Damn, anyone with even a mild shred of design appreciation will be mesmerized by this clip for “DVNO” by Justice.
The end made me laugh out loud (not just lol, seriously laugh out loud) from sheer smacked-by-cleverness-ity.
This is tight.
Here’s a link to a higher-rez QT for those scoring at home.
Some people wait months for the new awesomest-blockbuster-movie ever, but I’ve been patiently awaiting the release of MK12’s History of America (4 years in the making). Finally, the short (30 minute short, that is) is available online, but probably not for long. It’s wonderful the MK12 boys have made the entire movie available for free instead of asking for $ for downloads. A lot of time an effort has gone into the crafting of this very original and unique vision, and the attentional to detail is impeccable.
What is The History of America according to MK12? Cowboys vs. Astronauts, bitches.
And the detail? Check out this still:
- How fucking funny is that? Answer: really
The psuedo-rotoscope, greenscreeny+line drawing and digital watercolor animation technique is nothing new for MK12; THOA aesthetic is very reminiscent (no, directly reminiscent) of their 2003 Hot Hot Heat “No Not Now” video, complete with a nod to the bunny costume characters.
Still, this is dope-ass animation at it’s best - a large, well thought out moving painting if you will, and that’s cool. In many ways, THOA allows MK12 show they are the dominate force in their craft without reigning in the details of what their craft really is. Broadcast design, animation, modeling, production technique, sound design? Sure. But THOA shows off much more than technical skill including a hilarious pop-historical, pop-political take on America. Though the plot is completely ludicrous, the story is eerily familiar and 100% sensical to anyone succumb to American public education in the last 35 years.
The short can be viewed in its entirety, here: go fast before it gets yanked (not supposed to be available yet due to acceptance into Sundance ‘09 Shorts Program). Let me know if this gets pulled and I’ll hook you up with the .mp4 - its apparent MK12 would like it that way.
2″ of snow on the back-40, enough for a bit of slippery fun.
All photos by Kristine.
2007 could be unofficially titled “The Year Big Movie Makers Stopped Being Afraid of Digital Acquisition and Released A Bunch of Digitally Shot Films”. I think though, without one caveat, that title would be a bit misleading.
Oh, the caveat?
There were a bunch of crappy looking digital films released in 2007.
Don’t get me wrong, I think the move to digital acquisition is cool, but not if the films look like they were “shot with a digital camera that makes everything look like it’s being viewed through a bug-spattered windshield”.
I guess in some ways the move to using digital cameras for non-indie films has allowed medium/highly funded producers to believe hiring a competent DP was pointless. “The cameras are digital! It’s easy!”
I thought about making a comprehensive list of biggish-time films shot digitally but looked terrible. That list is out there; maybe someone else will write it, but for now, here are a few examples:
- Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead trailer - come on Sidney!
- Starting Out In The Evening trailer - puke
- Fay Grim trailer - most of Magnolia’s/HDNet Films releases suffer from bad cinematography
- Slipstream trailer - yuck for the cinematography, and double yuck for the “plot”
- The Lookout clip - right after this clip (peep the DVD), the film turns to terrible, DV quality REZ for the final bank shootout. Um, what? Why?
- Zodiac, though I did enjoy the color grading, was even unimpressive. I particularly remember some scenes in the dinner toward the end looking horrendous.
One digitally shot film released in 2007 that looks fabulous is Reign Over Me. Shot with the Panavision Genisis, cinematographer Russ Alsobrook and his crew had the city street night shots dialed in. Generally, it is the naturally lit nighttime scenes which expose digital acquisition weaknesses, but Reign doesn’t falter for a second.
The movie itself? Not bad. Found the “love interest” quite annoying to the point of undermining the rest of the moral.
But for what it’s worth, Reign features some brilliant filmmaking, including the editing which worked quite well given the tasty visuals.
—
Anyone catch the name of Liv Tyler’s character?
I’m still getting emails about the two Portland Center Stage spots, which is cool. Emails are fun. In addition, the volume of emails and the questions regarding such have led me to believe a full post is in order. So here that is; the full post. I’m by no means a stop-mo expert, but these spots were pretty interesting to shoot. I’ll roughly translate the info into a general Q&A.
–
What Camera Did You Use to Shoot 1080 24?
