Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Winter break

Is over.

Here is a video I assembled that represents such a time.




I have been using this Vado HD mini-camera (?) lately.   The school loaned out to me as part of a poorly managed promotion/ contest (whatever) and strangely has not asked for it back.  I've shot quite a bit with it, and become a little bit better at capturing/ predicting "moments", or just spying on people looking at porn on their iPhones on the subway. Among other things.

It is, as most of you know, a new year. I have resolutions and am sticking to them (at least the ones I remembered).  My room has seen some practical improvements, like my new blue sunlight-obscuring curtains, and a padded computer chair. For the past year and a half I used a plastic folding chair. No wonder I've been having lower back pain.
I am looking for another bookshelf to tie the room together. Any suggestions?
I am also buying more frozen vegetables, on the advice of my mother, who believes frozen vegetables are actually often more nutritious than fresh ones.  Today I bought pizza dough and pizza sauce too. Tiny, domestic victories.


In academic news, I dropped Narrative because I was getting bad vibes from the pre-class emails and don't really feel like killing myself for a movie.  I'm taking Experimental Animation instead, which is an exciting prospect.  I have plans of making my wilderness/prison break film in the summer. For fun.
I'm also taking a fiction class, a Melville class, and an International cinema class. All have met expectations, for now. We get to watch Syndromes and a Century and Spirit of the Beehive and some other crap I haven't seen, which feels useful. 


The addition of Netflix instant to my life is a plus.
I am also trying to be more honest and learn guitar. 

Here is another video I filmed.



High hopes and optimism 2010.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

TONIGHT WAS ALL ABOUT

Face tattoos



No but seriously two great movies, go see em.

I'm going to make a concerted effort to use this baby more in the coming months and start posting some work and funny bits. Don't touch those dials.


Almost a tattoo

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

foamy like a brewskie

congrats steve

first run 2009
best director
best screenwriter
best film


Saturday, March 28, 2009

lkasdfdsmn asn

I shoot a movie in a coupla hours. yay! wish me luck.

It's about two bros.



and pizza.


hopefully back to normal soon.
blake

Sunday, January 25, 2009


At the Union Square Walgreens, in line to buy a Coca-Cola after the m83 show (excellent!), I photographed this fantastic baby t-shirt that, incidentally and hilariously enough, foretold what I would become later that night.


I Love You, Man - Redband trailer




This looks good. Along with Adventureland I am pretty excited for some comedies in 2009.


Lately I have been more interested in good comedy, in how good comedy works, in the structure of jokes and gags and stuff. I definitely want my color sync to be funny, I guess.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

I am fairly drunk right now but with the help of the google/blogspot.com spellcheck tool hopefully you will not notice.

I feel like I should post more when I'm drunk because then my insecurities won't be as prevalent and, umm, "inhibiting."

Lately I have been really into, Happy Go Lucky, which I downloaded illegally (missed the theatrical, sorry). Tis' a film by Mike Leigh which I found absolutely enrapturing, and really effective, but in the most human and non-dramtaic ways. The homeless scene seemed a little much. Then scene at her sister's house, though, was brilliant. It's a clear message but so humanistically expressed by the performances and the filmmaking that the effect is transcendant.



At times, (or during this film at least) I think of films like great athletic events, like boxing matches or Kobe vs. Lebron or Federer vs. Nadal. In this film SALLY HAWKINS AND EDDIE MARSDAN were the battle for me and I could have watched it all day; how do these actors and characters bounce off each other? What does one fundamentally different character do when just in the mere presences of another fundamen tally different character? How do these situations evolve? There's a certain vitality created when two characters enter the ring with each other; Jarmsuch I think works like this, in which he puts catalystic characters into situations and lets them "interact" or something. Like adding lions to a gladatorial fight. I like acting.


Anyways I really enjoyed the movie. But I think I might be biased because Sally Hawkins's character was unbelievably attractive in my eyes, in both personality and looks. Not grating at all. Like a dreamgirl.

Regardless, the movie is great.


But this post was really just designed to highlight the song of the year (2008), in my eyes.

