Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

A couple of weeks of ago I watched Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and it was quite delightful. I was very impressed by the production values and the live orchestra. I was expecting something slightly better than my high school's production, but everything looked very professionally done.

The entire cast gave incredible performances, but the real stars of the show were Sean and Sam. When Sean did his axe jump on the table I was on the edge of my seat. Sean and Sam danced with such grace and ability that they really stole the show. Overall, it was a fantastic play and I would see it again if I had the chance. 10/10

Top 3 Music Videos

Last second blog... let's do this.

#3:

I love Michel Gonry's work from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind to his music videos with The White Stripes. I thought that the premise to this video was interesting. It's so simple and somewhat surreal yet very effective in keeping the attention of the view as they try and decipher the video. 

#2:

The Shins are one of my favorite bands, so I was excited to see a music video set to one of their songs. The gothic character design was amazing and the upbeat music created a wonder dichotomy between sound and sight.

#1:

I think that it's interesting that this song was originally written by Trent Reznor in his early 30s and then completely repurposed but made wholly more effective by Johnny Cash. The lyrics are very powerful for a man who's reached the end of an incredible career.

#

Mansome

A couple of weeks ago I watched the documentary called Mansome with my good friends Nicole, Becca, Emerald, and Lance. The message was pretty interesting. I think Morgan Spurlock made this documentary to sort of highlight the struggles that modern men have with their appearances (and that it's not just a problem that only women have anymore) and what society defines what makes a man.

While this is clearly the most impressive beard ever caught on camera, this guy was kind of a d-bag.

What I gathered from the film was that there are a lot of men that really obsess over their appearances, and it seems like we are moving towards a society that places a lot more pressure on men's looks than in the past. However, I kind of wish Spurlock would have dug a little deeper and actually investigated why there is a trend in "meterosexuals" and why facial hair is becoming incredibly popular and required for someone to be manly. It was still pretty entertaining to hear all of these men's stories though.

Thanks to Nicole for showing me this awesome movie!

"Gravity" Companion Short "Aningaaq"

If you haven't seen Gravity, I recommend you go ASAP because it's freakin awesome. But, if you have seen it (and I know a lot of us have) then you should definitely check out this companion short film direct by Gravity co-writer Jonas Cuaron. It's in talks for an Oscar nomination for the live-action short category this year.

***SPOILERS!!!***

For those of you who've seen Gravity, you probably remember the scene where Dr. Stone has a desperate, pleading radio conversation with a man who cannot understand her that goes by the name Aningaaq. The short depicts the other end of the conversation from the perspective of Aningaaq, and the results are very emotionally powerful and a little surreal. It's an amazing short that really enhances a small part of the movie that you should definitely check out if you have seven minutes to kill.

Music Videos

I really enjoyed Tuesday's music video class with Ballinger. One of the goals that I hope to accomplish in my career is to direct a music video. Music is one of my favorite hobbies, and I think that there's something really appealing about making  visual representation of a song. There's a lot of freedom you can take when making a music video because it doesn't necessarily have to follow a narrative and you can infuse a lot of surreal elements into them.

Michel Gondry (director of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) is one of my favorite music video artists. He does a lot of work for the White Stripes and below are examples of some of his best work. I think it's very cool that you can take a interesting concept like making a stop motion animation with Legos and put it to good use through music. You could build a short film around this concept, but it wouldn't be as effective. That's what I like most about music videos. They're a platform to test out kind of "gimmicky" ideas and bring them to life.

Here are my two favorite Michel Gondry videos for your viewing pleasure.

Once

Let me begin by saying that I did enjoy this movie, but I felt there were a lot of things that were wrong with it that haven't necessarily been addressed. So, I'm going to talk about those.

The only thing about this movie that truly bothered me were the technical aspects. Almost every shot had a soft focus, and there was practically no regard for framing a shot properly. Some of the shots looked like they were filmed off of an iPhone. The editing was also sloppy and very amateurish. I know the angle of the movie is to go for the amateur look, but editing should really go unnoticed. Choppy editing ruined the immersion factor for me at some points. It's not like the audience needs to see how bad you are at these incredibly basic filmmaking techniques in order for them to understand that this is not a Hollywood production.

