Reach for the Cloud

No, this isn't a blog post about all the amazing things I want to achieve or all the possibly exciting things upon the horizon. This has nothing to do with stretching my artistic limit. This post is about a book, which spawned a movie, that birthed a trailer, which got me excited.

Said book, is Cloud Atlas.

Most of you have probably never heard of it. I know I didn't until a few months ago. Most people will probably never even read it. It's a fairly long book that doesn't seem to be advertised anywhere(ever) and doesn't have the same word of mouth as certain bdsm and teenage fantasy novels that are circling over pop culture.

But I read it and I enjoyed it. Not so much during the read. Like I said, it's a long read. Not like 700+ page Game of Thrones long. But some sections of the book didn't flow as well as others and ended up dragging out a bit more than I would have liked. Nonetheless I trudged on, finished the book and now looking back I'm glad I did. Not just because reading makes you smrter, but because after thinking about it, I can see how everything flows together nicely and as a whole, it was a pretty unique read.

I didn't just stumble upon the book myself though. I stumbled upon this trailer instead...

... right? Big fucking trailer for something you've never heard of. No sparkly vampires or comic book superheros hidden in there. Anyway, this trailer got me very interested and I promptly went out and bought the book which I then read and am now posting about.

So now I'm even more excited for the movie. It's going to be a long one(IMDB has it clocking in at 164min) but I'm very excited to see what they do with the time they're given here.

And the sole purpose of this post would be to make you, my beautiful readers, aware that the movie known as Cloud Atlas exists. When it comes out on October 26, go see it. Wither it's your type of movie or you're not quite sure if it's something you'll be interested in go see it anyway. It's going to a be a treat for the eyes at the very least and you're probably not going to see another movie like it in a while. And giving every little bit of support to a movie like this will help other unique movies like this get made so we don't have to be subjected to countless reboots and prequels and re-imaginings over the coming years. Shit like this costs money and from what I've heard it's hard to get funding when you don't have James Cameron, Christopher Nolan, Joss Whedon or Michael Bay guaranteeing people that this movie is going to make $1,000,000,000.00+(I put the $ amount for the visual of how much of a stupid amount of money that is).

If that little plea didn't convince you then how about the fact the the movie was written(screenplay) and directed by the same lovely people who gave us a little movie by the name of The Matrix and who wrote the screenplay for V for Vendetta. That's got to be worth something. While the sequels were the runny shits, who didn't love(or at least enjoy) the original?

Anyway that's all I got. Later peoples.

Found My Motivation

I love St. John's. Don't get my wrong. This city is classic, natural, colorful and has style all it's own. It is one of the friendliest spots you can go. You can be on one end of the city and still be only 15 minutes from anything you want and still get a feeling of size a depth when you drive there. There's nothing I love more than driving in through Pitts Memorial drive and the view the city offers you from it's outskirts. I was gone for 3 years when I moved to AB and by the time I came home I was itching to live here once again.

After having said all that... Fuck St. John's(sometimes).

Why say that about this town I've just praised up so high? This is why.

http://www.indiewire.com/article/out-this-week-7-reviews-of-new-indie-releases

I just read this article a few minutes ago and I got pretty excited for the last 4 movies on this list. Two of them I had already heard about and was anticipating but the last two(Robot and Frank, Side by Side) caught my attention as well. I would love to see these movies in their full cinematic glory.

And then we come to the "Fuck St. John's" part of the blog.

Chances are I won't get to see these movies here. Empire Theatres doesn't seem too keen on giving up theater space for smaller movies like this when they have Total Recall and Diary of a Wimpy Kid playing in both their locations. You all plan on seeing Total Recall and Diary of a Wimpy kid right???

Now I plan to start checking their website every few days to see what's on the upcoming slate for movies showing here but I'm not holding my breath. And there are others that I've missed as well. Killer Joe, one movie I was extremely looking forward to, won't be seen by these eyes on anything bigger than a 40-odd inch TV. Safety Not Guaranteed. Won't be seeing that one either. Searching for Sugerman. This movie is being hyped up on my twitter feed as being one of the best movies of the year. Not good enough for ET's to pay attention to though.

