I'm so excited about Harry Potter, I drew a picture of it.

HARRY POTTER PUPPET PALS

ALSO: 

Creature 002: off to start another life!

Bye bye, Bat Creature! Fare thee well!

'The Frets' photojournal

Bolex #4 - a mysterious enigma that does not like to count film properly and enjoys giving me anxiety.

The paperwork... before it got stuffed into my pocket for three days.

Organization. A bitter sweet process.

This then happened. 90% of the clothes I own were unfolded and thrown on the floor. But, with any luck, it will be the best stop motion double exposure anyone has ever experienced.

Overall, it was a pretty swell, but extremely tiring process. First and foremost, thanks to my one talent/superhelper/drinking buddy Durae! She put up with three days of not only me, but FILMMAKING me, which is this entirely different entity.

For this first project, I decided to go without help. I got lots of offers for extra hands on location from my super film class peers, but this was a journey I had to make to myself - perhaps only to prove that I could do it on my own.

My weekend (mid-Thursday through very early on Monday) went as such:

• 4+ hours of planning, storyboarding, checking and double checking equipment
• 10+ hours of set ups and shooting
• 200 feet of 16mm film
• numerous mild aneurysms over-thinking exposures
• trying to justify to a stranger or two why I was shooting on film and not digital
• a lot of puns
• 5 hours of my normal job
• 12 hours of Lord of the Rings at the Rio
• Way over budget on food
• 6 hours of late night philosophical conversation
• a soup pot filled with spiced rum cider
• so much coffee
• 10 hours of sleep

My film is currently being whisked to Ontario to the fantastic Niagara Custom Lab. I hope to have it back by next Monday, so I can begin the arduous process of post-production I have assembled for myself. I am sure there will be lots of cursing when I get the film back. Then when I have to cut it on the Steenbeck, then again when I'm hunched over it, carving impossibly tiny things into a 16mm wide piece of emulsion with a knife. But this is the moment I have been dreaming of since the day I woke up and figured I would devote the rest of my life to film. Life is good.

On Sunday, the amazing Rio Theater showed all three Lord of the Rings films (the extended versions, too!). It was a struggle to stay awake through them, as I had gotten 10  hours of sleep over the course of three days and I was extremely exhausted. It was so great to see them all again. I realized that I hadn't seen Fellowship of the Ring in theaters for eight years. Which makes me feel old. The first and second of the trilogy were shown on 35mm. Unfortunately, Return of the King was shown on DVD and seeing the two compared so close together made me see the difference. It's something I always knew was there, and now I have physical proof for myself. There was digital noise, the colour was different (in a sort of contrast-bumped way) and even the sound was distorted. Nonetheless, it was a rather emotional experience; partly because of the lack of sleep and the rapid 'coming down' after two days of caffeine high, but mainly because I realized that The Fellowship of the Ring was the film that introduced me to the concept of cinematography. The day I watched that film, not only did I want to make films even more, but my perspective of filmmaking changed. It sounds really lame - but it came out when I was 12 or 13, I had never seen anything so amazing. Nothing will ever influence me the ways that these movies did.

"Fell deeds awake... now for wrath... now for ruin... and the red dawn."

Anyways, I'd just thought I'd justify my Lord of the Rings love. If you have it seen it, see it now. It's got an ocean of depth (compared, especially, to the puddle of depth Avatar has). Also, read it. I've read Fellowship of the Ring so many times. When they pass through Farmer Maggot's field has always stuck with me, a long with the parts with Tom Bombadil. ANYWAYS, it deserves a lot of respect, both the books and the films. I'll stop having a glory rant.

I still owe my blog some VIFF reviews. One of these days.

Hope everyone's having a great November!

Bazinga.

Just a quick, low-sugar update:

I got a Tumblr account. Check it out if that's the sort of thing that floats your boat. Weird things happen there.

SOUP IS FOR WINNERS

That is all.

Except for: I just picked up my sweet, sweet Bolex today. I'm shooting my first year film this weekend - it is called 'The Frets'. STAY TUNED FOR UPDATES.