Nikon D-80. It’s a prosumer still camera body, 10+ megapixels, very ergonomic. In this lineup Canon has the 30d and Sony has a new one called the Alpha. I had experience with the Nikon D-70 and stayed with the D-80 b/c I like how it fits my hands - makes me want to pick it up (which is important, if you’re a camera). The Canon 30d is also a very fine camera, a bit more expensive, but very very sweet.
Lenses?
Both spots shot with Nikon’s 18-135mm zoom. It’s a very slow lens (f4+), but zoom was important for a couple of reasons (more in a bit). I’m still working on my lens collection, continually trolling ebay (this is where things can get expensive).
Did You Shoot RAW, or What?
I hardly ever shoot RAW format. Little, if any, of my stuff goes to large format printing, and I personally don’t find the increased detail editing controls with RAW all that much better than shooting hi-rez JPEG. RAW is definitely better, but not that much better, IMHO. If I’m editing photos, I usually have 40+ open at a time and with RAW, that’s just silly. This is personal preference and that’s just how I work.
Using RAW stills for a motion/broadcast/film spot is cool too, but it depends on your final output. For me, I knew MY final output would be HD, and the CLIENT’S final output was web, so shooting RAW here was a bit overkill.
For the sake of speed and efficiency, I actually shot the spots at about 1K resolution. 700+ stills uncompressed at 10MP apiece is A LOT to ask of even of best desktop ‘puter and knowing final output resolution was negligible, I just thought this was the way to go. Saved a bunch of drive space, too.
For a BIG shoot with a BIG budget or even somone besides my alias editor Stump Blanketship driving FCP, I may have thought about shooting RAW, but for Stump’s sake I made it real simple (well, relatively simple. Stump is a damn fine editor - I’m lucky to have him).
How’d You Do It?
The stop-motion?
Yes.
Stop-motion is easier than you may think; it’s really a patience game.
For the “Bad Dates” spot, I had some really nice visuals to work with and a nicely lit set piece, so I just set up shop there. I had already written out the VO and had a rough storyboard in my head so the goal was just to match the shoe action with the pace of the script.
Moving the shoes around is simply that, move a bit at a time, snap, move, snap, move. For this process, I HIGHLY recommend a loyal assistant, or at the very least, a SHUTTER REMOTE.
For the “Fences” spot, there were no specified props or characters to work with, so my goal was to make a baseball field come alive.
The hardest part of the spot was finding a nice looking field that would let me shoot there, and I landed the 2nd nicest field in Portland, at the U. of Portland (PGE Park - the minor league team’s field - was cordial, but this didn’t fit into their opening week festivities. I can’t imagine why; perhaps a “location fee” would have helped. Mmm, next spot’s budget….).
Yeah but, How Did You Move the Field Around?
That was the trick, instead of moving the field, I moved the camera - position of, and tripod head axis (pan/tilt), and ZOOM - sometimes all at once (in little increments). That was really fun; I had a good time in the sun shooting the baseball field pix.
Again, I showed up to the field, alone, with only an idea of what I wanted. The fun part was figuring that out on the fly, as I had an hour to myself.
You Don’t Storyboard?
Not for my own devices. I storyboard when a client needs to see ‘em, or when I can’t already see it in my head, or I make lil’ stick figure ones if only to show the rest of a crew. It’s hard to effectively storyboard when the location variables are not already on-lock (urban term), and plus, for me, I like the organic challenge of directing on the fly. It’s like a live, moving painting that you’re in charge of - at least that’s how directing feels to me. Non-storyboarding doesn’t mean ill-prepared, just that I like making decisions after I see things come together visually, in real life, in real time, in the moment.
DP Rodger Deakins has a great line, with a very sly smirk on his face, in the extra features of House of Sand and Fog where he pokes fun at director Vadim Perelman for showing up to the set with an intricate book of storyboards. Deakins basically says something to the effect of “I made him throw them out”, which is funny because in the moment of having the actors and crew and everything on set you just know you’ll see something better than you did with a pen and paper (special effects laden, SCI-FI epics excluded from that statement).
Enough With The Storyboarding, What are You the Storyboarding Master Or Something?
No, I’m not, sorry to run on that tangent.
It’s Okay. I Left The Subject of This Email Querry Somwhat Vague and You Went With It.
