Obituary: Robert Altman

BBC: Obituary: Robert Altman. "The success of his first film as director, a low budget exploitation flick, titled The Delinquents, caught the eye of no less a figure than Alfred Hitchcock. Soon Altman was directing episodes of the television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

As with many of his films, much of the dialogue was improvised by cast members. Unlike his mentor, Alfred Hitchcock, who said he treated his casts like cattle, Robert Altman was known as "the actors' friend"." I'm surprised his passing made a little mentions in the states side. Cinema lost another great storyteller.

In My Life

I've been busy making a living editing medical videos and spending my spare time... playing games, Nintendo Wii and Gears of War on Xbox 360 specifically.

Nintendo Wii is totally different game as its new control scheme does work better than I expected and simple games like tennis and bowling offer better immersion than any other game system. Sure, the graphics are not HD, but who cares when it offers so much fun? I was planning to keep it until I finish Zelda and before X-mas shopping season, but my friends are having so much with the system that I decided to keep it.

Gears of War on the other hand, is the best selling game in this season and rightfully so. The graphic and the presentation are the best out there, offering simple tactical action fun. The fact that I managed to beat the game on 'casual' level and went straight back for 'hardcore' fun is the testament to the game's obvious charm and entertainment value. I wish that one of my friends had Xbox 360 and this game so that we can play cooperatively on the 'insane' level.

I couldn't get Playstation 3 but I read it's great Blu-ray player that offers great value for its price, $600--if you can get it, but not a great game system. Since there's not a HDTV that can properly utilize its power of HDMI 1.3, we'll have to wait a couple of years, and a couple of grands to save to fully realize its HD dream.

There's not much to tell in terms of my film works except that there's a short movie I'll be working on in December, and trying to finalize my scripts for next year's screenplay competitions.

Besides, I recently heard a bad news about a movie I worked on, which I cannot divulge yet... so I need to lose myself in good movies to keep my spirits up and hopes up. This business is littered with broken dreams, and I'm well-aware of it, but making a good movie can change people's hearts, if not lives. That's all I hope for in my life.

MARIA Full Of Grace

MARIA Full Of Grace
Originally uploaded by Mindaou.

A solid movie with a solid storytelling. Maybe because I read McKee's Story book recently, but I couldn't help but notice many story elements that were working so well like a clockwork.

This is a script I should write, and this is a movie I SHOULD make as my debut.

Volver

Pedro Almodóvar and Penélope Cruz team up again on this wonderful black comedy. Penélope Cruz didn't looked this good since... she appeared on Almodóvar's movie. (And judging by this screen grab, she still got it.)

I don't know how he does it, but Pedro Almodóvar can write female characters better than anyone I'm aware of. The movie starts off by saying the women in the town outlive their men, (of course) and the movie proves itself along the way. (How I love these beautiful & resourceful Spanish women. Amen.)

The movie itself is not the best work Pedro Almodóvar has done, nevertheless, a fine movie that will keep your attention till the last frame.

Sorry Ain't Enough

Sorry Ain't Enough, is finally out of post-production and making rounds in festival circuits.

I haven't seen this film for a year since 1st rough cut, but I hope it gotten a LOT better. The stars/writers/producers team had a good material, but they had no idea how to edit a film back then.

It's another proof that a good story/idea is not enough for a good film, but good execution till the very end.

Half Million Apples

Movies that is. Looks like the number of faithful iPod users are increasing, following Jobs wherever he leads them. (I bought a short film myself to test the service and my new iPod Video.) Fox and a few studios are rumored to be in negotiating, so the platform will take off, it's a question of how big.

Surely enough, Microsoft is now launching their own download service on Xbox 360 platform, HD no less!, and we'll see how gamers accept this platform compare to iPod users. Zune? Wait till the next version, I say.

Apple Get a Mac (for Japan)

Geto a Macu! They are almost the same, with the Japanese touch of humor.

Story

Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting by infamous Robert McKee is certainly a big, fat screenplay book to swallow in one sitting. The book is just full of valid story ideas that needs to be contemplated over the period of time. The book is written like Mr. McKee is giving me a personal lecture on building stories, not just screenplays. I can understand why he is a famous in the circle of screenplay lectures.

However, I felt like he was going too far with his ideas, something like a professor who got his head too deep into his subject that he lost his pupils at the third slides in his lecture. The book started off pretty good, and easy, but when he began to discourse into finer things in his theories of storytelling, it got complicated. If his book did turn into a script, the movie would be too much of talking heads, instead of 'visualizing characters' motivations' as he puts in his book. I'm sure many people would favor his long and detailed discourse in storytelling, story structures, and etc. It does look like there's more meat to it than you can chew off. But essentially, it's not something you can digest, but a reference book AFTER you've finished your script. Yeah, it does look like how to analyze and breakdown a completed story rather than build a story from a ground up. Therefore, I think this book helps more development executives or producer types to analyze the scripts and 'develop' them, rather than novice writers looking to write scripts. I guess this insight does explain why it's popular in the Hollywood/screenplay lectures.

