*Obligatory Post of Crisis*

Apparently, it only takes twenty minutes with me out of sight for my brother to forget that I'm home.

Filmmaking Theory/Practicals: I was watching a movie the other week - I don't remember which movie at all. Maybe The Royal Tenenbaums? There was a camera movement in the scene, from the face of the character, tilting down to something he held in his hand. And as the camera was tilting down, I thought, My gosh, what's in his hand?! (It was, by the way, not something of threatening importance.) The same information could have been conveyed through a cut from the character's face to the his hand. However, the dramatic tension would have been completely lost - or never existed. There's a lot of art in filmmaking with fewer cuts.

When we made "Join This Group?" one of the lovely things was the lack of camera movement - the majority of the footage was stationary camera interviews. There the challenge was simply making the short. But that style of camera set up was not especially creative. However, it fit the style of the short. There's nothing wrong with close ups and action-reaction shots, but I think a lot of time these are default camera setups. When story-boarding, there should be a lot of thought about why the shot is being used, what is included and excluded from the frame, the motivation for movement, artistry, etc. etc.

I was watching Sex and the City tonight (sigh, I opted out of a more artistic movie for it, but I had to multitask and just needed background TV - though I am getting really tired of all the commercials for the movie), and Mr. Big kept calling Carrie 'kid.' I almost snapped at the TV, I'm not sure how she made it through a whole series being called 'kid.'