The Departed trailer

Presented in High-Quality Quicktime. I just don't know. I'm sure I'll catch the movie when it comes out, but I cannot fanthom this would top the original movie, incomparable Infernal Affairs, even considering Martin Scorsese at helm. It seems like another gangster action movie, instead of complex psychological buddy movie of the original. We'll see when this movie gets released.

Lady in the Water

When I saw its teaser trailer, I loved it--I loved the choice of music and its ambiance. I thought that Night Shyamalan was finally ready to tell a straight story without his signature 'surprising ending.' But subsequent trailers gave me the impression that he's back to his old bag of tricks.

And I was sooo right. Disney passed on the script for this movie, which I can sympathsize--with execs no less! Actually, I don't understand why the man talented as Night Shyamalan decide to make this weak story, thinly veiled as a fairy tale. A Korean (!!) fairy tale. (You will understand if you've seen this movie.) No, I'm not aware of any Korean fairy tale resembling this story. It sounds more like a version of Little Mermaid.

There are so many things that went wrong with the movie, but the biggest problem is the premise: why did narf-haunting Bryce Dallas Howard, decide to show up and caused this whole mess in the first place? What did the main characters learn from this other-worldly encounter? Nada, zero, nothing.

Secondly, for a Korean-American that I am, why did they cast Chinese for Korean characters in this movie and why can't they speak lick of either English or Korean? What's with the Buddha statue and burning incenses? Talk about cliches! And yet Indians, including the director himself, live modern American setting without any incenses or funky Indian music in the background.

There's no doubt that Night Shyamalan made some good movies that portrayed ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. However, I'm afraid that he's losing his touch as a writer, if not a director. He got a book basically explaining his 'calling' to make this movie. Bad move. If your movie can't stand on its own, no amount of explanations will save your movie. That's how I feel it, anyway.

The Village was disappointing. But this movie is huge let down that I don't know if I could give next Shyamalan movie a chance.

Self-Editing for Fiction Writers

After jumping through many screenplay books, it was refreshing to pick up Self-Editing for Fiction Writers and get naked about the shortcomings of my writing. (As if that was not obvious enough!)

The book is well organized with sections full of examples and recommendations that a writer should take to heart, but I especially liked this passage:

"You don't want to give your readers information. You want to give them experiences... Resist the urge to explain. (R.U.E.)"

This book is not out to teach you fine points of editing grammatical errors but more of mechanics of storytelling within words and sentences. It offered salient points of storytelling better than some of screenplay books I've read and it also vastly improved my writing.

Since it's a lot easier to get published than get your script produced, this book could provide an opportunity to take that leap and turn your story-script into a novel for publication. (Novelization is also a part of whole movie-biz, is it not?)

Great, concise, reference book that deserves a place in any writer's bookshelf.

Still Life

Still Life by UMAMY Design Group.

Yes, I need more fruits in my life. (Eat healthy!)

Good night, and have a good weekend! (Were you creative this week?)

YouTube MyTube

First, let's entertain this question, posed by always nail-on, satirical webcomic, The Joy of Tech.

Cringely delves into new YouTube licensing agreement and comes out with the seemingly obvious answer: what goes on the Net stays on the Net. "Under this new license, then, it would seem that they could produce a Best of YouTube DVD and sell it on late night TV. They could take your musical performance, strip the audio from the video, and sell it to almost anyone for almost any use. They could refuse to take down your video, no matter how embarrassing. They could charge YOU for your own video. And of course they could insert ads in the video virtually anywhere." I once entertained the thought of putting my reels and short films on YouTube to save bandwidth fee, but I won't bother no more. Creative asset is all I got at this point and I need to carefully orchestrate its release and distribution, even if I'm giving it up for free.

How 2 Fix Your Start-Up Disk

My G5 kept crashing so I boot up trusty old Disk Utility and found that "the header had minor damage." No problem. I ran "Repair Disk Permissions" but "Repair Disk" option was not available to fix the actual damage. Quelle Horreur!

I ran some Google searches and found that I could do repair without buying expensive disk utility programs. (No job, no money. Story of my life.)

Put your Mac OS X CD in the drive and reboot, while pressing "c." The disc would start spinning as the computer boots from the CD. When you get the installer up, go to the menu and run Disc Utility. You now have the option to "Repair Disk" for your internal harddrive since it is no longer the system drive.