However, I could forgive the movies flaws because the pros totally outweighed the cons. Once showed a raw and realistic portrayal of two human beings sharing a common goal and tells a story of heartwarming determination and desire. The actors had great chemistry and made the story feel so much more real.

Overall I would probably recommend this movie, but I can't help but feel that it's a little overrated.

Days of Heaven

I've been wanting to watch "The Tree of Life" for a while now but have kept putting it off to watch something else because of it's length and experimental nature. I tried watching it last night, but all of the websites that I use to completely legally watch free movies on the internet have been blocked by the school. So, I had to resort to watching Netflix instead.

I had not seen any Terrance Malick movies before, but I knew that they were very critically acclaimed and somewhat controversial for a number of reasons (mainly being overly stylized, not enough emphasis on story, etc.) and I love those kinds of movies. The only Malick movies that Netflix had were "Day of Heaven" and "To the Wonder," so I decided to watch the former as my introduction to his unique direction. What I found was one of the most beautifully shot films that I've ever seen.

As a fan of practical effects instead of gaudy CG backdrops, I really appreciated the amount of effort that Malick took in each shot. I read that most of the movie was filmed during the twilight hour, or the "magic hour" they called it, in order to get the beautiful gradient of the setting sun and the low, warm natural lighting. Almost no lighting rigs were used in the entire movie, and it amazed me that they were able to pull off some of these shots with almost no technical effects.

I could probably post a million stills from this movie. Some shots I wasn't even paying attention to the dialog because I was too busy marveling at some of the shots.

I do, however, understand that some critics may have not been interested in the story. It was pretty slow and  not very engaging at some points. However, I'm under the impression that Terrence Malick wants the viewer to feel the weight of his movies rather than watch them for the plot. I believe that instead of being entertained by the plot, we're supposed to allow the movie to affect us scene by scene and really involve ourselves with the struggles of each character.

That being said, I probably would not recommend this movie to anyone outside of DMA, but it's still a very personal and fascinating movie that asks to be experienced and not analyzed. I definitely look forward to seeing more of Malick's movies in the future.

The Stain

As a live action major, I have been having trouble staying interested in some of the videos that we have been watching in class for the past couple of weeks. Not to say that these videos weren't interesting per say, but sometimes I felt that the conversation leaned toward animation technique too much to really make me want to have joined in on the discussion. However, I found the "Women in Animation" week fascinating and wanted to share my thoughts on my favorite short during that segment (and perhaps of the entire semester) "The Stain."

Foremost, I highly enjoyed the mixed media that the animators used. My favorite use of this was probably the juxtaposition between the innocent looking two dimensional drawings and the eerie, uncanny clay sequences. This always kept the film unpredictable and made me a little uneasy watching these characters passively transform into different figures.

Second, I thought the method of telling the story primarily through the older daughter's perspective was fascinating. The story is founded on the actions of the two older brothers, but there was a huge emotional dissonance created by not allowing the story to be told from their point of view. As a result, they were almost demonized and portrayed as nearly sociopathic in nature. However, their thoughts are never truly revealed so we are left to decide their "true" character for ourselves.

The story is especially heartbreaking for the youngest daughter who was paralyzed by her older sister from envy and fathered by one of her two older brothers. I think the story is really about her tragic life and how her mere existence is inadvertently the cause for all of the conflicts even though she never really does anything to catalyze these events herself.

I think this may possibly be a metaphor by the creators of the film, claiming that women are often blamed for a lot of problems caused by the male-dominated society when the women are in fact the true victims of the male's actions. I thought this was a beautiful film and possibly beats any live action short that I've ever seen.

Blood Brother

Even though I'm only blogging about this for the triple blog credits, I really enjoyed the documentary shown in the MCA on Thursday. It was definitely a tear-jerker, but it made me think about a few things.

I think that the main message of the movie is to go forth and do something outside of your comfort zone. We should not fear uncertainty because we can never predict the benefits of putting ourselves out there, doing good, and being the change that we would like to see in the world. I, like Rocky, would never think about living at a home in India for HIV positive women and children in India. However, the movie showed me that sometimes opportunities present themselves when we least expect them and we should not hesitate to take them. They may be difficult at times, but they're ultimately more rewarding that we could have ever known.

