things i think i think

Thirteen out of twenty-four. Could be worse.

Short categories and sound editing/mixing killed me on this one as I imagine it did for most. I thought Avatar would take more of the technical awards but The Hurt Locker (perhaps rightfully) claimed those as well. Congratulations to Bigelow of course, and to The Hurt Locker for a well-deserved Best Picture Oscar in a relatively weak year. It’s still a powerful film nevertheless.

Broadcast itself was a shit-show disaster. But would we expect any less from Hollywood?

Here they are — these aren’t my choices for who should win, but rather what will (hopefully) win my Oscar pool:

• Leading Actor: Jeff Bridges, ‘Crazy Heart’
• Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, ‘Inglourious Basterds’
• Leading Actress: Sandra Bullock, ‘The Blind Side’
• Supporting Actress: Mo’Nique, ‘Precious’
• Animated Feature: ‘Up’
• Art Direction: ‘Sherlock Holmes’
• Cinematography: ‘The White Ribbon’
• Costume Design: ‘The Young Victoria’
• Directing: ‘The Hurt Locker’
• Documentary Feature: ‘The Cove’
• Documentary Short: ‘China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of the Sichuan Province’
• Film Editing: ‘The Hurt Locker’
• Foreign Language Film: ‘The White Ribbon’
• Makeup: ‘Star Trek’
• Original Score: ‘Up’
• Original Song: ‘The Weary Kind’ from ‘Crazy Heart’
• Short Film Animated: ‘A Matter of Loaf and Death’
• Short Film Live Action: ‘Instead of Abracadabra’
• Sound Editing: ‘Avatar’
• Sound Mixing: ‘Avatar’
• Visual Effects: ‘Avatar’
• Screenplay Adapted: ‘Up In The Air’
• Screenplay Original: ‘Inglourious Basterds’
• Best Picture: ‘Avatar’

So there you have it.

I thought I’d take a minute to write about one of the more unique courses I’ve taken during my time as a Radio/Television/Film student here at Northwestern University — that would be Special Effects Cinematography, this past Spring Quarter.

As a class we worked to assemble a full-fledged space craft, decorate it, light it and shoot an approximately ten-minute short film about it and its two passengers (a man and a woman.) In addition to many non-SFX shots, we dealt with a handful of special effects scenarios (e.g. creating a floating hologram using a piece of plexiglass and a projector, double-exposure, etc) without the use of CGI or (hardly) any post-production work or effects. Think ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind.’

Anyway, I recently re-discovered our classes’ shutterfly page which contains more than a handful of production photos for those interested in how it all went down. It’s hard to believe how much we accomplished in just a matter of ten weeks — and only 6-9 hrs a week!

Let me know if you have any questions about what we did (or how we did it) and hopefully, come September, I will be able to post some scenes from the film for viewing.

First of all, let me say that I loved ‘Borat.’ I thought it was an ingenious concept and a real genre-bender (even if some of the scenes were constructed.) So, it stands to reason that I would enjoy ‘Bruno’, right? Well, not exactly.

The formula is basically the same: estranged foreigner comes to America (among other places) to find celebrity or, in the case of Borat, a celebrity. Except here are the distinctions: the studio obviously gave ‘Bruno’ far more financial flexibility as the set pieces are more elaborate, more constructed and, frankly, more fake. Nothing feels real when Bruno is around — there are shades of a documentary feel, but that’s about it. Finally, whereas Borat was genuinely friendly if not naive, Bruno is just an asshole, plain and simple. And, without a likeable protagonist, ‘Bruno’ flounders.

Grade: C+/B- — relying too much on shock value and doing nothing for the LGBT community, Bruno is a disappointment all around.

This is a story of boy meets girl. That’s how ’500 Days of Summer’ starts and with it a fair deal of eye-rolling. Here we go again. But, this time, the formula is different: utilizing a unique narrative medium and stellar performances from guy/girl next door actors/actresses, ’500 Days of Summer’ becomes the most original romantic comedy of its kind since ‘When Harry Met Sally.’ Everything about the film feels well-crafted: the cinematography is spot-on, the soundtrack is (so far) the year’s best and, above all else, it’s a film that is relatable. And, when it comes down to it, isn’t that all you could ask for in a film about a boy and a girl?

Grade: A — heartbreak, awkwardness, love and sex captured through a unique lens. The beloved film of Sundance lives up to the hype. A must-see.

I might have lengthier thoughts on these films at some point, but for now here is a quick rundown of my grades for the films that have been released (and that I’ve seen) so far this year in 2009.

NB: some of these belong to the previous awards season (pre Oscars) but I’m including them anyway.

Gran Torino – B
Revolutionary Road – B+
Watchmen – C-
Adventureland – B+
Sugar – A-
Star Trek – B+
Up – A
The Hangover – B
Public Enemies – B-
The Hurt Locker – A-
The Girlfriend Experience – B-

Can’t wait to see this! It’s a great unique concept, but let’s hope it doesn’t sink into the same action/sci-fi tropes that tend to burden films in the genre.

Hello everyone (or no one, considering how infrequently I’ve updated this blog lately)!

Nevertheless, I just wanted to stop by and post about how I’ve established an account on Vimeo, which is a video-hosting service that boasts higher quality output than YouTube — which it does, and this is great news. That said, I’ll be migrating some of my production work over to that channel in the coming days and weeks. To view them, go here. There will also be a link to this account posted on my homepage shortly.

Also, in an effort to gain exposure in a different way (and possibly get a head start on what will inevitably be a difficult and painstaking post-graduation job search) I’ve posted my resume on the homepage as well. Any recommendations or revisions are encouraged — post in the comments or send me an e-mail at aldiskaza (at) gmail (dot) com.

An update on my summer plans/escapades coming soon.

Courtesy of SlashFilm (one of my favorite cineblogs):

“Directed by Adam Berg, Carousel is a 2 minute 19 second short film sponsored by Philips. The film offers an exploration into one single frozen moment of time in a robbery gone wrong in one Hard Boiled-inspired continuous tracking shot. The story line is obviously taking a cue from Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, featuring a swat team who has moved in to a decimated hospital, entering into a shootout with a bunch of robbers wearing sinister clown masks. Around 90 per cent of the footage and stunts were captured in camera.”

And here’s the unbelievable video: