Honoring The Brave Dead

Posted by sean

Don’t believe all the bad reviews, Valkyrie is a good film. Not a great film, but a good one. X-Men and Superman Returns director Bryan Singer leaves the fan-boy realm behind for more serious fare, and he does not disappoint.

Not at all a heartwarming holiday film, Valkyrie is based on the true story of the last and most complex attempt by high ranking German officers to assassinate Hitler. The mission, which employed an operation called “Valkyrie,” obviously failed. The film is closely focused on that failure and it’s aftermath.

Everyone seems to rip on Tom Cruise, which I just don’t understand. I think he’s solid in this film, as well as most of the other films I’ve seen him in. He brings an energy and an intensity to the role of Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, one of the key conspirators in the attempt, that I can really get behind. People who judge an actor’s performance based solely on who they are in real life really bug me!

I was most impressed by the way the film stuck to the facts. That Valkyrie has no major action sequences and is shot mostly in medium and close-ups testifies that Singer wasn’t trying to squeeze an epic or an action flick out of real events. He instead focuses on the tension and anti-climax of a failed endeavor in a very realistic manner, creating an enlightening, if not an exhaustive historical drama.

It’s no spoiler to say that Cruise’s character, along with the other conspirators, die in the end, but they die bravely, and I think that this is the point of the film. It’s not necessarily meant to entertain, but to honor these brave men who sacrificed themselves in an attempt to destroy a great evil. When the credits rolled the audience was silent, clearly as affected as I was. Valkyrie is a solid film that does it’s job well. Kudos to Singer for spending his time and talent in honoring these brave men.

The Age of Disney Live-Action

Posted by sean

In the 60s and 70s Walt Disney Studios produced an array of live action family films. I grew up watching these films: “That Darn Cat,” “Blackbeard’s Ghost,” “The Apple Dumpling Gang,” and my personal favorite, “The Love Bug,” starring that most endearing of Volkswagen Beetles, Herbie. I remember going to the library every week or so and checking out another one, and making popcorn and watching them as a family. I think one of the reasons I’m studying film-making today is because of how important these films were to me. They weren’t the most intelligent or artistically made, but they told fun, fantastic stories focused mainly on characters, not on special affects like many family films today. I find it interesting that Disney managed to make so many successful films that were still suitable for the entire family. Not as easy to do today apparently.

Turner movie classics is airing a series of 27 of these films over the holiday season, plus a documentary on them called “The Age Of Believing: The Disney Live-Action Classics.” Their website here has clips and synopsises for each film and is a real blast from the past. I really have to watch some of these again.

Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness

Posted by sean

We sang this hymn at church this evening. So beautiful!

Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness
My beauty are, my glorious dress;
‘Midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed
With joy shall I lift up my head.

Bold shall I stand in that great day,
For who aught to my charge shall lay?
Fully absolved through these I am,
From sin and fear, from guilt and shame.

Lord, I believe Thy precious blood,
Which, at the mercy seat of God,
Forever doth for sinners plead,
For me, e’en for my soul was shed.

—Nicolaus L. von Zinzendorf (1700-1760)
Translated by John Wesley (1703-1791)

New York, New York

Posted by sean

Just visited New York city last weekend on an art trip and I must say, it lives up to all of the hype. Truly, in New York you can forget how to sit still. It is a heck of a town, people do live in holes in the ground and it’s not a good idea to eat the gum on the sidewalks.

It was a quick three days. On the first day we visited the Met, one of the biggest art museums in the world. To say it was exhausting would be an understatement. We saw everything from ancient Egyptian mummies to modern American art. In the evening we dined at a cafe in little Italy after bartering with numerous street barkers for the right deal. (like this guy)

On day two, we visited Central Park. It was gray and misty, but the sun broke through for a while and it was beautiful. Central park is huge! We even saw a turkey roaming the grounds!

In the afternoon we headed up to the Garment district and a well-hidden fabric store where the contestants of the Project Runway TV show get their fabric. In the evening we visited the Moma (Museum of Modern Art.) Very strange stuff. A few times I just had to laugh at the goofy pretentiousness of it all.

Day three and we visited the museum of Biblical art. There was a Chagall exhibit that was amazing. He’s my new favorite artist! In the afternoon we stood in line at the Fox TV studio and got to be in the audience for a taping of the brand-new Mike Huckabee show (yes, the one that ran for president.) It was cool to be on a real TV set, and we got to meet Governor Huckabee after the shoot. In the evening we visited Rockefeller Center and Time Square then called it a night.

Overall an awesome trip!