From a technical standpoint, I thought "Blood Brothers" was well made. I liked how Rocky wasn't portrayed as a perfect hero, but instead a human being with his own flaws. The story was well paced, the composition was beautiful, and I really felt an attachment to the subjects. It was also really interesting to learn firsthand about the culture in rural India.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Let me start off by saying that this is a freaking amazing movie.

Earlier today I posted a blog about how CGI and visual effects can detract from a story (by using "The Great Gatsby" as an example). Here's a blog about how visual effects can greatly enhance a story.

Michael Cera always gets the girl at the end.

Personally, "Scott Pilgrim" would not be much a movie without the visual effects. The dialog is passable but is a little cringey at some points. The story is great, being based off of a graphic novel series. However, the true strength of the movie lies within the camerawork and visual storytelling.

Edgar Wright uses on-screen graphics to move the story forward, displaying infographics, comic book and video game inspired visuals, and well placed visual effects. The CGI is never too distracting because it never seems out of place within the setting, and it every time something flashes on the screen, it actually enhances the story and moves the plot forward in some way.

I thought it was an interesting comparison to "The Great Gatsby," which I thought used CGI unnecessarily just to make the settings look pretty.  

Ed Wood

In 1994, Tim  Burton directed one of his lesser known movies "Ed Wood," a biopic about a filmmaker in the 1950's that made some notoriously awful low-budget movies. You may have heard of Ed Wood's most famous movie "Plan 9 From Outer Space" which is pretty much inept on every level. 

Johnny Depp stars in the Burton biopic alongside Sarah Jessica Parker, Martin Landau, and Bill Murray who plays his effeminate costume designer.

The second of many Burton/Depp collaborations.

Basically, "Ed Wood" is about a man who has a passion for making movies. Although he is absolutely terrible at it, he continues to make them because he can't image a life without making films. Even though he has to resort to hiring a drug-addicted Bela Lugosi to star in his movies and use a bunch of Hollywood rejects to produce them on a micro-budget, he continues to push forward and try and work his way into the mainstream movie industry.

There's a lesson in this--albeit one that you should take with some caution--and I believe that Burton is trying to tell us to pursue our dreams and keep doing what we love, especially when others may not support you.

If it's not worth doing something in the face of adversity, then perhaps it's not worth doing at all.

To give you a little idea about how terrible the real Ed Wood was at making movies, here's a couple clips of horrific dialog from "Plan 9." You should totes watch it. It's a must see for film students!

CGI in "The Great Gatsby"

As I was doing my daily interwebs browsing this morning I stumbled upon an interesting YouTube video showing a visual effects before and after sequence of scenes from the 2013 adaptation of "The Great Gatsby." When I watched Gatsby over the summer I knew that there was a considerable amount of CGI in the movie, but I had no idea that basically 90% of the sets are digitally rendered.

Take a look for yourself! It's actually a REALLY interesting video and a little bit eye opening in some respects.

Let me begin my analysis of this video by saying that I am not a Baz Luhrmann fan at all. I think that he's completely over-the-top in his visuals and ruins classic stories by trying too hard to modernize them. His pacing is terrible, his dialogue is unimaginative, and I find very little artistic merit in his movies. 

Plus Leo says the phrase "old sport" 59 times during the movie. That's almost once every two minutes!

Now, I'm not a big fan of CGI in "The Great Gatsby," and let me tell you why.

Whenever I see excessive CGI in a movie like "Gatsby" that doesn't exactly require it (in other words, any movie that contains only real people and "real" settings) it takes me out of the moment. Some of the effects look completely fake and remind me that I'm in fact watching a bunch of actors talk in front of a blue screen. For me, it also takes away from the story because Luhrmann uses effects as more of a "look at how flashy and extravagant I can make the background" rather than a tool to enhance the actual story in any way. Plus, all of the swooping crane shots in "Gatsby" that float the camera hundreds of feet in the air and fly between buildings and do freaking loop-de-loops over Manhattan before zooming in on Tobey McGuire's face remove me from the story because they are way too distracting and unnecessary in general.

That's just my opinion though. I've never really been a fan of recreating sets with CGI when you could make them for just about the same amount of time and money in real life (see "The Hobbit").

