Not much going on. Just posting a few pages so I can close some tabs and windows…
Passive Aggressive notes… very amusing, not that many so far, but some of them are pure gold. And by gold, I mean hookers.
More images from Stardust are online here and on the official website that has been updated some. Very pretty, so can’t wait.
Geekwise, Starcraft 2 has been announced and there are videos and trailers and such on the website that make me wish I was wearing a diaper at the time I visited it. So looks great.
And finally, some vids from japan, cause they’re all insane and awesome at the same time…
Another one of them game show clips where its all bullet-time on stage, this time as a food fight…
And the worlds fastests secretary or evil robot. You decide…
Ah the Japanese… I miss that Naoki bastard. Where the hell are you man?
Since the last post I shot off to Te Aroha to check out/hang out/help out on Marama’s new film being shot with a whole bunch of kids with a very sexy camera. It was a fun random spur of the moment action and more so when I woke up in the morning in an old country style hotel room in a sleepy quiet town and Tanya knocking on the door outside slowly saying coffee. It was so Twin Peaks I loved it. Good fun hanging out on their film too. Though location shooting and tracking so much equipment and props and stuff over a 10 minute reserve walk wasn’t as much fun.
But then, the next day, it was a shoot off to Auckland where there was much hanging out with old friends and drinking and talks, till Tuesday where I was privy to watch/film a rehearsal session of this upcoming singer/songwriter artist named Gin. Totally cool fun just to watch a whole bunch of really talented musicians in a garage playing and occasionally improvising music to her songs and just sitting there in total awe of how brilliant and precise they are with their craft. They recorded songs for the EP later on this week and if they are even anything like what I heard in that tiny garage, it’ll be a great listen. Something to look forward to.
Oh and then the night was topped off by going to finally see Pan’s Labyrinth, which totally kicked arse and is now one of my all time favourites, and even blowing nearly all other favourites of last year away. Watch it. Everyone.
Wednesday was also most amusing when I visited some friends working at ALT TV and suddenly found myself standing in front of the camera on this really weird show with this insane, uber femme Asian guy whom I couldn’t understand a word he was saying and had to role-play as a director film-maker guy and him being some girl wanting the lead role and totally acting up the femme persona to get it. Totally weird and random. Felt like Bill Murray in Lost in Translation, except for the giggles and laughter I think I could hear coming from my friends in the studio booth.
And then the night was topped off with being at a New Zealand on Air conference thingee, where there were lots of high-ups and producers and suits and stuff, plus free food and free booze which I took full advantage of. Got to rub some shoulders when I wasn’t stuffing my face, but didn’t really try much. Cool people though. I could really get into that scene of eating free food and drinking wine and talking a lot of shit for a living.
Meanwhile, plans for the 48 hour film competition is getting underway. Soon enough my dream team is gonna be assembled for it and we are so gonna win. By skills of course, not because I rigged everyone else’s toilet seats to explode.
And since coming back, haven’t been up to much. Long post again. Here is an amusing self defence video.
More DVD goodness, this time in the form of Last Life In the Universe. One of my favourites from last year, I’m gonna be flaunting this onto people to watch and bask in it’s glory. There’s not much features on this region 1 disc, but I’m currently in the middle of listening to the Christopher Doyle commentary track and it’s like the vestal virgins making love in my ears. The man is a genius with a camera and this is such an invaluable track to be listening to I’m digging it. Totally digging it.
It looks like I’ve got the consumer whore bug again. Starting to float around more and more online stores everyday and at this rate, I’m quite possibly gonna hit 400 titles by the middle of the year, but that also has to take into account the several dozen DVDs of my own that are being borrowed and floating around the country somewhere… actually, come to think of it, one of my DVDs is in Japan… that Naoki bastard. Where the hell is he these days anyway?
Anyway… here’s Osama Team Hunger Force… have I posted this before? I can’t remember.
Computer is in the middle of an upgrade to make editing Spit Takes a lot more easier. Actually, prior to upgrade, computer is running pretty sweet, but the option of more flashy bits and bobs going on inside is always a good choice.
Latest episode of House is finally out after much waiting and it is awesome. Best one in a long time and good one to watch after waiting so long for it to come out. The wait for the next episode of Heroes better be just as good in comparison to the wait… oh it better.
Anyway, trailer for 28 Weeks Later is up and I must say I am most intrigued to see it. Though Danny Boyle and Cillian Murphy did Sunshine instead, which is looking more and more awesome, this sequel actually looks half decent enough to go see. Plus zombies. Everyone loves zombies. Just like how everyone loves wild flowers and mutant hamsters.
Much tiredness going on for the last few days that’s affected my regular blog updating skills, but increased my catatonic movie watching skills. But stuff has been happening…
Professional help of awesome was given to the editing of Pictures of You over the weekend. My role in its post production is to go round to Ben’s house, watch him edit for a minute or two, start playing his xBox for an hour or two, look back to see he’s still editing and then play some more. By Friday the cutting was looking alright, but, after an actual professional editor had herself come and had some fun on it, I returned on Sunday to find a rather different looking film, many time better. Heidi (editor extraordinaire) has proposed to keep helping out on the cut of the film and I think Ben secretly breathed himself on huge sigh of relief. Just as long as evidence of some pretty bad camera work is still kept left out. She’s pretty damn awesome editor too if I haven’t mentioned it yet.
Capturing of footage on Spit-Takes is next to done. Still one scene left to film and tomorrow will be the recording of the voice-over track and a rough cut should be done by Saturday, just in time for mega drinking… hopefully.
