Frequency

Frequency is a film about a police officer named John Sullivan who is down on his luck. His father, Frank, is dead, and he no longer has any zest for life. One night, after his girlfriend leaves him, he finds his father’s old police radio and turns it on. He begins messing with the signals, and somehow makes contact with his father exactly 30 years in the past, on the day before he died. Before the connection cuts out, John is able to shout out the circumstances that led to Frank's death. Frank is skeptical about the situation, and believes that he is being messed with, however, when the circumstances brought up in their conversation prove true, Frank believes and trusts John's words, escaping the fire to safety. Since John was able to warn Frank away from danger, his father's death never occurs. However, it is not without consequences. Since John and Frank were able to alter the past, life in which they know it suddenly changes. John's altered future is one in which his mother, in turn, has been murdered by a serial killer. Now John in the present and Frank in the past must communicate via radio to try to solve the mystery of the killer's identity and change the outcome again.

Frequency is one of my favorite films of all time. It is a great piece, built around a realistic and caring father/son relationship and ordinary characters who are trying to accomplish extraordinary things in order to change the past. The movie has a lot of heart and you really learn to care about the characters and worry about what will become of them. I also very much admire the uniqueness of the plot. It is both interesting to contemplate the complexity behind it, as well as to watch. It is a little slow to take off, but once it gets going, there starts to be action at every turn. It is definitely one of those movies that keeps you on the edge of your seat.

'The Last Man on Earth' Pilot

I found this show under New Series on Hulu.  I didn't hear or see any promotion for this show, but since it's a show on a major network I thought it would be worth a try. It starts out in the near future "Novemberish 2021" showing a man, Phil Miller [Will Forte] traveling the US in an RV, crossing out states on his map.  He has been searching for another living human for what seems to be over a year. It is mentioned that he is the last man on earth after a fatal virus hit a few years ago.
        Here is a promo for the show:

My favorite part of this episode is when Phil is watching the movie Cast Away starring Tom Hanks.  He is watching the scene when Hanks' character draws a face on a ball and starts talking to it as a friend; Phil says he will never become that crazy.

Photo from 'Cast Away'

 It then cuts to 6 months into the future and he has multiple friends who are different balls he drew faces on. I thought it was clever but also could actually happen to someone that has been living in a city with no people around for multiple years.
Eventually Phil starts getting depressed and keeps asking to see a woman one last time.  He hits a breaking point and decides he would rather kill himself than be alone any longer.  Right before he tries to kill himself he sees smoke in the distance and tracks down where it is coming from.  To his surprise there is a women there! She is the last women on earth Carol [Kristen Schaal]. Phil soon realizes that he might regret what he wished for after talking to Carol.

Even though there is another character in this series, I feel like the premise doesn't seem like it would last for multiple seasons. Since there are only 2 characters left on earth, I am not sure how interesting it will be to only watch 2 characters throughout a whole series. I can't see this showing making another season but I will continue to watch this show as it airs.

 I rate the Pilot 6/10, this episode was funny and I enjoyed it, but I can't imagine where else this show can go.  I feel like they used all their best jokes for the pilot.

Lucasfilm Predicts the Future

There have always been three stages to the filmmaking process: pre-production, production, and post-production. These three components rely on each other to create a polished final product. Regardless of being a documentary, a promotional video, or feature film, all film productions require these three steps. 

"Over the next decade video game engines will be used in film-making, with the two disciplines combining to eliminate the movie post-production process."

This is the ambitious claim made by Lucasfilm, the production company behind the Star Wars franchise. 

Speaking at the Technology Strategy Board event at BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts), the company’s chief technology strategy officer, Kim Libreri, introduced a new style of filming: 

As you can see, the company has figured out a way to implement special effects in real-time, moving a large amount of post-production work into the pre-production and production phase. Although Lucasfilm is able to show off this technology now, it is still more of a future concept and calling it a complete replacement to post-production is laughable. As you can see from the video, the graphics are not exactly feature-film quality. But this is, more then anything, is a sign of things to come. It could also be considered an advanced style of storyboarding, enabling special effects artists to see their work before actually implementing it.  