To close, here's a video compilation of every time someone says "old sport" in the movie.

Review of Alfonso Cuaròn's "Gravity"

One of my most anticipated movies for this fall was Alfonso Cuaròn's space thriller "Gravity." Previously, Cuaròn had made "Children of Men" and the third Harry Potter film which are both excellent and favorites of mine. 

I'm not going to waste a lot of time summarizing the movie (plus I don't want to spoil anything if y'all decide to go see it--which you should), but it is essentially about two astronauts being separated from their space station after a field of debris destroys it, leaving them stranded hundreds of miles above the earth's surface.

George Clooney basically plays George Clooney in a spacesuit, but Sandra Bullock gives an Oscar-worthy performance and definitely hand a large hand in making this film successful.

Getting hurled into space sure is a bummer.

The first thing that impressed me was the continuous twelve minute shot that began that movie. The camera so masterfully floats about the space station, giving you the impression that you are floating right next to it, and a stunning view of earth slowly but noticeably rotating in the back ground. Just as this shot ends, tragedy strikes.

The destruction sequences were amazing. Cuaròn stays true to the fact that sound does not carry in space, so every sound that we hear is within the characters' helmets. Watching a multi-billion dollar space station silently destroyed was very visually impressive, but it also created an intense atmosphere that reeked of anxiety, hopelessness, and isolation.

While "Gravity" is not much more than a popcorn flick (as it really doesn't offer much more than a series of atmospheric shots and "action" sequences throughout), you feel a real sense of terror for the protagonist. Her fears and hopes and disasters and triumphs become yours, and you can't help but root for her by the end of the movie. In fact, I was practically jumping in my seat the entire time from how involved I was in this movie.

So, yeah, definitely go see it. Amazing visuals, great acting, and incredible story telling.

Your homework? It can definitely wait until after the next showing at the Huntington 7.

"Enter the Void" Opening Credits

"Enter the Void" is an experimental movie--filmed in a first-person point of view throughout--by Argentinian director Gaspar Noé. I saw this movie on Netflix a couple of months ago and decided to watch it because the poster was really colorful and I had nothing better to do with my life. Don't judge me.

You have to admit.. that's definitely an eye-catcher.

Anyway, "Enter the Void" is a really cool film in a lot of ways. The viewer sees what appears to be one continuous shot of the protagonist's spirit floating around Tokyo at nighttime. It's an intriguing premise, but my favorite part of the movie, strangely enough, is the title sequence. The opening credits make a good first impression, and they're really... intense. If you don't believe me, take a look for yourself. (Use full screen for best results.)

So yeah, I thought this was cool and it really shows how much of a tool opening sequences can be. They can essentially set the tone for the rest of the movie, as is the case here. After watching the opening credits for the first time and then being immediately transferred into the eyes of the protagonist, it definitely allowed me to retain a level of anxiousness and adrenaline throughout the first few scenes of the movie.

However, in my opinion, "Enter the Void" is very flawed. Its run time is just over three hours long, contains many extended experimental sequences of abstract imagery, and features way too many "overhead shots" where the camera is pointing downward from the ceiling. Sometimes the camera work can be really disorienting as well.

Either way, I think all of the live action students should check out at least the first half hour or so of it. It's just really interesting to watch and kind of changed the way that I thought about how movies can be made. We're starting to create in a world were there are virtually no boundaries to what we can make.

"Brick" and Kurosawa

Today I rewatched one of my favorite films, Rian Johnson’s “Brick” starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and was paying close attention to some similarities to the Kurosawa films we’ve watched in Signs and Wonders this year.

JGL as high school badass Brendan Frye.

Both movies are filmed in the “noir” style and it’s fascinating how this filmmaking technique has evolved in the past 56 years. Each movie features classic noir tropes, such as the use of a “hardboiled detective” anti-hero as the main character, heavy use of low- and wide-angle shots, harsh, dramatic lighting snappy fast-paced dialogue, and dark tone.

