Traffic

So I watched Traffic last night. A go big or go broke cast, and not enough screen time for so many amazing people made the stories seem superficial to me. The color treatment was annoying in the fact that every time they hard cut to another character, it was in a different tone. While I understand that it works as a tool to enhance the emotional experience, I found it cheap and bothersome. There was no grounding in reality with the the over adjustments. Then there is the fact that it was 2 1/2 hrs long. Oh my, it dragged! Why not cut to the important stuff and put more of that in there that is directly relatable to the characters, as apposed to everyone always sitting quiet and on stake outs. There was hardly any confrontation that was awarding all the screen time until the end when things sorta came to a head. I had hopes for this one, now I am just sad that I wasted this time on this film as apposed to other homework.

Todays work

So I screened Mr. Mom, Do The Right Thing, and Wall Street. Interesting movies. Wall Street was meh comparatively. The others had some good info and great information for me to ponder. Good stuff. I also donated some time today at the bicycle exchange. Got my bike for my thesis as well as for transportation. The plus side of watching Wall Street, I am able to see haw what was good acting and sound dubbing 20 years ago, is not quite what is that good anymore. I wonder how I can work the set so that the acting doesn't read as so forced and fake. I will have to talk to my actors and see what they can do to make things work more fluid for the takes. Hopefully the blocked rehearsals and script reads will give me what I need.

Research

So I finished my production book outline at about 6 am. Yay. Then I watched Cadillac Man and Good Will Hunting. I really like the treatment that they used in Good Will Hunting. I think that is pretty close to the type of "feel" that I am looking for.

All the Presidents Men

It's a good movie, a slow one, but a good one. I like the treatment of it color wise. The gritty realism as apposed to the hardcore cinema style used most of the time. I may have to do some test shots with this style to see what works out.

Research

So I just finished watching a documentary about Danny Trejo. What an amazing man. I now have some inspiration for some of the character backgrounds. Things are looking up. I am watching a documentary now about mind over money on Nova. Good old research. Then off to look at some "blue collard" blogs. I really dislike that term or label, so distancing from people, "working class", what a horrible way to group people.

KCSOB

Had another wonderful night with the KCSOB. I love those performers. They have become a second family to me and I appreciate each and everyone of them dearly. I think that when I graduate I am going to miss them a lot.A year and a half with them now as their sound engineer. If I could figure out how to include them in my studio art, I so would.

Research

So I found some federally run blogs on blue collard workers and what the social climate is for them, as well as independent blue collar class blogs. Going to research these over the next week reading their history to see what...discrepancies...there are between the two types. So I also watched Maxed Out, Wonderful World, and Capitalism: A Love Story. Going to think about these as I sleep and how I can work with these issues in my script for the new thesis topic. More news to come in a few days.

Echoes

Finishing touches on a sequence I have been working on for the last couple of weeks are rendering right now. This piece is looking very promising. Now to outline a time with my acting couple to shoot the other two scenes for this short and get it packaged for submissions. It is titled Echoes as listed on this post. It's about a man waking the day after a car crash and remembering his lover who's memory follows him around.