I hope to do typography at some point in this course so I can mimic this excellence –
Network ‘Mad As Hell’ Typography
And the film scene – see the film if you haven’t. Network is an excellent film, all dreary drama and one hell of a finish.
Here, for those who haven’t already entertained the notion, is a youtube collection of fantastic typography examples:
Life is busy, what with studies, work, social activities, homework, theatre companies, and the ever pressing need to expose oneself to new and interesting things. From time to time, however, you are reminded that all the little shite you’re dealing with really isn’t that important. It shapes us and occupies us, gives us something to talk about, but is not, after all, essential.
I had an experience recently when I was reading Isaac Asimov’s The Last Question on my lunchbreak at work. Blew my god damn mind. I went reluctantly back to work and a woman approached me asking (I worked in a pet shop) “You don’t have my dog’s food on the shelf in the size bag I normally get, you never have it in my size. Can you check out the back?”
I wanted to shout at her, shove the story in her hand and walk away. I didn’t, of course, because that would be eccentric verging on insane and likely see me to an early dismissal. The contrast just jarred me, like with the short film About A Girl we watched in class recently, but in reverse. Instead of being lulled into normality and then suddenly awoken to harsh reality, I had been lulled into far and distant thoughts, and then struck on the head with inanity.
Through film I’d like to be able to achieve even a fraction of what Asimov did to me, to be able to remove people from their lives and give them something to really think about would be incredible, and I think the ultimate aim of art – either make people think or make them feel.
This week we looked at Westerns in our screening class, I was thrilled.
There’s something wonderful about a Western, about the hard-earned wisdom of the west, about the harshness of the people in a harsh world. And yet it’s all about honour, not necessarily law-abiding heroes, but men deemed good or bad by deed and morals.
I’ve been watching Deadwood lately, and I adore it. HBO tends to make me very happy, and they haven’t failed with this one. Despite the constant and, at first, jarring swearing (I’ve never heard ‘fuck’, ‘cunt’ and ‘cocksucker’ used so freely before) one is swiftly absorbed in this world of struggle and survival. With no ‘law’ to speak of justness is metered out by the good against the bad, but the bad so often succeed. Death is a constant, and where you may hate one character for an episode, you find him as the protagonist in the next and you hope for his victory. I adore the way HBO television shows can turn a villain to a hero and back again without ever losing character.
I would like to write a Western one day, or at the very least film one. They have wonderful poetry of landscape and an enormous amount of philosophy among seemingly simply living characters.
On Friday or Saturday or someday night last week I had several friends around to watch films. We would put a film on, then by the time the opening credits were done we’d have thought of a better film and put that on. This went round a few times, but when it came out that one amongst us hadn’t seen The Royal Tenenbaums, the rest of us rejoiced. What better? I can watch it again and again and again, it still amuses me.
Wes Anderson has a delightfully dry sense of humour, and his peculiar characters are wondrous.
Gene Hackman plays the protagonist Royal, estranged father of the Tenenbaum family. The film opens with Royal explaining to his three adolescent children why he is going away. They are childhood geniuses who grow up to much less successful lives.
Several years later, Royal runs out of money, and he determines to go home. He concocts a story that he is dying of stomach cancer, and he wants to reconnect with his children. The beautiful irony of this is he barely means it at the time, but soon does as he says and finds himself loving a family he barely had before.
Anderson’s films tend to have a few common themes – absurd characters, playful and poignant irony, dry unemphasised humour, folk rock and brit pop, and often a heartening end in a way that you wouldn’t have often picked. To any who haven’t seen it, or any Anderson film for that matter (Darjeeling Limited, Rushmore, Fantastic Mr Fox) I would highly recommend a viewing.
Several Wes Anderson characters in here, lovely.
I love film. On last count I own close to 300 films and around 65 television shows, plus countless more on my computer (don’t fret, I buy them also, I just catch up in dashes). I’ve wanted for a long, long time to be able to do what they do – to convey an idea, an emotion or a concept to an audience through a medium that, in my opinion, is among the most capable of that conveyance.
So I decided to get off my arse and go to film school.
I’ve enrolled at Swinburne University, Bachelor of Film and Television. My first week has been excellent – an introductory week for all things film. We have learned the roles of each person from conception to final release, and by the end of the year we should have each experienced the entire process. The design is fantastic – a scriptwriting/direction class, an editing/postproduction class, a cinematography/film/stills photgraphy class and what seems to be a theory class to help understand the art of film. Each friday morning at 830am I go in for a screening and a lecture as well. There is one main assignment that carries through the several classes: we each write, direct, film and edit our own 90 second piece by the end of the semester. I am of course petrified and have no idea what I’ll do, but here’s to trying!
So this will be my documentation of this journey. As required, I shall submit here notes on what I’ve been learning, but I also hope to use it as a means of exploring my own ideas for film. Last week I saw 127 Hours, the week before True Grit, and tomorrow Black Swan and I shall endeavour to write a bit on each of them. I’ll discuss Twelve Angry Men, the film version of a play I’ll be directing later this year. I’ll discuss what’s seen in the uni screenings, and hopefully will be able to learn much and open discussion with those interested.
Could not be more excited for the year to come.
Film Student 