I call bullshit on this. We have two theaters in town. Both owned by the same company. I could easily say that this is the problem. No competition. Lack of variety. I don't believe so. If we had a Cineplex here it wouldn't help matters. It may drive prices down a bit but they're still going to stock the same movies to try to steer people clear of the other. Having two theaters owned by the same company should be a good reason to bring some of these movies here. I mean, come on, how much money does the Mount Pearl cinema actually rake in showing movies like Total Recall and Dark Knight Rises weeks after they've come out while the Avalon Mall still shows these in bigger, nicer screens and in IMAX and 3D to boot. Why don't they steer more towards independant films like the ones I've mentioned before at the smaller Mount Pearl location and keep the big boys playing in the nice new theater. Mount Pearl already has that classic, rundown theater feel to it(not one they're trying to get I'm sure). Sure they can still have The Avengers 2 on opening night so it can make 1 bazillion dollars but then tone it down a bit. People are going to go to the mall to see most of these bigger movies anyway. Have Cosmopolis showing for a week or two. Give a little love to some documentary movies. Show St. John's some hollywood art and not just big budget garbage!

Will any of that happen? Probably not. From what I've heard Empire has a new theater opening up somewhere up on Torbay Road in the near future. I'm sure they'll probably close up the Mount Pearl location shortly after because it will cost more money to keep open then they make from it. Doubtful the location would be bought up by another company after that because of the condition it's in. Probably just get turned into a car dealership or a call center.

There is a small glimmer of hope for these movies though. MUN Cinema Series. Something I've heard of before but haven't bothered to look up until now. Looking at their slate for the fall they are actually showing quite a few movies I'll be looking to see. The full list here:

http://www.mun.ca/film/

This looks good and has me fairly excited. I'm hoping that I'll be able to catch a few of these and hopefully this is something that may grow in the future. It would be awesome if these guys could hold regular screenings at something like the LSPU hall and then hold the occasional regular screening at one of the main theaters. That would be an excellent way to bring some good films to this city.

One day when I find me one of those hypno-toads I may be able to make this happen through persuasive froggery, but as for now I'll have to live with netflix, the internet and my own DVD collection. Of which I'm going to watch Drive right now. If you haven't seen it you are missing out.

Also, if anybody knows of anywhere in town that may show other independent movies please let me know! I would greatly appreciate the information.

Anyway peoples, thanks for reading this rant. Have a good night!

Where's My Motivation?

So.. hey everybody. How's it going? Long time no see.

Sorry for the absence but I've been busy. Like the shitty parent who heads to fort mac for a "couple of months" to get some extra cash and comes back two years later in his Dodge Ram 3500, an annoying Albertan accent and a couple shitty tribal tattoos that tell everyone he's a "warrior".

I know. I would hate that parent too.

But alas, I haven't forgotten about this blog, or the readers, however few or far between you may be.

I have been busy. I had my trip to Ottawa in July. That was a blast. Highly recommended place to travel and if you like music then you definitely want to visit during Bluesfest.

After Ottawa I was a little preoccupied with getting stuff packed up and ready to move into the new spot. That's been going pretty great so far.

Since I've moved in I've been busy getting all settled in of course. A little bit of painting. A little bit of fence building. Various other things as well. So that's been keeping me occupied.

But on top of all that I could have definitely fit some time in for a blog post or two. But I still haven't. Why? Mostly because I've had a huge writers block kinda thing going on.

But rest assured, I feel like I may be getting over it. This is just a little post to let you all know I'm still doing this and haven't written it off quite yet. I'm still thinking about the film stuff but have slowed down a bit. Bills and things come first and until I'm squared up with those things I don't plan on doing any school. When and if that does happen I'm pretty sure I'd be choosing the Toronto Film School. In between now and then though I'm hoping to pick up a good camera at some point and some good video editing software and work on making some small videos. See how that stuff works out.

But that's enough for now. I'm getting a little hangry. I'll be back within the next couple of weeks with some real blog posts. Not this shitty filler stuff.

Later peoples.

We Need To Talk About Django

There are two movies coming out this year that I am incredibly excited for.

#1) Dark Knight Rises
#2) Django Unchained

Now I don't need to tell anyone about the Dark Knight Rises. Even if you're not a fan of one of the best, if not the best, comic book movies ever made, you still know that this movie exists. You probably even know what it's about. You or someone you know has seen the masterpiece that is The Dark Knight. There's no way you've gone online, or turned on the TV, or watched a movie in theatres and not seen a trailer or some kind of media for this juggernaut of a film.

I'm beyond pumped. I've got my ticket for the midnight showing July 19th. You should too. That's all I'm going to say about that.

