I had to pop the whole thing about 3 times before I could close the screen.
Manic mode was a nice treat, if I do say so myself.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
Oftentimes, it is very difficult to decide what to share on this sort of thing and what not to share.
I'm more or less unaware of the number of people who have some sort of knowledge about this thing, so my target audience thus far has really been myself. Pretty selfish, eh? Heh, so that's that I suppose.
Over the past year or so since I discovered the ability to rip DVD's and burn them from my laptop, movie-watching has become a more and more prevalent hobby of mine, to the point where I am able to "own" roughly 3-4 new movies every week now. In the beginning of this venture of mine I became painfully aware of my own inability to really understand and appreciate the subtleties and nuances that go separate the "great" movies from the merely "good" or "bad" ones, and so on. Recently though, I have begun to find myself noticing certain patterns between actors/directors/styles that are able to pique my interest, and what about their qualities are able to interest me. I'm sure some of the following things are very elementary to many film students, and this is hardly any sort of comprehensive way to profile a movie, but these are the things that I have begun to look for in movies, and I feel as though the ability to recognize some of these aspects of a performance show at least some sort of evolution in my understanding of cinema? Who really knows. Anyway, next time you do watch a movie, and you're wondering why it is that you like or dislike it, maybe you can try and see if any of these things are noticeable in the movie.
1. The flow of the dialogue, and how you would really imagine it in real life. I've found that by watching a movie with a fair amount of nit-pickiness, I can determine for myself whether the actors seem to be simply reciting lines from a piece of paper, or if they have really gotten into the character and are trying to add things like emotion and facial expressions into their performance. Once again, this is really quite a simple thing I would imagine, and I'm sure all actors are taught to do this, but it is surprising how often it is noticeable that the actors aren't totally able to eliminate that sense of just reading their lines from their work.
2. Things like lighting and setting have been able to grab me and surprise me very much in a few films lately, and while it may only be an added bonus, movies are, at the end of the day, a primarily visual form of entertainment! If you are put into awe by a setting, or a character's makeup work, or the way a scene can truly be altered and enhanced by the scenery rather than the characters, then it is probably pretty safe to assume that the producers/directors have done a good job with their vision, and that a good deal of work has gone into it.
3. This is the most subjective aspect of "Harry Squires's Extremely Abridged Guide to Answering why you may Enjoy a Film". I find that if I am able to imagine a film being adapted into a live theater, and think of it that way, then it becomes a touch more enjoyable to me because it becomes that much more life-like. Essentially, it is easier for me to like it because I feel as if I'm truly viewing this up-close, as if, if I truly desired to, I could run up and touch the characters, the setting, and see the script. If I am able to imagine in my mind a script reading "Denzel Washington enter stage right" and then it happens, it improves the experience for me. If a character is behaving with the emotions that seem to fit the script, and I am able to imagine how a line in a book would describe the event (Angrily, Macbeth says...), I gain a bit more respect for the film, and the actor as well. This is more than likely something that I am in the minority on, but who knows!
Anyway, check some of those things out the next time you watch a movie! If it's boring, then at least this will give you something to focus on while you watch, and if you like it, then maybe this will be able to provide you with a blueprint for other movies you might enjoy! And if it doesn't help at all, then at least I gave you something to kill 5 minutes with by reading this little bit.
I'm more or less unaware of the number of people who have some sort of knowledge about this thing, so my target audience thus far has really been myself. Pretty selfish, eh? Heh, so that's that I suppose.
Over the past year or so since I discovered the ability to rip DVD's and burn them from my laptop, movie-watching has become a more and more prevalent hobby of mine, to the point where I am able to "own" roughly 3-4 new movies every week now. In the beginning of this venture of mine I became painfully aware of my own inability to really understand and appreciate the subtleties and nuances that go separate the "great" movies from the merely "good" or "bad" ones, and so on. Recently though, I have begun to find myself noticing certain patterns between actors/directors/styles that are able to pique my interest, and what about their qualities are able to interest me. I'm sure some of the following things are very elementary to many film students, and this is hardly any sort of comprehensive way to profile a movie, but these are the things that I have begun to look for in movies, and I feel as though the ability to recognize some of these aspects of a performance show at least some sort of evolution in my understanding of cinema? Who really knows. Anyway, next time you do watch a movie, and you're wondering why it is that you like or dislike it, maybe you can try and see if any of these things are noticeable in the movie.
1. The flow of the dialogue, and how you would really imagine it in real life. I've found that by watching a movie with a fair amount of nit-pickiness, I can determine for myself whether the actors seem to be simply reciting lines from a piece of paper, or if they have really gotten into the character and are trying to add things like emotion and facial expressions into their performance. Once again, this is really quite a simple thing I would imagine, and I'm sure all actors are taught to do this, but it is surprising how often it is noticeable that the actors aren't totally able to eliminate that sense of just reading their lines from their work.
