All right. Day two.
Today I saw Lemony Snicket, because once in a while, I enjoy a good film for kids, especially when it has Tim Burton-y overtones and a somewhat less manic than usual Jim Carrey playing the villain.
It was fine. Slightly less magical than pencil lead, due to the computer effects, but watchable.
Far more interesting was the flick I rented last night: Cabin Fever. Not because it was a particularly great movie, although it does have some unexpectedly insane bits that keep it lively, but because the DVD is packed full of commentaries and interesting documentary bits. Four full-length commentaries for what is basically a low-budget mish-mash of 70s horror movies, assembled by a lifetime film junkie, that just happened to attract a lot of positive film festival attention because it cribbed effectively from the work of the masters (Tobe Hooper, George Romero, and Sam Raimi, mainly). FOUR!! COMMENTARIES!! All featuring the director, Eli something, who is usually telling some version of his life story rather than talking about the process of making the movie.
When he does talk about the process, however, the information he gives is exciting. To me, anyway, because I'm hoping to work on a film soon. Eli what's-his-face is so enthusiastic about the whole journey that I feel like it might actually be possible to make a cool movie that gets noticed by people and picked up by a major studio and then women start offering me sex in exchange for a walk-on role in my next project.
One step at a time, though. I have written another four pages of rough draft-quality dialogue on my script. I am discovering a thing or two about the characters, although none of them have a distinctive enough voice yet. The most frustrating part is the one female character. (There are three guys and a girl in the first scene.) She just doesn't have any personality. Everything she does revolves around the one guy, and nothing is coming from her. I'm considering stealing lines directly from women I've known, just to shock the character into three dimensions.
Oh well. Progress is being made. Slowly. I have yet again neglected to go out jogging.
Today I saw Lemony Snicket, because once in a while, I enjoy a good film for kids, especially when it has Tim Burton-y overtones and a somewhat less manic than usual Jim Carrey playing the villain.
It was fine. Slightly less magical than pencil lead, due to the computer effects, but watchable.
Far more interesting was the flick I rented last night: Cabin Fever. Not because it was a particularly great movie, although it does have some unexpectedly insane bits that keep it lively, but because the DVD is packed full of commentaries and interesting documentary bits. Four full-length commentaries for what is basically a low-budget mish-mash of 70s horror movies, assembled by a lifetime film junkie, that just happened to attract a lot of positive film festival attention because it cribbed effectively from the work of the masters (Tobe Hooper, George Romero, and Sam Raimi, mainly). FOUR!! COMMENTARIES!! All featuring the director, Eli something, who is usually telling some version of his life story rather than talking about the process of making the movie.
When he does talk about the process, however, the information he gives is exciting. To me, anyway, because I'm hoping to work on a film soon. Eli what's-his-face is so enthusiastic about the whole journey that I feel like it might actually be possible to make a cool movie that gets noticed by people and picked up by a major studio and then women start offering me sex in exchange for a walk-on role in my next project.
One step at a time, though. I have written another four pages of rough draft-quality dialogue on my script. I am discovering a thing or two about the characters, although none of them have a distinctive enough voice yet. The most frustrating part is the one female character. (There are three guys and a girl in the first scene.) She just doesn't have any personality. Everything she does revolves around the one guy, and nothing is coming from her. I'm considering stealing lines directly from women I've known, just to shock the character into three dimensions.
Oh well. Progress is being made. Slowly. I have yet again neglected to go out jogging.