Cesura
Continues, despite me not knowing really what I’m doing with it. There’s a telling comment in a set of writers guidelines I read a while ago. It mentioned the cliches that science fiction writers should avoid (eg. the old pull-back to reveal the whole story was about ants in a sugar shaker!) Anyway, one of these cliches was that the characters would appear in a formless white void, simply because this is what the writer was staring at when s/he was trying to come up with an idea.
There’s a certain amount of truth to that, with regard to Cesura. I mean, I knew what I was trying to do. The visual style is aimed at somewhere between Red Meat and the works of Brian Michael Bendis. I have the background kind of mapped out. But I went over to Jon & Kate’s place tonight and watched Jon’s re-edit of a Dr Who fan video called “Paradise in Chains”. I’d seen it once before, a while ago. And it’s set in a formless black void with the characters not knowing why they’re there, and endlessly asking questions of one another. It’s also very tedious (sorry, guys). The concept fundamentally bores me. So why did I write the beginning of Cesura to be the same kind of thing?

I guess it’s because drawing backgrounds is hard work. Though come to think of it, many comic strips have simple or non-existant backgrounds, and they’re not usually set in formless voids.

Count down
The count down towards the party continues – five days to go. I have to finish editing Bullet Hole, Society Cookery, and Society Cookery 2. The Bullet Hole visuals are nigh-done, just a couple of subtitles to go, and I have booked a studio in St. Peters for four hours on Wednesday evening – thrilling, the first time I’ve ever gone to this level of professionalism before. Surprisingly cheap, too. I met with my guitar tutor and we walked through what he’d be doing in the session, and came up with some more ideas. I think we’re ready. Dad and I also spent between 11:00pm and midnight last night sitting outside my old flat recording background car sounds and the pedestrian crossing going “Freow! Popopopopop.”

Papa
Dad came to visit for a couple of days, just leaving today. A nice time was ‘ad by all. We went out to dinner a couple of times, hung around and talked a lot, and caught “The Royal Tennenbaums”, the latest film from Wes Anderson, he of the highly rated “Rushmore”. Full review later, perhaps, but meanwhile I’d recommend it. It was like “Amelie”s big, sociopathic brother.

Other fillums
Also recently saw “Me, Myself and Irene” which was truly awful. Surprised you may not be, but I was actually expecting it to be a guilty pleasure in the same way as Ace Ventura 2 was. Not so. It was a complete mess of a film, varying its tone wildly, trying a hugely complicated mob plot and then giving up and putting a voice-over on top to try and get through the dull bits faster. Amazingly inept.
Then, “The Shining”. The Stanley Kubrick version. I’m not a huge fan of his, nor am I a big fan of Steven King, so it surprised me greatly just how good it was. Languid pace, wonderful camera work and set design, some of the best steadicam work I’ve seen, creepy atmosphere. One thing that surprised me was that there wasn’t a single boo-scare in the whole film. I’ve become used to having to jump once or twice in a horror film, but they clearly didn’t care for cheap scares in this one.
Standouts -
The scene with Doc playing with toy cars on the carpet, and the ball rolling up to him.
Doc’s tricycle tour around the set.
The conversation at the bright red urinal.
The steadicam work in the maze.

Very impressed indeed.

And what is it with computers today? I’ve been trying to get apache working on the mac, and I can’t even find where it is, let alone where I should put files intended for the website. Bleugh.

Still sick
But I got nice phone calls from the folks and from Jennie and an email from Uncle Michael. I’m especially grateful for this because at the moment I’m feeling a little housebound. No luck so far in finding a movie magazine that does cheap ads along the lines of “cheerful idiot will work on short film for free. Own transport, has sound gear and some experience.”

Blogs
I read through Chris T’s blog today, after Dave pointed out that he had been writing one. He mentioned once – very briefly and flippantly – that he has an interest in acting. That’s all it takes, boyo. Actually, Chris T is one of those very interesting charismatic types with a quick wit and almost certainly a good screen presence. Like Ted.
I was flipping through the links and noticed that Lindor has quietly started her own blog as well – and a very disturbing hymn to boybands it is too. If only I could harness this power for good. Or at the very least, *my* brand of evil.