Shooting Ridgeback

Posted by sean

A crisp November afternoon in South Carolina. We wait on the lawn outside of Unusual Films for our actor. When he arrives, we pile into James Lee’s big red luxury van and trundle across the border into the North Carolina mountains. On the way, we swap stories of films and film projects we’ve worked on, typing at laptops, twiddling with ipods and just generally enjoying the fall landscape. As the we approach the mountains, highways become narrow winding roads and we begin to climb higher and higher, the flat landscape we came from unfolding below us through flashing orange and golden leaves. almost two hours in, we’re very high, leaning dangerously on the curves over steep wooded ravines. We pull up at a gravel road and hike the heavy equipment in, up a forested path of rocks. We reach an outcropping and a mass of giant boulders that we have to climb, passing the fragile film equipment up piece by piece. Over a little bridge that spans a narrow gap and out onto a huge rock, we’ve reached our destination, a mountain ridgeback, jutting out of the forested hills and affording a gorgeous view of red and yellow trees  descending like streams into the purple plains and rivers below. The sky is pure blue, the air crisp and clean. We wait for the sun to lower, huddling under our hoodies from the growing chill. Then, when the sun is just right, when magic hour makes the distant landscape recedes into a glowing purple, we start into our shoot. It is a good day to be a film student.

Yes We Can (or "Ooo! Shiny!")

Posted by sean

Yes we can progress in our immorality.
Yes we can give everything away.
Yes we can make it easy to not work or care.
Yes we can continue to indoctrinate our children to mindlessly believe whatever we want them to believe.
Yes we can continue to kill our children as long as they reside inside flesh.
Yes we can foster a spirit of unity at the cost of discernment.
Yes we can continue in our destructive materialism.
Yes we can glorify mediocrity.
Yes we can continue to challenge God’s authority in all things.
Though an almighty voice speaks “thou shalt not.” we can reply “yes we can!”
Yes, we can worship our hero, the shiny golden elected.

Happy Halloween!

Posted by sean

Last weekend I helped my friend out at the school he works at. The school building had been transformed into a “haunted house,” complete with strobe lights, skeletons and an army of junior high kids in monster costumes. They ran out of costumes for the volunteers, so I had to be content with the old “zipped-up coat headless man” gag. As hordes of grade school children tromped through the creepy maze we’d created, some laughing and some crying, I was reminded of all the things I love, and hate about Halloween.

As a Christian growing up in a Christian family, Halloween was tough. For a few years we trick-or-treated, then we felt convicted and only gave out raisins, then one year we pretended we weren’t home. One of my favorite Halloweens was only a few years ago. We were visiting our Grandpa Bob, and it just so happened that the community he lived in celebrated trick-or-treating when you’re supposed to–at night in the dark! My brothers and I dug through some closets and created our own costumes from scratch. It was a fun night!

I think the problem that most people have with Halloween isn’t so much with its pagan origin (Christmas comes from the same pagan traditions for goodness sake!) than with its celebration of death. As I stood ominously in my assigned corner last weekend, waiting for more kids to scare, I heard the junior high kids across the hall screaming bloody murder and acting as ghostly victims of horrible murders, in what amounted to “an odd confluence of a youthful exuberance celebrating an ominous restless afterlife.” (Michael Koresky-reberseshot.com)

Does God want us to celebrate Halloween? One of my Bible teachers here at school says yes. His argument is that Halloween as it stands today is a costume party for kids who love candy, and that being out there in your neighborhood, handing out candy, even letting your kids participate, is a good way to witness the love of Christ to those around us. We shouldn’t celebrate death as some do on this day, but by celebrating Halloween as it is now, we can connect with those in our community in a way that is growing harder and harder these days. So, with a clean conscious before Christ, Happy Halloween everyone! Just don’t go to that house–they’re handing out raisins.

Chicagoland

Posted by sean

I’ve been pining for Chicago these past few weeks, so much so in fact that I wrote this poem about that greatest of Midwestern cities and its suburban sprawl that leads north to the towns of Lake County.

Chicagoland

Chicago,
Now more than ever you call me.
Black canyon grid-work,
Good-natured laughter,
Wind blows off the cold empty lake.

Northward,
Waukegan, little fort.
Ravines and concrete,
County seat, little Mexico.

Zion, City of God.
Founded in madness,
A maze of sunday-school names,
CCC the hub of the wheel.

Gurnee,
Riverbank main street,
Overgrown river-roads,
Malls and McMansions.

