Three Films

I've caught three films on this trip. Quick summaries only.

I was at the Bellingham Regal Theater on opening night for Red Eye. I didn't expect much going in, but was pleasantly surprised. It was goofy in parts, but overall very enjoyable for a thriller. Wes Craven did an excellent job.

Next we saw Charlie at the IMAX in Natick. Wow, it was great on the big, big screen. I think when I originally saw it it must have been a DLP digital projection, because I remember some digital artifacts and generally flatness of the images. The 70mm print was superb.

Finally, I caught War of the Worlds last night at the soon-to-be-closed Cinema Zeotrope. I was truly shocked and disturbed by some of the images. I actually really liked the dynamic, handheld camerawork towards the beginning of the film, coupled with a complete lack of score, it was very gritty. However, the whole film seemed pieced together and disjointed. Later, Speilberg would revert to his classic camera angles, and it seemed out of place. I'm thinking especially of the shots (twice) through holes in vehicle windsheilds, and especially the alien POV looking down at Dakota. I just stood out as a very different perspective than we had seen thus far. Tim Robbins was horrible, and the cat-and-mouse with the probe gag got old real fast, only to be repeated immediately with the aliens directly. Overall, I enjoyed it and it was very devestating in parts.

Leonardo, Part III

If I knew one thing about our Screen Wars Drama submission, Leonardo, it was that lead actor and friend Marco Galli was a lock for Best Actor. Tonight, at the awards ceremony and mixer, this proved true... and much more.

Congrats to Marco for his award, to Angie for winning Best Actress (for looking stunning in a picture, I suppose), and to the whole cast, including Brock, Joe, Bonnie, Eddie, Luke, Larry, and Tim, for Best Ensemble Acting.

Finally, we won for Best Cinematography. I say we because the lighting work we did required a lot of help and equipment. So, if not for Gabe, Ken, and Brock also assisting in this area, this award would not be possible.

Big night for Matter of Chance, wish I was there!

Update

I'm here in Massachusetts through Labor Day working on a project. The work is good. The bed is hard, and there is no air conditioning at Big Momma's House. That's typical for the Boston area. It's almost 90 degrees with about 70% humidity right now. On the news last night, they had a humidity meter that went from Low to Hot to Oppressive and we were squarely between Hot and Oppressive. Nice. Went to the book study and then the gym with Jeremy last night. Ran a couple miles, did a few stairs (I don't think I weigh enough to make the stair machine work properly). If I go back, I'm working my shoulders, see if it does any good for my chronic shoulder pain. Not sitting in front of a computer all day every day bloggin probably is a better long-term solution, just not possible right now.

Anyway, I'm not going to do a daily log this time out, since this is business, not necessarily pleasure. Though, we will do some fun things. Hopefully hit the Water Hazard mini golf and play some basketball this week.

AGTC, Part VI

This week, I finally got the final cut of AGTC done. The big hold up has always been the ominous overhead announcements I had envisioned throughout the film. I just couldn't get them written. Well, they are now complete, placed in the film, with all kinds of minor tweaks, and the cutting of one scene.

Coming soon, two seqeuls: AG2C and AGT3!

Leonardo, Part II

Well, it's true, Leonardo went down in flames, at least in the realm of Screen Wars. Dealt a crushing blow in the first round of the Drama competition. Really, quite disappointing, based on the effort that went in to this film. The audience vote is a tough one to figure out.

We'll just have to look forward to the jury awards for some recognition. Now that all nine films have aired, it is safe to say that Marco has a great chance to take the Best Actor award home.