This ordeal took me 20 minutes. In contrast, my Windows XP Pro is protected by expensive Norton Utilities which I paid $60. So, Apple's claim that Mac offers best out-of-the-box experience is part true.

Gilliam on Hollywood

"In some ways, it's probably better not to be successful at first in Hollywood, because if you're out on a limb you can still be anything. The worst thing to be is in film's budgetry middle class. You want to be in either the expensive upper or the cheap lower class, but not trapped in the reasonably budgeted middle class."

from Gilliam on Gilliam.

Summer Readings

Currently reading Hollywood Jock and How I Broke into Hollywood. I need some vindication that I'm not suffering alone.

Still jobless... Sigh.

Star Wars Origins

Frank Herbert's 1963 Dune is to science fiction what The Lord of The Rings is to fantasy: the most popular, most influential and most critically-acclaimed novel in the genre. If you are going to borrow, borrow from the best of the best.

Missing Adulthood

Adulthood is the ever-shrinking period between childhood and old age. It is the apparent aim of modern industrial societies to reduce this period to a minimum. - Thomas Szasz, author, professor of psychiatry

Clerks II Review

When Clerks came out, it was fresh and bold and sparked with spirits crying to be heard-literally. But that was before the thousands of chatrooms where fans talked hours about merits of Star Wars, before the million porn sites that cater to limitless sexual fantasies, and before billion teens' blogs that gripe about everything in the existence since the beginning of time. Needless to say, Kevin Smith couldn't win against this odd before he wrote a word of the script for this sequel.

The movie plods in the beginning to setup old characters in new joint. The 2nd act is clunky as they waste time with their meaningless jobs. Similar setup in the first one, but the first one had faster pace, catered to more interesting characters, and spewed more memorable dialogues. "I'm not supposed to be here today!" As simple as that. I already felt that, only five minutes into the movie, Kevin Smith was trying too hard to come up with jokes that will be irrelevant in five minutes in Internet time.

But, somehow in the end, Kevin Smith delivered the touchdown that won this cynical fan's heart. He finally remembered what this movie was suppose to be, and movie magic happened. All the trash talks, jokes, and corny setups in this movie became irrelevant when the climax jail scene unfolded and reached for the new height. One of best scenes Kevin Smith produced in his films. That's why this film got a standing ovation at 2006 Cannes film festival.

It was, no doubt, a disappointing sequel but, it had a nice closure for the characters and that's meant the world to me.

MySpace creates summer hit

Cnet: If you build it, they will come. "Leslie describes MySpace as the "MTV of the Internet" due to its artist breakthrough potential." All my musician friends are on MySpace, pimping their music. Is video editor next? I'm going to find out with my own MySpace.

Is it just me but her song isn't all that to me. (Maybe I'm getting old. Getting out of touch with the youth appeal.)

Studios shift to digital movies, amid resistance

NYTimes: Good informative overview of film to digital transition in Hollywood movies. "It's not our job to push the market," said Mark Chiolis, senior marketing manager for Thomson Grass Valley.

That quote will cost them their company and their jobs in few years. Trust me.

Amy Smart in the movie CRANK

Amy Smart in the movie CRANK
Originally uploaded by Lakeshore Entertainment.

This must be new wave of movie promotion on Flickr as I've been added to Lakeshore Entertainment's friend today. Among 431 friends and counting! Woohoo! I would like to exploit this opportunity to:

Dear Producer at Lakeshore Ent., I have a screenplay you might be... (Connection Denied.)

Doh! Oh well, it's their loss.

When I saw the trailer for this movie yesterday, before Clerks II, I thought it was a sequel to Transporter. Although I like Jason Statham, he needs to branch out more before he becomes next Steven Seagal.

Did you know Steven Seagal has an album, you know-a CD with songs, coming out in September? Yes, I kid you not, and I have a picture to prove it. (Coming online soon.)

Enjoy the (promotional) pictures, which is far better than custom designed-kool-aid-punched-out promo sites. (Intuitive User Interface and blog-able!)

Finally, some marketers get Internet. (Or do they?)

Depression or Recession? Take your pick.