Wanna see the spot?
Yes.
That’s Pretty Cool. You Do The Color Pass in After Effects?
Thanks and no. I…er…Stump shies away from AE as much as possibly b/c he’s much better with the color tool in FCP, and it’s much faster than importing and exporting files a bunch of times. AE is sweet but - HE - did a bunch of AE work some years ago and prefers to let the motion graphics artists stick to AE while he works inside FCP. No doubt Apple’s COLOR has him very stoked.
Wow! Thanks For The Reponse! I Think I’mma Try Shooting Stop-mo Too!
You’re welcome, thanks for writing. You should go shoot some stop-mo - it’s fun; bring your patience.
Any Other Tips?
Can’t say it enough - camera remote.
Awesome. If I think of anything else, I’ll post something in the comments.
R A D , Y O .
The West Side IS THE NEW MODEL. Model for what? The model for DIY content creation, creativity, and distribution. The West Side is a banging new “serialized internet novel”, presented for free on the internet as 12 episodes. The brain children behind The West Side are hella-made NoFilmSchool scribe Ryan Bilsborrow-Koo and co-writer/director/producer Zachary Lieberman. And I haven’t even got to the best part yet; The West Side is an urban western and it’s off-the-chain S T Y L I E.
No doubt, this concept would have made a great low budget feature, but without any budget to speak of, RBK and ZL took matters into their own hands. It’s a film, it’s a “podcast”, it’s an episodic, it’s a series. It’s feature length, in portions.
It’s B O S S (fuck the Boss).
–
The great thing about The West Side (besides looking fantastic) is that it’s professional; no one’s going to be crying about being $100K in credit card debt at the end of the series.
In other words, there’s no Film Festival trying-so-hard-to-be-hip mentality behind it. RELEASE IT. NOW. AS FAST AS WE CAN.
Susan Buice and Arin Crumley of Four Eyed Monsters, for all the press and “accolades” they received, are just now - two years post-date - releasing their film for free, to the internet.
And if I can Dennis Miller this for a second, why - why - why - why did Buice and Crumley not make FEM available on DVD the second their podcasts were featured all over the net? Really? Everyone into indie film/the net was watching the FEM brand explode, and yet the creators sat - SAT - on their greatest potential revenue source FOR TWO YEARS, only now to show up in my email inbox looking very sad at having spent one-hundred thousand dollars navel gazing, buying ironic t-shirts (size small), traveling to 20 film festivals, and begging for traditional distribution.
Think I’m wrong? Bullshit. FEM has been HAILED by the just as wanna-be-hip InterWebPress/Traditional Press as the “new model of Indie distribution”. To that I say, really? The model for DIY, self reliant, harnessing the web, blazing new trails, no/low budget “indie” filmaking/distribution is….
1.) Seek traditional distribution deals (and their collective cash) first…..
2.) Complain when said distribution deals for your self-made reality-TV (OOOPs I mean) reality-FILM driven movie don’t come in
3.) Spend WAAAAYYY TOO MUCH MONEY while continuing to seek traditional distribution
4.) Move back in with your parents
5.) Release your film on the internet for free anyway
…?
–
The West Side says FUCK ALL THAT. Let’s skip to the release part, then see where it leads us. These guys making The West Side work real jobs, they’ve saved their money, they’re shooting nights and weekends, and they’re scheming as fast as they can.
And nowhere on their site do you see them pleading for a revenue stream to bail them out of poor financial decisions.
Na. The West Side is just about, art, and story, and having a badass time being creative. I hope these guys BLOW UP. They deserve it. This is a ballsy move on their part, creating a wonderful piece of art and entertainment, with no money, no backing, and giving it away for free. No doubt, getting 12 of these episodes out is going to be a chore with limited resources. This is exactly the kind of project that if I was a rich man, or even a semi-rich man with a bent for unique storytelling and possibly artistic development, I’d throw RBK and ZL $20K just too help them get through this production a little easier. Even with an in-kind grant such as that, they’d still halfta’ count on dedication and a whole lotta patience to pull this episodic feature off, but maybe the morning’s cereal would taste a bit better, knowing the milk isn’t bad and all.
Spielberg - Where you at on this, breh? Robert Rodriguez - Throw a bone these cat’s way.