All of the effects in the video have been possible in the past, except before you had to process, tweak, and render the footage. Now they are able to do it incredibly faster to the point where it's instantaneous. In movie making time is money, so what this means is that films will be able to implement special effects on a much smaller budget. I know some people favor practical effects so this may not be an entirely good thing... but I'm very interested to see what happens when high-end graphics become assessable to a very wide audience.

Oh... and speaking of the future. Check out this cool film I found that interviews Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Martin Scorsese. They ask them about the future of movies... but in year 1990. Quite the interesting perspective.

Elysium < District 9

This past week I finally got around to seeing Elysium, a new film directed by Neill Blomkamp who was the director of District 9. I had been very excited to see what Blomkamp had done with this film because District 9 is on my list of favorite movies. I really enjoyed District 9 because I felt that it brought something new and different to the table and it was something that I hadn’t really seen before. I was expecting something like District 9, but after seeing Elysium I was a left feeling a little let down. Now don’t get me wrong, Elysium was a fine movie—packed with action and Matt Damon being tough and rugged. It had a great feeling of continued suspense and uncertainty, I never was able to guess the entire ending (which was a major plus for me), and Elysium (the space station) was breathtakingly beautiful. I thought that the acting, especially by Sharlto Copley who played Agent C.M. Kruger, was fantastic. Who wouldn’t be afraid of him?

And for those of you who know District 9, you might remember Copley as Wikus Van De Merwe, a total 360 character change from Agent Kruger.

Besides that, I just felt like it was just another movie. It addressed the topics of immigration, but I just felt like that had been done before. I didn’t feel the characters of the movie change or grow throughout the movie. There was almost too much action for that change to happen. It was always going, going, going without much introspection. District 9 really got my hopes up for this movie, but Elysium just didn’t pack that raw and unexpected punch that District 9 accomplished.

Looking to the future

In the last hour, I've made two decent-sized leaps at nudging myself into the future: I set the foundations of starting a summer internship, and began the rough drafts of pre-producing a music video for an up-and-coming band over winter break.  Now I'm hoping that you guys will have some input.

First, the internship.  Over the summer, Andrew Jenks will be holding an annual film festival in New York City, which has been running for a decade now and has brought in keynote speakers like James Earl Jones (if that guy could narrate my life, I'd be one happy girl).  Though it's geared more towards high school age filmmakers, the opportunity to work as even a production assistant on something with Jenks is a step in the right direction.  He's been at this since a very young age and has made quite a name for himself (check out the linked bio, or just Google him), so I'm looking forward to this chance.  Also, he's looking for people to keep up a blog regarding the festival I believe; looks like Arturo knows what he's doing in making us write these every week.  If you want more information, let me know and I'll help you get in contact with the right people for a shot at this.

Next, the music video.  I've always had a love for music, especially because of the way it always sparks a montage in my mind as I listen.  Thus, I was asked to create More Than True's first music video of their career, and have already begun pre-production.  At the moment, I'm quite thankful for the links on this blog to necessary documents (ex: talent release forms), and I'd be interested to hear what anyone has to say about things to think of for production.  I'm also making an attempt at covering the majority of positions myself on this one, but I do have an entire week to shoot and more time to edit, so any and all advice is more than welcome.

Some times the crazy ideas are the best ones

I thought I was ready for school for school this semester. I was bored at home tired of working minimum wage jobs and manuel labor for under the table cash.

last semester I went hardcore. maximum credits. job on a show at ic tv. multiple clubs. I was spread thin. and what happend was everything i did sufferd the cost of not getting enough attention.

This semester I thought i was going to take it easy on my self take less courses and doing less clubs, but  c'est la vie some how I am even more spread thin then ever before. over whelmed with stress I became extremely introspective wondering about what I want to do in the industry and trying to figure my self out. It was in one of these moments of self meditation when I got a crazy Idea.

What did I come to Ithaca for? I came to make movies. to learn how to make movies. I never considered my self an artist. But recently i came tot he realization I am. my free time is spent creating. weather it be  writing short, storys script, music, jokes for my standup ( I am an amateur stand up comedian). but mostly I am insane im not ashamed to admitted it and every great artist is insane in one way or another. I am not trying to say I am a great artist, but that i do possess the qualities of one.

