Review: Throne of Blood (1957)

It must be said that my favorite play ever written by William Shakespeare is the Scottish play that you are never allowed to mention its name in a performance theater unless it was successfully produced at some point in the history of the aforementioned theater. I am talking about none other than Macbeth! The story is about a power hungry man who is pushed over the edge of insanity by his wife who convinces him to murder the local king. Only once the murder has been committed the couple goes insane with guilt as they collect upon their new found power and glory. It is always a point of interest for me to watch a movie that is based upon the material from the classic tale. It has been adapted by several different production companies, screenwriters and directors; such films titles include: The Tragedy of Macbeth (1971), Scotland, Pa. (2001), and Macbeth 3000 (2005). Despite the range of adaptations that cover a direct translation to a loose interpretation of the story it appears that no one is immune to wanting to adapt the material. Critically acclaimed Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa even adapted the story into his own samurai version of the story with his film Throne of Blood (1957).

Japanese director Akira Kurosawa has directed several films over the course of his professional career, in fact, I have viewed many of them, and I must admit that of all his films that I enjoy the most are the ones in which samurai warriors have been prominently placed within the story. The period film Throne of Blood centers upon a single samurai warrior who rises to power after hearing a prophecy that is foretold to him and a fellow warrior as they are traveling through a haunted forest. Every time the fortuneteller would appear in the film, whether it was during the first act or the third act, I must admit that it was one of the eeriest of moments of the entire film. Several scenes in the film were beautifully shot with strong lighting and heavy use of natural fog and artificial mist. This photographic technique came in handy to produced confusion for the characters and for those who are viewing the film. The misty glow surround the fortuneteller is highlighted with an intense amount of key lighting that prominently pushes the figure of the old man right off the screen. The intense glow of the light creates an aura about the person that refuses to allow anyone to remove his or her eyes away from the mysterious figure.

It must be emphasized repeatedly that the cinematography for the film is wonderfully amazing to watch. I cannot help but mention that I am willing to watch this film several more times just for the sheer power of the visual design of every camera shot. Even the climactic battle scene toward the end of the film is a remarkable sight to observe as a forest of trees is walking toward a Japanese fort. There is even a jaw dropping surprise for the audience to see how the main character meets his ultimate demise. The moment of the fatal blow had to have been a slight twist of visual trickery in order to pull the visual stunt off successfully.

Throne of Blood is an instant classic in my book of favorite films to watch. I would recommend it to everyone who is interested in the story of Macbeth or has an interest upon viewing a beautifully photographed film. It would make for a nice afternoon pairing with Kurosawa’s other period film Hidden Fortress (1958).

Blog Action Day 2009

Two years ago I promised myself that I would participate in the annual Blog Action Day event. This year marks the first time that it will be hosted by the people from the Change.org website. The event usually takes place around mid-October and here we are on the fifteenth of the month and I am already typing up a new article for the event. This year's topic is about climate change, and I could have sworn I already covered that subject matter a little bit in the first year that I had participated by posting this article about Waterworld. Last year I focused upon the subject of world poverty with a review of the Italian neo-realism film The Bicycle Thief, and I must admit the subject touched a little closer to home for me. Here we are back to treading old ground, pun somewhat intended, by talking about how climate change can drastically effect our lives. Let me start with a five minute short film from the Google company who utilizes their Google Earth software for the video along with a little help from our dear friend Al Gore. Oh, and by the way I believe he still is in search of the manbearpig, so do not fret of him bothering you for too long. I'm super cereal!

For those of you who are worried about what the American government is doing about the issue you might want to check out their semi-recent report on climate change that was released to the public on June 16, 2009 and conveniently posted on YouTube for everyone to watch. Try not to fall asleep during this riveting hour long lecture as I have embedded it here for your convenience.

For those of you who may not want to sit around for the hour long speech on the landmark report may be allowed to watch the cliff notes version from President Obama's ten minute speech to the United Nations on September 22, 2009 during the U.N. Climate Change Summit. For the convenience of everyone I have embedded the speech below.