By all means, this book is helpful for all storytellers, full of ideas and informative analysis, so it merits a reading in my opinion. But I still don't think it's a bible--good reference book, for story creation like some other books I've read over the years. It could help writers to analyze their own scripts to mold into "Hollywood" vision/style, if you are planning to sell next Die Hard script or Bruce Almighty. (I know that I try. Heh.)

In My Dream

Audrey Tautou
Originally uploaded by Pretty Faces.

I had a fun dream this morning, where I was directing a commercial for American Express Blue card with alluring Audrey Tautou. :D For some reason I had this long take of her floating toward the camera and deliverying a line to the camera. Since it was a long take with her in 0 G environment, (it's a dream), she couldn't position herself right before the camera and kept botching up her line. So I devised another shot to breakup the long take, where the camera captured her curvy body line. :)

I was having fun, but my alarm went off and that was the wrap for that shoot. Darn, I didn't even get to peck her cheek to say goodbye! :D

Understanding 24p Workflow

I chose to attend this session at the last day of NAB New York 2006 with a 1 SESSION FREE pass they sent me along with my ID card. The session was led by Gary Adcock, who claimed that he was fortunate to work with only HD stuff for last five years. Although I did work with 24p, SD & HD stuff, hit the books and read articles related to this field, I felt that there were some details/facts that eluded me. Fortunately, I was right.

Mr. Adcock had great personality and great enthusiasm to part his experience and knowledge about 24p HD workflow to eager attendants who were mostly doc filmmakers and editors like myself. Everyone had a different camera to capture images, but they all used same FCP program and somewhat mystified of the post process, just like me. Mr. Adcock essentially demystified the whole process with great authority and knowledge.

Basically, biggest thing I gained from the session was that 24p is NOT 24.0 frames. Although 24p is non-drop frames, 24p = 23.98 (!!!) If you set 24p to 24.0 frames, your audio will NOT match up. This is the exactly the problem I had when I was editing 24p stuff last year and NOW I know why. He also mentioned that because default CinemaTool setting is at 24.0, you need to launch the program and change the setting. When I was using CinemaTool to advance pulldowns, the short clips were fine, but the longer clips had audio drifting apart. I think my problem kinda went away, without knowing exactly why, when I began to use DVFilm Maker program to do advance pulldowns.

Minor notes like, SD is mostly 29.97 fps, but HD is 59.94 fps for 60i. You should always shoot advance 24p mode whenever you can to maximize the quality. HD and PAL (Peace At Last) use UPPER field, but SD uses LOWER field.

Needless to say, I came out as a better editor after that session and I'll definitely come back for next year's NAB NYC sessions. It does cost good money, but the access to the experience and the knowledge you could gain from industry professionals are vital to improve my skills in the fast-changing post field. Since I'm currently a freelance editor on my own without an experienced mentor, I could use all the advices I can get at these sessions. If you are budding editors and filmmakers, I strongly urge you to attend these sessions to compliment your knowledge and skill sets. And networking with these experienced industry professionals can't hurt, either.

Hello, Lied the Agent

I was recently trotting film/tv aisle in B&N and came across this book. (Minty fresh book, Uhm mm!) I picked it up and couldn't put it down. The (sordid) tales of experienced TV writer from the trenches of TV development and production will captivate you like watching a car wreck. (Piles and piles of cars!)

It offers better perspective than Hollywood Jock as the writer, Ian Gurvitz, is an industry veteran with years of experience and a couple of produced TV shows under his belt. Granted, it's film vs. tv thing, but it's generally accepted that TV industry treats writers better, only marginally. And Mr. Gurvitz tells his experience and current state of industry like it is, pulling no punches, full of anger-if not creative frustration, toward lording executives who get to approve shows despite their lack of expertise or experience in creating and producing a TV show.

If you even entertained a thought of working in TV industry, you got to read this book. Yes, entertainment industry is cruel, cruel mistress with a closet full of bodies and forsaken dreams. But as long as there's a TV, there must be a show--before all the commercials, and as long as there is a show, there will be a good show that's worth our precious time and attention.

I'm not finished with the book yet, but it seems like it would be impossible to produce a TV show under current industry climate, unless I made a hit TV show. Classic entertainment industry catch-22 situation. I'm so down with that, but with the nascent internet and YouTube, (yeah, yeah I know what you thinking), it could be possible, and much easier and satisfying, to breakout on the net first. There are already good shows on YouTube and video podcasts that have loyal following. Therefore, it could be possible to have a crossover to TV land if your show concept and execution is proven to be a hit on the net first. And that's easier said than done, already!

If anything, the net proved itself to be a fertile, proving ground for different ideas. However, as Mr. Gurvitz exclaimed in the book so many times, IDEAS ARE WORTHLESS. The execution matters. So get your 'worthless' ideas out there with a camera with some actors, and make your show. Nobody knows except until you make your show, and it may well be next lonelygirl. (First, grab a cute girl. Second grab a gun, said Mr. Godard.)

Insomnia Film Festival

Write, cast, shoot, edit, score, sleep. Sponsored by Apple. (I'm interested, but I'm not a student no more.)