Fall quarter will commence the Monday after next, kicking off coursework in Directing Actors, Independent Producing, Scriptwriting II, and Anthropology. For the first time in about a year, I will be neither editing or shooting anything which leaves me time to work on some independent projects and fine tune the ol’ portfolio. More will be revealed on these ideas as they manifest themselves.

• Wrap of “Wondersaurus” – The renamed project of Ryuiek and His Stella reached a wrap after a long and strenuous production cycle involving live-action shot entirely by myself (yeah thanks guys, sheesh) and then a couple minutes of claymation magic I captured by myself. I hope to have a few clips of the film online to show the world soon
• Film III production schedule – Worked as sound recordist, boom operator, assistant camera, director of photography, director, and grip on the Film III sets as part of the class over a period of five weeks while finishing Wondersaurus. Thank goodness that’s over! Whew!!
• Storied production of Film III project “Mighty Mouse” – What started off as “A Lost Hope” became “Mighty Mouse” after an overnight pre-production redo after circumstances prevented me from having a living cast and location. With money also being an obstacle, I penned a new script overnight to shoot the next day as planned about a mouse droid from the Star Wars universe who has been demoted to janitor after the Empire is torn down. After sending the 16mm film to the lab, the footage was lost and over the next few days I’ll have to redo the film on digital. Should be a treat when it’s done though
• Digital II pre-production – I’m filling the role of art director for the digital II project Spinning Wheel, a ten-minute short to be shot in high-definition. I’ve got a lot to do over the next couple of weeks before the shoot commences, including shopping for props and costumes, altering said costumes, and building a fake tree!

I hope to have some cool stuff to post over the next few days, including photos, clips, and new reviews. I aim to review the new iCarly movie as well that will be shown on Saturday on Nickelodeon.

So really all I’ve been doing is working on those things, have not had a lot of free time to watch and review much outside of my SFX writings. Coming up this week will be my review of Runner (which is finished) and also Plants vs. Zombies (almost finished), a game I highly recommend!

Now that’s over, I will be uploading some new reviews this weekend if all goes well and no more viruses attack me I have a lot of work to do with the filmmaking post and pre-productions. Zzz.

I hope to have the new script online by the end of the weekend, working title is A Lost Hope. Casting will also kick off this weekend and I am due to pitch the film in class on Thursday morning… yippee! While Film III appears almost exactly like Film II, we’re all experiencing some changes to how production runs. First off, we get another hour of shoot time and an extra 200 feet of film. New to the game is the DP/gaffer is responsible for all camera movement and is the one operating the camera as opposed to the director. This I am actually sort of thankful for because I do not considered myself a tremendous skilled camera operator… my pans could use some tweaking. Position of grip has also been added to the crew list and in our production notebooks we have a few new forms to fill out: gaffer’s notes (containing information about power and light setups), sound notes (troubleshooting sound on set), and script breakdown forms.

Also, my review of the DS title The Dark Spire is now online at SFX-360.com. Check it out here.

I have about three pages of movie goodness written for the Film III project. To be honest, I had my doubts about the project since it is again very ambitious and also because someone has a concept that has a scene very similar to a scene I’ve included in my film. I hate feeling not totally unique, but I feel not doing this creative venture when I have so much drive for it would be a regrettable decision. So, forward bound on that idea! I hope to have a polished script ready by the end of the weekend so I can kick other things into gear!

A rough cut of Ryuiek and His Stella is about done at this point. Yesterday I worked on a few sequences in the lab after Anthropology class. It generally looks good, but I will have to work to get the sound up to par among other elements. I’m really excited about it and hope to have it done and looking as good as I envisioned it.

Also on the table, I am looking into writing up a concept for a filmmakers’ competition. I know, I’m throwing a lot of stuff at myself right now, but I think it would be great to at least try out a few ideas and see where that takes me. Wish me luck!

So, in other words, don’t be expecting too many posts out of me this week!

Also, check out my Flickr feed at the bottom of the right panel for new pictures I’ve been taking… will reveal more in the immediate future.

Recording for Stella’s voice takes place this week along with animating for the film, now in post-production. Also this week I’ll be doing script revisions and hopefully releasing the new film’s script online. It’s going to be 5 minutes long and shot on 16mm film… my last true film for my bachelor of fine arts degree (not including thesis).

