Fear of the Unknown

Hello, my friends.

Here we are again, with an update that is actually two updates.

I think I stumbled across the reason for my ability to maintain a blog through the many times I have tried. I initially pinned it down to a lack of time to write, but that is a farce. I write almost incessantly. My second thought was that my blogging always lacked purpose. But then I created a blog that was about stuff I did and liked and I still failed to maintain a posting schedule. I think I finally pinned it down to fear.

To be specific, fear of the unknown. As I said, I write almost incessantly. I'm just not comfortable releasing my scribbles for the World Wide Web to read and comment on. That's not such a bad thing in itself. Caution can be a great mediator. But as a creative individual who hopes to make a living in a creative field, a lack of desire to show off what you can do is fatal.

For many, blogs aren't a great deal. But in this day and age, they can become a sort of measuring stick. Of what I haven't entirely figured out, but the indicators are there. I guess it has less to do with having a blog and more to do with a website with clear, concise information about your abilities.

Suffice it to say, there is conflict within about how well I can maintain a blog, and conflict within about not having an active online presence. But like all areas of life, when confronted with a crossroads we must choose a path. Change or fade away, as it were.

So in light of the required decision, I decided that failing to show what I can do is kind of like shooting myself in the foot. Not a good thing. So I am changing.

Would you believe that all this came out of an internal monologue on whether or not I should continue procrastinating uploading some videos to YouTube? Which I ended up uploading, by the way. And here they are: all the projects from my past semester at CSU, and one other which I created over break.

Enjoy, all!

Tommy

DSLR Filmmaking

There isn't really much of a debate anymore that the DSLR video cameras are some of the best video cameras available, especially when you consider the price point. To any who still hold reservations, how about we let the cameras speak for themselves.

Reverie was the first 1080p video made with the Canon 5d MkII, before it had even shipped out to testers. It made the filmmaker, Vincent Laforet, an overnight sensation. But it also thrust DSLR cameras into the limelight. This is what is possible with a DSLR.

Reverie from Vincent Laforet on Vimeo.

More to come.

~Tommy

The Hobbit: Stuff of Dreams

Of all the Behind the Scenes vids I've seen, the ones for Lord of the Rings were phenomenal. I actually wanted to have been there, despite not yet having discovered my love for filmmaking. The update vlogs coming from Peter Jackson are no different.

I love fantasy film, I love Lord of the Rings, and I love epic adventures. From what it sounds like, the Hobbit is all of them. Filmmaking, even on the scale I have done, is pretty adventurous. Toss in 254 days of shooting, some helicopter rides around New Zealand just to scout locations, and 14 principal characters and you've got some pretty promising adventure in store:



I would love to be there in some capacity. As a third year film student, this is the stuff of dreams. I mean come on; they've got 48 RED Epics!



Peter Jackson is one of the guys that makes me dream. I dream of one day working on a project like this. I dream of one day directing a project like this. The only tarnish to those dreams is that there will never be another Lord of the Rings project. Unless Jackson decides to one day shoot segments of the Silmarillion, or some of The Book of Lost Tales. One can dream.

~Tommy

The Medium of Film

When I started out as a film student, I didn't look forward to working with actual film. I'd think, "Give me a video camera and a DV tape or flash card and I'm golden." But as I learned to love movies for more than the entertainment they provided, I began to see things differently.

I've always loved history. Learning about past events and figures, the mistakes that were made and the lessons that were learned. You might even say that everything we learn is history of one kind or another. Someone had to discover everything that we learn, from science, to math, to languages. And for me, the inventiveness of the human mind and the products of invention and their impact on the future, are the highlight of most history lessons.

Enter my film production class. Where we are working with actual 16mm black and white reversal film. The cameras we are working with, Bolex H16s, are each around fifty to sixty years old. When I hold one, it's like holding a piece of history. And to work with film, with these cameras, makes me feel connected to the visionaries of the past.