I think it’s very interesting to watch a movie from 1948 and understanding the grass roots of a genre and then watching a movie from 2004 mimicking the style of the older one. You can definitely tell that Johnson takes advantage of modern filmmaking techniques, especially in sequences that feature quick cuts, fights, and dolly tracks. It really makes you wonder how genres that have recently become prevalent in the Hollywood scene (i.e. superhero films, low-budget horror movies) will evolve in the years to come.

Will future films like "Paranormal Activity" actually be good??

On a somewhat unrelated note, “Brick” was filmed on an incredibly low budget (by Hollywood standards) but can still compete visually with any ultra-high-budget blockbuster that I’ve seen that doesn’t require heavy use of CGI or extravagant set. It’s definitely a movie that does not look as cheap as it really is, and I think as film students we can learn a lot from it.

Fresh Guacamole

Today I found this cool stop motion animated short film called "Fresh Guacamole" which was nominated for an Oscar last year. Clocking in at just over a minute and a half, it's the shortest film to ever be nominated at the Academy Awards, and on top of that, the concept of the film is mind-blowingly simple. It's about a guy that uses unconventional ingredients to make a bowl of guacamole.

I, too, like my guacamole with large chunks of plastic in it.

There's not really much to say about this film since there's really nothing to find hidden underneath the surface. If somehow this is a film about the evils of consumerism, it has gone completely over my head. However, I found the amount of creativity that went into the details fascinating, the animation incredibly smooth, and I loved that there are little surprises in every shot.

Definitely check it out for yourself! It's only a minute and forty-one seconds of your time!

Drunken Angel

Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura as Matsunaga and Doctor Sanada.

"Drunken Angel" was my first Kurosawa film and given his reputation as a filmmaker I came in with high expectations. I definitely left the screening room satisfied and look forward to seeing Kurosawa's more ambitious and famous works later this semester.

For those of you who didn't see it, here's a synopsis from IMDb:

After a battle with rival criminals, a small-time gangster is treated by an alcoholic doctor in post-war Japan. The doctor diagnoses the young gangster's tuberculosis, and convinces him to begin treatment for it. The two enjoy an uneasy friendship until the gangster's former boss is released from prison and seeks to take over his gang once again. The ailing young man loses his status as gang boss and becomes ostracised, and eventually confronts his former boss in a battle to the death.

 In my eyes, "Drunken Angel" was a character study focusing primarily on Doctor Sanada.

From the very beginning, we see Sanada's struggle with alcoholism and its effects on his family and professional life. Kurosawa never tries to depict him as a bad person, just a seriously flawed human being who wants to do whatever he can to help the patients in his devasted post-WWII community. Doctor Sanada's character reminds us that there is a dark side to every human being, no matter how good-hearted, intelligent, or admired they seem. This also makes Doctor Sanada easily the most relatable character in the film because we see a small part of him in ourselves.

Reisaburo Yamamoto as yakuza boss Okada.

The doctor is also by far the most developed character in the movie. The other characters are hardly given much of a backstory. All we know of Mastunaga is that he is a stubborn, hedonistic yakuza with tuberculosis. Okada is a completely one dimensional character who is only there to move the plot forward. Something interesting that I found on IMDb was that Kurosawa had originally intended for Doctor Sanada to have the only starring role in the film but was so impressed by Mifune's (Matsunaga's) performance that he decided to give him more lines.

Even though they got equal screen-time, I was much more fascinated with Doctor Sanada than with Matsunaga. Sanada epitomizes the anti-hero and creates a wonderful dichotomy between his alcoholism and his constant nurturing. He is a man that devotes his life to taking care of others but ironically cannot take care of himself.

What Can We Learn from Buster Keaton?

They say art is timeless, but eighty-seven years is an incredibly long time in the world of movies.

Buster Keaton is perhaps one of the most influential film makers of the silent film era (1894-1929) being known best for his popular slapstick comedy shorts and feature films. And, while popular in their time, Keaton's films are hardly ever viewed by modern audiences.

Last night I watched what is perhaps Keaton's most famous film "The General," which was made in eighty-seven years ago in 1926. The movie industry has advanced so much since that time, making many of his tropes outdated. However, I believe there is still a lot that modern movie makers can learn from Keaton today.

One of the many original posters used to promote "The General."

