balance each other out nicely. Needless to say, I am supremely happy with my group. Robin is amazing. He actually asks for my opinion and values it, and he's very laid-back but also knows exactly what he wants and when it's important to insist on something. He is the absolute antithesis of my first director. Granted, we haven't shot yet, so maybe he'll turn into a flaming demon on set, but somehow I doubt it.
I do need an AC on Saturday, though. I'm a little bit freaking about that.
Put Robin and Jennifer, our screenwriter, within 30 feet of each other and they turn into the two dirtiest people alive, which is lots of fun because then they keep trying to top each other. It reminds me a bit of Sarah and John Ross. In fact, this entire process reminds me of shooting Wizzer: the inappropriate scenes approached in a "if people don't laugh they're too uptight" sort of way was what Wizzer was all about. We never dealt directly with racism, really, but somehow it just all seems to be in the same mindset.
Today Robin and I spent two hours rewriting the white supremecist version of "Revolution #1" that Jennifer wrote. Her version just had too many syllables in some of the lines, so we cut them down a bit. It was perhaps the strangest and silliest two hours of my recent life... I never expected to sit in a car for that long coming up with really despicable lyrics. We have this flashback scene of our main character as a little girl singing this song, and it's going to be ridiculous. Hopefully in a good way. At the very least, the audience will definitely take notice.
So this weekend we're shooting. Saturday (if it doesn't rain) (PLEASE GOD DON'T LET IT RAIN) we are shooting our "KKK community picnic" scene on the AFI campus, featuring one (1) burning cross. Yes, you heard that right, a burning cross. Because we decided to go all the way. We have an effects guy coming and everything, and if this cross doesn't burn like it should, then we will have wasted a whole lot of our budget on one part of one scene. If it works, though, it'll be worth it. There needs to be something with enough graphic weight to match the impression that growing up in the KKK had on our main character, you know? A cross covered in Christmas lights just isn't the same. We're hoping it'll become one of the AFI Stories. The faculty has this cache of stories they tell us to scare us away from doing crazy things, like "this one thesis set had an elephant and it was a disaster!" So we're hoping it'll become a good AFi Story, you know, "last year a Cycle 2 set had a burning cross on campus and it looked amazing!" We have to shoot it during the day though, for lots of reasons. So it won't be quite as iconic, but still... a burning cross is a burning cross.
Sunday we shoot in an apartment southwest of here and then on Monday we're in a restaurant in Pasadena. It kind of sucks to have to pack up and move every day, but them's the stakes. Could be worse. There are issues with our permit in Pasadena, apparently, but I'm mostly letting Todd handle that. This movie is not going to be the most amazing cinematography I've ever done... we're going for distinctive, but not showy, which I'm a fan of because I think the shots should really be as organic to the movie as possible, especially when you're dealing with a comedy like we are. It's also a lot of traditional coverage... maybe that's another reason why it reminds me of Wizzer.
Anyway, enough about Cycle 2. Martha came to visit last weekend! I didn't get to see nearly as much of her as I would have liked, but it was still great fun. She's pretty much the same. She works in a law office in New York and would rather be doing something else, just like most of my friends at the moment. I went to some stupid party with her and Sarah and Deirdre on Friday night after class, and it was dumb and hipster and I left early. Then on Saturday Sarah had her birthday party! Eileen and Eleni made a cake in the shape of a pile of cocaine:
Everyone ate it with credit cards when it was time for the cake. Random NU people were there like Mike Placito, who I guess actually lives here now, and that kid named Doug who was in our RTVF class but I can't remember his last name. And Dan Mahoney came to visit for the weekend too. Good times.
OK, I would say more, but I really need to go to sleep. It's crunch time now. Wish me luck, hope for good weather on Saturday (and heck, Sunday too!) and heck, if you want to come be an extra at a KKK picnic, let me know =)
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| 300 |
[Jan. 24th, 2007|12:57 pm] |
Enough people have expressed interest in hearing about 300 that I'm awfully worried this review is going to disappoint, but here it is just the same.
300
At AFI there are a lot of teachers who are fairly famous. One of them is Neil Canton, who produced all three Back to the Future films. His brother, Mark Canton (who must suffer from a pretty intense "lesser Canton" inferiority complex), is the producer of 300, which is why we got to see it early. Neil Canton is a sweet, small, adorable doting teacher guy; Mark Canton is a small, snivelly La producer guy. Also present was Gerard Butler, the star of the film, who is a cute, if vaguely narcissistic, Australian guy.
300, as I'm sure most of you reading this blog will know, is the second adaptation of a Frank Miller graphic novel to use digital environments with real actors. That is, they shot the actors in their costumes on a giant green screen and added everything else later. The first of these movies was Sin City, which I mostly liked. It was stylized to death, but that approach worked for the film, the source material for which is much more comic book-esque than the source material for 300, at least from what I've seen. Anyway, based on Sin City, I was expecting a lot more from 300. Something more exciting. Something with, you know, like character development or a plot or something. You'd think it would be chock-full of plot, wouldn't you? The premise is great: it's about the 300 Spartan soldiers who fend off thousands of Persian warriors at the Battle of Thermopylae. It should be inspirational! Think of all the heart-wrenching moments you could pack into such a film! But 300 does not do that. It tries, but it fails miserably.
Before I tell you the details of the "plot," I should call attention to what was arguably the best part of the Q&A with Mark Canton and Gerard Butler after the film. Somebody asked something about the kind of research they did into Sparta and the Battle of Thermopylae. Mark Canton replied that the film was as historically accurate as possible, given all the modern knowledge of ancient Sparta. In the next paragraph, I will put in bold all aspects of the plot that were so historically inaccurate that they rendered this statement laughable. Not that I'm an expert on Sparta, but it's really just common sense.