I used to think nothing could be learned from the authors of cinema, those who were around when concepts such as cutting, the close-up, and the moving camera were being invented. I have learned otherwise. Even within the oldest films, little more than forty seconds long a piece, there is much to be learned.

My first shoot with real film was stressful to say the least. There are so many variables to worry about that are not make-or-break factors with video. Is the camera wound? Is the aperture set right? How's the focus? Did I use the light meter correctly? Does the framerate need adjusting? Is the shutter open? And without the instant replay video provides, you have no way of knowing if you did a good job or a bad job.

Even when you are not shooting, the handling of film can be stressful. You need to load and unload in a dim room so you don't expose the film and ruin it, you have to keep it cool because latent heat can expose the film further, you have to let it come to room temperature before filming. In the height of frustration, it can be easy to ask why anyone would choose film over video. And for some, the answer is hard to come by.

After film school, I probably won't ever work with film again, and certainly not on a regular basis. It's just not practical for an indie filmmaker no great means in this day and age. But for all the perceived disadvantages of film, I shall thoroughly enjoy working with it while in school.

~Tommy

My Film: Test The Spirits

Greetings, dear friends,

Last Wednesday, my brother and I threw together a little illustration video for my dad's sermon this past Sunday. The source Bible passage for the sermon is found in 1 John 4. I selected the first three verses as the material for our video.

For more information about our church, you can visit kirtlandchristian.org.

Enjoy!

~Tommy

Game of Thrones TV Crawl

It truly is amazing what we can do with computers these days. This has to be the most epic credits sequence for any show or film I have ever seen.



I only heard about Game of Thrones by chance. I was probably watching Hulu or something. I had never heard of George R. R. Martin, A Song of Ice and Fire, or any of his other works until then. Now, I don't live with my head under a rock, but neither am I on the cutting edge of the literary community. I read Eragon in 2004, and excepting Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia, was pretty much the only fantasy I had read up to that point. I have been trying to make up for that ever since. So when I heard about "America's Tolkien", I grew curious. Research into the show increased my excitement, but I only actually bought the first novel in the series a couple days ago. I read the Prologue, and it seems par for the fantasy course. Black Guards and Undead with glowing blue eyes. I'm saving the rest for my loooooong plane flight(s) tomorrow. Here's hoping it will be a good book.

~ Tommy

(It's kind of funny, writing a post that will be published automatically later. Yeah, when this goes live, I will be in Cochabamba, Bolivia, South America, visiting my good friends. So excited!)

I'm pretty pumped about the Avengers movie coming to Cleveland in August. With the par set by recent super hero movies, it might prove to be one of the more ambitious movies ever made. With not one, not two, but - prima donnas whose characters need to be catered to, I'm curious to see how well the makers will be able to pull it off. They definitely needed the solo movies to set up the characters. And I'm curious to see who the villains will be. The ending of Thor would seem to indicate Loki, and I imagine the Red Skull will be in there somewhere. But that's really not enough villains for a single Avengers' movie.

Speaking of the solo movies, did anyone who actually saw Thor like it? Honestly, I felt they could have done a better job. The only part I really liked was Hawkeye's cameo. Hawkeye is my second favorite avenger. (Captain America first. Since three is a nice, traditional number, Black Panther is my third)

I actually have my reservations about the Captain America movie. It could be totally awesome, or it could be akin to G.I. Joe. That's what I draw from the trailers, anyway.

Iron Man I and II? Meh. I never really liked bad guys that are essential clones of the good guy. Heck, that means that Hulk movie too. Which one are they going off of? The first one or the reboot? I didn't see the first one. The reboot was pretty good in parts. But again, Abomination was a pretty lame villain.

That's really what I don't understand. If you want to have a recurring series of super hero movies, DON'T cast the lame villain in the first one! They didn't do that in Batman! But that's hard to live up to. Maybe that's not fair. Oh well. Life isn't fair. Take a lesson from Mr. Nolan, Marvel hero movie makers!

