Fiction
MAN is now available on Amazon Prime (US). If you are a member, it comes free per that service. You can also rent or buy ($2.99-$9.99) if you are not a member. (Amazon Prime UK is live as well)
If you prefer Vimeo, the film is a bit cheaper for both renting and purchasing. ($2-$7)
My simple MAN viewing guide - Be patient, watch in silence.
In this episode, I talk about some of the gear we used in an upcoming music video/movie trailer hybrid(MIRS + THREE WORLDS) , a great blog post I read about the Fermi Paradox, and the most recent book I ingested. Also, coffee.
Whether you like it or not, JAMES FRANCO is the character of the future. He is constant, consistent & working in PRESENT TENSE. Franco is the stream. And that stream is not going away because the stream demands stuff now.
Gone are the days where you could sit and toil on a concept for years, or turn a MALICK and show up 15 years later. Gone are the days where you could do or be ONE THING (however, if you love that one thing, more power too you). Because the world is turning so fast, if you don't pivot when you are required too, the media you are on top of will turn into OPERA, and then you'll be bitter. And pivoting becomes increasingly difficult as time goes by. It's as skill you must learn to survive.
Franco and his cohorts are also the few characters around who are almost completely immune to criticism. This is not unprecedented. Woody Allan has already mastered that art, by the only effective method. By not giving a shit and immediately moving to something else. The new school just does it faster.
In a world where media is completely ubiquitous and a million paths of communication exist, dealing with a bad review is akin to wiping your mouth after eating a bowl of spaghetti. Who gives a shit. And if you do, well, you're fucked.
Coming from an acting background, I personally despise ADR. Sometimes, like today, it is a necessary evil. However, with that said, the audio specialist's who make it work are amazing at what they do, and at what they can endure.
On Hollywood films, ADR is par for the course. But, something is always lost in the translation. The level of disconnect from the initial scripted (or not) words, to the performance, to the sterile soundproof booth is the grandest of artifice. I cringe whenever I find myself in that situation.
However, my experience tells me that it's never as bad as it is when you hear it, raw, out of the monitors at the sound studio.
my man Ojan at Stems Post.
I've been sitting on a couple pieces from yesteryear never really sure what to do with them anymore. Two video pieces in particular have stood in the vault since their premieres, both with context specific deliveries.
One particular piece, 2006's ASTONISHING EXPERIENCE BOX SET was a video installation that had its run at the Seed Gallery space in Santa Ana, California, and after, was boxed away indefinitely. Only one DVD was made at the time (as was the plan), and was bid on, but me being overtly idealist at the time, refused to sell. The money wasn't that great anyways, if i remember correctly.
Now, a good many years have passed, and, in due course, the source materials been transferred into digital binary, making it's indefinite disappearance kind of disingenuous these days. My thinking is that, yes, it's stripped of its context in a pure sense, and with that, what kind of a video installation is it, when the installation is gone? And the simple answer is, a video of course. Here below is the description, and some instructions into how to make it work. Or, just press play. I provided some context on its original form below.
_______________________________________
Installation Premiere: 10-7-2006
Online Premiere: 9-19-14
Instructions: Headphones and a dark room preferable. In fact, a pseudo living room would be best (of course, I can't force you to do anything in a virtual space).
Performance Notes:
On Oct 7, 2006, the Astonishing Experience Box Set installation premiered at the Seed Gallery at the artist village in Santa Ana California. The show ran from Oct 7 - Dec 2, 2006. The show was billed as "Light. Shadow and Motion: exploring the way light alter our environments".
The installation included an old television, a dvd player, optional headphones, a chair, and a faux living room setup. In some ways, similar to the old Maxell tape commercials, although the living space was more archaic. On the television, the Astonishing Experience Box Set played as a loop.
This was the only time that this particular installation was made available to the public, and the DVD that hosts the Astonishing Experience Box Set was never played again. The total run time of the video from start to finish was 6:52, and was broken up into 6 distinct experiences. But, in direct conflict with the installation setup, there was no restriction to the viewing of the the video in linear terms, and the option of sound (headphones) was the direct responsibility of the viewer.
I've been on a Japanese kick of late. I happen to return to this culture, frequently, for a vast bouquet of inspiration. Simply, the well is never dry.
