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- JOURNAL -
05•21•05 - Saturday, 3:52 p.m. MANIFESTATION OF DREAMS I am currently working on the 3rd draft of the script - I will be wrapping up this draft by the end of May, and then the art team can go to town on the story board phase of the project. At that time, I will be posting 2 scenes of the 3rd draft here on the web site for the public to read and comment on. There will be another pass on the script by summer, and that 4th draft will be to correct any period-specific issues as well as any needed dialect or dialogue finessing. I am meeting weekly with the art team, and it is going great! Last week we honed in on some new and more solid ideas for the character designs and I am eager to see the development from here on out - I brought Steve Kim to the meeting with me as well, Steve will be playing the part of Etienne in the film, as well as assisting in pre-visualization of the action sequences and he may be working as a 3D animator on the post-production of the film - Steve is a very talented artist and animator who works at Sony, on the popular EverQuest online game. This is a time of great excitement and creativity... I am inspired daily by all of the talent that now surrounds the project, and I hope you will be too! Enjoy the show! . . . FILM OF THE WEEK: STAR WARS - REVENGE OF THE SITH - This one is still by far the best trailer! I think there is far too much being made about its social or political messages, no one has a problem with the politics until they seem too close to something they disagree with and that is what is going on these days, too many people looking for hidden meaning or making more out of a point of view than should be made - listen, this is art, not reality... art imitates life and ultimately art is conceived and defined by the artist and left to be interpreted by the audience - but too much interpretation is just silly, it is Star Wars for heaven's sake, get over it. The bigger issue is whether the story was told well or not, and in my opinion, that was achieved and I rate it as "acceptable"... I found some of it to be too convenient or spelled out in some cases instead of just implied, I mean we all know what happens next, so why go to great lengths to explain every detail of how we get there? My opinion is that in the original trilogy, Lucas owed a great deal of the success of that emotional journey to his casting, especially in the leads - Sir Alec Guinness, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill - none of which are in the new trilogy... the exceptions are now Ewen McGregor (who is imitating Sir Alec Guinness) and Liam Neeson, whom they killed off far too soon in my opinion... and the new movies have never had the rogue element of Han Solo to add any "sexuality" to the mix - this played a huge part in the tension of the original films. It is funny how some actors can transcend bad writing and make the character their own almost in spite of the writing, while it kills the performances of others... Harrison Ford was a shining example of someone who just knows himself and therefore who he is as a character in a role - he did it in American Graffiti, Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Arc - many younger actors cannot get past the cardboard dialogue and limited direction supplied by Lucas, while others use the freedom to explore and shine as an actor. Mark Hamill was HIGHLY under-rated, and in my opinion, he was the entire reason that the first trilogy worked... without the proper Luke, there was no Star Wars... similarly, the fact that Hayden Christensen can't find himself as Anakin (neither could Jake Lloyd) the entire story suffers - and suffers big because it is essentially Darth Vader who is made weaker by the poor development of character - letting Hayden be "dark" in this last film, required much less of him from an emotional standpoint AND it required much less from the writing as well - dark is fairly easy to write and perform, so it works better than the attempts at love, loss and longing, but the REASONS for being dark are still the weakest places in the story and that is again the writing. Anyway, that is just the adult in me talking... So forget all that stuff and just GO TO BE A KID! Nine Inch Nails - I still dig it baby! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CONJURING IMAGES I met with the art team on Monday night to go over things, and it was great! We started off with a sort of questions and answers forum about the characters and concepts and how any changes from the re-write may have affected things... the most dissappointing effect of the second draft adjustments was by far the loss of the original bad guy... the demon Asmodeus. I want to thank all the artists for their continued hard work: . . . FILM OF THE WEEK: KINGDOM OF HEAVEN - Okay, I saw it now... BEAUTIFUL to look at, I loved the visuals - but the plot and conflict were too watered down, in what seemed to be a timid followthrough on a very current and controversial topic, an Anglo/Arabic war... I found no sense of who to root for, because the message seemed to be that we all have a point of view and our own motives, and our faiths should coexist - and while that is a bold and noble concept, it doesn't make for very good drama, especially when the warring sides are rarely interested in compromise... I think the film faltered and fizzled out at the finish-line, but a movie worth seeing on the big screen for sure! I just rented HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS and I loved it! Beautifully shot with wonderful sets and wardrobe, great visuals and a story that I was engrossed in the whole time! The director Zhang Yimou is awesome and I just love to watch Ziyi Zhang, she is incredible! HEAD IN THE CLOUDS and THE MERCHANT OF VENICE were also very good and notable as good rentals if you are looking for fine performances and good period pieces. I dig the band Garbage a lot - their new album kicks ass! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 05•07•05 - Saturday, 10:02 p.m. IN ENDLESS BLOOM... Well, the second draft is finally complete and we had our very first read-through on Friday night - it was so incredible for me... I felt very fortunate to have everyone rallying together to get behind the script and devote time out of their schedules for the project. In attendance were: I was very happy with the way the script has shaped up and the team all had some wonderful suggestions and insight into making it even stronger - I think it will only require one more pass to adjust things to the point where we can go in for a polishing pass to adjust any dialogue issues or factual inconsistencies stemming from time period or the French language. All in all it is very exciting and inspirational to be over a significant hump in the process - now the art phase will kick into high gear to solidify the look and then merge into the story board process with the final draft of the script. I think that we should be into production by mid fall. THANKS TO EVERYONE INVOLVED! . . . FILM OF THE WEEK: KINGDOM OF HEAVEN - I haven't even seen it yet (I will on Monday) but I take it on good recommendation that is a very good film... besides, have you seen the trailers? Amazing! I love Ridley Scott! I can't wait to see BATMAN BEGINS and Tim Burton's THE CORPSE BRIDE. The
Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe looks interesting too - Weta kicks
such serious ass! And check this out, I had never heard of Camp Freddy until Jeromy forwarded the website to me - how many more serious rockers can you have in one band?! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PREVIOUS JOURNAL ENTRIES:
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