RBK and ZL: either one of you guys Jewish?
Too bad I’m not Catholic otherwise this would have gone on eBay with a starting bid of $100,000. For charity, of course.
Still getting tricky with the DeeEightZero here; an experiment with a simple concept and an interesting process.
Finally got this out of a happy ‘puter; “Bad Dates” commercial for Portland Center Stage.
- is the title of a great “crosstalk” between Onion AV club film critics Noel Murry and Scott Tobias. This is the second time in a month I’ve referenced The Onion, don’t discount their credibility especially when it comes to all things zeitgeist (Yes, yes, yes! Via said zeitgeist, I’ve finally been able to reference that o-so-timely word!).
Seriously, though - this subject I believe is forefront many cineastes minds, including mine.
RARELY do I go to the movie theatres anymore. I’ll give you one reason why that trumps all others:
THE 2WENTY
Kristine and I never watch the ‘tube, er T.V. Never. We have free cable and we never turn it on. We don’t subscribe to magazines, we’re generally insulated from the morning papers, and it’s rare we listen to the radio.
When you function outside, or perhaps just to the left of “traditional media”, you’ll notice your tolerance for advertising bombardments is extremely low.
In general, I think that’s a good thing.
CUT TO: two weeks ago Kristine and I venture to the nearest Regal Cinema chain to catch CHILDREN OF MEN. Our reward for arriving promptly before showtime - a 2wenty minute in- your-face, too loud, can’t escape, it 14′ tall commercial.
Forget screaming children, ringing cellphones, or bored high school kids with nothing else to do - for my $18.50, the 2wenty is reason enough to stay at home.
Netflix doesn’t have commercials.
Thing is, CHILDREN OF MEN was fantastic on the big screen. But, had free movie tix not arrived in the mail over the holidays, I would have waited for the DVD.
Would I like to see more movies in the theatre? Sure. But only if:
1.) The projection looks BEYOND STUNNING. I also saw LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE in the theatre (a major chain), and it must have been the combination of the worst projector used and the worst print the studio released. Way too many scratches and pops, dimlly lit (bulb going out anyone?), and washed out colors - in short ugly. Bring on digital projection.
2.) For $9.50 you don’t show me any commercials OR
3.) For $3.50 you show me a two minutes worth before the previews run.
Barring that, I will stay home, I will wait for the DVD (we probably take in 10-12 movies/ month), and I will not cry for missing the theatrical experience.
If there’s a problem, a fix that needs to be made to get more people excited about a night out at the movie theatre, look no further than my list above. I feel like it’s pretty simple, really.
Nauseating 3-D glasses for summer blockbusters a la James Cameron are not going to persuade me to purchase more movie tickets.
–
Now here’s a kicker - not only am I a movie maker, enthusiast, and cinephile, but we watch movies at home on an 8 year-old, 19″ color tv hooked to an equally ancient DVD player and stero speakers.
You could also take this one step further by saying even HD-DVD players wouldn’t entice me to upgrade my home theatre - but that’s a different story in itself.
–
Concerning The Onion article, Chicagoian Scott Tobias takes the Cinema-purist route, laying claims that one cannot really “see” a film, as entertainment or as art, unless in a theatre with an audience. On the other hand, Arkansas resident Noel Murry points out the main hassles and short comings of going to the theatre as opposed to catching the DVD at home from his couch.
Both writers, make valid and or sympathetic arguements, but here’s a quote from Murry that I liked the most:
Mainly what I’d like to choke off is the self-righteous prickliness that accompanies the whole big-screen-vs.-small-screen debate. Cineastes get overprotective about “the vision of the artist” and the solemnity of the theatrical experience. And I’m sorry, that’s not the world we live in now, and arguably hasn’t been the world we’ve lived in since the invention of television…I agree that there’s an ideal for movie-watching, and that ideal is sitting in a theater with an appreciative audience and a well-lit, enormous screen. But if that ideal isn’t possible, viewers adjust, and snobby cineastes shouldn’t blame them for adjusting. Remember, all I said was that “appreciation might be enhanced” by a big-screen presentation. Not “created.” If a movie really works, it should work whether it’s seen on a TV, a laptop, or a bedsheet flapping in the breeze. You can’t micromanage the experience anymore. Let go.“
You’ll notice much of that refrain can also be applied to digital downloads, changing media formats/ landscapes, user preferences etc.