The largest theme for "The General" that remains prevalent in mainstream media today is the use of physical comedy. Of course Keaton didn't have the luxury of sound or dialogue in his movies so if he wanted his audience to laugh, he had to use his own body and various props for jokes. We often equate modern slapstick with low-brow entertainment (i.e. Adam Sandler movies), but I think that is an unfair comparison.

Now, I'm not saying that "Grown Ups 2" was a masterpiece of physical comedy, but I believe that if done right, slapstick can remain a useful tool in modern movie making. Slapstick is by far the easiest form of humor to digest as it requires little to no thinking or any extensive knowledge of pop culture that many comedies today rely on. The key, I believe, is pacing.

Take, for example. Buster Keaton's 1920 short "One Week." The film is entirely slapstick, but holds your attention because of the incredible rate that the gags are handed to you, and the sense of technical astonishment you get from viewing some of them. Even when you're not marveling at how impressive a gag was to pull off, the comedy is often clever enough to keep you laughing until the next gag is rapidly fired at you seconds later. Below is the short in it's entirety.

It might be harder today to make a film entirely out of slapstick gags, mainly because there are so many other ways to make audiences laugh nowadays it might not hold their attention for long enough. Or, maybe it's because everything looks funnier in black and white with vaudeville music playing in the background. Whatever the case is, I think it's a shame that there's almost no such thing as "intelligent physical comedy" anymore. Keaton's work is nearing one hundred years old and, in my opinion, still holds up to this day.

What do you guys think? Does slapstick comedy belong in 2013? Is there any way that we can use Keaton's films to help influence or own film making?

Tarantino's "Reservoir Dog's": Homage or Plagiarism?

"I have loved movies as the number one thing in my life so long that I can't ever remember a time when I didn't." - Quentin Tarantino

It's no secret that Quentin Tarantino has a passion for movies, and as a lover of all movies from spaghetti westerns to campy b-list horror movies, he often infuses elements of his favorite films into his own stories. However, some of these "homages" have sparked a debate among the filmmaking community for their incredible similarities to other works, so much that critics of Tarantino are accusing him of plagiarism.

Tarantino's first movie, cult classic "Reservoir Dogs" has been the center of most of these criticisms, borrowing multiple elements from Ringo Lam's 1987 Hong Kong crime drama "City of Fire." Both feature the same basic premise--a botched diamond heist--and the same ending in which one of them is revealed to be an undercover cop. Characters are similar, scenes are easily comparable, and both films share the same climax. There are even multiple instances of images from "City of Fire" being re-shot identically by Tarantino and pasted into "Reservoir Dogs."

The poster for Ringo Lam's "City on Fire."

When asked about the similarities between his movie and Lam's "City of Fire," Tarantino says, "It's a really cool movie. It influenced me a lot. I got some stuff from it."

While never openly admitting to plagiarism, Tarantino acknowledges that the movie was a significant influence on "Reservoir Dogs." So, the question is, where do we draw the line between homage and plagiarism? When does something stop being influenced by another film and instead becomes a ripoff?

Here's an example of two similar scenes from the movies. The video does feature a lot of language, so watch at your own discretion.

What do you guys think? Is Tarantino simply allowing influences to remain prevalent in his work, or does he shamelessly steal from other directors and try to pass the work off as his own?

I'll end this post on a quote by Quentin Tarantino on the subject of homages in films.

"I steal from every single movie ever made. If people don't like that, then tough tills, don't go and see it, all right? I steal from everything. Great artists steal, they don't do homages." -Quentin Tarantino

Let Me Introduce Myself

I'll keep this brief.

Hello, everyone! This is Adam Konger, fashionably late as always.

Some say I look like a mixture of Johnny
Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio.

I am from the small town of South Whitley, Indiana (about a half hour drive north through the cornfields), and I'm currently a freshman studying film production.

Movies have always been my passion ever since I was young, and I'm sdryo blessed to be able to come to Huntington and use actual cameras instead of my old Flip Video camera (RIP) to make movies.

Besides movies (because I like to see myself as a well balanced person) I enjoy running slowly for short distances, playing sports poorly, and trying to make comprehensible melodies come out of my Ibanez Gio.

Anyway I hope to get to know you all well. I'm usually somewhat friendly so don't be afraid to say hi.