This is SALEM with "whenusleep".


lyrics

Are you crying when you sleep
Or do you stay up
jacking off
to the thought of me

it's okay to be awkw~~~~
~~~~something~~~ blah~blah~~~
just like me

Are you crying when you sleep
Or do you stay up
jacking off
to the thought of me


ok wow about to pass out. whissky!

Thursday, December 11, 2008



"Finals" are upon me and this week is busy. The 1 year anniversary of BLAKECITY has come and gone and I forgot about it. Oh well. Nic Cage remembered BLAKECITY'S birthday though and dressed up for the occasion.



I've been listening to a lot of Bruce Springsteen and Orange Juice (great!) and some new music too. I'm excited to post my end of the year lists because I love lists and I think I've been pretty up to date on material, so I'll be able to actually talk about stuff with some sort of confidence. Movies too. Not books though, I go through those like molasses. Suttree over break (fingers crossed).




Speaking of books, I saw Twilight the other day (sidenote; apparently after 11 on weeknights there is no one taking tickets at the theater[??]), which, as a film, is a preposterous mess that stumbles through so many levels of seriousness and cheese that it can hardly contain itself. That being said, it's one of the more interesting movies of the year and so much fun to watch. I've never seen a movie take place in between the staring eyes of two people more than in Catherine Hardwicke's mindfuckingly exaggerated shot-reverse-shot staring contest.



There are a lot of good movies out too. Che comes out this week in its 4 hour cut, as well as Gran Torino and some other stuff. Wendy and Lucy comes out this week too, which is as essential as any film is this year, in my mind. I saw it at the NYFF and... wow. Really amazing stuff.




Not to mention the new Punisher film which has received some surprisingly positive reviews from friends, and Transporter 3, whose trailer blew my mind.

I also saw Benjamin Button tonight, which was disappointing.

ANYWAYSSSS

Back to work, world. Stuff to show eventually, I suppose.






Home in less than a week. Here's a gem from the olden days.


Tuesday, November 11, 2008

A classic

In honor of finally fixing the border around my title page picture, I now present to you a short comedy I made with a good friend, Richard Provencio, in the Fall of 2004. I was 15 years old.




"Doin' Coke!" was an assignment for the illustrious Digital Media Production class, in the first semester taught by the inimitable and hopelessly under qualified Robert Kaechele. The program has inconceivably grown into a very successful and well equipped entity since then, which is a real mystery to anyone who has taken the class and seen this guy.

Yes, my teacher was/is a house DJ outside of school.

Anyways, I'm pretty certain the original idea centered around remixing the start of Pink Floyd's "Money" (you know, the part where they have all the change and cash register sound effects) by replacing those sounds with the sounds from a Coca-Cola can. Richard liked Coca-Cola a lot, and would have at least three a day usually.

None of us had ever done coke. I had yet to drink alcohol or smoke marijuana at this point either.

We filmed this is one night in my house, with a skeleton, two-man cast/crew combo. Notice the interesting, sort of over-the-shoulder conversation; that was filmed by pressing record on the camera, then running into place to do the scene, and then stopping it afterwards. Also notice the somewhat notorious "fridge shot" that Omar Malik so kindly remembers this film by. You won't miss the cameos by my two dogs (Happy and Shasta, I miss you! Well, Happy mostly) and a lot of strange homoerotic undertones.

I kind of love watching this stuff, because I couldn't even tell you what kind of movies I liked at the time, or why I was influenced to do things this certain way. It was pure dumb luck and intuition that anything got done at all.
Now I'm at film school where I spend hours learning how to dissect the craft and the art to its most excruciatingly minute details, almost seperating myself as much as possible from the stupid fun of the experience. I miss that creative innocence.

Anyways, enjoy.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Errol

Sean's blog about Errol Morris made me think of Errol Morris and how he has popped into my life recently. (The 2 TIMES theory, will discuss later). So here are a few more Errol Morris posts.





Errol Morris has a new movie out soon, called "Standard Operating Procedure," and it's probably going to be fantastic. Here is the trailer.


