More random thoughts

[cleolinda]

Hmm. I'm at the point in a new story where I've gotten in just deep enough to feel stupid about it. As in, "Why am I writing this? Why am I bothering? It's so dumb. Seriously, I can't believe I even tried this." It's something you've just got to push through--sort of an artistic queasiness. I highly recommend not talking about your project to anyone at this point, because it's at a very fragile point of development, by which I mean that it will sound like the dumbest thing ever if you try to describe it to someone. I like to think of it as still being in its gestation period--not ready to come out of the womb yet. Doesn't make me feel any less lame, though. But the mad writing binge I've been on for the last three or four days has made me feel better at a time when I was feeling really, really bad (which I think has been related to adjusting my medication), so I keep telling myself that it can't be all that worthless. If nothing else, I can keep writing it just for me and never show it to anyone else. So, you know, if you ever feel that way, you're not alone.

Heh, Sleepy Hollow's on TNT tonight. I watched the DVD a couple of days ago, and it is a strange feeling to look up in the middle of a scene and realize you've got Dumbledore (#2), Uncle Vernon, Rita Skeeter, Emperor Palpatine, Principal Rooney, and Alfred the butler (#1) all in one room, with an assist from Darth Saruman and... well, Christopher Walken. "Christopher Walken" pretty much is his greatest character. (Emperor Palpatine! I didn't even know they let the man do any other movies!) The extras are shit, though. They're not "Interactive menus! Chapter stops!" shit, but there's only one commentary--and that's Tim Burton saying over and over, " I just had such an incredible cast. Also, how much fake fog did we pipe in? So very much"--and a bombastic behind-the-scenes thing that I guarantee you originally aired on HBO. You know--it's got That Announcer Guy who narrates in capslock. The problem is that the DVD must have come out in--what, 2000?--and I actually remember 2001 as the year DVDs started to get really, really good. And this was before LOTR. I guess my problem is that I'm spoiled by even the non-LOTR stuff like the X-Men 1.5 and Matrix Revisisted DVDs, where they have these great, in-depth, unintrusive features. Nowadays, even a mild hit like this would come fully loaded. I've come to expect DVD extras to go through all the major elements--casting, rehearsals, action and stunts, costumes, effects (the one thing Sleepy Hollow actually bothers with), and outtakes if you got 'em--in a far more in-depth fashion. That, and one-person commentaries almost always suck, I'm finding. You really need at least two people to play off each other, unless the speaker is just really, really engaging. Martin Scorsese, for example, can get away with it. Still, the Sleepy Hollow DVD's worth at least a Netflix for the part where Burton gets to the scene where Miranda Richardson and Johnny Depp are essentially wrestling for the Horseman's skull, and deadpans, "Ah, the climactic girlfight." 

(Someone has an "Ichabod Crane: Girl Detective" icon that makes me laugh about as hard.)

Talladega Nights and Barnyard perform better than expected. Despite the fact that Barnyard involves cows voiced by men. I'm just saying, that's a logical dealbreaker for me.

The Descent: A far better movie than the poster would indicate. Seriously, I saw the trailer at Apple and just about wet myself.

Teresa Nielsen Hayden tries to interpret the video for "Total Eclipse of the Heart."

Viggo Mortensen, Pornstache Conquistador. (Between this and The Fountain, it looks like conquistadors are the new big thing.)

Satchel writes a blog. Poor Satchel.

Off to write some more. I feel a little better now.

Comments

[zrath.livejournal.com]

Well, I got a leaserdisc player in 1995 and started up a nice library.
I have the Star Wars "Black Box" with all 3 original movies in the original theatrical version, the loaded T2 with the James Cameron film school, the TRON and Fantasia box-sets, The Compleat Tex Avery box-set, the Criterion Dr. Strangelove and Robocop, and other assorted niftiness.
Anyway, even basic LDs came with extras.

So I was pretty much disappointed with DVDs from the get go.
I mean: compressed video, awful artifacing whenever there was an explosion on-screen or an abrupt change of lighting, the picture didn't seem any sharper, LDs already had CD-quality audio with surround so whoop-dee-doo.
These problems resolved themselves over time, with newer improved DVD players and likewise for DVD manufacturing techniques.

Now, I find myself not being concerned with extras so much.
I bought the cheaper, less-extra-ed versions of "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" and "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within", and I'm fine with that.
That said, I do want "Hellboy: Director's Cut", and not so much for the extras as for the actual Director's Cut itself.


In other news, what is up with that poster of "The Descent"?
It's like a bad attempt at recreating the skull detail from the moth on the "Silence Of The Lamb" poster, which is itself lifted pretty much wholesale from a Salvador Dali photo.
Sheesh...

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Also, you tend to assume that the girls are cheerleaders, not spelunkers, which immediately turned me off. "Oh, great, a horror movie about cheerleaders."

[zrath.livejournal.com]

Har! Cheerleaders! I hadn't thought of that!
HIlarious!

[smilevampy.livejournal.com]

In other news, what is up with that poster of "The Descent"?
It's like a bad attempt at recreating the skull detail from the moth on the "Silence Of The Lamb" poster...

O_o I was thinking the exact same thing....