I saw Sunshine Cleaning last night and stinking loved it. Both Amy Adams and Emily Blunt are my new favorite. At the end of the movie I felt like maybe we were friends.
The reason this film is so great is because it's both hopeful and honest. Life doesn't always work out the way we imagine and sometimes it gets pretty dark but we can find sunshine in even the saddest and darkest places. When we have no money, no husband, and we clean up after dead bodies. When we feel like a total loser. When someone we love dies. This movie is all about finding hope when terrible things happen and life doesn't provide us with the happy ending we expected. I just loved it, so go see it!
Oh boy oh boy! Stinking excited for this movie to come out October 16th. I know in many ways I'm a child in a bad way. But I'd like to think, maybe sometimes, I'm a child in a good way.
I completed my Fiesta Movement Film. Almost all of the videos I saw that were uploaded looked a lot more like video resumes than anything else. Not really my style. I believe in less is more, (unless we're talking about one of my many indulges, in which I can't help but practice the principle more is never enough).
The dilemma: in a short film how can I prove I have an internet audience, that I know how to put together an entertaining video, and I like road trips without it looking like shameless self-promotion?
This is what I came up with....
The open road, our life journey, all the random, strange people we pick up along the way and the places we go. And the people along the road will do all the promoting for me.
Ford is giving away 100 2011 Ford Fiesta's before their official release in America. The catch is that you promote the Fiesta for six months. It seems brilliant to me that Ford caught onto the potential of the new world wide web (twitter, blogging, facebook, myspace, youtube). Before the internet meant the world was at your fingertips, these days a blogger is at the world's fingertips. And Twitter has allowed anyone to be mass produced and distributed.
I'm sure Ford's marketing department thought, "why put all this money into advertising ourselves when we can have a diverse group of 100 do it for us?
For six months gas and insurance is paid for. You just go on these special trips in your Ford Fiesta, then talk about them to your internet audience. To apply all you need to do is upload a clip on youtube proving you can make a video, you're entertaining enough, and that you have an internet audience. I think it's genius. So I jumped on board immediately.
I told my friend Tyler at work I wanted to win this Ford Fiesta. He paused for a second, looked at me and said, "Why don't you just buy a car?" I felt like a freeloader for a minute... Now I say to you Tyler... "Whats the fun in that?"
This past month I've rediscovered all the things I forgot I loved to do. Been crazy busy working on a short video project (further details on the project later).
My Film in the Making:
That's Paul in my opening shot. Paul helped me brainstorm the idea and is writing an original song for me which I'm excited about.
Justin is my camera genius and pretty much helped me figure it all out from the beginning. That's his battle wound after a tragic barbed wire accident.
These shots we got of Bekah were really incredible and she looks so great.
This shot cracks me up, because I told her, "throw the sign but don't throw it in the lake please" so she dramatically throws it and then watches it till it drops.
Some more shots and people who helped me out.
Found this abandoned road right next to the train tracks. Such an incredible spot. Justin risked his life on a skateboard next to my car for this shot.
I have to have it done by Sunday. So check back in a couple days!
This will be my last blog about WATCHMEN. Cross my heart.
It seems as though a lot of people went into Watchmen expecting another superhero movie, polished and triumphant, those people came out disappointed.
Aside from a few moments, Snyder avoided dumbing down Moore’s masterpiece to win over the public. Watchmen was made for fans.
This isn’t another comic book movie. It exposes the paradox of the superhero genre. In this reality Superman doesn’t care for humanity, Batman’s a nut, everybody else’s damaged, paranoid, narcissistic, sadistic, sexually deviant. Got goosebumps when Dr. Manhattan says if there is a God, I’m nothing like him.
Watchmen imagines a reality universe. It’s the possibility of what could have been if we had superheroes. We wouldn’t let superman just rescue cats from trees or fight crime in Metropolis. He would help us change history! If Superman existed and he was American, we surely would have won the Vietnam War and what would that have meant?
Watchmen was less plot driven and more character based. Generally, the movie medium doesn’t need to worry about character development and they don’t really have time to. The book is addicting and emotional because you get attached to characters, especially Rorschach whose character is heartbreaking.
I think just as the graphic novel redefined the comic book genre, the movie redefined the comic book movie genre. Comic book movies aren’t just for kids anymore. Watchmen hit theatres at a time when superhero movies are growing tiresome. How about something new, refreshing and serious?
I loved the movie from the very beginning when Bob Dylan’s “Times they are A’Changing” played through. It got me feeling all “Watchmen-y” (which is a word, Zach Snyder used it).
So many things I say I'll do tomorrow then tomorrow comes and goes. One of those things was painting. Tomorrow turned into six or seven years with out even picking up a paint brush. Well I dug up my paints and set up a studio down in the basement. Its a perfect set up. I have my record player, my speakers, my studio lights and now my easel and paints.
For a rough and first attempt at painting, I'm okay with it, however its supposed to be Bob Dylan. But maybe it kinda looks like David Bowie? The other work in progress is....THE JOKER. How geeky am I? Did I mention The Watchmen comes out Thursday night?
Glad to know some things never change. Some things stay consistent which is hopeful for a girl as hopeless as myself. I mean specifically my friend Lori never changes. And such consistencies make me happy. What a ridiculous human being. And I mean the finest quality of ridiculous. Last week I participated in a Girl’s-Night-Out, which is a rarity for me. A guy at work once asked me to set him up with my friends, another friend butt in “All Ashley’s friends are guys.” Which is not completely true, however all my girlfriends are in relationships. So Girls Night was foreign but refreshing to hang out with a whole table full of people who had their reproductive organs on their insides. Even more refreshing, spending the evening with friends.
some thoughts…
How underrated are our friendships? Our relationships get put on the backburner for whatever we feel is more urgent. We have resorted to a more convenient way of maintaining friendships, texting, blogging, facebook. There are friends I haven’t seen in years, no worries though I know that “JOE is…just finished my calculus exam!!!” via all the ploys of virtual friendships that make us feel like we aren’t living alone in this world. We have replaced quality with quantity, as our facebook friendships stack up and the intimacy of relationships dwindle. Technology, modernism, self-promotion, individualism destroy intimacy, community, value. And now we wonder why we feel more and more alone when we're surrounded by masses in the Lonesome Crowded West (Modest Mouse).
One of the few things that matter at the end of the day are the relationships we have with other people. One of my fears is that approaching the end of my life I’d look back and regret a faded relationship. And surely when my bones are arthritic (I think they already are) and I have to blend my food up into mush (which I also kind of have to do cuz my wisdom teeth are rearranging my face and I have no dental insurance) it will be the things I cherish most.
NOTE: This however doesn’t mean I’m ready to delete my facebook and surely not my blog. IM JUST A ROBOT IN THE SYSTEM.SYSTEM> STYSME sddkkkkk...a broken system.