The last five films I've watched this week were Japanese. One observation I've made is that the Western Cinematic tradition has lifted heavily from this world, and Akira Kurosawa ( i feel silly leaving a link here, but I'm going to assume that a good percentage of people are not that familiar with him, and do not give the same unwavering adulation to say, Stanley Kubrick) being on the receiving end of this homage ripping, while also being the most universally influential. But aside from the good type of artistic stealing which is mostly an "influential" lifting, there has been a much more malignant form of culture appropriation, which comprises of the more serious form of perjury. And yes, this bad form of stealing is rampant in cinema.
In the prior decades, distribution was the real barrier to familiarity with international cinema. The world, before NETFLIX and the web was a localized arena. So localized in fact, that believe it or not, you'd have to go to a movie theater to see a movie (perhaps a film festival, or art-house theater, school, etc). And, if you didn't catch it, then you'd have to hope for some form of taped distribution. It wasn't till the late 70's whereby people were actually renting and buying movies. At this juncture in the space time continuum, the selection was incredible limited.
With the explosion of VHS and the video store, more titles could be discovered. But, media was not ubiquitous, and our reference points were limited to stuff we heard about, or actually saw; which again, had serious limitations in breath, scope, and in memory. Image those days, in which Wikipedia, Google and Youtube were not at your beckon call, and did not serve as your assistant brain (soon to be, First Brain). Yes, scary indeed.
Say you saw something really interesting in an obscure Japanese movie from the early 70's, and were a filmmaker in the 80's and even early 90's, and you happened to steal heavily from it. In fact, even go so far as to purge it's images, its style, its flow. People would hardly know. Only a relative few. And surprisingly, unlike music and other types of arts, this type of heavy lifting would not even be frowned upon critically, and certainly not by the general movie going audience. For the most part.
The idea of originality in Western Cinema has long been a secondary by-product; a term Hollywood tried to bury (and successfully) in the 50's (purely conjecture here). It's worked. This is one of the only arts where familiarity gets a pass almost every-time. And as the post-modern infiltrated movie making in the early nineties, it was even considered cool.
But on a personal level, I always felt a more kindred liking to original works (herein I'm referring to a more direct style of moviemaking) then post modern assemblies of those styles. But that was then, and now is now.
But, "now" now, is not like the 90's now. People dream up movement phrases like, "The New Sincerity", and while this might last for "now", it can never congeal into anything resembling the classical arts movements of a prior century. Because we have moved past time oriented "movements". We are in a post-movement world; better yet, post-mechanical-watch. Human time doesn't neatly pack itself into bubbles anymore, because it's umbilical cord to our evolutionary clock has been cut.
And "now" is like the scene from the Mel Brooks film SPACEBALLS: Now "Now", Not "Then" Now. This sentence above, however is not my own, i'll gladly admit. In fact, I lifted it from a wonderful conversation between media theorist David Ryan Polgar and Douglas Rushoff. If only cinema were so nice to attribute.
I'll leave you with this apropos image from Kinji Fukasaku's BATTLES WITHOUT HONOR AND HUMANITY
a quantum question....
The last few days had me rewatching, and in some cases discovering for the first time Satoshi Kon's masterwork animeography in full.
I was absolutely floored by his 2003 work TOKYO GODFATHERS, one of only two of his works I had not seen previously. The superb characterization and the hauntingly realistic and desolate city landscapes make this an absolute treat. Choosing to focus on detail instead of the usual spectacle, the city becomes all too tangible.
Tokyo is almost always historically realized as a packed, bright wonder full of flashing lights and bustle, recalling Western interpretations like LOST IN TRANSLATION. It is fetishized in Western movies. And that is absolutely part of its identity.
Kon chooses instead, the everyday sights that people who actually inhabit that environment experience; the alley ways, the crevices, corners, the not so wondrous cityscapes and mundane, grey skylines punctuated by the cold, wet snow. Instead of the Shibuya crossing for example, we get a small corner store, and a drunk asshole who can't stand bums.
