Merge

I am merging this blog with my other one (Rose and Isabel) to make things a bit easier for myself as well as to have all the posts in one place. Current Flavor will remain up while I move posts over to the other blog where they'll be labeled and in chronological order so they'll be easy to find. Look for all new posts on storyboarding and stuff like that at Rose and Isabel. Thanks to everyone who stopped by! See you at R&I.

"Who are YOU to question story structure!?!??!!!??"

Check out this awesome tutorial by "the Story Wizard".


more here.

Half Nelson

I'll admit I had no clue what this film was about until I heard the story paraphrased during a short interview with Ryan Gosling at the Academy Awards. Based on the best actor nom and numerous other nominations and awards, I decided to check it out. Happily the running time was in the appropriate range (more about that in a future post), so I popped it in the ol player.

I was really impressed with the film. Those who read my Rose and Isabel blog know that I am a big fan of charcters emoting through facial expression, movement and gesture and not always dialogue. Gosling as well as Epps did a remarkable job here. I was fascinated by what was going on in the characters minds; the thought, the emotion, much of it said without words. Very good musical direction helped set the mood and tone and I was interested every second of the way through. I won't say much more that that, but for those who have seen the film I'm curious about your thoughts & we can discuss in the comments section.

Get out to the theater in 07

After seeing Children of Men on the big screen TWICE in the past few days, I'm realizing I need to get out to see more films in the theater. For a while I sensed that because of the proliferation of widescreen TVs, DVD releases mere weeks after theatrical debuts (and in some cases SIMULTANEOUS releases), new emerging formats (HD DVD, Blu-ray, etc), and the disappearance of small movie houses around town, people were going out to the movies less often. I put together a quick rundown of the films I saw last year (43 of them) and realized I saw a mere 15 of them on the big screen, 2/3 of which were screenings here at work.

Children of Men will change that this year. This is a film that needs to be seen theatrically. The imagery, sound, scope...I was completely immeresed. The audio alone was terrifyingly good. Much of my reticence to theatrical viewings is because I feel that many of the films just aren't worth it, but this year when I find one that is, I'm paying my $10 and seeing it as it should be seen.

Current Flavor - Inspiration

I was in LA over the past weekend, made my customary trip to Meltdown on Sunset and came across LA<>SF by Christian Schellewald, an amazing artbook of sketches, paintings and studies of Los Angeles, San Francisco and the travel inbetween. Having lived in both cities and traveled back and forth many times, the book hit a special chord with me. I don't know Christian personally, but had the pleasure of seeing his work while we were both working on El Dorado at Dreamworks.

This book is cover to cover goodness. Can't get enough of it and it has inspired me to start carrying the ol mini sketchbook around.

Check it out. You will not be disappointed.

I've seen it available at Meltdown on Sunset n LA, and also at Cody's in Berkeley but if you can't make it to one of those fine neighborhood establishments, you can get it from Amazon here.

Favorite Animated Works

I like this list theme thing, so here's another. Please feel free to add your list in the comments section. Every so often things like this cross my mind, so here are my top 16 favorite animated works off the top of my head (I don't like to spend too much time on these; that way they are instinctual, gut choices). They can be any format (short, feature, commercial, etc etc) as long as it's a complete work (ie no individual scenes or shots). Here goes:

(subject to change at any time if I remember favorites I forgot)

Pinocchio (1940)
Kitty Kornered (1946)
Toot Whistle Plunk Boom (1953)
Pigs is Pigs (1954)
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966)
Castle of Cagliostro (1979)
Pigbird (1981)
Secret of NIMH (1982)
Dragon's Lair (1983)
The Big Snit (1985)
Family Dog (1987)
The Simpsons: Krusty Gets Busted (1990)
Ren & Stimpy: Stimpy's Invention (1992)
Toy Story (1995)
Father and Daughter (2000)
The Incredibles (2004)

Best films of the last 20 years (1986-2005)

A few of us were in the story war room the other day and the "AFI's Best 100 Films of All Time" list happened to be on the table. Naturally, for a group of story folks, discussion ensued about the validity of some of the films on that list. Then I proposed that we make our own lists except to limit them to our 20 favorite/best films from the past 20 years (1986-2005). They must be films that we like but also qualify to be on a "best of" list (ie - no guilty pleasure films, "so bad it's good" films, or sentimental favorites).


The task proved to be a lot more difficult than we expected; off the top of my head I had listed 37 films and had the excruciating task of eliminating 17 of them. (Interestingly, there was a general consensus as we looked up release dates for certain films that a lot of our favorites were made in the early 80's, out of range of our 20 year cutoff point).

Here are mine (off the top of my head and subject to change at any moment) and in order by release date:

Aliens (1986)
Raising Arizona (1987)
Die Hard (1988)
Totoro (1988)
Do the Right Thing (1989)
Goodfellas (1990)
Delicatessen (1991)
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Unforgiven (1992)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Se7en (1995)
Toy Story (1995)
The English Patient (1996)
Slingblade (1996)
Trainspotting (1996)
Good Will Hunting (1997)
Rushmore (1998)
Requiem for a Dream (2000)
LOTR - Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

20 Notables/favorites (1986-2006):

Laputa (1986)
T2 (1991)
Red (1994)
Nixon (1995)
Fargo (1996)
King of the Hill (1997)
LA Confidential (1997)
The Sweet Hereafter (1997)
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
The Iron Giant (1999)
Toy Story 2 (1999)
Amores Perros (2000)
Amelie (2001)
Spirited Away (2001)
Y Tu Mama También (2001)
City of God (2002)
The Pianist (2002)
The Incredibles (2004)
Good Night and Good Luck (2005)
Grizzly Man (2005)

Check out more lists at CLOCKROOM