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Live Long And Prosper
May. 21st, 2016 12:20 amTime for an audience participation topic: Paramount has abandoned their lawsuit against the party behind the AXANAR project.
In the wake of this, would you want to make a fan movie? If so, what franchise?
Loose Note
Mar. 13th, 2016 03:40 pmFreeWill Homes In
Aug. 12th, 2015 03:44 pmIn some phases of your life, you have been a wanderer. You've had a fuzzy sense of where you belong. It has been a challenge to know which target you should aim your arrows at. During those times, you may have been forceful but not as productive as you'd like to be; you may have been energetic but a bit too inefficient to accomplish wonders and marvels. From what I can tell, one of those wandering seasons is now coming to a close. In the months ahead, you will have a growing clarity about where your future power spot is located -- and may even find the elusive sanctuary called "home." Here's a good way to prepare for this transition: Spend a few hours telling yourself the story of your origins. Remember all the major events of your life as if you were watching a movie.
Now that I have a copy of the "Save The Cat" model of storytelling perhaps I could apply it to my life history and see what appears. Watch this space.
Useless Fact
Oct. 15th, 2014 04:00 pmDon't mind the above thingy. I'm just doing that to enter a sweepstakes.
Fantasy Flight
Aug. 14th, 2014 08:29 pmSuperman 2 was on one of the TV networks we get this afternoon, and I have to say it hasn't aged as well as I expected. It got me thinking about things like speed and how we perceive motion.
I'm about average size for a human being. If I went like the Man of Steel and flew at a rate of my own body's "flight length" per second, that's only about 5 mph--or jogging speed. Just to put this in perspective:
* A WW1 biplane fighter at combat speed travels at five times its length per second.
* A WW2 heavy bomber or transport plane at cruise speed will also be moving at about five times its length per second. (Because of the difference in size compared to the smaller planes of WW1, this would mean double the actual speed!)
* A WW2 fighter at its combat speed would go 15 times its length per second.
* A modern fighter jet at Mach 1 would be moving 25 times its length per second.
* A NASCAR or LeMans race car at 200 miles per hour goes nearly 20 times its length per second.
We don't think of these things when we watch fantasy movies (or sci-fi space opera) because we don't want to suspend our disbelief. When Harry Potter is on his broomstick we don't clock his progress because he's moving at the speed of plot, not 45 miles per hour.
FP
- airplanes,
- comic books,
- dc comics,
- fandom,
- fantasy,
- film,
- flight,
- harry potter,
- ideas,
- magic,
- mathematics,
- movies,
- nascar,
- physics,
- speed,
- superheroes,
- superman,
- tv
I Suppose I Am Kildren
May. 5th, 2014 09:06 pmAlmost six whole years after I first posted about it here I finally got a copy of Sky Crawlers on DVD.
Yes, it's very much a Mamoru Oshii movie. It's got characters walking around in existential hazes, realism that makes you wonder why it isn't live-action, and even a basset hound. While there is action--in deadly earnest--it isn't an action movie. The setting is both real and unreal, and the themes of his previous movies are taken in a different direction.
Basically, this is ONE scene from CATCH-22 transformed into an entire feature movie. Where in the Heller work (and the movie that came from it) the scene was played for satirical effect, in this case the concept's tragic meaning is thrown to full relief.
FP (who is wrestling with the existential ramifications himself)
I had a dream that you were in the film O Brother, Where Art Thou? You were like the character played by George Clooney after he escaped from a prison chain gang. Can you picture it? You were wearing a striped jailbird suit, and a ball and chain were still cuffed around your ankle. But you were sort of free, too. You were on the lam, making your way from adventure to adventure as you eluded those who would throw you back in the slammer. You were not yet in the clear, but you seemed to be en route to total emancipation. I think this dream is an apt metaphorical depiction of your actual life right now. Could you somehow use it in designing your Halloween costume?
...But I'm not gonna let them catch me, no!/Not gonna let them catch The Midnight Ri~i~ider!
