This will move your Soul to the core OF 1981...

you know back when hip-hop was raw!!!!!

Reality TV has REACHED ITS PINNACLE!!!!

Wow, wowee, wow, wow!!

Basterds.

Not so very many hours ago, I was a hater, which is to say Inglorious was a Tarantino film and not a film I was in any real hurry to see. But after having spent the day working on a short film of my own, my defenses were down when one of the actors volunteering there time suggested we go. So we went. 2 and a half hours flew bye, and as the ending credits slowly rolled up the screen I could not help but feel that here was film of real quality. Which is to say that when people say that something is epic or classic many years after a piece of film has been created I think what they are really saying is that what they see in the work is quality, craftsmanship not just style but substance. Basically walking away from the film, I felt it truly was that, a film (as opposed to mass market entertainment) and Tarantino the master stylistic vampire had drunk enough of the blood of Ford, and Leoni and Peckinpah to no longer stand in there shadow but stand beside them having created something truly his own.

PUPPETS! BUDGET DEFICIT! DEATH CAB! EUREKA! ROB SCHRAB ROCKS! JOY!

So with the mad state of the world it has been a never ending struggle to try and get the short film going(It's really hard to make a giant robot), a struggle that I was but a scant few days ago failing.

 UNTIL (Cue the overly dramatic trailer music Electric Violins CONCERTO IN X MAJOR) I stumbled across the Death Cab for Cutie DVD "Directions", on which every song off the PLANS album is turned into a low budget music video. One video stuck out like an eyes rolling into the back of the head R. Kelly influenced golden BJ of delight AND that was the video for "Crooked Teeth" by one Rob Schrab (Of SCUD fame). A video that embraces the DIY ETHIC to the extreme and utilizes a process  the good Mr. Schrab calls "Drawless animation."

A-HA!!!!!!!!

Actors? Man-in-suit Robots? Complicated equipment rentals?

NO. No. NOOO! I NO LONGER NEED ANY OF THESE THINGS.

All I need IS balls of steel, a fertile imagination, a will like iron and Puppets, YES, PUPPETS!

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN I AM BACK IN BUSINESS!

EXPECT MORE TO COME SHORTLY. 

Crooked Teeth - Death Cab for Cutie

Starting work on Steampunk radio.

I'm starting to work on a steam-punk radio for the short, will have more up shortly.

 

In the meantime, here is something that has nothing to do with the project but contains an important message from Mr. T. And everyone knows when either Mr. T or Chuck Norris talks you better listens. It's twice as true when he is singing. 

Treat your Mother right, M is for the Moan of the miserable groan from the pain that she felt when you was born. 

GEAR: Digtal Still Cameras that aren't still.

I've been wondering about what the best format to shoot on and with should be for the short. Which got me looking into a whole new realm of digital imaging namely, DSLRs (Digital Single Lens Reflex) cameras that shoot HD.

There is a noted tech writer, whose name now escapes me completely (sorry noted tech writer) who foresaw that all our gadgets and tech toys, i.e. phones, person music and video machines, still and video cameras, gps, etc would eventually merge into one a single wonder device.

Well, the main stream succuess of the I-phone, has helped to prove the postulate and even more devices are coming down the pike that help furth merge the defintion of what personal tech can do for us, in a single device.


Two of the major players in the optics industry, Canon and Nikon are both embracing adding high-end video functionality, in entry, mid and pro level digital SLR's. Gone are grainy 640x480 15 fps video replaced with HD in 720 and 1080 with framerates from 15 to 24 to 60 frames a second.

Canon and Nikon have in just the last few months released new sub$ 1000 HD shooting DSLR's , with more to come from companies like Panasonic. As of right now the verdict is still out on the quality of video from these cameras all save the Canon EOS 5D Mark 2, which it generally seems to be agreed video quality wise can stand up most pro and prosumer level camcorders currently being employed in the field.

The last few years the trend for indie and low budget shooters has been to take the smaller cheaper HD camcorders and add lens adapters from companies like Redrock, Letus, P+S technics and many others that allow you to attach still camera lens to HD cameras in order to achieve shallow depth of field and tighter focus control. With the advent of the HD video shooting DSLR which essentially combines the two products mentioned above into one, it seems that future of the indie film shooting tech is already well on it's way into the hands of creatives everywhere. (In fact the Canon Mark 2 already has accessories available from a number of companies that allow it to perfectly ape the capabilites of a high-end HD camera, such as follow focus systems, shoulder and monitor mounts and more.)

The Canon Rebel T1I (1080/720 MSRP 899)



The new contender coming out in June, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH1 (1080/720 HD MSRP 1499)

The Nikon D90, the first(?), DSLR to offer HD video. (720P HD, MSRP 1299)

The Big Daddy of the HD SLR's: The Canon EOS 5D Mark 2. (1080/720 HD MSRP 2700 Note: Even the name sounds like pure tech sex.)

Two noted tech sites take on the new entry level HD shooting digital SLRs the Nikon D5000 and Canon Rebl T1i.


http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/30/canon-eos-rebel-t1i-impressions-head-to-head-with-nikon-d5000

http://gizmodo.com/5234607/canon-rebel-t1i-vs-nikon-d5000-entry+level-dslr-battlemodo

The Illusion of Motion

So in 1966, French Filmmaker Chris Marker (aka Christian François Bouche-Villeneuve), made a short film called La Jetee, (the Pier).

This film is notable outside of some wonderful thematic and science fiction elements mostly for the way in which it is constructed, namely through a series of superb black and white photographs.  (Also perhaps because it was remade many years later by Terry Gilliam as 12 Monkeys). 

Recently I have been thinking of the style of our short film and as I want to push form as far as possible while still retaining a clear narrative thrust, and am wondering about using a similar stylistic flourish for Rooster.  What if the whole film is told in still images except for when we are inside the mind of the robot? As if everything to do with the human characters has a frozen longevity but no true vitality and it is only when the world is seen through the eyes of the robot that moments of time have real life and weight and energy.  By drawing attention to the artifice of a short film, which is after only 24 or 30 photographs a second, by focusing on stillness and shot composition will that help draw attention to the alienation the robot feels trapped in the world?

Or is it better to just focus on crafting a good story solidly told and not placing an over importance on pompous thematics and stylistic trickery?