If documentary films are more your style instead of listening to politicians and scientists offer speeches about the subject, then you might want to watch the feature length documentary Home (2009) which has been produced by action film producer and director Luc Besson. For the purpose of convenience for all of us in addition to curbing the costs and waste of mass producing the film on to DVD discs the documentary can be watched on YouTube by clicking this link. If you are interested in a few cool websites that support a green lifestyle then check out this suggested links.

• Current TV: Green Video Journalism
• Vote for the Earth
• United Nations Foundation Climate Board
• The Nature Conservancy's Planet Change
• Top 100 Effects of Global Warming -- My personal favorite.

Thank you for taking the time to read this article about climate change. I am looking forward to the event next year to see what subject may be in store for me to write about. If you would like to sign up for next year's event then head over to the Blog Action Day website for more information on how to get involved. However, before I completely finish this year's article there is something related to climate change that I just have to share with everyone. If you have not heard about the Moscow Halo then you have to watch this brief video that has been embedded below. According to several sources the halo cloud actually formed on its own earlier this week on October 7th and it was caught on video. It is not any sort of trick photography or has been altered in any way fashionable according to the news organizations that have reported the event. Watch the video and see it for yourself.

This random bit of environmental light show, in a manner of speaking, can easily be searched in the news websites with the search terms Moscow Halo. It was an event worth a lot of speculation whether it was caused by changing weather patterns, pollution (which some science experts are debunking), or an alien spacecraft attempting to check us out here on Earth.

Breaking News Update from Ron Burgundy

Ladies and gentlemen! Can I please have your attention? I've just been handed an urgent and horrifying news story. I need all of you to stop what you're doing and listen. Cannonball!

Just coming into the newsroom is this developing story. One gentleman by the name of D.J. Heinlein of San Diego, California. Wait a second -- Did the prompter just say that he is from here? In San Diego? How ridiculous! This alleged person from San Diego has just received in the mail two college degrees and a certificate of achievement. That is absolutely absurd! It is impossible to receive two college degrees. According to the accredited college in which was lousy enough to crank out the two college degrees and the certificate of achievement as if it was paper money has been quoted as saying, and I quote: "Mr. Heinlein is a fine student who has spent several years attending our college with such fine academic focus that we could only hope every student would be able to reach the level with the same success that he has been able to achieve." Talk about a guy who probably does not have a very entertaining social life on his hands. Me, on the other hand, is someone who is going somewhere. Someone who is really big around here. In fact, I would not want to shadow the news about this unfortunate soul who has no luck with the ladies like I have with the, but I must mention that I have received an honorary masters degree from Harvard and an honorary doctorate from Cornell University. They have given me such high honors just for being the extremely talented professional that I am in the journalistic profession. I am that talented.

Interview with Nick Hornby

He is a screenwriter and beloved novel writer. Two of his books were adapted into very popular movies: High Fidelity (2000) and About a Boy (2002). Now in the year of 2009 it is time for another round of a Nick Hornby story making it around the film festivals and right into the movie theaters around the world. At the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival he sat down with David Poland for an interview about the new film An Education (2009).

Carey Mulligan and Peter Sarsgaard

Later this week there is a new film that will be released that was written by famed British screenwriter and novelist Nick Hornby. He adapted the material from the memoir written by Lynn Barber. The film is simply titled An Education (2009) and it stars Carey Mulligan and Peter Sarsgaard in the lead roles. The acting duo sat down for an interview with David Poland during their trip to the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival to talk about their work on the film. Nick Hornby's interview will be posted in a couple of days.

