A SUDDEN URGE TO WATCH SOME ORIGINAL TREK

Went on a bit of a mini original star trek marathon, cause I had a sudden urge to see some, it had been a awful long time. So I dug out what we had recorded off the TV, which was in this order...


The City on the Edge of Forever

Directed by Joseph Pevney and written by ?...I’ve actually not seen this as much times I thought I had, I’ve maybe only seen this about two or three times as a adult. It’s really a very lovely thing...I don’t like to use the word cute...but, well...this episode is very charming, amusing and clever. Sometimes there doesn’t seem to be much explanation as to what’s going on though...but you just go with it and enjoy yourself. Really loved McCoy in this, and Kirk turns in a big softy here, and the faithful Mr Spock reminded me of a full on geek who’s happy to spend hours / days / weeks on his own building a contraption. You cant help but get swept away also by Joan Collins shes like some sort of calm angel of guidance.

Also spotted here a bit that's identical, or nearly identical to the crossing the road scene in Star Trek: The Voyage Home...they cross a road, a car has to do a emergency stop and then some shouting happens.


The Doomsday Machine

Written by Norman Spinrad, and directed by Marc Daniels. Really loved this one, great, great music throughout...loved the music on the approach to the wrecked hulk of the USS Constellation. The scene where they discover the very frightened / shell shocked / unstable Commodore Matthew Decker is wonderful, every scene with this guy is great, and I love the fight scenes they do in classic trek.

Mirror, Mirror

Written by Jerome Bixby and directed by Marc Daniels. This ones really interesting too, very enjoyable and had a fun time here. Its really funny when Kirk isn’t getting in the transported and Scotty's getting impatient about it. You can see the characters so well in these three episodes and how they are exactly the same in the six films, which, is a real joy to see.

ALIEN LEGO SETS

Made another lego discovery today. This is awesome. Created by mryoder and inspired by the Alien films. Theres somthing special about it that I cant quite pinpoint, I think its that its somthing you love dearly but done in a different style, but its recognisable that it’s the thing that you love.

THE BACK HUG / HOLD THINGY

I was going...well I use google image search a lot, but also I use it as a spell checker cause it seems to be better at times that my Microsoft publisher spell checker, I wanted to know if I was spelling Chekov the right way (which it turned out I was) and I started looking at the images there and found a really nice one of the whole hug / hold thingy.

Now, it reminded me of a conversation, (well it reminded me of several things actually) I’d had with Mark A. Perez and Jamie Lee. Mark A. Perez mentioned what a beautiful thing it is, and it really is a beautiful thing...and captured here extremely well, I really love this photo.

I unfortunately don’t know the ladies name, but this is of course Walter Koenig.

SUPPLEMENTAL: I actually dont know whats going on in this scene, and unfortunately / embarrassingly...I don’t know the sixties Star Trek very well at all...other than there’s some extremely good episodes like The City on the Edge of Forever which I've seen quite a lot of because we have it recorded off the TV.

It's entirely possible that Chekov at this point has gone evil or is not himself, cause things like that happened a lot on Star Trek. But I still think its a interesting photo.

A NOSTALGIC FIND

My dad was going through the underneath of the house again trying to sort things out and came across a big polythene bag of mine, huge, with a whole load of stuff in it. One of which was a really nice Supplement thingy...only twenty four pages long and done on quite big paper, beautifully done, the graphic design combined with the choice to have some huge photos from the films inside is great and it has a lovely feeling paper)... loved this to pieces, always went back to look at it you know?...I think I was always really taken with the Metropolis poster the most...but this little book is a great nostalgic find for me.

Not sure when Empire did this, but it focuses on ten films with a sidey column going into all the important sci-fi that’s been made since the very start of cinema.

SHORT SUBJECT CINEMA NOW HAS FOUR SHORTS ON IT

.:Short Subject Cinema:. (my other blog) focusing on short films I love, finally has some stuff on it.

NOTE: Sci-Fi nuts please go there and see Lost Cargo if you've not seen it before, its a 15 minute stop motion film that would make Nick Park proud I reckon.

THE CULT OF SURVIVORS

A good documentary on the original seventies series.

