Intelliegtualizing cinema?

Don't intellectualize films too much is what my friend said to me today. Sometimes a film doesn't speak to you. It's alright. Happens all the time. There's no need to overthink it. Sometimes what it is is what it is. Sure, you can analyze every single detail and come up with allegories or metaphors to almost everything. Anything can be a symbol. What's stopping you from enjoying the film as it is? This need for everything to make sense drive me nuts sometimes.

We saw Nagisa Oshima's 太陽の墓場. (the Sun Burial, Tomb of the sun) I didn't really get it. Admittedly, I did fall asleep halfway through for about 5 mins. But I still pretty much got the plot, but I didn't get what it's REALLY about. Which is a problem for me. It's not that I can't turn my brain off to enjoy something. It's a problem of expectations and context. This film was made about 40 years ago, so immediately the context you might need to fully appreciate the film is gone if you're not well versed in the histories and cultural significances of the era. 2ndly, my first Oshima film was Realm of the senses. Which made a huge impact on me, and not just because of the final scene either. I saw it as a meditation on the destructive nature of pleasure. Cautionary really. Hugely successful in my opinion. So when I saw this through to the end(mostly) I was rather really quite disappointed with myself for not "getting it". It's a frustrating experience. Knowing that YES! He does have something to say but why the fuck am I not getting it? And because it's been selected for preservation in Japan I only have to assume a whole bunch of other people got it as well.

Don't get me wrong, I didn't love the film, but it's not really that bad, some really striking images and a great setting kept me captivated.

I'm just rather distressed. Whenever I find something I don't understand, I look it up on wikipedia. Like most people. But conveniently enough this film does not have a wiki page.

So what? Is it really meaningful in ways I can't understand or is it just a bunch of pretty crap. Well, I'm not pompous enough to say the latter, so that will have to do for now.

love film print campaign

Among other things.

District 9: awesome. go see it.
Thames festival: awesome, great evening.
Script: 22ish pages done. Let's go.
Book: 2nd campaign revision in the progress. Yes.
Blog: really really not daily anymore.
Notebooks: 2 almost filled up. Giving me the illusion of progress.
Lovefilm: you suck why can't your dvds play on my laptop.
Laptop: You're awesome but why your dvd drive suck so hard.
Apple: Thanks for not announcing a new ipod touch. Sally's heart breaks easily.
Weather: Oh fuck off.

Comic.

yonks ago, I was working on this short story that was supposed to be a comic. It was supposed to be about this girl called Mina who got possessed by an extra-dimensional pawn. Suspected for murders she didn't commit, she resolved to find out about the nature of these incidents that were following her around and in the course of her investigations uncover the truth that lies behind our world. I planned it to be about 120 pages at the time. I finished about 22 pages, the first chapter basically before shelving it indefinitely.

Now the story has returned but now it's 60 pages and barely resembles what I've written before except that the main character is a girl. We'll see how this one goes. First 10 pages are due tonight, and then everything else will follow. the idea is to finish the script by this weekend. And that's that.

LoveFilm.

LoveFilm is the European equivalent of netflix to a tee. They're so similiar it's not even funny. We've been working on this product for quite some time.

The Lovefilm free trial offers you 14 days service from Lovefilm. In the interest of my portfolio I have signed up for it. On my List:

Back to the future
In the loop
Die hard
Die hard 4.0
religulous
Nick and Norah's infinite Playlist
The Damned United
Doubt
Godfather pt2
Torchwood series 1-3
Silent Running
Solaris
Sunshine

A hefty list with some "OMG I can't believe you haven't seen that" entries, bearing in mind that I've never seen any film on that list. Or at least, not that I remember. Isn't it swell.

Now all I have to do is figure out how to sell it and cancel the free trial before they bill my frakking ass.

sure. go ahead. see if i care.

I have to be ready for tomorrow's crit anyway.

I smell a Scam: 911 ads.

WWF: Tsunami killed (n) 911 only (n-whatever)

Disgusted? I know a lot of Americans are. Or at least American blogs and ad trade rags. I can't really bring myself to care. But I'll bitch about it. Such a deluge of sameness makes me want to crawl up in my bed and wish they don't exist. Let's have a run through.MTV: as if the channel wasn't bad enough.

Some kind of radio station: I don't get this one. Whose eyes wasn't glued to the telly when the planes hit? It's doubtful people said "quick! turn on the radio" when it hit. ugh. Moving on.
some woodland charity: everyday is 911 for nature. Getting bored yet?
Copy enlarged.
Hey, who doesn't love photo-hunt? Oh, that's right, families of the 911 victims. Especially if the image is one of said tragedy.
Anti smoking: 911 killed bla bla tobacco killed bla bla + a gajillion.

Same idea, different brands, generally pretty good Art Direction. The smell of scam from miles away. If I'm doing this every week I might die of repulsiveness.

on marvel's aquisition by disney.

2 words, one equation.
Pixar + Runaways.






Scrap the live action.
Make it happen.
NOW.

Crit tomorrow. Ramble now.

If life has thought me anything it's that I should say less and do more. I find that the more I talk the less I want to do, because talking seemed like doing, and the illusion persists, therefore hampering productivity.

Opinionate(not a word but should be) only when asked about, and express oneself more freely. I think the freer you are allowed to be who you are the happier you are. Society often hopes to undermine this. By it's nature society can not hope to inspire happiness in it's members. I don't think. But suffering makes us human, and it's what makes gleefulness all the more precious.

But I digress. There's this crit with this non-smoking vegetarian senior art director tomorrow at Euro RSCG London. I'm having vibes that she will not take kindly to our book. I hope my fears remain unfounded. For what it's worth, we'll approach it like water approaches a stone. How does one be reasonable and not feel doubtful about one's work anyway? My worst fear is being seen as an arrogant douche. Maybe that's my problem.