Review: Whip It! (2009)

Could someone please explain something to me about actor Ellen Page? How did she suddenly arrive on the scene in mainstream Hollywood when Juno (2007) was released a couple of years ago? She already made several movies prior, including a very strong impression in a leading role in the disturbingly dark film Hard Candy (2005) that co-stars Patrick Wilson. Now I am thinking that she is running the risk of being typecast in the persona of the teenage geek or nerd next-door. According to her IMDb profile page, she was born in 1987, which marks her at the ripe, old age of 22 years old. She is not a teenager, but she has the petite body and baby face of a youngster that may haunt her career for a while longer. In the comedy film Juno, she portrays a pregnant teenager who must face the decision of keeping the baby or adopting it to a newlywed couple. The role has thrust her into the forefront attention of the mainstream public as well as garnering recognition from the Academy (also known as the organization behind the Oscar award ceremonies). Now in her new film, Whip It (2009), she plays a seventeen-year-old nerd who is enticed by a group of roller derby players to blossom as a star athlete. Within the first twenty minutes or so of the film, her character has been established as a small town southern nerd type who wears geeky glasses and seems very timid in unfamiliar territory. Maybe this whole persona is just the way I have perceived her character in the film, and I will leave it to you for your personal interpretation.

Whip It marks the directorial debut of lifetime career actress Drew Barrymore who has spent many years of late playing in comedy films as ditsy characters that I usually find annoying or hanging out behind the scenes as a executive film producer. What surprises me would be Drew's selection of the sport of roller derby as the topic for her first film as a director. The topic itself had caught my attention and that is what had drawn me to go see the film. Not too long ago I had written an article about the sport of roller derby that is very popular among the women and how it is connected with movies over the last thirty-five years. Even though I am not a run-of-the-mill fan of Drew’s acting roles I must admit that I was looking forward to watching Whip It to see if it would be as entertaining as Rollerball (1975) and the 2002 remake film.

Overall it could be mentioned that the film has its fair share of fun little moments that I found entertaining. However, the story is scattered across the board of several different genres, which leaves us watching a schizophrenic film. Somehow it is not entirely a negative attribute, since it could be a possible mold breaker from the usual humdrum of the other stories we are used to seeing at the theater. At the beginning we are introduced to Bliss Cavendar. She is seventeen year old who has been enrolled by her mother in a marathon of beauty pageants in which she is not too thrilled about participating. Is this story about an awkward teenager who must find her own identity while having difficulty getting along with her parents? It is something like that, but not entirely the case. Before the audience starts getting comfortable in their seats the story moves on to Bliss’s introduction to a local roller derby team. Could this be a sports theme story that leads the audience to rooting for the underdog team? The majority of the film is built upon this storyline.

Several different movie genres appear in this film. The included genres that I observed include comedy, sports and action, teen romance, and a coming-of-age drama (specifically family reconciliation and personal acceptance). The middle portion of the film is the best material of the entire film that I had enjoyed watching. Primarily the acting had picked up a notch during the dramatic moments, which were notable during the scene when Bliss tells her mother (played very well by Marcia Gay Harden) about the failed relationship between Bliss and her boyfriend. In addition, on a completely random side note I would like to know why actor Daniel Stern, who plays Bliss’s father in this movie, has been flying under the acting radar for the last several years. He was very good in this movie and highly entertaining in the horror comedy film Otis (2007). However, he has been appearing in supporting roles for independent films and other similar features that have not been as mainstream cinema as with the film Whip It. I am just observing here, so there is nothing of grand importance to take note about.

Therefore, it is to be said that what makes this film worth watching would be a few different factors that are worth observing. If you are a fan of Drew Barrymore or any of the actors that appear in the film then it may be worth your while. However, the appearance of Jimmy Fallon as the sports announcer at the derby games was a rather dull performance that just was not as funny as it could possibly be for the role, but the role of a sports announcer is more for the purpose of a plot device to explain the sports action. My apologies go out to the Jimmy Fallon fans out there who may be disappointed to bear witness to his lackluster performance in the film. Overall, I must say the movie was fun to watch, and it was an entertaining story despite the minor flaws it has of genre jumping (try saying that ten times fast).

