Blog 2009-01-29T06:25:39-08:00 30 A blog and a couple movie reviews What Lies Beneath, Sicko, Asphalt Jungle, Bugsy Malone, Hunt for Red October, Below, Sphere, Proxy, Dustin Hoffman, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Zemekis 2009-01-29T05:53:00-08:00 It's either very late or very early, but either way I want to be editing but can't. Right now my computer is rendering proxy files--for the non-video head, proxy files are small versions of HD footage to reduce work done by the computer in the editing phase--and it's taking much longer than I want: about 7.5:1 ratio. So while I wait, I'll toss in some updates. Today we finished filming all the scenes in Dirk Snowglobe's office, so after a week we can finally put Alex, AJ, Matt and Shannon's living room back together. The lack of Xbox has been a particular pain :). I'm going to put together a rough cut of all the scenes tonight--if there's any time before class and after rendering--just to make sure that nothing was forgotten. We shall see. Yesterday my living room also got turned into a set, which mostly involved moving everything into a corner. This the first murder scene in Dirk, so Alex got to lie on a coffee table for two hours covered in chocolate syrup--just like they used is Psycho. At the end of it he was pretty sticky, tired, and out of it, so I felt kinda bad, but he did look pretty cool. It's pretty crazy, all I seem to do is work on Dirk now. School and sleep happen, but Dirk never seems to stop. Hell, if a class is boring I pull out a script and storyboard. The only other thing I do is watch films when my computer is rendering proxies. Here's the low-down on what I've watched this week. What Lies Beneath 4.5/5 - Most of the rating is for the directing--which is amazing. One shot in particular blew my mind. Realistically the film was too long, probably could have cut as many as twenty minutes. However, since it's an homage to Hitchcock, the slower pacing makes sense. Sicko 5/5 - Very well done. I was really disappointed with Fahrenheit 9/11, Moore was just too angry and too divisive. But Sicko hailed back to the good old days and say "what the f**k is going on!" The Asphalt Jungle 4/5 - I usually rate older films pretty low; I'm much more into modern cinema, but this film was pretty cool. Good pacing and very interesting plot. However, by todays standards the "heist" scene was so dull it was funny. Now we have all this fancy technology to make heist films so interesting, in 1950 you could fall asleep robbing a joint. Bugsy Malone 4/5 - I remembered this film from when I was seven years old and had to see it again because I remembered it so fondly. A musical ganster film where all the roles are played by children. Suprisingly adult, and it's quite funny to hear children deliver such witty dialog. But, still strange seeing a speakeasy full of children... The Hunt for Red October 4.5/5 - Straight up cool action flick with an awesome cast. Below 4.5/5 - Interesting film, definitely a cool concept and good story. Something awesome about setting a movie on a submarine because it's just such a sweet crucible. Sphere 5/5 - Haha, I must be missing the boat on this one, because I loved it and apparently no one else does. For me it's all about the subject matter. I'm a huge sucker for time travel, space ships, and the psychologically fantastic. And Dustin Hoffman and Samuel L. Jackson are both awesome. So really, this film couldn't go wrong for me. And my phone alarm just went off, so I can go edit! 2009-01-29T06:25:39-08:00 16