Jon’s operation has been totally successful and there have been only minor complications at worst. Awesomeness as he’ll just be recovering now and we’re all breathing sighs of relief and joy.
To add to the joy, Dylan Moran is back for another performance and this time, this year, I shall have money to go. Plus in June, Mike Patton and Peeping Tom are playing at the St James and I’m even more in for that. Amusing as it’s only being out of Auckland, do I go to more shows there. Just got an announcement for the Mountain Goats to come up and my jar of happy-joy will burst with happy-joy delight.
And the upcoming coolness that will be Stardust finally has a trailer out and it looks awesome. You can check out the youtube clip…
Realising to myself I haven’t updated the blog in several days, which is pretty slack by recent standards, but I have been a tad busy lately… And its starting to get very cold around now, really quickly…
Picked up a ridiculous amount of video store hours this week which is almost killing my social life if I actually had one. Though there are some small drinks planned this weekend, which will no doubt feel very deserved.
Editing on Pictures of You continues and starting to take shape and form more and more. A minor set back of hard drive space happening when it was realised the external purchased by Ben was a USB and not firewire… silly, silly man.
Spit-Takes: A Mouthful of Comedy is almost done shooting! After much shooting over each other’s clashing schedules, there just remains voice overs, a cafe scene and miscellaneous montage shots to be done. It’s good considering daylight savings has kicked in and that leaves a lot less time to shoot during the day by our timing of things. Editing commencing soon too.
In negotiations for a job for the museum, but that’s at a really early process and not much can be said about so.
Oh, and I’m now a paid tutor at Uni starting Thursday. Which just gets the mega lolz from people considering I dropped out of that place years ago. It’ll be interesting to see how this situation will turn out. No doubt it’ll involve masses of students, things on fire, a small child saying “don’t drink the water” and me riding a rhino into battle… Awesome.
But not quite as awesome as blowing up super-huge sand sculptures and playing them backwards, in reverse…
There was also a really cool Stardust trailer-of-sorts up on Youtube over the weekend, but it looks like that’s been taken down. It was very loose in how it was put together and obviously not the proper final trailer (much like the first 300 one), but the film looks really good and with such an awesome cast and being based on one of my (if not the) favourite books, it’s gonna be great. I always dreamed I’d adapt or be involved in adapting it into a film, but it looks like they’ve done it right with this one and besides, I’ve still got my plans for that Tolkien rings thing book and that one about that English boy and magic school… Oh… wait…
Got back today from a rather brief visit to Auckland. Took a semi-impromptu trip up Sunday night and drank somewhat and got to finally catch up with a lot of friends I had not seen a long time (and film them spitting like crazy). There were also many I’d not managed to catch up with, but that’ll have to be for the next time, which will hopefully be not as long of a period as the last one.
Had quite a few things to mention and talk about, but its been a rather long day, and my mind is currently drawing a blank on a lot of things. Tomorrow I’ll be making the first (and with luck not the last) trip to Uni to give a helping hand and special guest tutoring a Screen and Media class. Thoughts of totally screwing with first year students are currently revolving around my head and I like it.
If I’ll have time tomorrow, I’ll be starting the capturing and editing of footage for Spit-Takes too. Gonna fast track its production and hopefully have a decent cut set and ready by next week. Of course, there is a lot of work and things like saving people from burning buildings to be done this week, so it’ll be a little small mission to get done. After defeating the Martian-Walrus-People that is.
And now… here’s a silly fun office related ad that I really liked…
A fucking short version of the Departed…
And finally, another 300 trailer, this time its extended, uncut and probably uncensored. Plus, if you pause it at the 1:52 mark, there is a flash frame of a test shot from Watchmen… Frank Miller, Alan Moore, lots of blood and nipples, what more can you ask for?
Oh yeah… Hot Fuzz coming out Thursday, I’m so freaking turned on now.
Update on Pictures of You… All 30-something hours of footage is currently being captured to Ben’s mac. Editing is slowly underway as its always a juggling act to do that and work and socialise and so on and so forth. But the footage is looking good and an idea of the pace of the film and its editing is slowly revealing itself. This weekend we plan to do some pick-up shots of around the city for various cutaways and stuff we never bothered doing during the production.
There was actually a really crazy cool sunset yesterday with dark clouds all around and through a small gap on the horizon, the sun was shining through and it golden light created this eerie spot like effect on the trees I was driving past. Upon seeing this, I stopped, spun my car the hell around and raced to Ben’s to pick up the camera to shoot this awesomeness, but by the time I was there, the clouds had moved on too fast and the lighting was lost. Real shame as it was pretty spectacular.
Also more shooting of Spit-Takes this weekend. With some luck, the rest of the bulk of the footage will be done and I’ll start on the editing next week (once I clear out my hard drive as well), with just the odd pickup for The Montage here and there. Kinda curious if the sound is going to be a problem as audio is only being captured in camera, as after the “bus incident”, there is no connection for the shotgun mic to the camera itself. Hooray for post sound!
Long day of work tomorrow and hopefully some wake boarding and/or at least some live music. Gonna be a good one.
It may have been delayed til April (and fingers crossed the new date will stick), but for now there’s this clip of ultimate awesomeness from 300 with a bit of a douchey intro and outro from the director and star, but the clip itself made me drool my brain into my cereal bowl.
They’re still Hot Fuzz to look forward to this month (along with half a dozen films I’ve still yet to see), plus next month has Pan’s Labyrinth, The Illusionist and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, cause ninjas are cool and by cool, I mean totally sweet.