The Cult of Survivors (Part 1 of 3)



The Cult of Survivors (Part 2 of 3)



The Cult of Survivors (Part 3 of 3)

SURVIVORS HAS BEEN REDONE

Ok ok, this ones a biggy (wouldn’t be writing about it if it wasn’t)...Survivors - TV series 1975-1977 created by Terry Nation is one of the my favouritetist things ever. And here I find that it’s been remade...re-imagined?, ok lets just say rebooted. Its been rebooted and will be first broadcast on Sunday 23rd November 2008...this left me somewhat speechless and now I’m in a odd place of being tremendously excited but also immensely worried at the same time. The 1975-1977 show is INCREDIBLE and it is so good, that when you see it for the first time, it literally signs itself into a bedroom in your head, and sets up as a permanent resident in there. This resident is going to stay there until the hotel body dies.

It makes you THINK. I found myself having a couple of nightmares because of this TV series, its concept is simple and yet so relevant to today. It’s a very powerful series and shakes you to the core.

Now in 2008 we’re seeing a new version about to arrive, I wont...well, I wont write anything much about that until I see the full thing, but the trailer for it was a bit naff, however, I saw a nine minute making of thing that seemed to be ok. I just don’t have much faith though that this will be as beautifully made as the original (but by all means prove me wrong and surprise me on Sunday 23rd...yes please!!) the original is stunning with nice long takes, fantastic editing and a real atmosphere to it that is hard to explain.

The question is, have the new filmmakers poured beef soup into the engine?

CAPTAINS CHAIR

This is a odd one, I cant help but notice that the captains chair seems to be on a ramp?...is that a ramp?...and it seems to be oddly isolated in the middle of the ramp.

Loving the chair though, it's actually very similar to the old sixties chair, and looks extremely comfortable to sit in...I’ll take two.

STAR TREK TRAILER

Ok well, I’m a sci-fi nut, and so had been really excited about this movie. Of course, its not intelligent to base some sort of final opinion on the film based on this very frantic, quickly edited trailer or any trailer for any film, but here’s some thoughts.


PROS:

-Horizontal lens flare happening in a LOT of this, nearly every shot seems to have it. I absolutely love this kind of thing, it makes me think of films like Die Hard and Raider of the Lost Ark.

-This is one good looking and good feeling trailer. It's full on big budget pure (space ships / ray guns) feature length sci-fi.

-It looks like its gonna have a lot of humour in it I reckon. This to me is the most wonderful news, I love sci-fi that is well made but also funny.

-Loving what I'm seeing of Karl Urban's McCoy.


CONS:

-When child Kirk jumps from the car he seems to get pulled back along the ground, this is totally ridiculous, why is he being pulled?...

-The bridge looks...well, far too much odd looking / crude white molded plastic for my liking there, I'm sorry.

-Why is the bridge got spot lights everywhere in it….ok, well I can tell you that one, its because you get really cool horizontal camera flares happening. But from a practical standpoint, everybody would get blinded by the lights I think.

YOUTUBE

It struck me the other day, what a truly wonderful thing youtube is. A friend of mine informed me about this video (7,884,155 views) of a kid at Christmas opening up his Nintendo 64 and going through the roof with hysteria. It’s a incredible video and I bet the people at Nintendo love it. It goes into slow motion at times and repeats the moment, so I’m guessing that’s not the original video. But I’m guessing it's one of these really famous videos that has spawned lots of people doing remix and so on...that in itself is a fascinating thing.



The search bar at top of Youtube is extremely efficient / well programmed thing...and the sheer amount of stuff people have uploaded is simply staggering. I always seem to be able to get hold of the thing I’m thinking of.

Another wonderful part to all this, is peoples favourites page(s). This is like looking through somebody's DVD collection...so you've found somebody who likes the same kind of stuff you like, and then off you go diving into their collection to see what they have. On doing this I discovered another stupendous video (5,010,893 Views) of this american show about this couple who discovered this stray kitten going around with a crow. The crow was being a mother to the kitten and the video is incredible.



Youtube IS a incredible thing and I’m very grateful for its existence.

A BAG OF MIXED SWEETS

Had another experience that was interesting and full of happiness.

For some time now I've latched onto wanting a bag of revels...I’m not sure how this was triggered off, but suddenly I felt that I needed to experience it.

