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monday, april 26, 2004
hey, hey, i may not be on opening night in real life, but who says i can't pretend in the e-world?meet the rough cut and rough transfer of my animation, casey dances.
sadly the cleanest transfer lives with the festival people, but surely this will give you a clue. the file is huge, 38 mb i think, but if you watch, be sure to tell me of it! also, help not kill my bandwidth and download to your own computer.
much love.
suddenly i was @ 01:15 pm
saturday, april 24, 2004
i require assistance!FIRST
does anyone out there speak french? if so could you translate something for me?
TWO
who (i'm thinking say yes and cousbian out there) wants to give me a short not-intended-to-be-but-is perverted dialogue about a LONG SWORD involving an evil sultan, naive young harem girl and a lover?
THREE
a quote about love or keeping spirit from shakespeare.
thanks.
off! do my work my minions!
suddenly i was @ 11:12 pm
friday, april 23, 2004
oh my god! stress. on "while you were out" the "out" person just came home and the tlc people aren't finished with the room!god i love these stupid programs this week.
so i must apologize for my hissy fit last entry. now i am embarrassed and feel i should justify my actions.
i suffered a bruised ego and was looking for a reason to get upset.
i just felt bad because, i feel they are putting the "best" pieces up front for opening night and why shouldn't they? - and by being put a week later i'm am relegated to some leper colony of "not as good," though i know that isn't true.
also, it wasn't a good transfer. let's look at this realistically. i sound my picture during the sound check and thought, "yew." my film frame, their projector being sans television cut off, showed!
i didn't want people to see it was so mortified.
i know i will be more so when i see how good everyone else's is.
if i cared so much, should have seen to these details when i transferred from film to mini dv.
ego trash. i admit this. i admit this. it will come and go and doesn't matter. one of those things which seems important, but isn't and that's ok.
today i woke up this morning feeling despondent and dejected. this was coupled by the fact, i went to put on my clean clothes and for some god unknown reason, they were sopping though they had be put on the line some 48 hours earlier. sopping! so late for class, feeling depressed i left the building, dripping and smelling of detergent.
i was like a little cloud of blossoms once i got to class.
person in class: what's that smell? it's so pretty.
class points to me.
i then mailed a package, finally got in touch with a film company to go my stupid conforming.
what is it with film processing labs? none would give me the time of day and i found it distressing.
me: hey, yeah, hello. this is the fourth time i've called? i'm trying to give you 800 dollars?
thank god for nick at nd film labs on 55th!
i finished my newest storyboard, took pictures of flat stanley and did a great deal of girl talking.
i found out some interesting things, first my friend, youngok, is much older than i thought she was. i don't know what i believed her age to be, but she isn't even a child of the 80's! i almost fell over.
but NOTHING breaks you out of the downs than surrounding yourself with fun.
turn that frown upside down, sun shiny day!
today was "share that secret of yours" day in animation and started when i said i have a huge tongue. i shared and everyone was amazed.
my teacher: all this time and i've never known! and to think, in three weeks it would have been gone forever!
vivian can belly dance and youngok can make her fingers move like snakes.
later, youngok and i had to pick up tickets for the opening night film extravaganza (you know which one i am talking about). i said i had to also go to the grocery store.
youngok and i then shared this exchange which i think sums up the whole of art school.
me: i only have a rotting orange in the fridge.
y: i only have really, really, expired milk.
harkens to mind a conversation once, wherein i told another animation peer i had eaten a bite of spoiled egg by accident and he replied by saying, "i ate bad peas once. they were slimy. i felt sick after."
we decided to head off to the siskel center, get tickets, then to the grocery store, joined also by vivian and sawako.
the adventure begins.
we tried to take a picture of flat stanley and the oncoming train. vivian nearly lost an arm and the conductor had to blow the train whistle at us, but we got it.
we then dashed onto the train laughing, only to realize moments later, in our frazzlement, we had hopped the wrong line.
we got off at the next stop, sprinted to the opposite platform (poor sawako's ruptured back!), rode back into the city, traded platforms again and rode to the store.
i, of course, in my INFINITE wells of self fortitude and will power, had to go into blockbuster, where i rented ROAD TO EL DORADO (
youngok and i: HOORAY!
(she got a copy too)
p.s. we spent over an hour in blockbuster
the grocery shop was fine. everyone used my discount card, which brings me that much closer to my fresh values reward- because YES! i look forward to such things in life.
blah blah, rode train home. learned things.
then we parted. youngok and i are to meet up again for the film fest- joy!
when i got home, my other friends called and now to celebrate my non showing, rachel and i are having a tuesday ni-
oh jesus.
I HAVE CLASS!
ok- never mind, i have to change that- but rachel and i are going to have fun! we're going to watch newsies and the sandlot, because we need our inner boys to bond.
whoa, that makes us sound like we have undescended testes or something.
anyhow. i have more to say, but i am dying, so let me just cap this entry with...