When my professor Arturo Sinclair told me he dropped out of college to make movies at age 15 i was  impressed to say the least. it was such a simple answer to a question that seemed so complicated. how do you mange to do in life exactly what you want to do. you just do it.

I've done it before in life. when I was a freshman in highschool I wanted to fly to chicago to visit my best friend and go to lollapoolza. I had no money. my parents said if i would pay for it i could do it. (proably assuming i could never get the money.) to solve my problem i designed a Teeshirt I could sell at my school. to make a long story short I sold over 100 shirts and grossed over a thousand dollars and funded my trip.

this summer i was strapped for cash again but i could not get hired at any job in town. so i made a job. i started my own window washing service and made 4 times the money i could have at a regular minimum wage job in a quarter of the time.

The point I am trying to make is sometimes in life when you want something you just have to go take it. you can't sit around waiting for opportunity to find you.

now if you have read all of that you are proably wondering what my crazy Idea is. and it is simple I want to make a film a real film I can be proud of.

this is just a rough Idea and I am begging for input and advice.

If you look at the Ithaca website for the price of tuition and fees you see this chart

Tuition and fees	$35,278
Board	5,980
Room	6,874
Health insurance	575
Total	$48,707

48,707 dollars a year is more money then I have ever seen in one place
If you are like me which i suspect there are quite a few you are not on scholarship or only partial scholar ship your parents help you pay some of the cost you use the money you make over the summer to help pay tuition while keeping some so you can buy things you want and need and you take out some student loans a massing a daunting debt especially with the uncertainty of of the future this can be terrifying.

well what if after the spring semester when you have a massed junior or senior standing and become way more polished in the skills it takes to make a movie you take a gap year and put those skills to use.

in this gap year plan to spend $10,000 put into the project of making a movie its a fraction of the money you would spend a year when at college and at the end of it all you would be part of something amazing. an original film that you co-produced had direct influence over.

If I can get 7 more people on board with this idea thats 80,000 dollars we could invest into this project.
with that money we could rent equipment pay for meager room and board, pay actors, and pay for permits for what ever we need too.

we could create a great low budget film and it would be ours.

on the side we could also use the equipment were renting to document the entire process so by the end of the gap year we have our own film and the footage to make a documentary about they entire project.

The type of people I would be looking for to join me on this crazy project are as follows
- A Head cinematographer
- A Head sound designer
- A Director
-  2 editor
- A lighting expert
- a costume/prop designer

of course i would also expect of these core people to be multi talented and can fill in to any other positions needed

we would need a script a great script that can be shot easily that does not demand to much capital.

It seems crazy. but at the same time it seems very possible. and at he end of it all we know we went for it. and will probably learn more then we every thought possible about this industry and our selves.

this is just a skeleton of an idea and i need help from YOU to fill the skeleton with meat and organs and blood and life.

if you are interested in this please contact me my phone number is  609-610-4445 and my email is Austin.Scharfstein@gmail.com

help me make this crazy idea into a crazy story.

Scriptwriting?

Last night, I went to bed around 9 PM.

Today, I woke up at approximately 3 PM.

18 hours of sleep, and I think I'm finally starting to feel healthy again.

I'd like to thank the makers of NyQuil for this; you simultaneously helped me feel better and shot any hopes I had of catching up on work today in the face, and that's not an easy thing to do.

I should know better than to take the stuff the night before I need to get things done by this point in life, but for the relief it provided short term, I can't complain much.  Nevertheless, the sleep it knocked me into actually brought a fuzzy dream that I think might've just influenced my path in TVR, and is taking me in the direction of a scriptwriting minor.  At first, I thought it was absurd; so I dreamed that I wrote a really amazing script and loved it, big deal.  It isn't like it was a prophetic vision of lottery numbers or anything (I wish), right? 

That was my mindset, until I realized I needed to sit down and write a script for a class and would have no other time during the weekend to do it.  So, I scrawled out a rough draft, and, what do you know, it wasn't half bad.  And...I enjoyed writing it?!  Hm.  Interesting.