Jennifer's Body (Production Viewpoint)

How often have you had the opportunity to read a production journal from the viewpoint of a professional cinematographer? There is a possibility that such an item could appear on the bonus features for a film's DVD release, but how about for a movie that is currently in the movie theaters right now? Professional director of photograph David Mullen (ASC: American Society of Cinematographers) published a few brief notes on a cinematography website about his experience with working on the new horror film Jennifer's Boy (2009). Here is what he had to say before the film started production:

After waiting for this WGA strike to end, I decided to go back to job hunting, considering after wrapping on "Assassination of a High School President" in late September, I haven't worked since other than three days on a commercial with the Polish Brothers. Partly my fault, because "Big Love" was supposed to go back into production in late November, so I decided to take some time off in October-November. The WGA strike hit almost exactly on the week I was supposed to begin. A friend of mine had a small feature he wanted to shoot during this time, so I waited in December and January for his project but the funding never came through. Then two weeks ago I interviewed for a family film shooting in L.A. but the moment I finished my interview over on the studio lot, the director got a call saying that the studio was pushing the project for an indeterminate amount of time. I had gotten a script called "Jennifer's Body", written by Diablo Cody and produced by the team that did "Juno", with Jason Reitman acting as a producer on this one. Karyn Kusama is directing.

At first it looked like they found someone else, but fate intervened and I got an opportunity to interview for it. Now it looks like I'm going to get to shoot it, up in Vancouver, BC. It will be my first visit to Canada. This is a Fox Searchlight production I believe. It's a high school horror film with a lot of odd humorous dialogue and interesting characters. That much has already been mentioned on the web after the script was leaked, but I won't say anymore than that. There may be some conflict my schedule later in the spring with other projects that are coming down the road -- "Big Love" may start up again, the Polish Brothers have some films on the table, "Assassination of a High School President" will start its D.I. in a month or so, etc. But over the years I've had to learn to focus on the here and now rather than the what ifs. Almost everything ends up pushed later one way or the other, a little or a lot, so waiting a month for something to start could turn into three months or two years if you're not careful.

That's sort of the nature of being a feature DP only, either I'm booked for three months or I'm off for three months looking for work, but it's very hard to know what to do with a two or three month window, which is why it's hard to commit to a project that someone tells you is happening in the farther future. It seems most features in my world only really get going a month or six weeks before the first day of shooting, which is basically when the money starts coming in for production, hiring, etc. plus the cast really gets locked down.

Moving forward to working on the actual project itself he posted a new article about working on the pre-production and the production phase of Jennifer's Body.

This is the week before the last week of pre-production, and things are really busy. Next week consists of a day of wardrobe, hair & make-up tests, then two days of tech scouting with all the department heads and their assistants (I think it will be around 40 people total on these scouts) and then the production meeting. This is a high-school horror-drama-comedy written by Diablo Cody (Juno) and produced by the Juno team for Fox Atomic. The director is Karyn Kusama (Girlfight, Eon Flux). It's interesting to note that before I interviewed for this job, I had just interviewed for a feature version of the "Ramona the Pest" children's books, to be directed by another woman, Elizabeth Allen (Aquamarine). But literally just as I was finishing that job interview, the director got a call from the studio that they were putting the project on hold, just after green lighting it the week before and rushing it into production. This was as the strike was going on and there was no word from "Big Love".

So I went back to looking for projects the next week. I had gotten the script for "Jennifer's Body" but was told by my agent that they had already hired a DP. Then after the "Ramona" interview, my agent told me that they wanted to interview me afterall for "Jennifer's Body". By coincidence, I ran into Patrick Cady around that time, who shot "Girlfight" for Karyn, and I asked him if he was up for this project. He said he had interviewed for it, but before the studio could make a decision, he was offered the job of shooting a 20-mil. remake of "The Stepfather" for Sony by an associate he knew.

Anyway, it seems they hired Sam McCurdy, who had shot "The Descent" (and also "The Hills Have Eyes 2" for Fox Atomic) but due to a family emergency, he had to exit the project, opening the door for me to get hired. And it seems that even though the "Juno" producers were concerned that Fox Atomic might want another "horror DP", it turned out that they were familiar with my work on the Polish Brothers movies and had no objections. So there was some time lost in prep and I arrived in Vancouver, BC with just five weeks of prep before shooting. Now five weeks may seem like plenty to some folks, but it's barely enough really to thoroughly plan an entire feature shot-by-shot. Partly because huge chunks of my time were devoted to scouting for locations in a van, but also because the last two weeks of any feature prep are just insane for the director, due to the cast arriving, etc. So my time with the director really is the three weeks before the last two weeks of prep, and as I said, a lot of that time was spent scouting.