The scenes are rendered in wonderment by their sure realism. One of my favorite moments was a three shot master through an everyday, ordinary road safety mirror. This is detail; this is knowing the world in which you create. Maybe I just haven't seen enough anime, but I can't recall many people making this type of choice. It harkens too a moment in Miyazaki's KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE, in which Kiki stays in bed, stretching, pondering a thought. I had the same feeling at that moment as well, although one was a shot selection, and the other a characterization. But Kon does both here, and does it damn well.
This was also one of a few anime films in which a live action remake could easily be achieved. However, this would be a grave mistake because you won't get better performances or a more fantastic ambience then what was achieved here. The characterization is totally alive. The tone is spot on. It goes every which way, and this is not hyperbole.
i could go on and on, but I'll leave it here. If you haven't seen it, go find it. Be ready to experience that sense of wonder that appears when form fits perfectly in its container. But, I'm not a reviewer, and this is the farthest thing from that. It's just a personal recommendation. But if you didn't like it after being influenced to see it based on this written journal, you just haven't developed the goods yet. Seriously. Peace.
A beautiful example of a master shot that creates the experience.
This is not the Tokyo we are familiar with in modern movies. (at least not me)
It's been quite a bit of time between updates. I might be a product of the Gutenberg mind, so please spare my old world behaviors; mainly, the lack of timely, coherent, word driven sentences, outlining, step by step, my recent actions, feelings and general well being. And, my still intact affinity for old tech book media.
Since we are on the topic of books, here is my recent list. Two out of three is a rehash, but, as I've only recently discovered, it's much easier to read something the second time around.
I don't have anything else to share. Actually I do, but I'm not in the mood of writing about writing about movies and such.
Amir's Reading Rainbow as started in Spring and expiring in a few days:
HERO WITH A THOUSAND FACES - Joseph Campbell - Second read through
MEMORIES, DREAMS, REFLECTIONS - C.G Jung
THE WAY OF ZEN - Alan Watts - Second read through
Yes, they are thematically themed.
Best,
am
the day was filled with heaps of molasses
brain function, enslaved by an under the influence and angry source
a day where "you just can't fucking do anything"
except think of the scattered-ness of everything
and all worldly things
like an old, cool nikon lens you found in your grandma's attic
that just doesn't focus
and even though it's kind of hip with that softness, deep down you know
it's only producing shit
but where do you take it
are there such things as camera stores anymore
Hello Friends -
YOUNG BUCK is out now, and free to roam the vastness of the internet. Here are three locations where you can watch, other then right on our very own front page.
And when you visit said site, please subscribe or follow or whatever that particular site refers to the act of "subscribing" . Because when you do, I will be very excited knowing that we bonded in some form.
Also, leave a nice comment if you where moved to do so. Nothing in the house of ANIMALS is done by force. But a simple reminder may remind you, how this very little act enlivens our soul.
Here it is, the first exclusive clip from a major motion picture event! ANIMALS presents YOUNG BUCK. In internet speak, #youngbuck
Available in just a few weeks, for your snacking pleasure. Produced by ANIMALS.
all you get for now.
the woman worked at a bar in little tokyo
and she loved her phone so much
and one day, on a cold and rare rainy night in Los Angeles, she made love through her phone
but the very next day, the phone broke
and it broke her heart
"love is fleeting" , she concluded
but I think she's a bit immature
he looked straight ahead, as far as his eyes could see in the middle of the warm summer night. this was where he spent his childhood. a park, in the middle of the quietest suburb on planet earth. the grass felt nice.
it was here that he tasted alcohol, and it was here that he first tried marijuana. It was here that he saw his best friend Arthur body slam Robbie the bully. it was here, that he and Arthur would discuss what they would do to girls, had they had the chance. and this certainly changed from year to year. drastically in fact.
it was at this location that he lay, sprawled out on the grass, looking up at the sky for countless hours, wondering if life would ever change. It was here that the legion of emotional experiences tickled his bored soul.
and now, if only he could crawl back into that tiny space, and feel those feelings once more, everything would be ok.
the full moon frightens me.
i remember that last terrifying night.
that one whispering night. the haunting.
your dead soul.
rummaging for the last morsel.
leaving me option-less.
leaving me hung.
the breath escaping.
the squirming.
that last gasp.
a ghost.
your ghost.