Since we're on the topic of heroes in general, I recently saw Green Lantern and was also disappointed. That one I compared heavily to Batman Begins and found it wanting. Hal Jordan wasn't a very compelling flawed hero. They tried to make him a cross between Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne. Childhood tragedy and playboy status combined. Eh, it flopped. And, like Thor, it felt like there was no real passage of time. How much time elapsed in that movie? Like, a week? That's what it felt like. But you know what? Enough ranting.

Oh, did I mention the Avengers is filming in Cleveland in August? A while ago, a call went out for local crew to work the film. Being a film student, I applied. Having no experience, I'm not surprised I did not make the cut. I'm not even going to bother applying to be an extra at this point. But honestly? If I could just stand somewhere, out of the way yet near the set and watch and listen and learn? I would be more than happy to spend many long days in Cleveland for that. Heck, it's going to be a Joss Whedon movie! Best learning experience evah!

~ Tommy

Chief Reason I Despise Anime

Okay, so it's really more a tendency than a hard and fast rule. Nevertheless, I feel that a theme in most anime I have ever seen is the girlification of men. Normally, I would say that it doesn't particularly bother me. Everyone is entitled to his or her own creative tendencies. But this is going too far...



Anime + Wolverine = Very, very bad idea...

~ Tommy

Genius or Madness?

Premise: A police drama with song and dance numbers.

Result?



~ Tommy

Aesop: The Original Machiavelli?

Seriously. Everything I needed to learn about deception I learned from Aesop.

~Tommy

Thoughts on Star Wars

I grew up on Star Wars. I reveled in the epic thrills of laser shootouts, lightsaber combat, space dogfights, and the struggle of a small rebellion against one of the most awesome villains brought to cinema. I emulated them in my playtime. LEGO, "House" (which was really a catch all for any sort of improv acting we kids partook in), books, and the occasional video game at a friend's house; all were permeated by the incredible variety of adventures offered by the limitless galaxy far far away...

...Then I got older...

...And the prequels happened...

Episode I: Phantom Menace, came out when I was 8 years old. By then I was old enough to recognize bad acting and poorly-written dialogue when I saw it. But the incredible finale between Jedi and Sith warriors made up for it. But then the second one happened, and I knew Lucas was overreaching. (Episode III wasn't that bad...compared to the previous one at least. Don't even get me started on that lame excuse for a TV show they have going)

So I turned to books for my Star Wars fix. Timothy Zahn, Michael Stackpole, Kevin J. Anderson, and others I have by now forgotten; they were what kept me up late into the night, reading. I read almost every novel our library contained that was stamped with the iconic logo before I got tired of them. The plots became generic. Every novel with a Jedi character became a slugfest of trying to one-up any previous author on creative and bizarre ways to use the Force. When Jacen Solo survived falling from the top of a spacescraper (like a skyscraper, but much taller), my eyes were opened to just how lame the novels had become.

I moved on. I was still a great Star Wars fan, but it did not occupy much of my time as it used to. I had hopes for the Clone Wars show (oh great, I got started), but the writing and acting is even worse than Attack of the Clones. I think I'll leave it at that.

But then come trailers for this new MMORPG that Lucas has coming out. The Old Republic? For those of you who have seen, you know what I'm talking about. For those who haven't...well...I've got one thing to say:

This is how Star Wars should have been...





Enjoy?

~Tommy

P.S. It's about time someone dropped me a comment...kthanx :)

Peter Jackson Talks "The Hobbit"

I got a tip from a friend yesterday that there was a vlog by Peter Jackson circling the 'net made on the set of The Hobbit. As an avid fan of J.R.R. Tolkien's epic masterpiece and Peter Jackson's filmic homages to them, I immediately set sail in search of this first glimpse at the new movie in production.

And here it is, for you all to see:

As you can see, Ian McKellen is back as Gandalf, and those are some tough-looking dwarf characters in there.

I don't know about you, but I am EXCITED! Thanks, Peter! Let's see some more real soon!

~ Tommy