–
This is a really good read for film enthusiasts, not necessarily an argument, but essentially a crosstalk as described, complete with a whole mess of “audience” interaction (comments).
Murry and Tobias even jump in during the feedback - a model all media outlets should find inviting.
Shot some Goof Spoof Driving Projection footy this morning that’s all part of a larger (if not somewhat strange) project. Two links:
- 1 minute of video
- (10) pictures
Update
….ahhhhh….and really, for anyone sans QT, the U2B version:
Blame YouTube.
–
Stephen Colbert’s idea was clever. The Decemberist’s music clip laughable. In a new twist, Southwest Airlines has launched their own “user generated” contest - a chance to produce A SPEC AD in order to win a (2) night vactation for (4) people to anywhere the airline flies - PLUS! - the commercial will be shown on NATIONAL TELEVISION! (….at 3am….shhhh….).
From the Southwest Airlines “Wanna Get Away” prize page:
“You are now officially the newest star in the broadcast solar system, which is way cooler than being a reality TV star, and almost as cool as being a rock star. Tell your family, prepare your friends and inform your mailman that your commercial will be shown on national television. Lookout Hollywood, here comes Marvin!”
Condescending much? Or, is this contest aimed at high school kids? This copy was either written by, A.) a Dick, B.) a Typical Ad Executive (also see answer A.), C.) an Idiot.
So what’s interesting about this?
THE OBVIOUS: How weird is it that a company I already produced a SPEC AD for launched a contest calling for SPEC AD production? No doubt, the “wanna get away” tagline is very recognizable and offers up inviting creative territory. However, it’s not hard to believe that a simple YouTube query birthed this contest idea rather than it coming from the result of mediated corporate brainstorming. Additionally, the new vanity trend on the InterWeb may no longer be self-Googling (don’t sue me), but rather seems to have shifted into self-YouTubing (anyone have a better verb?). As evidence, I point to this message sent to me via YouTube from the Marketing Manager of THULE:
I was laughing today, becuase your spot has more hits than the Yakima spots that they used as the backbone of their ad campaign
For the record, THULE found the SPEC AD I directed for my REEL, wrote me, asked for more info, then failed to promote it on their ailing “blog”.
Am I upset? No. The clip was never meant to be “promoted” by the company at all - sure if they found it and liked it - cool - but lets just call a spade a spade - I needed more content for my reel so I made some $0 commercials. From this point, you could see how this situation leads back to the Southwest Airlines contest: A company with a larger marketing budget and recognizable, non-threatening brand sees a bit of user generated content online - launches contest/ campaign/ experiment to see how far they can stretch the relatively free content. No harm right?
NO. I DON’T THINK SO. I SEE THIS AS A BAD TREND.
It’s as if “reality tv” has transitioned into “reality advertising”. Content for the lowest bottom dollar - exploitation be dammed. And who’s to blame, really?
Well, I am. It would seem from my rampant free production give aways that I’m dying for a break to “get it”, “get seen”, or “get noticed”. Time Magazine blames the collective we (us).
The reason asking for user generated sales tools forecasts a bad trend isn’t because it’s exploitative - it’s lazy, and depending on the “reward” - patronizing. Hey, if there are legions of the enchanted sending in demo tapes for THE REAL WORLD AIMES, IOWA, why wouldn’t a big company take advantage of that opportunity. Not only are users/ consumers of the media willingly exploiting themselves (is that even possible), they’re proving in unison that there’s also a market for this type of programming. Plus, reality TV is fucking cheap to produce.
Thing is, cheap, user submitted offerings rarely equal up to interesting, intelligent, or meaningful content. The concept for The Decemberist’s video is not only arrogant, it’s also been poorly executed.
BRIEF SYNOPSIS: The Decemberists shoot a video for their song, “O Valencia!”, something gets botched, new concept is created in conjunction with MTVu, crappy TV channel and cheap record company ask “fans” to create their own background for a horribly composed and utterly uninteresting green-screen video. This faux contest entry by “Fungible” sums up the mess quite nicely.
