De Spartacus

Well hello original LOTR battle scenes.
Expanding on space, story, action, story and even length, Spartacus looks like Kubrick was freed from any creative chains that might have held him back in his previous films. Not that he needed to break free in the others, but this one provided a canvas to truly experiment with his actors and his environment.

I liked the movie a lot. The action was entertaining and the ending was unexpected. But then this is to be expected from Kubrick. Happiness does not seem to be his staple.

A few things did bother me. Namely the soft focus used to shoot Jean Simmons, Varinia. this technique was used to make her seem more beautiful than she already is, but to me, it was rather distracting to go from one cut of Spartacus in sharp focus, to the next of Varinia in this dream-like state...and then back again. While it did make her seem beautiful and dreamy, in my world, imperfections add to the true beauty, and Jean Simmons did not look like an imperfection sort of lady, so the soft-focus was unnecessary.

The acting was another interesting thing int he movie. Kubrick's actors are truly his own. They don't seem to be performing via their own accord, but by the Kubrickian strings that the director deems necessary to get the 'right' performance from his puppets. It definitely works, but in a way that is familiar when you know what to look for. Kirk Douglas and Jean Simmons are fantastic as the doomed couple, and Lawrence Olivier is unseemly menacing as the evil Crassus.

Personally, the greatest moment came in the last half, as the gladiators battled the Romans. For fifteen minutes, the Romans walked into battle as the picture perfect image of a war nation, organized and ready for battle. They had perfect formations that came from all sides of the battlefield, slowly marching towards the gladiators. And the most astounding thing was the scope of the production...thousands of actors dressed in Roman garb marching in unison, no cgi to be had at all. While LOTR looked amazing as well, their sense of scope was created through computers, and I am not saying it was a bad thing at all, but seeing what Kubrick accomplished with Spartacus is truly impressive.
Anyways, after all the formal marching, it took a few seconds for the gladiators to send torched lumbers rolling down the hills and have those brave Roman soldiers running cowardly for their lives...all thousands of them.

Spartacus ended a few minutes later, tragically as all Kubrick films deem to find an end. Man's destiny is inescapable and we are born with an innate urge to both run from and complete our destiny; which is what happens to Spartacus. He ends as an example, a martyr, a hero, a husband and bound in wood...just like he begun.

Mis Classes

This semester, I am taking 5 classes, overloading one more time. It was a little rough doing this last semester, but it turned out fine, so I decided to give it another go before my years in an educational institution come to an end. After a month or so in classes, I've realized how interesting and productive they've been. I'm taking the following:

JO305: Intro to Basic Photography:
I am a self-taught photographer. I got my Digital Rebel XT as a Three King's present, and ever since then, I have pretty much worked alone in learning how to use it and how to take good photographs. I took what I knew from motion picture film and applied it to still photography and the results have been pretty good I believe; especially for having no previous training or help. As time went on, my desire and curiosity grew, so I decided to learn the basics of photography in this class. I only had my digital Canon, so I had to somehow get a hold of a 35mm SLR and a bunch of equipment. I managed to buy a Canon Rebel G on Ebay for $40, which can use the lenses that I have for my Digital Canon, so that was pretty sweet. My dad bought me a 50mm f/1.8 EF lens, a flash, film, paper, etc. Now I'm all set. I had my first assignment, a portrait in shadow and direct sunlight, and I think overall it went well.

The first time I developed film was a mess, but the shots I needed weren't ruined. I, however, thought I could do better, so I re shot and developed that roll. Both times my developing was a mess. I was unable to correctly unspool the film onto the metal spool, so I got some blotches on some shots and some ruined/undeveloped negatives. Overall, what I needed was not ruined. When I was making prints, I ended up wasting around 30-40 sheets of paper, just because I needed to get the exposures JUST right. When Liam told me about getting absolute whites and absolute blacks in my prints, I knew I had to work on them until I got it right. Eventually I did, but after a lot of trial and error. Liam said that it took him a long time to get prints to look good, and he thought mine looked good, so that was encouraging. He didn't have the background in film that I do, so I can see how I picked up on things a little faster. Still, no cakewalk.

FT 5-something: Directing:
This class I love. Half of it is full of COM Directors, and the other half is full of CFA Acting/Theater majors. As directors, we get to write our own scene, and eventually direct it with the actors. We get to cast, rehearse, edit, and work on the project all semester long, and I am really excited about it. I wrote a draft of my scene on Friday, and Liam read it over and gave me some criticisms, so I took his advice and rewrote another scene that he thought was much better. I will write about that later on.

FT 5-something: Kubrick:
Ah the works of Stanley Kubrick is also a great class. It's a little trying just because we spend 4 1/2 hours sitting and either watching a movie or talking about it, but I think Kubrick is one of the greatest American directors, and his movies are truly watchable, as opposed to some other things we watch in other Film Study classes. We've seen Killer's Kiss, The Killing, and Paths of Glory... The best one so far has to be the Killing, if not jut for the last few seconds.

CL305: The Drama of Greek Myth into Film:
This class is really interesting. We are studying the effect of Greek Mythology and Drama on modern day film. So far we've only seen Pasolini's Edipo Re, which was a great mind trip, but we've seen clips from a bunch of other movies, both old and new. The professor is really dynamic and it's not unlikely to have him bellowing Homer's text in relation to the images we had seen seconds prior. Plus he got me reading Plato, Homer, Nietzsche, and Sophocles. And this week we're watching the best film I saw this summer: Chinatown.

FT5-something: Experimental Production for the Small Screen:

Now in this class, we are working for AMP'D Mobile and creating a series of digital shorts for their cell phone download service. The shorts are fictional and dynamic in nature, and have to tell a narrative story. Oh and we're filming the whole thing with their cell phones. Yup, each person in the class got a cell phone to play around with for the whole semester. This class is definitely the oddest one of the bunch, but fascinating at the same time. We're doing something that is as topical as can be, and while different than my original vision of the class, it is still exciting, new and more importantly, different.

So those are my wonderful classes. More to come soon.

Bienvenido.

Welcome to a new start.

It has been my desire for a good time now to create a new blog. To move away from the last one and document my development through the times ahead. My desire is to document classes, art, writings, workings, chats, movies, shows, etc. that I have been a part of, that I have witnessed, or desire to witness. This will be a place where I can vent, be a scatterbrain, develop, brainstorm, organize, analyse, discuss, and examine my ideas and observations about life and the things that surround me.

I will be posting pictures, documents, scripts, quotes, dialogues, videos, observations in the hopes of getting some feedback and ideas.

Asi que dejemos toda esta baba y pongamonos a trabajar.