2. Things like lighting and setting have been able to grab me and surprise me very much in a few films lately, and while it may only be an added bonus, movies are, at the end of the day, a primarily visual form of entertainment! If you are put into awe by a setting, or a character's makeup work, or the way a scene can truly be altered and enhanced by the scenery rather than the characters, then it is probably pretty safe to assume that the producers/directors have done a good job with their vision, and that a good deal of work has gone into it.
3. This is the most subjective aspect of "Harry Squires's Extremely Abridged Guide to Answering why you may Enjoy a Film". I find that if I am able to imagine a film being adapted into a live theater, and think of it that way, then it becomes a touch more enjoyable to me because it becomes that much more life-like. Essentially, it is easier for me to like it because I feel as if I'm truly viewing this up-close, as if, if I truly desired to, I could run up and touch the characters, the setting, and see the script. If I am able to imagine in my mind a script reading "Denzel Washington enter stage right" and then it happens, it improves the experience for me. If a character is behaving with the emotions that seem to fit the script, and I am able to imagine how a line in a book would describe the event (Angrily, Macbeth says...), I gain a bit more respect for the film, and the actor as well. This is more than likely something that I am in the minority on, but who knows!
Anyway, check some of those things out the next time you watch a movie! If it's boring, then at least this will give you something to focus on while you watch, and if you like it, then maybe this will be able to provide you with a blueprint for other movies you might enjoy! And if it doesn't help at all, then at least I gave you something to kill 5 minutes with by reading this little bit.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Donkey Rhubarb
I have returned to New Jersey, and have returned to reality after Bonnaroo.
It was cool, I would probably do it again, although I would approach it from a more prepared point of view. Arriving late and having to sleep in a tent in a Wal-mart parking lot wasn't really the best way to kick off the trip. Tennessee is also a weird place, but whatever, it was cool to see everyone and do copious amounts of damage to my body, most of which I will pay for some point later on in my life. C'est la vie.
A friend of mine showed me this, and while it's obviously edited, it kind of annoys me anyway.
I sincerely hope that at no point in time did my parents ever use me to express and represent their love of electronic music.
Also, I really hope they weren't that big fans of electronic music to begin with, cause c'mon, who would really hope for that anyway? I wonder what kind of music, if any, my parents would have liked to videotape me making funny faces to. These are the questions that need to be asked in my life.
An early Thanksgiving thank you: I am thankful that my parents are not technologically proficient/nerdy enough to want to make a Youtube video of me and put it on the internet. That is all.
It was cool, I would probably do it again, although I would approach it from a more prepared point of view. Arriving late and having to sleep in a tent in a Wal-mart parking lot wasn't really the best way to kick off the trip. Tennessee is also a weird place, but whatever, it was cool to see everyone and do copious amounts of damage to my body, most of which I will pay for some point later on in my life. C'est la vie.
A friend of mine showed me this, and while it's obviously edited, it kind of annoys me anyway.
I sincerely hope that at no point in time did my parents ever use me to express and represent their love of electronic music.
Also, I really hope they weren't that big fans of electronic music to begin with, cause c'mon, who would really hope for that anyway? I wonder what kind of music, if any, my parents would have liked to videotape me making funny faces to. These are the questions that need to be asked in my life.
An early Thanksgiving thank you: I am thankful that my parents are not technologically proficient/nerdy enough to want to make a Youtube video of me and put it on the internet. That is all.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
The only Ten in sight
I leave for Tennessee in about an hour and a half. Still have a pretty significant amount of preparations to do, figuring out packing, what music/books to bring for the drive (14 hours is a long fuckin' time), clothes to wear and shit like that.
Bonnaroo will be a pretty sweet time I think, I don't think I've really ever been to this kind of area in the South though either, and I would imagine that to be the most novel part of the trip? w00t
Bonnaroo will be a pretty sweet time I think, I don't think I've really ever been to this kind of area in the South though either, and I would imagine that to be the most novel part of the trip? w00t
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Dan Johnson
This video is probably one of my top 5 favorite videos I've seen on the internet.
Mostly because 1. I have an old as hell Volvo also, so boosting the street cred for my car is always a concern, and 2. the Oakland Athletics are probably my second favorite baseball team, behind the Yankees. Oakland and all the Hyphy stuff is pretty hilarious, and generally, thats all this thing is good for anyway, the silly shit I find on the internet.
Went to Fulton this past weekend. Upstate New York isn't nearly as terrible in the summer as in the winter...I have the image of just like the most terrible place in the world a lot of the time, because cities like Buffalo are failing pretty miserably. Granted, its not Fairfax County or anything like that, but whatever, not everywhere can be grand ol' Caldwell, NJ.
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