So yesterday, well, Wednesday, I was at Yankee Stadium for the all NYU graduation where the entire NYU class of 2016 commenced. Or did commencement. Whatever. Was cool. Today (Thursday), though, was the Gallatin graduation, the one specific for my school. Gotta walk across the stage and all that. Did the thing. Got a degree in Narrative (Re)Construction; now to find a job. But first, wooo!
Essays, Not Rants! 217: The Elusiveness of Fun What is fun? No, not what’s fun to do, what does “fun” mean? Johan Huizinga, a Dutch guy that wrote a lot about play and what play means, said in his Homo Ludens that “this last-named element, the fun of playing, resists all analysis, all logical interpretation.” He goes on to lament that there’s, to his knowledge, no direct translation in a Western language that really captures what “fun” is (and if you check Wiktionary, you’ll find the transla
Saw it at the IMAX midnight, as I tend to do with these sort of things, but the girlfriend's been bugging about watching it again (which, y'know, I wanted to too). Finally found time to do so today. And hot dang. There's so much done in there that makes me jealous. Like, not budget or having a baddonkey fight choreographer, smaller choices that are genius. Like putting the camera here instead of over there, or not going straight to the reveal but panning over it to build tension (see the shot
Essays, Not Rants! 216: A (Civil) War of Flaws. Civil War came out. This post it about that. Yes, that’s all the intro I’m giving. Marvel’s done a fantastic job of giving their characters major flaws. Look at the original (cinematic) Avengers: Iron Man’s selfish, Captain America’s noble to a fault, Thor’s proud, The Hulk’s, er, angry, Black Widow doesn’t trust anyone, and Hawkeye’s just the archer (okay, so he’s more the cynic). It’s these clearly defined character defects that make them cla
Essays, Not Rants! 215: Order, and Narrative Thereof I’m one of those people who will respect you less if you pick an album to play, and then play it on shuffle. See, there’s a deliberate rhyme and reason for the order of songs on an album. U2’s War needs “Surrender” to be its penultimate song. After an album about war, violence, and fighting for hope, we have a song about giving up which leads into “40,” an adaption of the Bible’s Psalm 40. It’s crucial that the album ends there, in that s
As a massive fan of Hot Rod, when I heard NYU had a free/early screening of Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping I knew I had to go. It is exactly what it needed to be. And it's a satire/parody that manages to keep its schtick up throughout, which is downright impressive. Not as good as Hot Rod, but then, Hot Rod's phenomenal.
Essays, Not Rants! 214: Kid Stuff You ever go back and check out a story you liked as a kid? Sometimes this means realizing how insufferable some cartoons were, but other times you end up rereading Prisoner of Azkaban and realize that holy ###### that’s a special book. Which brings up an important thing about children’s stories. Namely, what is a story for kids? Is Star Wars a children’s story? It was one of my favorite stories as a kid and that seems like a decent barometer for what counts
Essays, Not Rants! 213: Where TMD Explains Why You Should Fund His Movie There are five days left for my movie’s Kickstarter. So that means it’s time for me to go on a spiel about why you should fund The Conduits. ‘cuz I’m really proud of this story and want you to be able to see it when it’s done without all that festival hoopla (and just for $9!). So what is this whole production? The Conduits is fundamentally a student film, given that it’s being worked on primarily by students and being
Essays, Not Rants! 212: Something Something Diversity Something Star Wars There’s a new Star Wars trailer out, this time for Rogue One! Now, when they announced it to be about a ragtag band of Rebels stealing the Death Star plans; that got me excited. I’m all about ragtag teams pulling off heists. But then they announced the cast. We’ve got Felicity Jones starring and, in addition to Forest Whitaker, people with last names like Luna, Yen, Wen, and Ahmed. If there’s one thing I like as much as
Laptop is out of comission due to being unable to find its own harddrive (did you know that that's a thing that can happen?), but I'm logging on to BZP on a school computer because this is important. Rogue One. It's like a check boxes of things I'm into: Star Wars Women who kick butt Diversity AT-ATs Star Wars Ragtag Teams doing Cool Stuff I'm psyched, dude.
Essays, Not Rants! 211: Josh Kinda Just Wants To Talk More About Star Wars The Force Awakens’ planet-obliterating Starkiller Base is powered by absorbing its system’s sun and firing it as a weapon. This mechanic allows fighter pilot Poe Dameron to utter the phrase “but as long as there’s light, we got a chance” without it feeling remotely hollow or contrived. It reflects, as well, the standoff going off in another part of the planet and, even bigger, the general concept of the Star Wars saga a
So in response to the bunch of screegrabs I posted in my last entry, Inferna Firesword mentioned that she wondered what the plot was. Which made me realize that, outside of linking to the Facebook and Kickstarter, I haven't really talked about the story. Here we go! The Conduits is about Rachel Watkins (her) who reluctantly teams up with Morris Chen to find out what happened to her father when he disappeared. Standing in her way are Fafnir and her Cavaliers who will stop at nothing to put an
Still wondering about the Kickstarter? This is the shots we've been getting. Now, keep in mind, this is all before color correction, vfx, or anything done in post. Heck, we've still three more days of shooting.
Essays, Not Rants! 210: Four Years I’ve had this blog for about four years now. Four years. And I’m pretty sure this is the first time I’ve missed my self-imposed midnight EST deadline. Why? I’ve been hard at work on my movie, The Conduits, and today marked us being half done with shooting. Which is good. In the meantime you should check out the Facebook page (linked back there) and the Kickstarter here. And tell your friends. But anyway, keeping this blog has been a real experience. B
Holy snap buckets. Here we go. It's movie time. Spent most of today driving around with fake concrete barricades in a van picking up last minute equipment and props. Also: we're shooting with a skeleton crew tomorrow. When we weren't planning on. WOOHOO ADVENTURE. This is happening. Here we go. Also, because I haven't advertised it enough; Facebook page here! And Kickstarter here! I should probably get some sleep in the meantime.
Essays, Not Rants! 209: Fear of the Unknown One of the wonderful agonies I found when I started watching Lost years and years ago was the show’s tendency to show a character’s reaction to a revelation/object/monster rather than the revelation/object/monster itself. It became characteristic of the show, and something emblematic of Abrams’ style. Granted, J.J. Abrams had little involvement with Lost past the pilot, but he did work with Damon Lidelof to lay much of the show’s groundwork. Inclu
Y'know how in Parks and Rec it was always fun when Ron and Leslie would leave the office to go do work in a park or in the field or whatnot? I'll have you know it's REALLY frustrating when the manager of a park is out in the field every day you try and get ahold of them about filming in their park.
Essays, Not Rants! 208: Of Zootopia Stories are often a reflection of reality. Star Wars was a reflection of the existential threat posed by the Cold War. The Hurt Locker was, quite obviously, a discussion of the human cost of war. The Revenant reflected Leonardo DiCaprio’s all-consuming want for an Oscar. And then there’s Zootopia. Which holds an unrelenting, condemning-yet-hopeful mirror to modern America. Which you wouldn’t exactly expect, because it’s a major Disney movie. Nonetheless,
I got a bar! As in, a bar to shoot in. An affordable one. Also, Mr. Robot was just shooting there recently. Go figure. Also got a diner. And it's the diner I go to almost weekly. Woo! And a stunt coordinator has signed on. He's worked on Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Zombieland, and a buttload of other stuff. Paperwork is almost done. Woo! Also totally cast. And I have a Facebook page. Which you should like.
Essays, Not Rants! 207: Living in Science Fiction Is the movie Gravity science fiction? This was the discussion a friend of mine and I were having while talking about science fiction and fantasy winning Oscars — Gravity got Best Director, but is it really science fiction? Wikipedia, IMDb, and such call it science fiction, given that it’s, well, in space. That’s usually the threshold for science fiction. But something in space is hardly imaginative anymore. An astronaut who just returned fr
In the post right below this one I mentioned looking to shoot in a street where Jessica Jones shot (y'know, the street outside where they held Kilgrave). After much contact with the folks in charged, I could shut down stuff to work there... ...but it'd cost more than my entire budget for a single day. Man. Must be nice to have Marvel/Netflix money.