MY USELESS VAT OF KNOWLEDGE
speaking of newsies and sandlot, did you know...
the kid who played little benny, had an older brother who played older benny? (there you go cousbian)
the kid who played "racetrack" in newsies, was 25 when he did the role?
that "racetrack" is the voice of the deformed lemur thing in the god awful animated "dinosaur" movie? also was in the sopranos a lot first season.
spot "brooklyn" colon of newsies was the voice of little foot?
nevah fear, da tree sta's are here.
ooooh, i also forgot, i have "master and commander!" i bought it! did you guys like that movie?
memo to self: d.c., romeo, pp, characters.
suddenly i was @ 11:53 pm
thursday, april 22, 2004
i was tired up until three seconds ago.NOW I AM ANGRY.
but for no real reason. my screening got pushed to the second showing of the film fest. HOORAY.
great.
that means i probably won't even have time to see it let alone ANYONE ELSE ON THE PLANET.
damn the universe.
i'm SO GLAD two years of my WASTED existence MIGHT be witnessed a couple of crickets and scattered animation students who are procrastinating on finishing their finals AS IT IS FINALS WEEK.
that really hurts my feelings.
not that it matters and why i am even disappointed i don't know. it looked like - just absolute crap... during the sound check, like a bad transfer and i was mortified by it and didn't want anyone to see it and, you know what? i got my wish.
joy joy joy.
those in the know who would like to know however, the misanthrope got the first slot on the first day. i told you his work was good.
excuse me while i go die in a ditch now. move over enobarbus.i was tired up until three seconds ago.
NOW I AM ANGRY.
but for no real reason. my screening got pushed to the second showing of the film fest. HOORAY.
great.
that means i probably won't even have time to see it let alone ANYONE ELSE ON THE PLANET.
damn the universe.
i'm SO GLAD two years of my WASTED existence MIGHT be witnessed a couple of crickets and scattered animation students who are procrastinating on finishing their finals AS IT IS FINALS WEEK.
that really hurts my feelings.
not that it matters and why i am even disappointed i don't know. it looked like - just absolute crap... during the sound check, like a bad transfer and i was mortified by it and didn't want anyone to see it and, you know what? i got my wish.
joy joy joy.
those in the know who would like to know however, the misanthrope got the first slot on the first day. i told you his work was good.
excuse me while i go die in a ditch now. move over enobarbus.
suddenly i was @ 04:10 pm
tuesday, april 20, 2004
oh thank god! this is still here. all evening yesterday i couldn't access my beloved admin page. whew, whew, whew.i have three announcements.
first!
ali! you are the FIRST person to comment here in what has to be 2 or 3 months and i love you for it!
second!
i think i want to go out and buy makeup for the first time in my life. i want to be girly.
third!
i made something. internet obsession, meet my dickensian problem: gentleman the official phillip "pip" pirrip fanlisting. tell me what you think, or if you find problems with it?
ah, and that's it.
you know, i keep noticing my december 2003 archives coming up in my site statistics. it is very frightening to me... i mean... them's were the m.c. early days! in case any of you were wondering, yes. these days are still rampant, i have just ceased to make the ventures public. but my goodness!
suddenly i was @ 11:40 am
monday, april 19, 2004
a good monday. yes? i think perhaps. more neutral in stance i suppose. there was conversation. note! not initiated by i, but it was shop talk. as always.hmm, ha, shop talk may carry the course of an entire school year it seems.
i just got back from fake shakespeare class. it is so unbearably hot. yesterday was 86 degrees, which truly isn't so hot, but when you're used to 19, it is. also my building refuses to start up the air conditioning so it is exponentially hotter in my room than even outside! yesterday i roamed around in a tank, sans brassiere and boxers, moaning and putting my head in the freezer.
open a window! some might say.
and nay say i to them! you don't open a window in the middle of downtown manhattan for freshness and idle restfulness. god no. it's not tweeting birds out there, same goes for my city.
at about 1.30 am "last night" i took a freezing shower. when i left the water and my feet touched the floor i noted the tiles were warm. then in bed it was even worse. i went to bed at 2 am and just laid there for over two hours, being hot.
then, this morning i woke up at 6.50 am, compleatly awake (still am) and hot.
my sleeping has been all amiss since i was hit with a violent bout of narcolepsy friday (perhaps the direct result of staying up til 5.30 am watching "pride and prejudice" then getting up for class at 7am? no way) when i passed out on my floor unintentionally from 10.30 pm to 6.30 am (missed phone calls, left tv, computer, lights and aquarium lights all on). that was the first full night of sleep i've had in ages. then saturday i just took random naps through out the day. then on top of my sitting and writing all weekend ie using expending no physical energy whatsoever... i think i had so much energy stored up, i could only get up at the crack of dawn today.