The director, Karyn, had already storyboarded three or four major sequences before I was hired, so I concentrated first on the big sequences that hadn't been storyboarded. Finishing those, now we're getting through all the little scenes between the big scenes. We have about two weeks of shotlists finished plus all the major scenes storyboarded; our goal is to shotlist the entire movie, though it probably will require working together on our weekends off during the shoot. Like I said in another post, the 1.85 format was chosen before I was hired and I didn't really disagree with that. For one thing, the director wants a lot of low-angle shots where we see the dark trees and sky in the background so a more vertical frame makes sense. And also, I haven't done a 1.85 feature in awhile (though "Big Love" was 1.78) so it seemed like a good opportunity to work in that format again. And I get to shoot in 3-perf Super-1.85, which is nice.

Since so much of this movie is at night, I decided to shoot most of this on the new Kodak 5219 500T stock. I shot my stock tests yesterday (5219, 5217, and 5212) and will see them next week. We are shooting Panavision, with Primo lenses. Technicolor Vancouver labs. Dailies will be transferred to 4:4:4 HDCAM-SR (a first for me) and SD. Technicolor uses a SANS to temporarily store dailies transfers on and then does all sound-syncing and then downconversions to different tape formats from that. I have a couple of shots where I'm planning on using the Phantom HD to be able to shoot at 1,000 fps -- I tested that on Friday as well.

My Gaffer is John Dekker and my Key Grip is David Askey, both "Juno" veterens, as is the operator John Clothier (and the AD staff, and many others.) I interviewed a bunch of people for these positions though, so it wasn't like I was asked to hire back the same people. DP Karl Herrmann, who worked on "Kyle XY" I believe, plus 2nd unit on "Into the West", has agreed to be B-Camera operator, so it will be great having a talented DP on the camera crew to pick up shots. Stephen Maier will be A-Camera 1st AC. He's one of the top local guys here. So I'm excited about the crew we've put together.

We start out the first week in a high school, shooting perhaps some of the most straightforward stuff, walking & talking in hallways, classrooms, etc. The school is somewhat windowless and fluorescent-lit unfortunately (compared to the wonderful old-world high school I shot in New Jersey for "Assassination of a High School President".) To help me out, the production designer Arv Grewal, a very talented man, we've had many fascinating discussions on art and movies -- will put a window flat plug at the ends of two hallways so I can create that daytime back lit sheen on the lockers that works so well in high school hallways.

The science classroom is tricky too because it has two little windows at each end but nothing in the middle stretch of wall, so it's hard not to end up using the overhead lights. I'm hoping to create a fake window light effect in the middle of the room when I'm not looking at that wall. The basic look is what I would call "moody naturalism" -- hopefully the gloomy Vancouver weather will help in that regards, just as it did in "Jennifer Eight" for Conrad Hall. But with so much night exterior work in this movie, on deserted roads in the woods, etc. obviously I have to plan on artificially lighting those scenes in some manner. I feel that the setting, a small town in Minnesota surrounded by the forest, lends itself to something of a Grimm's fairy tale feeling at night, at least a hint of that. Creepy moonlit, etc.

That's all for now. I don't know how much I'll be able to reveal about the production, so my posts may be rather technical and/or non-descript sometimes. So the week after I started, the WGA strike ended, and my phone started ringing with work, including "Big Love" and a new Polish Brothers movie. So I may be going on to shooting something immediately once I finish work on this movie in early-mid May.

Interview with Shauna Cross and Juliette Lewis

Shauna Cross is the screenwriter behind the all women sports movie Whip It (2009). Actress and musician Juliette Lewis co-stars in the film. The pair recently sat down with interviewer David Poland at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival to talk about their new film. It is in this interview that Shauna perfectly describes Juliette as a "self-made bad ass" who can kick butt and take names while playing the sport of roller derby.