Tony Kornheiser and Errol Morris, two of my favorite people, apparently went to school together! What a smart 6th grade class that must have been. PTI is my favorite sports show... ever? Yes, I think so.


Also, I recently rediscovered this Apple ad that Errol Morris did in 2002.




ELLEN FEISS!!! After watching about three times, and reading her wikipedia page and an interview with her, I decided that I love this girl, and even joined a Facebook group about her. Sigh. I think she goes to college too. Set me up!!!

So enough of this rambling. When his movie comes out, eat a shoe.


(Errol Morris apparently wasn't impressed by this event, and him and Herzog had a small "feud" until recently)



Ok a song for today? How about this classic from Saves the Day.

"Sell My Old Clothes, I'm Off to Heaven" - Saves the Day

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

brink

Sorry, really busy this week, losing hair left and right, will return from underwater in a little bit. The window is open and it is quite cold and the wind whistles through the crack and my baby sunflowers shiver.

Did you know the film "Brink" on vhs costs over 55 dollars? I downloaded it the other day, very excited to watch it. Some wild steadicam work throughout.

Friday, February 8, 2008

Not to be THAT guy, but...

I kind of hate talking about film, to an extent, just because I don't believe my language or analytical abilities are sharp enough to either say anything coherent or truly express how I feel.

But, I do like movies, and I do like the discussion of movies, so most of my experiences in this realm are ones where I'm reading said discussions. Good, thoughtful, intelligent exchanges, where things are said and learned.

like here. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0416449/board



Lately I've been reading a lot of David Bordwell. He wrote one of my textbooks last year, which was very ok...





















(It's kind of funny how when the internet leads you somewhere once, you 99% of the time won;t go back to it again. There's too much to see, to many distractions, to many other things to do. Why does this site deserve your time and energy? [thx JD]. But when you unexpectedly return to a site, your chances of visiting and revising that site are almost guaranteed)

So in some of my extended internet browsing, I stumbled upon the extremely well educated Mr. Bordwell's blog twice, and read a lot of what he had to say. He doesn't so much criticize things as much as he asks questions and provides information, history, and context. Why does Cloverfield make people nauseous? What's the deal with that flat, symmetrical shot we see a lot in indies? Is the Bourne Trilogy really that original?

He draws from a truly encyclopedic knowledge of film and doesn't hesitate to compare Tati, Chaplin, the Coen Brothers, and CRANK (with Jason Statham) in the same set of paragraphs. see said discussion here

more stuff below. Just explore.

Cloverfield + pre-Cloverfield
Bourne stuff
Insane Godard Aspect ratio talk
And NATIONAL TREASURE

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

<3<3<3<3<3

The more random a post is, the lazier I am being, the later I am posting it, etc. etc. etc. blahhhhhhhhhhhh buh


I saw Vincent Gallo today on the street. THE Vincent Gallo who made Buffalo '66 and The Brown Bunny, who wears light up grills and sells his sperm for 1,000,000.





It was weird because he said "HI" to me, and I had to think on my feet to make a clever response. Which happened to be the incredible "HEY". Haha.







This is pretty funny --------> A chat room discussing the Pazz and Jop poll (basically a magazine's Yearly "Best Of" for music")


I also like this. This was a short film from 1974 that was kinda jacked by a GMC Super Bowl Commercial that didn't make any sense.

Watch this instead.

Friday, January 25, 2008

Best of 2007 Part 2 of 2

Let me know what you think of these. Ok peace.


No Country for Old Men
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Superbad
Paprika
Once
Ratatouille
Zodiac
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Persepolis

There Will Be Blood
I’m Not There


Special Award
(These movies are good if not better than the ones listed, but are here for other reasons)

Syndromes and a Century – (fell asleep for a big chunk of it, long day, movie was amazing)
Killer of Sheep – (made in 1977, released now. Otherwise best film of the year)

Also deserving

Hot Fuzz, Knocked Up, King of Kong, Eastern Promises





W O R S T
1. 300
2. Rush Hour 3
3. Transformers
4. Juno
5. 30 Days of Night