that... and it's HOT.
gah.
i need a real entry here. still have to write about romeo and p&p.
suddenly i was @ 01:44 pm
sunday, april 18, 2004
was i not awake when i wrote/proofed this section of my old script? i can't believe i gave this to people to read. it is riddled with typos and random descrepancies.
me: whoops... he should be 14 now, not 15.
me: whoops... this references a scene which was deleted.
me: whoops... whoops... WHOOPS!
and lord help me if it isn't over the top maudlin.
guess what i want? i want a lj community called the "critiki-tiki hut," where everyone can share their writing and get help for it.
siiiiiiigh. i'll spread out my white wings... and sail home to thee.
suddenly i was @ 04:15 pm
ta da!
this morning i woke up at six.
suddenly i was @ 07:46 am
friday, april 16, 2004
part one pride and prejudice, check.why is this series so long? i didn't allow for dinner times and phone calls.
oh my, my, i shan't sleep at all tonight.
i think i might overdose on literary wiles as well.
pip! oh yes, the man who plays pip in my "great expectations" mini series is in p&p. he is coronel fitzwilliams and he is great! compleatly different. he has even raised his voice for this part. he was so... sullen as pip.
but pip was a sullen sort of fellow, HAR.
i am finding p&p very funny because of a conversation i had with my friend jenjen on the train today.
a quote: and of course she would have a crush one the person who is a compleat misanthropist!
join my in my private peals o' laughter.
i'm going to go take a second shower now, because, as i am sure you have noted, i have obsessive compulsive issues.
p.s. erm, excuse my emotional outburst below, i was overwrought.
suddenly i was @ 01:46 am
thursday, april 15, 2004
i have just finished david copperfield.my, my, my.
i am fighting to maintain composure so i might write this bit for you to read. i have spent the better half of 15 or so minutes sobbing on my bed. i have wept and wept because it is all over now. i have cried until my face is red, my eyes swollen and i am absolutely sick at heart. i think i might even be ill. i always feel so at a loss when i am finally released from a narrative to which i have been so dedicated for so long a while. it is like losing a friend and separate life all at once, as if in a little space of time you got to cross paths with this character and share in all his life experiences, joys and the like, only to have your paths part again. and what does one do at the end? i kiss the cover a few times and in between ambiguous cries of, "thank you!" "no!" and "never!" thoughts of my grandmother then stray into my mind, redoubling griefs and then i think of love at the end of all things. then i hug the book so much as to press it into my very being and place it back on the shelf, where the whole of david's life my rest until i pick it up again.
i am so heart broken and happy, i love reading!
as i transcend back to earth, i realize my wuthering heights moment here will be embarrassing to me in but an hour or so, but i swear it is true, i hope you won't think down on me for it!
now, to austen.
suddenly i was @ 09:53 pm
take a shower.
now.
at 6.
read the rest of "david copperfield"
yes, all of it. now. it's got to the point i can no longer read it in class, today we lost dora, ham and steerforth. with dora i teared up so much (running nose, the whole nine yards) i had to leave the room and lock myself in the bathroom to compose myself AND someone noticed.
"... you were crying."
me: JESUS.
2. watch "pride and prejudice"
yes. all of it. tonight. i will not waste my money.
3. watch "romeo and juliet"
read above excuse.
i'm taking a day por moi, thank you very much.
and i best get to it!
more on everything later.
suddenly i was @ 06:19 pm
tuesday, april 13, 2004
i just got out of class, i have to pee, i'm not in my happy clothes and i am not wearing my wristbraces, but i simply must type this. i think this might boot out my most awesome critique evah (see blog archives) as most the most amazing thing ever said to me in a class.wait.
i do need wristbraces, i hurt.
ok. so tonight i had a script read, terrifying as usual. i read and it was well received i think, people laughed out loud a few times, which is beyond awesome, i had my crit and everyone talked, blah, then my teacher said, "may i speak to you during the break?"
me: meep.
so i go to my professor and he begins to ask me what i am doing after this semester. he comes to discover i am graduating. he then proceeds to tell me, every once and a while he makes it his business to take on one ungrad independent projects person (this, is when a student works directly under the tutelage of a teacher, the teacher is not paid for it, but it is a great asset to the student) and if i wasn't graduating he was wondering if i would consider the position.
me: !
usually students have to ask the teacher!
then he started talking about what i should do or want to do in the future. he said all these things about my writing, he said, "you started out good and over this year have just gotten better. imagine where you will be in a few years."
me: !
"you started out writing dickens, now you are parodying hamlet, it's smart writing. it speaks volumes of what you can do. it's fun and it's marketable."
me: !
"not only do i think you should finish this, i am, like the rest of the class as you saw their reactions, eager for you to finish it to see what happens."
me: !
"i think you can start seriously considering yourself a writer, even more so than you do."
me: !