Review: The Spirit of St. Louis (1957)

Without a doubt, the first couple of movie titles that cross my mind when I hear of the name Billy Wilder would be such comedy films as The Apartment (1960) and Some Like It Hot (1959). However, the famous director was not artistically cornered into producing stories within a single genre. It might be a surprise for some people who did not know that he directed the dramatic retelling of Charles Lindbergh’s flight across the Atlantic Ocean in a single seat plane. The flight took Lindbergh thirty-three hours to complete with very little sleep and nothing more than a small bag of food for sustenance. I am talking about the Oscar nominated film The Spirit of St. Louis (1957) starring Jimmy Stewart in the lead role as Charles Lindbergh.

The screenplay was based upon the memoirs of the flight that were originally written by Charles Lindbergh and published by Scribner back in the early 1950s. Since the story is about a man who attempts to fly a solo plane trip across a large body of water there is the opportunity of an ongoing inner-monologue that Wilder uses terrifically in the movie. Although an inner-monologue is not always necessary for a visual medium such as a movie, the thoughts of a character can be explained at great volume with a quick glance or expressive facial twitch. However, during Lindbergh’s climactic flight there are a few moments when the inner-monologue served as a supplement to his reactions to various conflicts that he faced during his flight. It would seem awkward if the dissociative narration would appear only during the flight and not at any other time before or after. Thus, it was a benefit to begin the inner-monologue before the start of the flight as Lindbergh spends a sleepless night in his hotel room the evening before the scheduled day of take off.

The film does not rest upon just the flight itself, but upon the entire experience starting from when Lindbergh begins searching for financial supporters who are willing to invest $15,000 on a sleek new plane that has been engineered to be a lightweight flying machine that can travel long distances. However, once Lindbergh arrives at the aviation engineering company in New York to purchase their new model aircraft the company executive plans on placing someone else other than Charles in the pilot’s seat. Unsatisfied with the company’s decision, Charles Lindbergh proceeded to travel out to San Diego in order to visit a local aeronautics engineering workshop who would build a plane to his specifications within a ninety-day window. Ryan Airlines gladly accepted the offer and went straight to work.

With the purpose of telling a complete and polished story about the historical flight, we must learn about the history of Charles Lindbergh as a career pilot. Through the clever use of flashback sequences that are sprinkled through the portion of the film in which the flight takes place the audience is able to find out how Lindbergh started flying as an amateur pilot before he worked his way into a steady paying job as a air-mail postal carrier. Combining the use of the inner-monologue to explain his battle with trying to stay awake during the flight, but it was an excellent tool that segued to each one of the vignettes that explained his flying career. This form of storytelling not only offered the back story of Charles Lindbergh, but it also saves the audience from intense boredom with watching a pilot sit in a plane by himself for a lengthy period of time.

The well-polished screenplay is not the only element about the film that works favorably for the finished story. There is a perfect amount of planning and consideration that went into the framing and appearance of every single camera setup. The cinematography for this film was amazing because it not only uses full advantage of the anamorphic widescreen layout, but also the aerial footage mixed with the use of rear screen projection for several of the interior plane scenes. In the promotional trailer for the film, which I have embedded at the end of this review, there are several of these excellent visuals included to entice people in to seeing the film.

The Spirit of St. Louis is so entertaining of a movie to watch that I would not be surprised if it would be incorporated into the curriculum for an educational class on aeronautical history or even a United States history class. This film will be placed on my list of favorite movies directed by Billy Wilder and also on my list of favorite movies starring Jimmy Stewart. For those who have not seen the film before I would like to suggest that you watch it.

Interview with Samantha Morton

She is English. She is an actress. She recently directed a film called The Unloved (2009) for broadcast on British television (Channel 4). Samantha Morton, who I first discovered while watching Steven Spielberg's science-fiction film Minority Report (2002), was the focus of an interview with David Poland while they both were attending the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival. Here is the interview and what she had to say about her directorial debut.