noise.

noise is strange. they're showing two of my idents as part of their festival. idents which involve things been thrown around the australian bush by the posse of kush, vinoo, and aiken. odd.

and they've decided to only show cassar's someone to love as part of their short film collection. apparently they're only screening five shorts - the weekly program is for non traditional media (hence the crazy idents). so that makes the effort of dave sattout and i doing redoing the soundtrack for STL more worthwhile (he was designer, i was mixer). doing sound is a nightmare generally but for this film it was especially difficult cause not much is going on: no dialogue, no music, no action. just spot effects and atmos. hard to mix when you have no 'normal' reference point.

pulled out of dp'ing a spec spot which is shooting tomorrow. last minute notice for me and even more last minute notice for them. i was told i didn't need lights or a gaffer (they're shooting an infinity white room) and then when i started asking questions about the production they said to 'get a grip'. so i told them to go get fucked (more politely). no point wasting my time. word of advice, never trust producers who only want to spend money on expendables (ie tape) because then the bottom line becomes more important that the product. producers who don't give a shit about the product are dickheads. :)

geoff boyle has set up my screen directing discussion list, so once i've set it all up, i'll announce it here and watch no one join :)

oh, and noise wants to profile this blog. nfi why.

(i'm sitting on the toilet writing this. airport is so cool)

Russian Ark

Finally saw Russian Ark. I was warned that you'd need to have a fairly good knowledge of Russian art and history to appreciate it. Me, being me, decided to not do any research for my first screening of RA. The film should stand alone (apart from my cursory knowledge of C20th Russian history) or, at least, I should attempt to engage with it outside of that knowledge-context. If I didn't like it the first time in the absence of that knowledge, I could always watch it again after doing some reading.

So did it work? Yes. Its not a perfect film to be sure - and I was as impressed with its technical achievement (the choreography, the steadycam shot) as I was as umimpressed with its technical flaws (sloppy sound, sloppy use of the zoom, sloppy HD <-- its noisy, lacks tonal range and stop latitude and generally looks like film stocks circa 1970). It does meander a bit - particularly during the ball scene and the walking out - but it is meant to have a dream like quality.

What I did like about Russian Ark was that it was a love letter to art, history and Russia - and it was accompanied with a palaptable sense of loss. I found it very moving.

For those who think it was boring. I understand. Completely. The experience of Russian Ark reminded me of when you visit museums and you wear those little headsets with commentaries :) You drift from art work to art work, room to room, drifting in and out of listening the commentary, contemplating each art work, getting bored, excited, inspired and dulled by turns, thinking introspectively, then extrospectively. etc. etc. Its a kind of meditation of the mind and the soul.