"if you were going to be around, i'd find a way to keep working with you, but since you won't- i will read anything you write."
me: faints.
oh my god. so yes, he said my hold of dialogue is great and this and that and that i am open to suggestions and this...
good lord! now i am supposed to prepare for our final meeting. not only must i finish my script (WHAT? both?) i am supposed to bring to him ideas for further stories (because i am apparently not to stop) as well as my thoughts on what i want to do when i "grow up."
jesus. bad monday? where what when? i'm high on life right now. i don't even like this story i am writing!
my sixth grade teacher told my parents i should write, very funny how these things come back to haunt you- ha, and you would never guess it from this journal! i swear to god i can type properly.
i have to dance. i have to love!
la la la! HOPSKIPJUMP. i am off to go run or something.
suddenly i was @ 09:49 pm
panel one: hyberpole: the art and poetics of a bad monday.
aka i artfully make no sense.
oh what abject woe. this shall be a long week. not only am i coming off from a lovely break, but today, i did it. i did it! i broke the jessers! i did not go to the animation II class. that means two weeks my friends. two weeks. it goes without saying that yes, i actually mounted the stairs and stood outside the door for a moment, but i flipped a coin and it told me no, no today was not the day to visit and so i, for once, said, "all right!"
i hope fate will see to it to repay my display of willpower, for i left when the coin so told me to do so.
the price i must pay now is to be miserable for the rest of the week.
when mondays are good, they carry me onwards through the week until about thursday. i flit, float, sing and fly and am very happy. it doesn't matter if i am on two hours of sleep or twelve, if i am over worked or bored, i will be glad. when my mondays are not so good, i feel, painfully, only what i am, which is a very tired, fat chinned lard. never do my feet hurt so acutely or do i desire to lie on the tiled floor of my room more than on a bad monday, which this monday most decidedly is. now excuse me while i bitterly prepare for my week of absolute compleat and utter dejection and misery. it's just so feckless! - in the truest denotative meaning of that word. feckless, feckless, FECKLESS, i am you!
panel two: john mills' "great expectations" as definitive adaptation.
hello everyone, welcome to the discussion of my old copy of "great expectations" which i finished a few days ago, because you know i like to pretend i am a movie critic all the time.
all in all, again a good film. this movie is considered the definitive dickens adaptation and as i have seen a few myself i can see why. it stays true to the novel, but within the classic confines of movie limitations. the other version of "great expectations," which i love so dearly, is also a good adaptation (if one can even call in an adaptation as it basically follows the novel verbatim) but it is a little unfair to compare the two as the latter is a miniseries and has twice the time to develop plots, subplots and characters.
i adore adaptations, seeing what makes the cut and what doesn't. in this version of "great expectations" mrs. gargery dies "very suddenly of fever" 15 minutes into the film, to which i cried out, "goori orlick!" because with her death, gone was the murder-type mystery, biddy-as-nurse and a myriad of other random details.
yet, in all these surprises the foundation is always the same, dickens' words come through and one hears them and may just cling to them as items of familiarity.
i noted before how i thought pip came off as a little too sweet in this film and now having seen it all the way through, i still think he does. the film tries to rectify the matter later on when joe comes to visit pip in london, via voice over when pip tells us he is ashamed of joe, but on the whole his character seems to lack the arrogant, proud longing, which so defines pip in the novel (and miniseries). this isn't necessarily a bad thing, i am only comparing this manifestation of pip to others i know.
estella also came off as too sweet. the young estella, as played by jean simmons, is spot on; simmons is amazing! i still think it terrifying simmons made her film debut as 16 year old estella, only to play miss havisham some 40 years later. what's that say, hm? HMM? adult estella however, her voice reminds me of glinda, the good witch of the north in "wizard of oz."
estella shouldn't remind me of glinda!
i think the way these characters are portrayed, if they are somewhat sentimentalized or sugarcoated, is the direct result of the age in which they were enacted. this was shot in in 1946. in a time coming off of world war II, audiences didn't really want depressing, hard characters, at least, not in whole.
alec guinness aka obi wan, is good as herbert, though it seems herbert shall forever be cinematically cursed with bad hair. in this version it is a disturbing comb-over of sorts.
ha, and oh dear. i have to make mention; i don't know what it was, if it was pip's clothing (82 times tighter and more sergeant pepper than anyone else's in the film) or what, because i can usually handle, albeit florid, close bonds between male characters, but this pip and this herbert strike me as compleatly flaming. it's just too delightful, lines like, "i brought you some fruit, please let me hold your stick" hold whole new meanings which surely were not intended. oh! and when they are furnishing their apartment and paying bills together, oh oh! my personal favourite though, is when herbert and pip (in gentleman training?) box. a. pip is shirtless, which is an image nearly equaling the level of wrongness as hamlet getting it on with ophelia and b. herb is jumping around like an idiot and pip says, "i am so sorry herbert" and knocks him out cold (thus repeating the childhood scene where herb challenges pip to a fight, which is wonderfully, wonderfully done in this version).
i found my heart going out to strange characters in this g.e. actually. magwitch is great. he brought me to tears when he found pip all grown up (though, true, i laughed when he said, "what a gay man you are!" god, i need a life). the character is underplayed but comes across as so sweet, it is endearing. i was also very moved by jaggers.