Now my #2 is a different story here. And don't take the fact that I listed it as #2 as any kind of sign that I'm more excited for DKR. It's just coming out first. A month before Django comes out on Dec 25th I'm going to be incredibly stoked for this movie as well. I won't even care about Christmas. In fact, fuck Christmas. This year I'm celebrating the return of Tarantino. Everybody's getting a Tarantino film and a gift certificate for a foot massage as a gift.

I don't feel like there are as many people in the same boat for this movie as I am though.

Now I don't expect there to be the same level of recognition for this movie as there is for DKR. While Tarantino's name is probably more well known than Nolan's, his movies don't demand the same box office charm that a blockbuster such as Batman does. It's not fair but it's true. Tarantino is a genius and a machine of a man when it comes to writing and directing(he's also pretty damn weird), but his subject matter is a little more R-rated than your typical blockbusters and that ultimately hinders their financial success(which in the end, is how almost everything is measured unfortunately).

This movie is no different. Based in the years before the civil war this movie is going to be full of racial issues,  gratuitous violence, sexy women and have a ridiculous rate of utterance of the word "fuck".

Also, I've heard Tarantino's films being described as sometimes boring and "wordy". Another fair assessment as his films usually do involve extended scenes of dialogue between characters with little action in between. Definitely not as much of a spectacle as The Avengers was. From what I know about Tarantino's work and what I've seen in the trailer I would expect this one to be no different.

So why should you get excited for Django(the D is silent)? Well here's 3 reasons I believe you should. The same reasons I am.

*Oh and for those who are not fully up to date. This link provides a full synopsis of the film. I ain't typing all that shit in here*


#1) The Trailer


Watch it. Enjoy.

"I like the way you die boy." I love it!

#2) The Legend


This is a no-brainer. Tarantino is a movie god. Whether you like his work or not you need to be living under a rock and be happy to stay there if you don't give credit to his filmography, which would make any writer/director green with envy.

To start your career by writing and directing the cult hit Reservoir Dogs is hitting the ground running. That movie has all of his trademark film-making skills on full display and they have lived on, and flourished, through his other films.

Anything with the "Written and Directed by Quentin Tarantino" tag gets thrown into instant movie history even if it's not a box office success. It's no wonder that my least favourite from him is the one he didn't write(Jackie Brown).

#3) Calvin Candie


Who?

Yeah, that's who.

Leonardo DiCaprio is without a doubt one of the best actors alive today. I don't need to list the great movies he's starred in recently. But one thing that is missing from his acting career is a role as a good villain.

In Django, Leo is playing one of the main antagonists of the film, slave owner Calvin Candie. From the quick scenes shown of him in the trailer I'm already backing the theory that this may be one of my favourite roles that DiCaprio has done. It's definitely going to be his most over-the-top charismatic. Tell me from looking at that picture how he can't possibly be perfect as the antagonist in this movie. There's something messed up about the way that he's looking at that hammer. I don't think he's planning on building a porch with that.

With Tarantino's special skill with bringing the best out of his actors, even those he doesn't work with on every other film(Travolta, Pitt and now DiCaprio), and giving them some of the best dialogue and music to work with, this may be one of the most defining aspects of this movie when it's released.



So there you have it. Three simple and solid reasons you should get yourself excited for this movie. Nothing shocking or revolutionary. Just taking the facts and laying them out.

Now I'm well aware that this movie is still 6 months away but I feel the more people I can get excited about this movie the sooner, the better. And between now and then I'll continue to promote this movie as annoyingly as possible through all social networking sites I have access too. I love Tarantino's movies that damn much.

As for you. I would recommend working your way through any of the films under the "Written & Directed" category by Quentin Tarantino. If you haven't seen them yet it's never too late. You'll wake up a better person the next day for doing it. Promise.

Nickelfest Night #1

"I want to work for 3 months out of the year and make enough money to spend the entire winter surfing in Mexico", is what I want to say after watching 78 Days. What I need to say is that I don't want to do it planting fucking trees.

And how the fuck did he get that card in his mouth!?!

Okay let me back up a little bit here. 

Tonight I popped my cherry for Newfoundland Film Festivals with the very entertaining Nickel Film Festival with my buddy/co-worker/future roommate Ryan Collins. I've heard of this before(probably from reading it in the back of The Herald while I number 2'ed living at my parents house) but this year I finally decided to attend. I wasn't really sure what to expect at all. I have never even been into the LSPU hall where it was being held and that became painfully clear when we got there to pick up our tickets and we weren't quiet sure if we were going to watch the films in the small room with the 80 inch screen that drinks were bring served in, or if there was another theatre hidden in this building somewhere.

