Looks like we're getting the bird scene more or less figured out. If the bird hit doesn't work, we'll just shoot it as if the bird attacked the car while Ben was gone. Not great, but better than nothing.
Got the laser cut parts from Pololu yesterday. Here's a picture of Ben's homemade TV used in the red room scene. The word "cool" and me don't often go together but I really like it so I will say I'm so cool. The vintage tripod comes from Ebay. Ben says all the new stuff has a retro futuristic vibe. duh. The TV's supposed to look like a big eye. Are we watching it or is it watching us? Profound. Remember I was calling it the one-eyed spider? Maybe it's more like a TV set from Mars. BTW, the TV actually works. There's an LCD back there.
Watched the beginning of The Core, a really odd movie with Hillary Swank. I really couldn't tell whether it was a comedy or not. In the first scene, a guy drops dead on a glass table and you see his face squash cartoon-like on the glass. Then later, a single flapping pigeon takes down an entire double-decker bus. This can't be serious, right? I rented it because there's a state-of-the-art bird attack scene done with CGI birds. It's pretty over the top. Not sure I got anything from watching it other than it's hard to make a bird attack look good. So it's not only me. Ben says I have a reference scene for every scene in our film.
I also learned something about acting/directing. The opening scene with the three executives wouldn't have looked so stupid if the execs were given something better to do, or if the director had nixed their high school pep rally behavior. What makes something look fresh is when a behavior is inventive and not stereotypical. But then you can't necessarily plan invention otherwise it looks contrived. So you have to dowse the stereotypical but allow invention to occur spontaneously. Huh?
In more bird news, I actually bought that Wowwee dragon fly from the local Radio Shack. But it didn't work so I returned it. Somehow, I thought it would be like the other Wowwee products and made of PVC plastic. Of course, now that I think about it, no way. The dragonfly is made of colored styrofoam. The electronics are taped inside. Really delicate. I can't imagine this thing lasting more than a few months.
Fast forwarded through most of Terry Gilliam's Tideland. Beautiful lighting and production design, a great looking 12 million dollar movie. More drug-addled crazy person drawing on the walls. It had a smooth digital look so I was wondering if it was shot on Panavision Genesis or a Viper. But it was shot on film and digitally graded. DP Nicola Pecorini is apparently a steadicam master so lots of steadicam work. As a narrative Tideland meanders and goes nowhere. The point seems to be that life is painful so that you have to retreat to the imagination. Over and over again (the point, not the retreating). Also, you have a be a little wary of any film that has a director's disclaimer at the beginning. BTW, if you want to see a bunch of footage from the aborted Man of La Mancha (not shown in Lost in La Mancha), head on over to Percorini's website [link].
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