JAGGERS people.
what an enigma he is. he works on all sides, doesn't he? all sides, but he, himself is on no side (jaggers is treebeard?). who does jaggers work for? what does he want?
answers to questions due next monday, guys.
i was depressed pip's wuthering heights moment was a little lost. i wanted the whole, "you are part of my existence" speech and it comes in part, but it is interesting it is not spoken to a cold hearted estella, but rather is addressed to miss havisham only. in the speech pip does not forgive estella for her cruelty, instead he confronts miss havisham on the upbringing of estella and tells her if she seeks to apologize to anyone (for she tries to apologize to pip) she should apologize to the one she most wronged (estella).
strange, the scene becomes something compleatly different.
see what i mean about adaptations?
miss havisham's death is also way fast.
me: who-wit-whoa. she's DEAD?
the flight of magwitch is masterfully done- the sound editing of the marshes: the wind, the sea birds; it's amazing! also, the nasty business of pip's money etc, is organized in such a matter it is easy to understand.
i never quite got it in the book (or miniseries). pip loses the black book... something... money gone...? what? dude? where?
did anyone else feel bad when pip lost his money? i guess i must be greedy, because i did.
the ending of the film is the only bit which seems rushed. estella is suddenly single because mr. jaggers (that infernal mediator!) tells bentley drummel of her parentage, which so offends the spider he leaves his intended. the ending caters more to the second, edited ending by dickens (pip and estella get together, pah) and not to the original ending i worship something terribly (not even the miniseries does the cool ending).
granted it was beyond amusing to watch estella have issues.
pip: how long have you been here? (the havisham home)
possessed estella: i don't know. i know no time.
estella's head spins in a 360 degree rotation.
the "i'll let the light in!" dialogue is a bit over done, even if it is lovely to look at. oi, pathetic fallacy.
still good film. i have talked for a really long time and have totally lost track of my tenses, but i'm too lazy to fix such things, forgive my bad writing, if anyone actually read all this. some one else has to watch these movies with me so we can discuss.
if you enjoyed this panel, please look into possible future discussions:
movies i have rented for this week: baz lurhman's "romeo and juliet" and the colin firth "pride and prejudice." i've never seen the latter. everyone tells me i should love austen if i like dickens, then become very angry when i tell them i've read austen before and didn't love her all so much. i don't know. i've read "pride and prejudice," maybe i read it in a bitter mood. it seemed... if you could see me, i am putting my face in the air brushing the bottom of my nose with my finger... snooty-like.
gah. maybe i was bitter!
aw. i just took a nap.
aw, my friend joanne, fellow amateur fish hobbyist just called and she has suffered one of the tell tale mass tank deaths. she lost 5 fish yesterday and is in danger of losing 6 more today. they have ick and some sort of weird parasite. sadness!
panel three: boy films and girl films
boy films.
why are there so many nostalgic, bonding boy films? think on it: "the sandlot," "lucas," "stand by me," "dead poets' society."
so many in the ilk of "the wonder years." i can hardly think of similar films as told from the view point of a little girl. i mean, there are female coming of age stories: "my girl," "now and again," "whale rider," "mermaids" ... but they are very different.
i know boys and girls are different, but surely growing up is not so different between the sexes?
i personally think it is indicative of the male/female ratio of screenwriters in hollywood. there are many more males (ha, and then it doesn't help when occasional female one writes with all male characters!). even in my screenwriting classes, at a school whose demographics are decidedly feminine bent (swear to god, some 90 percent of my school is female) screenwriting is an all male class. this semester we have three female students, but more than once i've been the only lass in class, which is very, very odd! i think it reflects the industry though, really.
all the 40 some odd old males writers feel the need to relive their salad baseball days or something.
the boy stories always include "the gang," the obligatory hot lifeguard/school teacher/babysitter, the mentor- the girl films are always about a girl coming terms with herself and her life.
also, i think the girl films versus the boy films cater to the age old journey set ups first established in literature. there is the female (spiritual) journey, the journey within and the masculine (physical) journey, the journey outward. it's not to say a female protagonist can't have a masculine journey or vica verse (especially now a days), but classically speaking females have the inner awakening journeys and males have the outward quests.
i'd like to see a classic masculine journey applied to a bunch of girls!
wait. that would be like sailor moon.
would anyone like to learn the steps in the masculine/feminine journeys? i can post them. they're my favourite thing to discuss.