Luckily there was a theatre.

So, no disappointments so far.

Outside the hall there was some pre-screening entertainment in the form of Wonderbolt Circus. While I can assure you it wasn't as fantastic as the name makes it sound, it did offer a guy on stilts juggling and he seemed to have a pretty good grasp of what he was doing. Then there was a guy(whom I can't remember his name, so I'm going to refer to him as simply Mr. Magician) who gladly treated us to some neat card tricks. Being pretty sceptical of magic tricks I was quite amazed with his skills, especially a neat trick that ended up with a card in his mouth. He didn't walk on water or light himself on fire like some of those more theatrical magicians, but he wasn't a giant douche bag either so it was an even trade-off.

Someone got pounded with a sledgehammer in there somewhere too but Mr. Magician made me miss that.

Then the show started. Of course there's your standard introductions to the ceremony with the filmmakers telling you who they are and what they did but that was pleasantly short and sweet. We came to see da movies!

First up, "Pop Flips Out", was a well humoured short animated film that got a decent amount of chuckles. It had a pretty relevant plot to it and even though the visuals were pretty plain, it did what it was supposed to do with 4 minutes of screen time.

Second we had "The Sweetest Hippopotamus". I was expecting a little better from the unique name and small picture that accompanied it in the festival guide but other then looking pretty and being well shot I was a little disappointed.

Thirdly we were treated to a trio of short films shot in the lovely 8mm format about socks, confessions, and something else. These were short, and considering the format, well done but nothing that really stood out. I would love to get my hands on one of those cameras some day and have some fun though. I love the look of the films they produce.

Next up was my favourite of the night, "Meters". Shot in downtown St. John's it was the tale of an old man, recently widowed, getting into shenanigans with some parking meters. I loved it. I thought it was well shot and was surprisingly funny and touching at the same time. The $10 ticket was worth it for me at this point. Some 2hr movies can't get the same point across that this did in 11min.

Finally we got to the main event of the night. The full length documentary "78 Days". This was an extremely well done film that I feel should be available among the excellent crop of documentaries available on Netflix. It followed a group of tree planters working for 78 days straight during the spring/summer months in northern Alberta. I didn't know before watching this what these guys have to go through to plant trees. And I bitch about mowing the lawn? I take it all back. This is backbreaking labour in pretty shitty conditions and the film does a good job of making sure you're aware of how shitty they can be(like any good documentary should). I'm never going to think of heat rash in the same way again. But it showed the payoff, as these guys and girls then get 9 months off out of the year and they seemed to be well versed in enjoying the many monies they get during those rough 3 months.

3 months on, 9 months off. The Albertan dream.

Having it all said and done I can say it was a great night. There was some definite talent showcased tonight and I found it incredibly interesting to see what people do when they're limited to only a few minutes of screen time.

I do have one issue though. I had a conversation with a friend earlier today about how everything I know about Newfoundland entertainment has a common theme. Peacefully humorous. There's no action, no excitement, no thrills, it's all just relaxing and something to laugh at. Which is fine to some degree but I honestly feel it shows us as a pretty boring group of people at times if you're looking in from the outside. I was really hoping this festival was going to help me think otherwise towards this. 

So far it hasn't. The only film that had any real violence in it came out of Ontario and the documentary that made planting trees a little bit exciting was done out of Alberta. Everything else was what I would expect of something filmed in good ol' Newfoundland.

Hopefully when I go back Friday night on the "Rated R Night" something will change my mind.

In The Meantime...

I feel like I need to begin every blog post I start with the word "So". I have no idea why. As soon as I start a new post that's how I start typing. It's rather damn annoying.

Ah-ha! Way to solve that problem Roger!

*pats myself on the back*

So... just putting together a quick post to keep everybody's interest. 

I've got a few posts I'm working on that I'm actually putting a little bit of backbone into. Some research online and getting together some videos and whatnot. One of those will probably be up sometime within the next couple of weeks. I've got a busy month of July coming up so I'm hoping to get a few in before then so I won't feel too bad when I neglect you all for a month of GT's(good times).