Regarding the Southwest Airlines contest, GOLDFISH is not faring so well, and it shouldn’t. It’s not a very good commercial. If I were to drop anything from my REEL it would be this commercial - I only keep it up because I’m somehow locked into the idea that I need (5) FAKE commercials to don said REEL and currently not interested in expending any more energy and resources into shooting another SPEC AD.
Regarding the Value Of Spec Ads: I’m the canary in the coal mine at this point; while not choking thus far, my yellow feathers are covered in soot and I’m growing tired of bumping my head into the ceiling.
Hey, these were fun to shoot. I like cameras. Beneficial? I’m not so sure. Two inferences can be drawn at this point - either this foray into testing the waters of the commercial world has been misguided, OR , I’m going to need a bit of luck to get any mileage out of these productions.
Time Magazine got it wrong. No one gives a crap about YOU. The ones who do care, don’t really - they’re just looking for some cheap time wasters. Hopefully you don’t want money.
These two revelations are liberating - allowing now for more time in productive ventures such as writing and panhandling.
Go ballot stuffing. I’ll split First Place with you.
And I went from a one of these…
before
to this…
after
–
And no, I don’t expect you to care about my haircut. I’m trying to tell you to go check out this addictively-cool website: www.sp-studio.de.
JO: I’m not sure if this is the full-text of the print piece, but here’s what you can find online of The Oregonian’s short profile of me in the Business section of today’s paper. I met this reporter while shooting the crime scene photos.
–
Monday, November 27, 2006
ALEX PULASKI
Freelance filmmaker Josh Oakhurst used to chase his dreams around a mountain on a snowboard but now looks for success behind a camera.
Fade in: Storyteller grabs a camera
In the screenplay of his life, he avoids a “typical job” and works toward directing feature films.
Josh Oakhurst struggles to find an easy definition of his career choice, but one word might capture it all: storyteller.
He has studiously avoided what he calls a “typical job,” instead freelancing video work, editing movies and designing Web pages. In September, he landed under contract at Portland Center Stage, primarily shooting and editing video interviews that play on interactive screens in the newly opened Gerding Theater at the Armory.
The stories he is telling these days are someone else’s.
Jeff Cone, for example, stands before the camera in the theater’s costume shop, surrounded by boxes of shoes, racks of clothes and spools of thread. Oakhurst cradles the camera, rarely speaking, letting Cone describe how he designed a prim black dress to suit the thin frame of a man playing a transvestite’s role.
“That’s great, that’s perfect, that’s all I need,” Oakhurst pronounces, ending the session.
The hard part — the magic, he calls it — will come when Oakhurst sits down before a computer to edit the images.
At 24, Oakhurst keeps edging closer to the feature-length filmmaker he wants to be. Three years ago, he was managing a snowboard shop, until a knee injury slowed him down and forced him to focus on something other than snow.
In April, he moved to Portland, sight unseen, to escape Denver’s sprawl. The work with Portland Center Stage has provided a steady income, but all the while he dabbles in other projects.
He shoots television ads on spec. Grabs his new Nikon digital camera to record images from a crime scene. Mouths off — usually with a dollop of youthful profanity — about cool camera gear, the cops, the guy with a ponytail on the bus.
All of it wins electronic immortality on his Web site. The stories he wants to tell — documenting sprawl, the social stratification of young boys — haven’t found their way to the big screen yet.
“I want to direct feature films,” he said. “But I don’t have any delusions of grandeur. It’s a losing battle in many ways.”
Alex Pulaski
Families who lose loved ones to violent means morn. Everyone else gets free entertainment.
–
Yesterday, police officers shot and killed a man outside a hotel near my apartment. 52 years-old; outstanding warrant for burglary, arson, and weapons possession. According to official reports, federal marshals were looking for the man. They knock on his hotel room, he barricades the door, jumps out the second story window, cops are waiting below, they tell him to stop, he reaches for his jacket pocket - S H O T S F I R E D.
And a life ends.
When we see this on the news, typically we have little passing emotion or feel relief knowing the good guys won. We see images, “it was just like a movie…”, cop cars blazing, snipers on the roof, bloody shirts.
But who was this guy?
The news tells us he was very passionate about his dog. He was divorced. And that’s it - thats all we need to know.
But he also drank Squirt.
And liked pizza.
And behaved like most people do at a continental breakfasts by taking some fruit back to the room only to leave it behind.