I shared it with another member of my class for some feedback since I'd missed the day of the assignment in my class, and he really liked it.  He mentioned several points that I could fix up or work on, but was otherwise quite impressed at my "shitty first draft" (shout out to the Developing Story Narratives class and that reading, it's good to know everyone has a rough time in the beginning).

Now, as I'm brushing it up and still enjoying doing it, I'm considering adopting a scriptwriting minor as of next semester.  I used to like doing creative writing back in high school, even submitting to and being the editor in chief of our literary magazine for two years.  I've always thought that within TVR I wanted to go towards things like field production or doing animation, but I think another avenue just opened up.  This is definitely something I'm considering pursuing, because it's never going to hurt to be a bit more well-rounded in the field, and I could someday benefit hugely from knowing both how to produce and edit in the field or a studio as well as how to write for TV.

I'm curious if being in Fiction Field will impact my desire to do scriptwriting at all.  I hope that there are opportunities within this course to create some sort of epic script and storyline, because it'd be good to test the waters before diving in head-first to another commitment in Park.  Also, I think I'd want to sharpen up my writing academically, because it just took me three tries to spell "commitment" correctly.

I guess you've got to start somewhere.

One day three movies

So yesterday I didn't have very much going on so I decided to watch a movie, and I ended up watching three by the end of the day.

So the first movie I watched was Philadelphia.  After seeing the segment of Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington in class I knew it was a movie I had to watch.  The movie follows the court case of Andrew Beckett (Tom Hanks) a lawyer who was fired because he contracted the aids virus.  It is a story that portrays the negative inclination towards homosexuals and aids victims.  This was probably my favorite out of the three movies I watched.  The films ability to play on the audiences emotions is fantastic.  The character development and the talent of the actors creates such a personal connection to everyone in the film.  The many close ups of faces during intense emotional scenes just sells it and you have no choice but to put yourself in the courtroom.

The second movie I watched was Dr. Strangelove or: how I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.  This movie made in 1964, is about an incident that sparks a nuclear war between Russia and the United States.  The part of the film I loved the most was the role(s) of Peter Seller.  Peter Seller played three different roles in the movie, and all of them different personalities or even nationalities.  One other thing I enjoyed about the film was the lack of cuts.  There were large pieces of the movie that were only one shot.  I felt this allowed the scene to unfurl on its own, something you would not frequently see these days.

Lastly I watched the movie Blade Runner.  This was a movie I had always wanted to see but never had a chance to so I figured why not.  This movie stars Harrison Ford as a "blade runner" (basically a police officer) who is supposed to track down and kill genetically engineered humans, which are illegal in the movie.  The part of this movie that impressed me the most was the visuals.  The entire movie except the last scene takes place at night, in the rain, in a futuristic city.  I just couldn't get over how well all the lights and colors went together.  There were always a neon color hue, and when there weren't, scenes that took place in homes and such, there were many moving lights to represent the light from outside.  The illusion of the lights of passing cars shining through holes in the wall added a particular mood and added to the overall image of the film.

Overall I would say it was a good day.  I enjoyed all the movies I saw and I am now inspired to start watching more movies I have always wanted to see.  I am in the process of getting Citizen Kane so who knows, maybe the next blog will be about that.

Robert Cannon

Verbiage versus Wisdom

After reading Roy Ascott's article "Planetary Technoetics: Art, Technology and Consciousness," I found several points to agree with. I agree that, in order to survive as a species, we will need to move toward an expanded sense of connectedness with the other inhabitants of the earth. I also agree that artists can facilitate this process, as can technology. And, yes, the wisdom of indigenous cultures has largely been ignored, especially by Science.

However reasonable these points sound, Ascott conflates them with conjecture, such as when he seems to assume that the "Mixed Reality" of indigenous cultures are all based on plant-based drugs. He also sites Narby's hypothesis that the visions of shamans are from their ability to communicate with their own DNA, because we don't yet know what that annoying 97% is for. This is presented with reference to DNA's photon emission as a possible origin of shamanic imagery, which is so much easier to explain this way than something science has no real grasp of.

Perhaps the most dangerous idea presented here is the merging of biological organisms and technology. In my view, scientists should not be the ones deciding what they think they can control. I don't believe any of us are bright enough for that kind of power. If I have to choose, though, give me the shamans any day, preferably female.