Monday, July 04, 2005

Still Learning...


So I just realized I can post pictures right through Blogger (to paraphrase Homer Simpson: "and here I am using Flickr like a sucker!")

Again, I have nothing new to post. So this picture is kind of random. I did see Batman Begins this week, so you get a picture of Batman (FYI, I really enjoyed it - probably the best Batman flick so far, but I still have an affectionate place in my heart for Tim Burton's two attempts, primarily because of his acute sense of visual style).

I also saw Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (I hate dollar theaters -- I like the cheap part, but I hate the "feet sticking to the floor" part). Regarding the Guide, I enjoyed it. It captured Douglas Adams's sense of style and wit (and expecially his affectionate and sometimes biting frustration with bureacracy) about life, the universe, and everything. The additions and changes, some to update and some to flesh out a very wordy and not altogether visual story (such as the "point of view gun"), kept to the spirit of the original. The inclusion of several references to the old BBC television version of the novel were nice (the music, the casting of the original Arthur Dent in a cameo, and the appearance of the old Marvin the Paranoid Android in a queue on the Vogon planet).

God, I am such a geek. I enjoyed it, in a silly and fun way. It's nothing like enjoying the novel. But it was fine. Sam Rockwell's performance as Zaphod Beeblebrox was really terrifically funny and stupid and saved the film in a lot of cases.

Note: I've edited this post five times since I wrote it and published it. Proof-positive I shouldn't blog this late at night. I feel an urge to blog, but I have little worth saying at this point. I've been lost in private thoughts this weekend. I've been trying to create some kind of shot list for my film (I accidentally typed 'shit list' there for a moment, so that might be quite telling, and it at least describes how I feel about my directing talent at the moment).

I've worked my way through roughly 1/5th of the script. Plenty still to go, but I tire out creatively pretty quickly. Another geeky reference here, but I remember when I used to read comics as a kid, and Marvel Comics started publishing the "Marvel Universe," which was a series of reference guides to their heroes. So under each character, like SpiderMan, for example, they'd list his alias, his powers, and his weaknesses. And it seemed like, for each character, they way they'd describe that person's limits was to say that "toxins built up in his blood." In other words, XYZ hero can lift 100 tons, but he can only carry out that level lof strength for a few hours "before toxins develop in his blood to tire him out."

So, all that to say, I can only work creatively for a very short time before creative toxins develop in my blood, forcing me to rest. Or my kids need me to make lunch. One or the other.

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