Many weeks went by of the same old thing I do with my life, and then one day I found myself in the newspaper shop looking at the sweets on the counter...I don’t think I’ve bought anything there at this particular place in my life, the only memory I have of last buying sweets was in 2003, at college. So I see the revels...and really want them, and thus fourth reach out with my arm to get them with a hand grabing motion. My mum has the money and pays for the bag of revels...which I believe is something crazy like forty or fifty pence.

NOTE: It wasn’t a quick decision. I stood there looking at them for quite a while, and I did ask my mum if it was ok to sort of, you know, have some revvels.

Now came the eating of them, so I’m on foot going up a hill in the cold...and I start eating them and their not what I thought there were at all. To the absolute joy here they seem to be mixed sweets, you’ll get a coffee one and then you’ll get a chewy sort of toffee type of one, and so on. The coffee ones are particularly nice I must say.

I took a long time on thinking about this one, and I reckon that it’s a bit like...a bit like those childhood experiences that you had when you had to go everywhere on foot...and in all weathers, but you usually ate what you had just bought straight away outside.

NOTE: This empty bag (looking a bit erroded now) was put in the bin by my mother twice before it had been photographed. I also couldn;t help but notice how quickly these things get to looking in a sorry state.



It also become apparent that it wasn't Revels I was thinking of when I wanted Revels...I think what I had in my mind here was Minstrels...I wanted a bag of Minstrels...but getting the surprise of the Revels not being the Minstrels was great.

I don’t buy anything in that newspaper shop and don’t go to the pub anymore either, so am a bit out of touch with the prices on chocolate and a pint of beer...some people get angry about this and I’ve had that anger channelled at me more than once now, that I wasn't supporting the local shop, but I don’t read newspapers or smoke, or buy cans of fizzy drink, or sweets (sadly)...I also don’t have a mobile phone and I sure as hell don’t have any income.

But I cant tell you enough how great it was to eat those coffee sweets and other types of sweets, in that revels bag outside in the cold.

CINEMA GIVING YOU A BROKEN HEART, NOT FROM THE FILM ITSELF BUT FROM YOUR PARENTS = THE FILM BROKE YOUR HEART

Ok...now, I don’t often get charged up to write something about a film in here, but I keep getting this overwhelming uncontrollable serge in my brain, in the last forty eight hours its happened a few times, so here I am. Its bothering me when I go into conversation with my mother and father about the film in question I just felt somewhat heart broken.

The movie was Broken Flowers Directed by Jim Jarmusch...

...and I really, really loved it. And I find their thoughts (my parents) on the film to be somewhat staggering, it's furthermore incredible that a film can reveal these things...reveal things about peoples characters it such a clear way that you did not know about prior to this.

We follow this character called Don Johnston through the entire film...and through the entire film the man doesn’t do *anything* nasty to *anybody* ...at all...not *one* single thing. Now...granted we don’t know much about his past or much about him either...we don’t know if he suffers from depression or anything much really. All we really know is that he is fifty six years old, and appears to have had what seems to be about six or seven girlfriends over a very long time period.

Both my mother and my father said he was not a nice person and a womaniser...

But... it’s a pretty long period of time gone by here for Don Johnston...and we don’t have very much information to go on at all, as to how long he's spent with each woman. We do however get to see what each one of them is like for a little bit.

They’re only opinions though, and I have to accept that. But I’m shocked and saddened by the lack of empathy in my parents towards this Don Johnston character.

A BRANCH THAT I SAW STICKING UP IN THE FLOODED BURN

So I went down there again to see what the experience would be like a second time. I took the camera this time, its always a completely different experience when your with you camera because your not really looking at the environment constantly...you stop walking, stand there and fiddle about with your camera...looking through your camera a lot I really don’t think that you see very much...it's disjointed and one thing becomes two.

I spotted this branch though, sticking out of the very fast flowing burn. Which really hypnotised me...very hard to describe this (no I’m not on drugs...lol)...the footage I got doesn’t really it justice...watching it with your own eyes completely different experience, but I’ll post it anyway. It gets interesting at the end of this clip.

THAT THING WHERE YOU HAVE A PROFOUND OUT OF THE BLUE EXPERIENCE

So it was time for a coffee, made with milk in the sauce pan, I’d not had one of these in a long time, and now getting the hang of it a lot better than previous times, because I now know to put in extra amount of coffee (it’s instant coffee, but heck the results are actually really good) in there.

I wander around the house looking out of the various windows at the flood.

I wander outside...

I see my dad waxing the car...yes, waxing the car. He tells me that its good to do this once in a while, maybe twice a decade. He had also washed the car and water had run down the hill and round the corner of the house. Round there, there’s sand bags that seem to have burst open, there’s this small mound of sand. The rain has created some beautiful almost alien landscapes in the sand.

I decide to walk closer to the flood. Its really pretty spectacular. I think that you have to have a photo here of how it looks

Coffee cup

I put down the coffee cup, because I was not going to take that with me. I put it at the base of a tree. Now that looked odd seeing it outside...my favourite cup and all, which normally never goes outside. But furthermore here I think its because I don’t go outside much either.

NOTE: ok, this photo below is a re-enactment of what happened, I’m not awfully happy about the photo, I think it could be much better...it’s the same tree I put it next to though, and the coffee cup had not been washed, so what we’re getting here is sort of authentic... : O )



Climbing the barbed wire fence

Really quite tricky this, the best place to do it is at a bit with some padding round the barb wire, there also this log on the other side, but it was all wet and slippery as hell. As I’m doing it I’m thinking “what the f**k am I doing here, this is really dangerous” but, I think with the weight distribution across my foot this was going to be OK, and *was* OK.

I wander across field and down to where its flooded, to note I’m wearing my shoes that aren’t so good for walking in whilst doing all of this, but, I seem to have a problem with my feet at the moment as I’m always tripping up...these shoes definitely make things worse though I think. The ground s a bit uneven and the grass is very long and wet. You have to go down a steep hill to where it can only be described as one big bog...its like lord of the rings with the dead people in the water (always liked that part).

NOTE: photo will be uploaded when the camera is recharged.

Down there on what is the outskirts of where I live is really quite interesting because there’s new houses being built in the flood plain...they raise up at the end of what is a very flat bit of land...its well, a flood plain, but yeah I love how bogs look, I love that grass that sticks up. There’s a very surreal quality though when walking about down there.

The return journey home I see five pheasants, beautiful creatures they are, I love the way they run, one of them ran quite close past me... because when climbing back up the hill i was hidden by the...hill...so they didn't spot me...usually they fly off, but these ones seemed calmer than normal.

I climb fence again and see the coffee cup sitting there, I pick it up and then walk back up to the house and round by the sand to see my dads not there anymore...its eerily quiet.

Now various different people (and a ongoing stream of people throughout my life)...who...perhaps don’t know me very well have often commented and said to me “are you on drugs?” ...well I can assure you I’m not on any drugs and never have been...all I can say is this... I’ve felt...well I’ve taken long to obtain the word for this, but I eventually found it, I feel that I have a hyperawareness thing going on. Now, I think this is brought out of me perhaps by myself not going outside very often...or maybe it was just special because of the flooding, a bit like when it snows perhaps. I’ve always found water to be fascinating stuff mind you.

I’m always reminded of what Steven Spielberg said about 2001...he said something along the lines of this... “no, no you don’t have to be on drugs to watch this, the movie IS the drug.” now, I feel exactly like that when walking around outside sometimes.

THE TRIP TO THE DENTAL HYGIENIST

My god, you couldn’t get much more different when you compare it to the trip with the dentist. A different section of the town...nobody in the waiting room, female dental hygienist with female assistant...very pleasant towards me, no questions asked about what it is you do for a living, and some genuinely funny moments in the reclining dental chair unit. After this we ended up going by foot through the high street of the town I was in...it was crammed full of people, my god, incredibly narrow high street and huge amounts of people...this is quite a experience if your use to only seeing two people. Cannot begin to say how beautiful the architecture is in these old british towns too...it just oozes character and they’re such solid well made buildings...its stunning stuff.

My driving also has not been used in busy towns like this in some time now, and so that at times for me can be quite scary, kind of a mixture of scary and exciting...but I cant tell you how much I hate three lane roundabouts, always have though.

THE TRIP TO THE DENTIST

I may be registered self employed...but, I’ve not had any paid work in over three years now, but then, I've turned down some major things...should I have turned them down?...well this is the question...it's best not to think about that stuff...or is it?

