How the west was won
Friday, January 13, 2006
I had quite the experience yesterday and last night. At Macworld I went to a feature presentation from Alex Lindsay of Pixel Corps. Now he too worked at Lucasfilm and he worked on Episode I and did pre-viz and final CG shots for the movie. Most specifically many shots of Queen Amadala's ship in space. He was giving a talk on the anatomy of a CG shot and showed some very cool digital mattes, 3D and green screen compositing. As a director very eye opening just to watch how it is all put together and it even made more clear to me how to achieve one of my opening shots in Bone China. My only regret while here is that I did not get out much due to the fact I was so busy at Macworld. But I got so much out of this event. It's always cool to watch the featurettes on the Star Wars DVD's but there's something about sitting in a room with some of the guys who actually worked there and hearing some of their stories.
So, after Macworld, day 4, I was on the town after dinner walking the streets of San Francisco and stop in a local watering hole called the Gold Rush. Very small bar, so small, the band sits down behind a secondary bar where people sit, drink and hopefully tip much like at a piano bar. There 3 guys in the band and they play just about anything requested. Anyway, it's getting late and these 2 gentlemen stroll into the bar and sit right down next to me. We strike up a conversation seeing that we are all in town for Macworld. The first question is always what do you do and who do you work for? When I asked it of them, they just so happen to be in from L.A. and work for Warner Bros! I won't reveal their names for privacy purposes and I don't want to potentially burn a connecting I just made.
The long and short of it was the bar ended up closing and I went with them to the mighty Starbucks where a coffee was purchased for me. We sat and talked and surprisingly, they listened to what, a Kentucky boy making indie films in the midwest, had to say and answered many of the questions I posed to them. Very cool guys indeed and what a way to make a Hollywood connection! Only out west baby!
Random movie review: HOSTEL
Went to the mighty Metreon, the Sony megaplex, mall, entertainment super center about a block from my hotel. First off the movie would have been so much better for me had I not had the teenager providing a running commentary in my right ear all night long. She was so absurd that I had to laugh at some point at the utter lack of grey matter that was able to process what she was witnessing on the screen without repeating back to herself out loud. She did not make a strong case the future of our youth. But I digress. The movie Hostel was quite lame in my opinion. It had plenty of gore, sex and nudity. Not a bad thing in and of itself. However, there's only so far that kind of exploitation is going to carry me. There was a solid and intriguing story just sitting there and nothing was really done with it. Instead of exploring the need for people to pay to torture and kill another human being to achieve a rush, went nowhere. The solution was always to throw in another ass shot or splash of gore. In many cases a lot of gore. Like I say not bad to see in and of itself but you can't tell a story on shock value alone. But there is one thing you can do with it though. You can make a shitload of money!
See, so what the hell do I know anyway?
So, after Macworld, day 4, I was on the town after dinner walking the streets of San Francisco and stop in a local watering hole called the Gold Rush. Very small bar, so small, the band sits down behind a secondary bar where people sit, drink and hopefully tip much like at a piano bar. There 3 guys in the band and they play just about anything requested. Anyway, it's getting late and these 2 gentlemen stroll into the bar and sit right down next to me. We strike up a conversation seeing that we are all in town for Macworld. The first question is always what do you do and who do you work for? When I asked it of them, they just so happen to be in from L.A. and work for Warner Bros! I won't reveal their names for privacy purposes and I don't want to potentially burn a connecting I just made.
The long and short of it was the bar ended up closing and I went with them to the mighty Starbucks where a coffee was purchased for me. We sat and talked and surprisingly, they listened to what, a Kentucky boy making indie films in the midwest, had to say and answered many of the questions I posed to them. Very cool guys indeed and what a way to make a Hollywood connection! Only out west baby!
Random movie review: HOSTEL
Went to the mighty Metreon, the Sony megaplex, mall, entertainment super center about a block from my hotel. First off the movie would have been so much better for me had I not had the teenager providing a running commentary in my right ear all night long. She was so absurd that I had to laugh at some point at the utter lack of grey matter that was able to process what she was witnessing on the screen without repeating back to herself out loud. She did not make a strong case the future of our youth. But I digress. The movie Hostel was quite lame in my opinion. It had plenty of gore, sex and nudity. Not a bad thing in and of itself. However, there's only so far that kind of exploitation is going to carry me. There was a solid and intriguing story just sitting there and nothing was really done with it. Instead of exploring the need for people to pay to torture and kill another human being to achieve a rush, went nowhere. The solution was always to throw in another ass shot or splash of gore. In many cases a lot of gore. Like I say not bad to see in and of itself but you can't tell a story on shock value alone. But there is one thing you can do with it though. You can make a shitload of money!
See, so what the hell do I know anyway?
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