Hey Arnold!

Sorry for my lack of attention to this blog the last few days. My friend Emma has been visiting me until Sunday, and I feel I have a moral obligation to show her as much of Savannah as I physically can.

Right now we're watching Hey Arnold, and I'm sitting here thinking how secure of a woman Helga Pataki must be, to wear a bright pink skirt and matching bow while still managing to maintain her flawless tough-girl attitude and reputation.

I did a green screen shoot today. It went much better than the last one. I am working on a tracking project that should be pretty sweet when I finish it. If it's worth posting, I'll make sure to do so. My cinematography professor has an interesting teaching style. Or lack of. Don't get me wrong, the man's a genius, he just goes off on random tangents about dinosaurs... or tar. I think he's one awesome dude, I just haven't learned much of anything from him.

Anyway, I'll post the tracking video if it turns out half decent. Right now... It's time for more Hey Arnold.

Moulin Rouge

In the blog before last, one user asked me what my favorite movie was. I thought I would take this opportunity to write a little review of what I consider my favorite movie. I have seen a lot of movies in my day, but none that compare to the awesomeness that is Moulin Rouge. Everything about this movie amazes me. 

There were however a few slip-ups that probably wouldn't be visible to the average viewer, but once you notice them, it's hard not to think about it every time you watch the movie. I love it when you find visible crew in movies, especially GOOD movies.

The first instance in this movie is during the "Spectacular Spectacular" dance sequence. 

As you can see, there is a watch-wearing crew member in a beige hat just barely visible on the bottom right hand side of the frame. I had to watch this movie at least 5 times before I realized this.

The second instance is during the "Tango Roxanne" scene, where very briefly, a camera and kneeling crew member is visible, and the spotlight even pans over him at one point. 

It's much easier to notice when the camera is actually moving, but on the right hand side of the frame, it's easy to see.

All movies have problems like this, and I don't think it takes away from the experience at all, because rarely are these things even noticed. Everything about this movie is phenomenal, and despite these little things, it still amazes me. The passion put in to this story is what makes it so moving. This is by far Nicole Kidman's best movie.

The most memorable scene from this movie, in my opinion is the "Tango Roxanne" dance sequence. It is by far the most emotional moment of the movie, the moment at which the audience is most engaged in the story. Everything about it is intense - the music, the dancing, even the colors. 

For me, Moulin Rouge is an emotional movie experience that I have not seen in any other film. If you haven't seen this movie, you need to.

Art and Spilled Coffee

Today I had what my roommate describes as the “unfortunate experience” of retrieving my soaked clothes from the faulty dryer, only to find the elastic from a pair of underwear had detached itself from it’s proper place and crudely wrapped itself around the pull string to my favorite hoodie. After carefully considering my roommate’s suggestion to “rock that shit and own it”, I immediately jumped to action, knowing that even if I could not salvage my favorite pull string, it was not worth the potential embarrassment of running around Savannah with a pair of bright orange skivvies hanging from my neck. 

After the successfully epic battle that will from now on be called, “The Separation of Laundries”, I realized that I had spent too much time this weekend on household tasks, and not enough time on what some people like to call “homework”.  All of that aside, there are much more important things to focus on like…  art, and spilled coffee. 

Coraline

A few nights ago, myself and several of my new college friends made the expedition to the movie theatre to see Coraline in  3D. Overall, I have to say I was rather impressed with this movie. 

I liked a lot that she was from Michigan, because I, myself live (when I am not at school of course) about 45 minutes from Pontiac, where Coraline and her family are from. Far too many characters are from New York. It's a city.... it's exciting... we get it. I did appreciate the attempt at making her look like a "legit" Michigander when she referred to her friends back home as "trolls" (a term used for anyone living below the Mackinaw Bridge that separates the lower peninsula from the upper peninsula). However, this term is normally used only by "Yoopers" (people living in the "UP" or Upper Peninsula), and is directed, almost, but not quite, in a derogatory manner. Anyway, like I said, I appreciated the thought, even though it was a little inaccurate. Of course, I might be reading far too in to the term used in the movie, but I still like to think they tried. 

What I also enjoyed about the movie is that it was a genuinely interesting plot. It wasn't too terribly unique - girl wants new family, decides old family is good enough.  However, it was of a quality we don't run in to too much lately. I'm starting to get tired of all of these remakes. It seems like all of the good movie ideas have already been done, so movie makers feel like they need to revive 20+ year old stories rather than make up something NEW and interesting. The revival of this Neil Gaiman story was unique in a way. Now I'm just starting to ramble.... Bottom line: Coraline was good, surprising at times, heartfelt, and beautifully created. The fact that it was 3D added to the experience, but I think it will be just as magical without the 3D effect. The last movie I saw in 3D was Beowulf, which I thought was excellent from a graphics standpoint, but was less so interesting without the 3D effect. 

Anyway, I suppose that's all from me today! I hope all you [2] readers of mine had great weekends!

This will be my first attempt at posting a blog entry. My friend Courtney has been relentless in getting me to be an active part of this community. Let me first start off by saying thank you for stopping by! I hope I can keep up with this, and live up to the "blogging potential" that Courtney thinks I have!

As far as my work, I don't have as much as I would like - just a lot of ideas that will probably never get completed.  This first one, of the clarinet is one of my very first pieces, and I think it will always be my favorite. There are still a lot of things that I would like to fix on the scene, but for history's sake, I think I will leave it as it is. It's done in Maya 2008, with a little depth-of-field that was simulated in Photoshop.

Not sure what else to say at this point. Hopefully this will be post 1 of many. I look forward to getting to know the Blogspot community, and moving forward as an artist.