HAR. the sheriff of my forensic show is named "sheriff pippin." ha.
anyhow. i should be off. i am compleatly doing nothing. oh, you naughty chickens some of you read the worst dialogue ever below and didn't tell me how to help it. i have decided to keep it for now, as the two reviews of it received were, "not that cheesy" and "imagine if a guy said that to you!" which i guess is good, right? woo doggies.
oooooooh, wait, jaws II is on, i love bad movies. i'm the nerd kid with the sideburns, "naw, i'm not good enough for her..." oh dear. you know he'll win her in the end.
p.s. now he totally will, the "pretty boy" just got eaten by the shark.
anyhow dinner time!
suddenly i was @ 03:00 am
friday, april 9, 2004
AH! i just found out something so awesome, it shall stop the presses for years to come. check this: the night before pip meets estella, he thinks, " and then i looked at the stars, and considered how awful it would be for a man to turn his face up to them as he froze to death, and see no help or pity in all the glittering multitude."why is this INCREDIBLY AWESOME?
estella means star.
holy jesus.
suddenly i was @ 01:57 pm
thursday, april 8, 2004
i am so proud. i just gave directions to my friends and based on my pointers they found their way to their desired destination. do you know how much this never happens? i can't find my way out of a paper bag, let alone try to help someone else do it.granted i was giving directions to jenjen's and my most special ice cream shop, and heaven forfend the day i can't find my way to an ice cream shop!
ooh, now i am doubly most proud. i just used the word "feckless" in an every day sentence. cross that off my dream list! holy mother, i'm on a roll today.
here's the sentence: "i'd like to see if they bothered anyone else or if my revisions have been feckless in nature!"
anyhow. let's talk hamlet.
so, as i noted below, i finally watched ethan hawkes version of hamlet and also as i noted, within four minutes of the film's beginning i could tell it stood heads over the shoulders of k. branagh's version. i mean, not only did the writer et al. actually, maybe READ the play and understand it, they might have actually cracked open the cliffnotes or something, which the k.b. version clearly did not feel the need to, because, phhhhhhhhpt. who needs symbols and who cares about WHAT the lines mean, let's just scream them.
this said, i should probably mention, i never made it through the entire k.b. edition. i tried, oh friends, i tried, but each time i fell asleep. three times to be exact. that is not a good sign. i finally gave up and retired it back to the blockbuster from whence it came.
i knew instantly the e.h. version of hamlet was better when i saw hamlet. granted, he was quite beautiful, which is always a let down, but his character was nailed. hawkes perfectly portrayed the mopey, whiney, prissy, sissy, indecisive dane. i loved it. and the wool hat? magnifique! the film very early on catered to the duality of hamlet and played up his different sides, ie, poetic hamlet: the video artist and bad ass action hamlet (as my notes called him once): who kills people.
wow, said i, there was a vital point which was LOST with k.b.
hamlet as a video artist was truly inspired. the best part of the play is when the actors come and hamlet gets excited for once in his life and gets geared up telling the actors what to do.
hamlet: but what i really want to do is direct.
hamlet was the pansy artist son born to a ruthless jock father, you know it.
also early on in the e.h. hamlet was the inclusion of water, thank god. yet another wondrous point which fell to the wayside of the other film. in one of the first shots of ophelia (by the bye, julia stiles looks so much the part, i cannot even tell you) she is seen traipsing along the edge of a huge water fountain.
good job guys!
ophelia is closely tied to water in the play. water is a big thing: the ocean harrows the initial guards with fear, hamlet wishes to melt (become liquid) when he is at his most poetic, mopey self, etc. ophelia, who is hamlet's physical representation of his poetic self, the representation of what is best in hamlet, succumbs to water in the end. when she goes mad, quite literally, she drowns in poetics. she sings, she does not speak, her words make no literal sense (only symbolic, ie the flowers). when hamlet has forsaken his poetic side and given in to his action side, he loses his poetic self. he loses ophelia, she drowns.
the inclusion of the that first initial shot of ophelia portends this, for it is that self same fountain she drowns in later.
me: i'm lovin' it!
actually, in my notes here it says, "the water returns!"
polonius as played by bill murray, was inspired. he was great. he still came off as an idiot, but one you pitied. he was still a spying moron, but little details, like him putting money into leartes' jacket, or tying up ophelia's shoe, those were sweet.
now let me touch upon a subject a few of you have asked about, the to be speech, what did i think of it?
i loved it.
i loved how it was echoed in the zen-monk-buddist-person in one of hamlet's videos. i loved the mini art video journal where hamlet first asked, "to be?"
but the blockbuster setting? great. when he recites those most famous and infamous lines, "to be or not to be" while walking up the ACTION aisle, i laughed so incredibly out loud, you cannot even imagine.