Chicagoland,
Lakeland, Lake County.
Once a home, now a land desired.
Windy city,
I never underestimated you:
Your snow-stained blacktop,
Your cleansing sun.

Chicago Winter

Posted by sean

My good friends Tommy, Mike, and Scott have formed a band. They call themselves “Chicago Winter.” What a fitting title, highlighting the poetry that is a Chicago Winter. Oh Chicago, how I miss your snow-stained blacktop!

Their music is very good. Check out their myspace page here.

"Film is life, too"

Posted by sean

Christopher Doyle is one of my favorite cinematographers. His work in the Jet Li film “Hero” is exquisite, as is his cinematography in “Lady In The Water,” the one redeeming feature of that film. I just recently heard of another martial arts flick he made back in the 90’s called “Ashes of Time” — I can’t wait to see it! Half out of his mind and obsessed with globetrotting, Doyle says a lot of crazy things about filmmaking, but occasionally he says something really insightful. Here he’s being interviewed by icf.com for his work on “Paranoid Park.” This is what he has to say about working in the film environment:

“… Most films actually do make themselves. How well they make themselves depends on our openness to, and global understanding of, all the elements that contribute to a “work.” The actors respond to a space. The production designer and the director and cinematographer have chosen or manipulated or created the space. The light defines the space, but if the light is “natural,” it may be temperamental… changing in unexpected ways… and what if the actors are new to their craft? And what if someone falls ill? The parameters have to be engaged. Film is life, too… I try to “go with the flow.”

So cool! Filmmaking really is the most improvised of all art forms. No matter how hard you plan, the space you shoot in and the actors playing the parts will always change things. Some of the greatest cinematic art comes out of these unavoidable, improvised changes. Film really is a lot like life. If you’re like Doyle, you’ll just “go with the flow;” but even the most controlling directors must improvise from time to time–it’s what makes cinema such a unique art form.

News From Lake Wobegon

Posted by sean

Garrison Keillor is an incredible story teller, and after 19 years of telling stories about his fictional hometown of Lake Wobegone he’s still going strong. This particular tale from October 27, 2007 is a great example of his ability to, through simple everyday narrative style, tell a story so visual that you feel like you’re there. You can actually see the girls volleyball game going on in front of you and feel all the energy of the moment. The man is incredibly talented!

Check out the podcast of this particular “tale” here

Watchmen Trailer Music

Posted by sean

I’m not a big Smashing Pumpkins fan, but the trailer for the new highbrow superhero flick “The Watchmen” features their song “The End is the Beginning is the End”–and its awesome!

Send a heartbeat to
The void that cries through you
The pale princess of a palace cracked
And now the kingdom comes
The world is lost and blown
And we are flesh and blood disintegrate
And in your darkest hour
I hold secrets flame
We can watch the world devoured in its pain

“God help us all”
“The world will look up and shout, “save us” and I’ll whisper ‘no.’ ”

Melodramatic shivers! I love it when visuals work so well with lyrics. Plus, nothing can put me in cinematic catharsis like a solidly edited trailer. Will “The Watchmen” be any good? I haven’t read the comic its based on, so I really can’t say, but regardless, this trailer is pretty sweet, visuals and music.
Check out the trailer here.

Why Candy Corn Is Awesome

Posted by sean


Why is candy corn awesome you may ask? Here’s why:

SUGAR, CORN SYRUP, SALT, HONEY, GELATIN, CONFECTIONER’S GLAZE, DEXTROSE, ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, TITANIUM DIOXIDE COLOR, YELLOW 6, YELLOW 5, RED 3. BLUE 1.

THAT’S why!

Three Incredible, Crazy Projects!

Posted by sean

Life has been extremely crazy-hectic for me these past few weeks! I’m involved with three incredible projects that have been taking up all of my free time, and some of my homework time too! (contorts face in mock pain)

Project 1: James Lee’s senior film. Its called “Ridgeback” and involves a monster in a crate. That’s all I’m at liberty to say right now. My job on the project is assistant set designer. Basically, James designs the sets and I offer helpful advice. Mostly, I’ve been cutting old wood up to nail to the walls of the “backstage” set that we’re in the process of building, which is turning out to be really amazing! Check out this picture!

Project 2: The Silver Chair. This is really going to be cool. It’s a one-hour adaptation of one of C. S. Lewis’s classic Narnia stories and we’re performing it on a minimalist set under a gazebo at night! Sam Gubitz, an incredibly crazy woman, is the creator and director and we’ve been practicing about 9 hours each week. I’m playing the part of Eustace Scrub. Its been demanding, but a lot of fun.