6. The Host



OH PLEASE... Really?
(most overrated)

1.
JUNO (This movie makes me hate America, adults, and so many things that I once thought I loved and understood.)
2.
THE HOST (This is NOT a good monster movie. This is a MESS)
3.
The Bourne Ultimatum (This is NOT the "greatest action film ever"; it's not even the 2nd best Bourne Movie)
4.
There Will Be Blood (This is NOT the greatest American Film Ever! It's good but c'mon guys that is SO RASH!!)
5.
Atonement (This is NOT a good complete film. It looks and sounds pretty. The End.)
6.
300 (This is NOT the future of filmmaking. This may be the future of the military recruitment film though.)


WTF

YAY WTF – National Treasure II: Book of Secrets, Next, Ghost Rider (WOW!!!!)
Depressing WTF – D-Warz
ETERNAL WTF – Southland Tales



Not seen

Really want to: Electroma, Brand Upon the Brain!, Quiet City, Surf’s Up, Resident Evil: Extinction
Feel obliged to: Michael Clayton, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, 3:10 to Yuma, Sweeney Todd, Lust, Caution
New Movies from 2007 seen in 2007: 45

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Best of 2007 in FILM - part 1 of 2


I saw a lot of movies this year. Here are some things I liked and otherwise; technical categories, things I care about in movies, etc.

TOMMORROW I will post the Best of Movies/worst of Movies list.



Cool Big Time Performances:

Casey Affleck - Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Tommy Lee Jones - No Country for Old Men
Glen Hansard - Once
Daniel Day-Lewis - There Will Be Blood
Michael Cera - Superbad

Saorise Ronan - Atonement
Marketa Irglova - Once
Cate Blanchett - I'm Not There
Juliette Binoche - The Flight of the Red Balloon

Other

Brad Pitt, Sam Rockwell, Paul Schneider - Assassination
Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Gene Jones, Kelly MacDonald - No Country
Will Smith - I Am Legend
Heath Ledger, Richard Gere - I'm Not There
Robert Downey Jr. - Zodiac
Simon Pegg, Nick Frost - Hot Fuzz


ACTOR OF THE YEAR

Garret Dillahunt - Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford AND No Country for Old Men




Visuals

Roger Deakins (Cinematographer - No Country, Assassination...)
Satoshi Kon (Director - Paprika)
Vincent Parronaud, Marjane Satrapi - (Directors - Persepolis)

Writing

Joel Coen, Ethan Coen - No Country for Old Men
Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen - Superbad
James Vanderbilt - Zodiac

Coolest Sound Effect

Assassination of Jesse James... - Gunshot during train robbery sequence

Best Outfit(s)

The King of Kong - Billy Mitchell
I'm Not There - A lot of people, but the Richard Gere segment especially
Eastern Promises - Viggo Mortensen's Naked Bod
Southland Tales - Everyone involved

Worst Outfit(s)

Die Hard 4.0 - Justin Long's moustache
300 - everyone involved
JUNO - AWSUM VINTAG TEES


Best Musical Moments...

Once - Songs (Glen Hansard/Marketa Irglova)
Ratatouille - The Score (Michael Giacchino)
Paprika - The Score (Susumu Hirasawa)
Atonement - Score (Dario Marianelli)
Diving Bell and the Butterfly - Various songs (U2, Tom Waits)
Knocked Up - Opening song (Wu-Tang Clan)
Southland Tales - Extended Justin Timberlake musical sequence, others (The Killers, The Pixies)


Worst Music

I Am Legend (MARLEYY MAN!)
Juno (Made me want to cry/strangle small animals)
Transformers (sigh)





Stay tuned. Tomorrow.

Monday, January 21, 2008

Hey WEB



I'm back from break. I avoided using my computer as much as possible. It was nice.

So many things to come.


Cate Blanchett as Russian Agent "Spalko" in the new Indiana Jones movie.


Tuesday, December 25, 2007

lights

Merry Christmas.

I'm tired. I don't know what to say. I'm very afraid of failure.

Here's a cool clip from Henry Selick's upcoming all stop-motion animated movie. He's the guy behind Nightmare Before Christmas and James and The Giant Peach.


http://www.neilgaiman.com/mediafiles/exclusive/Video/Coraline/sneak.mov

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Fire

Home in a weeek!?!!









I saw There Will Be Blood tonight. I liked it, but, I'm not sure; there's something slightly unsatisfying about it, in how it settled with me. I will need to rewatch it, definitely. But a lot of it is truly mesmerizing.



This is from a great band I have been listening to lately called Fire on Fire. They are kinda helping me get through the week. Download and listen below.

Fire on Fire - The Hangman


By the way, if the future me could kindly tell me how I am to survive the next few days, I mean, save from spoiling the surprise for me, that would be much appreciated.