Reel And Unreal...FreeWill Weighs In
Aug. 27th, 2013 03:53 pmJames Caan is a well-known actor who has appeared in more than 80 movies, including notables like The Godfather, A Bridge Too Far, and Elf. But he has also turned down major roles in a series of blockbusters: Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Kramer vs. Kramer, Blade Runner, and Apocalypse Now. I present his odd choices as a cautionary tale for you in the coming weeks, Sagittarius. Don't sell yourself short. Don't shrink from the challenges that present themselves. Even if you have accomplished a lot already, an invitation to a more complete form of success may be in the offing.
As little as I have accomplished, I don't think I'm exactly swimming in choices or opportunities.
- astrology,
- career,
- fame,
- fate,
- film,
- horoscope,
- mass media,
- movies,
- quality of life,
- success,
- the future,
- work,
- zodiac
Car. Again. Go Figure
Aug. 16th, 2013 06:06 pm
The website that has this "game" is too slow and buggy to let me get back to my own entry.
PS:
Useless Fact
Jul. 25th, 2012 01:01 pmHave You Ever Seen Me? Would You Want To?
Jul. 12th, 2012 01:45 amThe other day, I got a circular from Oldies.com with their latest offerings of antique movies on DVD and I was flabbergasted with how many old aviation movies--some I never heard of before!--that are available. Titles like Atlantic Flight, Mercy Plane, Lost In The Stratosphere, Navy Born and The Flying Fool...and suddenly I was thinking, "There has to be enough content here between this and old aviation promo and training films to make up a TV series!"
Maybe I'm not exactly the kind of guy you'd want to see hosting a TV show. Thing is, I wouldn't do it ALONE. I'd get a "crew" together, just like they did with Mystery Science Theater 3000 and they still do with Wolfman Mac's Thriller Drive-In and Off-Beat Cinema, just to name a few. Yes, this pipe dream has me on a set, which I'd call the "Doofer Room", with posters on the walls and aviation props and old airliner seats and who knows what else bric-a-brac-wise. I'd have a set of costumes, from the basic airline Captain to bush pilot to military fatigues to space gear. Maybe, on occasion (if I could swing it), I'd shoot an episode at one of the airports in the area, or at the Museum of Aviation in Sevierville.
The chances of me actually doing something like this is miniscule. I wonder if somebody beat me to it, tho'.
For me, it depends on what the changes ARE. For example, if GONE WITH THE WIND or THE WIZARD OF OZ got tweaked into a widescreen version that lost none of the visual impact but instead enhanced it, with remastered sound and clearer picture quality, I'm sure everybody would want that. But I've said before that colorization doesn't always work.
When ET: THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL was tweaked by Spielberg, there was some justified contraversy about him changing the Deputies' riot shotguns to walkie-talkies in the bicycle chase scene. And, of course, George Lucas' meddling with the STAR WARS movies hasn't won him a lot of friends. If changes are made, they have to benefit the work as a whole, not just add gimmicks.
I'd been thinking about the movie MIDWAY. So much of that was stolen from other movies, that if it were me, I'd use modern tech to redo the parts that were from archives and so make it more honest and authentic. I'd redo the Doolittle Raid sequence so it wouldn't be from THIRTY SECONDS OVER TOKYO or even the PEARL HARBOR remake. I'd redo the sinking of the USS Lexington in the Coral Sea. I'd redo the Japanese raid on Midway Island so it isn't footage from TORA TORA TORA and THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN. And I'd redo thing's like George Gay's crash into the ocean and the ordeal of USS Yorktown. But I wouldn't think of changing the scenes with Fonda, Heston, Mifune and company. The drama is where it's good. It's the other elements that work against it.
I came up with about seventy titles, a mix of film sets and TV show seasons for the most part. A lot of the material shows up on Universal's TV channels, namely TH¡S and Retro.
Depending on how they count, I'd think I'd even have to find more titles to get if I won. Which, I suppose, is better than having to choose between existing favorites.
- award,
- dvd,
- facebook,
- film,
- mass media,
- movies,
- philosophy,
- stuff i want,
- tv,
- video,
- wisdom,
- wishlist
Nerdity Zeroes In On Target--Again
May. 22nd, 2012 11:33 am
It isn't so much the movie itself but the fact that the studio threw it into a threat-rich theater environment, with The Avengers and The Hunger Games still playing. Maybe if they had waited a week or two?
