Sunday, December 30, 2007

More Orange Juice Trauma at Dunkin Donuts

Since I got back from church this afternoon, I have been parked on the couch watching hours and hours of the BBC's Robin Hood. It's wonderfully reminiscent for me because it was just premiering when I was in England. Isn't it funny, I probably wouldn't watch it if it came on week after week; I didn't watch it then (though my friend N. made the observation that Jonas Armstrong is ridiculously good looking). But I'm finding that this series is super enjoyable in five hour segments (however the commercials are getting tiring). But I'm so mad! They're not showing every episode, so we're missing quite a few episodes and bits of story in between.

Remember how I have that fear of falling down the stairs? It's the worst in my house. The stairs are already slippery, then if you're wearing socks, you can feel yourself gaining momentum as you charge down until you crash head first into the antique desk/glass enclosed bookshelf at the bottom. It's quite scary really.

So that idea I said I'd come up with? Well, I got an idea for a short. Nothing special, but there's a situation and a plot. I got a couple more cool situations/characters - if only I could remember all of them... However, a sort of cool concept is starting to grow moss (like a stone that's... not rolling). It's a bit out there, but with some serious world building, it's not so far fetched.

Movies I've seen the past couple of days:


NATIONAL TREASURE TWO: BOOK OF SECRETS - I really enjoyed this movie. I'm not sure it had the believability of the first one - they reach a little bit beyond themselves, I think - but it's still a fun adventure movie. I found myself highly entertained and even watching with bated breath sometimes.

HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX - I saw this when it first came out in the theatres in the summer, but my family and I watched it again the other night (well, I skipped out for about twenty minutes to play Guitar Hero III). I enjoy the Harry Potter series, though the books are better and have so much that the movies are often choppy and off kilter, I think. But the thing that really annoys me, I think, is the fact that they have all this money and all these resources and they don't bother to get little things true to the book. Like Tonks? She's supposed to have short pink hair. I know it's little things and I'm nitpicking, but why do they make choices that go deliberately against the books?

PS I LOVE YOU - Well, I was sad for a lot of this movie, so maybe it accomplished its purpose. But, it was an alright movie. I did want to see it, but after seeing it, I think it would have been better for a girls' night in and our Saturday night movie ticket would have gained a better return from Atonement (which is unfortunately not playing many places near me) or Juno (which was playing the exact same time and same place as PS I Love You). But, it had an Irish actor, Gerard Butler (nice surname, huh) and a few scenes that took place in Ireland, which made me happy (and a little sad). I've been getting in touch with all my Celtic roots in the past couple of days. Mix that in with my English ancestors who repressed my Celtic ones, and you've got some sort of weird twisted dysfunctional family drama on your hands. [We did also talk about how amusing it would be to be the ticket seller for this movie and keep hearing random strangers tell you that they love you and how you could use that to your advantage. My friend L. told a story about going to see "Because I Said So," and the ticket boy replied, 'Well, only because *you* said so." Geez.]

(Just a couple of the) Movies I'm looking forward to:


JUMPER - I think it's a cool concept and it looks very exciting and well done for something with such high special effects needs AND Hayden Christensen is in it. This is the movie he was filming in my uni's town the day I was at my friend's wedding. The saddest day of my life...

GET SMART - I used to *love* this tv show when I was a kid. I'm not sure about Anne Hathaway as Agent 99, but I think Steve Carell will be great as Agent 86.

NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN - Saw the trailer when I went to NT. It looks, maybe not as good as the first one, but it still looks like bloody fun.

27 DRESSES - Huh. Somebody made a movie about my future. How funny!

Movies I will make fun even though I won't see them:


RAMBO - Really? Really??

THE WATER HORSE - So they finally made a Scottish Free Willy. If you watch the trailer, you can even see the famous shot of Willy jumping over the little hero boy.

MAD MONEY - Katie Holmes gave up an amazing character in an incredible movie that will be a sure fire blockbuster to act in this?

I just finished reading "The Portable Film School" by D. B. Gilles. Not a bad library read. I feel like it got my head in the right mindset for filming a couple of shorts next semester.

I pulled in another set of scripts from Zoetrope. Maybe the third time will be the charm, but I have yet to read and review one single script. I've heard Zoetrope is a great place to get feedback on your screenplays and I know a lot of very talented writers hang out there, but I just can't make it through the requisite four reviews before you can get feedback on your own. And reading the loglines for the scripts I have in my bin right now just made my heart sink a little. I'm sure once I get back at school, too, it will be a lot harder for me to find time to get into Zoetrope. Which is sort of why I wanted to get started while I was on holiday. Maybe after my screenwriting class this semester when I'll be giving feedback all the time, maybe during those first couple of months in the summer, I'll be able to get into Zoetrope. It's supposed to be good, no?

My, I do ramble on sometimes, don't i?

No comments: