Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Dialogue Greatness
“Yeah I called her up, she gave me a bunch of crap about me not listening to her, or something, I don't know, I wasn't really paying attention.”
-----Harry Dunne (Jeff Daniels) in Dumb & Dumber, 1994
-----Harry Dunne (Jeff Daniels) in Dumb & Dumber, 1994
Film Term
- Motivated Lighting: A style of lighting in which the light sources imitate existing sources, such as lamps or windows.
Sunday, December 23, 2012
December 23rd. Happy Festivus!
Celebrated on December 23,
as depicted on the December 18, 1997 Seinfeld
television episode, “The Strike”. While at Monk's restaurant
Jerry, George, and Elaine discuss George's father's creation of
Festivus (Jerry: "His father hated all the commercial and religious
aspects of Christmas, so he made up his own holiday." (Jerry Seinfeld
referring to Frank Costanza.). Then Kramer becomes interested in resurrecting the holiday when, at the bagel shop, Frank Costanza tells him how he created Festivus as an alternative holiday in response to the commercialization of Christmas.
Frank Costanza: "Many Christmases ago, I went to buy a doll for my son. I reached for the last one they had, but so did another man. As I rained blows upon him, I realized there had to be another way."- Cosmo Kramer: "What happened to the doll?"
- Frank Costanza: "It was destroyed. But out of that a new holiday was born: a Festivus for the rest of us!"
- Kramer: "That must have been some kind of doll."
- Frank Costanza: "She was."
Festivus pole
The tradition of Festivus begins with
an aluminum
pole. During Festivus, the pole is displayed unadorned. The basics of the
Festivus pole are explained by Frank in two separate situations:
Cosmo Kramer: "And
is there a tree?"
Frank Costanza: "No,
instead, there's a pole. It requires no decoration. I find tinsel distracting
... It's made from aluminum. Very high strength-to-weight ratio."
When not being used, the pole is stored
in the Costanzas' crawl space.
Festivus dinner
A celebratory dinner is shown on the
evening of Festivus prior to the Feats of Strength and during the Airing of
Grievances. The on-air meal was shown to be some sort of meatloaf.
In the Seinfeld episode no alcohol is
served at the dinner, but George Costanza's boss, Mr. Kruger, drinks from a hip flask.
Airing of Grievances
The celebration of Festivus begins with
the "Airing of Grievances", which takes place immediately after the
Festivus dinner has been served. It consists of lashing out at others and the
world about how one has been disappointed in the past year.
From the Seinfeld episode:
Frank Costanza: "And
at the Festivus dinner, you gather your family around, and tell them all the
ways they have disappointed you over the past year!"
Frank Costanza: "The
tradition of Festivus begins with the Airing of Grievances. I got a lot of
problems with you people! And now, you're gonna hear about it. You, Kruger. My
son tells me your company stinks! You couldn't smooth a silk sheet if you had a
hot date with a babe...I lost my train of thought."
Feats of Strength
The
Feats of Strength is the final tradition observed in the celebration of
Festivus, celebrated immediately following (or in the case of "The
Strike"during) the Festivus
dinner. The head of the household selects one person at the Festivus
celebration and challenges that person to a wrestling
match.
Evidently, the person may decline if they have something else to do, as Kramer
did in the episode. Tradition states that Festivus is not over until the head
of the household is pinned in a wrestling match. The Feats of Strength are
mentioned twice in the episode before they actually take place. In both
instances, no detail was given as to what had actually happened, but in both
instances, George Costanza ran out of the coffee shop in
a mad panic, implying he had bad experiences with the Feats of Strength in the
past. What the Feats of Strength entailed was revealed at the very end of the
episode, when it actually took place. Failing
to pin the head of the household results in Festivus continuing until such
requirement is met.Article cited directly from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Festivus
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Film Crew Slang
Vanities- A term sometimes used by the crew to describe the folks in charge of hair and make up.
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Pick of the Week
"The Re-Animator"(1985) Directed by Stuart Gordon
Med school student Herbert West experiments with re-animating dead tissue. His professor dies in the lab under weird circumstances and Herbert is forced to continue his "re-agent"work at a new university. Gore and humor propel us through a Frankenstein/Jekyle & Hyde/Zombie hybrid flick based on an original story by master of horror H.P. Lovecraft. On a relatively low budget this picture provides excellent production value, performances and direction. It is deftly designed for hardcore horror fans who revel in the absurdly gross. Popularity led to a series of re-animator films. If you enjoy "The Evil Dead","Dead Alive" and the "Living Dead" films, "The Re-Animator" belongs in your Netflix line-up.
Med school student Herbert West experiments with re-animating dead tissue. His professor dies in the lab under weird circumstances and Herbert is forced to continue his "re-agent"work at a new university. Gore and humor propel us through a Frankenstein/Jekyle & Hyde/Zombie hybrid flick based on an original story by master of horror H.P. Lovecraft. On a relatively low budget this picture provides excellent production value, performances and direction. It is deftly designed for hardcore horror fans who revel in the absurdly gross. Popularity led to a series of re-animator films. If you enjoy "The Evil Dead","Dead Alive" and the "Living Dead" films, "The Re-Animator" belongs in your Netflix line-up.
Film Crew Slang
Hero- A special item, prop or accessory. As in “Gimme the Hero Bomb, we are shooting the close-up.” This is a request for the best looking bomb. We are about to cut the
blue wire….or is it the red wire? Television commercials have Hero as
the star. The big juicy burger that is 6 inches tall, steaming hot is
the “Hero” or “Hero Product”. The Hero “Product Shot “is usually the
last shot of the day.
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Dialogue Greatness
Adams Family Values (1993) -Gothic comedy based on the comics by Charles Addams. Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld.
Gomez: Children, why do you hate the baby?
Pugsley: We don't hate him. We just wanna play with him.
Wednesday: Especially his head.
Gomez: Children, why do you hate the baby?
Pugsley: We don't hate him. We just wanna play with him.
Wednesday: Especially his head.
Film Crew Slang
Pay or Play- An stipulation in a contract which commits the production company to compensate a
cast or crew member for a project whether or not that project ever goes
into production.
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Pick of the Week
"Decoy for Terror" (A.K.A. "The Playgirl Killer" A.K.A "Portrait of Fear) 1968-
A deranged artist kills and freezes women for the sake of his art. Not
only is this fun Canadian schlock, but 50's-60's teen popstar Neil
Sedaka (famous for..."I love, I love my little calender girl..! Yeah, yeah,yeah!)
breaks into song several times. Best Scene-The artist has frozen a
girl as a statue posed with a strung bow and arrow. Guess what happens
when the power goes out and the room warms up?
Film Crew Slang
"Bracketing"-Shooting the scene several times with different F-stops/T-stops to create a range of exposure effects.
F-stop-The amount of light transmitted by a lens based on a simple mathematical calculation. Focal Length of lens divided by the diameter of the aperture.
But different lenses will take in different amounts of light depending on the number of elements in them. So two lenses with an aperture of f4 may actually allow different amounts of light to pass through them. One might create a brighter image than the other.
T-stop-Similar to F-stop but a T-stop is measurement of the actual amount of transmitted light for a particular lens as opposed to the theoretical calculation of an F-stop.
T-stops are used mostly in the motion picture industry.
F-stop-The amount of light transmitted by a lens based on a simple mathematical calculation. Focal Length of lens divided by the diameter of the aperture.
But different lenses will take in different amounts of light depending on the number of elements in them. So two lenses with an aperture of f4 may actually allow different amounts of light to pass through them. One might create a brighter image than the other.
T-stop-Similar to F-stop but a T-stop is measurement of the actual amount of transmitted light for a particular lens as opposed to the theoretical calculation of an F-stop.
T-stops are used mostly in the motion picture industry.
Dialogue Greatness
"Repo Man" (1984)- 80's
Punk Rock sci-fi classic from the warped mind of Director Alex Cox.
We'll take a look at Cox's "Straight To Hell" (1987) a little later
Parnell (mad scientist) :
Ever been to Utah? Ra-di-a-tion. Yes, indeed. You hear the most
outrageous lies about it. Half-baked goggle-box do-gooders telling
everybody it's bad for you. Pernicious nonsense. Everybody could stand a
hundred chest X-rays a year. They ought to have them, too. When they
canceled the project it almost did me in. One day my mind was full to
bursting. The next day - nothing. Swept away. But I'll show them. I had a lobotomy in the end.
Otto: Lobotomy? Isn't that for loonies?
Parnell: Not at all. Friend of mine had one. Designer of the neutron bomb. You ever hear of the neutron bomb? Destroys people - leaves buildings standing. Fits in a suitcase. It's so small, no one knows it's there until - BLAMMO. Eyes melt, skin explodes, everybody dead. So immoral, working on the thing can drive you mad. That's what happened to this friend of mine. So he had a lobotomy. Now he's well again.
Otto: Lobotomy? Isn't that for loonies?
Parnell: Not at all. Friend of mine had one. Designer of the neutron bomb. You ever hear of the neutron bomb? Destroys people - leaves buildings standing. Fits in a suitcase. It's so small, no one knows it's there until - BLAMMO. Eyes melt, skin explodes, everybody dead. So immoral, working on the thing can drive you mad. That's what happened to this friend of mine. So he had a lobotomy. Now he's well again.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)