LATimes: As Layoffs Sweep Movie Studios, Hollywood Fears for Its Future. "[The studios] don't see [film] as a prime engine of growth anymore, so they're farming out as much of the risk as they can to private-equity and hedge-fund partners. They are just not as interested in throwing additional capital into the business." I wish to remain optimistic, but I still got no job/gig. Sigh. :-(

Burton on Burton

The Nightmare Before Christmas 3-D
Originally uploaded by beatmania.

Burton on Burton collects many interviews in one bound and reflects his early career and unlikely success in Hollywood as a film director. There's no doubt that he's a talented individual as well as an accomplished visual director. You can finally peer into his thought process that made unlikely humane connections with millions of audience around the world with his quirky films.

It's a good, light reading for any Burton fans and his films. It also reveals some juicy inside info of he was attached, like Kevin Spacy was cast as Lex Luxor for his version of Superman film.

It's great to read about his account on making the Nightmare Before Christmas-one of my all time favorite films, and I'm excited to inform all the fans that it's gonna be re-released on 3D this October. I'm already there with my paper 3D goggle.

My Favorite the Simpsons Line

From the episode of "The PTA Disbands!"

Homer: "Lisa, in this house, we obey the laws of thermodynamics!"

TMNT Trailer!

It's alive! Wow, I'm plesantly surprised by the quality of this trailer. I want to see Master Splinter more than ever.

Where are to, YouTube?

Online Video: The Market Is Hot, but Business Models Are Fuzzy. "We think Google and Yahoo! have the capacity to store video content and match it up with demographically/behaviorally-targeted advertising that could be digitally delivered. In short, Google and Yahoo! could become the gatekeepers of video insertion ads and the video content aggregators of the Internet." That sums up the whole scheme of things, doesn't it?

Superman Returns

This is a romantic movie in disguise of superhero + action blockbuster. Director Bryan Singer infused the movie with nostalgia and romanticism that he almost neglected the action quotient required for an action flick. This explains why the movie is not doing so well in the box office, betraying the audience expectation of what superhero movie should be. Kate Bosworth is pretty and charming in the movie, but she is no Pulitzer-winning writer Lois Lane.

I believe Bryan Singer had a right approach to the material; Superman is a near-deity who was sent to Earth to bring fire and fell in love with a mortal beauty. Kevin Spacey's Lex is supposedly the evil mortal who toys with fire for his own benefits. However, I felt he's antics lacked bad-assnessssss. (Maybe he should've killed few of his henchmen to prove he's a bad-asssssss.)

I was surprised that the movie lacked actions, and full of moments that seemed to bridge unexpecting chemistry between Superman and Lois Lane. I almost wished Superman wasn't so damn nice everytime, and get on with the program. (It is 21st century after all. Videogames and hiphop tainted me.) I applaude Bryan Singer for trying something different, away from X-Men franchise, but for a 12-years boy in me, I rather would've chosen X-Men 3 by Singer, than this Superman movie.

I was delighted to see Kal Penn as one of the henchmen, but he didn't have any single speaking line. I was hoping he would exchange some clever banters with Kevin Spacey, but instead we get an air-headed bimbo type, who wasn't really clicking with Kevin Spacey. (Why is billionair, criminal mastermind Lex keeping her around? For the look?)

Will there be another Superman movie? IMDB says so, but I doubt they will treat next one as tent-pole summer blockbuster. Who knows? With right kind of action, (team up with Batman perhaps?) he has another fighting chance, away from Kryptonite, please.

p.s. Yes, Superman is a dick.

The Movie I've Seen the Most

What movie have you seen the most? My answer would be Star Wars, Seven Samurai, Three Colors: Red, and Armour of God II: Operation Condor.

There are favorite movies, and there are movies that pull you back, like an good, fun friend. Like Shaolin Soccer, or the Matrix.

Coolest Powerbook Ever

Dan's laser etched powerbook
Originally uploaded by Steve Rhodes.

I don't know how I ever *missed* that. One of my friends is a huge fan of Magritte's works.

The inspiration is everywhere. It's my job to find it and weave it into a story.

Fade 2 Black

Que es la Veritat?
Originally uploaded by arisnoe.

After 2 weeks in sunny Spanish land, I have returned to NYC. Trying to adjust to normalcy while I chase the summer siesta dreams away and dive into the reality. (Take the Red pill, Calvin!)

My adventure/story continues in just few moments...