Experimental

I finished my video on Friday. However I've been thinking of things to change or add to it all week and I thought of something that I think tied it together. This is the only time I had available this week to do it so I finished my video at 2:10AM and I think it turned out good. Although people who don't play video games might not appreciate it as much as I do..

Working on my Experimental project.

I like this project only because I am forced to play video games to do it. :)

Short Fiction

I was working on my short fiction until 4:30 this morning. Not because I waited til the last minute however; but because the schedules of my partner and I did not match. So I spent from 6:30PM till 4:30 AM editing and watching and editing our video, with my partner, to try and make it as perfect and up to standards as possible. I will be upset if I don't get a good grade on this project.

Paranormal Activity

This movie, I think, was done very well. The idea for camera angles and such were very convincing to the story. This movie scared the crap out of me but only because of 3 scenes. First is the scene when the guy, Mika, puts talcum powder on the ground before they go to bed and while they sleep you see foot prints being made in the powder but you don't see anyone there. Second is the scene where the main female character, who's name I can't remember, gets dragged out of bed and down the hall by whatever creature made the footsteps in the powder. Finally; the last scene when the woman goes down stairs and jsut begins screaming blood curdling screams and Mika runs down to help her then everything is completely quiet for a few moments. Then you hear loud footsteps coming up the stairs, and out of the darkness a body flies at the camera and all you see is the woman standing in the doorway covered in what can only be Mika's blood. In all is was a good movie, very pleasing from a cameraman's viewpoint, suspenseful, and just enough creepiness to scare me.

Screenplay

The readings for writing the screenplay were very helpful and made it much easier to organize and write the first draft. The steps that are given were probably most helpful because it gave me a reference to look to while writing the different aspects like "cut to" and when someone is supposed to be speaking. It also gives you a guideline of the spacing and some things that can be used but not over used. The screenplay for our project isn't very long but there isn't really much to put into it without putting a lot of camera angles and the other aspects that aren't really found in a screenplay. There isn't a lot of conversing in our short fiction which is another reason the screenplay is so short.

Saw 7

It was a great movie. Like always there's plenty of gore but for those who look for the plot you are indeed in luck! Every loose end is picked up and put into place in this final chapter of the gruesome Saw saga. Although John is dead his work continues, and he's able to make an appearance like always in a flash back, however there are those who have yet to be tested. The movie was good and the plot was finally tied together and 3D. It was interesting except that I wear glasses and wearing the 3D glasses over my glasses was not very comfortable and I couldn't get them at the right distance from my eyes so a few parts of the movie were blurry. But the 3D did its job well; there are several scenes where body parts are just flying all over through the screen and is realistic enough to freak you out the first couple of times.

Watchmen

I watched it last night. It's a good movie for the most part. The idea is great and the fact that it came from a graphic novel makes it a little better. The movie is very long, especially since I watched the director's cut, but there isn't too many things that should be cut out. The sex scenes are unnecessary and on that comment so is the extraordinary amount of blue penis that is seen throughout the film. I don't even know where to begin when it comes to analyzing the film from a cameraman's perspective. There are a plethora of just about any kind of shot you would need in a film. I enjoy many of the wide shots because they work very well. For example when Dr. Manhattan goes to Mars; the shot is from above the red planet and all you see is a blue dot appear on the barren surface. Although it's not an actual shot because it was all done on the computer it does its job well. I feel as though there are several of these shots to show the audience just how small everyone really is, even a blue man who can perceive past and future simultaneously and who is impervious to everything known to man. There are too many shots to blog about, at least in one blog, so there's one example and my personal view of the movie.

Seasons

I was just thinking about how we all watch movies according to the season when gets to be the fall and winter's impending doom is just around the corner. October through December is the triad of seasonal months and it seems as though we all like to watch classics like Charlie Brown and his rendition of Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. We all seem to like to watch spooky or scary movies around Halloween. This Sunday in fact I have plans to watch several scary movies in the evening. Christmas is especially known for the specials on TV like Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer and all the other clay-mation shows. Along with other great movies like Jingle All the Way with Arnie, Ernest Saves Christmas, and other classics such as A Muppet Christmas Carol and A Christmas Story. There are even scary movies for those who enjoy Christmas but are also fanatic horror watchers. I like both seasons but I have to be in the mood for Christmas movies but I watch horror flicks all year long.

Land of the Dead

'Tis the season. It's October and I cannot get enough zombie flicks to watch. I just watched Land of the Dead. It's a fairly good zombie flick however; if you're not really a zombie movie kind of person you might not like it because it's more complicated. It delves into the possibility of zombies learning and adapting to their prey. The plot was ok but the effects were sub par compared to Dawn of the Dead. I feel as though Romero didn't have as large of a budget for this film but it was good none the less.

Ok soo

I lied. I gotcha though. I do love zombie movies. They intrigue me and scare the crap out of me at the same time. The idea of reanimated dead is thrilling but if the campus is really quiet, like on weekends, I kinda wonder to myself if I'm the last person on campus that's not "dead". I've even had dreams about the zombie apocalypse were I've woken up sweating because of how real it felt in my dream. I watch zombie movies, play the video games, apparently dream about them.. This isn't critical of any specific movie but I will blog about dawn of the dead, 28 days/weeks later, land of the dead, etc..