Project 3: Project London. One of my brilliant internet associates, Ian Hubert, along with producer Phil McCoy and Spiral Productions, are making a highly epic sci/fi flick up in Washington state. I managed to get a volunteer job on the crew doing sync work. I’ll be getting footage in the mail soon, which I’ll sync audio too. Not the most exciting job, but I’m still really pumped to be on the crew of such a potentially awesome film. Check out the project’s blog site here.

So yeah, lots of stuff going on for me right now. Life will be simpler after Silver Chair is over in November, but I’m loving every minute of it, I’m going on an on-location mountain shoot with James Lee this Saturday in North Carolina, which will be an incredible experience, and  when I get the footage from Project London, I’m sure I’ll be really busy with that too. All in all I feel very blessed to have all these projects to work on and learn from.

Hurt

Posted by sean

I love this song! It’s by Nine Inch Nails, but Johnny Cash recorded it. It paints a vivid picture of a man at the end of his life looking back and seeing how pointless all his fame and glory was. He’s ready to give away his “empire of dirt” because he realizes that everything earthly fades away. “Everyone I know goes away in the end.” Goosebumps! I think Cash chose this song because of the way it reflected his life, much of which he spent as an unbeliever, and because of its humble, truthful lyrics. We humans truly are scum. We live for ourselves, we lie, and we hurt each other. Praise God that for Christians, regardless of our sin, Christ is still our “sweetest friend.”

I hurt myself today
to see if I still feel
I focused on the pain
the only thing that’s real
the needle tears a hole
the old familiar sting
try to kill it all away
but I remember everything

what have I become?
my sweetest friend
everyone I know
goes away in the end
and you could have it all
my empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt

I wear this crown of thorns
upon my liar’s chair
full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair
beneath the stains of time
the feelings disappear
you are someone else
I am still right here

what have I become?
my sweetest friend
everyone I know
goes away in the end
and you could have it all
my empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt

if I could start again
a million miles away
I would keep myself
I would find a way

Check out the excellent music video for this song here

The Ills of Popular Cinema or, “Franchise Killed the Originality Star”

Posted by sean

I’ve been reading about “The Hobbit” film adaptation. Apparently, Tolkien’s son doesn’t want to see it made, and is pressing fraud charges against New Line Cinema. Guillermo Del Toro, the much touted director of the film, is making all sorts of ruckus in the media about which actors he will cast to play the parts and what crazy plans he has for creature effects. Meanwhile, fans everywhere bite their nails and worry that the film might not turn out right, or, worse, might never be made.

I’m a huge fan of Tolkien’s books and I loved Peter Jackson’s trilogy — with reservations of course. Regardless of how much liberty he took with Tolkien’s story, Jackson’s films were brilliant works of popular art that never reached too high or stooped to low. Together, these films were by far the most excellent entertainment in decades, but, to be honest, as much as I loved Jackson’s trilogy, I’m not that excited about “The Hobbit.” Del Toro has proven that he can make both brilliant works of cinematic art and jaw dropping failures. Pan’s Labyrinth is a great film. Hellboy 2? Not so much. I’ve got a feeling that “Hobbit” will be somewhere in the middle. What makes me sick is this mentality we filmgoers have developed. We seem to revolve our lives around the release of films like “The Hobbit” and in the process we limit the art of Cinema to a live-action landscape for our favorite books, comics, and video games to be played out in.

Because of this rabid fandom mentality, adaptations of popular books and comic characters are making the most money. Subsequently, these movies get the most hype, and overall, the most screen time per year. The escalation of these kinds of films is ruining the way in which we watch movies. No longer do we say: “Star Wars? What’s that about?” Instead it’s “I loved that as a kid! I wonder which villain they’ll use” In a sense, the franchise has ruined the joy of original cinema.

I like what the Inventor in Johnson’s “Rasselas” says: “Nothing will ever be attempted, if all possible objections must be first overcome.” Sure, telling a brand new story, one with no tie-in to a kids books or a comic series might not make the most money, but it’s a start. Everyone thought George Lucas was crazy, but he created a timeless film that people still love today. Where are the new stories? Why do we keep having to rehash ideas that were used to make a quick buck on newsstands back in the 20s and 30s? The comic book and the novel are both great storytelling forms, but so is cinema. Let’s joyfully make and watch new cinematic stories and quit worrying about whether Sir Ian Mckellen will reprise his role, and who will play Bilbo Baggins.

I’m going to enjoy God’s gift of cinema and make my own movies, and quit worrying how Del Toro makes his.