I need less espresso and more real food....

ALRIGHT IT'S NOVEMBER

^Bee that is busy.

Okay, so long time no posts. Busy as a bee, universe likes to throw weird things at me. But that is normal. I've had a few days this week that I have just been as sick as a dog. This has made me pretty sad. As no one really likes getting sick.

I made some awesome cookies that I found via Stumbleupon last week from The Picky Palate. I substituted the dried blueberries with frozen ones, rolled oats with regular oats and (disappointingly (if that is, in fact, a word)) butterscotch chipits instead of caramel bits. They turned out delicious and chunky. Damn good, I say! I highly recommend them.

I also made some fairly awesome potato and leek soup that I found in one of Jamie Oliver's cookbooks (and apparently, on the internet, HERE). I froze a bunch of it, storing up for winter I guess. Although it is a little bland, it's quite hardy and extra awesome when you crush up A LOT of soda crackers in the soup. Mm. So delicious. I am hoarding food. Tomorrow I make a huge amount of curry, which I will subsequently divide and freeze into happy little packets.

Via.

In other food news: check out the best hot chocolate in existence from Big City, Little Kitchen. Nutella. WHAT?

More food news: THESE. Minty chocolate goodness. In a cookie.

I like food too too much.

In and around Vancouver? Pretty please check out the Beaty Biodiversity Museum! I went there with my Pops a few weeks ago. Go see a blue whale skeleton! Find out that it's heart is the size of a car! Find out what the skull of a platypus looks like! Check out my flikr slide show of my experience! I even got to do a treasure hunt! Life was swell!

I've got some VIFF reviews coming. REALLY REALLY late reviews. But they exist.

I've been getting my astronomy on lately via the world of books. I finished reading The First Light by Richard Preston last week. It sort of amped up the 6 year old child that lived in my brain and brought back the wonder that comes with stars. The First Light is about the history and construction of the tremendous Hale Telescope. While on this binge, I watched Apollo 13 the other day (while in a neocitran/soup/tylenol daze) and am reading Out of Orbit: The Incredible True Story of Three Astronauts Who Were Hundreds of Miles Above Earth When They Lost Their Ride Home by Chris Jones. The book is tremendous. It has put space in perspective (I think we so often lose perspective of what is outside our atmosphere) once again for me. The amount of work that goes into sending people to space and maintaining them there is astronomical (ha.) and absolutely incredible. The idea of being in space, of surviving in zero gravity and in an environment so few people have touched. Absolutely amazing.

Another thing that has existed for a while, but I just discovered it's awesomeness? Dangerous Days, the Blade Runner documentary. I've been a huge fan of Blade Runner for a long time, but this just blew my mind. One of the last, great science fiction films made without computer effects. That's right. No CGI. All effects are in camera, hand made wonders. The number of highly skilled artists all working manually - with film, with paint, Plexiglas,  wood - it actually blew my mind. Most of the time I was wondering why modern day Hollywood sci fi flicks cost so much when everything is done on computers. Dangerous Days made Blade Runner even more incredible to me. If you haven't seen Blade Runner? See it. Probably see some sort of directors cut that doesn't have a narration. If you haven't seen Dangerous Days? Please, please see it. The amount of craftsmanship that went into the film puts everything that has come out in the last 30 years to shame (well, with some exceptions). It makes me sad that I will never have the opportunity to make such an incredible work without the aid of computers. *sigh*

Check out this excellent film I helped out on (a.k.a. put lasagna's in the oven and gave some people coffee sometimes). It's called MANTIS! (It's full of some gross things, so viewer's discretion!) We made it for the 2010 Bloodshots film festival. We won for Best Cinematography, which was pretty awesome. But no dice for best picture or audience choice! See the rest of the contender's videos at the Bloodshots MySpace page!

Something awesome is happening this Saturday. STAY TUNED.

On a final, political note, I want to say one thing. Now I don't pretend to know a whole ton about politics. I really do not. BUT. A president who does not make your lives infinitely better in two years dumped for a bunch of right wing yahoos. Something does not compute. This does not compute. Ta dah.

Via.