Thursday, November 20, 2008

arite, arite, arite...

first things first, sinatra is blasting away as i wake up on this fine morning.

just wanted to put in a quick director's file entry that i actually wrote on a piece of paper on the 18th. check it out.

my brother was flipping through channels and he stopped to watch "The Sandlot".

I immediately started paying attention to the way this film is shot.

It's quite interesting how slapstick-y some of the framing, blocking, and sound is.

here's an example i picked up on. i assure you that there are many more.

we see a low-angle medium close-up shot from behind a young boy.

we see the outline of his shoulders and head. beyond his frame, is a seemingly gigantic fence.

we hear dog-barking and immediately we are lead to the exact place the director wants us.

it's an interesting way to "fake it". it's also a good way to say something with limited resources. the director was very effective in communicating his message.

another thing, i wrote about this a week ago but never put it online...

i've been paying more attention to the way people speak. no, that doesn't mean i'm walking around eavesdropping. well, it might BUT, i don't actually care about WHAT they are saying. just HOW they speak. When I took STAGES at North a few years back, we had to do an exercise like this. I learned a lot from it then. To this day, I still find myself thinking about that stuff. I mean, it's something I can still learn from. As someone who is not extremely confident in writing realistic dialogue, it allows me to pick up on patterns and other subtlties of common speech.

anyway, that's all for now.

write again soon.

e

Monday, November 17, 2008

sinatra is great...

if there is ever a morning that i think is going to suck, i put on some sinatra and all of a sudden, that morning just sucks a little less.

can't help but feel inspired by him.

Monday, November 10, 2008

work and stuff

so i've been seriously neglecting this thing. sorry bout that. time to catch up a bit.

since september, i've been cutting promo's for artists like Shontelle, Hinder, Lloyd, Fatman Scoop, and some others. it's been keeping me pretty busy (and pretty antisocial) but i need the money. i'm also shooting a promo for Caitlin Krisko as she records some new material.

i'm saving up. i turn 21 at the end of this month and it'd be a dream come true to buy a SCARLET. you can find out more about this camera on their website... www.red.com
it's pretty phemonenal technology, and the owner is only continuing to hype it.
he has created an open forum online where fans can speculate about their upcoming announcement. the owner has a way with words... "Come Nov. 13th you will hear more than you ever expected... then you will have to wait again (for delivery). The message will be more than you could have ever dreamed. Then the wait will be..." he likes to leave us all on the edge of our seats.

anyway, this past weekend, i helped out on a music video. It was being directed by Randy Scott Slavin, who is family, and has been my mentor for many years. The video was for semi-newly-signed Atlantic Records recording artist Ryan Star. He has his Atlantic debut coming out in 2009 titled "11:59" and the video was for the song that'll prolly be the first single... "Right Now"
The shoot was a lot of fun. I'm not the only one who felt this way. Can't wait to see a cut.

last thing - i'm gonna start using this blog to post some things for my directing class. as an ongoing assignment, we're supposed to make a "director's file". in essence, a blog of noteworthy observations and such things made as a director. first thing of note is this website... http://www.gointothestory.com/ it's moderated by a fairly successful screenwriter and is a great place to read useful and relevent material.

gotta get back to work. talk soon.

e

oh yeah... i bought two domain names. sites will be coming soon.
just waiting on some web developers i've been in talks with.

www.westeggproductions.com
www.eSpotFilms.com