So here is the plot, or lack thereof: King Leonidas rules Sparta after having been ritually left in the wild for days as a child and killing a giant bloodthirsty wolf in order to survive. He hears tell of an approaching Persian army led by Xerxes. The Senate does not want Sparta's army to go to war. Leonidas climbs with his bear hands up a completely vertical cliff to consult with the oracle and her incredibly inbred, disfigured keepers. He decides to go to war anyway and takes his 300 best soldiers, clad in appropriate war attire consisting solely of underwear and capes. Xerxes' army, made up of soldiers in masks, giant trolls in chains, strange disfigured fat men with knives for arms, rhinoceroses, and elephants, approaches. Leonidas speaks to Xerxes, who is about 15 feet tall with a gazillion tattoos and piercings, and Xerxes tries to cut him a deal so that his soldiers will not die in vain. Leonidas refuses, shouts one of his many various "WE ARE SPARTA!" refrains, and they fight. They fight and fight and fight and fight. There's a hunchback scary looking guy from Sparta whom the king had previously shunned, who goes over to Xerxes' side and discloses the Spartan's location, much to their detriment. There is a vague subplot about Leonidas' queen trying to get the Senate to send more soldiers to the king, but it's pretty lame, and hardly worth mentioning. And then the king and his soldiers fight to the last and they all die, save for one guy who lost an eye and was sent to Sparta to tell the story of the others and their brave deaths for the good of Sparta, despite the fact that he left before they even died. Blah, blah, blah.
I was struck by many things in this movie. First of all, yeah, it's kind of cool-looking, but the effects aren't THAT great. You can kind of tell that it was all done in front of a huge greenscreen. I don't really know what makes it this way... maybe it's the staging, or the completely unrealistic lighting, or the fact that the backgrounds they put in behind the actors were so desaturated that there is no way they could be real. I dig the whole "the only saturated color will be red" routine (more about that in a review on Letters From Iwo Jima), but here it is used poorly. I know people assume that the past was dark and dim and colorless, but this is not so, and while making it so in films is sometimes an interesting choice, here it is not. It's just too damn obvious here, I guess. So yeah, I wasn't so down with the special effects. Also, the giant wolf was completely fake-looking. Why can't movies ever do wolves convincingly? Even the wolves in Lord of the Rings weren't that great.
Speaking of Lord of the Rings, I'm pretty sure 300 was hoping to be just like that trilogy. Lots of little things make me think this: there is a voiceover in the beginning that tells the story of how Leonidas became King and what things are like in Sparta that is attempting to be all mystic and monumental like Cate Blanchet's voiceover at the beginning of Fellowship; there are Heroes on an Impossible Mission; there is a strange gross creature following the Heroes; there are creepy people to fight, many of whom looked like they found some Orc costumes tossed out behind Weta Workshops; there is an army hiding in a small pass through the mountains; there is a huge battle in this same small pass; there are elephants; etc. etc. I'm sure I'm forgetting things, as it's been a couple weeks since I saw the film now, but while I was watching it I just couldn't get Lord of the Rings out of my mind. It made me want to watch it so I could see a GOOD war movie.
The shots and the dialogue are both very contrived. I guess when you're doing almost all your shots digitally, it's hard for them to NOT be contrived, but geez... there was this one shot of the shadow of a spear flying over some stairs, and it was just so geometric and purposefully poetic that I had to snort and roll my eyes while watching it. Not that it wasn't pretty, but... there are just some shots where you think "oh, of COURSE they did that, because they are completely unimaginative." And the dialogue! There was a lot of dialogue that got laughs from the entire audience that was definitely not intended to get laughs. Lots of "WE WILL STAND AND FIGHT AND DIE!" and my favorite, "SPARTANS, ENJOY YOUR BREAKFAST, FOR TONIGHT WE DINE IN HELL!" I mean... come ON. And the people in the Q&A kept going on and on about how great the script was when they first read it. Maybe it went through lots of drafts and became horrible.
Also, regarding the Q&A, Mark Canton kept referring to the director as a "genius." He is most certainly not a genius. He is extremely melodramatic and cheesy. PLUS, my friend Nick was sitting next to Mark Canton during the screening, and said that every time the audience clapped in the film during a triumphant moment or whatever, Mark Canton was the one who started it the clapping. Lame! I mean, it's a good tactic for a producer, but he can't go to every screening of the movie...
Three more quick thoughts and then I want to stop thinking about it: 1) I hate how horses always die in war films. They didn't choose to go to war! It's horrible. 2) The portrayal of the Persians was ridiculous to the point of being offensive. 3) Despite the fact that wearing underwear to war is ridiculous, this decision allowed for there to be lots of finely sculpted half-naked bodies in the movie, which was highly entertaining. After awhile I didn't even notice their bodies anymore, kind of like how after half an hour of Showgirls you no longer notice when a woman isn't wearing a shirt.
Somehow, the whole movie didn't feel like a movie at all. Maybe that's because it's supposed to be a comic book. It was perfectly entertaining, usually because it was so insane, so I enjoyed sitting there watching it with lots of other people who found it to be over the top and stupid, but it's not a good movie.
3/10 |
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| eeks |
[Jan. 24th, 2007|09:33 am] |
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I know I owe you all a 300 review, not to mention many others. It's coming. I promise. It's half-done, I just haven't had much time lately. I'm sorry! |
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