–
Maybe it was the TV crews. Ruthless. Bored even. Weathered for sure. Disgusting. I saw four cameras making mockery - it pissed me off.
So I started snapping.
Sure, if you live in Baghdad, violent death happens around you everyday - but not in my neighborhood. Breaking into this guy’s hotel room was an attempt to REsensitize myself to tragedy. To violence. To blood, to pain, to death. To horror, to fascination.
To respect.
Not everyone saw this guy as evil. Not everyone wanted him to die. Not everyone, not even the cops are glad he’s dead.
So why run from this? Why hide and gloss over? Why not get up-close and uncomfortable with it? Why not get squeamish, examine the reality, look for emotions, a connection, a fucking message, a reason our heads croon when we see the ambulance gurney?
Why not? Why don’t we feel a bit raw every now and then?
“Oh quick. American Idol is on.”
–
—
*NOTES*
1.) I declined to be interviewed for the cameras, but luckily for the TV stations - there were many willing participants.
2.) The cop in this photo (click to enlarge) was a D I C K to the front desk clerk. She was clearly overwhelmed with many different cops pulling her in different directions looking for keys, maps, and master plans of the building. We felt bad for her.
Right after I shot the McDonald’s picture (POLICE LINE: MC RIB IS BACK - click to enlarge), he pulled up and told me to “Get out of [there]. Move! Faster!”. I was polite, but ignored him. I was behind the police barrier anyway; I know my rights.
After I took his photo being rude to the poor girl, we had this exchange:
COP: And, exactly who are you?
ME: I live in the neighborhood. Family is visiting and staying in the hotel.
COP: smartass Oh. So you’re just a concerned citizen?
ME: Among other things.
3.) There was a kid of about 17 staying in the hotel with his family. After the shooting, he found a window in the hotel looking right into the breezeway where the man was shot. I was out back taking photos of the cop on the roof, and Kristine called my phone to let me know “there was something I should see”.
Enter bloody shirt.
I include that image, not for horror, but for respect. This is where the man lay dying. This is what happens when bullets fly. It’s not pretty (Grand Theft Auto should teach us that, shouldn’t it?). In any case, the news media won’t show anything like this - because it’s too graphic. Sensationalize they may - but to a point. No reason for tooo much detail - lest someone get upset and call the station.
After I snapped that photo, the kid’s dad entered the room and yanked him out. Then this happened:
DAD: Son, why weren’t you at church with us this morning? Did you forget we had church together?
SON: Dad! When are you finally going to get that I don’t believe in that GOD STUFF!
DAD: %&*S %$#^* #!@^#^^&* [ head begins to explode ]……….
4.) For the record, I didn’t break into the guy’s (former) hotel room - the cops already busted down the door, and when they were done collecting evidence, the room sat open in plain view. All I did was duck the hotel’s blue tape “barrier” and flip on the lights.
No doubt - that room was creepy. If I believed in ghosts and Jesus and things, I’m sure I wouldn’t have lasted long. The window was letting in cold damp air - busted too by the cops I believe. The curtain would fly open and glass would continue to fall and shatter - a draft would circle the room [shudder]. Jeepers.
Wow. Compressor, why must you piss me off all the time? Seriously, is this the worst designed piece of Apple software ever?
Hey, don’t get me wrong - Compressor does some great things - it’s a very powerful tool. But in the words of one HDNet engineer “Compressor, frankly, completely mystifies me. I doesn’t make any sense.”
Case in point - well, let me back up for a second.
Why the hell does this app default to naming exported footage with spaces?!!! Long-ass names with spaces even. What the hell?
Today’s case in point:
I rename the files before export. Short names like BCT_3b_builder.m2v. But now, for some unknown reason, DVD Studio Pro crashes upon import of anything Compressor touched. Import>BCT_3b_builder.m2v>C R A S H. Go to the finder, select a freshly completed Compressor file, the Finder crashes. All non-Compressor files in the directory are fine - Finder likes them, DVD Studio Pro likes them. But Compressor files, when directly selected are killing everything - GRRRRRRRRRR!
–
Luckily, DVD Studio Pro allows folder selections for importing. After they get into the app, they’re fine - but what a BS work around. Why do you suck so bad, Compressor?