I’ve just been to the dentist where he asked me...“what is it you do?”...I said “errr...wellll...I’m self employed...I...um...do animations” he said “oh right, who have you done animations for?”...I said...”I um...well I do them for myself...I’ve er...I’ve not actually done any paid freelance work in over three years now” then there was a silence and possibly a glare at me... and then nothing was said about it at all as it's very difficult having conversations at the dentist with your mouth open.

My dad then paid for the bill...

I walked out of that dentist and felt very down...and see myself as a failed artist and possibly even a failure as a person. I honestly came out of there feeling really quite rough emotionally, I felt like maybe it's wrong to be living in your parents cellar...that I should really leave home and get a job...that my focus has gone down the wrong path...the thing is my parents aren’t really normal parents, they have no problem at all with me living at home. That’s not really a normal reaction from parents.

The thing is, I don’t really help myself, this journey to the dentist was the weirdest thing, I felt overwhelmed...I live in a very remote part of Scotland and never see anybody my own age...but I do like the peace and quiet of the countryside...I can honestly say that it helps the process of making films...but sometimes the gap between going into the city becomes quite big, and well, you start to forget what its like there...I was looking out the window, there was so many people in the streets, and such a HUGE number of cars...couples holding hands, mums with kids in push buggys. And women!...hot looking women. I’m at the window of my dads car thinking “wow, look at that!”

The communication with the dentist was the first time I’d spoken to anybody who wasn’t my parents in quite some time (we’re talking months here) and I don’t think I dealt with it very well.

DOCTOR WHO - YES, THE 1996 TELEVISION FILM DIRECTED BY GEOFFREY SAX

Ok, I have to say something here, every now and again I have to confess my love for the TV film in 1996 that brought Dr Who back. He was back, and would go onto our TV screen for a one off little film, and not come back until 2005.

It was Paul McGann as the doctor, and a great job he did too...and honestly, I thought the piece was very good. I would be, how old?...fifteen I think?...

It was a beautifully lit, shot and directed bit of fun science fiction. Ok, it felt a bit James Cameron-ie at times perhaps, perhaps it looked a bit like ER at times?...or even felt a little Luc Besson-ie...but I mean is that such a bad thing?...no. not that I’m saying you shouldn’t strive for originality...lol. Hmm, there’s a bit of a conflict there for sure...but your gonna get influenced by the filmmakers work you love, there’s no doubt that that happens.

The TV movie also had it's faults...but to me, it was far far better than what came in-between 2005-2008...and it was a complete tragedy that more wasn't made with McGann and this setup. There was a lot of pontential here indeed.

I really loved the inside of the Tardis, and how it looked warm and comfortable to live in...I have a thing for old Persian carpets and so on though. but I really liked the direction, editing and McGann's performance.

THE BIG WIN DIRECTED BY MARC CRASTE

Oh...my...god. I just cant even form sentences as to how extremely good this little animation is. I’ve only JUST found it now and watched it for the first time. I think that’s what happens when you don’t go to the cinema or watch the TV, because this must have been a cinema advert...and dear lord, it must have been incredible to see on the big screen. I’ve just this minute watched it about five times in a row.

You have to write about these things when you see them. I’m always very sceptical when it comes to CG, because I make a big thing of it looking so perfect...I don't have a problem here because the characters are extreamly stylised, and that's where I feel all animation belongs...the whole "lets go for photo realism" has never worked in animation. This piece really looks beautiful and has made full use of the raytracing...this is what its all about. The team has pushed forward on the technical side so that it is on par with the artistic side, a very powerful thing and i think i feel that as a animator myself, I've never come close to being able to make what I want.

The ideas in here are wonderful, the entire concept is first rate and the part where the character turns a mouth from being a unhappy smile to a happy smile on that cousin itt style character was very funny...it is genius.

The song used was excellent, this to me, pushes it forward to be a five star piece...this and the wonderful humour in it...and the fact that its a technical marvel too.

STANELY KUBRICK'S BOXES

Saw the premiere of this on More4 as part of the Kubrick season and absolutely loved it...except the bits where they decided to put a photograph into each frame (that’s 25 frames in a second, so imagine that playing for sometimes what seemed like over five seconds) (this really hurts your head and I hate it) (they also did it with Event Horizon)...but apart from that I was sitting there with a massive grin on my face. At last we get a decent documentary that’s fresh and interesting.