ZOMBIES!!!11!!!!!1!1!!1!1!!!1111!!!!

I love zombie movies. That is all.

Shanghai Noon

Looove Jackie Chan movies. This is just a good movie. It has Jackie Chan, Cowboys, action, Owen Wilson, and of course: Lucy Liu. There's plenty of action and of course Jackie Chan beating the crap out of everyone. I have yet to see a bad Jackie Chan movie. If you've never seen it definitely go out and rent it or watch it on netflix. Like... Tonight.

Spoiler Alert: Quarantine

I watched Quarantine last night. It wasn't my first time. It's actually a very good movie. It's like a mixture between Cloverfield, which sucked, Dawn of the Dead, which is epic, and Old Yeller. It's all shot from a shoulder cam like what a news studio would use for on location shoots. It involves some zombie-like people who are actually infected with a strange strain of rabies (hence Old Yeller) which takes only a few minutes to show signs when regular rabies usually takes months. In all it was a good movie; intriguing, suspenseful, good acting, Zombies, and the style definitely helping in many factors in making the film with a PoV style shot.

Romantic Action.

In Lethal Weapon 3 there is a scene when the two main actors, Danny Glover and Mel Gibson, are on a boat. Danny Glover. Sgt. Murtaugh, is drinking to try and forget about a kid he shot. He shot the kid because the kid had a sub-machine gun and was shooting at him and Sgt Riggs, Mel Gibson, he hadn't known who the kid was when he returned fire but he found out it was a kid from down the street whom his son was friends with. Back to the boat; Murtaugh was drinking because he blamed himself for killing the kid even though the kid was trying to kill him and his partner. This whole scene was shot from several different close-up and medium shots. It was set up perfectly to evoke the emotions felt by the characters. The characters are very close and share just about everything with each other, and even though Murtaugh tries to hit Riggs several times, the scene is almost romantic in the way it brings out the emotions of its audience. They even hug sooo... It's gotta be romantic.

Braveheart: Violence

Not only can special effects and barrels of fake blood effect the violence in any scene in a movie but the camera and different angles can as well. Braveheart is a very bloody and violent film which depicts war, treason, assassination, beheading, etc.. Most of the violence in the film is very explicit. Filling the whole shot with gore. However there is also implicit violence. For instance the ending scene when William Wallace is sentenced to a painful death for treason. The scene shows mostly his face and other parts of his body that isn't the area where his innards are becoming his outards, or whatever is going on; you can let your imagination run wild. There are hints as to what's happening such as William Wallace's expressions, close up shots of his face, the reactions of the crowd, wide shots of the people watching, his friends, and mid shots of those few friends watching from the crowd. When they decide to behead him you don't see his face but his hand clutching onto the wedding band his dead wife made. Then you see the axe begin to fall, you then hear the sound of the axe hitting something and William Wallace's hand going limp and the band fall from it. This is a good example of the versatility of a crafty camera man's imagination.

In-Camera Edits

The in-camera edits were great. Many people did well with not being able to make formal edits to their pieces of work. I feel as though the downfall to any, including Bryan's and my, in camera edit is the number of shots taken. Due to the time-stops we had to re-shoot several scenes and there were still parts in our 'short' where the frame froze a moment before the next began. The length of some shots could have been reduced however some of those lengthy shots were done purposefully. Epic as it was, our in-camera edit could definitely use some work. I enjoyed the simplicity of the shots although some pans and zooms may have helped. I would actually like to take the in-camera edit and edit it on a computer to make it better. I am certainly excited for our other projects and I'm hoping to make an equally epic documentary.

Lethal Weapon 2

In the movie Lethal Weapon 2 there are many different scenes full of action but there's a scene specifically that stuck out. In the movie Danny Glover, Sgt. Murtaugh, Gets stuck on a toilet because the men he and Sgt. Riggs, his partner Mel Gibson, are investigating rig his toilet to explode when he gets off of it and he realizes it before its too late. Due to the confines of the bathroom many of the shots taken during this scene are medium and close shots. The scene however cuts to his yard outside the house after the fire department, police department, news studios, and friends are called to deal with Murtaughs predicament. In this part of the scene the camera moves through the large crowd of people showing the abundance of chaos as the people fear for Murtaugh's life, and basically run around like chickens with their heads cut off.

Alien

I recently watched the movie Alien. The shots taken in the movie are confined to the the storyline. Most of the movie takes place in a futuristic spaceship. The halls and corridors of this spaceship are not very wide nor very long. Therefore most most of the movie consists of middle shots and close-ups. Though this can confine the movie it is done very well to make it the classic sci-fi horror movie that scared our parents and grandparents in the late 1970's and early '80's. The closeness of the shots gives the viewer a feel of what the confines of the spaceship might feel like; claustrophobic in some cases. This view also helps make it more suspenseful since you can see less of what's happening but have a feeling of what's to come. Overall the shots in the movie are done well whether or not the alien looks like a man in a suit, which it doesn't!, and some of the lines are corny.

"Bert"

Name's Robert. Bert is my online tag for just about everything from gaming to youtube etc..