cherubs gems, volume 2

(this one's for the cinematography geeks)
while watching a clip from Citizen Kane:
ME: "So, what kind of camera movement did you notice?"
KID WHO THINKS HE IS CONRAD HALL: "There was definitely some Steadicam."
ME: "Well... Steadicam wasn't invented until 1976, but good guess."


after watching the opening of Silence of the Lambs
KID: "I just didn't buy the performance of the actor playing Hannibal Lecter. He wasn't creepy enough- I can think of 5 or 6 actors who would have been a lot creepier."
TEACHER: *stunned silence*
OTHER KID: "Didn't he win an Oscar for this?"


during critique of the kids' experimental short films:
KID: "I thought whoever did the camera did a good job of keeping it in focus."
TEACHER: *laughing uncontrollably* "When having something in focus becomes the benchmark of quality, I just... I don't know."


KID: "I really liked how they used the clock to represent time."
TEACHER, LATER AT BAR: "The clock doesn't REPRESENT time, the clock IS TIME. YOU ACTUALLY SEE IT PASSING."


KID OPERATING CAMERA: "OK, so put the slate in... ok now unslate! Unslate! I mean deslate! I mean whatever, just get out."

brief reactions to Public Enemies

I don't feel like the movie is really worth disecting in detail- it was ok, but nothing great. There were about two memorable scenes for me. My primary reactions were:

a. holy crap, this movie looks like shit.
b. why on Earth is Leelee Sobieski in this movie?
c. maybe i can leave and sneak in to watch Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs again.
d. seriously, it looks like SHIT.
e. i must run home and watch LA Confidential so as not to completely lose faith in Dante Spinotti.
f. i sure am glad NHSI paid for this and not me!


P.S. fyi, Ice Age 3 is really cute. good kid's movie, and not annoying like many animated movies nowadays. it's a solid famly movie. if you see it, be sure to stay for the credits and clap for Taylor Shaw in the visual effects section!

cherubs gems, volume 1

TEACHER: Does The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari remind you of any modern filmmakers?
KID: Dr. Seuss.


while watching a scene in Buffalo 66 with lots of quick cuts and then one shot held for a very long time
TEACHER: Why do you think they cut it like that?
KID: In the quick shots they probably just didn't have much film.
TEACHER: Um, maybe... so why would that one shot be held for so long?
SAME KID: Obviously they got it all in one take.


KID WITH BATTERY IN HAND: My camera won't turn on.
ME: Um, try putting the battery ON.

why my dad is awesome

Because a pictures is worth a thousand words- he:

wears silly hats


likes to dress up


builds awesome things like Pinewood Derby tracks


did tricks in the pool at Camp


carves pumpkins


digs giant holes


let me dress him up like a rabbit


was Taylor's Cub Scout master


loves the lake, a good book and his pipe


and Christmas lights, even in the summer


is a dorky dancer


And so many many more reasons. Happy Father's Day, Daddy. I love you!

grammar police

Leading sentence in an article on BBC news, headline "Greece to Unveil Acropolis Museum": "The long awaited Acropolis Museum in Athens is to be unveiled later."

...

COMPLETE THY SENTENCE, BBC. Or, if it's so dull as to not really be pressing and just plain old happening "later," why write the article in the first place?

Also, recently I heard someone say something was "copywritten in 2004." NO IT WASN'T THERE IS NO SUCH VERB AS "TO COPYWRITE." Furthermore, this makes me think of that stupid short film Copywrite which many friends of mine worked on before I got to Northwestern, and which is secretly not very good, but they all think it is the absolute nectar of the cinematic gods, and if I ever have to hear another story about how much fun it was to make, I will kill someone.

I seem to have switched rants mid-post there, huh? See, bad grammar brings about only bad things.

It's going to be weird

So this summer, as many of you know, I am going to be in Chicago. No- I am going to be in Evanston, teaching cherubs, otherwise known as a bunch of 17 year olds endeavoring to make a movie. I am going to be on campus, spending most of my time in Louis (the NU film building), eating at Willard, and living in one of the Mid-Quads- not sure which one. It's going to be very strange. Thank goodness for many things:

a) Kevin will be there, so it will be just like sophomore year when Kevin lived across the street from me in Hinman and we ate in the same dining room.

b) I'm NOT living in CRC- that would just be too sad. To be in that dorm without my 3 Green friends or 1 Brown friends or the vaguest possibility of Suite Bonding? No fun. Tears.

c) I still have some of the extra-long twin bed sheets I had for the dorm.

d) Jack and Kat will still be around through September (duh, when they get married), so I won't have to face Chicago Sans Jack until two visits from now.

Other than that I don't have much of an idea of what the summer will bring. The structure of the program is slooooooooowly coming into focus, despite Jim (who runs the whole thing along with Kevin Welch) claiming that they were "vague on purpose" in their descriptions of the damn thing. I love it when people are vague on purpose. It really helps with communication. Snark.

Also, can we talk about how many times I will have been to Chicago by the end of this year? Or how much total time I will have spent there? Almost two entire months, depending on how long I'm in town for le wedding in September. I will have flown back and forth almost as many times as a typical year in college. Bizarre but good.

today's million dollar idea!

This idea has been sitting around in my head for months now.

WEEKEND BREAKFAST CART

Ice cream cart-style purveyor of fine breakfast pastries such as cinnamon buns, donuts, bagels, etc. Model 2.0 would upgrade to bacon, eggs, hash browns, etc. To travel college campuses and chosen neighborhoods on Saturday and Sunday mornings, selling wares to hungover and/or hard-working young folk. Eventually will branch out and become as ubiquitous as inspirational ice cream truck, although with no rogue units that secretly sell drugs, as is suspected in my current neighborhood.

Cart would play the following song:




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