Recommendations: Something great for the kids that the parents won’t mind having looped (as kids tend to do!) and a rec for fans of the legendary Hayao Miyazaki.

Spoilers: Only main storyline is revealed.

Rating: G (Both Japanese with English dubs and English dubbed versions of the film are great. The Japanese version has better voice acting in my opinion, but the English version is great too since it saves you from having to read!)

I like pancakes.

Japanese-generated animation has yet to see its doomsday, and the classic example of Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989) is here to prove its timelessness and the authenticity of famed anime director Hayao Miyazaki. At the ripe age of 13, there is a tradition in Kiki’s family where a young witch in training must leave home to a new city for a year to learn to be independent and hone their skill. Determined to prove herself and impress everyone, Kiki is belligerent about flying off on her broomstick (with best friend and accomplice Jiji the black cat in tow) even though it is apparent she may not be prepared for what lies ahead. The original story behind the film is based upon a book written by Eiko Kadono.

This film is the perfect icon for the themes of the coming-of-age and fish-out-of-water stories in movies. What the inexperience in Kiki doesn’t know will not stop her from driving onward to reach her goals, making her a great role model for someone of any age who happens to be struggling. She is also painfully self-aware of her outward appearance as an outcast, the only witch her new town has seen in a long time, and is stagnant in making social progress outside of her broomstick delivery service. Nevertheless, through her own human mistakes and the exterior conscience-like role that Jiji represents, Kiki shows her colors range beyond her plain black dress and that she can achieve the extraordinary through her unique talents. Like everyone should learn, Kiki is not all muscle and needs the occasional help from Osono, the charming and motherly baker, and Tombo the neighborhood aviation daydreamer. What makes the film even more interesting for the older audience is how the story neatly folds itself into its setting, an alternate universe beckoning to the 1950s but without the world raging in Nazi warfare.

Visually, the film is very well-drawn and detailed by the expansive talents at  Studio Ghibli. Despite the modesty of the environments, it is difficult to not appreciate the quiet beauty of Kiki’s countryside home and not be apprehensive of the bustling urbanosphere she encounters. All the characters take on very believable roles without becoming victims of cliche, feeling like real human personalities you have encountered beforehand, thus making the happy moments a true high and the sad moments heartrendingly  disappointing.

Beautiful animation is one of the many elements that makes the film enjoyable

While anime buffs would likely rather tote My Neighbor Totoro or Spirited Away or Howl’s Moving Castle, this film gets my vote for the best mainstream anime movie to come out in recent and earlier years. It’s not an abstract concoction typical of Miyazaki’s creation (probably because he didn’t write this one!), but it is hard to not relate to Kiki’s brave struggle and even harder to not enjoy the beautiful animation and fulfilling journey playing out on the screen.

On the side, for English speakers, the English version of the film done by Disney with Kirsten Dunst as Kiki is very well re-dubbed. However, some viewers like myself may find themselves preferring the original Japanese voice talents over the American ones accompanied with English subtitles. I have found a couple different versions of the film with diverse subtitles, some that completely change the meaning of a line, which can be confusing if you stumble upon more than one version.

But yeah, anyways I have thought of my idea for my Film III script. Actually, I thought of the idea a while back, but I intentionally put it on the back-burner until its time came, which may very well be as soon as this quarter. I won’t reveal what it’s about other than it’s a dark comedy and will be my first shot at an adaptation. I think everyone will be pleasantly surprised and intrigued when I run it by them. Now over the next few days I have to drum up the pages for it in Celtx… I got tired of Final Draft’s trial version, as nice as it was, and switched back to crappy old Celtx to give me a bigger range. I think I can save the scripts as PDFs, hopefully I’m right.

In other news, I tried to go apply for a gig yesterday, but couldn’t find the address. I swear, I thought my navigational sense was doing okay, but lately I’ve been finding myself getting backtracked trying to find places despite writing down directions. Tomorrow night I have a staff meeting with the SFX-360.com crew, so I’m looking forward to that. I’m real excited about all the things and big changes that are coming to the site, and this month I will be reviewing Atlus’ The Dark Spire for the Nintendo DS. Yahoo!

Also, I updated the ‘In Progress’ page to show new projects I’m working on. Not much to read, but I’m working on it.