the speech was delivered well, there was actually indecision in it this time. no need for the FIRES OF HELL TO BELCH FORTH AS THE GHOST APPEARS RAWRSNARLHARROWTOBEFISTSOFDRAMA.
hamlet is a quiet play, it's one of delay and internalized misgivings. the k.b. version could well to do learn the art of subtlety from the e.h. edition.
speaking of the action aisle, i feel a bit sad i was not able to catch the backgrounds of every scene. not only is my television outrageously small, i only had a vhs copy in my possession, which does not lend itself to pausing; but i think all the backgrounds played into the context of each scene. for example, hamlet's artsy collage in his room, a little postcard reads "reflect" or when hamlet is at horatio's flat (by the way, horatio was a fox in this, how i rate my hamlets, how good looking is horatio? ha, i talk about h. and r&g all the time, but i am really in love with horatio- but this actor was very good i thought, good voice- oh and p.s. horatio's girlfriend, in the play she'd be the equivalent of marcellus, that makes me laugh) and there is a dostoyevsky book on the shelf, i believe it was crime and punishment, but i'm not sure. or even still, when hamlet is around watching rebel without a cause.
rosencrantz and guildenstern were ingenious. i still wonder how in the hell hamlet hooked up with those two. unfortunately, they all had to meet up at the obligatory modern adaptation club scene, blah, but whatever. never has shakespearian language come so close to possessing the "duuuuuuuuuude" intonation. i was moved.
the "play" by hamlet was kick. i laughed again, but i think that is the student film part of me laughing.
oh my god! it's too familiar! too true!
whoever put that little piece together was a genius. it was right on and hamlet totally would have made it. priceless.
a video: by hamlet, prince of denmark.
the film even had time to suggest hamlet's bizarre norman bates complex with his weird obsession with his mother, which made me happy.
me: oh thank god, oedipalness.
the film also had an interesting twist in that it was very kind to gertrude, which i liked. she was a very pitiable character, whom, this film would lead you to believe at least, was entirely innocent, guilty only of marrying too quick upon the death of her husband. she also tried to save hamlet in the end, which is nice.
join me in my chorus: aaaaaaaaaaaaaaw. someone who cares!
all in all, a good film. what was edited, was edited well (who liked listening to the players talk forever anyhow?), even if i did miss the gravedigger speech (though it was alluded to on one of hamlet's monitors). characters were spot on, moods true to the play... good stuff. i believed this story more, set in new york or where ever it was supposed to be, more than i ever bought tzar russia because its moods were so solid.
a few remaining points.
a. hamlet writing a love letter. that sequence of him sitting there forever thinking, that's me writing. i liked the love letter scene. it alludes to he and ophelia's relationship but i am not forced to endure some explicit sex scene with the two of them, which is at once traumatizing and disturbing (hamlet in the bedroom, a place i NEVER wanted him, it shall take years to scour that image from my memory). subtlety, ambiguity between extremes, that's where the play of hamlet lives, K.B. VERSION. ha, that's right, polonius brought ophelia balloons in this scene. i liked that as well. i loved also how ophelia kept hamlet's letters. such really made obvious how young she was.
b. dude! that purple robe claudius wears in that one scene! i had that robe.
claudius was great in this version. i didn't like him at all, as. it. should. be.
c. hey! there was animation in hamlet's video, does this mean he is... GASP. an animator?
it makes such perfect sense.
d. for all the little childrens who have made it this far, i give you this in-the-darkness-5-second doodle. that's rosencrantz saying, "dude." gfunk, "i know." and hambone, "to be or not to be."
moral of this entry- everyone should have at least three pages of notes for all the movies you watch which look like this, because i want to know your thoughts!
in other news i have started watching my most expensive dvd of "great expectations." i'm pissed because it is NOT widescreen as advertised, though i am beginning believe, back in the 40's widescreen as we know it today did not exist, because i never found a widescreen version of "it's a wonderful life" either.
otherwise, the film is AMAZINGLY beautiful. i can't believe it was shot so long ago, the only thing which gives away its age is the typical merry symphony music, indicative of the era. i love how jean simmons plays estella in this version and plays miss havisham in the later version.
how's that for sad?
...
and AWESOME!
the child pip is much better in the old one- seeing as the other kid couldn't act, though neither really nailed the pip crying in the garden scene (i forgive them, i am lenient with chil'en actors, they have it hard and it is a weird scene). i prefer j. r. davies' joe gargery. i am not certain yet, as i am watching this in 10 minute increments currently, but i think i prefer the modern pip as well. not because the acting is off or anything, but just as the old pip comes off as way too sweet. pip, bless him! - is an arrogant bastard! really. i love him to pieces, but those initial years, he's awful to joe and biddy, he's very proud. in this old film he's still quite sweet to them, which is a little untrue to the character established in the book, but! it is very early yet so i reserve judgment. also, it may work in this film, i don't know. i have to see!
though i can safely say now, pip's cravat could NOT get any larger. i don't even know how he turns his head.
i was just telling sarah last night i watch forensics like a man watching football, yelling, "the mito- NO! use the mitochondrion dna test!" this goes with watching "great expectations" as well.
oh my god, i have written for so long. i've been here over an hour rambling on and on and on and on. i'm coming off as a snob. i have to write my own scripts!
too doo la.
suddenly i was @ 01:57 pm
oh i am so tired. here i am wondering why- ha! it's near 5 am!
p.s. oh my god, WHO is reading my december archives? those have so many... shameful events in them.
suddenly i was @ 04:54 am
wednesday, april 7, 2004
so exporting video is the most boring activity in the whole universe. i started to render out a couple storyboard sequences this morning and thought merrily, "hooray! a legit excuse to not write and to watch tv in the middle of the day!"me: what happened to all the dead bodies?
45 minutes later, watching "a wedding story."
me: aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw, they're getting married on ice, that's so magical!
what is wrong with me?
this ice wedding is awesome though. oooooh, another episode! vanessa and scott, let's see if you can out do angela and david and their ice ceremony!
i have to write. what am i doing here?
ROLLS.
EYES.
p.s. dude, angela and david's wedding wins. i can tell now, they were so much cooler.
wait.
that's a pun!
har har har.
i funny.
suddenly i was @ 01:33 pm
tuesday, april 6, 2004
i'm 4 minutes into ethan hawkes' hamlet and can all ready tell it's infinitesimally better.
suddenly i was @ 12:54 am
monday, april 5, 2004
i don't mean to disrupt the importantcomment conversation which was happening there below concerning my all important message which i felt the instense need to run down flights of stairs in the middle of class to share... i know you are all involved with master copperfield's most intimate life details- BUT REALLY now folks.
love!
yes!
ooh. now it's "wild, wild weddings." nothing like fainting, puking, weeping grooms.
bride quote: i was in my own la la love land and then- there was darin on the floor in front of me.
my little sister just left today. she visited for the weekend. i think we had fun, i'm not certain. she didn't feel quite well and was very overwhelmed. we had one little fight in the airport on the way home which resulted in us yelling up the moving walk way (or rather, my sister was in the hall, i walked backwards on the walkway) but all in all a success.
last night was the bfa show, where all the undergrads display their artwork. it is the biggest and best show our school puts together. i took my sister and she met everyone i know: my teachers, ta's, friends... the whole lot.
i schmoozed my way through the entire gallery. i spent 90 minutes in the corner of the first room talking to everyone i ran into.
me: oh hey, yeah, yeah, i know, mm hmm, no, i'm in the time arts exhibition. mmm hmm. yes. i know. ok. buh-bye.
i turn around.
me to someone else: oh hey, yeah, yeah, i know, mm hmm, yeah, the time arts exhibition. mmm hmm. yes. i know. ok. call me. ok. you know it! ok. buh-bye.
i turn around.
me to someone else: oh hey...
my sister and i went out to dinner every night we had a few memorable ones. the first night was the cheesecake factory where my sister consumed singled mouthedly a whole pound of bread, i am sure. then there was greek town with rachel and tammy with their mothers.
high light quote of evening.
me talking about mah frog: so yes, guildenstern is doing fine.
rachel: guildenstern... where is that from again? frankenstein?
insert prolonged silence here, followed by profound laughter.
rachel: what? wasn't it guildenstein and- what was the other one?
me: rosencrantz? from hamlet?
rachel: that's it. i read hamlet three times in highschool.
tammy: clearly nothing stuck with you.
rachel of course, was the girl who spent first year calling jackson pollock, "jason pollock."
last night we went with tammy and her boyfriend josh to yet another greek town restraunt which was by zorbas. do you think zorbas is the reallife equivalent to "dancing zorbas" of "my big, fat, greek wedding" fame?
aw, now rival highschool girls' basketball coaches are getting married.
sigh, i can't wait for the mfa bfa film fest, i'm the only person i know in it out of my core posse and i am so excited for them all to see my work!
rachel: you'll be the only one in the lime light!
me: hee hee hee!
i have no school all this next week. god bless the grads for having crit week. i plan on curling up into a fetal position and sleeping for three whole days, though, maybe not right away. i am so close to the end of copperfield, i think i will try and read it while i am away from public because i know i shall just bawl... dora is going downhill and isn't to last much longer and you know david is FINALLY going to realize his love for agnes.
ha, i won't be able to cope.
also, tomorrow i get my camera and put together the final version of my animation for mini dv. i am terrified.
i also have to catch up on screenwriting, very excited for the old one, kip and felix.
have to reedit storyboard demos... write cover letter, resume...
huh.
well i guess i don't have time to lie around at all!
aw, now a tiny 3 year old ringbearer is pillow fighting with the ring pillow...
suddenly i was @ 01:53 am