Tickets for opening night of The Dark Knight Rises go on sale Monday. Yes. The movie is over a month away and I'm psyching myself up for this already. I'm sure between now and then I'll watch Batman Begins and The Dark Knight twice. That's the way I do.

Also going to be venturing to my first ever Newfoundland Nickelfest in two weeks time. Going to be taking in some independent film-making on the 19th and 22nd with ma good friend Mr. Ryan Collins. I'm very excited about this and hopefully I'll learn something along the way. Maybe even get to rub elbows with some of NL's finest(I don't know why they are so maybe I'll find that out too).

My July is going to occupied by two amazing(guaranteed foreshadowing) weeks in our nations great capitol of Ottawa with my buddy Mr. Mark Drover. I have driven across the country 3 times now and I have never visited so this is sorely overdue. 

While there we'll be visiting a long lost co-worker(Mr. Adam Crossman) and my former roommate(Mr. Zachary Bartlett) and having so many GT's I may have a GTOD(good times over dose). If that's even possible. Also going to be attending parts of the two week long Bluesfest music festival, which is oddly enough, featuring very little blues. And of course there will be the typical sight seeing and just plain enjoying normal summer weather(warm, not foggy/raining). I'm also going to finally try this magical "Beaver Tail" snack I've heard so much about. I have little faith it's going to be able to live up to it's hype as I've been led to believe that biting into one of these is similar in taste and enjoyment to biting into pure godliness.

Then once I'm back in St. John's the rest of my July is going to be filled with Batman and Breaking Bad goodness and moving out of downtown St. John's and into Mark's new house with his lovely fiance and some other guy we work with.

So that's all. Thanks again for stopping by. And since this post was probably a waste of your time as it didn't offer much substantial information about anything important I give you this:

Yeah you can't un-see that. ooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooo.

Them Learnin' Places

So, as I left off in one of my previous posts. I need to figure out a place to go to school. Something that I'm going to get the proper skills I'm looking for and something that's going to help me move up in the world.

Adding to the list of possible suitors we have:


Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador(MUN)

MUN offers a undergraduate minor program in film studies. This isn't at the top of the list of places I'm looking into and it definitely wouldn't do on it's own, but it does offer some benefits.

Pros:

-I can stay in town and do this. Possibly while still working. This helps with the money issue and the moving.
-It may help give me experience I may need to get into other schools that are a little more hands on or I may need some previous experience to get into.
-Since the money and moving aren't really issues here, I may be able to start this sooner than anything else.

Cons:

-What I'm getting out of it ultimately isn't what I'm looking to do. From what I've read and heard so far MUN doesn't really offer anything technical with this course. It's all in-class and educational. Which is fine in its own way but it's not really the direction I'm looking to go. I may not get much out of this and may delay my getting into something else if I pump a lot of money into this.



Toronto Film School at RCC Institute of Technology


This one is definitely on the top of the list of programs I would like to look into. I requested information from their website a couple weeks ago and I've received plenty of emails and calls from their recruiting officer since then offering me any information I require. They seem to generally want to help and are interested in my application.

Pros:


-The course load for this program looks to be exactly what I'm looking for. It's got educational, technical and creative elements. With the schools I've looked at so far, this one seems like I could learn the most out of it.
-It's only an 18 month program. Perfect amount of time for what I'm looking for.
-It's based out of Toronto. I've always wanted to live in a large city like this. Just for a bit anyway. And I shouldn't have any issues finding work in the area part time. Possibly even looking into a transfer with the company I'm currently with.

Cons:

-The biggest con of all. Cost. This place seems expensive. The tuition is fairly high for an 18 month course. Then there's the cost of getting there and living there. I would need to have my debt pretty much wiped clean before I start something like this which may take a little longer than I would hope.
-Possibly having to leave a few things behind while living there. I don't think I would want to have a vehicle while living in TO so I would probably have to leave the good ol' green grand am home and fly up there. I've had the luxury of a vehicle for the past 5+ years of my life and it's not something that I really want to give up. Also it probably wouldn't be the best situation for a pet either. That may mean finding someone to look after Tifa for the time I'm doing the program which would kinda break my heart to do.



So there's another couple options I'm looking at. Will post others later but for now I would really appreciate it if anyone knows somebody who's done any of these courses, to let me know what they think.

Also in the meantime I'm going to start working on some kind of project(short film, storyboard, etc.) to help with the experience thing. I don't plan on filming anything anytime soon but I'm going to try to see what it takes to make something like this happen in the real world.