Jon Ronson has done a great job with this.



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VOCMAG

I was just going through old files here looking at my old sites and how I use to have my portfolio….and came across a CV of mine that had VOCMAG on it...they very nicely once featured me on their site...and possibly it may be a real magazine?...I really don’t know, I had COMPLETELY forgotten about this, and way back when it happened they sent me a email saying that it would be nice if I would put a link to their site on my site. I did do that, but eventually I did away with having links on my site.

Their site seems to have changed a little bit, but I always thought it was a awesome website full of extremely good work...I was of course, very honoured to be on there ...and, at the time with these things, you get very excited about it...eventually though, you just forget completely about it ever happening and revert back to your “my work is crap” state.

But...what does happen, is, that you are reminded by it somehow at some point as you go through old things...and it is a nice feeling, you also look at how you once had your portfolio site. I really did have it drastically different back then. Hmmm.

Here's a link to their site though >> [click here]



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FUMITO UEDA'S NEW GAME FOR PS3

This was a while back now, but a good friend of mine directed me to a still from Fumito Ueda's New Game. I'm a big huge fan of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus and strongly believe them to be two of the best computer games ever made.

So this got me excited, kept meaning to post about this one.

Some Thoughts

[EDIT]

Had to take down what I'd written here because well...it was a complete and total nonsence.

[EDIT/]

That business with the next door neighbour

I don’t want to be guilty of not reporting the positive news here, and well...I didn’t report what happened with the next door neighbour...well, I did write something out but lost it and never got around to re writing it until now.

Basically, everything got sorted out and is now cool. There was never any mention of the letter, but then that’s ok...don’t know if the letter is something I should have written out or not, but felt that I had to...and things are ok about it, so there we go. (this was months ago now though)

I Didn’t Get to Where I am Today by Thinking

This quote is from C.J. who is the managing director of Sunshine Desserts in the classic comedy television show The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin made in 1976 to 1979.

This one I find very interesting, so I’ve written some things on how it could be interpreted.

1) Too much thinking and not enough action can lead to not getting much done.

2) It can also mean that progress can be made sometimes by spreading yourself out, fast decision making on multiple fronts. Fast unending persistence. This is definitely how C.J. got to be directing manager...I think a good example of this is when a person sends out say a letter to 200 people, or a DVD. When, and if, you were to do this, you would just do it, and there would be possible outcomes happen, as a result.

3) I wouldn’t really ever tell somebody not stop thinking, as I think it’s healthy...some problems need a long think, and people vary in thought process speed. Putting down something and coming back to it after a bit of a think can help a lot.

4) Dwelling on the negative to the point of stopping what you are doing entirely and losing years to it. This is a big no no.

5) Something that has cropped up in my life is this thing where a artist will put down something mid way...say it’s a painting, the painting is taken off the easel, and put up against a wall and left unfinished for six months or even three years...the artist returns to it after this time with a fresh perspective or new ideas entirely. Now you could say that this was some form of attention deficit...but it was perhaps something that was just done, and not thought about...it was just done.

Single Artist Getting Into a Mess

My studio was in a extreme mess and I just didn’t realise how bad the floor was until today, the toilet was pretty bad too, I’m not normally somebody to let the toilet get like that, so today had to attack all of that. If your single and don’t have anybody round very often and get addicted to making these animations and lose sight of the time / days / months this seems to happen.

I’m also very tired, it feels like somebody is crushing my brain.

Somebody once said a very wise thing (James Russell) “One person Isn’t meant to make an entire film on their own” but I still to this day don’t know or see how I’m going to form a team with no money, I spose really that horrendous doubt problem of mine should be stamped on and I should really try and get a grant from one of the film places that offers money to people like me. I was, in the past, actually there at a presentation of one of those companies, and had the damned form in my hand, and just didn’t fill it in...what is it I’m not happy about with regards to that exactly?...I honestly don’t know, I perhaps was not ready at that point and wanted to learn more on my own for a couple more years.

Another thing that happened today was I noticed a thing I wanted to go to, has been and gone, it was on the Saturday night. Now I was all...”oh that’s ages off, that’s two months away” and there it is past!...damn...lol

But on the good side of things, the animation is going very, very well.